Morphologies of AGN host galaxies using HST/ACS in the CDFS-GOODS field

Using HST/ACS images in four bands F435W, F606W, F775W and F850LP, we identify optical counterparts to the X-ray sources in the Chandra Deep Field South in the GOODS South field. A detailed study has been made of these sources to study their morphological types. We use methods like decomposition of galaxy luminosity profiles, color maps and visual inspection of 192 galaxies which are identified as possible optical counterparts of Chandra X-ray sources in the CDFS-GOODS field. We find that most moderate luminosity AGN hosts are bulge dominated in the redshift range (z \approx 0.4-1.3), but not merging/interacting galaxies. This implies probable fueling of the moderate luminosity AGN by mechanisms other than those merger driven.Comment: pdflatex, accepted in ApSS. revisions in tex

Lymphocytic choriomeningitis arenavirus requires cellular COPI and AP-4 complexes for efficient virion production

Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) is a bisegmented negative-sense RNA virus classified within the Arenaviridae family of the Bunyavirales order. LCMV is associated with fatal disease in immunocompromized populations, and as the prototypical arenavirus, acts as a model for the many serious human pathogens within this group. Here, we examined the dependence of LCMV multiplication on cellular trafficking components using a recombinant LCMV expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein in conjunction with a curated siRNA library. The screen revealed a requirement for subunits of both the coat protein 1 (COPI) coatomer and adapter protein 4 (AP-4) complexes. By rescuing a recombinant LCMV harboring a FLAG-tagged glycoprotein (GP-1) envelope spike (rLCMV-GP1-FLAG), we showed infection resulted in marked co-localization of individual COPI and AP-4 components with both LCMV nucleoprotein (NP) and GP-1, consistent with their involvement in viral processes. To further investigate the role of both COPI and AP-4 complexes during LCMV infection, we utilized the ARF-I inhibitor brefeldin A (BFA) that prevents complex formation. Within a single 12-h cycle of virus multiplication, BFA pre-treatment caused no significant change in LCMV-specific RNA synthesis, alongside no significant change in LCMV NP expression, as measured by BFA time-of-addition experiments. In contrast, BFA addition resulted in a significant drop in released virus titers, approaching 50-fold over the same 12-h period, rising to over 600-fold over 24 h. Taken together, these findings suggest COPI and AP-4 complexes are important host cell factors required for the formation and release of infectious LCMV

Surgical site infection following surgery for hand trauma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Surgical site infection is the most common healthcare-associated infection. Surgical site infection after surgery for hand trauma is associated with increased antibiotic prescribing, re-operation, hospital readmission and delayed rehabilitation, and in severe cases may lead to amputation. As the risk of surgical site infection after surgery for hand trauma remains unclear, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of all primary studies of hand trauma surgery, including randomized controlled trials, cohort studies, case-control studies and case series. A total of 8836 abstracts were screened, and 201 full studies with 315,618 patients included. The meta-analysis showed a 10% risk of surgical site infection in randomized control trials, with an overall risk of 5% when all studies were included. These summary statistics can be used clinically for informed consent and shared decision making, and for power calculations for future clinical trials of antimicrobial interventions in hand trauma

Orbital Shrinking: A New Tool for Hybrid MIP/CP Methods

Abstract. Orbital shrinking is a newly developed technique in the MIP community to deal with symmetry issues, which is based on aggregation rather than on symmetry breaking. In a recent work, a hybrid MIP/CP scheme based on orbital shrinking was developed for the multi-activity shift scheduling problem, showing significant improvements over previ-ous pure MIP approaches. In the present paper we show that the scheme above can be extended to a general framework for solving arbitrary sym-metric MIP instances. This framework naturally provides a new way for devising hybrid MIP/CP decompositions. Finally, we specialize the above framework to the multiple knapsack problem. Computational re-sults show that the resulting method can be orders of magnitude faster than pure MIP approaches on hard symmetric instances.

Hydrophobic and ionic-interactions in bulk and confined water with implications for collapse and folding of proteins

Water and water-mediated interactions determine thermodynamic and kinetics of protein folding, protein aggregation and self-assembly in confined spaces. To obtain insights into the role of water in the context of folding problems, we describe computer simulations of a few related model systems. The dynamics of collapse of eicosane shows that upon expulsion of water the linear hydrocarbon chain adopts an ordered helical hairpin structure with 1.5 turns. The structure of dimer of eicosane molecules has two well ordered helical hairpins that are stacked perpendicular to each other. As a prelude to studying folding in confined spaces we used simulations to understand changes in hydrophobic and ionic interactions in nano droplets. Solvation of hydrophobic and charged species change drastically in nano water droplets. Hydrophobic species are localized at the boundary. The tendency of ions to be at the boundary where water density is low increases as the charge density decreases. Interaction between hydrophobic, polar, and charged residue are also profoundly altered in confined spaces. Using the results of computer simulations and accounting for loss of chain entropy upon confinement we argue and then demonstrate, using simulations in explicit water, that ordered states of generic amphiphilic peptide sequences should be stabilized in cylindrical nanopores

The EndoC-βH1 cell line is a valid model of human beta cells and applicable for screenings to identify novel drug target candidates

Objective: To characterize the EndoC-βH1 cell line as a model for human beta cells and evaluate its beta cell functionality, focusing on insulin secretion, proliferation, apoptosis and ER stress, with the objective to assess its potential as a screening platform for identification of novel anti-diabetic drug candidates. Methods: EndoC-βH1 was transplanted into mice for validation of in vivo functionality. Insulin secretion was evaluated in cells cultured as monolayer and as pseudoislets, as well as in diabetic mice. Cytokine induced apoptosis, glucolipotoxicity, and ER stress responses were assessed. Beta cell relevant mRNA and protein expression were investigated by qPCR and antibody staining. Hundreds of proteins or peptides were tested for their effect on insulin secretion and proliferation. Results: Transplantation of EndoC-βH1 cells restored normoglycemia in streptozotocin induced diabetic mice. Both in vitro and in vivo, we observed a clear insulin response to glucose, and, in vitro, we found a significant increase in insulin secretion from EndoC-βH1 pseudoislets compared to monolayer cultures for both glucose and incretins.Apoptosis and ER stress were inducible in the cells and caspase 3/7 activity was elevated in response to cytokines, but not affected by the saturated fatty acid palmitate.By screening of various proteins and peptides, we found Bombesin (BB) receptor agonists and Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase-Activating Polypeptides (PACAP) to significantly induce insulin secretion and the proteins SerpinA6, STC1, and APOH to significantly stimulate proliferation.ER stress was readily induced by Tunicamycin and resulted in a reduction of insulin mRNA. Somatostatin (SST) was found to be expressed by 1% of the cells and manipulation of the SST receptors was found to significantly affect insulin secretion. Conclusions: Overall, the EndoC-βH1 cells strongly resemble human islet beta cells in terms of glucose and incretin stimulated insulin secretion capabilities. The cell line has an active cytokine induced caspase 3/7 apoptotic pathway and is responsive to ER stress initiation factors. The cells' ability to proliferate can be further increased by already known compounds as well as by novel peptides and proteins. Based on its robust performance during the functionality assessment assays, the EndoC-βH1 cell line was successfully used as a screening platform for identification of novel anti-diabetic drug candidates. Keywords: EndoC-βH1, Pseudoislets, Glucose stimulated insulin secretion, Somatostatin signaling, Proliferatio

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Measurement of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross-section in pp collisions at sqrt(s)= 7 TeV using 35 pb-1 of ATLAS data

A measurement of the differential cross-section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented. The measurement covers the pseudorapidity ranges |eta|<1.37 and 1.52<=|eta|<2.37 in the transverse energy range 45<=E_T<400GeV. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 35 pb-1, collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The yields of the signal photons are measured using a data-driven technique, based on the observed distribution of the hadronic energy in a narrow cone around the photon candidate and the photon selection criteria. The results are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and found to be in good agreement over four orders of magnitude in cross-section.Comment: 7 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 4 tables, final version published in Physics Letters