Muon anomalous magnetic moment, lepton flavor violation, and flavor changing neutral current processes in SUSY GUT with right-handed neutrino

Motivated by the large mixing angle solutions for the atmospheric and solar neutrino anomalies, flavor changing neutral current processes and lepton flavor violating processes as well as the muon anomalous magnetic moment are analyzed in the framework of SU(5) SUSY GUT with right-handed neutrino. In order to explain realistic mass relations for quarks and leptons, we take into account effects of higher dimensional operators above the GUT scale. It is shown that the supersymmetric (SUSY) contributions to the CP violation parameter in $K^0-\bar{K}^0$ mixing, $\epsilon_K$, the $\mu \to e \gamma$ branching ratio, and the muon anomalous magnetic moment become large in a wide range of parameter space. We also investigate correlations among these quantities. Within the current experimental bound of $\text{B}(\mu \to e \gamma)$, large SUSY contributions are possible either in the muon anomalous magnetic moment or in $\epsilon_K$. In the former case, the favorable value of the recent muon anomalous magnetic moment measurement at the BNL E821 experiment can be accommodated. In the latter case, the allowed region of the Kobayashi-Maskawa phase can be different from the prediction within the Standard Model (SM) and therefore the measurements of the CP asymmetry of $B\to J/\psi K_S$ mode and $\Delta m_{B_s}$ could discriminate this case from the SM. We also show that the $\tau \to \mu \gamma$ branching ratio can be close to the current experimental upperbound and the mixing induced CP asymmetry of the radiative B decay can be enhanced in the case where the neutrino parameters correspond to the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein small mixing angle solution.Comment: 70 pages, 14 figure

Does congenital deafness affect the structural and functional architecture of primary visual cortex?

Deafness results in greater reliance on the remaining senses. It is unknown whether the cortical architecture of the intact senses is optimized to compensate for lost input. Here we performed widefield population receptive field (pRF) mapping of primary visual cortex (V1) with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in hearing and congenitally deaf participants, all of whom had learnt sign language after the age of 10 years. We found larger pRFs encoding the peripheral visual field of deaf compared to hearing participants. This was likely driven by larger facilitatory center zones of the pRF profile concentrated in the near and far periphery in the deaf group. pRF density was comparable between groups, indicating pRFs overlapped more in the deaf group. This could suggest that a coarse coding strategy underlies enhanced peripheral visual skills in deaf people. Cortical thickness was also decreased in V1 in the deaf group. These findings suggest deafness causes structural and functional plasticity at the earliest stages of visual cortex

Genetic Sharing with Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors and Diabetes Reveals Novel Bone Mineral Density Loci.

Bone Mineral Density (BMD) is a highly heritable trait, but genome-wide association studies have identified few genetic risk factors. Epidemiological studies suggest associations between BMD and several traits and diseases, but the nature of the suggestive comorbidity is still unknown. We used a novel genetic pleiotropy-informed conditional False Discovery Rate (FDR) method to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with BMD by leveraging cardiovascular disease (CVD) associated disorders and metabolic traits. By conditioning on SNPs associated with the CVD-related phenotypes, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, high density lipoprotein, low density lipoprotein, triglycerides and waist hip ratio, we identified 65 novel independent BMD loci (26 with femoral neck BMD and 47 with lumbar spine BMD) at conditional FDR < 0.01. Many of the loci were confirmed in genetic expression studies. Genes validated at the mRNA levels were characteristic for the osteoblast/osteocyte lineage, Wnt signaling pathway and bone metabolism. The results provide new insight into genetic mechanisms of variability in BMD, and a better understanding of the genetic underpinnings of clinical comorbidity

Measurement of the νe and total 8B solar neutrino fluxes with the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory phase-III data set

