2,755 research outputs found
F-theory and Neutrinos: Kaluza-Klein Dilution of Flavor Hierarchy
We study minimal implementations of Majorana and Dirac neutrino scenarios in
F-theory GUT models. In both cases the mass scale of the neutrinos m_nu ~
(M_weak)^2/M_UV arises from integrating out Kaluza-Klein modes, where M_UV is
close to the GUT scale. The participation of non-holomorphic Kaluza-Klein mode
wave functions dilutes the mass hierarchy in comparison to the quark and
charged lepton sectors, in agreement with experimentally measured mass
splittings. The neutrinos are predicted to exhibit a "normal" mass hierarchy,
with masses m_3,m_2,m_1 ~ .05*(1,(alpha_GUT)^(1/2),alpha_GUT) eV. When the
interactions of the neutrino and charged lepton sectors geometrically unify,
the neutrino mixing matrix exhibits a mild hierarchical structure such that the
mixing angles theta_23 and theta_12 are large and comparable, while theta_13 is
expected to be smaller and close to the Cabibbo angle: theta_13 ~ theta_C ~
(alpha_GUT)^(1/2) ~ 0.2. This suggests that theta_13 should be near the current
experimental upper bound.Comment: v2: 83 pages, 10 figures, references adde
Use of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs That Elevate Cardiovascular Risk: An Examination of Sales and Essential Medicines Lists in Low-, Middle-, and High-Income Countries
PMCID: PMC3570554This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
The Maximal Inverse Seesaw from Operator and Oscillating Asymmetric Sneutrino Dark Matter
The maximal supersymmetric inverse seesaw mechanism (MSIS)
provides a natural way to relate asymmetric dark matter (ADM) with neutrino
physics. In this paper we point out that, MSIS is a natural outcome if one
dynamically realizes the inverse seesaw mechanism in the next-to minimal
supersymmetric standard model (NMSSM) via the dimension-five operator
, with the NMSSM singlet developing TeV scale VEV; it
slightly violates lepton number due to the suppression by the fundamental scale
, thus preserving maximally. The resulting sneutrino is a
distinguishable ADM candidate, oscillating and favored to have weak scale mass.
A fairly large annihilating cross section of such a heavy ADM is available due
to the presence of singlet.Comment: journal versio
The IRYSS-COPD appropriateness study: objectives, methodology, and description of the prospective cohort
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often experience exacerbations of the disease that require hospitalization. Current guidelines offer little guidance for identifying patients whose clinical situation is appropriate for admission to the hospital, and properly developed and validated severity scores for COPD exacerbations are lacking. To address these important gaps in clinical care, we created the IRYSS-COPD Appropriateness Study.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>The RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Methodology was used to identify appropriate and inappropriate scenarios for hospital admission for patients experiencing COPD exacerbations. These scenarios were then applied to a prospective cohort of patients attending the emergency departments (ED) of 16 participating hospitals. Information was recorded during the time the patient was evaluated in the ED, at the time a decision was made to admit the patient to the hospital or discharge home, and during follow-up after admission or discharge home. While complete data were generally available at the time of ED admission, data were often missing at the time of decision making. Predefined assumptions were used to impute much of the missing data.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The IRYSS-COPD Appropriateness Study will validate the appropriateness criteria developed by the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Methodology and thus better delineate the requirements for admission or discharge of patients experiencing exacerbations of COPD. The study will also provide a better understanding of the determinants of outcomes of COPD exacerbations, and evaluate the equity and variability in access and outcomes in these patients.</p
New physics searches at near detectors of neutrino oscillation experiments
We systematically investigate the prospects of testing new physics with tau
sensitive near detectors at neutrino oscillation facilities. For neutrino beams
from pion decay, from the decay of radiative ions, as well as from the decays
of muons in a storage ring at a neutrino factory, we discuss which effective
operators can lead to new physics effects. Furthermore, we discuss the present
bounds on such operators set by other experimental data currently available.
