1,762 research outputs found
Shock waves in two-dimensional granular flow: effects of rough walls and polydispersity
We have studied the two-dimensional flow of balls in a small angle funnel,
when either the side walls are rough or the balls are polydisperse. As in
earlier work on monodisperse flows in smooth funnels, we observe the formation
of kinematic shock waves/density waves. We find that for rough walls the flows
are more disordered than for smooth walls and that shock waves generally
propagate more slowly. For rough wall funnel flow, we show that the shock
velocity and frequency obey simple scaling laws. These scaling laws are
consistent with those found for smooth wall flow, but here they are cleaner
since there are fewer packing-site effects and we study a wider range of
parameters. For pipe flow (parallel side walls), rough walls support many shock
waves, while smooth walls exhibit fewer or no shock waves. For funnel flows of
balls with varying sizes, we find that flows with weak polydispersity behave
qualitatively similar to monodisperse flows. For strong polydispersity, scaling
breaks down and the shock waves consist of extended areas where the funnel is
blocked completely.Comment: 11 pages, 15 figures; accepted for PR
Topcolor-Assisted Supersymmetry
It has been known that the supersymmetric flavor changing neutral current
problem can be avoided if the squarks take the following mass pattern, namely
the first two generations with the same chirality are degenerate with masses
around the weak scale, while the third generation is very heavy. We realize
this scenario through the supersymmetric extension of a topcolor model with
gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking.Comment: 12 pages, latex, no figure
Partially composite two-Higgs doublet model
In the extra dimensional scenarios with gauge fields in the bulk, the
Kaluza-Klein (KK) gauge bosons can induce Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) type
attractive four-fermion interactions, which can break electroweak symmetry
dynamically with accompanying composite Higgs fields. We consider a possibility
that electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB) is triggered by both a fundamental
Higgs and a composite Higgs arising in a dynamical symmetry breaking mechanism
induced by a new strong dynamics. The resulting Higgs sector is a partially
composite two-Higgs doublet model with specific boundary conditions on the
coupling and mass parameters originating at a compositeness scale .
The phenomenology of this model is discussed including the collider
phenomenology at LHC and ILC.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure
Attention and Social Cognition in Virtual Reality:The effect of engagement mode and character eye-gaze
Technical developments in virtual humans are manifest in modern character design. Specifically, eye gaze offers a significant aspect of such design. There is need to consider the contribution of participant control of engagement. In the current study, we manipulated participants’ engagement with an interactive virtual reality narrative called Coffee without Words. Participants sat over coffee opposite a character in a virtual café, where they waited for their bus to be repaired. We manipulated character eye-contact with the participant. For half the participants in each condition, the character made no eye-contact for the duration of the story. For the other half, the character responded to participant eye-gaze by making and holding eye contact in return. To explore how participant engagement interacted with this manipulation, half the participants in each condition were instructed to appraise their experience as an artefact (i.e., drawing attention to technical features), while the other half were introduced to the fictional character, the narrative, and the setting as though they were real. This study allowed us to explore the contributions of character features (interactivity through eye-gaze) and cognition (attention/engagement) to the participants’ perception of realism, feelings of presence, time duration, and the extent to which they engaged with the character and represented their mental states (Theory of Mind). Importantly it does so using a highly controlled yet ecologically valid virtual experience
Hadron Collider Signatures for New Interactions of Top and Bottom Quarks
One of the main goals for hadron colliders is the study of the properties of
the third generation quarks. We study the signatures for new TeV resonances
that couple to top or bottom quarks both at the Tevatron Run II and at the LHC.
We find that in the simplest production processes of Drell-Yan type at the
Tevatron, the signals are overwhelmed by QCD backgrounds. We also find that it
is possible to study these resonances when they are produced in association
with a pair of heavy quarks or in association with a single top at the LHC.In
particular, with an integrated luminosity of 300 fb at the LHC, it is
possible to probe resonance masses up to around 2 TeV.Comment: 24 pages, 15 figures, Minor corrections, version to appear in Phys.
Rev.
An improved on-line algorithm for scheduling on two unrestrictive parallel batch processing machines
Probing Heavy Higgs Boson Models with a TeV Linear Collider
The last years have seen a great development in our understanding of particle
physics at the weak scale. Precision electroweak observables have played a key
role in this process and their values are consistent, within the Standard Model
interpretation, with a light Higgs boson with mass lower than about 200 GeV. If
new physics were responsible for the mechanism of electroweak symmetry
breaking, there would, quite generally, be modifications to this prediction
induced by the non-standard contributions to the precision electroweak
observables. In this article, we analyze the experimental signatures of a heavy
Higgs boson at linear colliders. We show that a linear collider, with center of
mass energy \sqrt{s} <= 1 TeV, would be very useful to probe the basic
ingredients of well motivated heavy Higgs boson models: a relatively heavy
SM-like Higgs, together with either extra scalar or fermionic degrees of
freedom, or with the mixing of the third generation quarks with non-standard
heavy quark modes.Comment: 21 page
Pan-European early switch/early discharge opportunities exist for hospitalised patients with methicillin-resistant <em>Staphylococcus</em> <em>aureus</em> complicated skin and soft-tissue infections
AbstractThe objective of this study was to document pan-European real-world treatment patterns and healthcare resource use and estimate opportunities for early switch (ES) from intravenous (IV) to oral antibiotics and early discharge (ED) in hospitalized patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) complicated skin and soft tissue infections (cSSTIs). This retrospective observational medical chart review study enrolled 342 physicians across 12 European countries who collected data from 1542 patients with documented MRSA cSSTI who were hospitalized (July 2010 to June 2011) and discharged alive (by July 2011). Data included clinical characteristics and outcomes, hospital length of stay (LOS), MRSA-targeted IV and oral antibiotic use, and ES and ED eligibility according to literature-based and expert-validated criteria. The most frequent initial MRSA-active antibiotics were vancomycin (50.2%), linezolid (15.1%), clindamycin (10.8%), and teicoplanin (10.4%). Patients discharged with MRSA-active antibiotics (n = 480) were most frequently prescribed linezolid (42.1%) and clindamycin (19.8%). IV treatment duration (9.3 ± 6.5 vs. 14.6 ± 9.9 days; p <0.001) and hospital LOS (19.1 ± 12.9 vs. 21.0 ± 18.2 days; p 0.162) tended to be shorter for patients switched from IV to oral treatment than for patients who received IV treatment only. Of the patients, 33.6% met ES criteria and could have discontinued IV treatment 6.0 ± 5.5 days earlier, and 37.9% met ED criteria and could have been discharged 6.2 ± 8.2 days earlier. More than one-third of European patients hospitalized for MRSA cSSTI could be eligible for ES and ED, resulting in substantial reductions in IV days and bed-days, with potential savings of €2000 per ED-eligible patient
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