Probing the Light Pseudoscalar Window

Very light pseudoscalars can arise from the symmetry-breaking sector in many extensions of the Standard Model. If their mass is below 200 MeV, they can be long-lived and have interesting phenomenology. We discuss the experimental constraints on several models with light pseudoscalars, including one in which the pseudoscalar is naturally fermiophobic. Taking into account the stringent bounds from rare K and B decays, we find allowed parameter space in each model that may be accessible in direct production experiments. In particular, we study the photoproduction of light pseudoscalars at Jefferson Lab and conclude that a beam dump experiment could explore some of the allowed parameter space of these models.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figure

A conceptual approach to the use of Cost Benefit and Multi Criteria Analysis in natural hazard management

International audienceDecision-making for protection measures against natural hazards entails major complexities for final decision makers. The issue in question does not only implicate a variety of criteria that need to be considered but also scarce financial resources make the allocation decision a difficult task. Furthermore, these decisions appear to be multidisciplinary in nature. Stakeholders from experts over politicians and the public are among the affected parties in making and dealing with the consequences of such decisions. In order to capture the complexity that arises when incorporating the varieties of interests as well as impacts protection measures have on the environment, the economy and society, transparent and multidisciplinary decision support techniques are needed. This paper looks at how Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), a tool already applied to decisions concerning protective measures, and Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA), even though new to the field as such but already successfully practiced in other environmental areas, perform according to the abovementioned criteria. A conceptual overview of the methodologies will be given along with a discussion of the respective strengths and weaknesses. Looking at past applications, this overview gives an analysis about the potential of socio economics in its contribution to natural hazard research

RecA-mediated strand invasion of DNA by oligonucleotides substituted with 2-aminoadenine and 2-thiothymine

Sequence-specific recognition of DNA is a critical step in gene targeting. Here we describe unique oligonucleotide (ON) hybrids that can stably pair to both strands of a linear DNA target in a RecA-dependent reaction with ATP or ATPγS. One strand of the hybrids is a 30-mer DNA ON that contains a 15-nt-long A/T-rich central core. The core sequence, which is substituted with 2-aminoadenine and 2-thiothymine, is weakly hybridized to complementary locked nucleic acid or 2′-OMe RNA ONs that are also substituted with the same base analogs. Robust targeting reactions took place in the presence of ATPγS and generated metastable double D-loop joints. Since the hybrids had pseudocomplementary character, the component ONs hybridized less strongly to each other than to complementary target DNA sequences composed of regular bases. This difference in pairing strength promoted the formation of joints capable of accommodating a single mismatch. If similar joints can form in vivo, virtually any A/T-rich site in genomic DNA could be selectively targeted. By designing the constructs so that the DNA ON is mismatched to its complementary sequence in DNA, joint formation might allow the ON to function as a template for targeted point mutation and gene correction

Effect of Heavy Metal Contaminated Shooting Range Soils on Mycorrhizal Colonization of Roots and Metal Uptake by Leek

We grew leek (Allium porrum) in soils of two shooting ranges heavily contaminated with heavy metals in the towns of Zuchwil and Oberuzwil in Switzerland as a bioassay to test theactivity of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in these soils.Soil samples were taken from (1) front of the shooting house(HOUSE), (2) the area between house and target (FIELD) and (3) the berm (BACKSTOP). Samples of Ribwort plantain (Plantagolanceolata) growing naturally within the shooting ranges werealso collected and the colonization of its roots by mycorrhizalfungi was measured. The number of AM spores in the soils wassignificantly reduced concomitant with the increase in thedegree of soil contamination with metals. In Zuchwil,mycorrhizal fungi equally colonized roots of Ribwort plantainsampled from BACKSTOP and HOUSE. In Oberuzwil, however, plantsfrom BACKSTOP had lower colonization when compared with thosesampled from HOUSE. Colonization of leek was strongly reducedin the BACKSTOP soil of Zuchwil and slightly reduced in theBACKSTOP soil of Oberuzwil when compared with plants grown inrespective HOUSE soil. Concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb andZn in the leaves of leek grown in the BACKSTOP soil was withinthe range considered toxic for human consumption. This pointsto the high degree of bio-availability of these metal in thesesoils. Significant decrease in the number of mycorrhizal sporesin the BACKSTOP soils in Zuchwil and the low colonization ofleek roots grown in these soils point to possible changes inthe species diversity of mycorrhizal fungi in these soil

