241 research outputs found
Cabibbo-allowed nonleptonic weak decays of charmed baryons
Cabibbo-allowed nonleptonic weak decays of charmed baryons
\lamc,~\xin,~\xip and into an octet baryon and a pseudoscalar
meson are analyzed. The nonfactorizable contributions are evaluated under pole
approximation, and it turns out that the -wave amplitudes are dominated by
the low-lying \halfm resonances, while -wave ones governed by the
ground-state \halfp poles. The MIT bag model is employed to calculate the
coupling constants, form factors and baryon matrix elements. Our conclusions
are: (i) waves are no longer dominated by commutator terms; the
current-algebra method is certainly not applicable to parity-violating
amplitudes, (ii) nonfactorizable exchange effects are generally important;
they can be comparable to and somtimes even dominate over factorizable
contributions, depending on the decay modes under consideration, (iii)
large- approximation for factorizable amplitudes also works in the heavy
baryon sector and it accounts for the color nonsuppression of \lamc\ri
p\bar{K}^0 relative to \lamc\ri\Lambda\pi^+, (iv) a measurement of the decay
rate and the sign of the asymmetry parameter of certain proposed decay
modes will help discern various models; especially the sign of in
\lamc\ri\Sigma\pi decays can be used to unambiguously differentiate recent
theoretical schemes from current algebra, and (v) waves are the dominant
contributions to the decays \lamc\ri\Xi^0 K^+ and \xin\ri\Sigma^+ K^-, but
they are subject to a large cancellation; this renders present theoretical
predictions on these two channels unreliable.Comment: PHYZZX, 31 pages, 3 tables, IP-ASTP-10-93, ITP-SB-93-2
Effective Lagrangian Approach to Weak Radiative Decays of Heavy Hadrons
Motivated by the observation of the decay by
CLEO, we have systematically analyzed the two-body weak radiative decays of
bottom and charmed hadrons. There exist two types of weak radiative decays: One
proceeds through the short-distance transition and the other
occurs through -exchange accompanied by a photon emission. Effective
Lagrangians are derived for the -exchange bremsstrahlung processes at the
quark level and then applied to various weak electromagnetic decays of heavy
hadrons. Predictions for the branching ratios of and
\Xi_b^0\to\xip_c^0\gamma are given. In particular, we found . Order of magnitude
estimates for the weak radiative decays of charmed hadrons: and
are also presented. Within this approach, the decay asymmetry for antitriplet
to antitriplet heavy baryon weak radiative transitions is uniquely predicted by
heavy quark symmetry. The electromagnetic penguin contribution to
is estimated by two different methods and its
branching ratio is found to be of order . We conclude that
weak radiative decays of bottom hadrons are dominated by the short-distance
mechanism.Comment: 28 pages + 3 figures (not included), CLNS 94/1278, IP-ASTP-04-94.
[Main changes in this revised version: (i) Sect 2 and subsection 4.1 are
revised, (ii) A MIT bag method for calculating the decay rate of is presented, (iii) All predictions are updated using the
newly available 1994 Particle Data Group, and (iv) Appendix and subsections
3.3 and 4.4 are deleted.
Effect of diazinon on life stages and resting egg hatchability of rotifer Brachionus plicatilis
The effects of organophosphate pesticide, diazinon, on life history parameters and hatchability of resting eggs of rotifer Brachionus plicalitis were assessed. Newly hatched (<1h-old) neonates were individually cultured in six varying concentrations (0/control, 0.1, 1.0, 2.5, 5.0 and 10.0 mg/L) of diazinon. The life history parameters such as time (h) the rotifers bear first egg and release first neonate, reproductive period, net reproductive rate, mixis, intrinsic rate of population increase, and life span were evaluated. Results showed that among the life history parameters, the time the rotifers took to release neonates is the most sensitive, giving the lowest EC50 value of 1.24 mg/L. The fecundity of maternal females, amictic and mictic daughters was also investigated. Rotifers exposed to 10.0 mg/L produced significantly fewer amictic daughters, and at this concentration, rotifers did not produce any mictic daughter. At 5.0 mg/L, the number of male offspring was significantly lower than the control. Furthermore, the hatchability of resting eggs produced by the rotifers was evaluated when exposed to diazinon: from birth until they produced resting eggs (early development); during late developmental stage of resting eggs (before diapause); and during diapausing stage. The hatchability of the resting eggs was not affected when exposure was timed at late developmental and diapausing stages. Overall results showed that even though amictic females reproduced normally in the presence of low concentration of diazinon, sexual reproduction is severely affected, especially the hatchability of resting eggs when the exposure was timed on its early developmental stages. This provides another evidence that production of resting eggs is particularly sensitive to the presence of xenobiotics in the environment
Side chain engineering in indacenodithiophene- co -benzothiadiazole and its impact on mixed ionicâelectronic transport properties
Organic semiconductors are increasingly being decorated with hydrophilic solubilising chains to create materials that can function as mixed ionicâelectronic conductors, which are promising candidates for interfacing biological systems with organic electronics. While numerous organic semiconductors, including p- and n-type materials, small molecules and polymers, have been successfully tailored to encompass mixed conduction properties, common to all these systems is that they have been semicrystalline materials. Here, we explore how side chain engineering in the nano-crystalline indacenodithiophene-co-benzothiadiazole (IDTBT) polymer can be used to instil ionic transport properties and how this in turn influences the electronic transport properties. This allows us to ultimately assess the mixed ionicâelectronic transport properties of these new IDTBT polymers using the organic electrochemical transistor as the testing platform. Using a complementary experimental and computational approach, we find that polar IDTBT derivatives can be infiltrated by water and solvated ions, they can be electrochemically doped efficiently in aqueous electrolyte with fast doping kinetics, and upon aqueous swelling there is no deterioration of the close interchain contacts that are vital for efficient charge transport in the IDTBT system. Despite these promising attributes, mixed ionicâelectronic charge transport properties are surprisingly poor in all the polar IDTBT derivatives. Albeit a âânegativeââ result, this finding clearly contradicts established side chain engineering rules for mixed ionicâelectronic conductors, which motivated our continued investigation of this system. We eventually find this anomalous behaviour to be caused by increasing energetic disorder in the polymers with increasing polar side chain content. We have investigated computationally how the polar side chain motifs contribute to this detrimental energetic inhomogeneity and ultimately use the learnings to propose new molecular design criteria for side chains that can facilitate ion transport without impeding electronic transport
A tale of worldwide success: Behind the scenes of Carex (Cyperaceae)Â biogeography and diversification
The megadiverse genus Carex (c. 2000 species, Cyperaceae) has a nearly cosmopolitan distribution, displaying an inverted latitudinal richness gradient with higher species diversity in cold-temperate areas of the Northern Hemisphere. Despite great expansion in our knowledge of the phylogenetic history of the genus and many molecular studies focusing on the biogeography of particular groups during the last few decades, a global analysis of Carex biogeography and diversification is still lacking. For this purpose, we built the hitherto most comprehensive Carex-dated phylogeny based on three markers (ETSâITSâmatK), using a previous phylogenomic Hyb-Seq framework, and a sampling of two-thirds of its species and all recognized sections. Ancestral area reconstruction, biogeographic stochastic mapping, and diversification rate analyses were conducted to elucidate macroevolutionary biogeographic and diversification patterns. Our results reveal that Carex originated in the late Eocene in E Asia, where it probably remained until the synchronous diversification of its main subgeneric lineages during the late Oligocene. E Asia is supported as the cradle of Carex diversification, as well as a âmuseumâ of extant species diversity. Subsequent âout-of-Asiaâ colonization patterns feature multiple asymmetric dispersals clustered toward present times among the Northern Hemisphere regions, with major regions acting both as source and sink (especially Asia and North America), as well as several independent colonization events of the Southern Hemisphere. We detected 13 notable diversification rate shifts during the last 10 My, including remarkable radiations in North America and New Zealand, which occurred concurrently with the late Neogene global cooling, which suggests that diversification involved the colonization of new areas and expansion into novel areas of niche space.This work was carried out with financial support by the National Science Foundation (Award #1255901 to ALH and Award #1256033 to EHR), the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (project CGL2016â77401âP to SM-B and ML), the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (McIntire Stennis project 1018692 to DS) as well as postdoctoral fellowships towards SMâB (Universidad Pablo de Olavide, PP16/12âAPP), and PJâM (National Science Foundation, Award #1256033, and the Smithsonian Postdoctoral Fellowship program)
A new classification of Cyperaceae (Poales) supported by phylogenomic data
Cyperaceae (sedges) are the third largest monocot family and are of considerable economic and ecological importance. Sedges represent an ideal model family to study evolutionary biology because of their species richness, global distribution, large discrepancies in lineage diversity, broad range of ecological preferences, and adaptations including multiple origins of C4 photosynthesis and holocentric chromosomes. Goetghebeurâs seminal work on Cyperaceae published in 1998 provided the most recent complete classification at tribal and generic level, based on a morphological study of Cyperaceae inflorescence, spikelet, flower and embryo characters plus anatomical and other information. Since then, several familyâlevel molecular phylogenetic studies using Sanger sequence data have been published. Here, more than 20 years after the last comprehensive classification of the family, we present the first familyâwide phylogenomic study of Cyperaceae based on targeted sequencing using the Angiosperms353 probe kit sampling 311 accessions. Additionally, 62 accessions available from GenBank were mined for overlapping reads and included in the phylogenomic analyses. Informed by this backbone phylogeny, a new classification for the family at the tribal, subtribal and generic levels is proposed. The majority of previously recognized suprageneric groups are supported, and for the first time we establish support for tribe Cryptangieae as a clade including the genus Koyamaea. We provide a taxonomic treatment including identification keys and diagnoses for the 2 subfamilies, 24 tribes and 10 subtribes and basic information on the 95 genera. The classification includes five new subtribes in tribe Schoeneae: Anthelepidinae, Caustiinae, Gymnoschoeninae, Lepidospermatinae and Oreobolinae. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Analysis of Expressed Sequence Tags of the Cyclically Parthenogenetic Rotifer Brachionus plicatilis
Background. Rotifers are among the most common non-arthropod animals and are the most experimentally tractable members of the basal assemblage of metazoan phyla known as Gnathifera. The monogonont rotifer Brachionus plicatilis is a developing model system for ecotoxicology, aquatic ecology, cryptic speciation, and the evolution of sex, and is an important food source for finfish aquaculture. However, basic knowledge of the genome and transcriptome of any rotifer species has been lacking. Methodology/Principal Findings. We generated and partially sequenced a cDNA library from B. plicatilis and constructed a database of over 2300 expressed sequence tags corresponding to more than 450 transcripts. About 20% of the transcripts had no significant similarity to database sequences by BLAST; most of these contained open reading frames of significant length but few had recognized Pfam motifs. Sixteen transcripts accounted for 25% of the ESTs; four of these had no significant similarity to BLAST or Pfam databases. Putative up- and downstream untranslated regions are relatively short and AT rich. In contrast to bdelloid rotifers, there was no evidence of a conserved trans-spliced leader sequence among the transcripts and most genes were single-copy. Conclusions/Significance. Despite the small size of this EST project it revealed several important features of the rotifer transcriptome and of individual monogonont genes. Because there is little genomic data for Gnathifera, the transcripts we found with no known function may represent genes that are species-, class-, phylum- or even superphylum-specific; the fact that some are among the most highly expressed indicates their importance. The absence of trans-spliced leader exons in this monogonont species contrasts with their abundance in bdelloid rotifers and indicates that the presence of this phenomenon can vary at the subphylum level. Our EST database provides a relatively large quantity of transcript-level data for B. plicatilis, and more generally of rotifers and other gnathiferan phyla, and can be browsed and searched at gmod.mbl.edu
Gaia Data Release 1. Astrometry: one billion positions, two million proper motions and parallaxes
Context. Gaia Data Release 1 (DR1) contains astrometric results for more than 1 billion stars brighter than magnitude 20.7 based on observations collected by the Gaia satellite during the first 14 months of its operational phase. Aims. We give a brief overview of the astrometric content of the data release and of the model assumptions, data processing, and validation of the results. Methods. For stars in common with the Hipparcos and Tycho-2 catalogues, complete astrometric single-star solutions are obtained by incorporating positional information from the earlier catalogues. For other stars only their positions are obtained, essentially by neglecting their proper motions and parallaxes. The results are validated by an analysis of the residuals, through special validation runs, and by comparison with external data. Results. For about two million of the brighter stars (down to magnitude âŒ11.5) we obtain positions, parallaxes, and proper motions to Hipparcos-type precision or better. For these stars, systematic errors depending for example on position and colour are at a level of ±0.3 milliarcsecond (mas). For the remaining stars we obtain positions at epoch J2015.0 accurate to âŒ10 mas. Positions and proper motions are given in a reference frame that is aligned with the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF) to better than 0.1 mas at epoch J2015.0, and non-rotating with respect to ICRF to within 0.03 mas yrâ1 . The Hipparcos reference frame is found to rotate with respect to the Gaia DR1 frame at a rate of 0.24 mas yrâ1 . Conclusions. Based on less than a quarter of the nominal mission length and on very provisional and incomplete calibrations, the quality and completeness of the astrometric data in Gaia DR1 are far from what is expected for the final mission products. The present results nevertheless represent a huge improvement in the available fundamental stellar data and practical definition of the optical reference frame
Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences
The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & NemĂ©sio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; NemĂ©sio 2009aâb; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported
by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on
18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based
researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016
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