The Arcturus Moving Group: Its Place in the Galaxy

The Arcturus moving group is a well-populated example of phase space substructure within the thick disk of our Galaxy. Traditionally regarded as the remains of a dissolved open cluster, it has recently been suggested to be a remnant of a satellite accreted by our Galaxy. To investigate the origin of the group we undertook a high-resolution spectroscopic abundance study of Arcturus group members and candidates. Examining abundance of Fe, Mg, Ca, Ti, Cr, Ni, Zn, Ce, Nd, Sm and Gd for 134 stars we found that the group is chemically similar to disk stars and does not exhibit a clear chemical homogeneity. Furthermore, we confirm the existence of the Arcturus group using the Nordstroem et al. (2004), Schuster et al. (2006) and RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) surveys (Steinmetz et al. 2006). The origin of the group still remains unresolved: the chemical results are consistent with a dynamical origin but do not entirely rule out a merger one. Certainly, the Arcturus group provides a challenge to our understanding of the nature and origin of the Galaxy's thick disk.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the IAU Symposium 254: The Galaxy Disk in Cosmological Contex

The False Promise of General Jurisdiction

The Supreme Court has said that general jurisdiction provides at least one clear and certain forum to sue defendants, and that assumption has begun to shape the Court’s understanding of specific jurisdiction. But that assumption is wrong. General jurisdiction does not provide a guaranteed U.S. forum for foreign defendants or in cases involving multiple defendants. And even when defendants can be sued “at home,” such cases may be (and not infrequently are) dismissed for forum non conveniens, sometimes even when no alternative forum is available.Nor is a regime reliant on a general jurisdiction backstop desirable. The Court’s narrowed version of general jurisdiction creates incentives for states to favor local defendants—as Michigan has done through choice-of-law rules that give preference to lex fori and substantive laws that favor car manufacturers. Overreliance on general jurisdiction also channels litigation to states that may not want it—a concern already voiced by Delaware courts.This essay warns against developing the law of personal jurisdiction on the assumption that general jurisdiction will guarantee an available forum in which to sue defendants. Instead, we argue that the primary engine of personal jurisdiction must remain a flexible doctrine of specific jurisdiction. Rather than hunting for new formalisms in specific jurisdiction’s relatedness requirement, the Justices should embrace specific jurisdiction’s reasonableness factors as a ready-made tool for answering their recent worries

Empirical Color Transformations Between SDSS Photometry and Other Photometric Systems

We present empirical color transformations between the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) ugriz photometry and Johnson-Cousins UBVRI system and Becker's RGU system, respectively. Owing to the magnitude of data that is becoming available in the SDSS photometric system it is particularly important to be able to convert between this new system and traditional photometric systems. Unlike earlier published transformations we based our calculations on stars actually measured by the SDSS with the SDSS 2.5-m telescope. The photometric database of the SDSS provides in a sense a single-epoch set of 'tertiary standards' covering more than one quarter of the sky. Our transformations should facilitate their use to easily and reliably derive the corresponding approximate Johnson-Cousins or RGU magnitudes. The SDSS survey covers a number of areas that were previously established as standard fields in the Johnson-Cousins system, in particular, fields established by Landolt and by Stetson. We used these overlapping fields to create well-photometered star samples on which our calculated transformations are based. For the RGU photometry we used fields observed in the framework of the new Basel high-latitude field star survey. We calculated empirical color transformations between SDSS photometry and Johnson-Cousins UBVRI and Becker's RGU system. For all transformations we found linear relations to be sufficient. Furthermore we showed that the transformations between the Johnson-Cousins and the SDSS system have a slight dependence on metallicity.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, Accepted for publication in A&

SDSS Catalog of Stars in the Draco Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has scanned the entire region containing the Draco dwarf spheroidal galaxy to 23rd magnitude in g*. We present a catalog of stars found in a 453 square arcminute, elliptical region centered on the Draco dwarf spheroidal galaxy. Objects in the catalog are matched with five previously published catalogs. The catalog contains SDSS photometry for 5634 individual objects, and also the photometry from matches to any of the other catalogs. A comparison of the photometry between catalogs allows us to identify 142 candidate variable objects. One hundred and twelve of the suspected variables have colors consistent with RR Lyrae variables.Comment: To appear in ApJS 14 pages, 6 figure

Development of an evidence-based checklist for the detection of drug related problems in type 2 diabetes

