2,819 research outputs found
The great ideas of biology: Exploration through experimentation in an undergraduate lab course
We developed an introductory laboratory course to provide a visceral experience that aims at getting students truly excited about scientific study of the living world. Our vehicle to do that was to focus on what Paul Nurse dubbed “the great ideas of biology” rather than an approach to biology that celebrates specific factual knowledge. To that end, we developed eight diverse experimental
modules, each of which highlights a key biological concept and gives an opportunity to use theory to generate testable hypotheses, to perform high quality measurements to test those hypotheses (some of which are clearly wrong), and to perform sophisticated computational data analysis. Some
modules incorporate modern microscopy and computational techniques in classic experiments, such as bacterial growth and the Luria‐Delbrück experiment, while others address current research questions using methods like optogenetics and single molecule measurements. We have offered the course eight times, and in the most recent edition of the course, we conducted pre/post‐course interviews and
attitude surveys. The students, both bio and non‐bio majors alike, reported being captivated by seeing life occur across the broad range of experiments and model organisms. We observed demonstrable development of their curiosity and enthusiasm for biology. Additionally, we found that
prior to the course, students had only vague notions about what it means to make quantitative biological measurements and interpret them. They completed the course with a clearer understanding of scientific inquiry in biology and the skills and confidence to actually perform and interpret measurements in living systems
Possible co-existence of local itinerancy and global localization in a quasi-one-dimensional conductor
In the chain compound PrBaCuO localization appears simultaneously
with a dimensional crossover in the electronic ground state when the scattering
rate in the chains exceeds the hopping rate between the chains. Here we report
the discovery of a large, transverse magnetoresistance in PrBaCuO
in the localized regime. This result suggests a novel form of localization
whereby electrons retain their metallic (quasi-one-dimensional) character over
a microscopic length scale despite the fact that macroscopically, they exhibit
localized (one-dimensional) behavior.Comment: 4 pages, 4 Figure
Angle-resolved photoemission study of insulating and metallic Cu-O chains in PrBaCuO and PrBaCuO
We compare the angle-resolved photoemission spectra of the hole-doped Cu-O
chains in PrBaCuO (Pr123) and in PrBaCuO (Pr124).
While, in Pr123, a dispersive feature from the chain takes a band maximum at
(momentum along the chain) and loses its spectral weight
around the Fermi level, it reaches the Fermi level at in
Pr124. Although the chains in Pr123 and Pr124 are approximately 1/4-filled,
they show contrasting behaviors: While the chains in Pr123 have an instability
to charge ordering, those in Pr124 avoid it and show an interesting spectral
feature of a metallic coupled-chain system.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, to be published in PR
Evidence for B- -> Ds+ K- l- nubar and search for B- -> Ds*+ K- l- nubar
We report measurements of the decays B- -> Ds(*)+ K- l- nubar in a data
sample containing 657x10^6 BBbar pairs collected with the Belle detector at the
KEKB asymmetric-energy e+e- collider. We observe a signal with a significance
of 6 sigma for the combined Ds and Ds* modes and find the first evidence of the
B- -> Ds+ K- l- nubar decay with a significance of 3.4 sigma. We measure the
following branching fractions: BF(B- -> Ds+ K- l nubar) = (0.30 +/- 0.09(stat)
+0.11 -0.08(syst)) x 10^-3 and BF(B- -> Ds*+ K- l- nubar) = (0.59 +/-
0.12(stat) +/- 0.15(syst)) x 10^-3 and set an upper limit BF(B- -> Ds*+ K- l-
nubar) < 0.56 x 10^-3 at the 90% confidence level. We also present the first
measurement of the Ds+K- invariant mass distribution in these decays, which is
dominated by a prominent peak around 2.6 GeV/c^2.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Measurements of time-dependent CP asymmetries in decays using a partial reconstruction technique
We report results on time-dependent CP asymmetries in decays based on a data sample containing 657 {\times}
pairs collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB
asymmetric-energy collider at the resonance. We use a
partial reconstruction technique, wherein signal
events are identified using information only from the fast pion from the B
decay and the slow pion from the subsequent decay of the , where the
former (latter) corresponds to final states. We obtain CP
violation parameters and .Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physical Review D (RC
Observation of and Evidence for
We report the first observation of and first
evidence for , which are CP eigenstate decay modes.
These results are obtained from of data collected at
the resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB
collider. We measure the branching fractions with a significance of , and
with a significance of . The last error
listed is due to uncertainty in the number of produced pairs.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, published in PR
First study of \eta_c, \eta(1760) and X(1835) production via \eta'\pi^+\pi^- final states in two-photon collisions
The invariant mass spectrum of the \eta' \pi^+ \pi^- final state produced in
two-photon collisions is obtained using a 673 fb^{-1} data sample collected in
the vicinity of the \Upsilon(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB
asymmetric-energy e^+e^- collider. We observe a clear signal of the \eta_c and
measure its mass and width to be M(\eta_c)=(2982.7 +- 1.8(stat) +- 2.2(syst) +-
0.3(model)) MeV/c^2 and \Gamma(\eta_c) = (37.8^{+5.8}_{-5.3}(stat) +- 2.8(syst)
+- 1.4(model)) MeV/c^2. The third error is an uncertainty due to possible
interference between the \eta_c and a non-resonant component. We also report
the first evidence for \eta(1760) decay to \eta' \pi^+ \pi^-; we find two
solutions for its parameters, depending on the inclusion or not of the X(1835),
whose existence is of marginal significance in our data. From a fit to the mass
spectrum using coherent X(1835) and \eta(1760) resonant amplitudes, we set a
90% confidence level upper limit on the product \Gamma_{\gamma\gamma} \BR
(\eta' \pi^+ \pi^-) for the X(1835).Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, submitted to PR
Search for CP Violation in the Decays
We have searched for CP violation in the decays
where denotes a neutral pseudo-scalar meson which is either a ,
, or using KEKB asymmetric-energy collision data
corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 791 fb collected with the
Belle detector. No evidence of significant CP violation is observed. We report
the most precise CP asymmetry measurement in the decay to date: . We also report the first measurements of
CP asymmetries in the decays and : and , respectively
Search for CP Violation in D Meson Decays to phi pi+
We search for CP violation in Cabibbo-suppressed charged D meson decays by
measuring the difference between the CP violating asymmetries for the
Cabibbo-suppressed decays D+ -> K+K-pi+ and the Cabibbo-favored decays Ds ->
K+K-pi+ in the K+K- mass region of the phi resonance. Using 955/fb of data
collected with the Belle detector we obtain A_CP(D+ -> phi pi+) = (+0.51 +-
0.28 +- 0.05)%. The measurement improves the sensitivity of previous searches
by more than a factor of five. We find no evidence for direct CP violation.Comment: submitted to PR
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