This paper details the solar neutrino analysis of the 385.17-day phase-III data set acquired by the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO). An array of 3He proportional counters was installed in the heavy-water target to measure precisely the rate of neutrino-deuteron neutral-current interactions. This technique to determine the total active 8B solar neutrino flux was largely independent of the methods employed in previous phases. The total flux of active neutrinos was measured to be 5.54-0.31+0.33(stat.)-0.34+0.36(syst.)×106 cm-2 s-1, consistent with previous measurements and standard solar models. A global analysis of solar and reactor neutrino mixing parameters yielded the best-fit values of Δm2=7.59-0.21+0.19×10 -5eV2 and θ=34.4-1.2+1.3degrees

Search for long-lived neutral particles in pp collisions at s√=13 TeV that decay into displaced hadronic jets in the ATLAS calorimeter

This paper describes a search for pairs of neutral, long-lived particles decaying in the ATLAS calorimeter. Long-lived particles occur in many extensions to the Standard Model and may elude searches for new promptly decaying particles. The analysis considers neutral, long-lived scalars with masses between 5 and 400 GeV, produced from decays of heavy bosons with masses between 125 and 1000 GeV, where the long-lived scalars decay into Standard Model fermions. The analysis uses either 10.8 fb−1 or 33.0 fb−1 of data (depending on the trigger) recorded in 2016 at the LHC with the ATLAS detector in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. No significant excess is observed, and limits are reported on the production cross section times branching ratio as a function of the proper decay length of the long-lived particles

The effect of an acidic cleanser versus soap on the skin pH and micro-flora of adult patients: a non-randomised two group crossover study in an intensive care unit

OBJECTIVES To test the effects of two different cleansing regimens on skin surface pH and micro-flora, in adult patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Forty-three patients were recruited from a 23-bed tertiary medical/surgical ICU. The nineteen patients in Group One were washed using soap for daily hygiene care over a four week period. In Group 2, 24 patients were washing daily using an acidic liquid cleanser (pH 5.5) over a second four week period. Skin pH measurements and bacterial swabs were sampled daily from each for a maximum of ten days or until discharged from the ICU. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Skin surface pH and quantitative skin cultures (colony forming units). FINDINGS Skin pH measurements were lower in patients washed with pH 5.5 cleanser than those washed with soap. This was statistically significant for both the forearm (p = 0.0068) and leg (p = 0.0015). The bacterial count was not statistically significantly different between the two groups. Both groups demonstrated that bacterial counts were significantly affected by the length of stay in ICU (p = 0.0032). CONCLUSION This study demonstrated that the product used in routine skin care significantly affects the skin pH of ICU patients, but not the bacterial colonisation. Bacterial colonisation of the skin increases with length of stay

Inhibition of ruminal bacteria involved in lactic acid metabolism by extracts from Australian plants

Ethanolic extracts, essential oils and plant secondary compounds from selected Australian plants were tested in vitro for their potential to selectively inhibit bacteria associated with lactic acid production in ruminants. A combination of agar dilution and microbroth dilution assays were used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the plant extracts against a panel of ruminal bacteria. Ethanolic extract from Eremophila glabra inhibited lactate producers and all other rumen bacteria at 1.260. mg/ml, except for the ruminal lactate fermenter Megasphaera elsdenii (MIC 10. mg/ml). Extracts from Acacia decurrens, A. saligna, Kennedia eximia and K. prorepens inhibited ruminal lactate producer Lactobacillus spp. only (MIC from 5 to 10. mg/ml). The MIC of essential oils ranged from 0.003 to 0.020. mg/ml, but the inhibitory effect was not specific to lactate producers. E. glabra was identified as the plant with the most favourable effect and purified compounds from this plant were investigated for further analysis. Seven serrulatane diterpenes were isolated by chromatography and tested against the major ruminal lactate producer Streptococcus bovis and a lactate fermenter M. elsdenii in a microbroth dilution assay. All but one of these inhibited S. bovis, with the MIC ranging from 0.320 to 1.080. mg/ml, with only one compound also inhibiting M. elsdenii (MIC 1.080. mg/ml). Selective inhibition of lactate producing bacteria in the rumen by some Australian plant extracts and their secondary compounds was identified and may lead to further research into the application of bioactive plants in the management of lactic acidosis in ruminants