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At least 685 records · Page 38

Quantum dynamics of relativistic bosons through nonminimal vector square potentials

The dynamics of relativistic bosons (scalar and vectorial) through nonminimal vector square (well and barrier) potentials is studied in the Duffin–Kemmer–Petiau (DKP) formalism. We show that the problem can be mapped in effective Schrödinger equations for a component of the DKP spinor. An oscillatory transmission coefficient is found and there is total reflection. Additionally, the energy spectrum of bound states is obtained and reveals the Schiff–Snyder–Weinberg effect, for specific conditions the potential lodges bound states of particles and antiparticles. - Highlights: • DKP bosons in a nonminimal vector square potential are studied. • Spin zero and spin one bosons have the same results. • The Schiff–Snyder–Weinberg effect is observed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Double-stranded RNA transcribed from vector-based oligodeoxynucleotide acts as transcription factor decoy

Highlights: • A shRNA vector based transcription factor decoy, VB-ODN, was designed. • VB-ODN for NF-κB inhibited cell viability in HEK293 cells. • VB-ODN inhibited expression of downstream genes of target transcription factors. • VB-ODN may enhance nuclear entry ratio for its feasibility of virus production. - Abstract: In this study, we designed a short hairpin RNA vector-based oligodeoxynucleotide (VB-ODN) carrying transcription factor (TF) consensus sequence which could function as a decoy to block TF activity. Specifically, VB-ODN for Nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) could inhibit cell viability and decrease downstream gene expression in HEK293 cells without affecting expression of NF-κB itself. The specific binding between VB-ODN produced double-stranded RNA and NF-κB was evidenced by electrophoretic mobility shift assay. Moreover, similar VB-ODNs designed for three other TFs also inhibit their downstream gene expression but not that of themselves. Our study provides a new design of decoy for blocking TF activity.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

A universal mini-vector and an annealing of PCR products (APP)-based cloning strategy for convenient molecular biological manipulations

Currently, the most widely used strategies for molecular cloning are sticky-end ligation-based cloning, TA cloning, blunt-end ligation-based cloning and ligase-independent cloning. In this study we have developed a novel mini-vector pANY1 which can simultaneously meet the requirements of all these cloning strategies. In addition, the selection of appropriate restriction digestion sites is difficult in some cases because of the presence of internal sites. In this study, an annealing of PCR products (APP)-based sticky-end cloning strategy was introduced to avoid this issue. Additionally, false positives occur during molecular cloning, which increases the workload of isolating positive clones. The plasmid pANY1 contains a ccdB cassette between multiple cloning sites, which efficiently avoids these false positives. Therefore, this mini-vector should serve as a useful tool with wide applications in biosciences, agriculture, food technologies, etc.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

A sparse matrix–vector multiplication based algorithm for accurate density matrix computations on systems of millions of atoms

Here we present an efficient sparse matrix–vector (SpMV) based method to compute the density matrix P from a given Hamiltonian in electronic structure computations. Our method is a hybrid approach based on Chebyshev–Jackson approximation theory and matrix purification methods like the second order spectral projection purification (SP2). Recent methods to compute the density matrix scale as O(N) in the number of floating point operations but are accompanied by large memory and communication overhead, and they are based on iterative use of the sparse matrix–matrix multiplication kernel (SpGEMM), which is known to be computationally irregular. In addition to irregularity in the sparse Hamiltonian H, the nonzero structure of intermediate estimates of P depends on products of H and evolves over the course of computation. On the other hand, an expansion of the density matrix P in terms of Chebyshev polynomials is straightforward and SpMV based; however, the resulting density matrix may not satisfy the required constraints exactly. In this paper, we analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the Chebyshev–Jackson polynomials and the second order spectral projection purification (SP2) method, and propose to combine them so that the accurate density matrix can be computed using the SpMV computational kernel only, and without having to store the density matrix P. Our method accomplishes these objectives by using the Chebyshev polynomial estimate as the initial guess for SP2, which is followed by using sparse matrix–vector multiplications (SpMVs) to replicate the behavior of the SP2 algorithm for purification. We demonstrate the method on a tight-binding model system of an oxide material containing more than 3 million atoms. In addition, we also present the predicted behavior of our method when applied to near-metallic Hamiltonians with a wide energy spectrum.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOME: Directional medical embedding vectors from Electronic Health Records

