String theoretic QCD axions in the light of PLANCK and BICEP2

The QCD axion solving the strong CP problem may originate from antisymmetric tensor gauge fields in compactified string theory, with a decay constant around the GUT scale. Such possibility appears to be ruled out now by the detection of tensor modes by BICEP2 and the PLANCK constraints on isocurvature density perturbations. A more interesting and still viable possibility is that the string theoretic QCD axion is charged under an anomalous U(1)_A gauge symmetry. In such case, the axion decay constant can be much lower than the GUT scale if moduli are stabilized near the point of vanishing Fayet-Illiopoulos term, and U(1)_A-charged matter fields get a vacuum value far below the GUT scale due to a tachyonic SUSY breaking scalar mass. We examine the symmetry breaking pattern of such models during the inflationary epoch with the Hubble expansion rate 10^{14} GeV, and identify the range of the QCD axion decay constant, as well as the corresponding relic axion abundance, consistent with known cosmological constraints. In addition to the case that the PQ symmetry is restored during inflation, there are other viable scenarios, including that the PQ symmetry is broken during inflation at high scales around 10^{16}-10^{17} GeV due to a large Hubble-induced tachyonic scalar mass from the U(1)_A D-term, while the present axion scale is in the range 10^{9}-5\times 10^{13} GeV, where the present value larger than 10^{12} GeV requires a fine-tuning of the axion misalignment angle. We also discuss the implications of our results for the size of SUSY breaking soft masses.Comment: 29 pages, 1 figure; v3: analysis updated including the full anharmonic effects, references added, version accepted for publication in JHE

Water-Repellent TiO₂-Organic Dye-Based Air Filters for Efficient Visible-Light-Activated Photochemical Inactivation against Bioaerosols

Recently, bioaerosols, including the 2019 novel coronavirus, pose a serious threat to global public health. Herein, we introduce a visible-light-activated (VLA) antimicrobial air filter functionalized with titanium dioxide (TiO2)–crystal violet (CV) nanocomposites facilitating abandoned visible light from sunlight or indoor lights. The TiO2–CV based VLA antimicrobial air filters exhibit a potent inactivation rate of ∼99.98% and filtration efficiency of ∼99.9% against various bioaerosols. Under visible-light, the CV is involved in overall inactivation by inducing reactive oxygen species production both directly (CV itself) and indirectly (in combination with TiO2). Moreover, the susceptibility of the CV to humidity was significantly improved by forming a hydrophobic molecular layer on the TiO2 surface, highlighting its potential applicability in real environments such as exhaled or humid air. We believe this work can open a new avenue for designing and realizing practical antimicrobial technology using ubiquitous visible-light energy against the threat of infectious bioaerosols

Phenomenological Implications of Deflected Mirage Mediation: Comparison with Mirage Mediation

We compare the collider phenomenology of mirage mediation and deflected mirage mediation, which are two recently proposed "mixed" supersymmetry breaking scenarios motivated from string compactifications. The scenarios differ in that deflected mirage mediation includes contributions from gauge mediation in addition to the contributions from gravity mediation and anomaly mediation also present in mirage mediation. The threshold effects from gauge mediation can drastically alter the low energy spectrum from that of pure mirage mediation models, resulting in some cases in a squeezed gaugino spectrum and a gluino that is much lighter than other colored superpartners. We provide several benchmark deflected mirage mediation models and construct model lines as a function of the gauge mediation contributions, and discuss their discovery potential at the LHC.Comment: 29 pages, 9 figure

Light Higgsino from Axion Dark Radiation

The recent observations imply that there is an extra relativistic degree of freedom coined dark radiation. We argue that the QCD axion is a plausible candidate for the dark radiation, not only because of its extremely small mass, but also because in the supersymmetric extension of the Peccei-Quinn mechanism the saxion tends to dominate the Universe and decays into axions with a sizable branching fraction. We show that the Higgsino mixing parameter mu is bounded from above when the axions produced at the saxion decays constitute the dark radiation: mu \lesssim 300 GeV for a saxion lighter than 2m_W, and mu less than the saxion mass otherwise. Interestingly, the Higgsino can be light enough to be within the reach of LHC and/or ILC even when the other superparticles are heavy with mass about 1 TeV or higher. We also estimate the abundance of axino produced by the decays of Higgsino and saxion.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure; published in JHE

Use of quercetin in animal feed : effects on the P-gp expression and pharmacokinetics of orally administrated enrofloxacin in chicken

