Flavor Changing Heavy Higgs Interactions at the LHC

A general two Higgs doublet model (2HDM) is adopted to study the signature of flavor changing neutral Higgs (FCNH) decay $\phi^0 \to t\bar{c}+\bar{t}c$, where $\phi^0$ could be a CP-even scalar ($H^0$) or a CP-odd pseudoscalar ($A^0$). Measurement of the light 125 GeV neutral Higgs boson ($h^0$) couplings at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) favor the decoupling limit or the alignment limit of a 2HDM, in which gauge boson and diagonal fermion couplings of $h^0$ approach Standard Model values. In such limit, FCNH couplings of $h^0$ are naturally suppressed by a small mixing parameter $\cos(\beta-\alpha)$, while the off-diagonal couplings of heavier neutral scalars $\phi^0$ are sustained by $\sin(\beta-\alpha) \sim 1$. We study physics background from dominant processes with realistic acceptance cuts and tagging efficiencies. Promising results are found for the LHC running at 13 or 14 TeV collision energies.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Phys. Lett.

ZbbˉZb\bar{b} Loop Correction with Charge 2/3 Singlet Quarks

We calculate the non-universal correction to the $Zb\bar{b}$ vertex in a simple extension of the Standard Model, where a charge $+2/3$ isosinglet quark is added to the standard spectrum. Comparison is made with other solutions to $R_b$ (and $R_c$) that demand particles lighter than $M_W$.Comment: 11 pages, uses latex. Three figures include

Association of DRD4 uVNTR and TP53 codon 72 polymorphisms with schizophrenia: a case-control study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The tumour supressor gene TP53 is thought to be involved in neural apoptosis. The polymorphism at codon 72 in TP53 and the long form variants of the upstream variable number of tandem repeats (uVNTR) polymorphism in the dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene are reported to confer susceptibility to schizophrenia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We recruited 934 patients with schizophrenia and 433 healthy individuals, and genotyped the locus of the TP53 codon 72 and DRD4 uVNTR polymorphisms by combining the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method (PCR-RFLP) with direct sequencing.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>No significant differences were found in the frequency of the genotype of the TP53 codon72 polymorphism between patients with schizophrenia and their controls. However, the long form alleles (≥ 5 repeats) of the DRD4 uVNTR polymorphism were more frequent in patients with schizophrenia than in controls (p = 0.001). Hence, this class of alleles might be a risk factor for enhanced vulnerability to schizophrenia (odds ratio = 3.189, 95% confidence interval = 1.535-6.622). In the logistic regression analysis, the long form variants of the DRD4 polymorphism did predict schizophrenia after the contributions of the age and gender of the subjects were included (p = 0.036, OR = 2.319), but the CC and GG genotypes of the codon 72 polymorphism of TP53 did not.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The long form variants of the uVNTR polymorphism in DRD4 were associated with schizophrenia, in a manner that was independent of the TP53 codon 72 polymorphism. In addition, given that the genetic effect of the TP53 codon 72 polymorphism on the risk of developing schizophrenia was very small, this polymorphism is unlikely to be associated with schizophrenia. The roles that other single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the TP53 gene or in other apoptosis-related genes play in the synaptic dysfunction involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia should be investigated.</p

Perforated Sigmoid Colon Cancer within an Irreducible Inguinal Hernia: a Case Report

A perforated sigmoid colon cancer within an inguinal hernia is extremely rare. This unexpected finding is usually discovered during surgery and causes an unavoidable septic evolution. Here, we describe the case of an 84-year-old man who presented with fever, abdominal distension, and a painful, enlarged, left scrotum. A CT showed a left, incarcerated, inguinal hernia containing a perforated sigmoid adenocarcinoma (which was confirmed by histopathology). The possibility of an irreducible inguinal hernia in association with perforated sigmoid colon cancer should be considered in the array of diagnoses. A pre-operative CT scan would be helpful in facilitating an accurate diagnosis

Associations between Body Mass Index and serum levels of C-Reactive Protein

Background: Obesity imposes increased risks of cardiovascular disease and glucose intolerance, a phenomenon of chronic inflammation. This study was performed to determine whether higher body mass index (BMI) and central obesity are associated with low-grade inflammation. Methods: 8453 adults aged 20 years and older, were analyzed. Every subject completed a household interview, BMI measurement, serum C-reactive protein (CRP) measurement, and a questionnaire regarding personal health. BMI was divided into quintiles, using multiple linear regression to estimate the relationship between CRP level and BMI quintiles. An extended-model approach was used for covariate adjustment. The association of central obesity and CRP level was examined with this method as well. Results: After controlling for demographics, chronic diseases, health behaviors, and levels of folate and vitamin B12, the β coefficient, representing the change of natural-log-transformed levels of CRP for each 1 kg/m2 increased in BMI, was 0.078(

Top Decays with Flavor Changing Neutral Higgs Interactions at the LHC

We investigate the prospects for discovering a top quark decaying into one light Higgs boson along with a charm quark in top quark pair production at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). A general two Higgs doublet model is adopted to study the signature of flavor changing neutral Higgs decay $t \to c\phi^0$, %or $\bar{t} \to \bar{c}\phi^0$ where $\phi^0$ could be CP-even ($H^0$) or CP-odd ($A^0$). The dominant physics background is evaluated with realistic acceptance cuts as well as tagging and mistagging efficiencies. For a reasonably large top-charm-Higgs coupling (\lambda_{tc}/\lambda_{t} \agt 0.09), the abundance of signal events and the %that our acceptance cuts reduction in physics background allow us to establish a $5\sigma$ signal for $M_\phi \sim 125$ GeV at the LHC with a center of mass energy ($\sqrt{s}$) of 8 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 20 fb$^{-1}$. The discovery potential will be greatly enhanced with the full energy of $\sqrt{s} = 14$ TeV.Comment: Revised version to appear in Physics Letters

Thrombomodulin Regulates Keratinocyte Differentiation and Promotes Wound Healing

The membrane glycoprotein thrombomodulin (TM) has been implicated in keratinocyte differentiation and wound healing, but its specific function remains undetermined. The epidermis-specific TM knockout mice were generated to investigate the function of TM in these biological processes. Primary cultured keratinocytes obtained from TMlox/lox; K5-Cre mice, in which TM expression was abrogated, underwent abnormal differentiation in response to calcium induction. Poor epidermal differentiation, as evidenced by downregulation of the terminal differentiation markers loricrin and filaggrin, was observed in TMlox/lox; K5-Cre mice. Silencing TM expression in human epithelial cells impaired calcium-induced extracellular signal–regulated kinase pathway activation and subsequent keratinocyte differentiation. Compared with wild-type mice, the cell spreading area and wound closure rate were lower in keratinocytes from TMlox/lox; K5-Cre mice. In addition, the lower density of neovascularization and smaller area of hyperproliferative epithelium contributed to slower wound healing in TMlox/lox; K5-Cre mice than in wild-type mice. Local administration of recombinant TM (rTM) accelerated healing rates in the TM-null skin. These data suggest that TM has a critical role in skin differentiation and wound healing. Furthermore, rTM may hold therapeutic potential for the treatment of nonhealing chronic wounds

The bracteatus pineapple genome and domestication of clonally propagated crops

Domestication of clonally propagated crops such as pineapple from South America was hypothesized to be a 'one-step operation'. We sequenced the genome of Ananas comosus var. bracteatus CB5 and assembled 513 Mb into 25 chromosomes with 29,412 genes. Comparison of the genomes of CB5, F153 and MD2 elucidated the genomic basis of fiber production, color formation, sugar accumulation and fruit maturation. We also resequenced 89 Ananas genomes. Cultivars 'Smooth Cayenne' and 'Queen' exhibited ancient and recent admixture, while 'Singapore Spanish' supported a one-step operation of domestication. We identified 25 selective sweeps, including a strong sweep containing a pair of tandemly duplicated bromelain inhibitors. Four candidate genes for self-incompatibility were linked in F153, but were not functional in self-compatible CB5. Our findings support the coexistence of sexual recombination and a one-step operation in the domestication of clonally propagated crops. This work guides the exploration of sexual and asexual domestication trajectories in other clonally propagated crops