Role of healthy-looking banana and alternate hosts in the spread of banana bunchy top disease

Poster presented at Symposium of the Pest Management Council of the Philippines. 200

Structure of wavefunctions in (1+2)-body random matrix ensembles

Abstrtact: Random matrix ensembles defined by a mean-field one-body plus a chaos generating random two-body interaction (called embedded ensembles of (1+2)-body interactions) predict for wavefunctions, in the chaotic domain, an essentially one parameter Gaussian forms for the energy dependence of the number of principal components NPC and the localization length {\boldmath l}_H (defined by information entropy), which are two important measures of chaos in finite interacting many particle systems. Numerical embedded ensemble calculations and nuclear shell model results, for NPC and {\boldmath l}_H, are compared with the theory. These analysis clearly point out that for realistic finite interacting many particle systems, in the chaotic domain, wavefunction structure is given by (1+2)-body embedded random matrix ensembles.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures (1a-c, 2a-b, 3a-c), prepared for the invited talk given in the international conference on `Perspectives in Theoretical Physics', held at Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad during January 8-12, 200

Catalogue of introduced and local banana cultivars in the Philippines: Results of a demonstration trial by the Institute of Plant Breeding, University of the Philippines, Los Baños

This catalogue provides information on the morphological and yield characteristics of 19 introduced and 8 local banana cultivars grown at the IPB-UPLB demonstration plot. It is intended to serve as a guide to help in identifying and selecting cultivars for further evaluation by researchers and planting by interested growers

Screening for pre-eclampsia by maternal factors and biomarkers at 11-13 weeks' gestation

Objective: To examine the performance of screening for early-, preterm- and term-preeclampsia (PE) at 11 13 weeks’ gestation by maternal factors and combinations of mean arterial pressure (MAP), uterine artery pulsatility index (UtA-PI), serum placental growth factor (PLGF) and serum pregnancy associated plasma protein A (PAPP A). Methods The data for this study were derived from three previously reported prospective non intervention screening studies at 11+0 – 13+6 weeks’ gestation in a combined total of 61,174 singleton pregnancies, including 1,770 (2.9%) that developed PE. Bayes theorem was used to combine the prior distribution of the gestational age at delivery with PE, obtained from maternal characteristics, with various combinations of biomarker multiple of the median (MoM) values to derive the p patient specific risks of delivery with PE at <37 weeks’ gestation. The performance of such screening was estimated. Results In pregnancies that develop ed PE , compared to those without PE, the MoM values of UtA-PI and MAP were increased and PAPP A and PLGF were decreased and the deviation from normal was greater for early than late PE for all four biomarkers. Combined screening by maternal factors, UtA-PI, MAP and PLGF predicted 90% of early PE, 75% of preterm PE and 4 1 % of term PE, at screen positive rate of 10%; inclusion of PAPP A did not improve the performance of screening The performance of screening depended on the racial origin of the women; in screening by a combination of maternal factors, MAP, UtA-PI and PLGF and use of the risk cut off of 1 in 10 0 for PE at <37 weeks in Caucasian women, the screen positive rate was 10% and detection rates for early --, preterm and term PE were 88%, 69% and 40%, respectively. With the same method of screening and risk cut off in women of Afro Caribbean racial origin, the screen positive rate was 34% and detection rates for early --, preterm and term PE were 100%, 92% and 75%, respectively. Conclusion Screening by maternal factors and biomarkers at 11-13 weeks’ gestation can identify a high proportion of pregnancies that develop early- and preterm-PE

Farmer's handbook on introduced and local banana cultivars in the Philippines

This manual provides information on the morphological and agronomic traits, fruit characteristics, reactions to common diseases, and uses of 21 introduced and 8 local cultivars based on field trials carried out through the Bioversity-DA-BAR-NRMDC programme. It is intended to serve as a useful guide in the identification and selection of cultivars for further evaluation by researchers and planting by interested banana growers

Charm and hidden charm scalar mesons in the nuclear medium

We study the renormalization of the properties of low lying charm and hidden charm scalar mesons in a nuclear medium, concretely of the D_{s0}(2317) and the theoretical hidden charm state X(3700). We find that for the D_{s0}(2317), with negligible width at zero density, the width becomes about 100 MeV at normal nuclear matter density, while in the case of the X(3700) the width becomes as large as 200 MeV. We discuss the origin of this new width and trace it to reactions occurring in the nucleus, while offering a guideline for future experiments testing these changes. We also show how those medium modifications will bring valuable information on the nature of the scalar resonances and the mechanisms of the interaction of D mesons with nucleons and nuclei

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Measurement of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross-section in pp collisions at sqrt(s)= 7 TeV using 35 pb-1 of ATLAS data

A measurement of the differential cross-section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented. The measurement covers the pseudorapidity ranges |eta|<1.37 and 1.52<=|eta|<2.37 in the transverse energy range 45<=E_T<400GeV. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 35 pb-1, collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The yields of the signal photons are measured using a data-driven technique, based on the observed distribution of the hadronic energy in a narrow cone around the photon candidate and the photon selection criteria. The results are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and found to be in good agreement over four orders of magnitude in cross-section.Comment: 7 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 4 tables, final version published in Physics Letters