W/Z + b,bbar/jets at NLO using the Monte Carlo MCFM

We summarize recent progress in next-to-leading order QCD calculations made using the Monte Carlo MCFM. In particular, we focus on the calculations of p anti-p -> W b-bbar, Z b-bbar and highlight the significant corrections to background estimates for Higgs searches in the channels WH and ZH at the Tevatron. We also report on the current progress of, and strategies for, the calculation of the process p anti-p -> W/Z + 2 jets.Comment: 4 pages, talk presented at the XXXVI Rencontres de Moriond, QCD and High Energy Hadronic Interactions, 17-24 March 2001, Les Arcs, Savoie, Franc

Forensic flavour

Databases often receive an uninspired and uninterested response. The curriculum content of a database module generally involves the design of entity-relationship models, SQL programming, application development and advanced database applications such as data warehousing and data mining. These are often taught within the tired and relatively worn case studies of purchase order systems, retail or health care systems. However the current trend for crime scene investigation drama and the frequent stories in the news of personal tragedies involving incorrect data, missing data or data mix-up capture the attention of many. The truth is that crimes require data investigation and expert database witnesses to provide evidence and this requires database knowledge and skill. This project involved the introduction of a ‘forensic flavour’ to the teaching of databases as part of an undergraduate Computing Degree to students. The ‘forensic flavour’ involved introducing investigative and enquiry based learning techniques as well as selecting case studies based around real-life crimes and crime data. The learning objectives remained unchanged for the modules as did the curriculum content. The initial findings are that the students engaged on average 40% better and enjoyed the experience more

Reducing Prawn-trawl Bycatch in Australia: An Overview and an Example from Queensland

Prawn trawling occurs in most states of Australia in tropical, subtropical, and temperate waters. Bycatch occurs to some degree in all Australian trawl fisheries, and there is pressure to reduce the levels of trawl fishery bycatch. This paper gives a brief overview of the bycatch issues and technological solutions that have been evaluated or adopted in Australian prawn-trawl fi sheries. Turtle excluder devices (TED’s) and bycatch reduction devices (BRD’s) are the principal solutions to bycatch in Australian prawn-trawl fisheries. This paper focuses on a major prawn-trawl fishery of northeastern Australia, and the results of commercial use of TED’s and BRD’s in the Queensland east coast trawl fishery are presented. New industry designs are described, and the status of TED and BRD adoption and regulation is summarized. The implementation of technological solutions to reduce fishery bycatch is assumed generally to assist prawn-trawl fisheries within Australia in achieving legislative requirements for minimal environmental impact and ecological sustainable development

Shaping Pre-Service Teachers\u27 Attitudes: An Inquiry Approach to Course Reform

The purpose of the study was to investigate the development of pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward teaching science with inquiry methods as the result of their participation in the two-hour elementary science methods class. Southwestern Oklahoma State University is a partner in the Oklahoma Teacher Education Collaborative (OTEC) which is funded by the National Science Foundation’s reform effort, Collaboratives for Excellence in Teacher Preparation (CETP). The reform effort focuses on the revision of the teacher preparation courses with emphasis on a systemic change in the method in which math, science, and education methods courses are taught across Oklahoma. Nine Oklahoma universities, including the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma State University, the University of Central Oklahoma, Northeastern Oklahoma State University, Cameron University, Langston University, Tulsa Community College and Southwestern Oklahoma State University, have focused on revising the identified courses with inquiry-based instruction

Teleporting bipartite entanglement using maximally entangled mixed channels

The ability to teleport entanglement through maximally entangled mixed states as defined by concurrence and linear entropy is studied. We show how the teleported entanglement depends on the quality of the quantum channel used, as defined through its entanglement and mixedness, as well as the form of the target state to be teleported. We present new results based on the fidelity of the teleported state as well as an experimental set-up that is immediately implementable with currently available technology.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, RevTeX4, Accepted for publication in the IJQI special issue on Distributed Quantum Information Processin

Principal Components as a Data Reduction and Noise Reduction Technique

The potential of principal components as a pipeline data reduction technique for thematic mapper data was assessed and principal components analysis and its transformation as a noise reduction technique was examined. Two primary factors were considered: (1) how might data reduction and noise reduction using the principal components transformation affect the extraction of accurate spectral classifications; and (2) what are the real savings in terms of computer processing and storage costs of using reduced data over the full 7-band TM complement. An area in central Pennsylvania was chosen for a study area. The image data for the project were collected using the Earth Resources Laboratory's thematic mapper simulator (TMS) instrument

Frontier exploration and the North Atlantic Igneous Province : new insights from a 2.6 km offshore volcanic sequence in the NE Faroe–Shetland Basin

Acknowledgements and Funding This work was funded by Chevron. The authors would like to acknowledge the Chevron West of Shetlands team along with the Joint Venture partners OMV, Faroe Petroleum and Indemitsu for access to data along with permission to publish this study. PGS is thanked for access to the Corona Ridge Regional Geostreamer (CRRG) data and permission to publish the seismic line. The paper was improved thanks to insightful reviews by S. M. Jones and A. Saunders, which substantially improved an earlier draft. J. Still and F. Thompson gave invaluable technical support at the University of Aberdeen, and K. Wall helped with real-time cuttings analysis.Peer reviewedPostprin