4,329 research outputs found
Consistency and trends of technological innovations: a network approach to the international patent classification data
Classifying patents by the technology areas they pertain is important to enable information search and facilitate policy analysis and socio-economic studies. Based on the OECD Triadic Patent Family database, this study constructs a cohort network based on the grouping of IPC subclasses in the same patent families, and a citation network based on citations between subclasses of patent families citing each other. This paper presents a systematic analysis approach which obtains naturally formed network clusters identified using a Lumped Markov Chain method, extracts community keys traceable over time, and investigates two important community characteristics: consistency and changing trends. The results are verified against several other methods, including a recent research measuring patent text similarity. The proposed method contributes to the literature a network-based approach to study the endogenous community properties of an exogenously devised classification system. The application of this method may improve accuracy and efficiency of the IPC search platform and help detect the emergence of new technologies
New Physics Signals in Longitudinal Gauge Boson Scattering at the LHC
We introduce a novel technique designed to look for signatures of new physics
in vector boson fusion processes at the TeV scale. This functions by measuring
the polarization of the vector bosons to determine the relative longitudinal to
transverse production. In studying this ratio we can directly probe the high
energy E^2-growth of longitudinal vector boson scattering amplitudes
characteristic of models with non-Standard Model (SM) interactions. We will
focus on studying models parameterized by an effective Lagrangian that include
a light Higgs with non-SM couplings arising from TeV scale new physics
associated with the electroweak symmetry breaking, although our technique can
be used in more general scenarios. We will show that this technique is stable
against the large uncertainties that can result from variations in the
factorization scale, improving upon previous studies that measure cross section
alone
NLO Higgs boson production via vector-boson fusion matched with shower in POWHEG
We present a next-to-leading order calculation of Higgs boson production in
vector-boson fusion processes interfaced to shower Monte Carlo programs,
implemented according to the POWHEG method.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures. A few references and a new figure adde
Improving the sensitivity of Higgs boson searches in the golden channel
Leptonic decays of the Higgs boson in the ZZ* channel yield what is known as
the golden channel due to its clean signature and good total invariant mass
resolution. In addition, the full kinematic distribution of the decay products
can be reconstructed, which, nonetheless, is not taken into account in
traditional search strategy relying only on measurements of the total invariant
mass. In this work we implement a type of multivariate analysis known as the
matrix element method, which exploits differences in the full production and
decay matrix elements between the Higgs boson and the dominant irreducible
background from q bar{q} -> ZZ*. Analytic expressions of the differential
distributions for both the signal and the background are also presented. We
perform a study for the Large Hadron Collider at sqrt{s}=7 TeV for Higgs masses
between 175 and 350 GeV. We find that, with an integrated luminosity of 2.5
fb^-1 or higher, improvements in the order of 10 - 20 % could be obtained for
both discovery significance and exclusion limits in the high mass region, where
the differences in the angular correlations between signal and background are
most pronounced.Comment: 31 pages, 8 figures. v2: Minus signs in definitions of angles
corrected. Typos fixed. Reference added. Cosmetic changes to Figure 4.
Additional sentence added for clarificatio
Probing Colored Particles with Photons, Leptons, and Jets
If pairs of new colored particles are produced at the Large Hadron Collider,
determining their quantum numbers, and even discovering them, can be
non-trivial. We suggest that valuable information can be obtained by measuring
the resonant signals of their near-threshold QCD bound states. If the particles
are charged, the resulting signatures include photons and leptons and are
sufficiently rich for unambiguously determining their various quantum numbers,
including the charge, color representation and spin, and obtaining a precise
mass measurement. These signals provide well-motivated benchmark models for
resonance searches in the dijet, photon+jet, diphoton and dilepton channels.
While these measurements require that the lifetime of the new particles be not
too short, the resulting limits, unlike those from direct searches for pair
production above threshold, do not depend on the particles' decay modes. These
limits may be competitive with more direct searches if the particles decay in
an obscure way.Comment: 39 pages, 9 figures; v2: more recent searches include
Verticalization of bacterial biofilms
Biofilms are communities of bacteria adhered to surfaces. Recently, biofilms
of rod-shaped bacteria were observed at single-cell resolution and shown to
develop from a disordered, two-dimensional layer of founder cells into a
three-dimensional structure with a vertically-aligned core. Here, we elucidate
the physical mechanism underpinning this transition using a combination of
agent-based and continuum modeling. We find that verticalization proceeds
through a series of localized mechanical instabilities on the cellular scale.
