Measurement of the antineutrino neutral-current elastic differential cross section

arXiv:1309.7257v1 [hep-ex

Association between Knops blood group polymorphisms and susceptibility to malaria in an endemic area of the Brazilian Amazon

Complement receptor 1 (CR1) gene polymorphisms that are associated with Knops blood group antigens may influence the binding of Plasmodium parasites to erythrocytes, thereby affecting susceptibility to malaria. The aim of this study was to evaluate the genotype and allele and haplotype frequencies of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of Knops blood group antigens and examine their association with susceptibility to malaria in an endemic area of Brazil. One hundred and twenty-six individuals from the Brazilian Amazon were studied. The CR1-genomic fragment was amplified by PCR and six SNPs and haplotypes were identified after DNA sequence analysis. Allele and haplotype frequencies revealed that the Knb allele and H8 haplotype were possibly associated with susceptibility to Plasmodium falciparum. The odds ratios were reasonably high, suggesting a potentially important association between two Knops blood antigens (Knb and KAM+) that confer susceptibility to P. falciparum in individuals from the Brazilian Amazon

Tortricid Moths Reared from the Invasive Weed Mexican Palo Verde, Parkinsonia aculeata, with Comments on their Host Specificity, Biology, Geographic Distribution, and Systematics

As part of efforts to identify native herbivores of Mexican palo verde, Parkinsonia aculeata L. (Leguminosae: Caesalpinioideae), as potential biological control agents against this invasive weed in Australia, ten species of Tortricidae (Lepidoptera) were reared from Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Venezuela: Amorbia concavana (Zeller), Platynota rostrana (Walker), Platynota helianthes (Meyrick), Platynota stultana Walsingham (all Tortricinae: Sparganothini), Rudenia leguminana (Busck), Cochylis sp. (both Tortricinae: Cochylini), Ofatulena duodecemstriata (Walsingham), O. luminosa Heinrich, Ofatulena sp. (all Olethreutinae: Grapholitini), and Crocidosema lantana Busck (Olethreutinae: Eucosmini). Significant geographic range extensions are provided for O. duodecemstriata and R. leguminana. These are the first documented records of P. aculeata as a host plant for all but O. luminosa. The four species of Sparganothini are polyphagous; in contrast, the two Cochylini and three Grapholitini likely are specialists on Leguminosae. Ofatulena luminosa is possibly host specific on P. aculeata. Host trials with Rudenia leguminana also provide some evidence of specificity, in contrast to historical rearing records. To examine the possibility that R. leguminana is a complex of species, two data sets of molecular markers were examined: (1) a combined data set of two mitochondrial markers (a 781-basepair region of cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) and a 685-basepair region of cytochrome c oxidase II) and one nuclear marker (a 531-basepair region of the 28S domain 2); and (2) the 650-basepair “barcode” region of COI. Analyses of both data sets strongly suggest that individuals examined in this study belong to more than one species

High sensitivity detection of Plasmodium species reveals positive correlations between infections of different species, shifts in age distribution and reduced local variation in Papua New Guinea

BACKGROUND: When diagnosed by standard light microscopy (LM), malaria prevalence can vary significantly between sites, even at local scale, and mixed species infections are consistently less common than expect in areas co-endemic for Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium malariae. The development of a high-throughput molecular species diagnostic assay now enables routine PCR-based surveillance of malaria infections in large field and intervention studies, and improves resolution of species distribution within and between communities. METHODS: This study reports differences in the prevalence of infections with all four human malarial species and of mixed infections as diagnosed by LM and post-PCR ligase detection reaction-fluorescent microsphere (LDR-FMA) assay in 15 villages in the central Sepik area of Papua New Guinea. RESULTS: Significantly higher rates of infection by P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. malariae and Plasmodium ovale were observed in LDR-FMA compared to LM diagnosis (p > 0.001). Increases were particularly pronounced for P. malariae (3.9% vs 13.4%) and P. ovale (0.0% vs 4.8%). In contrast to LM diagnosis, which suggested a significant deficit of mixed species infections, a significant excess of mixed infections over expectation was detected by LDR-FMA (p > 0.001). Age of peak prevalence shifted to older age groups in LDR-FMA diagnosed infections for P. falciparum (LM: 7-9 yrs 47.5%, LDR-FMA: 10-19 yrs 74.2%) and P. vivax (LM: 4-6 yrs 24.2%, LDR-FMA: 7-9 yrs 50.9%) but not P. malariae infections (10-19 yrs, LM: 7.7% LDR-FMA: 21.6%). Significant geographical variation in prevalence was found for all species (except for LM-diagnosed P. falciparum), with the extent of this variation greater in LDR-FMA than LM diagnosed infections (overall, 84.4% vs. 37.6%). Insecticide-treated bednet (ITN) coverage was also the dominant factor linked to geographical differences in Plasmodium species infection prevalence explaining between 60.6% - 74.5% of this variation for LDR-FMA and 81.8% - 90.0% for LM (except P. falciparum), respectively. CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrates that application of molecular diagnosis reveals patterns of malaria risk that are significantly different from those obtained by standard LM. Results provide insight relevant to design of malaria control and eradication strategie

Improved Search for νˉμ→νˉe\bar ν_μ\rightarrow \bar ν_e Oscillations in the MiniBooNE Experiment

Submitted to PRL. Further information provided in arXiv:1207.4809Submitted to PRL. Further information provided in arXiv:1207.4809The MiniBooNE experiment at Fermilab reports results from an analysis of $\bar \nu_e$ appearance data from $11.27 \times 10^{20}$ protons on target in antineutrino mode, an increase of approximately a factor of two over the previously reported results. An event excess of $78.4 \pm 28.5$ events ($2.8 \sigma$) is observed in the energy range $200<E_\nu^{QE}<1250$ MeV. If interpreted in a two-neutrino oscillation model, $\bar{\nu}_{\mu}\rightarrow\bar{\nu}_e$, the best oscillation fit to the excess has a probability of 66% while the background-only fit has a $\chi^2$-probability of 0.5% relative to the best fit. The data are consistent with antineutrino oscillations in the $0.01 < \Delta m^2 < 1.0$ eV$^2$ range and have some overlap with the evidence for antineutrino oscillations from the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector (LSND). All of the major backgrounds are constrained by in-situ event measurements so non-oscillation explanations would need to invoke new anomalous background processes. The neutrino mode running also shows an excess at low energy of $162.0 \pm 47.8$ events ($3.4 \sigma$) but the energy distribution of the excess is marginally compatible with a simple two neutrino oscillation formalism. Expanded models with several sterile neutrinos can reduce the incompatibility by allowing for CP violating effects between neutrino and antineutrino oscillations

Using L/E Oscillation Probability Distributions

This paper explores the use of $L/E$ oscillation probability distributions to compare experimental measurements and to evaluate oscillation models. In this case, $L$ is the distance of neutrino travel and $E$ is a measure of the interacting neutrino's energy. While comparisons using allowed and excluded regions for oscillation model parameters are likely the only rigorous method for these comparisons, the $L/E$ distributions are shown to give qualitative information on the agreement of an experiment's data with a simple two-neutrino oscillation model. In more detail, this paper also outlines how the $L/E$ distributions can be best calculated and used for model comparisons. Specifically, the paper presents the $L/E$ data points for the final MiniBooNE data samples and, in the Appendix, explains and corrects the mistaken analysis published by the ICARUS collaboration

Predicting new venture survival and growth: does the fog lift?

This paper investigates whether new venture performance becomes easier to predict as the venture ages: does the fog lift? To address this question we primarily draw upon a theoretical framework, initially formulated in a managerial context by Levinthal (Adm Sci Q 36(3):397–420, 1991) that sees new venture sales as a random walk but survival being determined by the stock of available resources (proxied by size). We derive theoretical predictions that are tested with a 10-year cohort of 6579 UK new ventures in the UK. We observe that our ability to predict firm growth deteriorates in the years after entry—in terms of the selection environment, the ‘fog’ seems to thicken. However, our survival predictions improve with time—implying that the ‘fog’ does lift

Mitochondrial polymorphisms in rat genetic models of hypertension

Hypertension is a complex trait that has been studied extensively for genetic contributions of the nuclear genome. We examined mitochondrial genomes of the hypertensive strains: the Dahl Salt-Sensitive (S) rat, the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat (SHR), and the Albino Surgery (AS) rat, and the relatively normotensive strains: the Dahl Salt-Resistant (R) rat, the Milan Normotensive Strain (MNS), and the Lewis rat (LEW). These strains were used previously for linkage analysis for blood pressure (BP) in our laboratory. The results provide evidence to suggest that variations in the mitochondrial genome do not account for observed differences in blood pressure between the S and R rats. However, variants were detected among the mitochondrial genomes of the various hypertensive strains, S, SHR, and AS, and also among the normotensive strains R, MNS, and LEW. A total of 115, 114, 106, 106, and 16 variations in mtDNA were observed between the comparisons S versus LEW, S versus MNS, S versus SHR, S versus AS, and SHR versus AS, respectively. Among the 13 genes coding for proteins of the electron transport chain, 8 genes had nonsynonymous variations between S, LEW, MNS, SHR, and AS. The lack of any sequence variants between the mitochondrial genomes of S and R rats provides conclusive evidence that divergence in blood pressure between these two inbred strains is exclusively programmed through their nuclear genomes. The variations detected among the various hypertensive strains provides the basis to construct conplastic strains and further evaluate the effects of these variants on hypertension and associated phenotypes

Complete mtDNA genomes of Anopheles darlingi and an approach to anopheline divergence time

Abstract Background The complete sequences of the mitochondrial genomes (mtDNA) of members of the northern and southern genotypes of Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) darlingi were used for comparative studies to estimate the time to the most recent common ancestor for modern anophelines, to evaluate differentiation within this taxon, and to seek evidence of incipient speciation. Methods The mtDNAs were sequenced from mosquitoes from Belize and Brazil and comparative analyses of structure and base composition, among others, were performed. A maximum likelihood approach linked with phylogenetic information was employed to detect evidence of selection and a Bayesian approach was used to date the split between the subgenus Nyssorhynchus and other Anopheles subgenera. Results The comparison of mtDNA sequences within the Anopheles darlingi taxon does not provide sufficient resolution to establish different units of speciation within the species. In addition, no evidence of positive selection in any protein-coding gene of the mtDNA was detected, and purifying selection likely is the basis for this lack of diversity. Bayesian analysis supports the conclusion that the most recent ancestor of Nyssorhynchus and Anopheles+Cellia was extant ~94 million years ago. Conclusion Analyses of mtDNA genomes of Anopheles darlingi do not provide support for speciation in the taxon. The dates estimated for divergence among the anopheline groups tested is in agreement with the geological split of western Gondwana (95 mya), and provides additional support for explaining the absence of Cellia in the New World, and Nyssorhynchus in the Afro-Eurasian continents

Mn 2+ reduces Y z + in manganese-depleted Photosystem II preparations

Manganese in the oxygen-evolving complex is a physiological electron donor to Photosystem II. PS II depleted of manganese may oxidize exogenous reductants including benzidine and Mn 2+ . Using flash photolysis with electron spin resonance detection, we examined the room-temperature reaction kinetics of these reductants with Y z + , the tyrosine radical formed in PS II membranes under illumination. Kinetics were measured with membranes that did or did not contain the 33 kDa extrinsic polypeptide of PS II, whose presence had no effect on the reaction kinetics with either reductant. The rate of Y z + reduction by benzidine was a linear function of benzidine concentration. The rate of Y z + reduction by Mn 2+ at pH 6 increased linearly at low Mn 2+ concentrations and reached a maximum at the Mn 2+ concentrations equal to several times the reaction center concentration. The rate was inhibited by K + , Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ . These data are described by a model in which negative charge on the membrane causes a local increase in the cation concentration. The rate of Y z + reduction at pH 7.5 was biphasic with a fast 400 μs phase that suggests binding of Mn 2+ near Y z + at a site that may be one of the native manganese binding sites.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43534/1/11120_2004_Article_BF00048306.pd