Effects of CP-violating phases in supersymmetry

Recent studies about the impact of the CP-violating complex parameters in supersymmetry on the decays of third generation squarks and about T-odd asymmetries in neutralino and chargino production and decay are reviewed. The CP-even branching ratios of the third generation squarks show a pronounced dependence on the phases of A_t, A_b, mu and M_1 in a large region of the supersymmetric parameter space. This could have important implications for stop and sbottom searches and the MSSM parameter determination in future collider experiments. We have estimated the expected accuracy in the determination of the parameters by global fits of measured masses, decay branching ratios and production cross sections. We have found that the parameter A_t can be determined with an error of 2 - 3%, whereas the error on A_b is likely to be of the order of 50 - 100%. In addition we have studied CP-odd observables, like asymmetries based on triple product correlations, which are necessary to unambiguously establish CP violation. We have analysed these asymmetries in neutralino and chargino production with subsequent three-body decays at the International Linear Collider with longitudinally polarised beams in the MSSM with complex parameters M_1 and mu. The asymmetries, which appear already at tree-level because of spin correlation between production and decay, can be as large as 20% and will therefore be an important tool for the search for CP-violating effects in supersymmetry.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX, 7 eps figures, uses appolb.cls, presented at the final meeting of the European Network ``Physics at Colliders'', Montpellier, September 26 - 27, 200

A scheme with two large extra dimensions confronted with neutrino physics

We investigate a particle physics model in a six-dimensional spacetime, where two extra dimensions form a torus. Particles with Standard Model charges are confined by interactions with a scalar field to four four-dimensional branes, two vortices accommodating ordinary type fermions and two antivortices accommodating mirror fermions. We investigate the phenomenological implications of this multibrane structure by confronting the model with neutrino physics data.Comment: LATEX, 24 pages, 9 figures, minor changes in the tex

Resistance of Gram-positive bacteria to nisin is not determined by Lipid II levels

Lipid II is essential for nisin-mediated pore formation at nano-molar concentrations. We tested whether nisin resistance could result from different Lipid II levels, by comparing the maximal Lipid II pool in Micrococcus flavus (sensitive) and Listeria monocytogenes (relatively insensitive) and their nisin-resistant variants, with a newly developed method. No correlation was observed between the maximal Lipid II pool and nisin sensitivity, as was further corroborated by using spheroplasts of nisin-resistant and wild-type strains of M. flavus, which were equally sensitive to nisin. (C) 2004 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Specific genomic aberrations in primary colorectal cancer are associated with liver metastases

Background: Accurate staging of colorectal cancer (CRC) with clinicopathological parameters is important for predicting prognosis and guiding treatment but provides no information about organ site of metastases. Patterns of genomic aberrations in primary colorectal tumors may reveal a chromosomal signature for organ specific metastases. Methods: Array Comparative Genomic Hybridization (aCGH) was employed to asses DNA copy number changes in primary colorectal tumors of three distinctive patient groups. This included formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue of patients who developed liver metastases (LM; n = 36), metastases (PM; n = 37) and a group that remained metastases-free (M0; n = 25). A novel statistical method for identifying recurrent copy number changes, KC-SMART, was used to find specific locations of genomic aberrations specific for various groups. We created a classifier for organ specific metastases based on the aCGH data using Prediction Analysis for Microarrays (PAM). Results: Specifically in the tumors of primary CRC patients who subsequently developed liver metastasis, KC-SMART analysis identified genomic aberrations on chromosome 20q. LM-PAM, a shrunken centroids classifier for liver metastases occurrence, was able to distinguish the LM group from the other groups (M0&PM) with 80% accuracy (78% sensitivity and 86% specificity). The classification is predominantly based on chromosome 20q aberrations. Conclusion: Liver specific CRC metastases may be predicted with a high accuracy based on specific genomic aberrations in the primary CRC tumor. The ability to predict the site of metastases is important for improvement of personalized patient management.MediamaticsElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc