Natural polyphenols as proteasome modulators and their role as anti-cancer compounds

The purpose of this review is to discuss the effect of natural antioxidantcompounds as modulators of the 20S proteasome, a multi-enzymatic multicatalytic complex present in the cytoplasm and nucleus of eukaryotic cells and involved in several cellular activities such as cell-cycle progression, proliferation and the degradation of oxidized and damaged proteins. From this perspective, proteasome inhibition is a promising approach to anticancer therapy and such natural antioxidant effectors can be considered as potential relevant adjuvants and pharmacological models in the study of new drugs

Early change in coping strategies in responsive treatments for borderline personality disorder: A mediation analysis.

Difficulty in emotion regulation is a hallmark feature of patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Therefore, change in the frequency of certain patients' coping strategies-aiming at emotion regulation-are among the most promising mechanisms of change in treatments for BPD. In parallel, it was highlighted that therapist responsiveness significantly contributed to outcome across treatment approaches (Stiles, 2009). Based on a randomized controlled trial (Kramer et al., 2014), the present process-outcome mediation analysis aims at examining the patient's early change in frequency of coping strategies-in particular the decrease in behavioral forms of coping-as potential mechanism of change in responsive treatments for BPD. A total of 57 patients with BPD were included in the present analysis, out of whom 27 were randomly assigned to a 10-session psychiatric treatment and 30 to a 10-session psychiatric treatment augmented with the responsive intervention of the motive-oriented therapeutic relationship (Caspar, 2007). The 1st, 5th, and 9th session of each therapy were transcribed and analyzed using the Coping Action Pattern Rating Scale (Perry et al., 2005; 171 sessions analyzed in total), a validated observer-rated method for assessing coping strategies in the therapy process. Psychological distress was assessed using the OQ-45 at intake, after Session 5, and after Session 10. The results confirmed a responsiveness effect associated with the motive-oriented therapeutic relationship and showed a significant decrease in frequency of behavioral forms of coping, F(1, 54) = 3.09, p = .05, d = .56, which was not different between the 2 conditions. In addition, we demonstrated that the early decrease in behavioral forms of coping between Sessions 1 and 5 partially mediated the link between the group assignment and the change in psychological distress between Sessions 5 and 10. These results shed light on the centrality of therapist responsiveness in treatments for BPD and its impact on very early change in patient's in-session behavioral coping strategies, contributing to the effectiveness of short-term treatments for BPD. (PsycINFO Database Recor

Change in Biased Thinking in a Treatment Based on the Motive-Oriented Therapeutic Relationship for Borderline Personality Disorder.

Biased thinking is a common feature of patients presenting with borderline personality disorder (BPD). For the treatment of BPD, it was shown that the individualizing of the treatment, by using the motive-oriented therapeutic relationship (MOTR), had a beneficial short-term effect on process and outcome. So far, it remains unclear what the role of early change in biased thinking is in these treatments. The present study aims to assess whether there is a link between the MOTR, change in biased thinking, and outcome. The sample (N = 60) is based on a randomized controlled trial with two conditions: (a) 30 patients in a 10-session version of psychiatric management, and (b) 30 patients in a 10-session version of psychiatric management augmented with the MOTR. For each patient, three sessions (intake, middle, late) were selected, transcribed, and rated using the Cognitive Errors Rating Scale (CERS). An overall decrease of negative cognitive errors during 10 sessions of treatment was observed, independently of the treatment condition. No specific effect related to change in biased thinking may be attributed to the individualizing of the treatment. These results are discussed with regard to mechanisms of change in treatments for BPD, in particular with regard to the central role that biased thinking, as well as the MOTR, might play early in treatment

Associated Higgs production with top quarks at the Large Hadron Collider: NLO QCD corrections

We present in detail the calculation of the O(alpha_s^3) inclusive total cross section for the process pp -> t-tbar-h, in the Standard Model, at the CERN Large Hadron Collider with center-of-mass energy sqrt(s_H)=14 TeV. The calculation is based on the complete set of virtual and real O(alpha_s) corrections to the parton level processes q-qbar -> t-tbar-h and gg -> t-tbar-h, as well as the tree level processes (q,qbar)g -> t-tbar-h-(q,qbar). The virtual corrections involve the computation of pentagon diagrams with several internal and external massive particles, first encountered in this process. The real corrections are computed using both the single and the two cutoff phase space slicing method. The next-to-leading order QCD corrections significantly reduce the renormalization and factorization scale dependence of the Born cross section and moderately increase the Born cross section for values of the renormalization and factorization scales above m_t.Comment: 70 pages, 12 figures, RevTeX4: one word changed in the abstract, one sentence reworded in the introduction. To appear in Phys. Rev.

‘Brands in Higher Education ; Challenges and Potential Strategies’

This study explores the challenges of university branding and the qualities that make university branding different from commercial branding in terms of cultural issues, branding concepts and frameworks and brands architecture. The literature about branding in the university sector is described and viewed in the context of exploratory interviews with fifty five university managers. The results present the differences between university and commercial brandings as well as culture, brand concepts and brand architecture,. The study was conducted in UK universities, but similar issues in many other countries means that the results are comparable internationally. Overall, the findings presented in this research offer a valuable contribution to our understanding of the complexities of higher education branding

Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV

A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV. The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b, leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W' boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02