7,490 research outputs found
Epigenetic and phenotypic variability in populaitons of Schistosoma mansoni - a possible kick-off for adaptative host/parasite evolution
International audienceEpigenetics, the science of heritable but modifiable information, is now a well-accepted component of many research fields. Nevertheless, epigenetics has not yet found broad appreciation in one of the most exciting fields of biology: the comprehension of evolution. This is surprising, since the reason for the existence of this alternative information-transmitting system lies certainly in the evolutionary advantage it provides. Theoretical considerations support a model in which epigenetic mechanisms allow for increasing phenotypic variability and permit populations to explore the adaptive landscape without modifications of the genotype. The data presented here support the view that modulating the epigenotype of the human bloodfluke Schistosoma mansoni by treatment of larvae with histone deacetylase inhibitor leads indeed to an increase of phenotypic variability. It is therefore conceivable that environmentally induced changes in the epigenotype release new phenotypes on which selection can act and that this process is the first step in adaptive evolution
Physics Behind Precision
This document provides a writeup of contributions to the FCC-ee mini-workshop
on "Physics behind precision" held at CERN, on 2-3 February 2016.Comment: https://indico.cern.ch/event/469561
Proceedings of the Workshop on Monte Carlo's, Physics and Simulations at the LHC PART II
These proceedings collect the presentations given at the first three meetings
of the INFN "Workshop on Monte Carlo's, Physics and Simulations at the LHC",
held at the Frascati National Laboratories in 2006. The first part of these
proceedings contains pedagogical introductions to several basic topics of both
theoretical and experimental high pT LHC physics. The second part collects more
specialised presentations.Comment: 157 pages, 136 figures; contribution by M. Grazzini has been adde
Flavor changing scalar couplings and production at hadron colliders
We calculate the contributions of the flavor changing scalar ()
couplings arised from topcolor-assisted technicolor () models at
tree-level to the and production at the Tevatron and
experiments. We find that the production cross sections are very small at the
Tevatron with , which is smaller than 5 fb in most of the
parameter space of models. However, the virtual effects of the
couplings on the production can be easily detected at the
with via the final state
().Comment: 10 pages,5 figure
Top quark physics in hadron collisions
The top quark is the heaviest elementary particle observed to date. Its large
mass makes the top quark an ideal laboratory to test predictions of
perturbation theory concerning heavy quark production at hadron colliders. The
top quark is also a powerful probe for new phenomena beyond the Standard Model
of particle physics. In addition, the top quark mass is a crucial parameter for
scrutinizing the Standard Model in electroweak precision tests and for
predicting the mass of the yet unobserved Higgs boson. Ten years after the
discovery of the top quark at the Fermilab Tevatron top quark physics has
entered an era where detailed measurements of top quark properties are
undertaken. In this review article an introduction to the phenomenology of top
quark production in hadron collisions is given, the lessons learned in Tevatron
Run I are summarized, and first Run II results are discussed. A brief outlook
to the possibilities of top quark research a the Large Hadron Collider,
currently under construction at CERN, is included.Comment: 84 pages, 32 figures, accepted for publication by Reports on Progress
in Physic
Identifying Ligand Binding Conformations of the β2-Adrenergic Receptor by Using Its Agonists as Computational Probes
Recently available G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) structures and biophysical studies suggest that the difference between the effects of various agonists and antagonists cannot be explained by single structures alone, but rather that the conformational ensembles of the proteins need to be considered. Here we use an elastic network model-guided molecular dynamics simulation protocol to generate an ensemble of conformers of a prototypical GPCR, β2-adrenergic receptor (β2AR). The resulting conformers are clustered into groups based on the conformations of the ligand binding site, and distinct conformers from each group are assessed for their binding to known agonists of β2AR. We show that the select ligands bind preferentially to different predicted conformers of β2AR, and identify a role of β2AR extracellular region as an allosteric binding site for larger drugs such as salmeterol. Thus, drugs and ligands can be used as "computational probes" to systematically identify protein conformers with likely biological significance. © 2012 Isin et al
Stop and Sbottom Searches in Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron
We estimate the Tevatron Run II potential for top and bottom squark searches.
We find an impressive reach in several of the possible discovery channels. We
also study some new channels which may arise in non-conventional supersymmetry
models. In each case we rely on a detailed Monte Carlo simulation of the
collider events and the CDF detector performance in Run I.Comment: 30 pages, LaTeX, 10 figure
Measurement of the Helicity of W Bosons in Top Quark Decays
We use the transverse momentum spectrum of leptons in the decay chain t-->bW
with W-->l nu to measure the helicity of the W bosons in the top quark rest
frame. Our measurement uses a ttbar sample isolated in 106 +/- 4 inverse
picobarns of data collected in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s)=1.8 TeV with the CDF
detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. Assuming a standard V--A weak decay, we find
that the fraction of W's with zero helicity in the top rest frame is F_0 = 0.91
+/- 0.37 (stat) +/- 0.13 (syst), consistent with the standard model prediction
of F_0=0.70 for a top mass of 175 GeV/c**2.Comment: Submitted to PRL. 8 pages, 2 figure
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