3,169 research outputs found
M.A.R.S.: The momentum spectrum of muons to 800 GeVc in the vertical direction
The sea-level vertical muon differential momentum spectrum has been measured using the Durham spectrograph MARS in the region 20 GeV/c to 500 GeV/c. The instrumental biases have been studied in detail and allowances made for the particle detector inefficiencies to render to measurement absolute. A simple muon production and propagation model has been used to predict the pion and kaon production spectra from the muon spectrum measurements. It has been found impossible to fit, with any degree of significance, a constant exponent power law pion and kaon production spectrum, having a reasonable value of the K/π ratio (0.15). A better fit is obtained if the exponent is allowed to increase with momentum, and in particular a model with two values of the exponent has been fitted. The muon spectrum has been extrapolated both above and below 500 GeV/c and 20 CeV/c respectively, and at low momenta good agreement is found with the recent "form fit" of De et al. (1972). The present results are compared with previous and contempary measurements of the muon spectrum with the conclusion that there is no evidence, from other recent measurements, that they are incorrect. Comparison with surveys of indirect measurements at higher energies however suggest that the muon spectrum cannot continue in this enhanced fashion much beyond 1000 GeV. Finally an absolute integral rate experiment has been performed using MARS as a range spectrograph, and the intensity above 7.12 GeV/c is found to be in agreement with a previous similar measurement made with the instrument. Further it is concluded that the intensity at this momentum is in agreement with the extrapolation of the differential spectrum measurements below 20 GeV/c
The CEDAR Project
We describe the plans and objectives of the CEDAR project (Combined e-Science
Data Analysis Resource for High Energy Physics) newly funded by the PPARC
e-Science programme in the UK. CEDAR will combine the strengths of the well
established and widely used HEPDATA database of HEP data and the innovative
JetWeb data/Monte Carlo comparison facility, built on the HZTOOL package, and
will exploit developing grid technology. The current status and future plans of
both of these individual sub-projects within the CEDAR framework are described,
showing how they will cohesively provide (a) an extensive archive of Reaction
Data, (b) validation and tuning of Monte Carlo programs against these reaction
data sets, and (c) a validated code repository for a wide range of HEP code
such as parton distribution functions and other calculation codes used by
particle physicists. Once established it is envisaged CEDAR will become an
important Grid tool used by LHC experimentalists in their analyses and may well
serve as a model in other branches of science where there is a need to compare
data and complex simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 postscript figures, uses CHEP2004.cls. Presented at
Computing in High-Energy Physics (CHEP'04), Interlaken, Switzerland, 27th
September - 1st October 200
An Investigation of the Use of Bandwidth Criteria for Rotorcraft Handling-Qualities Specifications
The objective of this study was to investigate bandwidth concepts for deriving rotorcraft handling-qualities criteria from data obtained in two simulator experiments conducted at the Aeromechanics Laboratory. The first experiment was an investigation of the effects of helicopter vertical-thrust-response characteristics on handling qualities; the second experiment investigated the effects of helicopter yaw-control-response characteristics. In both experiments, emphasis was on low-speed Nap-of-the-Earth (NOE) tasks
The velocity of shear waves in unsaturated soil
The velocities of shear waves Vs in two soils, a loamy sand and a sandy clay loam, were measured at various matric potentials and confining pressures. We used a combination of Haines apparatus, pressure plate apparatus and a Bishop and Wesley tri-axial cell to obtain a range of saturation and consolidation states. We proposed a single effective stress variable based on a modification to Bishop’s equation which could be used in a published empirical model (Santamarina et al., 2001) to relate shear wave velocity to soil physical conditions. Net stress required a nonlinear transformation. Matric potential was converted into suction stress with the function proposed by Khallili and Khabbaz (1998), thus requiring an estimate of the air entry potential. We found it was possible to fit Vs to void ratio, net stress and matric potential with a set of four parameters which were common to all soils at various states of saturation and consolidation. In addition to the data collected for this study we also used previously published data (Whalley et al., 2011). The utility of shear wave measurements to deduce soil physical properties is discussed
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Phytocannabinoids as novel therapeutic agents in CNS disorders
The Cannabis sativa herb contains over 100 phytocannabinoid (pCB) compounds and has been used for thousands of years for both recreational and medicinal purposes. In the past two decades, characterisation of the body's endogenous cannabinoid (CB) (endocannabinoid, eCB) system (ECS) has highlighted activation of central CB1 receptors by the major pCB, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) as the primary mediator of the psychoactive, hyperphagic and some of the potentially therapeutic properties of ingested cannabis. Whilst Δ9-THC is the most prevalent and widely studied pCB, it is also the predominant psychotropic component of cannabis, a property that likely limits its widespread therapeutic use as an isolated agent. In this regard,
research focus has recently widened to include other pCBs including cannabidiol (CBD), cannabigerol (CBG), Δ9tetrahydrocannabivarin (Δ9-THCV) and cannabidivarin (CBDV), some of which show potential as therapeutic agents in preclinical models of CNS disease. Moreover, it is becoming evident that these non-Δ9-THC pCBs act at a wide range of pharmacological targets, not solely limited to CB receptors. Disorders that could be targeted include epilepsy, neurodegenerative diseases, affective disorders and the central modulation of feeding behaviour. Here, we review pCB effects in preclinical models of CNS disease and, where available, clinical trial data that support therapeutic effects. Such developments may soon yield the first non-Δ9-THC pCB-based medicines
HepForge: A lightweight development environment for HEP software
Setting up the infrastructure to manage a software project can become a task
as significant writing the software itself. A variety of useful open source
tools are available, such as Web-based viewers for version control systems,
"wikis" for collaborative discussions and bug-tracking systems, but their use
in high-energy physics, outside large collaborations, is insubstantial.
Understandably, physicists would rather do physics than configure project
management tools.
We introduce the CEDAR HepForge system, which provides a lightweight
development environment for HEP software. Services available as part of
HepForge include the above-mentioned tools as well as mailing lists, shell
accounts, archiving of releases and low-maintenance Web space. HepForge also
exists to promote best-practice software development methods and to provide a
central repository for re-usable HEP software and phenomenology codes.Comment: 3 pages, 0 figures. To be published in proceedings of CHEP06. Refers
to the HepForge facility at http://hepforge.cedar.ac.u
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