Electroweak parameters of the z0 resonance and the standard model

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Dual-specificity phosphatases as targets for antineoplastic agents

Dual-specificity protein phosphatases are a subclass of protein tyrosine phosphatases that are uniquely able to hydrolyse the phosphate ester bond on both a tyrosine and a threonine or serine residue on the same protein. Dual-specificity phosphatases have a central role in the complex regulation of signalling pathways that are involved in cell stress responses, proliferation and death. Although this enzyme family is increasingly the target of drug discovery efforts in pharmaceutical companies, a summary of the salient developments in the biology and medicinal chemistry of dual-specificity phosphatases has been lacking. We hope that this comprehensive overview will stimulate further progress in the development of small-molecule inhibitors that could form the basis for a new class of target-directed therapeutic agents

Precision Electroweak Measurements on the Z resonance.

We report on the final electroweak measurements performed with data taken at the Z resonance by the experiments operating at the electron–positron colliders SLC and LEP. The data consist of 17 million Z decays accumulated by the ALEPH, DELPHI, L3 and OPAL experiments at LEP, and 600 thousand Z decays by the SLD experiment using a polarised beam at SLC. The measurements include cross-sections, forward–backward asymmetries and polarised asymmetries. The mass and width of the Z boson, mZ and ΓZ, and its couplings to fermions, for example the ρ parameter and the effective electroweak mixing angle for leptons, are precisely measured: The number of light neutrino species is determined to be 2.9840±0.0082, in agreement with the three observed generations of fundamental fermions. The results are compared to the predictions of the Standard Model (SM). At the Z-pole, electroweak radiative corrections beyond the running of the QED and QCD coupling constants are observed with a significance of five standard deviations, and in agreement with the Standard Model. Of the many Z-pole measurements, the forward–backward asymmetry in b-quark production shows the largest difference with respect to its SM expectation, at the level of 2.8 standard deviations. Through radiative corrections evaluated in the framework of the Standard Model, the Z-pole data are also used to predict the mass of the top quark, , and the mass of the W boson, . These indirect constraints are compared to the direct measurements, providing a stringent test of the SM. Using in addition the direct measurements of mt and mW, the mass of the as yet unobserved SM Higgs boson is predicted with a relative uncertainty of about 50% and found to be less than at 95% confidence level