iTIMP: isotriplet Technicolor Interacting Massive Particle as Dark Matter

We suggest that a weak isotriplet composite scalar possessing an unbroken U(1) global symmetry naturally arises in technicolor models leading to an interesting type of dark matter candidate: the iTIMP. We propose explicit models of the iTIMP, study earth based constraints and suggest possible collider signals.Comment: 4 pages, 4 Figures, added content, added reference

(Non)-Renormalization of the Chiral Vortical Effect Coefficient

We show using diagramtic arguments that in some (but not all) cases, the temperature dependent part of the chiral vortical effect coefficient is independent of the coupling constant. An interpretation of this result in terms of quantization in the effective 3 dimensional Chern-Simons theory is also given. In the language of 3D dimensionally reduced theory, the value of the chiral vortical coefficient is related to the formula $\sum_{n=1}^\infty n=-1/12$. We also show that in the presence of dynamical gauge fields, the CVE coefficient is not protected from renormalization, even in the large $N$ limit.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures. Version 2 corrects an error and calculates leading radiative correctio

Avidez do IgG pelo Western Blot usando o r GRA-7 do Toxoplasma gondii clonado de nucleotídeos 39-711 para sorodiagnóstico de toxoplasmose aguda

Toxoplasmosis is an important cause of congenital infection. The present study was performed to evaluate the usefulness of recombinant (r) GRA-7 cloned from nucleotides (n) 39-711 in discriminating between acute and chronic toxoplasmosis. First, commercial IgM, IgG and IgG avidity ELISAs were used to determine the serological profile of the sera. Serum samples were from 20 symptomatic patients with acute infection (low IgG avidity, IgM positive), 10 with chronic infection (high IgG avidity, IgM negative) and 10 with indeterminate IgG avidity (IgM positive) which were tested for IgG avidity status with an in-house developed IgG avidity Western blot using the rGRA-7 recombinant antigen. All 20 sera from cases of probable acute infection showed bands which either faded out completely or reduced significantly in intensity after treatment with 8 M urea, whereas the band intensities of the 10 serum samples from chronic cases remained the same. Of the 10 sera with indeterminate IgG avidity status, after treatment with 8 M urea the band intensities with six sera remained the same, two sera had completely faded bands and another two sera had significantly reduced band intensities. Discrimination between acute and chronic toxoplasmosis was successfully performed by the in-house IgG avidity Western blot.Toxoplasmose é uma causa importante de infecção congênita. O presente estudo foi feito para avaliar o uso do recombinante (r) GRA-7 clonado de nucleotídeos (n) 30-711 para discriminar entre toxoplasmose aguda e crônica. Inicialmente IgM, IgG e ELISA avidez IgG comerciais foram usados para determinar o perfil sorológico do soro. Amostras de soro de 20 pacientes sintomáticos com infecção aguda (IgG avidez baixa, IgM positivo), 10 com infecção crônica (alta avidez IgG, IgM negativo) e 10 com avidez IgG indeterminada (IgM positivo) que foram testados para o status de avidez IgG com um doméstico Western Blot desenvolvendo avidez IgG usando o rGRA-7 antígeno recombinante. Todos os 20 soros de provável infecção aguda mostraram bandas que ou se apagaram completamente ou tiveram a sua intensidade significantemente reduzida após tratamento com uréia 8 M, enquanto as intensidades das bandas das 10 amostras de soros de casos crônicos permaneceram iguais. Dos 10 soros com status indeterminado de avidez de IgG, após tratamento com uréia 8 M a intensidade das bandas em seis soros permaneceram iguais, dois soros tiveram bandas apagadas completamente e dois outros tiveram significante redução da intensidade das bandas. Discriminação entre toxoplasmose aguda e crônica foi feita com sucesso através do IgG avidez Western blot doméstico

Apigenin inhibits pancreatic cancer cell proliferation through G2/M cell cycle arrest

BACKGROUND: Many chemotherapeutic agents have been used to treat pancreatic cancer without success. Apigenin, a naturally occurring flavonoid, has been shown to inhibit growth in some cancer cell lines but has not been studied in pancreatic cancer. We hypothesized that apigenin would inhibit pancreatic cancer cell growth in vitro. RESULTS: Apigenin caused both time- and concentration-dependent inhibition of DNA synthesis and cell proliferation in four pancreatic cancer cell lines. Apigenin induced G2/M phase cell cycle arrest. Apigenin reduced levels of cyclin A, cyclin B, phosphorylated forms of cdc2 and cdc25, which are all proteins required for G2/M transition. CONCLUSION: Apigenin inhibits growth of pancreatic cancer cells through suppression of cyclin B-associated cdc2 activity and G2/M arrest, and may be a valuable drug for the treatment or prevention of pancreatic cancer

Analiza proteinskih adukata kao biomarkera kratkotrajne izloženosti etilen oksidu i rezultati biomonitoringa

An accidental exposure of six workers to ethylene oxide (EO) provided the rationale for a biomonitoring and follow-up study, whose aim was to analyse protein adduct kinetics and examine the differentiation between accidental and environmental exposure, e.g., from tobacco smoke. For this purpose, the decrease in the concentration of the haemoglobin adduct N-2-hydroxyethylvaline (HEV) was followed during a fi ve-month period after the accident, together with N-2-cyanoethylvaline (CEV) and urinary cotinine, two well-established biomarkers for smoking. The follow-up study showed that EO adduct concentrations significantly increased after a short but presumably high exposure. Initial biomonitoring revealed HEV levels above 500 pmol g-1 globin in all cases, with a maximum of about 2,400 pmol g-1 globin. This compares to a German EKA value (exposure equivalent for carcinogenic substances) for a daily 8-h-exposure to 1 ppm EO of 90 μg L-1 blood (~3,900 pmol g-1 globin). The adduct levels dropped in accordance with the expected zero-order kinetics for a single exposure. After the five-month observation interval, the HEV concentrations in blood refl ected the individual background from tobacco smoking. The results of this study show that even a short exposure to ethylene oxide may result in a signifi cant rise in haemoglobin adduct levels. Although protein adducts and their occupational-medical assessment values are considered for long-term exposure surveillance, they can also be used for monitoring accidental exposures. In these cases, the calculation of daily ‘ppm-equivalents’ may provide a means for a comparison with the existing assessment values.U radu su prikazani rezultati biomonitoringa provedenog neposredno nakon akcidentalnog izlaganja šestorice radnika etilen oksidu i studije praćenja (follow up) provedene u cilju procjene kinetike razgradnje proteinskih adukata i utvrđivanja razlika nakon kratkotrajne izloženosti i izlaganja čimbenicima iz okoliša kao što je duhanski dim. U tu smo svrhu tijekom petomjesečnoga razdoblja nakon nezgode pratili smanjenje koncentracije hemoglobinskog adukta N-2-hidroksietilvalina usporedo s mjerenjem razina N-2-cijanoetilvalina i kotinina u mokraći, koji su pouzdani biomarkeri za dokazivanje pušenja duhana. Studija praćenja je pokazala da su koncentracije adukata etilen oksida značajno porasle nakon kratkotrajnoga izlaganja visokoj razini etilen oksida. U početnom biomonitoringu svih radnika izmjerene su razine N-2-hidroksietilvalina iznad 500 pmol g-1 globina, s maksimalnom vrijednošću od oko 2400 pmol g-1 globina. Ti su podaci usporedivi s vrijednostima njemačkih normi ekvivalenata izlaganja kancerogenim tvarima (EKA) od 90 μg L-1 krvi (~3900 pmol g-1 globina) kroz osmosatno dnevno izlaganje koncentraciji od 1 ppm etilen oksida. Razine adukata smanjile su se u skladu s očekivanom kinetikom nultoga reda za jednokratno izlaganje. Koncentracije N-2-hidroksietilvalina izmjerene u krvi radnika nakon petomjesečnoga praćenja mogu se povezati s njihovim osobnim pušačkim navikama. Rezultati toga istraživanja pokazuju da čak i kratkotrajna izloženost etilen oksidu može znatno povisiti razine adukata hemoglobina. Premda se u zdravstvenom nadzoru u okviru medicine rada proteinski adukti i njihove vrijednosti razmatraju u procjeni dugotrajnoga izlaganja, oni se mogu koristiti i za praćenje akcidentalnih izlaganja. U tim slučajevima izračun dnevnih vrijednosti (tzv. ppm-ekvivalenata) može poslužiti za usporedbu s postojećim procijenjenim vrijednostima

Vaccines against toxoplasma gondii : challenges and opportunities

Development of vaccines against Toxoplasma gondii infection in humans is of high priority, given the high burden of disease in some areas of the world like South America, and the lack of effective drugs with few adverse effects. Rodent models have been used in research on vaccines against T. gondii over the past decades. However, regardless of the vaccine construct, the vaccines have not been able to induce protective immunity when the organism is challenged with T. gondii, either directly or via a vector. Only a few live, attenuated T. gondii strains used for immunization have been able to confer protective immunity, which is measured by a lack of tissue cysts after challenge. Furthermore, challenge with low virulence strains, especially strains with genotype II, will probably be insufficient to provide protection against the more virulent T. gondii strains, such as those with genotypes I or II, or those genotypes from South America not belonging to genotype I, II or III. Future studies should use animal models besides rodents, and challenges should be performed with at least one genotype II T. gondii and one of the more virulent genotypes. Endpoints like maternal-foetal transmission and prevention of eye disease are important in addition to the traditional endpoint of survival or reduction in numbers of brain cysts after challenge

Experimental signatures of the mixed axial-gravitational anomaly in the Weyl semimetal NbP

Weyl semimetals are materials where electrons behave effectively as a kind of massless relativistic particles known asWeyl fermions. These particles occur in two flavours, or chiralities, and are subject to quantum anomalies, the breaking of a conservation law by quantum fluctuations. For instance, the number of Weyl fermions of each chirality is not independently conserved in parallel electric and magnetic field, a phenomenon known as the chiral anomaly. In addition, an underlying curved spacetime provides a distinct contribution to a chiral imbalance, an effect known as the mixed axial-gravitational anomaly, which remains experimentally elusive. However, the presence of a mixed gauge-gravitational anomaly has recently been tied to thermoelectrical transport in a magnetic field, even in flat spacetime, opening the door to experimentally probe such type of anomalies in Weyl semimetals. Using a temperature gradient, we experimentally observe a positive longitudinal magnetothermoelectric conductance (PMTC) in the Weyl semimetal NbP for collinear temperature gradients and magnetic fields (DT || B) that vanishes in the ultra quantum limit. This observation is consistent with the presence of a mixed axial-gravitational anomaly. Our work provides clear experimental evidence for the existence of a mixed axial-gravitational anomaly of Weyl fermions, an outstanding theoretical concept that has so far eluded experimental detection

Blogging the Virtual: New Geographies of Domination and Resistance In and Beyond Russia

Russia’s accelerating authoritarian turn has not ignored the internet, and in recent years, the Russian state has clamped down on internet activities that diverge from the statist line, employing a variety of strategies to dominate online spaces. Nevertheless, oppositional voices flourish on the Russian internet, taking shape in independent blogs and videos. This paper explores three political bloggers through surveillant and resistance assemblages, making sense of this contestation through an interpretation of the Deleuzian virtual that underscores the emancipatory potential of online activities for producing more egalitarian configurations, but also taking stock of the ways that these technologies have increased domination. Encompassing the blurriness between digital and corporeal spaces, the paper contributes by revealing new geographies of contestation against state strategies to dominate the Russian internet. Overlapping with but not corresponding to Russian territorial boundaries, these dynamics highlight shifting spaces of power and resistance in the increasingly illiberal world