A bacterial gene-drive system efficiently edits and inactivates a high copy number antibiotic resistance locus.

Gene-drive systems in diploid organisms bias the inheritance of one allele over another. CRISPR-based gene-drive expresses a guide RNA (gRNA) into the genome at the site where the gRNA directs Cas9-mediated cleavage. In the presence of Cas9, the gRNA cassette and any linked cargo sequences are copied via homology-directed repair (HDR) onto the homologous chromosome. Here, we develop an analogous CRISPR-based gene-drive system for the bacterium Escherichia coli that efficiently copies a gRNA cassette and adjacent cargo flanked with sequences homologous to the targeted gRNA/Cas9 cleavage site. This "pro-active" genetic system (Pro-AG) functionally inactivates an antibiotic resistance marker on a high copy number plasmid with ~ 100-fold greater efficiency than control CRISPR-based methods, suggesting an amplifying positive feedback loop due to increasing gRNA dosage. Pro-AG can likewise effectively edit large plasmids or single-copy genomic targets or introduce functional genes, foreshadowing potential applications to biotechnology or biomedicine

The nucleon-nucleon potential beyond the static approximation

We point out that, due to the use of static nucleon propagators in Heavy Baryon Chiral Perturbation Theory, the current calculations of the nucleon-nucleon potential miss certain contributions starting at two loops. These contributions give rise to contact interactions, which are both parametrically and numerically more important than the so called NNLO potentials. They show a peculiar dependence on the light quark masses, which should be taken into account when performing chiral extrapolations of lattice data. However, they do not appear to have an impact on phenomenology since they can be absorbed into redefinitions of unknown parameters which are usually fitted to data.Comment: 20 pages. Misprints corrected, explanations and references added. Journal version. Corrected misprints in formulas 30,31 and 32 in Journal versio

Long-distance structure of the X(3872)

We investigate heavy quark symmetries for heavy meson hadronic molecules, and explore the consequences of assuming the X(3872) and $Z_b(10610)$ as an isoscalar $D\bar D^*$ and an isovector $B\bar B^*$ hadronic molecules, respectively. The symmetry allows to predict new hadronic molecules, in particular we find an isoscalar $1^{++}$ $B\bar B^*$ bound state with a mass about 10580 MeV and the isovector charmonium partners of the $Z_b(10610)$ and the $Z_b(10650)$ states. Next, we study the $X(3872) \to D^0 \bar D^0\pi^0$ three body decay. This decay mode is more sensitive to the long-distance structure of the X(3872) resonance than its $J/\psi\pi\pi$ and $J/\psi3\pi$ decays, which are mainly controlled by the short distance part of the X(3872) molecular wave function. We discuss the $D^0 \bar D^0$ final state interactions, which in some situations become quite important. Indeed in these cases, a precise measurement of this partial decay width could provide precise information on the interaction strength between the $D^{(*)}\bar D^{(*)}$ charm mesons.Comment: Talk presented at the "XI International Conference on Hyperons, Charm and Beauty Hadrons (BEACH 2014)", Birmingham (U.K.), July 201

The Heavy Quark Spin Symmetry Partners of the X(3872)

We explore the consequences of heavy quark spin symmetry for the charmed meson-antimeson system in a contact-range (or pionless) effective field theory. As a trivial consequence, we theorize the existence of a heavy quark spin symmetry partner of the X(3872), with $J^{PC}=2^{++}$, which we call X(4012) in reference to its predicted mass. If we additionally assume that the X(3915) is a $0^{++}$ heavy spin symmetry partner of the X(3872), we end up predicting a total of six $D^{(*)}\bar{D}^{(*)}$ molecular states. We also discuss the error induced by higher order effects such as finite heavy quark mass corrections, pion exchanges and coupled channels, allowing us to estimate the expected theoretical uncertainties in the position of these new states.Comment: 18 pages; final version accepted for publicatio

