An approach to new physics at LHCb: study of penguin pollution to ΦS(BS⁰ → J/ΨΦ) using BS⁰ → J/ΨK*⁰ decays, and search for a light A01 Higgs boson in the NMSSM

This research project will be carried out doing data analysis in the LHCb collaboration. LHCb is one of the four big experiments running in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and is mainly designed to make precise measurements of CP violation and to study rare decays of B and D mesons. In particular, the research plan proposed here will focus in a time integrated analysis of Bs⁰ → J/ψK*⁰ decays with 3 inverse femtobarns of LHCb data to measure the branching fraction, polarization fractions and direct CP asymmetries. These observables will afterwords be used to compute the hadronic parameters which describe the loop diagram (penguin) effects in the Bs⁰ → J/ψϕ channel, which is considered to be the “golden” mode to measure the weak phase of the Bs⁰ mixing. This CP violating phase is predicted by the Standard Model to be very small, and penguin contributions could be confused with new physics phenomena if not taken into account. In addition, a search of A1⁰ → μ⁺μ⁻ decays, where A1⁰ is a light CP-odd Higgs boson in the NMSSM, is part of the research plan as well

Ventricular anatomical complexity and sex differences impact predictions from electrophysiological computational models

The aim of this work was to analyze the influence of sex hormones and anatomical details (trabeculations and false tendons) on the electrophysiology of healthy human hearts. Additionally, sex- and anatomy-dependent effects of ventricular tachycardia (VT) inducibility are presented. To this end, four anatomically normal, human, biventricular geometries (two male, two female), with identifiable trabeculations, were obtained from high-resolution, ex-vivo MRI and represented by detailed and smoothed geometrical models (with and without the trabeculations). Additionally one model was augmented by a scar. The electrophysiology finite element model (FEM) simulations were carried out, using O’Hara-Rudy human myocyte model with sex phenotypes of Yang and Clancy. A systematic comparison between detailed vs smooth anatomies, male vs female normal hearts was carried out. The heart with a myocardial infarction was subjected to a programmed stimulus protocol to identify the effects of sex and anatomical detail on ventricular tachycardia inducibility. All female hearts presented QT-interval prolongation however the prolongation interval in comparison to the male phenotypes was anatomy-dependent and was not correlated to the size of the heart. Detailed geometries showed QRS fractionation and increased T-wave magnitude in comparison to the corresponding smoothed geometries. A variety of sustained VTs were obtained in the detailed and smoothed male geometries at different pacing locations, which provide evidence of the geometry-dependent differences regarding the prediction of the locations of reentry channels. In the female phenotype, sustained VTs were induced in both detailed and smooth geometries with RV apex pacing, however no consistent reentry channels were identified. Anatomical and physiological cardiac features play an important role defining risk in cardiac disease. These are often excluded from cardiac electrophysiology simulations. The assumption that the cardiac endocardium is smooth may produce inaccurate predictions towards the location of reentry channels in in-silico tachycardia inducibility studiesJA-S, FS, GH and MV are supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements No 675451 (Compbiomed project phase 1) and No 823712 (CompBioMed project, phase 2) and project No 777204 (SilicoFCM project). Part of the simulation computing hours were provided by the CompBioMed project phase 1. JA-S was awarded computation time from Red Espanola de Supercomputacion (RES). (Activity IDs: FI-2018-2-0049 and BCV-2019-2-0014) JA-S is funded by a Ramon y Cajal fellowship (RYC-2017-22532), Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, Spain; and by Plan Estatal de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnica y de Innovacion 2017-2020 from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion y Universidades (PID2019-104356RBC41/AEI/10.13039/501100011033): meHeart ME PID2019-104356RB-C44. CB is funded by the Torres Quevedo Program (PTQ2018-010290), Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, Spain. MV, GH and CB are funded by the Spanish Neotec project EXP - 00123159/SNEO-20191113 Generador de corazones virtuales. LKGM was funded by Fundacion Carolina-BBVA. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. There was no additional external funding received for this study.Peer Reviewed"Article signat per 11 autors/es: Pablo Gonzalez-Martin,Federica Sacco,Constantine Butakoff,Ruben Doste,Carlos Bederian,Lilian K. Gutierrez Espinosa de los Monteros,Guillaume Houzeaux,Paul A. Iaizzo,Tinen L. Iles,Mariano Vazquez,Jazmin Aguado-Sierra"Postprint (published version

