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Peris, J. B., Davis, P., Cuevas, J. M., Nebot, M., & Sanjuan, R. (2010). Distribution of Fitness Effects Caused by Single-Nucleotide Substitutions in Bacteriophage f1. Genetics, 185(2), 603–U308.
Abstract: Empirical knowledge of the fitness effects of mutations is important for understanding many evolutionary processes, yet this knowledge is often hampered by several sources of measurement error and bias. Most of these problems can be solved using site-directed mutagenesis to engineer single mutations, an approach particularly suited for viruses due to their small genomes. Here, we used this technique to measure the fitness effect of 100 single-nucleotide substitutions in the bacteriophage f1, a filamentous single-strand DNA virus. We found that approximately one-fifth of all mutations are lethal. Viable ones reduced fitness by 11% on average and were accurately described by a log-normal distribution. More than 90% of synonymous substitutions were selectively neutral, while those affecting intergenic regions reduced fitness by 14% on average. Mutations leading to amino acid substitutions had an overall mean deleterious effect of 37%, which increased to 45% for those changing the amino acid polarity. Interestingly, mutations affecting early steps of the infection cycle tended to be more deleterious than those affecting late steps. Finally, we observed at least two beneficial mutations. Our results confirm that high mutational sensitivity is a general property of viruses with small genomes, including RNA and single-strand DNA viruses infecting animals, plants, and bacteria.
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CDF Collaboration(Aaltonen, T. et al), & Cabrera, S. (2010). Measurement of the Ratio sigma(t(t)over-bar)/sigma(Z/gamma*-> ll) and Precise Extraction of the t(t)over-bar Cross Section. Phys. Rev. Lett., 105(1), 012001–7pp.
Abstract: We report a measurement of the ratio of the t (t) over bar to Z/gamma* production cross sections in root s = 1.96 TeV p (p) over bar collisions using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of up to 4.6 fb(-1), collected by the CDF II detector. The t (t) over bar cross section ratio is measured using two complementary methods, a b-jet tagging measurement and a topological approach. By multiplying the ratios by the well-known theoretical Z/gamma* -> ll cross section predicted by the standard model, the extracted t (t) over bar cross sections are effectively insensitive to the uncertainty on luminosity. A best linear unbiased estimate is used to combine both measurements with the result sigma(t (t) over bar) = 7.70 +/- 0.52 pb, for a top-quark mass of 172.5 GeV/c(2).
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Martin Camalich, J., Geng, L. S., & Vicente Vacas, M. J. (2010). Lowest-lying baryon masses in covariant SU(3)-flavor chiral perturbation theory. Phys. Rev. D, 82(7), 074504–7pp.
Abstract: We present an analysis of the baryon-octet and -decuplet masses using covariant SU(3)-flavor chiral perturbation theory up to next-to-leading order. Besides the description of the physical masses we address the problem of the lattice QCD extrapolation. Using the PACS-CS Collaboration data we show that a good description of the lattice points can be achieved at next-to-leading order with the covariant loop amplitudes and phenomenologically determined values for the meson-baryon couplings. Moreover, the extrapolation to the physical point up to this order is found to be better than the linear one given at leading-order by the Gell-Mann-Okubo approach. The importance that a reliable combination of lattice QCD and chiral perturbation theory may have for hadron phenomenology is emphasized with the prediction of the pion-baryon and strange-baryon sigma terms.
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Xie, J. J., & Nieves, J. (2010). Role of the N * (2080) resonance in the (gamma)over-right-arrowp -> K+ Lambda(1520) reaction. Phys. Rev. C, 82(4), 045205–8pp.
Abstract: We investigate the Lambda (1520) photoproduction in the (gamma) over right arrowp -> K+ Lambda(1520) reaction within the effective Lagrangian method near threshold. In addition to the “background” contributions from the contact, t-channel K-exchange, and s-channel nucleon pole terms, which were already considered in previous studies, the contribution from the nucleon resonance N*(2080) (spin-parity J(P) = 3/2(-)) is also considered. We show that the inclusion of the nucleon resonance N*(2080) leads to a fairly good description of the new LEPS differential cross-section data, and that these measurements can be used to determine some of the properties of this latter resonance. However, serious discrepancies appear when the predictions of the model are compared to the photon-beam asymmetry, which was also measured by the LEPS Collaboration.
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Mateo, D., Barranco, M., & Navarro, J. (2010). Elementary excitations in superfluid He-3-He-4 mixtures. Phys. Rev. B, 82(13), 134529–13pp.
Abstract: We have studied the dynamic structure function of superfluid He-3-He-4 mixtures at zero temperature as a function of pressure and He-3 concentration. Results obtained in the full random-phase approximation (RPA) plus density-functional theory and in a generalized Landau-Pomeranchuk approach are presented and compared with experiment. Analytic expressions for several sum rules of the dynamic structure functions have been determined, and have been used to obtain average energies of the collective excitations. In the RPA approach, the dispersion relation of the collective modes shows typical features of level repulsion between zero-soundlike and phonon-rotonlike excitations. The structure of the coupled RPA equations for the mixture leads in a natural way to the hybridization of the collective modes. The mixed He-3-He-4 dynamic structure function quenches the zero-soundlike mode before it crosses the phonon-roton branch, causing that the former mode only appears with enough strength after the crossing.
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