We present measurements of bulk properties of the matter produced in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s}$$_ {NN}$= 7.7, 11.5, 19.6, 27, and 39 GeV using identified hadrons (π±, K±, p, and $\bar{p}$) from ...the STAR experiment in the Beam Energy Scan (BES) Program at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Midrapidity (| y | < 0.1) results for multiplicity densities dN / dy, average transverse momenta $\langle$pT$\rangle$, and particle ratios are presented. The chemical and kinetic freeze-out dynamics at these energies are discussed and presented as a function of collision centrality and energy. These results constitute the systematic measurements of bulk properties of matter formed in heavy-ion collisions over a broad range of energy (or baryon chemical potential) at RHIC.
The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) is an option for a future
e
+
e
-
collider operating at centre-of-mass energies up to
3
TeV
, providing sensitivity to a wide range of new physics phenomena and ...precision physics measurements at the energy frontier. This paper is the first comprehensive presentation of the Higgs physics reach of CLIC operating at three energy stages:
s
=
350
GeV
, 1.4 and
3
TeV
. The initial stage of operation allows the study of Higgs boson production in Higgsstrahlung (
e
+
e
-
→
Z
H
) and
W
W
-fusion (
e
+
e
-
→
H
ν
e
ν
¯
e
), resulting in precise measurements of the production cross sections, the Higgs total decay width
Γ
H
, and model-independent determinations of the Higgs couplings. Operation at
s
>
1
TeV
provides high-statistics samples of Higgs bosons produced through
W
W
-fusion, enabling tight constraints on the Higgs boson couplings. Studies of the rarer processes
e
+
e
-
→
t
t
¯
H
and
e
+
e
-
→
H
H
ν
e
ν
¯
e
allow measurements of the top Yukawa coupling and the Higgs boson self-coupling. This paper presents detailed studies of the precision achievable with Higgs measurements at CLIC and describes the interpretation of these measurements in a global fit.
Cyanobacterial blooms are an increasing threat worldwide. Invasions of certain cyanobacterial species, mainly towards higher latitudes, add to this concern as they enrich the pool of potential ...bloom-formers in the invaded region. Among the numerous causes of this escalating process, climate warming is commonly considered the most crucial factor, but empirical studies of this issue are lacking. The aim of our study was to identify physical, chemical and biological factors related to the occurrence of an invasive cyanobacterium at the northern border of its putative current range, and thus enabling its expansion. This study focuses on the relatively little studied species Sphaerospermopsis aphanizomenoides (Nostocales, Cyanobacteria; synonyms: Aphanizomenon aphanizomenoides, Anabaena aphanizomenoides), which is predicted to become one of the main nuisance species of the future. Forty-nine freshwater lakes located between latitudes 51° and 55°N were examined for the presence of S. aphanizomenoides, and environmental factors that could drive its occurrence were studied simultaneously. To identify factors correlated with the presence of the species, principal component analysis (PCA) and Mann-Whitney U test were performed. Water temperature did not differentiate lakes with or without S. aphanizomenoides, however the study was conducted in a particularly hot summer. Total phosphorus concentration was identified as the primary driving factor of the occurrence of S. aphanizomenoides. The species grew in poor light conditions and high phytoplankton biomass, mainly in shallow lakes. As shown by detrended correspondence analysis (DCA), the species accompanied shade tolerant, eutrophic species of native and invasive cyanobacteria as well as eukaryotic algae. Our results indicate that eutrophication may be the primary factor enabling the increasing occurrence of S. aphanizomenoides in temperate environments, and suggest that this process may stimulate expansion of cyanobacterial species towards high latitudes.
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•factors driving occurrence of invasive cyanobacterium S. aphanizomenoides were studied in 49 lakes in the north of its range•occurrence of the species was positively correlated with phosphorus concentration•the species grew in shallow lakes with abundant phytoplankton and poor light conditions•eutrophication may stimulate expansion of S. aphanizomenoides towards higher latitudes
In this study, we present results of analyses of two-pion interferometry in Au+Au collisions at √sNN = 7.7, 11.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 62.4, and 200 GeV measured in the STAR detector as part of the RHIC ...Beam Energy Scan program. The extracted correlation lengths (HBT radii) are studied as a function of beam energy, azimuthal angle relative to the reaction plane, centrality, and transverse mass (mT) of the particles. The azimuthal analysis allows extraction of the eccentricity of the entire fireball at kinetic freeze-out. The energy dependence of this observable is expected to be sensitive to changes in the equation of state. A new global fit method is studied as an alternate method to directly measure the parameters in the azimuthal analysis. The eccentricity shows a monotonic decrease with beam energy that is qualitatively consistent with the trend from all model predictions and quantitatively consistent with a hadronic transport model.
Many lichens can cope with heavy-metal stress, however, the mechanisms of lichen tolerance are still not fully understood. Some lichen secondary metabolites (depsides and depsidones), produced in ...lichens by the fungal symbiont and accumulated on the outer surface of its hyphae, are supposed to play an important role in the extracellular immoblilization of heavy metals. Lichen photobionts (algal partners in the symbiosis), although surrounded by the mycobiont hyphae, may also accumulate high amounts of trace metals. This can lead to physiological disruptions and morphological damage in algal cells and hence affect the lichen physiological status. We hypothesized that lichen species/specimens living in heavily polluted sites and showing HM tolerance possess a higher content of secondary metabolites than those living in unpolluted sites. Hence, their photobionts can be better protected from the excess of metal ions and need to produce less metal-complexing phytochelatins (PCn) to combat metal toxicity. Specimens of
Hypocenomyce scalaris,
Cladonia furcata and
Lepraria spp. sampled from Zn/Pb-polluted and control sites were compared for the accumulation of Zn/Pb and secondary metabolites, as well as for their production of phytochelatins and glutathione in response to experimental Zn or Pb exposure. Generally, the lichen specimens sampled from the HM-polluted site contained higher amounts of Zn and Pb as well as lichen substances (different depsides and depsidones) than those from the control site. A strong positive correlation was found between the accumulation of secondary metabolites and Zn/Pb accumulation (
R
2
=
0.98 and 0.63, respectively). For the first time, production of phytochelatins (PC
2–3) in response to Zn and Pb (50–200
μM) exposure was found in
H. scalaris,
L. elobata,
L. incana and
C. furcata. In both species of
Lepraria also cysteine, a substrate for GSH and PCs synthesis was detected. The lichens from the polluted site produced under the same exposure conditions, or in response to higher metal concentrations, lower amounts of PCn than those sampled from the control site. It strongly suggests that less Zn and Pb ions reached the photobiont cells of the lichens containing higher amounts of secondary metabolites (lecanoric, fumarprotocetraric, stictic, constictic acids, antranorin). The results obtained support the putative role of some metabolites in heavy-metal tolerance of the lichens inhabiting metal-polluted habitats.
Here, we present measurements of three-particle correlations for various harmonics in Au+Au collisions at energies ranging from √sNN=7.7 to 200 GeV using the STAR detector. The quantity < ...cos(mΦ1+nΦ2–(m+n)Φ3) >, with Φ being the azimuthal angles of the particles is evaluated as a function of √sNN, collision centrality, transverse momentum, pT, pseudorapidity difference, Δη, and harmonics (m and n). These data provide detailed information on global event properties such as the three-dimensional structure of the initial overlap region, the expansion dynamics of the matter produced in the collisions, and the transport properties of the medium. A strong dependence on Δη is observed for most harmonic combinations, which is consistent with breaking of longitudinal boost invariance. An interesting energy dependence is observed when one of the harmonics m,n, or m+n is equal to two, for which the correlators are dominated by the two-particle correlations relative to the second-harmonic event plane. These measurements can be used to constrain models of heavy-ion collisions over a wide range of temperature and baryon chemical potential.
The differential cross section for Z0 production, measured as a function of the boson's transverse momentum (pT), provides important constraints on the evolution of the transverse momentum dependent ...parton distribution functions (TMDs). The transverse single spin asymmetry (TSSA) of the Z0 is sensitive to one of the polarized TMDs, the Sivers function, which is predicted to have the opposite sign in p+p→W/Z+X from that which enters in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering. In this Letter, the STAR Collaboration reports the first measurement of the Z0/γ⁎ differential cross section as a function of its pT in p+p collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 510 GeV, together with the Z0/γ⁎ total cross section. We also report the measurement of Z0/γ⁎ TSSA in transversely polarized p+p collisions at 510 GeV.
Accumulation and toxicity of inorganic arsenic forms As(III) and As(V) to the green microalga
Stichococcus bacillaris depended on environmental variables. pH of exposure and to a lesser extent ...elevated concentrations of humic acid, chloride and orthophosphate ions affected arsenic accumulation and its toxicity. As(V) was more toxic than As(III), especially at the near neutral pH 6.8. Intracellular As(V) uptake by algal cells was greater at pH 6.8 than at 8.2. In response to As(III) and As(V) the alga produced phytochelatins (PC
2–3), but at As(V) exposure, their levels in cells were higher than with As(III), suggesting higher As(V) than As(III) availability and uptake. Arsenic in algal cells occurred in various complexes with non-protein
SH groups. Some of these complexes dissociated under acidic conditions, but others were able to dissociate only at an alkaline pH. The former consisted of
SH groups of phytochelatins. Those dissociating at an alkaline pH involved
SH groups from both glutathione (GSH) and phytochelatins (PC) or their derivatives. In the predominant acid-stable mixed As–SH complex, the ratio of
SH (PC
2) to
SH (GSH) was 2:1, which suggests that one molecule of PC
2 (containing two
SH groups) together with one molecule of GSH were involved in intracellular complexation of each As atom. This is the first demonstration of GSH involvement in arsenic complexation, in vivo. The intracellular concentration of As was greater than that of non-protein
SH groups which suggests that not all the arsenic in algal cells was complexed and detoxified by thiol groups.
A new design of a detector plane of sub-millimetre thickness for an electromagnetic sampling calorimeter is presented. It is intended to be used in the luminometers LumiCal and BeamCal in future ...linear e
+
e
-
collider experiments. The detector planes were produced utilising novel connectivity scheme technologies. They were installed in a compact prototype of the calorimeter and tested at DESY with an electron beam of energy 1–5 GeV. The performance of a prototype of a compact LumiCal comprising eight detector planes was studied. The effective Molière radius at 5 GeV was determined to be (8.1 ± 0.1 (stat) ± 0.3 (syst)) mm, a value well reproduced by the Monte Carlo (MC) simulation (8.4 ± 0.1) mm. The dependence of the effective Molière radius on the electron energy in the range 1–5 GeV was also studied. Good agreement was obtained between data and MC simulation.
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