Relations between assemblages of carpological remains and modern vegetation in a shallow reservoir in southern Poland

This paper explores relations between assemblages of carpological remains and vegetation in and around a small, shallow reservoir in southern Poland. The study was conducted from 2006 to 2008. Quantity and distribution of species in the reservoir were recorded annually during the growing season. In October 2008, 40 samples of surface sediment (top 2 cm) were collected along transects at 10 m intervals. Samples of 100 cm3 were prepared for analysis of plant macroremains. Assemblages of carpological remains generally reflect local vegetation well. In some cases, however, even analysis of numerous samples failed to fully capture the species composition or reflect plant ratios in the parent phytocenosis. Reasons for this include factors that affect seed production, transport and fossilization, which differ among species. Among the best-represented macroremains were plants of the rush phytocenosis. In analysed samples, macroremains of 68.8 % of extant rushes were identified. Sixty percent of submerged and floating-leaf taxa were found in carpological samples, whereas 26.7 % of the trees and bushes were represented in sediment deposits. Species composition of phytocenoses in the reservoir and in surrounding areas was best reflected by macroremains from the nearby reed bed. Numbers of diaspores of Mentha aquatica, Hippuris vulgaris and Carex reflected well their relative abundance in phytocenoses. Chara sp., Juncus inflexus and Eupatorium cannabinum were overrepresented, whereas Typha latifolia and Sparganium minimum were poorly represented in relation to contemporary plant cover. There were no diaspores of Phragmites australis, which dominates the contemporary reed bed. Besides the shape of a reservoir, the key factor influencing diaspore numbers is distribution of plant cover. In many cases, single diaspores (Potentilla erecta, Myosotis scorpioides, Lythrum salicaria, Scutellaria galericulata), or higher concentrations (Hippuris vulgaris, Mentha aquatica, Eleocharis palustris, Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani, Chara sp.) reflected well the location of parent vegetation. The findings indicate that carpological remains in sediments can be an important source of information about plants in and around lakes. They generally reflect well local vegetation and in some cases may be used to identify taxa that dominated in the past

Pleosporales

One hundred and five generic types of Pleosporales are described and illustrated. A brief introduction and detailed history with short notes on morphology, molecular phylogeny as well as a general conclusion of each genus are provided. For those genera where the type or a representative specimen is unavailable, a brief note is given. Altogether 174 genera of Pleosporales are treated. Phaeotrichaceae as well as Kriegeriella, Zeuctomorpha and Muroia are excluded from Pleosporales. Based on the multigene phylogenetic analysis, the suborder Massarineae is emended to accommodate five families, viz. Lentitheciaceae, Massarinaceae, Montagnulaceae, Morosphaeriaceae and Trematosphaeriaceae

Human PrP90-231-induced cell death is associated with intracellular accumulation of insoluble and protease-resistant macroaggregates and lysosomal dysfunction

To define the mechanisms by which hPrP90-231 induces cell death, we analyzed its interaction with living cells and monitored its intracellular fate. Treatment of SH-SY5Y cells with fluorescein-5-isothiocyanate (FITC)-conjugated hPrP90-231 caused the accumulation of cytosolic aggregates of the prion protein fragment that increased in number and size in a time-dependent manner. The formation of large intracellular hPrP90-231 aggregates correlated with the activation of apoptosis. hPrP90-231 aggregates occurred within lysotracker-positive vesicles and induced the formation of activated cathepsin D (CD), indicating that hPrP90-231 is partitioned into the endosomal–lysosomal system structures, activating the proteolytic machinery. Remarkably, the inhibition of CD activity significantly reduced hPrP-90-231-dependent apoptosis. Internalized hPrP90-231 forms detergent-insoluble and SDS-stable aggregates, displaying partial resistance to proteolysis. By confocal microscopy analysis of lucifer yellow (LY) intracellular partition, we show that hPrP90-231 accumulation induces lysosome destabilization and loss of lysosomal membrane impermeability. In fact, although control cells evidenced a vesicular pattern of LY fluorescence (index of healthy lysosomes), hPrP90-231-treated cells showed diffuse cytosolic fluorescence, indicating LY diffusion through damaged lysosomes. In conclusion, these data indicate that exogenously added hPrP90-231 forms intralysosomal deposits having features of insoluble, protease-resistant aggregates and could trigger a lysosome-mediated apoptosis by inducing lysosome membrane permeabilization, followed by the release of hydrolytic enzymes

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles at high transverse momenta in PbPb collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV

The azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles in PbPb collisions at nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV is measured with the CMS detector at the LHC over an extended transverse momentum (pt) range up to approximately 60 GeV. The data cover both the low-pt region associated with hydrodynamic flow phenomena and the high-pt region where the anisotropies may reflect the path-length dependence of parton energy loss in the created medium. The anisotropy parameter (v2) of the particles is extracted by correlating charged tracks with respect to the event-plane reconstructed by using the energy deposited in forward-angle calorimeters. For the six bins of collision centrality studied, spanning the range of 0-60% most-central events, the observed v2 values are found to first increase with pt, reaching a maximum around pt = 3 GeV, and then to gradually decrease to almost zero, with the decline persisting up to at least pt = 40 GeV over the full centrality range measured.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Search for new physics with same-sign isolated dilepton events with jets and missing transverse energy

A search for new physics is performed in events with two same-sign isolated leptons, hadronic jets, and missing transverse energy in the final state. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.98 inverse femtobarns produced in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. This constitutes a factor of 140 increase in integrated luminosity over previously published results. The observed yields agree with the standard model predictions and thus no evidence for new physics is found. The observations are used to set upper limits on possible new physics contributions and to constrain supersymmetric models. To facilitate the interpretation of the data in a broader range of new physics scenarios, information on the event selection, detector response, and efficiencies is provided.Comment: Published in Physical Review Letter

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Measurement of the Forward-Backward Asymmetry in the B -> K(*) mu+ mu- Decay and First Observation of the Bs -> phi mu+ mu- Decay

We reconstruct the rare decays $B^+ \to K^+\mu^+\mu^-$, $B^0 \to K^{*}(892)^0\mu^+\mu^-$, and $B^0_s \to \phi(1020)\mu^+\mu^-$ in a data sample corresponding to $4.4 {\rm fb^{-1}}$ collected in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.96 {\rm TeV}$ by the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. Using $121 \pm 16$ $B^+ \to K^+\mu^+\mu^-$ and $101 \pm 12$ $B^0 \to K^{*0}\mu^+\mu^-$ decays we report the branching ratios. In addition, we report the measurement of the differential branching ratio and the muon forward-backward asymmetry in the $B^+$ and $B^0$ decay modes, and the $K^{*0}$ longitudinal polarization in the $B^0$ decay mode with respect to the squared dimuon mass. These are consistent with the theoretical prediction from the standard model, and most recent determinations from other experiments and of comparable accuracy. We also report the first observation of the $B^0_s \to \phi\mu^+\mu^- decay and measure its branching ratio${\mathcal{B}}(B^0_s \to \phi\mu^+\mu^-) = [1.44 \pm 0.33 \pm 0.46] \times 10^{-6}$using$27 \pm 6$signal events. This is currently the most rare$B^0_s$ decay observed.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let