1,048 research outputs found
In search of the authentic nation: landscape and national identity in Canada and Switzerland
While the study of nationalism and national identity has flourished in the last decade, little attention has been devoted to the conditions under which natural environments acquire significance in definitions of nationhood. This article examines the identity-forming role of landscape depictions in two polyethnic nation-states: Canada and Switzerland. Two types of geographical national identity are identified. The first â what we call the ânationalisation of natureââ portrays zarticular landscapes as expressions of national authenticity. The second pattern â what we refer to as the ânaturalisation of the nationââ rests upon a notion of geographical determinism that depicts specific landscapes as forces capable of determining national identity. The authors offer two reasons why the second pattern came to prevail in the cases under consideration: (1) the affinity between wild landscape and the Romantic ideal of pure, rugged nature, and (2) a divergence between the nationalist ideal of ethnic homogeneity and the polyethnic composition of the two societies under consideration
Possibility for reverse zoonotic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to free-ranging wildlife: a case study of bats
The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the substantial public health, economic, and societal consequences of virus spillover from a wildlife reservoir. Widespread human transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) also presents a new set of challenges when considering viral spillover from people to naĂŻve wildlife and other animal populations. The establishment of new wildlife reservoirs for SARS-CoV-2 would further complicate public health control measures and could lead to wildlife health and conservation impacts. Given the likely bat origin of SARS-CoV-2 and related beta-coronaviruses (ÎČ-CoVs), free-ranging bats are a key group of concern for spillover from humans back to wildlife. Here, we review the diversity and natural host range of ÎČ-CoVs in bats and examine the risk of humans inadvertently infecting free-ranging bats with SARS-CoV-2. Our review of the global distribution and host range of ÎČ-CoV evolutionary lineages suggests that 40+ species of temperate-zone North American bats could be immunologically naĂŻve and susceptible to infection by SARS-CoV-2. We highlight an urgent need to proactively connect the wellbeing of human and wildlife health during the current pandemic and to implement new tools to continue wildlife research while avoiding potentially severe health and conservation impacts of SARS-CoV-2 "spilling back" into free-ranging bat populations
Possibility for reverse zoonotic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to free-ranging wildlife: a case study of bats
The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the substantial public health, economic, and societal consequences of virus spillover from a wildlife reservoir. Widespread human transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) also presents a new set of challenges when considering viral spillover from people to naĂŻve wildlife and other animal populations. The establishment of new wildlife reservoirs for SARS-CoV-2 would further complicate public health control measures and could lead to wildlife health and conservation impacts. Given the likely bat origin of SARS-CoV-2 and related beta-coronaviruses (ÎČ-CoVs), free-ranging bats are a key group of concern for spillover from humans back to wildlife. Here, we review the diversity and natural host range of ÎČ-CoVs in bats and examine the risk of humans inadvertently infecting free-ranging bats with SARS-CoV-2. Our review of the global distribution and host range of ÎČ-CoV evolutionary lineages suggests that 40+ species of temperate-zone North American bats could be immunologically naĂŻve and susceptible to infection by SARS-CoV-2. We highlight an urgent need to proactively connect the wellbeing of human and wildlife health during the current pandemic and to implement new tools to continue wildlife research while avoiding potentially severe health and conservation impacts of SARS-CoV-2 "spilling back" into free-ranging bat populations
Differential branching fraction and angular analysis of the decay B0âKâ0ÎŒ+ÎŒâ
The angular distribution and differential branching fraction of the decay B 0â K â0 ÎŒ + ÎŒ â are studied using a data sample, collected by the LHCb experiment in pp collisions at sâ=7 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fbâ1. Several angular observables are measured in bins of the dimuon invariant mass squared, q 2. A first measurement of the zero-crossing point of the forward-backward asymmetry of the dimuon system is also presented. The zero-crossing point is measured to be q20=4.9±0.9GeV2/c4 , where the uncertainty is the sum of statistical and systematic uncertainties. The results are consistent with the Standard Model predictions
Measurements of the branching fractions of B+âppK+ decays
The branching fractions of the decay B+ â ppÌK+ for different intermediate states are measured using data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb-1, collected by the LHCb experiment. The total branching fraction, its charmless component MppÌ < 2.85 GeV/c2 and the branching fractions via the resonant ccÌ states η c(1S) and Ï(2S) relative to the decay via a J/Ï intermediate state are [Equation not available: see fulltext.] Upper limits on the B + branching fractions into the η c(2S) meson and into the charmonium-like states X(3872) and X(3915) are also obtained
Observation of associated production of a boson with a meson in the~forward region
A search for associated production of a boson with an open charm meson is
presented using a data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of
of proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy
of 7\,TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment. %% Seven candidate events for
associated production of a boson with a meson and four candidate
events for a boson with a meson are observed with a combined
significance of 5.1standard deviations. The production cross-sections in the
forward region are measured to be where the first uncertainty is statistical and the
second systematic.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figure
Searches for B0(s)âJ/ÏppË and B+âJ/ÏppËÏ+ decays
The results of searches for B0(s)âJ/Ï ppÂŻ and B + â J/Ï p pÂŻ Ï+ decays are reported. The analysis is based on a data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fbâ1 of pp collisions, collected with the LHCb detector. An excess with 2.8 Ï significance is seen for the decay B0sâJ/Ï ppÂŻ and an upper limit on the branching fraction is set at the 90 % confidence level: B(B0sâJ/Ï ppÂŻ) < 4.8 Ă 10â6, which is the first such limit. No significant signals are seen for B0 â J/Ï ppÂŻ and B+ â J/Ï ppÂŻ Ï + decays, for which the corresponding limits are set: B(B0âJ/Ï ppÂŻ) < 5.2 Ă 10â7, which significantly improves the existing limit; and B(B+âJ/Ï ppÂŻÏ+) < 5.0 Ă 10â7, which is the first limit on this branching fraction
Measurement of the relative rate of prompt Ïc0, Ïc1 and Ïc2 production at âs=7TeV
Prompt production of charmonium Ïc0, Ïc1 and Ïc2 mesons is studied using proton-proton collisions at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of âs=7TeV. The Ïc mesons are identified through their decay to J/ÏÎł, with J/ÏâÎŒ+muâ using photons that converted in the detector. A data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0fbâ1 collected by the LHCb detector, is used to measure the relative prompt production rate of Ïc1 and Ïc2 in the rapidity range 2.0<y<4.5 as a function of the J/Ï transverse momentum from 3 to 20 GeV/c. First evidence for Ïc0 meson production at a hadron collider is also presented
Opposite-side flavour tagging of B mesons at the LHCb experiment
The calibration and performance of the oppositeside
flavour tagging algorithms used for the measurements
of time-dependent asymmetries at the LHCb experiment
are described. The algorithms have been developed using
simulated events and optimized and calibrated with
B
+ âJ/ÏK
+, B0 âJ/ÏK
â0 and B0 âD
ââ
Ό
+
ΜΌ decay
modes with 0.37 fbâ1 of data collected in pp collisions
at
â
s = 7 TeV during the 2011 physics run. The oppositeside
tagging power is determined in the B
+ â J/ÏK
+
channel to be (2.10 ± 0.08 ± 0.24) %, where the first uncertainty
is statistical and the second is systematic
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