Intercalibration of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS experiment at start-up

Calibration of the relative response of the individual channels of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS detector was accomplished, before installation, with cosmic ray muons and test beams. One fourth of the calorimeter was exposed to a beam of high energy electrons and the relative calibration of the channels, the intercalibration, was found to be reproducible to a precision of about 0.3%. Additionally, data were collected with cosmic rays for the entire ECAL barrel during the commissioning phase. By comparing the intercalibration constants obtained with the electron beam data with those from the cosmic ray data, it is demonstrated that the latter provide an intercalibration precision of 1.5% over most of the barrel ECAL. The best intercalibration precision is expected to come from the analysis of events collected in situ during the LHC operation. Using data collected with both electrons and pion beams, several aspects of the intercalibration procedures based on electrons or neutral pions were investigated

Gentamicin-attenuated <i>Leishmania infantum</i>: A clinicopathological study in dogs

The clinicopathological changes following infection with an attenuated line of &lt;i&gt;Leishmania infantum&lt;/i&gt; (&lt;i&gt;L. infantum&lt;/i&gt; H-line) were evaluated in mixed breed dogs. Two groups of dogs were infected intravenously (i.v.) or intradermally (i.d.) with &lt;i&gt;L. infantum&lt;/i&gt; H-line and two control groups were infected i.v. or i.d. with &lt;i&gt;L. infantum&lt;/i&gt; wild-type (&lt;i&gt;L. infantum&lt;/i&gt; WT). None of the dogs, which were infected i.v. or i.d. with &lt;i&gt;L. infantum&lt;/i&gt; H-line, showed any abnormalities during the observation period. In contrast, two out of three dogs, which were infected i.v. with &lt;i&gt;L. infantum&lt;/i&gt; WT, developed clinical signs of disease. In addition, no histopathological changes were seen in the liver and spleen of the dogs infected with the attenuated line of parasite, whereas the histopathological changes in the two dogs infected i.v. with &lt;i&gt;L. infantum&lt;/i&gt; WT were severe in form and manifested by infiltration of high numbers of inflammatory cells. No promastigotes were found in cultures set up from spleens and livers of dogs infected with &lt;i&gt;L. infantum&lt;/i&gt; H-line at 12 months post-infection, whereas promastigotes were seen in the spleen and liver cultures from 2 dogs infected i.v. with &lt;i&gt;L. infantum&lt;/i&gt; WT. Serum levels of total IgG anti-Leishmania antibody were raised in all dogs. The antibody level in the serum of dogs infected i.v. with &lt;i&gt;L. infantum&lt;/i&gt; WT was higher than that in dogs infected with &lt;i&gt;L. infantum&lt;/i&gt; H-line. These results show no clinicopathological abnormalities in the dogs infected with gentamicin-attenuated &lt;i&gt;L. infantum&lt;/i&gt; H-line. Moreover, &lt;i&gt;L. infantum&lt;/i&gt; H-line induced IgG anti-Leishmania antibody in the dogs