Determination of the Jet Energy Scale

The uncertainty in jet energy scale is one of the dominating systematic errors for many measurements at hadron colliders - most notably for the measurement of the top-quark-mass, inclusive jet cross section measurements and last but not least for events with large missing transverse energy as expected in searches beyond the standard model. This talk will review the approaches taken at Tevatron towards controlling the jet energy scale and discuss prospects for the LHC experiments

Phytoremediation of Alberta oil sand tailings using native plants and a fungal endophyte species

Non-Peer ReviewedThe Athabasca Oil Sands produce a high volume byproduct called tailing sands (TS). Typically, TS are remediated by planting young trees in large quantities of mulch (from elsewhere) plus mineral fertilizer. This is costly and labour intensive. Fungal endophytes colonize host plants without causing disease. Some endophytes confer plant tolerance to harsh environments. Trichoderma harzianum strain TSTh20-1 was isolated from a plant growing on Athabasca oil tailings sand (TS). TS are a high volume waste product from oil sand extraction that the industry is required to remediate. TS are low in organic carbon and mineral nutrients, and are hydrophobic due to residual hydrocarbons. In greenhouse trials, TSTh20-1 supports growth of tomato seedlings on TS without fertilizer. TSTh20-1 is a promising candidate for economical TS remediation. We tested 23 plant species for seed germination and growth on TS in the presence of TSTh20-1. The four best candidates are currently being used in microcosm-scale growth trials, and for outdoor mesocosm trials this summer. Potential mechanisms that contribute to endophyte-induced plant growth promotion are also being assessed. TSTh20-1 is nutritionally frugal, which may be characteristic of other plant fungal endophytes. We are also tagging TSTh20-1 with GFP to follow it in the plant and in the environment

Status of the Lattice and Tau Decay Determinations of alpha_s

The two highest precision determinations of alpha_s(M_Z^2), that based on the analysis of short-distance-sensitive lattice observables, and that based on an analysis of hadronic tau decay data, have, until very recently, given results which are not in good agreement. I review new versions of these analyses which bring the two determinations into excellent agreement, and discuss prospects for additional future improvements.Comment: Prepared for the Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Quarks and Nuclear Physics, Beijing, China, Sept. 21-26, 200

Is the Birthing Unit Design Spatial Evaluation Tool valid for diverse groups?

© 2018 Australian College of Midwives Background: Awareness of the impact of the built environment on health care outcomes and experiences has led to efforts to redesign birthing environments. The Birth Unit Design Spatial Evaluation Tool was developed to inform such improvements, but it has only been validated with caseload midwives and women birthing in caseload models of care. Aim: To assess the content validity of the tool with four new participant groups: Birth unit midwives, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander women; women who had anticipated a vaginal birth after a caesarean; and women from refugee or culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Methods: Participants completed a Likert-scale survey to rate the relevance of The Birth Unit Design Spatial Evaluation Tool's 69 items. Item-level content validity and Survey-level validity indices were calculated, with the achievement of validity set at >0.78 and >0.9 respectively. Results: Item-level content validity was achieved on 37 items for birth unit midwives (n = 10); 35 items for Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander women (n = 6); 33 items for women who had anticipated a vaginal birth after a caesarean (n = 6); and 28 items for women from refugee or culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (n = 20). Survey-level content validity was not demonstrated in any group. Conclusion: Birth environment design remains significant to women and midwives, but the Birth Unit Design Spatial Evaluation Tool was not validated for these participant groups. Further research is needed, using innovative methodologies to address the subconscious level on which environment may influence experience and to disentangle the influence of confounding factors

Digitization of LAr calorimeter for CSC simulations

This note describes the digitization of the LAr signals, which is the step creating RDO from Geant4 Hits, as used during the production of the CSC simulated samples with athena release 12