The Role of veA on Aspergillus flavus Infection of Peanuts, Corn and Cotton

The aflatoxin-producing fungus Aspergillus flavus is a causal agent of preharvest contamination of food commodities such as oil seed crops worldwide. Peanut, corn and cottonseed are among the oil seeds that are susceptible to aflatoxin contamination during invasion of these crops by A. flavus. Contamination of agricultural commodities with aflatoxins can result in serious economic hardships to producers and adverse health impacts in both humans and domestic animals. It is therefore of great importance to determine ways to control A. flavus dissemination, survival and toxin formation. In this study we demonstrate the role of the veA regulatory gene in the contamination of peanut, corn and cotton by A. flavus. Virulence of A. flavus on peanut and corn seeds was reduced in the absence of the veA gene product

Pallet Management System: A Study of the Implementation of UID/RFID Technology for Tracking Shipping Materials within the Department of Defense Distribution Network

Sponsored Report (for Acquisition Research Program)The purpose of this MBA project is to identify the typical pallet utilization for the Defense Distribution Depot San Joaquin (DDJC) shipments to the Defense Distribution Depot San Diego (DDDC). That information will be used as the basis for suggesting a standardized reutilization management system for wood and non-wood pallets. This project will analyze the inclusion of Radio Frequency Identification and Unique Item Identification in conjunction with bar code technology for the improvement of asset visibility within the Department of Defense''s supply network.Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research ProgramApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Testing Container Classes: Random or Systematic?

Container classes such as lists, sets, or maps are elementary data struc-tures common to many programming languages. Since they are a part of stan-dard libraries, they are important to test, which led to research on advanced testing techniques targeting such containers and research on comparing testing techniques using such containers. However, these techniques have not been thor-oughly compared to simpler techniques such as random testing. We present the results of a larger case study in which we compare random testing with shape ab-straction, a systematic technique that showed the best results in a previous study. Our experiments show that random testing is about as effective as shape abstrac-tion for testing these containers, which raises the question whether containers are well suited as a benchmark for comparing advanced testing techniques

Holographic dark energy with time varying c2c^2 parameter

We consider the holographic dark energy model in which the model parameter $c^2$ evolves slowly with time. First we calculate the evolution of EoS parameter as well as the deceleration parameter in this generalized version of holographic dark energy (GHDE). Depending on the parameter $c^2$, the phantom regime can be achieved earlier or later compare with original version of holographic dark energy. The evolution of energy density of GHDE model is investigated in terms of parameter $c^2$. We also show that the time-dependency of $c^2$ can effect on the transition epoch from decelerated phase to accelerated expansion. Finally, we perform the statefinder diagnostic for GHDE model and show that the evolutionary trajectories of the model in $s-r$ plane are strongly depend on the parameter $c^2$.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Astrophys Space Sc

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Measurement of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross-section in pp collisions at sqrt(s)= 7 TeV using 35 pb-1 of ATLAS data

A measurement of the differential cross-section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented. The measurement covers the pseudorapidity ranges |eta|<1.37 and 1.52<=|eta|<2.37 in the transverse energy range 45<=E_T<400GeV. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 35 pb-1, collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The yields of the signal photons are measured using a data-driven technique, based on the observed distribution of the hadronic energy in a narrow cone around the photon candidate and the photon selection criteria. The results are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and found to be in good agreement over four orders of magnitude in cross-section.Comment: 7 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 4 tables, final version published in Physics Letters

Measurement of the production cross section of prompt j/psi mesons in association with a W (+/-) boson in pp collisions root s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The process pp → W±J/ψ provides a powerful probe of the production mechanism of charmonium in hadronic collisions, and is also sensitive to multiple parton interactions in the colliding protons. Using the 2011 ATLAS dataset of 4.5 fb-1 of p s = 7TeV pp collisions at the LHC, the first observation is made of the production of W± + prompt J/ events in hadronic collisions, using W± → μ and J/ψ → μ+μ-. A yield of 27.4±7.5 -6.5 W± + prompt J/ψ events is observed, with a statistical significance of 5.1. The production rate as a ratio to the inclusive W± boson production rate is measured, and the double parton scattering contribution to the cross section is estimated. Copyright CERN, for the benefit of the ATLAS Collaboration