Potential impact on stroke

Funding Information: The funding agency that supported the work \u201CFunda\u00E7\u00E3o para a Ci\u00EAncia e Tecnologia\u201D (FCT) with four projects: Applied Molecular Biosciences Unit-UCIBIO (UID/Multi/04378/2019), iNOVA4Health - Programme in Translational Medicine (UID/Multi/04462/2013), LA/P/0140/2020 of the Associate Laboratory Institute for Health and Bioeconomy and PTDC/MEC-NEU/28750/2017 and the PhD scholarship for NLS (PD/BD/127819/2016). Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The AuthorsRemote ischemic conditioning (RIC) is a procedure consisting of short cycles of ischemia applied in a limb that activates endogenous protection in distant organs, such as the brain. Despite the promising outcomes of RIC, the biochemical factors governing inter-organ communication remain largely unexplored, particularly in humans. A pilot study on 20 healthy humans was performed to identify potential circulating biochemical factors involved in RIC signalling. Blood was collected before and immediately, 4 and 22 h after the end of RIC. To characterize the responses triggered by RIC, a combination of biochemical and proteomic analysis, along with functional in vitro tests in human cells, were performed. RIC did not alter the levels of nitric oxide, bilirubin and cell-free mitochondrial DNA. In contrast, carboxyhaemoglobin levels increased following RIC at all time points and young subset, suggesting endogenous production of carbon monoxide that is a cytoprotective gasotransmitter. Additionally, the levels of glutathione and cysteinylglycine bound to proteins also increased after RIC, while glutathione catabolism decreased. Plasma proteomic analysis identified overall 828 proteins. Several steps of statistical analysis (Student's t-test, repeated measures ANOVA, with Holm corrected pairwise p-values <0.05 threshold and fold change higher or lower than 100 %) leaded to the identification of 9 proteins with altered circulating levels in response to RIC at 4h and 22h. All 9 proteins are from extracellular space or exosomes, being involved in inflammation, angiogenesis or metabolism control. In addition, RIC-conditioned plasma from young subjects protected microglial cell culture against inflammatory stimuli, indicating an anti-inflammatory effect of RIC. Nevertheless, other functional tests in neurons or endothelial cells had no effect. Overall, we present some evidence for RIC-induced anti-inflammatory and antioxidant responses in healthy human subjects, in particular in young subjects. This study is a first step towards the disclosure of signalling factors involved in RIC-mediated inter-organ communication.publishersversionpublishe

Predictors of Poor Neurocognitive Performance and Neuropsychological Phenotypes in Adolescents and Young Adults With Congenital Heart Disease

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Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV. The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b, leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W' boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe

Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV

A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Measurement of the Lambda(b) cross section and the anti-Lambda(b) to Lambda(b) ratio with Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda decays in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The Lambda(b) differential production cross section and the cross section ratio anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) are measured as functions of transverse momentum pt(Lambda(b)) and rapidity abs(y(Lambda(b))) in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The measurements are based on Lambda(b) decays reconstructed in the exclusive final state J/Psi Lambda, with the subsequent decays J/Psi to an opposite-sign muon pair and Lambda to proton pion, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.9 inverse femtobarns. The product of the cross section times the branching ratio for Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda versus pt(Lambda(b)) falls faster than that of b mesons. The measured value of the cross section times the branching ratio for pt(Lambda(b)) > 10 GeV and abs(y(Lambda(b))) < 2.0 is 1.06 +/- 0.06 +/- 0.12 nb, and the integrated cross section ratio for anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) is 1.02 +/- 0.07 +/- 0.09, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Search for new physics in events with opposite-sign leptons, jets, and missing transverse energy in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search is presented for physics beyond the standard model (BSM) in final states with a pair of opposite-sign isolated leptons accompanied by jets and missing transverse energy. The search uses LHC data recorded at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the CMS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 5 inverse femtobarns. Two complementary search strategies are employed. The first probes models with a specific dilepton production mechanism that leads to a characteristic kinematic edge in the dilepton mass distribution. The second strategy probes models of dilepton production with heavy, colored objects that decay to final states including invisible particles, leading to very large hadronic activity and missing transverse energy. No evidence for an event yield in excess of the standard model expectations is found. Upper limits on the BSM contributions to the signal regions are deduced from the results, which are used to exclude a region of the parameter space of the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model. Additional information related to detector efficiencies and response is provided to allow testing specific models of BSM physics not considered in this paper.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Measurement of isolated photon production in pp and PbPb collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 2.76 TeV

Isolated photon production is measured in proton-proton and lead-lead collisions at nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energies of 2.76 TeV in the pseudorapidity range |eta|<1.44 and transverse energies ET between 20 and 80 GeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. The measured ET spectra are found to be in good agreement with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD predictions. The ratio of PbPb to pp isolated photon ET-differential yields, scaled by the number of incoherent nucleon-nucleon collisions, is consistent with unity for all PbPb reaction centralities.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters