Flavored Co-annihilations

Neutralino dark matter in supersymmetric models is revisited in the presence of flavor violation in the soft supersymmetry breaking sector. We focus on flavor violation in the sleptonic sector and study the implications for the co-annihilation regions. Flavor violation is introduced by a single $\tilde{\mu}_R-\tilde{\tau}_R$ insertion in the slepton mass matrix. Limits on this insertion from BR($\tau \to \mu + \gamma$) are weak in some regions of the parameter space where cancellations happen within the amplitudes. We look for overlaps in parameter space where both the co-annihilation condition as well as the cancellations within the amplitudes occur. In mSUGRA, such overlap regions are not existent, whereas they are present in models with non-universal Higgs boundary conditions (NUHM). The effect of flavor violation is two fold: (a) it shifts the co-annihilation regions towards lighter neutralino masses (b) the co-annihilation cross sections would be modified with the inclusion of flavor violating diagrams which can contribute significantly. Even if flavor violation is within the presently allowed limits, this is sufficient to modify the thermally averaged cross-sections by about (10-15)% in mSUGRA and (20-30)% in NUHM, depending on the parameter space. In the overlap regions, the flavor violating cross sections become comparable and in some cases even dominant to the flavor conserving ones. A comparative study of the channels is presented for mSUGRA and NUHM cases.Comment: 38 pages, 28 figures. Significantly expanded and improved version with a new section on channels and new appendices on mSUGRA and cross-sections, version accepted for publication in JHE

Expression profiling of oocyte specific genes, transcription factors and microRNAs during early embryonic development in rainbow trout (Onchorhyncus mykiss)

Genes specifically expressed in oocytes are important for the development of oocytes and early embryos. By analyzing ESTs from a rainbow trout oocyte cDNA library, we identified a novel EST sequence that does not show homology to any sequences in the GenBank. Analysis of tissue distribution by RT-PCR revealed that this gene was only expressed in unfertilized oocytes. Sequencing of the EST clone identified a cDNA of 3163 bp. Northern blot analysis showed the novel gene has a single transcript of 3.4 kb. Additional 5\u27 sequence was obtained by 5\u27 RACE, extending the novel cDNA to 3333 bp. Analysis of the full length cDNA identified an open reading frame encoding a protein of 564 amino acids. The novel protein contains a conserved oxysterol binding protein (OSBP) domain at the C terminus that is characteristic of OSBP-related proteins implicated in lipid metabolism. Therefore, we named the novel gene as Oocyte-specific Oxysterol binding protein Related-Protein of Trout (OORP-T). In situ hybridization showed that the OORP-T mRNA appears to be confined to the cytoplasm of vitellogenic oocytes. Transcription of OORP-T appears to start during pre-vitellogenesis and increases steadily, reaching its peak in the late vitellogenic stage. OORP-T transcript is abundantly present in unfertilized eggs but the level drops significantly in day 2 embryos and continues to decline in day 7 embryos after which it remains low. It is proposed that OORP-T may play an important role in the utilization of yolk derived lipid products during oocyte development and early stages of embryonic development in rainbow trout.;Maternal-zygotic transition (MZT) is the first major transition in early development leading to the activation of embryonic genome. Effective transcription machinery including transcription factors must be in place during MZT for it to occur. Therefore, measuring the transcript abundance of key transcription factors prior to and after MZT can give important clues about the roles of transcription factors during this process. In this study, we quantitatively measured mRNA abundance of 9 selected transcription factors (Figla, P300, YY1, HMGA1, HMGB1, HMGN1, ATF-1, TEAD2 and OCT-4) in unfertilized eggs and early stage embryos from day 1 through day 7 post fertilization using quantitative real time PCR. Our results demonstrate that significant amounts of mRNA for all transcription factors studied are present in unfertilized eggs and day 1 embryos, and the expression of all transcription factors reaches minimum levels in day 2 embryos. While some transcription factors remain at low levels of expression throughout late stage development, others show significant increase of expression following embryonic genome activation. The expression patterns of these transcription factors are suggestive of their roles in MZT as well as in early development in rainbow trout.;Current literature and our results on expression patterns of oocyte specific genes and transcription factors suggest global but highly regulated maternal mRNA degradation at the time of embryonic genome activation (EGA). We hypothesized that microRNAs (miRNAs), naturally occurring 19-21bp long post-transcriptional regulators, are involved in this degradation process. We analyzed the expression pattern of dicer, an enzyme required for the processing of microRNAs. Dicer is abundantly expressed until 24 hours post-fertilization and gets down-regulated afterwards. This supports the hypothesis that dicer processes mature miRNAs during these stages and these miRNAs in turn degrade maternal mRNAs. To identify candidate microRNAs involved in this process, we constructed a miRNA library from a pool of oocytes and early stage embryos (0 hour post-fertilization through 96 hours post-fertilization). Sequencing analysis of clones showed that there are at least 15 miRNAs expressed during these stages, 4 of which are novel to rainbow trout. We carried out quantitative real-time PCR to learn more about their expression pattern. Our results show that several microRNAs are up-regulated when maternal RNAs are degraded. Stat3, a transcription factor which is involved in activating the transcription of miR-21 is also abundantly expressed in early rainbow trout embryos. Taken together, these results indicate that up-regulated microRNAs, some induced by stat3, could be responsible for degradation of maternal mRNAs in early embryos.;Identification and characterization of a novel oocyte specific gene with a conserved domain that is involved in oxysterol (a metabolite of cholesterol, a precursor molecule of all steroid hormones) metabolism is described here. Expression pattern of OORP-T follows the pattern of estrogen during oogenesis indicating its unique role in oogenesis and early embryonic development although the functions of OORP-T remain to be discovered. None the less, the OORP-T can potentially be used as a marker in selecting for high growth, better nutritional efficiency, disease resistance etc. Based on the results of studies on expression pattern of transcription factor mRNAs and microRNAs, it appears that microRNAs may be involved in maternal mRNAs degradation before EGA. The microRNAs identified and characterized here might also serve as markers for above mentioned economically important traits especially because microRNA might be regulating several target genes involved in any of the above mentioned phenotypes

SuSeFLAV: A program for calculating supersymmetric spectra and lepton flavor violation

We introduce the program SuSeFLAV for computing supersymmetric mass spectra with flavor violation in various supersymmetric breaking scenarios with/without seesaw mechanism. A short user guide summarizing the compilation, executables and the input files is provided.Comment: 3 pages, latex, pramana style, proceedings for Lepton Photon 201

Towards Comparative Analysis of Resumption Techniques in ETL

Data warehouses are loaded with data from sources such as operational data bases. Failure of loading process or failure of any of the process such as extraction or transformation is expensive because of the non-availability of data for analysis. With the advent of e-commerce and many real time application analysis of data in real time becomes a norm and hence any misses while the data is being loaded into data warehouse needs to be handled in an efficient and optimized way. The techniques to handle failure of process to populate the data are very much important as the actual loading process. Alternative arrangement needs to be made for in case of failure so that processes of populating the data warehouse are done in time. This paper explores the various ways through which a failed process of populating the data warehouse could be resumed. Various resumption techniques are compared and a novel block based technique is proposed to improve one of the existing resumption techniques

Percolating through networks of random thresholds: Finite temperature electron tunneling in metal nanocrystal arrays

We investigate how temperature affects transport through large networks of nonlinear conductances with distributed thresholds. In monolayers of weakly-coupled gold nanocrystals, quenched charge disorder produces a range of local thresholds for the onset of electron tunneling. Our measurements delineate two regimes separated by a cross-over temperature $T^*$. Up to $T^*$ the nonlinear zero-temperature shape of the current-voltage curves survives, but with a threshold voltage for conduction that decreases linearly with temperature. Above $T^*$ the threshold vanishes and the low-bias conductance increases rapidly with temperature. We develop a model that accounts for these findings and predicts $T^*$.Comment: 5 pages including 3 figures; replaced 3/30/04: minor changes; final versio

Adjuvant drugs in management of osteoarthritis: spotlight on type II collagen

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common musculoskeletal disorder that affects large and small joints and is seen in all ages due to diverse aetiologies. Pain, joint stiffness and limitation of daily activities affects the quality of life of individuals with OA. Conventional analgesics like non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs affect pain and inflammatory component but do not target the disease pathogenesis. Damage to the joint cartilage is central to the pathogenesis of OA. Better understanding of the pathogenesis has led to evolution of various adjuvant drugs in management of OA. Among them, undenatured type II collagen induces immune tolerance and thereby provide benefits by reducing the joint damage. Studies assessing efficacy and safety of undenatured type II collagen in OA have shown to reduce clinical symptoms like pain, joint stiffness and improvement in physical activities, and thus improving the quality of life. It is well tolerated and safe for use in OA. This article discusses the pathophysiology of OA with inflammation and beyond, and overviews the various drugs that are used as adjuvants in the management of OA with special focus on the use of type 2 collagen

PHYTOCHEMICAL AND PHARMACOGNOSTICAL STUDIES OF ANOGEISSUS ACUMINATA

Medicinal plants are one of the oldest valuable sources of medicine provide by nature to mankind. Medicinal plants are one of the important sources of research of new drugs. Many medicinal plants and herbs hold their prestigious position in the field of natural medicine among which Anogeissus acuminata belonging to family Combretaceae was vital one. In the present study was intended to evaluate various physicochemical, phytochemical standards like TLC, HPTLC and Pharmacognostic parameters which will be helpful to ensure the purity, safety and efficacy of the medicinal plant.  Anogeissus acuminata was subjected to preliminary phytochemical screening, done to estimate as foreign organic matter, morphological evaluation. Total ash values, physicochemical, Thin layer chromatography (TLC), HPTLC phytochemical analysis and secondary metabolites present in the plant were investigated for the extract. All physiochemical properties were found within the measureable amount as foreign organic matter less than 1% w/w, Total ash values was 12 % w/w with respect to air-dried crude drug. Moisture content was 3.074. Thin layer chromatography (TLC), HPTLC studies were carried for the better isolation and identification of the different components of ethanolic extract. HPTLC carried out in the solvent system - Toluene: Ethyl acetate: Acetic acid (4:3:1). The report of HPTLC indicates the presence of sixteen spots. Preliminary phytochemical analysis confirmed the presence of plant extracts revealed the presence of alkaloids, steroids, terpenoids glycosides, tannins and phenolic compounds. KEYWORDS: TLC, HPTLC, Phytochemical characterization, Anogeissus acuminat

APPLICABILITY OF ADOPTING MORPHOLOGICAL PATTERNS IN PEDIATRIC ANEMIAS AS ETIOLOGICAL INDICATORS

Background: Pediatric anemia is a global phenomenon. The magnitude of this problem gets exaggerated in developing countries like India wherein majority of the population are vulnerable since they live in rural areas and come under low socio-economic status. Though pediatric anemias can be diagnosed by simple blood tests like complete hemogram and peripheral smear examination, the evaluation of underlying etiological factor to initiate appropriate therapy involves expensive work up which may not be affordable in a rural setup. This need-based study of pediatric anemia was conducted to determine the morphological patterns of anemia by simple baseline investigations and to detect the related etiologic factor. Methodology: The probable etiological factors contributing to the anemias were diagnosed by determining the morphological patterns using simple baseline investigations like complete hemogram and peripheral blood examination and treated accordingly. Conclusion: The etiology of microcytic hypochromic anemia was found out to be iron deficiency as confirmed by serum iron profile studies. Presence of dimorphic anemia suggested combined nutritional deficiency of Iron, vitamin B12 deficiency or folate. Hemolytic anemias detected by routine hematological investigations were confirmed by serum electrophoresis. Morphological examination of red blood cells on peripheral smear examination is thus an effective, simple and cost effective method to determine the etiology of various types of anemia. KEYWORDS: Peripheral blood smear examination; Baseline investigation; Patient management

An approach for selecting text from e-mail in satellite-based education

It was in September 2004 that Indian Space Research Organization(ISRO), in its endeavor to provide sustainable distance education service in India, launched EDUSAT that is designed to supplement the present teaching system in the country.The EDUSAT project has sought to wipe out disparities in quality between the various educational institut ions by addressing itself to key issues of access, interactivity, cost-effectiveness and consistency of information to students.One subject expert can simultaneously teach hundreds of students in multiple locations across a vast geographical area.The major issue of paucity of faculty members in higher education has been tackled in one single stroke. In this regard, VTU has set up a Forum(http://forum.vtu.ac.in), which provides a platform for students to exchange their view, share resources and also get answers from subject experts by sending their queries into this Forum by e-mail.As this VTU-EDUSAT network is being used by a whopping 150,000 students, there will be thousands of questions from students across different subjects that will be handled through the network by hundreds of subject experts.The questions will be aired by the students during the live sessions of the satellite-based programme or by sending e-mail post transmission of sessions.Further, there will be number of questions by the students after they go through the e-Learning content.It has become impossible to answer all these questions by the subject experts because of paucity of time.It is also observed that there will be many questions that are similar or repetitive or these questions would have been answered earlier by the subject experts.Also, it is impossible for the subject expert to go through all the e-mails completely.Therefore, it is required to develop a solution that involves summarization of e-mail text sent by the students, which means selection of important sentences or text so as to compare them with the current database of questions. Once comparison is made, only the non- repetitive questions are extracted and place them before the subject expert. Further, if the answer is already available for questions, the system advices students to refer the FAQ data base.Here, it is necessary to distinguish the important information with less important information within the original text (e-mail).For this, we need the combination of two steps: information filtering and text reduction.The on-going research is to address such an issue by domain-specific text summarization. We have made an attempt to develop a model that examines content-based text selection