ALICE Measurements in p-Pb Collisions: Charged Particle Multiplicity, Centrality Determination and implications for Binary Scaling

Measurements of particle production in proton-nucleus collisions provide a reference to disentangle final state effects, i.e. signatures of the formation of a deconfined hot medium, from initial state effects, already present in cold nuclear matter. Since many initial state effects are expected to vary as a function of the number of collisions suffered by the incoming proton, it is crucial to estimate the centrality of the collision. In p-Pb collisions categorization of events into different centrality classes using a particle multiplicity distribution is complicated by the low particle multiplicities and the large multiplicity fluctuations. We present ALICE measurements of particle production in p-Pb collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 5.02$ TeV, including the pseudo-rapidity and transverse momentum dependence, we discuss the event classification in centrality classes and its implications for the measurements of nuclear modification factors.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, to be published in NPA. Proceedings of IS201

Particle production in p-Pb collisions with ALICE at the LHC

Measurements of the transverse momentum spectra of light flavor particles at intermediate and high pT are an important tool for QCD studies. In pp collisions they provide a baseline for perturbative QCD, while in Pb-Pb they are used to investigate the suppression caused by the surrounding medium. In p-Pb collisions, such measurements provide a reference to disentangle final from initial state effects and thus play an important role in the search for signatures of the formation of a deconfined hot medium. While the comparison of the p-Pb and Pb-Pb data indicates that initial state effects do not play a role in the suppression of hadron production observed at high pT in heavy ion collisions, several measurements of particle production in the low and intermediate pT region indicate the presence of collective effects.Comment: Proceedings of Nucleus-Nucleus 2015, 8 pages, 6 (multiple) figure

How aligned are we? Assessment procedures and practices between early childhood and early intervention

Early intervention and early childhood share a unique space in our early years education in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The assessment practices of the two are distinctively different and specific to each discipline. As assessment is a powerful agent for change and responsiveness to learners this article will unpack the reasoning behind these differences and consider the possibility of addressing a possible alignment through the early childhood curriculum Te Whariki (Ministry of Education, 1996)

Measurement of low mass dielectron continuum in sqrt(s_NN)=200GeV Au+Au collisions with the PHENIX experiment at RHIC

Electromagnetic probes are ideally suited to investigate hot and dense matter produced in high energy heavy ion collisions. They do not undergo strong interactions and thus probe the time evolution of the collision. The dielectron continuum is rich in physics. Dalitz decays of light hadrons and direct decays of vector mesons, which might be modified in the medium, and correlated charm decays contribute to the spectrum. Furthermore, exotic states, e.g quasi-particles predicted to exist in the medium only beyond the phase transition, might leave their footprint in the continuum. Although correlated e+e- pairs are rare, the 0.24 nb^-1 collected by PHENIX for Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)= 200 GeV in 2004 provides a significant sample to investigate the dilepton continuum. The continuum and its resonances are separated from the combinatorial background via an event mixing technique. Mass spectra are presented and compared with the expectations from decays of hadronic sources.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, conference proceedin

Centrality Dependence of Particle Production in p--A collisions measured by ALICE

We present the centrality dependence of particle production in p-A collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 5.02 TeV measured by the ALICE experiment, including the pseudo-rapidity and transverse momentum spectra, with a special emphasis on the event classification in centrality classes and its implications for the interpretation of the nuclear effects.Comment: Proceedings of Quark Matter 2014 4 pages, 3 figure

Dileptons from the nonequilibrium Quark-Gluon Plasma

According to the dynamical quasiparticle model (DQPM) -- matched to reproduce lattice QCD results in thermodynamic limit, -- the constituents of the strongly interacting quark-gluon plasma (sQGP) are massive and off-shell quasi-particles (quarks and gluons) with broad spectral functions. In order to address the electromagnetic radiation of the sQGP, we derive off-shell cross sections of $q\bar q\to\gamma^*$, $q\bar q\to\gamma^*+g$ and $qg\to\gamma^*q$($\bar q g\to\gamma^* \bar q$) reactions taking into account the effective propagators for quarks and gluons from the DQPM. Dilepton production in In+In collisions at 158 AGeV is studied by implementing these processes into the parton-hadron-string dynamics (PHSD) transport approach. The microscopic PHSD transport approach describes the full evolution of the heavy-ion collision: from the dynamics of quasi-particles in the sQGP phase (when the local energy density is above $\sim 1$ GeV/fm$^3$) through hadronization and to the following hadron interactions and off-shell propagation after the hadronization. A comparison to the data of the NA60 Collaboration shows that the low mass dilepton spectra are well described by including a collisional broadening of vector mesons, while the spectra in the intermediate mass range are dominated by off-shell quark-antiquark annihilation, quark Bremsstrahlung and gluon-Compton scattering in the nonperturbative QGP. In particular, the observed softening of the $m_T$ spectra at intermediate masses (1 GeV $\le M \le$ 3 GeV) is approximately reproduced.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the 26th Winter Workshop on `Nuclear Dynamics', Ochto Rios, Jamaica, 2-9 January, 201

Functional outcomes of peripheral nerve repair and regeneration: clinical and experimental study

This study investigated pre- and post-operative evaluation of peripheral nerve injuries and functional outcomes of peripheral nerve regeneration after different type of injuries and different type of treatments. Neuromas/scar neuritis and brachial plexus injuries are specifically addressed; literature and experimental evidence on the outcomes of vascularized nerve grafts are presented