Motivation: The increasing availability of Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems has created enormous potential for translational research. Recent developments in representation learning techniques have led to effective large-scale representations of EHR concepts along with knowledge graphs that empower downstream EHR studies. However, most existing methods require training with patient-level data, limiting their abilities to expand the training with multi-institutional EHR data. On the other hand, scalable approaches that only require summary-level data do not incorporate temporal dependencies between concepts. Methods: We introduce a DirectiOnal Medical Embedding (DOME) algorithm to encode temporally directional relationships between medical concepts, using summary-level EHR data. Specifically, DOME first aggregates patient-level EHR data into an asymmetric co-occurrence matrix. Then it computes two Positive Pointwise Mutual Information (PPMI) matrices to correspondingly encode the pairwise prior and posterior dependencies between medical concepts. Following that, a joint matrix factorization is performed on the two PPMI matrices, which results in three vectors for each concept: a semantic embedding and two directional context embeddings. They collectively provide a comprehensive depiction of the temporal relationship between EHR concepts. Results: We highlight the advantages and translational potential of DOME through three sets of validation studies. First, DOME consistently improves existing direction-agnostic embedding vectors for disease risk prediction in several diseases, for example achieving a relative gain of 5.5% in the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) for lung cancer. Second, DOME excels in directional drug-disease relationship inference by successfully differentiating between drug side effects and indications, correspondingly achieving relative AUROC gain over the state-of-the-art methods by 10.8% and 6.6%. Finally, DOME effectively constructs directional knowledge graphs, which distinguish disease risk factors from comorbidities, thereby revealing disease progression trajectories. The source codes are provided at https://github.com/celehs/Directional-EHRembedding.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

A simple procedure for construction of the orthonormal basis vectors of irreducible representations of O(5) in the O T ( 3 ) Ⓧ O N ( 2 ) basis

We report a simple and effective algebraic isospin projection procedure for constructing orthonormal basis vectors of irreducible representations of O(5) ⊃ OT(3) Ⓧ O$_\mathscr{N}$ (2) from those in the canonical O(5) ⊃ SU Λ (2) Ⓧ SU I (2) basis is outlined. The expansion coefficients are components of null space vectors of the projection matrix with four nonzero elements in each row in general. Explicit formulae for evaluating O T (3)-reduced matrix elements of O(5) generators are derived.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Fitting local, low-dimensional parameterizations of optical turbulence modeled from optimal transport velocity vectors

This work exploits a connection between optimal transport theory and the physics of image propagation to yield a locally low-dimensional model of turbulence-corrupted imagery. Optimal transport produces an invertible, pixel-wise linear trajectories to approximate the globally nonlinear turbulence between a clean and turbulence corrupted image pair. We use the low-dimensional model to fit subsets of the optimal transport vector fields and stitch the local models into a surrogate for the global map to be used for image cleaning. Experiments are performed on laboratory generated data of beam propagation using different values of the Fried parameter (a scale measuring turbulence coherence) as well as a toy data set. The results suggest this is a fruitful direction, and first step, towards using multiple realizations of turbulence corrupted images to learn a blind surrogate for the optimal transport vector field for image cleaning.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Lagrangian geometrical optics of nonadiabatic vector waves and spin particles

