Optimisation of biomass, exopolysaccharide and intracellular polysaccharide production from the mycelium of an identified Ganoderma lucidum strain QRS 5120 using response surface methodology

Wild-cultivated medicinal mushroom Ganoderma lucidum was morphologically identified and sequenced using phylogenetic software. In submerged-liquid fermentation (SLF), biomass, exopolysaccharide (EPS) and intracellular polysaccharide (IPS) production of the identified G. lucidum was optimised based on initial pH, starting glucose concentration and agitation rate parameters using response surface methodology (RSM). Molecularly, the G. lucidum strain QRS 5120 generated 637 base pairs, which was commensurate with related Ganoderma species. In RSM, by applying central composite design (CCD), a polynomial model was fitted to the experimental data and was found to be significant in all parameters investigated. The strongest effect (p lt 0.0001) was observed for initial pH for biomass, EPS and IPS production, while agitation showed a significant value (p lt 0.005) for biomass. By applying the optimized conditions, the model was validated and generated 5.12 g/L of biomass (initial pH 4.01, 32.09 g/L of glucose and 102 rpm), 2.49 g/L EPS (initial pH 4, 24.25 g/L of glucose and 110 rpm) and 1.52 g/L of IPS (and initial pH 4, 40.43 g/L of glucose, 103 rpm) in 500 mL shake flask fermentation. The optimized parameters can be upscaled for efficient biomass, EPS and IPS production using G. lucidum

MicroMotility: State of the art, recent accomplishments and perspectives on the mathematical modeling of bio-motility at microscopic scales

Mathematical modeling and quantitative study of biological motility (in particular, of motility at microscopic scales) is producing new biophysical insight and is offering opportunities for new discoveries at the level of both fundamental science and technology. These range from the explanation of how complex behavior at the level of a single organism emerges from body architecture, to the understanding of collective phenomena in groups of organisms and tissues, and of how these forms of swarm intelligence can be controlled and harnessed in engineering applications, to the elucidation of processes of fundamental biological relevance at the cellular and sub-cellular level. In this paper, some of the most exciting new developments in the fields of locomotion of unicellular organisms, of soft adhesive locomotion across scales, of the study of pore translocation properties of knotted DNA, of the development of synthetic active solid sheets, of the mechanics of the unjamming transition in dense cell collectives, of the mechanics of cell sheet folding in volvocalean algae, and of the self-propulsion of topological defects in active matter are discussed. For each of these topics, we provide a brief state of the art, an example of recent achievements, and some directions for future research

Design, construction and operation of the ProtoDUNE-SP Liquid Argon TPC

The ProtoDUNE-SP detector is a single-phase liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) that was constructed and operated in the CERN North Area at the end of the H4 beamline. This detector is a prototype for the first far detector module of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), which will be constructed at the Sandford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota, U.S.A. The ProtoDUNE-SP detector incorporates full-size components as designed for DUNE and has an active volume of 7 × 6 × 7.2 m3. The H4 beam delivers incident particles with well-measured momenta and high-purity particle identification. ProtoDUNE-SP\u27s successful operation between 2018 and 2020 demonstrates the effectiveness of the single-phase far detector design. This paper describes the design, construction, assembly and operation of the detector components

Search for the standard model higgs boson produced in association with top quarks and decaying into bb in pp collisions at root s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for the Standard Model Higgs boson produced in association with a top-quark pair, t ¯tH, is presented. The analysis uses 20.3 fb−1 √ of pp collision data at s = 8 TeV, collected with theATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider during 2012. The search is designed for the H → b¯b decay mode and uses events containing one or two electrons or muons. In order to improve the sensitivity of the search, events are categorised according to their jet and b-tagged jet multiplicities. A neural network is used to discriminate between signal and background events, the latter being dominated by t ¯t+jets production. In the single-lepton channel, variables calculated using a matrix element method are included as inputs to the neural network to improve discrimination of the irreducible t ¯t+b¯b background. No significant excess of events above the background expectation is found and an observed (expected) limit of 3.4 (2.2) times the StandardModel cross section is obtained at 95% confidence level. The ratio of the measured t ¯tH signal cross section to the StandardModel expectation is found to be μ = 1.5±1.1 assuming a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV .G. Aad ... P. Jackson ... L. Lee ... A. Petridis ... N. Soni ... M.J. White ... et al. (ATLAS Collaboration

Searching for solar KDAR with DUNE

The observation of 236 MeV muon neutrinos from kaon-decay-at-rest (KDAR) originating in the core of the Sun would provide a unique signature of dark matter annihilation. Since excellent angle and energy reconstruction are necessary to detect this monoenergetic, directional neutrino flux, DUNE with its vast volume and reconstruction capabilities, is a promising candidate for a KDAR neutrino search. In this work, we evaluate the proposed KDAR neutrino search strategies by realistically modeling both neutrino-nucleus interactions and the response of DUNE. We find that, although reconstruction of the neutrino energy and direction is difficult with current techniques in the relevant energy range, the superb energy resolution, angular resolution, and particle identification offered by DUNE can still permit great signal/background discrimination. Moreover, there are non-standard scenarios in which searches at DUNE for KDAR in the Sun can probe dark matter interactions

