Net-charge fluctuations and balance functions at the LHC

The measurement of event-by-event fluctuations and charge-dependent particle correlations are used to study properties of nuclear matter at high temperatures as produced in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. We present results for event-by-event net-charge fluctuations and charge balance functions in \Delta\eta\ and \Delta\phi\ in Pb-Pb collisions at sqrt(s_NN)= 2.76 TeV.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings for Quark Matter 2012, Washington D.C., August 13-18, 2012 (accepted version by QM reviewers, additional figure for balance functions

Effects of Knowledge Base Quality on Peer-to-peer Information Propagation

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Spectral disentangling with Spectangular

The paper introduces the software Spectangular for spectral disentangling via singular value decomposition with global optimisation of the orbital parameters of the stellar system or radial velocities of the individual observations. We will describe the procedure and the different options implemented in our program. Furthermore, we will demonstrate the performance and the applicability using tests on artificial data. Additionally, we use high-resolution spectra of Capella to demonstrate the performance of our code on real-world data. The novelty of this package is the implemented global optimisation algorithm and the graphical user interface (GUI) for ease of use. We have implemented the code to tackle SB1 and SB2 systems with the option of also dealing with telluric (static) lines

Human Trafficking and Foreign Policy: An Introduction

[Excerpt] Human trafficking (also known as trafficking in persons) refers to the subjection of men, women, or children to exploitative conditions that may be tantamount to modern-day slavery. From a foreign policy perspective, human trafficking can be viewed as a human rights problem, a manifestation of transnational organized crime, and a violation of core international labor standards. Human trafficking also raises economic development, international migration, and global governance and security issues, and disproportionately victimizes vulnerable populations. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA, Division A of P.L. 106-386; 22 U.S.C. 7101 et seq.) defined “severe forms of trafficking in persons” to include sex trafficking induced by force, fraud, or coercion, child sex trafficking (under 18 years of age), and forced labor trafficking. The latter involves the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person—induced by force, fraud, or coercion—for the purpose of subjecting that person, including a child, to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery