5D UED: Flat and Flavorless

5D UED is not automatically minimally flavor violating. This is due to flavor asymmetric counter-terms required on the branes. Additionally, there are likely to be higher dimensional operators which directly contribute to flavor observables. We document a mostly unsuccessful attempt at utilizing localization in a flat extra dimension to resolve these flavor constraints while maintaining KK-parity as a good quantum number. It is unsuccessful insofar as we seem to be forced to add brane operators in such a way as to precisely mimic the effects of a double throat warped extra dimension. In the course of our efforts, we encounter and present solutions to a problem common to many extra dimensional models in which fields are "doubly localized:" ultra-light modes. Under scrutiny, this issue seems tied to an intrinsic tension between maintaining Kaluza-Klein parity and resolving mass hierarchies via localization.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figure

Promotion of Intestinal Peristalsis by Bifidobacterium spp. Capable of Hydrolysing Sennosides in Mice

BACKGROUND:While there are a variety of identifiable causes of constipation, even idiopathic constipation has different possible mechanisms. Sennosides, the main laxative constituents of Daio, an ancient Kampo medicine, are prodrugs that are converted to an active principle, rheinanthrone, by intestinal microbiota. In this study, we aimed to determine the sennoside hydrolysis ability of lactic acid bacterial strains and bifidobacteria in the intestine and to investigate their effect on intestinal peristalsis in mice. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:A total of 88 lactic acid bacterial strains and 47 bifidobacterial strains were evaluated for their ability to hydrolyze sennosides. Our results revealed that 4 strains, all belonging to the genus Bifidobacterium, had strong sennoside hydrolysis ability, exhibiting a decrease of >70% of sennoside content. By thin-layer chromatography analysis, rheinanthrone was detected in the medium cultured with B. pseudocatenulatum LKM10070 and B. animalis subsp. lactis LKM512. The fecal sennoside contents significantly (P<0.001) decreased upon oral administration of these strains as compared with the control. Intestinal peristalsis activity was measured by the moved distance of the charcoal powder administered orally. The distance travelled by the charcoal powder in LKM512-treated mice was significantly longer than that of control (P<0.05). Intestinal microbiota were analysed by real-time PCR and terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism. The diversity of the intestinal microbiota was reduced by kanamycin treatment and the diversity was not recovered by LKM512 treatment. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE:We demonstrated that intestinal peristalsis was promoted by rheinanthrone produced by hydrolysis of sennoside by strain LKM512 and LKM10070

Modeling of Protostellar Clouds and their Observational Properties

A physical model and two-dimensional numerical method for computing the evolution and spectra of protostellar clouds are described. The physical model is based on a system of magneto-gasdynamical equations, including ohmic and ambipolar diffusion, and a scheme for calculating the thermal and ionization structure of a cloud. The dust and gas temperatures are determined during the calculations of the thermal structure of the cloud. The results of computing the dynamical and thermal structure of the cloud are used to model the radiative transfer in continuum and in molecular lines. We presented the results for clouds in hydrostatic and thermal equilibrium. The evolution of a rotating magnetic protostellar cloud starting from a quasi-static state is also considered. Spectral maps for optically thick lines of linear molecules are analyzed. We have shown that the influence of the magnetic field and rotation can lead to a redistribution of angular momentum in the cloud and the formation of a characteristic rotational velocity structure. As a result, the distribution of the velocity centroid of the molecular lines can acquire an hourglass shape. We plan to use the developed program package together with a model for the chemical evolution to interpret and model observed starless and protostellar cores.Comment: Accepted to Astronomy Report

Long-Term climate change commitment and reversibility: An EMIC intercomparison

This is the final version of the article. Available from the American Meteorological Society via the DOI in this record.This paper summarizes the results of an intercomparison project with Earth System Models of Intermediate Complexity (EMICs) undertaken in support of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). The focus is on long-term climate projections designed to 1) quantify the climate change commitment of different radiative forcing trajectories and 2) explore the extent to which climate change is reversible on human time scales. All commitment simulations follow the four representative concentration pathways (RCPs) and their extensions to year 2300. MostEMICs simulate substantial surface air temperature and thermosteric sea level rise commitment following stabilization of the atmospheric composition at year-2300 levels. The meridional overturning circulation (MOC) is weakened temporarily and recovers to near-preindustrial values in most models for RCPs 2.6-6.0. The MOC weakening is more persistent for RCP8.5. Elimination of anthropogenic CO2 emissions after 2300 results in slowly decreasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations. At year 3000 atmospheric CO2 is still at more than half its year-2300 level in all EMICs forRCPs 4.5-8.5. Surface air temperature remains constant or decreases slightly and thermosteric sea level rise continues for centuries after elimination ofCO2 emissions in allEMICs.Restoration of atmosphericCO2 fromRCPto preindustrial levels over 100-1000 years requires large artificial removal of CO2 from the atmosphere and does not result in the simultaneous return to preindustrial climate conditions, as surface air temperature and sea level response exhibit a substantial time lag relative to atmospheric CO2. © 2013 American Meteorological Society.KZ and AJW acknowledge support from the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery Grant Program. AJW acknowledges support from NSERC's G8 Research Councils Initiative on Multilateral Research Funding Program. AVE and IIM were supported by the President of Russia Grant 5467.2012.5, by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, and by the programs of the Russian Academy of Sciences. EC, TF, HG, and GPB acknowledge support from the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office. FJ, RS, and MS acknowledge support by the Swiss National Science Foundation and by the European Project CARBOCHANGE (Grant 264879), which received funding from the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013). PBH and NRE acknowledge support from EU FP7 Grant ERMITAGE 265170

Low energy antideuterons: shedding light on dark matter

Low energy antideuterons suffer a very low secondary and tertiary astrophysical background, while they can be abundantly synthesized in dark matter pair annihilations, therefore providing a privileged indirect dark matter detection technique. The recent publication of the first upper limit on the low energy antideuteron flux by the BESS collaboration, a new evaluation of the standard astrophysical background, and remarkable progresses in the development of a dedicated experiment, GAPS, motivate a new and accurate analysis of the antideuteron flux expected in particle dark matter models. To this extent, we consider here supersymmetric, universal extra-dimensions (UED) Kaluza-Klein and warped extra-dimensional dark matter models, and assess both the prospects for antideuteron detection as well as the various related sources of uncertainties. The GAPS experiment, even in a preliminary balloon-borne setup, will explore many supersymmetric configurations, and, eventually, in its final space-borne configuration, will be sensitive to primary antideuterons over the whole cosmologically allowed UED parameter space, providing a search technique which is highly complementary with other direct and indirect dark matter detection experiments.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures; version to appear in JCA

Symmetry and Topology in Superconductors - Odd-frequency pairing and edge states -

Superconductivity is a phenomenon where the macroscopic quantum coherence appears due to the pairing of electrons. This offers a fascinating arena to study the physics of broken gauge symmetry. However, the important symmetries in superconductors are not only the gauge invariance. Especially, the symmetry properties of the pairing, i.e., the parity and spin-singlet/spin-triplet, determine the physical properties of the superconducting state. Recently it has been recognized that there is the important third symmetry of the pair amplitude, i.e., even or odd parity with respect to the frequency. The conventional uniform superconducting states correspond to the even-frequency pairing, but the recent finding is that the odd-frequency pair amplitude arises in the spatially non-uniform situation quite ubiquitously. Especially, this is the case in the Andreev bound state (ABS) appearing at the surface/interface of the sample. The other important recent development is on the nontrivial topological aspects of superconductors. As the band insulators are classified by topological indices into (i) conventional insulator, (ii) quantum Hall insulator, and (iii) topological insulator, also are the gapped superconductors. The influence of the nontrivial topology of the bulk states appears as the edge or surface of the sample. In the superconductors, this leads to the formation of zero energy ABS (ZEABS). Therefore, the ABSs of the superconductors are the place where the symmetry and topology meet each other which offer the stage of rich physics. In this review, we discuss the physics of ABS from the viewpoint of the odd-frequency pairing, the topological bulk-edge correspondence, and the interplay of these two issues. It is described how the symmetry of the pairing and topological indices determines the absence/presence of the ZEABS, its energy dispersion, and properties as the Majorana fermions.Comment: 91 pages, 38 figures, Review article, references adde

PlGF Repairs Myocardial Ischemia through Mechanisms of Angiogenesis, Cardioprotection and Recruitment of Myo-Angiogenic Competent Marrow Progenitors

Despite preclinical success in regenerating and revascularizing the infarcted heart using angiogenic growth factors or bone marrow (BM) cells, recent clinical trials have revealed less benefit from these therapies than expected.We explored the therapeutic potential of myocardial gene therapy of placental growth factor (PlGF), a VEGF-related angiogenic growth factor, with progenitor-mobilizing activity.Myocardial PlGF gene therapy improves cardiac performance after myocardial infarction, by inducing cardiac repair and reparative myoangiogenesis, via upregulation of paracrine anti-apoptotic and angiogenic factors. In addition, PlGF therapy stimulated Sca-1(+)/Lin(-) (SL) BM progenitor proliferation, enhanced their mobilization into peripheral blood, and promoted their recruitment into the peri-infarct borders. Moreover, PlGF enhanced endothelial progenitor colony formation of BM-derived SL cells, and induced a phenotypic switch of BM-SL cells, recruited in the infarct, to the endothelial, smooth muscle and cardiomyocyte lineage.Such pleiotropic effects of PlGF on cardiac repair and regeneration offer novel opportunities in the treatment of ischemic heart disease

