Conformation and dynamics of human urotensin II and urotensin related peptide in aqueous solution

Conformation and dynamics of the vasoconstrictive peptides human urotensin II (UII) and urotensin related peptide (URP) have been investigated by both unrestrained and enhanced-sampling molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations and NMR spectroscopy. These peptides are natural ligands of the G-protein coupled urotensin II receptor (UTR) and have been linked to mammalian pathophysiology. UII and URP cannot be characterized by a single structure but exist as an equilibrium of two main classes of ring conformations, <i>open</i> and <i>folded</i>, with rapidly interchanging subtypes. The <i>open</i> states are characterized by turns of various types centered at K⁸Y⁹ or F⁶W⁷ predominantly with no or only sparsely populated transannular hydrogen bonds. The <i>folded</i> conformations show multiple turns stabilized by highly populated transannular hydrogen bonds comprising centers F⁶W⁷K⁸ or W⁷K⁸Y⁹. Some of these conformations have not been characterized previously. The equilibrium populations that are experimentally difficult to access were estimated by replica-exchange MD simulations and validated by comparison of experimental NMR data with chemical shifts calculated with density-functional theory. UII exhibits approximately 72% <i>open</i>:28% <i>folded</i> conformations in aqueous solution. URP shows very similar ring conformations as UII but differs in an <i>open:folded</i> equilibrium shifted further toward <i>open</i> conformations (86:14) possibly arising from the absence of folded N-terminal tail-ring interaction. The results suggest that the different biological effects of UII and URP are not caused by differences in ring conformations but rather by different interactions with UTR

Search for a singly produced third-generation scalar leptoquark decaying to a tau lepton and a bottom quark in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A search is presented for a singly produced third-generation scalar leptoquark decaying to a tau lepton and a bottom quark. Associated production of a leptoquark and a tau lepton is considered, leading to a final state with a bottom quark and two tau leptons. The search uses proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded with the CMS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1). Upper limits are set at 95% confidence level on the production cross section of the third-generation scalar leptoquarks as a function of their mass. From a comparison of the results with the theoretical predictions, a third-generation scalar leptoquark decaying to a tau lepton and a bottom quark, assuming unit Yukawa coupling (lambda), is excluded for masses below 740 GeV. Limits are also set on lambda of the hypothesized leptoquark as a function of its mass. Above lambda = 1.4, this result provides the best upper limit on the mass of a third-generation scalar leptoquark decaying to a tau lepton and a bottom quark.Peer reviewe

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Constraints on models of scalar and vector leptoquarks decaying to a quark and a neutrino at root s=13 TeV

The results of a previous search by the CMS Collaboration for squarks and gluinos are reinterpreted to constrain models of leptoquark (LQ) production. The search considers jets in association with a transverse momentum imbalance, using the M-T2 variable. The analysis uses proton-proton collision data at root s = 13 TeV, recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2016 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1). Leptoquark pair production is considered with LQ decays to a neutrino and a top, bottom, or light quark. This reinterpretation considers higher mass values than the original CMS search to constrain both scalar and vector LQs. Limits on the cross section for LQ pair production are derived at the 95% confidence level depending on the LQ decay mode. A vector LQ decaying with a 50% branching fraction to t nu, and 50% to b tau, has been proposed as part of an explanation of anomalous flavor physics results. In such a model, using only the decays to t nu, LQ masses below 1530 GeV are excluded assuming the Yang-Mills case with coupling kappa = 1, or 1115 GeV in the minimal coupling case kappa = 0, placing the most stringent constraint to date from pair production of vector LQs.Peer reviewe

Biodiversity of leaf litter fungi in streams along a latitudinal gradient

Global patterns of biodiversity have emerged for soil microorganisms, plants and animals, and the extraordinary significance of microbial functions in ecosystems is also well established. Virtually unknown, however, are large- scale patterns of microbial diversity in freshwaters, although these aquatic ecosystems are hotspots of biodiversity and biogeochemical processes. Here we report on the first large-scale study of biodiversity of leaf-litter fungi in streams along a latitudinal gradient unravelled by Illumina sequencing. The study is based on fungal commu- nities colonizing standardized plant litter in 19 globally distributed stream locations between 69°N and 44°S. Fungal richness suggests a hump-shaped distribution along the latitudinal gradient. Strikingly, community com- position of fungi was more clearly related to thermal preferences than to biogeography. Our results suggest that identifying differences in key environmental drivers, such as temperature, among taxa and ecosystem types is critical to unravel the global patterns of aquatic fungal diversity

Development and validation of HERWIG 7 tunes from CMS underlying-event measurements

This paper presents new sets of parameters (“tunes”) for the underlying-event model of the HERWIG7 event generator. These parameters control the description of multiple-parton interactions (MPI) and colour reconnection in HERWIG7, and are obtained from a fit to minimum-bias data collected by the CMS experiment at s=0.9, 7, and 13Te. The tunes are based on the NNPDF 3.1 next-to-next-to-leading-order parton distribution function (PDF) set for the parton shower, and either a leading-order or next-to-next-to-leading-order PDF set for the simulation of MPI and the beam remnants. Predictions utilizing the tunes are produced for event shape observables in electron-positron collisions, and for minimum-bias, inclusive jet, top quark pair, and Z and W boson events in proton-proton collisions, and are compared with data. Each of the new tunes describes the data at a reasonable level, and the tunes using a leading-order PDF for the simulation of MPI provide the best description of the dat

Measurement of the top quark forward-backward production asymmetry and the anomalous chromoelectric and chromomagnetic moments in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV

Abstract The parton-level top quark (t) forward-backward asymmetry and the anomalous chromoelectric (d̂ t) and chromomagnetic (μ̂ t) moments have been measured using LHC pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected in the CMS detector in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1. The linearized variable AFB(1) is used to approximate the asymmetry. Candidate t t ¯ events decaying to a muon or electron and jets in final states with low and high Lorentz boosts are selected and reconstructed using a fit of the kinematic distributions of the decay products to those expected for t t ¯ final states. The values found for the parameters are AFB(1)=0.048−0.087+0.095(stat)−0.029+0.020(syst),μ̂t=−0.024−0.009+0.013(stat)−0.011+0.016(syst), and a limit is placed on the magnitude of | d̂ t| &lt; 0.03 at 95% confidence level. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

Measurement of t(t)over-bar normalised multi-differential cross sections in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV, and simultaneous determination of the strong coupling strength, top quark pole mass, and parton distribution functions

Peer reviewe