3,677 research outputs found
Identification of Giardia lamblia DHHC Proteins and the Role of Protein S-palmitoylation in the Encystation Process
Protein S-palmitoylation, a hydrophobic post-translational modification, is performed by protein acyltransferases that have a common DHHC Cys-rich domain (DHHC proteins), and provides a regulatory switch for protein membrane association. In this work, we analyzed the presence of DHHC proteins in the protozoa parasite Giardia lamblia and the function of the reversible S-palmitoylation of proteins during parasite differentiation into cyst. Two specific events were observed: encysting cells displayed a larger amount of palmitoylated proteins, and parasites treated with palmitoylation inhibitors produced a reduced number of mature cysts. With bioinformatics tools, we found nine DHHC proteins, potential protein acyltransferases, in the Giardia proteome. These proteins displayed a conserved structure when compared to different organisms and are distributed in different monophyletic clades. Although all Giardia DHHC proteins were found to be present in trophozoites and encysting cells, these proteins showed a different intracellular localization in trophozoites and seemed to be differently involved in the encystation process when they were overexpressed. dhhc transgenic parasites showed a different pattern of cyst wall protein expression and yielded different amounts of mature cysts when they were induced to encyst. Our findings disclosed some important issues regarding the role of DHHC proteins and palmitoylation during Giardia encystation.Fil: Merino, Maria Cecilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra; ArgentinaFil: Zamponi, Nahuel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra; ArgentinaFil: Vranych, Cecilia Verónica. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra; ArgentinaFil: Touz, Maria Carolina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra; ArgentinaFil: Ropolo, Andrea Silvana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra; Argentin
Dietary patterns are associated with lung function among Spanish smokers without respiratory disease
Measurement of the Lifetime Difference Between B_s Mass Eigenstates
We present measurements of the lifetimes and polarization amplitudes for B_s
--> J/psi phi and B_d --> J/psi K*0 decays. Lifetimes of the heavy (H) and
light (L) mass eigenstates in the B_s system are separately measured for the
first time by determining the relative contributions of amplitudes with
definite CP as a function of the decay time. Using 203 +/- 15 B_s decays, we
obtain tau_L = (1.05 +{0.16}/-{0.13} +/- 0.02) ps and tau_H = (2.07
+{0.58}/-{0.46} +/- 0.03) ps. Expressed in terms of the difference DeltaGamma_s
and average Gamma_s, of the decay rates of the two eigenstates, the results are
DeltaGamma_s/Gamma_s = (65 +{25}/-{33} +/- 1)%, and DeltaGamma_s = (0.47
+{0.19}/-{0.24} +/- 0.01) inverse ps.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables; as published in Physical Review Letters
on 16 March 2005; revisions are for length and typesetting only, no changes
in results or conclusion
Measurement of and Production in Collisions at = 1.96 TeV
The Standard Model predictions for and production are
tested using an integrated luminosity of 200 pb of \ppbar collision data
collected at the Collider Detector at Fermilab. The cross sections are measured
selecting leptonic decays of the and bosons, and photons with
transverse energy GeV that are well separated from leptons. The
production cross sections and kinematic distributions for the and
are compared to SM predictions.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR
Measurement of the Helicity Fractions of W Bosons from Top Quark Decays Using Fully Reconstructed top-antitop Events with CDF II
We present a measurement of the fractions F_0 and F_+ of longitudinally
polarized and right-handed W bosons in top quark decays using data collected
with the CDF II detector. The data set used in the analysis corresponds to an
integrated luminosity of approximately 318 pb -1. We select ttbar candidate
events with one lepton, at least four jets, and missing transverse energy. Our
helicity measurement uses the decay angle theta*, which is defined as the angle
between the momentum of the charged lepton in the W boson rest frame and the W
momentum in the top quark rest frame. The cos(theta*) distribution in the data
is determined by full kinematic reconstruction of the ttbar candidates. We find
