Mass-renormalized electronic excitations at (π\pi, 0) in the superconducting state of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δBi_{2}Sr_{2}CaCu_{2}O_{8+\delta}

Using high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy on $Bi_{2}Sr_{2}CaCu_{2}O_{8+\delta}$, we have made the first observation of a mass renormalization or "kink" in the E vs. $\vec k$ dispersion relation localized near $(\pi, 0)$. Compared to the kink observed along the nodal direction, this new effect is clearly stronger, appears at a lower energy near 40 meV, and is only present in the superconducting state. The kink energy scale defines a cutoff below which well-defined quasiparticle excitations occur. This effect is likely due to coupling to a bosonic excitation, with the most plausible candidate being the magnetic resonance mode observed in inelastic neutron scattering

Alpha scattering and capture reactions in the A = 7 system at low energies

Differential cross sections for $^3$He-$\alpha$ scattering were measured in the energy range up to 3 MeV. These data together with other available experimental results for $^3$He $+ \alpha$ and $^3$H $+ \alpha$ scattering were analyzed in the framework of the optical model using double-folded potentials. The optical potentials obtained were used to calculate the astrophysical S-factors of the capture reactions $^3$He$(\alpha,\gamma)^7$Be and $^3$H$(\alpha,\gamma)^7$Li, and the branching ratios for the transitions into the two final $^7$Be and $^7$Li bound states, respectively. For $^3$He$(\alpha,\gamma)^7$Be excellent agreement between calculated and experimental data is obtained. For $^3$H$(\alpha,\gamma)^7$Li a $S(0)$ value has been found which is a factor of about 1.5 larger than the adopted value. For both capture reactions a similar branching ratio of $R = \sigma(\gamma_1)/\sigma(\gamma_0) \approx 0.43$ has been obtained.Comment: submitted to Phys.Rev.C, 34 pages, figures available from one of the authors, LaTeX with RevTeX, IK-TUW-Preprint 930540

Disulfide stabilization of human norovirus GI.1 virus-like particles focuses immune response toward blockade epitopes

Human noroviruses are non-enveloped, single-strand RNA viruses that cause pandemic outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis. A bivalent vaccine containing GI.1 and GII.4 virus-like particles (VLPs) has been shown to be safe and highly immunogenic, but its efficacy and durability have been limited. Here, we show that norovirus GI.1 VLPs are unstable and contain a substantial fraction of dissociated VLP components. Broadly reactive, non-neutralizing antibodies isolated from vaccinated donors bound to the dissociated components, but not to the intact VLPs. Engineering of interprotomer disulfide bonds within the shell domain prevented disassembly of the VLPs, while preserving antibody accessibility to blockade epitopes. Without adjuvant, mice immunized with stabilized GI.1 VLPs developed faster blockade antibody titers compared to immunization with wild-type GI.1 VLPs. In addition, immunization with stabilized particles focused immune responses toward surface-exposed epitopes and away from occluded epitopes. Overall, disulfide-stabilized norovirus GI.1 VLPs elicited improved responses over the non-disulfide-stabilized version, suggesting their promise as candidate vaccines

Deep-vein thrombosis in Europe — Burden of illness in relationship to healthcare resource utilization and return to work

Objectives: Deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) forms a major healthcare burden in Europe, but exact estimates concerning the economic burden on society are lacking. This study reports results from the PREFER in VTE study concerning resource utilization and absence from work in DVT patients. Methods: The PREFER in VTE registry was a prospective, observational, multicenter study carried out in Europe (France, Italy, Spain, the UK, and DACH [Germany, Switzerland and Austria]), designed to provide data concerning treatment patterns, resource utilization, mortality and quality of life. Patients with a first-time and/or recurrent DVT, were recruited and followed for 12 months. Data about resource utilization concerns resource utilization related to DVT. Specifically, treatment pattern, re-hospitalization rate, length of hospital stay, ambulatory/office visit, and proportion of patients returning to work, were analyzed and presented. Subgroup analysis by country and active cancer were also conducted. The length of hospital stay was analyzed as a function of demographics, previous events and co-morbidities using zero-inflated binomial negative regression. Similarly, time until return to work was analyzed using Cox regression. Results: A total of 2056 patients with DVT were recruited, with an average age of 60 years. Patients with active cancer were mostly treated with heparin (83.9%), while patients without active cancer were treated with combinations of heparin, VKA and DOACs. DOACs were less often used in Spain and Italy (30% did not return to work within the year. Conclusions: Medical treatment of DVT differed between patients with active cancer and those without. Post-VTE or VTE-related resource utilization differs remarkably between countries. Work-loss seems high, but questions may be raised concerning the causality due to the presence of co-morbidities

