Search for WW and WZ production in lepton plus jets final state at CDF

We present a search for WW and WZ production in final states that contain a charged lepton (electron or muon) and at least two jets, produced in sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV ppbar collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron, using data corresponding to 1.2 fb-1 of integrated luminosity collected with the CDF II detector. Diboson production in this decay channel has yet to be observed at hadron colliders due to the large single W plus jets background. An artificial neural network has been developed to increase signal sensitivity, as compared with an event selection based on conventional cuts. We set a 95% confidence level upper limit of sigma_{WW}* BR(W->lnu,W->jets)+ sigma_{WZ}*BR(W->lnu,Z->jets)We present a search for WW and WZ production in final states that contain a charged lepton (electron or muon) and at least two jets, produced in √s=1.96  TeV pp̅ collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron, using data corresponding to 1.2  fb-1 of integrated luminosity collected with the CDF II detector. Diboson production in this decay channel has yet to be observed at hadron colliders due to the large single W plus jets background. An artificial neural network has been developed to increase signal sensitivity, as compared with an event selection based on conventional cuts. We set a 95% confidence level upper limit of σWW×BR(W→ℓνℓ,W→jets)+σWZ×BR(W→ℓνℓ,Z→jets)<2.88  pb, which is consistent with the standard model next-to-leading-order cross section calculation for this decay channel of 2.09±0.12  pb.Peer reviewe

Self-harm in young people with perinatal HIV and HIV negative young people in England: cross sectional analysis.

BACKGROUND: Self-harm in adolescents is of growing concern internationally but limited evidence exists on the prevalence of self-harm in those living with HIV, who may be at higher risk of poor mental health outcomes. Therefore our aim was to determine the prevalence and predictors of self-harm among young people with perinatally-acquired HIV (PHIV) and HIV negative (with sibling or mother living with HIV) young people living in England. METHODS: 303 PHIV and 100 HIV negative young people (aged 12-23 years) participating in the Adolescents and Adults Living with Perinatal HIV cohort study completed an anonymous self-harm questionnaire, as well as a number of standardised mental-health assessments. Logistic regression investigated predictors of self-harm. RESULTS: The median age was 16.7 years in both groups, and 40.9% of the PHIV and 31.0% of the HIV negative groups were male. In total 13.9% (56/403) reported having ever self-harmed, with no difference by HIV status (p = 0.089). Multivariable predictors of self-harm were female sex (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 5.3, (95% confidence interval 1.9, 14.1), p = 0.001), lower self-esteem (AOR 0.9 (0.8, 0.9) per 1 point increase, p < 0.001) and having ever used alcohol (AOR 3.8 (1.8, 7.8), p < 0.001). Self-esteem z-scores for both PHIV and HIV negative participants were 1.9 standard deviations below the mean for population norms. CONCLUSIONS: Self-harm is common among PHIV and HIV negative adolescents in England. Reassuringly however, they do not appear to be at an increased risk compared to the general adolescent population (15-19% lifetime prevalence). The low level of self-esteem (compared to available normative data) in both groups is worrying and warrants further attention

Drug-Induced Anaphylaxis Survey in Portuguese Allergy Departments

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Drug-induced anaphylaxis is an unpredictable and potentially fatal adverse drug reaction. The aim of this study was to identify the causes of drug-induced anaphylaxis in Portugal. METHODS: During a 4-year period a nationwide notification system for anaphylaxis was implemented, with voluntary reporting by allergists. Data on 313 patients with drug anaphylaxis were received and reviewed. Statistical analysis included distribution tests and multiple logistic regression analysis to investigate significance, regression coefficients, and marginal effects. RESULTS: The mean (SD) age of the patients was 43.8 (17.4) years, and 8.3% were younger than 18 years. The female to male ratio was 2:1.The main culprits were nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) (47.9% of cases), antibiotics (35.5%), and anesthetic agents (6.1%). There was a predominance of mucocutaneous symptoms (92.2%), followed by respiratory symptoms (80.4%) and cardiovascular symptoms (49.0%). Patients with NSAID-induced anaphylaxis showed a tendency towards respiratory and mucocutaneous manifestations. We found no significant associations between age, sex, or atopy and type of drug. Anaphylaxis recurrence was observed in 25.6% of cases, and the risk was higher when NSAIDs were involved. CONCLUSIONS: NSAIDs were the most common cause of anaphylaxis in this study and were also associated with a higher rate of recurrence. We stress the need for better therapeutic management and prevention of recurring episodes of drug-induced anaphylaxis

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of asthma in ethnically diverse North American populations.

Asthma is a common disease with a complex risk architecture including both genetic and environmental factors. We performed a meta-analysis of North American genome-wide association studies of asthma in 5,416 individuals with asthma (cases) including individuals of European American, African American or African Caribbean, and Latino ancestry, with replication in an additional 12,649 individuals from the same ethnic groups. We identified five susceptibility loci. Four were at previously reported loci on 17q21, near IL1RL1, TSLP and IL33, but we report for the first time, to our knowledge, that these loci are associated with asthma risk in three ethnic groups. In addition, we identified a new asthma susceptibility locus at PYHIN1, with the association being specific to individuals of African descent (P = 3.9 × 10(-9)). These results suggest that some asthma susceptibility loci are robust to differences in ancestry when sufficiently large samples sizes are investigated, and that ancestry-specific associations also contribute to the complex genetic architecture of asthma

Search for the Higgs boson produced in association with Z→ ℓ+ ℓ - Using the matrix element method at CDF II

Aaltonen, T., Adelman, J., Akimoto, T., González, B.Á., Amerio, S., Amidei, D., Anastassov, A., Annovi, A., Antos, J., Apollinari, G., Apresyan, A., Arisawa, T., Artikov, A., Ashmanskas, W., Attal, A., Aurisano, A., Azfar, F., Badgett, W., Barbaro-Galtieri, A., Barnes, V.E., Barnett, B.A., Barria, P., Bartsch, V., Bauer, G., Beauchemin, P.-H., Bedeschi, F., Beecher, D., Behari, S., Bellettini, G., Bellinger, J., Benjamin, D., Beretvas, A., Beringer, J., Bhatti, A., Binkley, M., Bisello, D., Bizjak, I., Blair, R.E., Blocker, C., Blumenfeld, B., Bocci, A., Bodek, A., Boisvert, V., Bolla, G., Bortoletto, D., Boudreau, J., Boveia, A., Brau, B., Bridgeman, A., Brigliadori, L., Bromberg, C., Brubaker, E., Budagov, J., Budd, H.S., Budd, S., Burke, S., Burkett, K., Busetto, G., Bussey, P., Buzatu, A., Byrum, K.L., Cabrera, S., Calancha, C., Campanelli, M., Campbell, M., Canelli, F., Canepa, A., Carls, B., Carlsmith, D., Carosi, R., Carrillo, S., Carron, S., Casal, B., Casarsa, M., Castro, A., Catastini, P., Cauz, D., Cavaliere, V., Cavalli-Sforza, M., Cerri, A., Cerrito, L., Chang, S.H., Chen, Y.C., Chertok, M., Chiarelli, G., Chlachidze, G., Chlebana, F., Cho, K., Chokheli, D., Chou, J.P., Choudalakis, G., Chuang, S.H., Chung, K., Chung, W.H., Chung, Y.S., Chwalek, T., Ciobanu, C.I., Ciocci, M.A., Clark, A., Clark, D., Compostella, G., Convery, M.E., Conway, J., Cordelli, M., Cortiana, G., Cox, C.A., Cox, D.J., Crescioli, F., Almenar, C.C., Cuevas, J., Culbertson, R., Cully, J.C., Dagenhart, D., Datta, M., Davies, T., De Barbaro, P., De Cecco, S., Deisher, A., De Lorenzo, G., Dell'Orso, M., Deluca, C., Demortier, L., Deng, J., Deninno, M., Derwent, P.F., Di Canto, A., Di Giovanni, G.P., Dionisi, C., Di Ruzza, B., Dittmann, J.R., D'Onofrio, M., Donati, S., Dong, P., Donini, J., Dorigo, T., Dube, S., Efron, J., Elagin, A., Erbacher, R., Errede, D., Errede, S., Eusebi, R., Fang, H.C., Farrington, S., Fedorko, W.T., Feild, R.G., Feindt, M., Fernandez, J.P., Ferrazza, C., Field, R., Flanagan, G., Forrest, R., Frank, M.J., Franklin, M., Freeman, J.C., Furic, I., Gallinaro, M., Galyardt, J., Garberson, F., Garcia, J.E., Garfinkel, A.F., Garosi, P., Genser, K., Gerberich, H., Gerdes, D., Gessler, A., Giagu, S., Giakoumopoulou, V., Giannetti, P., Gibson, K., Gimmell, J.L., Ginsburg, C.M., Giokaris, N., Giordani, M., Giromini, P., Giunta, M., Giurgiu, G., Glagolev, V., Glenzinski, D., Gold, M., Goldschmidt, N., Golossanov, A., Gomez, G., Gomez-Ceballos, G., Goncharov, M., González, O., Gorelov, I., Goshaw, A.T., Goulianos, K., Gresele, A., Grinstein, S., Grosso-Pilcher, C., Group, R.C., Grundler, U., Da Costa, J.G., Gunay-Unalan, Z., Haber, C., Hahn, K., Hahn, S.R., Halkiadakis, E., Han, B.-Y., Han, J.Y., Happacher, F., Hara, K., Hare, D., Hare, M., Harper, S., Harr, R.F., Harris, R.M., Hartz, M., Hatakeyama, K., Hays, C., Heck, M., Heijboer, A., Heinrich, J., Henderson, C., Herndon, M., Heuser, J., Hewamanage, S., Hidas, D., Hill, C.S., Hirschbuehl, D., 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Health Diplomacy the Adaptation of Global Health Interventions to Local Needs in sub-Saharan Africa and Thailand: Evaluating Findings from Project Accept (HPTN 043).

