Summary of recent experimental results on strangeness production

This article summarises the highlights of the recent experimental findings on strangeness production presented at the 16th edition of the {\it International Conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter} in Berkeley. Results obtained by eight large experimental collaborations (ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, HADES, LHCb, NA-61, PHENIX, STAR) spanning a large range in centre-of-mass energy and a variety of collision systems were presented at the conference. The article does not aim at being a complete review, but rather at connecting the experimental highlights of the different collaborations and at pointing towards questions which should be addressed by these experiments in future.Comment: Proceedings of the experimental summary talk -- Strangeness in Quark Matter conference Berkeley 201

Measuring changes in preferences and perception due to the entry of a new brand with choice data

Context effects can have a major influence on brand choice behavior after the introduction of a new product. Based on behavioral literature, several hypotheses about the effects of a new brand on perception, preferences and choice behavior can be derived, but studies with real choice data are still lacking. We employ an internal market structure analysis to measure context effects caused by a new product in scanner panel data, and to discriminate between alternative theoretical explanations. An empirical investigation reveals strong support for categorization effects and changes in perception, which affect customers in two out of five segments.context effects, categorization, brand choice models, new brand introduction

Study of strange particle production in pp collisions with the ALICE detector

ALICE is well suited for strange particles production studies since it has very good reconstruction capabilities in the low transverse momentum ($p_{t}$) region and it also allows to extend the identification up to quite high $p_{t}$. Charged strange mesons (\kp, \km,) are reconstructed via energy loss measurements whereas neutral strange mesons (\ks) and strange hyperons (\lam, $\Xi$, $\Omega$) are identified via vertex reconstruction. All these particles carry important information: first, the measurement of production yields and the particle ratio within the statistical models can help to understand the medium created and secondly the dynamics at intermediate $p_{t}$ investigated via the baryon over meson ratio (\lam / \ks) allows a better understanding of the hadronization mechanisms and of the underlying event processes. We present these two aspects of the strange particles analysis in pp collisions using simulated data.Comment: Proceeding SQM (2009), 5 figures, 6 page

Measurement of π\pi, K, p transverse momentum spectra with ALICE in proton-proton collisions at s=\sqrt{s} = 0.9 and 7 TeV

Results of the measurement of the $\pi$, K, p transverse momentum ($p_{\mathrm{t}}$) spectra at mid-rapidity in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV are presented. Particle identification was performed using the energy loss signal in the Inner Tracking System (ITS) and the Time Projection Chamber (TPC), while information from the Time-of-Flight (TOF) detector was used to identify particles at higher transverse momentum. From the spectra at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV the mean transverse momentum ($$) and particle ratios were extracted and compared to results obtained for collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 0.9$ TeV and lower energies.Comment: Quark Matter 2011 proceeding

Particle Identification in the ALICE Experiment

The particle identification capabilities of the ALICE experiment are unique among the four major LHC experiments. The working principles and excellent performance of the central barrel detectors in a high-multiplicity environment are presented as well as two physics examples: the extraction of transverse momentum spectra of charged pions, kaons, protons, and the observation of the anti-4He-nucleus.Comment: Quark Matter 2011 Proceeding

Confronting fluctuations of conserved charges in central nuclear collisions at the LHC with predictions from Lattice QCD

We construct net baryon number and strangeness susceptibilities as well as correlations between electric charge and strangeness from experimental data of the ALICE Collaboration at the CERN LHC. The data were taken in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=2.76 TeV. The resulting fluctuations and correlations are consistent with Lattice QCD results at the chiral crossover pseudocritical temperature $T_c\simeq 155$ MeV. This agreement lends strong support to the assumption that the fireball created in these collisions is of thermal origin and exhibits characteristic properties expected in QCD at the transition from the quark gluon plasma to the hadronic phase. The volume of the fireball for one unit of rapidity at $T_c$ is found to exceed 4000 fm$^3$. A detailed discussion on uncertainties in the temperature and volume of the fireball is presented. The results are linked to pion interferometry measurements and predictions from percolation theory.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures Accepted for publication in PL

Prioritisation of candidate genes for psychiatric disorders

The application of genome-wide association studies and next-generation sequencing has had limited success in identifying causal genes for complex diseases. Bipolar disorder is one such disease whose aetiology has not been elucidated despite the application of these technologies. Candidate gene prioritisation offers a solution to limit the vast amount of possible candidate genes produced from the combination of data sources. Current prioritisation tools rely heavily on previous data and thus do not perform well for poorly characterised diseases such as bipolar disorder. Here we have developed Data Integrated Genetics, DIG, a new candidate gene prioritisation tool designed specifically for complex genetic diseases. Given a user-specified disease query, DIG initially data-mines literature, linkage, homolog and sequence data to create a pool of possible candidates. The tool filters out likely false positives by removing pseudogenes. A unique data integration method is used to rank the remaining list of genes. Additionally, ranking is validated by tissue expression and single nucleotide polymorphism annotation. DIG exhibited comparable performance to existing tools when evaluated with four complex diseases. Eight novel genes were identified when DIG was applied to bipolar disorder, of which the Huntingtin gene poses as an exciting avenue for new aetiology research. The ease of use and realistic number of possible candidates given in the DIG results make this tool highly useful for research application in the study of complex genetic diseases. DIG is freely available from http://www.cbio.uct.ac.za/DIG

Multiscale simulation strategies and mesoscale modelling of gas and liquid flows

This paper was presented at the 2nd Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2009), which was held at Brunel University, West London, UK. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, IPEM, the Italian Union of Thermofluid dynamics, the Process Intensification Network, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.This paper presents a review of multiscale simulation strategies for the modelling of micro- and nanoscale flows. These have been developed in the last two decades in an attempt to bridge the application gap between molecular and continuum simulation methods preventing the simulation of many micro- and nanofluidic devices. The paper is focused on hybrid molecular-continuum methods and reviews different coupling strategies, including geometrical decomposition in conjunction with state- and flux coupling, pointwise coupling, the heterogeneous multiscale method and the equation free approach. The different applications of these methods are briefly discussed

K0s and \Lambda\ production in Pb--Pb collisions with the ALICE experiment

We present the study of K0s and Lambda production performed with the ALICE experiment at the LHC in Pb--Pb collisions at \sqrt{s_NN}=2.76 TeV and pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=0.9 and 7 TeV. The K0s and Lambda particles are reconstructed via their V0 decay topology allowing their identification up to high transverse momenta. The corresponding baryon/meson ratios as a function of transverse momentum are extracted for Pb--Pb collisions in centrality bins and in the transverse momentum range from 1 to 6 GeV/c. They are also compared with those measured in pp events at the LHC energies of 0.9 and 7 TeV as well as in Au--Au collisions at \sqrt{s_NN} = 62.4 and 200 GeV from RHIC.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, proceedings of Quark Matter 2011 (May 23rd-28th 2011, Annecy, France

A comprehensive study of rate capability in Multi-Wire Proportional Chambers

Systematic measurements on the rate capability of thin MWPCs operated in Xenon, Argon and Neon mixtures using CO2 as UV-quencher are presented. A good agreement between data and existing models has been found, allowing us to present the rate capability of MWPCs in a comprehensive way and ultimately connect it with the mobilities of the drifting ions.Comment: 29 pages, 18 figure