A new approach for the validation of conceptual holonic constructions

The concepts of holon and holarchy were first applied in the manufacturing world to develop Holonic Manufacturing Systems. Since then, they have been used in many fields and have proved to be applicable concepts for developing applications in any business area. Resulting applications are based on conceptual holonic constructions. Like any model, a holarchy needs to be validated under real circumstances. Such validation assures the quality of the holarchy before it is implemented. In general, validation research tends to target: 1) the specific types of holons handled in each proposal and/or the selected development paradigms; and 2) algorithm performance rather than architecture quality. This paper proposes and evaluates a methodology that focuses on the quality of the architecture. This methodology is able to validate any holonic architecture built to meet trade requirements. Moreover, this is a general-purpose methodology. Therefore, the methodology would be valid for any domain and would not be invalidated by holon types and/or implementation paradigms emerging, changing or falling into disuse. For this purpose, we consider holonic architectures as conceptual models, using the pure holon and holarchy concepts and passing up not only any specific implementation paradigm but also any set of specific holon types

The combination of sirolimus plus tacrolimus improves outcome after reduced-intensity conditioning, unrelated donor hematopoietic stem cell transplantation compared with cyclosporine plus mycofenolate

Different types of graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis have been proposed in the setting of reduced intensity and non-myeloablative allogeneic stem cell transplantation. An alternative combination with sirolimus and tacrolimus has recently been tested although comparative studies against the classical combination of a calcineurin inhibitor and mycophenolate mofetil or methotrexate are lacking. We describe the results of a prospective, multicenter trial using sirolimus + tacrolimus as immunoprophylaxis, and compare this approach with our previous experience using cyclosporine + mycophenolate in the setting of unrelated donor transplantation setting after reduced-intensity conditioning. Forty-five patients received cyclosporine + mycophenolate between 2002 and mid-2007, while the subsequent 50 patients, who were transplanted from late 2007, were given sirolimus + tacrolimus. No significant differences were observed in terms of hematopoietic recovery or acute graft-versus-host disease overall, although gastrointestinal acute graft-versus-host disease grade ≥2 was more common in the cyclosporine + mycophenolate group (55% versus 21%, respectively, P=0.003). The 1-year cumulative incidence of chronic graftversus-host disease was 50% versus 90% for the patients treated with the sirolimus- versus cyclosporine-based regimen, respectively (P<0.001), while the incidence of extensive chronic disease was 27% versus 49%, respectively (P=0.043). The 2-year non-relapse mortality rate was 18% versus 38% for patients receiving the sirolimus- versus the cyclosporine-based regimen, respectively (P=0.02). The event-free survival and overall survival at 2 years were 53% versus 29% (P=0.028) and 70% versus 45% (P=0.018) among patients receiving the sirolimus- versus the cyclosporine-based regimen, respectively. In conclusion, in the setting of reduced intensity transplantation from an unrelated donor, promising results can be achieved with the combination of sirolimus + tacrolimus, due to a lower risk of chronic graft-versus-host disease and non-relapse mortality, which translates into better event-free and over all survival rates, in comparison with those achieved with cyclosporine + mycophenolate

Measurement of indirect CP asymmetries in D0 → K−K+ and D0 → π−π+ decays using semileptonic B decays

Time-dependent CP asymmetries in the decay rates of the singly Cabibbo-suppressed decays D0 → K−K+ and D0 → π−π+ are measured in pp collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb−1 collected by the LHCb experiment. The D0 mesons are produced in semileptonic b-hadron decays, where the charge of the accompanying muon is used to determine the initial state as D0 or D¯0. The asymmetries in effective lifetimes between D0 and D¯0 decays, which are sensitive to indirect CP violation, are determined to be AΓ(K−K+)=(−0.134±0.077−0.026−0.034)%,AΓ(π−π+)=(−0.092±0.145−0.025−0.033)%, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic. This result is in agreement with previous measurements and with the hypothesis of no indirect CP violation in D0 decays.S

Caracterización de tuberculosis en provincia Guantánamo, 2012-2019

Introduction: facing tuberculosis is a social and professional responsibility that requires characterization of the disease, not quite achieved in Guantanamo in the last decade. Objective: to characterize tuberculosis in patients in the province of Guantanamo in the period from 2012 to 2019. Method: the research population was the total of patients diagnosed with the disease (n=136). The following variables were taken into account: age, gender, location of the infection, results on the smear microscopy, categorization of the patient at the time of discharge and the risk groups for tuberculosis. The information was gathered through the records on the every year list of notifiable diseases, and epidemiologic surveys in the areas of infection, and it was summed up in absolute values and percentage. Results: in the 80.1 % of the cases of tuberculosis, the infection was located in the lungs, and the diagnose by positive smear microscopy (63.2 %) was more common. The 76.7 % of the patients with a positive smear microscopy were male. The most common risk groups for tuberculosis were: smokers (26.4 %), immunosuppressed patients (21.6 %) and alcoholism (19.1 %). Conclusions: In Guantanamo province, the lung-located tuberculosis prevails; and also the patients with a positive smear microscopy. Patients are mostly male, with ages ranging from 45 to 54 years old, all of them with a recent diagnosis. The disease has a greater incidence rate on those with an immunosuppression, smoking or alcoholism background.Introducción: la lucha contra la tuberculosis es una responsabilidad social y profesional que requiere de su caracterización, la que no se ha realizado en Guantánamo en la última década.Objetivo: caracterizar la tuberculosis en pacientes de la provincia Guantánamo durante el periodo comprendido entre 2012 y 2019. Método: El universo se constituyó por el total de pacientes diagnosticados (n=136). Se estudiaron las siguientes variables: edad, sexo, localización de la enfermedad, resultados de la baciloscopia, categoría al egreso y grupos de riesgo de tuberculosis. La información se obtuvo mediante los registros de enfermedades de declaración obligatoria cada año, y las encuestas epidemiológicas de los controles de focos realizados, y se resumió en números absolutos y porcentajes. Resultados: en el 80,1 % de los casos la tuberculosis se localizó en los pulmones, y fue más común el diagnóstico de pacientes con baciloscopia positiva (63,2 %). El 76,7 % de los pacientes con baciloscopia positiva fueron masculinos. Los grupos de riesgos para tuberculosis más usuales fueron: fumadores (26.4 %), inmunodeprimidos (21,6 %) y el alcoholismo (19,1 %). Conclusiones: en la provincia Guantánamo prevalece la tuberculosis de localización pulmonar y los pacientes con bacteriología positiva. Los afectados sobre todo son hombres, tienen edad entre 45 a 54 años y son de reciente diagnóstico. La enfermedad incide más en aquellos con antecedente de ser fumadores, inmunodeprimidos y los alcohólicos

Precise measurements of the properties of the B1(5721)0,+ and B *2(5747)0,+ states and observation of B+,0π−,+ mass structures

Invariant mass distributions of B+π− and B0π+ combinations are investigated in order to study excited B mesons. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to 3.0 fb−1 of pp collision data, recorded by the LHCb detector at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. Precise measurements of the masses and widths of the B1(5721)0,+ and B2(5747)0,+ states are reported. Clear enhancements, particularly prominent at high pion transverse momentum, are seen over background in the mass range 5850-6000 MeV in both B+π− and B0π+ combinations. The structures are consistent with the presence of four excited B mesons, labelled B J (5840)0,+ and B J (5960)0,+, whose masses and widths are obtained under different hypotheses for their quantum numbersS

Measurement of CP asymmetries and polarisation fractions in B0s→K∗0K¯∗0 decays

An angular analysis of the decay B0s→K∗0K¯∗0 is performed using pp collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1 collected by the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy s√=7 TeV. A combined angular and mass analysis separates six helicity amplitudes and allows the measurement of the longitudinal polarisation fraction f L = 0.201 ± 0.057 (stat.) ± 0.040 (syst.) for the B0s→K∗(892)0K¯∗(892)0 decay. A large scalar contribution from the K ∗0(1430) and K ∗0(800) resonances is found, allowing the determination of additional CP asymmetries. Triple product and direct CP asymmetries are determined to be compatible with the Standard Model expectations. The branching fraction B(Bs→K∗(892)0K¯∗(892)0) is measured to be (10.8 ± 2.1 (stat.) ± 1.4 (syst.) ± 0.6 (f d /f s )) × 10−6.S