Study-based global health interventions, especially those that are conducted on an international or multi-site basis, frequently require site-specific adaptations in order to (1) respond to socio-cultural differences in risk determinants, (2) to make interventions more relevant to target population needs, and (3) in recognition of 'global health diplomacy' issues. We report on the adaptations development, approval and implementation process from the Project Accept voluntary counseling and testing, community mobilization and post-test support services intervention. We reviewed all relevant documentation collected during the study intervention period (e.g. monthly progress reports; bi-annual steering committee presentations) and conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with project directors and between 12 and 23 field staff at each study site in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Thailand and Tanzania during 2009. Respondents were asked to describe (1) the adaptations development and approval process and (2) the most successful site-specific adaptations from the perspective of facilitating intervention implementation. Across sites, proposed adaptations were identified by field staff and submitted to project directors for review on a formally planned basis. The cross-site intervention sub-committee then ensured fidelity to the study protocol before approval. Successfully-implemented adaptations included: intervention delivery adaptations (e.g. development of tailored counseling messages for immigrant labour groups in South Africa) political, environmental and infrastructural adaptations (e.g. use of local community centers as VCT venues in Zimbabwe); religious adaptations (e.g. dividing clients by gender in Muslim areas of Tanzania); economic adaptations (e.g. co-provision of income generating skills classes in Zimbabwe); epidemiological adaptations (e.g. provision of 'youth-friendly' services in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Tanzania), and social adaptations (e.g. modification of terminology to local dialects in Thailand: and adjustment of service delivery schedules to suit seasonal and daily work schedules across sites). Adaptation selection, development and approval during multi-site global health research studies should be a planned process that maintains fidelity to the study protocol. The successful implementation of appropriate site-specific adaptations may have important implications for intervention implementation, from both a service uptake and a global health diplomacy perspective

Investigating the association between obesity and asthma in 6- to 8-year-old Saudi children:a matched case-control study

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated an association between obesity and asthma, but there remains considerable uncertainty about whether this reflects an underlying causal relationship. Aims: To investigate the association between obesity and asthma in pre-pubertal children and to investigate the roles of airway obstruction and atopy as possible causal mechanisms. Methods: We conducted an age- and sex-matched case–control study of 1,264 6- to 8-year-old schoolchildren with and without asthma recruited from 37 randomly selected schools in Madinah, Saudi Arabia. The body mass index (BMI), waist circumference and skin fold thickness of the 632 children with asthma were compared with those of the 632 control children without asthma. Associations between obesity and asthma, adjusted for other potential risk factors, were assessed separately in boys and girls using conditional logistic regression analysis. The possible mediating roles of atopy and airway obstruction were studied by investigating the impact of incorporating data on sensitisation to common aeroallergens and measurements of lung function. Results: BMI was associated with asthma in boys (odds ratio (OR)=1.14, 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.08–1.20; adjusted OR=1.11, 95% CI, 1.03–1.19) and girls (OR=1.37, 95% CI, 1.26–1.50; adjusted OR=1.38, 95% CI, 1.23–1.56). Adjusting for forced expiratory volume in 1 s had a negligible impact on these associations, but these were attenuated following adjustment for allergic sensitisation, particularly in girls (girls: OR=1.25; 95% CI, 0.96–1.60; boys: OR=1.09, 95% CI, 0.99–1.19). Conclusions: BMI is associated with asthma in pre-pubertal Saudi boys and girls; this effect does not appear to be mediated through respiratory obstruction, but in girls this may at least partially be mediated through increased risk of allergic sensitisation

Single hadron response measurement and calorimeter jet energy scale uncertainty with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The uncertainty on the calorimeter energy response to jets of particles is derived for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First, the calorimeter response to single isolated charged hadrons is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo simulation using proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) = 900 GeV and 7 TeV collected during 2009 and 2010. Then, using the decay of K_s and Lambda particles, the calorimeter response to specific types of particles (positively and negatively charged pions, protons, and anti-protons) is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo predictions. Finally, the jet energy scale uncertainty is determined by propagating the response uncertainty for single charged and neutral particles to jets. The response uncertainty is 2-5% for central isolated hadrons and 1-3% for the final calorimeter jet energy scale.Comment: 24 pages plus author list (36 pages total), 23 figures, 1 table, submitted to European Physical Journal

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011