Assessing the efficiency of mother-to-child HIV prevention in low- and middle-income countries using data envelopment analysis

AIDS is one of the most significant health care problems worldwide. Due to the difficulty and costs involved in treating HIV, preventing infection is of paramount importance in controlling the AIDS epidemic. The main purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to establish international comparisons on the efficiency of implementation of HIV prevention programmes. To do this we use data from 52 low- and middle-income countries regarding the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Our results indicate that there is a remarkable variation in the efficiency of prevention services across nations, suggesting that a better use of resources could lead to more and improved services, and ultimately, prevent the infection of thousands of children. These results also demonstrate the potential strategic role of DEA for the efficient and effective planning of scarce resources to fight the epidemic

Muon reconstruction and identification efficiency in ATLAS using the full Run 2 pp collision data set at \sqrt{s}=13 TeV

This article documents the muon reconstruction and identification efficiency obtained by the ATLAS experiment for 139 \hbox {fb}^{-1} of pp collision data at \sqrt{s}=13 TeV collected between 2015 and 2018 during Run 2 of the LHC. The increased instantaneous luminosity delivered by the LHC over this period required a reoptimisation of the criteria for the identification of prompt muons. Improved and newly developed algorithms were deployed to preserve high muon identification efficiency with a low misidentification rate and good momentum resolution. The availability of large samples of Z\rightarrow \mu \mu and J/\psi \rightarrow \mu \mu decays, and the minimisation of systematic uncertainties, allows the efficiencies of criteria for muon identification, primary vertex association, and isolation to be measured with an accuracy at the per-mille level in the bulk of the phase space, and up to the percent level in complex kinematic configurations. Excellent performance is achieved over a range of transverse momenta from 3 GeV to several hundred GeV, and across the full muon detector acceptance of |\eta |<2.7

Two-particle azimuthal correlations in photonuclear ultraperipheral Pb plus Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV with ATLAS

Two-particle long-range azimuthal correlations are measured in photonuclear collisions using 1.7 nb − 1 of 5.02 TeV Pb + Pb collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Candidate events are selected using a dedicated high-multiplicity photonuclear event trigger, a combination of information from the zero-degree calorimeters and forward calorimeters, and from pseudorapidity gaps constructed using calorimeter energy clusters and charged-particle tracks. Distributions of event properties are compared between data and Monte Carlo simulations of photonuclear processes. Two-particle correlation functions are formed using charged-particle tracks in the selected events, and a template-fitting method is employed to subtract the nonflow contribution to the correlation. Significant nonzero values of the second- and third-order flow coefficients are observed and presented as a function of charged-particle multiplicity and transverse momentum. The results are compared with flow coefficients obtained in proton-proton and proton-lead collisions in similar multiplicity ranges, and with theoretical expectations. The unique initial conditions present in this measurement provide a new way to probe the origin of the collective signatures previously observed only in hadronic collision

Configuration and performance of the ATLAS b-jet triggers in Run 2

Several improvements to the ATLAS triggers used to identify jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) were implemented for data-taking during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider from 2016 to 2018. These changes include reconfiguring the b-jet trigger software to improve primary-vertex finding and allow more stable running in conditions with high pile-up, and the implementation of the functionality needed to run sophisticated taggers used by the offline reconstruction in an online environment. These improvements yielded an order of magnitude better light-flavour jet rejection for the same b-jet identification efficiency compared to the performance in Run 1 (2011–2012). The efficiency to identify b-jets in the trigger, and the conditional efficiency for b-jets that satisfy offline b-tagging requirements to pass the trigger are also measured. Correction factors are derived to calibrate the b-tagging efficiency in simulation to match that observed in data. The associated systematic uncertainties are substantially smaller than in previous measurements. In addition, b-jet triggers were operated for the first time during heavy-ion data-taking, using dedicated triggers that were developed to identify semileptonic b-hadron decays by selecting events with geometrically overlapping muons and jets

The ATLAS inner detector trigger performance in pp collisions at 13 TeV during LHC Run 2

The design and performance of the inner detector trigger for the high level trigger of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider during the 2016-2018 data taking period is discussed. In 2016, 2017, and 2018 the ATLAS detector recorded 35.6 fb(-1), 46.9 fb(-1), and 60.6 fb(-1) respectively of proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13TeV. In order to deal with the very high interaction multiplicities per bunch crossing expected with the 13TeV collisions the inner detector trigger was redesigned during the long shutdown of the Large Hadron Collider from 2013 until 2015. An overview of these developments is provided and the performance of the tracking in the trigger for the muon, electron, tau and b-jet signatures is discussed. The high performance of the inner detector trigger with these extreme interaction multiplicities demonstrates how the inner detector tracking continues to lie at the heart of the trigger performance and is essential in enabling the ATLAS physics programme

Medium-Induced Modification of Z-Tagged Charged Particle Yields in Pb+Pb Collisions at 5.02 TeV with the ATLAS Detector

The yield of charged particles opposite to a Z boson with large transverse momentum ( p T ) is measured in 260     pb − 1 of p p and 1.7     nb − 1 of Pb + Pb collision data at 5.02 TeV per nucleon pair recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The Z boson tag is used to select hard-scattered partons with specific kinematics, and to observe how their showers are modified as they propagate through the quark-gluon plasma created in Pb + Pb collisions. Compared with p p collisions, charged-particle yields in Pb + Pb collisions show significant modifications as a function of charged-particle p T in a way that depends on event centrality and Z boson p T . The data are compared with a variety of theoretical calculations and provide new information about the medium-induced energy loss of partons in a p T regime difficult to measure through other channels

Search for pair production of third-generation scalar leptoquarks decaying into a top quark and a τ-lepton in pp collisions at s√ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for pair production of third-generation scalar leptoquarks decaying into a top quark and a τ-lepton is presented. The search is based on a dataset of pp collisions at s√ = 13 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1. Events are selected if they have one light lepton (electron or muon) and at least one hadronically decaying τ -lepton, or at least two light leptons. In addition, two or more jets, at least one of which must be identified as containing b-hadrons, are required. Six final states, defined by the multiplicity and flavour of lepton candidates, are considered in the analysis. Each of them is split into multiple event categories to simultaneously search for the signal and constrain several leading backgrounds. The signal-rich event categories require at least one hadronically decaying τ-lepton candidate and exploit the presence of energetic final-state objects, which is characteristic of signal events. No significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed in any of the considered event categories, and 95% CL upper limits are set on the production cross section as a function of the leptoquark mass, for different assumptions about the branching fractions into tτ and bν. Scalar leptoquarks decaying exclusively into tτ are excluded up to masses of 1.43 TeV while, for a branching fraction of 50% into tτ, the lower mass limit is 1.22 TeV

The ATLAS inner detector trigger performance in pp collisions at 13 TeV during LHC Run 2

The design and performance of the inner detector trigger for the high level trigger of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider during the 2016-18 data taking period is discussed. In 2016, 2017, and 2018 the ATLAS detector recorded 35.6 fb$^{-1}$, 46.9 fb$^{-1}$, and 60.6 fb$^{-1}$ respectively of proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. In order to deal with the very high interaction multiplicities per bunch crossing expected with the 13 TeV collisions the inner detector trigger was redesigned during the long shutdown of the Large Hadron Collider from 2013 until 2015. An overview of these developments is provided and the performance of the tracking in the trigger for the muon, electron, tau and $b$-jet signatures is discussed. The high performance of the inner detector trigger with these extreme interaction multiplicities demonstrates how the inner detector tracking continues to lie at the heart of the trigger performance and is essential in enabling the ATLAS physics programme