The Effect of Conservation Agriculture and Environmental Factors on CO2 Emissions in a Rainfed Crop Rotation

There are many factors involved in the release of CO2 emissions from the soil, such as the type of soil management, the soil organic matter, the soil temperature and moisture conditions, crop phenological stage, weather conditions, residue management, among others. This study aimed to analyse the influence of these factors and their interactions to determine the emissions by evaluating the environmental cost expressed as the kg of CO2 emitted per kg of production in each of the crops and seasons studied. For this purpose, a field trial was conducted on a farm in Seville (Spain). The study compared Conservation Agriculture, including its three principles (no-tillage, permanent soil cover, and crop rotations), with conventional tillage. Carbon dioxide emissions measured across the four seasons of the experiment showed an increase strongly influenced by rainfall during the vegetative period, in both soil management systems. The results of this study confirm that extreme events of precipitation away from the normal means, result in episodes of high CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. This is very important because one of the consequences for future scenarios of climate change is precisely the increase of extreme episodes of precipitation and periods extremely dry, depending on the area considered. The total of emission values of the different plots of the study show how the soils under the conventional system (tillage) have been emitting 67% more than soils under the conventional agriculture system during the 2010/11 campaign and 25% for the last campaign where the most appreciable differences are observed

HDX reveals the conformational dynamics of DNA sequence specific VDR co-activator interactions

The vitamin D receptor/retinoid X receptor-α heterodimer (VDRRXRα) regulates bone mineralization via transcriptional control of osteocalcin (BGLAP) gene and is the receptor for 1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25D3). However, supra-physiological levels of 1,25D3 activates the calcium-regulating gene TRPV6 leading to hypercalcemia. An approach to attenuate this adverse effect is to develop selective VDR modulators (VDRMs) that differentially activate BGLAP but not TRPV6. Here we present structural insight for the action of a VDRM compared with agonists by employing hydrogen/deuterium exchange. Agonist binding directs crosstalk between co-receptors upon DNA binding, stabilizing the activation function 2 (AF2) surfaces of both receptors driving steroid receptor co-activator-1 (SRC1) interaction. In contrast, AF2 of VDR within VDRM:BGLAP bound heterodimer is more vulnerable for large stabilization upon SRC1 interaction compared with VDRM:TRPV6 bound heterodimer. These results reveal that the combination of ligand structure and DNA sequence tailor the transcriptional activity of VDR toward specific target genes.The vitamin D receptor/retinoid X receptor-α heterodimer (VDRRXRα) regulates bone mineralization. Here the authors employ hydrogen/deuterium exchange (HDX) mass spectrometry to study the conformational dynamics of VDRRXRα and give mechanistic insights into how VDRRXRα controls the transcriptional activity of specific genes.Jie Zheng, Mi Ra Chang, Ryan E. Stites, Yong Wang, John B. Bruning, Bruce D. Pascal, Scott J. Novick, Ruben D. Garcia-Ordonez, Keith R. Stayrook, Michael J. Chalmers, Jeffrey A. Dodge & Patrick R. Griffi

Long term experience with perfluorobutane in COMPASS RICH

COMPASS RICH-1 has used high-purity perfluorobutane as radiator gas since 2001. The operation and control of the radiator gas has evolved over years with continuous improvements. We report on the experience gained in the 20 year-long operation of perfluorobutane as COMPASS RICH radiator. Very accurate values for the radiator gas refractive index are needed for high-performance particle identification. The procedure has evolved over years and the one presently in use, which provides refractive index estimate at the 1 ppm level, is discussed. Perfluorobutane procurement is becoming challenging, and the minimization of material waste is now a priority for the protection of the environment. Commercially available perfluorobutane needs dedicated filtering before usage and typical material losses in the filtering procedure were around 30%. Recent efforts allowed us to reduce them to about 5%. A potential alternative to fluorocarbon radiators in gaseous RICHes is also presented.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures 2 table

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Measurement of the top quark-pair production cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=7\TeV

A measurement of the production cross-section for top quark pairs(\ttbar) in $pp$ collisions at \sqrt{s}=7 \TeV is presented using data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in two different topologies: single lepton (electron $e$ or muon $\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least four jets, and dilepton ($ee$, $\mu\mu$ or $e\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least two jets. In a data sample of 2.9 pb-1, 37 candidate events are observed in the single-lepton topology and 9 events in the dilepton topology. The corresponding expected backgrounds from non-\ttbar Standard Model processes are estimated using data-driven methods and determined to be $12.2 \pm 3.9$ events and $2.5 \pm 0.6$ events, respectively. The kinematic properties of the selected events are consistent with SM \ttbar production. The inclusive top quark pair production cross-section is measured to be \sigmattbar=145 \pm 31 ^{+42}_{-27} pb where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The measurement agrees with perturbative QCD calculations.Comment: 30 pages plus author list (50 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, CERN-PH number and final journal adde

Measurement of the top quark pair cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV using final states with an electron or a muon and a hadronically decaying τ lepton

A measurement of the cross section of top quark pair production in proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is reported. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.05 fb -1. Events with an isolated electron or muon and a τ lepton decaying hadronically are used. In addition, a large missing transverse momentum and two or more energetic jets are required. At least one of the jets must be identified as originating from a b quark. The measured cross section, σtt-=186±13(stat.)±20(syst.)±7(lumi.) pb, is in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction

Expected Performance of the ATLAS Experiment - Detector, Trigger and Physics

A detailed study is presented of the expected performance of the ATLAS detector. The reconstruction of tracks, leptons, photons, missing energy and jets is investigated, together with the performance of b-tagging and the trigger. The physics potential for a variety of interesting physics processes, within the Standard Model and beyond, is examined. The study comprises a series of notes based on simulations of the detector and physics processes, with particular emphasis given to the data expected from the first years of operation of the LHC at CERN

Hunt for new phenomena using large jet multiplicities and missing transverse momentum with ATLAS in 4.7 fb−1 of √s=7 TeV proton-proton collisions

Results are presented of a search for new particles decaying to large numbers of jets in association with missing transverse momentum, using 4.7 fb−1 of pp collision data at s√=7TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in 2011. The event selection requires missing transverse momentum, no isolated electrons or muons, and from ≥6 to ≥9 jets. No evidence is found for physics beyond the Standard Model. The results are interpreted in the context of a MSUGRA/CMSSM supersymmetric model, where, for large universal scalar mass m 0, gluino masses smaller than 840 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level, extending previously published limits. Within a simplified model containing only a gluino octet and a neutralino, gluino masses smaller than 870 GeV are similarly excluded for neutralino masses below 100 GeV