A modified HPLC method to detect salicylic acid in must and wine after its application in the field to induce fungus resistance

Since the application of salicylic acid (SA) to induce systemic acquired resistance (SAR) in plants is currently discussed as an alternative for copper against downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola), a sensitive HPLC method with UV/Vis-DAD-detection was developed to determinate SA in must and wine. The rate of recovery was 92 % at a level of 0.15 mg . l-1 with a detection limit of 0.003 mg . l-1. We have analyzed several musts and wines from field experiments with SA application and have compared their SA concentrations with 23 commercially available German wines. Nearly all samples contained small amounts of SA. The mean concentration in white and red wines was 0.05 mg . l-1 (0.11 mg . l-1 max.) and 0.16 mg . l-1 (0.43 mg . l-1 max.), respectively. Application of SA downy mildew control did not increase the amounts of SA in must or wine

Top Pair Production Beyond Double-Pole Approximation: pp, pp~ --> 6 Fermions and 0, 1 or 2 Additional Partons

Hadron collider cross sections for tt~ production and di-lepton, single-lepton and all-jet decays with up to 2 additional jets are calculated using complete LO matrix elements with 6-, 7- and 8-particle final states. The fixed-width, complex-mass and overall-factor schemes (FWS, CMS & OFS) are employed and the quality of narrow-width and double-pole approximations (NWA & DPA) is investigated for inclusive production and suppressed backgrounds to new particle searches. NWA and DPA cross sections differ by 1% or less. The inclusion of sub- and non-resonant amplitudes effects a cross section increase of 5-8% at pp supercolliders, but only minor changes at the Tevatron. On-shell tt~/Wtb backgrounds for the H --> WW decay in weak boson fusion, the hadronic \tau decay of a heavy H^\pm and the \phi --> hh --> \tau\tau bb~ radion decay at the LHC are updated, with corrections ranging from 3% to 30%. FWS and CMS cross sections are uniformly consistent, but OFS cross sections are up to 6% smaller for some backgrounds.Comment: 20 pages, 6 tables, 1 figur

A DEVICE TO MEASURE LOW LEVELS OF RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINANTS IN ULTRA-CLEAN MATERIALS

The purpose of this research was to develop a radiation detection device so sensitive that a decay rate of only one atom per 11.57 days per kilogram of material could be detected. Such a detector is needed for screening materials that will be used in exotic high energy physics experiments currently being planned for the near future. The research was performed deep underground at the Underground Mine State Park in Soudan, Minnesota. The overburden there is ~1800 meters water equivalent. The reason for performing the research at such depth was to vastly reduce the effects of cosmic radiation. The flux of muons and fast neutrons is about 100,000 times lower than at the surface. A small clean room quality lab building was constructed so that work could be performed in such a manner that radioactive contamination could be kept at a minimum. Glove boxes filled with dry nitrogen gas were used to further reduce contamination from dirt and also help reduce the concentration of the radioactive gas 222Ra and daughter radionuclides which are normally present in air. A massive lead shield (about 20 tons) was constructed in such a manner that an eight inch cube of space in the center was available for the sample and detector. The innermost 4" thick lead walls were made of ~460 year old lead previously used in double beta decay experiments and known to be virtually free of 210Pb. A one and one half inch thick shell of active plastic scintillator was imbedded in the center of the 16" thick lead walls, ceiling, and floor of the shield and is used to help reduce activity due to the few muons and fast neutrons seen at this depth. The thick lead shielding was necessary to shield the detector from gamma rays emitted by radionuclides in the rock walls of the mine. A sealable chamber was constructed and located on top of the shield that included a device for raising and lowering the detector and samples into and out of the center chamber of the shield. A plastic scintillator detector measuring 6"x6"x6" was fitted with wave length shifting fibers that allowed the light from ionizing radiation to be collected and transmitted outside the massive shield to photomultiplier tubes and electronics. The detector was calibrated for energy and detection efficiency and low resolution background spectra were collected. Results from these measurements show the figure of merit (using: efficiency/square root of background) for this plastic scintillation counting technique to be ~15 times better than for a 2 kg germanium detector for measuring surface contamination from atmospheric 222Rn daughters (210Pb, 210Bi, and 210Po). These daughter radionuclides are normally deposited everywhere onto all materials exposed to air. The results are encouraging and indicate that plastic scintillation counting techniques can be of benefit to the public by making available very sensitive counters for screening ultra-low background materials at an affordable cost. However, in order to reach the level required a multi element array of thin plastic scintillator sheets must be developed that will allow many thin samples to be counted at one time. In addition, more sophisticated light detection hardware, electronics, and computer software is needed

