Modulation of DNA damage tolerance in Escherichia coli recG and ruv strains by mutations affecting PriB, the ribosome and RNA polymerase

RecG is a DNA translocase that helps to maintain genomic integrity. Initial studies suggested a role in promoting recombination, a possibility consistent with synergism between recG and ruv null alleles and reinforced when the protein was shown to unwind Holliday junctions. In this article we describe novel suppressors of recG and show that the pathology seen without RecG is suppressed on reducing or eliminating PriB, a component of the PriA system for replisome assembly and replication restart. Suppression is conditional, depending on additional mutations that modify ribosomal subunit S6 or one of three subunits of RNA polymerase. The latter suppress phenotypes associated with deletion of priB, enabling the deletion to suppress recG. They include alleles likely to disrupt interactions with transcription anti-terminator, NusA. Deleting priB has a different effect in ruv strains. It provokes abortive recombination and compromises DNA repair in a manner consistent with PriB being required to limit exposure of recombinogenic ssDNA. This synergism is reduced by the RNA polymerase mutations identified. Taken together, the results reveal that RecG curbs a potentially negative effect of proteins that direct replication fork assembly at sites removed from the normal origin, a facility needed to resolve conflicts between replication and transcription

Spatial segregation measures: a methodological review

Quantitative indices of segregation are powerful tools for summarising the spatial relationships between population groups and thereby providing the basis for analysis and public policy intervention. While the broad concept of segregation may be intuitive, measurement is challenging because of the complexity of varied dimensions and spatial arrangements. Many traditional measures can be criticised for over-simplification or over-reduction, not least in their treatment of geographical space. Over the last several decades, however, a series of measures has been developed to explicitly incorporate the spatial arrangement of population groups as well as their interactions. This paper reviews the development of spatial segregation measures, particularly focusing on the mathematical formulation of spatial arrangement/relations. In addition, several related issues are discussed, including representation of spatial interaction, spatial scale and statistical inferences. Also, this paper presents an overview of existing software tools that are readily available for calculating some of the reviewed measures. Finally, discussions on challenges and future research are provided

Interacting Agegraphic Dark Energy

A new dark energy model, named "agegraphic dark energy", has been proposed recently, based on the so-called K\'{a}rolyh\'{a}zy uncertainty relation, which arises from quantum mechanics together with general relativity. In this note, we extend the original agegraphic dark energy model by including the interaction between agegraphic dark energy and pressureless (dark) matter. In the interacting agegraphic dark energy model, there are many interesting features different from the original agegraphic dark energy model and holographic dark energy model. The similarity and difference between agegraphic dark energy and holographic dark energy are also discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, revtex4; v2: references added; v3: accepted by Eur. Phys. J. C; v4: published versio

A measurement of the tau mass and the first CPT test with tau leptons

We measure the mass of the tau lepton to be 1775.1+-1.6(stat)+-1.0(syst.) MeV using tau pairs from Z0 decays. To test CPT invariance we compare the masses of the positively and negatively charged tau leptons. The relative mass difference is found to be smaller than 3.0 10^-3 at the 90% confidence level.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, Submitted to Phys. Letts.

First Measurement of Z/gamma* Production in Compton Scattering of Quasi-real Photons

We report the first observation of Z/gamma* production in Compton scattering of quasi-real photons. This is a subprocess of the reaction e+e- to e+e-Z/gamma*, where one of the final state electrons is undetected. Approximately 55 pb-1 of data collected in the year 1997 at an e+e- centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV with the OPAL detector at LEP have been analysed. The Z/gamma* from Compton scattering has been detected in the hadronic decay channel. Within well defined kinematic bounds, we measure the product of cross-section and Z/gamma* branching ratio to hadrons to be (0.9+-0.3+-0.1) pb for events with a hadronic mass larger than 60 GeV, dominated by (e)eZ production. In the hadronic mass region between 5 GeV and 60 GeV, dominated by (e)egamma* production, this product is found to be (4.1+-1.6+-0.6) pb. Our results agree with the predictions of two Monte Carlo event generators, grc4f and PYTHIA.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX, 5 eps figures included, submitted to Physics Letters

Measurement of the B0 Lifetime and Oscillation Frequency using B0->D*+l-v decays

The lifetime and oscillation frequency of the B0 meson has been measured using B0->D*+l-v decays recorded on the Z0 peak with the OPAL detector at LEP. The D*+ -> D0pi+ decays were reconstructed using an inclusive technique and the production flavour of the B0 mesons was determined using a combination of tags from the rest of the event. The results t_B0 = 1.541 +- 0.028 +- 0.023 ps, Dm_d = 0.497 +- 0.024 +- 0.025 ps-1 were obtained, where in each case the first error is statistical and the second systematic.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.

Search for Higgs Bosons in e+e- Collisions at 183 GeV

The data collected by the OPAL experiment at sqrts=183 GeV were used to search for Higgs bosons which are predicted by the Standard Model and various extensions, such as general models with two Higgs field doublets and the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of approximately 54pb-1. None of the searches for neutral and charged Higgs bosons have revealed an excess of events beyond the expected background. This negative outcome, in combination with similar results from searches at lower energies, leads to new limits for the Higgs boson masses and other model parameters. In particular, the 95% confidence level lower limit for the mass of the Standard Model Higgs boson is 88.3 GeV. Charged Higgs bosons can be excluded for masses up to 59.5 GeV. In the MSSM, mh > 70.5 GeV and mA > 72.0 GeV are obtained for tan{beta}>1, no and maximal scalar top mixing and soft SUSY-breaking masses of 1 TeV. The range 0.8 < tanb < 1.9 is excluded for minimal scalar top mixing and m{top} < 175 GeV. More general scans of the MSSM parameter space are also considered.Comment: 49 pages. LaTeX, including 33 eps figures, submitted to European Physical Journal

A Measurement of the Product Branching Ratio f(b->Lambda_b).BR(Lambda_b->Lambda X) in Z0 Decays

The product branching ratio, f(b->Lambda_b).BR(Lambda_b->Lambda X), where Lambda_b denotes any weakly-decaying b-baryon, has been measured using the OPAL detector at LEP. Lambda_b are selected by the presence of energetic Lambda particles in bottom events tagged by the presence of displaced secondary vertices. A fit to the momenta of the Lambda particles separates signal from B meson and fragmentation backgrounds. The measured product branching ratio is f(b->Lambda_b).BR(Lambda_b->Lambda X) = (2.67+-0.38(stat)+0.67-0.60(sys))% Combined with a previous OPAL measurement, one obtains f(b->Lambda_b).BR(Lambda_b->Lambda X) = (3.50+-0.32(stat)+-0.35(sys))%.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX, 3 eps figs included, submitted to the European Physical Journal

WW Production Cross Section and W Branching Fractions in e+e- Collisions at 189 GeV

From a data sample of 183 pb^-1 recorded at a center-of-mass energy of roots = 189 GeV with the OPAL detector at LEP, 3068 W-pair candidate events are selected. Assuming Standard Model W boson decay branching fractions, the W-pair production cross section is measured to be sigmaWW = 16.30 +- 0.34(stat.) +- 0.18(syst.) pb. When combined with previous OPAL measurements, the W boson branching fraction to hadrons is determined to be 68.32 +- 0.61(stat.) +- 0.28(syst.) % assuming lepton universality. These results are consistent with Standard Model expectations.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.