The Contribution of CALL to Advanced-Level Foreign/Second Language Instruction

This paper evaluates the contribution of instructional technology to advanced-level foreign/second language learning (AL2) over the past thirty years. It is shown that the most salient feature of AL2 practice and associated Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) research are their rarity and restricted nature. Based on an analysis of four leading CALL journals (CALICO, CALL, LL&T, ReCALL), less than 3% of all CALL publications deal with AL2. Moreover, within this body of research, the range of languages involved is very restricted. Three languages, English, German and French, account for nearly 87% of the studies. Likewise, in nearly 81% of the cases, the learning focus is on the written language. Attention to oral-aural skills accounts for only 18% of all AL2 CALL projects. Whatever the targeted language or linguistic focus, the most striking aspect of advanced-level L2 CALL studies is the lack of information given regarding the competency level of students and the linguistic level of the activities undertaken. The determination of these critical parameters is thus of necessity very much a highly interpretive process. Based on the available evidence, it is estimated that half of the learners in these AL2 studies were in fact within the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) B1 range, i.e. below what would generally be considered as advanced-level competency. So, too, half of the assigned tasks were deemed to have been below the B2 level, with 40% of these below the B1 level. This study concludes that both quantitatively and qualitatively the contribution of instructional technology to advanced-level L2 acquisition has been very limited

Higher harmonic anisotropic flow measurements of charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV

We report on the first measurement of the triangular $v_3$, quadrangular $v_4$, and pentagonal $v_5$ charged particle flow in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV measured with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We show that the triangular flow can be described in terms of the initial spatial anisotropy and its fluctuations, which provides strong constraints on its origin. In the most central events, where the elliptic flow $v_2$ and $v_3$ have similar magnitude, a double peaked structure in the two-particle azimuthal correlations is observed, which is often interpreted as a Mach cone response to fast partons. We show that this structure can be naturally explained from the measured anisotropic flow Fourier coefficients.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/387

BEAM TESTS OF THE ZEUS BARREL CALORIMETER

A fully compensating uranium-scintillator calorimeter was constructed for the ZEUS detector at HERA. Several of the barrel calorimeter modules were subjected to beam tests at Fermilab before shipping them to DESY for installation. The calibrations of the modules used beams of electrons and hadrons, measuring the uniformity of the response, and checking the resolution. The runs also provided opportunity to test a large fraction of the actual ZEUS calorimeter readout system in an integrated beam environment more than one year before HERA turn on. The experiment utilized two computer controlled mechanical structures. one of which was capable of holding up to four modules in order to study shower containment, and a magnetic spectrometer with a high resolution beam tracking system. During two running periods, beams of 6 to 110 GeV containing e, mu, pi, and pBAR were used. The results show energy resolutions of 35%/square-root E for hadrons and 19%/square-root E for electrons, uniformities at the 1% level, energy nonlinearity less than 1%, and equal response for electrons and hadrons

Higher harmonic anisotropic flow measurements of charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at √sNN=2.76 TeV

We report on the first measurement of the triangular v3, quadrangular v4, and pentagonal v5 charged particle flow in Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN= 2.76 TeV measured with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We show that the triangular flow can be described in terms of the initial spatial anisotropy and its fluctuations, which provides strong constraints on its origin. In the most central events, where the elliptic flow v2 and v3 have similar magnitude, a double peaked structure in the two-particle azimuthal correlations is observed, which is often interpreted as a Mach cone response to fast partons. We show that this structure can be naturally explained from the measured anisotropic flow Fourier coefficients

Measurement of charm production at central rapidity in proton-proton collisions at ps = 7 TeV

The p t-differential inclusive production cross sections of the prompt charmed mesons D0, D+, and D*+ in the rapidity range |y| < 0.5 were measured in proton-proton collisions at Ös = 7 TeVs=7TeV at the LHC using the ALICE detector. Reconstructing the decays D0 → K−π+, D+ → K−π+π+, D*+ → D0π+, and their charge conjugates, about 8,400 D0, 2,900 D+, and 2,600 D*+ mesons with 1 < p t < 24 GeV/c were counted, after selection cuts, in a data sample of 3.14 × 108 events collected with a minimum-bias trigger (integrated luminosity L int = 5 nb−1). The results are described within uncertainties by predictions based on perturbative QCD

Alignment of the CMS tracker with LHC and cosmic ray data

The central component of the CMS detector is the largest silicon tracker ever built. The precise alignment of this complex device is a formidable challenge, and only achievable with a significant extension of the technologies routinely used for tracking detectors in the past. This article describes the full-scale alignment procedure as it is used during LHC operations. Among the specific features of the method are the simultaneous determination of up to 200 000 alignment parameters with tracks, the measurement of individual sensor curvature parameters, the control of systematic misalignment effects, and the implementation of the whole procedure in a multiprocessor environment for high execution speed. Overall, the achieved statistical accuracy on the module alignment is found to be significantly better than 10 mu m

Search for supersymmetry in pp collisions at in events with a single lepton, large jet multiplicity, and multiple b jets

Results are reported from a search for supersymmetry in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV, based on events with a single isolated lepton (electron or muon) and multiple jets, at least two of which are identified as b jets. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 19.3 fb(-1) recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2012. The search is motivated by supersymmetric models that involve strong-production processes and cascade decays of new particles. The resulting final states contain multiple jets as well as missing transverse momentum from weakly interacting particles. The event yields, observed across several kinematic regions, are consistent with the expectations from standard model processes. The results are interpreted in the context of simplified supersymmetric scenarios with pair production of gluinos, where each gluino decays to a top quark-antiquark pair and the lightest neutralino. For the case of decays via virtual top squarks, gluinos with a mass smaller than 1.26 TeV are excluded for low neutralino masses

Measurement of the production cross section for a W boson and two b jets in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV

The production cross section for a Wboson and two b jets is measured using proton-proton collisions at v root s = 7 TeV in a data sample collected with the CMS experiment at the LHC corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb(-1). The W + bbevents are selected in the W..decay mode by requiring a muon with transverse momentum pT> 25GeVand pseudorapidity |eta| 25GeVand |eta| < 2.4. The measured W + bbproduction cross section in the fiducial region, calculated at the level of final-state particles, is s(pp. W + bb) xB(W..) = 0.53 +/- 0.05 (stat.) +/- 0.09 (syst.) +/- 0.06 (theo.) 0.01 (lum.) pb, in agreement with the standard model prediction. In addition, kinematic distributions of the W + bbsystem are in agreement with the predictions of a simulation usingMadGraphandpythia

Description and performance of track and primary-vertex reconstruction with the CMS tracker

A description is provided of the software algorithms developed for the CMS tracker both for reconstructing charged-particle trajectories in proton-proton interactions and for using the resulting tracks to estimate the positions of the LHC luminous region and individual primary-interaction vertices. Despite the very hostile environment at the LHC, the performance obtained with these algorithms is found to be excellent. For t (t) over bar events under typical 2011 pileup conditions, the average track-reconstruction efficiency for promptly-produced charged particles with transverse momenta of p(T) > 0.9GeV is 94% for pseudorapidities of vertical bar eta vertical bar < 0.9 and 85% for 0.9 < vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2.5. The inefficiency is caused mainly by hadrons that undergo nuclear interactions in the tracker material. For isolated muons, the corresponding efficiencies are essentially 100%. For isolated muons of p(T) = 100GeV emitted at vertical bar eta vertical bar < 1.4, the resolutions are approximately 2.8% in p(T), and respectively, 10 m m and 30 mu m in the transverse and longitudinal impact parameters. The position resolution achieved for reconstructed primary vertices that correspond to interesting pp collisions is 10-12 mu m in each of the three spatial dimensions. The tracking and vertexing software is fast and flexible, and easily adaptable to other functions, such as fast tracking for the trigger, or dedicated tracking for electrons that takes into account bremsstrahlung