4,458 research outputs found
Building future societies? A brief analysis of Braga’s school bus project
This paper seeks to demonstrate the importance of implementing trans-
port policies that meet home to school (and vice versa) mobility needs of children
and young people. Over the last few years families’ mobility has been given
increasing attention. One of the most investigated aspects is home to work mobil-
ity. Nowadays there is an urgent need to study and propose intervention measures
regarding children’s mobility to school. In fact, studies show that the car is the
preferred mode of transportation in Portugal. This trend has undoubtedly negative
social, environmental and health consequences. Based on an evaluation study on
the School Bus project in Braga (a research- intervention activity of BUILD-Braga
Urban Innovation Laboratory Demonstrator), this paper discusses the difficulties
in implementing sustainable mobility initiatives, pointing out anticipatory mea-
sures that can be taken in medium-sized cities in order to stop the expansion of
children’s transportation by car, and give them back spaces in the cities.UIDB/00736/202
Searches for Long Lived Neutral Particles
An intriguing possibility for TeV scale physics is the existence of neutral
long lived particles (LOLIPs) that subsequently decay into SM states. Such
particles are many cases indistinguishable from missing transverse energy (MET)
at colliders. We propose new methods to search for these particles using
neutrino telescopes. We study their detection prospects, assuming production
either at the LHC or through dark matter (DM) annihilations in the Sun and the
Earth. We find that the sensitivity for LOLIPs produced at the LHC is limited
by luminosity and detection energy thresholds. On the other hand, in the case
of DM annihilation into LOLIPs, the sensitivity of neutrino telescopes is
promising and may extend beyond the reach of upcoming direct detection
experiments. In the context of low scale hidden sectors weakly coupled to the
SM, such indirect searches allow to probe couplings as small as 10^-15.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure
An Intact Kidney Slice Model to Investigate Vasa Recta Properties and Function in situ
Background: Medullary blood flow is via vasa recta capillaries, which possess contractile pericytes. In vitro studies using isolated descending vasa recta show that pericytes can constrict/dilate descending vasa recta when vasoactive substances are present. We describe a live kidney slice model in which pericyte-mediated vasa recta constriction/dilation can be visualized in situ. Methods: Confocal microscopy was used to image calcein, propidium iodide and Hoechst labelling in ‘live’ kidney slices, to determine tubular and vascular cell viability and morphology. DIC video-imaging of live kidney slices was employed to investigate pericyte-mediated real-time changes in vasa recta diameter. Results: Pericytes were identified on vasa recta and their morphology and density were characterized in the medulla. Pericyte-mediated changes in vasa recta diameter (10–30%) were evoked in response to bath application of vasoactive agents (norepinephrine, endothelin-1, angiotensin-II and prostaglandin E2) or by manipulating endogenous vasoactive signalling pathways (using tyramine, L-NAME, a cyclo-oxygenase (COX-1) inhibitor indomethacin, and ATP release). Conclusions: The live kidney slice model is a valid complementary technique for investigating vasa recta function in situ and the role of pericytes as regulators of vasa recta diameter. This technique may also be useful in exploring the role of tubulovascular crosstalk in regulation of medullary blood flow
Influence of real-world characteristics on outcomes for patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcal skin and soft tissue infections:a multi-country medical chart review in Europe
BACKGROUND: Patient-related (demographic/disease) and treatment-related (drug/clinician/hospital) characteristics were evaluated as potential predictors of healthcare resource use and opportunities for early switch (ES) from intravenous (IV)-to-oral methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)-active antibiotic therapy and early hospital discharge (ED). METHODS: This retrospective observational medical chart study analyzed patients (across 12 European countries) with microbiologically confirmed MRSA complicated skin and soft tissue infections (cSSTI), ≥3 days of IV anti-MRSA antibiotics during hospitalization (July 1, 2010-June 30, 2011), and discharged alive by July 31, 2011. Logistic/linear regression models evaluated characteristics potentially associated with actual resource use (length of IV therapy, length of hospital stay [LOS], IV-to-oral antibiotic switch), and ES and ED (using literature-based and expert-verified criteria) outcomes. RESULTS: 1542 patients (mean ± SD age 60.8 ± 16.5 years; 61.5% males) were assessed with 81.0% hospitalized for MRSA cSSTI as the primary reason. Several patient demographic, infection, complication, treatment, and hospital characteristics were predictive of length of IV therapy, LOS, IV-to-oral antibiotic switch, or ES and ED opportunities. Outcomes and ES and ED opportunities varied across countries. Length of IV therapy and LOS (r = 0.66, p < 0.0001) and eligibilities for ES and ED (r = 0.44, p < 0.0001) showed relatively strong correlations. IV-to-oral antibiotic switch patients had significantly shorter length of IV therapy (−5.19 days, p < 0.001) and non-significantly shorter LOS (−1.86 days, p > 0.05). Certain patient and treatment characteristics were associated with increased odds of ES (healthcare-associated/ hospital-acquired infection) and ED (patient living arrangements, healthcare-associated/ hospital-acquired infection, initiating MRSA-active treatment 1–2 days post cSSTI index date, existing ED protocol), while other factors decreased the odds of ES (no documented MRSA culture, ≥4 days from admission to cSSTI index date, IV-to-oral switch, IV line infection) and ED (dementia, no documented MRSA culture, initiating MRSA-active treatment ≥3 days post cSSTI index date, existing ES protocol). CONCLUSIONS: Practice patterns and opportunity for further ES and ED were affected by several infection, treatment, hospital, and geographical characteristics, which should be considered in identifying ES and ED opportunities and designing interventions for MRSA cSSTI to reduce IV days and LOS while maintaining the quality of care. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2334-14-476) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users
Direct and Indirect Detection of Dark Matter in D6 Flavor Symmetric Model
We study a fermionic dark matter in a non-supersymmetric extension of the
standard model with a family symmetry based on D6xZ2xZ2. In our model, the
final state of the dark matter annihilation is determined to be e+ e- by the
flavor symmetry, which is consistent with the PAMELA result. At first, we show
that our dark matter mass should be within the range of 230 GeV - 750 GeV in
the WMAP analysis combined with mu to e gamma constraint. Moreover we
simultaneously explain the experiments of direct and indirect detection, by
simply adding a gauge and D6 singlet real scalar field. In the direct detection
experiments, we show that the lighter dark matter mass ~ 230 GeV and the
lighter standard model Higgs boson ~ 115 GeV is in favor of the observed bounds
reported by CDMS II and XENON100. In the indirect detection experiments, we
explain the positron excess reported by PAMELA through the Breit-Wigner
enhancement mechanism. We also show that our model is consistent with no
antiproton excess suggested by PAMELA.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, accepted version for publication in
European Physical Journal
Seesaw mechanism, baryon asymmetry and neutrinoless double beta decay
A simplified but very instructive analysis of the seesaw mechanism is here
performed. Assuming a nearly diagonal Dirac neutrino mass matrix, we study the
forms of the Majorana mass matrix of right-handed neutrinos, which reproduce
the effective mass matrix of left-handed neutrinos. As a further step, the
important effect of a non diagonal Dirac neutrino mass matrix is explored. The
corresponding implications for the baryogenesis via leptogenesis and for the
neutrinoless double beta decay are reviewed. We propose two distinct models
where the baryon asymmetry is enhanced.Comment: 21 pages, RevTex. Revise
BLM and RMI1 alleviate RPA inhibition of topoIIIα decatenase activity
RPA is a single-stranded DNA binding protein that physically associates with the BLM complex. RPA stimulates BLM helicase activity as well as the double Holliday junction dissolution activity of the BLM-topoisomerase IIIα complex. We investigated the effect of RPA on the ssDNA decatenase activity of topoisomerase IIIα. We found that RPA and other ssDNA binding proteins inhibit decatenation by topoisomerase IIIα. Complex formation between BLM, TopoIIIα, and RMI1 ablates inhibition of decatenation by ssDNA binding proteins. Together, these data indicate that inhibition by RPA does not involve species-specific interactions between RPA and BLM-TopoIIIα-RMI1, which contrasts with RPA modulation of double Holliday junction dissolution. We propose that topoisomerase IIIα and RPA compete to bind to single-stranded regions of catenanes. Interactions with BLM and RMI1 enhance toposiomerase IIIα activity, promoting decatenation in the presence of RPA
Flavor Mediation Delivers Natural SUSY
If supersymmetry (SUSY) solves the hierarchy problem, then naturalness
considerations coupled with recent LHC bounds require non-trivial superpartner
flavor structures. Such "Natural SUSY" models exhibit a large mass hierarchy
between scalars of the third and first two generations as well as degeneracy
(or alignment) among the first two generations. In this work, we show how this
specific beyond the standard model (SM) flavor structure can be tied directly
to SM flavor via "Flavor Mediation". The SM contains an anomaly-free SU(3)
flavor symmetry, broken only by Yukawa couplings. By gauging this flavor
symmetry in addition to SM gauge symmetries, we can mediate SUSY breaking via
(Higgsed) gauge mediation. This automatically delivers a natural SUSY spectrum.
Third-generation scalar masses are suppressed due to the dominant breaking of
the flavor gauge symmetry in the top direction. More subtly, the
first-two-generation scalars remain highly degenerate due to a custodial U(2)
symmetry, where the SU(2) factor arises because SU(3) is rank two. This
custodial symmetry is broken only at order (m_c/m_t)^2. SUSY gauge coupling
unification predictions are preserved, since no new charged matter is
introduced, the SM gauge structure is unaltered, and the flavor symmetry treats
all matter multiplets equally. Moreover, the uniqueness of the anomaly-free
SU(3) flavor group makes possible a number of concrete predictions for the
superpartner spectrum.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables. v2 references added, minor changes to
flavor constraints and a little discussion adde
Protein Pattern Formation
Protein pattern formation is essential for the spatial organization of many
intracellular processes like cell division, flagellum positioning, and
chemotaxis. A prominent example of intracellular patterns are the oscillatory
pole-to-pole oscillations of Min proteins in \textit{E. coli} whose biological
function is to ensure precise cell division. Cell polarization, a prerequisite
for processes such as stem cell differentiation and cell polarity in yeast, is
also mediated by a diffusion-reaction process. More generally, these functional
modules of cells serve as model systems for self-organization, one of the core
principles of life. Under which conditions spatio-temporal patterns emerge, and
how these patterns are regulated by biochemical and geometrical factors are
major aspects of current research. Here we review recent theoretical and
experimental advances in the field of intracellular pattern formation, focusing
on general design principles and fundamental physical mechanisms.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, review articl
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