Search for New Physics at CDF

We present the current status of the search for new physics at CDF, using integrated luminosity up to 3.2 fb-1. We cover searches for supersymmetry, extra dimensions, new heavy bosons, and generic dilepton resonances.Comment: Contribution to the proceedings of Lake Louise Winter Institute: Fundamental Interactions (LLWI 2009), Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada, February 16-21, 200

Search for RS-gravitons at CDF

We present a search for Randall-Sundrum (RS) gravitons decaying to diphotons or dielectrons or dimuons, performed with the CDF II detector and using up to 5.7 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. The respective mass spectra are consistent with the ones expected by the standard model. For the RS-model parameter k/M_Pl=0.1, RS-gravitons with mass less than 1111 GeV/c^2 are excluded at 95% CL.Comment: XIX International Workshop on Deep Inelastic Scattering and related subjects -- DIS11, Newport News, VA, USA Apr. 11-15, 2011 [4 pages, 4 figures

Search for trilepton SUSY signal at CDF

The chargino-neutralino production with subsequent leptonic decays is one of the most promising supersymmetry (SUSY) signatures at the Tevatron proton-antiproton collider. We present the most recent results on the search for the three-lepton and missing-transverse-energy SUSY signature using 3.2 fb-1 of data collected with the CDF II detector. The results are interpreted within the minimal supergravity (mSUGRA) scenario.Comment: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Supersymmetry and the Unification of Fundamental Interactions (SUSY 09), Boston MA, USA, June 5-10, 2009. To be published by the American Institute of Physic

Providing secure remote access to legacy applications

While the widespread adoption of Internet and Intranet technology has been one of the exciting developments of recent years, many hospitals are finding that their data and legacy applications do not naturally fit into the new methods of dissemination. Existing applications often rely on isolation or trusted networks for their access control or security, whereas untrusted wide area networks pay little attention to the authenticity, integrity or confidentiality of the data they transport. Many hospitals do not have the resources to develop new ''network-ready'' versions of existing centralised applications. In this paper, we examine the issues that must be considered when providing network access to an existing health care application, and we describe how we have implemented the proposed solution in one healthcare application namely the diabetic register at Hope Hospital. We describe the architecture that allows remote access to the legacy application, providing it with encrypted communications and strongly authenticated access control but without requiring any modifications to the underlying application. As well as comparing alternative ways of implementing such a system, we also consider issues relating to usability and manageability, such as password management

Initial Experiences of Building Secure Access to Patient Confidential Data via the Internet

A project to enable health care professionals (GPs, practice nurses and diabetes nurse specialists) to access, via the Internet, confidential patient data held on a secondary care (hospital) diabetes information system, has been implemented. We describe the application that we chose to distribute (a diabetes register); the security mechanisms we used to protect the data (a public key infrastructure with strong encryption and digitally signed messages, plus a firewall); the reasons for the implementation decisions we made; the validation testing that we performed and the preliminary results of the pilot implementation

Patently Wrong: The U.S. Supreme Court Punts in the Case of LabCorp v. Metabolite

In June 2006, after having granted certiorari and hearing oral arguments, the United States Supreme Court dismissed the case of Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings v. Metabolite Laboratories, Inc. as having been improvidently granted a writ of certiorari. Dissenting from this extraordinary step was Justice Breyer, joined by Justices Stevens and Souter. At issue in the case was a patent, the owners of which claimed that a physician\u27s use of any test to infer vitamin deficiency by raised blood serum levels of the chemical homocysteine infringed the patent. This Article argues that the Supreme Court was itself improvident in dismissing the case because the patent at issue claims ownership of a basic scientific fact, a phenomenon of nature, in violation of 35 U.S.C. § 101. Moreover, the lower courts\u27 construction of the term correlate was erroneous in that it was not determined according to the knowledge of biomedical investigators and practitioners skilled in that art. Finally, sound public policy arguments caution against granting such a patent. By failing to act, the Supreme Court essentially affirmed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit\u27s holding that a patent claiming a scientific fact can be valid, and that practicing physicians who merely think about that fact are liable for patent infringement

Happiness Adaptation to Income and to Status in an Individual Panel

We study "habituation" to income and to status using individual panel data on the happiness of 7,812 people living in Germany from 1984 to 2000. Specifically, we estimate a "happiness equation" defined over several lags of income and status and compare the long run effects. We can (cannot) reject the hypothesis of no adaptation to income (status) during the four years following an income (status) change. In the short-run (current year) a one standard deviation increase in status and 52% of one standard deviation in income are associated with similar increases in happiness. In the long-run (five year average) a one standard deviation increase in status has a similar effect to an increase of 285% of a standard deviation in income. We also present different estimates of habituation across sub-groups. For example, we find that those on the right (left) of the political spectrum adapt to status (income) but not to income (status).

Aren\u27t You Lucky You Have Two Mamas? Redefining Parenthood in Light of Evolving Reproductive Technologies and Social Change

Advances in reproductive technologies and a greater social acceptance of same- sex relationships have resulted in increasing numbers of lesbian couples conceiving and raising families. But when these relationships fail, state courts are faced with the difficult problem of determining which partner constitutes a parent for purposes of support and visitation. This article provides a comparative analysis of the different approaches of various state courts to this vexing problem and suggests a model that states might adopt via a modification of the Uniform Parentage Act

Aren\u27t You Lucky You Have Two Mamas? Redefining Parenthood in Light of Evolving Reproductive Technologies and Social Change

Advances in reproductive technologies and a greater social acceptance of same- sex relationships have resulted in increasing numbers of lesbian couples conceiving and raising families. But when these relationships fail, state courts are faced with the difficult problem of determining which partner constitutes a parent for purposes of support and visitation. This article provides a comparative analysis of the different approaches of various state courts to this vexing problem and suggests a model that states might adopt via a modification of the Uniform Parentage Act