Hidden charm and bottom molecular states

We investigate heavy quark symmetries for heavy light meson-antimeson systems in a contact-range effective field theory. In the SU(3) light flavor limit, the leading order Lagrangian respecting heavy quark spin symmetry contains four independent counter-terms. Neglecting 1/mQ corrections, three of these low energy constants can be determ1ined by theorizing a molecular description of the X(3872) and Zb(10610) states. Thus, we can predict new hadronic molecules, in particular the isovector charmonium partners of the Zb(10610) and the Zb(10650) states. We also discuss hadron molecules composed of a heavy meson and a doubly-heavy baryon, which would be related to the heavy meson-antimeson molecules thanks to the heavy antiquark-diquark symmetry. Finally, we also study the X(3872)→D0D¯0π0 decay, which is not only sensitive to the short distance part of the X(3872) molecular wave function, as the J/ψππ and J/ψ3π X(3872) decay modes are, but it is also affected by the long-distance structure of the resonance. Furthermore, this decay might provide some information on the interaction between the DD¯ charm mesons

Detecting the long-distance structure of the X(3872)

We study the decay within a molecular picture for the state. This decay mode is more sensitive to the long-distance structure of the resonance than its and decays, which are mainly controlled by the details of the wave function at short distances. We show that the final state interaction can be important, and that a precise measurement of this partial decay width can provide valuable information on the interaction strength between the charm mesons

Olives and olive oil are sources of electrophilic fatty acid nitroalkenes

Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) and olives, key sources of unsaturated fatty acids in the Mediterranean diet, provide health benefits to humans. Nitric oxide (•NO) and nitrite (NO2-)-dependent reactions of unsaturated fatty acids yield electrophilic nitroalkene derivatives (NO 2-FA) that manifest salutary pleiotropic cell signaling responses in mammals. Herein, the endogenous presence of NO2-FA in both EVOO and fresh olives was demonstrated by mass spectrometry. The electrophilic nature of these species was affirmed by the detection of significant levels of protein cysteine adducts of nitro-oleic acid (NO2-OA-cysteine) in fresh olives, especially in the peel. Further nitration of EVOO by NO2- under acidic gastric digestive conditions revealed that human consumption of olive lipids will produce additional nitro-conjugated linoleic acid (NO2-cLA) and nitro-oleic acid (NO2-OA). The presence of free and protein-adducted NO2-FA in both mammalian and plant lipids further affirm a role for these species as signaling mediators. Since NO2-FA instigate adaptive anti-inflammatory gene expression and metabolic responses, these redox-derived metabolites may contribute to the cardiovascular benefits associated with the Mediterranean diet. © 2014 Fazzari et al

Biased-corrected richness estimates for the Amazonian tree flora

Amazonian forests are extraordinarily diverse, but the estimated species richness is very much debated. Here, we apply an ensemble of parametric estimators and a novel technique that includes conspecific spatial aggregation to an extended database of forest plots with up-to-date taxonomy. We show that the species abundance distribution of Amazonia is best approximated by a logseries with aggregated individuals, where aggregation increases with rarity. By averaging several methods to estimate total richness, we confirm that over 15,000 tree species are expected to occur in Amazonia. We also show that using ten times the number of plots would result in an increase to just ~50% of those 15,000 estimated species. To get a more complete sample of all tree species, rigorous field campaigns may be needed but the number of trees in Amazonia will remain an estimate for years to come