Leveraging range joins for the computation of overlap joins

Joins are essential and potentially expensive operations in database management systems. When data is associated with time periods, joins commonly include predicates that require pairs of argument tuples to overlap in order to qualify for the result. Our goal is to enable built-in systems support for such joins. In particular, we present an approach where overlap joins are formulated as unions of range joins, which are more general purpose joins compared to overlap joins, i.e., are useful in their own right, and are supported well by B+-trees. The approach is sufficiently flexible that it also supports joins with additional equality predicates, as well as open, closed, and half-open time periods over discrete and continuous domains, thus offering both generality and simplicity, which is important in a system setting. We provide both a stand-alone solution that performs on par with the state-of-the-art and a DBMS embedded solution that is able to exploit standard indexing and clearly outperforms existing DBMS solutions that depend on specialized indexing techniques. We offer both analytical and empirical evaluations of the proposals. The empirical study includes comparisons with pertinent existing proposals and offers detailed insight into the performance characteristics of the proposals

GeoBoids: A Mobile AR Application for Exergaming

“© © 2012 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.”We have designed a mobile Augmented Reality (AR) game which incorporates video see-through and spatialized audio AR techniques and encourages player movement in the real world. In the game, called GeoBoids, the player is surrounded by flocks of virtual creatures that are visible and audible through mobile AR application. The goal is for the player to run to the location of a GeoBoid swarm in the real world, capture all the creatures there, then run to the next swarm and repeat, before time runs out, encouraging the player to exercise during game play. The most novel elements of the game are the use of audio input and output for interacting with the creatures. The interface design of the game includes AR visualization, spatialized audio, touch gestures and whistle interaction. Feedback from users in a preliminary user study was mostly positive on overall game play and the design of the UI, while the results also revealed improvements were needed for whistle interaction and the visual design of the GeoBoids

Topological Phases: An Expedition off Lattice

Motivated by the goal to give the simplest possible microscopic foundation for a broad class of topological phases, we study quantum mechanical lattice models where the topology of the lattice is one of the dynamical variables. However, a fluctuating geometry can remove the separation between the system size and the range of local interactions, which is important for topological protection and ultimately the stability of a topological phase. In particular, it can open the door to a pathology, which has been studied in the context of quantum gravity and goes by the name of `baby universe', Here we discuss three distinct approaches to suppressing these pathological fluctuations. We complement this discussion by applying Cheeger's theory relating the geometry of manifolds to their vibrational modes to study the spectra of Hamiltonians. In particular, we present a detailed study of the statistical properties of loop gas and string net models on fluctuating lattices, both analytically and numerically.Comment: 38 pages, 22 figure

Delineating an extracellular redox-sensitive module in T-type Ca2+ channels

T-type (Cav3) Ca2+ channels are important regulators of excitability and rhythmic activity of excitable cells. Among other voltage-gated Ca2+ channels, Cav3 channels are uniquely sensitive to oxidation and zinc. Using recombinant protein expression in HEK293 cells, patch-clamp electrophysiology, site-directed mutagenesis, and homology modeling, we report here that modulation of Cav3.2 by redox agents and zinc is mediated by a unique extracellular module containing i) a high-affinity metal-binding site formed by the extracellular IS1–IS2 and IS3–IS4 loops of domain I, and ii) a cluster of extracellular cysteines in the IS1–IS2 loop. Patch clamp recording of recombinant Cav3.2 currents revealed that two cysteine-modifying agents, sodium (2-sulfonatoethyl) methanethiosulfonate (MTSES) and N-ethylmaleimide (NEM), as well as a reactive oxygen species–producing neuropeptide, substance P (SP), inhibit Cav3.2 current to similar degrees and that this inhibition is reversed by a reducing agent and a zinc chelator. Pre-application of MTSES prevented further SP-mediated current inhibition. Substitution of the zinc-binding residue His-191 in Cav3.2 reduced the channel’s sensitivity to MTSES, and introduction of the corresponding histidine into Cav3.1 sensitized it to MTSES. Removal of extracellular cysteines from the IS1–IS2 loop of Cav3.2 reduced its sensitivity to both MTSES and SP. We hypothesize that oxidative modification of IS1–IS2 loop cysteines induces allosteric changes in the zinc-binding site of Cav3.2, such that it become sensitive to ambient zinc

