A Monte Carlo Test of the Optimal Jet Definition

We summarize the Optimal Jet Definition and present the result of a benchmark Monte Carlo test based on the W-boson mass extraction from fully hadronic decays of pairs of W's.Comment: 7 pages, talk given at Lake Louise Winter Institute: "Particles and the Universe", Lake Louise, Canada, February 16-22, 2003, to be published in the proceeding

Debye mass and heavy quark potential in a PNJL quark plasma

We calculate the Debye mass for the screening of the heavy quark potential in a plasma of massless quarks coupled to the temporal gluon background governed by the Polyakov loop potential within the PNJL model in RPA approximation. We give a physical motivation for a recent phenomenological fit of lattice data by applying the calculated Debye mass with its suppression in the confined phase due to the Polyakov-loop to a description of the temperature dependence of the singlet free energy for QCD with a heavy quark pair at infinite separation. We compare the result to lattice data.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, contribution to Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on "Critical Point and Onset of Deconfinement", to appear in Phys. At. Nucl., vol. 7

Optimal Jet Finder

We describe a FORTRAN 77 implementation of the optimal jet definition for identification of jets in hadronic final states of particle collisions. We discuss details of the implementation, explain interface subroutines and provide a usage example. The source code is available from http://www.inr.ac.ru/~ftkachov/projects/jets/Comment: version to appear in Comp. Phys. Commun., 36 page

The olive biophenols oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol selectively reduce proliferation, influence the cell cycle, and induce apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells

Current chemotherapy drugs for pancreatic cancer only offer an increase in survival of up to six months. Additionally, they are highly toxic to normal tissues, drastically affecting the quality of life of patients. Therefore, the search for novel agents, which induce apoptosis in cancer cells while displaying limited toxicity towards normal cells, is paramount. The olive biophenols, oleuropein, hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol, have displayed cytotoxicity towards cancer cells without affecting non-tumorigenic cells in cancers of the breast and prostate. However, their activity in pancreatic cancer has not been investigated. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the anti-pancreatic cancer potential of oleuropein, hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol. Pancreatic cancer cells (MIA PaCa-2, BxPC-3, and CFPAC-1) and non-tumorigenic pancreas cells (HPDE) were treated with oleuropein, hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol to determine their effect on cell viability. Oleuropein displayed selective toxicity towards MIA PaCa-2 cells and hydroxytyrosol towards MIA PaCa-2 and HPDE cells. Subsequent analysis of Bcl-2 family proteins and caspase 3/7 activation determined that oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol induced apoptosis in MIA PaCa-2 cells, while oleuropein displayed a protective effect on HPDE cells. Gene expression analysis revealed putative mechanisms of action, which suggested that c-Jun and c-Fos are involved in oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol induced apoptosis of MIA PaCa-2 cells

Polyethylene glycol and prevalence of colorectal adenomas : Population-based study of 1165 patients undergoing colonoscopy

Background and aim — Dietary polyethylene glycol (PEG) is extraordinarily potent in the chemoprevention of experimental colon carcinogenesis. PEG is used to treat constipation in France and in the USA. French laxatives include Forlax® (PEG4000), Movicol® and Transipeg® (PEG3350), and Idrocol® (pluronic F68). This study tests the hypothesis that use of a PEG-based laxative might reduce the prevalence of colorectal tumors. Methods — In this population-based study, consecutive patients attending for routine total colonoscopy were enrolled during four months by the gastroenterologists of Indre-et-Loire. They were asked if they had previously taken a laxative or a NSAID. Age, gender, previous polyps, family history of colorectal cancer, constipation, digestive symptoms were also recorded. Tumors found during colonoscopy were categorized histologically. Results — Records from 1165 patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria, 607 women and 498 men, mean age 58.3. Among those, 813 had no tumor, 329 had adenomas, and 23 had carcinomas. In a univariate analysis, older age, male gender, lack of digestive symptom, and previous polyps were more common in patients with colorectal tumors. In contrast, previous Forlax® intake was more common in tumor-free patients (odds ratio (OR) any use/no use, 0.52; 95% confidence interval, 0.27-0.94). More people used Forlax®, which contains a higher dose of PEG than the other PEGlaxatives, whose ORs were smaller than one, but did not reach significance. In multivariate analysis, older age and male gender were associated with higher risk, and NSAIDs use with lower risk, of colorectal tumors. Conclusion — Forlax® users had a halved risk of colorectal tumors in univariate analysis, which suggests that PEG may prevent carcinogenesis

Limits on the Mass, Velocity and Orbit of PSR J1933−-6211

We present a high-precision timing analysis of PSR J1933$-$6211, a millisecond pulsar (MSP) with a 3.5-ms spin period and a white dwarf (WD) companion, using data from the Parkes radio telescope. Since we have accurately measured the polarization properties of this pulsar we have applied the matrix template matching approach in which the times of arrival are measured using full polarimetric information. We achieved a weighted root-mean-square timing residuals (rms) of the timing residuals of 1.23 $\rm \mu s$, 15.5$\%$ improvement compared to the total intensity timing analysis. After studying the scintillation properties of this pulsar we put constraints on the inclination angle of the system. Based on these measurements and on $\chi^2$ mapping we put a 2-$\sigma$ upper limit on the companion mass (0.44 M$_\odot$). Since this mass limit cannot reveal the nature of the companion we further investigate the possibility of the companion to be a He WD. Applying the orbital period-mass relation for such WDs, we conclude that the mass of a He WD companion would be about 0.26$\pm$0.01 M$_\odot$ which, combined with the measured mass function and orbital inclination limits, would lead to a light pulsar mass $\leqslant$ 1.0 M$_\odot$. This result seems unlikely based on current neutron star formation models and we therefore conclude that PSR J1933$-$6211 most likely has a CO WD companion, which allows for a solution with a more massive pulsar

The produced waters of oil deposits in Tomsk region: its use for iodine industrial production

In world practice, groundwater is the main raw material for iodine production. In the current geopolitical conditions, a significant part of the traditional areas of iodine production is located outside the Russian Federation. As iodine is biogenic by its origin, it associates with oil and petroleum water. Therefore, the produced waters of oil deposits of Western Siberia acquire the leading role as the raw-material base for iodine production

Reinforcement of wood with natural fibers

This paper describes an experimental programme which examines the reinforcement in flexure of timber beams with composite materials based on natural fibers in the form of fabrics made from hemp, flax, basalt and bamboo fibers. The industrial use of natural fibers has been continuously increasing since 1990s due to their advantages in terms of production costs, pollution emissions and energy consumption for production and disposal. The technique allows the reinforcement of the intrados of beams, avoiding the dismantling of the overlying part of the structure with significant savings in terms of costs and work time. The test program consists of three phases incorporating 45 beams. The bending tests on the wooden elements made it possible to measure the increase in capacity and stiffness resulting from the composite reinforcement. This was applied to beams, creating different arrangements and using different quantities (number of layers). Despite the diversity of the various tests carried out, the results obtained in some cases showed significant increases in terms of load-carrying capacity and in deflection ductility

A New 5 Flavour NLO Analysis and Parametrizations of Parton Distributions of the Real Photon

New, radiatively generated, NLO quark (u,d,s,c,b) and gluon densities in a real, unpolarized photon are presented. We perform three global fits, based on the NLO DGLAP evolution equations for Q^2>1 GeV^2, to all the available structure function F_2^gamma(x,Q^2) data. As in our previous LO analysis we utilize two theoretical approaches. Two models, denoted as FFNS_{CJK}1 & 2 NLO, adopt the so-called Fixed Flavour-Number Scheme for calculation of the heavy-quark contributions to F_2^gamma(x,Q^2), the CJK NLO model applies the ACOT(chi) scheme. We examine the results of our fits by a comparison with the LEP data for the Q^2 dependence of the F_2^gamma, averaged over various x-regions, and the F_2,c^gamma. Grid parametrizations of the parton densities for all fits are provided.Comment: 49 pages, 27 postscript figures; FORTRAN programs available at http://www.fuw.edu.pl/~pjank/param.htm