Gluon fusion contribution to W+W- + jet production

We describe the computation of the $gg \to W^+W^-g$ process that contributes to the production of two $W$-bosons and a jet at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). While formally of next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in QCD, this process can be evaluated separately from the bulk of NNLO QCD corrections because it is finite and gauge-invariant. It is also enhanced by the large gluon flux and by selection cuts employed in the Higgs boson searches in the decay channel $H \to W^+W^-$, as was first pointed out by Binoth {\it et al.} in the context of $gg \to W^+W^-$ production. For cuts employed by the ATLAS collaboration, we find that the gluon fusion contribution to $pp \to W^+W^-j$ enhances the background by about ten percent and can lead to moderate distortions of kinematic distributions which are instrumental for the ongoing Higgs boson searches at the LHC. We also release a public code to compute the NLO QCD corrections to this process, in the form of an add-on to the package {\tt MCFM}.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, 3 table

LHC Discovery Potential for Non-Standard Higgs Bosons in the 3b Channel

In a variety of well motivated models, such as two Higgs Doublet Models (2HDMs) and the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), there are neutral Higgs bosons that have significantly enhanced couplings to b-quarks and tau leptons in comparison to those of the SM Higgs. These so called non-standard Higgs bosons could be copiously produced at the LHC in association with b quarks, and subsequently decay into b-quark pairs. However, this production channel suffers from large irreducible QCD backgrounds. We propose a new search strategy for non-standard neutral Higgs bosons at the 7 TeV LHC in the 3b's final state topology. We perform a simulation of the signal and backgrounds, using state of the art tools and methods for different sets of selection cuts, and conclude that neutral Higgs bosons with couplings to b-quarks of about 0.3 or larger, and masses up to 400 GeV, could be seen with a luminosity of 30 fb^{-1}. In the case of the MSSM we also discuss the complementarity between the 3b channel and the inclusive tau pair channel in exploring the supersymmetric parameter space.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables, references added, published versio

Axillary silicone lymphadenopathy presenting with a lump and altered sensation in the breast: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Silicone lymphadenopathy is a rare but recognised complication of procedures involving the use of silicone. It has a poorly understood mechanism but is thought to occur following the transportation of silicone particles from silicone-containing prostheses to lymph nodes by macrophages.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report of a case involving a 35-year-old woman who presented to the breast clinic with a breast lump and altered sensation below her left nipple 5 years after bilateral cosmetic breast augmentations. A small lump was detected inferior to the nipple but clinical examination and initial ultrasound investigation showed both implants to be intact. However, mammography and magnetic resonance imaging of both breasts revealed both intracapsular and extracapsular rupture of the left breast prosthesis. The patient went on to develop a flu-like illness and tender lumps in the left axilla and right mastoid regions. An excision biopsy of the left axillary lesion and replacement of the ruptured implant was performed. Subsequent histological analysis showed that the axillary lump was a lymph node containing large amounts of silicone.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The exclusion of malignancy remains the priority when dealing with lumps in the breast or axilla. Silicone lymphadenopathy should however be considered as a differential diagnosis in patients in whom silicone prostheses are present.</p

Determination of Real-Time Efflux Phenotypes in Escherichia coli AcrB Binding Pocket Phenylalanine Mutants Using a 1,2′-Dinaphthylamine Efflux Assay

To evaluate the importance of phenylalanine residues for substrate transport in the Escherichia coli efflux pump protein AcrB, we subjected Phe-to-Ala binding pocket mutants to a real-time efflux assay with the novel near-infrared lipophilic membrane probe 1,2′-dinaphthylamine (1,2′-DNA). All mutations, with the exception of F617A, led to considerable retardation of efflux. F610A was the point mutation with the most pronounced impact, followed by F628A, F615A, F136A, and F178A. This is the first study to demonstrate the importance of single phenylalanine residues within the AcrB binding pocket for real-time substrate transport

Hypoadiponectinemia in Extremely Low Gestational Age Newborns with Severe Hyperglycemia – A Matched-Paired Analysis

BACKGROUND: Hyperglycemia is commonly observed in extremely low gestational age newborns (ELGANs) and is associated with both increased morbidity and mortality. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between neonatal hyperglycemia and adiponectin levels in ELGANs. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Ten preterm infants between 22+6/7 and 27+3/7 weeks' gestation with neonatal hyperglycemia (defined as pre-feeding blood glucose levels above 200mg/dl on two consecutive measurements with a maximum parenteral glucose infusion of 4 mg/kg*min(-1)) formed the case cohort of this study. To every single patient of this case cohort a patient with normal fasting ( = pre-feeding) blood glucose levels was matched in terms of gestational age and gender. Adiponectin ELISAs were performed both at onset of hyperglycemia and at term-equivalent age. In the case cohort 9/10 patients had to be treated with insulin for 1-26 days (range 0.01-0.4 IU/kg*h(-1)). Compared to matched-paired controls, significant hypoadiponectinemia was observed at onset of hyperglycemia in these affected patients (6.9 µg/ml versus 15.1 µg/ml, p = 0.009). At term equivalent age, normoglycemia without any insulin treatment was found in both groups. Moreover, adiponectin levels at that time were no longer significantly different (12.3 µg/ml versus 20.0 µg/ml; p = 0.051) possibly indicating a mechanistic relevance of this adipokine in regulating insulin sensitivity in ELGANs. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Decreased circulating adiponectin levels are correlated with hyperglycemia in ELGANs and may contribute to the pathogenesis of impaired glucose homeostasis in these infants. These findings suggest that adiponectin might be a potential future drug target for the potentially save treatment of hyperglycemia in pre-term infants

Electroweak corrections to W-boson pair production at the LHC

Vector-boson pair production ranks among the most important Standard-Model benchmark processes at the LHC, not only in view of on-going Higgs analyses. These processes may also help to gain a deeper understanding of the electroweak interaction in general, and to test the validity of the Standard Model at highest energies. In this work, the first calculation of the full one-loop electroweak corrections to on-shell W-boson pair production at hadron colliders is presented. We discuss the impact of the corrections on the total cross section as well as on relevant differential distributions. We observe that corrections due to photon-induced channels can be amazingly large at energies accessible at the LHC, while radiation of additional massive vector bosons does not influence the results significantly.Comment: 29 pages, 15 figures, 4 tables; some references and comments on \gamma\gamma -> WW added; matches version published in JHE

Variable selection for large p small n regression models with incomplete data: Mapping QTL with epistases

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Identifying quantitative trait loci (QTL) for both additive and epistatic effects raises the statistical issue of selecting variables from a large number of candidates using a small number of observations. Missing trait and/or marker values prevent one from directly applying the classical model selection criteria such as Akaike's information criterion (AIC) and Bayesian information criterion (BIC).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We propose a two-step Bayesian variable selection method which deals with the sparse parameter space and the small sample size issues. The regression coefficient priors are flexible enough to incorporate the characteristic of "large <it>p </it>small <it>n</it>" data. Specifically, sparseness and possible asymmetry of the significant coefficients are dealt with by developing a Gibbs sampling algorithm to stochastically search through low-dimensional subspaces for significant variables. The superior performance of the approach is demonstrated via simulation study. We also applied it to real QTL mapping datasets.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The two-step procedure coupled with Bayesian classification offers flexibility in modeling "large p small n" data, especially for the sparse and asymmetric parameter space. This approach can be extended to other settings characterized by high dimension and low sample size.</p

Higher Infection of Dengue Virus Serotype 2 in Human Monocytes of Patients with G6PD Deficiency

The prevalence of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency is high in Asia. An ex vivo study was conducted to elucidate the association of G6PD deficiency and dengue virus (DENV) infection when many Asian countries are hyper-endemic. Human monocytes from peripheral mononuclear cells collected from 12 G6PD-deficient patients and 24 age-matched controls were infected with one of two DENV serotype 2 (DENV-2) strains–the New Guinea C strain (from a case of dengue fever) or the 16681 strain (from a case of dengue hemorrhagic fever) with a multiplicity of infection of 0.1. The infectivity of DENV-2 in human monocytes was analyzed by flow cytometry. Experimental results indicated that the monocytes of G6PD-deficient patients exhibited a greater levels of infection with DENV-2 New Guinea C strain than did those in healthy controls [mean±SD:33.6%±3.5 (27.2%∼39.2%) vs 20.3%±6.2 (8.0%∼30.4%), P<0.01]. Similar observations were made of infection with the DENV-2 16681 strain [40.9%±3.9 (35.1%∼48.9%) vs 27.4%±7.1 (12.3%∼37.1%), P<0.01]. To our knowledge, this study demonstrates for the first time higher infection of human monocytes in G6PD patients with the dengue virus, which may be important in increasing epidemiological transmission and perhaps with the potential to develop more severe cases pathogenically

Metastatic breast carcinoma mimicking a sebaceous gland neoplasm: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Breast cancer is common in women and its metastases involve the skin in approximately one quarter of patients. Accordingly, metastatic breast cancer shown to be cutaneous through histology must be distinguished from a wide variety of other neoplasms as well as the diverse morphologic variants of breast cancer itself.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report the case of a 61-year-old Caucasian woman with cutaneous metastases of a bilateral ductal breast carcinoma that in histopathological examination mimicked an adnexal neoplasm with sebaceous differentiation.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Against the background of metastatic breast carcinoma, dermatopathological considerations of sebaceous differentiation of skin lesions are presented and discussed focusing on the rare differential diagnosis of sebaceous carcinoma of the breast.</p

Inhibiting mevalonate pathway enzymes increases stromal cell resilience to a cholesterol-dependent cytolysin

Animal health depends on the ability of immune cells to kill invading pathogens, and on the resilience of tissues to tolerate the presence of pathogens. Trueperella pyogenes causes tissue pathology in many mammals by secreting a cholesterol-dependent cytolysin, pyolysin (PLO), which targets stromal cells. Cellular cholesterol is derived from squalene, which is synthesized via the mevalonate pathway enzymes, including HMGCR, FDPS and FDFT1. The present study tested the hypothesis that inhibiting enzymes in the mevalonate pathway to reduce cellular cholesterol increases the resilience of stromal cells to PLO. We first verified that depleting cellular cholesterol with methyl-β-cyclodextrin increased the resilience of stromal cells to PLO. We then used siRNA to deplete mevalonate pathway enzyme gene expression, and used pharmaceutical inhibitors, atorvastatin, alendronate or zaragozic acid to inhibit the activity of HMGCR, FDPS and FDFT1, respectively. These approaches successfully reduced cellular cholesterol abundance, but mevalonate pathway enzymes did not affect cellular resilience equally. Inhibiting FDFT1 was most effective, with zaragozic acid reducing the impact of PLO on cell viability. The present study provides evidence that inhibiting FDFT1 increases stromal cell resilience to a cholesterol-dependent cytolysin