Electroweak Symmetry Breaking without Higgs Boson

The mechanism of the Electroweak Chiral Langrangian and how this is implemented in the Vector Boson Scattering is presented. By this way and by applying different unitarisation protocols, different type of resonances can be predicted, at high energies. These resonances can be responsible for the EW Symmetry breaking, in the absence of a light Higgs Boson. The performance studies are presented, using the Fast Simulation Package (ATLFAST) for the ATLAS Detector

Using HSPA to improve the telemedical links on a moving ambulance

As the demand for faster and more effective health care increases, there is a growing need to establish mobile, high-speed communications between a moving ambulance and a consultation point (usually a hospital). The recent addition of HSPA (HSDPA and HSUPA) into the UMTS suite provides higher bandwidth and reduced delays, making this choice ideal for real-time telemedical applications. In this paper, we will describe a set of scenarios that took place in a typical large city area, along with their equivalent results: a moving ambulance was linked with a consultation station using HSPA and several videoconferencing sessions were initiated. Best-case, worst-case and average scenarios were recorded. Furthermore, in areas where the UMTS reception was marginal, a repeater was placed on top of the vehicle to boost up the signal power and thus maintain the higher bandwidth. Finally, treating doctors were asked to evaluate the effectiveness of this system’s outputs, based on a variety of objective and subjective criteria

Higgsless electroweak symmetry breaking at the LHC

While the Higgs model is the best studied scenario of electroweak symmetry breaking, a number strongly-coupled models exist, predicting new signatures. Recent studies of WW and WZ final states at the ATLAS and CMS experiments are summarized and expected sensitivities are presented within the frameworks of the technicolor straw-man model and the electroweak chiral Lagrangian.Comment: Proceedings for the EPS HEP 2007 conference, Manchester, U.K., on behalf of the ATLAS and CMS Collaboration

Polymorphisms of the endothelial nitric oxide synthase (NOS3) gene in preeclampsia: a candidate-gene association study

Abstract Background The endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene (NOS3) has been proposed as a candidate gene for preeclampsia. However, studies so far have produced conflicting results. This study examines the specific role of variants and haplotypes of the NOS3 gene in a population of Caucasian origin. Methods We examined the association of three common variants of the NOS3 gene (4b/a, T-786C and G894T) and their haplotypes in a case-control sample of 102 patients with preeclampsia and 176 women with a history of uncomplicated pregnancies. Genotyping for the NOS3 variants was performed and odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were obtained to evaluate the association between NOS3 polymorphisms and preeclampsia. Results The single locus analysis for the three variants using various genetic models and a model-free approach revealed no significant association in relation to clinical status. The analysis of haplotypes also showed lack of significant association. Conclusions Given the limitations of the candidate-gene approach in investigating complex traits, the evidence of our study does not support the major contributory role of these common NOS3 variants in preeclampsia. Future larger studies may help in elucidating the genetics of preeclampsia further. </jats:sec

On the Complexity of Query Result Diversification

Query result diversification is a bi-criteria optimization problem for ranking query results. Given a database D, a query Q and a positive integer k, it is to find a set of k tuples from Q(D) such that the tuples are as relevant as possible to the query, and at the same time, as diverse as possible to each other. Subsets of Q(D) are ranked by an objective function defined in terms of relevance and diversity. Query result diversification has found a variety of applications in databases, information retrieval and operations research. This paper studies the complexity of result diversification for relational queries. We identify three problems in connection with query result diversification, to determine whether there exists a set of k tuples that is ranked above a bound with respect to relevance and diversity, to assess the rank of a given k-element set, and to count how many k-element sets are ranked above a given bound. We study these problems for a variety of query languages and for three objective functions. We establish the upper and lower bounds of these problems, all matching, for both combined complexity and data complexity. We also investigate several special settings of these problems, identifying tractable cases. 1

Effectiveness of a comprehensive mental skills curriculum in enhancing surgical performance: Results of a randomized controlled trial

INTRODUCTION: We hypothesized that the implementation of a novel mental skills curriculum (MSC) during laparoscopic simulator training would improve mental skills and performance, and decrease stress. METHODS: Sixty volunteer novices were randomized into intervention and control groups. All participants received FLS training while the intervention group also participated in the MSC. Skill transfer and retention were assessed on a live porcine model after training and 2 months later, respectively. Performance was assessed using the Test of Performance Strategies-2 (TOPS-2) for mental skills, FLS metrics for laparoscopic performance, and the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-6) and heart rate (HR) for stress. RESULTS: Fifty-five participants (92%) completed training and the transfer test, and 46 (77%) the retention test. There were no significant differences between groups at baseline. Compared to controls the intervention group significantly improved their mental skill use, demonstrated higher laparoscopic skill improvement during retention, and reported less stress during the transfer test. CONCLUSIONS: The MSC implemented in this study effectively enhanced participants' mental skill use, reduced cognitive stress in the operating room with a small impact on laparoscopic performance

Increased charcoal yield & production of lighter oils from the slow pyrolysis of biomass

In an effort to reduce CO2 emissions from solid fuels, a considerable amount of research is going into how improve the manufacturing processes and product properties of the products from pyrolysis. One aspect that is often overlooked is the production of charcoal for cooking and soil remediation, which is an inefficient conversion process. There is considerable interest into using additives to increase charcoal yields, and based on the observation from fast pyrolysis work that certain catalyst tar cracking pathways can deposit considerable amounts of coke on the surface of the catalyst, there is a potential application to slow pyrolysis processes producing charcoal. Alumino-silicate catalysts have been shown to have a relatively high tendency to do this. This work hypothesises that this catalysation can be applied to slow pyrolysis, with low cost alumino-silicate minerals, specially bentonite clay, which has been added to pine pyrolysis in concentrations up to 60% wt (against input biomass) at temperatures 300–700 °C. This study has shown that the use of bentonite clay minerals can be beneficial to the process, as there is an increase in the charcoal yield from biomass, whilst the proximate analysis of the charcoal shows little change from levels expected from biomass only pyrolysis. The conversion of oil to charcoal was more effective at high temperatures due to higher levels of oil cracking. At 700 °C with 60% clay loading, charcoal yield increased 16%wt (dry ash free basis) was seen, while at the same time 19% extra gas was produced at the expense of 35% of the oil from raw pine pyrolysis. This indicates fuel properties of the charcoal are predictable, and changes in yield considerable. At the same time, the abundance of lower molecular weight oils is increased (relative to 4-methyl phenol). It is though that pyrolysis oil reacts with the clay, causing the heavier tars to disproportionate into charcoal and gas

Reconstructing Sparticle Mass Spectra using Hadronic Decays

Most sparticle decay cascades envisaged at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) involve hadronic decays of intermediate particles. We use state-of-the art techniques based on the \kt jet algorithm to reconstruct the resulting hadronic final states for simulated LHC events in a number of benchmark supersymmetric scenarios. In particular, we show that a general method of selecting preferentially boosted massive particles such as W, Z or Higgs bosons decaying to jets, using sub-jets found by the \kt algorithm, suppresses QCD backgrounds and thereby enhances the observability of signals that would otherwise be indistinct. Consequently, measurements of the supersymmetric mass spectrum at the per-cent level can be obtained from cascades including the hadronic decays of such massive intermediate bosons.Comment: 1+29 pages, 12 figure

Inclusive search for same-sign dilepton signatures in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

An inclusive search is presented for new physics in events with two isolated leptons (e or mu) having the same electric charge. The data are selected from events collected from p p collisions at root s = 7 TeV by the ATLAS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb(-1). The spectra in dilepton invariant mass, missing transverse momentum and jet multiplicity are presented and compared to Standard Model predictions. In this event sample, no evidence is found for contributions beyond those of the Standard Model. Limits are set on the cross-section in a fiducial region for new sources of same-sign high-mass dilepton events in the ee, e mu and mu mu channels. Four models predicting same-sign dilepton signals are constrained: two descriptions of Majorana neutrinos, a cascade topology similar to supersymmetry or universal extra dimensions, and fourth generation d-type quarks. Assuming a new physics scale of 1 TeV, Majorana neutrinos produced by an effective operator V with masses below 460 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level. A lower limit of 290 GeV is set at 95% confidence level on the mass of fourth generation d-type quarks