648 research outputs found
Gradient microfluidics enables rapid bacterial growth inhibition testing
Bacterial growth inhibition tests have become a standard measure of the adverse effects of inhibitors for a wide range of applications, such as toxicity testing in the medical and environmental sciences. However, conventional well-plate formats for these tests are laborious and provide limited information (often being restricted to an end-point assay). In this study, we have developed a microfluidic system that enables fast quantification of the effect of an inhibitor on bacteria growth and survival, within a single experiment. This format offers a unique combination of advantages, including long-term continuous flow culture, generation of concentration gradients, and single cell morphology tracking. Using Escherichia coli and the inhibitor amoxicillin as one model system, we show excellent agreement between an on-chip single cell-based assay and conventional methods to obtain quantitative measures of antibiotic inhibition (for example, minimum inhibition concentration). Furthermore, we show that our methods can provide additional information, over and above that of the standard well-plate assay, including kinetic information on growth inhibition and measurements of bacterial morphological dynamics over a wide range of inhibitor concentrations. Finally, using a second model system, we show that this chip-based systems does not require the bacteria to be labeled and is well suited for the study of naturally occurring species. We illustrate this using Nitrosomonas europaea, an environmentally important bacteria, and show that the chip system can lead to a significant reduction in the period required for growth and inhibition measurements (<4 days, compared to weeks in a culture flask)
Fermilab E791
Fermilab E791, a very high statistics charm particle experiment, recently
completed its data taking at Fermilab's Tagged Photon Laboratory. Over 20
billion events were recorded through a loose transverse energy trigger and
written to 8mm tape in the the 1991-92 fixed target run at Fermilab. This
unprecedented data sample containing charm is being analysed on many-thousand
MIP RISC computing farms set up at sites in the collaboration. A glimpse of the
data taking and analysis effort is presented. We also show some preliminary
results for common charm decay modes. Our present analysis indicates a very
rich yield of over 200K reconstructed charm decays.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, LaTe
Measurement of the Ds Lifetime
We report the results of a precise measurement of the Ds meson lifetime based
on 1662 +/- 56 fully reconstructed Ds -> phi pi decays, from the charm
hadroproduction experiment E791 at Fermilab. Using an unbinned maximum
likelihood fit, we measure the Ds lifetime to be 0.518 +/- 0.014 +/- 0.007 ps.
The ratio of the measured Ds lifetime to the world average D0 lifetime is 1.25
+/- 0.04. This result differs from unity by six standard deviations, indicating
significantly different lifetimes for the Ds and the D0.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, 2 table. LaTe
Search for the Flavor-Changing Neutral-Current Decays and
We report the results of a search for the flavor-changing neutral-current
decays and in
data from Fermilab charm hadroproduction experiment E791. No signal above
background is found, and we obtain upper limits on branching fractions,
and
, at the 90\% confidence
level.Comment: nine pages with figures; compressed, uuencoded postscrip
Experimental evidence for a light and broad scalar resonance in decay
From a sample of decay, we find
. Using a coherent amplitude analysis
to fit the Dalitz plot of this decays, we find strong evidence that a scalar
resonance of mass MeV/ and width MeV/ accounts for approximately half of all decays.Comment: 10 pages, 3 eps figure
Vitamin D in the general population of young adults with autism in the Faroe Islands
Vitamin D deficiency has been proposed as a possible risk factor for developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD). 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 (25(OH)D3) levels were examined in a cross-sectional population-based study in the Faroe Islands. The case group consisting of a total population cohort of 40 individuals with ASD (aged 15–24 years) had significantly lower 25(OH)D3 than their 62 typically-developing siblings and their 77 parents, and also significantly lower than 40 healthy age and gender matched comparisons. There was a trend for males having lower 25(OH)D3 than females. Effects of age, month/season of birth, IQ, various subcategories of ASD and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule score were also investigated, however, no association was found. The very low 25(OH)D3 in the ASD group suggests some underlying pathogenic mechanism
Dalitz Plot Analysis of the Decay D^+ --> K^- pi^+ pi^+ and Indication of a Low-Mass Scalar K pi Resonance
We study the Dalitz plot of the decay D^+ --> K^- pi^+ pi^+ with a sample of
15090 events from Fermilab experiment E791. Modeling the decay amplitude as the
coherent sum of known K pi resonances and a uniform nonresonant term, we do not
obtain an acceptable fit. If we allow the mass and width of the K^*_0(1430) to
float, we obtain values consistent with those from PDG but the chi^2 per degree
of freedom of the fit is still unsatisfactory. A good fit is found when we
allow for the presence of an additional scalar resonance, with mass 797 +/- 19
+/- 43 MeV/c^2 and width 410 +/- 43 +/- 87 MeV/c^2. The mass and width of the
K^*_0(1430) become 1459 +/- 7 +/- 5 MeV/c^2 and 175 +/- 12 +/- 12 MeV/c^2,
respectively. Our results provide new information on the scalar sector in
hadron spectroscopy.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter
Study of the decay and measurement of masses and widths
From a sample of 848 44 decays, we find
. Using a Dalitz plot analysis of this
three body decay, we find significant contributions from the channels
, , , , and
. We present also the values obtained for masses and widths of
the resonances and .Comment: 10 pages, 3 eps figure
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