Rotating Higher Spin Partition Functions and Extended BMS Symmetries

We evaluate one-loop partition functions of higher-spin fields in thermal flat space with angular potentials; this computation is performed in arbitrary space-time dimension, and the result is a simple combination of Poincar\'e characters. We then focus on dimension three, showing that suitable products of one-loop partition functions coincide with vacuum characters of higher-spin asymptotic symmetry algebras at null infinity. These are extensions of the bms_3 algebra that emerges in pure gravity, and we propose a way to build their unitary representations and to compute the associated characters. We also extend our investigations to supergravity and to a class of gauge theories involving higher-spin fermionic fields.Comment: 58 pages; clarifications and references added; version to be published in JHE

Angular and Current-Target Correlations in Deep Inelastic Scattering at HERA

Correlations between charged particles in deep inelastic ep scattering have been studied in the Breit frame with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 6.4 pb-1. Short-range correlations are analysed in terms of the angular separation between current-region particles within a cone centred around the virtual photon axis. Long-range correlations between the current and target regions have also been measured. The data support predictions for the scaling behaviour of the angular correlations at high Q2 and for anti-correlations between the current and target regions over a large range in Q2 and in the Bjorken scaling variable x. Analytic QCD calculations and Monte Carlo models correctly describe the trends of the data at high Q2, but show quantitative discrepancies. The data show differences between the correlations in deep inelastic scattering and e+e- annihilation.Comment: 26 pages including 10 figures (submitted to Eur. J. Phys. C

Plastisol Foaming Process. Decomposition of the Foaming Agent, Polymer Behavior in the Corresponding Temperature Range and Resulting Foam Properties

The decomposition of azodicarbonamide, used as foaming agent in PVC - plasticizer (1/1) plastisols was studied by DSC. Nineteen different plasticizers, all belonging to the ester family, two being polymeric (polyadipates), were compared. The temperature of maximum decomposition rate (in anisothermal regime at 5 K min-1 scanning rate), ranges between 434 and 452 K. The heat of decomposition ranges between 8.7 and 12.5 J g -1. Some trends of variation of these parameters appear significant and are discussed in terms of solvent (matrix) and viscosity effects on the decomposition reactions. The shear modulus at 1 Hz frequency was determined at the temperature of maximum rate of foaming agent decomposition, and differs significantly from a sample to another. The foam density was determined at ambient temperature and the volume fraction of bubbles was used as criterion to judge the efficiency of the foaming process. The results reveal the existence of an optimal shear modulus of the order of 2 kPa that corresponds roughly to plasticizer molar masses of the order of 450 ± 50 g mol-1. Heavier plasticizers, especially polymeric ones are too difficult to deform. Lighter plasticizers such as diethyl phthalate (DEP) deform too easily and presumably facilitate bubble collapse

Challenges and recent progress in drug discovery for tropical diseases

Infectious tropical diseases have a huge effect in terms of mortality and morbidity, and impose a heavy economic burden on affected countries. These diseases predominantly affect the world’s poorest people. Currently available drugs are inadequate for the majority of these diseases, and there is an urgent need for new treatments. This Review discusses some of the challenges involved in developing new drugs to treat these diseases and highlights recent progress. While there have been notable successes, there is still a long way to go.</p

Alignment of the ALICE Inner Tracking System with cosmic-ray tracks

37 pages, 15 figures, revised version, accepted by JINSTALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) experiment devoted to investigating the strongly interacting matter created in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC energies. The ALICE ITS, Inner Tracking System, consists of six cylindrical layers of silicon detectors with three different technologies; in the outward direction: two layers of pixel detectors, two layers each of drift, and strip detectors. The number of parameters to be determined in the spatial alignment of the 2198 sensor modules of the ITS is about 13,000. The target alignment precision is well below 10 micron in some cases (pixels). The sources of alignment information include survey measurements, and the reconstructed tracks from cosmic rays and from proton-proton collisions. The main track-based alignment method uses the Millepede global approach. An iterative local method was developed and used as well. We present the results obtained for the ITS alignment using about 10^5 charged tracks from cosmic rays that have been collected during summer 2008, with the ALICE solenoidal magnet switched off.Peer reviewe

Site Specific Modification of Adeno-Associated Virus Enables Both Fluorescent Imaging of Viral Particles and Characterization of the Capsid Interactome

Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) are attractive gene therapy vectors due to their low toxicity, high stability, and rare integration into the host genome. Expressing ligands on the viral capsid can re-target AAVs to new cell types, but limited sites have been identified on the capsid that tolerate a peptide insertion. Here, we incorporated a site-specific tetracysteine sequence into the AAV serotype 9 (AAV9) capsid, to permit labelling of viral particles with either a fluorescent dye or biotin. We demonstrate that fluorescently labelled particles are detectable in vitro, and explore the utility of the method in vivo in mice with time-lapse imaging. We exploit the biotinylated viral particles to generate two distinct AAV interactomes, and identify several functional classes of proteins that are highly represented: actin/cytoskeletal protein binding, RNA binding, RNA splicing/processing, chromatin modifying, intracellular trafficking and RNA transport proteins. To examine the biological relevance of the capsid interactome, we modulated the expression of two proteins from the interactomes prior to AAV transduction. Blocking integrin αVβ6 receptor function reduced AAV9 transduction, while reducing histone deacetylase 4 (HDAC4) expression enhanced AAV transduction. Our method demonstrates a strategy for inserting motifs into the AAV capsid without compromising viral titer or infectivity

A922 Sequential measurement of 1 hour creatinine clearance (1-CRCL) in critically ill patients at risk of acute kidney injury (AKI)

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Secreted semaphorin 5A suppressed pancreatic tumour burden but increased metastasis and endothelial cell proliferation.

BACKGROUND: Our earlier reports demonstrated that membrane-bound semaphorin 5A (SEMA5A) is expressed in aggressive pancreatic cancer cells and tumours, and promotes tumour growth and metastasis. In this study, we examine whether (1) pancreatic cancer cells secrete SEMA5A and (2) that secreted SEMA5A modulates certain phenotypes associated with tumour progression, angiogenesis and metastasis through various other molecular factors and signalling proteins. METHODS AND RESULTS: In this study, we show that human pancreatic cancer cell lines secrete the extracellular domain (ECD) of SEMA5A (SEMA5A-ECD) and overexpression of mouse Sema5A-ECD in Panc1 cells (not expressing SEMA5A; Panc1-Sema5A-ECD; control cells - Panc1-control) significantly increases their invasion in vitro via enhanced ERK phosphorylation. Interestingly, orthotopic injection of Panc1-Sema5A-ECD cells into athymic nude mice results in a lower primary tumour burden, but enhances the micrometastases to the liver as compared with Panc1-control cells. Furthermore, there is a significant increase in proliferation of endothelial cells treated with conditioned media (CM) from Panc1-Sema5A-ECD cells and a significant increase in microvessel density in Panc1-Sema5A-ECD orthotopic tumours compared with those from Panc1-control cells, suggesting that the increase in liver micrometastases is probably due to increased tumour angiogenesis. In addition, our data demonstrate that this increase in endothelial cell proliferation by Sema5A-ECD is mediated through the angiogenic molecules - interleukin-8 and vascular endothelial growth factor. CONCLUSION: Taken together, these results suggest that a bioactive, secreted form of Sema5A-ECD has an intriguing and potentially important role in its ability to enhance pancreatic tumour invasiveness, angiogenesis and micrometastases