Magnetocardiography with a modular spin-exchange relaxation free atomic magnetometer array

We present a portable four-channel atomic magnetometer array operating in the spin exchange relaxation-free regime. The magnetometer array has several design features intended to maximize its suitability for biomagnetic measurement, specifically foetal magnetocardiography, such as a compact modular design, and fibre coupled lasers. The modular design allows the independent positioning and orientation of each magnetometer, in principle allowing for non-planar array geometries. Using this array in a magnetically shielded room, we acquire adult magnetocadiograms. These measurements were taken with a 6-11 fT Hz^(-1/2) single-channel baseline sensitivity that is consistent with the independently measured noise level of the magnetically shielded room.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

Finite-Width Effects in Top Quark Production at Hadron Colliders

Production cross sections for t\bar{t} and t\bar{t}j events at hadron colliders are calculated, including finite width effects and off resonance contributions for the entire decay chain, t --> bW --> b\ell\nu, for both top quarks. Resulting background rates to Higgs search at the CERN LHC are updated for inclusive H --> WW studies and for H --> \tau\tau and H --> WW decays in weak boson fusion events. Finite width effects are large, increasing t\bar{t}(j) rates by 20% or more, after typical cuts which are employed for top-background rejection.Comment: 32 pages, 11 figures, 7 tables; minor changes, reference added, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Inadequacy of zero-width approximation for a light Higgs boson signal

In the Higgs search at the LHC, a light Higgs boson (115 GeV <~ M_H <~ 130 GeV) is not excluded by experimental data. In this mass range, the width of the Standard Model Higgs boson is more than four orders of magnitude smaller than its mass. The zero-width approximation is hence expected to be an excellent approximation. We show that this is not always the case. The inclusion of off-shell contributions is essential to obtain an accurate Higgs signal normalisation at the 1% precision level. For gg (-> H) -> VV, V= W,Z, O(10%) corrections occur due to an enhanced Higgs signal in the region M_VV > 2 M_V, where also sizable Higgs-continuum interference occurs. We discuss how experimental selection cuts can be used to exclude this region in search channels where the Higgs invariant mass cannot be reconstructed. We note that the H -> VV decay modes in weak boson fusion are similarly affected.Comment: 26 pages, 18 figures, 6 tables; added references, expanded introduction, version to appear in JHE

Trapped lipopolysaccharide and LptD intermediates reveal lipopolysaccharide translocation steps across the Escherichia coli outer membrane

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a main component of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, which is essential for the vitality of most Gram-negative bacteria and plays a critical role for drug resistance. LptD/E complex forms a N-terminal LPS transport slide, a hydrophobic intramembrane hole and the hydrophilic channel of the barrel, for LPS transport, lipid A insertion and core oligosaccharide and O-antigen polysaccharide translocation, respectively. However, there is no direct evidence to confirm that LptD/E transports LPS from the periplasm to the external leaflet of the outer membrane. By replacing LptD residues with an unnatural amino acid p-benzoyl-L-phenyalanine (pBPA) and UV-photo-cross-linking in E.coli, the translocon and LPS intermediates were obtained at the N-terminal domain, the intramembrane hole, the lumenal gate, the lumen of LptD channel, and the extracellular loop 1 and 4, providing the first direct evidence and “snapshots” to reveal LPS translocation steps across the outer membrane

Lowering the energy threshold in COSINE-100 dark matter searches

COSINE-100 is a dark matter detection experiment that uses NaI(Tl) crystal detectors operating at the Yangyang underground laboratory in Korea since September 2016. Its main goal is to test the annual modulation observed by the DAMA/LIBRA experiment with the same target medium. Recently DAMA/LIBRA has released data with an energy threshold lowered to 1 keV, and the persistent annual modulation behavior is still observed at 9.5$\sigma$. By lowering the energy threshold for electron recoils to 1 keV, COSINE-100 annual modulation results can be compared to those of DAMA/LIBRA in a model-independent way. Additionally, the event selection methods provide an access to a few to sub-GeV dark matter particles using constant rate studies. In this article, we discuss the COSINE-100 event selection algorithm, its validation, and efficiencies near the threshold