Chikungunya Virus and Central Nervous System Infections in Children, India

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-borne alphavirus best known for causing fever, rash, arthralgia, and occasional neurologic disease. By using real-time reverse transcription–PCR, we detected CHIKV in plasma samples of 8 (14%) of 58 children with suspected central nervous system infection in Bellary, India. CHIKV was also detected in the cerebrospinal fluid of 3 children

Challenges in QCD matter physics - The Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at FAIR

Substantial experimental and theoretical efforts worldwide are devoted to explore the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter. At LHC and top RHIC energies, QCD matter is studied at very high temperatures and nearly vanishing net-baryon densities. There is evidence that a Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP) was created at experiments at RHIC and LHC. The transition from the QGP back to the hadron gas is found to be a smooth cross over. For larger net-baryon densities and lower temperatures, it is expected that the QCD phase diagram exhibits a rich structure, such as a first-order phase transition between hadronic and partonic matter which terminates in a critical point, or exotic phases like quarkyonic matter. The discovery of these landmarks would be a breakthrough in our understanding of the strong interaction and is therefore in the focus of various high-energy heavy-ion research programs. The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at FAIR will play a unique role in the exploration of the QCD phase diagram in the region of high net-baryon densities, because it is designed to run at unprecedented interaction rates. High-rate operation is the key prerequisite for high-precision measurements of multi-differential observables and of rare diagnostic probes which are sensitive to the dense phase of the nuclear fireball. The goal of the CBM experiment at SIS100 (sqrt(s_NN) = 2.7 - 4.9 GeV) is to discover fundamental properties of QCD matter: the phase structure at large baryon-chemical potentials (mu_B > 500 MeV), effects of chiral symmetry, and the equation-of-state at high density as it is expected to occur in the core of neutron stars. In this article, we review the motivation for and the physics programme of CBM, including activities before the start of data taking in 2022, in the context of the worldwide efforts to explore high-density QCD matter.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures. Published in European Physical Journal

Measurement of Λ4H\rm ^4_{\Lambda}H and Λ4He\rm ^4_{\Lambda}He binding energy in Au+Au collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 3 GeV

Measurements of mass and $\Lambda$ binding energy of $\rm ^4_{\Lambda}H$ and $\rm ^4_{\Lambda}He$ in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}}=3$ GeV are presented, with an aim to address the charge symmetry breaking (CSB) problem in hypernuclei systems with atomic number A = 4. The $\Lambda$ binding energies are measured to be $\rm 2.22\pm0.06(stat.) \pm0.14(syst.)$ MeV and $\rm 2.38\pm0.13(stat.) \pm0.12(syst.)$ MeV for $\rm ^4_{\Lambda}H$ and $\rm ^4_{\Lambda}He$, respectively. The measured $\Lambda$ binding-energy difference is $\rm 0.16\pm0.14(stat.)\pm0.10(syst.)$ MeV for ground states. Combined with the $\gamma$-ray transition energies, the binding-energy difference for excited states is $\rm -0.16\pm0.14(stat.)\pm0.10(syst.)$ MeV, which is negative and comparable to the value of the ground states within uncertainties. These new measurements on the $\Lambda$ binding-energy difference in A = 4 hypernuclei systems are consistent with the theoretical calculations that result in $\rm \Delta B_{\Lambda}^4(1_{exc}^{+})\approx -\Delta B_{\Lambda}^4(0_{g.s.}^{+})<0$ and present a new method for the study of CSB effect using relativistic heavy-ion collisions.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Antioxidant profiles and selected parameters of primary metabolism in Physalis ixocarpa hairy roots transformed by two Agrobacterium rhizogenes strains

We compared the biochemical profiles of Physalis ixocarpa hairy roots transformed with Agrobacterium rhizogenes ATCC and A4 strains with non-transformed root cultures. The studied clones of A4- and ATCC-induced hairy roots differed significantly; the latter showed greater growth potential and greater ability to produce secondary metabolites (tropane alkaloids) and to biotransform hydroquinone to arbutin. We compared glucose content, alanine and aspartate aminotransferase activity, and L-phenylalanine ammonia-lyase activity. We analyzed markers of prooxidant/antioxidant homeostasis: catalase, ascorbate peroxidase, oxidase, glutathione peroxidase and transferase activity, and the levels of ascorbate, glutathione, tocopherol and lipid peroxidation. We found that transformation induced strain-specific regulation, including regulation based on redox signals, determining the rate of allocation of carbon and nitrogen resources to secondary metabolism pathways. Our results provide evidence that A. rhizogenes strain-specific modification of primary metabolites contributed to regulation of secondary metabolism and could determine the ability of P. ixocarpa hairy root clones to produce tropane alkaloids and to convert exogenously applied hydroquinone to pharmaceutically valuable arbutin. Of the studied parameters, glucose content, L-phenylalanine ammonia-lyase activity and alanine aminotransferases activity may be indicators of the secondary metabolite-producing potential of different P. ixocarpa hairy root clones