59 research outputs found
Heterologous viral expression systems in fosmid vectors increase the functional analysis potential of metagenomic libraries
The extraordinary potential of metagenomic functional analyses to identify activities of interest present in uncultured microorganisms has been limited by reduced gene expression in surrogate hosts. We have developed vectors and specialized E. coli strains as improved metagenomic DNA heterologous expression systems, taking advantage of viral components that prevent transcription termination at metagenomic terminators. One of the systems uses the phage T7 RNA-polymerase to drive metagenomic gene expression, while the other approach uses the lambda phage transcription anti-termination protein N to limit transcription termination. A metagenomic library was constructed and functionally screened to identify genes conferring carbenicillin resistance to E. coli. The use of these enhanced expression systems resulted in a 6-fold increase in the frequency of carbenicillin resistant clones. Subcloning and sequence analysis showed that, besides ÎČ-lactamases, efflux pumps are not only able contribute to carbenicillin resistance but may in fact be sufficient by themselves to convey carbenicillin resistance.España, Ministerio de EducaciĂłn y Ciencia BIO2011-24003España, Ministerio de EducaciĂłn y Ciencia CSD2007-000
Measurement of event shapes in deep inelastic scattering at HERA
Inclusive event-shape variables have been measured in the current region of
the Breit frame for neutral current deep inelastic ep scattering using an
integrated luminosity of 45.0 pb^-1 collected with the ZEUS detector at HERA.
The variables studied included thrust, jet broadening and invariant jet mass.
The kinematic range covered was 10 < Q^2 < 20,480 GeV^2 and 6.10^-4 < x < 0.6,
where Q^2 is the virtuality of the exchanged boson and x is the Bjorken
variable. The Q dependence of the shape variables has been used in conjunction
with NLO perturbative calculations and the Dokshitzer-Webber non-perturbative
corrections (`power corrections') to investigate the validity of this approach.Comment: 7+25 pages, 6 figure
Observation of isolated high-E_T photons in deep inelastic scattering
First measurements of cross sections for isolated prompt photon production in
deep inelastic ep scattering have been made using the ZEUS detector at the HERA
electron-proton collider using an integrated luminosity of 121 pb^-1. A signal
for isolated photons in the transverse energy and rapidity ranges 5 < E_T^gamma
< 10 GeV and -0.7 < eta^gamma < 0.9 was observed for virtualities of the
exchanged photon of Q^2 > 35 GeV^2. Cross sections are presented for inclusive
prompt photons and for those accompanied by a single jet in the range E_T^jet
\geq 6 GeV and -1.5 \leq eta^jet < 1.8. Calculations at order alpha^3alpha_s
describe the data reasonably well.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure
Measurement of beauty production in deep inelastic scattering at HERA
The beauty production cross section for deep inelastic scattering events with
at least one hard jet in the Breit frame together with a muon has been
measured, for photon virtualities Q^2 > 2 GeV^2, with the ZEUS detector at HERA
using integrated luminosity of 72 pb^-1. The total visible cross section is
sigma_b-bbar (ep -> e jet mu X) = 40.9 +- 5.7 (stat.) +6.0 -4.4 (syst.) pb. The
next-to-leading order QCD prediction lies about 2.5 standard deviations below
the data. The differential cross sections are in general consistent with the
NLO QCD predictions; however at low values of Q^2, Bjorken x, and muon
transverse momentum, and high values of jet transverse energy and muon
pseudorapidity, the prediction is about two standard deviations below the data.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure
Photoproduction of mesons associated with a leading neutron
The photoproduction of mesons associated with a leading
neutron has been observed with the ZEUS detector in collisions at HERA
using an integrated luminosity of 80 pb. The neutron carries a large
fraction, {}, of the incoming proton beam energy and is detected at
very small production angles, { mrad}, an indication of
peripheral scattering. The meson is centrally produced with
pseudorapidity {
GeV}, which is large compared to the average transverse momentum of the neutron
of 0.22 GeV. The ratio of neutron-tagged to inclusive production is
in the photon-proton
center-of-mass energy range { GeV}. The data suggest that the
presence of a hard scale enhances the fraction of events with a leading neutron
in the final state.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures, 2 table
Search for contact interactions, large extra dimensions and finite quark radius in ep collisions at HERA
A search for physics beyond the Standard Model has been performed with
high-Q^2 neutral current deep inelastic scattering events recorded with the
ZEUS detector at HERA. Two data sets, e^+ p \to e^+ X and e^- p \to e^- X, with
respective integrated luminosities of 112 pb^-1 and 16 pb^-1, were analyzed.
The data reach Q^2 values as high as 40000 GeV^2. No significant deviations
from Standard Model predictions were observed. Limits were derived on the
effective mass scale in eeqq contact interactions, the ratio of leptoquark mass
to the Yukawa coupling for heavy leptoquark models and the mass scale parameter
in models with large extra dimensions. The limit on the quark charge radius, in
the classical form factor approximation, is 0.85 10^-16 cm.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Physics Letters
Isolated tau leptons in events with large missing transverse momentum at HERA
A search for events containing isolated tau leptons and large missing
transverse momentum, not originating from the tau decay, has been performed
with the ZEUS detector at the electron-proton collider HERA, using 130 pb^-1 of
integrated luminosity. A search was made for isolated tracks coming from
hadronic tau decays. Observables based on the internal jet structure were
exploited to discriminate between tau decays and quark- or gluon-induced jets.
Three tau candidates were found, while 0.40 +0.12 -0.13 were expected from
Standard Model processes, such as charged current deep inelastic scattering and
single W-boson production. To search for heavy-particle decays, a more
restrictive selection was applied to isolate tau leptons produced together with
a hadronic final state with high transverse momentum. Two candidate events
survive, while 0.20 +-0.05 events are expected from Standard Model processes.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, accepted by Phys. Lett. B. Updated
with minor changes to the text requested by the journal refere
Forward jet production in deep inelastic ep scattering and low-x parton dynamics at HERA
Differential inclusive jet cross sections in neutral current deep inelastic
ep scattering have been measured with the ZEUS detector. Three phase-space
regions have been selected in order to study parton dynamics where the effects
of BFKL evolution might be present. The measurements have been compared to the
predictions of leading-logarithm parton shower Monte Carlo models and
fixed-order perturbative QCD calculations. In the forward region, QCD
calculations at order alpha_s^1 underestimate the data up to an order of
magnitude at low x. An improved description of the data in this region is
obtained by including QCD corrections at order alpha_s^2, which account for the
lowest-order t-channel gluon-exchange diagrams, highlighting the importance of
such terms in parton dynamics at low x.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figure
Estimation of neutron-equivalent dose in organs of patients undergoing radiotherapy by the use of a novel online digital detector.
Neutron peripheral contamination in patients undergoing high-energy photon radiotherapy is considered as a risk factor for secondary cancer induction. Organ-specific neutron-equivalent dose estimation is therefore essential for a reasonable assessment of these associated risks. This work aimed to develop a method to estimate neutron-equivalent doses in multiple organs of radiotherapy patients. The method involved the convolution, at 16 reference points in an anthropomorphic phantom, of the normalized Monte Carlo neutron fluence energy spectra with the kerma and energy-dependent radiation weighting factor. This was then scaled with the total neutron fluence measured with passive detectors, at the same reference points, in order to obtain the equivalent doses in organs. The latter were correlated with the readings of a neutron digital detector located inside the treatment room during phantom irradiation. This digital detector, designed and developed by our group, integrates the thermal neutron fluence. The correlation model, applied to the digital detector readings during patient irradiation, enables the online estimation of neutron-equivalent doses in organs. The model takes into account the specific irradiation site, the field parameters (energy, field size, angle incidence, etc) and the installation (linac and bunker geometry). This method, which is suitable for routine clinical use, will help to systematically generate the dosimetric data essential for the improvement of current risk-estimation models
High-Q^2 neutral current cross sections in e^+p deep inelastic scattering at sqrt{s}=318 GeV
Cross sections for e^+p neutral current deep inelastic scattering have been
measured at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt{s}=318 GeV with the ZEUS detector
at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 63.2 pb^-1. The double-differential
cross section, d^2sigma/dxdQ^2, is presented for 200 GeV^2 < Q^2 < 30000 GeV^2
and for 0.005 < x < 0.65. The single-differential cross-sections dsigma/dQ^2,
dsigma/dx and dsigma/dy are presented for Q^2 > 200 GeV^2. The effect of
Z-boson exchange is seen in dsigma/dx measured for Q^2 > 10000 GeV^2. The data
presented here were combined with ZEUS e^+p neutral current data taken at
sqrt{s}=300 GeV and the structure function F_2^{em} was extracted. All results
agree well with the predictions of the Standard Model.Comment: Two references corrected. To be published in Physical Review
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