Gas chromatography analysis of cellular fatty acids and neutral mono-saccharides in the identifi¬cation of lactobacilli

Cellular fatty acids and monosaccharides in a group of 14 lactobacilli were analyzed by gas chromatography and the identity of the components was confirmed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. From the same bacterial sample, both monosaccharides and fatty acids were liberated by methanolysis, and in certain experiments, fatty acids alone were released by basic hydrolysis. The results indicate that basic hydrolysis gave more comprehensive information about the fatty acids, but the analysis of monosaccharides was found to be much more useful in distinguishing between different species of lactobacilli. The method described allowed differentiation of 11 of 14 Lactobacillus species, and even single colonies isolated from agar plates could be used for analysis without subculturing

Black Hole Chromosphere at the LHC

If the scale of quantum gravity is near a TeV, black holes will be copiously produced at the LHC. In this work we study the main properties of the light descendants of these black holes. We show that the emitted partons are closely spaced outside the horizon, and hence they do not fragment into hadrons in vacuum but more likely into a kind of quark-gluon plasma. Consequently, the thermal emission occurs far from the horizon, at a temperature characteristic of the QCD scale. We analyze the energy spectrum of the particles emerging from the "chromosphere", and find that the hard hadronic jets are almost entirely suppressed. They are replaced by an isotropic distribution of soft photons and hadrons, with hundreds of particles in the GeV range. This provides a new distinctive signature for black hole events at LHC.Comment: Incorporates changes made for the version to be published in Phys. Rev. D. Additional details provided on the effect of the chromosphere in cosmic ray shower

Methylglyoxal, Glycated Albumin, PAF, and TNF-α: Possible Inflammatory and Metabolic Biomarkers for Management of Gestational Diabetes

Background: In gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), pancreatic \u3b2-cell breakdown can result from a proinflammatory imbalance created by a sustained level of cytokines. In this study, we investigated the role of specific cytokines, such as B-cell activating factor (BAFF), tumor necrosis factor \u3b1 (TNF-\u3b1), and platelet-activating factor (PAF), together with methylglyoxal (MGO) and glycated albumin (GA) in pregnant women affected by GDM. Methods: We enrolled 30 women whose inflammation and metabolic markers were measured at recruitment and after 12 weeks of strict dietetic therapy. We compared these data to the data obtained from 53 randomly selected healthy nonpregnant subjects without diabetes, hyperglycemia, or any condition that can affect glycemic metabolism. Results: In pregnant women affected by GDM, PAF levels increased from 26.3 (17.4-47.5) ng/mL to 40.1 (30.5-80.5) ng/mL (p < 0.001). Their TNF-\u3b1 levels increased from 3.0 (2.8-3.5) pg/mL to 3.4 (3.1-5.8) pg/mL (p < 0.001). The levels of methylglyoxal were significantly higher in the women with GDM (p < 0.001), both at diagnosis and after 12 weeks (0.64 (0.46-0.90) \u3bcg/mL; 0.71 (0.47-0.93) \u3bcg/mL, respectively) compared to general population (0.25 (0.19-0.28) \u3bcg/mL). Levels of glycated albumin were significantly higher in women with GDM (p < 0.001) only after 12 weeks from diagnosis (1.51 (0.88-2.03) nmol/mL) compared to general population (0.95 (0.63-1.4) nmol/mL). Conclusion: These findings support the involvement of new inflammatory and metabolic biomarkers in the mechanisms related to GDM complications and prompt deeper exploration into the vicious cycle connecting inflammation, oxidative stress, and metabolic results

Lepton Polarization and Forward-Backward Asymmetries in b -> s tau+ tau-

We study the spin polarizations of both tau leptons in the decay b -> s tau+ tau-. In addition to the polarization asymmetries involving a single tau, we construct asymmetries for the case where both polarizations are simultaneously measured. We also study forward-backward asymmetries with polarized tau's. We find that a large number of asymmetries are predicted to be large, >~ 10%. This permits the measurement of all Wilson coefficients and the b-quark mass, thus allowing the standard model (SM) to be exhaustively tested. Furthermore, there are many unique signals for the presence of new physics. For example, asymmetries involving triple-product correlations are predicted to be tiny within the SM, O(10^{-2}). Their observation would be a clear signal of new physics.Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX, 4 figures (included). Paper somewhat reorganized, references greatly expanded, conclusions unchange

QED and the High Polarization of the Thermal Radiation from Neutron Stars

The thermal emission of strongly magnetized neutron-star atmospheres is thought to be highly polarized. However, because of the different orientations of the magnetic field over the surface of the neutron star (NS), it is commonly assumed that the net observed polarization will be significantly reduced as the polarization from different regions will cancel each other. We show that the birefringence of the magnetized QED vacuum decouples the polarization modes in the magnetosphere; therefore, the direction of the polarization follows the direction of the magnetic field up to a large distance from the stellar surface. At this distance, the rays that leave the surface and are destined for our detectors pass through only a small solid angle; consequently, the polarization direction of the emission originating in different regions will tend to align together. The net observed polarization of the thermal radiation of NSs should therefore be very large. Measurement of this polarization will be the first direct evidence of the birefringence of the magnetized vacuum due to QED and a direct probe of behavior of the vacuum at magnetic fields of order of and above the critical QED field of 4.4 x 10 13 G. The large observable polarization will also help us learn more about the atmospheric properties of NSs.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, minor changes to reflect accepted versio

Rare Charm Decays in the Standard Model and Beyond

We perform a comprehensive study of a number of rare charm decays, incorporating the first evaluation of the QCD corrections to the short distance contributions, as well as examining the long range effects. For processes mediated by the $c\to u\ell^+\ell^-$ transitions, we show that sensitivity to short distance physics exists in kinematic regions away from the vector meson resonances that dominate the total rate. In particular, we find that $D\to\pi\ell^+\ell^-$ and $D\to\rho\ell^+\ell^-$ are sensitive to non-universal soft-breaking effects in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with R-parity conservation. We separately study the sensitivity of these modes to R-parity violating effects and derive new bounds on R-parity violating couplings. We also obtain predictions for these decays within extensions of the Standard Model, including extensions of the Higgs, gauge and fermion sectors, as well as models of dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking.Comment: 45 pages, typos fixed, discussions adde

Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set

We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2, -1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012

Tau Polarization Asymmetry in B→Xsτ+τ−B\to X_s\tau^+\tau^-

Rare $B$ decays provide an opportunity to probe for new physics beyond the Standard Model. In this paper, we propose to measure the tau polarization in the inclusive decay $B\to X_s\tau^+\tau^-$ and discuss how it can be used, in conjunction with other observables, to completely determine the parameters of the flavor-changing low-energy effective Hamiltonian. Both the Standard Model and several new physics scenarios are examined. This process has a large enough branching fraction, $\sim {\rm few}\times 10^{-7}$, such that sufficient statistics will be provided by the B-Factories currently under construction.Comment: 11 pages, LaTex file with psfig. Figures included via uufiles. Lengthened version. Includes new calculation of Monte Carlo fit to Wilson coefficient

Search for Gravitational Waves Associated with Gamma-Ray Bursts Detected by Fermi and Swift during the LIGO-Virgo Run O3b

We search for gravitational-wave signals associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by the Fermi and Swift satellites during the second half of the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo (2019 November 1 15:00 UTC-2020 March 27 17:00 UTC). We conduct two independent searches: A generic gravitational-wave transients search to analyze 86 GRBs and an analysis to target binary mergers with at least one neutron star as short GRB progenitors for 17 events. We find no significant evidence for gravitational-wave signals associated with any of these GRBs. A weighted binomial test of the combined results finds no evidence for subthreshold gravitational-wave signals associated with this GRB ensemble either. We use several source types and signal morphologies during the searches, resulting in lower bounds on the estimated distance to each GRB. Finally, we constrain the population of low-luminosity short GRBs using results from the first to the third observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. The resulting population is in accordance with the local binary neutron star merger rate. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society