Chiral zero-mode for abelian BPS dipoles

We present an exact normalisable zero-energy chiral fermion solution for abelian BPS dipoles. For a single dipole, this solution is contained within the high temperature limit of the SU(2) caloron with non-trivial holonomy.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure (in 2 parts), presented at the workshop on "Confinement, Topology, and other Non-Perturbative Aspects of QCD", 21-27 Jan. 2002, Stara Lesna, Slovaki

Current trends in research, development and production of prophylactic vaccines : Report of Vaccipharma 2015 Congress

On June 14-19, 2015, the IUPHAR Section of Immunopharmacology and the Cuban Society of Pharmacology, together with the Latin- American Association of Pharmacology (ALF), Finlay Vaccine Institute and other prestigious Cuban scientific institutions, organized the Congress VACCIPHARMA 2015 (3rd International Congress on Pharmacology of Vaccines), held as part of the First International Convention IMMUNOPHARMACOLOGY–VACCIPHARMA 2015 (Meliá Marina Varadero Hotel, in Varadero beach, Cuba) VACCIPHARMA 2015 was organised into two large Workshops, addressing topics related to the research, development, clinical evaluation, production and quality control of Therapeutic and Prophylactic Vaccines, respectively. At the same time the Workshop on Prophylactic Vaccines was integrated by several Symposiums, focused on meningococcal, pneumococcal, enteric, tuberculosis and pertussis vaccines. About 250 delegates, including 100 international researchers from 15 countries, attended this meeting. The Congress had a remarkable Opening Session, with a Key Lecture given by the outstanding scientist Professor Dr. Shiv Pillai (United States of America), who talked about the changing views in the field of the immunology of vaccination and the challenges ahead. The aim of this review is to give an overview of the main topics discussed in the Prophylactic Vaccines Workshop, not as a complete narration of the events, but to provide an update of the latest state of the art and methodologies being applied to prophylactic vaccines with an expert commentary on the invited speakers

Holography of AdS vacuum bubbles

We consider the fate of AdS vacua connected by tunneling events. A precise holographic dual of thin-walled Coleman--de Luccia bounces is proposed in terms of Fubini instantons in an unstable CFT. This proposal is backed by several qualitative and quantitative checks, including the precise calculation of the instanton action appearing in evaluating the decay rate. Big crunches manifest themselves as time dependent processes which reach the boundary of field space in a finite time. The infinite energy difference involved is identified on the boundary and highlights the ill-defined nature of the bulk setup. We propose a qualitative scenario in which the crunch is resolved by stabilizing the CFT, so that all attempts at crunching always end up shielded from the boundary by the formation of black hole horizons. In all these well defined bulk processes the configurations have the same asymptotics and are finite energy excitations.Comment: version submitted to journal. Note added referring to previous work on holographic instantons

Real-time fermions for baryogenesis simulations

We study how to numerically simulate quantum fermions out of thermal equilibrium, in the context of electroweak baryogenesis. We find that by combining the lattice implementation of Aarts and Smit [1] with the "low cost" fermions of Borsanyi and Hindmarsh [2], we are able to describe the dynamics of a classical bosonic system coupled to quantum fermions, that correctly reproduces anomalous baryon number violation. To demonstrate the method, we apply it to the 1+1 dimensional axial U(1) model, and perform simulations of a fast symmetry breaking transition. Compared to solving all the quantum mode equations as in [1], we find that this statistical approach may lead to a significant gain in computational time, when applied to 3+1 dimensional physics

Singularities and Topology of Meromorphic Functions

We present several aspects of the "topology of meromorphic functions", which we conceive as a general theory which includes the topology of holomorphic functions, the topology of pencils on quasi-projective spaces and the topology of polynomial functions.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figur

Caspase-8 binding to cardiolipin in giant unilamellar vesicles provides a functional docking platform for bid

Caspase-8 is involved in death receptor-mediated apoptosis in type II cells, the proapoptotic programme of which is triggered by truncated Bid. Indeed, caspase-8 and Bid are the known intermediates of this signalling pathway. Cardiolipin has been shown to provide an anchor and an essential activating platform for caspase-8 at the mitochondrial membrane surface. Destabilisation of this platform alters receptor-mediated apoptosis in diseases such as Barth Syndrome, which is characterised by the presence of immature cardiolipin which does not allow caspase-8 binding. We used a simplified in vitro system that mimics contact sites and/or cardiolipin-enriched microdomains at the outer mitochondrial surface in which the platform consisting of caspase-8, Bid and cardiolipin was reconstituted in giant unilamellar vesicles. We analysed these vesicles by flow cytometry and confirm previous results that demonstrate the requirement for intact mature cardiolipin for caspase-8 activation and Bid binding and cleavage. We also used confocal microscopy to visualise the rupture of the vesicles and their revesiculation at smaller sizes due to alteration of the curvature following caspase-8 and Bid binding. Biophysical approaches, including Laurdan fluorescence and rupture/tension measurements, were used to determine the ability of these three components (cardiolipin, caspase-8 and Bid) to fulfil the minimal requirements for the formation and function of the platform at the mitochondrial membrane. Our results shed light on the active functional role of cardiolipin, bridging the gap between death receptors and mitochondria

Grupos de pesquisa em enfermagem no Brasil: comparação dos perfis de 2006 e 2016

RESUMO Objetivos Comparar o perfil dos grupos de pesquisa em Enfermagem cadastrados no Diretório do CNPq em 2006 e 2016. Métodos Estudo descritivo documental. A coleta de dados aconteceu em 2006 e 2016 a partir de consulta parametrizada com o termo Enfermagem no Diretório dos Grupos de Pesquisa, na página online do CNPq, sendo realizada a análise descritiva. Os dados foram organizados em planilha do Excel. Resultados O número de Grupos de Pesquisa aumentou de 251 em 2006 para 617 em 2016, com incremento no número de participantes. Houve redução do número de grupos sem estudantes, embora 22% permaneçam sem participação de alunos de graduação. Conclusões Os grupos de pesquisa em Enfermagem refletem avanços estruturais e políticos na geração de ciência, tecnologia e inovação da área, entretanto ainda deve ser incentivada a participação de alunos de graduação e pesquisadores estrangeiros, bem como a ampliação de recursos tecnológicos e das parcerias interinstitucionais

The mu problem and sneutrino inflation

We consider sneutrino inflation and post-inflation cosmology in the singlet extension of the MSSM with approximate Peccei-Quinn(PQ) symmetry, assuming that supersymmetry breaking is mediated by gauge interaction. The PQ symmetry is broken by the intermediate-scale VEVs of two flaton fields, which are determined by the interplay between radiative flaton soft masses and higher order terms. Then, from the flaton VEVs, we obtain the correct mu term and the right-handed(RH) neutrino masses for see-saw mechanism. We show that the RH sneutrino with non-minimal gravity coupling drives inflation, thanks to the same flaton coupling giving rise to the RH neutrino mass. After inflation, extra vector-like states, that are responsible for the radiative breaking of the PQ symmetry, results in thermal inflation with the flaton field, solving the gravitino problem caused by high reheating temperature. Our model predicts the spectral index to be n_s\simeq 0.96 due to the additional efoldings from thermal inflation. We show that a right dark matter abundance comes from the gravitino of 100 keV mass and a successful baryogenesis is possible via Affleck-Dine leptogenesis.Comment: 27 pages, no figures, To appear in JHE

Early initiation of antiretroviral therapy following in utero HIV infection is associated with low viral reservoirs but other factors determine subsequent plasma viral rebound

BACKGROUND: Early HIV diagnosis allows combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) initiation in the first days of life following in utero (IU) infection. The impact of early cART initiation on infant viral reservoir size in the setting of high-frequency cART non-adherence is unknown. METHODS: Peripheral blood total HIV DNA from 164 early treated (day 0-21 of life) IU HIV-infected South African infants was measured using droplet digital PCR at birth and following suppressive cART. We evaluated the impact of cART initiation timing on HIV reservoir size and decay, and on the risk of subsequent plasma viraemia in cART-suppressed infants. FINDINGS: Baseline HIV DNA (median 2.8 log10 copies/million PBMC, range 0.7 - 4.8) did not correlate with age at cART initiation (0-21 days) but instead with maternal antenatal cART use. In 98 infants with plasma viral suppression on cART, HIV DNA half-life was 28 days. However, the probability of maintenance of plasma aviraemia was low (0.46 at 12 months) and not influenced by HIV DNA load. Unexpectedly, longer time to viral suppression was associated with protection against subsequent viral rebound. CONCLUSIONS: With effective prophylaxis against mother-to-child transmission, cART initiation timing in the first 3 weeks of life is not critical to reservoir size

Urinary MicroRNA Profiling in the Nephropathy of Type 1 Diabetes

Background: Patients with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) are particularly vulnerable to development of Diabetic nephropathy (DN) leading to End Stage Renal Disease. Hence a better understanding of the factors affecting kidney disease progression in T1D is urgently needed. In recent years microRNAs have emerged as important post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression in many different health conditions. We hypothesized that urinary microRNA profile of patients will differ in the different stages of diabetic renal disease. Methods and Findings: We studied urine microRNA profiles with qPCR in 40 T1D with >20 year follow up 10 who never developed renal disease (N) matched against 10 patients who went on to develop overt nephropathy (DN), 10 patients with intermittent microalbuminuria (IMA) matched against 10 patients with persistent (PMA) microalbuminuria. A Bayesian procedure was used to normalize and convert raw signals to expression ratios. We applied formal statistical techniques to translate fold changes to profiles of microRNA targets which were then used to make inferences about biological pathways in the Gene Ontology and REACTOME structured vocabularies. A total of 27 microRNAs were found to be present at significantly different levels in different stages of untreated nephropathy. These microRNAs mapped to overlapping pathways pertaining to growth factor signaling and renal fibrosis known to be targeted in diabetic kidney disease. Conclusions: Urinary microRNA profiles differ across the different stages of diabetic nephropathy. Previous work using experimental, clinical chemistry or biopsy samples has demonstrated differential expression of many of these microRNAs in a variety of chronic renal conditions and diabetes. Combining expression ratios of microRNAs with formal inferences about their predicted mRNA targets and associated biological pathways may yield useful markers for early diagnosis and risk stratification of DN in T1D by inferring the alteration of renal molecular processes. © 2013 Argyropoulos et al