A possible answer to the origin of matter

Most of the laws of nature treat particles and antiparticles equally, but stars and planets are made of particles, or matter, and not antiparticles, or antimatter. That asymmetry, which favors matter to a very small degree, has puzzled scientists for many years.

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New research by UCLA physicists, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, offers a possible solution to the mystery of the origin of matter in the universe.

Alexander Kusenko, a professor of physics and astronomy in the UCLA College, and colleagues propose that the matter-antimatter asymmetry could be related to the Higgs boson particle, which was the subject of prominent news coverage when it was discovered at Switzerland's Large Hadron Collider in 2012.

Specifically, the UCLA researchers write, the asymmetry may have been produced as a result of the motion of the Higgs field, which is associated with the Higgs boson, and which could have made the masses of particles and antiparticles in the universe temporarily unequal, allowing for a small excess of matter particles over antiparticles.

If a particle and an antiparticle meet, they disappear by emitting two photons or a pair of some other particles. In the "primordial soup" that existed after the Big Bang, there were almost equal amounts of particles of antiparticles, except for a tiny asymmetry: one particle per 10 billion. As the universe cooled, the particles and antiparticles annihilated each other in equal numbers, and only a tiny number of particles remained; this tiny amount is all the stars and planets, and gas in today's universe, said Kusenko, who is also a senior scientist with the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe.

The research also is highlighted by Physical Review Letters in a commentary in the current issue.

The 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson particle was hailed as one of the great scientific accomplishments of recent decades. The Higgs boson was first postulated some 50 years ago as a crucial element of the modern theory of the forces of nature, and is, physicists say, what gives everything in the universe mass. Physicists at the LHC measured the particle's mass and found its value to be peculiar; it is consistent with the possibility that the Higgs field in the first moments of the Big Bang was much larger than its "equilibrium value" observed today.

The Higgs field "had to descend to the equilibrium, in a process of 'Higgs relaxation,'" said Kusenko, the lead author of the UCLA research.

Two of Kusenko's graduate students, Louis Yang of UCLA and Lauren Pearce of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, were co-authors of the study. The research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DE-SC0009937), the World Premier International Research Center Initiative in Japan and the National Science Foundation (PHYS-1066293).

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The above story is based on materials provided by University of California - Los Angeles. 

Another reason to drink wine: it could help you burn fat

The findings suggest that consuming dark-colored grapes, whether eating them or drinking juice or wine, might help people better manage obesity and related metabolic disorders such as fatty liver.

Neil Shay, a biochemist and molecular biologist in OSU's College of Agricultural Sciences, was part of a study team that exposed human liver and fat cells grown in the lab to extracts of four natural chemicals found in Muscadine grapes, a dark-red variety native to the southeastern United States.

One of the chemicals, ellagic acid, proved particularly potent: It dramatically slowed the growth of existing fat cells and formation of new ones, and it boosted metabolism of fatty acids in liver cells.

These plant chemicals are not a weight-loss miracle, cautions Shay. "We didn't find, and we didn't expect to, that these compounds would improve body weight," he said. But by boosting the burning of fat, especially in the liver, they may improve liver function in overweight people.

"If we could develop a dietary strategy for reducing the harmful accumulation of fat in the liver, using common foods like grapes," Shay said, "that would be good news."

The study, which Shay conducted with colleagues at the University of Florida and University of Nebraska, complements work with mice he leads at his OSU laboratory. In one 2013 trial, he and his graduate students supplemented the diets of overweight mice with extracts from Pinot noir grapes harvested from Corvallis-area vineyards.

Some of the mice were fed a normal diet of "mouse chow," as Shay calls it, containing 10 percent fat. The rest were fed a diet of 60 percent fat -- the sort of unhealthy diet that would pile excess pounds on a human frame.

"Our mice like that high-fat diet," said Shay, "and they overconsume it. So they're a good model for the sedentary person who eats too much snack food and doesn't get enough exercise."

The grape extracts, scaled down to a mouse's nutritional needs, were about the equivalent of one and a half cups of grapes a day for a person. "The portions are reasonable," said Shay, "which makes our results more applicable to the human diet."

Over a 10-week trial, the high-fat-fed mice developed fatty liver and diab

etic symptoms -- "the same metabolic consequences we see in many overweight, sedentary people," Shay said.

But the chubby mice that got the extracts accumulated less fat in their livers, and they had lower blood sugar, than those that consumed the high-fat diet alone. Ellagic acid proved to be a powerhouse in this experiment, too, lowering the high-fat-fed mice's blood sugar to nearly the levels of the lean, normally fed mice.

When Shay and his colleagues analyzed the tissues of the fat mice that ate the supplements, they noted higher activity levels of PPAR-alpha and PPAR-gamma, two proteins that work within cells to metabolize fat and sugar.

Shay hypothesizes that the ellagic acid and other chemicals bind to these PPAR-alpha and PPAR-gamma nuclear hormone receptors, causing them to switch on the genes that trigger the metabolism of dietary fat and glucose. Commonly prescribed drugs for lowering blood sugar and triglycerides act in this way, Shay said.

The goal of his work, he added, is not to replace needed medications but to guide people in choosing common, widely available foods that have particular health benefits, including boosting metabolic function.

"We are trying to validate the specific contributions of certain foods for health benefits," he said. "If you're out food shopping, and if you know a certain kind of fruit is good for a health condition you have, wouldn't you want to buy that fruit?"

The research was supported by the Institute of Food and Agricultural Science at the University of Florida and Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The study appears in the January issue of the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry.

Shay's research with mice was supported by the Blue Mountain Horticultural Society, the Erath Family Foundation, and the OSU College of Agricultural Sciences.

What does measles actually do?

The United States is now experiencing what promises to be one of the worst outbreaks of measles since the virus was declared eliminated from the country in 2000.  Itbegan in early January at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim,paramyxovirus from the genus Morbillivirus, is one of the most contagious diseases in the world, infecting more than 90% of susceptible hosts that come in contact with an afflicted individual. In the absence of widespread vaccination, the average person with measles will infect an average of 12 to 18 other people; in contrast, Ebola is typically transmitted to 1.5 to 2.5 people. Children, in particular, are more likely to experience complications as a result of a measles infection. Although the overall mortality rate for children who get measles is only between 0.1% and 0.2%, as many as one out of every 20 children will also develop pneumonia. The disease symptoms can be managed with common anti-inflammatory drugs, hydration, and rest, but like many other viral illnesses, there is no cure and antibiotics will have no effect. Death rates are much higher in developing countries.

California, and has since spread to 14 states and infected 84 people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Measles, caused by a

What does measles do to the immune system?

Measles virus is spread from person to person through the air in coughed-out aerosolized droplets that are inhaled. The virus typically first comes in contact with host lung tissue, where it infects immune cells called macrophages and dendritic cells, which serve as an early defense and warning system. From there, the infected cells migrate to the lymph nodes where they transfer the virus to B and T cells. A surface protein on these white blood cells, known as CD150, serves as the virus’s point of entry during this critical step. The infected B and T cells then migrate throughout the body releasing virus particles into the blood. The spleen, lymph nodes, liver, thymus, skin, and lungs are eventual destinations for the virus. In rare instances (about one in 1000 cases), the virus can cross the blood-brain barrier and cause dangerous swelling of the brain; infection of lung cells causes a hacking cough that keeps the virus circulating in the population.

Why does measles cause a rash?

One of the classic presentations of a measles infection is a rash characterized by flat red blotches that starts on the face and moves down the body all the way to the feet over a few days. The rash is a symptom of inflammation occurring in the skin. As the virus travels in the blood, it infects capillaries in the skin. Immune cells detect the infection and respond by releasing chemicals such as nitric oxide and histamines, which destroy the viral invaders and call other immune cells into action. These same chemicals, however, cause swelling and damage to host cells, resulting in the often itchy skin rash, which usually occurs concurrently with a fever that can reach as high as 40°C. 

Why is measles back?

Measles has actually been back. Last year was one of the worst years in recent history for the United States: CDC reported 644 cases from 23 separate outbreaks during 2014; between 2001 and 2013, no single year saw more than 250 cases. (Because measles was declared “eliminated” in the United States in 2000, outbreaks have been triggered by virus “imported” from other countries, which then finds an unvaccinated person.) With 84 people infected already in 2015, things are not off to the best start.

CDC

Number of measles infections each year from 2001 through 2014.

Part of the reason for the resurgence is a rise in the number of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children against the virus.Despite an overwhelming amount of scientific and medical evidence demonstrating both the safety and efficacy of the measles vaccine, some parents refuse to vaccinate their children for reasons of personal belief. The problem is compounded because many like-minded parents are geographically clustered. For the entire state of California, the vaccine refusal rate is only 2.6%, indicating that most citizens are cognizant of the benefits of immunization. However, a recent study of pediatric health records revealed that in some areas the vaccine refusal rate is as high as 13.5%. Other factors such as a lack of time, education, or money can cause parents to inadvertently fall behind on their children’s immunizations.

Disneyland provided an ideal starting point for an epidemic. In such a crowded atmosphere, a single infected individual might come in contact with hundreds or thousands of people in a day. Even if 90% of people are immunized, the virus’s high infectivity will allow it to spread through the population by jumping between susceptible individuals.

How can I protect my children from getting measles?

Get them vaccinated.