336 research outputs found
Antioxidant activity and contents of total phenolic compounds and anthocyanins according to grain colour in several varieties of Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench
Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench contains various phenolic compounds such as anthocyanin. Eleven sorghum accessions were classified into five groups by grain colour and their antioxidant activities were measured as well as the contents of total phenolic compounds (TPC) and anthocyanins in sorghum grains. The grain colour was related to TPC content, but not to monomelic anthocyanin content. Moreover, the overall patterns of antioxidant activity levels in 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) or 2,2′-Azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) assay were similar to those of the TPC content. Correlations between TPC and anthocyanin contents were statistically significant and positive (P < 0.05). TPC content showed also a strong positive correlation to DPPH and ABTS antioxidant activities. The results provide the basic data for breeding of sorghum varieties containing large amounts of antioxidants
Analysis of the Neutralino System in Three--Body Leptonic Decays of Neutralinos
Neutralinos in supersymmetric theories, the spin--1/2
Majorana--type superpartners of the U(1) and SU(2) neutral electroweak gauge
bosons and SU(2) neutral Higgs bosons, are expected to be among light
supersymmetric particles so that they can be produced copiouslyvia direct pair
production and/or from cascade decays of other sparticles such as sleptons at
the planned Large Hadron Collider and the prospective International Linear
Collider. Considering the prospects of having both highly polarized neutralinos
and possibility of reconstructing their decay rest frames, we provide a
systematic investigation of the three--body leptonic decays of the neutralinos
in the minimal supersymmetric standard model and demonstrate alternative ways
for probing the Majorana nature of the neutralinos and CP violation in the
neutralino system.Comment: Version to appear in Eur.Phys.J.
Influence of Fermi surface topology on the quasiparticle spectrum in the vortex state
We study the influence of Fermi surface topology on the quasiparticle density
of states in the vortex state of type II superconductors. We observe that the
field dependence and the shape of the momentum and spatially averaged density
of states is affected significantly by the topology of the Fermi surface. We
show that this behavior can be understood in terms of characteristic Fermi
surface functions and that an important role is played by the number of points
on the Fermi surface at which the Fermi velocity is directed parallel to the
magnetic field. A critical comparison is made with a broadened BCS type density
of states, that has been used frequently in analysis of tunneling data. We
suggest a new formula as a replacement for the broadened BCS model for the
special case of a cylindrical Fermi surface. We apply our results to the two
gap superconductor MgB and show that in this particular case the field
dependence of the partial densities of states of the two gaps behaves very
differently due to the different topologies of the corresponding Fermi
surfaces, in qualitative agreement with recent tunneling experiments.Comment: 12 pages 12 figure
Probing MSSM Higgs Sector with Explicit CP Violation at a Photon Linear Collider
The CP properties of Higgs bosons can be probed through their s-channel
resonance productions via photon-photon collisions by use of circularly and/or
linearly polarized backscattered laser photons at a TeV-scale linear e^+ e^-
collider. Exploiting this powerful tool, we investigate in detail the Higgs
sector of the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model with explicit CP violation.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures. Some comments added and typos corrected. To
appear in Phys. Rev.
Broilers fed a low protein diet supplemented with synthetic amino acids maintained growth performance and retained intestinal integrity while reducing nitrogen excretion when raised under poor sanitary conditions
The present study investigated the effects of supplementing a low protein (LP) diet supplemented with key essential amino acids (AA) to broilers on growth performance, intestinal tract function, blood metabolites, and nitrogen excretion when the animals were maintained under various sanitary conditions for 35 D after hatching. Three hundred eighty-four one-day-old male broilers (Ross 308) were randomly allotted to groups that received one of 6 dietary treatments in a 2 Ă— 3 factorial arrangement (i.e., 2 environmental conditions and 3 dietary treatments) to give 8 replicates per treatment. Broilers were challenged with 2 environmental conditions (sanitary vs. poor sanitary). The dietary treatments were (1) high protein (HP) diet, (2) LP diet, and (3) LP diet with synthetic key essential AA (LPA): the LP diet was supplemented with synthetic AA up to the required levels for broilers. On day 14, birds consumed the LP diet impaired growth performance compared with those fed the HP diet, while the average daily weight gain-to-feed conversion ratio of birds fed the LPA diet improved to the level of birds fed the HP diet under poor sanitary conditions (P < 0.05). Broilers raised under poor sanitary conditions and fed the LP diet displayed higher (P < 0.05) zonula occludens (ZO-1) expression on day 14 than broilers fed either the HP or LPA diet. Under sanitary conditions, birds fed HP and LPA diets showed higher villus height and crypt depth compared with those of broilers fed the LP diet on day 35. Moreover, broilers raised in the poor sanitary environment had higher (P < 0.05) serum endotoxins than those raised in the sanitary environment. Broilers fed the LPA diet showed reduced (P < 0.05) nitrogen excretion on days 14 and 35 compared with those fed the LP and HP diets independent of the environment. In conclusion, the LPA diet did not impair growth performance under poor sanitary conditions for 14 D after hatch while resulting in lower nitrogen excretion in any environment conditions throughout the experiment
MSSM Higgs-Boson Production at Hadron Colliders with Explicit CP Violation
Gluon fusion is the main production mechanism for Higgs bosons with masses up
to several hundred GeV in collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We
investigate the effects of the CP-violating phases on the fusion process
including both the sfermion-loop contributions and the one-loop induced
CP-violating scalar-pseudoscalar mixing in the minimal supersymmetric standard
model. With a universal trilinear parameter assumed, every physical observable
involves only the sum of the phases of the universal trilinear parameter
and the higgsino mass parameter . The phase affects the lightest
Higgs-boson production rate significantly through the neutral Higgs-boson
mixing and, for the masses around the lightest stop-pair threshold, it also
changes the production rate of the heavy Higgs bosons significantly through
both the stop and sbottom loops and the neutral Higgs-boson mixing.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures. Some references and comments added. Typos
corrected. To appear in Phys. Rev.
