Polymorphisms associated with the number of live-born piglets in sows infected with the PRRS virus in southern Sonora Mexico

The porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is a viral disease that decreases the reproductive performance in breeding sows and leads to economic losses to the swine industry. The objective of the present study was to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) associated to the number of live-born piglets in the first (LBP1) and second birth (LBP2) in breeding sows exposed to PRRS virus. The study included 100 pregnant females of the Landrace(¾)/ Yorkshire(¼) line, 75 of which were infected with the PRRS virus and 25 were free of PRRS. Individual blood samples (6-8 drops) were obtained and spotted onto FTA cards and subsequently processed for DNA extraction, which was genotyped using a 10,000 SNP chip for genomic profile. Resulting genotypes were analyzed using a multi-locus mixed model that detected three SNP associated to LBP1 and five SNP associated to LBP2 (P<0.001). These eight SNP were validated using an associative mixed effects model which included the terms genotype and age of dam as fixed effects, and sire as random effect. Allele substitution effects were estimated using the same model including the term genotype as covariate. The SNP rs81276080, rs81334603 and rs80947173 were associated to LBP1 (P<0.001), whereas the SNP rs81364943, rs80859829, rs80895640, rs80893794 and rs81245908 were associated to LBP2 (P<0.001). Only two SNP were in functional chromosomal regions and the remainder SNP were within an intergenic position. In conclusion, these results suggest the existence of gene variants associated with the reproductive performance of sows infected with the PRRS virus.The porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is a viral disease that decreases the reproductive performance in breeding sows and leads to economic losses to the swine industry. The objective of the present study was to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) associated to the number of live-born piglets in the first (LBP1) and second birth (LBP2) in breeding sows exposed to PRRS virus. The study included 100 pregnant females of the Landrace(¾)/ Yorkshire(¼) line, 75 of which were infected with the PRRS virus and 25 were free of PRRS. Individual blood samples (6-8 drops) were obtained and spotted onto FTA cards and subsequently processed for DNA extraction, which was genotyped using a 10,000 SNP chip for genomic profile. Resulting genotypes were analyzed using a multi-locus mixed model that detected three SNP associated to LBP1 and five SNP associated to LBP2 (P<0.001). These eight SNP were validated using an associative mixed effects model which included the terms genotype and age of dam as fixed effects, and sire as random effect. Allele substitution effects were estimated using the same model including the term genotype as covariate. The SNP rs81276080, rs81334603 and rs80947173 were associated to LBP1 (P<0.001), whereas the SNP rs81364943, rs80859829, rs80895640, rs80893794 and rs81245908 were associated to LBP2 (P<0.001). Only two SNP were in functional chromosomal regions and the remainder SNP were within an intergenic position. In conclusion, these results suggest the existence of gene variants associated with the reproductive performance of sows infected with the PRRS virus

Localization of bulk matter fields, the hierarchy problem and corrections to Coulomb's law on a pure de Sitter thick braneworld

In this paper we investigate the localization and mass spectra of matter fields with spin 0, 1 and 1/2 on a geometric thick brane generated by pure 4D and 5D positive cosmological constants without bulk scalar fields. This model possesses a 4D cosmological constant that can be made as small as one desires without fine-tuning it with the bulk cosmological constant. The RS model is obtained as an analytic continuation of the flat brane limit of this braneworld configuration when the Hubble parameter disappears. Within this inflating braneworld model it is possible to formulate a mechanism for obtaining TeV mass scales from Planck ones by adding a positive thin brane, where the Standard Model fields are trapped, at a distance y_2 from the origin, where the Planck thick brane resides. The brane separation must be of the same order than the inverse thickness parameter of the model in order for the mechanism to generate the desired hierarchy. This result is obtained by imposing the recovery of both the correct 4D gravitational couplings and the actually observed accelerated expansion of the universe in our de Sitter braneworld. Regarding the localization of matter in the purely geometric thick braneworld, for spin 0 massless and massive scalar fields as well as for spin 1 vector fields, the potentials of the Kaluza--Klein (KK) modes in thecorresponding Schroedinger equations are modified Poeschl-Teller potentials, which lead to the localization of the scalar and vector zero modes on the brane as well as to mass gaps in the mass spectra. We also compute the corrections to Coulomb's law coming from massive KK vector modes. For spin 1/2 fermions, we introduce the bulk mass term MF(z)\bar{\Psi}\Psi in the action and show that localization of the massless left-chiral fermion zero mode is feasible for two mass functions MF(z) with a finite/infinite number of massive KK bound states.Comment: 28 pages in latex, 19 figures, title modified according to substantial additions performed in the text of the manuscript. To appear in Phys Rev

