Genetic inbreeding depression load for fertility traits in Pura Raza Española mares

Fertility is a key factor in the economic success of horse farms. However, it has received little attention due to the difficulty of measuring fertility objectively. Since its studbook creation (1912), the Pura Raza Española (PRE) breed has been a closed population and become high in-bred resulting in inbreeding depression (poor phenotypic values). Nevertheless, heterogeneous effects of inbreeding depression have been detected among founders and nonfounders. The aims of this study were (1) to analyze the genetic parameters for reproductive traits in mares of the PRE horse breed and (2) to estimate, for the first time, the inbreeding depression load associated with common ancestors of the breed. A total of 22, 799 mares were analyzed. Heritability estimates ranged from 0.05 (interval between first and second foaling) to 0.16 (age at first foaling), whereas inbreeding depression load ratios ranged from 0.06 (parturition efficiency at 6th foaling) to 0.17 (age at first foaling), for a partial inbreeding coefficient of 10%. Although heritability is related to the variability expressed in the population, inbreeding depression load ratios measure the potential variability, whether expressed in the population or not. Most correlations between additive and inbreeding depression load genetic values were significant (P < 0.001) and of low to moderate magnitude. Our results confirm that individual inbreeding depression loads allow us to select horses that have a genetic value resistant to the deleterious effects of inbreeding. © The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society of Animal Science

Anisotropic flow of charged hadrons, pions and (anti-)protons measured at high transverse momentum in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76 TeV

The elliptic, $v_2$, triangular, $v_3$, and quadrangular, $v_4$, azimuthal anisotropic flow coefficients are measured for unidentified charged particles, pions and (anti-)protons in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Results obtained with the event plane and four-particle cumulant methods are reported for the pseudo-rapidity range $|\eta|<0.8$ at different collision centralities and as a function of transverse momentum, $p_{\rm T}$, out to $p_{\rm T}=20$ GeV/$c$. The observed non-zero elliptic and triangular flow depends only weakly on transverse momentum for $p_{\rm T}>8$ GeV/$c$. The small $p_{\rm T}$ dependence of the difference between elliptic flow results obtained from the event plane and four-particle cumulant methods suggests a common origin of flow fluctuations up to $p_{\rm T}=8$ GeV/$c$. The magnitude of the (anti-)proton elliptic and triangular flow is larger than that of pions out to at least $p_{\rm T}=8$ GeV/$c$ indicating that the particle type dependence persists out to high $p_{\rm T}$.Comment: 16 pages, 5 captioned figures, authors from page 11, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/186

Centrality dependence of charged particle production at large transverse momentum in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}} = 2.76 TeV

The inclusive transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) distributions of primary charged particles are measured in the pseudo-rapidity range $|\eta|<0.8$ as a function of event centrality in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}=2.76$ TeV with ALICE at the LHC. The data are presented in the $p_{\rm T}$ range $0.15<p_{\rm T}<50$ GeV/$c$ for nine centrality intervals from 70-80% to 0-5%. The Pb-Pb spectra are presented in terms of the nuclear modification factor $R_{\rm{AA}}$ using a pp reference spectrum measured at the same collision energy. We observe that the suppression of high-$p_{\rm T}$ particles strongly depends on event centrality. In central collisions (0-5%) the yield is most suppressed with $R_{\rm{AA}}\approx0.13$ at $p_{\rm T}=6$-7 GeV/$c$. Above $p_{\rm T}=7$ GeV/$c$, there is a significant rise in the nuclear modification factor, which reaches $R_{\rm{AA}} \approx0.4$ for $p_{\rm T}>30$ GeV/$c$. In peripheral collisions (70-80%), the suppression is weaker with $R_{\rm{AA}} \approx 0.7$ almost independently of $p_{\rm T}$. The measured nuclear modification factors are compared to other measurements and model calculations.Comment: 17 pages, 4 captioned figures, 2 tables, authors from page 12, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/284

Measurement of charm production at central rapidity in proton-proton collisions at s=2.76\sqrt{s} = 2.76 TeV

The $p_{\rm T}$-differential production cross sections of the prompt (B feed-down subtracted) charmed mesons D$^0$, D$^+$, and D$^{*+}$ in the rapidity range $|y|<0.5$, and for transverse momentum $1< p_{\rm T} <12$ GeV/$c$, were measured in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis exploited the hadronic decays D$^0 \rightarrow$K$\pi$, D$^+ \rightarrow$K$\pi\pi$, D$^{*+} \rightarrow$D$^0\pi$, and their charge conjugates, and was performed on a $L_{\rm int} = 1.1$ nb$^{-1}$ event sample collected in 2011 with a minimum-bias trigger. The total charm production cross section at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV and at 7 TeV was evaluated by extrapolating to the full phase space the $p_{\rm T}$-differential production cross sections at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV and our previous measurements at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV. The results were compared to existing measurements and to perturbative-QCD calculations. The fraction of cdbar D mesons produced in a vector state was also determined.Comment: 20 pages, 5 captioned figures, 4 tables, authors from page 15, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/307

Particle-yield modification in jet-like azimuthal di-hadron correlations in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76 TeV

The yield of charged particles associated with high-$p_{\rm T}$ trigger particles ($8 < p_{\rm T} < 15$ GeV/$c$) is measured with the ALICE detector in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV relative to proton-proton collisions at the same energy. The conditional per-trigger yields are extracted from the narrow jet-like correlation peaks in azimuthal di-hadron correlations. In the 5% most central collisions, we observe that the yield of associated charged particles with transverse momenta $p_{\rm T}> 3$ GeV/$c$ on the away-side drops to about 60% of that observed in pp collisions, while on the near-side a moderate enhancement of 20-30% is found.Comment: 15 pages, 2 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 10, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/350

Performance study of a 3 x 1 x 1 m(3) dual phase liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber exposed to cosmic rays

This work would not have been possible without the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation, Switzerland; CEA and CNRS/IN2P3, France; KEK and the JSPS program, Japan; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion in Spain under grants FPA2016-77347-C2, SEV-2016-0588 and MdM-2015-0509, Comunidad de Madrid, the CERCA program of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the fellowship (LCF/BQ/DI18/11660043) from "La Caixa" Foundation (ID 100010434); the Programme PNCDI III, CERN-RO, under Contract 2/2020, Romania; the U.S. Department of Energy under Grant No. DE-SC0011686. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program under Grant Agreement no. 654168. The authors are also grateful to the French government operated by the National Research Agency (ANR) for the LABEX Enigmass, LABEX Lyon Institute of Origins (ANR-10-LABX-0066) of the Universite de Lyon for its financial support within the program "Investissements d'Avenir" (ANR-11-IDEX-0007).We report the results of the analyses of the cosmic ray data collected with a 4 tonne (3x1x1 m(3)) active mass (volume) Liquid Argon Time-Projection Chamber (TPC) operated in a dual-phase mode. We present a detailed study of the TPC's response, its main detector parameters and performance. The results are important for the understanding and further developments of the dual-phase technology, thanks to the verification of key aspects, such as the extraction of electrons from liquid to gas and their amplification through the entire one square metre readout plain, gain stability, purity and charge sharing between readout views.Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)French Atomic Energy CommissionCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK)Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT)Japan Society for the Promotion of ScienceSpanish Government FPA2016-77347-C2 SEV-2016-0588MdM-2015-0509Comunidad de MadridCERCA program of the Generalitat de CatalunyaLa Caixa Foundation LCF/BQ/DI18/11660043 100010434Programme PNCDI III, RomaniaCERN-RO, Romania 2/2020United States Department of Energy (DOE) SC0011686European Commission 654168Universite de Lyon ANR-10-LABX-0066 ANR-11-IDEX-000

Neutron emission from electromagnetic dissociation of Pb nuclei at √ s NN = 2.76 TeV measured with the ALICE ZDC

The ALICE Zero Degree Calorimeter system (ZDC) is composed of two identical sets of calorimeters, placed at opposite sides with respect to the interaction point, 114 meters away from it, complemented by two small forward electromagnetic calorimeters (ZEM). Each set of detectors consists of a neutron (ZN) and a proton (ZP) ZDC. They are placed at zero degrees with respect to the LHC axis and allow to detect particles emitted close to beam direction, in particular neutrons and protons emerging from hadronic heavy-ion collisions (spectator nucleons) and those emitted from electromagnetic processes. For neutrons emitted by these two processes, the ZN calorimeters have nearly 100% acceptance. During the √ sNN = 2.76 TeV Pb-Pb data-taking, the ALICE Collaboration studied forward neutron emission with a dedicated trigger, requiring a minimum energy deposition in at least one of the two ZN. By exploiting also the information of the two ZEM calorimeters it has been possible to separate the contributions of electromagnetic and hadronic processes and to study single neutron vs. multiple neutron emission. The measured cross sections of single and mutual electromagnetic dissociation of Pb nuclei at √ s NN = 2.76 TeV, with neutron emission, are σ single EMD = 187:4 ± 0.2 (stat.)-11.2 +13.2 (syst.) b and σmutual EMD = 5.7 ± 0.1 (stat.) ±0.4 (syst.) b, respectively [1]. This is the first measurement of electromagnetic dissociation of 208Pb nuclei at the LHC energies, allowing a test of electromagnetic dissociation theory in a new energy regime. The experimental results are compared to the predictions from a relativistic electromagnetic dissociation model'701st International Conference on New Frontiers in Physics, ICFP 20122012-06-10Kolymbari, Crete; Greecesem informaçã

Inclusive J/psi production in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV

The ALICE Collaboration has measured inclusive J/psi production in pp collisions at a center of mass energy sqrt(s)=2.76 TeV at the LHC. The results presented in this Letter refer to the rapidity ranges |y|<0.9 and 2.5<y<4 and have been obtained by measuring the electron and muon pair decay channels, respectively. The integrated luminosities for the two channels are L^e_int=1.1 nb^-1 and L^mu_int=19.9 nb^-1, and the corresponding signal statistics are N_J/psi^e+e-=59 +/- 14 and N_J/psi^mu+mu-=1364 +/- 53. We present dsigma_J/psi/dy for the two rapidity regions under study and, for the forward-y range, d^2sigma_J/psi/dydp_t in the transverse momentum domain 0<p_t<8 GeV/c. The results are compared with previously published results at sqrt(s)=7 TeV and with theoretical calculations.Comment: 7 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in Phys. Lett.