211 research outputs found
Parametric improvement for the ingestion dose module of the European ARGOS and RODOS decision support systems
The European decision support systems ARGOS and RODOS rely on the ECOSYS model for prognoses of ingestion doses. ECOSYS needs an update of various parameter values to provide reliable estimates. This paper reports on some results of a Nordic initiative to derive parameter values that are specific to Nordic conditions, as well as to improve generic parameter values in ECOSYS, taking into account the host of useful measurement data accumulated since ECOSYS was created
Peptide ion channel toxins from the bootlace worm, the longest animal on Earth
Polypeptides from animal venoms have found important uses as drugs, pharmacological tools, and within biotechnological and agricultural applications. We here report a novel family of cystine knot peptides from nemertean worms, with potent activity on voltage-gated sodium channels. These toxins, named the α-nemertides, were discovered in the epidermal mucus of Lineus longissimus, the ‘bootlace worm’ known as the longest animal on earth. The most abundant peptide, the 31-residue long α-1, was isolated, synthesized, and its 3D NMR structure determined. Transcriptome analysis including 17 species revealed eight α-nemertides, mainly distributed in the genus Lineus. α-1 caused paralysis and death in green crabs (Carcinus maenas) at 1 µg/kg (~300 pmol/kg). It showed profound effect on invertebrate voltage-gated sodium channels (e.g. Blattella germanica Nav1) at low nanomolar concentrations. Strong selectivity for insect over human sodium channels indicates that α-nemertides can be promising candidates for development of bioinsecticidal agents
Asymmetries between the production of D+ and D- mesons from 500 GeV/c pi- nucleon interactions as a function of xF and pt**2
We present asymmetries between the production of D+ and D- mesons in Fermilab
experiment E791 as a function of xF and pt**2. The data used here consist of
74,000 fully-reconstructed charmed mesons produced by a 500 GeV/c pi- beam on C
and Pt foils. The measurements are compared to results of models which predict
differences between the production of heavy-quark mesons that have a light
quark in common with the beam (leading particles) and those that do not
(non-leading particles). While the default models do not agree with our data,
we can reach agreement with one of them, PYTHIA, by making a limited number of
changes to parameters used
Numerical evolutions of nonlinear r-modes in neutron stars
Nonlinear evolution of the gravitational radiation (GR) driven instability in
the r-modes of neutron stars is studied by full numerical 3D hydrodynamical
simulations. The growth of the r-mode instability is found to be limited by the
formation of shocks and breaking waves when the dimensionless amplitude of the
mode grows to about three in value. This maximum mode amplitude is shown by
numerical tests to be rather insensitive to the strength of the GR driving
force. Upper limits on the strengths of possible nonlinear mode--mode coupling
are inferred. Previously unpublished details of the numerical techniques used
are presented, and the results of numerous calibration runs are discussed.Comment: RevTeX 4, 17 pages, 26 figures. Slightly revised. To be published in
PRD (April 2002
Bose-Einstein Correlations of Neutral and Charged Pions in Hadronic Z Decays
Bose-Einstein correlations of both neutral and like-sign charged pion pairs
are measured in a sample of 2 million hadronic Z decays collected with the L3
detector at LEP. The analysis is performed in the four-momentum difference
range 300 MeV < Q < 2 GeV. The radius of the neutral pion source is found to be
smaller than that of charged pions. This result is in qualitative agreement
with the string fragmentation model
Evidence of Color Coherence Effects in W+jets Events from ppbar Collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.8 TeV
We report the results of a study of color coherence effects in ppbar
collisions based on data collected by the D0 detector during the 1994-1995 run
of the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, at a center of mass energy sqrt(s) = 1.8
TeV. Initial-to-final state color interference effects are studied by examining
particle distribution patterns in events with a W boson and at least one jet.
The data are compared to Monte Carlo simulations with different color coherence
implementations and to an analytic modified-leading-logarithm perturbative
calculation based on the local parton-hadron duality hypothesis.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to Physics Letters
Study of Inclusive Strange-Baryon Production and Search for Pentaquarks in Two-Photon Collisions at LEP
Measurements of inclusive production of the Lambda, Xi- and Xi*(1530) baryons
in two-photon collisions with the L3 detector at LEP are presented. The
inclusive differential cross sections for Lambda and Xi- are measured as a
function of the baryon transverse momentum, pt, and pseudo-rapidity, eta. The
mean number of Lambda, Xi- and Xi*(1530) baryons per hadronic two-photon event
is determined in the kinematic range 0.4 GeV < pt< 2.5 GeV, |eta| < 1.2.
Overall agreement with the theoretical models and Monte Carlo predictions is
observed. A search for inclusive production of the pentaquark theta+(1540) in
two-photon collisions through the decay theta+ -> proton K0s is also presented.
No evidence for production of this state is found
Search for Single Top Production at LEP
Single top production in e+e- annihilations is searched for in data collected
by the L3 detector at centre-of-mass energies from 189 to 209 GeV,
corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 634 pb-1. Investigating
hadronic and semileptonic top decays, no evidence of single top production at
LEP is obtained and upper limits on the single top cross section as a function
of the centre-of-mass energy are derived. Limits on possible anomalous
couplings, as well as on the scale of contact interactions responsible for
single top production are determined
D* Production in Deep Inelastic Scattering at HERA
This paper presents measurements of D^{*\pm} production in deep inelastic
scattering from collisions between 27.5 GeV positrons and 820 GeV protons. The
data have been taken with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The decay channel
(+ c.c.) has been used in the study. The
cross section for inclusive D^{*\pm} production with
and is 5.3 \pms 1.0 \pms 0.8 nb in the kinematic region
{ GeV and }. Differential cross
sections as functions of p_T(D^{*\pm}), and are
compared with next-to-leading order QCD calculations based on the photon-gluon
fusion production mechanism. After an extrapolation of the cross section to the
full kinematic region in p_T(D^{*\pm}) and (D^{*\pm}), the charm
contribution to the proton structure function is
determined for Bjorken between 2 10 and 5 10.Comment: 17 pages including 4 figure
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