Detection of antibacterial activity of essential oil components by TLC-bioautography using luminescent bacteria

The aim of the present study was the chemical characterization of some medically relevant essential oils (tea tree, clove, cinnamon bark, thyme and eucalyptus) and the investigation of antibacterial effect of the components of these oils by use of a direct bioautographic method. Thin layer chromatography (TLC) was combined with biological detection in this process. The chemical composition of the oils was determined by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Eucalyptol (84.2%) was the main component of the essential oil of eucalyptus, eugenol (83.7%) of clove oil, and trans-cinnamic aldehyde (73.2%), thymol (49.9%) and terpinen-4-ol (45.8%) of cinnamon bark, thyme and tea tree oils, respectively. Antibacterial activity of the separated components of these oils, as well as their pure main components (eucalyptol, eugenol, trans-cinnamic aldehyde and thymol) was observed against the Gram-negative luminescence tagged plant pathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas syringae pv. maculicola (Psmlux) and the Gram-negative, naturally luminescent marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri. On the whole, the antibacterial activity of the essential oils could be related to their main components, but the minor constituents may be involved in this process. Trans-cinnamic aldehyde and eugenol were the most active compounds in TLC-bioautography. The sensitivity of TLC-bioautographic method can be improved with using luminescent test bacteria. This method is more cost-effective and provides more reliable results in comparison with conventional microbiological methods, e.g. disc-diffusion technique

Maximally-localized Wannier functions for entangled energy bands

We present a method for obtaining well-localized Wannier-like functions (WFs) for energy bands that are attached to or mixed with other bands. The present scheme removes the limitation of the usual maximally-localized WFs method (N. Marzari and D. Vanderbilt, Phys. Rev. B 56, 12847 (1997)) that the bands of interest should form an isolated group, separated by gaps from higher and lower bands everywhere in the Brillouin zone. An energy window encompassing N bands of interest is specified by the user, and the algorithm then proceeds to disentangle these from the remaining bands inside the window by filtering out an optimally connected N-dimensional subspace. This is achieved by minimizing a functional that measures the subspace dispersion across the Brillouin zone. The maximally-localized WFs for the optimal subspace are then obtained via the algorithm of Marzari and Vanderbilt. The method, which functions as a postprocessing step using the output of conventional electronic-structure codes, is applied to the s and d bands of copper, and to the valence and low-lying conduction bands of silicon. For the low-lying nearly-free-electron bands of copper we find WFs which are centered at the tetrahedral interstitial sites, suggesting an alternative tight-binding parametrization.Comment: 13 pages, with 9 postscript figures embedded. Uses REVTEX and epsf macro

Colonialism, postcolonialism and the liberal welfare state

This article addresses the colonial and racial origins of the welfare state with a particular emphasis on the liberal welfare state of the USA and UK. Both are understood in terms of the centrality of the commodified status of labour power expressing a logic of market relations. In contrast, we argue that with a proper understanding of the relations of capitalism and colonialism, the sale of labour power as a commodity already represents a movement away from the commodified form of labour represented by enslavement. European colonialism is integral to the development of welfare states and their forms of inclusion and exclusion which remain racialised through into the twenty-first century

Primordialists and Constructionists: a typology of theories of religion

This article adopts categories from nationalism theory to classify theories of religion. Primordialist explanations are grounded in evolutionary psychology and emphasize the innate human demand for religion. Primordialists predict that religion does not decline in the modern era but will endure in perpetuity. Constructionist theories argue that religious demand is a human construct. Modernity initially energizes religion, but subsequently undermines it. Unpacking these ideal types is necessary in order to describe actual theorists of religion. Three distinctions within primordialism and constructionism are relevant. Namely those distinguishing: a) materialist from symbolist forms of constructionism; b) theories of origins from those pertaining to the reproduction of religion; and c) within reproduction, between theories of religious persistence and secularization. This typology helps to make sense of theories of religion by classifying them on the basis of their causal mechanisms, chronology and effects. In so doing, it opens up new sightlines for theory and research

Time-integrated luminosity recorded by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e+e- collider

