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ALICE is the heavy-ion experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The experiment continuously took data during the first physics campaign of the machine from fall 2009 until early 2013, using proton and lead-ion beams. In this paper we describe the running environment and the data handling procedures, and discuss the performance of the ALICE detectors and analysis methods for various physics observables.

Rhodiola spp. are rare and endangered alpine plants widely used as medicines and food additives by many civilizations since ancient times. Their main effective ingredients (such as salidroside and p-tyrosol) are praised to exhibit pharmacologic effects on high-altitude sickness and possess anti-aging and other adaptogenic capacities based on their antioxidant properties. In this study, 347 endophytic fungi were isolated from R. crenulata, R. angusta, and R. sachalinensis, and the molecular diversity and antioxidant activities of these fungi were investigated for the first time. These fungi were categorized into 180 morphotypes based on cultural characteristics, and their rRNA gene ITS sequences were analyzed by BLAST search in the GenBank database. Except for 12 unidentified fungi (6.67%), all others were affiliated to at least 57 genera in 20 orders of four phyla, namely, Ascomycota (88.89%), Basidiomycota (2.78%), Zygomycota (1.11%), and Glomeromycota (0.56%), which exhibited high abundance and diversity. Antioxidant assay showed that the DPPH radical-scavenging rates of 114 isolates (63.33%) were >50%, and those of five isolates (Rct45, Rct63, Rct64, Rac76, and Rsc57) were >90%. The EC50 values of five antioxidant assays suggested significant potential of these fungi on scavenging DPPH•, O2−•, and OH• radicals, as well as scavenging nitrite and chelating Fe2+, which showed preference and selection between endophytic fungi and their hosts. Further research also provided the first evidence that Rac12 could produce salidrosides and p-tyrosol. Results suggested that versatile endophytic fungi associated with Rhodiola known as antioxidants could be exploited as potential sources of novel antioxidant products.

The effect of event background fluctuations on charged particle jet reconstruction in Pb-Pb collisions at √ s NN = 2.76 TeV has been measured with the ALICE experiment. The main sources of non-statistical fluctuations are characterized based purely on experimental data with an unbiased method, as well as by using single high p t particles and simulated jets embedded into real Pb-Pb events and reconstructed with the anti-k t jet finder. The influence of a low transverse momentum cut-off on particles used in the jet reconstruction is quantified by varying the minimum track p t between 0.15 GeV/c and 2 GeV/c. For embedded jets reconstructed from charged particles with p t > 0.15 GeV/c, the uncertainty in the reconstructed jet transverse momentum due to the heavy-ion background is measured to be 11.3 GeV/c (standard deviation) for the 10% most central PbPb collisions, slightly larger than the value of 11.0 GeV/c measured using the unbiased method. For a higher particle transverse momentum threshold of 2 GeV/c, which will generate a stronger bias towards hard fragmentation in the jet finding process, the standard deviation of the fluctuations in the reconstructed jet transverse momentum is reduced to 4.8-5.0 GeV/c for the 10% most central events. A non-Gaussian tail of the momentum uncertainty is observed and its impact on the reconstructed jet spectrum is evaluated for varying particle momentum thresholds, by folding the measured fluctuations with steeply falling spectra.

The nuclear modification factor, R AA , of the prompt charmed mesons D 0 , D + and D * + , and their antiparticles, was measured with the ALICE detector in Pb-Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy √ s NN = 2.76 TeV in two transverse momentum intervals, 5 < p T < 8 GeV/c and 8 < p T < 16 GeV/c, and in six collision centrality classes. The R AA shows a maximum suppression of a factor of 5-6 in the 10% most central collisions. The suppression and its centrality dependence are compatible within uncertainties with those of charged pions. A comparison with the R AA of non-prompt J/ψ from B meson decays, measured by the CMS Collaboration, hints at a larger suppression of D mesons in the most central collisions.Keywords: Charm physics, Heavy Ions, Heavy-ion collision The ALICE collaboration 17 IntroductionWhen heavy nuclei collide at high energy, a state of strongly-interacting matter with high energy density is expected to form. According to Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) calculations on the lattice, this state of matter, the so-called Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) is characterised by the deconfinement of the colour charge (see e.g. [1][2][3][4]). High-momentum partons, produced at the early stage of the nuclear collision, lose energy as they interact with the QGP constituents. This energy loss is expected to proceed via both inelastic (gluon radiation) [5,6] and elastic (collisional) processes [7][8][9]. The nuclear modification factor R AA is used to characterise parton energy loss by comparing particle production yields in nucleus-nucleus collisions to a scaled proton-proton (pp) reference, that corresponds to a superposition of independent nucleon-nucleon collisions. R AA is defined aswhere dσ pp /dp T and dN AA /dp T are the transverse momentum (p T ) differential cross section and yield in proton-proton and nucleus-nucleus (AA) collisions, respectively. T AA is the average nuclear overlap function, estimated within the Glauber model of the nucleusnucleus collision geometry, and proportional to the average number of nucleon-nucleon (binary) collisions [10,11]. Energy loss shifts the momentum of quarks and gluons, and thus hadrons, towards lower values, leading to a suppression of hadron yields with respect to binary scaling at p T larger than few GeV/c (R AA < 1). Energy loss is expected to be smaller for quarks than for gluons because the colour charge factor of quarks is smaller than that of gluons [5,6]. In the energy regime of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), light-flavour hadrons with p T ranging from 5 to 20 GeV/c originate predominantly from gluon fragmentation (see e.g. As discussed in ref.[15], this should be the case also for charm and beauty quarks produced in gluon splitting processes, if their transverse momentum is lower than about 50 GeV/c. Therefore, the comparison of the heavy-flavour hadron R AA with that of pions allows the colour-charge dependence of parton energy loss to be tested. The softer fragmentation of gluons than that of charm quarks, and the observed increase of the charged hadr...

We calculate the rare fluctuations of the S-matrix on top of the full next-to-leading order corrections in the center of mass frame. The relevant result in the saturation regime shows that the exponential factor of the S-matrix is √ 2 as large as the result which emerges when the rare fluctuation effects are taken into account. We find that the factor of √ 2 change of the exponential factor is induced by the gluon loop corrections which compensate part of rapidity decrease of the S-matrix made by quark loops and lead to the rare fluctuations becoming important again. To ensure the relevant results of the S-matrix are independent of the frame choice, the rare fluctuations of the S-matrix are also derived in a general frame. It is found that all the results are consistent with each other in both frames. * Electronic address:

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Endophyte is a factor that affects the physiology and metabolism of plant. However, limited information is available on the mechanism of interaction between endophyte and plant. To investigate the effects of endophytic fungus ZPRs-R11, that is, Trimmatostroma sp., on salidroside and tyrosol accumulations in Rhodiola crenulata, signal transduction, enzyme gene expression, and metabolic pathway were investigated. Results showed that hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), nitric oxide (NO), and salicylic acid (SA) involved in fungus-induced salidroside and tyrosol accumulations. NO acted as an upstream signal of H2O2 and SA. No up- or down-stream relationship was observed, but mutual coordination existed between H2O2 and SA. Rate-limiting enzyme genes with the maximum expression activities were UDP-glucosyltransferase, tyrosine decarboxylase (TYDC), monoamine oxidase, phenylalanine ammonialyase (PAL), and cinnamic-4-hydroxylase sequentially. Nevertheless, the genes of tyrosine transaminase and pyruvate decarboxylase only indicated slightly higher activities than those in control. Thus, TYDC and PAL branches were the preferential pathways in ZPRs-R11-induced salidroside and tyrosol accumulation. Trimmatostroma sp. was a potential fungus for promoting salidroside and tyrosol accumulations. The present data also provided scientific basis for understanding complex interaction between endophytic fungus and R. crenulata.