624 research outputs found

    The Holocaust to Darfur: A Recipe for Genocide

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    All too often, social studies teachers present the cruelty of the Holocaust as an isolated event. These units focus on Hitler, gas chambers, and war crimes and end with a defiant and honorable “Never Again!” While covering mass murder in this way is laudable, it ultimately might not go as far as it could. For as teaches if we really want to empower our students to prevent genocide, we must look beyond the facts alone to the larger lessons these horrific events can teach us. It is with this background in mind that we wrote this chapter; that in order to teach our students to be good, we have the obligation to help them develop their own understandings of where and why society has fallen off the tracks. The idea of a recipe provided us with a way to help students understand the early warning signs of mass murder such that they would be better equipped to prevent them in the future. Doing so would hopefully inspire them not to bystanders to any similar cruelty, both in the world and in their daily lives. After all, Rwandan President Paul Kagame notes, “people can be made to be bad, and they can also taught to be good.

    Third Joint Academic Opinion on the South African Copyright Amendment Bill [B13D-2017]

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    South Africa is in the process of reforming its copyright law, attempting to update and align it with constitutional rights and existing and prospective international treaty obligations. A coalition of copyright, human rights, and constitutional law experts have been engaging in the ongoing national and provincial public participation processes. This working paper chronicles the law reform process until April 2023, covering related constitutional court litigation, and then goes on to set out the submissions made on behalf of the group of experts. The process offers insights into the different but crucial roles played by the legislature and the judiciary in aligning copyright with the constitution. It also provides valuable comparative lessons for other jurisdictions seeking to reform their copyright laws

    Comparison of monocyte human leukocyte antigen-DR expression and stimulated tumor necrosis factor alpha production as outcome predictors in severe sepsis: A prospective observational study

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    BACKGROUND: Identifying patients in the immunosuppressive phase of sepsis is essential for development of immunomodulatory therapies. Little data exists comparing the ability of the two most well-studied markers of sepsis-induced immunosuppression, human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR expression and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-ɑ) production, to predict mortality and morbidity. The purpose of this study was to compare HLA-DR expression and LPS-induced TNF-ɑ production as predictors of 28-day mortality and acquisition of secondary infections in adult septic patients. METHODS: A single-center, prospective observational study of 83 adult septic patients admitted to a medical or surgical intensive care unit. Blood samples were collected at three time points during the septic course (days 1–2, days 3–4, and days 6–8 after sepsis diagnosis) and assayed for HLA-DR expression and LPS-induced TNF-ɑ production. A repeated measures mixed model analysis was used to compare values of these immunological markers among survivors and non-survivors and among those who did and did not develop a secondary infection. RESULTS: Twenty-five patients (30.1 %) died within 28 days of sepsis diagnosis. HLA-DR expression was significantly lower in non-survivors as compared to survivors on days 3–4 (p = 0.04) and days 6–8 (p = 0.002). The change in HLA-DR from days 1–2 to days 6–8 was also lower in non-survivors (p = 0.04). Median HLA-DR expression decreased from days 1–2 to days 3–4 in patients who developed secondary infections while it increased in those without secondary infections (p = 0.054). TNF-ɑ production did not differ between survivors and non-survivors or between patients who did and did not develop a secondary infection. CONCLUSIONS: Monocyte HLA-DR expression may be a more accurate predictor of mortality and acquisition of secondary infections than LPS-stimulated TNF-ɑ production in adult medical and surgical critically ill patients. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13054-016-1505-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

    LHCb upgrade software and computing : technical design report

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    This document reports the Research and Development activities that are carried out in the software and computing domains in view of the upgrade of the LHCb experiment. The implementation of a full software trigger implies major changes in the core software framework, in the event data model, and in the reconstruction algorithms. The increase of the data volumes for both real and simulated datasets requires a corresponding scaling of the distributed computing infrastructure. An implementation plan in both domains is presented, together with a risk assessment analysis

    Physics case for an LHCb Upgrade II - Opportunities in flavour physics, and beyond, in the HL-LHC era

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    The LHCb Upgrade II will fully exploit the flavour-physics opportunities of the HL-LHC, and study additional physics topics that take advantage of the forward acceptance of the LHCb spectrometer. The LHCb Upgrade I will begin operation in 2020. Consolidation will occur, and modest enhancements of the Upgrade I detector will be installed, in Long Shutdown 3 of the LHC (2025) and these are discussed here. The main Upgrade II detector will be installed in long shutdown 4 of the LHC (2030) and will build on the strengths of the current LHCb experiment and the Upgrade I. It will operate at a luminosity up to 2×1034 cm−2s−1, ten times that of the Upgrade I detector. New detector components will improve the intrinsic performance of the experiment in certain key areas. An Expression Of Interest proposing Upgrade II was submitted in February 2017. The physics case for the Upgrade II is presented here in more depth. CP-violating phases will be measured with precisions unattainable at any other envisaged facility. The experiment will probe b → sl+l−and b → dl+l− transitions in both muon and electron decays in modes not accessible at Upgrade I. Minimal flavour violation will be tested with a precision measurement of the ratio of B(B0 → ÎŒ+Ό−)/B(Bs → ÎŒ+Ό−). Probing charm CP violation at the 10−5 level may result in its long sought discovery. Major advances in hadron spectroscopy will be possible, which will be powerful probes of low energy QCD. Upgrade II potentially will have the highest sensitivity of all the LHC experiments on the Higgs to charm-quark couplings. Generically, the new physics mass scale probed, for fixed couplings, will almost double compared with the pre-HL-LHC era; this extended reach for flavour physics is similar to that which would be achieved by the HE-LHC proposal for the energy frontier

    Multidifferential study of identified charged hadron distributions in ZZ-tagged jets in proton-proton collisions at s=\sqrt{s}=13 TeV

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    Jet fragmentation functions are measured for the first time in proton-proton collisions for charged pions, kaons, and protons within jets recoiling against a ZZ boson. The charged-hadron distributions are studied longitudinally and transversely to the jet direction for jets with transverse momentum 20 <pT<100< p_{\textrm{T}} < 100 GeV and in the pseudorapidity range 2.5<η<42.5 < \eta < 4. The data sample was collected with the LHCb experiment at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.64 fb−1^{-1}. Triple differential distributions as a function of the hadron longitudinal momentum fraction, hadron transverse momentum, and jet transverse momentum are also measured for the first time. This helps constrain transverse-momentum-dependent fragmentation functions. Differences in the shapes and magnitudes of the measured distributions for the different hadron species provide insights into the hadronization process for jets predominantly initiated by light quarks.Comment: All figures and tables, along with machine-readable versions and any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-013.html (LHCb public pages

    Study of the B−→Λc+Λˉc−K−B^{-} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} \bar{\Lambda}_{c}^{-} K^{-} decay

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    The decay B−→Λc+Λˉc−K−B^{-} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} \bar{\Lambda}_{c}^{-} K^{-} is studied in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of s=13\sqrt{s}=13 TeV using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 fb−1\mathrm{fb}^{-1} collected by the LHCb experiment. In the Λc+K−\Lambda_{c}^+ K^{-} system, the Ξc(2930)0\Xi_{c}(2930)^{0} state observed at the BaBar and Belle experiments is resolved into two narrower states, Ξc(2923)0\Xi_{c}(2923)^{0} and Ξc(2939)0\Xi_{c}(2939)^{0}, whose masses and widths are measured to be m(Ξc(2923)0)=2924.5±0.4±1.1 MeV,m(Ξc(2939)0)=2938.5±0.9±2.3 MeV,Γ(Ξc(2923)0)=0004.8±0.9±1.5 MeV,Γ(Ξc(2939)0)=0011.0±1.9±7.5 MeV, m(\Xi_{c}(2923)^{0}) = 2924.5 \pm 0.4 \pm 1.1 \,\mathrm{MeV}, \\ m(\Xi_{c}(2939)^{0}) = 2938.5 \pm 0.9 \pm 2.3 \,\mathrm{MeV}, \\ \Gamma(\Xi_{c}(2923)^{0}) = \phantom{000}4.8 \pm 0.9 \pm 1.5 \,\mathrm{MeV},\\ \Gamma(\Xi_{c}(2939)^{0}) = \phantom{00}11.0 \pm 1.9 \pm 7.5 \,\mathrm{MeV}, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic. The results are consistent with a previous LHCb measurement using a prompt Λc+K−\Lambda_{c}^{+} K^{-} sample. Evidence of a new Ξc(2880)0\Xi_{c}(2880)^{0} state is found with a local significance of 3.8 σ3.8\,\sigma, whose mass and width are measured to be 2881.8±3.1±8.5 MeV2881.8 \pm 3.1 \pm 8.5\,\mathrm{MeV} and 12.4±5.3±5.8 MeV12.4 \pm 5.3 \pm 5.8 \,\mathrm{MeV}, respectively. In addition, evidence of a new decay mode Ξc(2790)0→Λc+K−\Xi_{c}(2790)^{0} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} K^{-} is found with a significance of 3.7 σ3.7\,\sigma. The relative branching fraction of B−→Λc+Λˉc−K−B^{-} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} \bar{\Lambda}_{c}^{-} K^{-} with respect to the B−→D+D−K−B^{-} \to D^{+} D^{-} K^{-} decay is measured to be 2.36±0.11±0.22±0.252.36 \pm 0.11 \pm 0.22 \pm 0.25, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and the third originates from the branching fractions of charm hadron decays.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-028.html (LHCb public pages

    Measurement of the ratios of branching fractions R(D∗)\mathcal{R}(D^{*}) and R(D0)\mathcal{R}(D^{0})

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    The ratios of branching fractions R(D∗)≡B(Bˉ→D∗τ−Μˉτ)/B(Bˉ→D∗Ό−ΜˉΌ)\mathcal{R}(D^{*})\equiv\mathcal{B}(\bar{B}\to D^{*}\tau^{-}\bar{\nu}_{\tau})/\mathcal{B}(\bar{B}\to D^{*}\mu^{-}\bar{\nu}_{\mu}) and R(D0)≡B(B−→D0τ−Μˉτ)/B(B−→D0Ό−ΜˉΌ)\mathcal{R}(D^{0})\equiv\mathcal{B}(B^{-}\to D^{0}\tau^{-}\bar{\nu}_{\tau})/\mathcal{B}(B^{-}\to D^{0}\mu^{-}\bar{\nu}_{\mu}) are measured, assuming isospin symmetry, using a sample of proton-proton collision data corresponding to 3.0 fb−1{ }^{-1} of integrated luminosity recorded by the LHCb experiment during 2011 and 2012. The tau lepton is identified in the decay mode τ−→Ό−ΜτΜˉΌ\tau^{-}\to\mu^{-}\nu_{\tau}\bar{\nu}_{\mu}. The measured values are R(D∗)=0.281±0.018±0.024\mathcal{R}(D^{*})=0.281\pm0.018\pm0.024 and R(D0)=0.441±0.060±0.066\mathcal{R}(D^{0})=0.441\pm0.060\pm0.066, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. The correlation between these measurements is ρ=−0.43\rho=-0.43. Results are consistent with the current average of these quantities and are at a combined 1.9 standard deviations from the predictions based on lepton flavor universality in the Standard Model.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-039.html (LHCb public pages

    Measurement of the B0s→Ό+Ό− Branching Fraction and Effective Lifetime and Search for B0→Ό+Ό− Decays

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    A search for the rare decays Bs0→Ό+ÎŒ- and B0→Ό+ÎŒ- is performed at the LHCb experiment using data collected in pp collisions corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 4.4  fb-1. An excess of Bs0→Ό+ÎŒ- decays is observed with a significance of 7.8 standard deviations, representing the first observation of this decay in a single experiment. The branching fraction is measured to be B(Bs0→Ό+ÎŒ-)=(3.0±0.6-0.2+0.3)×10-9, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The first measurement of the Bs0→Ό+ÎŒ- effective lifetime, τ(Bs0→Ό+ÎŒ-)=2.04±0.44±0.05  ps, is reported. No significant excess of B0→Ό+ÎŒ- decays is found, and a 95% confidence level upper limit, B(B0→Ό+ÎŒ-)<3.4×10-10, is determined. All results are in agreement with the standard model expectations.A search for the rare decays Bs0→Ό+Ό−B^0_s\to\mu^+\mu^- and B0→Ό+Ό−B^0\to\mu^+\mu^- is performed at the LHCb experiment using data collected in pppp collisions corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb−1^{-1}. An excess of Bs0→Ό+Ό−B^0_s\to\mu^+\mu^- decays is observed with a significance of 7.8 standard deviations, representing the first observation of this decay in a single experiment. The branching fraction is measured to be B(Bs0→Ό+Ό−)=(3.0±0.6−0.2+0.3)×10−9{\cal B}(B^0_s\to\mu^+\mu^-)=\left(3.0\pm 0.6^{+0.3}_{-0.2}\right)\times 10^{-9}, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The first measurement of the Bs0→Ό+Ό−B^0_s\to\mu^+\mu^- effective lifetime, τ(Bs0→Ό+Ό−)=2.04±0.44±0.05\tau(B^0_s\to\mu^+\mu^-)=2.04\pm 0.44\pm 0.05 ps, is reported. No significant excess of B0→Ό+Ό−B^0\to\mu^+\mu^- decays is found and a 95 % confidence level upper limit, B(B0→Ό+Ό−)<3.4×10−10{\cal B}(B^0\to\mu^+\mu^-)<3.4\times 10^{-10}, is determined. All results are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations
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