Robustness of a Cellular Automata Model for the HIV Infection

An investigation was conducted to study the robustness of the results obtained from the cellular automata model which describes the spread of the HIV infection within lymphoid tissues [R. M. Zorzenon dos Santos and S. Coutinho, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 168102 (2001)]. The analysis focussed on the dynamic behavior of the model when defined in lattices with different symmetries and dimensionalities. The results illustrated that the three-phase dynamics of the planar models suffered minor changes in relation to lattice symmetry variations and, while differences were observed regarding dimensionality changes, qualitative behavior was preserved. A further investigation was conducted into primary infection and sensitiveness of the latency period to variations of the model's stochastic parameters over wide ranging values. The variables characterizing primary infection and the latency period exhibited power-law behavior when the stochastic parameters varied over a few orders of magnitude. The power-law exponents were approximately the same when lattice symmetry varied, but there was a significant variation when dimensionality changed from two to three. The dynamics of the three-dimensional model was also shown to be insensitive to variations of the deterministic parameters related to cell resistance to the infection, and the necessary time lag to mount the specific immune response to HIV variants. The robustness of the model demonstrated in this work reinforce that its basic hypothesis are consistent with the three-stage dynamic of the HIV infection observed in patients.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, 21 references, Latex style Elsar

Prediction model for phenology of grapevine cultivars with hot water treatment

O objetivo deste trabalho foi elaborar um modelo de previsão da fenologia de cultivares de videira (Bordô, Cabernet Sauvignon, Moscato Embrapa, Paulsen 1103, SO4 e IAC 572) com uso de tratamento de água quente. O tratamento térmico com água quente consistiu de combinações de três temperaturas (50, 53 e 55°C) com três intervalos de tempo (30, 45 e 60 min), com ou sem hidratação prévia por 30 min. Após os tratamentos, as estacas foram plantadas a campo e seu desenvolvimento fenológico foi avaliado por dois meses. As seis cultivares estudadas apresentaram respostas distintas quanto à influência dos fatores temperatura e tempo, mas não diferiram significativamente quanto à hidratação. Foi possível desenvolver um modelo matemático para uso do tratamento de água quente em estacas de videira, baseado no desenvolvimento fenológico (yfenologia= 48,268 - 0,811x1 - 0,058x2) e validado com as variáveis brotação e emissão de raízes. Recomenda-se, a partir do modelo desenvolvido, que o tratamento de água quente seja aplicado na faixa de temperatura entre 48 e 51°C para estacas de todas as cultivares.The objective of this work was to prepare a prediction model for the phenology of grapevine cultivars (Bordô, Cabernet Sauvignon, Moscato Embrapa, Paulsen 1103, SO4, and IAC 572) using hot water treatment. The heat treatment with hot water consisted of ombinations of three temperatures (50, 53, and 55°C) and three time periods (30, 45, and 60 min), with or without previous hydration for 30 min. After the treatments, the cuttings were planted in the field and their phenological development was evaluated during two months. The six studied cultivars presented different responses to the effects of the factors temperature and time, but did not differ significantly regarding hydration. It was possible to develop a mathematical model for the use of hot water treatment in grapevine cuttings, based on phenological development (yphenology = 48.268 - 0.811x1 - 0.058x2) and validated by the variables sprouting and root emission. From the developed model, it is recommended that the hot water treatment be applied in the temperature range between 48 and 51°C for cuttings of all cultivars

Evidence for a mixed mass composition at the `ankle' in the cosmic-ray spectrum

We report a first measurement for ultra-high energy cosmic rays of the correlation between the depth of shower maximum and the signal in the water Cherenkov stations of air-showers registered simultaneously by the fluorescence and the surface detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory. Such a correlation measurement is a unique feature of a hybrid air-shower observatory with sensitivity to both the electromagnetic and muonic components. It allows an accurate determination of the spread of primary masses in the cosmic-ray flux. Up till now, constraints on the spread of primary masses have been dominated by systematic uncertainties. The present correlation measurement is not affected by systematics in the measurement of the depth of shower maximum or the signal in the water Cherenkov stations. The analysis relies on general characteristics of air showers and is thus robust also with respect to uncertainties in hadronic event generators. The observed correlation in the energy range around the `ankle' at $\lg(E/{\rm eV})=18.5-19.0$ differs significantly from expectations for pure primary cosmic-ray compositions. A light composition made up of proton and helium only is equally inconsistent with observations. The data are explained well by a mixed composition including nuclei with mass $A > 4$. Scenarios such as the proton dip model, with almost pure compositions, are thus disfavoured as the sole explanation of the ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray flux at Earth.Comment: Published version. Added journal reference and DOI. Added Report Numbe

An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics

For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson