Evidence for formation of a narrow pKshort resonance with mass near 1533 MeV in neutrino interactions

A narrow baryon resonance is observed in invariant mass of the pKshort system formed in neutrino and antineutrino collisions with nuclei. The mass of the resonance is estimated as (1533+-5)MeV. The observed width is less than 20 MeV, and is compatible with being entirely due to experimental resolution. The statistical significance of the signal is near 6.7 standard deviations. As the position of the observed resonance does not match the mass of any known \Sigma^{*+} state, we believe that it arises from neutrino production of the \Theta^+ pentaquark baryon. The analysis is based on the data obtained in past neutrino experiments with big bubble chambers: WA21, WA25, WA59, E180 and E632.Comment: Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, B.Cheremyshkinskya 25, Moscow 117259, Russi

Environment of The Gamma-Ray Burst GRB971214 : A Giant H II Region surrounded by A Galactic Supershell

Among a number of gamma ray bursts whose host galaxies are known, GRB971214 stands out for its high redshift $z\ge 3$ and the Ly$\alpha$ emission line having a P-Cygni type profile, which is interpreted to be a direct consequence of the expanding supershell. From a profile fitting analysis we estimate the expansion velocity of the supershell v_{exp} = 1500\kms and the neutral column density N_{HI}=10^{20}\cm^{-2}. The redshift $z=3.418$ of the host galaxy proposed by Kulkarni et al. (1998) has been revised to be $z=3.425$ from our profile analysis. The observed Ly$\alpha$ profile is fitted well by a Gaussian curve, which yields the Ly$\alpha$ luminosity L_{Ly\alpha}=(1.8\pm0.8)\times10^{42}\ergs \s^{-1}. Assuming that the photon source is a giant H II region, we deduce the electron number density in the H II region n_e=(40\pm10) ({R \over {100 \pc}})^{-1.5}\cm^{-3}, which corresponds to the illumination by about $10^4$ O5 stars. We estimate the star-formation rate to be R_{SF} = (7\pm3){\rm M}_\odot\yr^{-1} with the internal and the Galactic extinction corrected. The theory on the evolution of supernova remnants is used to propose that the supershell is at the adiabatic phase, with its radius R = 18 E_{53}^{1/2} \pc, its age $t = 4.7\times10^3\ E_{53}^{1/2} \yrs$, and the density of the ambient medium$n_1 = 5.4\ E_{53}^{-1/2}\cm^{-3}$, where$E_{53}= E/10^{53}\ergs$.And we estimate the kinetic energy of the supershell to be$E_k=7.3\times10^{52} E_{53} \ergs$. These values are consistent with the hypothesis that the supershell is the remnant of a gamma ray burst.Comment: 5 papges, 3 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letter

The peak luminosity - peak energy correlation in GRBs

We derive the peak luminosity - peak energy (L_iso - E_peak) correlation using 22 long Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) with firm redshift measurements. We find that its slope is similar to the correlation between the time integrated isotropic emitted energy E_iso and E_peak (Amati et al. 2002). For the 15 GRBs in our sample with estimated jet opening angle we compute the collimation corrected peak luminosity L_gamma, and find that it correlates with E_peak. This has, however, a scatter larger than the correlation between E_peak and E_gamma (the time integrated emitted energy, corrected for collimation; Ghirlanda et al. 2004), which we ascribe to the fact that the opening angle is estimated through the global energetics. We have then selected a large sample of 442 GRBs with pseudo--redshifts, derived through the lag-luminosity relation, to test the existence of the L_iso-E_peak correlation. With this sample we also explore the possibility of a correlation between time resolved quantities, namely L_iso,p and the peak energy at the peak of emission E_peak,p.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables - MNRAS Letters submitte

Characteristics and prediction of hepatitis B e-antigen negative hepatitis following seroconversion in patients with chronic hepatitis B（慢性B型肝炎患者のHBe抗原のセロコンバージョン後のHBe抗原陰性肝炎の特色と発症の予想）【要旨】

信州大学(Shinshu university)博士（医学）雑誌に発表。HEPATOLOGY RESEARCH. 44(10):E45-E53 (2014); doi:10.1111/hepr.12208 .Thesis森田　進. Characteristics and prediction of hepatitis B e-antigen negative hepatitis following seroconversion in patients with chronic hepatitis B（慢性B型肝炎患者のHBe抗原のセロコンバージョン後のHBe抗原陰性肝炎の特色と発症の予想）. 信州大学, 2013, 博士論文.doctoral thesi

Regulation of axon repulsion by MAX-1 SUMOylation and AP-3.

During neural development, growing axons express specific surface receptors in response to various environmental guidance cues. These axon guidance receptors are regulated through intracellular trafficking and degradation to enable navigating axons to reach their targets. In Caenorhabditis elegans, the UNC-5 receptor is necessary for dorsal migration of developing motor axons. We previously found that MAX-1 is required for UNC-5-mediated axon repulsion, but its mechanism of action remained unclear. Here, we demonstrate that UNC-5-mediated axon repulsion in C. elegans motor axons requires both max-1 SUMOylation and the AP-3 complex β subunit gene, apb-3 Genetic interaction studies show that max-1 is SUMOylated by gei-17/PIAS1 and acts upstream of apb-3 Biochemical analysis suggests that constitutive interaction of MAX-1 and UNC-5 receptor is weakened by MAX-1 SUMOylation and by the presence of APB-3, a competitive interactor with UNC-5. Overexpression of APB-3 reroutes the trafficking of UNC-5 receptor into the lysosome for protein degradation. In vivo fluorescence recovery after photobleaching experiments shows that MAX-1 SUMOylation and APB-3 are required for proper trafficking of UNC-5 receptor in the axon. Our results demonstrate that SUMOylation of MAX-1 plays an important role in regulating AP-3-mediated trafficking and degradation of UNC-5 receptors during axon guidance

Significant association of a M129V independent polymorphism in the 5\prime UTR of the PRNP gene with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in a large German case-control study

Background: A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the coding region of the prion protein gene (PRNP) at codon 129 has been repeatedly shown to be an associated factor to sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), but additional major predisposing DNA variants for sCJD are still unknown. Several previous studies focused on the characterisation of polymorphisms in PRNP and the prion-like doppel gene (PRND), generating contradictory results on relatively small sample sets. Thus, extensive studies are required for validation of the polymorphisms in PRNP and PRND.Methods: We evaluated a set of nine SNPs of PRNP and one SNP of PRND in 593 German sCJD patients and 748 German healthy controls. Genotyping was performed using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry.Results: In addition to PRNP 129, we detected a significant association between sCJD and allele frequencies of six further PRNP SNPs. No significant association of PRND T174M with sCJD was shown. We observed strong linkage disequilibrium within eight adjacent PRNP SNPs, including PRNP 129. However, the association of sCJD with PRNP 1368 and PRNP 34296 appeared to be independent on the genotype of PRNP 129. We additionally identified the most common haplotypes of PRNP to be over-represented or under-represented in our cohort of patients with sCJD.Conclusion: Our study evaluated previous findings of the association of SNPs in the PRNP and PRND genes in the largest cohorts for association study in sCJD to date, and extends previous findings by defining for the first time the haplotypes associated with sCJD in a large population of the German CJD surveillance study