CMS Central Hadron Calorimeter

We present a description of the CMS central hadron calorimeter. We describe the production of the 1996 CMS hadron testbeam module. We show the results of the quality control tests of the testbeam module. We present some results of the 1995 CMS hadron testbeam.Comment: 7 pages, 11 Figures, corresponding author: H. Budd, [email protected]

What Makes a Habitat a Home: Understanding Settlement and Recruitment Variation in European Sea Bass, Dicentrarchus labrax

Sea bass stocks in the UK are in decline as a result of increased fishing pressure and variable inter-annual recruitment. Recruitment variation is driven by survival in the early life stages; therefore, nursery habitats are thought to be able to stabilize recruitment through providing optimal growth conditions for juvenile fish. A thorough understanding of the factors that drive juvenile sea bass survival is needed, however, our understanding of what constitutes quality nursery habitat for juvenile sea bass is weak, with current knowledge based almost solely on saltmarshes. Juvenile sea bass were sampled using conventional seine and fyke nets across estuarine habitats, alongside dietary DNA metabarcoding to assess their distribution diet and condition, using measures of abundance, condition, stomach fullness, and diet. To determine whether the mechanism of larvae entering estuarine nurseries is an active or passive process the vertical distribution patterns of larval sea bass were compared across tidal cycles. Finally, over-winter survival was predicted based on energy budget modelling and temperature-dependent growth experiments, based on in-situ measurements of winter temperatures. Juvenile sea bass did not differentially select high tide habitats, but saltmarshes and sand provided increased foraging success. At low tide, however, sea bass were more abundant in complex habitat with lower foraging success. Diets mainly consisted of decapods and polychaete worms across habitats, but there was evidence of increased planktivory over mud. Larval sea bass did not show evidence of flood tide transport and likely rely on passive tidal forcing to migrate into estuaries, or they are trying to retain to deeper water. According to our models, winter thermal minima resulted in complete cohort loss in all scenarios on the East coast. The results of this study suggest that multiple habitats along the estuarine mosaic are important for juvenile sea bass at some point, and that a seascape approach to management is necessary, however, winter temperatures likely present a more extreme bottleneck to recruitment

Loss of RASSF2 Enhances Tumorigencity of Lung Cancer Cells and Confers Resistance to Chemotherapy

RASSF2 is a novel pro-apoptotic effector of K-Ras that is frequently inactivated in a variety of primary tumors by promoter methylation. Inactivation of RASSF2 enhances K-Ras-mediated transformation and overexpression of RASSF2 suppresses tumor cell growth. In this study, we confirm that RASSF2 and K-Ras form an endogenous complex, validating that RASSF2 is a bona fide K-Ras effector. We adopted an RNAi approach to determine the effects of inactivation of RASSF2 on the transformed phenotype of lung cancer cells containing an oncogenic K-Ras. Loss of RASSF2 expression resulted in a more aggressive phenotype that was characterized by enhanced cell proliferation and invasion, decreased cell adhesion, the ability to grow in an anchorage-independent manner and cell morphological changes. This enhanced transformed phenotype of the cells correlated with increased levels of activated AKT, indicating that RASSF2 can modulate Ras signaling pathways. Loss of RASSF2 expression also confers resistance to taxol and cisplatin, two frontline therapeutics for the treatment of lung cancer. Thus we have shown that inactivation of RASSF2, a process that occurs frequently in primary tumors, enhances the transforming potential of activated K-Ras and our data suggests that RASSF2 may be a novel candidate for epigenetic-based therapy in lung cancer

A Metallurgical Investigation of Large Forged Discs of Low-carbon N-155 Alloy

Research was undertaken to ascertain the properties of better wrought heat resisting alloys in the form of large discs required for gas turbine rotors. The properties of large discs of low carbon N-155 alloy in both the as-forged and water-quenched and aged conditions were determined by means of stress-rupture and creep tests for time periods up to about 2000 hours at 1200, 1350, and 1500 F. Short-time tensile test, impact test, and time-total deformation characteristics are included. The principle results are given

Our Milky Way as a Pure-Disk Galaxy -- A Challenge for Galaxy Formation

Bulges are commonly believed to form in the dynamical violence of galaxy collisions and mergers. Here we model the stellar kinematics of the Bulge Radial Velocity Assay (BRAVA), and find no sign that the Milky Way contains a classical bulge formed by scrambling pre-existing disks of stars in major mergers. Rather, the bulge appears to be a bar, seen somewhat end-on, as hinted from its asymmetric boxy shape. We construct a simple but realistic N-body model of the Galaxy that self-consistently develops a bar. The bar immediately buckles and thickens in the vertical direction. As seen from the Sun, the result resembles the boxy bulge of our Galaxy. The model fits the BRAVA stellar kinematic data covering the whole bulge strikingly well with no need for a merger-made classical bulge. The bar in our best fit model has a half-length of ~ 4kpc and extends 20 degrees from the Sun-Galactic Center line. We use the new kinematic constraints to show that any classical bulge contribution cannot be larger than ~ 8% of the disk mass. Thus the Galactic bulge is a part of the disk and not a separate component made in a prior merger. Giant, pure-disk galaxies like our own present a major challenge to the standard picture in which galaxy formation is dominated by hierarchical clustering and galaxy mergers.Comment: 5 pages; emulateapj format; minor changes to match the ApJL accepted version. A quicktime movie is available to illustrate the spectacular bending instability that gives rise to the boxy pseudobulge: http://www.as.utexas.edu/~shen/movies/2view_bending_inertialframe.mo

The Use of Software Design Patterns to Teach Secure Software Design: An Integrated Approach

Part 2: Software Security EducationInternational audienceDuring software development, security is often dealt with as an add-on. This means that security considerations are not necessarily seen as an integral part of the overall solution and might even be left out of a design. For many security problems, the approach towards secure development has recurring elements. Software design patterns are often used to address a commonly occurring problem through a “generic” approach towards this problem. The design pattern provides a conceptual model of a best-practices solution, which in turn is used by developers to create a concrete implementation for their specific problem. Most software design patterns do not include security best-practices as part of the generic solution towards the commonly occurring problem. This paper proposes an extension to the widely used MVC pattern that includes current security principles in order to teach secure software design in an integrated fashion