For operators with two leptons and two quarks we present the first complete
analysis including all relevant operators simultaneously and performing a
Markov Chain Monte Carlo fit to the data. We find that these effects can induce
tau neutrino appearance probabilities as large as O(10^{-4}), which are within
reach of forthcoming experiments. We highlight to which kind of new physics a
tau sensitive near detector would be most sensitive.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figures, REVTeX
Parental transfer of the antimicrobial protein LBP/BPI protects Biomphalaria glabrata eggs against oomycete infections
Copyright: © 2013 Baron et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: This work was funded by ANR (ANR-07-BLAN-0214 and ANR-12-EMMA-00O7-01), CNRS and INRA. PvW was financially supported by the BBSRC. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Therapeutic Effect of a Poly(ADP-Ribose) Polymerase-1 Inhibitor on Experimental Arthritis by Downregulating Inflammation and Th1 Response
Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) synthesizes and transfers ADP ribose polymers to target proteins, and regulates DNA repair and genomic integrity maintenance. PARP-1 also plays a crucial role in the progression of the inflammatory response, and its inhibition confers protection in several models of inflammatory disorders. Here, we investigate the impact of a selective PARP-1 inhibitor in experimental arthritis. PARP-1 inhibition with 5-aminoisoquinolinone (AIQ) significantly reduces incidence and severity of established collagen-induced arthritis, completely abrogating joint swelling and destruction of cartilage and bone. The therapeutic effect of AIQ is associated with a striking reduction of the two deleterious components of the disease, i.e. the Th1-driven autoimmune and inflammatory responses. AIQ downregulates the production of various inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, decreases the antigen-specific Th1-cell expansion, and induces the production of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10. Our results provide evidence of the contribution of PARP-1 to the progression of arthritis and identify this protein as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis
Contribution of microscopy for understanding the mechanism of action against trypanosomatids
Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has proved to be a useful tool to study the ultrastructural alterations and the target organelles of new antitrypanosomatid drugs. Thus, it has been observed that sesquiterpene lactones induce diverse ultrastructural alterations in both T. cruzi and Leishmania spp., such as cytoplasmic vacuolization, appearance of multilamellar structures, condensation of nuclear DNA, and, in some cases, an important accumulation of lipid vacuoles. This accumulation could be related to apoptotic events. Some of the sesquiterpene lactones (e.g., psilostachyin) have also been demonstrated to cause an intense mitochondrial swelling accompanied by a visible kinetoplast deformation as well as the appearance of multivesicular bodies. This mitochondrial swelling could be related to the generation of oxidative stress and associated to alterations in the ergosterol metabolism. The appearance of multilamellar structures and multiple kinetoplasts and flagella induced by the sesquiterpene lactone psilostachyin C indicates that this compound would act at the parasite cell cycle level, in an intermediate stage between kinetoplast segregation and nuclear division. In turn, the diterpene lactone icetexane has proved to induce the external membrane budding on T. cruzi together with an apparent disorganization of the pericellar cytoskeleton. Thus, ultrastructural TEM studies allow elucidating the possible mechanisms and the subsequent identification of molecular targets for the action of natural compounds on trypanosomatids.Fil: Lozano, Esteban SebastiĂĄn. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Medicina y BiologĂa Experimental de Cuyo; ArgentinaFil: Spina Zapata, Renata MarĂa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de HistologĂa y EmbriologĂa de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias MĂ©dicas. Instituto de HistologĂa y EmbriologĂa de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos; ArgentinaFil: Barrera, Patricia Andrea. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de HistologĂa y EmbriologĂa de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias MĂ©dicas. Instituto de HistologĂa y EmbriologĂa de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos; ArgentinaFil: Tonn, Carlos Eugenio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - San Luis. Instituto de Investigaciones en TecnologĂa QuĂmica. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de QuĂmica, BioquĂmica y Farmacia. Instituto de Investigaciones en TecnologĂa QuĂmica; ArgentinaFil: Sosa Escudero, Miguel Angel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de HistologĂa y EmbriologĂa de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias MĂ©dicas. Instituto de HistologĂa y EmbriologĂa de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos; Argentin
Long-term follow-up of certolizumab pegol in uveitis due to immune-mediated inflammatory diseases: multicentre study of 80 patients
ObjectivesTo evaluate effectiveness and safety of certolizumab pegol (CZP) in uveitis due to immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMID).MethodsMulticentre study of CZP-treated patients with IMID uveitis refractory to conventional immunosuppressant. Effectiveness was assessed through the following ocular parameters: best-corrected visual acuity, anterior chamber cells, vitritis, macular thickness and retinal vasculitis. These variables were compared between the baseline, and first week, first, third, sixth months, first and second year.ResultsWe studied 80 (33 men/47 women) patients (111 affected eyes) with a mean age of 41.6 +/- 11.7 years. The IMID included were: spondyloarthritis (n=43), Behcet's disease (n=10), psoriatic arthritis (n=8), Crohn's disease (n=4), sarcoidosis (n=2), juvenile idiopathic arthritis (n=1), reactive arthritis (n=1), rheumatoid arthritis (n=1), relapsing polychondritis (n=1),ConclusionsCZP seems to be effective and safe in uveitis related to different IMID, even in patients refractory to previous biological drugs
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