Results of Soft-Diffraction at LHCb

The LHCb detector with its unique pseudorapidity coverage allows to perform soft-QCD measurements in the kinematic forward region where QCD models have large uncertainties. Selected analyses related to soft-Diffraction will be summarised in these proceedings. Energy flow and charged particle multiplicity have been measured separately in different event classes. They give input for modelling the underlying event in pp collisions. Prompt hadron ratios are important for hadronisation models, while the $\bar p/p$ ratio is a good observable to test models of baryon number transport.Comment: Presented at EDS Blois 2013 (arXiv:1309.5705

Herausforderung soziale Teilhabe: Repair-Cafes als Orte inklusiver nachhaltiger Entwicklung?

In the past few years, debates increasingly emerge that discuss the potential of repair and DIY initiatives to contribute to inclusive and sustainable developments. It is argued that initiatives enable individuals to take responsibility for sustainable consumption. Moreover, they are said to promote citizen empowerment and collaborative practices and therefore strengthening social transformations processes towards sustainability. Currently, there is little research that looks at whether the empowerment of citizen through repair and DIY activities will be inclusive to all people and enable more sustainable consumption patterns. This paper develops first ideas, questions and categories to observe the possibilities and constraints for inclusiveness in repair cafés, enabling collaborative practise and creating seedbeds for social transformations. We draw on a social practice theory approach and normative (evaluation) perspectives for inclusiveness to empirically examine practices in repair cafés through participant observations

Existence of a Semiclassical Approximation in Loop Quantum Gravity

We consider a spherical symmetric black hole in the Schwarzschild metric and apply Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization to determine the energy levels. The canonical partition function is then computed and we show that the entropy coincides with the Bekenstein-Hawking formula when the maximal number of states for the black hole is the same as computed in loop quantum gravity, proving in this case the existence of a semiclassical limit and obtaining an independent derivation of the Barbero-Immirzi parameter.Comment: 6 pages, no figures. Final version accepted for publication in General Relativity and Gravitatio

Development of NASH in Obese Mice is Confounded by Adipose Tissue Increase in Inflammatory NOV and Oxidative Stress

Aim. Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is the consequence of insulin resistance, fatty acid accumulation, oxidative stress, and lipotoxicity.We hypothesize that an increase in the inflammatory adipokine NOV decreases antioxidant Heme Oxygenase 1 (HO- 1) levels in adipose and hepatic tissue, resulting in the development of NASH in obese mice. Methods. Mice were fed a high fat diet (HFD) and obese animals were administered an HO-1 inducer with or without an inhibitor of HO activity to examine levels of adipose-derived NOV and possible links between increased synthesis of inflammatory adipokines and hepatic pathology. Results. NASH mice displayed decreased HO-1 levels and HO activity, increased levels of hepatic heme, NOV, MMP2, hepcidin, and increased NAS scores and hepatic fibrosis. IncreasedHO-1 levels are associated with a decrease in NOV, improved hepatic NAS score, ameliorated fibrosis, and increases in mitochondrial integrity and insulin receptor phosphorylation. Adipose tissue function is disrupted in obesity as evidenced by an increase in proinflammatory molecules such as NOV and a decrease in adiponectin. Importantly, increased HO-1 levels are associated with a decrease of NOV, increased adiponectin levels, and increased levels of thermogenic and mitochondrial signaling associated genes in adipose tissue. Conclusions.These results suggest that the metabolic abnormalities in NASH are driven by decreased levels of hepatic HO-1 that is associated with an increase in the adipose-derived proinflammatory adipokine NOV in our obese mouse model of NASH. Concurrently, induction of HO-1 provides protection against insulin resistance as seen by increased insulin receptor phosphorylation. Pharmacological increases in HO-1 associated with decreases in NOV may offer a potential therapeutic approach in preventing fibrosis, mitochondrial dysfunction, and the development of NASH

Molecular recording of mammalian embryogenesis.

Ontogeny describes the emergence of complex multicellular organisms from single totipotent cells. This field is particularly challenging in mammals, owing to the indeterminate relationship between self-renewal and differentiation, variation in progenitor field sizes, and internal gestation in these animals. Here we present a flexible, high-information, multi-channel molecular recorder with a single-cell readout and apply it as an evolving lineage tracer to assemble mouse cell-fate maps from fertilization through gastrulation. By combining lineage information with single-cell RNA sequencing profiles, we recapitulate canonical developmental relationships between different tissue types and reveal the nearly complete transcriptional convergence of endodermal cells of extra-embryonic and embryonic origins. Finally, we apply our cell-fate maps to estimate the number of embryonic progenitor cells and their degree of asymmetric partitioning during specification. Our approach enables massively parallel, high-resolution recording of lineage and other information in mammalian systems, which will facilitate the construction of a quantitative framework for understanding developmental processes

Detection of Antibodies against the Four Subtypes of Ebola Virus in Sera from Any Species Using a Novel Antibody-Phage Indicator Assay

AbstractThe natural host for Ebola virus, presumed to be an animal, has not yet been identified despite an extensive search following several major outbreaks in Africa. A straightforward approach used to determine animal contact with Ebola virus is by assessing the presence of specific antibodies in serum. This approach however has been made very difficult by the absence of specific reagents required for the detection of antibodies from the majority of wild animal species. In this study, we isolated a human monoclonal antibody Fab fragment, KZ51, that reacts with an immunodominant epitope on Ebola virus nucleoprotein (NP) that is conserved on all four Ebola virus subtypes. The antibody KZ51 represents a major specificity as sera from all convalescent patients tested (10/10) and sera from guinea pigs infected with each of the four Ebola virus subtypes competed strongly with KZ51 for binding to radiation-inactivated Ebola virus. These features allowed us to develop a novel assay for the detection of seroconversion irrespective of Ebola virus subtype or animal species. In this assay, the binding of KZ51 Fab-phage particles is used as an indicator assay and the presence of specific antibodies against Ebola virus in sera is indicated by binding competition. A prominent feature of the assay is that the Fab-phage particles may be prestained with a dye so that detection of binding can be directly determined by visual inspection. The assay is designed to be both simple and economical to enable its use in the field

Graviton Spectra in String Cosmology

We propose to uncover the signature of a stringy era in the primordial Universe by searching for a prominent peak in the relic graviton spectrum. This feature, which in our specific model terminates an $\omega^3$ increase and initiates an $\omega^{-7}$ decrease, is induced during the so far overlooked bounce of the scale factor between the collapsing deflationary era (or pre-Big Bang) and the expanding inflationary era (or post-Big Bang). We evaluate both analytically and numerically the frequency and the intensity of the peak and we show that they may likely fall in the realm of the new generation of interferometric detectors. The existence of a peak is at variance with ordinarily monotonic (either increasing or decreasing) graviton spectra of canonical cosmologies; its detection would therefore offer strong support to string cosmology.Comment: 14 pages, RevTex source and 6 figures.p

Pre-big bang in M-theory

We discuss a simple cosmological model derived from M-theory. Three assumptions lead naturally to a pre-big bang scenario: (a) 11-dimensional supergravity describes the low-energy world; (b) non-gravitational fields live on a three-dimensional brane; and (c) asymptotically past triviality.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, LaTeX (requires epsf

Radiative and isospin-violating decays of Ds mesons in the hadrogenesis conjecture

The masses and decays of the scalar D_{s0}^*(2317) and axial-vector D_{s1}^*(2460) charmed strange mesons are calculated consistently in the hadrogenesis conjecture. These mesons decay either strongly into the isospin-violating pi^0 D_s and pi^0 D_s^* channels or electromagnetically. They are generated by coupled-channel dynamics based on the leading order chiral Lagrangian. The effect of chiral corrections to chiral order Q_\chi^2 is investigated. We show that taking into account large-N_c relations to determine the strength of these correction terms implies a measurable signal for an exotic axial-vector state in the eta D* invariant mass distribution. The one-loop contribution to the electromagnetic decay amplitudes of scalar and axial-vector states is calculated. The Lagrangian describing electromagnetic interactions is obtained by gauging the chiral Lagrangian for hadronic interactions and adding gauge-invariant correction terms to chiral order Q_chi^2. In addition the role of light vector meson degrees of freedom is explored. We confront our results with measured branching ratios. Once the light vector mesons are included, a natural explanation of all radiative decay parameters is achieved.Comment: 102 pages, 7 figures, further improved presentatio