From Double Chooz to Triple Chooz - Neutrino Physics at the Chooz Reactor Complex

We discuss the potential of the proposed Double Chooz reactor experiment to measure the neutrino mixing angle $\sin^2 2\theta_{13}$. We especially consider systematical uncertainties and their partial cancellation in a near and far detector operation, and we discuss implications of a delayed near detector startup. Furthermore, we introduce Triple Chooz, which is a possible upgrade scenario assuming a second, larger far detector, which could start data taking in an existing cavern five years after the first far detector. We review the role of the Chooz reactor experiments in the global context of future neutrino beam experiments. We find that both Double Chooz and Triple Chooz can play a leading role in the search for a finite value of $\sin^2 2\theta_{13}$. Double Chooz could achieve a sensitivity limit of $\sim 2 \cdot 10^{-2}$ at the 90%~confidence level after 5~years while the Triple Chooz setup could give a sensitivity below $10^{-2}$.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure

Strange Stars with a Density-Dependent Bag Parameter

We have studied strange quark stars in the framework of the MIT bag model, allowing the bag parameter B to depend on the density of the medium. We have also studied the effect of Cooper pairing among quarks, on the stellar structure. Comparison of these two effects shows that the former is generally more significant. We studied the resulting equation of state of the quark matter, stellar mass-radius relation, mass-central-density relation, radius-central-density relation, and the variation of the density as a function of the distance from the centre of the star. We found that the density-dependent B allows stars with larger masses and radii, due to stiffening of the equation of state. Interestingly, certain stellar configurations are found to be possible only if B depends on the density. We have also studied the effect of variation of the superconducting gap parameter on our results.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figs; v2: 25 pages, 9 figs, version to be published in Phys. Rev. (D

Pricing Options in Incomplete Equity Markets via the Instantaneous Sharpe Ratio

We use a continuous version of the standard deviation premium principle for pricing in incomplete equity markets by assuming that the investor issuing an unhedgeable derivative security requires compensation for this risk in the form of a pre-specified instantaneous Sharpe ratio. First, we apply our method to price options on non-traded assets for which there is a traded asset that is correlated to the non-traded asset. Our main contribution to this particular problem is to show that our seller/buyer prices are the upper/lower good deal bounds of Cochrane and Sa\'{a}-Requejo (2000) and of Bj\"{o}rk and Slinko (2006) and to determine the analytical properties of these prices. Second, we apply our method to price options in the presence of stochastic volatility. Our main contribution to this problem is to show that the instantaneous Sharpe ratio, an integral ingredient in our methodology, is the negative of the market price of volatility risk, as defined in Fouque, Papanicolaou, and Sircar (2000).Comment: Keywords: Pricing derivative securities, incomplete markets, Sharpe ratio, correlated assets, stochastic volatility, non-linear partial differential equations, good deal bound

Aberrant NK cell phenotype in a patient with CD25 deficiency

Human IL-2 receptor α chain deficiency (CD25 deficiency), caused by mutation in the IL2RA gene, is a combined immunodeficiency characterized by invasive viral and bacterial sinopulmonary infections, as well as lymphoproliferation and severe multi organ autoimmune disorders.Fil: Caldirola, María Soledad. Gobierno de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Hospital General de Niños "Ricardo Gutiérrez". Departamento de Medicina; ArgentinaFil: Rodríguez Broggi, M.G.. Gobierno de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Hospital General de Niños "Ricardo Gutiérrez". Departamento de Medicina; ArgentinaFil: Seminario, Analía Gisela. Gobierno de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Hospital General de Niños "Ricardo Gutiérrez". Departamento de Medicina; Argentina. Centro de Inmunología Clínica Dra. Bezrodnik; ArgentinaFil: Moreira, Ileana. Gobierno de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Hospital General de Niños "Ricardo Gutiérrez". Departamento de Medicina; Argentina. Centro de Inmunología Clínica Dra. Bezrodnik; ArgentinaFil: Zwirner, Norberto Walter. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Gaillard, María Isabel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Bezrodnik, Liliana. Gobierno de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Hospital General de Niños "Ricardo Gutiérrez". Departamento de Medicina; Argentina. Centro de Inmunología Clínica Dra. Bezrodnik; ArgentinaV LASID 2017 MeetingSao PauloBrasilLatinamerican Society for Immunodeficiencie

The pathology of chronic Drechslera campanulata toxicosis in inbred rats

Cultures on autoclaved maize of the phytopathogenic fungus, Drechslera campanulata, were incorporated into diets and fed to male inbred BDIX rats. In a pilot trial, a diet containing 30% D. campanulata culture material killed 5 out of 5 rats in 15-25 days. Lesions included gastric corpus erosions, gastrorrhagia and ulcerative typhlitis. Diets containing 5 % or 10 % culture material induced erosive to ulcerative typhlitis and oedema and hyperplasia of the ileocaecal lymph nodes in 40 out of 40 rats. Other changes included: mass loss; normocytic, hyperchromic anaemia; leukocytosis with neutrophilia; reductions in plasma proteins, creatinine, calcium and cholesterol; elevated serum enzymes; hepatosis, nephrosis and mycoplasma-like interstitial pneumoma. No lesions were present in control rats, and their profiles were normal. Ulcerative typhlitis induced by D. campanulata in rats resembles that seen in chronic piperonyl butoxide intoxication as well as that due to single treatments of indomethacid, although small intestinal ulcers are more frequent in the latter. Overgrowth of intestinal flora may be involved in ulcer pathogenesis. The pathology of drechsleratoxicosis in rats is compared to that in sheep and goats where necrotic lesions in the forestomach and, to a lesser extent, in the caecum are characteristic findings.The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 600dpi. Adobe Acrobat XI Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format.lmchunu2014mn201

An experimental mycotoxicosis in sheep and goats caused by Drechslera campanulata, a fungal pathogen of green oats

Field outbreaks of a syndrome of unknown aetiology associated with the grazing of green oats (Avena sativa) in the south-western Cape Province were characterized by diarrhoea, photosensitivity and death in goats and by diarrhoea and a reduction in milk production in cows. A phytopathogenic fungus, Drechslera campanulata, was isolated from conspicuous reddish-brown leaf spots on oat plants collected from both outbreaks. Pure cultures on autoclaved maize of D. campanulata isolates from oat leaves implicated in both field outbreaks, as well as a Canadian isolate, proved to be highly toxic to ducklings, goats and sheep. Characteristic clinical signs of the fatal mycotoxicosis caused by D. campanulata culture material in goats and sheep were anorexia, apathy, diarrhoea and ruminal stasis. Photosensitivity, however, was not induced. Necrosis of the forestomach mucosa was the most characteristic gross pathological change. Histopathological findings included mild focal erosions to severe, diffuse, coagulative necrosis of the mucosa in the rumen, reticulum and omasum and congestion and haemorrhages in the abomasum. These results provide circumstantial evidence that green oat leaves infected by D. campanulata may cause outbreaks of a mycotoxicosis in grazing animals.The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 600dpi. Adobe Acrobat XI Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format

Relative Oscillation Theory, Weighted Zeros of the Wronskian, and the Spectral Shift Function

We develop an analog of classical oscillation theory for Sturm-Liouville operators which, rather than measuring the spectrum of one single operator, measures the difference between the spectra of two different operators. This is done by replacing zeros of solutions of one operator by weighted zeros of Wronskians of solutions of two different operators. In particular, we show that a Sturm-type comparison theorem still holds in this situation and demonstrate how this can be used to investigate the finiteness of eigenvalues in essential spectral gaps. Furthermore, the connection with Krein's spectral shift function is established.Comment: 26 page

Tolerated drugs in subjects with severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCARs) induced by anticonvulsants and review of the literature

Background: Anticonvulsant hypersensitivity syndrome represents a rare but potentially fatal kind of adverse drug reaction. This clinical picture often hampers the flexibility with which alternative anticonvulsants or even other classes of drugs are prescribed in these patients, negatively affecting the efficacy of treatment and the course of the disease. The aim of this study was to analyse a group of six patients with severe cutaneous drug reactions induced by anticonvulsants and to report which alternative antiepileptic drugs and which drugs of other classes were tolerated. Case presentation: A total of six patients (2 males and 4 females, age 11-73 years) are described in this study. In all the patients the onset of the severe cutaneous drug reactions was 2-4 weeks after initiating the anticonvulsant therapy: 2 out of 6 patients presented with a drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms under therapy with phenytoin; 2 out of 6 presented with Stevens-Johnson syndrome under therapy with lamotrigine; and 2 out of 6 presented with a toxic epidermal necrolysis, one of them under therapy with valproic acid, and the other one under therapy with lamotrigine. Alternative anticonvulsants tolerated after the reaction were: clonazepam, levetiracetam, diazepam, delorazepam and lormetazepam. Conclusions: In our cases we observed that non aromatic anticonvulsants and benzodiazepines were well tolerated as alternative treatments in six patients with reactions to aromatic anticonvulsivants and that the risk of hypersensitivity reactions to other drug classes was not increased as compared to general population

Modelling of strain effects in manganite films

Thickness dependence and strain effects in films of $La_{1-x}A_xMnO_3$ perovskites are analyzed in the colossal magnetoresistance regime. The calculations are based on a generalization of a variational approach previously proposed for the study of manganite bulk. It is found that a reduction in the thickness of the film causes a decrease of critical temperature and magnetization, and an increase of resistivity at low temperatures. The strain is introduced through the modifications of in-plane and out-of-plane electron hopping amplitudes due to substrate-induced distortions of the film unit cell. The strain effects on the transition temperature and transport properties are in good agreement with experimental data only if the dependence of the hopping matrix elements on the $Mn-O-Mn$ bond angle is properly taken into account. Finally variations of the electron-phonon coupling linked to the presence of strain turn out important in influencing the balance of coexisting phases in the filmComment: 7 figures. To be published on Physical Review