Extracting the Distribution Amplitudes of the rho meson from the Color Glass Condensate

We extract the leading twist-2 and subleading twist-3 Distribution Amplitudes (DAs) of the rho meson using the HERA data on diffractive rho photoproduction. We do so using several Colour Glass Condensate (CGC) inspired and a Regge inspired dipole models. We find that our extracted twist-2 DA is not much model dependent and is consistent with QCD Sum Rules and lattice predictions. The extracted twist-3 DA is more model dependent but is still consistent with the Sum Rules prediction.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables. Section 6 revised, figures 8 and 9 and table 3 updated. Conclusions essentially unchange

Interferon-γ and Proliferation Responses to Salmonella enterica Serotype Typhi Proteins in Patients with S. Typhi Bacteremia in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi infection is a significant global public health problem and the cause of typhoid fever. Salmonella are intracellular pathogens, and cellular immune responses are required to control and clear Salmonella infections. Despite this, there are limited data on cellular immune responses during wild type S. Typhi infection in humans. Here we report the assessment of cellular immune responses in humans with S. Typhi bacteremia through a screening approach that permitted us to evaluate interferon-γ and proliferation responses to a number of S. Typhi antigens. We detected significant interferon-γ CD4 and CD8 responses, as well as proliferative responses, to a number of recombinantly purified S. Typhi proteins as well as membrane preparation in infected patients. Antigen-specific interferon-γ responses were present at the time of clinical presentation in patients and absent in healthy controls. These observations could assist in the development of interferon-γ-based diagnostic assays for typhoid fever

Adaptive Melanin Response of the Soil Fungus Aspergillus niger to UV Radiation Stress at “Evolution Canyon”, Mount Carmel, Israel

BACKGROUND:Adaptation is an evolutionary process in which traits in a population are tailored by natural selection to better meet the challenges presented by the local environment. The major discussion relating to natural selection concerns the portraying of the cause and effect relationship between a presumably adaptive trait and selection agents generating it. Therefore, it is necessary to identify trait(s) that evolve in direct response to selection, enhancing the organism's fitness. "Evolution Canyon" (EC) in Israel mirrors a microcosmic evolutionary system across life and is ideal to study natural selection and local adaptation under sharply, microclimatically divergent environments. The south-facing, tropical, sunny and xeric "African" slope (AS) receives 200%-800% higher solar radiation than the north-facing, temperate, shady and mesic "European" slope (ES), 200 meters apart. Thus, solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is a major selection agent in EC influencing the organism-environment interaction. Melanin is a trait postulated to have evolved for UV-screening in microorganisms. Here we investigate the cause and effect relationship between differential UVR on the opposing slopes of EC and the conidial melanin concentration of the filamentous soil fungus Aspergillus niger. We test the working hypothesis that the AS strains exhibit higher melanin content than strains from the ES resulting in higher UV resistance. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:We measured conidial melanin concentration of 80 strains from the EC using a spectrophotometer. The results indicated that mean conidial melanin concentration of AS strains were threefold higher than ES strains and the former resisted UVA irradiation better than the latter. Comparisons of melanin in the conidia of A. niger strains from sunny and shady microniches on the predominantly sunny AS and predominantly shady ES indicated that shady conditions on the AS have no influence on the selection on melanin; in contrast, the sunny strains from the ES displayed higher melanin concentrations. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:We conclude that melanin in A. niger is an adaptive trait against UVR generated by natural selection

Search for supersymmetric particles in scenarios with a gravitino LSP and stau NLSP

Sleptons, neutralinos and charginos were searched for in the context of scenarios where the lightest supersymmetric particle is the gravitino. It was assumed that the stau is the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle. Data collected with the DELPHI detector at a centre-of-mass energy near 189 GeV were analysed combining the methods developed in previous searches at lower energies. No evidence for the production of these supersymmetric particles was found. Hence, limits were derived at 95% confidence level.Comment: 31 pages, 14 figure

On the quest for selective constraints shaping the expressivity of the genes casting retropseudogenes in human

