Studies of Charged Higgs Boson Observability in the H->tb Decay at the ATLAS Experiment within the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model

This thesis presents a Monte Carlo study of the search for charged Higgs bosons heavier than the mass of the top quark within the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) at the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Charged Higgs bosons are predicted in many non-minimal Higgs extensions of the Standard Model. Their discovery would be a clear signal for the existence of New Physics beyond the Standard Model, possibly the first experimental evidence to be found if the MSSM is realized in nature. The feasibility of detecting the heavy charged Higgs boson with a mass up to 600 GeV is studied in the decay channel H->tb for an integrated luminosity of 30 inverse femtobarns at a center-of-mass energy of 10 TeV. A major difficulty for charged Higgs boson reconstruction is the combinatorial background in the complex multi-jet final state environment. It is shown that this can be overcome by applying a kinematic fitting procedure and by a subsequent cut-based event and candidate selection. An iterative solution of the developed kinematic fit with non-linear constraints is presented. In addition, the reconstruction of charged Higgs bosons makes high demands on the ability to identify jets containing b-hadrons. A special b-tagging algorithm is introduced and a comparison with first ATLAS data is presented showing good agreement of the expected performance. This study is performed with a realistic simulation of the ATLAS detector and takes into account all dominant experimental uncertainties and statistical uncertainties arising from limited Monte Carlo statistics. The result is given in terms of discovery and exclusion contours in the (m(H), tan(beta)) parameter space in the mhmax scenario of the MSSM. This study indicates that the heavy charged Higgs boson can be discovered in this decay channel only for large values of tan(beta). It, however, can contribute to a combined H sensitivity including other decay channels. Compared to previous studies the discovery reach could be improved.Die vorliegende Arbeit präsentiert eine Monte Carlo Studie zur Suche nach geladenen Higgs Bosonen mit einer Masse größer als die des top Quarks im Kontext des Minimal Supersymmetrischen Standardmodells (MSSM) am ATLAS Experiment am CERN Large Hadron Collider. Geladene Higgs Bosonen werden von vielen Erweiterungen des Standardmodells vorhergesagt. Ihre Entdeckung wäre ein klares Indiz für neue Physik jenseits des Standardmodells, möglicherweise der erste experimentelle Befund für das MSSM. Eine Machbarkeitsstudie zur Entdeckung geladener Higgs Bosonen mit Massen bis zu 600 GeV im Zerfallskanal H->tb für eine integrierte Luminosität von 30 inversen femtobarn und einer Schwerpunktsenergie von 10 TeV wird vorgestellt. Eine der Hauptschwierigkeiten bei der Rekonstruktion geladener Higgs Bosonen ist der durch den komplexen Endzustand mit vielen Jets auftretende kombinatorische Untergrund. Es wird gezeigt, dass die Rekonstruktion durch Anwendung eines kinematischen Fits mit anschließender schnittbasierter Ereignis- und Kandidatenselektion möglich ist. Eine iterative Lösung des entwickelten kinematischen Fits mit nicht-linearen Zwangsbedingungen wird vorgestellt. Des Weiteren stellt die Rekonstruktion geladener Higgs Bosonen hohe Ansprüche an die Möglichkeit, Jets, welche b-Hadronen beinhalten, zu identifizieren. Ein spezieller b-tagging Algorithmus wird vorgestellt und ein Vergleich mit den ersten ATLAS Daten zeigt eine gute Übereinstimmung mit den erwarteten Eigenschaften. Die Studie wurde mit einer realistischen ATLAS Detektorsimulation durchgeführt und beinhaltet alle dominanten experimentellen Unsicherheiten sowie die statistische Unsicherheiten aufgrund begrenzt vorhandener simulierter Ereignisse. Die erwarteten Entdeckungs- und Ausschlusskonturen im mhmax Szenario des MSSM werden als Funktion der geladenen Higgs Boson Masse und tan(beta) gegeben. Die durchgeführte Studie zeigt, dass geladene Higgs Bosonen in diesem Zerfallskanal nur bei großen Werten von tan(beta) entdeckt werden können. Dennoch kann dieser Zerfallskanal zur H Sensitivität beitragen, wenn andere Zerfallskanäle mit in Betracht gezogen werden. Im Vergleich zu vorherigen Studien konnte die Sensitivität erhöht werden

Effects of Variability in Synthetic Training Data on Convolutional Neural Networks for 3D Head Reconstruction

Göpfert JP, Göpfert C, Botsch M, Hammer B. Effects of Variability in Synthetic Training Data on Convolutional Neural Networks for 3D Head Reconstruction. In: 2017 SSCI Proceedings. 2017 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (SSCI). Piscataway, NJ: IEEE; 2017

Model-based fault diagnosis via structural analysis of a reverse osmosis plant

Water desalination is one approach to force water scarcity. One of the processes used for desalination is reverse osmosis. Like other systems, a reverse osmosis plant is susceptible to faults. A fault can lead to a loss of efficiency, or if the fault is severe to a total breakdown. Appropriate measures can minimize the impact of faults, but this requires in time fault detection. The following thesis shows a proposal for an online fault diagnosis system of a reverse osmosis plant. For the model-based approach, a mathematical model of a reverse osmosis plant has been developed. The model contains a new approach for modeling the interaction between the high-pressure pump, the brine valve, and the membrane module. Furthermore, six faults considered for fault diagnosis have been modeled. Two of the faults are plant faults: The leakage of the feed stream and membrane fouling. The other four faults are sensor or actuator malfunctions. The fault diagnosis system is developed via structural analysis, a graph-based approach to determine a mathematical model’s overdetermined systems of equations. With the structural analysis, 73 fault-driven minimal structurally overdetermined (FMSO) sets have been determined. The results show that all six faults are detectable. However, two faults are not isolable. Five of the FMSO sets have been chosen to deduce the residuals used for online fault detection and isolation. The simulations demonstrate that the calculated residuals are appropriate to detect and isolate the faults. If one assumes that only the considered faults occur, it is possible to determine some faults’ magnitude

Integrated health and care systems in England : can they help prevent disease?

Objectives: Over the past 12 months, there has been increasing policy rhetoric regarding the role of the NHS in preventing disease and improving population health. In particular, the NHS Long Term Plan sees integrated care systems (ICSs) and sustainability and transformation partnerships (STPs) as routes to improving disease prevention. Here, we place current NHS England integrated care plans in their historical context and review evidence on the relationship between integrated care and prevention. We ask how the NHS Long Term Plan may help prevent disease and explore the role of the 2019 ICS and STP plans in delivering this change. Methods: We reviewed the evidence underlying the relationship between integrated care and disease prevention, and analysed 2016 STP plans for content relating to disease prevention and population health. Results: The evidence of more integrated care leading to better disease prevention is weak. Although nearly all 2016 STP plans included a prevention or population health strategy, fewer than half specified how they will work with local government public health teams, and there was incomplete coverage across plans about how they would meet NHS England prevention priorities. Plans broadly focused on individual-level approaches to disease prevention, with few describing interventions addressing social determinants of health. Conclusions: For ICSs and STPs to meaningfully prevent disease and improve population health, they need to look beyond their 2016 plans and fill the gaps in the Long Term Plan on social determinants

Hearing in Drosophila

The dissection of the Drosophila auditory system has revealed multiple parallels between fly and vertebrate hearing. Recent studies have analyzed the operation of auditory sensory cells and the processing of sound in the fly's brain. Neuronal responses to sound have been characterized, and novel classes of auditory neurons have been defined; transient receptor potential (TRP) channels were implicated in auditory transduction, and genetic and environmental causes of auditory dysfunctions have been identified. This review discusses the implications of these recent advances on our understanding of how hearing happens in the fly