International survey of Cronobacter sakazakii and other Cronobacter spp. in follow up formulas and infant food

A coordinated survey for Cronobacter and related organisms in powdered infant formula, follow up formula and infant foods was undertaken by 8 laboratories in 7 countries in recognition of and in response to the data needs identified in an FAO/WHO call for data in order to develop global risk management guidance for these products. The products (domestic and imported) were purchased from the local market and were categorised according to their principle ingredients. A total of 290 products were analysed using a standardised procedure of pre-enrichment in 225 ml Buffered Peptone Water (BPW), followed by enrichment in Enterobacteriaceae Enrichment (EE) broth, plating on the chromogenic Cronobacter Druggan–Forsythe–Iversen (DFI) agar and presumptive identification with ID 32 E. Presumptive Cronobacter isolates were identified using 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. Aerobic plate counts (APC) of the products were also determined on nutrient agar. Fourteen samples had APC > 105 cfu/g, 3 of which contained probiotic cultures. C. sakazakii was isolated from 27 products; 3/91 (3%) follow up formulas (as defined by Codex Alimentarius Commission), and 24/199 (12%) infant foods and drinks. Hence C. sakazakii was less prevalent in follow up formula than other foods given to infants over the same age range. A range of other bacteria were also isolated from follow up formulas, including Acinetobacter baumannii, Enterobacter cloacae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Citrobacter freundii, and Serratia ficaria. There was significant variation in the reconstitution instructions for follow up formulas. These included using water at temperatures which would enable bacterial growth. Additionally, the definition of follow up formula varied between countries

The Q2Q^2 dependence of the measured asymmetry A1A_1: the test of the Bjorken sum rule

We analyse the proton and deutron data on spin dependent asymmetry $A_1(x,Q^2)$ supposing the DIS structure functions $g_1(x,Q^2)$ and $F_3(x,Q^2)$ have the similar $Q^2$-dependence. As a result, we have obtained that $\Gamma_1^p - \Gamma_1^n = 0.190 \pm 0.038$ at $Q^2= 10 GeV^2$ and $\Gamma_1^p - \Gamma_1^n = 0.165 \pm 0.026$ at $Q^2= 3 GeV^2$, what is in the best agreement with the Bjorken sum rule predictions.Comment: LaTeX, 5 pages, no figures, to be published in JETP Letter

Experimental Evidence for Simple Relations between Unpolarized and Polarized Parton Distributions

The Pauli exclusion principle is advocated for constructing the proton and neutron deep inelastic structure functions in terms of Fermi-Dirac distributions that we parametrize with very few parameters. It allows a fair description of the recent NMC data on $F^p_2(x,Q^2)$ and $F^n_2(x,Q^2)$ at $Q^2=4 GeV^2$, as well as the CCFR neutrino data at $Q^2=3$ and $5 GeV^2$. We also make some reasonable and simple assumptions to relate unpolarized and polarized quark parton distributions and we obtain, with no additional free parameters, the spin dependent structure functions $xg^p_1(x,Q^2)$ and $xg^n_1(x,Q^2)$. Using the correct $Q^2$ evolution, we have checked that they are in excellent agreement with the very recent SMC proton data at $Q^2=10 GeV^2$ and the SLAC neutron data at $Q^2=2 GeV^2$.Comment: 17 pages,CPT-94/P.3032,latex,6 fig available on cpt.univ-mrs.fr directory pub/preprints/94/fundamental-interactions /94-P.303

A Precise Measurement of the Weak Mixing Angle in Neutrino-Nucleon Scattering

We report a precise measurement of the weak mixing angle from the ratio of neutral current to charged current inclusive cross-sections in deep-inelastic neutrino-nucleon scattering. The data were gathered at the CCFR neutrino detector in the Fermilab quadrupole-triplet neutrino beam, with neutrino energies up to 600 GeV. Using the on-shell definition, ${\rm sin ^2\theta_W} \equiv 1 - \frac{{\rm M_W} ^2}{{\rm M_Z} ^2}$, we obtain ${\rm sin ^2\theta_W} = 0.2218 \pm 0.0025 ({\rm stat.}) \pm 0.0036 ({\rm exp.\: syst.}) \pm 0.0040 ({\rm model})$.Comment: 10 pages, Nevis Preprint #1498 (Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett.

Nuclear Structure Functions in the Large x Large Q^2 Kinematic Region in Neutrino Deep Inelastic Scattering

Data from the CCFR E770 Neutrino Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS) experiment at Fermilab contain events with large Bjorken x (x>0.7) and high momentum transfer (Q^2>50 (GeV/c)^2). A comparison of the data with a model based on no nuclear effects at large x, shows a significant excess of events in the data. Addition of Fermi gas motion of the nucleons in the nucleus to the model does not explain the excess. Adding a higher momentum tail due to the formation of ``quasi-deuterons'' makes some improvement. An exponentially falling F_2 \propto e^-s(x-x_0) at large x, predicted by ``multi-quark clusters'' and ``few-nucleon correlations'', can describe the data. A value of s=8.3 \pm 0.7(stat.)\pm 0.7(sys.) yields the best agreement with the data.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Sibmitted to PR

Determination of the Strange Quark Content of the Nucleon from a Next-to-Leading-Order QCD Analysis of Neutrino Charm Production

We present the first next-to-leading-order QCD analysis of neutrino charm production, using a sample of 6090 $\nu_\mu$- and $\bar\nu_\mu$-induced opposite-sign dimuon events observed in the CCFR detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. We find that the nucleon strange quark content is suppressed with respect to the non-strange sea quarks by a factor \kappa = 0.477 \: ^{+\:0.063}_{-\:0.053}, where the error includes statistical, systematic and QCD scale uncertainties. In contrast to previous leading order analyses, we find that the strange sea $x$-dependence is similar to that of the non-strange sea, and that the measured charm quark mass, $m_c = 1.70 \pm 0.19 \:{\rm GeV/c}^2$, is larger and consistent with that determined in other processes. Further analysis finds that the difference in $x$-distributions between $xs(x)$ and $x\bar s(x)$ is small. A measurement of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element $|V_{cd}|=0.232 ^{+\:0.018}_{-\:0.020}$ is also presented. uufile containing compressed postscript files of five Figures is appended at the end of the LaTeX source.Comment: Nevis R#150

A High Statistics Search for Electron-Neutrino --> Tau-Neutrino Oscillations

We present new limits on nu_e to nu_tau and nu_e to nu_sterile oscillations by searching for electron neutrino dissappearance in the high-energy wide-band CCFR neutrino beam. Sensitivity to nu_tau appearance comes from tau decay modes in which a large fraction of the energy deposited is electromagnetic. The beam is composed primarily of muon neutrinos but this analysis uses the 2.3% electron neutrino component of the beam. Electron neutrino energies range from 30 to 600 GeV and flight lengths vary from 0.9 to 1.4 km. This limit improves the sensitivity of existing limits and obtains a lowest 90% confidence upper limit in sin**2(2*alpha) of 9.9 x 10**(-2) at delta-m**2 of 125 eV**2.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. D. Rapid Com

A measurement of alphas(Q2)alpha_s(Q^2) from the Gross-Llewellyn Smith Sum Rule

We extract a set of values for the Gross-Llewellyn Smith sum rule at different values of 4-momentum transfer squared ($Q^{2}$), by combining revised CCFR neutrino data with data from other neutrino deep-inelastic scattering experiments for $1 < Q^2 < 15 GeV^2/c^2$. A comparison with the order $\alpha^{3}_{s}$ theoretical predictions yields a determination of $\alpha_{s}$ at the scale of the Z-boson mass of $0.114 \pm^{.009}_{.012}$. This measurement provides a new and useful test of perturbative QCD at low $Q^2$, because of the low uncertainties in the higher order calculations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Leptoproduction of Heavy Quarks in the Fixed and Variable Flavor Schemes

We compare the results of the fixed-flavor scheme calculation of Laenen, Riemersma, Smith and van Neerven with the variable-flavor scheme calculation of Aivazis, Collins, Olness and Tung for the case of neutral-current (photon-mediated) heavy-flavor (charm and bottom) production. Specifically, we examine the features of both calculations throughout phase space and compare the structure function $F_2(x,Q^2)$. We also analyze the dependence of $F_2$ on the mass factorization scale $\mu$. We find that the former is most applicable near threshold, while the latter works well for asymptotic $Q^2$. The validity of each calculation in the intermediate region is dependent upon the $x$ and $Q^2$ values chosen.Comment: LaTeX format, 19 pages, 20 figures in uuencoded format. Postscript file available at ftp://smuphy.physics.smu.edu/usr/ftpdir/pub/paper