Assembly and Quality Control of GEM Detectors for the Future Upgrade of the CMS Muon System

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is the world's largest research centre for particle physics, hosting the 27-Km long Large Hadron Collider (LHC), considred to be one of the biggest machine ever built. The latter has four main detector experiments: ATLAS, CMS, ALICE, and LHCb, the second largest being CMS, the Compact Muon Solenoid. GEM is a CMS subdetector that contains a densely pierced polymer foil coated with electrodes on both sides to achieve high amplification gains and performance at a lower cost, even under harsh conditions. The GE1/1 station consists of 36 10° Super Chambers (SC), two layers of triple GEM detectors, and a total of 144 chambers. The GE1/1 SC is mounted in the CMS Nose at the head of the CSC ME1/1 chambers. Here, the SC assembly method used is the mechanical stretching technique without glue in the gas volume. ME0 is a beneficial upgrade for the CMS muon system since it will help lower combinatory in matching muon segments to track muons and improve {\small P}{\tiny T} resolution for muons. ME0 has a good position measurement, essential to reduce the impact of neutron backgrounds and combinatorial matches. The ME0 has six GEM layers, including high precision hit reconstruction of the detector, which makes measurements of both position and direction possible. GE2/1 detector consists of 72 Chambers, and the layout is the same as the GE1/1 layout. The difference is that GE2/1 covers a larger surface. The same technical solution was successfully adopted for the GE1/1 (3/1/2/1 mm gaps). Two independent GE2/1 chambers will form on the YE1/1 disk a Super Chamber. To achieve maximum coverage, modules in the front and back chambers will be staggered. As a consequence, eight different types of modules will be designed and produced. Quality control for GE2/1 consists of ten QCs, named QC1…QC10. After passing the QC2 step, testing the foils, and knowing they have passed QC2, the processes of the chamber assembly can start. The GEM technology is selected for the upgrade of the CMS muon End-Cap

Low-Tech Water Treatment Facility

A low-tech, economical and sustainable treatment system for the purpose of removing petroleum hydrocarbons from polluted water is necessary to reduce disease and promote the continued livelihood of indigenous people in the northeastern region of Ecuador. In order to achieve clean water without the use of modernized equipment, we propose a multi-stage system that collects water from a channel, provides flow through a Flocculation Chamber, settles out particulates, and removes petroleum hydrocarbons by filtering through Granular Activated Carbon

Using Media to Enhance Students' Ability to Learn Physics

This project focused on enhancing lab use of multimedia to improve student understanding and comprehension of physics 1120 labs. Data was collected through observation of the lab setting and faculty reports. A series of videos were created illustrating the concepts of the lab, and added to the lab website. A survey was given to students that participated in lab sections and statistical analysis was performed on the data.

Users’ informativity and effective communication: the banking field in Kuwait

Purpose: This research examines the effective communication of financial reporting through the medium of the earnings conference within the Kuwaiti banking sector. Study design/methodology/approach: This study explores the principal areas that users, particularly conference call participants, find relatively uninformative within the financial statements. The paper uses the accounting communication theoretical framework developed by Merkl-Davies and Brennan (2017) and Brennan and Merkl-Davies (2018). Sample and data: This research analyses real-life enquiries by users in the question-and-answer sessions of earnings conferences. The research further developed an analytical procedure to better understand communication effectiveness through the eyes of the accounting users. Results: The thematic analysis of topical enquiries reveals various concerns over reported accounting information. Ambiguities include reported issues relating to provisions for credit losses, segment information, deposits and accounts items, and currency translation. Originality/value: This research contributes to user-centred accounting research and to the few studies that have investigated financial accounting-related problems via earning conferences. Research limitations/implications: The research design and findings provide insights for the banking regulator to understand areas within financial statements that users find uninformative and lack effective communication

Neural correlates of unstructured motor behaviors

Objective. We studied the relationship between uninstructed, unstructured movements and neural activity in three epilepsy patients with intracranial electroencephalographic (iEEG) recordings. Approach. We used a custom system to continuously record high definition video precisely time-aligned to clinical iEEG data. From these video recordings, movement periods were annotated via semi-automatic tracking based on dense optical flow. Main results. We found that neural signal features (8–32 Hz and 76–100 Hz power) previously identified from task-based experiments are also modulated before and during a variety of movement behaviors. These movement behaviors are coarsely labeled by time period and movement side (e.g. 'Idle' and 'Move', 'Right' and 'Left'); movements within a label can include a wide variety of uninstructed behaviors. A rigorous nested cross-validation framework was used to classify both movement onset and lateralization with statistical significance for all subjects. Significance. We demonstrate an evaluation framework to study neural activity related to natural movements not evoked by a task, annotated over hours of video. This work further establishes the feasibility to study neural correlates of unstructured behavior through continuous recording in the epilepsy monitoring unit. The insights gained from such studies may advance our understanding of how the brain naturally controls movement, which may inform the development of more robust and generalizable brain–computer interfaces