251 research outputs found
Sulphonylurea Usage in Melioidosis Is Associated with Severe Disease and Suppressed Immune Response
10.1371/journal.pntd.0002795PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases84
E7(7) formulation of N=2 backgrounds
In this paper we reformulate N=2 supergravity backgrounds arising in type II
string theory in terms of quantities transforming under the U-duality group
E7(7). In particular we combine the Ramond--Ramond scalar degrees of freedom
together with the O(6,6) pure spinors which govern the Neveu-Schwarz sector by
considering an extended version of generalised geometry. We give
E7(7)-invariant expressions for the Kahler and hyperkahler potentials
describing the moduli space of vector and hypermultiplets, demonstrating that
both correspond to standard E7(7) coset spaces. We also find E7(7) expressions
for the Killing prepotentials defining the scalar potential, and discuss the
equations governing N=1 vacua in this formalism.Comment: 40 pages, final version to appear in JHE
Type II compactifications on manifolds with SU(2) x SU(2) structure
We study compactifications of type II theories on SU(2) x SU(2) structure
manifolds to six, five and four spacetime dimensions. We use the framework of
generalized geometry to describe the NS-NS sector of such compactifications and
derive the structure of their moduli spaces. We show that in contrast to SU(3)
x SU(3) structure compactifications, there is no dynamical SU(2) x SU(2)
structure interpolating between an SU(2) structure and an identity structure.
Furthermore, we formulate type II compactifications on SU(2) x SU(2) structures
in the context of exceptional generalized geometry which makes the U-duality
group manifest and naturally incorporates the scalar degrees of freedom arising
in the Ramond-Ramond sector. Via this formalism we derive the structure of the
moduli spaces as it is expected from N=4 supergravity.Comment: 69 pages, v2 published versio
Disease-specific, neurosphere-derived cells as models for brain disorders
There is a pressing need for patient-derived cell models of brain diseases that are relevant and robust enough to produce the large quantities of cells required for molecular and functional analyses. We describe here a new cell model based on patient-derived cells from the human olfactory mucosa, the organ of smell, which regenerates throughout life from neural stem cells. Olfactory mucosa biopsies were obtained from healthy controls and patients with either schizophrenia, a neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorder, or Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative disease. Biopsies were dissociated and grown as neurospheres in defined medium. Neurosphere-derived cell lines were grown in serum-containing medium as adherent monolayers and stored frozen. By comparing 42 patient and control cell lines we demonstrated significant disease-specific alterations in gene expression, protein expression and cell function, including dysregulated neurodevelopmental pathways in schizophrenia and dysregulated mitochondrial function, oxidative stress and xenobiotic metabolism in Parkinson's disease. The study has identified new candidate genes and cell pathways for future investigation. Fibroblasts from schizophrenia patients did not show these differences. Olfactory neurosphere-derived cells have many advantages over embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells as models for brain diseases. They do not require genetic reprogramming and they can be obtained from adults with complex genetic diseases. They will be useful for understanding disease aetiology, for diagnostics and for drug discovery
Tunable Lyapunov exponent in inverse magnetic billiards
The stability properties of the classical trajectories of charged particles
are investigated in a two dimensional stadium-shaped inverse magnetic domain,
where the magnetic field is zero inside the stadium domain and constant
outside. In the case of infinite magnetic field the dynamics of the system is
the same as in the Bunimovich billiard, i.e., ergodic and mixing. However, for
weaker magnetic fields the phase space becomes mixed and the chaotic part
gradually shrinks. The numerical measurements of the Lyapunov exponent
(performed with a novel method) and the integrable/chaotic phase space volume
ratio show that both quantities can be smoothly tuned by varying the external
magnetic field. A possible experimental realization of the arrangement is also
discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure
Continuous cropping of endangered therapeutic plants via electron beam soil treatment and neutron tomography
Various medicinal plants are threatened with extinction owing to their over exploitation and the prevalence of soil borne pathogens. In this study, soils infected with root rot pathogens, which prevent continuous cropping, were treated with an electron beam. The level of soil borne fungus was reduced to amp; 8804;0.01 by soil electron beam treatment without appreciable effects on the levels of antagonistic microorganism or on the physicochemical properties of the soil. The survival rate of 4 year old plant was higher in electron beam treated soil 81.0 than in fumigated 62.5 , virgin 78 , or untreatedreplanting soil 0 . Additionally, under various soils conditions, neutron tomography permitted the monitoring of plant health and the detection of root pathological changes over a period of 4 6 years by quantitatively measuring root water content in situ. These methods allow continual cropping on the same soil without pesticide treatment. This is a major step toward the environmentally friendly production of endangered therapeutic herb
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
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
Identification and Functional Characterization of G6PC2 Coding Variants Influencing Glycemic Traits Define an Effector Transcript at the G6PC2-ABCB11 Locus
Genome wide association studies (GWAS) for fasting glucose (FG) and insulin (FI) have identified common variant signals which explain 4.8% and 1.2% of trait variance, respectively. It is hypothesized that low-frequency and rare variants could contribute substantially to unexplained genetic variance. To test this, we analyzed exome-array data from up to 33,231 non-diabetic individuals of European ancestry. We found exome-wide significant (P<5×10-7) evidence for two loci not previously highlighted by common variant GWAS: GLP1R (p.Ala316Thr, minor allele frequency (MAF)=1.5%) influencing FG levels, and URB2 (p.Glu594Val, MAF = 0.1%) influencing FI levels. Coding variant associations can highlight potential effector genes at (non-coding) GWAS signals. At the G6PC2/ABCB11 locus, we identified multiple coding variants in G6PC2 (p.Val219Leu, p.His177Tyr, and p.Tyr207Ser) influencing FG levels, conditionally independent of each other and the non-coding GWAS signal. In vitro assays demonstrate that these associated coding alleles result in reduced protein abundance via proteasomal degradation, establishing G6PC2 as an effector gene at this locus. Reconciliation of single-variant associations and functional effects was only possible when haplotype phase was considered. In contrast to earlier reports suggesting that, paradoxically, glucose-raising alleles at this locus are protective against type 2 diabetes (T2D), the p.Val219Leu G6PC2 variant displayed a modest but directionally consistent association with T2D risk. Coding variant associations for glycemic traits in GWAS signals highlight PCSK1, RREB1, and ZHX3 as likely effector transcripts. These coding variant association signals do not have a major impact on the trait variance explained, but they do provide valuable biological insights
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