Complete One-Loop Renormalization of the Higgs-Electroweak Chiral Lagrangian

Employing background-field method and super-heat-kernel expansion, we compute the complete one-loop renormalization of the electroweak chiral Lagrangian with a light Higgs boson. Earlier results from purely scalar fluctuations are confirmed as a special case. We also recover the one-loop renormalization of the conventional Standard Model in the appropriate limit.Comment: 15 pages, no figures; v2: reference and comments added, typos fixed, matches published versio

alpha_s from tau decays revisited

Being a determination at low energies, the analysis of hadronic tau decay data provides a rather precise determination of the strong coupling alpha_s after evolving the result to M_Z. At such a level of precision, even small non-perturbative effects become relevant for the central value and error. While those effects had been taken into account in the framework of the operator product expansion, contributions going beyond it, so-called duality violations, have previously been neglected. The following investigation fills this gap through a finite-energy sum rule analysis of tau decay spectra from the OPAL experiment, including duality violations and performing a consistent fit of all appearing QCD parameters. The resulting values for alpha_s(M_tau) are 0.307(19) in fixed-order perturbation theory and 0.322(26) in contour-improved perturbation theory, which translates to the n_f=5 values 0.1169(25) and 0.1187(32) at M_Z, respectively.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Prepared for the Proceedings of the International Workshop on e+e- collisions from Phi to Psi (PHIPSI11), Sep. 19-22, 2011, BINP, Novosibirsk, Russi

Duality Violation and the K --> pi pi Electroweak Penguin Operator Matrix Elements from Hadronic Tau Decays

We discuss a preliminary study of the impact of duality violations on extractions from tau decay data of the D=6 VEVs which determine chiral limit Standard Model K-->pi pi matrix elements of the electroweak penguin operators.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, prepared for the Proceedings of the 11th Particle and Nuclear Intersections Conference (PANIC 2011), Boston, USA, July 24-29, 201

AB0171 THE IMMUNOMODULATORY AND ANTI-INFLAMMATORY EFFECTS OF BOSENTAN IN SYSTEMIC SCLEROSIS

Background:Plasma endothelin-1 (ET-1) levels are increased in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), playing a central role in the development of fibrosis, vasoconstriction and inflammation1. While the beneficial effect of Bosentan, the endothelin receptor antagonists, have been demonstrated on vasoconstriction and fibrosis, its potential anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activity needs to be further investigated.Objectives:To assess whether Bosentan can modulate the gene expression profile of immune cells in sample of patients with limited and diffuse SSc and active digital ulcers.Methods:We enrolled 34 patients affected by SSc. Twenty-four patients were affected by limited SSc and 12 by diffuse SSc. Blood samples were collected from patients before and after 24 weeks of treatment with Bosentan, in the absence of immunosuppressive therapies. All patients received Bosentan 125 mg twice a day for 24 weeks. Gene expression profiles were assessed by GeneChip® Human Transcriptome Array 2.0 microarray technology. Significantly (p-value1.5) expressed genes pre/post treatment were obtained by paired t-statistics, as implemented in Partek Genomics Suite ver. 6.6. These genes were subjected to functional enrichment analysis by Ingenuity Pathway Analysis. The effect of Bosentan on patients was studied on the "diffuse" and "limited" sub-cohorts, individually, as well as on the whole cohort.Results:Contrary to the limited cohort where differentially expressed genes resulted to be all non-coding genes which are almost all over-expressed before treatment, the diffuse cohort was characterized by 19 differentially expressed genes that enrich biological functions and pathways related to the immune system and its organic response (in particular T-cells). Comparing the limited to the diffuse cohort, pre- and post- treatment, a distinct genetic fingerprint emerges, that characterizes the response to Bosentan by the latter cohort as increased apoptosis of lymphocytes (z-score=3.28) and a decreased quantity of antigen presenting cells (from z-score=1.06 (pre) to -0.75 (post)).Conclusion:The presence of an inflammatory microenvironment, as occur in SSc, influence the relative expression of ET-1 receptors on immune cells, which in turn further contribute to the amplification of cellular responses to inflammation. The observed difference response to therapy between the two cohorts of patients was attributed to influence of ET-1 levels on the relative expression of ET-1 receptors on immune cells surface. Interestingly Bosentan, beside the already-known effect on promoting antigen presenting cells apoptosis, seem to exert its immunomodulatory activity also by deregulating functions that mainly involves the T cells and by promoting their apoptosis, which in turn reflect also its anti-inflammatory proprieties.References:[1]Tinazzi E, Puccetti A, Patuzzo G, et al. Endothelin receptors expressed by immune cells are involved in modulation of inflammation and in fibrosis: relevance to the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis. J Immunol Res. 2015;2015:147616.Disclosure of Interests:None declare

Cisplatin and the Mu Opioid Receptor Antagonist Methylnaltrexone Inhibit Neurite Growth in Cultured Trigeminal Neurons

https://openworks.mdanderson.org/sumexp23/1040/thumbnail.jp

Duality violations in tau hadronic spectral moments

Evidence is presented for the necessity of including duality violations in a consistent description of spectral function moments employed in the precision determination of $\alpha_s$ from $\tau$ decay. A physically motivated ansatz for duality violations in the spectral functions enables us to perform fits to spectral moments employing both pinched and unpinched weights. We describe our analysis strategy and provide some preliminary findings. Final numerical results await completion of an ongoing re-determination of the ALEPH covariance matrices incorporating correlations due to the unfolding procedure which are absent from the currently posted versions. To what extent this issue affects existing analyses and our own work will require further study.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Talk given at 11th International Workshop on Tau Lepton Physics, Manchester, UK, 13-17 September 201

In-beam fast-timing measurements in 103,105,107Cd

Fast-timing measurements were performed recently in the region of the medium-mass 103,105,107Cd isotopes, produced in fusion evaporation reactions. Emitted gamma-rays were detected by eight HPGe and five LaBr3:Ce detectors working in coincidence. Results on new and re-evaluated half-lives are discussed within a systematic of transition rates. The $7/2_1^+$ states in 103,105,107Cd are interpreted as arising from a single-particle excitation. The half-life analysis of the $11/2_1^-$ states in 103,105,107Cd shows no change in the single-particle transition strength as a function of the neutron number

Sustainable Agro-Food Industrial Wastewater Treatment Using High Rate Anaerobic Process

This review article compiles the various advances made since 2008 in sustainable high-rate anaerobic technologies with emphasis on their performance enhancement when treating agro-food industrial wastewater. The review explores the generation and characteristics of different agro-food industrial wastewaters; the need for and the performance of high rate anaerobic reactors, such as an upflow anaerobic fixed bed reactor, an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor, hybrid systems etc.; operational challenges, mass transfer considerations, energy production estimation, toxicity, modeling, technology assessment and recommendations for successful operation