Modulation of P-glycoprotein (P-gp, encoded by Mdr1) by xenobiotics plays central role in pharmacokinetics of various drugs. Quercetin has a potential to modulate P-gp in rodents, however, its effects on P-gp modulation in chicken are still unclear. Herein, study reports role of quercetin in modulation of P-gp expression and subsequent effects on the pharmacokinetics of enrofloxacin in broilers. Results show that P-gp expression was increased in a dose-dependent manner following exposure to quercetin in Caco-2 cells and tissues of chicken. Absorption rate constant and apparent permeability coefficient of rhodamine 123 were decreased, reflecting efflux function of P-gp in chicken intestine increased by quercetin. Quercetin altered pharmacokinetic of enrofloxacin by decreasing area under curve, peak concentration, and time to reach peak concentration and by increasing clearance rate. Molecular docking shows quercetin can form favorable interactions with binding pocket of chicken xenobiotic receptor (CXR). Results provide convincing evidence that quercetin induced P-gp expression in tissues by possible interaction with CXR, and consequently reducing bioavailability of orally administered enrofloxacin through restricting its intestinal absorption and liver/kidney clearance in broilers. The results can be further extended to guide reasonable use of quercetin to avoid drug-feed interaction occurred with co-administered enrofloxacin or other similar antimicrobials.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

AROS Is a Significant Biomarker for Tumor Aggressiveness in Non-cirrhotic Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Despite a low risk of liver failure and preserved liver function, non-cirrhotic hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has a poor prognosis. In the current study, we evaluated an active regulator of SIRT1 (AROS) as a prognostic biomarker in non-cirrhotic HCC. mRNA levels of AROS were measured in tumor and non-tumor tissues obtained from 283 non-cirrhotic HCC patients. AROS expression was exclusively up-regulated in recurrent tissues from the non-cirrhotic HCC patients (P = 0.015) and also in tumor tissues irrespective of tumor stage (P < 0.001) or BCLC stage (P < 0.001). High mRNA levels of AROS were statistically significantly associated with tumor stage (P < 0.001), BCLC stage (P = 0.007), alpha fetoprotein (AFP) level (P = 0.013), microvascular invasion (P = 0.001), tumor size (P = 0.036), and portal vein invasion (P = 0.005). Kaplan-Meir curve analysis demonstrated that HCC patients with higher AROS levels had shorter disease-free survival (DFS) in both the short-term (P < 0.001) and long-term (P = 0.005) compared to those with low AROS. Cox regression analysis demonstrated that AROS is a significant predictor for DFS along with large tumor size, tumor multiplicity, vascular invasion, and poor tumor differentiation, which are the known prognostic factors. In conclusion, AROS is a significant biomarker for tumor aggressiveness in non-cirrhotic hepatocellular carcinoma.1122Ysciescopu

Fine Tuning in General Gauge Mediation

We study the fine-tuning problem in the context of general gauge mediation. Numerical analyses toward for relaxing fine-tuning are presented. We analyse the problem in typical three cases of the messenger scale, that is, GUT ($2\times10^{16}$ GeV), intermediate ($10^{10}$ GeV), and relatively low energy ($10^6$ GeV) scales. In each messenger scale, the parameter space reducing the degree of tuning as around 10% is found. Certain ratios among gluino mass, wino mass and soft scalar masses are favorable. It is shown that the favorable region becomes narrow as the messenger scale becomes lower, and tachyonic initial conditions of stop masses at the messenger scale are favored to relax the fine-tuning problem for the relatively low energy messenger scale. Our spectra would also be important from the viewpoint of the $\mu-B$ problem.Comment: 22 pages, 16 figures, comment adde

Bacterial membrane vesicles transport their DNA cargo into host cells

© 2017 The Author(s). Bacterial outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) are extracellular sacs containing biologically active products, such as proteins, cell wall components and toxins. OMVs are reported to contain DNA, however, little is known about the nature of this DNA, nor whether it can be transported into host cells. Our work demonstrates that chromosomal DNA is packaged into OMVs shed by bacteria during exponential phase. Most of this DNA was present on the external surfaces of OMVs, with smaller amounts located internally. The DNA within the internal compartments of Pseudomonas aeruginosa OMVs were consistently enriched in specific regions of the bacterial chromosome, encoding proteins involved in virulence, stress response, antibiotic resistance and metabolism. Furthermore, we demonstrated that OMVs carry DNA into eukaryotic cells, and this DNA was detectable by PCR in the nuclear fraction of cells. These findings suggest a role for OMV-associated DNA in bacterial-host cell interactions and have implications for OMV-based vaccines

Phase I/II study of the deacetylase inhibitor panobinostat after allogeneic stem cell transplantation in patients with high-risk MDS or AML (PANOBEST trial)

Maintenance therapy after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is conceptually attractive to prevent relapse, but has been hampered by the limited number of suitable anti-leukemic agents. The deacetylase inhibitor (DACi) panobinostat demonstrated moderate anti-leukemic activity in a small subset of patients with advanced AML and high-risk MDS in phase I/II trials.1, 2 It also displays immunomodulatory activity3 that may enhance leukemia-specific cytotoxicity4 and mitigate graft versus host disease (GvHD), but conversely could impair T- and NK cell function.5, 6 We conducted this open-label, multi-center phase I/II trial (NCT01451268) to assess the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of prolonged prophylactic administration of panobinostat after HSCT for AML or MDS. The study protocol was approved by an independent ethics committee and conducted in compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All patients provided written informed consent. ..