Herwig++ 2.0 Release Note

A new release of the Monte Carlo program Herwig++ (version 2.0) is now available. This is the first version of the program which can be used for hadron-hadron physics and includes the full simulation of both initial- and final-state QCD radiation.Comment: Source code and additional information available at http://hepforge.cedar.ac.uk/herwig

Low-cost electromagnetic tagging : design and implementation

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2002.Includes bibliographical references (p. 220-222).Several implementations of chipless RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags are presented and discussed as low-cost alternatives to chip-based RFID tags and sensors. An overview of present-day near-field electromagnetic tagging is presented, including both chip-based and chipless technologies with associated costs. As a candidate for low-cost ID tags, a design theory and implementation is presented for multiply-resonant planar metal structures. This theory includes a circuit model, a phenomenological model, and a framework for predicting the resonant frequencies as a function of geometrical and material properties. A novel physical geometry, a tree-like spiral structure, is proposed as a design that increases the number of resonances per unit area in a planar structure relative to the present day state-of-the-art. In addition to identification, it is shown how several chipless tags can also be designed to function as sensors. Several examples are discussed in detail, including: 1) a family of thermal sensor tags employing magnetic materials and 2) a family of sensor tags (to sense pressure, humidity, and pH) based on planar resonator structures. The latter section of the dissertation describes the evolution of my work in developing the necessary (and low-cost) instrumentation to support these new varieties of tag technologies, ranging from a $500 frequency-agile reader to a$5 reader for toy applications.by Richard Ribon Fletcher.Ph.D

A low-cost electromagnetic tagging technology for wireless identification, sensing, and tracking of objects

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, 1997.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 82).by Richard Ribon Fletcher.M.S

Système d’Information pour l’Analyse du Métabolisme Territorial (SINAMET)

Les études de métabolisme territorial, c'est-à-dire l'analyse des flux de matières et d'énergie mobilisés par le système socio-économique d'un territoire, permettent d'obtenir des informations pertinentes pour évaluer l'impact de nos sociétés sur l'environnement. Mais de telles études sont longues et complexes à réaliser : Les données à mobiliser et à traiter sont nombreuses et dispersées, et les résultats peuvent être difficilement appréhendables. La façon de visualiser les informations sur le métabolisme est ainsi un élément important des études, le but étant de correspondre aux différents besoins des acteurs territoriaux. Les techniques de traitement des données étant jusqu'à présent essentiellement manuelles, nous présentons un Système d'INformation pour l'Analyse du MEtabolisme Territorial (SINAMET) qui a pour objectif de faciliter l’automatisation des traitements de données afin de rendre les résultats des études plus accessibles. Le SINAMET s’adresse à plusieurs profils d’usagers, allant du simple néophyte curieux des résultats finaux, jusqu’à des utilisateurs plus familier du traitement de données, qui pourront facilement implémenter leurs méthodes de traitement grâce à des fonctionnalités génériques intégrées dans le système d’information en cours de développement. Le SINAMET se base sur une architecture logicielle structurée autour d'un noyau logiciel et pouvant être enrichit de modules dédiés aux opérations d’importations, de traitement ou d'exportation/visualisation des données. Le système d’information inclut également une base de données structurée selon une ontologie voulue simple mais fonctionnelle pour agréger un grand nombre de données sur le métabolisme. Les notions de Territoire, Acteur, Flux, Stock, Omes (Objet/Matière/Energie/Service) et Transformation sont établies comme base conceptuelle permettant de manipuler l'information. Ce paradigme est renforcé par l'utilisation d'un mapping objet-relationnel (ORM) permettant d'abstraire la gestion d'une base de données, au profit d’une approche orienté objet. Les futures contributions pourront ainsi se concentrer sur le développement d’algorithmes de traitement de données et enrichir ainsi les fonctionnalités du SINAMET. L'approche présentée a été partiellement concrétisée à travers un prototype, une version alpha 0.1, qui a fourni des premiers résultats que nous présentons. Les travaux doivent être cependant poursuivis pour rendre réellement opérationnelle la solution logicielle. Notamment, la création d'une communauté autour du projet semble un point nécessaire pour son développement. Les futurs avancements du projet seront communiqués à l’adresse : https://metabolisme-territorial.fr/wiki/index.php/Siname

Spatial determinants of specificity in insulin action

Insulin is a potent stimulator of intermediary metabolism, however the basis for the remarkable specificity of insulin's stimulation of these pathways remains largely unknown. This review focuses on the role compartmentalization plays in insulin action, both in signal initiation and in signal reception. Two examples are discussed: (1) a novel signalling pathway leading to the phosphorylation of the caveolar coat protein caveolin, and (2) a recently identified scaffolding protein, PTG, involved directly in the regulation of enzymes controlling glycogen metabolism.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45334/1/11010_2004_Article_156837.pd

Heavy Flavours in Collider Experiments

Current issues in the studies of Heavy Flavours in colliders are described with particular emphasis on experiments in which the UK is involved. Results on charm production at HERA are examined and compared to those at the Tevatron. B production rates at the Tevatron as well as the status of B lifetimes and mixing in the LEP collaborations and at the Tevatron are highlighted. The measurement of sin2beta from CDF is described as well as the most recent results on top physics at the Tevatron

A Novel, Multifunctional c-Cbl Binding Protein in Insulin Receptor Signaling in 3T3-L1 Adipocytes

The protein product of the c-Cbl proto-oncogene is prominently tyrosine phosphorylated in response to insulin in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and not in 3T3-L1 fibroblasts. After insulin-dependent tyrosine phosphorylation, c-Cbl specifically associates with endogenous c-Crk and Fyn. These results suggest a role for tyrosine-phosphorylated c-Cbl in 3T3-L1 adipocyte activation by insulin. A yeast two-hybrid cDNA library prepared from fully differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes was screened with full-length c-Cbl as the target protein in an attempt to identify adipose-specific signaling proteins that interact with c-Cbl and potentially are involved in its tyrosine phosphorylation in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Here we describe the isolation and the characterization of a novel protein that we termed CAP for c-Cbl-associated protein. CAP contains a unique structure with three adjacent Src homology 3 (SH3) domains in the C terminus and a region showing significant sequence similarity with the peptide hormone sorbin. Both CAP mRNA and proteins are expressed predominately in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and not in 3T3-L1 fibroblasts. CAP associates with c-Cbl in 3T3-L1 adipocytes independently of insulin stimulation in vivo and in vitro in an SH3-domain-mediated manner. Furthermore, we detected the association of CAP with the insulin receptor. Insulin stimulation resulted in the dissociation of CAP from the insulin receptor. Taken together, these data suggest that CAP represents a novel c-Cbl binding protein in 3T3-L1 adipocytes likely to participate in insulin signaling

GeantV: Results from the prototype of concurrent vector particle transport simulation in HEP

Full detector simulation was among the largest CPU consumer in all CERN experiment software stacks for the first two runs of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In the early 2010's, the projections were that simulation demands would scale linearly with luminosity increase, compensated only partially by an increase of computing resources. The extension of fast simulation approaches to more use cases, covering a larger fraction of the simulation budget, is only part of the solution due to intrinsic precision limitations. The remainder corresponds to speeding-up the simulation software by several factors, which is out of reach using simple optimizations on the current code base. In this context, the GeantV R&D project was launched, aiming to redesign the legacy particle transport codes in order to make them benefit from fine-grained parallelism features such as vectorization, but also from increased code and data locality. This paper presents extensively the results and achievements of this R&D, as well as the conclusions and lessons learnt from the beta prototype.Comment: 34 pages, 26 figures, 24 table