Study of the reaction e^{+}e^{-} -->J/psi\pi^{+}\pi^{-} via initial-state radiation at BaBar

We study the process $e^+e^-\to J/\psi\pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ with initial-state-radiation events produced at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy collider. The data were recorded with the BaBar detector at center-of-mass energies 10.58 and 10.54 GeV, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 454 $\mathrm{fb^{-1}}$. We investigate the $J/\psi \pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ mass distribution in the region from 3.5 to 5.5 $\mathrm{GeV/c^{2}}$. Below 3.7 $\mathrm{GeV/c^{2}}$ the $\psi(2S)$ signal dominates, and above 4 $\mathrm{GeV/c^{2}}$ there is a significant peak due to the Y(4260). A fit to the data in the range 3.74 -- 5.50 $\mathrm{GeV/c^{2}}$ yields a mass value $4244 \pm 5$ (stat) $\pm 4$ (syst)$\mathrm{MeV/c^{2}}$ and a width value $114 ^{+16}_{-15}$ (stat)$\pm 7$(syst)$\mathrm{MeV}$ for this state. We do not confirm the report from the Belle collaboration of a broad structure at 4.01 $\mathrm{GeV/c^{2}}$. In addition, we investigate the $\pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ system which results from Y(4260) decay

IceCube-Gen2: A Vision for the Future of Neutrino Astronomy in Antarctica

20 pages, 12 figures. Address correspondence to: E. Blaufuss, F. Halzen, C. Kopper (Changed to add one missing author, no other changes from initial version.)20 pages, 12 figures. Address correspondence to: E. Blaufuss, F. Halzen, C. Kopper (Changed to add one missing author, no other changes from initial version.)20 pages, 12 figures. Address correspondence to: E. Blaufuss, F. Halzen, C. Kopper (Changed to add one missing author, no other changes from initial version.)The recent observation by the IceCube neutrino observatory of an astrophysical flux of neutrinos represents the "first light" in the nascent field of neutrino astronomy. The observed diffuse neutrino flux seems to suggest a much larger level of hadronic activity in the non-thermal universe than previously thought and suggests a rich discovery potential for a larger neutrino observatory. This document presents a vision for an substantial expansion of the current IceCube detector, IceCube-Gen2, including the aim of instrumenting a $10\,\mathrm{km}^3$ volume of clear glacial ice at the South Pole to deliver substantial increases in the astrophysical neutrino sample for all flavors. A detector of this size would have a rich physics program with the goal to resolve the sources of these astrophysical neutrinos, discover GZK neutrinos, and be a leading observatory in future multi-messenger astronomy programs

A different immunologic profile characterizes patients with HER-2-overexpressing and HER-2-negative locally advanced breast cancer: implications for immune-based therapies

INTRODUCTION: The clinical efficacy of trastuzumab and taxanes is at least partly related to their ability to mediate or promote antitumor immune responses. On these grounds, a careful analysis of basal immune profile may be capital to dissect the heterogeneity of clinical responses to these drugs in patients with locally advanced breast cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy. METHODS: Blood samples were collected from 61 locally advanced breast cancers (36 HER2- and 25 HER2+) at diagnosis and from 23 healthy women. Immunophenotypic profiling of circulating and intratumor immune cells, including regulatory T (Treg) cells, was assessed by flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry, respectively. Serum levels of 10 different cytokines were assessed by multiplex immunoassays. CD8+ T cell responses to multiple tumor-associated antigens (TAA) were evaluated by IFN-γ-enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot (ELISPOT). The Student's t test for two tailed distributions and the Wilcoxon two-sample test were used for the statistical analysis of the data. RESULTS: The proportion of circulating immune effectors was similar in HER2+ patients and healthy donors, whereas higher percentages of natural killer and Treg cells and a lower CD4+/CD8+ T cell ratio (with a prevalence of naïve and central memory CD8+ T cells) were observed in HER2- cases. Higher numbers of circulating CD8+ T cells specific for several HLA-A*0201-restricted TAA-derived peptides were observed in HER2+ cases, together with a higher prevalence of intratumor CD8+ T cells. Serum cytokine profile of HER2+ patients was similar to that of controls, whereas HER2- cases showed significantly lower cytokine amounts compared to healthy women (IL-2, IL-8, IL-6) and HER2+ cases (IL-2, IL-1β, IL-8, IL-6, IL-10). CONCLUSIONS: Compared to HER2- cases, patients with HER2-overexpressing locally advanced breast cancer show a more limited tumor-related immune suppression. This may account for the clinical benefit achieved in this subset of patients with the use of drugs acting through, but also promoting, immune-mediated effects

Low Cost Tuberculosis Vaccine Antigens in Capsules: Expression in Chloroplasts, Bio-Encapsulation, Stability and Functional Evaluation In Vitro

Tuberculosis (TB) caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis is one of the leading fatal infectious diseases. The development of TB vaccines has been recognized as a major public health priority by the World Health Organization. In this study, three candidate antigens, ESAT-6 (6kDa early secretory antigenic target) and Mtb72F (a fusion polyprotein from two TB antigens, Mtb32 and Mtb39) fused with cholera toxin B-subunit (CTB) and LipY (a cell wall protein) were expressed in tobacco and/or lettuce chloroplasts to facilitate bioencapsulation/oral delivery. Site-specific transgene integration into the chloroplast genome was confirmed by Southern blot analysis. In transplastomic leaves, CTB fusion proteins existed in soluble monomeric or multimeric forms of expected sizes and their expression levels varied depending upon the developmental stage and time of leaf harvest, with the highest-level of accumulation in mature leaves harvested at 6PM. The CTB-ESAT6 and CTB-Mtb72F expression levels reached up to 7.5% and 1.2% of total soluble protein respectively in mature tobacco leaves. Transplastomic CTB-ESAT6 lettuce plants accumulated up to 0.75% of total leaf protein. Western blot analysis of lyophilized lettuce leaves stored at room temperature for up to six months showed that the CTB-ESAT6 fusion protein was stable and preserved proper folding, disulfide bonds and assembly into pentamers for prolonged periods. Also, antigen concentration per gram of leaf tissue was increased 22 fold after lyophilization. Hemolysis assay with purified CTB-ESAT6 protein showed partial hemolysis of red blood cells and confirmed functionality of the ESAT-6 antigen. GM1-binding assay demonstrated that the CTB-ESAT6 fusion protein formed pentamers to bind with the GM1-ganglioside receptor. The expression of functional Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens in transplastomic plants should facilitate development of a cost-effective and orally deliverable TB booster vaccine with potential for long-term storage at room temperature. To our knowledge, this is the first report of expression of TB vaccine antigens in chloroplasts

Multimessenger search for sources of gravitational waves and high-energy neutrinos: Initial results for LIGO-Virgo and IceCube

We report the results of a multimessenger search for coincident signals from the LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave observatories and the partially completed IceCube high-energy neutrino detector, including periods of joint operation between 2007-2010. These include parts of the 2005-2007 run and the 2009-2010 run for LIGO-Virgo, and IceCube's observation periods with 22, 59 and 79 strings. We find no significant coincident events, and use the search results to derive upper limits on the rate of joint sources for a range of source emission parameters. For the optimistic assumption of gravitational-wave emission energy of 10-2M c2 at ∼150Hz with ∼60ms duration, and high-energy neutrino emission of 1051erg comparable to the isotropic gamma-ray energy of gamma-ray bursts, we limit the source rate below 1.6×10-2Mpc-3yr-1. We also examine how combining information from gravitational waves and neutrinos will aid discovery in the advanced gravitational-wave detector era

Searches for small-scale anisotropies from neutrino point sources with three years of IceCube data

Recently, IceCube found evidence for a diffuse signal of astrophysical neutrinos in an energy range of ∼60TeV to the PeV-scale [1]. The origin of those events, being a key to understanding the origin of cosmic rays, is still an unsolved question. So far, analyses have not succeeded to resolve the diffuse signal into point-like sources. Searches including a maximum-likelihood-ratio test, based on the reconstructed directions and energies of the detected down- and up-going neutrino candidates, were also performed on IceCube data leading to the exclusion of bright point sources. In this paper, we present two methods to search for faint neutrino point sources in three years of IceCube data, taken between 2008 and 2011. The first method is an autocorrelation test, applied separately to the northern and southern sky. The second method is a multipole analysis, which expands the measured data in the northern hemisphere into spherical harmonics and uses the resulting expansion coefficients to separate signal from background. With both methods, the results are consistent with the background expectation with a slightly more sparse spatial distribution, corresponding to an underfluctuation. Depending on the assumed number of sources, the resulting upper limit on the flux per source in the northern hemisphere for an E-2 energy spectrum ranges from ∼1.5·10-8 GeV/cm2 s−1, in the case of one assumed source, to ∼4·10-10 GeV/cm2 s−1, in the case of 3500 assumed sources

A global experiment on motivating social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Finding communication strategies that effectively motivate social distancing continues to be a global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-country, preregistered experiment (n = 25,718 from 89 countries) tested hypotheses concerning generalizable positive and negative outcomes of social distancing messages that promoted personal agency and reflective choices (i.e., an autonomy-supportive message) or were restrictive and shaming (i.e., a controlling message) compared with no message at all. Results partially supported experimental hypotheses in that the controlling message increased controlled motivation (a poorly internalized form of motivation relying on shame, guilt, and fear of social consequences) relative to no message. On the other hand, the autonomy-supportive message lowered feelings of defiance compared with the controlling message, but the controlling message did not differ from receiving no message at all. Unexpectedly, messages did not influence autonomous motivation (a highly internalized form of motivation relying on one’s core values) or behavioral intentions. Results supported hypothesized associations between people’s existing autonomous and controlled motivations and self-reported behavioral intentions to engage in social distancing. Controlled motivation was associated with more defiance and less long-term behavioral intention to engage in social distancing, whereas autonomous motivation was associated with less defiance and more short- and long-term intentions to social distance. Overall, this work highlights the potential harm of using shaming and pressuring language in public health communication, with implications for the current and future global health challenges

Insights into the High-energy γ-ray Emission of Markarian 501 from Extensive Multifrequency Observations in the Fermi Era

We report on the γ-ray activity of the blazar Mrk501 during the first 480 days of Fermi operation. We find that the average Large Area Telescope (LAT) -ray spectrum of Mrk501 can be well described by a single power-law function with a photon index of 1.78 0.03. While we observe relatively mild flux variations with the Fermi-LAT (within less than a factor of two), we detect remarkable spectral variability where the hardest observed spectral index within the LAT energy range is 1.52 0.14, and the softest one is 2.51 0.20. These unexpected spectral changes do not correlate with the measured flux variations above 0.3GeV. In this paper, we also present the first results from the 4.5 month long multifrequency campaign (2009 March 15August 1) on Mrk501, which included the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), Swift, RXTE, MAGIC, and VERITAS, the F-GAMMA, GASP-WEBT, and other collaborations and instruments which provided excellent temporal and energy coverage of the source throughout the entire campaign. The extensive radio to TeV data set from this campaign provides us with the most detailed spectral energy distribution yet collected for this source during its relatively low activity. The average spectral energy distribution of Mrk501 is well described by the standard one-zone synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model. In the framework of this model, we find that the dominant emission region is characterized by a size r0.1pc (comparable within a factor of few to the size of the partially resolved VLBA core at 15-43 GHz), and that the total jet power (C1044ergs1) constitutes only a small fraction (<103) of the Eddington luminosity. The energy distribution of the freshly accelerated radiating electrons required to fit the time-averaged data has a broken power-law form in the energy range 0.3 GeV-10 TeV, with spectral indices 2.2 and 2.7 below and above the break energy of 20GeV. We argue that such a form is consistent with a scenario in which the bulk of the energy dissipation within the dominant emission zone of Mrk501 is due to relativistic, proton-mediated shocks. We find that the ultrarelativistic electrons and mildly relativistic protons within the blazar zone, if comparable in number, are in approximate energy equipartition, with their energy dominating the jet magnetic field energy by about two orders of magnitude