On the photon polarization in radiative B -> phi K gamma decay

The photon polarization in radiative decays B -> Y gamma is known to be a subtle probe of the effective Lagrangian structure and possible New Physics effects. We discuss exclusive decay mode B -> phi K gamma where the experimentally distinct final state makes analysis especially promising. The possibility to extract information on the photon polarization out of the data entirely depends on the partial waves interference pattern in the phi K system.Comment: RevTeX, 6 pages, 1 figure; the journal versio

Star-forming galaxies at very high redshifts

Analysis of the deepest available images of the sky, obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope, reveals a large number of candidate high-redshift galaxies. A catalogue of 1,683 objects is presented, with estimated redshifts ranging from $z=0$ to $z>6$. The high-redshift objects are interpreted as regions of star formation associated with the progenitors of present-day normal galaxies at epochs reaching to 95\% of the time to the Big Bang.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX type, aaspp4.sty macro provided. Supplementary information, including the full catalog, plots of spectra and redshift likelihood functions for all the objects, and composite spectra, are available at ftp://ftp.ess.sunysb.edu/pub/hd

Surprisingly Simple Spectra

The large N limit of the anomalous dimensions of operators in ${\cal N}=4$ super Yang-Mills theory described by restricted Schur polynomials, are studied. We focus on operators labeled by Young diagrams that have two columns (both long) so that the classical dimension of these operators is O(N). At large N these two column operators mix with each other but are decoupled from operators with $n\ne 2$ columns. The planar approximation does not capture the large N dynamics. For operators built with 2, 3 or 4 impurities the dilatation operator is explicitly evaluated. In all three cases, in a certain limit, the dilatation operator is a lattice version of a second derivative, with the lattice emerging from the Young diagram itself. The one loop dilatation operator is diagonalized numerically. All eigenvalues are an integer multiple of $8g_{YM}^2$ and there are interesting degeneracies in the spectrum. The spectrum we obtain for the one loop anomalous dimension operator is reproduced by a collection of harmonic oscillators. This equivalence to harmonic oscillators generalizes giant graviton results known for the BPS sector and further implies that the Hamiltonian defined by the one loop large $N$ dilatation operator is integrable. This is an example of an integrable dilatation operator, obtained by summing both planar and non-planar diagrams.Comment: 34 page

Metabolic engineering of the iodine content in Arabidopsis

Plants are a poor source of iodine, an essential micronutrient for human health. Several attempts of iodine biofortification of crops have been carried out, but the scarce knowledge on the physiology of iodine in plants makes results often contradictory and not generalizable. In this work, we used a molecular approach to investigate how the ability of a plant to accumulate iodine can be influenced by different mechanisms. In particular, we demonstrated that the iodine content in Arabidopsis thaliana can be increased either by facilitating its uptake with the overexpression of the human sodium-iodide symporter (NIS) or through the reduction of its volatilization by knocking-out HOL-1, a halide methyltransferase. Our experiments show that the iodine content in plants results from a balance between intake and retention. A correct manipulation of this mechanism could improve iodine biofortification of crops and prevent the release of the ozone layer-threatening methyl iodide into the atmosphere

State-space Manifold and Rotating Black Holes

We study a class of fluctuating higher dimensional black hole configurations obtained in string theory/ $M$-theory compactifications. We explore the intrinsic Riemannian geometric nature of Gaussian fluctuations arising from the Hessian of the coarse graining entropy, defined over an ensemble of brane microstates. It has been shown that the state-space geometry spanned by the set of invariant parameters is non-degenerate, regular and has a negative scalar curvature for the rotating Myers-Perry black holes, Kaluza-Klein black holes, supersymmetric $AdS_5$ black holes, $D_1$-$D_5$ configurations and the associated BMPV black holes. Interestingly, these solutions demonstrate that the principal components of the state-space metric tensor admit a positive definite form, while the off diagonal components do not. Furthermore, the ratio of diagonal components weakens relatively faster than the off diagonal components, and thus they swiftly come into an equilibrium statistical configuration. Novel aspects of the scaling property suggest that the brane-brane statistical pair correlation functions divulge an asymmetric nature, in comparison with the others. This approach indicates that all above configurations are effectively attractive and stable, on an arbitrary hyper-surface of the state-space manifolds. It is nevertheless noticed that there exists an intriguing relationship between non-ideal inter-brane statistical interactions and phase transitions. The ramifications thus described are consistent with the existing picture of the microscopic CFTs. We conclude with an extended discussion of the implications of this work for the physics of black holes in string theory.Comment: 44 pages, Keywords: Rotating Black Holes; State-space Geometry; Statistical Configurations, String Theory, M-Theory. PACS numbers: 04.70.-s Physics of black holes; 04.70.Bw Classical black holes; 04.70.Dy Quantum aspects of black holes, evaporation, thermodynamics; 04.50.Gh Higher-dimensional black holes, black strings, and related objects. Edited the bibliograph

Depression and sickness behavior are Janus-faced responses to shared inflammatory pathways

It is of considerable translational importance whether depression is a form or a consequence of sickness behavior. Sickness behavior is a behavioral complex induced by infections and immune trauma and mediated by pro-inflammatory cytokines. It is an adaptive response that enhances recovery by conserving energy to combat acute inflammation. There are considerable phenomenological similarities between sickness behavior and depression, for example, behavioral inhibition, anorexia and weight loss, and melancholic (anhedonia), physio-somatic (fatigue, hyperalgesia, malaise), anxiety and neurocognitive symptoms. In clinical depression, however, a transition occurs to sensitization of immuno-inflammatory pathways, progressive damage by oxidative and nitrosative stress to lipids, proteins, and DNA, and autoimmune responses directed against self-epitopes. The latter mechanisms are the substrate of a neuroprogressive process, whereby multiple depressive episodes cause neural tissue damage and consequent functional and cognitive sequelae. Thus, shared immuno-inflammatory pathways underpin the physiology of sickness behavior and the pathophysiology of clinical depression explaining their partially overlapping phenomenology. Inflammation may provoke a Janus-faced response with a good, acute side, generating protective inflammation through sickness behavior and a bad, chronic side, for example, clinical depression, a lifelong disorder with positive feedback loops between (neuro)inflammation and (neuro)degenerative processes following less well defined triggers

Determinants of participation in colonoscopic screening by siblings of colorectal cancer patients in France

International audienceBACKGROUND: Targeted colonosocopic screening is recommended for first-degree relatives of colorectal cancer patients diagnosed before the age of 60 and offers the possibility of reducing morbidity and mortality, but participation remains too low. The objective of this study was to determine in a French population the factors that affect siblings' participation in screening, notably those relating to the individuals, their medical care, their family and their social network. METHODS: A cross sectional survey was conducted in siblings of index patients having undergone surgery for colorectal cancer between 1999 and 2002 in two French counties. Siblings were contacted during 2007 and 2008 through the index patient. The factors affecting participation in colonoscopic screening were studied by logistic regression taking into account family cluster effect. RESULTS: 172 siblings of 74 index cases were included. The declared rate of undergoing at least one colonoscopy among siblings was 66%; 95%CI 59-73%. Five variables were independently associated with colonoscopic screening: perceiving fewer barriers to screening (OR = 3.2; 95%CI 1.2-8.5), having received the recommendation to undergo screening from a physician (OR = 4.9; 1.7-13.7), perceiving centres practising colonoscopy as more accessible (OR = 3.2, 1.3-7.8), having discussed screening with all siblings (OR = 3.9; 1.6-9.6) and being a member of an association (OR = 2.6; 1.0-6.6). CONCLUSIONS: The factors independently associated with participation in CRC screening by an individual at increased risk belonged to each of four dimensions relating to his individual psychosocial characteristics, to his relationship with a physician, within the family and social environment. The relevance of these results to clinical practice may help to improve compliance to recommendations in a global preventive strategy including all stages of the information pathway from the physician to the index patient and his relatives

Physics of Neutron Star Crusts

The physics of neutron star crusts is vast, involving many different research fields, from nuclear and condensed matter physics to general relativity. This review summarizes the progress, which has been achieved over the last few years, in modeling neutron star crusts, both at the microscopic and macroscopic levels. The confrontation of these theoretical models with observations is also briefly discussed.Comment: 182 pages, published version available at <http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2008-10

Gravitational waves from single neutron stars: an advanced detector era survey

With the doors beginning to swing open on the new gravitational wave astronomy, this review provides an up-to-date survey of the most important physical mechanisms that could lead to emission of potentially detectable gravitational radiation from isolated and accreting neutron stars. In particular we discuss the gravitational wave-driven instability and asteroseismology formalism of the f- and r-modes, the different ways that a neutron star could form and sustain a non-axisymmetric quadrupolar "mountain" deformation, the excitation of oscillations during magnetar flares and the possible gravitational wave signature of pulsar glitches. We focus on progress made in the recent years in each topic, make a fresh assessment of the gravitational wave detectability of each mechanism and, finally, highlight key problems and desiderata for future work.Comment: 39 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables. Chapter of the book "Physics and Astrophysics of Neutron Stars", NewCompStar COST Action 1304. Minor corrections to match published versio

Comparative analysis of carboxysome shell proteins

Carboxysomes are metabolic modules for CO2 fixation that are found in all cyanobacteria and some chemoautotrophic bacteria. They comprise a semi-permeable proteinaceous shell that encapsulates ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO) and carbonic anhydrase. Structural studies are revealing the integral role of the shell protein paralogs to carboxysome form and function. The shell proteins are composed of two domain classes: those with the bacterial microcompartment (BMC; Pfam00936) domain, which oligomerize to form (pseudo)hexamers, and those with the CcmL/EutN (Pfam03319) domain which form pentamers in carboxysomes. These two shell protein types are proposed to be the basis for the carboxysome’s icosahedral geometry. The shell proteins are also thought to allow the flux of metabolites across the shell through the presence of the small pore formed by their hexameric/pentameric symmetry axes. In this review, we describe bioinformatic and structural analyses that highlight the important primary, tertiary, and quaternary structural features of these conserved shell subunits. In the future, further understanding of these molecular building blocks may provide the basis for enhancing CO2 fixation in other organisms or creating novel biological nanostructures