Q

The Qweak experiment, which took data at Jefferson Lab in the period 2010 - 2012, will precisely determine the weak charge of the proton by measuring the parity-violating asymmetry in elastic e-p scattering at 1.1 GeV using a longitudinally polarized electron beam and a liquid hydrogen target at a low momentum transfer of Q2 = 0.025 (GeV/c)2. The weak charge of the proton is predicted by the Standard Model and any significant deviation would indicate physics beyond the Standard Model. The technical challenges and experimental apparatus for measuring the weak charge of the proton will be discussed, as well as the method of extracting the weak charge of the proton. The results from a small subset of the data, that has been published, will also be presented. Furthermore an update will be given of the current status of the data analysis

CattleTickBase: An integrated Internet-based bioinformatics resource for Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus

The Rhipicephalus microplus genome is large and complex in structure, making it difficult to assemble a genome sequence and costly to resource the required bioinformatics. In light of this, a consortium of international collaborators was formed to pool resources to begin sequencing this genome. We have acquired and assembled genomic DNA into contigs that represent over 1.8 Gigabase pairs of DNA from gene-enriched regions of the R. microplus genome. We also have several datasets containing transcript sequences from a number of gene expression experiments conducted by the consortium. A web-based resource was developed to enable the scientific community to access our datasets and conduct analysis through a web-based bioinformatics environment called YABI. The collective bioinformatics resource is termed CattleTickBase. Our consortium has acquired genomic and transcriptomic sequence data at approximately 0.9X coverage of the gene-coding regions of the R. microplus genome. The YABI tool will facilitate access and manipulation of cattle tick genome sequence data as the genome sequencing of R. microplus proceeds. During this process the CattleTickBase resource will continue to be updated

Comparison of residual stress measurements on single bead on plate welds of a martensitic steel using neutron diffraction

During the welding process, a material is subjected to thermal cycles with rapid heating and cooling rates resulting in residual stress in the weld and the base metal. These residual stress may affect the mechanical performance leading to premature failure of components. Therefore, it is critical to have a detailed knowledge of the residual stress distribution in the weld region as well as in the vicinity in order to predict the service life of components. Due to the high neutron penetration power, neutron diffraction is one of the most useful techniques for nondestructive evaluation of residual stress in welded regions within the bulk. In this paper, neutron diffraction was used to investigate the residual stress distribution within three single bead on plate welds of P91 martensitic steel. Residual stress measurements were performed at different neutron diffraction instruments and different methodology of stress determination was applied. Measurements were carried out at the diffractometers Engin X ISIS Neutron Source, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory , E3 BER II, Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin and SALSA Institut Laue Langevin . The results of the measurements presented here, were used to determine the variability of the three instruments and compare the effect of different welding parameters on residual stress. The residual stress measurements were also compared with the respective results of the Task Group 1 TG1 of the European Network on Neutron Techniques standardization for structural integrity NE

Species-Diagnostic Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism and Sequence-Tagged Site Markers for the Parasitic Wasp Genus Nasonia (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae)

Wasps of the genus Nasonia are important biological control agents of house flies and related filth flies, which are major vectors of human pathogens. Species of Nasonia (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) are not easily differentiated from one another by morphological characters, and molecular markers for their reliable identification have been missing so far. Here, we report eight single-nucleotide polymorphism and three sequence-tagged site markers derived from expressed sequenced tag libraries for the two closely related and regionally sympatric species N. giraulti and N. vitripennis. We studied variation of these markers in natural populations of the two species, and we mapped them in the Nasonia genome. The markers are species-diagnostic and evenly spread over all five chromosomes. They are ideal for rapid species identification and hybrid recognition, and they can be used to map economically relevant quantitative trait loci in the Nasonia genome.