3,109 research outputs found
The UK risk assessment scheme for all non-native species
1. A pest risk assessment scheme, adapted from the EPPO (European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organisation) scheme, was developed to assess the risks posed to UK species, habitats and ecosystems by non-native taxa.
2. The scheme provides a structured framework for evaluating the potential for non-native organisms, whether intentional or unintentional introductions, to enter, establish, spread and cause significant impacts in all or part of the UK. Specialist modules permit the relative importance of entry pathways, the vulnerability of receptors and the consequences of policies to be assessed and appropriate risk management options to be selected. Spreadsheets for summarising the level of risk and uncertainty, invasive attributes and economic impact were created. In addition, new methods for quantifying economic impact and summarising risk and uncertainty were explored.
3. Although designed for the UK, the scheme can readily be applied elsewhere
Fair scans of the seesaw. Consequences for predictions on LFV processes
Usual analyses based on scans of the seesaw parameter-space can be biassed
since they do not cover in a fair way the complete parameter-space. More
precisely, we show that in the common "R-parametrization", many acceptable
R-matrices, compatible with the perturbativity of Yukawa couplings, are
normally disregarded from the beginning, which produces biasses in the results.
We give a straightforward procedure to scan the space of complex R-matrices in
a complete way, giving a very simple rule to incorporate the perturbativity
requirement as a condition for the entries of the R-matrix, something not
considered before. As a relevant application of this, we show that the extended
believe that BR(mu --> e, gamma) in supersymmetric seesaw models depends
strongly on the value of theta_13 is an "optical effect" produced by such
biassed scans, and does not hold after a careful analytical and numerical
study. When the complete scan is done, BR(mu --> e, gamma) gets very
insensitive to theta_13. Moreover, the values of the branching ratio are
typically larger than those quoted in the literature, due to the large number
of acceptable points in the parameter-space which were not considered before.
Including (unflavoured) leptogenesis does not introduce any further dependence
on theta_13, although decreases the typical value of BR(mu --> e, gamma).Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure
Dynamic tracking of microvascular hemoglobin content for continuous perfusion monitoring in the intensive care unit: pilot feasibility study
Purpose: There is a need for bedside methods to monitor oxygen delivery in the microcirculation. Near-infrared spectroscopy commonly measures tissue oxygen saturation, but does not reflect the time-dependent variability of microvascular hemoglobin content (MHC) that attempts to match oxygen supply with demand. The objective of this study is to determine the feasibility of MHC monitoring in critically ill patients using high-resolution near-infrared spectroscopy to assess perfusion in the peripheral microcirculation. Methods: Prospective observational cohort of 36 patients admitted within 48 h at a tertiary intensive care unit. Perfusion was measured on the quadriceps, biceps, and/or deltoid, using the temporal change in optical density at the isosbestic wavelength of hemoglobin (798 nm). Continuous wavelet transform was applied to the hemoglobin signal to delineate frequency ranges corresponding to physiological oscillations in the cardiovascular system. Results: 31/36 patients had adequate signal quality for analysis, most commonly affected by motion artifacts. MHC signal demonstrates inter-subject heterogeneity in the cohort, indicated by different patterns of variability and frequency composition. Signal characteristics were concordant between muscle groups in the same patient, and correlated with systemic hemoglobin levels and oxygen saturation. Signal power was lower for patients receiving vasopressors, but not correlated with mean arterial pressure. Mechanical ventilation directly impacts MHC in peripheral tissue. Conclusion: MHC can be measured continuously in the ICU with high-resolution near-infrared spectroscopy, and reflects the dynamic variability of hemoglobin distribution in the microcirculation. Results suggest this novel hemodynamic metric should be further evaluated for diagnosing microvascular dysfunction and monitoring peripheral perfusion
International Service in the Context of Globalization: Research Conference Summary Report
International Service in the Context of Globalization: Research Conference Summary Repor
Sorting live stem cells based on Sox2 mRNA expression.
