Application of the WEPP model with digital geographic information

The Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) is a process-based continuous simulation erosion model that can be applied to hillslope profiles and small watersheds. One limitation to application of WEPP (or other models) to the field or farm scale is the difficulty in determining the watershed structure, which may be composed of multiple channels and profiles (and potentially other features as well). This presentation describes current efforts to link the WEPP model with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and utilize Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data to generate the necessary topographic inputs for erosion model simulations. Two automated approaches for applying the WEPP model have been developed and compared to manual application of the model. The first approach (named the Hillslope method) uses information from a DEM to delineate the watershed boundary, channel and hillslope locations, and then configure "representative" hillslope slope profiles from the myriad flowpath data. The second approach (named the Flowpath method) also uses DEM information to delineate the watershed boundary, but then runs WEPP model simulations on every flowpath within a watershed. For a set of research watersheds, the automatic Hillslope method performed as well as a manual application of WEPP by an expert user in predictions of runoff and sediment loss. Tests also showed that the Hillslope and Flowpath methods were not significantly different than each other or different from manual model applications in predictions of hillslope erosion. Additional research work ongoing at the National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory is examining the feasibility of using commonly available digital elevation data (for example from on-vehicle Geographical Positioning Systems (GPS)) to provide input for the automated techniques for driving the erosion model

Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV. The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b, leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W' boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe

Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV

A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Measurement of the Lambda(b) cross section and the anti-Lambda(b) to Lambda(b) ratio with Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda decays in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The Lambda(b) differential production cross section and the cross section ratio anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) are measured as functions of transverse momentum pt(Lambda(b)) and rapidity abs(y(Lambda(b))) in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The measurements are based on Lambda(b) decays reconstructed in the exclusive final state J/Psi Lambda, with the subsequent decays J/Psi to an opposite-sign muon pair and Lambda to proton pion, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.9 inverse femtobarns. The product of the cross section times the branching ratio for Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda versus pt(Lambda(b)) falls faster than that of b mesons. The measured value of the cross section times the branching ratio for pt(Lambda(b)) > 10 GeV and abs(y(Lambda(b))) < 2.0 is 1.06 +/- 0.06 +/- 0.12 nb, and the integrated cross section ratio for anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) is 1.02 +/- 0.07 +/- 0.09, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

DER OKONOMISCHE EFFEKT EINER ERHOHUNG DER ARBEITSLOSENLEISTUNGEN : NEUBETRACHT UNTER VERWENDUNG DES ATKINSON MODELLS

In der zweiten Halfte der 1970er begannen sich wirtschaftliche Kennziffern industrialisierter Staaten rapide zu verschlechtern. Gleichzeitig ruckte der Wohlfahrtsstaat als Ursache in das Zentrum der Kritik. Einige Wirtschaftswissenschaftler, insbesondere die deutschen Neo- Liberalisten, hatten bereits seit den 1950ern eine kritische Haltung zum wohlfahrtsstaatlichen Konzept eingenommen. Seit den 1970ern gesellten sich zu diesen Liberalisten auch viele Wirtschaftswissenschaftler, die zuvor den Wohlfahrtsstaat unterstutzt hatten. A.B. Atkinson wies jedoch daraufhin, daB viele der verwandten okonomischen Analysen auf un- fundierten theoretischen Modellen basierten, die die eigentlichen Merkmale des sozialen Wohlfahrtsprogramms auBer Acht lieBen. In der vorliegenden Arbeit gehen wir daher, den wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen der Arbeitslosenversicherung in Einklang mit Atkinsons Kritik nach. Es gelang ihm gegenteilige Ergebnisse zu dem popularen Shapiro und Stiglitz Shirking Modell, durch Einfuhrung zweier Annahmen, d.h. Arbeitslosenleistungen werden identifizierten Shirkern vorenthalten und Arbeitslosenleistungen werden generell nur fur einen bestimmten Zeitraum angeboten, nachzuweisen. In der vorliegenden Arbeit zeigen wir, daB Gehalt basierende Arbeitslosenleistungen sich positiv auf Produktivitat und Beschaftigung auswirken. Zeitliche Begrenzung und eine ansteigende Sockelleistung alleine haben nicht die gleichen Ergebnisse im Shapiro und Stiglitz Modell

Measurement of isolated photon production in pp and PbPb collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 2.76 TeV

Isolated photon production is measured in proton-proton and lead-lead collisions at nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energies of 2.76 TeV in the pseudorapidity range |eta|<1.44 and transverse energies ET between 20 and 80 GeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. The measured ET spectra are found to be in good agreement with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD predictions. The ratio of PbPb to pp isolated photon ET-differential yields, scaled by the number of incoherent nucleon-nucleon collisions, is consistent with unity for all PbPb reaction centralities.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Search for new physics in events with opposite-sign leptons, jets, and missing transverse energy in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search is presented for physics beyond the standard model (BSM) in final states with a pair of opposite-sign isolated leptons accompanied by jets and missing transverse energy. The search uses LHC data recorded at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the CMS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 5 inverse femtobarns. Two complementary search strategies are employed. The first probes models with a specific dilepton production mechanism that leads to a characteristic kinematic edge in the dilepton mass distribution. The second strategy probes models of dilepton production with heavy, colored objects that decay to final states including invisible particles, leading to very large hadronic activity and missing transverse energy. No evidence for an event yield in excess of the standard model expectations is found. Upper limits on the BSM contributions to the signal regions are deduced from the results, which are used to exclude a region of the parameter space of the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model. Additional information related to detector efficiencies and response is provided to allow testing specific models of BSM physics not considered in this paper.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO