Charm and Beauty Production at HERA-B

The HERA-B experiment at DESY has acquired a data set of approximately 300,000 decays J/psi -> l+l- during its 2002/2003 data-taking period. These data are used to analyze the production of heavy quarks in proton-nucleus interactions at a center-of-mass energy of 41.6 GeV. In this article, preliminary results of two measurements are discussed, a measurement of nuclear effects in the production of J/psi mesons and a measurement of the b-bbar production cross section.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Proc. XIII International Workshop on Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS2005), April 27 - May 1, 2005, Madison, Wisconsi

Radiation experience with the CDF silicon detectors

The silicon detectors of the CDF experiment at the Tevatron collider are operated in a harsh radiation environment. The lifetime of the silicon detectors is limited by radiation damage, and beam-related incidents are an additional risk. This article describes the impact of beam-related incidents on detector operation and the effects of radiation damage on electronics noise and the silicon sensors. From measurements of the depletion voltage as a function of the integrated luminosity, estimates of the silicon detector lifetime are derived

Measurements of Top Properties at the Tevatron

The large data samples of thousands of top events collected at the Tevatron experiments CDF and D{O} allow for a variety of measurements to analyze the properties of the top quark. Guided by the question ''Is the top quark observed at the Tevatron really the top quark of the standard model,'' we present Tevatron analyses studying the top production mechanism including resonant t{bar t} production, the V -A structure of the t {yields} Wb decay vertex, the charge of the top quark, and single-top production via flavor-changing neutral currents

Palaearctic biogeography revisited: evidence for the existence of a North African refugium for Western Palaearctic biota

Aim: In contrast to the attention given to southern Europe both as a centre of speciation and differentiation and as a Pleistocene refugium of Western Palae- arctic taxa, North Africa has been relatively neglected. In this paper, we set out to address this shortfall. Location North-West Africa and the Mediterranean. Methods We reviewed the existing literature on the biogeography of North Africa, and carried out analyses of species distribution data using parsimony, nestedness and co-occurrence methods. Results In many cases, distribution patterns of non-flying mammals, bats, amphibians, reptiles, butterflies, zygaenid moths and odonates demonstrated important biogeographical affinities between Europe and North Africa at the species level. On the other hand, species co-occurrence, nestedness and parsi- mony analysis also revealed some deep splits between the Maghreb and Europe; yet even in these cases the closest affinities were found between the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb. Furthermore, North Africa harbours the highest proportion of endemic taxa (13.7%) across all groups analysed. Many molecu- lar studies demonstrated a strong genetic cohesiveness between North Africa and Europe despite the potential barrier effect of the Mediterranean Sea. In other taxa, however, remarkable splits were detected. In addition, southern European genetic lineages were often nested within North African clades, and many taxa showed exceptionally high genetic variability and differentiation in this region. Main conclusions The Maghreb was an important differentiation and specia- tion centre for thermophilic organisms during the Pliocene and Pleistocene with high relevance as a colonization source for Europe. The regions around the sea straits of Gibraltar and Sicily have acted as important biogeographical links between North Africa and Europe at different times

Heavy flavor jet tagging algorithm developments at CMS for HL-LHC

The rich physics program at the high luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) requires all final state particles to be reconstructed with good accuracy. However, it also poses formidable challenge of dealing with very high pileup. Different identification algorithms need to be upgraded along with the detectors to improve the overall event reconstruction in such a hostile collision environment. The new timing device in the proposed CMS detector at the HL-LHC allows for the construction of timing observables at the track-level as well as at the jet-level. This information when given as inputs to the deep neural networks, have a potential to improve the existing algorithms used for heavy flavor (HF) jet tagging. In this paper, the latest developments on the studies for HF jet tagging performance at the HL-LHC are presented

Evolution along the Great Rift Valley: phenotypic and genetic differentiation of East African white-eyes (Aves, Zosteropidae)

The moist and cool cloud forests of East Africa represent a network of isolated habitats that are separated by dry and warm lowland savannah, offering an opportunity to investigate how strikingly different selective regimes affect species diversification. Here, we used the passerine genus Zosterops (white-eyes) from this region as our model system. Species of the genus occur in contrasting distribution settings, with geographical mountain isolation driving diversification, and savannah interconnectivity preventing differentiation. We analyze (1) patterns of phenotypic and genetic differentiation in high- and lowland species (different distribution settings), (2) investigate the potential effects of natural selection and temporal and spatial isolation (evolutionary drivers), and (3) critically review the taxonomy of this species complex. We found strong phenotypic and genetic differentiation among and within the three focal species, both in the highland species complex and in the lowland taxa. Altitude was a stronger predictor of phenotypic patterns than the current taxonomic classification. We found longitudinal and latitudinal phenotypic gradients for all three species. Furthermore, wing length and body weight were significantly correlated with altitude and habitat type in the highland species Z.poliogaster. Genetic and phenotypic divergence showed contrasting inter- and intraspecific structures. We suggest that the evolution of phenotypic characters is mainly driven by natural selection due to differences in the two macro-habitats, cloud forest and savannah. In contrast, patterns of neutral genetic variation appear to be rather driven by geographical isolation of the respective mountain massifs. Populations of the Z.poliogaster complex, as well as Z.senegalensis and Z.abyssinicus, are not monophyletic based on microsatellite data and have higher levels of intraspecific differentiation compared to the currently accepted species

Morphology Of Current Of Injury Does Not Predict Long Term Active Fixation ICD Lead Performance

Background: Currents of injury (COI) have been associated with improved lead performance during perioperative measurements in pacemaker and ICD implants. Their relevance on long term lead stability remains unclear.Methods: Unipolar signals were recorded immediately after active fixation ICD lead positioning, blinded to the implanting surgeon. Signals were assigned to prespecified COI types by two independent investigators. Sensing, pacing as well as changes requiring surgical intervention were prospectively investigated for 3 months.Results: 105 consecutive ICD lead implants were studied. All could be assigned to a particular COI with 48 type 1, 43 type 2 and 14 type 3 signals. Pacing impedance at implant was 703.8±151.6 Ohm with a significant COI independent drop within the first week. Sensing was 10.6mV± 3.7mV and pacing threshold at implant was 0.8±0.3mV at 0.5ms at implant. There was no significant difference between COI groups at implant and during a 3 months follow up regarding sensing, pacing nor surgical revisions.Conclusions: Three distinct patterns of unipolar endocardial potentials were observed in active fixation ICD lead implant, but COI morphology did not predict lead performance after 3 months