A NLO analysis on fragility of dihadron tomography in high energy AAAA collisions

The dihadron spectra in high energy $AA$ collisions are studied within the NLO pQCD parton model with jet quenching taken into account. The high $p_T$ dihadron spectra are found to be contributed not only by jet pairs close and tangential to the surface of the dense matter but also by punching-through jets survived at the center while the single hadron high $p_T$ spectra are only dominated by surface emission. Consequently, the suppression factor of such high-$p_T$ hadron pairs is found to be more sensitive to the initial gluon density than the single hadron suppression factor.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, proceedings for the 19th international Conference on ultra-relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions (QM2006), Shanghai, China, November 14-20, 200

Punch-through jets in A+AA+A collisions at RHIC/LHC

High $p_T$ single and dihadron production is studied within a NLO pQCD parton model with jet quenching in high energy $A+A$ collisions at the RHIC/LHC energy. A simultaneous $\chi^2$-fit to both single and dihadron spectra can be achieved within a narrow range of energy loss parameter. Punch-through jets are found to result in the dihadron suppression factor slightly more sensitive to medium than the single hadron suppression factor at RHIC. Such jets at LHC are found to dominate high $p_T$ dihadron production and the resulting dihadron spectra are more sensitive to the initial parton distribution functions than the single hadron spectra.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, proceedings for the 20th international conference on ultra-relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions (QM2008), Jaipur, India, February 4-10, 200

The floor in the interplanetary magnetic field: Estimation on the basis of relative duration of ICME observations in solar wind during 1976-2000

To measure the floor in interplanetary magnetic field and estimate the time- invariant open magnetic flux of Sun, it is necessary to know a part of magnetic field of Sun carried away by CMEs. In contrast with previous papers, we did not use global solar parameters: we identified different large-scale types of solar wind for 1976-2000 interval, obtained a fraction of interplanetary CMEs (ICMEs) and calculated magnitude of interplanetary magnetic field B averaged over 2 Carrington rotations. The floor of magnetic field is estimated as B value at solar cycle minimum when the ICMEs were not observed and it was calculated to be 4,65 \pm 6,0 nT. Obtained value is in a good agreement with previous results.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, submitted in GR

Investigating the association of rs2910164 with cancer predisposition in an Irish cohort.

IntroductionMicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNA molecules that exert post-transcriptional effects on gene expression by binding with cis-regulatory regions in target messenger RNA (mRNA). Polymorphisms in genes encoding miRNAs or in miRNA-mRNA binding sites confer deleterious epigenetic effects on cancer risk. miR-146a has a role in inflammation and may have a role as a tumour suppressor. The polymorphism rs2910164 in the MIR146A gene encoding pre-miR-146a has been implicated in several inflammatory pathologies, including cancers of the breast and thyroid, although evidence for the associations has been conflicting in different populations. We aimed to further investigate the association of this variant with these two cancers in an Irish cohort.MethodsThe study group comprised patients with breast cancer (BC), patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) and unaffected controls. Germline DNA was extracted from blood or from saliva collected using the DNA Genotek Oragene 575 collection kit, using crystallisation precipitation, and genotyped using TaqMan-based PCR. Data were analysed using SPSS, v22.ResultsThe total study group included 1516 participants. This comprised 1386 Irish participants; 724 unaffected individuals (controls), 523 patients with breast cancer (BC), 136 patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) and three patients with dual primary breast and thyroid cancer. An additional cohort of 130 patients with DTC from the South of France was also genotyped for the variant. The variant was detected with a minor allele frequency (MAF) of 0.19 in controls, 0.22 in BC and 0.27 and 0.26 in DTC cases from Ireland and France, respectively. The variant was not significantly associated with BC (per allele odds ratio = 1.20 (0.98-1.46), P  = 0.07), but was associated with DTC in Irish patients (per allele OR = 1.59 (1.18-2.14), P = 0.002).ConclusionThe rs2910164 variant in MIR146A is significantly associated with DTC, but is not significantly associated with BC in this cohort

Effects of Higher-Order Threshold Corrections in High-E_T Jet Production

Results for higher-order threshold enhancements in high-E_T jet production in hadron-hadron collisions are presented. Expressions are given for the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) threshold corrections to the single-jet inclusive cross section at next-to-leading logarithmic (NLL) accuracy. The corrections are found to be small for the specific choice of E_T/2 for the factorization and renormalization scales, and the corrected cross section shows a substantial reduction of the scale dependence. A comparison to experimental results from the Tevatron is presented.Comment: 24 pages LaTeX, 5 figure

