Flavored axions and the flavor problem

A Peccei-Quinn~(PQ) symmetry is proposed, in order to generate in the Standard Model~(SM) quark sector a realistic mass matrix ansatz with five texture-zeros. Limiting our analysis to Hermitian mass matrices we show that this requires a minimum of 4 Higgs doublets. This model allows assigning values close to 1 for several Yukawa couplings, giving insight into the origin of the mass scales in the SM. Since the PQ charges are non-universal the model features Flavor-Changing Neutral Currents~(FCNC) at the tree level. From the analytical expressions for the FCNC we report the allowed region in the parameter space obtained from the measurements of branching ratios of semileptonic meson decays.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figure

Revistas académicas de arte en bases de datos bibliográficas: disponibilidad en acceso abierto y en bibliotecas de tres instituciones mexicanas

Objetivo: Identificar la presencia de las revistas académicas de arte en las principales bases de datos bibliográficas (WoS y Scopus a nivel internacional, así como Latindex, Scielo y Re- dalyc en el ámbito Iberoamericano). Método: Se describe la participación de los títulos vigentes en 2011 por país, idioma y ámbito temático. En el caso de las revistas registradas en el Arts & Humanities Citation Index –a&hci, Thomson Reuters isi– se identificó su tipo de acceso (abierto o por suscrip- ción), así como su disponibilidad en tres bibliotecas de ins- tituciones mexicanas vinculadas a las disciplinas artísticas: la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (unam), el Centro Nacional de las Artes (cna) y la Universidad Autó- noma del Estado de México (uaem). Resultados: No se re- gistra ninguna revista latinoamericana de arte en el a&hci, su disponibilidad en acceso abierto es limitada (11.3%), así como también su disponibilidad en las bibliotecas analiza- das, con una variación del 20 al 6% en los casos analizado

Detection of novel fusion-transcripts by RNA-Seq in T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma

Fusions transcripts have been proven to be strong drivers for neoplasia-associated mutations, although their incidence in T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma needs to be determined yet. Using RNA-Seq we have selected 55 fusion transcripts identified by at least two of three detection methods in the same tumour. We confirmed the existence of 24 predicted novel fusions that had not been described in cancer or normal tissues yet, indicating the accuracy of the prediction. Of note, one of them involves the proto oncogene TAL1. Other confirmed fusions could explain the overexpression of driver genes such as COMMD3-BMI1, LMO1 or JAK3. Five fusions found exclusively in tumour samples could be considered pathogenic (NFYG-TAL1, RIC3-TCRBC2, SLC35A3-HIAT1, PICALM MLLT10 and MLLT10-PICALM). However, other fusions detected simultaneously in normal and tumour samples (JAK3-INSL3, KANSL1-ARL17A/B and TFG-ADGRG7) could be germ-line fusions genes involved in tumour-maintaining tasks. Notably, some fusions were confirmed in more tumour samples than predicted, indicating that the detection methods underestimated the real number of existing fusions. Our results highlight the potential of RNA-Seq to identify new cryptic fusions, which could be drivers or tumour-maintaining passenger genes. Such novel findings shed light on the searching for new T-LBL biomarkers in these haematological disorders.The authors would like to thank the Spanish Biobanks integrated in the Spanish Hospital Biobanks Network (RetBioH; www.redbiobancos.es) for providing us with the necessary T-LBL samples to elaborate this work. We thank all patients who were willing to donate their samples without their support the research work would not be possible. And to Isabel Sastre for her technical support. This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (SAF2015-70561-R; MINECO/FEDER, EU); the Autonomous Community of Madrid, Spain (B2017/BMD-3778; LINFOMAS-CM) and the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC, 2018; PROYE18054PIRI). Institutional grants from the Fundación Ramón Areces and Banco de Santander are also acknowledged.S

Re-thinking the Etiological Framework of Neurodegeneration

Neurodegenerative diseases are among the leading causes of disability and death worldwide. The disease-related socioeconomic burden is expected to increase with the steadily increasing life expectancy. In spite of decades of clinical and basic research, most strategies designed to manage degenerative brain diseases are palliative. This is not surprising as neurodegeneration progresses "silently" for decades before symptoms are noticed. Importantly, conceptual models with heuristic value used to study neurodegeneration have been constructed retrospectively, based on signs and symptoms already present in affected patients;a circumstance that may confound causes and consequences. Hence, innovative, paradigm-shifting views of the etiology of these diseases are necessary to enable their timely prevention and treatment. Here, we outline four alternative views, not mutually exclusive, on different etiological paths toward neurodegeneration. First, we propose neurodegeneration as being a secondary outcome of a primary cardiovascular cause with vascular pathology disrupting the vital homeostatic interactions between the vasculature and the brain, resulting in cognitive impairment, dementia, and cerebrovascular events such as stroke. Second, we suggest that the persistence of senescent cells in neuronal circuits may favor, together with systemic metabolic diseases, neurodegeneration to occur. Third, we argue that neurodegeneration may start in response to altered body and brain trophic interactions established via the hardwire that connects peripheral targets with central neuronal structures or by means of extracellular vesicle (E\-mediated communication. Lastly, we elaborate on how lifespan body dysbiosis may be linked to the origin of neurodegeneration. We highlight the existence of bacterial products that modulate the gut-brain axis causing neuroinflammation and neuronal dysfunction. As a concluding section, we end by recommending research avenues to investigate these etiological paths in the future. We think that this requires an integrated, interdisciplinary conceptual research approach based on the investigation of the multimodal aspects of physiology and pathophysiology. It involves utilizing proper conceptual models, experimental animal units, and identifying currently unused opportunities derived from human data. Overall, the proposed etiological paths and experimental recommendations will be important guidelines for future cross-discipline research to overcome the translational roadblock and to develop causative treatments for neurodegenerative diseases

Association of Moderate Coffee Intake with Self-Reported Diabetes among Urban Brazilians

Coffee has been associated with reductions in the risk of non-communicable chronic diseases (NCCD), including diabetes mellitus. Because differences in food habits are recognizable modifying factors in the epidemiology of diabetes, we studied the association of coffee consumption with type-2 diabetes in a sample of the adult population of the Federal District, Brazil. This cross-sectional study was conducted by telephone interview (n = 1,440). A multivariate analysis was run controlling for socio-behavioural variables, obesity and family antecedents of NCCD. A hierarchical linear regression model and a Poisson regression were used to verify association of type-2 diabetes and coffee intake. The independent variables which remained in the final model, following the hierarchical inclusion levels, were: first level—age and marital status; second level—diabetes and dyslipidaemias in antecedents; third level—cigarette smoking, supplement intake, body mass index; and fourth level—coffee intake (≤100 mL/d, 101 to 400 mL/day, and >400 mL/day). After adjusting hierarchically for the confounding variables, consumers of 100 to 400 mL of coffee/day had a 2.7% higher (p = 0.04) prevalence of not having diabetes than those who drank less than 100 mL of coffee/day. Compared to coffee intake of ≤100 mL/day, adults consuming >400 mL of coffee/day showed no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of diabetes. Thus, moderate coffee intake is favourably associated with self-reported type-2 diabetes in the studied population. This is the first study to show a relationship between coffee drinking and diabetes in a Brazilian population

Anogenital distance in human male and female newborns: a descriptive, cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: In animal studies of the effects of hormonally active agents, measurement of anogenital distance (AGD) is now routine, and serves as a bioassay of fetal androgen action. Although measurement of AGD in humans has been discussed in the literature, to our knowledge it has been measured formally in only two descriptive studies of females. Because AGD has been an easy-to-measure, sensitive outcome in animals studies, we developed and implemented an anthropometric protocol for measurement of AGD in human males as well as females. METHODS: We first evaluated the reliability of the AGD measures in 20 subjects. Then measurements were taken on an additional 87 newborns (42 females, 45 males). All subjects were from Morelos, Mexico. RESULTS: The reliability (Pearson r) of the AGD measure was, for females 0.50, and for males, 0.64. The between-subject variation in AGD, however, was much greater than the variation due to measurement error. The AGD measure was about two-fold greater in males (mean, 22 mm) than in females (mean, 11 mm), and there was little overlap in the distributions for males and females. CONCLUSION: The sexual dimorphism of AGD in humans comprises prima facie evidence that this outcome may respond to in utero exposure to hormonally active agents

Contrasting nitrogen fertilization treatments impact xylem gene expression and secondary cell wall lignification in Eucalyptus

BackgroundNitrogen (N) is a main nutrient required for tree growth and biomass accumulation. In this study, we analyzed the effects of contrasting nitrogen fertilization treatments on the phenotypes of fast growing Eucalyptus hybrids (E. urophylla x E. grandis) with a special focus on xylem secondary cell walls and global gene expression patterns.ResultsHistological observations of the xylem secondary cell walls further confirmed by chemical analyses showed that lignin was reduced by luxuriant fertilization, whereas a consistent lignin deposition was observed in trees grown in N-limiting conditions. Also, the syringyl/guaiacyl (S/G) ratio was significantly lower in luxuriant nitrogen samples. Deep sequencing RNAseq analyses allowed us to identify a high number of differentially expressed genes (1,469) between contrasting N treatments. This number is dramatically higher than those obtained in similar studies performed in poplar but using microarrays. Remarkably, all the genes involved the general phenylpropanoid metabolism and lignin pathway were found to be down-regulated in response to high N availability. These findings further confirmed by RT-qPCR are in agreement with the reduced amount of lignin in xylem secondary cell walls of these plants.ConclusionsThis work enabled us to identify, at the whole genome level, xylem genes differentially regulated by N availability, some of which are involved in the environmental control of xylogenesis. It further illustrates that N fertilization can be used to alter the quantity and quality of lignocellulosic biomass in Eucalyptus, offering exciting prospects for the pulp and paper industry and for the use of short coppices plantations to produce second generation biofuels.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12870-014-0256-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users