Evaluation of a Partially-automated Magnetic Bead-based Method for DNA Extraction for Wheat and Barley MAS

A partially automated method of DNA isolation (a Freedom Evo workstation coupled with a paramagnetic bead-based DNA isolation kit from Machery-Nagel) was evaluated in terms of DNA quantity, purity, and quality in comparison with a conventional manual method (the membrane-based Qiagen Plant DNeasy kit). In addition, the efficiency in terms of time and cost was evaluated. The partially automated method enabled the isolation from each sample of DNA of good A260/A280 ratio and sufficient quantity to serve as a template for dozens of PCR amplifications suitable for conventional marker-assisted selection applications. However, lower PCR efficiencies, presumably due to lower DNAquality, were obtained with DNA extracted by the partially automated method as compared with the Qiagen method. The partially automated method presented here was shown to be superior to the conventional Qiagen method in that the costs and time required were reduced by ca. 50%. The Freedom Evo workstation coupled with Machery-Nagel DNA isolation kit appeared advantageous for high-throughput applications required for plant molecular breeding

Transverse momentum spectra of charged particles in proton-proton collisions at 1as=900 GeV with ALICE at the LHC

The inclusive charged particle transverse momentum distribution is measured in proton-proton collisions at s=900 GeV at the LHC using the ALICE detector. The measurement is performed in the central pseudorapidity region (|\u3b7|<0.8) over the transverse momentum range 0.15<10 GeV/c. The correlation between transverse momentum and particle multiplicity is also studied. Results are presented for inelastic (INEL) and non-single-diffractive (NSD) events. The average transverse momentum for |\u3b7|<0.8 is \u3008pT\u3009INEL=0.483\ub10.001 (stat.)\ub10.007 (syst.) GeV/c and \u3008pT\u3009NSD=0.489\ub10.001 (stat.)\ub10.007 (syst.) GeV/c, respectively. The data exhibit a slightly larger \u3008pT\u3009 than measurements in wider pseudorapidity intervals. The results are compared to simulations with the Monte Carlo event generators PYTHIA and PHOJET. \ua9 2010

CMS Physics Technical Design Report: Addendum on High Density QCD with Heavy Ions

This report presents the capabilities of the CMS experiment to explore the rich heavy-ion physics programme offered by the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The collisions of lead nuclei at energies $\sqrt{s_{NN}}= 5.5\,{\rm TeV}$ , will probe quark and gluon matter at unprecedented values of energy density. The prime goal of this research is to study the fundamental theory of the strong interaction \u2014 Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) \u2014 in extreme conditions of temperature, density and parton momentum fraction (low- x ). This report covers in detail the potential of CMS to carry out a series of representative Pb-Pb measurements. These include "bulk" observables, (charged hadron multiplicity, low p T inclusive hadron identified spectra and elliptic flow) which provide information on the collective properties of the system, as well as perturbative probes such as quarkonia, heavy-quarks, jets and high p T hadrons which yield "tomographic" information of the hottest and densest phases of the reaction