Distribution of melanopsin positive neurons in pigmented and albino mice: evidence for melanopsin interneurons in the mouse retina.

Here we have studied the population of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) in adult pigmented and albino mice. Our data show that although pigmented (C57Bl/6) and albino (Swiss) mice have a similar total number of ipRGCs, their distribution is slightly different: while in pigmented mice ipRGCs are more abundant in the temporal retina, in albinos the ipRGCs are more abundant in superior retina. In both strains, ipRGCs are located in the retinal periphery, in the areas of lower Brn3a(+)RGC density. Both strains also contain displaced ipRGCs (d-ipRGCs) in the inner nuclear layer (INL) that account for 14% of total ipRGCs in pigmented mice and 5% in albinos. Tracing from both superior colliculli shows that 98% (pigmented) and 97% (albino) of the total ipRGCs, become retrogradely labeled, while double immunodetection of melanopsin and Brn3a confirms that few ipRGCs express this transcription factor in mice. Rather surprisingly, application of a retrograde tracer to the optic nerve (ON) labels all ipRGCs, except for a sub-population of the d-ipRGCs (14% in pigmented and 28% in albino, respectively) and melanopsin positive cells residing in the ciliary marginal zone (CMZ) of the retina. In the CMZ, between 20% (pigmented) and 24% (albino) of the melanopsin positive cells are unlabeled by the tracer and we suggest that this may be because they fail to send an axon into the ON. As such, this study provides the first evidence for a population of melanopsin interneurons in the mammalian retina

The non-singlet kaon fragmentation function from e^+e^- kaon production

We perform fits to the available charged and neutral kaon production data in $e^++e^-\to K+X$, $K=K^\pm and K^0_S$, and determine the non-singlet combination of kaon fragmentation functions $D_u^{K^\pm}-D_d^{K^\pm}$ in a model independent way and without any correlations to the other fragmentation functions. Only nuclear isospin invariance is assumed. Working with non-singlets allows us to include the data at very low momentum fractions, which have so far been excluded in global fits, and to perform a first NNLO fit to fragmentation functions. We find that the kaon non-singlet fragmentation function at large $z$ is larger than that obtained by the other collaborations from global fit analysis and differs significantly at low $z$

Simulation in manufacturing and business: A review

Copyright @ 2009 Elsevier B.V.This paper reports the results of a review of simulation applications published within peer-reviewed literature between 1997 and 2006 to provide an up-to-date picture of the role of simulation techniques within manufacturing and business. The review is characterised by three factors: wide coverage, broad scope of the simulation techniques, and a focus on real-world applications. A structured methodology was followed to narrow down the search from around 20,000 papers to 281. Results include interesting trends and patterns. For instance, although discrete event simulation is the most popular technique, it has lower stakeholder engagement than other techniques, such as system dynamics or gaming. This is highly correlated with modelling lead time and purpose. Considering application areas, modelling is mostly used in scheduling. Finally, this review shows an increasing interest in hybrid modelling as an approach to cope with complex enterprise-wide systems

Gluon distribution in proton at soft and hard pp collisions

We analyze the inclusive spectra of hadrons produced in $pp$ collisions at high energies in the mid-rapidity region within the soft QCD and perturbative QCD assuming the possible creation of the soft gluons at low intrinsic transverse momenta $k_t$. From the best description of the LHC data we found the parametrization of the unintegrated gluon distribution which at low $k_t$ is different from the one obtained within the perturbative QCD.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. Talk given the 5th joint International HADRON STRUCTURE '11 Conference (HS'11), Tatransk\'a Strba, Slovakia, June 27th - July 1st, 201

NLO photon parton parametrization using ee and ep data

An NLO photon parton parametrization is presented based on the existing $F_2^\gamma$ measurements from $e^+e^-$ data and the low-$x$ proton structure function from $ep$ interactions. Also included in the extraction of the NLO parton distribution functions are the dijets data coming from $\gamma p \to j_1 + j_2 +X$. The new parametrization is compared to other NLO parametrizations.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, 2 table

Medium-modified DGLAP evolution of fragmentation functions from large to small x

The unified description of fragmentation function evolution from large to small x which was developed for the vacuum in previous publications is now generalized to the medium, and is studied for the case in which the complete contribution from the largest class of soft gluon logarithms, the double logarithms, are accounted for and with the fixed order part calculated to leading order. In this approach it proves possible to choose the remaining degrees of freedom related to the medium such that the distribution of produced hadrons is suppressed at large momenta while the production of soft radiation-induced charged hadrons at small momenta is enhanced, in agreement with experiment. Just as for the vacuum, our approach does not require further assumptions concerning fragmentation and is more complete than previous computations of evolution in the medium

Cronin effect for protons and pions in pA collisions

Pions and protons production cross-sections are analyzed in proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions at the RHIC energy at midrapidity. We employ the pQCD factorization scheme supplemented with the color-dipole formalism to investigate the Cronin effect. We calculate the broadening in the color-dipole approach for different centralities. Our main goal is to investigate, in a parameter-free manner within a unified framework, how much of the cronin effect for both pions and baryons comes from the transverse momentum broadening due to initial partons multi-scatterings. We conclude that final-state effects in pA collisions are important. Uncertainties in nuclear shadowing of various parton distributions and parton fragmentation functions are also discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure