2,024 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Utilization of flow chemistry in catalysis: New avenues for the selective synthesis of Bis(indolyl)methanes
Flow chemistry enables the preparation of bis(indolyl)methanes from various indoles and structurally divergent aldehydes using Sc(OTf)3 catalysis. The reaction is regioselective for C-3 functionalization of the indoles, occurring over short reaction times allowing for rapid investigation of scope with straightforward work up facilitating product isolation.We gratefully acknowledge funding from the British Council, UK and DST-Inspire, India (Newton-Bhabha Ph.D Placement Programme, SSM) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (grants EP/K009494/1 and EP/K039520/1)
Weinberg like sum rules revisited
The generalized Weinberg sum rules containing the difference of isovector
vector and axial-vector spectral functions saturated by both finite and
infinite number of narrow resonances are considered. We summarize the status of
these sum rules and analyze their overall agreement with phenomenological
Lagrangians, low-energy relations, parity doubling, hadron string models, and
experimental data.Comment: 31 pages, noticed misprints are corrected, references are added, and
other minor corrections are mad
Respiratory Syncytial Virus NS1 Protein Colocalizes with Mitochondrial Antiviral Signaling Protein MAVS following Infection
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) nonstructural protein 1(NS1) attenuates type-I interferon (IFN) production during RSV infection; however the precise role of RSV NS1 protein in orchestrating the early host-virus interaction during infection is poorly understood. Since NS1 constitutes the first RSV gene transcribed and the production of IFN depends upon RLR (RIG-I-like receptor) signaling, we reasoned that NS1 may interfere with this signaling. Herein, we report that NS1 is localized to mitochondria and binds to mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein (MAVS). Live-cell imaging of rgRSV-infected A549 human epithelial cells showed that RSV replication and transcription occurs in proximity to mitochondria. NS1 localization to mitochondria was directly visualized by confocal microscopy using a cell-permeable chemical probe for His6-NS1. Further, NS1 colocalization with MAVS in A549 cells infected with RSV was shown by confocal laser microscopy and immuno-electron microscopy. NS1 protein is present in the mitochondrial fraction and co-immunoprecipitates with MAVS in total cell lysatesof A549 cells transfected with the plasmid pNS1-Flag. By immunoprecipitation with anti-RIG-I antibody, RSV NS1 was shown to associate with MAVS at an early stage of RSV infection, and to disrupt MAVS interaction with RIG-I (retinoic acid inducible gene) and the downstream IFN antiviral and inflammatory response. Together, these results demonstrate that NS1 binds to MAVS and that this binding inhibits the MAVS-RIG-I interaction required for IFN production
SU(7) Unification of SU(3)_C*SU(4)_W* U(1)_{B-L}
We propose the SUSY SU(7) unification of the SU(3)_C* SU(4)_W* U(1)_{B-L}
model. Such unification scenario has rich symmetry breaking chains in a
five-dimensional orbifold. We study in detail the SUSY SU(7) symmetry breaking
into SU(3)_C* SU(4)_W* U(1)_{B-L} by boundary conditions in a Randall-Sundrum
background and its AdS/CFT interpretation. We find that successful gauge
coupling unification can be achieved in our scenario. Gauge unification favors
low left-right and unification scales with tree-level \sin^2\theta_W=0.15. We
use the AdS/CFT dual of the conformal supersymmetry breaking scenario to break
the remaining N=1 supersymmetry. We employ AdS/CFT to reproduce the NSVZ
formula and obtain the structure of the Seiberg duality in the strong coupling
region for 3/2N_c<N_F<3N_C. We show that supersymmetry is indeed broken in the
conformal supersymmetry breaking scenario with a vanishing singlet vacuum
expectation value.Comment: 25 pages, 1 figure
Neutrino Mass and from a Mini-Seesaw
The recently proposed "mini-seesaw mechanism" combines naturally suppressed
Dirac and Majorana masses to achieve light Standard Model neutrinos via a
low-scale seesaw. A key feature of this approach is the presence of multiple
light (order GeV) sterile-neutrinos that mix with the Standard Model. In this
work we study the bounds on these light sterile-neutrinos from processes like
\mu ---> e + \gamma, invisible Z-decays, and neutrinoless double beta-decay. We
show that viable parameter space exists and that, interestingly, key
observables can lie just below current experimental sensitivities. In
particular, a motivated region of parameter space predicts a value of BR(\mu
---> e + \gamma) within the range to be probed by MEG.Comment: 1+26 pages, 7 figures. v2 JHEP version (typo's fixed, minor change to
presentation, results unchanged
SUSY Splits, But Then Returns
We study the phenomenon of accidental or "emergent" supersymmetry within
gauge theory and connect it to the scenarios of Split Supersymmetry and Higgs
compositeness. Combining these elements leads to a significant refinement and
extension of the proposal of Partial Supersymmetry, in which supersymmetry is
broken at very high energies but with a remnant surviving to the weak scale.
The Hierarchy Problem is then solved by a non-trivial partnership between
supersymmetry and compositeness, giving a promising approach for reconciling
Higgs naturalness with the wealth of precision experimental data. We discuss
aspects of this scenario from the AdS/CFT dual viewpoint of higher-dimensional
warped compactification. It is argued that string theory constructions with
high scale supersymmetry breaking which realize warped/composite solutions to
the Hierarchy Problem may well be accompanied by some or all of the features
described. The central phenomenological considerations and expectations are
discussed, with more detailed modelling within warped effective field theory
reserved for future work.Comment: 29 pages. Flavor and CP constraints on left-right symmetric structure
briefly discussed. References adde
Modulation of lung inflammation by vessel dilator in a mouse model of allergic asthma
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and its receptor, NPRA, have been extensively studied in terms of cardiovascular effects. We have found that the ANP-NPRA signaling pathway is also involved in airway allergic inflammation and asthma. ANP, a C-terminal peptide (amino acid 99â126) of pro-atrial natriuretic factor (proANF) and a recombinant peptide, NP73-102 (amino acid 73â102 of proANF) have been reported to induce bronchoprotective effects in a mouse model of allergic asthma. In this report, we evaluated the effects of vessel dilator (VD), another N-terminal natriuretic peptide covering amino acids 31â67 of proANF, on acute lung inflammation in a mouse model of allergic asthma.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A549 cells were transfected with pVD or the pVAX1 control plasmid and cells were collected 24 hrs after transfection to analyze the effect of VD on inactivation of the extracellular-signal regulated receptor kinase (ERK1/2) through western blot. Luciferase assay, western blot and RT-PCR were also performed to analyze the effect of VD on NPRA expression. For determination of VD's attenuation of lung inflammation, BALB/c mice were sensitized and challenged with ovalbumin and then treated intranasally with chitosan nanoparticles containing pVD. Parameters of airway inflammation, such as airway hyperreactivity, proinflammatory cytokine levels, eosinophil recruitment and lung histopathology were compared with control mice receiving nanoparticles containing pVAX1 control plasmid.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>pVD nanoparticles inactivated ERK1/2 and downregulated NPRA expression in vitro, and intranasal treatment with pVD nanoparticles protected mice from airway inflammation.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>VD's modulation of airway inflammation may result from its inactivation of ERK1/2 and downregulation of NPRA expression. Chitosan nanoparticles containing pVD may be therapeutically effective in preventing allergic airway inflammation.</p
Radiative Two Loop Inverse Seesaw and Dark Matter
Seesaw mechanism provides a natural explanation of light neutrino masses
through suppression of heavy seesaw scale. In inverse seesaw models the seesaw
scale can be much lower than that in the usual seesaw models. If terms inducing
seesaw masses are further induced by loop corrections, the seesaw scale can be
lowered to be in the range probed by experiments at the LHC without fine
tuning. In this paper we construct models in which inverse seesaw neutrino
masses are generated at two loop level. These models also naturally have dark
matter candidates. Although the recent data from Xenon100 put stringent
constraint on the models, they can be consistent with data on neutrino masses,
mixing, dark matter relic density and direct detection. These models also have
some interesting experimental signatures for collider and flavor physics.Comment: RevTex 14 pages 3 figures. Several references adde
Enhanced Higgs Mediated Lepton Flavour Violating Processes in the Supersymmetric Inverse Seesaw Model
We study the impact of the inverse seesaw mechanism on several low-energy
flavour violating observables such as tau decaying to three muons in the
context of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. As a consequence of the
inverse seesaw, the contributions of the right-handed sneutrinos significantly
enhance the Higgs-mediated penguin diagrams. We find that different flavour
violating branching ratios can be enhanced by as much as two orders of
magnitude. We also comment on the impact of the Higgs-mediated processes on the
leptonic B-meson decays and on the Higgs flavour violating decays.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, version to appear in JHE
Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS
has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions
at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection
criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined.
For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a
muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the
whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4,
while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The
efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than
90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall
momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The
transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity
for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be
better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions
of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO
- âŚ