Auxiliary subunits control biophysical properties and response to compound NS5806 of the Kv4 potassium channel complex

Kv4 pore‐forming subunits co‐assemble with β‐subunits including KChIP2 and DPP6 and the resultant complexes conduct cardiac transient outward K+ current (Ito). Compound NS5806 has been shown to potentate Ito in canine cardiomyocytes; however, its effects on Ito in other species yet to be determined. We found that NS5806 inhibited native Ito in a concentration‐dependent manner (0.1~30 μM) in both mouse ventricular cardiomyocytes and human‐induced pluripotent stem cell‐derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC‐CMs), but potentiated Ito in the canine cardiomyocytes. In HEK293 cells co‐transfected with cloned Kv4.3 (or Kv4.2) and β‐subunit KChIP2, NS5806 significantly increased the peak current amplitude and slowed the inactivation. In contrast, NS5806 suppressed the current and accelerated inactivation of the channels when cells were co‐transfected with Kv4.3 (or Kv4.2), KChIP2 and another β‐subunit, DPP6‐L (long isoform). Western blot analysis showed that DPP6‐L was dominantly expressed in both mouse ventricular myocardium and hiPSC‐CMs, while it was almost undetectable in canine ventricular myocardium. In addition, low level of DPP6‐S expression was found in canine heart, whereas levels of KChIP2 expression were comparable among all three species. siRNA knockdown of DPP6 antagonized the Ito inhibition by NS5806 in hiPSC‐CMs. Molecular docking simulation suggested that DPP6‐L may associate with KChIP2 subunits. Mutations of putative KChIP2‐interacting residues of DPP6‐L reversed the inhibitory effect of NS5806 into potentiation of the current. We conclude that a pharmacological modulator can elicit opposite regulatory effects on Kv4 channel complex among different species, depending on the presence of distinct β‐subunits. These findings provide novel insight into the molecular design and regulation of cardiac Ito. Since Ito is a potential therapeutic target for treatment of multiple cardiovascular diseases, our data will facilitate the development of new therapeutic Ito modulators

Anterior implant restorations with a convex emergence profile increase the frequency of recession: 12-month results of a randomized controlled clinical trial

AIM To test whether the emergence profile (CONVEX or CONCAVE) of implant-supported crowns influences the mucosal margin stability up to 12 months after insertion of the final restoration. MATERIALS AND METHODS Forty-seven patients with a single implant in the anterior region were randomly allocated to one of three groups: (1) CONVEX (n = 15), implant provisional and an implant-supported crown both with a convex profile; (2) CONCAVE (n = 16), implant provisional and an implant-supported crown both with a concave profile; (3) CONTROL (n = 16), no provisional (healing abutment only) and an implant-supported crown. All patients were recalled at baseline, 6, and 12 months. The stability of mucosal margin along with clinical, aesthetic, and profilometric outcomes as well as time and costs were evaluated. To predict the presence of recession, multivariable logistic regressions were performed and linear models using generalized estimation equations were conducted for the different outcomes. RESULTS Forty-four patients were available at 12 months post-loading. The frequency of mucosal recession amounted to 64.3% in group CONVEX, 14.3% in group CONCAVE, and 31.4% in group CONTROL. Regression models revealed that a CONVEX profile was significantly associated with the presence of recessions (odds ratio: 12.6, 95% confidence interval: 1.82-88.48, p = .01) compared with the CONCAVE profile. Pink aesthetic scores amounted to 5.9 in group CONVEX, 6.2 in group CONCAVE, and 5.4 in group CONTROL, with no significant differences between the groups (p = .735). Groups CONVEX and CONCAVE increased the appointments and costs compared with the CONTROL group. CONCLUSIONS The use of implant-supported provisionals with a CONCAVE emergence profile results in a greater stability of the mucosal margin compared with a CONVEX profile up to 12 months of loading. This is accompanied, however, by increased time and costs compared with the absence of a provisional and may not necessarily enhance the aesthetic outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION German Clinical Trials Register; DRKS00009420