Boundary and expansion effects on two-pion correlation functions in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We examine the effects that a confining boundary together with hydrodynamical expansion play on two-pion distributions in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. We show that the effects arise from the introduction of further correlations due both to collective motion and the system's finite size. As is well known, the former leads to a reduction in the apparent source radius with increasing average pair momentum K. However, for small K, the presence of the boundary leads to a decrease of the apparent source radius with decreasing K. These two competing effects produce a maximum for the effective source radius as a function of K.Comment: 6 pages, 5 Eps figures, uses RevTeX and epsfi

Mortality in Patients After a Recent Myocardial Infarction

Background—Depressed left ventricular function (LVF) and low heart rate variability (HRV) identify patients at risk of increased mortality after myocardial infarction (MI). Azimilide, a novel class III antiarrhythmic drug, was investigated for its effects on mortality in patients with depressed LVF after recent MI and in a subpopulation of patients with low HRV.Methods and Results—A total of 3717 post-MI patients with depressed LVF were enrolled in this randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study of azimilide 100 mg on all-cause mortality. Placebo patients with low HRV had a significantly higher 1-year mortality than those with high HRV (>20 U; 15% versus 9.5%,P<0.0005) despite nearly identical ejection fractions. No significant differences were observed between the 100-mg azimilide and placebo groups for all-cause mortality in either the "at-risk" patients identified by depressed LVF (12% versus 12%) or the subpopulation of "high-risk" patients identified by low HRV (14% versus 15%) or for total cardiac or arrhythmic mortality. Significantly fewer patients receiving azimilide developed atrial fibrillation than did patients receiving placebo (0.5% versus 1.2%,P<0.04). The incidences of torsade de pointes and severe neutropenia (absolute neutrophil count ≤500 cells/μL) were slightly higher in the azimilide group than in the placebo group (0.3% versus 0.1% for torsade de pointes and 0.9% versus 0.2% for severe neutropenia).Conclusions—Azimilide did not improve or worsen the mortality of patients after MI. Low HRV independently identified a subpopulation at high risk of mortality

Bose-Einstein Correlations for Systems with Large Halo

Model-independent considerations are presented for the calculation of Bose-Einstein correlation functions and momentum distributions which describe boson-emitting systems containing a central part surrounded by a large halo. If the characteristic geometrical size of the halo is sufficiently large, the contributions of central part and the halo to the invariant momentum distribution are shown to be separable. The momentum-dependence of the intercept parameter of the correlation function plays a central role. Almost all high energy reactions including lepton-lepton, lepton hadron, hadron-hadron and nuclear reactions are shown to be interpretable as boson emitting systems with large halo. The results are applied to certain high energy heavy ion data at CERN SPS. New insights are obtained for the description of low transverse momentum enhancement of pions.Comment: Z. Phys. C in press, LaTeX, ReVTeX, 20 pages + 2 ps figure

Assessing Exposures from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Response and Clean-up

The GuLF Study is investigating adverse health effects from work on the response and clean-up after the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil release. An essential and necessary component of that study was the exposure assessment. Bayesian statistical methods and over 135 000 measurements of total hydrocarbons (THC), benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, xylene, and n-hexane (BTEX-H) were used to estimate inhalation exposures to these chemicals for >3400 exposure groups (EGs) formed from three exposure determinants: job/activity/task, location, and time period. Recognized deterministic models were used to estimate airborne exposures to particulate matter sized 2.5 μm or less (PM2.5) and dispersant aerosols and vapors. Dermal exposures were estimated for these same oil-related substances using a model modified especially for this study from a previously published model. Exposures to oil mist were assessed using professional judgment. Estimated daily THC arithmetic means (AMs) were in the low ppm range (<25 ppm), whereas BTEX-H exposures estimates were generally <1000 ppb. Potential 1-h PM2.5 air concentrations experienced by some workers may have been as high as 550 μg m-3. Dispersant aerosol air concentrations were very low (maximum predicted 1-h concentrations were generally <50 μg m-3), but vapor concentrations may have exceeded occupational exposure excursion guidelines for 2-butoxyethanol under certain circumstances. The daily AMs of dermal exposure estimates showed large contrasts among the study participants. The estimates are being used to evaluate exposure-response relationships in the GuLF Study

Longitudinal scaling property of the charge balance function in Au + Au collisions at 200 GeV

We present measurements of the charge balance function, from the charged particles, for diverse pseudorapidity and transverse momentum ranges in Au + Au collisions at 200 GeV using the STAR detector at RHIC. We observe that the balance function is boost-invariant within the pseudorapidity coverage [-1.3, 1.3]. The balance function properly scaled by the width of the observed pseudorapidity window does not depend on the position or size of the pseudorapidity window. This scaling property also holds for particles in different transverse momentum ranges. In addition, we find that the width of the balance function decreases monotonically with increasing transverse momentum for all centrality classes.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Measurement of an Elongation of the Pion Source in Z Decays

We measure Bose-Einstein correlations between like-sign charged pion pairs in hadronic Z decays with the L3 detector at LEP. The analysis is performed in three dimensions in the longitudinal center-of-mass system. The pion source is found to be elongated along the thrust axis with a ratio of transverse to longitudinal radius of $0.81\pm 0.02 ^{+0.03}_{-0.19}$

The measurement of commitment to work

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43493/1/11111_2004_Article_BF00972537.pd

Search for long-lived doubly charged Higgs bosons in p(p)over-bar collisions at root s=1.96 TeV

We present a search for long-lived doubly charged Higgs bosons (H+/-+/-), with signatures of high ionization energy loss and muonlike penetration. We use 292 pb(-1) of data collected in p (p) over bar collisions at root s=1.96 TeV by the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. Observing no evidence of long-lived doubly charged particle production, we exclude H-L(+/-+/-) and H-R(+/-+/-) bosons with masses below 133 GeV/c(2) and 109 GeV/c(2), respectively. In the degenerate case we exclude H+/-+/- mass below 146 GeV/c(2). All limits are quoted at the 95% confidence level