Dark Matter, Muon g-2 and Other SUSY Constraints

Recent developments constraining the SUSY parameter space are reviewed within the framework of SUGRA GUT models. The WMAP data is seen to reduce the error in the density of cold dark matter by about a factor of four, implying that the lightest stau is only 5 -10 GeV heavier than the lightest neutralino when m_0, m_{1/2} < 1 TeV. The CMD-2 re-analysis of their data has reduced the disagreement between the Standard Model prediction and the Brookhaven measurement of the muon magnetic moment to 1.9 sigma, while using the tau decay data plus CVC, the disagreement is 0.7 sigma. (However, the two sets of data remain inconsistent at the 2.9 sigma level.) The recent Belle and BABAR measurements of the B -> phi K CP violating parameters and branching ratios are discussed. They are analyzed theoretically within the BBNS improved factorization method. The CP parameters are in disagreement with the Standard Model at the 2.7 sigma level, and the branching ratios are low by a factor of two or more over most of the parameter space. It is shown that both anomalies can naturally be accounted for by adding a non-universal cubic soft breaking term at M_G mixing the second and third generations.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, plenary talk at Beyond The Desert '03, Castle Ringberg, Germany, June 9, 2003. Typos correcte

Vitamin A supplementation in Tanzania: the impact of a change in programmatic delivery strategy on coverage.

BACKGROUND\ud \ud Efficient delivery strategies for health interventions are essential for high and sustainable coverage. We report impact of a change in programmatic delivery strategy from routine delivery through the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI+) approach to twice-yearly mass distribution campaigns on coverage of vitamin A supplementation in Tanzania\ud \ud METHODS\ud \ud We investigated disparities in age, sex, socio-economic status, nutritional status and maternal education within vitamin A coverage in children between 1 and 2 years of age from two independent household level child health surveys conducted (1) during a continuous universal targeting scheme based on routine EPI contacts for children aged 9, 15 and 21 months (1999); and (2) three years later after the introduction of twice-yearly vitamin A supplementation campaigns for children aged 6 months to 5 years, a 6-monthly universal targeting scheme (2002). A representative cluster sample of approximately 2,400 rural households was obtained from Rufiji, Morogoro Rural, Kilombero and Ulanga districts. A modular questionnaire about the health of all children under the age of five was administered to consenting heads of households and caretakers of children. Information on the use of child health interventions including vitamin A was asked.\ud \ud RESULTS\ud \ud Coverage of vitamin A supplementation among 1-2 year old children increased from 13% [95% CI 10-18%] in 1999 to 76% [95%CI 72-81%] in 2002. In 2002 knowledge of two or more child health danger signs was negatively associated with vitamin A supplementation coverage (80% versus 70%) (p = 0.04). Nevertheless, we did not find any disparities in coverage of vitamin A by district, gender, socio-economic status and DPT vaccinations.\ud \ud CONCLUSION\ud \ud Change in programmatic delivery of vitamin A supplementation was associated with a major improvement in coverage in Tanzania that was been sustained by repeated campaigns for at least three years. There is a need to monitor the effect of such campaigns on the routine health system and on equity of coverage. Documentation of vitamin A supplementation campaign contacts on routine maternal and child health cards would be a simple step to facilitate this monitoring

Completability and optimal factorization norms in tensor products of Banach function spaces

[EN] Given s-finite measure spaces ( 1, 1, mu 1) and ( 2, 2, mu 2), we consider Banach spaces X1(mu 1) and X2(mu 2), consisting of L0(mu 1) and L0(mu 2) measurable functions respectively, and study when the completion of the simple tensors in the projective tensor product X1(mu 1). p X2(mu 2) is continuously included in the metric space of measurable functions L0(mu 1. mu 2). In particular, we prove that the elements of the completion of the projective tensor product of L p-spaces are measurable functions with respect to the product measure. Assuming certain conditions, we finally showthat given a bounded linear operator T : X1(mu 1). p X2(mu 2). E (where E is a Banach space), a norm can be found for T to be bounded, which is ` minimal' with respect to a given property (2-rectangularity). The same technique may work for the case of n-spaces.J. M. Calabuig and M. Fernandez-Unzueta were supported by Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad (Spain) under project MTM2014-53009-P. M. Fernandez-Unzueta was also suported by CONACyT 284110. F. Galaz-Fontes was supported by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (Spain) and FEDER under project MTM2009-14483-C02-01. E. A. Sanchez Perez was supported by Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad (Spain) and FEDER under project MTM2016-77054-C2-1-P.Calabuig, JM.; Fernández-Unzueta, M.; Galaz-Fontes, F.; Sánchez Pérez, EA. (2019). Completability and optimal factorization norms in tensor products of Banach function spaces. Revista de la Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales Serie A Matemáticas. 113(4):3513-3530. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13398-019-00711-7S351335301134Abramovich, Y.A., Aliprantis, C.D.: An invitation to operator theory. Graduate Studies in Mathematics, Vol 50, AMS (2002)Bennett, C., Sharpley, R.: Interpolation of Operators. Academic Press, Boston (1988)Bu, Q., Buskes, G., Kusraev, A.G.: Bilinear maps on products of vector lattices: a survey. In: Boulabiar, K., Buskes, G., Triki, A. (eds.) Positivity-Trends in Mathematics. Birkhäser Verlag AG, Basel, pp. 97–26 (2007)Buskes, G., Van Rooij, A.: Bounded variation and tensor products of Banach lattices. Positivity 7, 47–59 (2003)Calabuig, J.M., Fernández-Unzueta, M., Galaz-Fontes, F., Sánchez-Pérez, E.A.: Extending and factorizing bounded bilinear maps defined on order continuous Banach function spaces. RACSAM 108(2), 353–367 (2014)Calabuig, J.M., Fernández-Unzueta, M., Galaz-Fontes, F., Sánchez-Pérez, E.A.: Equivalent norms in a Banach function space and the subsequence property. J. Korean Math. Soc. https://doi.org/10.4134/JKMS.j180682Curbera, G.P., Ricker, W.J.: Optimal domains for kernel operators via interpolation. Math. Nachr. 244, 47–63 (2002)Curbera, G.P., Ricker, W.J.: Vector measures, integration and applications. In: Positivity. Birkhäuser Basel, pp. 127–160 (2007)Gil de Lamadrid, J.: Uniform cross norms and tensor products. J. Duke Math. 32, 797–803 (1965)Dunford, N., Schwartz, J.: Linear Operators, Part I: General Theory. Interscience Publishers Inc., New York (1958)Fremlin, D.H.: Tensor products of Archimedean vector lattices. Am. J. Math. 94(3), 777–798 (1972)Fremlin, D.H.: Tensor products of Banach lattices. Math. Ann. 211(2), 87–106 (1974)Yew, K.L.: Completely $$p$$-summing maps on the operator Hilbert space OH. J. Funct. Anal. 255, 1362–1402 (2008)Kwapien, S., Pelczynski, A.: The main triangle projection in matrix spaces and its applications. Stud. Math. 34(1), 43–68 (1970)Lindenstrauss, J., Tzafriri, L.: Classical Banach spaces II. Springer, Berlin (1979)Luxemburg, W.A.J., Zaanen, A.C.: Riesz Spaces I. North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam (1971)Milman, M.: Some new function spaces and their tensor products. Depto. de Matemática, Facultad de Ciencias, U. de los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela (1978)Okada, S., Ricker, W.J., Sánchez Pérez, E.A.: Optimal domain and integral extension of operators acting in function spaces. Oper. Theory Adv. Appl., vol. 180. Birkhäuser, Basel (2008)Schep, A.R.: Factorization of positive multilinear maps. Illinois J. Math. 579–591 (1984)Zaanen, A.C.: Integration. North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam-New York (1967)Zaanen, A.C.: Riesz Spaces II. North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam (1983

Stratiform cloud electrification: comparison of theory with multiple in-cloud measurements

Stratiform clouds constitute ~40% of global cloud cover and play a key role in determining the planetary radiation budget. Electrification remains one of the least understood effects on their microphysical processes. Droplet charging at the top and bottom edges of stratiform clouds arises from vertical current flow through clouds driven by the Global atmospheric Electric Circuit. In-cloud charge data are central in assessing the role of charge in droplet growth processes, which influence droplet size distributions and associated cloud radiative properties and precipitation. This study presents the first high vertical resolution electrical measurements made in multiple layer clouds. Of the 22 clouds sampled, all were charged at their edges, demonstrating unequivocally that all stratiform clouds can be expected to contain charge at their upper and lower boundaries to varying extent. Cloud base and cloud top are shown to charge asymmetrically, with mean cloud top space charge +32 pCm-3 and base space charge -24 pCm-3. The larger cloud top charges are associated with strong temperature inversions and large vertical electrical conductivity gradients at the upper cloud boundary. Greater charging was observed in low altitude (2km) cloud layers (7.0 pCm-3), consistent with the smaller air conductivity at lower altitudes caused by reduced cosmic ray ionisation. Taken together, these measurements show that the greatest cloud droplet charges in extensive stratiform clouds occur at cloud tops for low altitude (<2km) clouds, when vertical mixing is suppressed by appreciable temperature inversions, confirming theoretical expectations. The influence of cloud dynamics on layer cloud edge charging reported here should inform modelling studies of cloud droplet charging effects on cloud microphysics

Target profiling of an antimetastatic RAPTA agent by chemical proteomics: relevance to the mode of action.

The clinical development of anticancer metallodrugs is often hindered by the elusive nature of their molecular targets. To identify the molecular targets of an antimetastatic ruthenium organometallic complex based on 1,3,5-triaza-7-phosphaadamantane (RAPTA), we employed a chemical proteomic approach. The approach combines the design of an affinity probe featuring the pharmacophore with mass-spectrometry-based analysis of interacting proteins found in cancer cell lysates. The comparison of data sets obtained for cell lysates from cancer cells before and after treatment with a competitive binder suggests that RAPTA interacts with a number of cancer-related proteins, which may be responsible for the antiangiogenic and antimetastatic activity of RAPTA complexes. Notably, the proteins identified include the cytokines midkine, pleiotrophin and fibroblast growth factor-binding protein 3. We also detected guanine nucleotide-binding protein-like 3 and FAM32A, which is in line with the hypothesis that the antiproliferative activity of RAPTA compounds is due to induction of a G2/M arrest and histone proteins identified earlier as potential targets

ICC-CLASS: isotopically-coded cleavable crosslinking analysis software suite

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Successful application of crosslinking combined with mass spectrometry for studying proteins and protein complexes requires specifically-designed crosslinking reagents, experimental techniques, and data analysis software. Using isotopically-coded ("heavy and light") versions of the crosslinker and cleavable crosslinking reagents is analytically advantageous for mass spectrometric applications and provides a "handle" that can be used to distinguish crosslinked peptides of different types, and to increase the confidence of the identification of the crosslinks.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here, we describe a program suite designed for the analysis of mass spectrometric data obtained with isotopically-coded <it>cleavable </it>crosslinkers. The suite contains three programs called: DX, DXDX, and DXMSMS. DX searches the mass spectra for the presence of ion signal doublets resulting from the light and heavy isotopic forms of the isotopically-coded crosslinking reagent used. DXDX searches for possible mass matches between cleaved and uncleaved isotopically-coded crosslinks based on the established chemistry of the cleavage reaction for a given crosslinking reagent. DXMSMS assigns the crosslinks to the known protein sequences, based on the isotopically-coded and un-coded MS/MS fragmentation data of uncleaved and cleaved peptide crosslinks.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The combination of these three programs, which are tailored to the analytical features of the specific isotopically-coded cleavable crosslinking reagents used, represents a powerful software tool for automated high-accuracy peptide crosslink identification. See: <url>http://www.creativemolecules.com/CM_Software.htm</url></p

Quality of private and public ambulatory health care in low and middle income countries: systematic review of comparative studies

Paul Garner and colleagues conducted a systematic review of 80 studies to compare the quality of private versus public ambulatory health care in low- and middle-income countries

Attenuation of Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycan Binding Enhances In Vivo Transduction of Human Primary Hepatocytes with AAV2

Use of the prototypical adeno-associated virus type 2 (AAV2) capsid delivered unexpectedly modest efficacy in an early liver-targeted gene therapy trial for hemophilia B. This result is consistent with subsequent data generated in chimeric mouse-human livers showing that the AAV2 capsid transduces primary human hepatocytes in vivo with low efficiency. In contrast, novel variants generated by directed evolution in the same model, such as AAV-NP59, transduce primary human hepatocytes with high efficiency. While these empirical data have immense translational implications, the mechanisms underpinning this enhanced AAV capsid transduction performance in primary human hepatocytes are yet to be fully elucidated. Remarkably, AAV-NP59 differs from the prototypical AAV2 capsid by only 11 aa and can serve as a tool to study the correlation between capsid sequence/structure and vector function. Using two orthogonal vectorological approaches, we have determined that just 2 of the 11 changes present in AAV-NP59 (T503A and N596D) account for the enhanced transduction performance of this capsid variant in primary human hepatocytes in vivo, an effect that we have associated with attenuation of heparan sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG) binding affinity. In support of this hypothesis, we have identified, using directed evolution, two additional single amino acid substitution AAV2 variants, N496D and N582S, which are highly functional in vivo. Both substitution mutations reduce AAV2's affinity for HSPG. Finally, we have modulated the ability of AAV8, a highly murine-hepatotropic serotype, to interact with HSPG. The results support our hypothesis that enhanced HSPG binding can negatively affect the in vivo function of otherwise strongly hepatotropic variants and that modulation of the interaction with HSPG is critical to ensure maximum efficiency in vivo. The insights gained through this study can have powerful implications for studies into AAV biology and capsid development for preclinical and clinical applications targeting liver and other organs