A precise determination of the Bc mass from dynamical lattice QCD

We perform a precise calculation of the mass of the B_c meson using unquenched configurations from the MILC collaboration including 2+1 flavours of improved staggered quarks. Lattice NRQCD and the Fermilab formalism are used to describe the b and c quarks respectively. We find the mass of the B_c meson to be 6.304(16) GeVComment: Talk presented at Lattice2004(heavy), Fermilab, June 21-26. 3 pages, 2 figure

Latest Results from Heavy Quark Simulations

The status of b-bbar and c-cbar calculations, numerical and analytic, are reviewed. The extraction of alpha_s and quark masses from spectrum calculations is discussed. The NRQCD and Improved Heavy Wilson formulations of heavy quarks are compared, and recent calculations using a Heavy Staggered formulation are discussed.Comment: 15 pages, latex, 9 postscript figures, self-unpacking uuencoded compressed file, requires espcrc2.sty (included) and epsf.sty. Contribution to Lattice '9

Malaria and low Birth Weigh in Central Sudan

* This paper was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology Vol.138, No.5 Cpoyright©1993 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. All rights reserved. A nested case-control hospital study and a midwife-based community cohort study were conducted in central Sudan during 1989 and 1990 to assess the contribution of mesoendemic malaria to low birth weight. Malarial infection was determined by maternal history, parasitology, and histopathology. There were significant associations between a maternal history of malaria and low birth weight in the hospital study (adjusted odds ratio (OR)=1.6,95% confidence interval (CI)1.2-2.1) and the community study (OR=1.7,95%CI 1.3-2-3). Attributable risk percentages were high and were com- parable in the hospital study (22.2%) and the community study (24.5%) a significant trend of increased risk of low brith weight was observed with increasing number of report malaria attacks, with attacks occurring earlier in pregnancy, and with higher parasitemia. In addition, the risk of low birth weight associated with malaria was higher among primiparous women than among multiparous women. The mean birth weight of infants whose mothers had malaria during pregnancy was significantly lower than the mean birth weight of whose mothers did not. Malaria treatment, chemoprophy- laxis, and use of insectiones decreased the risk of low birth weight and are recom- mended as appropriate interventions. These measures should target primigravid women and should be initiated early in pregnancy. Am J Epidemiol 1993;138:318-25. Infant, low weight; malaria; parasitology; pregnancy outcom

Does biological relatedness affect child survival?

Objective: We studied child survival in Rakai, Uganda where many children are fostered out or orphaned. Methods: Biological relatedness is measured as the average of the Wright’s coefficients between each household member and the child. Instrumental variables for fostering include proportion of adult males in household, age and gender of household head. Control variables include SES, religion, polygyny, household size, child age, child birth size, and child HIV status. Results: Presence of both parents in the household increased the odds of survival by 28%. After controlling for the endogeneity of child placement decisions in a multivariate model we found that lower biological relatedness of a child was associated with statistically significant reductions in child survival. The effects of biological relatedness on child survival tend to be stronger for both HIV- and HIV+ children of HIV+ mothers. Conclusions: Reductions in the numbers of close relatives caring for children of HIV+ mothers reduce child survival.AIDS/HIV, child survival, fostering, orphans, Uganda

Ortho­rhom­bic polymorph of (6,7-dimeth­oxy-1,2,3,4-tetra­hydro­isoquinolin-1-yl)methanol

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C12H17NO3, contains two mol­ecules with different conformations. It is a polymorph of the monoclinic form [El Antri et al. (2004 ▶). Mol­ecules, 9, 650–657]; the samples were crystallized at different temperatures from the same solvent. In both structures, mol­ecules are linked by O—H⋯N hydrogen bonds, forming chains. The conformations of the chains and their packing differ markedly in the two polymorphs

Status of Lattice Flavor Physics

This talk reviews recent lattice QCD calculations relevant for quark flavor physics. Since lattice results must be accurate and precise to play a definitive role in phenomenology, the focus is on unquenched results of quantities which can be calculated most reliably.Comment: Invited talk delivered at Lattice2004(plenary), Fermilab, June 21-26, 2004. 10 pages. v2: Corrected caption to Figure 4, updated reference

CCR2 mediates Helicobacter pyloriâ induced immune tolerance and contributes to mucosal homeostasis

BackgroundWe previously demonstrated that H. pylori infection leads to increased induction of regulatory T cells in local and systemic immune compartments. Here, we investigate the role of CCR2 in the tolerogenic programing of dendritic cells in a mouse model of H. pylori infection.Materials and MethodsCCR2 deficient (CCR2KO) mice and wildâ type (Wt) mice infected with H. pylori SS1 strain were analyzed by qPCR and FACS analysis. In vitro, bone marrowâ derived DC on day 6 from CCR2KO and Wt mice cocultured with or without H. pylori were examined to determine the impact of CCR2 signaling on dendritic cells function by qPCR, ELISA, and FACS analyses.ResultsAcute H. pylori infection was associated with a threefold increase in CCR2 mRNA expression in the gastric mucosa. H. pyloriâ infected CCR2KO mice exhibited a higher degree of mucosal inflammation, that is, increased gastritis scores and proâ inflammatory cytokine mRNA levels, but lower degree of H. pylori gastric colonization compared to infected Wt mice. Peripheral H. pyloriâ specific immune response measured in the CCR2KO spleen was characterized by a higher Th17 response and a lower Treg response. In vitro, CCR2KO bone marrowâ derived DC was less mature and shown a lower Treg/Th17 ratio. Moreover, blockade of CCR2 signaling by MCPâ 1 neutralizing antibody inhibited H. pyloriâ stimulated bone marrowâ derived DC maturation.ConclusionsOur results indicate that CCR2 plays an essential role in H. pyloriâ induced immune tolerance and shed light on a novel mechanism of CCR2â dependent DC Treg induction, which appears to be important in maintaining mucosal homeostasis during H. pylori infection.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136416/1/hel12366.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136416/2/hel12366_am.pd

Finding Minimum-Power Broadcast Trees for Wireless Networks

Some algorithms have been devised for use in a method of constructing tree graphs that represent connections among the nodes of a wireless communication network. These algorithms provide for determining the viability of any given candidate connection tree and for generating an initial set of viable trees that can be used in any of a variety of search algorithms (e.g., a genetic algorithm) to find a tree that enables the network to broadcast from a source node to all other nodes while consuming the minimum amount of total power. The method yields solutions better than those of a prior algorithm known as the broadcast incremental power algorithm, albeit at a slightly greater computational cost

Do Staphylococcus epidermidis genetic clusters predict isolation sources?

Staphylococcus epidermidis is a ubiquitous colonizer of human skin and a common cause of medical device-associated infections. The extent to which the population genetic structure of S. epidermidis distinguishes commensal from pathogenic isolates is unclear. Previously, Bayesian clustering of 437 multilocus sequence types (STs) in the international database revealed a population structure of six genetic clusters (GCs) that may reflect the species' ecology. Here, we first verified the presence of six GCs, including two (GC3 and GC5) with significant admixture, in an updated database of 578 STs. Next, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) assay was developed that accurately assigned 545 (94%) of 578 STs to GCs. Finally, the hypothesis that GCs could distinguish isolation sources was tested by SNP typing and GC assignment of 154 isolates from hospital patients with bacteremia and those with blood culture contaminants and from nonhospital carriage. GC5 was isolated almost exclusively from hospital sources. GC1 and GC6 were isolated from all sources but were overrepresented in isolates from nonhospital and infection sources, respectively. GC2, GC3, and GC4 were relatively rare in this collection. No association was detected between fdh-positive isolates (GC2 and GC4) and nonhospital sources. Using a machine learning algorithm, GCs predicted hospital and nonhospital sources with 80% accuracy and predicted infection and contaminant sources with 45% accuracy, which was comparable to the results seen with a combination of five genetic markers (icaA, IS256, sesD [bhp], mecA, and arginine catabolic mobile element [ACME]). Thus, analysis of population structure with subgenomic data shows the distinction of hospital and nonhospital sources and the near-inseparability of sources within a hospital

Repression of the auxin response pathway increases Arabidopsis susceptibility to necrotrophic fungi

In plants, resistance to necrotrophic pathogens depends on the interplay between different hormone systems, such as those regulated by salicylic acid (SA), jasmonic acid (JA), ethylene, and abscisic acid. Repression of auxin signaling by the SA pathway was recently shown to contribute to antibacterial resistance. Here, we demonstrate that Arabidopsis auxin signaling mutants axr1, axr2, and axr6 that have defects in the auxin-stimulated SCF (Skp1¿Cullin¿ F-box) ubiquitination pathway exhibit increased susceptibility to the necrotrophic fungi Plectosphaerella cucumerina and Botrytis cinerea. Also, stabilization of the auxin transcriptional repressor AXR3 that is normally targeted for removal by the SCF-ubiquitin/proteasome machinery occurs upon P. cucumerina infection. Pharmacological inhibition of auxin transport or proteasome function each compromise necrotroph resistance of wild-type plants to a similar extent as in non-treated auxin response mutants. These results suggest that auxin signaling is important for resistance to the necrotrophic fungi P. cucumerina and B. cinerea. SGT1b (one of two Arabidopsis SGT1 genes encoding HSP90/HSC70 co-chaperones) promotes the functions of SCF E3-ubiquitin ligase complexes in auxin and JA responses and resistance conditioned by certain Resistance (R) genes to biotrophic pathogens. We find that sgt1b mutants are as resistant to P. cucumerina as wild-type plants. Conversely, auxin/SCF signaling mutants are uncompromised in RPP4-triggered resistance to the obligate biotrophic oomycete, Hyaloperonospora parasitica. Thus, the predominant action of SGT1b in R gene-conditioned resistance to oomycetes appears to be at a site other than assisting SCF E3-ubiquitin ligases. However, genetic additivity of sgt1b axr1 double mutants in susceptibility to H. parasitica suggests that SCF-mediated ubiquitination contributes to limiting biotrophic pathogen colonization once plant¿pathogen compatibility is established