Renormalization of the Deuteron with One Pion Exchange

We analyze the deuteron bound state through the One Pion Exchange Potential. We pay attention to the short distance peculiar singularity structure of the bound state wave functions in coordinate space and the elimination of short distance ambiguities by selecting the regular solution at the origin. We determine the so far elusive amplitude of the converging exponential solutions at the origin. All bound state deuteron properties can then be uniquely deduced from the deuteron binding energy, the pion-nucleon coupling constant and pion mass. This generates correlations among deuteron properties. Scattering phase shifts and low energy parameters in the 3S1-3D1 channel are constructed by requiring orthogonality of the positive energy states to the deuteron bound state, yielding an energy independent combination of boundary conditions. We also analyze from the viewpoint of short distance boundary conditions the weak binding regime on the light of long distance perturbation theory and discuss the approach to the chiral limit.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figure

Kohn-Sham calculations combined with an average pair-density functional theory

A recently developed formalism in which Kohn-Sham calculations are combined with an ``average pair density functional theory'' is reviewed, and some new properties of the effective electron-electron interaction entering in this formalism are derived. A preliminary construction of a fully self-consitent scheme is also presented in this framework.Comment: submitted to Int. J. Mod. Phys. B (proceedings of the 30th International Workshop on Condensed Matter Theories

Renormalization of chiral two pion exchange NN interactions with delta excitations: correlations in the partial wave expansion

In this work we consider the renormalization of the chiral two-pion exchange potential with explicit delta-excitations for nucleon-nucleon scattering at next-to-leading (NLO) and next-to-next-to-leading order (N2LO). Due to the singular nature of the chiral potentials, correlations between different partial waves are generated. In particular we show that two-body scattering by a short distance power like singular attractive interaction can be renormalized in all partial waves with a single counterterm, provided the singularities are identical. A parallel statement holds in the presence of tensor interactions when the eigenpotentials in the coupled channel problem also coincide. While this construction reduces the total number of counterterms to eleven in the case of nucleon-nucleon scattering with chiral two-pion exchange interactions with delta degrees of freedom, the differences in the scattering phases as compared to the case with the uncorrelated partial wave renormalization become smaller as the angular momentum is increased in the elastic scattering region.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, a section has been added discussing cut-off dependence. Accepted for publication in PR

Un procedimiento para obtener clusters utilizando la D.V.S. de una matriz. Comparaciones con el biplot y con el modelo Q-factorial

Durante las últimas décadas, el análisis de un conjunto de n individuos medidos en p variables, proporcionando una matriz de datos Xn,p, mediante técnicas de representación que utilizan la Descomposición en Valores Singulares de la matriz Xn,p (o alguna derivada), han permitido resumir la información que aportan los datos en alguna forma óptima, siendo muy útil para indicar la presencia de clusters entre los n individuos y/o para prevenir ante posibles clasificaciones erróneas producidas por técnicas de agrupamiento más complejas. En este artículo estudiaremos un procedimiento que puede utilizarse en ocasiones para obtener clasificaciones naturales de un conjunto de datos, basado en la representación biplot y en el modelo Q-factorial que puede obtenerse a partir de la DVS

Renormalization of NN Interaction with Relativistic Chiral Two Pion Exchange

The renormalization of the NN interaction with the Chiral Two Pion Exchange Potential computed using relativistic baryon chiral perturbation theory is considered. The short distance singularity reduces the number of counter-terms to about a half as those in the heavy-baryon expansion. Phase shifts and deuteron properties are evaluated and a general overall agreement is observed.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures. Reference included. Typos corrected. Appendix and discussion adde

Nucleon-Nucleon interaction, charge symmetry breaking and renormalization

We study the interplay between charge symmetry breaking and renormalization in the NN system for s-waves. We find a set of universality relations which disentangle explicitly the known long distance dynamics from low energy parameters and extend them to the Coulomb case. We analyze within such an approach the One-Boson-Exchange potential and the theoretical conditions which allow to relate the proton-neutron, proton-proton and neutron-neutron scattering observables without the introduction of extra new parameters and providing good phenomenological success.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure