Escherichia coli K1 RS218 Interacts with Human Brain Microvascular Endothelial Cells via Type 1 Fimbria Bacteria in the Fimbriated State

Escherichia coli K1 is a major gram-negative organism causing neonatal meningitis. E. coli K1 binding to and invasion of human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMEC) are a prerequisite for E. coli penetration into the central nervous system in vivo. In the present study, we showed using DNA microarray analysis that E. coli K1 associated with HBMEC expressed significantly higher levels of the fim genes compared to nonassociated bacteria. We also showed that E. coli K1 binding to and invasion of HBMEC were significantly decreased with its fimH deletion mutant and type 1 fimbria locked-off mutant, while they were significantly increased with its type 1 fimbria locked-on mutant. E. coli K1 strains associated with HBMEC were predominantly type 1 fimbria phase-on (i.e., fimbriated) bacteria. Taken together, we showed for the first time that type 1 fimbriae play an important role in E. coli K1 binding to and invasion of HBMEC and that type 1 fimbria phase-on E. coli is the major population interacting with HBMEC

Mode oscillation and harmonic distortions associated with sinusoidal modulation of semiconductor lasers

This paper investigates mode dynamics, operation characteristics and signal distortions associated with sinusoidal modulation of semiconductor lasers. The study is based on intensive integrations of the multimode rate equation model of semiconductor lasers over wide ranges of the modulation frequency and depth. The rate equations take into account both spectral symmetric and asymmetric suppressions of modal gain. The higher harmonic distortions as well as the half harmonic distortion associated with the period doubling effect are investigated. The study is applied to both cases of single-mode and multimode oscillations of the non-modulated laser. The obtained results showed that the modulated signal has six distinct waveforms depending on the modulation conditions; three types have continuous periodic waveforms and the others have periodic pulsing waveforms. The modulated laser is found to oscillate in a single mode under weak modulation where the modulated signal is continuous, whereas the pulsing signals are associated with multimode oscillation. The higher harmonic distortions of single-mode laser are lower than those of two-mode lasers, and become serious at modulation frequencies around the relaxation oscillation frequency. These distortions are highest when the laser output is pulsating and the pulses are superposed by relaxation oscillations. © EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2012

Financial Information Mediation: A Case Study of Standards Integration for Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment Using the COIN Mediation Technology

Each player in the financial industry, each bank, stock exchange, government agency, or insurance company operates its own financial information system or systems. By its very nature, financial information, like the money that it represents, changes hands. Therefore the interoperation of financial information systems is the cornerstone of the financial services they support. E-services frameworks such as web services are an unprecedented opportunity for the flexible interoperation of financial systems. Naturally the critical economic role and the complexity of financial information led to the development of various standards. Yet standards alone are not the panacea: different groups of players use different standards or different interpretations of the same standard. We believe that the solution lies in the convergence of flexible E-services such as web-services and semantically rich meta-data as promised by the semantic Web; then a mediation architecture can be used for the documentation, identification, and resolution of semantic conflicts arising from the interoperation of heterogeneous financial services. In this paper we illustrate the nature of the problem in the Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (EBPP) industry and the viability of the solution we propose. We describe and analyze the integration of services using four different formats: the IFX, OFX and SWIFT standards, and an example proprietary format. To accomplish this integration we use the COntext INterchange (COIN) framework. The COIN architecture leverages a model of sources and receivers’ contexts in reference to a rich domain model or ontology for the description and resolution of semantic heterogeneity.Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA

Lepton Flavor Violation in the SUSY-GUT Models with Lopsided Mass Matrix

The tiny neutrino masses measured in the neutrino oscillation experiments can be naturally explained by the supersymmetric see-saw mechanism. If the supersymmetry breaking is mediated by gravity, the see-saw models may predict observable lepton flavor violating effects. In this work, we investigate the lepton flavor violating process $\mu\to e\gamma$ in the kind of neutrino mass models based on the idea of the ``lopsided'' form of the charged lepton mass matrix. The constraints set by the muon anomalous magnetic moment are taken into account. We find the present models generally predict a much larger branching ratio of $\mu\to e\gamma$ than the experimental limit. Conversely, this process may give strong constraint on the lepton flavor structure. Following this constraint we then find a new kind of the charged lepton mass matrix. The feature of the structure is that both the elements between the 2-3 and 1-3 generations are ``lopsided''. This structure produces a very small 1-3 mixing and a large 1-2 mixing in the charged lepton sector, which naturally leads to small $Br(\mu\to e\gamma)$ and the LMA solution for the solar neutrino problem.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figure

Model Independent Analysis of the Forward-Backward Asymmetry for the B→K1μ+μ−B\to K_{1}\mu^{+}\mu^{-} Decay

The sensitivity of the zero position of the forward backward asymmetry $\mathcal{A}_{FB}$ for the exclusive $B\rightarrow K_{1}(1270)\mu^{+}\mu^{-}$ decay is examined by using most general non-standard 4-fermion interactions. Our analysis shows that the zero position of the forward backward asymmetry is very sensitive to the sign and size of the Wilson coefficients corresponding to the new vector type interactions, which are the counter partners of the usual Standard Model operators but have opposite chirality. In addition to these, the other significant effect comes from the interference of Scalar-Pseudoscalar and Tensor type operators. These results will not only enhance our theoretical understanding about the axial vector mesons but will also serve as a good tool to look for physics beyond the SM.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, Published version that appears in EPJ

