Asymptotic Energy Dependence of Hadronic Total Cross Sections from Lattice QCD

The nonperturbative approach to soft high-energy hadron-hadron scattering, based on the analytic continuation of Wilson-loop correlation functions from Euclidean to Minkowskian theory, allows to investigate the asymptotic energy dependence of hadron-hadron total cross sections in lattice QCD. In this paper we will show, using best fits of the lattice data with proper functional forms satisfying unitarity and other physical constraints, how indications emerge in favor of a universal asymptotic high-energy behavior of the kind B log^2 s for hadronic total cross sections.Comment: Revised and extended version; 29 pages, 4 figure

Measurements of neutrino oscillation in appearance and disappearance channels by the T2K experiment with 6.6 x 10(20) protons on target

111 pages, 45 figures, submitted to Physical Review D. Minor revisions to text following referee comments111 pages, 45 figures, submitted to Physical Review D. Minor revisions to text following referee comments111 pages, 45 figures, submitted to Physical Review D. Minor revisions to text following referee commentsWe thank the J-PARC staff for superb accelerator performance and the CERN NA61/SHINE Collaboration for providing valuable particle production data. We acknowledge the support of MEXT, Japan; NSERC, NRC, and CFI, Canada; CEA and CNRS/IN2P3, France; DFG, Germany; INFN, Italy; National Science Centre (NCN), Poland; RSF, RFBR and MES, Russia; MINECO and ERDF funds, Spain; SNSF and SER, Switzerland; STFC, UK; and the U. S. Deparment of Energy, USA. We also thank CERN for the UA1/NOMAD magnet, DESY for the HERA-B magnet mover system, NII for SINET4, the WestGrid and SciNet consortia in Compute Canada, GridPP, UK, and the Emerald High Performance Computing facility in the Centre for Innovation, UK. In addition, participation of individual researchers and institutions has been further supported by funds from ERC (FP7), EU; JSPS, Japan; Royal Society, UK; and DOE Early Career program, USA

Income in Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancer.

INTRODUCTION: Little is known about the impact of childhood cancer on the personal income of survivors. We compared income between survivors and siblings, and determined factors associated with income. METHODS: As part of the Swiss Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (SCCSS), a questionnaire was sent to survivors, aged ≥18 years, registered in the Swiss Childhood Cancer Registry (SCCR), diagnosed at age 4'500 CHF), even after we adjusted for socio-demographic and educational factors (OR = 0.46, p<0.001). Older age, male sex, personal and parental education, and number of working hours were associated with high income. Survivors of leukemia (OR = 0.40, p<0.001), lymphoma (OR = 0.63, p = 0.040), CNS tumors (OR = 0.22, p<0.001), bone tumors (OR = 0.24, p = 0.003) had a lower income than siblings. Survivors who had cranial irradiation, had a lower income than survivors who had no cranial irradiation (OR = 0.48, p = 0.006). DISCUSSION: Even after adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics, education and working hours, survivors of various diagnostic groups have lower incomes than siblings. Further research needs to identify the underlying causes

Cell walls of the dimorphic fungal pathogens Sporothrix schenckii and Sporothrix brasiliensis exhibit bilaminate structures and sloughing of extensive and intact layers

This work was supported by the Fundação Carlos Chagas de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), grants E-26/202.974/2015 and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), grants 229755/2013-5, Brazil. LMLB is a senior research fellow of CNPq and Faperj. NG acknowledged support from the Wellcome Trust (Trust (097377, 101873, 200208) and MRC Centre for Medical Mycology (MR/N006364/1). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Generation and characterization of two immortalized human osteoblastic cell lines useful for epigenetic studies

Different model systems using osteoblastic cell lines have been developed to help understand the process of bone formation. Here, we report the establishment of two human osteoblastic cell lines obtained from primary cultures upon transduction of immortalizing genes. The resulting cell lines had no major differences to their parental lines in their gene expression profiles. Similar to primary osteoblastic cells, osteocalcin transcription increased following 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 treatment and the immortalized cells formed a mineralized matrix, as detected by Alizarin Red staining. Moreover, these human cell lines responded by upregulating ALPL gene expression after treatment with the demethylating agent 5-aza-2 Œ-deoxycytidine (AzadC), as shown before for primary osteoblasts. We further demonstrate that these cell lines can differentiate in vivo, using a hydroxyapatite/tricalcium phosphate composite as a scaffold, to produce bone matrix. More importantly, we show that these cells respond to demethylating treatment, as shown by the increase in SOST mRNA levels, the gene encoding sclerostin, upon treatment of the recipient mice with AzadC. This also confirms, in vivo, the role of DNA methylation in the regulation of SOST expression previously shown in vitro. Altogether our results show that these immortalized cell lines constitute a particularly useful model system to obtain further insight into bone homeostasis, and particularly into the epigenetic mechanisms regulating sclerostin production

An Easy and Efficient Method for Native and Immunoreactive Echinococcus granulosus Antigen 5 Enrichment from Hydatid Cyst Fluid

Background: Currently, the serodiagnosis of cystic echinococcosis relies mostly on crude Echinococcus granulosus hydatid cyst fluid as the antigen. Consequently, available immunodiagnostic tests lack standardization of the target antigen and, in turn, this is reflected on poor sensitivity and specificity of the serological diagnosis. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here, a chromatographic method enabling the generation of highly enriched Antigen 5 (Ag5) is described. The procedure is very easy, efficient and reproducible, since different hydatid cyst fluid (HCF) sources produced very similar chromatograms, notwithstanding the clearly evident and extreme heterogeneity of the starting material. In addition, the performance of the antigen preparation in immunological assays was preliminarily assessed by western immunoblotting and ELISA on a limited panel of cystic echinococcosis patients and healthy controls. Following western immunoblotting and ELISA experiments, a high reactivity of patient sera was seen, with unambiguous and highly specific results. Conclusions/Significance: The methods and results reported open interesting perspectives for the development of sensitive diagnostic tools to enable the timely and unambiguous detection of cystic echinococcosis antibodies in patient sera.This work was supported by Regione Autonoma della Sardegna (http://www.regione.sardegna.it/)Pubblicat

Protein disulphide isomerase-assisted functionalization of proteinaceous substrates

Protein disulphide isomerase (PDI) is an enzyme that catalyzes thiol-disulphide exchange reactions among a broad spectrum of substrates, including proteins and low-molecular thiols and disulphides. As the first protein-folding catalyst reported, the study of PDI has mainly involved the correct folding of several cysteine-containing proteins. Its application on the functionalization of protein-based materials has not been extensively reported. Herein, we review the applications of PDI on the modification of proteinaceous substrates and discuss its future potential. The mechanism involved in PDI functionalization of fibrous protein substrates is discussed in detail. These approaches allow innovative applications in textile dyeing and finishing, medical textiles, controlled drug delivery systems and hair or skin care products.We thank to FCT 'Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia' (scholarship SFRH/BD/38363/2007) for providing Margarida Fernandes the grant for PhD studies

Modular Architecture and Unique Teichoic Acid Recognition Features of Choline-Binding Protein L (CbpL) Contributing to Pneumococcal Pathogenesis

The human pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae is decorated with a special class of surface-proteins known as choline-binding proteins (CBPs) attached to phosphorylcholine (PCho) moieties from cell-wall teichoic acids. By a combination of X-ray crystallography, NMR, molecular dynamics techniques and in vivo virulence and phagocytosis studies, we provide structural information of choline-binding protein L (CbpL) and demonstrate its impact on pneumococcal pathogenesis and immune evasion. CbpL is a very elongated three-module protein composed of (i) an Excalibur Ca 2+ -binding domain -reported in this work for the very first time-, (ii) an unprecedented anchorage module showing alternate disposition of canonical and non-canonical choline-binding sites that allows vine-like binding of fully-PCho-substituted teichoic acids (with two choline moieties per unit), and (iii) a Ltp-Lipoprotein domain. Our structural and infection assays indicate an important role of the whole multimodular protein allowing both to locate CbpL at specific places on the cell wall and to interact with host components in order to facilitate pneumococcal lung infection and transmigration from nasopharynx to the lungs and blood. CbpL implication in both resistance against killing by phagocytes and pneumococcal pathogenesis further postulate this surface-protein as relevant among the pathogenic arsenal of the pneumococcus.We gratefully acknowledge Karsta Barnekow and Kristine Sievert-Giermann, for technical assistance and Lothar Petruschka for in silico analysis (all Dept. of Genetics, University of Greifswald). We are further grateful to the staff from SLS synchrotron beamline for help in data collection. This work was supported by grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG GRK 1870 (to SH) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (BFU2014-59389-P to JAH, CTQ2014-52633-P to MB and SAF2012-39760-C02-02 to FG) and S2010/BMD- 2457 (Community of Madrid to JAH and FG).Peer Reviewe

Measurement of the electron neutrino charged-current interaction rate on water with the T2K ND280 pi(0) detector

10 pages, 6 figures, Submitted to PRDhttp://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.91.112010© 2015 American Physical Society11 pages, 6 figures, as accepted to PRD11 pages, 6 figures, as accepted to PRD11 pages, 6 figures, as accepted to PR

Single-Cell Expression Profiling Reveals a Dynamic State of Cardiac Precursor Cells in the Early Mouse Embryo

In the early vertebrate embryo, cardiac progenitor/precursor cells (CPs) give rise to cardiac structures. Better understanding their biological character is critical to understand the heart development and to apply CPs for the clinical arena. However, our knowledge remains incomplete. With the use of single-cell expression profiling, we have now revealed rapid and dynamic changes in gene expression profiles of the embryonic CPs during the early phase after their segregation from the cardiac mesoderm. Progressively, the nascent mesodermal gene Mesp1 terminated, and Nkx2-5+/Tbx5+ population rapidly replaced the Tbx5low+ population as the expression of the cardiac genes Tbx5 and Nkx2-5 increased. At the Early Headfold stage, Tbx5-expressing CPs gradually showed a unique molecular signature with signs of cardiomyocyte differentiation. Lineage-tracing revealed a developmentally distinct characteristic of this population. They underwent progressive differentiation only towards the cardiomyocyte lineage corresponding to the first heart field rather than being maintained as a progenitor pool. More importantly, Tbx5 likely plays an important role in a transcriptional network to regulate the distinct character of the FHF via a positive feedback loop to activate the robust expression of Tbx5 in CPs. These data expands our knowledge on the behavior of CPs during the early phase of cardiac development, subsequently providing a platform for further study