970 research outputs found
Facile one-pot synthesis of amoxicillin-coated gold nanoparticles and their antimicrobial activity
Nanomaterials have been the object of intense study due to promising applications in a number of different disciplines. In particular, medicine and biology have seen the potential of these novel materials with their nanoscale properties for use in diverse areas such as imaging, sensing and drug vectorisation. Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) are considered a very useful platform to create a valid and efficient drug delivery/carrier system due to their facile and well-studied synthesis, easy surface functionalization and biocompatibility. In the present study, stable antibiotic conjugated GNPs were synthesised by a one-step reaction using a poorly water soluble antibiotic, amoxicillin. Amoxicillin, a member of the penicillin family, reduces the chloroauric acid to form nanoparticles and at the same time coats them to afford the functionalised nanomaterial. A range of techniques including UV-vis spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to ascertain the gold/drug molar ratio and the optimum temperature for synthesis of uniform monodisperse particles in the ca. 30-40 nm size range. Amoxicillin-conjugated gold showed an enhancement of antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli compared to the antibiotic alone
Epidemic of illicit drug use, mechanisms of action/addiction and stroke as a health hazard
Drug abuse robs individuals of their jobs, their families, and their free will as they succumb to addiction; but may cost even more: a life of disability or even life lost due to stroke. Many illicit drugs have been linked to major cardiovascular events and other comorbidities, including cocaine, amphetamines, ecstasy, heroin, phencyclidine, lysergic acid diethylamide, and marijuana. This review focuses on available epidemiological data, mechanisms of action, particularly those leading to cerebrovascular events, and it is based on papers published in English in PubMed during 1950 through February 2011. Each drug's unique interactions with the brain and vasculature predispose even young, healthy people to ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke. Cocaine and amphetamines have the strongest association with stroke. However, the level of evidence firmly linking other drugs to stroke pathogenesis is weak. Large epidemiological studies and systematic evaluation of each drug's action on the brain and cardiovascular system are needed to reveal the full impact of drug use on the population
BLUF Domain Function Does Not Require a Metastable Radical Intermediate State
BLUF
(blue light using flavin) domain proteins are an important
family of blue light-sensing proteins which control a wide variety
of functions in cells. The primary light-activated step in the BLUF
domain is not yet established. A number of experimental and theoretical
studies points to a role for photoinduced electron transfer (PET)
between a highly conserved tyrosine and the flavin chromophore to
form a radical intermediate state. Here we investigate the role of
PET in three different BLUF proteins, using ultrafast broadband transient
infrared spectroscopy. We characterize and identify infrared active
marker modes for excited and ground state species and use them to
record photochemical dynamics in the proteins. We also generate mutants
which unambiguously show PET and, through isotope labeling of the
protein and the chromophore, are able to assign modes characteristic
of both flavin and protein radical states. We find that these radical
intermediates are not observed in two of the three BLUF domains studied,
casting doubt on the importance of the formation of a population of
radical intermediates in the BLUF photocycle. Further, unnatural amino
acid mutagenesis is used to replace the conserved tyrosine with fluorotyrosines,
thus modifying the driving force for the proposed electron transfer
reaction; the rate changes observed are also not consistent with a
PET mechanism. Thus, while intermediates of PET reactions can be observed
in BLUF proteins they are not correlated with photoactivity, suggesting
that radical intermediates are not central to their operation. Alternative
nonradical pathways including a keto–enol tautomerization induced
by electronic excitation of the flavin ring are considered
Many faces of low mass neutralino dark matter in the unconstrained MSSM, LHC data and new signals
If all strongly interacting sparticles (the squarks and the gluinos) in an
unconstrained minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) are heavier than the
corresponding mass lower limits in the minimal supergravity (mSUGRA) model,
obtained by the current LHC experiments, then the existing data allow a variety
of electroweak (EW) sectors with light sparticles yielding dark matter (DM)
relic density allowed by the WMAP data. Some of the sparticles may lie just
above the existing lower bounds from LEP and lead to many novel DM producing
mechanisms not common in mSUGRA. This is illustrated by revisiting the above
squark-gluino mass limits obtained by the ATLAS Collaboration, with an
unconstrained EW sector with masses not correlated with the strong sector.
Using their selection criteria and the corresponding cross section limits, we
find at the generator level using Pythia, that the changes in the mass limits,
if any, are by at most 10-12% in most scenarios. In some cases, however, the
relaxation of the gluino mass limits are larger (). If a subset of
the strongly interacting sparticles in an unconstrained MSSM are within the
reach of the LHC, then signals sensitive to the EW sector may be obtained. This
is illustrated by simulating the \etslash, , and \etslash signals in i) the light stop scenario and ii) the light
stop-gluino scenario with various light EW sectors allowed by the WMAP data.
Some of the more general models may be realized with non-universal scalar and
gaugino masses.Comment: 27 pages, 1 figure, references added, minor changes in text, to
appear in JHE
A Stealth Supersymmetry Sampler
The LHC has strongly constrained models of supersymmetry with traditional
missing energy signatures. We present a variety of models that realize the
concept of Stealth Supersymmetry, i.e. models with R-parity in which one or
more nearly-supersymmetric particles (a "stealth sector") lead to collider
signatures with only a small amount of missing energy. The simplest realization
involves low-scale supersymmetry breaking, with an R-odd particle decaying to
its superpartner and a soft gravitino. We clarify the stealth mechanism and its
differences from compressed supersymmetry and explain the requirements for
stealth models with high-scale supersymmetry breaking, in which the soft
invisible particle is not a gravitino. We also discuss new and distinctive
classes of stealth models that couple through a baryon portal or Z' gauge
interactions. Finally, we present updated limits on stealth supersymmetry in
light of current LHC searches.Comment: 45 pages, 16 figure
Excess Higgs Production in Neutralino Decays
The ATLAS and CMS experiments have recently claimed discovery of a Higgs
boson-like particle at ~5 sigma confidence and are beginning to test the
Standard Model predictions for its production and decay. In a variety of
supersymmetric models, a neutralino NLSP can decay dominantly to the Higgs and
the LSP. In natural SUSY models, a light third generation squark decaying
through this chain can lead to large excess Higgs production while evading
existing BSM searches. Such models can be observed at the 8 TeV LHC in channels
exploiting the rare diphoton decays of the Higgs produced in the cascade decay.
Identifying a diphoton resonance in association with missing energy, a lepton,
or b-tagged jets is a promising search strategy for discovery of these models,
and would immediately signal new physics involving production of a Higgs boson.
We also discuss the possibility that excess Higgs production in these SUSY
decays can be responsible for enhancements of up to 50% over the SM prediction
for the observed rate in the existing inclusive diphoton searches, a scenario
which would likely by the end of the 8 TeV run be accompanied by excesses in
the diphoton + lepton/MET and SUSY multi-lepton/b searches and a potential
discovery in a diphoton + 2b search.Comment: 42 pages, 19 figure
Top quark forward-backward asymmetry in R-parity violating supersymmetry
The interaction of bottom squark-mediated top quark pair production,
occurring in the R-parity violating minimal supersymmetric standard model
(MSSM), is proposed as an explanation of the anomalously large
forward-backward asymmetry (FBA) observed at the Tevatron. We find that this
model can give a good fit to top quark data, both the inclusive and invariant
mass-dependent asymmetries, while remaining consistent (at the 2-
level) with the total and differential production cross-sections. The scenario
is challenged by strong constraints from atomic parity violation (APV), but we
point out an extra diagram for the effective down quark-Z vertex, involving the
same coupling constant as required for the FBA, which tends to weaken the APV
constraint, and which can nullify it for reasonable values of the top squark
masses and mixing angle. Large contributions to flavor-changing neutral
currents can be avoided if only the third generation of sparticles is light.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figures. v3: included LHC top production cross section
data; model still consistent at 2 sigma leve
Exploring the Higgs Portal with 10/fb at the LHC