PMCID: PMC3507951This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.While cell sorting usually relies on cell-surface protein markers, molecular beacons (MBs) offer the potential to sort cells based on the presence of any expressed mRNA and in principle could be extremely useful to sort rare cell populations from primary isolates. We show here how stem cells can be purified from mixed cell populations by sorting based on MBs. Specifically, we designed molecular beacons targeting Sox2, a well-known stem cell marker for murine embryonic (mES) and neural stem cells (NSC). One of our designed molecular beacons displayed an increase in fluorescence compared to a nonspecific molecular beacon both in vitro and in vivo when tested in mES and NSCs. We sorted Sox2-MB(+)SSEA1(+) cells from a mixed population of 4-day retinoic acid-treated mES cells and effectively isolated live undifferentiated stem cells. Additionally, Sox2-MB(+) cells isolated from primary mouse brains were sorted and generated neurospheres with higher efficiency than Sox2-MB(-) cells. These results demonstrate the utility of MBs for stem cell sorting in an mRNA-specific manner
Sneutrino-induced like sign dilepton signal with conserved R-parity
Lepton number violation could be manifest in the sneutrino sector of
supersymmetric extensions of the standard model with conserved R-parity. Then
sneutrinos decay partly into the ``wrong sign charged lepton'' final state, if
kinematically accessible. In sneutrino pair production or associated single
sneutrino production, the signal then is a like sign dilepton final state.
Under favourable circumstances, such a signal could be visible at the LHC or a
next generation linear collider for a relative sneutrino mass-splitting of
order and sneutrino width of order (1 GeV). On the
other hand, the like sign dilepton event rate at the TEVATRON is probably too
small to be observable.Comment: 19 pages, 14 Figures. Section about LSD at LHC and TEVATRON added.
Previous Title "Single sneutrino production and the wrong charged lepton
signal
Interplay of LFV and slepton mass splittings at the LHC as a probe of the SUSY seesaw
We study the impact of a type-I SUSY seesaw concerning lepton flavour
violation (LFV) both at low-energies and at the LHC. The study of the di-lepton
invariant mass distribution at the LHC allows to reconstruct some of the masses
of the different sparticles involved in a decay chain. In particular, the
combination with other observables renders feasible the reconstruction of the
masses of the intermediate sleptons involved in decays. Slepton mass splittings can be either
interpreted as a signal of non-universality in the SUSY soft breaking-terms
(signalling a deviation from constrained scenarios as the cMSSM) or as being
due to the violation of lepton flavour. In the latter case, in addition to
these high-energy processes, one expects further low-energy manifestations of
LFV such as radiative and three-body lepton decays. Under the assumption of a
type-I seesaw as the source of neutrino masses and mixings, all these LFV
observables are related. Working in the framework of the cMSSM extended by
three right-handed neutrino superfields, we conduct a systematic analysis
addressing the simultaneous implications of the SUSY seesaw for both high- and
low-energy lepton flavour violation. We discuss how the confrontation of
slepton mass splittings as observed at the LHC and low-energy LFV observables
may provide important information about the underlying mechanism of LFV.Comment: 50 pages, 42 eps Figures, typos correcte
Dioxin Toxicity In Vivo Results from an Increase in the Dioxin-Independent Transcriptional Activity of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor
The Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (Ahr) is the nuclear receptor mediating the toxicity of dioxins -widespread and persistent pollutants whose toxic effects include tumor promotion, teratogenesis, wasting syndrome and chloracne. Elimination of Ahr in mice eliminates dioxin toxicity but also produces adverse effects, some seemingly unrelated to dioxin. Thus the relationship between the toxic and dioxin-independent functions of Ahr is not clear, which hampers understanding and treatment of dioxin toxicity. Here we develop a Drosophila model to show that dioxin actually increases the in vivo dioxin-independent activity of Ahr. This hyperactivation resembles the effects caused by an increase in the amount of its dimerisation partner Ahr nuclear translocator (Arnt) and entails an increased transcriptional potency of Ahr, in addition to the previously described effect on nuclear translocation. Thus the two apparently different functions of Ahr, dioxin-mediated and dioxin-independent, are in fact two different levels (hyperactivated and basal, respectively) of a single function
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