Aspects of Two-Photon Physics at Linear e+e- Colliders

We discuss various reactions at future e+e- and gamma-gamma colliders involving real (beamstrahlung or backscattered laser) or quasi--real (bremsstrahlung) photons in the initial state and hadrons in the final state. The production of two central jets with large pT is described in some detail; we give distributions for the rapidity and pT of the jets as well as the di--jet invariant mass, and discuss the relative importance of various initial state configurations and the uncertainties in our predictions. We also present results for `mono--jet' production where one jet goes down a beam pipe, for the production of charm, bottom and top quarks, and for single production of W and Z bosons. Where appropriate, the two--photon processes are compared with annihilation reactions leading to similar final states. We also argue that the behaviour of the total inelastic gamma-gamma cross section at high energies will probably have little impact on the severity of background problems caused by soft and semi--hard (`minijet') two--photon reactions. We find very large differences in cross sections for all two--photon processes between existing designs for future e+e- colliders, due to the different beamstrahlung spectra; in particular, both designs with >1 events per bunch crossing exist.Comment: 51 pages, 13 figures(not included

Study of Bs-> \phi l^+ l^-$ Decay in a Single Universal Extra Dimension

Utilizing form factors calculated within the light-cone sum rules, we have evaluated the decay branching ratios of $B_s\to \phi\gamma$ and $B_s\to \phi \ell^+\ell^-$ in a single universal extra dimension model (UED), which is viewed as one of the alternative theories beyond the standard model (SM). For the decay $B_s \to \phi \ell^+\ell^-$, the dilepton invariant mass spectra, the forward-backward asymmetry, and double lepton polarization are also calculated. For each case, we compared the obtained results with predictions of the SM. In lower values of the compactification factor 1/R, the only parameter in this model, we see the considerable discrepancy between the UED and SM models. However, when 1/R increases, the results of UED tend to diminish and at $1/R = 1000 \mathrm{GeV}$, two models have approximately the same predictions. Compared with data from CDF of $B_s \to \phi \mu^+ \mu^-$, the 1/R tends to be larger than $350 \mathrm{GeV}$. We also note that the zero crossing point of the forward-backward asymmetry is become smaller, which will be an important plat to prob the contribution from the extra dimension model. The results obtained in this work will be very useful in searching new physics beyond SM. Moreover, the order of magnitude for branching ratios shows a possibility to study these channels at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), CDF and the future super-B factory.Comment: 13 pages, 16 figure

Human and animal fertility studies in cystinosis reveal signs of obstructive azoospermia, an altered blood-testis barrier and a subtherapeutic effect of cysteamine in testis

Cystinosis is an inherited metabolic disorder caused by autosomal recessive mutations in the CTNS gene leading to lysosomal cystine accumulation. The disease primarily affects the kidneys followed by extra-renal organ involvement later in life. Azoospermia is one of the unclarified complications which are not improved by cysteamine, which is the only available disease-modifying treatment. We aimed at unraveling the origin of azoospermia in cysteamine-treated cystinosis by confirming or excluding an obstructive factor, and investigating the effect of cysteamine on fertility in the Ctns−/− mouse model compared with wild type. Azoospermia was present in the vast majority of infantile type cystinosis patients. While spermatogenesis was intact, an enlarged caput epididymis and reduced levels of seminal markers for obstruction neutral α-glucosidase (NAG) and extracellular matrix protein 1 (ECM1) pointed towards an epididymal obstruction. Histopathological examination in human and mouse testis revealed a disturbed blood-testis barrier characterized by an altered zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) protein expression. Animal studies ruled out a negative effect of cysteamine on fertility, but showed that cystine accumulation in the testis is irresponsive to regular cysteamine treatment. We conclude that the azoospermia in infantile cystinosis is due to an obstruction related to epididymal dysfunction, irrespective of the severity of an evolving primary hypogonadism. Regular cysteamine treatment does not affect fertility but has subtherapeutic effects on cystine accumulation in testis

Theoretical study of lepton events in the atmospheric neutrino experiments at SuperK

Super-Kamiokande has reported the results for the lepton events in the atmospheric neutrino experiment. These results have been presented for a 22.5kT water fiducial mass on an exposure of 1489 days, and the events are divided into sub-GeV, multi-GeV and PC events. We present a study of nuclear medium effects in the sub-GeV energy region of atmospheric neutrino events for the quasielastic scattering, incoherent and coherent pion production processes, as they give the most dominant contribution to the lepton events in this energy region. We have used the atmospheric neutrino flux given by Honda et al. These calculations have been done in the local density approximation. We take into account the effect of Pauli blocking, Fermi motion, Coulomb effect, renormalization of weak transition strengths in the nuclear medium in the case of the quasielastic reactions. The inelastic reactions leading to production of leptons along with pions is calculated in a $\Delta$- dominance model by taking into account the renormalization of $\Delta$ properties in the nuclear medium and the final state interaction effects of the outgoing pions with the residual nucleus. We present the results for the lepton events obtained in our model with and without nuclear medium effects, and compare them with the Monte Carlo predictions used in the simulation and the experimentally observed events reported by the Super-Kamiokande collaboration.Comment: 23 pages, 13 figure