This article is the Preprint version of the final published artcile which can be accessed at the link below.We describe a measurement of the time-integrated luminosity of the data collected by the BABAR experiment at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e+e- collider at the ϒ(4S), ϒ(3S), and ϒ(2S) resonances and in a continuum region below each resonance. We measure the time-integrated luminosity by counting e+e-→e+e- and (for the ϒ(4S) only) e+e-→μ+μ- candidate events, allowing additional photons in the final state. We use data-corrected simulation to determine the cross-sections and reconstruction efficiencies for these processes, as well as the major backgrounds. Due to the large cross-sections of e+e-→e+e- and e+e-→μ+μ-, the statistical uncertainties of the measurement are substantially smaller than the systematic uncertainties. The dominant systematic uncertainties are due to observed differences between data and simulation, as well as uncertainties on the cross-sections. For data collected on the ϒ(3S) and ϒ(2S) resonances, an additional uncertainty arises due to ϒ→e+e-X background. For data collected off the ϒ resonances, we estimate an additional uncertainty due to time dependent efficiency variations, which can affect the short off-resonance runs. The relative uncertainties on the luminosities of the on-resonance (off-resonance) samples are 0.43% (0.43%) for the ϒ(4S), 0.58% (0.72%) for the ϒ(3S), and 0.68% (0.88%) for the ϒ(2S).This work is supported by the US Department of Energy and National Science Foundation, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Canada), the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique and Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physiquedes Particules (France), the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Germany), the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (Italy), the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (The Netherlands), the Research Council of Norway, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain), and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (United Kingdom). Individuals have received support from the Marie-Curie IEF program (European Union) and the A.P. Sloan Foundation (USA)

Probing exotic phenomena at the interface of nuclear and particle physics with the electric dipole moments of diamagnetic atoms: A unique window to hadronic and semi-leptonic CP violation

The current status of electric dipole moments of diamagnetic atoms which involves the synergy between atomic experiments and three different theoretical areas -- particle, nuclear and atomic is reviewed. Various models of particle physics that predict CP violation, which is necessary for the existence of such electric dipole moments, are presented. These include the standard model of particle physics and various extensions of it. Effective hadron level combined charge conjugation (C) and parity (P) symmetry violating interactions are derived taking into consideration different ways in which a nucleon interacts with other nucleons as well as with electrons. Nuclear structure calculations of the CP-odd nuclear Schiff moment are discussed using the shell model and other theoretical approaches. Results of the calculations of atomic electric dipole moments due to the interaction of the nuclear Schiff moment with the electrons and the P and time-reversal (T) symmetry violating tensor-pseudotensor electron-nucleus are elucidated using different relativistic many-body theories. The principles of the measurement of the electric dipole moments of diamagnetic atoms are outlined. Upper limits for the nuclear Schiff moment and tensor-pseudotensor coupling constant are obtained combining the results of atomic experiments and relativistic many-body theories. The coefficients for the different sources of CP violation have been estimated at the elementary particle level for all the diamagnetic atoms of current experimental interest and their implications for physics beyond the standard model is discussed. Possible improvements of the current results of the measurements as well as quantum chromodynamics, nuclear and atomic calculations are suggested.Comment: 46 pages, 19 tables and 16 figures. A review article accepted for EPJ

R : Phage biocontrol to combat Pseudomonas syringae pathogens causing disease in cherry

Bacterial canker is a major disease of Prunus species, such as cherry (Prunus avium). It is caused by Pseudomonas syringae pathovars, including P. syringae pv. syringae (Pss) and P. syringae pv. morsprunorum race 1 (Psm1) and race 2 (Psm2). Concerns over the environmental impact of, and the development of bacterial resistance to, traditional copper controls calls for new approaches to disease management. Bacteriophage-based biocontrol could provide a sustainable and natural alternative approach to combat bacterial pathogens. Therefore, seventy phages were isolated from soil, leaf and bark of cherry trees in six locations in the south east of England. Subsequently, their host range was assessed against strains of Pss, Psm1 and Psm2. While these phages lysed different Pss, Psm and some other P. syringae pathovar isolates, they did not infect beneficial bacteria such as Pseudomonas fluorescens. A subset of thirteen phages were further characterized by genome sequencing, revealing five distinct clades in which the phages could be clustered. No known toxins or lysogeny-associated genes could be identified. Using bioassays, selected phages could effectively reduce disease progression in vivo, both individually and in cocktails, reinforcing their potential as biocontrol agents in agriculture

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter