SND@LHC: The Scattering and Neutrino Detector at the LHC

SND@LHC is a compact and stand-alone experiment designed to perform measurements with neutrinos produced at the LHC in the pseudo-rapidity region of ${7.2 < \eta < 8.4}$. The experiment is located 480 m downstream of the ATLAS interaction point, in the TI18 tunnel. The detector is composed of a hybrid system based on an 830 kg target made of tungsten plates, interleaved with emulsion and electronic trackers, also acting as an electromagnetic calorimeter, and followed by a hadronic calorimeter and a muon identification system. The detector is able to distinguish interactions of all three neutrino flavours, which allows probing the physics of heavy flavour production at the LHC in the very forward region. This region is of particular interest for future circular colliders and for very high energy astrophysical neutrino experiments. The detector is also able to search for the scattering of Feebly Interacting Particles. In its first phase, the detector will operate throughout LHC Run 3 and collect a total of 250 $\text{fb}^{-1}$

Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks, 1990-2015: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015

Background: The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2015 provides an up-to-date synthesis of the evidence for risk factor exposure and the attributable burden of disease. By providing national and subnational assessments spanning the past 25 years, this study can inform debates on the importance of addressing risks in context. Methods: We used the comparative risk assessment framework developed for previous iterations of the Global Burden of Disease Study to estimate attributable deaths, disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and trends in exposure by age group, sex, year, and geography for 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks from 1990 to 2015. This study included 388 risk-outcome pairs that met World Cancer Research Fund-defined criteria for convincing or probable evidence. We extracted relative risk and exposure estimates from randomised controlled trials, cohorts, pooled cohorts, household surveys, census data, satellite data, and other sources. We used statistical models to pool data, adjust for bias, and incorporate covariates. We developed a metric that allows comparisons of exposure across risk factors—the summary exposure value. Using the counterfactual scenario of theoretical minimum risk level, we estimated the portion of deaths and DALYs that could be attributed to a given risk. We decomposed trends in attributable burden into contributions from population growth, population age structure, risk exposure, and risk-deleted cause-specific DALY rates. We characterised risk exposure in relation to a Socio-demographic Index (SDI). Findings: Between 1990 and 2015, global exposure to unsafe sanitation, household air pollution, childhood underweight, childhood stunting, and smoking each decreased by more than 25%. Global exposure for several occupational risks, high body-mass index (BMI), and drug use increased by more than 25% over the same period. All risks jointly evaluated in 2015 accounted for 57·8% (95% CI 56·6–58·8) of global deaths and 41·2% (39·8–42·8) of DALYs. In 2015, the ten largest contributors to global DALYs among Level 3 risks were high systolic blood pressure (211·8 million [192·7 million to 231·1 million] global DALYs), smoking (148·6 million [134·2 million to 163·1 million]), high fasting plasma glucose (143·1 million [125·1 million to 163·5 million]), high BMI (120·1 million [83·8 million to 158·4 million]), childhood undernutrition (113·3 million [103·9 million to 123·4 million]), ambient particulate matter (103·1 million [90·8 million to 115·1 million]), high total cholesterol (88·7 million [74·6 million to 105·7 million]), household air pollution (85·6 million [66·7 million to 106·1 million]), alcohol use (85·0 million [77·2 million to 93·0 million]), and diets high in sodium (83·0 million [49·3 million to 127·5 million]). From 1990 to 2015, attributable DALYs declined for micronutrient deficiencies, childhood undernutrition, unsafe sanitation and water, and household air pollution; reductions in risk-deleted DALY rates rather than reductions in exposure drove these declines. Rising exposure contributed to notable increases in attributable DALYs from high BMI, high fasting plasma glucose, occupational carcinogens, and drug use. Environmental risks and childhood undernutrition declined steadily with SDI; low physical activity, high BMI, and high fasting plasma glucose increased with SDI. In 119 countries, metabolic risks, such as high BMI and fasting plasma glucose, contributed the most attributable DALYs in 2015. Regionally, smoking still ranked among the leading five risk factors for attributable DALYs in 109 countries; childhood underweight and unsafe sex remained primary drivers of early death and disability in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Interpretation: Declines in some key environmental risks have contributed to declines in critical infectious diseases. Some risks appear to be invariant to SDI. Increasing risks, including high BMI, high fasting plasma glucose, drug use, and some occupational exposures, contribute to rising burden from some conditions, but also provide opportunities for intervention. Some highly preventable risks, such as smoking, remain major causes of attributable DALYs, even as exposure is declining. Public policy makers need to pay attention to the risks that are increasingly major contributors to global burden. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

A common response element mediates differential effects of phorbol esters and forskolin on type‐1 plasminogen activator inhibitor gene expression in human breast carcinoma cells