Mixed farming diversification may be costly: southern Queensland case study

Many farmers in Australia and in other countries have a choice of crop or livestock production, and many choose a mixture of both, based on risk preference, personal interests, markets, land resources and local climate. Mixed farming can be a risk-spreading strategy, especially in highly variable climates, but the right scales of each enterprise within the mix may be critical to farm profitability.To investigate expected farm profits, the probability of breaking even, as well as the worst and best case scenarios, we used farm data and APSIM (Agricultural Production Systems Simulator) to simulate the production of a typical, semi-arid, mixed-farm in southern Queensland. Three farming system scenarios were investigated: I, livestock and more intensive cropping; II, current production system of livestock and minimal cropping; and III, livestock only. We found that the expected profits were in the order system I > system III > system II. The key reason for the lower profits of system II was the high overhead cost of capital to continue some cropping, with low annual cropping income. Under the worst case scenario, in years with low rainfall, system I had the greatest downside risk with far greater financial losses. Systems I and III had similar probabilities of breaking even, and higher than system II, which incurs cropping overheads and limited cropping returns. Therefore, system II was less desirable than either system I or III. This case study helps farmers and advisors of semi-arid mixed farming enterprises to be better informed when making decisions at the paddock and whole-farm level, in both the short and long term, with respect to profit and risk. The method used in this paper can be applied to other mixed farms, in Australia and elsewhere

Effects of level and physical form of cottonseed hulls on microbial protein synthesis in the rumen of steers fed high concentrate diets

(Kesan tahap dan bentuk fizikal kulit biji kapas terhadap sintesis protein mikrob di dalam rumen lembu yang diberi makanan konsentrat) A. Yusof Hamali*, R. Pucala** and F. N. Owens*** Key words: effective neutral detergent fiber, peptide-N, microbial synthesis, ruminal digestion, protozoa, cottonseed hull Abstrak Enam ekor lembu jantan kembiri yang dipasang kanula pada rumen dan duodenum telah digunakan dalam kajian menggunakan replikat 3 x 3 reka bentuk latin segi empat. Pencernaan di dalam rumen dan kecekapan sintesis protein mikrob telah diukur. Tiga jenis diet berasaskan jagung yang digunakan mengandungi kulit biji kapas (CSH) dan "effective neutral detergent fiber" (eNDF) seperti berikut: a) 18% CSH dan 10.4% eNDF, b) 18% CSH (dikisar) dan 6.1% eNDF dan c) 25% CSH dan 14.1% eNDF. Purata nilai pH rumen meningkat dengan penambahan kandungan eNDF di dalam diet. Kandungan NH 3 -N, peptide-N, dan asid amino-N di dalam rumen adalah sama antara perlakuan, dengan nilai purata 96.4, 1.56 dan 2.56 mg/L. Kecekapan sintesis protein mikrob di dalam rumen tidak dipengaruhi oleh aras eNDF di dalam diet. Purata protein mikrob bagi semua perlakuan adalah sebanyak 13.87 g N mikrob sekilogram bahan organik. Peningkatan eNDF di dalam diet turut meningkatkan kadar percernaan sebenar bahan organik dan kanji di dalam rumen. Pengisaran CSH telah merendahkan kadar pencernaan kanji di dalam rumen. Pengurangan eNDF di dalam diet telah menurunkan pH rumen kurang daripada nilai yang dijangkakan tanpa memberi kesan terhadap kecekapan pertumbuhan mikrob sebagaimana yang disyorkan oleh pihak NRC (1996). Abstract Six steers fitted with ruminal and duodenal cannulas were used in a replicated 3 x 3 Latin square. Ruminal digestion and efficiency of microbial protein synthesis were measured. Three corn based diets were formulated to contain the following percentages of cottonseed hulls (CSH) and effective neutral detergent fiber (eNDF): a) 18% CSH and 10.4% (eNDF), b) 18% CSH (ground) and 6.1% (eNDF) and c) 25% CSH and 14.1% (eNDF). Mean ruminal pH values increased as eNDF content of the diet was increased. Ruminal NH 3 -N, peptide-N, and amino acid-N were similar among treatments averaging 96.4, 1.56, and 2.56 mg/L. The efficiency of microbial protein synthesis in the rumen was unaffected by the concentration of eNDF, and averaged 13.67 g of microbial N/kg of organic matter (OM) digested for all treatments. Increasing eNDF increased true rumina