This review presents European scholarship in environmental history by highlighting a limited number of works which have proved significant in their respective countries. The decade from 1994-2004 saw ...the development of a new scholarly network for environmental history in Europe. Members
of this network have contributed to an overview about important work done in their region during the last ten years. A series of case studies on the UK, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium, France, Italy, Spain and Czechia and Slovakia are offered. The emerging picture shows
the diversity of approaches and themes as well as the different degrees of institutional backing and involvement into teaching curricula. The introduction discusses the language challenges in Europe and some common traits in the development are sketched in the conclusions.
In a study of the reaction e(-)e(+)-> W-W+ with the DELPHI detector, the probabilities of the two W particles occurring in the joint polarisation states transverse-transverse (T T), ...longitudinal-transverse plus transverse-longitudinal (LT) and longitudinal-longitudinal (LL) have been determined using the final states WW -> lvq (q) over bar (l = e, mu). The two-particle joint polarisation probabilities, i.e. the spin density matrix elements rho T T, rho LT, rho LL, are measured as functions of the W- production angle, theta(W-), at an average reaction energy of 198.2 GeV. Averaged over all cos.W-, the following joint probabilities are obtained: (rho) over barT T = (67 +/- 8)%, (rho) over barL T = (30 +/- 8)%, (rho) over barL T = (3 +/- 7)%. These results are in agreement with the Standard Model predictions of 63.0%, 28.9% and 8.1%, respectively. The related polarisation cross-sections sigma(TT), sigma(LT) and sigma(LL) are also presented.
The charmed strange baryon Xi(c)(0) was searched for in the decay channel Xi(c)(0) -> Xi(-)pi(+), and the beauty strange baryon Xi(b) in the inclusive channel Xi(b) -> Xi(-)l(-)(nu) over barX, using ...the 3.5 million hadronic Z events collected by the DELPHI experiment in the years 1992-1995. The Xi(-) was reconstructed through the decay AT, using a constrained fit method for cascade decays. An iterative discriminant analysis was used for the Xi(c)(0) and Xi(b) selection. The production rates were measured to be f(Xi c)(0) x BR(Xi(c)(0) -> Xi(-)pi(+) = (4.7 +/- 1.4(stat.) +/- 1.1(syst.)) x 10(-4) per hadronic Z decay, and BR(b -> Xi(b))xBR(Xi(b) -> Xi(-)l(-)X) = (3.0 +/- 1.0(stat.) +/- 0.3(syst.)) x 10(-4) for each lepton species (electron or muon). The lifetime of the Xi(b) baryon was measured to be tau(Xi b) = 1.45(-0.43)(+0.55)(stat.)+/- 0.13(syst.) ps. A combination with the previous DELPHI lifetime measurement gives tau(Xi b) = 1.48(-0.31)(+0.40)(stat.)+/- 0.12(syst.) ps.
The Lyme disease agent,
Borrelia burgdorferi
, is primarily transmitted to vertebrates by
Ixodes
ticks. The classical and alternative complement pathways are important in
Borrelia
eradication by the ...vertebrate host. We recently identified a tick salivary protein, designated P8 that reduced complement-mediated killing of
Borrelia
. We now discover that P8 interferes with the human lectin complement cascade resulting in impaired neutrophil phagocytosis and chemotaxis, and diminished
Borrelia
lysis. Therefore, P8 was renamed the lectin complement pathway inhibitor (TSLPI). TSLPI-silenced ticks, or ticks exposed to TSLPI-immune mice, were hampered in
Borrelia
transmission. Moreover,
Borrelia
acquisition and persistence in tick midguts was impaired in ticks feeding on TSLPI-immunized
B. burgdorferi
-infected mice. Together, our findings suggest an essential role for the lectin complement cascade in
Borrelia
eradication and demonstrate how a vector-borne pathogen co-opts a vector protein to facilitate early mammalian infection and vector colonization.
SUMMARY
Two models of murine graft‐versus‐host disease (GVHD) were studied with respect to autoantibody production and development of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) like disease. One model was ...induced by injection of (B10.A(4R) × B10.A(2R))F1 mice with parental (B10.A(4R)) spleen and lymph node cells (groups I GVHD), the other by injection of (DBA/2 × C57/B16)F1 mice with DBA/2 cells (group II GVHD). Group I GVHD mice remained in a seemingly healthy condition and did not show any proteinuria, in spite of high titres of anti‐nuclear antibodies including antibodies to dsDNA, anti‐Sm and anti‐ribosomal P protein antibodies. Measured levels of these autoantibodies as well as their isotypes were comparable with those found in MRL/lpr and NZB/W mice. Group II GVHD mice developed SLE‐like disease signs, including severe proteinuria. At 4 months after induction of the GVHD, almost 50% of these mice had died. At the time nephritis was present, group II mice also produced anti‐dsDNA and anti‐nuclear antibodies of other (unknown) specificities, but no anti‐Sm or anti‐P. Furthermore, the incidence of these antibodies was lower than observed in group I GVHD, MRL/lpr or NZB/W mice. It is concluded that (high avidity) anti‐dsDNA as well as anti‐Sm and anti‐P may be present in the circulation without giving rise to the development of nephritis.
b-tagging in DELPHI at LEP Abreu, P.; Adam, W.; Adye, T. ...
The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields,
01/2004, Letnik:
32, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The standard method used for tagging b-hadrons in the DELPHI experiment at the CERN LEP Collider is discussed in detail. The main ingredient of b-tagging is the impact parameters of tracks, which ...relies mostly on the vertex detector. Additional information, such as the mass of particles associated to a secondary vertex, significantly improves the selection efficiency and the background suppression. The paper describes various discriminating variables used for the tagging and the procedure of their combination. In addition, applications of b-tagging to some physics analyses, which depend crucially on the performance and reliability of b-tagging, are described briefly.
Infrared and collinear safe event shape distributions and their mean values are determined using the data taken at five different centre of mass energies above M-Z with the DELPHI detector at LEP. ...From the event shapes, the strong coupling alpha(s) is ext
The production fractions of charged and neutral b-hadrons in b-quark events from Z0 decays have been measured with the DELPHI detector at LEP. An algorithm has been developed, based on a neural ...network, to estimate the charge of the weakly-decaying b-hadron by distinguishing its decay products from particles produced at the primary vertex. From the data taken in the years 1994 and 1995, the fraction of b̄-quarks fragmenting into positively charged weakly-decaying b-hadrons has been measured to be: f+=42.09±0.82(stat)±0.89(syst)%. Subtracting the rates for charged Ξ̄b+ and Ω̄b+ baryons gives the production fraction of B+ mesons: fBu=40.99±0.82(stat)±1.11(syst)%.
These final results on e(+) e(-) W+ W- production cross-section measurements at LEP2 use data collected by the DELPHI detector at centre-of-mass energies up to 209 GeV. Measurements of total ...cross-sections, W angular differential distributions and decay branching fractions, and the value of the CKM element |V-cs| are compared to the expectations of the Standard Model. These results supersede all values previously published by DELPHI.
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