Interfollicular fibrosis in the thyroid of the harbour porpoise: An endocrine disruption?

Previous studies have described high levels of polychlorobiphenyls (PCB), polybrominated diphenylether (PBDE), toxaphene, ,p0-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), and ,p0-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) in the blubber of the harbour porpoise from the North Sea raising the question of a potential endocrine disruption in this species. In the present study, the thyroids of 57 harbour porpoises from the German and Danish (North and Baltic Seas), Norwegian, and Icelandic coasts have been collected for histological and immunohistological investigations. The number of follicles and the relative distribution of follicles, connective, and solid tissues (%) were quantified in the thyroid of each individual. Then, the potential relationship between the thyroid morphometry data and previously described organic compounds (namely, PCB, PBDE, toxaphene, DDT, and DDE) was investigated using factor analysis and multiple regressions. Thyroid morphology differed strongly between ampling sites. Porpoises from the German (North and Baltic Seas) and Norwegian coasts displayed a high percentage of connective tissues between 30 and 38% revealing severe interfollicular fibrosis and a high number of large follicles (diameter >200 lm). A correlation-based principal component analysis (PCA) revealed two principal components explaining 85.9% of the total variance. The variables PCB, PBDE, DDT, and DDE compounds loaded highest on PC1 whereas toxaphene compound loaded most on PC2. Our results pointed out a relationship between PC1 (PCBs, PBDE, DDE, and DDT compounds) and interfollicular fibrosis in the harbour porpoise thyroids. Such an association is not alone sufficient for a cause–effect relationship but supports the hypothesis of a contaminant-induced thyroid fibrosis in harbour porpoises raising the question of the longterm viability in highly polluted areas

Search for leptoquarks with the ZEUS detector

A search for any resonant state coupled to an electron and a proton constituent has been performed using collisions of electron and proton beams at HERA. In a sample with integrated luminosity of 26 nb<sup>−1</sup>, no evidence has been found for production of leptoquarks with decays to e<sup>−</sup> + jet or ν + je to electron and quark have been determined for masses above 25 GeV. For example, scalar isosinglet leptoquarks (S0) with electroweak coupling strength to (e<sup>−</sup>u) states are ruled out at the 95% confidence level for masses below 168 GeV for left-handed couplings and below 176 GeV for right-handed couplings

Observation of two jet production in deep inelastic scattering at HERA

A sample of events with two distinct jets, in addition to the proton remnant, has been identified in deep inelastic, neutral current ep interactions recorded at HERA by the ZEUS experiment. For these events, the mass of the hadronic system ranges from 40 to 260 GeV. The salient features of the observed jet production agree with the predictions of higher order QCD

Search for excited electrons using the ZEUS detector

This paper reports a search for excited electrons at the HERA electron-proton collider. In a sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 26 nb<sup>−</sup>, no evidence was found for any resonant state decaying into e<sup>−</sup>γ, νW<sup>−</sup> or e<sup>−</sup>Z0. Limits on the coupling strength of an excited electron have been determined for masses between 45 and 225 GeV. This study also reports the observation of the wide-angle eγ Compton scattering process

HADRONIC ENERGY-DISTRIBUTIONS IN DEEP-INELASTIC ELECTRON-PROTON SCATTERING

This paper presents energy distributions of the hadronic system produced in neutral-current electron-proton deep-inelastic scattering at a centre of mass energy of 296 GeV. Comparison of the results with QCD Monte Carlo models shows that QCD radiation has a strong influence on the characteristics of the final state. The data are reasonably reproduced by the Lund model based on a matrix element calculation in first order of alpha(s), followed by appropriate parton showers, as well as by the colour dipole model. The HERWIG parton shower model also gives a reasonable representation of the data. Neither the first order matrix elements alone nor the Lund parton shower model, without the matrix element calculation, reproduce the data

Observation of hard scattering in photoproduction at HERA

We report a study of electron proton collisions at very low Q<sup>2</sup>, corresponding to virtual photoproduction at centre of mass energies in the range 100–295 GeV. The distribution in transverse energy of the observed hadrons is much harder than can be explained by soft processes. Some of the events show back-to-back two-jet production at the rate and with the characteristics expected from hard two-body scattering. A subset of the two-jet events have energy in the electron direction consistent with that expected from the photon remnant in resolved photon processes