3,193 research outputs found
The Impact of Human Conflict on the Genetics of Mastomys natalensis and Lassa Virus in West Africa
Environmental changes have been shown to play an important role in the emergence of new human diseases of zoonotic origin. The contribution of social factors to their spread, especially conflicts followed by mass movement of populations, has not been extensively investigated. Here we reveal the effects of civil war on the phylogeography of a zoonotic emerging infectious disease by concomitantly studying the population structure, evolution and demography of Lassa virus and its natural reservoir, the rodent Mastomys natalensis, in Guinea, West Africa. Analysis of nucleoprotein gene sequences enabled us to reconstruct the evolutionary history of Lassa virus, which appeared 750 to 900 years ago in Nigeria and only recently spread across western Africa (170 years ago). Bayesian demographic inferences revealed that both the host and the virus populations have gone recently through severe genetic bottlenecks. The timing of these events matches civil war-related mass movements of refugees and accompanying environmental degradation. Forest and habitat destruction and human predation of the natural reservoir are likely explanations for the sharp decline observed in the rodent populations, the consequent virus population decline, and the coincident increased incidence of Lassa fever in these regions. Interestingly, we were also able to detect a similar pattern in Nigeria coinciding with the Biafra war. Our findings show that anthropogenic factors may profoundly impact the population genetics of a virus and its reservoir within the context of an emerging infectious disease
Potential group B Streptococcus interspecies transmission between cattle and people in Colombian dairy farms
Group B Streptococcus (GBS), is a leading cause of neonatal death and an emerging pathogen in adults. Additionally, GBS is a bovine pathogen causing intramammary infections. The likelihood of GBS interspecies transmission is largely unknown. We explored the potential transmission of GBS between cattle and people on dairy farms in Colombia and compared the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) profiles of isolates from both host species. Across 33 farms, throat swabs and rectal swabs were collected from 191 people, and rectal swabs and composite milk samples from 2092 cattle, yielding 60 human isolates and 301 bovine isolates. The majority (64%) of isolates belonged to shared sequence types (ST). Sequence type (ST) 1 was the most common strain in both host species, suggesting that interspecies transmission may be possible. Two members of the bovine-specific clonal complex 61/67 were detected in human samples (ST718 and ST1175), providing evidence for the lack of genuine species barriers. Apparent prevalence of penicillin resistance was surprisingly high in human and bovine isolates. Further investigation of this phenomenon is needed and could lead to modification of standard testing and treatment recommendations in human and veterinary medicine
Observation of Exclusive Gamma Gamma Production in p pbar Collisions at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV
We have observed exclusive \gamma\gamma production in proton-antiproton
collisions at \sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV, using data from 1.11 \pm 0.07 fb^{-1}
integrated luminosity taken by the Run II Collider Detector at Fermilab. We
selected events with two electromagnetic showers, each with transverse energy
E_T > 2.5 GeV and pseudorapidity |\eta| < 1.0, with no other particles detected
in -7.4 < \eta < +7.4. The two showers have similar E_T and azimuthal angle
separation \Delta\phi \sim \pi; 34 events have two charged particle tracks,
consistent with the QED process p \bar{p} to p + e^+e^- + \bar{p} by two-photon
exchange, while 43 events have no charged tracks. The number of these events
that are exclusive \pi^0\pi^0 is consistent with zero and is < 15 at 95% C.L.
The cross section for p\bar{p} to p+\gamma\gamma+\bar{p} with |\eta(\gamma)| <
1.0 and E_T(\gamma) > 2.5$ GeV is
2.48^{+0.40}_{-0.35}(stat)^{+0.40}_{-0.51}(syst) pb.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Observation of the Baryonic Flavor-Changing Neutral Current Decay Lambda_b -> Lambda mu+ mu-
We report the first observation of the baryonic flavor-changing neutral
current decay Lambda_b -> Lambda mu+ mu- with 24 signal events and a
statistical significance of 5.8 Gaussian standard deviations. This measurement
uses ppbar collisions data sample corresponding to 6.8fb-1 at sqrt{s}=1.96TeV
collected by the CDF II detector at the Tevatron collider. The total and
differential branching ratios for Lambda_b -> Lambda mu+ mu- are measured. We
find B(Lambda_b -> Lambda mu+ mu-) = [1.73+-0.42(stat)+-0.55(syst)] x 10^{-6}.
We also report the first measurement of the differential branching ratio of B_s
-> phi mu+ mu- using 49 signal events. In addition, we report branching ratios
for B+ -> K+ mu+ mu-, B0 -> K0 mu+ mu-, and B -> K*(892) mu+ mu- decays.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Combined search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying to a bb pair using the full CDF data set
We combine the results of searches for the standard model Higgs boson based
on the full CDF Run II data set obtained from sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV p-pbar
collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron corresponding to an integrated luminosity
of 9.45/fb. The searches are conducted for Higgs bosons that are produced in
association with a W or Z boson, have masses in the range 90-150 GeV/c^2, and
decay into bb pairs. An excess of data is present that is inconsistent with the
background prediction at the level of 2.5 standard deviations (the most
significant local excess is 2.7 standard deviations).Comment: To be published in Phys. Rev. Lett (v2 contains minor updates based
on comments from PRL
Shrinking a large dataset to identify variables associated with increased risk of Plasmodium falciparum infection in Western Kenya
Large datasets are often not amenable to analysis using traditional single-step approaches. Here, our general objective was to apply imputation techniques, principal component analysis (PCA), elastic net and generalized linear models to a large dataset in a systematic approach to extract the most meaningful predictors for a health outcome. We extracted predictors for Plasmodium falciparum infection, from a large covariate dataset while facing limited numbers of observations, using data from the People, Animals, and their Zoonoses (PAZ) project to demonstrate these techniques: data collected from 415 homesteads in western Kenya, contained over 1500 variables that describe the health, environment, and social factors of the humans, livestock, and the homesteads in which they reside. The wide, sparse dataset was simplified to 42 predictors of P. falciparum malaria infection and wealth rankings were produced for all homesteads. The 42 predictors make biological sense and are supported by previous studies. This systematic data-mining approach we used would make many large datasets more manageable and informative for decision-making processes and health policy prioritization
Studying the Underlying Event in Drell-Yan and High Transverse Momentum Jet Production at the Tevatron
We study the underlying event in proton-antiproton collisions by examining
the behavior of charged particles (transverse momentum pT > 0.5 GeV/c,
pseudorapidity |\eta| < 1) produced in association with large transverse
momentum jets (~2.2 fb-1) or with Drell-Yan lepton-pairs (~2.7 fb-1) in the
Z-boson mass region (70 < M(pair) < 110 GeV/c2) as measured by CDF at 1.96 TeV
center-of-mass energy. We use the direction of the lepton-pair (in Drell-Yan
production) or the leading jet (in high-pT jet production) in each event to
define three regions of \eta-\phi space; toward, away, and transverse, where
\phi is the azimuthal scattering angle. For Drell-Yan production (excluding the
leptons) both the toward and transverse regions are very sensitive to the
underlying event. In high-pT jet production the transverse region is very
sensitive to the underlying event and is separated into a MAX and MIN
transverse region, which helps separate the hard component (initial and
final-state radiation) from the beam-beam remnant and multiple parton
interaction components of the scattering. The data are corrected to the
particle level to remove detector effects and are then compared with several
QCD Monte-Carlo models. The goal of this analysis is to provide data that can
be used to test and improve the QCD Monte-Carlo models of the underlying event
that are used to simulate hadron-hadron collisions.Comment: Submitted to Phys.Rev.
Evidence for t\bar{t}\gamma Production and Measurement of \sigma_t\bar{t}\gamma / \sigma_t\bar{t}
Using data corresponding to 6.0/fb of ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV
collected by the CDF II detector, we present a cross section measurement of
top-quark pair production with an additional radiated photon. The events are
selected by looking for a lepton, a photon, significant transverse momentum
imbalance, large total transverse energy, and three or more jets, with at least
one identified as containing a b quark. The ttbar+photon sample requires the
photon to have 10 GeV or more of transverse energy, and to be in the central
region. Using an event selection optimized for the ttbar+photon candidate
sample we measure the production cross section of, and the ratio of cross
sections of the two samples. Control samples in the dilepton+photon and
lepton+photon+\met, channels are constructed to aid in decay product
identification and background measurements. We observe 30 ttbar+photon
candidate events compared to the standard model expectation of 26.9 +/- 3.4
events. We measure the ttbar+photon cross section to be 0.18+0.08 pb, and the
ratio of the cross section of ttbar+photon to ttbar to be 0.024 +/- 0.009.
Assuming no ttbar+photon production, we observe a probability of 0.0015 of the
background events alone producing 30 events or more, corresponding to 3.0
standard deviations.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure
Precision Top-Quark Mass Measurements at CDF
We present a precision measurement of the top-quark mass using the full
sample of Tevatron TeV proton-antiproton collisions collected
by the CDF II detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 8.7
. Using a sample of candidate events decaying into the
lepton+jets channel, we obtain distributions of the top-quark masses and the
invariant mass of two jets from the boson decays from data. We then compare
these distributions to templates derived from signal and background samples to
extract the top-quark mass and the energy scale of the calorimeter jets with
{\it in situ} calibration. The likelihood fit of the templates from signal and
background events to the data yields the single most-precise measurement of the
top-quark mass, \mtop = 172.85 \pm\pmComment: submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Global Search for New Physics with 2.0/fb at CDF
Data collected in Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron are searched for
indications of new electroweak-scale physics. Rather than focusing on
particular new physics scenarios, CDF data are analyzed for discrepancies with
the standard model prediction. A model-independent approach (Vista) considers
gross features of the data, and is sensitive to new large cross-section
physics. Further sensitivity to new physics is provided by two additional
algorithms: a Bump Hunter searches invariant mass distributions for "bumps"
that could indicate resonant production of new particles; and the Sleuth
procedure scans for data excesses at large summed transverse momentum. This
combined global search for new physics in 2.0/fb of ppbar collisions at
sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV reveals no indication of physics beyond the standard model.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. Final version which appeared in Physical Review D
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