15 research outputs found
Icecube, the World's Largest Dark Matter Detector
IceCube is a kilometer scale high-energy neutrino observatory, currently
under construction at the South Pole. It is a photo-detector, using the deep
Antarctic ice as detection medium for the Cherenkov photons induced by
relativistic charged particles. These charged particles may be atmospheric
muons or reaction products from neutrino interactions in the vicinity of the
instrumented volume. The experiment searches for neutrinos originating in
astrophysical sources, and can also detect neutrinos from WIMP interaction in
the Sun or Earth. In the last two austral summers, 9 in-ice strings and 16
surface IceTop stations (out of up to 80 planned) were successfully deployed,
and the detector has been taking data ever since. In this proceedings, IceCube
design, present status, performance and dark matter detection sensitivities
will be discussed.Comment: IDM 2006 Conference proceedings. 7 pages, 7 figure
A model independent safeguard for unbinned Likelihood
We present a universal method to include residual un-modeled background shape
uncertainties in likelihood based statistical tests for high energy physics and
astroparticle physics. This approach provides a simple and natural protection
against mismodeling, thus lowering the chances of a false discovery or of an
over constrained confidence interval, and allows a natural transition to
unbinned space. Unbinned likelihood allows optimal usage of information for the
data and the models, and enhances the sensitivity.
We show that the asymptotic behavior of the test statistic can be regained in
cases where the model fails to describe the true background behavior, and
present 1D and 2D case studies for model-driven and data-driven background
models. The resulting penalty on sensitivities follows the actual discrepancy
between the data and the models, and is asymptotically reduced to zero with
increasing knowledge
Measurement of the Production Rate of Charm Quark Pairs from Gluons in Hadronic Decays
The rate of secondary charm-quark-pair production has been measured in 4.4 million hadronic Z0 decays collected by OPAL. By selecting events with three jets and tagging charmed hadrons in the gluon jet candidate using leptons and charged D* mesons, the average number of secondary charm-quark pairs per hadronic event is found to be (3.20+-0.21+-0.38)x10-2
A Novel Modality Enables New Evidence-Based Individual Risk Stratification That Can Potentially Lead to Decisive Management and Treatment Decisions in Prostate Cancer
A key step in providing management/treatment options to men with suspected prostate cancer (PCa) is categorizing the risk in terms of the presence of benign, low-risk, intermediate-risk, or high-risk disease. Our novel modality brings new evidence, based on the long-known hallmark characteristic of PCa—decreased zinc (Zn), which is the most direct metabolic sign of malignancy and its aggressiveness. To date, this approach has not been adopted for clinical use for a number of reasons that are described in this article, and which have been addressed by our approach. Zn has to be measured on fresh samples, prior to fixating in formalin; therefore, samples have to be scanned during the biopsy session. As Zn depletion occurs in the glands where the tumors develop, estimation of the glands’ levels in the scanned tissue, along with their compactness, are essential for accurate diagnosis. Combined with the Zn depletion, this facilitates a reliable assessment of disease aggressiveness. Data gathered in the clinical study described here indicate that, in addition to improving the biopsy quality by real-time interactive guidance, a malignancy score can now be established for the entire prostate, allowing higher granularity personalized risk stratification and more decisive treatment decisions for all PCa patients
A Novel Modality Enables New Evidence-Based Individual Risk Stratification That Can Potentially Lead to Decisive Management and Treatment Decisions in Prostate Cancer
A key step in providing management/treatment options to men with suspected prostate cancer (PCa) is categorizing the risk in terms of the presence of benign, low-risk, intermediate-risk, or high-risk disease. Our novel modality brings new evidence, based on the long-known hallmark characteristic of PCa—decreased zinc (Zn), which is the most direct metabolic sign of malignancy and its aggressiveness. To date, this approach has not been adopted for clinical use for a number of reasons that are described in this article, and which have been addressed by our approach. Zn has to be measured on fresh samples, prior to fixating in formalin; therefore, samples have to be scanned during the biopsy session. As Zn depletion occurs in the glands where the tumors develop, estimation of the glands’ levels in the scanned tissue, along with their compactness, are essential for accurate diagnosis. Combined with the Zn depletion, this facilitates a reliable assessment of disease aggressiveness. Data gathered in the clinical study described here indicate that, in addition to improving the biopsy quality by real-time interactive guidance, a malignancy score can now be established for the entire prostate, allowing higher granularity personalized risk stratification and more decisive treatment decisions for all PCa patients
The Cosmic Ray Hodoscope for Testing Thin Gap Chambers at the Technion.
The cosmic ray hodoscope built at the Technion for the test of ATLAS Thin Gap Chambers (TGCs) is described. The mechanical structure, readout electronics, data acquisition and operating settings are presented. Typical TGC test results are presented and discussed