F_0 = 0.85 +0.15 -0.22 (stat) +- 0.06 (syst) and F_+ = 0.05 +0.11 -0.05 (stat)
+- 0.03 (syst), which is consistent with the standard model prediction. We set
an upper limit on the fraction of right-handed W bosons of F_+ < 0.26 at the
95% confidence level.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Search for the Higgs boson in events with missing transverse energy and b quark jets produced in proton-antiproton collisions at s**(1/2)=1.96 TeV
We search for the standard model Higgs boson produced in association with an
electroweak vector boson in events with no identified charged leptons, large
imbalance in transverse momentum, and two jets where at least one contains a
secondary vertex consistent with the decay of b hadrons. We use ~1 fb-1
integrated luminosity of proton-antiproton collisions at s**(1/2)=1.96 TeV
recorded by the CDF II experiment at the Tevatron. We find 268 (16) single
(double) b-tagged candidate events, where 248 +/- 43 (14.4 +/- 2.7) are
expected from standard model background processes. We place 95% confidence
level upper limits on the Higgs boson production cross section for several
Higgs boson masses ranging from 110 GeV/c2 to 140 GeV/c2. For a mass of 115
GeV/c2 the observed (expected) limit is 20.4 (14.2) times the standard model
prediction.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Observation and Mass Measurement of the Baryon
We report the observation and measurement of the mass of the bottom, strange
baryon through the decay chain , where
, , and .
Evidence for observation is based on a signal whose probability of arising from
the estimated background is 6.6 x 10^{-15}, or 7.7 Gaussian standard
deviations. The mass is measured to be (stat.) (syst.) MeV/.Comment: Minor text changes for the second version. Accepted by Phys. Rev.
Let
Polarizations of J/psi and psi(2S) Mesons Produced in ppbar Collisions at 1.96 TeV
We have measured the polarizations of \jpsi and \psiprime mesons as
functions of their transverse momentum \pt when they are produced promptly in
the rapidity range with \pt \geq 5 \pgev. The analysis is performed
using a data sample with an integrated luminosity of about 800 \ipb collected
by the CDF II detector. For both vector mesons, we find that the polarizations
become increasingly longitudinal as \pt increases from 5 to 30 \pgev. These
results are compared to the predictions of nonrelativistic quantum
chromodynamics and other contemporary models. The effective polarizations of
\jpsi and \psiprime mesons from -hadron decays are also reported.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, published in Physical Review Letter
Searches for Direct Pair Production of Supersymmetric Top and Supersymmetric Bottom Quarks in p-pbar Collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV
We search for direct pair production of supersymmetric top quarks and
supersymmetric bottom quarks in proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96
TeV, using 295 pb^-1 of data recorded by the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF
II) experiment. The supersymmetric top (supersymmetric bottom) quarks are
selected by reconstructing their decay into a charm (bottom) quark and a
neutralino, which is assumed to be the lightest supersymmetric particle. The
signature of such processes is two energetic heavy-flavor jets and missing
transverse energy. The number of events that pass our selection for each search
process is consistent with the expected standard model background. By comparing
our results to the theoretical production cross sections of the supersymmetric
top and supersymmetric bottom quarks in the minimal supersymmetric standard
model, we exclude, at a 95% confidence level in the frame of that model, a
supersymmetric top quark mass up to 132 GeV/c^2 for a neutralino mass of 48
GeV/c^2, and a supersymmetric bottom quark mass up to 193 GeV/c^2 for a
neutralino mass of 40 GeV/c^2.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
First Measurement of the W Boson Mass in Run II of the Tevatron
We present a measurement of the W boson mass using 200/pb of data collected
in pbar p collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV by the CDF II detector at Run II of
the Fermilab Tevatron. With a sample of 63964 W -> e nu candidates and 51128 W
-> mu nu candidates, we measure M_W = (80413 +- 34 (stat) +- 34 (syst) = 80413
+- 48) MeV/c^2. This is the most precise single measurement of the W boson mass
to date.Comment: published version in PR
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