Preliminary experience with the smooth muscle troponin-like protein, calponin, as a novel biomarker for diagnosing acute aortic dissection

Aims The early diagnosis of acute aortic dissection (AD) remains challenging. We sought to determine the utility of the troponin-like protein of smooth muscle, calponin, as a diagnostic biomarker of acute AD. Methods and results Immunoassays against calponin (acidic, basic, and neutral isoforms) were developed and the levels were compared in a convenience sample of 59 patients with radiographically proven AD [34 males, age 59+15 (SD) years] vs. 158 patients suspected of having AD at presentation (116 males, age 63+15 years) but whose final diagnosis was not AD. Basic calponin, which is the most specific and abundant in smooth muscle, and acidic calponin, respectively, showed greater than two-fold and three-fold elevations in patients with acute AD. Diagnostic performance as determined by receiver-operating characteristics curve analysis showed that both acidic and basic calponin have the potential to detect AD in the first 24 h [respective areas under the curve (AUCs) 0.63 and 0.58], with superior performance of basic calponin (when compared with acidic) in the initial 6 h (respective AUCs 0.63 and 0.67). Conclusion Circulating calponin levels were elevated in acute AD compared with controls. These biomarkers have the potential for use as an early diagnostic biomarker for acute AD. Keywords Aortic dissection ? Biomarke

PLA/PCL electrospun membranes of tailored fibres diameter as drug delivery systems

[EN] The main electrospinning parameters, i.e., polymer concentration in the injectable solution, solvents used and their proportion, flow rate, voltage and distance to collector were herein systematically modified to analyse their particular influence in fibres diameter of electrospun membranes of poly(lactic acid), polycaprolactone and their mixture. As a result of this analysis, the procedures to obtain membranes of these polymers and blend with under- and above-micron-sized fibres were established, in which the solvents ratio (chloroform/methanol and dichloromethane/dimethylformamide) and voltage were found to play the major role. Moreover, the plausible differential effect of these fibres diameters (0.8 and 1.8 ¿m) in the controlled release of a molecule of interest was explored, using bovine serum albumin (BSA), proving that the most effective configuration for BSA release among those studied was the PLA-PCL combination in membranes of above-micron fibres diameter.The authors acknowledge Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad through DPI2015-65401-C3-2-R project, and the assistance and advice of the Electron Microscopy Service of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Spain).Herrero-Herrero, M.; Gómez-Tejedor, J.; Vallés Lluch, A. (2018). PLA/PCL electrospun membranes of tailored fibres diameter as drug delivery systems. European Polymer Journal. 99:445-455. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2017.12.045S4454559

Intercalibration of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS experiment at start-up

Calibration of the relative response of the individual channels of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS detector was accomplished, before installation, with cosmic ray muons and test beams. One fourth of the calorimeter was exposed to a beam of high energy electrons and the relative calibration of the channels, the intercalibration, was found to be reproducible to a precision of about 0.3%. Additionally, data were collected with cosmic rays for the entire ECAL barrel during the commissioning phase. By comparing the intercalibration constants obtained with the electron beam data with those from the cosmic ray data, it is demonstrated that the latter provide an intercalibration precision of 1.5% over most of the barrel ECAL. The best intercalibration precision is expected to come from the analysis of events collected in situ during the LHC operation. Using data collected with both electrons and pion beams, several aspects of the intercalibration procedures based on electrons or neutral pions were investigated

A novel 65 kDa RNA-binding protein in squid presynaptic terminals

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2009. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Neuroscience 166 (2010): 73-83, doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2009.12.005.A polyclonal antibody (C4), raised against the head domain of chicken myosin Va, reacted strongly towards a 65 kDa polypeptide (p65) on western blots of extracts from squid optic lobes but did not recognize the heavy chain of squid myosin V. This peptide was not recognized by other myosin Va antibodies, nor by an antibody specific for squid myosin V. In an attempt to identify it, p65 was purified from optic lobes of Loligo plei by cationic exchange and reverse phase chromatography. Several peptide sequences were obtained by mass spectroscopy from p65 cut from SDS-PAGE gels. BLAST analysis and partial matching with ESTs from a Loligo pealei data bank indicated that p65 contains consensus signatures for the hnRNP A/B family of RNA-binding proteins. Centrifugation of post mitochondrial extracts from optic lobes on sucrose gradients after treatment with RNase gave biochemical evidence that p65 associates with cytoplasmic RNP complexes in an RNA-dependent manner. Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence studies using the C4 antibody showed partial co-labeling with an antibody against squid synaptotagmin in bands within the outer plexiform layer of the optic lobes and at the presynaptic zone of the stellate ganglion. Also, punctate labeling by the C4 antibody was observed within isolated optic lobe synaptosomes. The data indicate that p65 is a novel RNA-binding protein located to the presynaptic terminal within squid neurons and may have a role in synaptic localization of RNA and its translation or processing.REL, JCR and JEM received financial support from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP), the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) and the Fundação de Apoio ao Ensino, Pesquisa e Assistência do Hospital das Clínicas da FMRP-USP (FAEPA). JAD received financial support from the RI-INBRE Program Grant #P20RR016457 from the Nation Center for Research Resources, NIH, Bethesda, MD. DTPL, LC, SBFT, EJRV and MMAB were recipients of research fellowships from FAPESP and CNPq. REL and JEM received Productivityin- Research fellowships from CNPq

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

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

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

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