Objective To develop an evidence-based checklist to identify potential drug related problems (PDRP) in patients with type 2 diabetes. Setting The evidence based checklist was applied to records of ambulatory type 2 diabetes patients in New South Wales, Australia. Method After comprehensive review of the literature, relevant medication groups and potential drug related problems in type 2 diabetes were identified. All the relevant information was then structured in the form of a checklist. To test the utility of the evidence-based checklist a cross-sectional retrospective study was conducted. The PDRP checklist was applied to the data of 148 patients with established type 2 diabetes and poor glycaemic control. The range and extent of DRPs in this population were identified, which were categorized using the PCNE classification. In addition, the relationship between the total as well as each category of DRPs and several of the patients’ clinical parameters was investigated. Main outcome measure: Number and category of DRPs per patient. Results The PDRP checklist was successfully developed and consisted of six main sections. 682 potential DRPs were identified using the checklist, an average of 4.6 (SD = 1.7) per patient. Metabolic and blood pressure control in the study subjects was generally poor: with a mean HbA1c of 8.7% (SD = 1.5) and mean blood pressure of 139.8 mmHg (SD = 18.1)/81.7 mmHg (SD = 11.1). The majority of DRPs was recorded in the categories ‘therapy failure’ (n = 264) and ‘drug choice problem’ (n = 206). Potentially non-adherent patients had a significantly higher HbA1c than patients who adhered to therapy (HbA1c of 9.4% vs. 8.5%; P = 0.01). Conclusion This is the first tool developed specifically to detect potential DRPs in patients with type 2 diabetes. It was used to identify DRPs in a sample of type 2 diabetes patients and demonstrated the high prevalence of DRPs per patient. The checklist may assist pharmacists and other health care professionals to systematically identify issues in therapy and management of their type 2 diabetes patients and enable earlier intervention to improve metabolic control

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Measurement of χ c1 and χ c2 production with s√ = 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

The prompt and non-prompt production cross-sections for the χ c1 and χ c2 charmonium states are measured in pp collisions at s√ = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using 4.5 fb−1 of integrated luminosity. The χ c states are reconstructed through the radiative decay χ c → J/ψγ (with J/ψ → μ + μ −) where photons are reconstructed from γ → e + e − conversions. The production rate of the χ c2 state relative to the χ c1 state is measured for prompt and non-prompt χ c as a function of J/ψ transverse momentum. The prompt χ c cross-sections are combined with existing measurements of prompt J/ψ production to derive the fraction of prompt J/ψ produced in feed-down from χ c decays. The fractions of χ c1 and χ c2 produced in b-hadron decays are also measured

Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections for Higgs boson production in the diphoton decay channel at s√=8 TeV with ATLAS

Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections are presented for Higgs boson production in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s√=8 TeV. The analysis is performed in the H → γγ decay channel using 20.3 fb−1 of data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The signal is extracted using a fit to the diphoton invariant mass spectrum assuming that the width of the resonance is much smaller than the experimental resolution. The signal yields are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution. The pp → H → γγ fiducial cross section is measured to be 43.2 ±9.4(stat.) − 2.9 + 3.2 (syst.) ±1.2(lumi)fb for a Higgs boson of mass 125.4GeV decaying to two isolated photons that have transverse momentum greater than 35% and 25% of the diphoton invariant mass and each with absolute pseudorapidity less than 2.37. Four additional fiducial cross sections and two cross-section limits are presented in phase space regions that test the theoretical modelling of different Higgs boson production mechanisms, or are sensitive to physics beyond the Standard Model. Differential cross sections are also presented, as a function of variables related to the diphoton kinematics and the jet activity produced in the Higgs boson events. The observed spectra are statistically limited but broadly in line with the theoretical expectations

Search for squarks and gluinos in events with isolated leptons, jets and missing transverse momentum at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The results of a search for supersymmetry in final states containing at least one isolated lepton (electron or muon), jets and large missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy s√=8 TeV collected in 2012, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20 fb−1. No significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed. Limits are set on supersymmetric particle masses for various supersymmetric models. Depending on the model, the search excludes gluino masses up to 1.32 TeV and squark masses up to 840 GeV. Limits are also set on the parameters of a minimal universal extra dimension model, excluding a compactification radius of 1/R c = 950 GeV for a cut-off scale times radius (ΛR c) of approximately 30