Leptogenesis with four gauge singlets

We consider a generic type of leptogenesis model which can successfully produce the correct value of the observed baryon number to entropy ratio. The main feature of this model is that it is a simple TeV scale model, a scale accessible in near future machines, with a minimal particle content. Both supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric versions of the model are feasible. This model also gives left-handed neutrino masses compatible with all current data from direct and indirect neutrino experiments.Comment: 13 pages, 9 PS figures, REVTe

Higgs-Mediated Electric Dipole Moments in the MSSM: An Application to Baryogenesis and Higgs Searches

We perform a comprehensive study of the dominant two- and higher-loop contributions to the $^{205}$Tl, neutron and muon electric dipole moments induced by Higgs bosons, third-generation quarks and squarks, charginos and gluinos in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). We find that strong correlations exist among the contributing CP-violating operators, for large stop, gluino and chargino phases, and for a wide range of values of $\tan\beta$ and charged Higgs-boson masses, giving rise to large suppressions of the $^{205}$Tl and neutron electric dipole moments below their present experimental limits. Based on this observation, we discuss the constraints that the non-observation of electric dipole moments imposes on the radiatively-generated CP-violating Higgs sector and on the mechanism of electroweak baryogenesis in the MSSM. We improve previously suggested benchmark scenarios of maximal CP violation for analyzing direct searches of CP-violating MSSM Higgs bosons at high-energy colliders, and stress the important complementary r\^ole that a possible high-sensitivity measurement of the muon electric dipole moment to the level of $10^{-24}$ $e$ cm can play in such analyses.Comment: 34 pages, one reference added, version as to appear in Nuclear Physics

Graphene oxide and reduced derivates, as powder or film scaffolds, differentially promote dopaminergic neuron differentiation and survival.

Emerging scaffold structures made of carbon nanomaterials, such as graphene oxide (GO) have shown efficient bioconjugation with common biomolecules. Previous studies described that GO promotes the differentiation of neural stem cells and may be useful for neural regeneration. In this study, we examined the capacity of GO, full reduced (FRGO), and partially reduced (PRGO) powder and film to support survival, proliferation, differentiation, maturation, and bioenergetic function of a dopaminergic (DA) cell line derived from the mouse substantia nigra (SN4741). Our results show that the morphology of the film and the species of graphene (GO, PRGO, or FRGO) influences the behavior and function of these neurons. In general, we found better biocompatibility of the film species than that of the powder. Analysis of cell viability and cytotoxicity showed good cell survival, a lack of cell death in all GO forms and its derivatives, a decreased proliferation, and increased differentiation over time. Neuronal maturation of SN4741 in all GO forms, and its derivatives were assessed by increased protein levels of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), dopamine transporter (DAT), the glutamate inward rectifying potassium channel 2 (GIRK2), and of synaptic proteins, such as synaptobrevin and synaptophysin

An Earthworm Riddle: Systematics and Phylogeography of the Spanish Lumbricid Postandrilus

As currently defined, the genus Postandrilus Qui and Bouché, 1998, (Lumbricidae) includes six earthworm species, five occurring in Majorca (Baleares Islands, western Mediterranean) and another in Galicia (NW Spain). This disjunct and restricted distribution raises some interesting phylogeographic questions: (1) Is Postandrilus distribution the result of the separation of the Baleares-Kabylies (BK) microplate from the proto-Iberian Peninsula in the Late Oligocene (30-28 Mya)--vicariant hypothesis? (2) Did Postandrilus diversify in Spain and then colonize the Baleares during the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC) 5.96-5.33 Mya--dispersal hypothesis? (3) Is the distribution the result of a two-step process--vicariance with subsequent dispersal?To answer these questions and assess Postandrilus evolutionary relationships and systematics, we collected all of the six Postandrilus species (46 specimens - 16 locations) and used Aporrectodea morenoe and three Prosellodrilus and two Cataladrilus species as the outgroup. Regions of the nuclear 28S rDNA and mitochondrial 16S rDNA, 12S rDNA, ND1, COII and tRNA genes (4,666 bp) were sequenced and analyzed using maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods of phylogenetic and divergence time estimation. The resulting trees revealed six new Postandrilus species in Majorca that clustered with the other five species already described. This Majorcan clade was sister to an Iberian clade including A. morenoe (outgroup) and Postandrilus bertae. Our phylogeny and divergence time estimates indicated that the split between the Iberian and Majorcan Postandrilus clades took place 30.1 Mya, in concordance with the break of the BK microplate from the proto-Iberian Peninsula, and that the present Majorcan clade diversified 5.7 Mya, during the MSC.Postandrilus is highly diverse including multiple cryptic species in Majorca. The genus is not monophyletic and invalid as currently defined. Postandrilus is of vicariant origin and its radiation began in the Late Oligocene

From mouse to human: cellular morphometric subtype learned from mouse mammary tumors provides prognostic value in human breast cancer

Mouse models of cancer provide a powerful tool for investigating all aspects of cancer biology. In this study, we used our recently developed machine learning approach to identify the cellular morphometric biomarkers (CMB) from digital images of hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) micrographs of orthotopic Trp53-null mammary tumors (n = 154) and to discover the corresponding cellular morphometric subtypes (CMS). Of the two CMS identified, CMS-2 was significantly associated with shorter survival (p = 0.0084). We then evaluated the learned CMB and corresponding CMS model in MMTV-Erbb2 transgenic mouse mammary tumors (n = 53) in which CMS-2 was significantly correlated with the presence of metastasis (p = 0.004). We next evaluated the mouse CMB and CMS model on The Cancer Genome Atlas breast cancer (TCGA-BRCA) cohort (n = 1017). Kaplan–Meier analysis showed significantly shorter overall survival (OS) of CMS-2 patients compared to CMS-1 patients (p = 0.024) and added significant prognostic value in multi-variable analysis of clinical and molecular factors, namely, age, pathological stage, and PAM50 molecular subtype. Thus, application of CMS to digital images of routine workflow H&E preparations can provide unbiased biological stratification to inform patient care.This work was supported by the Department of Defense (DoD)BCRP: BC190820 (J-HM); and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH): R01CA184476 (HC). Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) is a multi-program national laboratory operated by the University of California for the DOE under contract DE AC02-05CH1123

Can reducing the incoming energy flux over the Southern Ocean in a CGCM improve its simulation of tropical climate?

Atmosphere-ocean general circulation models (CGCMs) show important systematic errors. Simulated precipitation in the tropics is generally overestimated over the oceans south of the equator, and stratocumulus (SCu) clouds are underestimated above too warm sea surface temperatures (SSTs). In the extratropics, SSTs are also too warm over the Southern Ocean. We argue that ameliorating these extratropical errors in a CGCM can result in an improved model's performance in the tropics depending upon the success in simulating the sensitivity of SCu to underlying SST. Our arguments are supported by the very different response obtained with two CGCMs to an idealized reduction of solar radiation flux incident at the top of the atmosphere over the Southern Ocean. It is shown that local perturbation impacts are very similar in the two models but that SST reductions in the SCu regions of the southern subtropics are stronger in the model with the stronger SCu-SST feedbacks.NOAA's Climate Program Office, Climate Variability and Predictability Program Award. Grant Number: NA14OAR4310278. European Union Seventh Framework Programme. Grant Numbers: FP7/2007–2013, 60352Peer reviewe

On Quantum Effects in Soft Leptogenesis

It has been recently shown that quantum Boltzman equations may be relevant for leptogenesis. Quantum effects, which lead to a time-dependent CP asymmetry, have been shown to be particularly important for resonant leptogenesis when the asymmetry is generated by the decay of two nearly degenerate states. In this work we investigate the impact of the use of quantum Boltzman equations in the framework ``soft leptogenesis'' in which supersymmetry soft-breaking terms give a small mass splitting between the CP-even and CP-odd right-handed sneutrino states of a single generation and provide the CP-violating phase to generate the lepton asymmetry.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures. Replacement to match published versio

Epidemiological Interactions between Urogenital and Intestinal Human Schistosomiasis in the Context of Praziquantel Treatment across Three West African Countries

© 2015 Knowles et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article

Comparative study of breakwater crown wall – calculation methods

An investigation was undertaken consisting of a state-of-the-art and comparative analysis of currently available methods for calculating the structural stability of wave walls in sloping breakwaters. A total of six design schemes are addressed. The conditions under which the formulations and ranges of validity are explicitly indicated by their authors, are given. The lack of definition in parameters to be used and aspects not taken into account in their investigations are discussed and the results of this analysis are given in a final table