Gravitational Contributions to the Running Yang-Mills Coupling in Large Extra-Dimensional Brane Worlds

We study the question of a modification of the running gauge coupling of Yang-Mills theories due to quantum gravitational effects in a compact large extra dimensional brane world scenario with a low energy quantum gravity scale. The ADD scenario is applied for a D=d+\delta dimensional space-time in which gravitons freely propagate, whereas the non-abelian gauge fields are confined to a d-dimensional brane. The extra dimensions are taken to be toroidal and the transverse fluctuation modes (branons) of the brane are taken into account. On this basis we have calculated the one-loop corrections due to virtual Kaluza-Klein graviton and branon modes for the gluon two- and three-point functions in an effective field theory treatment. Applying momentum cut-off regularization we find that for a d=4 brane the leading gravitational divergencies cancel irrespective of the number of extra dimensions \delta, generalizing previous results in the absence of extra-dimensions. Hence, again the Yang-Mills \beta-function receives no gravitational corrections at one-loop. This is no longer true in a `universal' extra dimensional scenario with a d>4 dimensional brane. Moreover, the subleading power-law gravitational divergencies induce higher-dimensional counterterms, which we establish in our scheme. Interestingly, for d=4 these gravitationally induced counterterms are of the form recently considered in non-abelian Lee-Wick extensions of the standard model -- now with a possible mass scale in the TeV range due to the presence of large extra dimensions.Comment: Version to be published in JHEP; 16 pages, 3 figures; v3: references update

Absence of gravitational contributions to the running Yang-Mills coupling

The question of a modification of the running gauge coupling of (non-) abelian gauge theories by an incorporation of the quantum gravity contribution has recently attracted considerable interest. In this letter we perform an involved diagrammatical calculation in the full Einstein-Yang-Mills system both in cut-off and dimensional regularization at one loop order. It is found that all gravitational quadratic divergencies cancel in cut-off regularization and are trivially absent in dimensional regularization so that there is no alteration to asymptotic freedom at high energies. The logarithmic divergencies give rise to an extended effective Einstein-Yang-Mills Lagrangian with a counterterm of dimension six. In the pure Yang-Mills sector this counterterm can be removed by a nonlinear field redefinition of the gauge potential, reproducing a classical result of Deser, Tsao and van Nieuwenhuizen obtained in the background field method with dimensional regularization.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, uses revtex and feynmf. v2: references adde

Plasma calcitonin gene‐related peptide (CGRP) in migraine and endometriosis during the menstrual cycle

Objective: Migraine, endometriosis, and the comorbidity of both are frequent pain disorders of special relevance for women. The neuropeptide calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) is critically involved in migraine, and circumstantial evidence suggests a role in endometriosis. We assessed CGRP levels at different times of menstrual cycle in four groups: healthy women, women with migraine or endometriosis and with the comorbidity of both. Methods: Women with episodic migraine and women with a histologically confirmed endometriosis were recruited from specialized centers. For CGRP determination with a commercial enzyme immunoassay kit, cubital vein blood samples were collected on menstrual cycle day 2 ± 2 (during menstruation) and on day 15 ± 2 (periovulatory period). The primary endpoint of the study was the absolute difference of CGRP plasma levels between the menstrual and the periovulatory phase of all study groups. Groups were compared using nonparametric test procedures. Results: A total of 124 women were included in the study. The change of CGRP plasma levels between menstruation and the periovulatory period was different between groups (p = 0.007). Women with comorbid migraine and endometriosis showed an increase of CGRP in the menstrual phase of +6.32 (interquartile range, IQR −3.64–13.60) compared to the periovulatory time, while healthy controls had a decrease of −10.14 (−22.54–0.91, p = 0.004). CGRP levels were different in the periovulatory phase among groups (p = 0.008), with highest values in healthy controls. Interpretation: CGRP levels change significantly during the menstrual cycle. Different patterns in women with the comorbidity point to a deviant regulation of CGRP release

A Biomedically Enriched Collection of 7000 Human ORF Clones

We report the production and availability of over 7000 fully sequence verified plasmid ORF clones representing over 3400 unique human genes. These ORF clones were derived using the human MGC collection as template and were produced in two formats: with and without stop codons. Thus, this collection supports the production of either native protein or proteins with fusion tags added to either or both ends. The template clones used to generate this collection were enriched in three ways. First, gene redundancy was removed. Second, clones were selected to represent the best available GenBank reference sequence. Finally, a literature-based software tool was used to evaluate the list of target genes to ensure that it broadly reflected biomedical research interests. The target gene list was compared with 4000 human diseases and over 8500 biological and chemical MeSH classes in ∼15 Million publications recorded in PubMed at the time of analysis. The outcome of this analysis revealed that relative to the genome and the MGC collection, this collection is enriched for the presence of genes with published associations with a wide range of diseases and biomedical terms without displaying a particular bias towards any single disease or concept. Thus, this collection is likely to be a powerful resource for researchers who wish to study protein function in a set of genes with documented biomedical significance

PEGIDA in den Köpfen – Wie rechtspopulistisch ist Deutschland?

Küpper B, Zick A, Krause D. PEGIDA in den Köpfen – Wie rechtspopulistisch ist Deutschland? In: Zick A, Küpper B, Hg. für die Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung von Ralf Melzer und Dietmar Molthagen, eds. Wut, Verachtung und Abwertung: Rechtspopulismus in Deutschland. Bonn: Dietz; 2015: 21-43

Zwischen Wut und Druck: Rechtspopulistische Einstellungen in der Mitte

Krause D, Küpper B, Zick A. Zwischen Wut und Druck: Rechtspopulistische Einstellungen in der Mitte. In: Zick A, Küpper B, Hg. für die Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung von Ralf Melzer und Dietmar Molthagen, eds. Wut, Verachtung und Abwertung: Rechtspopulismus in Deutschland. Bonn: Dietz; 2015: 44-60

Der Osten erhebt die feindselige Stimme?

Zick A, Krause D, Küpper B. Der Osten erhebt die feindselige Stimme? In: Zick A, Küpper B, Hg. für die Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung von Ralf Melzer und Dietmar Molthagen, eds. Wut, Verachtung und Abwertung: Rechtspopulismus in Deutschland. Bonn: Dietz; 2015: 61-77