Absolutely stable proton and lowering the gauge unification scale

A unified model is constructed, based on flipped SU(5) in which the proton is absolutely stable. The model requires the existence of new leptons with masses of order the weak scale. The possibility that the unification scale could be extremely low is discussed

Kinetic mechanism of ornithine hydroxylase (PvdA) from Pseudomonas aeruginosa: substrate triggering of O2 addition but not flavin reduction

This publication was made possible by NIH Grant P20 RR-17708-05 from the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health. K.M.M. was a recipient of a National Institutes of Health Predoctoral Training Grant Fellowship (GM08545).PvdA catalyzes the hydroxylation of the sidechain primary amine of ornithine in the initial step of the biosynthesis of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa siderophore pyoverdin. The reaction requires FAD, NADPH, and O2. PvdA uses the same co-substrates as several flavin-dependent hydroxylases that differ one from another in the kinetic mechanisms of their oxidative and reductive half-reactions. Therefore, the mechanism of PvdA was determined by absorption stopped-flow experiments. By contrast to some flavin-dependent hydroxylases (notably, p-hydroxybenzoate hydroxylase), binding of the hydroxylation target is not required to trigger reduction of the flavin by NADPH: the reductive half-reaction is equally facile in the presence and absence of ornithine. Reaction of O2 with FADH2 in the oxidative half-reaction is accelerated by ornithine 80-fold, providing a mechanism by which PvdA can ensure coupling of NADPH and ornithine oxidation. In the presence of ornithine, the expected C(4a)-hydroperoxyflavin intermediate with 390-nm absorption accumulates and decays to the C(4a)-hydroxyflavin in a kinetically competent fashion. The slower oxidative half-reaction that occurs in the absence of ornithine involves accumulation of an oxygenated flavin species and two subsequent states that are tentatively assigned as C(4a)-peroxy- and -hydroperoxyflavin intermediates and the oxidized flavin. The enzyme generates stoichiometric hydrogen peroxide in lieu of hydroxyornithine. The data suggest that PvdA employs a kinetic mechanism that is a hybrid of those previously documented for other flavin-dependent hydroxylases

A case report: Brugada syndrome in the setting of hypothermia.

Hypothermia is a common diagnosis in the Emergency Department. It can cause a multitude of symptoms and complications if not treated promptly. The following case report discusses Brugada pattern on an electrocardiogram in a patient with hypothermia and diabetic ketoacidosis. There was resolution of the Brugada pattern on the electrocardiogram after the patient was warmed to 35.3 °C

Lethal Mutagenesis of Picornaviruses with N-6-Modified Purine Nucleoside Analogues

RNA viruses exhibit extraordinarily high mutation rates during genome replication. Nonnatural ribonucleosides that can increase the mutation rate of RNA viruses by acting as ambiguous substrates during replication have been explored as antiviral agents acting through lethal mutagenesis. We have synthesized novel N-6-substituted purine analogues with ambiguous incorporation characteristics due to tautomerization of the nucleobase. The most potent of these analogues reduced the titer of poliovirus (PV) and coxsackievirus (CVB3) over 1,000-fold during a single passage in HeLa cell culture, with an increase in transition mutation frequency up to 65-fold. Kinetic analysis of incorporation by the PV polymerase indicated that these analogues were templated ambiguously with increased efficiency compared to the known mutagenic nucleoside ribavirin. Notably, these nucleosides were not efficient substrates for cellular ribonucleotide reductase in vitro, suggesting that conversion to the deoxyriboucleoside may be hindered, potentially limiting genetic damage to the host cell. Furthermore, a high-fidelity PV variant (G64S) displayed resistance to the antiviral effect and mutagenic potential of these analogues. These purine nucleoside analogues represent promising lead compounds in the development of clinically useful antiviral therapies based on the strategy of lethal mutagenesis

General Gauge and Anomaly Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking in Grand Unified Theories with Vector-Like Particles

In Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) from orbifold and various string constructions the generic vector-like particles do not need to form complete SU(5) or SO(10) representations. To realize them concretely, we present orbifold SU(5) models, orbifold SO(10) models where the gauge symmetry can be broken down to flipped SU(5) X U(1)_X or Pati-Salam SU(4)_C X SU(2)_L X SU(2)_R gauge symmetries, and F-theory SU(5) models. Interestingly, these vector-like particles can be at the TeV-scale so that the lightest CP-even Higgs boson mass can be lifted, or play the messenger fields in the Gauge Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking (GMSB). Considering GMSB, ultraviolet insensitive Anomaly Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking (AMSB), and the deflected AMSB, we study the general gaugino mass relations and their indices, which are valid from the GUT scale to the electroweak scale at one loop, in the SU(5) models, the flipped SU(5) X U(1)_X models, and the Pati-Salam SU(4)_C X SU(2)_L X SU(2)_R models. In the deflected AMSB, we also define the new indices for the gaugino mass relations, and calculate them as well. Using these gaugino mass relations and their indices, we may probe the messenger fields at intermediate scale in the GMSB and deflected AMSB, determine the supersymmetry breaking mediation mechanisms, and distinguish the four-dimensional GUTs, orbifold GUTs, and F-theory GUTs.Comment: RevTex4, 45 pages, 15 tables, version to appear in JHE

Supersymmetric Monojets at the Large Hadron Collider

Supersymmetric monojets may be produced at the Large Hadron Collider by the process qg -> squark neutralino_1 -> q neutralino_1 neutralino_1, leading to a jet recoiling against missing transverse momentum. We discuss the feasibility and utility of the supersymmetric monojet signal. In particular, we examine the possible precision with which one can ascertain the neutralino_1-squark-quark coupling via the rate for monojet events. Such a coupling contains information on the composition of the neutralino_1 and helps bound dark matter direct detection cross-sections and the dark matter relic density of the neutralino_1. It also provides a check of the supersymmetric relation between gauge couplings and gaugino-quark-squark couplings.Comment: 46 pages, 10 figures. The appendix has been rewritten to correct an error that appears in all previous versions of the appendix. This error has no effect on the results in the main body of the pape

Realistic Standard Model Fermion Mass Relations in Generalized Minimal Supergravity (GmSUGRA)

Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) usually predict wrong Standard Model (SM) fermion mass relation m_e/m_{\mu} = m_d/m_s toward low energies. To solve this problem, we consider the Generalized Minimal Supergravity (GmSUGRA) models, which are GUTs with gravity mediated supersymmetry breaking and higher dimensional operators. Introducing non-renormalizable terms in the super- and K\"ahler potentials, we can obtain the correct SM fermion mass relations in the SU(5) model with GUT Higgs fields in the {\bf 24} and {\bf 75} representations, and in the SO(10) model. In the latter case the gauge symmetry is broken down to SU(3)_C X SU(2)_L X SU(2)_R X U(1)_{B-L}, to flipped SU(5)X U(1)_X, or to SU(3)_C X SU(2)_L X U(1)_1 X U(1)_2. Especially, for the first time we generate the realistic SM fermion mass relation in GUTs by considering the high-dimensional operators in the K\"ahler potential.Comment: JHEP style, 29 pages, no figure,references adde

A Two-Tiered Correlation of Dark Matter with Missing Transverse Energy: Reconstructing the Lightest Supersymmetric Particle Mass at the LHC

We suggest that non-trivial correlations between the dark matter particle mass and collider based probes of missing transverse energy H_T^miss may facilitate a two tiered approach to the initial discovery of supersymmetry and the subsequent reconstruction of the LSP mass at the LHC. These correlations are demonstrated via extensive Monte Carlo simulation of seventeen benchmark models, each sampled at five distinct LHC center-of-mass beam energies, spanning the parameter space of No-Scale F-SU(5).This construction is defined in turn by the union of the Flipped SU(5) Grand Unified Theory, two pairs of hypothetical TeV scale vector-like supersymmetric multiplets with origins in F-theory, and the dynamically established boundary conditions of No-Scale Supergravity. In addition, we consider a control sample comprised of a standard minimal Supergravity benchmark point. Led by a striking similarity between the H_T^miss distribution and the familiar power spectrum of a black body radiator at various temperatures, we implement a broad empirical fit of our simulation against a Poisson distribution ansatz. We advance the resulting fit as a theoretical blueprint for deducing the mass of the LSP, utilizing only the missing transverse energy in a statistical sampling of >= 9 jet events. Cumulative uncertainties central to the method subsist at a satisfactory 12-15% level. The fact that supersymmetric particle spectrum of No-Scale F-SU(5) has thrived the withering onslaught of early LHC data that is steadily decimating the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model and minimal Supergravity parameter spaces is a prime motivation for augmenting more conventional LSP search methodologies with the presently proposed alternative.Comment: JHEP version, 17 pages, 9 Figures, 2 Table