3,560 research outputs found
LHCb Upgrade Plans
The LHCb experiment will operate for about five years at a luminosity of
2x10^32 cm^-2 s^-1 and plans are to accumulate a data sample of ~10 fb^-1. Here
we present the physics programme and detector design for a future high
luminosity phase of the LHCb experiment. An upgraded LHCb experiment would
operate at ten times the design luminosity, i.e. at ~2x10^33 cm^-2 s^-1 and
aims to collect a data sample of ~100 fb^-1 over five years. This programme
would allow the probe of new physics at an unprecedented level. Key
measurements include the B^0_s mixing phase phi_s in B^0_s -> J/\psi phi and
B^0_s -> phi phi decays with a significant sensitivity to the small Standard
Model prediction and a very precise measurement of the CKM angle gamma in tree
diagram decays. Initial studies of the modified LHCb trigger and detectors are
presented. The upgraded LHCb experiment can run with or without an LHC
luminosity upgrade.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of International
Conference on B-Physics at Hadron Machines (Beauty 2006), Oxford, England,
25-29 Sep 200
Storage and retrieval of vector beams of light in a multiple-degree-of-freedom quantum memory
The full structuration of light in the transverse plane, including intensity,
phase and polarization, holds the promise of unprecedented capabilities for
applications in classical optics as well as in quantum optics and information
sciences. Harnessing special topologies can lead to enhanced focusing, data
multiplexing or advanced sensing and metrology. Here we experimentally
demonstrate the storage of such spatio-polarization-patterned beams into an
optical memory. A set of vectorial vortex modes is generated via liquid crystal
cell with topological charge in the optic axis distribution, and preservation
of the phase and polarization singularities is demonstrated after retrieval, at
the single-photon level. The realized multiple-degree-of-freedom memory can
find applications in classical data processing but also in quantum network
scenarios where structured states have been shown to provide promising
attributes, such as rotational invariance
Device-independent certification of high-dimensional quantum systems
An important problem in quantum information processing is the certification
of the dimension of quantum systems without making assumptions about the
devices used to prepare and measure them, that is, in a device-independent
manner. A crucial question is whether such certification is experimentally
feasible for high-dimensional quantum systems. Here we experimentally witness
in a device-independent manner the generation of six-dimensional quantum
systems encoded in the orbital angular momentum of single photons and show that
the same method can be scaled, at least, up to dimension 13.Comment: REVTeX4, 5 pages, 2 figure
A search for Z' in muon neutrino associated charm production
In many extensions of the Standard Model the presence of an extra neutral
boson, Z', is invoked. A precision study of weak neutral-current exchange
processes involving only second generation fermions is still missing. We
propose a search for Z' in muon neutrino associated charm production. This
process only involves Z' couplings with fermions from the second generation. An
experimental method is thoroughly described using an ideal detector. As an
application, the accuracy reachable with present and future experiments has
been estimated.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, late
Improved magnetic charged system search optimization algorithm with application to satellite formation flying
This paper is devoted to the implementation and application of an improved version of the metaheuristic algorithm called magnetic charged system search. Some modifications and novelties are introduced and tested. Firstly, the authors’ attempt is to develop a self-adaptive and user-friendly algorithm which can automatically set all the preliminary parameters (such as the numbers of particles, the maximum iterations number) and the internal coefficients. Indeed, some mathematical laws are proposed to set the parameters and many coefficients can dynamically change during the optimization process based on the verification of internal conditions. Secondly, some strategies are suggested to enhance the performances of the proposed algorithm. A chaotic local search is introduced to improve the global best particle of each iteration by exploiting the features of ergodicity and randomness. Moreover, a novel technique is proposed to handle bad-defined boundaries; in fact, the possibility to self-enlarge the boundaries of the optimization variables is considered, allowing to achieve the global optimum even if it is located on the boundaries or outside. The algorithm is tested through some benchmark functions and engineering design problems, showing good results, followed by an application regarding the problem of time-suboptimal manoeuvres for satellite formation flying, where the inverse dynamics technique, together with the B-splines, is employed. This analysis proves the ability of the proposed algorithm to optimize control problems related to space engineering, obtaining better results with respect to more common and used algorithms in literature
Can Twitter be a source of information on allergy? Correlation of pollen counts with tweets reporting symptoms of allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and names of antihistamine drugs
Pollen forecasts are in use everywhere to inform therapeutic decisions for patients with allergic rhinoconjunctivitis (ARC). We exploited data derived from Twitter in order to identify tweets reporting a combination of symptoms consistent with a case definition of ARC and those reporting the name of an antihistamine drug. In order to increase the sensitivity of the system, we applied an algorithm aimed at automatically identifying jargon expressions related to medical terms. We compared weekly Twitter trends with National Allergy Bureau weekly pollen counts derived from US stations, and found a high correlation of the sum of the total pollen counts from each stations with tweets reporting ARC symptoms (Pearson's correlation coefficient: 0.95) and with tweets reporting antihistamine drug names (Pearson's correlation coefficient: 0.93). Longitude and latitude of the pollen stations affected the strength of the correlation. Twitter and other social networks may play a role in allergic disease surveillance and in signaling drug consumptions trends
Is contrast-enhanced US alternative to spiral CT in the assessment of treatment outcome of radiofrequency ablation in hepatocellular carcinoma?
Purpose: The present study was conducted to assess the efficacy of contrast-enhanced ultrasound with low mechanical index in evaluating the response of percutaneous radiofrequency ablation treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma by comparing it with 4-row spiral computed tomography. Materials and Methods: 100 consecutive patients (65 men and 35 women; age range: 62 – 76 years) with solitary hepatocellular carcinomas (mean lesion diameter: 3.7cm± 1.1cm SD) underwent internally cooled radiofrequency ablation. Therapeutic response was evaluated at one month after the treatment with triple-phasic contrast-enhanced spiral CT and low-mechanical index contrast-enhanced ultrasound following bolus injection of 2.4 ml of Sonovue (Bracco, Milan). 60 out of 100 patients were followed up for another 3 months. Contrast-enhanced sonographic studies were reviewed by two blinded radiologists in consensus. Sensitivity, specificity, NPV and PPV of contrast-enhanced ultrasound examination were determined. Results: After treatment, contrast-enhanced ultrasound identified persistent signal enhancement in 24 patients (24%), whereas no intratumoral enhancement was detected in the remaining 76 patients (76%). Using CT imaging as gold standard, the sensitivity, specificity, NPV, and PPV of contrast enhanced ultrasound were 92.3% (95% CI = 75.9 – 97.9%), 100% (95% CI = 95.2 – 100%), 97.4% (95% CI = 91.1 – 99.3%), and 100% (95% CI = 86.2 – 100%). Conclusion: Contrast-enhanced ultrasound with low mechanical index using Sonovue is a feasible tool in evaluating the response of hepatocellular carcinoma to radiofrequency ablation. Accuracy is comparable to 4-row spiral CT
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