Floristic Checklist From An Atlantic Forest Vegetation Mosaic In Reserva Particular Do Patrimônio Natural Fazenda Tabatinga, Pernambuco, Brazil

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)A floristic inventory was made in the Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural Fazenda Tabatinga to show the importance of small forest fragments for conservation of the biodiversity of the Atlantic Forest. The reserve protects a vegetation mosaic typical of coastal habitats in an area of ​ca. 20 ha, located in the northern part of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Samples of vascular plants were collected between January 2010 and November 2011, and altogether 329 species were recorded. These are classified in 230 genera and 79 families of angiosperms and two genera and two families of ferns. Among the species found, 28 are endemic to the Atlantic Forest, while others are rare and restricted to the Pernambuco Endemism Center. In addition, three threatened species were detected. The presence of endemic, rare, and threatened species, along with floristic patterns typical of coastal areas of Brazil, reinforce the importance of the area for the conservation. © 2016 Check List and Authors.126BMBF, Bundesministerium für Bildung und ForschungCNPq, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e TecnológicoDEB-0946618, NSF, National Science FoundationConselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

Energy relaxation of an excited electron gas in quantum wires: many-body electron LO-phonon coupling

We theoretically study energy relaxation via LO-phonon emission in an excited one-dimensional electron gas confined in a GaAs quantum wire structure. We find that the inclusion of phonon renormalization effects in the theory extends the LO-phonon dominated loss regime down to substantially lower temperatures. We show that a simple plasmon-pole approximation works well for this problem, and discuss implications of our results for low temperature electron heating experiments in quantum wires.Comment: 10 pages, RevTex, 4 figures included. Also available at http://www-cmg.physics.umd.edu/~lzheng

In vitro inhibition of Helicobacter pylori and interaction studies of lichen natural products with jack bean urease

The interaction of (S)-(-)-usnic acid (2) and fumarprotocetraric acid (3), isolated from Cladonia rappii (lichen), and commercial (R)-(+)-usnic acid (1) with urease was investigated in vitro by molecular spectroscopy at pH 7.4 and kinetics experiments using jack bean type III urease. All lichen compounds tested interact with urease by a statistical quenching mechanism forming non-fluorescent complexes that change the native protein structure. Formation of complexes was spontaneous and stabilized mainly by electrostatic forces, in which the interaction magnitude was determined to be 3 < 2 < 1. Compound 2, whose tridimensional structure is disclosed here, acts as a mixed inhibitor while compounds 1 and 3 function as competitive ones. The (R)-(+)-UA (1) is the most efficient lichen metabolite with respect to impairment of the growth of five H. pylori strains. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) for the lichen metabolites tested were lower (from 2- to 7.8-fold) than those of omeprazole (reference drug) against all H. pylori strains tested. Overall, the lichen metabolites 1-3 are promising lead compounds for the design of more efficient urease inhibitors for the treatment of H. pylori infections

Challenging SO(10) SUSY GUTs with family symmetries through FCNC processes

We perform a detailed analysis of the SO(10) SUSY GUT model with D3 family symmetry of Dermisek and Raby (DR). The model is specified in terms of 24 parameters and predicts, as a function of them, the whole MSSM set of parameters at low energy scales. Concerning the SM subset of such parameters, the model is able to give a satisfactory description of the quark and lepton masses, of the PMNS matrix and of the CKM matrix. We perform a global fit to the model, including flavour changing neutral current (FCNC) processes Bs --> mu+ mu-, B --> Xs gamma, B --> Xs l+ l- and the B(d,s) - bar B(d,s) mass differences Delta M(d,s) as well as the flavour changing (FC) process B+ --> tau+ nu. These observables provide at present the most sensitive probe of the SUSY mass spectrum and couplings predicted by the model. Our analysis demonstrates that the simultaneous description of the FC observables in question represents a serious challenge for the DR model, unless the masses of the scalars are moved to regions which are problematic from the point of view of naturalness and probably beyond the reach of the LHC. We emphasize that this problem could be a general feature of SUSY GUT models with third generation Yukawa unification and weak-scale minimal flavour violation.Comment: 1 + 37 pages, 5 figures, 11 tables. v3: minor typos fixed. Matches JHEP published versio

Search for W' bosons decaying to an electron and a neutrino with the D0 detector

This Letter describes the search for a new heavy charged gauge boson W' decaying into an electron and a neutrino. The data were collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron proton-antiproton Collider at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of about 1 inverse femtobarn. Lacking any significant excess in the data in comparison with known processes, an upper limit is set on the production cross section times branching fraction, and a W' boson with mass below 1.00 TeV can be excluded at the 95% C.L., assuming standard-model-like couplings to fermions. This result significantly improves upon previous limits, and is the most stringent to date.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Measurement of the ratios of the Z/G* + >= n jet production cross sections to the total inclusive Z/G* cross section in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV

We present a study of events with Z bosons and jets produced at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider in ppbar collisions at a center of mass energy of 1.96 TeV. The data sample consists of nearly 14,000 Z/G* -> e+e- candidates corresponding to the integrated luminosity of 0.4 fb-1 collected using the D0 detector. Ratios of the Z/G* + >= n jet cross sections to the total inclusive Z/G* cross section have been measured for n = 1 to 4 jet events. Our measurements are found to be in good agreement with a next-to-leading order QCD calculation and with a tree-level QCD prediction with parton shower simulation and hadronization.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, slightly modified, submitted to Phys. Lett.