The hybrid meson: new results from the updated mg and alpha_s parameters

We present new results concerning the masses and the decay widths of the most interesting hybrid meson states taking as inputs the gluon mass mg and the non-perturbative QCD running coupling constant ?alpha_s(0) comming from both LQCD and SDE recent estimations.Comment: 10 pages, 8 table

Gluon mass generation in the PT-BFM scheme

In this article we study the general structure and special properties of the Schwinger-Dyson equation for the gluon propagator constructed with the pinch technique, together with the question of how to obtain infrared finite solutions, associated with the generation of an effective gluon mass. Exploiting the known all-order correspondence between the pinch technique and the background field method, we demonstrate that, contrary to the standard formulation, the non-perturbative gluon self-energy is transverse order-by-order in the dressed loop expansion, and separately for gluonic and ghost contributions. We next present a comprehensive review of several subtle issues relevant to the search of infrared finite solutions, paying particular attention to the role of the seagull graph in enforcing transversality, the necessity of introducing massless poles in the three-gluon vertex, and the incorporation of the correct renormalization group properties. In addition, we present a method for regulating the seagull-type contributions based on dimensional regularization; its applicability depends crucially on the asymptotic behavior of the solutions in the deep ultraviolet, and in particular on the anomalous dimension of the dynamically generated gluon mass. A linearized version of the truncated Schwinger-Dyson equation is derived, using a vertex that satisfies the required Ward identity and contains massless poles belonging to different Lorentz structures. The resulting integral equation is then solved numerically, the infrared and ultraviolet properties of the obtained solutions are examined in detail, and the allowed range for the effective gluon mass is determined. Various open questions and possible connections with different approaches in the literature are discussed.Comment: 54 pages, 24 figure

Biases in precipitation records found in parallel measurements

Presentación realizada en: 10th EUMETNET Data Management Workshop celebrado en St. Gallen, Suiza, del 28 al 30 de octubre de 2015.In this work we investigate biases introduced by the transition from Conventional to automatic precipitation measurements. This is another study in the framework of The Parallel Observations Scientific Team (POST, http://www.surfacetemperatures.org/databank/parallel_measurements), which is a newly created group of the International Surface Temperature Initiative (ISTI) supported by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The goals of POST are the study of climate data inhomogeneities at the daily and sub-daily level. Long instrumental climate records are usually affected by non-climatic changes, due to various reasons like relocations, changes in instrumentation, measurements schemes etc. Such inhomogeneities may distort the climate signal and can influence the assessment of trends and variability. For studying climatic changes it is important to accurately distinguish non-climatic from climatic signals. This can be achieved by studying the differences between two parallel measurements. These need to be sufficiently close together to be well correlated. One important ongoing worldwide transition is the one from manual to automated measurements. We need to study the impact of automated measurements urgently because sooner or later this will affect most of the stations in individual national networks. Similar to temperature series, we study the transition from conventional manual measurements (CON) to Automatic Weather Stations (AWS), using several parallel datasets distributed over Europe and America. The ratio series AWS-CON are subject to quality control, and before the analysis obvious errors are removed. Further, the series are inspected for internal inhomogeneities and– if necessary –the records are split into two or more homogeneous segments. Finally, each segment is studied to understand the biases introduced by the transition, its seasonality as well as changes in the empirical distributions. When additional variables are available, an attempt is made to study the effects of other variables on the observed biases

Description of the bias introduced by the transition from Conventional Manual Measurements to Automatic Weather Station through the analysis of European and American parallel datasets (+ Australia, Israel & Kyrgyzstan)

Presentación realizada en: 10th EUMETNET Data Management Workshop celebrado en St. Gallen, Suiza, del 28 al 30 de octubre de 2015.In this work, we approach the description of the biases introduced by automation in temperature records. This is one of the first studies in the framework of The Parallel Observations Scientific Team (POST). POST is a newly created group of the International Surface Temperature Initiative (ISTI), with the support of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The goals of POST (http://www.surfacetemperatures.org/databank/parallel_measurements) are the study of climate data inhomogeneities at the daily and sub-daily level through the compilation and analysis of parallel measurements. Long instrumental climate records are usually affected by non-climatic changes, due to, e.g., relocations and changes in instrumentation, instrument height or data collection and manipulation procedures. These so-called inhomogeneities distort the climate signal and can hamper the assessment of trends and variability. Thus to study climatic changes we need to accurately distinguish non-climatic and climatic signals. The most direct way to study the influence of non-climatic changes on the distribution and to understand the reasons for these biases is the analysis of parallel measurements. A parallel measurement is composed of two or more time series, which measure a climatic variable with two different systems (for example, Montsouris and Stevenson Screens) or in two different locations (for example, city centre and airport). They mimic the situation “before” and “after” a homogeneity break. Most parallel measurements are obtained from collocated or nearly collocated series and can help us to understand the size and shape of different typical sources of inhomogeneity, which affect the climate series. Here we study the transition from conventional temperature manual measurements (CON) to Automatic Weather Stations (AWS), using several parallel datasets distributed over Europe and America. The variables studied in the analysis presented here are daily maximum and minimum temperature. First of all, the metadata – when available - is gathered to gain knowledge on the exact setting of the parallel series. Secondly, the difference (temperature) series AWS-CON are submitted to quality control, to remove obvious errors and inspected to detect internal inhomogeneities and split if necessary. In a third step, each segment is studied to understand the bias introduced by the transition, its seasonality as well as changes in the empirical distributions. When additional variables are available, an attempt is made to study the effects of other variables on the observed biases.With the support of Grant CGL2012-32193, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, MINECO, España and FP7-SPACE-2013-1 grand 607193, Uncertainties in Ensembles of Regional Reanalyses (UERRA)

Adipose Co-expression networks across Finns and Mexicans identify novel triglyceride-associated genes

BACKGROUND: High serum triglyceride (TG) levels is an established risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD). Fat is stored in the form of TGs in human adipose tissue. We hypothesized that gene co-expression networks in human adipose tissue may be correlated with serum TG levels and help reveal novel genes involved in TG regulation. METHODS: Gene co-expression networks were constructed from two Finnish and one Mexican study sample using the blockwiseModules R function in Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA). Overlap between TG-associated networks from each of the three study samples were calculated using a Fisher’s Exact test. Gene ontology was used to determine known pathways enriched in each TG-associated network. RESULTS: We measured gene expression in adipose samples from two Finnish and one Mexican study sample. In each study sample, we observed a gene co-expression network that was significantly associated with serum TG levels. The TG modules observed in Finns and Mexicans significantly overlapped and shared 34 genes. Seven of the 34 genes (ARHGAP30, CCR1, CXCL16, FERMT3, HCST, RNASET2, SELPG) were identified as the key hub genes of all three TG modules. Furthermore, two of the 34 genes (ARHGAP9, LST1) reside in previous TG GWAS regions, suggesting them as the regional candidates underlying the GWAS signals. CONCLUSIONS: This study presents a novel adipose gene co-expression network with 34 genes significantly correlated with serum TG across populations

Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8  TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum