pinecone/core-2020-05-10-deduplication huggingface dataset:
Search for R-parity violating decays of a top squark in proton–proton collisions at s=8 TeV

AbstractThe results of a search for a supersymmetric partner of the top quark (top squark), pair-produced in proton–proton collisions at s=8 TeV, are presented. The search, which focuses on R-parity violating, chargino-mediated decays of the top squark, is performed in final states with low missing transverse momentum, two oppositely charged electrons or muons, and at least five jets. The analysis uses a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb−1 collected with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2012. The data are found to be in agreement with the standard model expectation, and upper limits are placed on the top squark pair production cross section at 95% confidence level. Assuming a 100% branching fraction for the top squark decay chain, t˜→tχ˜1±,χ˜1±→ℓ±+jj, top squark masses less than 890 (1000) GeV for the electron (muon) channel are excluded for the first time in models with a single nonzero R-parity violating coupling λijk′ (i,j,k≤2), where i,j,k correspond to the three generations
Comment on form-factor shape and extraction of |Vub| from B→πlν

AbstractWe point out that current experimental data for partial B→πlν branching fractions reduce the theoretical input required for a precise extraction of |Vub| to the form-factor normalization at a single value of the pion energy. We show that the heavy-quark expansion provides a bound on the form-factor shape that is orders of magnitude more stringent than conventional unitarity bounds. We find |Vub|=(3.7±0.2±0.1)×[0.8/F+(16 GeV2)]. The first error is from the experimental branching fractions, and the second is a conservative bound on the residual form-factor shape uncertainty, both of which will improve with additional data. Together with current and future lattice determinations of the form-factor normalization this result gives an accurate, model independent determination of |Vub|. We further extract semileptonic shape observables such as |VubF+(0)|=0.92±0.11±0.03 and show how these observables can be used to test factorization and to determine low-energy parameters in hadronic B decays
Predicting the Evolution of two Genes in the Yeast Saccharomyces Cerevisiae

AbstractSince the late ‘60s, various genome evolutionary models have been proposed to predict the evolution of a DNA sequence as the generations pass. Essentially, two main categories of such models can be found in the literature. The first one, based on nucleotides evolution, uses a mutation matrix of size 4×4. It encompasses for instance the well-known models of Jukes and Cantor, Kimura, and Tamura. In the second category, exclusively studied by Bahi and Michel, the evolution of trinucleotides is studied through a matrix of size 64×64. By essence, all of these models relate the evolution of DNA sequences to the computation of the successive powers of a mutation matrix. To make this computation possible, particular forms for the mu-tation matrix are assumed, which are not compatible with mutation rates that have been recently obtained experimentally on two genes of the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Using this experimental study, authors of this paper have deduced two simple mutation matrices, compute the future evolution of the rate purine/pyrimidine for two genes of this yeast, investigate the particular behavior of cytosines and thymines compared to purines, and simulate the evolution of each nucleotide for the two genes under interest
Articulating an Indian diaspora in South Africa: The Consulate General of India, diaspora associations and practices of collaboration

AbstractEngagements between sending states and their diasporas have come under increasing critical scrutiny. Whilst political geographers have driven critical analysis of national level policies, debates have largely overlooked the broader range of actors, transactions and practices involved in implementing national policies in a geohistorically diverse array of diasporic contexts and settings. Over the last decade, the Indian government has invested significant resources in overseas diplomatic missions, consulates and high commissions to administer its diaspora outreach strategies. This paper examines the role of the Consulate General of India (CGI) in Durban, South Africa, focusing in particular on the networks of agents, associations, groups and political actors involved in collaborating with the CGI Durban in diaspora outreach practices. This paper draws on two periods of fieldwork in Durban between 2004 and 2005 and was supplemented by ongoing visual and textual analysis of news articles, promotional material, reports and websites. Using the concept of articulation, the paper highlights the discursive and performative practices involved in bringing together the agendas of the GOI with those of South African Indian diaspora associations through the outreach practices of the CGI in Durban. It argues that articulatory practices are essential to resolving some of the subjective and embodied dilemmas and contestations of belonging inherent in South African Indians’ participation in diaspora outreach initiatives. Investigating how articulation contributes to drawing diverse and even competing agendas together makes room for further understanding the ways in which diaspora outreach practices can travel across a wide network, and the diverse agencies that can become catalysed in the process
“Living on the edge”: The role of field margins for common vole (Microtus arvalis) populations in recently colonised Mediterranean farmland

