An Effective pTp_T Cutoff for the Isolalated Lepton Background from Bottom Decay --

There is a strong correlation between the $p_T$ and isolation of the lepton coming from $B$ decay. Consequently the isolated lepton background from $B$ decay goes down rapidly with increasing lepton $p_T$; and there is a $p_T$ cutoff beyond which it effectively vanishes. For the isolation cut of $E^{AC}_T < 10$ GeV, appropriate for LHC, the lepton $p_T$ cutoff is 80 GeV. This can be exploited to effectively eliminate the $B$ background from the like sign dilepton channel apropriate for Majorana particle searches, as well as the unlike sign dilepton and the single lepton channels appropriate for the top quark search. We illustrate this with a detailed analysis of the $B$ background in these channels along with the signals at LHC energy using both parton level MC and ISAJET programs.Comment: TIFR/TH/93-23 (LATEX, 20 pages, 7 figures available on request

Dielectric anomaly at the orbital order-disorder transition in LaMnO_(3+delta)

We report a novel dielectric anomaly around the Jahn-Teller orbital order-disorder transition temperature T_JT in LaMnO_(3+delta). The transition has been characterized by resistivity (rho)versus temperature (T), calorimetry, and temperature-dependent X-ray diffraction studies. Measurements of complex dielectric permittivity epsilon* (= epsilon'-i.epsilon'') over a low-frequency range (1 Hz - 10 MHz)across T_JT reveal a distinct anomaly. This observation, and the reported relatively high static dielectric constant at T = 0 (epsilon0 \~18-20), possibly indicate that the orbital order gives rise to intrinsic polarization that undergoes transition at T_JT. The frequency dispersion of the dielectric response at any given temperature, however, reveals that the dielectric response consists of Maxwell-Wagner component, due to interfaces, within such a low frequency range. The T_JT and the nature of the anomaly in epsilon'(omega,T), epsilon''(omega,T) at T_JT, of course, vary - from a sharp upward feature to a smeared plateau and then a downward trend - depending on the Mn^4+ concentration of the sample. The observation of an intrinsic dielectric response due to long-range orbital order in LaMnO_3 - where no ferroelectric order is possible due to the absence of off-centre distortion in MnO_6 octahedra - may throw a new light onto these classes of materials vis-a-vis multiferroic materials.Comment: 22 pages including 7 figures; pdf only; accepted for publication in J.Phys.:Condens. Matte

The Evolution of Natriuretic Peptide Augmentation in Management of Heart Failure and the Role of Sacubitril/valsartan

Heart failure (HF) is one of the leading causes of morbidity, mortality, and health care expenditures in the US and worldwide. For three decades, the pillars of treatment of HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) were medications that targeted the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS). Prior attempts to augment the natriuretic peptide system (NPS) for the management of HF failed either due to lack of significant clinical benefit or due to the unacceptable side effect profile. This review article will discuss the NPS, the failure of early drugs which targeted the NPS as therapies for HF, and the sequence of events which led to the development of sacubitril plus valsartan (Entresto; LCZ696; Novartis). LCZ696 has been shown to be superior to the standard of care available for treatment of HFrEF in several substantial hard endpoints including heart failure hospitalizations, cardiovascular mortality, and all-cause mortality

Closed Cell Aluminium Composite Foam for Crashworthiness Applications

Closed cell aluminium foams with various densities have been made through stir casting technique. The crucible temperature and melt temperature have been controlled to control the foaming temperature for controlling foam cell size and foam densities. The foam made has been then characterized for their micro-architectural characteristics as well as deformation responses. The crash of vehicle takes place at very high speed and therefore, the foams have been tested both at quasi-static and dynamic conditions. It is noted that at dynamic conditions the foams exhibit much higher strength and energy absorption. Then the foams have been filled manually inside the commercially available crash-box and tested using drop weight test methodology. The weight is varied up to 375 kg and speed is varied up to 55 km/h. The deformation behavior of bare foam blocks, foam filled crash box and empty crash boxes have been studied. It is observed that the foam synthesized through this technique is excellent for crash energy absorption. It is also noted that hardly any significant weight will be added into the vehicle. These closed cell foam has also the potential to be used in other transport sectors

Long-term stability test of a triple GEM detector

The main aim of the study is to perform the long-term stability test of gain of the single mask triple GEM detector. A simple method is used for this long- term stability test using a radioactive X-ray source with high activity. The test is continued till accumulation of charge per unit area > 12.0 mC/mm2. The details of the chamber fabrication, the test set-up, the method of measurement and the test results are presented in this paper.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Polymorphism, thermodynamic anomalies and network formation in an atomistic model with two internal states

Using molecular dynamics simulations we study the temperature-density phase diagram of a simple model system of particles in two dimensions. In addition to translational degrees of freedom, each particle has two internal states and interacts with a modified Lennard-Jones potential which depends on relative positions as well as the internal states. We find that, despite its simplicity, the model has a rich phase diagram showing many features of common network-forming liquids such as water and silica, including polymorphism and thermodynamic anomalies. We believe our model may be useful for studies concerning generic features of such complex liquids.Comment: 7 pages, 8 pdf figure

Electric and magnetic polarizabilities of hexagonal Ln2CuTiO6 (Ln=Y, Dy, Ho, Er and Yb)

We investigated the rare-earth transition metal oxide series, Ln2CuTiO6 (Ln=Y, Dy, Ho, Er and Yb), crystallizing in the hexagonal structure with non-centrosymmetric P63cm space group for possible occurrences of multiferroic properties. Our results show that while these compounds, except Ln=Y, exhibit a low temperature antiferromagnetic transition due to the ordering of the rare-earth moments, the expected ferroelectric transition is frustrated by the large size difference between Cu and Ti at the B-site. Interestingly, this leads these compounds to attain a rare and unique combination of desirable paraelectric properties with high dielectric constants, low losses and weak temperature and frequency dependencies. First-principles calculations establish these exceptional properties result from a combination of two effects. A significant difference in the MO5 polyhedral sizes for M = Cu and M = Ti suppress the expected co-operative tilt pattern of these polyhedra, required for the ferroelectric transition, leading to relatively large values of the dielectric constant for every compound investigated in this series. Additionally, it is shown that the majority contribution to the dielectric constant arises from intermediate-frequency polar vibrational modes, making it relatively stable against any temperature variation. Changes in the temperature stability of the dielectric constant amongst different members of this series are shown to arise from changes in relative contributions from soft polar modes.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B (21 pages, 2 Table, 8 Figures