Lepton Flavour Violation and B_s Leptonic Final States at the LHC

An overview of ATLAS and CMS studies of B_s leptonic decays providing constraints on the lepton flavour violation phenomenon is presented. Except direct lepton flavour violating final states B_s -> l_1^+ l_2^-, constraints can also be set by a measurement of B_s -> mu^+ mu^- decay, whose branching ratio in some theoretical models correlates with a branching ratio of B_s -> l_1^+ l_2^-, tau -> 3mu and some other lepton flavour violating decays. In this paper, the feasibility of measurements of B_s -> mu^+ mu^- decay is described, including the present status, the trigger and the offline analysis strategies and the expected reach in the branching ratio measurement. The ATLAS and CMS experiments foresee to provide 3-sigma evidence of Standard Model B_s -> mu^+ mu^- branching ratio by the end of LHC low-luminosity stage (30 fb^(-1)). Also a CMS study of the tau -> 3mu decay and an initial particle-level based study of the B_s -> tau mu decay are presented. A sensitivity of ~10^(-8) for the tau -> 3mu branching ratio measurement is predicted by CMS.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, Heavy Quarks and Leptons, Melbourne, 200

Analysis of reversible solid oxide cell technology for grid-energy storage and synthetic natural gas production with CO2

Reducing electricity related carbon emissions requires movement toward renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar, which is challenging due to their inherent intermittency. Electrical energy storage (EES) is expected to play a critical role in enabling greater penetration of renewables, but current technologies suffer from capacity limitations and high cost. Reversible solid oxide cells (ReSOCs) are an electrochemical energy conversion technology that can provide high efficiency and cost effective storage at both distributed and grid scales. This presentation discusses the fundamentals of ReSOC operation and compares the performance, cost, and net carbon emissions of ReSOCs employed in traditional EES systems with that of ReSOCs integrated with natural gas pipeline infrastructure and captured carbon dioxide. ReSOCs are ceramic electrochemical devices that can be used to either produce power from fuel when electricity is needed (fuel cell mode), or produce fuel from electricity when excess energy is available (electrolysis mode). By leveraging C-O-H reaction chemistry and operating at intermediate temperatures (600oC), these cells can be mildly exothermic in both operating modes, eliminating the need for external heat input or high over-potential operation during electrolysis. Storage of fuel (H2, CO, CH4) and exhaust (H2O, CO2) in tanks at the distributed scale and large caverns at the grid scale allows ReSOC systems to provide stand-alone EES services. While previous work has quantified performance and cost of ReSOC energy storage systems at both distributed and grid scales, this work focuses on ReSOC systems that couple natural gas pipelines as a fuel source and captured carbon dioxide as a co-electrolysis feedstock. ReSOCs are well suited for both carbon capture and synthetic fuel production. In fuel cell mode, ReSOCs consume fuel and oxygen and produce water, CO2, and excess air. Because fuel oxidation occurs via oxygen transport across the ReSOC electrolyte, separation of carbon dioxide from the exhaust stream can be achieved without concern for nitrogen. In electrolysis mode, internal methanation can be promoted to both provide heat for co-electrolysis of water and CO2 and to produce methane. Coupling ReSOC systems with natural gas pipelines and piped or tanked CO2 allows for both electricity generation with carbon-rich exhaust and for scalable carbon utilization given a source of CO2 and excess renewable electricity. However, it is unclear how such a system should be designed and operated in order to provide cost competitive electricity and synthetic natural gas, while maintaining low net carbon emissions. This work explores system design concepts, performance, cost, and net carbon emissions of a 50 MWe ReSOC system integrated with natural gas pipelines and stored CO2, and compares to ReSOCs used as flow-battery energy storage systems. Preliminary modeling results predict a fuel cell mode LHV efficiency of 56%, an electrolysis mode LHV efficiency of 62.6%, and system cost of 700$/kW. Additionally, it is observed that the stack and air-side components (heat exchangers, compressors, expanders) can be compatible in both modes of operation, reducing cost. The compatibility of condensers, heat exchangers, and compressors used for fuel and exhaust processing, however, depends strongly on the relative pressures of natural gas and carbon dioxide sources and sinks. Additional ways of reducing cost and net carbon emissions are also investigated and presented

Multimodal imaging in acute retinal ischemia: spectral domain OCT, OCT-angiography and fundus autofluorescence

AIM: To describe retinal findings of various imaging modalities in acute retinal ischemia. METHODS: Fluorescein angiography (FA), spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT), OCT-angiography (OCT-A) and fundus autofluorescence (FAF) images of 13 patients (mean age 64y, range 28-86y) with acute retinal ischemia were evaluated. Six suffered from branch arterial occlusion, 2 had a central retinal artery occlusion, 2 had a combined arteriovenous occlusions, 1 patient had a retrobulbar arterial compression by an orbital haemangioma and 2 patients showed an ocular ischemic syndrome. RESULTS: All patients showed increased reflectivity and thickening of the ischemic retinal tissue. In 10 out of 13 patients SD-OCT revealed an additional highly reflective band located within or above the outer plexiform layer. Morphological characteristics were a decreasing intensity with distance from the fovea, partially segmental occurrence and manifestation limited in time. OCT-A showed a loss of flow signal in the superficial and deep capillary plexus at the affected areas. Reduced flow signal was detected underneath the regions with retinal edema. FAF showed areas of altered signal intensity at the posterior pole. The regions of decreased FAF signal corresponded to peri-venous regions. CONCLUSION: Multimodal imaging modalities in retinal ischemia yield characteristic findings and valuable diagnostic information. Conventional OCT identifies hyperreflectivity and thickening and a mid-retinal hyperreflective band is frequently observed. OCT-A examination reveals demarcation of the ischemic retinal area on the vascular level. FAF shows decreased fluorescence signal in areas of retinal edema often corresponding to peri-venous regions

The Herbal Drug Melampyrum pratense

Melampyrum pratense L. (Koch) is used in traditional Austrian medicine for the treatment of different inflammation-related conditions. In this work, we show that the extracts of M. pratense stimulated peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors- (PPARs-)α and -γ that are well recognized for their anti-inflammatory activities. Furthermore, the extract inhibited the activation of the proinflammatory transcription factor NF-κB and induction of its target genes interleukin-8 (IL-8) and E-selectin in vitro. Bioassay-guided fractionation identified several active flavonoids and iridoids including melampyroside and mussaenoside and the phenolic compound lunularin that were identified in this species for the first time. The flavonoids apigenin and luteolin were distinguished as the main components accountable for the anti-inflammatory properties. Apigenin and luteolin effectively inhibited tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α)-induced NF-κB-mediated transactivation of a luciferase reporter gene. Furthermore, the two compounds dose-dependently reduced IL-8 and E-selectin protein expression after stimulation with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or TNF-α in endothelial cells (ECs). The iridoids melampyroside and mussaenoside prevented the elevation of E-selectin in LPS-stimulated ECs. Lunularin was found to reduce the protein levels of the proinflammatory mediators E-selectin and IL-8 in ECs in response to LPS. These data validate the ethnomedical use of M. pratense for the treatment of inflammatory conditions and point to the constituents accountable for its anti-inflammatory activity

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

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Measurement of the top quark pair cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV using final states with an electron or a muon and a hadronically decaying τ lepton

A measurement of the cross section of top quark pair production in proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is reported. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.05 fb -1. Events with an isolated electron or muon and a τ lepton decaying hadronically are used. In addition, a large missing transverse momentum and two or more energetic jets are required. At least one of the jets must be identified as originating from a b quark. The measured cross section, σtt-=186±13(stat.)±20(syst.)±7(lumi.) pb, is in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction