The BIOEXPLOIT Project

The EU Framework 6 Integrated Project BIOEXPLOIT concerns the exploitation of natural plant biodiversity for the pesticide-free production of food. It focuses on the pathogens Phytophthora infestans, Septoria tritici, Blumeria graminis, Puccinia spp. and Fusarium spp. and on the crops wheat, barley, tomato and potato. The project commenced in October 2005, comprises 45 laboratories in 12 countries, and is carried out by partners from research institutes, universities, private companies and small-medium enterprises. The project has four strategic objectives covered in eight sub-projects. These objectives relate to (i) understanding the molecular components involved in durable disease resistance, (ii) exploring and exploiting the natural biodiversity in disease resistance, (iii) accelerating the introduction of marker-assisted breeding and genetic engineering in the EU plant breeding industry, and (iv) coordinating and integrating resistance breeding research, providing training in new technologies, disseminating the results, and transferring knowledge and technologies to the industry

Strong coupling constant from bottomonium fine structure

From a fit to the experimental data on the $b\bar{b}$ fine structure, the two-loop coupling constant is extracted. For the 1P state the fitted value is $\alpha_s(\mu_1) = 0.33 \pm 0.01(exp)\pm 0.02 (th)$ at the scale $\mu_1 = 1.8 \pm 0.1$ GeV, which corresponds to the QCD constant $\Lambda^{(4)}(2-loop) = 338 \pm 30$ MeV (n_f = 4) and $\alpha_s(M_Z) = 0.119 \pm 0.002. For the 2P state the value$\alpha_s(\mu_2) = 0.40 \pm 0.02(exp)\pm 0.02(th)$at the scale$\mu_2 = 1.02 \pm 0.2$GeV is extracted, which is significantly larger than in the previous analysis of Fulcher (1991) and Halzen (1993), but about 30smaller than the value given by standard perturbation theory. This value$\alpha_s(1.0) \approx 0.40$can be obtained in the framework of the background perturbation theory, thus demonstrating the freezing of$\alpha_s$. The relativistic corrections to$\alpha_s$ are found to be about 15%.Comment: 18 pages LaTe

The leptonic widths of high ψ\psi-resonances in unitary coupled-channel model

The leptonic widths of high $\psi$-resonances are calculated in a coupled-channel model with unitary inelasticity, where analytical expressions for mixing angles between (n+1)\,^3S_1 and n\,^3D_1 states and probabilities $Z_i$ of the $c\bar c$ component are derived. Since these factors depend on energy (mass), different values of mixing angles $\theta(\psi(4040))=27.7^\circ$ and $\theta(\psi(4160))=29.5^\circ$, $Z_1\,(\psi(4040))=0.76$, and $Z_2\,(\psi(4160))=0.62$ are obtained. It gives the leptonic widths $\Gamma_{ee}(\psi(4040))=Z_1\, 1.17=0.89$~keV, $\Gamma_{ee}(\psi(4160))=Z_2\, 0.76=0.47$~keV in good agreement with experiment. For $\psi(4415)$ the leptonic width $\Gamma_{ee}(\psi(4415))=~0.55$~keV is calculated, while for the missing resonance $\psi(4510)$ we predict $M(\psi(4500))=(4515\pm 5)$~MeV and $\Gamma_{ee}(\psi(4510)) \cong 0.50$~keV.Comment: 10 pages, 6 references corrected, some new material adde

Higher excitations of the DD and DsD_s mesons

The masses of higher $D(nL)$ and $D_s(nL)$ excitations are shown to decrease due to the string contribution, originating from the rotation of the QCD string itself: it lowers the masses by 45 MeV for $L=2 (n=1)$ and by 65 MeV for $L=3 (n=1)$. An additional decrease $\sim 100$ MeV takes place if the current mass of the light (strange) quark is used in a relativistic model. For $D_s(1\,{}^3D_3)$ and $D_s(2P_1^H)$ the calculated masses agree with the experimental values for $D_s(2860)$ and $D_s(3040)$, and the masses of $D(2\,{}^1S_0)$, $D(2\,{}^3S_1)$, $D(1\,{}^3D_3)$, and $D(1D_2)$ are in agreement with the new BaBar data. For the yet undiscovered resonances we predict the masses $M(D(2\,{}^3P_2))=2965$ MeV, $M(D(2\,{}^3P_0))=2880$ MeV, $M(D(1\,{}^3F_4))=3030$ MeV, and $M(D_s(1\,{}^3F_2))=3090$ MeV. We show that for $L=2,3$ the states with $j_q=l+1/2$ and $j_q=l-1/2$ ($J=l$) are almost completely unmixed ($\phi\simeq -1^\circ$), which implies that the mixing angles $\theta$ between the states with S=1 and S=0 ($J=L$) are $\theta\approx 40^\circ$ for L=2 and $\approx 42^\circ$ for L=3.Comment: 22 pages, no figures, 4 tables Two references and corresponding discussion adde

The heavy-quark pole masses in the Hamiltonian approach

From the fact that the nonperturbative self-energy contribution $C_{\rm SE}$ to the heavy meson mass is small: $C_{\rm SE}(b\bar{b})=0$; $C_{\rm SE}(c\bar{c})\cong -40$ MeV \cite{ref.01}, strong restrictions on the pole masses $m_b$ and $m_c$ are obtained. The analysis of the $b\bar{b}$ and the $c\bar{c}$ spectra with the use of relativistic (string) Hamiltonian gives $m_b$(2-loop)$=4.78\pm 0.05$ GeV and $m_c$(2-loop)$=1.39 \pm 0.06$ GeV which correspond to the $\bar{\rm MS}$ running mass $\bar{m}_b(\bar{m}_b)=4.19\pm 0.04$ GeV and $\bar{m}_c(\bar{m}_c)=1.10\pm 0.05$ GeV. The masses $\omega_c$ and $\omega_b$, which define the heavy quarkonia spin structure, are shown to be by $\sim 200$ MeV larger than the pole ones.Comment: 18 pages, no figures, 8 table

Light meson radial Regge trajectories

A new physical mechanism is suggested to explain the universal depletion of high meson excitations. It takes into account the appearance of holes inside the string world sheet due to $q\bar{q}$ pair creation when the length of the string exceeds the critical value $R_1 \simeq 1.4$ fm. It is argued that a delicate balance between large $N_c$ loop suppression and a favorable gain in the action, produced by holes, creates a new metastable (predecay) stage with a renormalized string tension which now depends on the separation r. This results in smaller values of the slope of the radial Regge trajectories, in good agreement with the analysis of experimental data in [Ref.3]Comment: 25 pages, 1 figur

The ccˉc\bar c interaction above threshold and the radiative decay X(3872)→J/ψγX(3872)\rightarrow J/\psi\gamma

Radiative decays of $X(3872)$ are studied in single-channel approximation (SCA) and in the coupled-channel (CC) approach, where the decay channels $D\bar D^*$ are described with the string breaking mechanism. In SCA the transition rate $\tilde{\Gamma}_2=\Gamma(2\,{}^3P_1 \rightarrow \psi\gamma)=71.8$~keV and large $\tilde{\Gamma}_1=\Gamma(2\,{}^3P_1\rightarrow J/\psi\gamma)=85.4$~keV are obtained, giving for their ratio the value $\tilde{R_{\psi\gamma}}=\frac{\tilde{\Gamma}_2}{\tilde{\Gamma}_1}=0.84$. In the CC approach three factors are shown to be equally important. First, the admixture of the $1\,{}^3P_1$ component in the normalized wave function of $X(3872)$ due to the CC effects. Its weight $c_{\rm X}(E_{\rm R})=0.200\pm 0.015$ is calculated. Secondly, the use of the multipole function $g(r)$ instead of $r$ in the overlap integrals, determining the partial widths. Thirdly, the choice of the gluon-exchange interaction for $X(3872)$, as well as for other states above threshold. If for $X(3872)$ the gluon-exchange potential is taken the same as for low-lying charmonium states, then in the CC approach $\Gamma_1= \Gamma(X(3872)\rightarrow J/\psi\gamma) \sim 3$~keV is very small, giving the large ratio $R_{\psi\gamma}=\frac{\mathcal{B}(X(3872)\rightarrow \psi(2S)\gamma)}{\mathcal{B}(X(3872)\rightarrow J/\psi\gamma)}\gg 1.0$. Arguments are presented why the gluon-exchange interaction may be suppressed for $X(3872)$ and in this case $\Gamma_1=42.7$~keV, $\Gamma_2= 70.5$~keV, and $R_{\psi\gamma}=1.65$ are predicted for the minimal value $c_{\rm X}({\rm min})=0.185$, while for the maximal value $c_{\rm X}=0.215$ we obtained $\Gamma_1=30.8$~keV, $\Gamma_2=73.2$~keV, and $R_{\psi\gamma}=2.38$, which agrees with the LHCb data.Comment: 12 pages, no figure

Health Planner Pigs as an Instrument for Monitoring and Evaluation of Animal Health Care on Pig Farms

In order to support animal health care on pig farms a Health Planner Pigs has been developed. In 1998 the practical value of the system was tested under field condition on pig farms. The Health Planner proved to be a valuable instrument for monitoring and evaluating animal health on pig farms. Due to the promising results of the field experiment, the Dutch Farmers Organisation (LTO-Nederland) in 1999 adopted the system and coordinates its adaptation and introduction into practice. In 2001, veterinarians and farm advisers has been educated in using the Health Planner. Some parts of the Health Planner will be automised and linked to existing farm management information systems. In 2002, farmers will be educated in the use of it.Farm Management, Livestock Production/Industries,

Flexible nurse staffing based on hourly bed census predictions

Workload on nursing wards depends highly on patient arrivals and patient lengths of stay, which are both inherently variable. Predicting this workload and staffing nurses accordingly is essential for guaranteeing quality of care in a cost effective manner. This paper introduces a stochastic method that uses hourly census predictions to derive efficient nurse staffing policies. The generic analytic approach minimizes staffing levels while satisfying so-called nurse-to-patient ratios. In particular, we explore the potential of flexible staffing policies which allow hospitals to dynamically respond to their fluctuating patient population by employing float nurses. The method is applied to a case study of the surgical inpatient clinic of the Academic Medical Center (AMC) Amsterdam. This case study demonstrates the method's potential to study the complex interaction between staffing requirements and several interrelated planning issues such as case mix, care unit partitioning and size, and surgical block planning. Inspired by the numerical results, the AMC decided that this flexible nurse staffing methodology will be incorporated in the redesign of the inpatient care operations during the upcoming years