Energy Spectra and Energy Correlations in the Decay H→ZZ→μ+μ−μ+μ−H\to ZZ\to \mu^+\mu^-\mu^+\mu^-

It is shown that in the sequential decay $H\to ZZ\to (f_1\bar{f_1})+ (f_2\bar{f_2})$, the energy distribution of the final state particles provides a simple and powerful test of the $HZZ$ vertex. For a standard Higgs boson, the energy spectrum of any final fermion, in the rest frame of $H$, is predicted to be $d\Gamma /dx\sim 1+\beta^4-2(x-1)^2$, with $\beta = \sqrt{1-4m^2_Z/m^2_H}$ and $1-\beta \le x=4E/m_H\le 1+\beta$. By contrast, the spectrum for a pseudoscalar Higgs is $d\Gamma /dx \sim \beta^2+(x-1)^2$. There are characteristic energy correlations between $f_1$ and $f_2$ and between $f_1$ and $\bar{f_2}$. These considerations are applied to the ``gold--plated'' reaction $H\to ZZ\to \mu^+\mu^-\mu^+\mu^-$, including possible effects of CP--violation in the $HZZ$ coupling. Our formalism also yields the energy spectra and correlations of leptons in the decay $H\to W^+W^-\to l^+\nu_ll^- \bar{\nu_l}$.Comment: 14 pages + 4 figure

The effects of pressure, nozzle diameter and meteorological conditions on the performance of agricultural impact sprinklers

19 Pags. The definitive version, with Figs. y Tabls., is available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03783774This study evaluates agricultural impact sprinklers under different combinations of pressure (p), nozzle diameter (D) and meteorological conditions. The radial curve (Rad) of an isolated sprinkler, i.e., the water distribution along the wetted radius, was evaluated through 25 tests. Christiansen's uniformity coefficient (CUC) and the wind drift and evaporation losses (WDEL) were evaluated for a solid-set system using 52 tests. The Rad constitutes the footprint of a sprinkler. The CUC is intimately connected to the Rad. The Rad must be characterized under calm conditions. Very low winds, especially prevailing winds, significantly distort the water distribution. The vector average of the wind velocity (V’) is recommended as a better explanatory variable than the more popular arithmetic average (V). We recommend characterizing the Rad under indoor conditions or under conditions that meet V’ < 0.6 m s−1 in open-air conditions. The Rad was mostly affected by the sprinkler model. V’ was the main explanatory variable for the CUC; p was significant as well. V was the main variable explaining the WDEL; the air temperature (T) was significant, too. Sprinkler irrigation simulators simplify the selection of a solid-set system for farmers, designers and advisors. However, the quality of the simulations greatly depends on the characterization of the Rad. This work provides useful recommendations in this area.This research was funded by the Government of Spain through grants AGL2004-06675-C03-03/AGR, AGL2007-66716-C03 and AGL2010-21681, by the Government of Aragón through grant PIP090/2005, and by the INIA and CITA through the PhD grants program.Peer reviewe

Procurement practices and the municipality auditing market

In this study, we perform a comprehensive analysis of municipal auditing, exploring its several steps: procurement, decision on selection criteria, selection, render and payment of services, and opinion provided. Our setting is Portugal, where external auditing of municipalities’ accounts has recently been introduced. Our dataset is unique, resulting from merging new survey data with data that are not publicly available. We find that the majority of municipalities acquire auditing services through direct selection and choose their auditors based upon the lowest price selection criterion. However, municipalities which employ a more sophisticated procurement process, where political competition is lower and where citizens’ interest is higher, employ the lowest price selection criterion less frequently. The auditor selected is usually a firm (instead of an individual Certified Public Accounting [CPA]) but never one of the Big 4 companies. The audit fee paid for the auditing services is higher when the level of citizens’ interest increases, and lower when the municipality has an internal auditing office. Finally, when the auditor issues a qualified opinion, the auditor fee is also higher

Spin Asymmetries In Diffractive J/ΨJ/\Psi Leptoproduction

In this report we calculate the cross section and $A_{ll}$ asymmetry for the diffractive $J/\Psi$ leptoproduction. We study dependences of the asymmetry on the structure of the Pomeron-proton couplingComment: 4 pages, latex, two PS figures, presented at the International Workshop "Symmetry and Spin" PRAHA'9

CARD8:A Gas-Exchange-Area-Adjustable Oxygenator for Extremely Preterm Infants

Purpose: Worldwide, 600,000 infants are born extremely premature (EP) each year. Supporting the immature lungs of these smallest patients today using mechanical ventilation can cause severe lung damage. Extracorporeal gas exchange (ECMO) used as an “artificial placenta” is expected to provide an alternative treatment to allow full maturation of the lungs. The long-term application for patients doubling their weight every six weeks, requires a new type of “growing” oxygenator.Materials &amp; Methods: We developed a gas-exchange-area-adjustable oxygenator that allows to operate at two different size stages without changing the device nor increasing the flow resistance. Our prototype houses two concentric oxygenator-chambers of equal gas exchange area. When the outer chamber is in operation, the oxygenator provides the required gas exchange area for a 24-week infant. Single-chamber operation allows adaequate gas exchange of volume flows from 50 - 125 ml/min while double-chamber operation then covers flow-demands from 125 - 200 ml/min. Both operational modes in combination can cover the needs of infants from 24 to 28 weeks postmenstrual age. We performed gas-transfer measurements of the prototype in accordance with ISO 7199 and FDA guideline.Results: Gas transport performance for the outer cylinder operating at Vblood = 50 mL/min (24 week premature infant) is VO2 = 1.8 mL/min (= 36 mLO2/Lblood flow). At a flow of Vblood = 125 mL/min the second chamber was switched on and the gas transfer performance increased by 50.1 %. Both chambers have a gas transport performance of VO2 = 4.19 ml/min at Vblood = 150 ml/min (= 28 mLO2/Lblood flow)Conclusion: It could be demonstrated that the gas-transfer of the newly proposed volume-adjustable oxygenator design is sufficient to increase the gas transfer performance while increasing the blood volume flow. We consider this a first milestone for oxygenation of growing EP infants without the need to replace the extracorporeal circuit, avoiding the associated risks

GEMS: A Fully Integrated PETSc-Based Solver for Coupled Cardiac Electromechanics and Bidomain Simulations

Cardiac contraction is coordinated by a wave of electrical excitation which propagates through the heart. Combined modeling of electrical and mechanical function of the heart provides the most comprehensive description of cardiac function and is one of the latest trends in cardiac research. The effective numerical modeling of cardiac electromechanics remains a challenge, due to the stiffness of the electrical equations and the global coupling in the mechanical problem. Here we present a short review of the inherent assumptions made when deriving the electromechanical equations, including a general representation for deformation-dependent conduction tensors obeying orthotropic symmetry, and then present an implicit-explicit time-stepping approach that is tailored to solving the cardiac mono- or bidomain equations coupled to electromechanics of the cardiac wall. Our approach allows to find numerical solutions of the electromechanics equations using stable and higher order time integration. Our methods are implemented in a monolithic finite element code GEMS (Ghent Electromechanics Solver) using the PETSc library that is inherently parallelized for use on high-performance computing infrastructure. We tested GEMS on standard benchmark computations and discuss further development of our software

Linear sampling method for identifying cavities in a heat conductor

We consider an inverse problem of identifying the unknown cavities in a heat conductor. Using the Neumann-to-Dirichlet map as an input data, we develop a linear sampling type method for the heat equation. A new feature is that there is a freedom to choose the time variable, which suggests that we have more data than the linear sampling methods for the inverse boundary value problem associated with EIT and inverse scattering problem with near field data