279 research outputs found
The Generation of Successive Unmarked Mutations and Chromosomal Insertion of Heterologous Genes in Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae Using Natural Transformation
We have developed a simple method of generating scarless, unmarked mutations in Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae by exploiting the ability of this bacterium to undergo natural transformation, and with no need to introduce plasmids encoding recombinases or resolvases. This method involves two successive rounds of natural transformation using linear DNA: the first introduces a cassette carrying cat (which allows selection by chloramphenicol) and sacB (which allows counter-selection using sucrose) flanked by sequences to either side of the target gene; the second transformation utilises the flanking sequences ligated directly to each other in order to remove the cat-sacB cassette. In order to ensure efficient uptake of the target DNA during transformation, A. pleuropneumoniae uptake sequences are added into the constructs used in both rounds of transformation. This method can be used to generate multiple successive deletions and can also be used to introduce targeted point mutations or insertions of heterologous genes into the A. pleuropneumoniae chromosome for development of live attenuated vaccine strains. So far, we have applied this method to highly transformable isolates of serovars 8 (MIDG2331), which is the most prevalent in the UK, and 15 (HS143). By screening clinical isolates of other serovars, it should be possible to identify other amenable strains
Improving Brush Polymer Infrared One-Dimensional Photonic Crystals via Linear Polymer Additives
Brush block copolymers (BBCPs) enable the rapid fabrication of self-assembled one-dimensional photonic crystals with photonic band gaps that are tunable in the UV-vis-IR, where the peak wavelength of reflection scales with the molecular weight of the BBCPs. Due to the difficulty in synthesizing very large BBCPs, the fidelity of the assembled lamellar nanostructures drastically erodes as the domains become large enough to reflect IR light, severely limiting their performance as optical filters. To overcome this challenge, short linear homopolymers are used to swell the arrays to ∼180% of the initial domain spacing, allowing for photonic band gaps up to ∼1410 nm without significant opacity in the visible, demonstrating improved ordering of the arrays. Additionally, blending BBCPs with random copolymers enables functional groups to be incorporated into the BBCP array without attaching them directly to the BBCPs. The addition of short linear polymers to the BBCP arrays thus offers a facile means of improving the self-assembly and optical properties of these materials, as well as adding a route to achieving films with greater functionality and tailorability, without the need to develop or optimize the processing conditions for each new brush polymer synthesized
Mid-Rapidity Direct-Photon Production in p+p Collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV
A measurement of direct photons in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV is
presented. A photon excess above background from pi^0 --> gamma+gamma, eta -->
gamma+gamma, and other decays is observed in the transverse momentum range 5.5
< p_T < 7 GeV/c. The result is compared to a next-to-leading-order perturbative
QCD calculation. Within errors, good agreement is found between the QCD
calculation and the measured result.Comment: 330 authors, 7 pages text, RevTeX, 2 figures, 2 tables. Submitted to
Physical Review D. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures
for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available
at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
Centrality dependence of charged hadron production in deuteron+gold and nucleon+gold collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV
We present transverse momentum (p_T) spectra of charged hadrons measured in
deuteron-gold and nucleon-gold collisions at \sqrts = 200 GeV for four
centrality classes. Nucleon-gold collisions were selected by tagging events in
which a spectator nucleon was observed in one of two forward rapidity
detectors. The spectra and yields were investigated as a function of the number
of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions, \nu, suffered by deuteron nucleons. A
comparison of charged particle yields to those in p+p collisions show that the
yield per nucleon-nucleon collision saturates with \nu for high momentum
particles. We also present the charged hadron to neutral pion ratios as a
function of p_T.Comment: 330 authors, 15 pages text, 16 figures, 3 tables. Submitted to Phys.
Rev. Lett. v2 has minor changes to reflect revisions during review process.
Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and
previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at
http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
Azimuthal Angle Correlations for Rapidity Separated Hadron Pairs in d+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
We report on two-particle azimuthal angle correlations between charged
hadrons at forward/backward (deuteron/gold going direction) rapidity and
charged hadrons at mid-rapidity in deuteron-gold (d+Au) and proton-proton (p+p)
collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV. Jet structures are observed in the
correlations which we quantify in terms of the conditional yield and angular
width of away side partners. The kinematic region studied here samples partons
in the gold nucleus carrying nucleon momentum fraction x~0.1 to x~0.01. Within
this range, we find no x dependence of the jet structure in d+Au collisions.Comment: 330 authors, 6 pages text, 4 figures, no tables. Submitted to Phys.
Rev. Lett. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this
and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at
http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
Transverse momentum and centrality dependence of dihadron correlations in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV: Jet-quenching and the response of partonic matter
Azimuthal angle \Delta\phi correlations are presented for charged hadrons
from dijets for 0.4 < p_T < 10 GeV/c in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200
GeV. With increasing p_T, the away-side distribution evolves from a broad to a
concave shape, then to a convex shape. Comparisons to p+p data suggest that the
away-side can be divided into a partially suppressed "head" region centered at
Delta\phi ~ \pi, and an enhanced "shoulder" region centered at Delta\phi ~ \pi
+/- 1.1. The p_T spectrum for the "head" region softens toward central
collisions, consistent with the onset of jet quenching. The spectral slope for
the "shoulder" region is independent of centrality and trigger p_T, which
offers constraints on energy transport mechanisms and suggests that the
"shoulder" region contains the medium response to energetic jets.Comment: 420 authors from 58 institutions, 6 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to
Physical Review Letters. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in
figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly
available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
Deuteron and antideuteron production in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV
The production of deuterons and antideuterons in the transverse momentum
range 1.1 < p_T < 4.3 GeV/c at mid-rapidity in Au + Au collisions at
sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV has been studied by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC. A
coalescence analysis comparing the deuteron and antideuteron spectra with those
of protons and antiprotons, has been performed. The coalescence probability is
equal for both deuterons and antideuterons and increases as a function of p_T,
which is consistent with an expanding collision zone. Comparing (anti)proton
yields p_bar/p = 0.73 +/- 0.01, with (anti)deuteron yields: d_bar/d = 0.47 +/-
0.03, we estimate that n_bar/n = 0.64 +/- 0.04.Comment: 326 authors, 6 pages text, 5 figures, 1 Table. Submitted to PRL.
Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and
previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at
http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
High-pT pi^zero Production with Respect to the Reaction Plane in Au + Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
Measurements of the azimuthal anisotropy of high-\pT neutral pion neutral
pion production in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV by the PHENIX
experiment are presented. The data included in this paper were collected during
the 2004 RHIC running period and represent approximately an order of magnitude
increase in the number of analyzed events relative to previously published
results. Azimuthal angle distributions of pi^0s detected in the PHENIX
electromagnetic calorimeters are measured relative to the reaction plane
determined event-by-event using the forward and backward beam-beam counters.
Amplitudes of the second Fourier component (v_2) of the angular distributions
are presented as a function of pi^0 transverse momentum p_T for different bins
in collision centrality. Measured reaction plane dependent pi^0 yields are used
to determine the azimuthal dependence of the pi^0 suppression as a function of
p_T, R_AA (Delta phi,p_T). A jet-quenching motivated geometric analysis is
presented that attempts to simultaneously describe the centrality dependence
and reaction plane angle dependence of the pi^0 suppression in terms of the
path lengths of hypothetical parent partons in the medium. This set of results
allows for a detailed examination of the influence of geometry in the collision
region, and of the interplay between collective flow and jet-quenching effects
along the azimuthal axis.Comment: 344 authors, 35 pages text, RevTeX-4, 24 figures, 8 tables. Submitted
to Physical Review
Charged hadron multiplicity fluctuations in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions from sqrt(s_NN) = 22.5 to 200 GeV
A comprehensive survey of event-by-event fluctuations of charged hadron
multiplicity in relativistic heavy ions is presented. The survey covers Au+Au
collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 62.4 and 200 GeV, and Cu+Cu collisions sqrt(s_NN) =
22.5, 62.4, and 200 GeV. Fluctuations are measured as a function of collision
centrality, transverse momentum range, and charge sign. After correcting for
non-dynamical fluctuations due to fluctuations in the collision geometry within
a centrality bin, the remaining dynamical fluctuations expressed as the
variance normalized by the mean tend to decrease with increasing centrality.
The dynamical fluctuations are consistent with or below the expectation from a
superposition of participant nucleon-nucleon collisions based upon p+p data,
indicating that this dataset does not exhibit evidence of critical behavior in
terms of the compressibility of the system. An analysis of Negative Binomial
Distribution fits to the multiplicity distributions demonstrates that the heavy
ion data exhibit weak clustering properties.Comment: 464 authors from 60 institutions, 17 pages, 12 figures, 1 table.
Submitted to Physical Review C. Plain text data tables for the points plotted
in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be)
publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
Quantitative Constraints on the Transport Properties of Hot Partonic Matter from Semi-Inclusive Single High Transverse Momentum Pion Suppression in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
The PHENIX experiment has measured the suppression of semi-inclusive single
high transverse momentum pi^0's in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV.
The present understanding of this suppression is in terms of energy-loss of the
parent (fragmenting) parton in a dense color-charge medium. We have performed a
quantitative comparison between various parton energy-loss models and our
experimental data. The statistical point-to-point uncorrelated as well as
correlated systematic uncertainties are taken into account in the comparison.
We detail this methodology and the resulting constraint on the model
parameters, such as the initial color-charge density dN^g/dy, the medium
transport coefficient , or the initial energy-loss parameter epsilon_0.
We find that high transverse momentum pi^0 suppression in Au+Au collisions has
sufficient precision to constrain these model dependent parameters at the +/1
20%-25% (one standard deviation) level. These constraints include only the
experimental uncertainties, and further studies are needed to compute the
corresponding theoretical uncertainties.Comment: 422 authors, 13 pages text, RevTeX-4, 9 figures, 2 tables. This
version is updated with changes made during the review process and is now the
same as what was published in Physical Review C. Plain text data tables for
the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are
publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
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