QCD corrections to J/ψJ/\psi plus Z0Z^0-boson production at the LHC

The $J/\psi+Z^0$ associated production at the LHC is an important process in investigating the color-octet mechanism of non-relativistic QCD in describing the processes involving heavy quarkonium. We calculate the next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections to the $J/\psi +Z^0$ associated production at the LHC within the factorization formalism of nonrelativistic QCD, and provide the theoretical predictions for the distribution of the $J/\psi$ transverse momentum. Our results show that the differential cross section at the leading-order is significantly enhanced by the NLO QCD corrections. We conclude that the LHC has the potential to verify the color-octet mechanism by measuring the $J/\psi+Z^0$ production events.Comment: 14 page revtex, 5 eps figures, to appear in JHEP. fig5 and the corresponding analysis are correcte

Downregulated miR-195 Detected in Preeclamptic Placenta Affects Trophoblast Cell Invasion via Modulating ActRIIA Expression

Preeclampsia (PE) is a pregnancy-specific syndrome manifested by on-set of hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks of gestation. Abnormal placenta development has been generally accepted as initial cause of the disorder. Recently, miR-195 was found to be down-regulated in preeclamptic placentas compared with normal pregnant ones, indicating possible association of this small molecule with placental pathology of preeclampsia. By far the function of miR-195 in the development of placenta remains unknown.Bioinformatic assay predicted ActRIIA as one of the targets for miR-195. By using Real-time PCR, Western blotting and Dual Luciferase Assay, we validated that ActRIIA was the direct target of miR-195 in human trophoblast cells. Transwell insert invasion assay showed that miR-195 could promote cell invasion in trophoblast cell line, HTR8/SVneo cells, and the effect could be abrogated by overexpressed ActRIIA. In preeclamptic placenta tissues, pri-miR-195 and mature miR-195 expressions were down-regulated, whereas ActRIIA level appeared to be increased when compared with that in gestational-week-matched normal placentas.This is the first report on the function of miR-195 in human placental trophoblast cells which reveals an invasion-promoting effect of the small RNA via repressing ActRIIA. Aberrant expression of miR-195 may contribute to the occurrence of preeclampsia through interfering with Activin/Nodal signaling mediated by ActRIIA in human placenta

Alignment of the ALICE Inner Tracking System with cosmic-ray tracks

37 pages, 15 figures, revised version, accepted by JINSTALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) experiment devoted to investigating the strongly interacting matter created in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC energies. The ALICE ITS, Inner Tracking System, consists of six cylindrical layers of silicon detectors with three different technologies; in the outward direction: two layers of pixel detectors, two layers each of drift, and strip detectors. The number of parameters to be determined in the spatial alignment of the 2198 sensor modules of the ITS is about 13,000. The target alignment precision is well below 10 micron in some cases (pixels). The sources of alignment information include survey measurements, and the reconstructed tracks from cosmic rays and from proton-proton collisions. The main track-based alignment method uses the Millepede global approach. An iterative local method was developed and used as well. We present the results obtained for the ITS alignment using about 10^5 charged tracks from cosmic rays that have been collected during summer 2008, with the ALICE solenoidal magnet switched off.Peer reviewe