Poisson sigma models and symplectic groupoids

We consider the Poisson sigma model associated to a Poisson manifold. The perturbative quantization of this model yields the Kontsevich star product formula. We study here the classical model in the Hamiltonian formalism. The phase space is the space of leaves of a Hamiltonian foliation and has a natural groupoid structure. If it is a manifold then it is a symplectic groupoid for the given Poisson manifold. We study various families of examples. In particular, a global symplectic groupoid for a general class of two-dimensional Poisson domains is constructed.Comment: 34 page

Multiplicity of fibronectin-binding alpha V integrin receptors in colorectal cancer.

Current data from in vitro and in vivo animal models indicate that fibronectin-binding integrin receptors expressed by colon cancer cells may regulate tumour growth. While individual members of the beta 1 subfamily of integrins have now been clearly identified in colorectal cancer, little information exists with respect to the alpha V subfamily. In the present study we show that alpha V can associate with multiple and different beta subunits capable of binding fibronectin in this tumour type. This is likely to have functional implications for growth and spread of colorectal cancer

Heavy-meson physics and flavour violation with a single generation

We study flavour-violating processes which involve heavy B- and D-mesons and are mediated by Kaluza-Klein modes of gauge bosons in a previously suggested model where three generations of the Standard Model fermions originate from a single generation in six dimensions. We find the bound on the size R of the extra spatial dimensions 1/R>3.3 TeV, which arises from the three-body decay B_s to K mu e. Due to the still too low statistics this bound is much less stringent than the constraint arising from K to mu e, 1/R>64 TeV, which was found in a previous work (Frere et al., JHEP, 2003). Nevertheless, we argue that a clear signature of the model would be an observation of K to mu e and B_s to K mu e decays without observations of other flavour and lepton number changing processes at the same precision level.Comment: 15 page

Socializing on MOOCs: comparing university and self-enrolled students

International audienceMOOCs are becoming more and more integrated in the higher education landscape of learning, with many institutions now pushing their students towards MOOC as part of their curriculum. But what does it mean for other MOOC learners? Are these students socializing the same way when they have an easier possibility to interact with classmates offline? Is the fact that they do not personally choose to enroll in a MOOC also having an effect? In this paper, we compare university-enrolled students to other MOOC participants and in particular other self-enrolled students, to examine how and why they socialize on and around the MOOC. Using data from two French MOOCs in project management, we show that university-enrolled students are less attracted by forums and seem to interact less than others when the workload increases , which could lead to misleading conclusions when analyzing data. We therefore encourage MOOC researchers to be particularly mindful of this new trend when performing social network analyses

The expression pattern of MUC1 (EMA) is related to tumour characteristics and clinical outcome of invasive ductal breast carcinoma

Aims: To clarify MUC1 patterns in invasive ductal breast carcinoma and to relate them to clinicopathological parameters, coexpression of other biological markers and prognosis. Methods and results: Samples from 243 consecutive patients with primary ductal carcinoma were incorporated into tissue microarrays (TMAs). Slides were stained for MUC1, oestrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), Her2/neu, p53 and cyclin D1. Apical membrane MUC1 expression was associated with smaller tumours (P = 0.001), lower tumour grades (P < 0.001), PR positivity (P = 0.003) and increased overall survival (OS; P = 0.030). Diffuse cytoplasmic MUC1 expression was associated with cyclin D1 positivity (P = 0.009) and increased relapse-free survival (RFS; P = 0.034). Negativity for MUC1 was associated with ER negativity (P = 0.004), PR negativity (P = 0.001) and cyclin D1 negativity (P = 0.009). In stepwise multivariate analysis MUC1 negativity was an independent predictor of both RFS [hazard ratio (HR) 3.5, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.5, 8.5; P = 0.005] and OS (HR 14.7, 9 5% Cl 4.9, 44. 1; P < 0.001). Conclusions: The expression pattern of MUC1 in invasive ductal breast carcinoma is related to tumour characteristics and clinical outcome. In addition, negative MUC1 expression is an independent risk factor for poor RFS and OS, besides 'classical' prognostic indicators

Towards BitCO2, an individual consumption-based carbon emission reduction mechanism

