First observation of the beauty baryon LAMBDA(b) in the decay channel LAMBDA(b) ---> J / psi LAMBDA at the CERN proton - anti-proton collider

We report on the first observation of the beauty baryon LAMBDA(b) in an exclusive decay channel at the CERN ppBAR collider. Using 4.7 pb-1 of muon data collected in the 1988/89 collider runs we reconstruct 16 +/- 5 LAMBDA(b)'s in the decay mode LAMBA(b) --> J/psi-LAMBDA above a background of 9 +/- 1 events, corresponding to a significance of about five standard deviations. We measure the LAMBDA(b) mass to be m(LAMBDA(b)) = 5640 +/- 50 +/- 30 MeV/c2. Using the beauty cross-section measured by UA1 we deduce for the product of the production fraction and branching ratio f(LAMBDA(b)) Br(LAMBDA(b) --> J/psi-LAMBDA) = (1.8 +/- 1.0) X 10(-3). Our sample contains a three-muon event in which the beauty particle opposite to the LAMBDA(b)BAR is tagged by the third muon. We also observe an indication of a signal in the decay channel B0 --> J/psi-K0* with a significance of three standard deviations

Measurement of D* meson cross-sections at HERA and determination of the gluon density in the proton using NLO QCD

With the H1 detector at the ep collider HERA, D* meson production cross sections have been measured in deep inelastic scattering with four-momentum transfers Q^2>2 GeV2 and in photoproduction at energies around W(gamma p)~ 88 GeV and 194 GeV. Next-to-Leading Order QCD calculations are found to describe the differential cross sections within theoretical and experimental uncertainties. Using these calculations, the NLO gluon momentum distribution in the proton, x_g g(x_g), has been extracted in the momentum fraction range 7.5x10^{-4}< x_g <4x10^{-2} at average scales mu^2 =25 to 50 GeV2. The gluon momentum fraction x_g has been obtained from the measured kinematics of the scattered electron and the D* meson in the final state. The results compare well with the gluon distribution obtained from the analysis of scaling violations of the proton structure function F_2.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Nucl. Phys.

Charged particle cross-sections in photoproduction and extraction of the gluon density in the photon

Photoproduction data collected with the H1 detector at HERA in 1994 are used to study the cross-sections for inclusive charged particle production and the structure of the photon. The differential cross-sections dsigma/dpT2, for |eta| 2 GeV/c and pT > 3 GeV/c have been measured. Model calculations of these cross-sections, based on perturbative QCD, indicate that the results are sensitive to the parton densities of the photon as well as to higher order effects, which are phenomenologically treated by multiple interactions. This sensitivity is exploited to determine the leading order x_gamma distribution of partons in the photon using a new method based on high pT charged particles. The gluon content of the photon is extracted and found to rise with decreasing x_gamma

Global Retinoblastoma Presentation and Analysis by National Income Level.

Early diagnosis of retinoblastoma, the most common intraocular cancer, can save both a child's life and vision. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that many children across the world are diagnosed late. To our knowledge, the clinical presentation of retinoblastoma has never been assessed on a global scale. To report the retinoblastoma stage at diagnosis in patients across the world during a single year, to investigate associations between clinical variables and national income level, and to investigate risk factors for advanced disease at diagnosis. A total of 278 retinoblastoma treatment centers were recruited from June 2017 through December 2018 to participate in a cross-sectional analysis of treatment-naive patients with retinoblastoma who were diagnosed in 2017. Age at presentation, proportion of familial history of retinoblastoma, and tumor stage and metastasis. The cohort included 4351 new patients from 153 countries; the median age at diagnosis was 30.5 (interquartile range, 18.3-45.9) months, and 1976 patients (45.4%) were female. Most patients (n = 3685 [84.7%]) were from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Globally, the most common indication for referral was leukocoria (n = 2638 [62.8%]), followed by strabismus (n = 429 [10.2%]) and proptosis (n = 309 [7.4%]). Patients from high-income countries (HICs) were diagnosed at a median age of 14.1 months, with 656 of 666 (98.5%) patients having intraocular retinoblastoma and 2 (0.3%) having metastasis. Patients from low-income countries were diagnosed at a median age of 30.5 months, with 256 of 521 (49.1%) having extraocular retinoblastoma and 94 of 498 (18.9%) having metastasis. Lower national income level was associated with older presentation age, higher proportion of locally advanced disease and distant metastasis, and smaller proportion of familial history of retinoblastoma. Advanced disease at diagnosis was more common in LMICs even after adjusting for age (odds ratio for low-income countries vs upper-middle-income countries and HICs, 17.92 [95% CI, 12.94-24.80], and for lower-middle-income countries vs upper-middle-income countries and HICs, 5.74 [95% CI, 4.30-7.68]). This study is estimated to have included more than half of all new retinoblastoma cases worldwide in 2017. Children from LMICs, where the main global retinoblastoma burden lies, presented at an older age with more advanced disease and demonstrated a smaller proportion of familial history of retinoblastoma, likely because many do not reach a childbearing age. Given that retinoblastoma is curable, these data are concerning and mandate intervention at national and international levels. Further studies are needed to investigate factors, other than age at presentation, that may be associated with advanced disease in LMICs

Observation of events with an isolated high-energy lepton and missing transverse momentum at HERA

A search for events with an imbalance in transverse momentum and with isolated high energy leptons has been carried out at the positron-proton collider HERA. One event with an e^- and five events with a mu^+- are found together with evidence for undetected particles carrying transverse momentum. Within the Standard Model the dominant origin of events with this kind of topology is the production of W bosons with subsequent leptonic decay. Three of the six events are within measurement errors found in a region of phase space likely to be populated by this process, while the remaining events show kinematic properties which are atypical of all Standard Model processes considered.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Eur. Phys.