Measurement of dijet cross sections in pp collisions at 7 TeV centre-of-mass energy using the ATLAS detector

Double-differential dijet cross-sections measured in pp collisions at the LHC with a 7TeV centre-of-mass energy are presented as functions of dijet mass and half the rapidity separation of the two highest-pT jets. These measurements are obtained using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.5 fb−1, recorded by the ATLAS detector in 2011. The data are corrected for detector effects so that cross-sections are presented at the particle level. Cross-sections are measured up to 5TeV dijet mass using jets reconstructed with the anti-kt algorithm for values of the jet radius parameter of 0.4 and 0.6. The cross-sections are compared with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations by NLOJet++ corrected to account for non-perturbative effects. Comparisons with POWHEG predictions, using a next-to-leading-order matrix element calculation interfaced to a partonshower Monte Carlo simulation, are also shown. Electroweak effects are accounted for in both cases. The quantitative comparison of data and theoretical predictions obtained using various parameterizations of the parton distribution functions is performed using a frequentist method. In general, good agreement with data is observed for the NLOJet++ theoretical predictions when using the CT10, NNPDF2.1 and MSTW 2008 PDF sets. Disagreement is observed when using the ABM11 and HERAPDF1.5 PDF sets for some ranges of dijet mass and half the rapidity separation. An example setting a lower limit on the compositeness scale for a model of contact interactions is presented, showing that the unfolded results can be used to constrain contributions to dijet production beyond that predicted by the Standard Model.

A thermodynamic model for di-trioctahedral chlorite from experimental and natural data in the system MgO-FeO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O. Applications to P-T sections and geothermometry

We present a new thermodynamic activity-composition model for di-trioctahedral chlorite in the system FeO–MgO–Al2O3–SiO2–H2O that is based on the Holland–Powell internally consistent thermodynamic data set. The model is formulated in terms of four linearly independent end-members, which are amesite, clinochlore, daphnite and sudoite. These account for the most important crystal-chemical substitutions in chlorite, the Fe–Mg, Tschermak and di-trioctahedral substitution. The ideal part of end-member activities is modeled with a mixing-on-site formalism, and non-ideality is described by a macroscopic symmetric (regular) formalism. The symmetric interaction parameters were calibrated using a set of 271 published chlorite analyses for which robust independent temperature estimates are available. In addition, adjustment of the standard state thermodynamic properties of sudoite was required to accurately reproduce experimental brackets involving sudoite. This new model was tested by calculating representative P–T sections for metasediments at low temperatures (<400 °C), in particular sudoite and chlorite bearing metapelites from Crete. Comparison between the calculated mineral assemblages and field data shows that the new model is able to predict the coexistence of chlorite and sudoite at low metamorphic temperatures. The predicted lower limit of the chloritoid stability field is also in better agreement with petrological observations. For practical applications to metamorphic and hydrothermal environments, two new semi-empirical chlorite geothermometers named Chl(1) and Chl(2) were calibrated based on the chlorite + quartz + water equilibrium (2 clinochlore + 3 sudoite = 4 amesite + 4 H2O + 7 quartz). The Chl(1) thermometer requires knowledge of the (Fe3+/ΣFe) ratio in chlorite and predicts correct temperatures for a range of redox conditions. The Chl(2) geothermometer which assumes that all iron in chlorite is ferrous has been applied to partially recrystallized detrital chlorite from the Zone houillère in the French Western Alps.

Automated NNLL + NLO resummation for jet-veto cross sections

In electroweak-boson production processes with a jet veto, higher-order corrections are enhanced by logarithms of the veto scale over the invariant mass of the boson system. In this paper, we resum these Sudakov logarithms at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy and match our predictions to next-to-leading-order (NLO) fixed-order results. We perform the calculation in an automated way, for arbitrary electroweak final states and in the presence of kinematic cuts on the leptons produced in the decays of the electroweak bosons. The resummation is based on a factorization theorem for the cross sections into hard functions, which encode the virtual corrections to the boson production process, and beam functions, which describe the low-pT emissions collinear to the beams. The one-loop hard functions for arbitrary processes are calculated using the MadGraph5_aMC@NLO framework, while the beam functions are process independent. We perform the resummation for a variety of processes, in particular for W+W− pair production followed by leptonic decays of the W bosons.

Granular layer in the periplasmic space of gram-positive bacteria and fine structures of Enterococcus gallinarum and Streptococcus gordonii septa revealed by cryo-electron microscopy of vitreous sections.

High-resolution structural information on optimally preserved bacterial cells can be obtained with cryo-electron microscopy of vitreous sections. With the help of this technique, the existence of a periplasmic space between the plasma membrane and the thick peptidoglycan layer of the gram-positive bacteria Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus was recently shown. This raises questions about the mode of polymerization of peptidoglycan. In the present study, we report the structure of the cell envelope of three gram-positive bacteria (B. subtilis, Streptococcus gordonii, and Enterococcus gallinarum). In the three cases, a previously undescribed granular layer adjacent to the plasma membrane is found in the periplasmic space. In order to better understand how nascent peptidoglycan is incorporated into the mature peptidoglycan, we investigated cellular regions known to represent the sites of cell wall production. Each of these sites possesses a specific structure. We propose a hypothetic model of peptidoglycan polymerization that accommodates these differences: peptidoglycan precursors could be exported from the cytoplasm to the periplasmic space, where they could diffuse until they would interact with the interface between the granular layer and the thick peptidoglycan layer. They could then polymerize with mature peptidoglycan. We report cytoplasmic structures at the E. gallinarum septum that could be interpreted as cytoskeletal elements driving cell division (FtsZ ring). Although immunoelectron microscopy and fluorescence microscopy studies have demonstrated the septal and cytoplasmic localization of FtsZ, direct visualization of in situ FtsZ filaments has not been obtained in any electron microscopy study of fixed and dehydrated bacteria.

Quantitative PCR for the diagnosis of cutaneous leishmaniasis from formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded skin sections.

The present report describes a real-time PCR-based procedure to reliably determine the quantity of Leishmania amastigotes in relation to the amount of host tissue in histological skin sections from canine and equine cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis. The novel diagnostic Leishmania-PCR has a detection limit of <0.02 amastigotes per μg tissue, which corresponds well to the detection limit of immunohistochemistry and is far beyond that of conventional histology. Our results emphasise the importance of PCR to complement routine histology of cutaneous leishmaniasis cases, particularly in laboratories in which no immunohistochemical assay is available.

Relative abundance and ranges of selected diatoms from Pliocene-Pleistocene sections of ODP Leg 177, Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean

During Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 177, seven sites were drilled aligned on a transect across the Antarctic Circumpolar Current in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. The primary scientific objective of Leg 177 was the study of the Cenozoic paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic history of the southern high latitudes and its relationship with the Antarctic cryosphere development. Of special emphasis was the recovery of Pliocene-Pleistocene sections, allowing paleoceanographic studies at millennial or higher time resolution, and the establishment of refined biostratigraphic zonations tied to the geomagnetic polarity record and stable isotope records. At most sites, multiple holes were drilled to ensure complete recovery of the section. A description of the recovered sections and the construction of a multihole splice for the establishment of a continuous composite is presented in the Leg 177 Initial Reports volume for each of the sites (Gersonde, Hodell, Blum, et al., 1999). Here we present the relative abundance pattern and the stratigraphic ranges of diatom taxa encountered from shore-based light microscope studies completed on the Pliocene-Pleistocene sequences from six of the drilled sites (Sites 1089-1094). No shore-based diatom studies have been conducted on the Pliocene-Pleistocene sediments obtained at Site 1088, located on the northern crest of the Agulhas Ridge, because of the scattered occurrence and poor preservation of diatoms in these sections (Shipboard Scientific Party, 1999b). The data included in our report present the baseline of a diatom biostratigraphic study of Zielinski and Gersonde (2002), which (1) includes a refinement of the southern high-latitude Pliocene-Pleistocene diatom zonation, in particular for the middle and late Pleistocene, and (2) presents a biostratigraphic framework for the establishment of age models of the recovered sediment sections. Zielinski and Gersonde (2002) correlated the diatom ranges with the geomagnetic polarity record established shipboard (Sites 1090 and 1092) (Shipboard Scientific Party, 1999c, 1999d) and on shore (Sites 1089, 1091, 1093, and 1094) by Channell and Stoner (2002). The Pliocene-Pleistocene diatom zonation proposed by Zielinski and Gersonde (2002) relies on a diatom zonation from Gersonde and Bárcena (1998) for the northern belt of the Southern Ocean. Because of latitudinal differentiation of sea-surface temperature, nutrients, and salinity between Antarctic and Subantarctic/subtropical water masses, the Pliocene-Pleistocene stratigraphic marker diatoms are not uniformly distributed in the Southern Ocean (Fenner, 1991; Gersonde and Bárcena, 1998). As a consequence, Zielinski and Gersonde (2002) propose two diatom zonations for application in the Antarctic Zone south of the Polar Front (Southern Zonation, Sites 1094 and 1093) and the area encompassing the Polar Front Zone (PFZ) and the Subantarctic Zone (Northern Zonation, Sites 1089-1092). This accounts especially for the Pleistocene zonation where Hemidiscus karstenii, whose first abundant occurrence datum and last occurrence datum defines the subzonation of the northern Thalassiosira lentiginosa Zone, occurs only sporadically in the cold-water realm south of the PFZ and thus is not applicable in sections from this area. However, newly established marker species assigned to the genus Rouxia (Rouxia leventerae and Rouxia constricta) are more related to cold-water environments and allow a refinement of the Pleistocene stratigraphic zonation for the southern cold areas. A study relying on quantitative counts of both Rouxia species confirms the utility of these stratigraphic markers for the identification of sequences attributed to marine isotope Stages 6 and 8 in the southern Southern Ocean (Zielinski et al., 2002).

Paleomagnetic of the Cobb Mountin event sections

Detailed paleomagnetic investigations are reported for 283 specimens, sampled from three closely spaced Ocean Drilling Program Leg 135 cores from the Lau Basin. These specimens cover three rather similar records of the reversed Cobb Mountain short polarity event, having an age of about 1.12 m.y. On the basis of a very detailed subsampling every 0.6 cm, we found that the transition times for the Cobb Mountain geomagnetic polarity event, as seen in the three Lau Basin sediment records, appear to have been as short as 0.6-1.0 k.y., although the duration of the normal-polarity event itself lasted only about 17 ± 4 k.y. The older (R to N) transition as well as the younger (N to R) transition show virtual geomagnetic paths roughly along the Americas, but shifted some 30° ± 10° to the east. These paths conflict with Cobb Mountain transition paths recorded in sediments from the Labrador Sea and the North Atlantic, but they are in fair accordance with sediment records from the Celebes and Sulu seas when corrected for differences in site longitude, suggesting that the transitional fields are dominated by nonaxial, high-order spherical harmonics.