Grain Surface Models and Data for Astrochemistry

AbstractThe cross-disciplinary field of astrochemistry exists to understand the formation, destruction, and survival of molecules in astrophysical environments. Molecules in space are synthesized via a large variety of gas-phase reactions, and reactions on dust-grain surfaces, where the surface acts as a catalyst. A broad consensus has been reached in the astrochemistry community on how to suitably treat gas-phase processes in models, and also on how to present the necessary reaction data in databases; however, no such consensus has yet been reached for grain-surface processes. A team of ∼25 experts covering observational, laboratory and theoretical (astro)chemistry met in summer of 2014 at the Lorentz Center in Leiden with the aim to provide solutions for this problem and to review the current state-of-the-art of grain surface models, both in terms of technical implementation into models as well as the most up-to-date information available from experiments and chemical computations. This review builds on the results of this workshop and gives an outlook for future directions

Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV. The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b, leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W' boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe

Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV

A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Measurement of the Lambda(b) cross section and the anti-Lambda(b) to Lambda(b) ratio with Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda decays in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The Lambda(b) differential production cross section and the cross section ratio anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) are measured as functions of transverse momentum pt(Lambda(b)) and rapidity abs(y(Lambda(b))) in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The measurements are based on Lambda(b) decays reconstructed in the exclusive final state J/Psi Lambda, with the subsequent decays J/Psi to an opposite-sign muon pair and Lambda to proton pion, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.9 inverse femtobarns. The product of the cross section times the branching ratio for Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda versus pt(Lambda(b)) falls faster than that of b mesons. The measured value of the cross section times the branching ratio for pt(Lambda(b)) > 10 GeV and abs(y(Lambda(b))) < 2.0 is 1.06 +/- 0.06 +/- 0.12 nb, and the integrated cross section ratio for anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) is 1.02 +/- 0.07 +/- 0.09, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Measurement of isolated photon production in pp and PbPb collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 2.76 TeV

Isolated photon production is measured in proton-proton and lead-lead collisions at nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energies of 2.76 TeV in the pseudorapidity range |eta|<1.44 and transverse energies ET between 20 and 80 GeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. The measured ET spectra are found to be in good agreement with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD predictions. The ratio of PbPb to pp isolated photon ET-differential yields, scaled by the number of incoherent nucleon-nucleon collisions, is consistent with unity for all PbPb reaction centralities.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Search for new physics in events with opposite-sign leptons, jets, and missing transverse energy in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search is presented for physics beyond the standard model (BSM) in final states with a pair of opposite-sign isolated leptons accompanied by jets and missing transverse energy. The search uses LHC data recorded at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the CMS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 5 inverse femtobarns. Two complementary search strategies are employed. The first probes models with a specific dilepton production mechanism that leads to a characteristic kinematic edge in the dilepton mass distribution. The second strategy probes models of dilepton production with heavy, colored objects that decay to final states including invisible particles, leading to very large hadronic activity and missing transverse energy. No evidence for an event yield in excess of the standard model expectations is found. Upper limits on the BSM contributions to the signal regions are deduced from the results, which are used to exclude a region of the parameter space of the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model. Additional information related to detector efficiencies and response is provided to allow testing specific models of BSM physics not considered in this paper.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO