Light-cone Sum Rule Analysis of Semileptonic Decays Λb0→Λc+ℓ−ν‾ℓ\Lambda_b^0 \to \Lambda_c^+ \ell^- \overline{\nu}_\ell

In this work, we analyze the semileptonic decay processes of $\Lambda_b \to \Lambda_c$ in the light-cone sum rule approach. In the calculation of the form factors of $\Lambda_b$ baryon transition matrix element, the light-cone distribution amplitudes of $\Lambda_b$ which are obtained from QCD sum rule in the heavy quark effective field theory framework are used. With the calculation of the six form factors of $\Lambda_b \to \Lambda_c$ transition matrix element, the differential decay widths of $\Lambda_b^0 \to \Lambda_c^+ \ell^- \overline{\nu}_\ell (\ell = e, \mu, \tau)$ and absolute branching fractions are obtained. Additionally the ratio of $R(\Lambda_c)=\mathcal{B}r(\Lambda_b\to \Lambda_c e \nu_e)/\mathcal{B}r(\Lambda_b \to \Lambda_c \tau \nu_\tau)$ is obtained. These results are in accordance with the newest experimental result and other theoretical calculations and predictions.Comment: 10 pages,6 figure

The inter-comparison of AATSR aerosol optical depth retrievals from various algorithms

The project aerosol-CCI as part of European Space Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative (CCI) has provided three aerosol retrieval algorithms for the Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) aboard on ENVISAT. For the purpose of estimating different performance of these three algorithms in Asia, in this paper we compared the Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) of L2 data (10km×10km) including FMI AATSR Dual-view ADV algorithm, the Oxford RAL Aerosol and Cloud retrieval (ORAC) algorithm and the Swansea University AATSR retrieval (SU) algorithm with the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) and the China Aerosol Remote Sensing Network (CARSNET) data separately. The result shows that the algorithms of ADV and SU have good performance on the retrieval of AOD, and the ORAC algorithm has relative lower precision than other two algorithms

April 15, 2004

The Breeze is the student newspaper of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia

Dynamic Evolution of Eukaryotic Mitochondrial and Nuclear Genomes: A Case Study in the Gourmet Pine Mushroom Tricholoma matsutake

Fungi, as eukaryotic organisms, contain two genomes, the mitochondrial genome and the nuclear genome, in their cells. How the two genomes evolve and correlate to each other is debated. Herein, taking the gourmet pine mushroom Tricholoma matsutake as an example, we performed comparative mitogenomic analysis using samples collected from diverse locations and compared the evolution of the two genomes. The T. matsutake mitogenome encodes 49 genes and is rich of repetitive and non-coding DNAs. Six genes were invaded by up to 11 group I introns, with one cox1 intron cox1P372 showing presence/absence dynamics among different samples. Bioinformatic analyses suggested limited or no evidence of mitochondrial heteroplasmy. Interestingly, hundreds of mitochondrial DNA fragments were found in the nuclear genome, with several larger than 500 nt confirmed by PCR assays and read count comparisons, indicating clear evidence of transfer of mitochondrial DNA into the nuclear genome. Nuclear DNA of T. matsutake showed a higher mutation rate than mitochondrial DNA. Furthermore, we found evidence of incongruence between phylogenetic trees derived from mitogenome and nuclear DNA sequences. Together, our results reveal the dynamic genome evolution of the gourmet pine mushroom.Peer reviewe

The ClpP protease homologue is required for the transmission traits and cell division of the pathogen Legionella pneumophila

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Legionella pneumophila</it>, the intracellular bacterial pathogen that causes Legionnaires' disease, exhibit characteristic transmission traits such as elevated stress tolerance, shortened length and virulence during the transition from the replication phase to the transmission phase. ClpP, the catalytic core of the Clp proteolytic complex, is widely involved in many cellular processes via the regulation of intracellular protein quality.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, we showed that ClpP was required for optimal growth of <it>L. pneumophila </it>at high temperatures and under several other stress conditions. We also observed that cells devoid of <it>clpP </it>exhibited cell elongation, incomplete cell division and compromised colony formation. Furthermore, we found that the <it>clpP</it>-deleted mutant was more resistant to sodium stress and failed to proliferate in the amoebae host <it>Acanthamoeba castellanii</it>.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The data present in this study illustrate that the ClpP protease homologue plays an important role in the expression of transmission traits and cell division of <it>L. pneumophila</it>, and further suggest a putative role of ClpP in virulence regulation.</p

Probing Primordial Gravitational Waves: Ali CMB Polarization Telescope

In this paper, we will give a general introduction to the project of Ali CMB Polarization Telescope (AliCPT), which is a Sino-US joint project led by the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) and has involved many different institutes in China. It is the first ground-based Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization experiment in China and an integral part of China's Gravitational Waves Program. The main scientific goal of AliCPT project is to probe the primordial gravitational waves (PGWs) originated from the very early Universe. The AliCPT project includes two stages. The first stage referred to as AliCPT-1, is to build a telescope in the Ali region of Tibet with an altitude of 5,250 meters. Once completed, it will be the worldwide highest ground-based CMB observatory and open a new window for probing PGWs in northern hemisphere. AliCPT-1 telescope is designed to have about 7,000 TES detectors at 90GHz and 150GHz. The second stage is to have a more sensitive telescope (AliCPT-2) with the number of detectors more than 20,000. Our simulations show that AliCPT will improve the current constraint on the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ by one order of magnitude with 3 years' observation. Besides the PGWs, the AliCPT will also enable a precise measurement on the CMB rotation angle and provide a precise test on the CPT symmetry. We show 3 years' observation will improve the current limit by two order of magnitude.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 2 table