Human activities, such as burning fossil fuels for electricity generation, heating, and transport, are the primary drivers of a large amount of greenhouse gases emission. The individual consumers, able to influence the supply chains behind the commodities their chose to fulfil their needs is the driver behind production and, consequently, its impacts. Thus, the active and willing participation of citizens in combatting climate change may be pivotal to address this issue. The present work is aimed at presenting and modelling a novel market-based carbon emission reduction mechanism, called BitCO2, designed to incentivize individual consumption choices toward lower carbon footprints. This mechanism is tested for the Italian private transportation sector thanks to an ad hoc developed System Dynamics model. The Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) adoption, if compared with the Internal Combustion Engine Vehicle (ICEV) one, cause less CO2 emissions per km travelled. After a certain number of travelled km, a BitCO2 token is assigned to BEV owners for each ton of avoided CO2. This token can be exchanged in a dedicated market and used to get a discount on insurance services. Assuming a Social Cost of Carbon of 9.22 [2.13-22.3] euro/tonCO2eq, model results show that the BitCO2 mechanism would allow for a cumulated CO2 emission reduction of 973 [68.9-5'230] ktonCO2eq over 20 years of operation with a peak of 39.3 [5.34-189] thousand additional BEV registration per year

See-saw neutrino masses and large mixing angles in the vortex background on a sphere

In the vortex background on a sphere, a single 6-dimensional fermion family gives rise to 3 zero-modes in the 4-dimensional point of view, which may explain the replication of families in the Standard Model. Previously, it had been shown that realistic hierarchical mass and mixing patterns can be reproduced for the quarks and the charged leptons. Here, we show that the addition of a single heavy 6-dimensional field that is gauge singlet, unbound to the vortex, and embedded with a bulk Majorana mass enables to generate 4D Majorana masses for the light neutrinos through the see-saw mechanism. The scheme is very predictive. The hierarchical structure of the fermion zero-modes leads automatically to an inverted pseudo-Dirac mass pattern, and always predicts one maximal angle in the neutrino see-saw matrix. It is possible to obtain a second large mixing angle from either the charged lepton or the neutrino sector, and we demonstrate that this model can fit all observed data in neutrino oscillations experiments. Also, U_{e3} is found to be of the order ~0.1.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figur

Pharmaceutico - Analytical Study of Triphala Guggulu

There are many formulations mentioned in Ayurvedic classics to treat various disease used as internally as well as external applications, Guggulu Kalpana is one of them. It is a very popular, safe and effective formulation for mitigation of Tridosha mainly Vatadosha. Two methods for preparation of Guggulu Kalpana areused; 1. Kuttana (pounding) and 2. Analapaka (heating). Mostly small production of Guggulu Kalpana is made by Kuttana and large production is made by Analapaka. Amidst of all Guggulu Kalpana, Triphala Guggulu is one of the most momentous and widely used in Vrana Shodhana and Vrana Ropana Karma in practice. Triphala Guggulu is indicated in Bhagandara, Gulma, Shotha, Arsha, Vatarakta, Kushtha, Pakva-vidradhi, Gandamala, Asthibhagna which is described in Sharangdhara Samhita, Yogaratnakara and Bhavaprakasha. Three batches of Triphala Guggulu were prepared with reference of Sharangdhara Samhita and follow the in house quality control parameters to standardized the medicine in large scale production by heating method. The size of Triphala Guggulu was form 10.27mm to 10.28mm in diameter, pH 5.9 to 6.2, loss on drying 0.8% to 1.6%, ash value 6.0%w/w to 7.5%w/w, acid-insoluble ash value 0.8%w/w to 1.2%w/w, alcohol-soluble extractive value 16.4%v/w to 30.2%v/w and water-soluble extractive value 32.0% to 38.0%. Phytochemical screening of Triphala Guggulu shows that Glycoside, Amino acid, Protein, Carbohydrate, Flavanoid, Tannin, Steroid, Saponin and Alkaloid were present in all batches. On the basis of this study it is clear that, if we follow the same procedure with authentic drugs then large scale production also have quality assurance

A conserved filamentous assembly underlies the structure of the meiotic chromosome axis.

The meiotic chromosome axis plays key roles in meiotic chromosome organization and recombination, yet the underlying protein components of this structure are highly diverged. Here, we show that 'axis core proteins' from budding yeast (Red1), mammals (SYCP2/SYCP3), and plants (ASY3/ASY4) are evolutionarily related and play equivalent roles in chromosome axis assembly. We first identify 'closure motifs' in each complex that recruit meiotic HORMADs, the master regulators of meiotic recombination. We next find that axis core proteins form homotetrameric (Red1) or heterotetrameric (SYCP2:SYCP3 and ASY3:ASY4) coiled-coil assemblies that further oligomerize into micron-length filaments. Thus, the meiotic chromosome axis core in fungi, mammals, and plants shares a common molecular architecture, and likely also plays conserved roles in meiotic chromosome axis assembly and recombination control