AbstractSmall rodents are common inhabitants of farmlands where they play key ecosystem roles but can also be major pests when overabundant, causing crop damages and significant economic losses. Agricultural landscapes are characterised by high fragmentation with remnant semi-natural habitats being typically restricted to narrow field margins. These linear habitats are key to maintaining local biodiversity, but can also harbour “irruptive pest” species, such as voles. The common vole Microtus arvalis, is a main vertebrate pest in continental European farmlands, and recently invaded the inland Mediterranean agricultural landscapes of NW Spain, where regular crop-damaging outbreaks now occur. Knowing how reliant common voles are on field margins in Mediterranean agricultural landscapes would be an important step forward for more targeted management. Here we report on common vole habitat use in Mediterranean European farmland and compare them with those found in northern latitudes, thus seeking for both general patterns as well as geographical differences. We conducted seasonal trappings over 6-years in the main habitats (cereal and alfalfa crops, fallows, and their margins). We show a strong edge effect, in the form of an exponential decay in vole abundance from the margin towards the inside of fields, and vole abundances 2.3 times higher in margins that inside fields. The magnitude of this edge effect varied depending on crop type, season and vole abundance (density-dependence). Cereal crops were characterised by a stronger edge effect than alfalfas or fallows (with abundance 8–10 times higher in margins than in fields during spring and autumn). Cereals appeared as the least optimal habitat for common voles, with important spill-over of voles inside the fields in summer when densities increased. Field margins, where vegetation characteristics hardly change seasonally, provide a limited (5% of the agricultural surface) but stable habitat and key refuge for common voles in Mediterranean farmlands. Our results suggest that targeting management actions in the field margins of cereal crops during spring and autumn and inside alfalfa fields during population increases should be considered in integrated control schemes of crop-damaging common vole outbreaks
Effects of CO2 on Wet Torrefaction of Biomass

AbstractEffects of CO2 on the yield and fuel properties of the solid product obtained from wet torrefaction of biomass were experimentally investigated. Norwegian forest residues were used as feedstock. CO2 and N2 were employed as purge gas, separately. The results show that, compared with wet torrefaction in N2, the process in CO2 is taking place faster, producing 4.6-6.0% less solid product with lower heating value in identical condition. A reduction of 6.5kWh/t in SGE and an increase of up to 1.4% in EMC were observed for the solid product obtained from WT in CO2 compared with that in N2. In addition, CO2 enhances the capacity of wet torrefaction to remove ash elements from solid biomass fuels
Toward the rectilinear crossing number of Kn: new drawings, upper bounds, and asymptotics

AbstractScheinerman and Wilf (Amer. Math. Monthly 101 (1994) 939) assert that “an important open problem in the study of graph embeddings is to determine the rectilinear crossing number of the complete graph Kn”. A rectilinear drawing of Kn is an arrangement of n vertices in the plane, every pair of which is connected by an edge that is a line segment. We assume that no three vertices are collinear, and that no three edges intersect in a point unless that point is an endpoint of all three. The rectilinear crossing number of Kn is the fewest number of edge crossings attainable over all rectilinear drawings of Kn. For each n we construct a rectilinear drawing of Kn that has the fewest number of edge crossings and the best asymptotics known to date. Moreover, we give some alternative infinite families of drawings of Kn with good asymptotics. Finally, we mention some old and new open problems
Next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the Z boson pair production at the LHC in Randall–Sundrum model

AbstractThe first results on next-to-leading order QCD corrections to production of two Z bosons in hadronic collisions in the extra dimension model of Randall and Sundrum are presented. Various kinematical distributions are obtained to order αs in QCD by taking into account all the parton level subprocesses. We estimate the impact of the QCD corrections on various observables and find that they are significant. We also show the reduction in factorization scale uncertainty when O(αs) effects are included
Measurements and Analysis of Cavitation in a Pressure Reducing Valve During Operation – a Case Study

AbstractThis paper proposes a methodology and presents its practical application for evaluating whether a pressure reducing valve (PRV) is under cavitation during its operation in a water distribution system. The approach is based on collecting measurements over a 24-hour period such that high demand and low demand times are included. The collected measurements allow evaluation of four indicators related to cavitation, namely the hydraulic cavitation index, noise generated by the valve, acoustic cavitation index and the spectra of the noise. These four indicators provide sufficient information for diagnosis of cavitation with high certainty
Non(anti)commutativity for open superstrings

AbstractNon(anti)commutativity in an open free superstring and also one moving in a background antisymmetric tensor field is investigated. In both cases, the non(anti)commutativity is shown to be a direct consequence of the nontrivial boundary conditions which, contrary to several approaches, are not treated as constraints. The above non(anti)commutative structures lead to new results in the algebra of superconstraints which still remain involutive, indicating the internal consistency of our analysis
Generalized Lagrangian dynamics of physical and non-physical systems

AbstractIn this paper, we show how to study the evolution of a complex system, given imprecise knowledge about the state of the system and the dynamics laws. It will be shown that dynamics of these systems is equivalent to Lagrangian (or Hamiltonian) mechanics in a n+1-dimensional space, where n is a system’s dimensionality. In some cases, however, the corresponding Lagrangian is more general than the usual one and could depend on the action. In this case, Lagrange’s equations gain a non-zero right side proportional to the derivative of the Lagrangian with respect to the action. Examples of such systems are unstable systems, systems with dissipation and systems which can remember their history. Moreover, in certain situations, the Lagrangian could be a set-valued function. The corresponding equations of motion then become differential inclusions instead of differential equations. We will also show that the principal of least action is a consequence of the causality principle and the local topology of the state space and not an independent axiom of classical mechanics.We emphasize that our adaptation of Lagrangian mechanics does not use or depend on specific properties of the physical system being modeled. Therefore, this Lagrangian approach may be equally applied to non-physical systems. An example of such an application is presented as well
Caveolae-mediated endocytosis of the glucosaminoglycan-interacting adipokine tartrate resistant acid phosphatase 5a in adipocyte progenitor lineage cells

AbstractAdipogenesis depends on growth factors controlling proliferation/differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Membrane binding and endocytosis of growth factors are often coupled to receptor activation and downstream signaling leading to specific cellular responses. The novel adipokine tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) 5a exhibits a growth factor-like effect on MSCs and pre-adipocytes and induces hyperplastic obesity in vivo. However its molecular interaction with pre-adipocytes remains unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate membrane interaction of TRAP and its endocytosis routes in pre-adipocytes. Confocal and/or electron microscopy were used to detect TRAP in untreated or TRAP 5a/b treated pre-adipocytes under conditions that allow or inhibit endocytosis in combination with co-staining of endocytotic vesicles. TRAP interaction with heparin/heparan sulfate was verified by gel filtration. It could be shown that TRAP 5a, but not 5b, binds to the membrane of pre-adipocytes where it co-localizes with heparin-sulfate proteoglycan glypican-4. Also in vitro, TRAP 5a exhibited affinity for both heparin and heparan sulfate with heparin inhibiting its enzyme activity. Upon caveolae-mediated endocytosis of saturating levels of TRAP 5a, TRAP 5a co-localized intracellularly with glypican-4 and late endosomal marker Rab-7 positive vesicles. The protein was also located in multivesicular bodies (MVBs) but did not co-localize with lysosomal marker LAMP-1. TRAP 5a endocytosis was also detectable in pre-osteoblasts, but not fibroblasts, embryonic MSCs or mature adipocytes. These results indicate that TRAP 5a exhibits binding to cell surface, endocytosis and affinity to glucosaminoglycans (GAGs) in pre-adipocyte and pre-osteoblast lineage cells in a manner similar to other heparin-binding growth factors
A study of CP violation in B±→DK± and B±→Dπ± decays with D→KS0K±π∓ final states

AbstractA first study of CP violation in the decay modes B±→[KS0K±π∓]Dh± and B±→[KS0K∓π±]Dh±, where h labels a K or π meson and D labels a D0 or D‾0 meson, is performed. The analysis uses the LHCb data set collected in pp collisions, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb−1. The analysis is sensitive to the CP-violating CKM phase γ through seven observables: one charge asymmetry in each of the four modes and three ratios of the charge-integrated yields. The results are consistent with measurements of γ using other decay modes
Dual Targeting of PDGFRα and FGFR1 Displays Synergistic Efficacy in Malignant Rhabdoid Tumors

SummarySubunits of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex are mutated in a significant proportion of human cancers. Malignant rhabdoid tumors (MRTs) are lethal pediatric cancers characterized by a deficiency in the SWI/SNF subunit SMARCB1. Here, we employ an integrated molecular profiling and chemical biology approach to demonstrate that the receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) PDGFRα and FGFR1 are coactivated in MRT cells and that dual blockade of these receptors has synergistic efficacy. Inhibitor combinations targeting both receptors and the dual inhibitor ponatinib suppress the AKT and ERK1/2 pathways leading to apoptosis. MRT cells that have acquired resistance to the PDGFRα inhibitor pazopanib are susceptible to FGFR inhibitors. We show that PDGFRα levels are regulated by SMARCB1 expression, and assessment of clinical specimens documents the expression of both PDGFRα and FGFR1 in rhabdoid tumor patients. Our findings support a therapeutic approach in cancers with SWI/SNF deficiencies by exploiting RTK coactivation dependencies
Search for supersymmetry in electroweak production with photons and large missing transverse energy in pp collisions at s=8TeV

AbstractResults are reported from a search for supersymmetry with gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking in electroweak production. Final states with photons and large missing transverse energy ( ETmiss) were examined. The data sample was collected in pp collisions at s=8TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to 7.4fb−1. The analysis focuses on scenarios in which the lightest neutralino has bino- or wino-like components, resulting in decays to photons and gravitinos, where the gravitinos escape undetected. The data were obtained using a specially designed trigger with dedicated low thresholds, providing good sensitivity to signatures with photons, ETmiss, and low hadronic energy. No excess of events over the standard model expectation is observed. The results are interpreted using the model of general gauge mediation. With the wino mass fixed at 10GeV above that of the bino, wino masses below 710GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level. Constraints are also set in the context of two simplified models, for which the analysis sets the lowest cross section limits on the electroweak production of supersymmetric particles
Lack of cyclophilin D protects against the development of acute lung injury in endotoxemia

AbstractSepsis caused by LPS is characterized by an intense systemic inflammatory response affecting the lungs, causing acute lung injury (ALI). Dysfunction of mitochondria and the role of reactive oxygen (ROS) and nitrogen species produced by mitochondria have already been proposed in the pathogenesis of sepsis; however, the exact molecular mechanism is poorly understood. Oxidative stress induces cyclophilin D (CypD)-dependent mitochondrial permeability transition (mPT), leading to organ failure in sepsis. In previous studies mPT was inhibited by cyclosporine A which, beside CypD, inhibits cyclophilin A, B, C and calcineurin, regulating cell death and inflammatory pathways. The immunomodulatory side effects of cyclosporine A make it unfavorable in inflammatory model systems. To avoid these uncertainties in the molecular mechanism, we studied endotoxemia-induced ALI in CypD−/− mice providing unambiguous data for the pathological role of CypD-dependent mPT in ALI. Our key finding is that the loss of this essential protein improves survival rate and it can intensely ameliorate endotoxin-induced lung injury through attenuated proinflammatory cytokine release, down-regulation of redox sensitive cellular pathways such as MAPKs, Akt, and NF-κB and reducing the production of ROS. Functional inhibition of NF-κB was confirmed by decreased expression of NF-κB-mediated proinflammatory genes. We demonstrated that impaired mPT due to the lack of CypD reduces the severity of endotoxemia-induced lung injury suggesting that CypD specific inhibitors might have a great therapeutic potential in sepsis-induced organ failure. Our data highlight a previously unknown regulatory function of mitochondria during inflammatory response
Widespread Signals of Convergent Adaptation to High Altitude in Asia and America

Living at high altitude is one of the most difficult challenges that humans had to cope with during their evolution. Whereas several genomic studies have revealed some of the genetic bases of adaptations in Tibetan, Andean, and Ethiopian populations, relatively little evidence of convergent evolution to altitude in different continents has accumulated. This lack of evidence can be due to truly different evolutionary responses, but it can also be due to the low power of former studies that have mainly focused on populations from a single geographical region or performed separate analyses on multiple pairs of populations to avoid problems linked to shared histories between some populations. We introduce here a hierarchical Bayesian method to detect local adaptation that can deal with complex demographic histories. Our method can identify selection occurring at different scales, as well as convergent adaptation in different regions. We apply our approach to the analysis of a large SNP data set from low- and high-altitude human populations from America and Asia. The simultaneous analysis of these two geographic areas allows us to identify several candidate genome regions for altitudinal selection, and we show that convergent evolution among continents has been quite common. In addition to identifying several genes and biological processes involved in high-altitude adaptation, we identify two specific biological pathways that could have evolved in both continents to counter toxic effects induced by hypoxia
Primary nodal anthracosis identified by EBUS-TBNA as a cause of FDG PET/CT positive mediastinal lymphadenopathy

AbstractIsolated mediastinal lymphadenopathy can result from a number of potentially serious aetiologies. Traditionally those presenting with mediastinal lymphadenopathy would undergo mediastinoscopy to elucidate a final diagnosis or receive empirical treatment. There is now increased utilization of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA), in this setting.Five cases of mediastinal lymphadenopathy are presented here in which lymph node anthracosis was identified as the primary diagnosis using EBUS-TBNA. They were female, non-smokers presenting with non-specific symptoms, who retrospectively reported cooking over wood fires. Four were from South Asia. Three were investigated by F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG PET/CT) scanning and increased signal was identified in the anthracotic nodes sampled.With expansion of PET/CT and EBUS-TBNA services it is likely that primary nodal anthracosis will be encountered more frequently and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of those with PET/CT positive lymphadenopathy. It may mimic pathologies including tuberculosis and malignancy, thus accurate sampling and follow-up are essential
Extended Deligne–Lusztig varieties for general and special linear groups

AbstractWe give a generalisation of Deligne–Lusztig varieties for general and special linear groups over finite quotients of the ring of integers in a non-archimedean local field. Previously, a generalisation was given by Lusztig by attaching certain varieties to unramified maximal tori inside Borel subgroups. In this paper we associate a family of so-called extended Deligne–Lusztig varieties to all tamely ramified maximal tori of the group.Moreover, we analyse the structure of various generalised Deligne–Lusztig varieties, and show that the “unramified” varieties, including a certain natural generalisation, do not produce all the irreducible representations in general. On the other hand, we prove results which together with some computations of Lusztig show that for SL2(Fq〚ϖ〛/(ϖ2)), with odd q, the extended Deligne–Lusztig varieties do indeed afford all the irreducible representations