X(3872) and its Partners in the Heavy Quark Limit of QCD

In this letter, we propose interpolating currents for the X(3872) resonance, and show that, in the Heavy Quark limit of QCD, the X(3872) state should have degenerate partners, independent of its internal structure. Magnitudes of possible I=0 and I=1 components of the X(3872) are also discussed.Comment: 12 page

Complexity management and multi-scale governance : a case study in an Amazonian indigenous association

Even if Community Operational Research provides methodologies and tools to support community development, there are no published works illustrating how we can support an assessment of self-governance in an indigenous community using COR tools. In this paper we present exploratory research to provide such support to an indigenous association in the Amazon jungle. To address issues of multi-culturalism, we used a creative choice of methods, which included elements of boundary critique, the Viable System Model, rich pictures and social cartography research. We explore the possibilities that this mixed methods approach to COR offers to clarify the core dilemmas and paradoxes of self-governance for sustainability that such communities are facing. The analysis is done through VSM mapping of the community, at different levels and scales of organisation. Our analysis reveals key paradoxes and dilemmas of self-governance, which is helping them to collectively decide on action paths and their needs to (re) develop certain adaptive capabilities. In particular, we show that loss of power from traditional (spiritual) authorities, and loss of rituals and other cooperative practices have negatively affected indigenous ways of implementing life plans and respecting sustainability principles. This research contributes to COR, in presenting an innovative application of the VSM in an indigenous community, supported by expert facilitation, as the basis for reflecting on their self- governance challenges and acting upon them. It takes into account a more critical and ethnographic approach to research, capable of better dealing with the variety of a multi-cultural context

Long-distance structure of the X(3872)

We investigate heavy quark symmetries for heavy meson hadronic molecules, and explore the consequences of assuming the X(3872) and $Z_b(10610)$ as an isoscalar $D\bar D^*$ and an isovector $B\bar B^*$ hadronic molecules, respectively. The symmetry allows to predict new hadronic molecules, in particular we find an isoscalar $1^{++}$ $B\bar B^*$ bound state with a mass about 10580 MeV and the isovector charmonium partners of the $Z_b(10610)$ and the $Z_b(10650)$ states. Next, we study the $X(3872) \to D^0 \bar D^0\pi^0$ three body decay. This decay mode is more sensitive to the long-distance structure of the X(3872) resonance than its $J/\psi\pi\pi$ and $J/\psi3\pi$ decays, which are mainly controlled by the short distance part of the X(3872) molecular wave function. We discuss the $D^0 \bar D^0$ final state interactions, which in some situations become quite important. Indeed in these cases, a precise measurement of this partial decay width could provide precise information on the interaction strength between the $D^{(*)}\bar D^{(*)}$ charm mesons.Comment: Talk presented at the "XI International Conference on Hyperons, Charm and Beauty Hadrons (BEACH 2014)", Birmingham (U.K.), July 201

Exploring the relationship between older parents and their middle-aged children: a scoping review

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

White-tailed deer S96 prion protein does not support stable in vitro propagation of most common CWD strains

PrPC variation at residue 96 (G/S) plays an important role in the epidemiology of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in exposed white-tailed deer populations. In vivo studies have demonstrated the protective effect of serine at codon 96, which hinders the propagation of common CWD strains when expressed in homozygosis and increases the survival period of S96/wt heterozygous deer after challenge with CWD. Previous in vitro studies of the transmission barrier suggested that following a single amplification step, wt and S96 PrPC were equally susceptible to misfolding when seeded with various CWD prions. When we performed serial prion amplification in vitro using S96-PrPC, we observed a reduction in the efficiency of propagation with the Wisc-1 or CWD2 strains, suggesting these strains cannot stably template their conformations on this PrPC once the primary sequence has changed after the first round of replication. Our data shows the S96-PrPC polymorphism is detrimental to prion conversion of some CWD strains. These data suggests that deer homozygous for S96-PrPC may not sustain prion transmission as compared to a deer expressing G96-PrPC

Chronic wasting disease: a cervid prion infection looming to spillover

The spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) during the last six decades has resulted in cervid populations of North America where CWD has become enzootic. This insidious disease has also been reported in wild and captive cervids from other continents, threatening ecosystems, livestock and public health. These CWD “hot zones” are particularly complex given the interplay between cervid PRNP genetics, the infection biology, the strain diversity of infectious prions and the long-term environmental persistence of infectivity, which hinder eradication efforts. Here, we review different aspects of CWD including transmission mechanisms, pathogenesis, epidemiology and assessment of interspecies infection. Further understanding of these aspects could help identify “control points” that could help reduce exposure for humans and livestock and decrease CWD spread between cervids

TWINLATIN: Twinning European and Latin-American river basins for research enabling sustainable water resources management. Combined Report D3.1 Hydrological modelling report and D3.2 Evaluation report

Water use has almost tripled over the past 50 years and in some regions the water demand already exceeds supply (Vorosmarty et al., 2000). The world is facing a “global water crisis”; in many countries, current levels of water use are unsustainable, with systems vulnerable to collapse from even small changes in water availability. The need for a scientifically-based assessment of the potential impacts on water resources of future changes, as a basis for society to adapt to such changes, is strong for most parts of the world. Although the focus of such assessments has tended to be climate change, socio-economic changes can have as significant an impact on water availability across the four main use sectors i.e. domestic, agricultural, industrial (including energy) and environmental. Withdrawal and consumption of water is expected to continue to grow substantially over the next 20-50 years (Cosgrove & Rijsberman, 2002), and consequent changes in availability may drastically affect society and economies. One of the most needed improvements in Latin American river basin management is a higher level of detail in hydrological modelling and erosion risk assessment, as a basis for identification and analysis of mitigation actions, as well as for analysis of global change scenarios. Flow measurements are too costly to be realised at more than a few locations, which means that modelled data are required for the rest of the basin. Hence, TWINLATIN Work Package 3 “Hydrological modelling and extremes” was formulated to provide methods and tools to be used by other WPs, in particular WP6 on “Pollution pressure and impact analysis” and WP8 on “Change effects and vulnerability assessment”. With an emphasis on high and low flows and their impacts, WP3 was originally called “Hydrological modelling, flooding, erosion, water scarcity and water abstraction”. However, at the TWINLATIN kick-off meeting it was agreed that some of these issues resided more appropriately in WP6 and WP8, and so WP3 was renamed to focus on hydrological modelling and hydrological extremes. The specific objectives of WP3 as set out in the Description of Work are