The Physics of the B Factories

This work is on the Physics of the B Factories. Part A of this book contains a brief description of the SLAC and KEK B Factories as well as their detectors, BaBar and Belle, and data taking related issues. Part B discusses tools and methods used by the experiments in order to obtain results. The results themselves can be found in Part C

Search for resonances in the mass distribution of jet pairs with one or two jets identified as b-jets in proton–proton collisions at √s=13TeV with the ATLAS detector

Searches for high-mass resonances in the dijet invariant mass spectrum with one or two jets identi-fied as b-jets are performed using an integrated luminosity of 3.2fb−1of proton–proton collisions with a centre-of-mass energy of √s=13TeVrecorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Noevidence of anomalous phenomena is observed in the data, which are used to exclude, at 95%credibility level, excited b∗quarks with masses from 1.1TeVto 2.1TeVand leptophobic Z bosons with masses from 1.1TeVto 1.5TeV. Contributions of a Gaussian signal shape with effective cross sections ranging from approximately 0.4 to 0.001pb are also excluded in the mass range 1.5–5.0TeV

Studies on sea snake venom

Erabutoxins a and b are neurotoxins isolated from venom of a sea snake Laticauda semifasciata (erabu-umihebi). Amino acid sequences of the toxins indicated that the toxins are members of a superfamily consisting of short and long neurotoxins and cytotoxins found in sea snakes and terrestrial snakes. The short neurotoxins to which erabutoxins belong act by blocking the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor on the post synaptic membrane in a manner similar to that of curare. X-ray crystallography and NMR analyses showed that the toxins have a three-finger structure, in which three fingers made of three loops emerging from a dense core make a gently concave surface of the protein. The sequence comparison and the location of essential residues on the protein suggested the mechanism of binding of the toxin to the acetylcholine receptor. Classification of snakes by means of sequence comparison and that based on different morphological features were inconsistent, which led the authors to propose a hypothesis "Evolution without divergence."(Communicated by Satoshi OMURA, M.J.A.).publishe

State and Perspectives of Submerged Sites in Japan

The Japanese people have long been interested in ancient relics found in the sea, lakes, and rivers. Documents from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries recorded the discoveries of lithic tools from Lake Biwa and from the Seto Inland Sea (Ishihara, Considering Methods for the Protection of Archaeological Sites, pp. 5–6, 2000; Shiga Prefectural Association for Cultural Heritage, World of Underwater Archaeology at Lake Biwa, 13, 2010). Awareness of submerged prehistoric relics led to the discoveries of numerous important underwater sites. This, for example, includes the early discovery of a Paleolithic site in the bed of Lake Nojiri in Nagano Prefecture (Nakamura and Nojiri-ko Excavation Research Group, The Quaternary Research 28(4): pp. 257–268, 1989). A few submerged prehistoric sites, most of them dating to the Jomon Period (16,000–3,300 years ago), have been identified through rescue excavations. These sites, however, have not been studied within a thematic framework, particularly as submerged sites. The following illustrates the state of submerged prehistoric site research in Japan, beginning with a history of research on submerged sites. Following this is a brief overview of Japanese environmental history and use of marine resources, as well as a discussion of underwater site formation processes. Finally, the importance of submerged sites pertaining to Japanese archaeology is addressed