Self-Consistent Extraction of Spectroscopic Bounds on Light New Physics.

Fundamental physical constants are determined from a collection of precision measurements of elementary particles, atoms, and molecules. This is usually done under the assumption of the standard model (SM) of particle physics. Allowing for light new physics (NP) beyond the SM modifies the extraction of fundamental physical constants.

New physics searches at kaon and hyperon factories.

Rare meson decays are among the most sensitive probes of both heavy and light new physics. Among them, new physics searches using kaons benefit from their small total decay widths and the availability of very large datasets. On the other hand, useful complementary information is provided by hyperon decay measurements.

Erratum to: Anomaly free Froggatt-Nielsen models of flavor.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/JHEP10(2019)188.].

Synergistic and antagonistic effects of immunomodulatory drugs on the action of antifungals against and .

Candidemia and other forms of invasive fungal infections caused by and to a lesser extent are a serious health problem, especially if their steadily rising resistance to the limited range of antifungal drugs is taken into consideration. Various drug combinations are an attractive solution to the resistance problem, and some drug combinations are already common in the clinical environment due to the nature of diseases or therapies. We tested a few of the common antifungal-immunomodulatory drug combinations and evaluated their effect on selected strains of and .

Quorum-sensing in yeast and its potential in wine making.

This mini-review synthesises the present knowledge of microbial quorum-sensing, with a specific focus on quorum-sensing in yeast, and especially in wine yeast. In vine and wine ecosystems, yeast co-interact with a large variety of microorganisms, thereby affecting the fermentation process and, consequently, the flavour of the wine. The precise connections between microbial interactions and quorum-sensing remain unclear, but we describe here how and when some species start to produce quorum-sensing molecules to synchronously adapt their collective behaviour to new conditions.

Probiotic yeast Saccharomyces boulardii (nom. nud.) modulates adhesive properties of Candida glabrata.

Following the widespread use of immunosuppressive therapy together with broad-spectrum antimycotic therapy, the frequency of mucosal and systemic infections caused by the pathogenic yeast Candida glabrata has increased in the past decades. Due to the resistance of C. glabrata to existing azole drugs, it is very important to look for new strategies helping the treatment of such fungal diseases.

Quorum-Sensing Kinetics in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: A Symphony of ARO Genes and Aromatic Alcohols.

The kinetics of quorum sensing in Saccharomyces cerevisiae were studied using a mini-fermentation platform. The quorum-sensing molecules were monitored using our previous HPLC approach that is here supported by quantitative real-time PCR analysis of the quorum-sensing genes. We thus initially confirm correlations between peak production rates of the monitored quorum-sensing molecules 2-phenylethanol, tryptophol, and tyrosol and peak expression of the genes responsible for their synthesis: ARO8, ARO9, and ARO10.

Exclusive window onto Higgs Yukawa couplings.

We show that both flavor-conserving and flavor-violating Yukawa couplings of the Higgs boson to first- and second-generation quarks can be probed by measuring rare decays of the form h→MV, where M denotes a vector meson and V indicates either γ, W or Z. We calculate the branching ratios for these processes in both the standard model and its possible extensions. We discuss the experimental prospects for their observation.

Evaluation of toxic endpoints for a set of cosmetic ingredients with CAESAR models.

The randomly selected set of 558 chemicals from Cosmetic inventory was studied with internet accessible program package CAESAR. Four toxic endpoints were considered: mutagenicity, carcinogenicity, developmental toxicity and skin sensitization. The CAESAR program provides beside the predictions comprehensive information on applicability domain and the similarity between the considered compound and the compounds from model's training set.

The influence of serial repitching of Saccharomyces pastorianus on its karyotype and protein profile during the fermentation of gluten-free buckwheat and quinoa wort.

Gluten-free beer-like beverages from malted buckwheat and quinoa are somehow close to their commercial production, but rather high expenses are expected due to the relatively high price of grain, some technological adaptations of process and the need for external enzyme supplementation during mashing. One of the common and efficient cost reduction measures in the industrial scale is serial repitching of the yeast biomass, which has not been studied for the buckwheat and quinoa wort fermentation before. In that manner we have monitored possible changes in yeast's proteins and chromosomal DNA during eleven serial repitchings of the yeast Saccharomyces pastorianus strain TUM 34/70 for fermentation of the barley, buckwheat and quinoa wort.

Monitoring of quorum-sensing molecules during minifermentation studies in wine yeast.

At high cell density or under low nutrient conditions, yeasts collectively adapt their metabolism by secreting aromatic alcohols in what is known as quorum sensing. However, the mechanisms and role of quorum sensing in yeast are poorly understood, and the methodology behind this process is not well established. This paper describes an effective approach to study quorum sensing in yeast fermentations.

Implications of lepton flavor universality violations in B decays.

Present measurements of b→cτν and b→uτν transitions differ from the standard model predictions of lepton flavor universality by almost 4σ. We examine new physics interpretations of this anomaly. An effective field theory analysis shows that minimal flavor violating models are not preferred as an explanation, but are also not yet excluded.

Astrophysics-independent bounds on the annual modulation of dark matter signals.

We show how constraints on the time integrated event rate from a given dark matter (DM) direct detection experiment can be used to bound the amplitude of the annual modulation signal in another experiment. The method requires only mild assumptions about the properties of the local DM distribution: that it is temporally stable on the scale of months and spatially homogeneous on the ecliptic. We apply the method to the annual modulation signal in DAMA/LIBRA, which we compare to the bounds derived from XENON10, XENON100, cryogenic DM search, and SIMPLE data.

Linear vs. Non-linear Modelling. Case study: modelling of binding affinity of inhibitors to Trypsin.

On the set of 53 trypsin inhibitors the affinity to the covalent bound ligands is modeled using linear (MLR) and non-linear (ANN) methods. Each compound is represented by 343 chemical descriptors. The hypothesis was that linear models are not sufficiently flexible to yield the best model, because in MLR (multiple regression analysis) the number of variables (descriptors) is limited by the number of objects in the training set.

Forward-backward asymmetry in tt production from flavor symmetries.

We show that the forward-backward asymmetry in top quark pair production can be enhanced by fields that transform nontrivially under the flavor group and satisfy minimal flavor violation, while at the same time the constraints from associated effects on the dσ(tt)/dM(tt) distribution, dijet resonance searches, same-sign top-pair production, and other phenomenology are satisfied. We work out two examples in detail: one where a scalar color antisextet field that is also an antisextet of SU(3)(U) enhances the forward-backward asymmetry and one where the enhancement arises from a vector color octet field that is also an octet of SU(3)(U).

Artificial neural networks to evaluate the boron concentration decreasing profile in blood-BPA samples of BNCT patients.

For the prediction of decay concentration profiles of the p-boronophenylalanine (BPA) in blood during BNCT treatment, a method is suggested based on Kohonen neural networks. The results of a model trained with the concentration profiles from the literature are described. The prediction of the model was validated by the leave-one-out method.

Discovering Higgs boson decays to lepton jets at hadron colliders.

The Higgs boson may decay predominantly into a hidden sector, producing lepton jets instead of the standard Higgs signatures. We propose a search strategy for such a signal at hadron colliders. A promising channel is the associated production of the Higgs boson with a Z or W.

Implications of the dimuon CP asymmetry in B(d,s) decays.

The D0 Collaboration reported a 3.2σ deviation from the standard model (SM) prediction in the like-sign dimuon asymmetry. Assuming that new physics contributes only to B(d,s) mixing, we show that the data can be analyzed without using the theoretical calculation of ΔΓ(s), allowing for robust interpretations.

Extended connectivity in directed graphs.

An algorithm for the evaluation of the extended connectivity in directed graphs is described and discussed. The algorithm is a general purpose one for finding the number of all paths from any given node Vi in a directed graph toward all leaves that can be reached from that particular node Vi in the graph.

The effect of fungicides on yeast communities associated with grape berries.

The influence of three commonly used fungicides (iprodione, pyrimethanil and fludioxonil plus cyprodinil) on the density and diversity of yeast populations present on grape berries was evaluated. At the time of harvest, the fungicide residues on grapes were below the maximum permitted levels. In general, larger yeast counts were found on the treated grapes than on the control samples.

Invasive growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae depends on environmental triggers: a quantitative model.

In this contribution, the influence of various physicochemical factors on Saccharomyces cerevisiae invasive growth is examined quantitatively. Agar-invasion assays are generally applied for in vitro studies on S. cerevisiae invasiveness, the phenomenon observed as a putative virulence trait in this clinically more and more concerning yeast.

Smoking guns for on-shell new physics at the LHC.

Using Tevatron bounds we derive upper limits on the LHC Higgs boson production rate assuming that no beyond the standard model (BSM) particles are being produced near their mass shell. A violation of these limits would constitute a smoking gun for light BSM particles. Furthermore, we demonstrate how R(T), the ratio of the partially integrated Higgs transverse momentum distribution to the inclusive rate, can also be used as a probe of light BSM particles.

Quantitative cell wall protein profiling of invasive and non-invasive Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains.

A new, simple approach for the isolation and quantitative analysis of the cell wall (CW) proteins from invasively growing Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains is described in this contribution. The proposed method was proved compatible with agar-invasion assays and was demonstrated to be useful as a screening tool for rapid analysis of CW protein determinants related to yeast adhesion and invasion processes. CW protein isolation was performed enzymatically on viable cells by using mild, isosmotic reaction conditions and pure, proteinase free glucanase, thus avoiding destruction of cells and protein structures, which is a drawback of the existing methods based on hot SDS, DTT or NaOH treatment.

Quantitative agar-invasion assay.

A new method for quantification of yeast invasion into the agar medium was developed. Classical agar-invasion assays have been the methods of choice for determination of yeast invasion, but their main disadvantage is the lack of quantification. Our new Quantitative yeast agar-invasion test allows for quantitative measurements and enables sorting strains by their degree of invasiveness.