435 research outputs found
Impact of three ampicillin dosage regimens on selection of ampicillin resistance in Enterobacteriaceae and excretion of blaTEM genes in swine feces
The aim of this study was to assess the impact of three ampicillin dosage regimens on ampicillin resistance among Enterobacteriaceae recovered from swine feces using phenotypic and genotypic approaches. Phenotypically, ampicillin resistance was determined from the percentage of resistant Enterobacteriaceae and MICs of E. coli isolates. The pool of ampicillin resistance genes was also monitored by quantification of blaTEM genes, which code for the most frequently produced β-lactamases in Gram-negative bacteria, using a newly-developed real-time PCR assay. Ampicillin was administered intramuscularly and by oral route to fed or fasted pigs for 7 days at 20 mg/kg. The average percentage of resistant Enterobacteriaceae before treatment was between 2.5% and 12% and blaTEM genes quantities were below 107 copies/g of feces. By days four and seven, the percentage of resistant Enterobacteriaceae exceeded 50% in all treated groups, with some highly resistant strains (MIC>256µg/mL). In the control group, blaTEM genes quantities fluctuated between 104 - 106 copies/g of feces, whereas they fluctuated between 106-108 and 107-109 copies/g of feces for intramuscular and oral routes, respectively. Whereas phenotypic evaluations did not discriminate between the three ampicillin dosage regimens, blaTEM genes quantification was able to differentiate between the effects of two routes of ampicillin administration. Our results suggest that fecal blaTEM genes quantification provides a sensitive tool to evaluate the impact of ampicillin administration on the selection of ampicillin resistance in the digestive microflora and its dissemination in the environment
Testing the equivalence principle: why and how?
Part of the theoretical motivation for improving the present level of testing
of the equivalence principle is reviewed. The general rationale for optimizing
the choice of pairs of materials to be tested is presented. One introduces a
simplified rationale based on a trichotomy of competing classes of theoretical
models.Comment: 11 pages, Latex, uses ioplppt.sty, submitted to Class. Quantum Gra
Single-photon signals at LEP in supersymmetric models with a light gravitino
We study the single-photon signals expected at LEP in models with a very
light gravitino. The dominant process is neutralino-gravitino production (e+e-
-> chi+ G) with subsequent neutralino decay via chi->gamma+G, giving a
gamma+E_miss signal. We first calculate the cross section at arbitrary
center-of-mass energies and provide new analytic expressions for the
differential cross section valid for general neutralino compositions. We then
consider the constraints on the gravitino mass from LEP 1 and LEP161
single-photon searches, and possible such searches at the Tevatron. We show
that it is possible to evade the stringent LEP 1 limits and still obtain an
observable rate at LEP 2, in particular in the region of parameter space that
may explain the CDF e+e+gamma+gamma+E_T,miss event. As diphoton events from
neutralino pair-production would not be kinematically accessible in this
scenario, the observation of whichever photonic signal will discriminate among
the various light-gravitino scenarios in the literature. We also perform a
Monte Carlo simulation of the expected energy and angular distributions of the
emitted photon, and of the missing invariant mass expected in the events.
Finally we specialize the results to the case of a recently proposed
one-parameter no-scale supergravity model.Comment: 31 pages, LaTeX, 14 figures (included
Determining the global minimum of Higgs potentials via Groebner bases - applied to the NMSSM
Determining the global minimum of Higgs potentials with several Higgs fields
like the next-to-minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (NMSSM)
is a non-trivial task already at the tree level. The global minimum of a Higgs
potential can be found from the set of all its stationary points defined by a
multivariate polynomial system of equations. We introduce here the algebraic
Groebner basis approach to solve this system of equations. We apply the method
to the NMSSM with CP conserving as well as CP violating parameters. The results
reveal an interesting stationary-point structure of the potential. Requiring
the global minimum to give the electroweak symmetry breaking observed in Nature
excludes large parts of the parameter space.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure
Explicit CP violation in the Dine-Seiberg-Thomas model
The possibility of explicit CP violation is studied in a supersymmetric model
proposed by Dine, Seiberg, and Thomas, with two effective dimension-five
operators. The explicit CP violation may be triggered by complex phases in the
coefficients for the dimension-five operators in the Higgs potential, and by a
complex phase in the scalar top quark masses. Although the scenario of explicit
CP violation is found to be inconsistent with the experimental data at LEP2 at
the tree level, it may be possible at the one-loop level. For a reasonable
parameter space, the masses of the neutral Higgs bosons and their couplings to
a pair of bosons are consistent with the LEP2 data, at the one-loop level.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
Unified Gauge Models and One-Loop Quantum Cosmology
This paper studies the normalizability criterion for the one-loop wave
function of the universe in a de Sitter background, when various unified gauge
models are considered. It turns out that, in the absence of interaction between
inflaton field and other matter fields, the supersymmetric version of such
unified models is preferred. By contrast, the interaction of inflaton and
matter fields, jointly with the request of normalizability at one-loop order,
picks out non-supersymmetric versions of unified gauge models.Comment: 10 pages, Late
Higgs decay with monophoton + MET signature from low scale supersymmetry breaking
We study the decay of a standard model-like Higgs boson into a gravitino and
a neutralino, which subsequently decays promptly into another gravitino and a
photon. Such a decay can be important in scenarios where the supersymmetry
breaking scale is of the order of a few TeV, and in the region of low
transverse momenta of the photon, it may provide the dominant contribution to
the final state with a photon and two gravitinos. We estimate the relevant
standard model backgrounds and the prospects for discovering this Higgs decay
through a photon and missing transverse energy signal at the LHC in terms of a
simplified model. We also give an explicit model with manifest, but
spontaneously broken, supersymmetry in which the usual MSSM soft terms are
promoted to supersymmetric operators involving a dynamical goldstino
supermultiplet. This model can give rise to a SM-like CP-even neutral Higgs
particle with a mass of 125 GeV, without requiring substantial radiative
corrections, and with couplings sufficiently large for a signal discovery
through the above mentioned Higgs decay channel with the upcoming data from the
LHC.Comment: 28 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables; v2: updated to JHEP version,
references adde
Neutral Higgs bosons in the MNMSSM with explicit CP violation
Within the framework of the minimal non-minimal supersymmetric standard model
(MNMSSM) with tadpole terms, CP violation effects in the Higgs sector are
investigated at the one-loop level, where the radiative corrections from the
loops of the quark and squarks of the third generation are taken into account.
Assuming that the squark masses are not degenerate, the radiative corrections
due to the stop and sbottom quarks give rise to CP phases, which trigger the CP
violation explicitly in the Higgs sector of the MNMSSM. The masses, the
branching ratios for dominant decay channels, and the total decay widths of the
five neutral Higgs bosons in the MNMSSM are calculated in the presence of the
explicit CP violation. The dependence of these quantities on the CP phases is
quite recognizable, for given parameter values.Comment: 25 pages, 8 figure
The gravitino coupling to broken gauge theories applied to the MSSM
We consider gravitino couplings in theories with broken gauge symmetries. In
particular, we compute the single gravitino production cross section in W+ W-
fusion processes. Despite recent claims to the contrary, we show that this
process is always subdominant to gluon fusion processes in the high energy
limit. The full calculation is performed numerically; however, we give analytic
expressions for the cross section in the supersymmetric and electroweak limits.
We also confirm these results with the use of the effective theory of goldstino
interactions.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figure
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