Super-conservative interpretation of muon g-2 results applied to supersymmetry
The recent developments in theory and experiment related to the anomalous
magnetic moment of the muon are applied to supersymmetry. We follow a very
cautious course, demanding that the supersymmetric contributions fit within
five standard deviations of the difference between experiment and the standard
model prediction. Arbitrarily small supersymmetric contributions are then
allowed, so no upper bounds on superpartner masses result. Nevertheless,
non-trivial exclusions are found. We characterize the substantial region of
parameter space ruled out by this analysis that has not been probed by any
previous experiment. We also discuss some implications of the results for
forthcoming collider experiments.Comment: 10 pages, latex, 3 fig
Phenomenology of GUT-less Supersymmetry Breaking
We study models in which supersymmetry breaking appears at an intermediate
scale, M_{in}, below the GUT scale. We assume that the soft
supersymmetry-breaking parameters of the MSSM are universal at M_{in}, and
analyze the morphology of the constraints from cosmology and collider
experiments on the allowed regions of parameter space as M_{in} is reduced from
the GUT scale. We present separate analyses of the (m_{1/2},m_0) planes for
tan(beta)=10 and tan(beta)=50, as well as a discussion of non-zero trilinear
couplings, A_0. Specific scenarios where the gaugino and scalar masses appear
to be universal below the GUT scale have been found in mirage-mediation models,
which we also address here. We demand that the lightest neutralino be the LSP,
and that the relic neutralino density not conflict with measurements by WMAP
and other observations. At moderate values of M_{in}, we find that the allowed
regions of the (m_{1/2},m_0) plane are squeezed by the requirements of
electroweak symmetry breaking and that the lightest neutralino be the LSP,
whereas the constraint on the relic density is less severe. At very low M_{in},
the electroweak vacuum conditions become the dominant constraint, and a
secondary source of astrophysical cold dark matter would be necessary to
explain the measured relic density for nearly all values of the soft
SUSY-breaking parameters and tan(beta). We calculate the neutralino-nucleon
cross sections for viable scenarios and compare them with the present and
projected limits from direct dark matter searches.Comment: 35 pages, 9 figures; typos corrected, references adde
Stabilities of nanohydrated thymine radical cations: insights from multiphoton ionization experiments and ab initio calculations
Multi-photon ionization experiments have been carried out on thymine-water clusters in the gas phase. Metastable H2O loss from T+(H2O)n was observed at n ≥ 3 only. Ab initio quantum-chemical calculations of a large range of optimized T+(H2O)n conformers have been performed up to n = 4, enabling binding energies of water to be derived. These decrease smoothly with n, consistent with the general trend of increasing metastable H2O loss in the experimental data. The lowest-energy conformers of T+(H2O)3 and T+(H2O)4 feature intermolecular bonding via charge-dipole interactions, in contrast with the purely hydrogen-bonded neutrals. We found no evidence for a closed hydration shell at n = 4, also contrasting with studies of neutral clusters
Metabolomics reveals novel insight on dormancy of aquatic invertebrate encysted embryos
Numerous aquatic invertebrates survive harsh environments by displaying dormancy as encysted embryos. This study aimed at determining whether metabolomics could provide molecular insight to explain the “dormancy syndrome” by highlighting functional pathways and metabolites, hence offering a novel comprehensive molecular view of dormancy. We compared the metabolome of morphologically distinct dormant encysted embryos (resting eggs) and non-dormant embryos (amictic eggs) of a rotifer (Brachionus plicatilis). Metabolome profiling revealed ~5,000 features, 1,079 of which were annotated. Most of the features were represented at significantly higher levels in non-dormant than dormant embryos. A large number of features was assigned to putative functional pathways indicating novel differences between dormant and non-dormant states. These include features associated with glycolysis, the TCA and urea cycles, amino acid, purine and pyrimidine metabolism. Interestingly, ATP, nucleobases, cyclic nucleotides, thymidine and uracil, were not detected in dormant resting eggs, suggesting an impairment of response to environmental and internal cues, cessation of DNA synthesis, transcription and plausibly translation in the dormant embryos. The levels of trehalose or its analogues, with a role in survival under desiccation conditions, were higher in resting eggs. In conclusion, the current study highlights metabolomics as a major analytical tool to functionally compare dormancy across species.Animal science
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