Pepper Mild Mottle Virus, a Plant Virus Associated with Specific Immune Responses, Fever, Abdominal Pains, and Pruritus in Humans

Background: Recently, metagenomic studies have identified viable Pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV), a plant virus, in the stool of healthy subjects. However, its source and role as pathogen have not been determined. Methods and Findings: 21 commercialized food products containing peppers, 357 stool samples from 304 adults and 208 stool samples from 137 children were tested for PMMoV using real-time PCR, sequencing, and electron microscopy. Anti-PMMoV IgM antibody testing was concurrently performed. A case-control study tested the association of biological and clinical symptoms with the presence of PMMoV in the stool. Twelve (57%) food products were positive for PMMoV RNA sequencing. Stool samples from twenty-two (7.2%) adults and one child (0.7%) were positive for PMMoV by real-time PCR. Positive cases were significantly more likely to have been sampled in Dermatology Units (p<10−6), to be seropositive for anti-PMMoV IgM antibodies (p = 0.026) and to be patients who exhibited fever, abdominal pains, and pruritus (p = 0.045, 0.038 and 0.046, respectively). Conclusions: Our study identified a local source of PMMoV and linked the presence of PMMoV RNA in stool with a specific immune response and clinical symptoms. Although clinical symptoms may be imputable to another cofactor, including spicy food, our data suggest the possibility of a direct or indirect pathogenic role of plant viruses in humans

Skiroc: A Front-end Chip to Read Out the Imaging Silicon-Tungsten Calorimeter for ILC

Integration and low-power consumption of the read-out ASIC for the International Linear Collider (ILC) 82-millionchannel W-Si calorimeter must reach an unprecedented level as it will be embedded inside the detector. Uniformity and dynamic range performance has to reach the accuracy to achieve calorimetric measurement. A first step towards this goal has been a 10,000-channel physics prototype of 18*18 cm which is currently in test beam in CERN. A new version of a full integrated read out chip (SKIROC) has been designed to equip the technologic prototype to be built for 2009. Based on the running physics prototype ASIC (FLC_PHY3), it embeds most of the required features expected for the final detector. The dynamic range has been improved from 500 to 2000 MIP. An auto-trigger capability has been added allowing built-in zero suppress. The number of channel has been doubled reaching 36 to fit smaller silicon pads and the lownoise charge preamplifier now accepts both AC and DC coupled detectors. After an exhaustive description, the measurement results of that new front-end chip will be presented. The results on the technological R&D concurrently conducted on the ultra-thin PCB hosting both the front-end electronic and the silicon detectors will also be described

CMS physics technical design report : Addendum on high density QCD with heavy ions

Peer reviewe

Search for non-minimal Higgs bosons in Z 0 decays

We report on a search for the neutral and charged Higgs bosons predicted by models of spontaneous symmetry breaking with more than one Higgs doublet field. No signals are observed. We set model-independent limits on masses or branching ratios of singly and pair-produced neutral and charged Higgs bosons. In addition, we interpret our results in the framework of a general two-doublet Higgs model and the Minimal Supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47892/1/10052_2005_Article_BF01474331.pd

Transverse-momentum and pseudorapidity distributions of charged hadrons in pp collisions at √s=0.9 and 2.36 TeV

Measurements of inclusive charged-hadron transverse-momentum and pseudorapidity distributions are presented for proton-proton collisions at root s = 0.9 and 2.36 TeV. The data were collected with the CMS detector during the LHC commissioning in December 2009. For non-single-diffractive interactions, the average charged-hadron transverse momentum is measured to be 0.46 +/- 0.01 (stat.) +/- 0.01 (syst.) GeV/c at 0.9 TeV and 0.50 +/- 0.01 (stat.) +/- 0.01 (syst.) GeV/c at 2.36 TeV, for pseudorapidities between -2.4 and +2.4. At these energies, the measured pseudorapidity densities in the central region, dN(ch)/d eta vertical bar(vertical bar eta vertical bar and pp collisions. The results at 2.36 TeV represent the highest-energy measurements at a particle collider to date

Apport d'un système modulaire de séquenceurs microprogrammables à l'acquisition et au filtrage des données en physique des particules

This thesis describes the interest of using microprogrammable microprocessors for on-line triggering and event filtering i n high energy physics experiments. The first part is used to analyse this problem and to show the principal difficulties . The second part describes Our solution, which consist of adding in the initial informatic structure a great transfert and treatment capability by a multiprocessor architecture, suitable to each experiment. The third part is dedicated to the description of Our fast processor GESPRO and of its software tools specially written for this realization. Performances obtained are then given. The last part is used to detail the results obtained since 1975 on two experiments (NA2 and NA10) on the SPS of CERN at Geneva.Cette thèse a pour but de montrer l'intérêt de l'utilisation de microprocesseurs microprogramables en acquisition et en filtrage d'événements de physique des particules hautes énergies. La première partie est consacrée à l'analyse du problème et à la mise en évidence des principales difficultés . La deuxième partie décrit la solution retenue. Cette dernière consiste à insérer dans la structure informatique initiale une grande efficacité de transfert et de traitement des données au moyen d' une architecture multiprocesseur à intelligence répartie, adaptable à chaque expérience. La troisième partie décrit en détails le processeur GESPRO, les outils logiciels conçus pour cette réalisation, ainsi que les performances obtenues. La dernière partie est consacrée à l'analyse des résultats obtenus depuis 1975 sur deux expériences (WA2 e t NA10) au SPS du CERN à Genève