667 research outputs found
Politics, geological past, and the future of earth
From the 1940s, new technologies, like carbon dating, ice- and sea-core drilling, and pollen analysis not only vastly expanded time horizons in geophysical and climatological research, but also pinpointed past events on a newly historical timescale. Using natural proxy indicators, these studies brought to light a series of globally disruptive events in geological time, for example, volcanic eruptions of previously unknown scale and types that had also an impact on the Earthâs climate. The past became discrete. Knowing more about the past also meant knowing more about possible futures, given that some catastrophic events have occurred repeatedly or have become increasingly predictable with the help of computer modeling. This meant that scientists' claims about the future of the earth increasingly came to interfere with politics and with traditional economic planning. The paper argues that the ânewâ past has come to weigh in two ways on the present and the future. First, it dwarfed the human time scale, thus in-creasing the challenge of dealing with heterogeneous time scales. Second, prehis-toric past events came to take on political significance. The deep past became part of political history, and thus of politics
Three-Particle Correlations from Parton Cascades in Au+Au Collisions
We present a study of three-particle correlations among a trigger particle
and two associated particles in Au + Au collisions at = 200 GeV
using a multi-phase transport model (AMPT) with both partonic and hadronic
interactions. We found that three-particle correlation densities in different
angular directions with respect to the triggered particle (`center', `cone',
`deflected', `near' and `near-away') increase with the number of participants.
The ratio of `deflected' to `cone' density approaches to 1.0 with the
increasing of number of participants, which indicates that partonic Mach-like
shock waves can be produced by strong parton cascades in central Au+Au
collisions.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures; Final version to appear in Physics Letters
Investigation on viscosity and non-isothermal crystallization behavior of P-bearing steelmaking slags with varying TiO2 content
The viscous flow and crystallization behavior of CaO-SiO2-MgO-Al2O3-FetO-P2O5-TiO2 steelmaking slags have been investigated over a wide range of temperatures under Ar (High purity, >99.999 pct) atmosphere, and the relationship between viscosity and structure was determined. The results indicated that the viscosity of the slags slightly decreased with increasing TiO2 content. The constructed nonisothermal continuous cooling transformation (CCT) diagrams revealed that the addition of TiO2 lowered the crystallization temperature. This can mainly be ascribed to that addition of TiO2 promotes the formation of [TiO6]-octahedra units and, consequently, the formation of MgFe2O4-Mg2TiO4 solid solution. Moreover, the decreasing viscosity has a significant effect on enhancing the diffusion of ion units, such as Ca2+ and [TiO4]-tetrahedra, from bulk melts to the crystalâmelt interface. The crystallization of CaTiO3 and CaSiTiO5 was consequently accelerated, which can improve the phosphorus content in P-enriched phase (n2CaO¡SiO2-3CaO¡P2O5). Finally, the nonisothermal crystallization kinetics was characterized and the activation energy for the primary crystal growth was derived such that the activation energy increases from â265.93 to â185.41 KJ¡molâ1 with the addition of TiO2 content, suggesting that TiO2 lowered the tendency for the slags to crystallize
Di-hadron azimuthal correlation and Mach-like cone structure in parton/hadron transport model
In the framework of a multi-phase transport model (AMPT) with both partonic
and hadronic interactions, azimuthal correlations between trigger particles and
associated scattering particles have been studied by the mixing-event
technique. The momentum ranges of these particles are
GeV/ and GeV/ (soft), or 4
GeV/ and GeV/ (hard) in Au + Au collisions at
= 200 GeV. A Mach-like structure has been observed in
correlation functions for central collisions. By comparing scenarios with and
without parton cascade and hadronic rescattering, we show that both partonic
and hadronic dynamical mechanisms contribute to the Mach-like structure of the
associated particle azimuthal correlations. The contribution of hadronic
dynamical process can not be ignored in the emergence of Mach-like correlations
of the soft scattered associated hadrons. However, hadronic rescattering alone
cannot reproduce experimental amplitude of Mach-like cone on away-side, and the
parton cascade process is essential to describe experimental amplitude of
Mach-like cone on away-side. In addition, both the associated multiplicity and
the sum of decrease, whileas the increases, with the impact
parameter in the AMPT model including partonic dynamics from string melting
scenario.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures; Physics Letters B 641, 362-367 (2006
An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics
For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types
Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset
corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected
during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV.
The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the
couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and
right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary
mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b,
leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing
transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W'
boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to
the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for
masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC
data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed
coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant
improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe
Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV
A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The
analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC
from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an
integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross
section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected
exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the
standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The
analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model
Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The
largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is
observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance
of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local
significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is
estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of
this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters
Measurement of the Lambda(b) cross section and the anti-Lambda(b) to Lambda(b) ratio with Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda decays in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
The Lambda(b) differential production cross section and the cross section
ratio anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) are measured as functions of transverse momentum
pt(Lambda(b)) and rapidity abs(y(Lambda(b))) in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7
TeV using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The measurements are
based on Lambda(b) decays reconstructed in the exclusive final state J/Psi
Lambda, with the subsequent decays J/Psi to an opposite-sign muon pair and
Lambda to proton pion, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated
luminosity of 1.9 inverse femtobarns. The product of the cross section times
the branching ratio for Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda versus pt(Lambda(b)) falls
faster than that of b mesons. The measured value of the cross section times the
branching ratio for pt(Lambda(b)) > 10 GeV and abs(y(Lambda(b))) < 2.0 is 1.06
+/- 0.06 +/- 0.12 nb, and the integrated cross section ratio for
anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) is 1.02 +/- 0.07 +/- 0.09, where the uncertainties are
statistical and systematic, respectively.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters
Search for new physics in events with opposite-sign leptons, jets, and missing transverse energy in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
A search is presented for physics beyond the standard model (BSM) in final
states with a pair of opposite-sign isolated leptons accompanied by jets and
missing transverse energy. The search uses LHC data recorded at a
center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the CMS detector, corresponding to
an integrated luminosity of approximately 5 inverse femtobarns. Two
complementary search strategies are employed. The first probes models with a
specific dilepton production mechanism that leads to a characteristic kinematic
edge in the dilepton mass distribution. The second strategy probes models of
dilepton production with heavy, colored objects that decay to final states
including invisible particles, leading to very large hadronic activity and
missing transverse energy. No evidence for an event yield in excess of the
standard model expectations is found. Upper limits on the BSM contributions to
the signal regions are deduced from the results, which are used to exclude a
region of the parameter space of the constrained minimal supersymmetric
extension of the standard model. Additional information related to detector
efficiencies and response is provided to allow testing specific models of BSM
physics not considered in this paper.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO
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