Early b physics at CMS

The CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider collected in the first months of operation a luminosity of about 300/nb. The first results in the context of the B physics obtained with these data are presented. The di-muon resonances from J/psi and Y decays are presented and their total and differential cross-sections measured. The inclusive B production have also being investigated and two independent measurements are reported. Muons in jets are used as a way to identify events with B content, the kinematic properties (ptRel) of the muons are used to separate the B production from other processes producing muons in jets. The second measurement of inclusive B production is done using b-tagging techniques and higher energy jets. The two measurements cover different phase spaces, comparison with LO and NLO prediction are also presented.Comment: HCP2010 proceedings. CMS CR-2010/19

Interactions of Coloured Heavy Stable Particles in Matter

In this paper we present a physics model for the interactions of stable heavy hadrons containing a heavy parton with matter. The model presented is a natural continuation of the work started in hep-ex/0404001. However, changes and generalisations have been made allowing for the description of a broader scope of physics scenarios. As a special case the model is tested on the cases of stable gluino and stop hadrons, thus covering both stable colour triplet and octet states. Conclusions are drawn regarding the phenomenology of these cases including how to distinguish between them

Periodic solutions to the Cahn-Hilliard equation in the plane

In this paper we construct entire solutions to the Cahn-Hilliard equation $-\Delta(-\Delta u+W^{'}(u))+W^{"}(u)(-\Delta u+W^{'}(u))=0$ in the Euclidean plane, where $W(u)$ is the standard double-well potential $\frac{1}{4} (1-u^2)^2$. Such solutions have a non-trivial profile that shadows a Willmore planar curve, and converge uniformly to $\pm 1$ as $x_2 \to \pm \infty$. These solutions give a counterexample to the counterpart of Gibbons' conjecture for the fourth-order counterpart of the Allen-Cahn equation. We also study the $x_2$-derivative of these solutions using the special structure of Willmore's equation

Observability of R-Hadrons at the LHC

Heavy long lived charged particles are predicted in several theories extending the Standard Model. If such particles are coloured they show up as hadrons. These hadrons can be detected in LHC experiments with the very first data exploiting their unique signatures of slow, high momentum particles

Synergies of planning for forests and planning for Natura 2000: Evidences and prospects from northern Italy

Improvements in the management of Natura 2000 sites are essential to achieve the targets set out by the Habitats and Birds Directives of the European Union. A current focus is on the development of management plans, which are fundamental instruments in the implementation of conservation measures. This study explores the viability of using existing forest plans to assist in this purpose. As case study, we consider the regulatory framework of the Veneto Region, northern Italy. We collected quantitative and qualitative data on forest plans at the regional and at three sub-regional spatial scales: local, district, and biogeographical. Forest plans cover about 54% of the terrestrial area of Natura 2000 sites in Veneto, and 75% of Sites of Community Importance in the Alpine biogeographical region. At the local scale of analysis, metrics from forest plans represent a valuable historical record which can be used to interpret the current state and future trends, especially for forests with long management records. These data can be used to assess biodiversity indicators for the monitoring of Natura 2000 forest and non-forest habitats, in compliance with Article 17 of the Habitats Directive. Moreover, the heterogeneous stand conditions which are promoted by some forest management approaches can improve the conservation efforts for some habitats and species. The scale of local forest plans are typically the most appropriate for implementing habitat management strategies. From this study, we conclude that management authorities should take advantage of the wide spatial coverage and distribution of existing forest plans, especially in mountain areas inside and outside the Natura 2000 network, for the successful conservation of European Union habitats and species

Visible light driven photoanodes for water oxidation based on novel r-GO/\u3b2-Cu2V2O7/TiO2 nanorods composites

This paper describes the preparation and the photoelectrochemical performances of visible light driven photoanodes based on novel r-GO/-Cu2V2O7/TiO2 nanorods/composites. -Cu2V2O7 was deposited on both fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) and TiO2 nanorods (NRs)/FTO by a fast and convenient Aerosol Assisted Spray Pyrolysis (AASP) procedure. Ethylenediamine (EN), ammonia and citric acid (CA) were tested as ligands for Cu2+ ions in the aerosol precursors solution. The best-performing deposits, in terms of photocurrent density, were obtained when NH3 was used as ligand. When -Cu2V2O7 was deposited on the TiO2 NRs a good improvement in the durability of the photoanode was obtained, compared with pure -Cu2V2O7 on FTO. A further remarkable improvement in durability and photocurrent density was obtained upon addition, by electrophoretic deposition, of reduced graphene oxide (r-GO) flakes on the -Cu2V2O7/TiO2 composite material. The samples were characterized by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Raman, High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HR-TEM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Wide Angle X-ray Diffraction (WAXD) and UV\u2013Vis spectroscopies. The photoelectrochemical (PEC) performances of -Cu2V2O7 on FTO, -Cu2V2O7/TiO2 and r-GO/-Cu2V2O7/TiO2 were tested in visible light by linear voltammetry and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) measurements

Analysis of heat kernel highlights the strongly modular and heat-preserving structure of proteins

In this paper, we study the structure and dynamical properties of protein contact networks with respect to other biological networks, together with simulated archetypal models acting as probes. We consider both classical topological descriptors, such as the modularity and statistics of the shortest paths, and different interpretations in terms of diffusion provided by the discrete heat kernel, which is elaborated from the normalized graph Laplacians. A principal component analysis shows high discrimination among the network types, either by considering the topological and heat kernel based vector characterizations. Furthermore, a canonical correlation analysis demonstrates the strong agreement among those two characterizations, providing thus an important justification in terms of interpretability for the heat kernel. Finally, and most importantly, the focused analysis of the heat kernel provides a way to yield insights on the fact that proteins have to satisfy specific structural design constraints that the other considered networks do not need to obey. Notably, the heat trace decay of an ensemble of varying-size proteins denotes subdiffusion, a peculiar property of proteins

Quantitative assessment of upper limb rehabilitation through digital motion acquisition

Motion capture (Mocap) systems are considered more and more interesting for the assessment of rehabilitation processes. In fact, medical personnel are increasingly demanding for technologies (possibly low-cost) to quantitatively measure and assess patients’ improvements during rehabilitation exercises. In this paper, we focus the attention on the assessment of rehabilitation process for injured shoulders. This is particularly challenging because the recognition and the measurement of compensatory movements are very difficult during visual assessment and the movements of a shoulder are complex and arduous to be captured. The proposed solution integrates a low-cost Mocap system with video processing techniques to allow a quantitative evaluation of abduction, which is one of the first post-surgery exercises required for shoulder rehabilitation. The procedure is based on a set of open-source software tools to measure abduction and evaluate the correctness of the movement by detecting and measuring compensatory movements according to the parameters commonly considered by the physicians. Finally, a preliminary results and future works are presented and discussed