Search for invisible decays of the Higgs boson produced in association with a hadronically decaying vector boson pp collisions at root s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for Higgs boson decays to invisible particles is performed using 20.3 fb−1 of pp collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The process considered is Higgs boson production in association with a vector boson (V = W or Z) that decays hadronically, resulting in events with two or more jets and large missing transverse momentum. No excess of candidates is observed in the data over the background expectation. The results are used to constrain V H production followed by H decaying to invisible particles for the Higgs boson mass range 115 < mH < 300 GeV. The 95%confidence-level observed upper limit on σV H × BR(H → inv.) varies from 1.6 pb at 115 GeV to 0.13 pb at 300 GeV. Assuming Standard Model production and including the gg → H contribution as signal, the results also lead to an observed upper limit of 78%at 95%confidence level on the branching ratio of Higgs bosons decays to invisible particles at a mass of 125 GeV.G. Aad ... P. Jackson ... L. Lee ... A. Petridis ... N. Soni ... M.J. White ... et al. (ATLAS Collaboration

Search for new phenomena in dijet angular distributions in proton-proton collisions at root s =8 TeV measured with the ATLAS detector

A search for new phenomena in LHC proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt[s]=8 TeV was performed with the ATLAS detector using an integrated luminosity of 17.3 fb^{-1}. The angular distributions are studied in events with at least two jets; the highest dijet mass observed is 5.5 TeV. All angular distributions are consistent with the predictions of the standard model. In a benchmark model of quark contact interactions, a compositeness scale below 8.1 TeV in a destructive interference scenario and 12.0 TeV in a constructive interference scenario is excluded at 95% C.L.; median expected limits are 8.9 TeV for the destructive interference scenario and 14.1 TeV for the constructive interference scenario.G. Aad … P. Jackson … L. Lee … A. Petridis … N. Soni ... M. White ... et al. (The ATLAS Collaboration

Bose-Einstein correlations in pp collisions at 400 GeV/c

Bose-Einstein correlations among identically charged pions produced inpp collisions at 400 GeV/c are studied using the EHS spectrometer. Empoying the Kopylov-Podgoretskii parametrization, the average size of the emitting region rk and its lifetime &#964; for pion production were determined to be rk=1.71 &#177; 0.04 fm and c &#964;=0.89&#177; 0.05fm. The average sizer g in terms of the Lorentz invariant Goldhaber parametrization was determined to be rg=1.20&#177;0.03fm. A decrease of the size with increasing momentum of the pions was observed. The size and the incoherence parameter of the pion emitting region were determined as a function of the charged particle multiplicity and the momentum of the pions. Identified charged kaons were used to study Bose-Einstein correlations among identically charged kaons K&#177; K&#177; . The average size of the emitting region for kaon production was determined to be rk=1.87&#177; 0.33fm in terms of the Kopylov-Podgoretskii parametrization. A study of the influence of a reference sample is presented

Inclusive particle production in 400 GeV/c pp-interactions

We report on a study of inclusive particle production in pp-interactions at 400 GeV/c. The data are based on 472 K reconstructed events recorded in the NA 27 experiment using the LEBC-EHS facility at CERN. The production cross sections are determined of pseudo scalar (&#960;&#177; ,0,&#951; and K&#177;), scalar (f 0(975)), vector (&#961;&#177; ,0(770),&#969; (783), &#934; (1020),K&#8727; 0(892), and K&#8727; 0 (892)), and tensor f0 mesons, of protons and antiprotons, and the &#916;++,+,0(1232), and &#923;(1520) baryon resonances in the forward hemisphere of the center of mass system, as well as longitudinal and transverse momentum distributions. The results are compared with predictions of the FRITIOF model and with other experimental data

Hydrodynamical Description of 200 A GeV/c S+Au Collisions: Hadron and Electromagnetic Spectra

We study relativistic S+Au collisions at 200 A GeV/c using a hydrodynamical approach. We test various equations of state (EOSs), which are used to describe the strongly interacting matter at densities attainable in the CERN-SPS heavy ion experiments. For each EOS, suitable initial conditions can be determined to reproduce the experimental hadron spectra; this emphasizes the ambiguity between the initial conditions and the EOS in such an approach. Simultaneously, we calculate the resulting thermal photon and dielectron spectra, and compare with experiments. If one allows the excitation of resonance states with increasing temperature, the electro-magnetic signals from scenarios with and without phase transition are very similar and are not resolvable within the current experimental resolution. With regard to the CERES dilepton data, none of the EOSs considered, in conjunction with the standard leading order dilepton rates, succeed in reproducing the observed excess of dileptons below the rho peak. Our work, however, suggests that an improved measurement of the photon and dilepton spectra has the potential to strongly constrain the EOS.Comment: Uses REVTeX, 48 pages, 13 Postscript figure