Strange particle production in proton-proton collisions at s=0.9\sqrt{s}=0.9 TeV with ALICE at the LHC

The production of mesons containing strange quarks (K$^0_s$, $\phi$) and both singly and doubly strange baryons ($\Lambda$, Anti-$\Lambda$, and $\Xi$+Anti-$\Xi$) are measured at central rapidity in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 0.9 TeV with the ALICE experiment at the LHC. The results are obtained from the analysis of about 250 k minimum bias events recorded in 2009. Measurements of yields (dN/dy) and transverse momentum spectra at central rapidities for inelastic pp collisions are presented. For mesons, we report yields () of 0.184 $\pm$ 0.002 stat. $\pm$ 0.006 syst. for K$^0_s$ and 0.021 $\pm$ 0.004 stat. $\pm$ 0.003 syst. for $\phi$. For baryons, we find = 0.048 $\pm$ 0.001 stat. $\pm$ 0.004 syst. for $\Lambda$, 0.047 $\pm$ 0.002 stat. $\pm$ 0.005 syst. for Anti-$\Lambda$ and 0.0101 $\pm$ 0.0020 stat. $\pm$ 0.0009 syst. for $\Xi$+Anti-$\Xi$. The results are also compared with predictions for identified particle spectra from QCD-inspired models and provide a baseline for comparisons with both future pp measurements at higher energies and heavy-ion collisions.Comment: 33 pages, 21 captioned figures, 10 tables, authors from page 28, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/387

Riemerella Anatipestifer Infection in Chickens

Riemerella anatipestifer (RA) is the causative agent of septicemic and exudative disease for a variety of bird species. Although RA had been isolated from chickens, whether can bring damages to them is not unrevealed yet. In this study, we report a flock of SanHuang chickens infected by RA with 15% morbidity and less than 8% mortality. The infection is further substantiated by case duplicate. The tested chickens demonstrate typical signs of pericarditis, air sacculitis and perihepatitis that are completely consistent with the field outbreak. The results suggest that RA is pathogenic to SanHuang chickens, which can then be theoretically and practicably incorporated into its infection spectrum

Susceptibility of Soiny Mullet (Liza Haematocheila) to Streptococcus Dysgalactiae and Physiological Response to Formalin Inactivated S. Dysgalactiae

Streptococcosis caused great lost in intensive aquaculture in China every year. The Streptococcus dysgalactiae, one of the main pathogen of streptococcosis in cultured fish in China, caused high mortality of Soiny Mullet (Liza hematocheila) with typical symptom after intraperitoneal injection. The semi-lethal dose of S. dysgalactiae to mullet was 5.4×106 CFU. The antigen against S. dysgalactiae was prepared by formalin inactivated S. dysgalactiae. After intraperitoneal injection of the antigen, the survival rate of fish infected with S. dysgalactiae was significantly increased. At the same time, the splenic and hepatic lysozymes of mullet were also significantly increased. The splenic and hepatic ALP were decreased from 1 day to 3 day and back to normal level at 7 days after vaccine injection. All these data strongly suggested that the formalin-inactivated S. dysgalactiae is an effective strategy to protect mullet against S. dysgalactiae

Effect of Ge and Al substitutions on exchange bias in Ni-Mn-Sb alloy

Magnetic properties, martensitic transition, and exchange bias in Ni50Mn36Sb14 ,Ni50Mn36Sb12Ge2,and Ni50Mn36Sb12 Al2 alloys have been investigated. The results reveal that the martensitic transition temperatures and blocking temperature shift to low temperature for Ge substitution and shift to high temperature for Al substitution. Theexchange bias field decreases/increases in case of Ge/Al substitution below blocking temperature. All the results can be ascribed to the increase/decrease of ferromagnetic interaction

Rapidity and transverse momentum dependence of inclusive J/psi production in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

5 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett. B See paper for full list of authorsThe ALICE experiment at the LHC has studied inclusive J/psi production at central and forward rapidities in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV. In this Letter, we report on the first results obtained detecting the J/psi through its dilepton decay into e+e- and mu+mu- pairs in the rapidity range |y|<0.9 and 2.