University of Los Andes

About: University of Los Andes is a education organization based out in Bogotá, Colombia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Large Hadron Collider. The organization has 17616 authors who have published 25555 publications receiving 413463 citations.

Three new Lasiodiplodia spp. from the tropics, recognized based on DNA sequence comparisons and morphology

Abstract: Botryosphaeria rhodina (anamorph Lasiodiplodia theobromae) is a common endophyte and opportunistic pathogen on more than 500 tree species in the tropics and subtropics. During routine disease surveys of plantations in Australia and Venezuela several isolates differing from L. theobromae were identified and subsequently characterized based upon morphology and ITS and EF1-alpha nucleotide sequences. These isolates grouped into three strongly supported clades related to but different from the known taxa, B. rhodina and L. gonubiensis, These have been described here as three new species L. venezuelensis sp. nov., L. crassispora sp. nov. and L. rubropurpurea sp. nov. The three could be distinguished easily from each other and the two described species of Lasiodiplodia, thus confirming phylogenetic separations. Furthermore all five Lasiodiplodia spp. now recognized separated from Diplodia spp. and Dothiorella spp. with 100% bootstrap support.

Control of transpiration from the upper canopy of a tropical forest: the role of stomatal, boundary layer and hydraulic architecture components

Abstract: Concurrent, independent measurements of stomatal conductance (gs), transpiration (E) and microenvironmental variables were used to characterize control of crown transpiration in four tree species growing in a moist, lowland tropical forest. Access to the upper forest canopy was provided by a construction crane equipped with a gondola. Estimates of boundary layer conductance (gb) obtained with two independent methods permitted control of E to be partitioned quantitatively between gs and gb using a dimensionless decoupling coefficient (Ω) ranging from zero to 1. A combination of high gs (c. 300–600 mmol m−2 s−1) and low wind speed, and therefore relatively low gb (c. 100–800 mmol m−2 s−1), strongly decoupled E from control by stomata in all four species (Ω= 0.7–0.9). Photosynthetic water-use efficiency was predicted to increase rather than decrease with increasing gs because gb was relatively low and internal conductance to CO2 transfer was relatively high. Responses of gs to humidity were apparent only when the leaf surface, and not the bulk air, was used as the reference point for determination of external vapour pressure. However, independent measurements of crown conductance (gc), a total vapour phase conductance that included stomatal and boundary layer components, revealed a clear decline in gc with increasing leaf-to-bulk air vapour pressure difference (Va because the external reference points for determination of gc and Va were compatible. The relationships between gc and Vc and between gs and Vs appeared to be distinct for each species. However, when gs and gc were normalized by the branch-specific ratio of leaf area to sapwood area (LA/SA), a morphological index of potential transpirational demand relative to water transport capacity, a common relationship between conductance and evaporative demand for all four species emerged. Taken together, these results implied that, at a given combination of LA/SA and evaporative demand scaled to the appropriate reference point, the vapour phase conductance and therefore transpiration rates on a leaf area basis were identical in all four contrasting species studied.

Search for long-lived particles that decay into final states containing two electrons or two muons in proton-proton collisions at s =8TeV

Abstract: A search is performed for long-lived particles that decay into final states that include a pair of electrons or a pair of muons. The experimental signature is a distinctive topology consisting of a pair of charged leptons originating from a displaced secondary vertex. Events corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.6 (20.5) inverse femtobarns in the electron (muon) channel were collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV. No significant excess is observed above standard model expectations. Upper limits on the product of the cross section and branching fraction of such a signal are presented as a function of the long-lived particle's mean proper decay length. The limits are presented in an approximately model-independent way, allowing them to be applied to a wide class of models yielding the above topology. Over much of the investigated parameter space, the limits obtained are the most stringent to date. In the specific case of a model in which a Higgs boson in the mass range 125-1000 GeV decays into a pair of long-lived neutral bosons in the mass range 20-350 GeV, each of which can then decay to dileptons, the upper limits obtained are typically in the range 0.2-10 fb for mean proper decay lengths of the long-lived particles in the range 0.01-100 cm. In the case of the lowest Higgs mass considered (125 GeV), the limits are in the range 2-50 fb. These limits are sensitive to Higgs boson branching fractions as low as 1E-4.

Development and characterization of a laminate composite material from polylactic acid (PLA) and woven bamboo fabric

Abstract: This article presents the development and mechanical characterization of a composite material fabricated from both renewable resources and biodegradable materials: bamboo woven fabric as reinforcement and polylactic acid (PLA) as resin matrix. The laminate composites were produced using a film stacking method. The physical, thermal, and, mechanical properties of bamboo fabric, PLA matrix, and laminate composites were investigated. It is shown that the breaking force of the plain woven bamboo fabric in the weft direction was greater than in the warp direction. Further, the tensile, flexure, and, impact properties of PLA increased when weft direction bamboo fabric reinforcement is used. In addition, scanning electron microscopy examination of laminate composite showed good bonding between bamboo fiber and PLA resin. In summary, laminated composites based on polylactic acid and bamboo fabric display excellent energy absorption capability, which can be exploited for the development of engineering structural applications.