Linear vector waves, both quantum and classical, experience polarization-driven bending of ray trajectories and polarization dynamics that can be interpreted as the precession of the "wave spin". Here, both phenomena are governed by an effective gauge Hamiltonian vanishing in leading-order geometrical optics. This gauge Hamiltonian can be recognized as a generalization of the Stern-Gerlach Hamiltonian that is commonly known for spin-1/2 quantum particles. The corresponding reduced Lagrangians for continuous nondissipative waves and their geometrical-optics rays are derived from the fundamental wave Lagrangian. The resulting Euler-Lagrange equations can describe simultaneous interactions of N resonant modes, where N is arbitrary, and lead to equations for the wave spin, which happens to be an (N 2 - 1)-dimensional spin vector. As a special case, classical equations for a Dirac particle (N = 2) are deduced formally, without introducing additional postulates or interpretations, from the Dirac quantum Lagrangian with the Pauli term. The model reproduces the Bargmann-Michel-Telegdi equations with added Stern-Gerlach force.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Search for anomalous electroweak production of vector boson pairs in association with two jets in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV

A search for anomalous electroweak production of WW, WZ, and ZZ boson pairs in association with two jets in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV at the LHC is reported. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{-1}$ collected with the CMS detector. Events are selected by requiring two jets with large rapidity separation and invariant mass, one or two leptons (electrons or muons), and a W or Z boson decaying hadronically. No excess of events with respect to the standard model background predictions is observed and constraints on the structure of quartic vector boson interactions in the framework of dimension-8 effective field theory operators are reported. Stringent limits on parameters of the effective field theory operators are obtained. The observed 95% confidence level limits for the S0, M0, and T0 operators are $-$2.7 $<$ f$_{\mathrm{S0}}/ \Lambda^{4}$ $<$ 2.7, $-$1.0 $<$ f$_{\mathrm{M0}}/ \Lambda^{4}$ $<$ 1.0, and $-$0.17 $<$ f$_{\mathrm{T0}}/ \Lambda^{4}$ $<$ 0.16, in units of TeV$^{-4}$. Constraints are also reported on the product of the cross section and branching fraction for vector boson fusion production of charged Higgs bosons as a function of mass from 600 to 2000 GeV. The results are interpreted in the context of the Georgi-Machacek model.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Measurement of the associated production of a Higgs boson decaying into b-quarks with a vector boson at high transverse momentum in pp collisions at s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The associated production of a Higgs boson with a W or Z boson decaying into leptons and where the Higgs boson decays to a $b\bar{b}$ pair is measured in the high vector-boson transverse momentum regime, above 250 GeV, with the ATLAS detector. The analysed data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb -1 , were collected in proton–proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider between 2015 and 2018 at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV. The measured signal strength, defined as the ratio of the measured signal yield to that predicted by the Standard Model, is $0.72^{+0.39}_{-0.36}$ corresponding to an observed (expected) significance of 2.1 (2.7) standard deviations. Cross-sections of associated production of a Higgs boson decaying into b quark pairs with a W or Z gauge boson, decaying into leptons, are measured in two exclusive vector boson transverse momentum regions, 250–400 GeV and above 400 GeV, and interpreted as constraints on anomalous couplings in the framework of a Standard Model effective field theory.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Search for pair-production of vector-like quarks in pp collision events at s = 13 TeV with at least one leptonically decaying Z boson and a third-generation quark with the ATLAS detector

Herein a search for the pair-production of vector-like quarks optimized for decays into a Z boson and a third-generation Standard Model quark is presented, using the full Run 2 dataset corresponding to 139fb –1 of pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13TeV, collected in 2015–2018 with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The targeted final state is characterized by the presence of a Z boson with high transverse momentum, reconstructed from a pair of same-flavour leptons with opposite-sign charges, as well as by the presence of b-tagged jets and high-transverse-momentum large-radius jets reconstructed from calibrated smaller-radius jets. Events with exactly two or at least three leptons are used, which are further categorized by the presence of boosted W, Z, and Higgs bosons and top quarks. The categorization is performed using a neural-network-based boosted object tagger to enhance the sensitivity to signal relative to the background. No significant excess above the background expectation is observed and exclusion limits at 95% confidence level are set on the masses of the vector-like partners T and B of the top and bottom quarks, respectively. The limits depend on the branching ratio configurations and, in the case of 100% branching ratio for T→Zt and 100% branching ratio for B→Zb, this search sets the most stringent limits to date, allowing m T >1.60TeV and m B >1.42TeV, respectively.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Combination of searches for singly and doubly charged Higgs bosons produced via vector-boson fusion in proton–proton collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A combination of searches for singly and doubly charged Higgs bosons, H ± and H ±± , produced via vector-boson fusion is performed using 140 fb -1 of proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected with the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider. Searches targeting decays to massive vector bosons in leptonic final states (electrons or muons) are considered. New constraints are reported on the production cross-section times branching fraction for charged Higgs boson masses between 200 GeV and 3000 GeV. The results are interpreted in the context of the Georgi-Machacek model for which the most stringent constraints to date are set for the masses considered in the combination.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Therapeutic efficacy of improved α-fetoprotein promoter-mediated tBid delivered by folate-PEI600-cyclodextrin nanopolymer vector in hepatocellular carcinoma

SNPs in human AFP promoter are associated with serum AFP levels in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), suggesting that AFP promoter variants may generate better transcriptional activities while retaining high specificity to AFP-producing cells. We sequenced human AFP promoters, cloned 15 different genotype promoters and tested their reporter activities in AFP-producing and non-producing cells. Among various AFP variant fragments tested, EA4D exhibited the highest reporter activity and thus was selected for the further study. EA4D was fused with tBid and coupled with nano-particle vector (H1) to form pGL3-EA4D-tBid/H1. pGL3-EA4D-tBid/H1 could express a high level of tBid while retain the specificity to AFP-producing cells. In a HCC tumor model, application of pGL3-EA4D-tBid/H1 significantly inhibited the growth of AFP-producing-implanted tumors with minimal side-effects, but had no effect on non-AFP-producing tumors. Furthermore, pGL3-EA4D-tBid/H1 could significantly sensitize HCC cells to sorafenib, an approved anti-HCC agent. Collectively, pGL3-EA4D-tBid/H1, a construct with the AFP promoter EA4D and the novel H1 delivery system, can specifically target and effectively suppress the AFP-producing HCC. This new therapeutic tool shows little toxicity in vitro and in vivo and it should thus be safe for further clinical tests. - Highlights: • The nano-particle vector H1 has advantages in mediating gene therapy construct pGL3-EA4D-tBid for HCC treatment. • pGL3-EA4D-tBid/H1, a construct with the AFP promoter EA4D, can specifically target the AFP-producing HCC. • pGL3-EA4D-tBid/H1effectively suppresses the proliferation and growth of AFP-producing HCC. • This novel pGL3-EA4D-tBid/H1 therapeutic tool shows little toxicity in vitro and in vivo.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Robust Biaxial Anisotropy and Switchable Néel Vectors in LaFeO 3 Epitaxial Films

Antiferromagnets with highly stable but switchable Néel vectors are desired for antiferromagnetic spintronics with ultrafast speed and terahertz frequencies. Electrical switching of antiferromagnetic insulators has been demonstrated using binary antiferromagnets, while large families of complex antiferromagnets such as perovskites are largely unexplored. Here, we show that epitaxial LaFeO 3 thin films on SrTiO 3 (001) exhibit clear, robust biaxial anisotropy with a spin-flop field of a few tesla. Angular-dependent spin-Hall magnetoresistance (SMR) characterizations of Pt/LaFeO 3 bilayers with the current channel along SrTiO 3 [100] and [110] reveal distinct, intriguing shapes and field dependence. Simulations using a macrospin model accurately describe the main behavior and fine features of the SMR data from which key antiferromagnetic parameters are extracted. Furthermore, remanent SMR measurement confirms the high fidelity of the Néel vector along either easy axis of the biaxial anisotropy, indicating that epitaxial films of LaFeO 3 and potentially other perovskite antiferromagnets offer an attractive platform for antiferromagnetic spintronics.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Structure and Ligand-Binding Mechanism of a Cysteinyl Leukotriene-Binding Protein from a Blood-Feeding Disease Vector

