Metabolic Profiling of Water-Soluble Compounds from the Extracts of Dark Septate Endophytic Fungi (DSE) Isolated from Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) Seedlings Using UPLC-Orbitrap-MS

Endophytes are microorganisms living inside plant hosts and are known to be beneficial for the host plant vitality. In this study, we isolated three endophytic fungus species from the roots of Scots pine seedlings growing on Finnish drained peatland setting. The isolated fungi belonged to dark septate endophytes (DSE). The metabolic profiles of the hot water extracts of the fungi were investigated using Ultrahigh Performance Liquid Chromatography with Diode Array Detection and Electron Spray Ionization source Mass Spectrometry with Orbitrap analyzer (UPLC-DAD-ESI-MS-Orbitrap). Out of 318 metabolites, we were able to identify 220, of which a majority was amino acids and peptides. Additionally, opine amino acids, amino acid quinones, Amadori compounds, cholines, nucleobases, nucleosides, nucleotides, siderophores, sugars, sugar alcohols and disaccharides were found, as well as other previously reported metabolites from plants or endophytes. Some differences of the metabolic profiles, regarding the amount and identity of the found metabolites, were observed even though the fungi were isolated from the same host. Many of the discovered metabolites have been described possessing biological activities and properties, which may make a favorable contribution to the host plant nutrient availability or abiotic and biotic stress tolerance

Direct, Indirect and Collider Detection of Neutralino Dark Matter In SUSY Models with Non-universal Higgs Masses

In supersymmetric models with gravity-mediated SUSY breaking, universality of soft SUSY breaking sfermion masses m_0 is motivated by the need to suppress unwanted flavor changing processes. The same motivation, however, does not apply to soft breaking Higgs masses, which may in general have independent masses from matter scalars at the GUT scale. We explore phenomenological implications of both the one-parameter and two-parameter non-universal Higgs mass models (NUHM1 and NUHM2), and examine the parameter ranges compatible with Omega_CDM h^2, BF(b --> s,gamma) and (g-2)_mu constraints. In contrast to the mSUGRA model, in both NUHM1 and NUHM2 models, the dark matter A-annihilation funnel can be reached at low values of tan(beta), while the higgsino dark matter annihilation regions can be reached for low values of m_0. We show that there may be observable rates for indirect and direct detection of neutralino cold dark matter in phenomenologically aceptable ranges of parameter space. We also examine implications of the NUHM models for the Fermilab Tevatron, the CERN LHC and a Sqrt(s)=0.5-1 TeV e+e- linear collider. Novel possibilities include: very light s-top_R, s-charm_R squark and slepton_L masses as well as light charginos and neutralinos and H, A and H^+/- Higgs bosons.Comment: LaTeX, 48pages, 26 Figures. The version with high resolution Figures is available at http://hep.pa.msu.edu/belyaev/public/projects/nuhm/nuhm.p

Intercalibration of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS experiment at start-up

Calibration of the relative response of the individual channels of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS detector was accomplished, before installation, with cosmic ray muons and test beams. One fourth of the calorimeter was exposed to a beam of high energy electrons and the relative calibration of the channels, the intercalibration, was found to be reproducible to a precision of about 0.3%. Additionally, data were collected with cosmic rays for the entire ECAL barrel during the commissioning phase. By comparing the intercalibration constants obtained with the electron beam data with those from the cosmic ray data, it is demonstrated that the latter provide an intercalibration precision of 1.5% over most of the barrel ECAL. The best intercalibration precision is expected to come from the analysis of events collected in situ during the LHC operation. Using data collected with both electrons and pion beams, several aspects of the intercalibration procedures based on electrons or neutral pions were investigated

Radiation hardness qualification of PbWO4 scintillation crystals for the CMS Electromagnetic Calorimeter

This is the Pre-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2010 IOPEnsuring the radiation hardness of PbWO4 crystals was one of the main priorities during the construction of the electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS experiment at CERN. The production on an industrial scale of radiation hard crystals and their certification over a period of several years represented a difficult challenge both for CMS and for the crystal suppliers. The present article reviews the related scientific and technological problems encountered

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8  TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum