Application of molecular techniques to the diagnosis of microsporidial infection.

Microsporidia are now recognized as important pathogens of AIDS patients; the ability of these parasites to cause disease in immunocompetent persons is still being elucidated. Improved diagnostic tests for microsporidial infection are continually being sought for establishing diagnosis in order to avoid laborious electron microscopy studies that require invasively acquired biopsy specimens. Modified trichrome or chemofluorescent stains are useful for detecting microsporidia in bodily fluids and stool specimens, but they do not allow for speciation of microsporidia. Polymerase chain reaction with specific primers will allow the detection and speciation of microsporidia in biopsy tissue, bodily fluids, and stool specimens

Compacting of fly dusts from cupola and electric arc furnace

Recycling and utilization of dust waste is important not only from the point of view of its usage as an alternative source of raw materials, but regarding the environmental problems also. Dust emissions arise from thermal and chemical or physical processes and mechanical actions. Two kinds of fl y dusts from cupola furnaces (hot and cold blast cupola furnace) and fl y dust from electric arc furnace were used by experiments. They were pelletized only with addition of water and briquetted with diff erent addition of water glass, bentonite and cement. Quality of briquettes was tested by compression – strength test and by break down test in green state, after drying and afterstoring (1 month)

Kompaktiranje lebdeće prašine iz kupolne i elektrolučne peći

Recycling and utilization of dust waste is important not only from the point of view of its usage as an alternative source of raw materials, but regarding the environmental problems also. Dust emissions arise from thermal and chemical or physical processes and mechanical actions. Two kinds of fl y dusts from cupola furnaces (hot and cold blast cupola furnace) and fl y dust from electric arc furnace were used by experiments. They were pelletized only with addition of water and briquetted with different addition of water glass, bentonite and cement. Quality of briquettes was tested by compression – strength test and by break down test in green state, after drying and after storing (1 month).Recikliranje i iskorištavanje otpadne prašine važno je zbog aspekta njezine uporabe kao alternativnog izvora sirovina, ali također i s obzirom na ekološke probleme. Emisija prašina nastaje iz termičkih, kemijskih ili fi zikalnih procesa te mehaničkih aktivnosti. U eksperimentalnom dijelu korištene su dvije vrste lebdeće prašine iz kupolne peći (s predgrijanim i hladnim zrakom) te elektrolučne peći. Prašina je peletizirana samo uz dodatak vode i briketirana s različitim dodatkom vodenog stakla, bentonita i cementa. Kvaliteta briketa je određena ispitivanjem tlačne čvrstoće u sirovom stanju, nakon sušenja i nakon skladištenja (1 mjesec)

The Machine Learning Landscape of Top Taggers

Based on the established task of identifying boosted, hadronically decaying top quarks, we compare a wide range of modern machine learning approaches. Unlike most established methods they rely on low-level input, for instance calorimeter output. While their network architectures are vastly different, their performance is comparatively similar. In general, we find that these new approaches are extremely powerful and great fun.Comment: Yet another tagger included

Design and construction of new central and forward muon counters for CDF II

New scintillation counters have been designed and constructed for the CDF upgrade in order to complete the muon coverage of the central CDF detector, and to extend this coverage to larger pseudorapidity. A novel light collection technique using wavelength shifting fibers, together with high quality polystyrene-based scintillator resulted in compact counters with good and stable light collection efficiency over lengths extending up to 320 cm. Their design and construction is described and results of their initial performance are reported.Comment: 20 pages, 15 figure

Measurement of the Lifetime Difference Between B_s Mass Eigenstates

We present measurements of the lifetimes and polarization amplitudes for B_s --> J/psi phi and B_d --> J/psi K*0 decays. Lifetimes of the heavy (H) and light (L) mass eigenstates in the B_s system are separately measured for the first time by determining the relative contributions of amplitudes with definite CP as a function of the decay time. Using 203 +/- 15 B_s decays, we obtain tau_L = (1.05 +{0.16}/-{0.13} +/- 0.02) ps and tau_H = (2.07 +{0.58}/-{0.46} +/- 0.03) ps. Expressed in terms of the difference DeltaGamma_s and average Gamma_s, of the decay rates of the two eigenstates, the results are DeltaGamma_s/Gamma_s = (65 +{25}/-{33} +/- 1)%, and DeltaGamma_s = (0.47 +{0.19}/-{0.24} +/- 0.01) inverse ps.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables; as published in Physical Review Letters on 16 March 2005; revisions are for length and typesetting only, no changes in results or conclusion

Evidence for the exclusive decay Bc+- to J/psi pi+- and measurement of the mass of the Bc meson

We report first evidence for a fully reconstructed decay mode of the B_c^{\pm} meson in the channel B_c^{\pm} \to J/psi \pi^{\pm}, with J/psi \to mu^+mu^-. The analysis is based on an integrated luminosity of 360 pb$^{-1} in p\bar{p} collisions at 1.96 TeV center of mass energy collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab. We observe 14.6 \pm 4.6 signal events with a background of 7.1 \pm 0.9 events, and a fit to the J/psi pi^{\pm} mass spectrum yields a B_c^{\pm} mass of 6285.7 \pm 5.3(stat) \pm 1.2(syst) MeV/c^2. The probability of a peak of this magnitude occurring by random fluctuation in the search region is estimated as 0.012%.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. Version 3, accepted by PR

Top quark mass measurement using the template method at CDF

We present a measurement of the top quark mass in the lepton+jets and dilepton channels of $t\bar{t}$ decays using the template method. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.6 fb$^{-1}$ of $p\bar{p}$ collisions at Tevatron with $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV, collected with the CDF II detector. The measurement is performed by constructing templates of three kinematic variables in the lepton+jets and two kinematic variables in the dilepton channel. The variables are two reconstructed top quark masses from different jets-to-quarks combinations and the invariant mass of two jets from the $W$ decay in the lepton+jets channel, and a reconstructed top quark mass and $m_{T2}$, a variable related to the transverse mass in events with two missing particles, in the dilepton channel. The simultaneous fit of the templates from signal and background events in the lepton+jets and dilepton channels to the data yields a measured top quark mass of $M_{top} = 172.1 \pm 1.1(stat) \pm 0.9(syst).$Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev.

Measurement of B(t->Wb)/B(t->Wq) at the Collider Detector at Fermilab

We present a measurement of the ratio of top-quark branching fractions R= B(t -> Wb)/B(t -> Wq), where q can be a b, s or a d quark, using lepton-plus-jets and dilepton data sets with integrated luminosity of ~162 pb^{-1} collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab during Run II of the Tevatron. The measurement is derived from the relative numbers of t-tbar events with different multiplicity of identified secondary vertices. We set a lower limit of R > 0.61 at 95% confidence level.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, published in Physical Review Letters; changes made to be consistent with published versio