Jet hadronization at LHCb

In high energy proton-proton collisions, collimated sprays of particles, called jets, result from hard scattered quarks or gluons. Jets are copiously produced in these collisions; however, the dynamic process through which quarks and gluons, collectively referred to as partons, become bound state hadrons is still not well understood. Jets provide an excellent tool to study this process as they are proxies for the scattered parton; therefore, final-state hadrons can be measured with respect to an observable that is correlated to the scattered parton. The LHCb experiment is in an excellent position to measure hadrons within jets due to its excellent tracking and particle-identification capabilities. In this talk, new measurements of charged hadrons within jets measured opposite a $Z$ boson will be presented from the LHCb collaboration.Comment: on behalf of the LHCb collaboration. Proceedings for the 13th International Workshop on High-pT Physics in the RHIC/LHC Er

CHARDA: Causal Hybrid Automata Recovery via Dynamic Analysis

We propose and evaluate a new technique for learning hybrid automata automatically by observing the runtime behavior of a dynamical system. Working from a sequence of continuous state values and predicates about the environment, CHARDA recovers the distinct dynamic modes, learns a model for each mode from a given set of templates, and postulates causal guard conditions which trigger transitions between modes. Our main contribution is the use of information-theoretic measures (1)~as a cost function for data segmentation and model selection to penalize over-fitting and (2)~to determine the likely causes of each transition. CHARDA is easily extended with different classes of model templates, fitting methods, or predicates. In our experiments on a complex videogame character, CHARDA successfully discovers a reasonable over-approximation of the character's true behaviors. Our results also compare favorably against recent work in automatically learning probabilistic timed automata in an aircraft domain: CHARDA exactly learns the modes of these simpler automata.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for IJCAI 201

The effect of rental rates on the extension of Conservation Reserve Program contracts

Given that the majority of conservation reserve program (CRP) contracts on approximately 36 million acres of enrolled land expire concurrently, re-enrollment decisions by farmers and the federal government have high budgetary implications. Using a survey of over 8,000 CRP contract holders, we apply an ordered response discrete choice model to explicitly model the range in rental rates over which the representative farmer may be ambivalent to renewing the CRP contract. Given the empirical results from the ordered response model, we estimate acreage re-enrollment as a function of the rental rate and compare them to results of a binomial choice model.CRP contracts; ordered probit; re-enrollment; respondent indifference

Automated Game Design Learning

While general game playing is an active field of research, the learning of game design has tended to be either a secondary goal of such research or it has been solely the domain of humans. We propose a field of research, Automated Game Design Learning (AGDL), with the direct purpose of learning game designs directly through interaction with games in the mode that most people experience games: via play. We detail existing work that touches the edges of this field, describe current successful projects in AGDL and the theoretical foundations that enable them, point to promising applications enabled by AGDL, and discuss next steps for this exciting area of study. The key moves of AGDL are to use game programs as the ultimate source of truth about their own design, and to make these design properties available to other systems and avenues of inquiry.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for CIG 201

Nonperturbative Factorization Breaking and Color Entanglement Effects in Dihadron and Direct Photon-Hadron Angular Correlations in p+p and p+A Collisions

New predictions regarding the role of color flow in high energy Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) processes have emerged in the last decade. Novel effects due to the non-Abelian nature of QCD have been predicted and are just now accessible experimentally due to significantly improved facilities that are able to measure multidifferential observables. High energy proton-proton collisions provide a testing ground to study nonperturbative QCD in a regime where perturbative calculations should be applicable; thus theoretical tools within a perturbative framework can be used to probe and constrain nonperturbative functions and effects in QCD. In particular, the role of color flow is now being explored through many different observables throughout various subfields of QCD; one such observable is nearly back-to-back hadron correlations in proton-proton collisions which are predicted to be sensitive to states that are entangled via their QCD color charge. The PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) is well suited to study potential effects from color flow. In 2013 and 2015 the PHENIX experiment recorded data from proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions. Angular correlations between two nearly back-to-back hadrons or a direct photon and hadron are measured to study the prediction of color entanglement; this refers to a novel entangled state of the two hard-scattering partons across the colliding hadronic system. These correlations can be treated in a transverse-momentum-dependent framework where sensitivity to these non-Abelian effects from color are predicted. The measurements presented here are the first ever to search for experimental evidence of these entangled states and furthermore will help establish color flow in hadronic interactions as a new area of focus within QCD research. Results are presented for proton-proton collisions at center-of-mass energies of 200 and 510 GeV and proton-nucleus collisions at nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energies of 200 GeV. World measurements of processes where factorization is predicted to hold are also compiled and analyzed to compare to the new experimental results presented here. The measured results, which include the first measurements of nonperturbative momentum widths in processes predicted to break factorization, do not indicate any obvious qualitative differences from observables where factorization is predicted to hold. This indicates that quantitative comparisons with phenomenological calculations will be necessary to identify the magnitude of effects from color entanglement. Future calculations will therefore have the opportunity to establish the magnitudes of non-Abelian color effects in hadronic collisions with comparisons to these results. In addition, future measurements of similar observables have the potential to further identify nontrivial effects from color interactions and color entangled states in hadronic collisions. As QCD is the only non-Abelian quantum field theory known to exist in nature that admits bound states, it will be essential to continue exploring unique QCD phenomena due to color interactions in controlled ways in the coming years.PHDPhysicsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146059/1/jdosbo_1.pd

Constructing Israeli and Palestinian Identity: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of World History Textbooks and Teacher Discourse

 This research critically evaluates the depiction of Israelis and Palestinians in World History textbooks and World History teachers’ instructional discourse. Employing a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis methodology, offers a comparison between written narratives and spoken discourse in order to analyze the portrayals found in classrooms. This research found that Israelis and Palestinians are almost entirely depicted in relation to war and conflict. This establishes parameters for the ways either population can be characterized while obscuring substantive recognition of either community’s diversity and cultural identities.

Deconstructing otherness: social studies teachers' classroom discursive representations of African and Middle Eastern populations

This Critical Discourse Analysis examined the classroom discourse of six secondary social studies teachers during lessons dedicated to the study of Africa and the Middle East. The study focused on the phenomenon of otherness and the ways in which teachers contribute to or challenge the depiction of various African and Middle Eastern populations as the other. The study found that no normative discourse existed within or across classrooms whereby teachers consistently portrayed African or Middle Eastern populations as the other. Teacher employed multiple contending discourses that both promoted perceptions of otherness while also explicitly challenging and deconstructing such notions. The study found that teachers tend to frame the study of Africa and the Middle East around narratives of conflict. These narratives restrict the classifications available for understanding certain communities and reinforce associations of violence, radicalism, and terrorism with Africa and the Middle East

Review: Muslims and Islam In U.S. Education: Reconsidering Multiculturalism

This review examines the work of Liz Jackson in her study of the ways Muslims and Islam are treated in public schools in the United States. The review examines the major themes, arguments, and evidence offered by Jackson and additionally offers an evaluation of the work