For short cells, these instabilities are primarily triggered by cell division,
whereas long cells are more likely to be peeled off the surface by nearby
vertical cells, creating an "inverse domino effect". The interplay between cell
growth and cell verticalization gives rise to an exotic mechanical state in
which the effective surface pressure becomes constant throughout the growing
core of the biofilm surface layer. This dynamical isobaricity determines the
expansion speed of a biofilm cluster and thereby governs how cells access the
third dimension. In particular, theory predicts that a longer average cell
length yields more rapidly expanding, flatter biofilms. We experimentally show
that such changes in biofilm development occur by exploiting chemicals that
modulate cell length.Comment: Main text 10 pages, 4 figures; Supplementary Information 35 pages, 15
figure
Effectiveness of a multidimensional approach for prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia in 11 adult intensive care units from 10 cities of Turkey: Findings of the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC)
Purpose: To evaluate the impact of the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) multidimensional approach on the reduction of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in adult patients hospitalized in 11 intensive care units (ICUs), from 10 hospitals, members of the INICC, in 10 cities of Turkey. Methods: A prospective active before-after surveillance study was conducted to determine the effect of the INICC multidimensional approach in the VAP rate. The study was divided into two phases. In phase 1, active prospective surveillance of VAP was conducted using the definitions of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Health Safety Network, and the INICC methods. In phase 2, we implemented the multidimensional approach for VAP. The INICC multidimensional approach included the following measures: (1) bundle of infection control interventions, (2) education, (3) outcome surveillance, (4) process surveillance, (5) feedback of VAP rates, and (6) performance feedback of infection control practices. We compared the rates of VAP obtained in each phase. A time series analysis was performed to assess the impact of our approach. Results: In phase 1, we recorded 2,376 mechanical ventilator (MV)-days, and in phase 2, after implementing the multidimensional approach, we recorded 28,181 MV-days. The rate of VAP was 31.14 per 1,000 MV-days during phase 1, and 16.82 per 1,000 MV-days during phase 2, amounting to a 46 % VAP rate reduction (RR, 0.54; 95 % CI, 0.42-0.7; P value, 0.0001.) Conclusions: The INICC multidimensional approach was associated with a significant reduction in the VAP rate in these adult ICUs of Turkey. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
Probing EWSB Naturalness in Unified SUSY Models with Dark Matter
We have studied Electroweak Symmetry Breaking (EWSB) fine-tuning in the
context of two unified Supersymmetry scenarios: the Constrained Minimal
Supersymmetric Model (CMSSM) and models with Non-Universal Higgs Masses (NUHM),
in light of current and upcoming direct detection dark matter experiments. We
consider both those models that satisfy a one-sided bound on the relic density
of neutralinos, , and also the subset that satisfy
the two-sided bound in which the relic density is within the 2 sigma best fit
of WMAP7 + BAO + H0 data. We find that current direct detection searches for
dark matter probe the least fine-tuned regions of parameter-space, or
equivalently those of lowest Higgs mass parameter , and will tend to probe
progressively more and more fine-tuned models, though the trend is more
pronounced in the CMSSM than in the NUHM. Additionally, we examine several
subsets of model points, categorized by common mass hierarchies; M_{\chi_0}
\sim M_{\chi^\pm}, M_{\chi_0} \sim M_{\stau}, M_{\chi_0} \sim M_{\stop_1}, the
light and heavy Higgs poles, and any additional models classified as "other";
the relevance of these mass hierarchies is their connection to the preferred
neutralino annihilation channel that determines the relic abundance. For each
of these subsets of models we investigated the degree of fine-tuning and
discoverability in current and next generation direct detection experiments.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figures. v2: references added. v3: matches published
versio
Beautiful Mirrors at the LHC
We explore the "Beautiful Mirrors" model, which aims to explain the measured
value of , discrepant at the level. This scenario
introduces vector-like quarks which mix with the bottom, subtly affecting its
coupling to the . The spectrum of the new particles consists of two
bottom-like quarks and a charge -4/3 quark, all of which have electroweak
interactions with the third generation. We explore the phenomenology and
discovery reach for these new particles at the LHC, exploring single mirror
quark production modes whose rates are proportional to the same mixing
parameters which resolve the anomaly. We find that for mirror quark
masses is required to
reasonably establish the scenario and extract the relevant mixing parameters.Comment: version to be published in JHE
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