Blood-feeding disease vectors mitigate the negative effects of hemostasis and inflammation through the binding of small-molecule agonists of these processes by salivary proteins. In this study, a lipocalin protein family member (LTBP1) from the saliva of Rhodnius prolixus, a vector of the pathogen Trypanosoma cruzi, is shown to sequester cysteinyl leukotrienes during feeding to inhibit immediate inflammatory responses. Calorimetric binding experiments showed that LTBP1 binds leukotrienes C 4 (LTC 4 ), D 4 (LTD 4 ), and E 4 (LTE 4 ) but not biogenic amines, adenosine diphosphate, or other eicosanoid compounds. Crystal structures of ligand-free LTBP1 and its complexes with LTC 4 and LTD 4 reveal a conformational change during binding that brings Tyr114 into close contact with the ligand. LTC 4 is cleaved in the complex, leaving free glutathione and a C 20 fatty acid. As a result, chromatographic analysis of bound ligands showed only intact LTC 4 , suggesting that cleavage could be radiation-mediated.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

CRISPR/Cas9 as an antiviral against Orthopoxviruses using an AAV vector

A vaccine for smallpox is no longer administered to the general public, and there is no proven, safe treatment specific to poxvirus infections, leaving people susceptible to infections by smallpox and other zoonotic Orthopoxviruses such as monkeypox. Using vaccinia virus (VACV) as a model organism for other Orthopoxviruses, CRISPR–Cas9 technology was used to target three essential genes that are conserved across the genus, including A17L, E3L, and I2L. Three individual single guide RNAs (sgRNAs) were designed per gene to facilitate redundancy in rendering the genes inactive, thereby reducing the reproduction of the virus. The efficacy of the CRISPR targets was tested by transfecting human embryonic kidney (HEK293) cells with plasmids encoding both SaCas9 and an individual sgRNA. This resulted in a reduction of VACV titer by up to 93.19% per target. Following the verification of CRISPR targets, safe and targeted delivery of the VACV CRISPR antivirals was tested using adeno-associated virus (AAV) as a packaging vector for both SaCas9 and sgRNA. Similarly, AAV delivery of the CRISPR antivirals resulted in a reduction of viral titer by up to 92.97% for an individual target. Overall, we have identified highly specific CRISPR targets that significantly reduce VACV titer as well as an appropriate vector for delivering these CRISPR antiviral components to host cells in vitro.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Predicting distribution of malaria vector larval habitats in Ethiopia by integrating distributed hydrologic modeling with remotely sensed data

Abstract Larval source management has gained renewed interest as a malaria control strategy in Africa but the widespread and transient nature of larval breeding sites poses a challenge to its implementation. To address this problem, we propose combining an integrated high resolution (50 m) distributed hydrological model and remotely sensed data to simulate potential malaria vector aquatic habitats. The novelty of our approach lies in its consideration of irrigation practices and its ability to resolve complex ponding processes that contribute to potential larval habitats. The simulation was performed for the year of 2018 using ParFlow-Common Land Model (CLM) in a sugarcane plantation in the Oromia region, Ethiopia to examine the effects of rainfall and irrigation. The model was calibrated using field observations of larval habitats to successfully predict ponding at all surveyed locations from the validation dataset. Results show that without irrigation, at least half of the area inside the farms had a 40% probability of potential larval habitat occurrence. With irrigation, the probability increased to 56%. Irrigation dampened the seasonality of the potential larval habitats such that the peak larval habitat occurrence window during the rainy season was extended into the dry season. Furthermore, the stability of the habitats was prolonged, with a significant shift from semi-permanent to permanent habitats. Our study provides a hydrological perspective on the impact of environmental modification on malaria vector ecology, which can potentially inform malaria control strategies through better water management.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