Jet energy measurement with the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at root s=7 TeV

The jet energy scale and its systematic uncertainty are determined for jets measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 7TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 38 pb-1. Jets are reconstructed with the anti-kt algorithm with distance parameters R=0. 4 or R=0. 6. Jet energy and angle corrections are determined from Monte Carlo simulations to calibrate jets with transverse momenta pT≥20 GeV and pseudorapidities {pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy systematic uncertainty is estimated using the single isolated hadron response measured in situ and in test-beams, exploiting the transverse momentum balance between central and forward jets in events with dijet topologies and studying systematic variations in Monte Carlo simulations. The jet energy uncertainty is less than 2. 5 % in the central calorimeter region ({pipe}η{pipe}<0. 8) for jets with 60≤pT<800 GeV, and is maximally 14 % for pT<30 GeV in the most forward region 3. 2≤{pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy is validated for jet transverse momenta up to 1 TeV to the level of a few percent using several in situ techniques by comparing a well-known reference such as the recoiling photon pT, the sum of the transverse momenta of tracks associated to the jet, or a system of low-pT jets recoiling against a high-pT jet. More sophisticated jet calibration schemes are presented based on calorimeter cell energy density weighting or hadronic properties of jets, aiming for an improved jet energy resolution and a reduced flavour dependence of the jet response. The systematic uncertainty of the jet energy determined from a combination of in situ techniques is consistent with the one derived from single hadron response measurements over a wide kinematic range. The nominal corrections and uncertainties are derived for isolated jets in an inclusive sample of high-pT jets. Special cases such as event topologies with close-by jets, or selections of samples with an enhanced content of jets originating from light quarks, heavy quarks or gluons are also discussed and the corresponding uncertainties are determined. © 2013 CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration

Measurement of the inclusive and dijet cross-sections of b-jets in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The inclusive and dijet production cross-sections have been measured for jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements use data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb^-1. The b-jets are identified using either a lifetime-based method, where secondary decay vertices of b-hadrons in jets are reconstructed using information from the tracking detectors, or a muon-based method where the presence of a muon is used to identify semileptonic decays of b-hadrons inside jets. The inclusive b-jet cross-section is measured as a function of transverse momentum in the range 20 < pT < 400 GeV and rapidity in the range |y| < 2.1. The bbbar-dijet cross-section is measured as a function of the dijet invariant mass in the range 110 < m_jj < 760 GeV, the azimuthal angle difference between the two jets and the angular variable chi in two dijet mass regions. The results are compared with next-to-leading-order QCD predictions. Good agreement is observed between the measured cross-sections and the predictions obtained using POWHEG + Pythia. MC@NLO + Herwig shows good agreement with the measured bbbar-dijet cross-section. However, it does not reproduce the measured inclusive cross-section well, particularly for central b-jets with large transverse momenta.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (21 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version published in European Physical Journal

Identification of Genomic Predictors of Muscle Fiber Size

The greater muscle fiber cross-sectional area (CSA) is associated with greater skeletal muscle mass and strength, whereas muscle fiber atrophy is considered a major feature of sarcopenia. Muscle fiber size is a polygenic trait influenced by both environmental and genetic factors. However, the genetic variants underlying inter-individual differences in muscle fiber size remain largely unknown. The aim of our study was to determine whether 1535 genetic variants previously identified in a genome-wide association study of appendicular lean mass are associated with the CSA of fast-twitch muscle fibers (which better predict muscle strength) in the m. vastus lateralis of 148 physically active individuals (19 power-trained and 28 endurance-trained females, age 28.0 ± 1.1; 28 power-trained and 73 endurance-trained males, age 31.1 ± 0.8). Fifty-seven single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified as having an association with muscle fiber size (p n = 359,729). Furthermore, using East Asian and East European athletic (n = 731) and non-athletic (n = 515) cohorts, we identified 16 SNPs associated with athlete statuses (sprinter, wrestler, strength, and speed-strength athlete) and weightlifting performance. All SNPs had the same direction of association, i.e., the lean mass-increasing allele was positively associated with the CSA of muscle fibers, handgrip strength, weightlifting performance, and power athlete status. In conclusion, we identified 57 genetic variants associated with both appendicular lean mass and fast-twitch muscle fiber size of m. vastus lateralis that may, in part, contribute to a greater predisposition to power sports