Search for Gravitational Waves from Intermediate Mass Binary Black Holes

We present the results of a weakly modeled burst search for gravitational waves from mergers of non-spinning intermediate mass black holes (IMBH) in the total mass range 100--450 solar masses and with the component mass ratios between 1:1 and 4:1. The search was conducted on data collected by the LIGO and Virgo detectors between November of 2005 and October of 2007. No plausible signals were observed by the search which constrains the astrophysical rates of the IMBH mergers as a function of the component masses. In the most efficiently detected bin centered on 88+88 solar masses, for non-spinning sources, the rate density upper limit is 0.13 per Mpc^3 per Myr at the 90% confidence level.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures: data for plots and archived public version at https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=62326, see also the public announcement at http://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-S5IMBH

Conditional targeting of E-cadherin in skin: Insights into hyperproliferative and degenerative responses

Loss of E-cadherin has been associated with human cancers, and yet in the early mouse embryo and the lactating mammary gland, the E-cadherin null state results in tissue dysfunction and cell death. Here we targeted loss of E-cadherin in skin epithelium. The epidermal basal layer responded by elevating P-cadherin, enabling these cells to maintain adherens junctions. Suprabasal layers upregulated desmosomal cadherins, but without classical cadherins, terminal differentiation was impaired. Progressive hyperplasia developed with age, a possible consequence of proliferative maintenance in basal cells coupled with defects in terminal differentiation. In contrast, hair follicles lost integrity of the inner root sheath and hair cuticle without apparent elevation of cadherins. These findings suggest that, if no compensatory mechanisms exist, E-cadherin loss may be incompatible with epithelial tissue survival, whereas partial compensation can result in alterations in differentiation and proliferation

Wounding enhances epidermal tumorigenesis by recruiting hair follicle keratinocytes

Chronic wounds and acute trauma constitute well-established risk factors for development of epithelial-derived skin tumors, although the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. Basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) are the most common skin cancers displaying a number of features reminiscent of hair follicle (HF)-derived cells and are dependent on deregulated Hedgehog (Hh)/GLI signaling. Here we show, in a mouse model conditionally expressing GLI1 and in a model with homozygous inactivation of Ptch1, mimicking the situation in human BCCs, that the wound environment accelerates the initiation frequency and growth of BCC-like lesions. Lineage tracing reveals that both oncogene activation and wounding induce emigration of keratinocytes residing in the lower bulge and the nonpermanent part of the HFs toward the interfollicular epidermis (IFE). However, only oncogene activation in combination with a wound environment enables the participation of such cells in the initiation of BCC-like lesions at the HF openings and in the IFE. We conclude that, in addition to the direct enhancement of BCC growth, the tumor-promoting effect of the wound environment is due to recruitment of tumor-initiating cells originating from the neighboring HFs, establishing a link between epidermal wounds and skin cancer risk

Measurement of charged particle spectra in minimum-bias events from proton-proton collisions at root s =13 TeV

Pseudorapidity, transverse momentum, and multiplicity distributions are measured in the pseudorapidity range vertical bar eta vertical bar 0.5 GeV in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV. Measurements are presented in three different event categories. The most inclusive of the categories corresponds to an inelastic pp data set, while the other two categories are exclusive subsets of the inelastic sample that are either enhanced or depleted in single diffractive dissociation events. The measurements are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo event generators used to describe high-energy hadronic interactions in collider and cosmic-ray physics.Peer reviewe

Search for resonant pair production of Higgs bosons decaying to bottom quark-antiquark pairs in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV

A search for a narrow-width resonance decaying into two Higgs bosons, each decaying into a bottom quark-antiquark pair, is presented. The search is performed using proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{-1}$ at $\sqrt{s}=$ 13 TeV recorded by the CMS detector at the LHC. No evidence for such a signal is observed. Upper limits are set on the product of the production cross section for the resonance and the branching fraction for the selected decay mode in the resonance mass range from 260 to 1200 GeV

Search for supersymmetric partners of electrons and muons in proton–proton collisions at s=13TeV

A search for direct production of the supersymmetric (SUSY) partners of electrons or muons is presented in final states with two opposite-charge, same-flavour leptons (electrons and muons), no jets, and large missing transverse momentum. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1 of proton–proton collisions at s=13TeV, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2016. The search uses the MT2 variable, which generalises the transverse mass for systems with two invisible objects and provides a discrimination against standard model backgrounds containing W bosons. The observed yields are consistent with the expectations from the standard model. The search is interpreted in the context of simplified SUSY models and probes slepton masses up to approximately 290, 400, and 450 GeV, assuming right-handed only, left-handed only, and both right- and left-handed sleptons (mass degenerate selectrons and smuons), and a massless lightest supersymmetric particle. Limits are also set on selectrons and smuons separately. These limits show an improvement on the existing limits of approximately 150 GeV.0info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe