Constraining Bosonic Supersymmetry from Higgs results and 8 TeV ATLAS multi-jets plus missing energy data

The collider phenomenology of models with Universal Extra Dimensions (UED) is surprisingly similar to that of supersymmetric (SUSY) scenarios. For each level-1 bosonic (fermionic) Kaluza-Klein (KK) state, there is a fermionic (bosonic) analog in SUSY and thus UED scenarios are often known as bosonic supersymmetry. The minimal version of UED (mUED) gives rise to a quasi-degenerate particle spectrum at each KK-level and thus, can not explain the enhanced Higgs to diphoton decay rate hinted by the ATLAS collaboration of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment. However, in the non-minimal version of the UED (nmUED) model, the enhanced Higgs to diphoton decay rate can be easily explained via the suitable choice of boundary localized kinetic (BLK) terms for higher dimensional fermions and gauge bosons. BLK terms remove the degeneracy in the KK mass spectrum and thus, pair production of level-1 quarks and gluons at the LHC gives rise to hard jets, leptons and large missing energy in the final state. These final states are studied in details by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations in the context of SUSY scenarios. We find that the absence of any significant deviation of the data from the Standard Model (SM) prediction puts a lower bound of about 2.1 TeV on equal mass excited quarks and gluons.Comment: 19 page

A prospective study of hearing changes after beginning zidovudine or didanosine in HIV-1 treatment-naïve people

BACKGROUND: While hearing loss in HIV-infected people after beginning nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) has been reported, there have been no prospective studies that measured hearing changes longitudinally in treatment-naïve HIV-infected subjects following initiation of regimens containing NRTIs. The goal of this study was to conduct a prospective assessment of the contribution of zidovudine (ZDV) and didanosine (ddI) to hearing loss METHODS/DESIGN: A prospective observational pilot study to determine whether ZDV or ddI, alone or in combination, are associated with sensorineural hearing loss in HIV-infected persons. Changes in hearing levels at all frequencies and in low and high frequency pure tone averages were measured at baseline, 16, and 32 weeks after initiating antiretroviral therapy. DISCUSSION: Treatment with ZDV and ddI did not result in loss of hearing, even after taking into account noise exposure, immune status and age. The results of this prospective pilot study do not support the notion that treatment with nucleoside antiretrovirals damages hearing

The Glucuronyltransferase GlcAT-P Is Required for Stretch Growth of Peripheral Nerves in Drosophila

During development, the growth of the animal body is accompanied by a concomitant elongation of the peripheral nerves, which requires the elongation of integrated nerve fibers and the axons projecting therein. Although this process is of fundamental importance to almost all organisms of the animal kingdom, very little is known about the mechanisms regulating this process. Here, we describe the identification and characterization of novel mutant alleles of GlcAT-P, the Drosophila ortholog of the mammalian glucuronyltransferase b3gat1. GlcAT-P mutants reveal shorter larval peripheral nerves and an elongated ventral nerve cord (VNC). We show that GlcAT-P is expressed in a subset of neurons in the central brain hemispheres, in some motoneurons of the ventral nerve cord as well as in central and peripheral nerve glia. We demonstrate that in GlcAT-P mutants the VNC is under tension of shorter peripheral nerves suggesting that the VNC elongates as a consequence of tension imparted by retarded peripheral nerve growth during larval development. We also provide evidence that for growth of peripheral nerve fibers GlcAT-P is critically required in hemocytes; however, glial cells are also important in this process. The glial specific repo gene acts as a modifier of GlcAT-P and loss or reduction of repo function in a GlcAT-P mutant background enhances VNC elongation. We propose a model in which hemocytes are required for aspects of glial cell biology which in turn affects the elongation of peripheral nerves during larval development. Our data also identifies GlcAT-P as a first candidate gene involved in growth of integrated peripheral nerves and therefore establishes Drosophila as an amenable in-vivo model system to study this process at the cellular and molecular level in more detail

PACAP centrally mediates emotional stress-induced corticosterone responses in mice

Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) is a pleiotropic neuropeptide widely distributed in the nervous system. Recently, PACAP was shown to be involved in restraint stress-induced corticosterone release and concomitant expression of the genes involved in hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis activation. Therefore, in this study, we have addressed the types of stressors and the levels of the HPA axis in which PACAP signaling is involved using mice lacking PACAP (PACAP−/−). Among four different types of stressors, open-field exposure, cold exposure, ether inhalation, and restraint, the corticosterone response to open-field exposure and restraint, which are categorized as emotional stressors, but not the other two, was markedly attenuated in PACAP−/− mice. Peripheral administration of corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) or adrenocorticotropic hormone induced corticosterone increase similarly in PACAP and wild-type mice. In addition, the restraint stress-induced c-Fos expression was significantly decreased in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and medial amygdala (MeA), but not the medial prefrontal cortex, in PACAP−/− mice. In the PVN of PACAP−/− mice, the stress-induced c-Fos expression was blunted in the CRF neurons. These results suggest that PACAP is critically involved in activation of the MeA and PVN CRF neurons to centrally regulate the HPA axis response to emotional stressors

The postmastectomy pain syndrome: an epidemiological study on the prevalence of chronic pain after surgery for breast cancer

The prevalence of the postmastectomy pain syndrome (PMPS) and its clinical characteristics was assessed in a group of patients who had undergone surgery for breast cancer at the Department of Surgery, Odense University Hospital, within the period of 1 May 2003 to 30 April 2004. The study included 258 patients and a reference group of 774 women. A questionnaire was mailed to the patients 1½ year after surgery and to the women in the reference group. The PMPS was defined as pain located in the area of the surgery or ipsilateral arm, present at least 4 days per week and with an average intensity of at least 3 on a numeric rating scale from 0 to 10. The prevalence of PMPS was found to be 23.9%. The odds ratio of developing PMPS was 2.88 (95% confidence interval 1.84–4.51). Significant risk factors were as follows: having undergone breast surgery earlier (OR 8.12), tumour located in the upper lateral quarter (OR 6.48) and young age (OR 1.04). This study shows that, although recent advances in the diagnostic and surgical procedures have reduced the frequency of the more invasive surgical procedures, there still is a considerable risk of developing PMPS after treatment of breast cancer

MscS-like mechanosensitive channels in plants and microbes

The challenge of osmotic stress is something all living organisms must face as a result of environmental dynamics. Over the past three decades, innovative research and cooperation across disciplines have irrefutably established that cells utilize mechanically gated ion channels to release osmolytes and prevent cell lysis during hypoosmotic stress. Early electrophysiological analysis of the inner membrane of Escherichia coli identified the presence of three distinct mechanosensitive activities. The subsequent discoveries of the genes responsible for two of these activities, the mechanosensitive channels of large (MscL) and small (MscS) conductance, led to the identification of two diverse families of mechanosensitive channels. The latter of these two families, the MscS family, consists of members from bacteria, archaea, fungi, and plants. Genetic and electrophysiological analysis of these family members has provided insight into how organisms use mechanosensitive channels for osmotic regulation in response to changing environmental and developmental circumstances. Furthermore, determining the crystal structure of E. coli MscS and several homologues in several conformational states has contributed to our understanding of the gating mechanisms of these channels. Here we summarize our current knowledge of MscS homologues from all three domains of life and address their structure, proposed physiological functions, electrophysiological behaviors, and topological diversity

Genome Wide Analysis of Acute Myeloid Leukemia Reveal Leukemia Specific Methylome and Subtype Specific Hypomethylation of Repeats

Methylated DNA immunoprecipitation followed by high-throughput sequencing (MeDIP-seq) has the potential to identify changes in DNA methylation important in cancer development. In order to understand the role of epigenetic modulation in the development of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) we have applied MeDIP-seq to the DNA of 12 AML patients and 4 normal bone marrows. This analysis revealed leukemia-associated differentially methylated regions that included gene promoters, gene bodies, CpG islands and CpG island shores. Two genes (SPHKAP and DPP6) with significantly methylated promoters were of interest and further analysis of their expression showed them to be repressed in AML. We also demonstrated considerable cytogenetic subtype specificity in the methylomes affecting different genomic features. Significantly distinct patterns of hypomethylation of certain interspersed repeat elements were associated with cytogenetic subtypes. The methylation patterns of members of the SINE family tightly clustered all leukemic patients with an enrichment of Alu repeats with a high CpG density (P<0.0001). We were able to demonstrate significant inverse correlation between intragenic interspersed repeat sequence methylation and gene expression with SINEs showing the strongest inverse correlation (R2 = 0.7). We conclude that the alterations in DNA methylation that accompany the development of AML affect not only the promoters, but also the non-promoter genomic features, with significant demethylation of certain interspersed repeat DNA elements being associated with AML cytogenetic subtypes. MeDIP-seq data were validated using bisulfite pyrosequencing and the Infinium array

Molecular Epidemiology of Endemic Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 in a Rural Community in Guinea-Bissau

Human T-Lymphotropic Virus type 1 (HTLV-1) affects millions of people worldwide. It is very similar to Simian T-Lymphotropic Virus, a virus that circulates in monkeys. HTLV-1 causes a lethal form of leukemia (Adult T-cell Leukemia) and a debilitating neurological syndrome (HTLV-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis) in approximately 5% of infected people. Based on sequence variation, HTLV-1 can be divided into 7 subtypes (1a–1g) with the Cosmopolitan subtype 1a further subdivided into subgroups (A–E). We examined HTLV-1 diversity in a rural area in Guinea-Bissau, a country in West Africa with a high HTLV-1 prevalence (5%). We found that most viruses belong to the Cosmopolitan subtype 1a, subgroup D, but 2 viruses belonged to subtype 1g. This subtype had thus far only been found in monkey hunters in Cameroon, who were probably recently infected by monkeys. Our findings indicate that this subtype has spread beyond Central Africa. An important, unresolved question is whether persons with this subtype were infected by monkeys or through human-to-human transmission