Inclusive and differential cross-section measurements of t\bartZ production in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector, including EFT and spin-correlation interpretations

Measurements of both the inclusive and differential production cross sections of a top-quark-top-antiquark pair in association with a Z boson (tt¯Z) are presented. Final states with two, three or four isolated leptons (electrons or muons) are targeted. The measurements use the data recorded by the ATLAS detector in pp collisions at s√=13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider during the years 2015-2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1. The inclusive cross section is measured to be σtt¯Z=0.86±0.04 (stat.)±0.04 (syst.) pb and found to be in agreement with the most advanced Standard Model predictions. The differential measurements are presented as a function of a number of observables that probe the kinematics of the tt¯Z system. Both the absolute and normalised differential cross-section measurements are performed at particle level and parton level for specific fiducial volumes, and are compared with NLO+NNLL theoretical predictions. The results are interpreted in the framework of Standard Model effective field theory and used to set limits on a large number of dimension-6 operators involving the top quark. The first measurement of spin correlations in tt¯Z events is presented: the results are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations, and the null hypothesis of no spin correlations is disfavoured with a significance of 1.8 standard deviations

Observation of quantum entanglement in top-quark pairs using the ATLAS detector

We report the highest-energy observation of entanglement, in top−antitop quark events produced at the Large Hadron Collider, using a proton−proton collision data set with a center-of-mass energy of s√=13 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1 recorded with the ATLAS experiment. Spin entanglement is detected from the measurement of a single observable D, inferred from the angle between the charged leptons in their parent top- and antitop-quark rest frames. The observable is measured in a narrow interval around the top−antitop quark production threshold, where the entanglement detection is expected to be significant. It is reported in a fiducial phase space defined with stable particles to minimize the uncertainties that stem from limitations of the Monte Carlo event generators and the parton shower model in modelling top-quark pair production. The entanglement marker is measured to be D=−0.547±0.002 (stat.)±0.021 (syst.) for 340<mtt¯<380 GeV. The observed result is more than five standard deviations from a scenario without entanglement and hence constitutes both the first observation of entanglement in a pair of quarks and the highest-energy observation of entanglement to date

A multimodal cell census and atlas of the mammalian primary motor cortex

ABSTRACT We report the generation of a multimodal cell census and atlas of the mammalian primary motor cortex (MOp or M1) as the initial product of the BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN). This was achieved by coordinated large-scale analyses of single-cell transcriptomes, chromatin accessibility, DNA methylomes, spatially resolved single-cell transcriptomes, morphological and electrophysiological properties, and cellular resolution input-output mapping, integrated through cross-modal computational analysis. Together, our results advance the collective knowledge and understanding of brain cell type organization: First, our study reveals a unified molecular genetic landscape of cortical cell types that congruently integrates their transcriptome, open chromatin and DNA methylation maps. Second, cross-species analysis achieves a unified taxonomy of transcriptomic types and their hierarchical organization that are conserved from mouse to marmoset and human. Third, cross-modal analysis provides compelling evidence for the epigenomic, transcriptomic, and gene regulatory basis of neuronal phenotypes such as their physiological and anatomical properties, demonstrating the biological validity and genomic underpinning of neuron types and subtypes. Fourth, in situ single-cell transcriptomics provides a spatially-resolved cell type atlas of the motor cortex. Fifth, integrated transcriptomic, epigenomic and anatomical analyses reveal the correspondence between neural circuits and transcriptomic cell types. We further present an extensive genetic toolset for targeting and fate mapping glutamatergic projection neuron types toward linking their developmental trajectory to their circuit function. Together, our results establish a unified and mechanistic framework of neuronal cell type organization that integrates multi-layered molecular genetic and spatial information with multi-faceted phenotypic properties

Hard time in the New Deal: racial formation and the cultures of punishment in Texas and California in the 1930s

text“Hard Time in the New Deal” bridges historiographies in criminal justice studies, working class history, and cultural histories of the Depression and New Deal to paint a detailed picture of life behind bars in the earliest years of the American welfare state. It analyzes the ways in which punishment structured racial and social hierarchies in a location where members of the multiracial working class worked, lived, fought, played, and sometimes protested in a period of massive political economic crisis. It argues that Depression-era prisons – as a last resort of state control – produced social inequality even within the egalitarian vision that the New Deal era promised. Because Texas and California State Prisons incarcerated poor black, white, Mexican, and Asian and Native American inmates, they provide key sites to examine the practices of white supremacy and racial subordination among multiracial populations; processes through which racial antagonism generally, if incompletely, eclipsed class identities. Not only were prisoners divided against each other, but all criminals were situated against an image of white male citizenry ascendant in the New Deal years. “Hard Time in the New Deal” explores the complex social and cultural worlds of punishment through the interwoven categories of race, class, gender, sexuality, and nation. It illuminates the multifaceted forms of social conflict animating every level of punishment to demonstrate how the state attempted to reproduce, and thus guarantee, social hierarchies in the midst of economic crisis. Drawing on a range of state- and prisoner-authored sources, “Hard Time in the New Deal” examines prison labor laws, sports, radio programming, as well as the organization of space, the distribution of labor, and the instrumentality of violence – to gain insight into the experience of prison as a contested site of social control. Despite government officials’ seemingly limitless ability to shape life behind bars, Texas and California prisons remained beyond firm control through the Depression years. The social contradictions prisons attempted to contain – but continued to produce – would persist and expand through the rest of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first.Histor

A Study of the Relationship between Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Institutional Objectives and Intent to Use Peanut Butter Swirl Student Success Software Using the ioTAM Theoretical Framework

CCX, a small, rural community college in the United States began offering a flexible, online, competency-based educational delivery model in some of its educational programs in the fall semester of the 2018-2019 school year. The new offering provided students a great deal of flexibility, but student success rates decreased. The college expressed an interest in improving the processes surrounding student support in the new format in an effort to increase success rates. In response, the researcher developed a prototype student success tool for college staff to test and provide feedback on utilizing the researcher-developed Institutional Objective Technology Acceptance Model (ioTAM) framework. An email was sent out to 48 CCX staff members to test the prototype software and complete a survey related to their experience. The survey measured the participant’s perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived belief that the software could benefit an institutional objective (IO), which in this case was increase student success, and their behavioral intention to use the software (BI). The survey had 31 valid responses. Correlational analysis was performed on survey responses and the data showed a positive correlation amongst all variables. The results suggest that participants believe Peanut Butter Swirl student success software would positively benefit their new educational offering and help to increase student success rates. The study also demonstrates a working example of the researcher-developed ioTAM framework, which may lead to more robust technology selection decisions

Adipose tissue quantification and primary graft dysfunction after lung transplantation: The Lung Transplant Body Composition study.

BackgroundObesity is associated with an increased risk of primary graft dysfunction (PGD) after lung transplantation. The contribution of specific adipose tissue depots is unknown.MethodsWe performed a prospective cohort study of adult lung transplant recipients at 4 U.S. transplant centers. We measured cross-sectional areas of subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) on chest and abdominal computed tomography (CT) scans and indexed each measurement to height.2 We used logistic regression to examine the associations of adipose indices and adipose classes with grade 3 PGD at 48 or 72 hours, and Cox proportional hazards models to examine survival. We used latent class analyses to identify the patterns of adipose distribution. We examined the associations of adipose indices with plasma biomarkers of obesity and PGD.ResultsA total of 262 and 117 subjects had available chest CT scans and underwent protocol abdominal CT scans, respectively. In the adjusted models, a greater abdominal SAT index was associated with an increased risk of PGD (odds ratio 1.9, 95% CI 1.02-3.4, p = 0.04) but not with survival time. VAT indices were not associated with PGD risk or survival time. A greater abdominal SAT index correlated with greater pre- and post-transplant leptin (r = 0.61, p < 0.001, and r = 0.44, p < 0.001), pre-transplant IL-1RA (r = 0.25, p = 0.04), and post-transplant ICAM-1 (r = 0.25, p = 0.04). We identified 3 latent patterns of adiposity. The class defined by high thoracic and abdominal SAT had the greatest risk of PGD.ConclusionsSubcutaneous, but not visceral, adiposity is associated with an increased risk of PGD after lung transplantation