341 research outputs found
Semileptonic to Nucleon Transitions in Full QCD at Light Cone
The tree level semileptonic and
transitions are investigated using the light cone QCD sum rules approach in
full theory. The spin--1/2, baryon with or , is
considered by the most general form of its interpolating current. The time
ordering product of the initial and transition currents is expanded in terms of
the nucleon distribution amplitudes with different twists. Considering two sets
of independent input parameters entering to the nucleon wave functions, namely,
QCD sum rules and Lattice QCD parameters, the related form factors and their
heavy quark effective theory limits are calculated and compared with the
existing predictions of other approaches. It is shown that our results satisfy
the heavy quark symmetry relations for lattice input parameters and b case
exactly and the maximum violation is for charm case and QCD sum rules input
parameters. The obtained form factors are used to compute the transition rates
both in full theory and heavy quark effective theory. A comparison of the
results on decay rate of with those predicted by other
phenomenological methods or the same method in heavy quark effective theory
with different interpolating current and distribution amplitudes of the
is also presented.Comment: 18 Pages and 16 Table
On the direction of transcription of cloned genes in Neurospora crassa.
On the direction of transcription of cloned genes in Neurospora crassa
Co-regulation of two tandem genes by one blue-light element in Neurospora crassa
Many genes of Neurospora crassa are regulated by blue light: al-1 (Schmidhauser et al. 1990 Mol. Cell. Biol. 10:5064-5070), al-2 (Lauter, Schmidhauser, Yanofsky, Russo unpublished), al-3 (Nelson et al. 1989 Mol. Cell. Biol. 9:1271-1276), bli-3, bli-4, bli-7, bli-13 (Sommer et al. 1989 NAR 17:5713-5723). For none of these genes are the blue light cis-regulatory sequences (blue-light elements, BE) known. Here we report the presence of such BE in front of bli-4
Pair production of neutralinos via gluon-gluon collisions
The production of a neutralino pair via gluon-gluon fusion is studied in the
minimal supersymmetric model(MSSM) at proton-proton colliders. The numerical
analysis of their production rates are carried out in the mSUGRA scenario. The
results show that this cross section may reach about 80 femto barn for
pair production and 23 femto barn
for pair production with suitable
input parameters at the future LHC collider. It shows that this loop mediated
process can be competitive with the quark-antiquark annihilation process at the
LHC.Comment: LaTex file, l4 pages, 5 EPS figure
Renormalization of the QED of second order spin 1/2 fermions
In this work we study the renormalization of the electrodynamics of spin 1/2
fermions in the Poincar\'e projector formalism which is second order in the
derivatives of the fields. We analyze the superficial degree of divergence of
the vertex functions of this theory, calculate at one-loop level the vacuum
polarization, fermion self-energy and \gamma-fermion-fermion vertex function
and the divergent piece of the one-loop contributions to the
\gamma-\gamma-fermion-fermion vertex function. It is shown that these functions
are renormalizable independently of the value of the gyromagnetic factor g
which is a free parameter of the theory. We find a photon propagator and a
running coupling constant \alpha (q^2) that depend on the value of g. The
magnetic moment form factor contains a divergence associated to g which
disappears for g=2 but in general requires the coupling g to be renormalized. A
suitable choice of the renormalization condition for the magnetic form factor
yields the one loop finite correction \Delta{g}=g\alpha/2\pi. For a particle
with g=2 we recover results of Dirac theory for the photon propagator, the
running of \alpha (q^2) and the one-loop corrections to the gyromagnetic
factor.Comment: 20 pages including 6 figures. Rewritten paper, results unchanged,
version accepted in PRD. Results written in terms of Passarino-Veltman scalar
integral
Mutation analysis of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in Iranian high risk breast cancer families
Background: Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein enzyme that synthesises telomeres after cell
division and maintains chromosomal stability leading to cellular immortalization. Telomerase has
been associated with negative prognostic indicators in some studies. The present study aims to
detect any association between telomerase sub-units: hTERT and hTR and the prognostic
indicators including tumour's size and grade, nodal status and patient's age.
Methods: Tumour samples from 46 patients with primary invasive breast cancer and 3 patients
with benign tumours were collected. RT-PCR analysis was used for the detection of hTR, hTERT,
and PGM1 (as a housekeeping) genes expression.
Results: The expression of hTR and hTERT was found in 31(67.4%) and 38 (82.6%) samples
respectively. We observed a significant association between hTR gene expression and younger age
at diagnosis (p = 0.019) when comparing patients ≤ 40 years with those who are older than 40
years. None of the benign tumours expressed hTR gene. However, the expression of hTERT gene
was revealed in 2 samples.
No significant association between hTR and hTERT expression and tumour's grade, stage and nodal
status was seen.
Conclusion: The expression of hTR and hTERT seems to be independent of tumour's stage. hTR
expression probably plays a greater role in mammary tumourogenesis in younger women (≤ 40
years) and this may have therapeutic implications in the context of hTR targeting strategies
Hepatitis C virus cell-cell transmission and resistance to direct-acting antiviral agents
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is transmitted between hepatocytes via classical cell entry but also uses direct cell-cell transfer to infect neighboring hepatocytes. Viral cell-cell transmission has been shown to play an important role in viral persistence allowing evasion from neutralizing antibodies. In contrast, the role of HCV cell-cell transmission for antiviral resistance is unknown. Aiming to address this question we investigated the phenotype of HCV strains exhibiting resistance to direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) in state-of-the-art model systems for cell-cell transmission and spread. Using HCV genotype 2 as a model virus, we show that cell-cell transmission is the main route of viral spread of DAA-resistant HCV. Cell-cell transmission of DAA-resistant viruses results in viral persistence and thus hampers viral eradication. We also show that blocking cell-cell transmission using host-targeting entry inhibitors (HTEIs) was highly effective in inhibiting viral dissemination of resistant genotype 2 viruses. Combining HTEIs with DAAs prevented antiviral resistance and led to rapid elimination of the virus in cell culture model. In conclusion, our work provides evidence that cell-cell transmission plays an important role in dissemination and maintenance of resistant variants in cell culture models. Blocking virus cell-cell transmission prevents emergence of drug resistance in persistent viral infection including resistance to HCV DAAs
Helicity Analysis of Semileptonic Hyperon Decays Including Lepton Mass Effects
Using the helicity method we derive complete formulas for the joint angular
decay distributions occurring in semileptonic hyperon decays including lepton
mass and polarization effects. Compared to the traditional covariant
calculation the helicity method allows one to organize the calculation of the
angular decay distributions in a very compact and efficient way. In the
helicity method the angular analysis is of cascade type, i.e. each decay in the
decay chain is analyzed in the respective rest system of that particle. Such an
approach is ideally suited as input for a Monte Carlo event generation program.
As a specific example we take the decay () followed by the nonleptonic decay for which we show a few examples of decay distributions which are
generated from a Monte Carlo program based on the formulas presented in this
paper. All the results of this paper are also applicable to the semileptonic
and nonleptonic decays of ground state charm and bottom baryons, and to the
decays of the top quark.Comment: Published version. 40 pages, 11 figures included in the text. Typos
corrected, comments added, references added and update
Establishment of infectious HCV virion-producing cells with newly designed full-genome replicon RNA
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) replicon systems enable in-depth analysis of the life cycle of HCV. However, the previously reported full-genome replicon system is unable to produce authentic virions. On the basis of these results, we constructed newly designed full-genomic replicon RNA, which is composed of the intact 5′-terminal-half RNA extending to the NS2 region flanked by an extra selection marker gene. Huh-7 cells harboring this full-genomic RNA proliferated well under G418 selection and secreted virion-like particles into the supernatant. These particles, which were round and 50 nm in diameter when analyzed by electron microscopy, had a buoyant density of 1.08 g/mL that shifted to 1.19 g/mL after NP-40 treatment; these figures match the putative densities of intact virions and nucleocapsids without envelope. The particles also showed infectivity in a colony-forming assay. This system may offer another option for investigating the life cycle of HCV
Characterisation of the Immunophenotype of Dogs with Primary Immune-Mediated Haemolytic Anaemia
Immune-mediated haemolytic anaemia (IMHA) is reported to be the most common autoimmune disease of dogs, resulting in significant morbidity and mortality in affected animals. Haemolysis is caused by the action of autoantibodies, but the immunological changes that result in their production have not been elucidated.To investigate the frequency of regulatory T cells (Tregs) and other lymphocyte subsets and to measure serum concentrations of cytokines and peripheral blood mononuclear cell expression of cytokine genes in dogs with IMHA, healthy dogs and dogs with inflammatory diseases.19 dogs with primary IMHA, 22 dogs with inflammatory diseases and 32 healthy control dogs.Residual EDTA-anti-coagulated blood samples were stained with fluorophore-conjugated monoclonal antibodies and analysed by flow cytometry to identify Tregs and other lymphocyte subsets. Total RNA was also extracted from peripheral blood mononuclear cells to investigate cytokine gene expression, and concentrations of serum cytokines (interleukins 2, 6 10, CXCL-8 and tumour necrosis factor α) were measured using enhanced chemiluminescent assays. Principal component analysis was used to investigate latent variables that might explain variability in the entire dataset.There was no difference in the frequency or absolute numbers of Tregs among groups, nor in the proportions of other lymphocyte subsets. The concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines were greater in dogs with IMHA compared to healthy controls, but the concentration of IL-10 and the expression of cytokine genes did not differ between groups. Principal component analysis identified four components that explained the majority of the variability in the dataset, which seemed to correspond to different aspects of the immune response.The immunophenotype of dogs with IMHA differed from that of dogs with inflammatory diseases and from healthy control dogs; some of these changes could suggest abnormalities in peripheral tolerance that permit development of autoimmune disease. The frequency of Tregs did not differ between groups, suggesting that deficiency in the number of these cells is not responsible for development of IMHA
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