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Pseudogenes, the nonfunctional homologues of functional genes are now coming to light as important resources regarding the study of human protein evolution. Processed pseudogenes arising by reverse transcription and reinsertion can provide molecular record on the dynamics and evolution of genomes. Researches on the progenitors of human processed pseudogenes delved out their highly expressed and evolutionarily conserved characters. They are reported to be short and GC-poor indicating their high efficiency for retrotransposition. In this article we focused on their high expressivity and explored the factors contributing for that and their relevance in the milieu of protein sequence evolution.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We here, analyzed the high expressivity of these genes configuring processed or retropseudogenes by their immense connectivity in protein-protein interaction network, an inclination towards alternative splicing mechanism, a lower rate of mRNA disintegration and a slower evolutionary rate. While the unusual trend of the upraised disorder in contrast with the high expressivity of the proteins encoded by processed pseudogene ancestors is accredited by a predominance of hub-protein encoding genes, a high propensity of repeat sequence containing genes, elevated protein stability and the functional constraint to perform the transcription regulatory jobs. Linear regression analysis demonstrates mRNA decay rate and protein intrinsic disorder as the influential factors controlling the expressivity of these retropseudogene ancestors while the latter one is found to have the most significant regulatory power.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our findings imply that, the affluence of disordered regions elevating the network attachment to be involved in important cellular assignments and the stability in transcriptional level are acting as the prevailing forces behind the high expressivity of the human genes configuring processed pseudogenes.</p

A Meta-Analysis and Genome-Wide Association Study of Platelet Count and Mean Platelet Volume in African Americans

Several genetic variants associated with platelet count and mean platelet volume (MPV) were recently reported in people of European ancestry. In this meta-analysis of 7 genome-wide association studies (GWAS) enrolling African Americans, our aim was to identify novel genetic variants associated with platelet count and MPV. For all cohorts, GWAS analysis was performed using additive models after adjusting for age, sex, and population stratification. For both platelet phenotypes, meta-analyses were conducted using inverse-variance weighted fixed-effect models. Platelet aggregation assays in whole blood were performed in the participants of the GeneSTAR cohort. Genetic variants in ten independent regions were associated with platelet count (N = 16,388) with p<5×10−8 of which 5 have not been associated with platelet count in previous GWAS. The novel genetic variants associated with platelet count were in the following regions (the most significant SNP, closest gene, and p-value): 6p22 (rs12526480, LRRC16A, p = 9.1×10−9), 7q11 (rs13236689, CD36, p = 2.8×10−9), 10q21 (rs7896518, JMJD1C, p = 2.3×10−12), 11q13 (rs477895, BAD, p = 4.9×10−8), and 20q13 (rs151361, SLMO2, p = 9.4×10−9). Three of these loci (10q21, 11q13, and 20q13) were replicated in European Americans (N = 14,909) and one (11q13) in Hispanic Americans (N = 3,462). For MPV (N = 4,531), genetic variants in 3 regions were significant at p<5×10−8, two of which were also associated with platelet count. Previously reported regions that were also significant in this study were 6p21, 6q23, 7q22, 12q24, and 19p13 for platelet count and 7q22, 17q11, and 19p13 for MPV. The most significant SNP in 1 region was also associated with ADP-induced maximal platelet aggregation in whole blood (12q24). Thus through a meta-analysis of GWAS enrolling African Americans, we have identified 5 novel regions associated with platelet count of which 3 were replicated in other ethnic groups. In addition, we also found one region associated with platelet aggregation that may play a potential role in atherothrombosis

Cyanobacterial lipopolysaccharides and human health – a review

Cyanobacterial lipopolysaccharide/s (LPS) are frequently cited in the cyanobacteria literature as toxins responsible for a variety of heath effects in humans, from skin rashes to gastrointestinal, respiratory and allergic reactions. The attribution of toxic properties to cyanobacterial LPS dates from the 1970s, when it was thought that lipid A, the toxic moiety of LPS, was structurally and functionally conserved across all Gram-negative bacteria. However, more recent research has shown that this is not the case, and lipid A structures are now known to be very different, expressing properties ranging from LPS agonists, through weak endotoxicity to LPS antagonists. Although cyanobacterial LPS is widely cited as a putative toxin, most of the small number of formal research reports describe cyanobacterial LPS as weakly toxic compared to LPS from the Enterobacteriaceae. We systematically reviewed the literature on cyanobacterial LPS, and also examined the much lager body of literature relating to heterotrophic bacterial LPS and the atypical lipid A structures of some photosynthetic bacteria. While the literature on the biological activity of heterotrophic bacterial LPS is overwhelmingly large and therefore difficult to review for the purposes of exclusion, we were unable to find a convincing body of evidence to suggest that heterotrophic bacterial LPS, in the absence of other virulence factors, is responsible for acute gastrointestinal, dermatological or allergic reactions via natural exposure routes in humans. There is a danger that initial speculation about cyanobacterial LPS may evolve into orthodoxy without basis in research findings. No cyanobacterial lipid A structures have been described and published to date, so a recommendation is made that cyanobacteriologists should not continue to attribute such a diverse range of clinical symptoms to cyanobacterial LPS without research confirmation