We have characterized regulation of type‐1 plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI‐1) gene expression by phorbol 12‐myristate 13‐acetate (PMA) and the cAMP‐inducing agent forskolin in the human breast carcinoma cell line MCF‐7. PMA caused a strong induction of PAI‐1, while forskolin suppressed the PMA response. Transfection experiments with fusion genes showed that sequences mediating PMA induction as well as forskolin suppression were present between base pairs –100 and –30 of the 57prime;‐flanking region of the PAI‐1 gene. The region was found to contain two Sp1 binding sites. A proximal sequence in the region, TGAGTTCA (P box), with sequence similarity to phorbol ester response elements (TRE) as well as to cAMP response elements (CRE), bound a low‐abundance, as yet unidentified nuclear protein in MCF‐7 cells. This sequence had a higher affinity to purified c‐jun homodimer than to c‐jun/c‐fos heterodimer in MCF‐7 nuclear extracts; it had no affinity to the proteins binding to CRE consensus sequences in these extracts. A distal TRE‐like sequence, TGAGTGG (D box), had a weak affinity to c‐jun/c‐fos heterodimer and c‐jun homodimer; binding of proteins to this sequence was facilitated by binding of proteins to the P box. Both the P box and the D box were necessary for PMA responsiveness, suggesting a cooperativity between the two binding sites. A mutation of the P box removing the CRE similarity abolished the forskolin suppression of the PMA response. We propose that the protein kinase C and the protein kinase A signal‐transduction pathways, with opposite effects on PAI‐1 gene expression, converge by modulating differently P‐box‐binding proteins. Copyright © 1994, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserve

Tumor necrosis factor-α regulates mRNA for urokinase-type plasminogen activator and type-1 plasminogen activator inhibitor in human neoplastic cell lines

Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) was found to induce type-1 plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1) antigen in the human fibrosarcoma cell line HT-1080, and PAI-1 and urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u-PA) antigens in the human carcinoma cell line T-CAR1; tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) antigen was not affected or slightly decreased. The effects in HT-1080 and T-CAR1 cells were preceded by increases in the cellular levels of the corresponding mRNAs. Cycloheximide caused an increase of PAI-1 mRNA in T-CAR1 cells, but not in HT-1080 cells; during this increase the relative abundance of the two PAI-1 mRNA species, of 2.3 kb and 3.4 kb, respectively, changed strongly in favor of the longer transcript. We conclude that TNF-α may affect proteolytic activity in the microenvironment of cells in malignant tumors by affecting gene expression of u-PA and PAI-1. © 1989

The regulatory region of the human plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 (PAI-1) gene

The human gene for plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 (PAI-1) has been isolated and its promoter region characterized. PAI-1 regulation by glucocortiooids, transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) and the phorbol ester PMA is shown to be exerted at the promoter level. A fragment spanning 805 nuclectides of the 5′ flanking and 72 of the 5′ untraslated region contain information enough to promote transcription and to respond to glucocorticoids when fused to a reporter gene and transfected into human fibrosarccma cells. A moderately repectitive DNA sequence, containing a TATA box, a GRE consensus, a Z-DNA forming sequence and two imperfect direct repeats at the extremities, is present a few nucleotides 5′ of the human PAI-1 gene transcription start site, raising the possiblity that this gene could have been activated by DNA insertion during evolution. © 1988 IRL Press Limited

Plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 protein, mRNA and gene transcription are increased by phorbol esters in human rhabdomyosarcoma cells

By use of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, we have found that phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) causes an approximately 10-fold increase in the level of type-1 plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1) accumulated in conditioned medium of the human rhabdomyosarcoma cell line. Half-maximal stimulation occurred at ≃15 nM PMA. The effect was only observed with phorbol esters that are tumor promoting. Maximal levels of secreted PAI-1 were observed 24 h after PMA addition. The increase in secreted PAI-I was preceded by a transient approximately 10-fold increase in intracellular PAI-1 content, maximal at 8 h after PMA addition. There was a 20-fold increase in the cellular level of two 2.3- and 3.4-kilobase PAI-1 mRNAs and a more than 5-fold increase in the PAI-1 gene transcription rate. The protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide (10 μg/ml) also increased the level of PAI-1 mRNA, and when both cycloheximide and PMA were used, an additive effect was observed. Cycloheximide changed the ratio between the two PAI-1 mRNAs in favor of the 3.4-kilobase species. Overall, the data show that transcriptional activation of the PAI-1 gene forms part of the pleiotropic responses to tumor-promoting phorbol esters

Plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 : reactive center and amino-terminal heterogeneity determined by protein and cDNA sequencing

AbstractBoth the urokinase-type and tissue-type plasminogen activator can convert their 5&#x0303;4 kDa type-1 inhibitor (PAI-1) to an inactive form with a lower apparent molecular mass. We have determined the amino-terminal amino acid sequences of human native and converted PAI-1, and isolated PAI-1 cDNA and determined the nucleotide sequence in regions corresponding to the amino-terminus and the cleavage site. The data show that the conversion of the inhibitor consists of cleavage of an Arg-Met bond 33 residues from the carboxy-terminus, thus localizing the reactive center of the inhibitor to that position. In addition, a heterogeneity was found at the amino-terminus, with a Ser-Ala-Val-His-His form and a two-residue shorter form (Val-His-His-) occurring in approximately equal quantities