272 research outputs found
Heavy fermions and two loop electroweak corrections to
Applying effective Lagrangian method and on-shell scheme, we analyze the
electroweak corrections to the rare decay from some
special two loop diagrams in which a closed heavy fermion loop is attached to
the virtual charged gauge bosons or Higgs. At the decoupling limit where the
virtual fermions in inner loop are much heavier than the electroweak scale, we
verify the final results satisfying the decoupling theorem explicitly when the
interactions among Higgs and heavy fermions do not contain the nondecoupling
couplings. Adopting the universal assumptions on the relevant couplings and
mass spectrum of new physics, we find that the relative corrections from those
two loop diagrams to the SM theoretical prediction on the branching ratio of
can reach 5% as the energy scale of new physics
GeV.Comment: 30 pages,4 figure
D3-instantons, Mock Theta Series and Twistors
The D-instanton corrected hypermultiplet moduli space of type II string
theory compactified on a Calabi-Yau threefold is known in the type IIA picture
to be determined in terms of the generalized Donaldson-Thomas invariants,
through a twistorial construction. At the same time, in the mirror type IIB
picture, and in the limit where only D3-D1-D(-1)-instanton corrections are
retained, it should carry an isometric action of the S-duality group SL(2,Z).
We prove that this is the case in the one-instanton approximation, by
constructing a holomorphic action of SL(2,Z) on the linearized twistor space.
Using the modular invariance of the D4-D2-D0 black hole partition function, we
show that the standard Darboux coordinates in twistor space have modular
anomalies controlled by period integrals of a Siegel-Narain theta series, which
can be canceled by a contact transformation generated by a holomorphic mock
theta series.Comment: 42 pages; discussion of isometries is amended; misprints correcte
Predicting a small molecule-kinase interaction map: A machine learning approach
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We present a machine learning approach to the problem of protein ligand interaction prediction. We focus on a set of binding data obtained from 113 different protein kinases and 20 inhibitors. It was attained through ATP site-dependent binding competition assays and constitutes the first available dataset of this kind. We extract information about the investigated molecules from various data sources to obtain an informative set of features.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A Support Vector Machine (SVM) as well as a decision tree algorithm (C5/See5) is used to learn models based on the available features which in turn can be used for the classification of new kinase-inhibitor pair test instances. We evaluate our approach using different feature sets and parameter settings for the employed classifiers. Moreover, the paper introduces a new way of evaluating predictions in such a setting, where different amounts of information about the binding partners can be assumed to be available for training. Results on an external test set are also provided.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In most of the cases, the presented approach clearly outperforms the baseline methods used for comparison. Experimental results indicate that the applied machine learning methods are able to detect a signal in the data and predict binding affinity to some extent. For SVMs, the binding prediction can be improved significantly by using features that describe the active site of a kinase. For C5, besides diversity in the feature set, alignment scores of conserved regions turned out to be very useful.</p
Magnetic Coupling in the Quiet Solar Atmosphere
Three kinds of magnetic couplings in the quiet solar atmosphere are
highlighted and discussed, all fundamentally connected to the Lorentz force.
First the coupling of the convecting and overshooting fluid in the surface
layers of the Sun with the magnetic field. Here, the plasma motion provides the
dominant force, which shapes the magnetic field and drives the surface dynamo.
Progress in the understanding of the horizontal magnetic field is summarized
and discussed. Second, the coupling between acoustic waves and the magnetic
field, in particular the phenomenon of wave conversion and wave refraction. It
is described how measurements of wave travel times in the atmosphere can
provide information about the topography of the wave conversion zone, i.e., the
surface of equal Alfv\'en and sound speed. In quiet regions, this surface
separates a highly dynamic magnetic field with fast moving magnetosonic waves
and shocks around and above it from the more slowly evolving field of high-beta
plasma below it. Third, the magnetic field also couples to the radiation field,
which leads to radiative flux channeling and increased anisotropy in the
radiation field. It is shown how faculae can be understood in terms of this
effect. The article starts with an introduction to the magnetic field of the
quiet Sun in the light of new results from the Hinode space observatory and
with a brief survey of measurements of the turbulent magnetic field with the
help of the Hanle effect.Comment: To appear in "Magnetic Coupling between the Interior and the
Atmosphere of the Sun", eds. S.S. Hasan and R.J. Rutten, Astrophysics and
Space Science Proceedings, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, Berlin, 200
Top-Down Control of Herbivory by Birds and Bats in the Canopy of Temperate Broad-Leaved Oaks (Quercus robur)
The intensive foraging of insectivorous birds and bats is well known to reduce the density of arboreal herbivorous arthropods but quantification of collateral leaf damage remains limited for temperate forest canopies
Tear fluid biomarkers in ocular and systemic disease: potential use for predictive, preventive and personalised medicine
In the field of predictive, preventive and personalised medicine, researchers are keen to identify novel and reliable ways to predict and diagnose disease, as well as to monitor patient response to therapeutic agents. In the last decade alone, the sensitivity of profiling technologies has undergone huge improvements in detection sensitivity, thus allowing quantification of minute samples, for example body fluids that were previously difficult to assay. As a consequence, there has been a huge increase in tear fluid investigation, predominantly in the field of ocular surface disease. As tears are a more accessible and less complex body fluid (than serum or plasma) and sampling is much less invasive, research is starting to focus on how disease processes affect the proteomic, lipidomic and metabolomic composition of the tear film. By determining compositional changes to tear profiles, crucial pathways in disease progression may be identified, allowing for more predictive and personalised therapy of the individual. This article will provide an overview of the various putative tear fluid biomarkers that have been identified to date, ranging from ocular surface disease and retinopathies to cancer and multiple sclerosis. Putative tear fluid biomarkers of ocular disorders, as well as the more recent field of systemic disease biomarkers, will be shown
Methionine Sulfoxide Reductases Are Essential for Virulence of Salmonella Typhimurium
Production of reactive oxygen species represents a fundamental innate defense against microbes in a diversity of host organisms. Oxidative stress, amongst others, converts peptidyl and free methionine to a mixture of methionine-S- (Met-S-SO) and methionine-R-sulfoxides (Met-R-SO). To cope with such oxidative damage, methionine sulfoxide reductases MsrA and MsrB are known to reduce MetSOs, the former being specific for the S-form and the latter being specific for the R-form. However, at present the role of methionine sulfoxide reductases in the pathogenesis of intracellular bacterial pathogens has not been fully detailed. Here we show that deletion of msrA in the facultative intracellular pathogen Salmonella (S.) enterica serovar Typhimurium increased susceptibility to exogenous H2O2, and reduced bacterial replication inside activated macrophages, and in mice. In contrast, a ΔmsrB mutant showed the wild type phenotype. Recombinant MsrA was active against free and peptidyl Met-S-SO, whereas recombinant MsrB was only weakly active and specific for peptidyl Met-R-SO. This raised the question of whether an additional Met-R-SO reductase could play a role in the oxidative stress response of S. Typhimurium. MsrC is a methionine sulfoxide reductase previously shown to be specific for free Met-R-SO in Escherichia (E.) coli. We tested a ΔmsrC single mutant and a ΔmsrBΔmsrC double mutant under various stress conditions, and found that MsrC is essential for survival of S. Typhimurium following exposure to H2O2, as well as for growth in macrophages, and in mice. Hence, this study demonstrates that all three methionine sulfoxide reductases, MsrA, MsrB and MsrC, facilitate growth of a canonical intracellular pathogen during infection. Interestingly MsrC is specific for the repair of free methionine sulfoxide, pointing to an important role of this pathway in the oxidative stress response of Salmonella Typhimurium
Exploiting solar visible-range observations by inversion techniques: from flows in the solar subsurface to a flaring atmosphere
Observations of the Sun in the visible spectral range belong to standard
measurements obtained by instruments both on the ground and in the space.
Nowadays, both nearly continuous full-disc observations with medium resolution
and dedicated campaigns of high spatial, spectral and/or temporal resolution
constitute a holy grail for studies that can capture (both) the long- and
short-term changes in the dynamics and energetics of the solar atmosphere.
Observations of photospheric spectral lines allow us to estimate not only the
intensity at small regions, but also various derived data products, such as the
Doppler velocity and/or the components of the magnetic field vector. We show
that these measurements contain not only direct information about the dynamics
of solar plasmas at the surface of the Sun but also imprints of regions below
and above it. Here, we discuss two examples: First, the local time-distance
helioseismology as a tool for plasma dynamic diagnostics in the near subsurface
and second, the determination of the solar atmosphere structure during flares.
The methodology in both cases involves the technique of inverse modelling.Comment: 29 pages, 15 figures. Accepted for publication in the book "Reviews
in Frontiers of Modern Astrophysics: From Space Debris to Cosmology" (eds
Kabath, Jones and Skarka; publisher Springer Nature) funded by the European
Union Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership grant "Per Aspera Ad Astra Simul"
2017-1-CZ01-KA203-03556
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