State-dependent Learning in Smokers: Separation of Drug Withdrawal from Conditioning

There is considerable debate over the effect of nicotine on human emotion and performance. Some studies suggest that nicotine facilitates performance while elevating overall mood, while others suggest just the opposite. Recent data indicate that learning history plays a significant role in nicotine's effects on performance and emotion. However, previous investigations have not examined the influence of drug withdrawal or subject's drug state during training trials prior to experimental manipulation. Thirty smokers were randomly assigned to one of three groups: 1) No-smoking/Deprived, 2) Smoking/ Nondeprived, and 3) No-smoking/Nondeprived. Subjects underwent 13 nicotine-free training trials on the computerized Walter Reed Performance Assessment Battery (PAB). Subjects completed the Profile of Mood States (POMS), Emotion Assessment Scale (EAS) and a tobacco withdrawal rating scale as indication of moodstate. The No-smoking/Deprived group did not smoke, thus remained drug-deprived. The Smoking/Nondeprived group smoked ad libitum during the final test P AB in order to "cross" their drug state from the training trials. The No-smoking/ N ondeprived group smoked four puffs before the test P AB in order to partially alleviate their state of drug withdrawal, but did not smoke during the test P AB to maintain drug state consistency between training and test trials. While improvements were noted on subjective mood ratings and withdrawal symptoms following smoking, there was little evidence that overall performance was effected. Overall, the results of the present study suggest that the pharmacological aspects of nicotine may outweigh the role of learning and conditioning in human performance and emotion.Clinical Psycholog

Values of sleep/wake, activity/rest, circadian rhythms, and fatigue prior to adjuvant breast cancer chemotherapy.

Fatigue is the most prevalent and distressing symptom experienced by patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy for early stage breast cancer. Higher fatigue levels have been related to sleep maintenance problems and low daytime activity in patients who have received chemotherapy, but knowledge describing these relationships prior to chemotherapy is sparse. The Piper Integrated Fatigue Model guided this study, which describes sleep/wake, activity/rest, circadian rhythms, and fatigue and how they interrelate in women with Stage I, II, or IIIA breast cancer during the 48 hours prior to the first adjuvant chemotherapy treatment. The present report describes these variables in 130 females, mean age=51.4 years; the majority were married and employed. Subjective sleep was measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and fatigue was measured by the Piper Fatigue Scale. Wrist actigraphy was used to objectively measure sleep/wake, activity/rest, and circadian rhythms. Mean Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score was 6.73+/-3.4, indicating poor sleep. Objective sleep/wake results were within normal limits established for healthy individuals, except for the number and length of night awakenings. Objective activity/rest results were within normal limits except for low mean daytime activity. Circadian rhythm mesor was 132.3 (24.6) and amplitude was 97.2 (22.8). Mean Piper Fatigue Scale score was 2.56+/-2, with 72% reporting mild fatigue. There were significant relationships between subjective and objective sleep, but no consistent patterns. Higher total and subscale fatigue scores were correlated with most components of poorer subjective sleep quality (r=0.25-0.42, P\u3c or =0.005)

Perspectives on Astrophysics Based on Atomic, Molecular, and Optical (AMO) Techniques

About two generations ago, a large part of AMO science was dominated by experimental high energy collision studies and perturbative theoretical methods. Since then, AMO science has undergone a transition and is now dominated by quantum, ultracold, and ultrafast studies. But in the process, the field has passed over the complexity that lies between these two extremes. Most of the Universe resides in this intermediate region. We put forward that the next frontier for AMO science is to explore the AMO complexity that describes most of the Cosmos.Comment: White paper submission to the Decadal Assessment and Outlook Report on Atomic, Molecular, and Optical (AMO) Science (AMO 2020

Hunt for new phenomena using large jet multiplicities and missing transverse momentum with ATLAS in 4.7 fb−1 of s√=7TeV proton-proton collisions

Results are presented of a search for new particles decaying to large numbers of jets in association with missing transverse momentum, using 4.7 fb−1 of pp collision data at s√=7TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in 2011. The event selection requires missing transverse momentum, no isolated electrons or muons, and from ≥6 to ≥9 jets. No evidence is found for physics beyond the Standard Model. The results are interpreted in the context of a MSUGRA/CMSSM supersymmetric model, where, for large universal scalar mass m 0, gluino masses smaller than 840 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level, extending previously published limits. Within a simplified model containing only a gluino octet and a neutralino, gluino masses smaller than 870 GeV are similarly excluded for neutralino masses below 100 GeV

Expected Performance of the ATLAS Experiment - Detector, Trigger and Physics

A detailed study is presented of the expected performance of the ATLAS detector. The reconstruction of tracks, leptons, photons, missing energy and jets is investigated, together with the performance of b-tagging and the trigger. The physics potential for a variety of interesting physics processes, within the Standard Model and beyond, is examined. The study comprises a series of notes based on simulations of the detector and physics processes, with particular emphasis given to the data expected from the first years of operation of the LHC at CERN

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurement of the top quark-pair production cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=7\TeV

A measurement of the production cross-section for top quark pairs(\ttbar) in $pp$ collisions at \sqrt{s}=7 \TeV is presented using data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in two different topologies: single lepton (electron $e$ or muon $\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least four jets, and dilepton ($ee$, $\mu\mu$ or $e\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least two jets. In a data sample of 2.9 pb-1, 37 candidate events are observed in the single-lepton topology and 9 events in the dilepton topology. The corresponding expected backgrounds from non-\ttbar Standard Model processes are estimated using data-driven methods and determined to be $12.2 \pm 3.9$ events and $2.5 \pm 0.6$ events, respectively. The kinematic properties of the selected events are consistent with SM \ttbar production. The inclusive top quark pair production cross-section is measured to be \sigmattbar=145 \pm 31 ^{+42}_{-27} pb where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The measurement agrees with perturbative QCD calculations.Comment: 30 pages plus author list (50 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, CERN-PH number and final journal adde

Measurement of the top quark pair cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV using final states with an electron or a muon and a hadronically decaying τ lepton

A measurement of the cross section of top quark pair production in proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is reported. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.05 fb -1. Events with an isolated electron or muon and a τ lepton decaying hadronically are used. In addition, a large missing transverse momentum and two or more energetic jets are required. At least one of the jets must be identified as originating from a b quark. The measured cross section, σtt-=186±13(stat.)±20(syst.)±7(lumi.) pb, is in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction

Measurement of the production cross section for W-bosons in association with jets in pp collisions at s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This Letter reports on a first measurement of the inclusive W + jets cross section in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV at the LHC, with the ATLAS detector. Cross sections, in both the electron and muon decay modes of the W-boson, are presented as a function of jet multiplicity and of the transverse momentum of the leading and next-to-leading jets in the event. Measurements are also presented of the ratio of cross sections sigma (W + >= n)/sigma(W + >= n - 1) for inclusive jet multiplicities n = 1-4. The results, based on an integrated luminosity of 1.3 pb(-1), have been corrected for all known detector effects and are quoted in a limited and well-defined range of jet and lepton kinematics. The measured cross sections are compared to particle-level predictions based on perturbative QCD. Next-to-leading order calculations, studied here for n <= 2, are found in good agreement with the data. Leading-order multiparton event generators, normalized to the NNLO total cross section, describe the data well for all measured jet multiplicitie