Long-term clearance from small airways in subjects with ciliary dysfunction

The objective of this study was to investigate if long-term clearance from small airways is dependent on normal ciliary function. Six young adults with primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) inhaled (111 )Indium labelled Teflon particles of 4.2 μm geometric and 6.2 μm aerodynamic diameter with an extremely slow inhalation flow, 0.05 L/s. The inhalation method deposits particles mainly in the small conducting airways. Lung retention was measured immediately after inhalation and at four occasions up to 21 days after inhalation. Results were compared with data from ten healthy controls. For additional comparison three of the PCD subjects also inhaled the test particles with normal inhalation flow, 0.5 L/s, providing a more central deposition. The lung retention at 24 h in % of lung deposition (Ret(24)) was higher (p < 0.001) in the PCD subjects, 79 % (95% Confidence Interval, 67.6;90.6), compared to 49 % (42.3;55.5) in the healthy controls. There was a significant clearance after 24 h both in the PCD subjects and in the healthy controls with equivalent clearance. The mean Ret(24 )with slow inhalation flow was 73.9 ± 1.9 % compared to 68.9 ± 7.5 % with normal inhalation flow in the three PCD subjects exposed twice. During day 7–21 the three PCD subjects exposed twice cleared 9 % with normal flow, probably representing predominantly alveolar clearance, compared to 19 % with slow inhalation flow, probably representing mainly small airway clearance. This study shows that despite ciliary dysfunction, clearance continues in the small airways beyond 24 h. There are apparently additional clearance mechanisms present in the small airways

Search for rare quark-annihilation decays, B --> Ds(*) Phi

We report on searches for B- --> Ds- Phi and B- --> Ds*- Phi. In the context of the Standard Model, these decays are expected to be highly suppressed since they proceed through annihilation of the b and u-bar quarks in the B- meson. Our results are based on 234 million Upsilon(4S) --> B Bbar decays collected with the BABAR detector at SLAC. We find no evidence for these decays, and we set Bayesian 90% confidence level upper limits on the branching fractions BF(B- --> Ds- Phi) Ds*- Phi)<1.2x10^(-5). These results are consistent with Standard Model expectations.Comment: 8 pages, 3 postscript figues, submitted to Phys. Rev. D (Rapid Communications

A Precision Measurement of the Lambda_c Baryon Mass

The $\Lambda_c^+$ baryon mass is measured using $\Lambda_c^+\to\Lambda K^0_S K^+$ and $\Lambda_c^+\to\Sigma^0 K^0_S K^+$ decays reconstructed in 232 fb$^{-1}$ of data collected with the BaBar detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy $e^+e^-$ storage ring. The $\Lambda_c^+$ mass is measured to be $2286.46\pm0.14\mathrm{MeV}/c^2$. The dominant systematic uncertainties arise from the amount of material in the tracking volume and from the magnetic field strength.Comment: 14 pages, 8 postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Observation of the Decay B=> J/psi eta K and Search for X(3872)=> J/psi eta

We report the observation of the $B$ meson decay $B^\pm\to J/\psi \eta K^\pm$ and evidence for the decay $B^0\to J/\psi \eta K^0_S$, using {90} million $BBbar$ events collected at the \ensuremath{\Upsilon{(4S)}}\xspace resonance with the $BaBar$ detector at the PEP-II $e^+ e^-$ asymmetric-energy storage ring. We obtain branching fractions of $\cal{B}$$(B^\pm\to J/\psi \eta K^{\pm}$)=$(10.8\pm 2.3(\rm{stat.})\pm 2.4(\rm{syst.}))\times 10^{-5}$ and $\cal{B}$$(B^0\to J/\psi\eta K_{\rm{S}}^{0}$)=$(8.4\pm 2.6(\rm{stat.})\pm 2.7(\rm{syst.}))\times 10^{-5}$. We search for the new narrow mass state, the X(3872), recently reported by the Belle Collaboration, in the decay B^\pm\to X(3872)K^\pm, X(3872)\to \jpsi \eta and determine an upper limit of $\cal{B}$(B^\pm \to X(3872) K^\pm \to \jpsi \eta K^\pm) $<7.7\times 10^{-6}$ at 90% C.L.Comment: 7 pages and two figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett

Beyond equilibrium climate sensitivity

ISSN:1752-0908ISSN:1752-089

Search for lepton-flavor violation in the decay tau(-)-> l(-)l(+)l-

A search for the lepton-flavor-violating decay of the tau into three charged leptons has been performed using 91.5 fb(-1) of data collected at an e(+)e(-)center-of-mass energy around 10.58 GeV with the BABAR detector at the SLAC storage ring PEP-II. In all six decay modes considered, the numbers of events found in data are compatible with the background expectations. Upper limits on the branching fractions are set in the range (1-3)x10(-7) at 90% confidence level

Observation of CP violation in B ->eta/K-0 decays

We present measurements of the time-dependent CP-violation parameters S and C in B-0 -> eta K-'(0) decays. The data sample corresponds to 384 x 10(6) B (B) over bar pairs produced by e(+)e(-) annihilation at the Upsilon(4S). The results are S = 0.58 +/- 0.10 +/- 0.03 and C = -0.16 +/- 0.07 +/- 0.03. We observe mixing-induced CP violation with a significance of 5.5 standard deviations in this b -> s penguin dominated mode

Measurement of branching fractions and resonance contributions for B-0 ->(D)over-bar(0)K(+)pi(-) and search for B-0 ->(DK+)-K-0 pi(-) decays

Using 226x10(6) Upsilon(4S)-> B (B) over bar events collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e(+)e(-) storage ring at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, we measure the branching fraction for B-0->(D) over bar (0)K(+)pi(-), excluding B-0-> D*-K+, to be B(B-0->(0)K(+)pi(-))=(88 +/- 15 +/- 9)x10(-6). We observe B-0->(D) over bar K-0(*)(892)(0) and B-0-> D-2(*)(2460)K--(+) contributions. The ratio of branching fractions B(B-0-> D*-K+)/B(B-0-> D(*-)pi(+))=(7.76 +/- 0.34 +/- 0.29)% is measured separately. The branching fraction for the suppressed mode B-0-> D(0)K(+)pi(-) is B(B-0-> D(0)K(+)pi(-))< 19x10(-6) at the 90% confidence level

Determinations of vertical bar V-ub vertical bar from inclusive semileptonic B decays with reduced model dependence

We report two novel determinations of vertical bar V-ub vertical bar with reduced model dependence, based on measurements of the mass distribution of the hadronic system in semileptonic B decays. Events are selected by fully reconstructing the decay of one B meson and identifying a charged lepton from the decay of the other B meson from Y(4S) -> B (B) over bar events. In one approach, we combine the inclusive (B) over bar -> X(u)l (v) over bar rate, integrated up to a maximum hadronic mass m(X) X-s gamma photon energy spectrum. We obtain vertical bar V-ub vertical bar = (4.43 +/- 0.38(stat) +/- 0.25(syst) +/- 0.29(theo)) x 10(-3). In another approach we measure the total (B) over bar -> X(u)l (v) over bar rate over the full phase space and find vertical bar V-ub vertical bar = 3.84 +/- 0.70(stat) +/- 0.30(syst) +/- 0.10(theo)) x 10(-3)