2,105 research outputs found
LHC Predictions from a Tevatron Anomaly in the Top Quark Forward-Backward Asymmetry
We examine the implications of the recent CDF measurement of the top-quark
forward-backward asymmetry, focusing on a scenario with a new color octet
vector boson at 1-3 TeV. We study several models, as well as a general
effective field theory, and determine the parameter space which provides the
best simultaneous fit to the CDF asymmetry, the Tevatron top pair production
cross section, and the exclusion regions from LHC dijet resonance and contact
interaction searches. Flavor constraints on these models are more subtle and
less severe than the literature indicates. We find a large region of allowed
parameter space at high axigluon mass and a smaller region at low mass; we
match the latter to an SU(3)xSU(3)/SU(3) coset model with a heavy vector-like
fermion. Our scenario produces discoverable effects at the LHC with only 1-2
inverse femtobarns of luminosity at 7-8 TeV. Lastly, we point out that a
Tevatron measurement of the b-quark forward-backward asymmetry would be very
helpful in characterizing the physics underlying the top-quark asymmetry.Comment: 35 pages, 10 figures, 4 table
From Nonspecific DNA–Protein Encounter Complexes to the Prediction of DNA–Protein Interactions
©2009 Gao, Skolnick. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000341DNA–protein interactions are involved in many essential biological activities. Because there is no simple mapping code between DNA base pairs and protein amino acids, the prediction of DNA–protein interactions is a challenging problem. Here, we present a novel computational approach for predicting DNA-binding protein residues and DNA–protein interaction modes without knowing its specific DNA target sequence. Given the structure of a DNA-binding protein, the method first generates an ensemble of complex structures obtained by rigid-body docking with a nonspecific canonical B-DNA. Representative models are subsequently selected through clustering and ranking by their DNA–protein interfacial energy. Analysis of these encounter complex models suggests that the recognition sites for specific DNA binding are usually favorable interaction sites for the nonspecific DNA probe and that nonspecific DNA–protein interaction modes exhibit some similarity to specific DNA–protein binding modes. Although the method requires as input the knowledge that the protein binds DNA, in benchmark tests, it achieves better performance in identifying DNA-binding sites than three previously established methods, which are based on sophisticated machine-learning techniques. We further apply our method to protein structures predicted through modeling and demonstrate that our method performs satisfactorily on protein models whose root-mean-square Ca deviation from native is up to 5 Å from their native structures. This study provides valuable structural insights into how a specific DNA-binding protein interacts with a nonspecific DNA sequence. The similarity between the specific DNA–protein interaction mode and nonspecific interaction modes may reflect an important sampling step in search of its specific DNA targets by a DNA-binding protein
Top quark forward-backward asymmetry in R-parity violating supersymmetry
The interaction of bottom squark-mediated top quark pair production,
occurring in the R-parity violating minimal supersymmetric standard model
(MSSM), is proposed as an explanation of the anomalously large
forward-backward asymmetry (FBA) observed at the Tevatron. We find that this
model can give a good fit to top quark data, both the inclusive and invariant
mass-dependent asymmetries, while remaining consistent (at the 2-
level) with the total and differential production cross-sections. The scenario
is challenged by strong constraints from atomic parity violation (APV), but we
point out an extra diagram for the effective down quark-Z vertex, involving the
same coupling constant as required for the FBA, which tends to weaken the APV
constraint, and which can nullify it for reasonable values of the top squark
masses and mixing angle. Large contributions to flavor-changing neutral
currents can be avoided if only the third generation of sparticles is light.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figures. v3: included LHC top production cross section
data; model still consistent at 2 sigma leve
Convergence versus Divergence: Testing Varieties of Capitalism Perspective on the Globalization of Business Practices
This paper analyses links between intra-organizational adaptation and institutional variation across countries. Using the varieties of capitalism viewpoint, we examine strategic options open to multinational firms operating simultaneously in liberal market economies and coordinated market economies. A holistic perspective is achieved by implementing an original ‘index of institutional impact.’ Data are drawn from a survey of the subsidiaries of German firms in the UK in 2007. The results suggest that pressure towards accepting local practices for multinational firms varies across the dimensions in which firms resolve coordination problems, inciting speedy convergence in some, but allowing for maintaining distinctive practices in other
Academic Performance and Behavioral Patterns
Identifying the factors that influence academic performance is an essential
part of educational research. Previous studies have documented the importance
of personality traits, class attendance, and social network structure. Because
most of these analyses were based on a single behavioral aspect and/or small
sample sizes, there is currently no quantification of the interplay of these
factors. Here, we study the academic performance among a cohort of 538
undergraduate students forming a single, densely connected social network. Our
work is based on data collected using smartphones, which the students used as
their primary phones for two years. The availability of multi-channel data from
a single population allows us to directly compare the explanatory power of
individual and social characteristics. We find that the most informative
indicators of performance are based on social ties and that network indicators
result in better model performance than individual characteristics (including
both personality and class attendance). We confirm earlier findings that class
attendance is the most important predictor among individual characteristics.
Finally, our results suggest the presence of strong homophily and/or peer
effects among university students
Search for charginos in e+e- interactions at sqrt(s) = 189 GeV
An update of the searches for charginos and gravitinos is presented, based on
a data sample corresponding to the 158 pb^{-1} recorded by the DELPHI detector
in 1998, at a centre-of-mass energy of 189 GeV. No evidence for a signal was
found. The lower mass limits are 4-5 GeV/c^2 higher than those obtained at a
centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV. The (\mu,M_2) MSSM domain excluded by
combining the chargino searches with neutralino searches at the Z resonance
implies a limit on the mass of the lightest neutralino which, for a heavy
sneutrino, is constrained to be above 31.0 GeV/c^2 for tan(beta) \geq 1.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure
Hadronization properties of b quarks compared to light quarks in e+e- -> q qbar from 183 to 200 GeV
The DELPHI detector at LEP has collected 54 pb^{-1} of data at a
centre-of-mass energy around 183 GeV during 1997, 158 pb^{-1} around 189 GeV
during 1998, and 187 pb^{-1} between 192 and 200 GeV during 1999. These data
were used to measure the average charged particle multiplicity in e+e- -> b
bbar events, _{bb}, and the difference delta_{bl} between _{bb} and the
multiplicity, _{ll}, in generic light quark (u,d,s) events: delta_{bl}(183
GeV) = 4.55 +/- 1.31 (stat) +/- 0.73 (syst) delta_{bl}(189 GeV) = 4.43 +/- 0.85
(stat) +/- 0.61 (syst) delta_{bl}(200 GeV) = 3.39 +/- 0.89 (stat) +/- 1.01
(syst). This result is consistent with QCD predictions, while it is
inconsistent with calculations assuming that the multiplicity accompanying the
decay of a heavy quark is independent of the mass of the quark itself.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure
One-year outcomes of the ARTISAN-SNM study with the Axonics System for the treatment of urinary urgency incontinence
Aims: Sacral neuromodulation (SNM) is a guideline-recommended treatment for voiding dysfunction including urgency, urge incontinence, and nonobstructive retention as well
Measurement of the dijet invariant mass cross section in proton anti-proton collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV
The inclusive dijet production double differential cross section as a
function of the dijet invariant mass and of the largest absolute rapidity of
the two jets with the largest transverse momentum in an event is measured in
proton anti-proton collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV using 0.7 fb^{-1}
integrated luminosity collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron
Collider. The measurement is performed in six rapidity regions up to a maximum
rapidity of 2.4. Next-to-leading order perturbative QCD predictions are found
to be in agreement with the data.Comment: Published in Phys. Lett. B, 693, (2010), 531-538, 8 pages, 2 figures,
6 table
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