674 research outputs found
Computational and Mathematical Modelling of the EGF Receptor System
This chapter gives an overview of computational and mathematical modelling of the EGF receptor system. It begins with a survey of motivations for producing such models, then describes the main approaches that are taken to carrying out such modelling, viz. differential equations and individual-based modelling. Finally, a number of projects that applying modelling and simulation techniques to various aspects of the EGF receptor system are described
Gauged Flavor Group with Left-Right Symmetry
We construct an anomaly-free extension of the left-right symmetric model,
where the maximal flavor group is gauged and anomaly cancellation is guaranteed
by adding new vectorlike fermion states. We address the question of the lowest
allowed flavor symmetry scale consistent with data. Because of the mechanism
recently pointed out by Grinstein et al. tree-level flavor changing neutral
currents turn out to play a very weak constraining role. The same occurs, in
our model, for electroweak precision observables. The main constraint turns out
to come from WR-mediated flavor changing neutral current box diagrams,
primarily K - Kbar mixing. In the case where discrete parity symmetry is
present at the TeV scale, this constraint implies lower bounds on the mass of
vectorlike fermions and flavor bosons of 5 and 10 TeV respectively. However,
these limits are weakened under the condition that only SU(2)_R x U(1)_{B-L} is
restored at the TeV scale, but not parity. For example, assuming the SU(2)
gauge couplings in the ratio gR/gL approx 0.7 allows the above limits to go
down by half for both vectorlike fermions and flavor bosons. Our model provides
a framework for accommodating neutrino masses and, in the parity symmetric
case, provides a solution to the strong CP problem. The bound on the lepton
flavor gauging scale is somewhat stronger, because of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
constraints. We argue, however, that the applicability of these constraints
depends on the mechanism at work for the generation of neutrino masses.Comment: 1+23 pages, 1 table, 5 figures. v3: some more textual fixes (main
change: discussion of Lepton Flavor Violating observables rephrased). Matches
journal versio
Marriage, Sex, and Hydrocele: An Ethnographic Study on the Effect of Filarial Hydrocele on Conjugal Life and Marriageability from Orissa, India
Lymphatic filariasis, the second leading cause of permanent and long-term disability, affects 120 million people globally. Hydrocele, an accumulation of fluid in the scrotum that causes it to swell, is one of the chronic manifestations of LF among men and there are about 27 million men with hydrocele worldwide. We conducted ethnographic interviews and discussions with patients, women whose husbands have hydrocele, and the general public in a rural community of eastern India. The study describes how hydrocele impacts patients' sexual and marital life. It reveals the most worrisome effect of hydrocele for patients and their wives due to the inability to have a satisfactory sexual life. Patients expressed their incapacity during sexual intercourse. A majority of hydrocele patients' wives reported that their married life became burdened and couples were not living happily. This study also highlights the impact on marriageability, and some women expressed that a hydrocele patient is the “last choice”. In some cases, the patients were persuaded by their wives to remove hydrocele by surgery (hydrocelectomy). Hence, access to hydrocelectomy has to be strengthened under the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis, which is operational in several endemic areas in the world. Also, this activity may be integrated with primary healthcare services and interventions of other neglected tropical diseases
Does the revised cardiac risk index predict cardiac complications following elective lung resection?
Background:
Revised Cardiac Risk Index (RCRI) score and Thoracic Revised Cardiac Risk Index (ThRCRI) score were developed to predict the risks of postoperative major cardiac complications in generic surgical population and thoracic surgery respectively. This study aims to determine the accuracy of these scores in predicting the risk of developing cardiac complications including atrial arrhythmias after lung resection surgery in adults.
Methods:
We studied 703 patients undergoing lung resection surgery in a tertiary thoracic surgery centre. Observed outcome measures of postoperative cardiac morbidity and mortality were compared against those predicted by risk.
Results:
Postoperative major cardiac complications and supraventricular arrhythmias occurred in 4.8% of patients. Both index scores had poor discriminative ability for predicting postoperative cardiac complications with an area under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of 0.59 (95% CI 0.51-0.67) for the RCRI score and 0.57 (95% CI 0.49-0.66) for the ThRCRI score.
Conclusions:
In our cohort, RCRI and ThRCRI scores failed to accurately predict the risk of cardiac complications in patients undergoing elective resection of lung cancer. The British Thoracic Society (BTS) recommendation to seek a cardiology referral for all asymptomatic pre-operative lung resection patients with > 3 RCRI risk factors is thus unlikely to be of clinical benefit
Sparticle Spectrum of Large Volume Compactification
We examine the large volume compactification of Type IIB string theory or its
F theory limit and the associated supersymmetry breakdown and soft terms. It is
crucial to incorporate the loop-induced moduli mixing, originating from
radiative corrections to the Kahler potential. We show that in the presence of
moduli mixing, soft scalar masses generically receive a D-term contribution of
the order of the gravitino mass m_{3/2} when the visible sector cycle is
stabilized by the D-term potential of an anomalous U(1) gauge symmetry, while
the moduli-mediated gaugino masses and A-parameters tend to be of the order of
m_{3/2}/8pi^2. It is noticed also that a too large moduli mixing can
destabilize the large volume solution by making it a saddle point.Comment: 29 page
Cooperative Binding
Molecular binding is an interaction between molecules that results in a stable association between those molecules. Cooperative binding occurs if the number of binding sites of a macromolecule that are occupied by a specific type of ligand is a nonlinear function of this ligand’s concentration. This can be due, for instance, to an affinity for the ligand that depends on the amount of ligand bound. Cooperativity can be positive (supralinear) or negative (infralinear). Cooperative binding is most often observed in proteins, but nucleic acids can also exhibit cooperative binding, for instance of transcription factors. Cooperative binding has been shown to be the mechanism underlying a large range of biochemical and physiological processes
The secreted triose phosphate isomerase of Brugia malayi is required to sustain microfilaria production in vivo
Human lymphatic filariasis is a major tropical disease transmitted through mosquito vectors which take up microfilarial larvae from the blood of infected subjects. Microfilariae are produced by long-lived adult parasites, which also release a suite of excretory-secretory products that have recently been subject to in-depth proteomic analysis. Surprisingly, the most abundant secreted protein of adult Brugia malayi is triose phosphate isomerase (TPI), a glycolytic enzyme usually associated with the cytosol. We now show that while TPI is a prominent target of the antibody response to infection, there is little antibody-mediated inhibition of catalytic activity by polyclonal sera. We generated a panel of twenty-three anti-TPI monoclonal antibodies and found only two were able to block TPI enzymatic activity. Immunisation of jirds with B. malayi TPI, or mice with the homologous protein from the rodent filaria Litomosoides sigmodontis, failed to induce neutralising antibodies or protective immunity. In contrast, passive transfer of neutralising monoclonal antibody to mice prior to implantation with adult B. malayi resulted in 60–70% reductions in microfilarial levels in vivo and both oocyte and microfilarial production by individual adult females. The loss of fecundity was accompanied by reduced IFNγ expression by CD4+ T cells and a higher proportion of macrophages at the site of infection. Thus, enzymatically active TPI plays an important role in the transmission cycle of B. malayi filarial parasites and is identified as a potential target for immunological and pharmacological intervention against filarial infections
Beyond the standard seesaw: neutrino masses from Kahler operators and broken supersymmetry
We investigate supersymmetric scenarios in which neutrino masses are
generated by effective d=6 operators in the Kahler potential, rather than by
the standard d=5 superpotential operator. First, we discuss some general
features of such effective operators, also including SUSY-breaking insertions,
and compute the relevant renormalization group equations. Contributions to
neutrino masses arise at low energy both at the tree level and through finite
threshold corrections. In the second part we present simple explicit
realizations in which those Kahler operators arise by integrating out heavy
SU(2)_W triplets, as in the type II seesaw. Distinct scenarios emerge,
depending on the mechanism and the scale of SUSY-breaking mediation. In
particular, we propose an appealing and economical picture in which the heavy
seesaw mediators are also messengers of SUSY breaking. In this case, strong
correlations exist among neutrino parameters, sparticle and Higgs masses, as
well as lepton flavour violating processes. Hence, this scenario can be tested
at high-energy colliders, such as the LHC, and at lower energy experiments that
measure neutrino parameters or search for rare lepton decays.Comment: LaTeX, 34 pages; some corrections in Section
Two loop electroweak corrections to and in the B-LSSM
The rare decays and are important to research new physics beyond standard model. In
this work, we investigate two loop electroweak corrections to and in the minimal
supersymmetric extension of the SM with local gauge symmetry (B-LSSM),
under a minimal flavor violating assumption for the soft breaking terms. In
this framework, new particles and new definition of squarks can affect the
theoretical predictions of these two processes, with respect to the MSSM.
Considering the constraints from updated experimental data, the numerical
results show that the B-LSSM can fit the experimental data for the branching
ratios of and . The
results of the rare decays also further constrain the parameter space of the
B-LSSM.Comment: 33 pages, 9 figures, Published in EPJ
Analysis of risk factors for adjacent superior vertebral pedicle-induced facet joint violation during the minimally invasive surgery transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion: a retrospective study
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