Measurement of Trilinear Gauge Couplings in e+e−e^+ e^- Collisions at 161 GeV and 172 GeV

Trilinear gauge boson couplings are measured using data taken by DELPHI at 161~GeV and 172~GeV. Values for $WWV$ couplings ($V=Z, \gamma$) are determined from a study of the reactions \eeWW\ and \eeWev, using differential distributions from the $WW$ final state in which one $W$ decays hadronically and the other leptonically, and total cross-section data from other channels. Limits are also derived on neutral $ZV\gamma$ couplings from an analysis of the reaction \eegi

Study of B0_s anti-B0_s oscillations and B0_s lifetimes using hadronic decays of B0_s mesons

Oscillations of B0s mesons have been studied in samples selected from about 3.5 million hadronic Z decays detected by DELPHI between 1992 and 1995. One analysis uses events in the exclusive decay channels: B0s -> Ds- pi+ or Ds- a1+ and B0s -> anti-D0 K- pi+ or anti-D0 K- a1+, where the D decays are completely reconstructed. In addition, B0s anti-B0s oscillations have been studied in events with an exclusively reconstructed Ds accompanied in the same hemisphere by a high momentum hadron of opposite charge. Combining the two analyses, a limit on the mass difference between the physical B0s states has been obtained: Delta(m_B0s) > 4.0 ps^{-1} at the 95% C.L. with a sensitivity of Delta(m_B0s) = 3.2 ps^{-1}. Using the latter sample of events, the B0s lifetime has been measured and an upper limit on the decay width difference between the two physical B0s states has been obtained: tau(B0s) = 1.53^{+0.16}_{-0.15}(stat.) +/- {0.07}(syst.) ps \Delta\Gamma(B0s)/\Gamma(B0s) < 0.69 at the 95% C.L. The combination of these results with those obtained using Ds+- lepton-+ sample gives: Delta(m_B0s) > 4.9 ps^{-1} at the 95% C.L. with a sensitivity of Delta(m_B0s) = 8.7 ps^{-1}. tau(B0s) = 1.46 +/- 0.11 ps and \Delta\Gamma(B0s)/\Gamma(B0s) < 0.45 at the 95% C.L.Comment: 42 pages, 13 figure

Longer hospital stay is associated with higher rates of tuberculosis-related morbidity and mortality within 12 months after discharge in a referral hospital in Sub-Saharan Africa

BACKGROUND: Nosocomial transmission of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) is a problem in resource-limited settings. However, the degree of TB exposure and the intermediate- and long-term morbidity and mortality of hospital-associated TB is unclear. In this study we determined: 1) the nature, patterns and intensity of TB exposure occurring in the context of current TB cohorting practices in medical centre with a high prevalence of TB and HIV; 2) the one-year TB incidence after discharge; and 3) one-year TB-related mortality after hospital discharge. METHODS: Factors leading to nosocomial TB exposure were collected daily over a 3-month period. Patients were followed for 1-year after discharge. TB incidence and mortality were calculated and logistic regression was used to determine the factors associated with TB incidence and mortality during follow up. RESULTS: 1,094 patients were admitted to the medical wards between May 01 and July 31, 2010. HIV was confirmed in 690/1,094 (63.1%) of them. A total of 215/1,094 (19.7%) patients were diagnosed with PTB and 178/1,094 (16.3%) patients died during the course of their hospitalization; 12/178 (6.7%) patients died from TB-related complications. Eventually, 916 (83.7%) patients were discharged and followed for one year after it. Of these, 51 (5.6%) were diagnosed with PTB during the year of follow up (annual TB rate of 3,712 cases per 100,000 person per year). Overall, 57/916 (6.2%) patients died during the follow up period, of whom 26/57 (45.6%) died from confirmed TB. One-year TB incidence rate and TB-associated mortality were associated with the number of days that the patient remained hospitalized, the number of days spent in the cohorting bay (regardless of whether the patient was eventually diagnosed with TB or not), and the number and proximity to TB index cases. There was no difference in the performance of each of these 3 measurements of nosocomial TB exposure for the prediction of one-year TB incidence. CONCLUSION: Substantial TB exposure, particularly among HIV-infected patients, occurs in nosocomial settings despite implementation of cohorting measures. Nosocomial TB exposure is strongly associated with one-year TB incidence and TB-related mortality. Further studies are needed to identify strategies to reduce such exposure among susceptible patients