396 research outputs found
A majority of Brazilian patients with rheumatoid arthritis HLA-DRB1 alleles carry both the HLA-DRB1 shared epitope and anti-citrunillated peptide antibodies
The objective of the present study was to evaluate the contribution of the shared epitope (SE), the rheumatoid arthritis (RA) protection model, and the occurrence of anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibodies in RA patients from a genetically diverse population. One hundred and forty Brazilian RA patients and 161 matched controls were typed for HLA-DRB1 alleles using amplified DNA hybridized with sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes or primers. Patients were stratified according to the presence or absence of SE (DRB1*0401, *0404, *0405, *0101, *1001, and *1402), of the DERAA alleles (DRB1*0103, *0402, *1102, *1103, *1301, *1302, and *1304), and X (all other alleles). Anti-CCP antibodies were measured by ELISA. The combined frequency of SE-positive alleles was significantly greater (76.4 vs 23.6%, P < 0.0001) than the controls. The SE/SE and SE/X genotypes were over-represented (P < 0.0001, OR = 6.02) and DERAA/X was under-represented in RA patients (P < 0.001, OR = 0.49), whereas the frequencies of the SE/DERAA, X/X and X/DERAA genotypes were not significantly different from controls. The frequency of anti-CCP antibodies was higher in SE-positive patients than in SE-negative patients (64.6 vs 44.7%, P = 0.03; OR = 2.25). Although the Brazilian population is highly miscegenated, the results of this study support the findings observed in most genetically homogeneous populations with RA; however, they are not mutually exclusive but rather complementary. The participation of DRB1-DERAA alleles in protection against RA was also observed (OR = 0.4; 95%CI = 0.23-0.68).CNPqFAEP
Weakly coupled neutral gauge bosons at future linear colliders
A weakly coupled new neutral gauge boson forms a narrow resonance that is
hard to discover directly in e+e- collisions. However, if the gauge boson mass
is below the center-of-mass energy, it can be produced through processes where
the effective energy is reduced due to initial-state radiation and
beamstrahlung. It is shown that at a high-luminosity linear collider, such a
gauge boson can be searched for with very high sensitivity, leading to a
substantial improvement compared to existing limits from the Tevatron and also
extending beyond the expected reach of the LHC in most models. If a new vector
boson is discovered either at the Tevatron Run II, the LHC or the linear
collider, its properties can be determined at the linear collider with high
precision, thus helping to reveal origin of the new boson.Comment: 21 p
Complementarity of the CERN Large Hadron Collider and the International Linear Collider
The next-generation high-energy facilities, the CERN Large Hadron Collider
(LHC) and the prospective International Linear Collider (ILC), are
expected to unravel new structures of matter and forces from the electroweak
scale to the TeV scale. In this report we review the complementary role of LHC
and ILC in drawing a comprehensive and high-precision picture of the mechanism
breaking the electroweak symmetries and generating mass, and the unification of
forces in the frame of supersymmetry.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figures, to be published in "Supersymmetry on the Eve of
the LHC", a special volume of European Physical Journal C, Particles and
Fields (EPJC) in memory of Julius Wes
Essential oil from Ageratum fastigiatum reduces expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-alpha in peripheral blood leukocytes subjected to in vitro stimulation with phorbol myristate acetate
AbstractAgeratum fastigiatum (Gardner) R.M. King & H. Rob., a member of the Asteraceae family popularly known in Brazil as âmatapastoâ, is indicated in folk medicine as anti-inflammatory and analgesic. Despite its popular use, little is known about its potential effect on the parameters involved in an inflammatory response. The objective of this study was to characterize the chemical composition of the essential oil from A. fastigiatum and to evaluate the frequency of tumor necrosis factor alpha and interferon gamma producing cells in peripheral blood lymphocytes stimulated with phorbol myristate acetate in the presence of essential oil from A. fastigiatum. Non-toxic concentrations of essential oil from A. fastigiatum were evaluated in cultures of peripheral blood leucocytes using the trypan blue exclusion assay by flow cytometry. GCâMS analysis revealed that the prevalent compounds identified in the essential oil from A. fastigiatum sample were α-pinene, limonene, trans-caryophyllene, α-humulene, caryophyllene oxide, 1,2-humulene-epoxide, 1,6-humulanodien-3-ol, and α-cadinol. Results showed that exposure to essential oil from A. fastigiatum at concentrations of 0.5Ă10â2 and 1Ă10â2ÎŒl/ml caused no alterations in leukocyte viability as compared to the control group. Both concentrations lowered the percentage of tumor necrosis factor alpha (+)-lymphocytes and neutrophils. There were no changes in the percentage of lymphocytes positive for the interferon gamma cytokine. Our results suggest that part of the anti-inflammatory activity attributed to A. fastigiatum may be due to the effect of some of its components in decreasing the number of cells that produce the pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha
Two-Loop Helicity Amplitudes for Quark-Quark Scattering in QCD and Gluino-Gluino Scattering in Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Theory
We present the two-loop QCD helicity amplitudes for quark-quark and
quark-antiquark scattering. These amplitudes are relevant for
next-to-next-to-leading order corrections to (polarized) jet production at
hadron colliders. We give the results in the `t Hooft-Veltman and
four-dimensional helicity (FDH) variants of dimensional regularization and
present the scheme dependence of the results. We verify that the finite
remainder, after subtracting the divergences using Catani's formula, are in
agreement with previous results. We also provide the amplitudes for
gluino-gluino scattering in pure N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. We
describe ambiguities in continuing the Dirac algebra to D dimensions, including
ones which violate fermion helicity conservation. The finite remainders after
subtracting the divergences using Catani's formula, which enter into physical
quantities, are free of these ambiguities. We show that in the FDH scheme, for
gluino-gluino scattering, the finite remainders satisfy the expected
supersymmetry Ward identities.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:hep-ph/030416
Indirect search for dark matter: prospects for GLAST
Possible indirect detection of neutralino, through its gamma-ray annihilation
product, by the forthcoming GLAST satellite from our galactic halo, M31, M87
and the dwarf galaxies Draco and Sagittarius is studied. Gamma-ray fluxes are
evaluated for the two representative energy thresholds, 0.1 GeV and 1.0 GeV, at
which the spatial resolution of GLAST varies considerably. Apart from dwarfs
which are described either by a modified Plummer profile or by a
tidally-truncated King profiles, fluxes are compared for halos with central
cusps and cores. It is demonstrated that substructures, irrespective of their
profiles, enhance the gamma-ray emission only marginally. The expected
gamma-ray intensity above 1 GeV at high galactic latitudes is consistent with
the residual emission derived from EGRET data if the density profile has a
central core and the neutralino mass is less than 50 GeV, whereas for a central
cusp only a substantial enhancement would explain the observations. From M31,
the flux can be detected above 0.1 GeV and 1.0 GeV by GLAST only if the
neutralino mass is below 300 GeV and if the density profile has a central cusp,
case in which a significant boost in the gamma-ray emission is produced by the
central black hole. For Sagittarius, the flux above 0.1 GeV is detectable by
GLAST provided the neutralino mass is below 50 GeV. From M87 and Draco the
fluxes are always below the sensitivity limit of GLAST.Comment: 14 Pages, 7 Figures, 3 Tables, version to appear on Physical Review
Invisible Z-Boson Decays at e+e- Colliders
The measurement of the invisible Z-boson decay width at e+e- colliders can be
done "indirectly", by subtracting the Z-boson visible partial widths from the
Z-boson total width, or "directly", from the process e+e- -> \gamma \nu
\bar{\nu}. Both procedures are sensitive to different types of new physics and
provide information about the couplings of the neutrinos to the Z-boson. At
present, measurements at LEP and CHARM II are capable of constraining the
left-handed Z\nu\nu-coupling, 0.45 <~ g_L <~ 0.5, while the right-handed one is
only mildly bounded, |g_R| <= 0.2. We show that measurements at a future e+e-
linear collider at different center-of-mass energies, \sqrt{s} = MZ and
\sqrt{s}s ~ 170 GeV, would translate into a markedly more precise measurement
of the Z\nu\nu-couplings. A statistically significant deviation from Standard
Model predictions will point toward different new physics mechanisms, depending
on whether the discrepancy appears in the direct or the indirect measurement of
the invisible Z-width. We discuss some scenarios which illustrate the ability
of different invisible Z-boson decay measurements to constrain new physics
beyond the Standard Model
- âŠ