We consider the impact of new exotic colored and/or charged matter
interacting through the Higgs portal on Standard Model Higgs boson searches at
the LHC. Such Higgs portal couplings can induce shifts in the effective
Higgs-gluon-gluon and Higgs-photon-photon couplings, thus modifying the Higgs
production and decay patterns. We consider two possible interpretations of the
current LHC Higgs searches based on ~ 5/fb of data at each detector: 1) a Higgs
boson in the mass range (124-126) GeV and 2) a `hidden' heavy Higgs boson which
is underproduced due to the suppression of its gluon fusion production cross
section. We first perform a model independent analysis of the allowed sizes of
such shifts in light of the current LHC data. As a class of possible candidates
for new physics which gives rise to such shifts, we investigate the effects of
new scalar multiplets charged under the Standard Model gauge symmetries. We
determine the scalar parameter space that is allowed by current LHC Higgs
searches, and compare with complementary LHC searches that are sensitive to the
direct production of colored scalar states.Comment: 27 pages, 11 figures; v2: references added, correction to scalar form
factor, numerical results updated with Moriond 2012 data, conclusions
unchange
A Collective Breaking of R-Parity
Supersymmetric theories with an R-parity generally yield a striking missing
energy signature, with cascade decays concluding in a neutralino that escapes
the detector. In theories where R-parity is broken the missing energy is
replaced with additional jets or leptons, often making traditional search
strategies ineffective. Such R-parity violation is very constrained, however,
by resulting B and L violating signals, requiring couplings so small that LSPs
will decay outside the detector in all but a few scenarios. In theories with
additional matter fields, R-parity can be broken collectively, such that
R-parity is not broken by any single coupling, but only by an ensemble of
couplings. Cascade decays can proceed normally, with each step only sensitive
to one or two couplings at a time, but B and L violation requires the full set,
yielding a highly suppressed constraint. s-channel production of new scalar
states, typically small for standard RPV, can be large when RPV is broken
collectively. While missing energy is absent, making these models difficult to
discover by traditional SUSY searches, they produce complicated many object
resonances (MORes), with many different possible numbers of jets and leptons.
We outline a simple model and discuss its discoverability at the LHC.Comment: 28 pages, 10 figure
Supersymmetry with Light Stops
Recent LHC data, together with the electroweak naturalness argument, suggest
that the top squarks may be significantly lighter than the other sfermions. We
present supersymmetric models in which such a split spectrum is obtained
through "geometries": being "close to" electroweak symmetry breaking implies
being "away from" supersymmetry breaking, and vice versa. In particular, we
present models in 5D warped spacetime, in which supersymmetry breaking and
Higgs fields are located on the ultraviolet and infrared branes, respectively,
and the top multiplets are localized to the infrared brane. The hierarchy of
the Yukawa matrices can be obtained while keeping near flavor degeneracy
between the first two generation sfermions, avoiding stringent constraints from
flavor and CP violation. Through the AdS/CFT correspondence, the models can be
interpreted as purely 4D theories in which the top and Higgs multiplets are
composites of some strongly interacting sector exhibiting nontrivial dynamics
at a low energy. Because of the compositeness of the Higgs and top multiplets,
Landau pole constraints for the Higgs and top couplings apply only up to the
dynamical scale, allowing for a relatively heavy Higgs boson, including m_h =
125 GeV as suggested by the recent LHC data. We analyze electroweak symmetry
breaking for a well-motivated subset of these models, and find that fine-tuning
in electroweak symmetry breaking is indeed ameliorated. We also discuss a flat
space realization of the scenario in which supersymmetry is broken by boundary
conditions, with the top multiplets localized to a brane while other matter
multiplets delocalized in the bulk.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figure
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