High Mass Standard Model Higgs searches at the Tevatron

We present the results of searches for the Standard Model Higgs boson decaying predominantly to WW pairs, at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV, using up to 8.2 fb^{-1} of data collected with the CDF and D0 detectors at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The analysis techniques and the various channels considered are discussed. These searches result in exclusions across the Higgs mass range of 156.5<mH<173.7 GeV for CDF and 161<mH<170 GeV for D0.Comment: Presented at the 2011 Hadron Collider Physics symposium (HCP-2011), Paris, France, November 14-18 2011, 4 pages, 8 figure

Using the Balance Function to study the charge correlations of hadrons

We present the recent Balance Function (BF) results obtained by the NA49 collaboration for the pseudo-rapidity dependence of non-identified charged particle correlations for two SPS energies. Experimental results indicate a clear centrality dependence only in the mid-rapidity region. The results of an energy dependence study of the BF throughout the whole SPS energy range will also be discussed. In addition, the correlation of identified hadrons is studied and presented for the first time. The study of hadron correlation has also been extended in order to cope with the high multiplicity environment that is expected to be seen at LHC. We will present the latest results from simulations concerning the extension of these studies to the ALICE experiment.Comment: To appear in the proccedings of the "Quark Confinement and Hadron Spectrum VII" conferenc

Cooperative and coordinated Mobile Femtocells technology in high-speed vehicular environments: mobility and interference management

In future networks, most users who will be accessing wireless broadband will be vehicular. Serving those users cost-effectively and improving their signal quality has been the main concern of many studies. Thus, the deployment of Mobile Femtocell (Mobile-Femto) technology on public transportation is seen to be one of the promising solutions. Mobile-Femto comes with its mobility and interference challenges. Therefore, eliminating the Vehicular Penetration Loss (VPL) and interference while improving signal quality and mobility for train passengers is the main concern of this paper. The initial system-level evaluation showed that the dedicated Mobile-Femto deployment has great potential in improving users’ experience inside public transportation. The Downlink (DL) results of the Proposed Interference Management Scheme (PIMS) showed significant improvement in Mobile-Femto User Equipment (UE) gains (up to 50%) without impacting the performance of macro UEs. In contrast, the Uplink (UL) results showed noticeable gains for both macro UEs and Mobile-Femto UEs

Back Analysis of the Lower San Fernando Dam Slide Using a Multi-block Model

A multi-block sliding system model has been developed to simulate the displacement of sliding geo-masses. This model is a useful tool, especially when displacements are very large and computer codes based on the Finite Element Method cannot be applied. The paper investigates the ability of the model to predict the response of the well-documented Lower San Fernando Dam slide. The predicted movement, and deformation agreed reasonably well with that of the upper part of the slide. Yet, the lower part of the slide slid more that the model prediction. The multi-block model was applied a second time. This 2-slide approach predicts movement, and deformation in very good agreement with that measured. In addition, the time duration of motion is in general agreement with the observed

Predicting fraud in mobile money transfer using case-based reasoning

This paper proposes an improved CBR approach for the identification of money transfer fraud in Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) environments. Standard CBR capability is augmented by machine learning techniques to assign parameter weights in the sample dataset and automate k-value random selection in k-NN classification to improve CBR performance. The CBR system observes users’ transaction behaviour within the MMT service and tries to detect abnormal patterns in the transaction flows. To capture user behaviour effectively, the CBR system classifies the log information into five contexts and then combines them into a single dimension, instead of using the conventional approach where the transaction amount, time dimensions or features dimension are used individually. The applicability of the proposed augmented CBR system is evaluated using simulation data. From the results, both dimensions show good performance with the context of information weighted CBR system outperforming the individual features approach

System Size and Centrality Dependence of the Electric Charge Correlations in A+A and p+p Collisions at the SPS Energies

The Balance Function analysis method was developed in order to study the long range correlations in pseudo-rapidity of charged particle. The final results on p+p, C+C, Si+Si and centrality selected Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 17.2$ GeV and the preliminary data at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 8.8$ GeV are presented. The width of the Balance Function decreases with increasing system size and centrality of the collisions. This could suggest a delayed hadronization scenario.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of NPDC18, Prague, Czech Republic, 23-28 Aug. 200

Case Report: Resolution of a periodontoid rheumatoid pannus mass in an elderly patient treated with a rigid cervical collar: A case report and literature review

In patients with C2 rheumatoid pannus with spinal cord compression the treatment of choice is extensive surgery either through a transoral resection of the dens axis or a dorsal stabilisation, or both. We present a case of an 11-mm rheumatoid pannus with significant compression of the spinal cord, which failed surgical treatment with respect to dorsal stabilisation. Therefore, rigid cervical collar for 8 weeks followed by soft collar for another 4 weeks was chosen as a treatment option. During the follow-up period of 1 year, the pannus reduced significantly and the spinal cord decompressed. In cases where surgery is not an option or is technically very demanding, the alternative of cervical collar immobilisation is a satisfying option

Improved movie recommendations based on a hybrid feature combination method

Recommender systems help users find relevant items efficiently based on their interests and historical interactions with other users. They are beneficial to businesses by promoting the sale of products and to user by reducing the search burden. Recommender systems can be developed by employing different approaches, including collaborative filtering (CF), demographic filtering (DF), content-based filtering (CBF) and knowledge-based filtering (KBF). However, large amounts of data can produce recommendations that are limited in accuracy because of diversity and sparsity issues. In this paper, we propose a novel hybrid method that combines user–user CF with the attributes of DF to indicate the nearest users, and compare four classifiers against each other. This method has been developed through an investigation of ways to reduce the errors in rating predictions based on users’ past interactions, which leads to improved prediction accuracy in all four classification algorithms. We applied a feature combination method that improves the prediction accuracy and to test our approach, we ran an offline evaluation using the 1M MovieLens dataset, well-known evaluation metrics and comparisons between methods with the results validating our proposed method