6,974 research outputs found
Neutrino phenomenology and stable dark matter with A4
We present a model based on the A4 non-abelian discrete symmetry leading to a
predictive five-parameter neutrino mass matrix and providing a stable dark
matter candidate. We found an interesting correlation among the atmospheric and
the reactor angles which predicts theta_23 ~ pi/4 for very small reactor angle
and deviation from maximal atmospheric mixing for large theta_13. Only normal
neutrino mass spectrum is possible and the effective mass entering the
neutrinoless double beta decay rate is constrained to be |m_ee| > 4 10^{-4} eV.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, minor changes to match the version to appear in
PL
Fritzsch neutrino mass matrix from S3 symmetry
We present an extension of the Standard Model (SM) based on the discrete
flavor symmetry S3 which gives a neutrino mass matrix with two-zero texture of
Fritzsch-type and nearly diagonal charged lepton mass matrix. The model is
compatible with the normal hierarchy only and predicts the sine squared of the
reactor angle to be 0.01 at the best fit values of solar and atmospheric
parameters and maximal leptonic CP violation.Comment: 14 pages and 3 figures. Final version to appear in J. Phys
Discrete-time Markov chain approach to contact-based disease spreading in complex networks
Many epidemic processes in networks spread by stochastic contacts among their
connected vertices. There are two limiting cases widely analyzed in the physics
literature, the so-called contact process (CP) where the contagion is expanded
at a certain rate from an infected vertex to one neighbor at a time, and the
reactive process (RP) in which an infected individual effectively contacts all
its neighbors to expand the epidemics. However, a more realistic scenario is
obtained from the interpolation between these two cases, considering a certain
number of stochastic contacts per unit time. Here we propose a discrete-time
formulation of the problem of contact-based epidemic spreading. We resolve a
family of models, parameterized by the number of stochastic contact trials per
unit time, that range from the CP to the RP. In contrast to the common
heterogeneous mean-field approach, we focus on the probability of infection of
individual nodes. Using this formulation, we can construct the whole phase
diagram of the different infection models and determine their critical
properties.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Europhys Lett (in press 2010
Finite Symmetry of Leptonic Mass Matrices
We search for possible symmetries present in the leptonic mixing data from
SU(3) subgroups of order up to 511. Theoretical results based on symmetry are
compared with global fits of experimental data in a chi-squared analysis,
yielding the following results. There is no longer a group that can produce all
the mixing data without a free parameter, but a number of them can accommodate
the first or the second column of the mixing matrix. The only group that fits
the third column is . It predicts and
, in good agreement with experimental results.Comment: Version to appear in Physical Review
Mitochondria and neuroprotection in stroke: Cationic arginine-rich peptides (CARPs) as a novel class of mitochondria-targeted neuroprotective therapeutics
Stroke is the second leading cause of death globally and represents a major cause of devastating long-term disability. Despite sustained efforts to develop clinically effective neuroprotective therapies, presently there is no clinically available neuroprotective agent for stroke. As a central mediator of neurodamaging events in stroke, mitochondria are recognised as a critical neuroprotective target, and as such, provide a focus for developing mitochondrial-targeted therapeutics. In recent years, cationic arginine-rich peptides (CARPs) have been identified as a novel class of neuroprotective agent with several demonstrated mechanisms of action, including their ability to target mitochondria and exert positive effects on the organelle. This review provides an overview on neuronal mitochondrial dysfunction in ischaemic stroke pathophysiology and highlights the potential beneficial effects of CARPs on mitochondria in the ischaemic brain following stroke
Human mobility networks and persistence of rapidly mutating pathogens
Rapidly mutating pathogens may be able to persist in the population and reach
an endemic equilibrium by escaping hosts' acquired immunity. For such diseases,
multiple biological, environmental and population-level mechanisms determine
the dynamics of the outbreak, including pathogen's epidemiological traits (e.g.
transmissibility, infectious period and duration of immunity), seasonality,
interaction with other circulating strains and hosts' mixing and spatial
fragmentation. Here, we study a susceptible-infected-recovered-susceptible
model on a metapopulation where individuals are distributed in subpopulations
connected via a network of mobility flows. Through extensive numerical
simulations, we explore the phase space of pathogen's persistence and map the
dynamical regimes of the pathogen following emergence. Our results show that
spatial fragmentation and mobility play a key role in the persistence of the
disease whose maximum is reached at intermediate mobility values. We describe
the occurrence of different phenomena including local extinction and emergence
of epidemic waves, and assess the conditions for large scale spreading.
Findings are highlighted in reference to previous works and to real scenarios.
Our work uncovers the crucial role of hosts' mobility on the ecological
dynamics of rapidly mutating pathogens, opening the path for further studies on
disease ecology in the presence of a complex and heterogeneous environment.Comment: 29 pages, 7 figures. Submitted for publicatio
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