609 research outputs found
Digitising the Turing Archive: A Pilot Study
This report presents a summary of the pilot project to produce an on-line version of a selected portion of the archive of Alan Turing held at King’s College, Cambridge. The design and creation of a database making use of information held in the archive catalogue is discussed. The production of a Web based interface to access the on-line materials is described. The practical issues involved in digitising documents are covered and the lessons learnt from this process are included. Finally, the report also presents an effort model, and sample timings from which cost estimates can be obtained
A Measurement of Time-Averaged Aerosol Optical Depth using Air-Showers Observed in Stereo by HiRes
Air fluorescence measurements of cosmic ray energy must be corrected for
attenuation of the atmosphere. In this paper we show that the air-showers
themselves can yield a measurement of the aerosol attenuation in terms of
optical depth, time-averaged over extended periods. Although the technique
lacks statistical power to make the critical hourly measurements that only
specialized active instruments can achieve, we note the technique does not
depend on absolute calibration of the detector hardware, and requires no
additional equipment beyond the fluorescence detectors that observe the air
showers. This paper describes the technique, and presents results based on
analysis of 1258 air-showers observed in stereo by the High Resolution Fly's
Eye over a four year span.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication by Astroparticle Physics
Journa
Observation of the Ankle and Evidence for a High-Energy Break in the Cosmic Ray Spectrum
We have measured the cosmic ray spectrum at energies above eV using
the two air fluorescence detectors of the High Resolution Fly's Eye experiment
operating in monocular mode. We describe the detector, PMT and atmospheric
calibrations, and the analysis techniques for the two detectors. We fit the
spectrum to models describing galactic and extragalactic sources. Our measured
spectrum gives an observation of a feature known as the ``ankle'' near eV, and strong evidence for a suppression near eV.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures. To appear in Physics Letters B. Accepted versio
Corrections to flat-space particle dynamics arising from space granularity
The construction of effective Hamiltonians describing corrections to flat
space particle dynamics arising from the granularity of space at very short
distances is discussed in the framework of an heuristic approach to the
semiclassical limit of loop quantum gravity. After some general motivation of
the subject, a brief non-specialist introduction to the basic tools employed in
the loop approach is presented. The heuristical semiclassical limit is
subsequently defined and the application to the case of photons and spin 1/2
fermions is described. The resulting modified Maxwell and Dirac Hamiltonians,
leading in particular to Planck scale corrections in the energy-momentum
relations, are presented. Alternative interpretations of the results and their
limitations, together with other approaches are briefly discussed along the
text. Three topics related to the above methods are reviewed: (1) The
determination of bounds to the Lorentz violating parameters in the fermionic
sector, obtained from clock comparison experiments.(2) The calculation of
radiative corrections in preferred frames associated to space granularity in
the framework of a Yukawa model for the interactions and (3) The calculation of
synchrotron radiation in the framework of the Myers-Pospelov effective theories
describing Lorentz invariance violations, as well as a generalized approach to
radiation in Planck scale modified electrodynamics. The above exploratory
results show that quantum gravity phenomenology provides observational guidance
in the construction of quantum gravity theories and opens up the possibility of
probing Planck scale physics.Comment: 49 pages, 6 figures and 4 tables. Extended version of the talk given
at the 339-th WE-Heraeus-Seminar: Special Relativity, will it survive the
next 100 years?, Potsdam, february 200
Shrinking a large dataset to identify variables associated with increased risk of Plasmodium falciparum infection in Western Kenya
Large datasets are often not amenable to analysis using traditional single-step approaches. Here, our general objective was to apply imputation techniques, principal component analysis (PCA), elastic net and generalized linear models to a large dataset in a systematic approach to extract the most meaningful predictors for a health outcome. We extracted predictors for Plasmodium falciparum infection, from a large covariate dataset while facing limited numbers of observations, using data from the People, Animals, and their Zoonoses (PAZ) project to demonstrate these techniques: data collected from 415 homesteads in western Kenya, contained over 1500 variables that describe the health, environment, and social factors of the humans, livestock, and the homesteads in which they reside. The wide, sparse dataset was simplified to 42 predictors of P. falciparum malaria infection and wealth rankings were produced for all homesteads. The 42 predictors make biological sense and are supported by previous studies. This systematic data-mining approach we used would make many large datasets more manageable and informative for decision-making processes and health policy prioritization
Global Search for New Physics with 2.0/fb at CDF
Data collected in Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron are searched for
indications of new electroweak-scale physics. Rather than focusing on
particular new physics scenarios, CDF data are analyzed for discrepancies with
the standard model prediction. A model-independent approach (Vista) considers
gross features of the data, and is sensitive to new large cross-section
physics. Further sensitivity to new physics is provided by two additional
algorithms: a Bump Hunter searches invariant mass distributions for "bumps"
that could indicate resonant production of new particles; and the Sleuth
procedure scans for data excesses at large summed transverse momentum. This
combined global search for new physics in 2.0/fb of ppbar collisions at
sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV reveals no indication of physics beyond the standard model.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. Final version which appeared in Physical Review D
Rapid Communication
Observation of Orbitally Excited B_s Mesons
We report the first observation of two narrow resonances consistent with
states of orbitally excited (L=1) B_s mesons using 1 fb^{-1} of ppbar
collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV collected with the CDF II detector at the
Fermilab Tevatron. We use two-body decays into K^- and B^+ mesons reconstructed
as B^+ \to J/\psi K^+, J/\psi \to \mu^+ \mu^- or B^+ \to \bar{D}^0 \pi^+,
\bar{D}^0 \to K^+ \pi^-. We deduce the masses of the two states to be m(B_{s1})
= 5829.4 +- 0.7 MeV/c^2 and m(B_{s2}^*) = 5839.7 +- 0.7 MeV/c^2.Comment: Version accepted and published by Phys. Rev. Let
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