ATLAS sensitivity range for the x_s measurement

Previous results for the prospects of B_s mixing measurement in the ATLAS experiment at LHC are updated. The improved analysis method of the studied decay channels B_s -> D_s pi and B_s -> D_s a_1, combined with most recent values for the branching ratios and the B_s lifetime, leads to the new ATLAS sensitivity range for the x_s measurement: x_s^{max} = 42. An extensive study is done in order to estimate how x_s^{max} is influenced by the B-decay proper-time resolution of the vertex detector, as well as by the number of events and by the signal-to-background ratio.Comment: 17 pages, incl. 12 figure

ATLAS inner detector performance

The ATLAS Inner Detector consists of three subsystems using different tracking detector technologies: silicon pixels, silicon strips and straw tubes. The combination gives ATLAS a robust, hermetic and efficient tracking system, able to reconstruct tracks at the highest foreseen LHC luminosities. The inner detector provides vertex and momentum measurements, electron identification and some $K/\pi$ separation. Since last year the beam pipe of ATLAS was changed, causing a redesign of the first tracking layer and a deterioration of the impact parameter resolutions

Aging process of electrical contacts in granular matter

The electrical resistance decay of a metallic granular packing has been measured as a function of time. This measurement gives information about the size of the conducting cluster formed by the well connected grains. Several regimes have been encountered. Chronologically, the first one concerns the growth of the conducting cluster and is identified to belong to diffusion processes through a stretched exponential behavior. The relaxation time is found to be simply related to the initial injected power. This regime is followed by a reorganisation process due to thermal dilatation. For the long term behavior of the decay, an aging process occurs and enhances the electrical contacts between grains through microsoldering.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

The Effect of L-citrulline and Watermelon Juice on Anaerobic and Aerobic Exercise Performance

1Gadomski, S., 1Cutrufello, P., 2Zavorsky G., & 1Demkosky, C., 1University of Scranton, Scranton, PA, 2University of Louisville, Louisville, KY Citrulline has been proposed as an ergogenic aid because of its role in both ammonia detoxification and nitric oxide production. Watermelon juice has garnered recent media attention due to its citrulline concentration, yet no study has examined watermelon juice and exercise performance. Purpose: Determine the effects of a practical, single, pre-exercise dose of L-citrulline or watermelon juice on maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max), time to exhaustion (TE), the total maximum number of repetitions completed over 5 sets (REPS), and flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD). Methods: A randomized within-subjects study design was used to examine the effects of L-citrulline and watermelon juice supplementation among twenty-two college-aged subjects (11 females; 11 males). Each subject participated in three trials where supplementation included either an 8% sucrose drink containing a 6g dose of L-citrulline, 24 oz. of watermelon juice (̴1.3 g citrulline), or an 8% sucrose placebo drink. Supplementation was administered 1 or 2 h prior to exercise testing in order to investigate a timing effect. VO2max was assessed using an incremental treadmill protocol while the total number of repetitions completed over 5 sets (30 sec rest) was determined at 80% repetition maximum on a machine bench press. FMD was examined prior to supplementation and immediately before exercise testing using ultrasound. Results: Supplementation failed to have an effect on VO2max, TTE, REPS, or FMD. There was also no interaction observed relative to gender or supplement timing (p \u3e 0.05). Conclusion: A single dose of L-citrulline or watermelon juice as a pre-exercise supplement appears to be ineffective in improving aerobic or anaerobic exercise performance. Research funded by an internal research grant from The University of Scranton (840690

Evaluation of Muscle Imbalances and the Presence of Upper- and Lower-Crossed Syndromes among Powerlifters

Please view abstract in the attached PDF fil

Myocardial injury associated with coronavirus disease 2019 in pregnancy.

OBJECTIVE:Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with cardiac injury1-3 and bradycardia4 in the non-pregnant population. The incidence of these complications in pregnancy is unknown. The objective of this study was to determine the rate of abnormal serum cardiac biomarkers or bradycardia among pregnant and immediately postpartum women admitted for treatment of severe or critical COVID-19 in a large integrated health system in New York. STUDY DESIGN:This is a retrospective review of all pregnant and immediately postpartum women hospitalized for COVID-19 at 7 hospitals within Northwell Health, the largest academic health system in New York state, from March 1 to April 30, 2020. Women who tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay and who met the National Institute of Health (NIH) criteria for severe or critical illness5 were included. Women with a positive PCR test who were admitted for a reason other than treatment of COVID-19 (eg, labor) were excluded. The Northwell Health Institutional Review Board approved the study as minimal-risk research using data collected for routine clinical practice and waived the requirement for informed consent. Clinical records were manually reviewed. Data collected included demographics, medical comorbidities, pregnancy characteristics, laboratory and imaging results, medications administered, and clinical outcomes. Laboratory and imaging studies were ordered at the discretion of the attending physician. The primary outcomes evaluated were elevated cardiac troponins (I, T, or high sensitivity), elevated brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), bradycardia (defined as \u3c 60 beats per minute, bpm), and maternal heart rate (HR) nadir. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the data. RESULTS:A total of 31 women met inclusion criteria; 20 (65%) had cardiac biomarkers measured during hospitalization (Table). Cardiac troponins and BNP were elevated in 22% (n=4/18) and 30% (n=3/10) of these patients, respectively. Four patients had transthoracic echocardiograms performed and all were reported as normal. No patients had preexisting cardiovascular disease or hypertension. Two maternal mortalities in this cohort were previously reported;6 both patients had elevated cardiac troponins and one also had an elevated BNP. The nadir HR ranged from 30-92 bpm and bradycardia occurred in one-third of patients (n=10/31). Half of women with elevated troponin and three-fourths of women with elevated BNP had an episode of bradycardia recorded during their hospital course. CONCLUSION:Myocardial injury as demonstrated by abnormal cardiac biomarkers and bradycardia may be common among pregnant women with severe or critical COVID-19. In this study, one-fifth of patients who had troponin levels measured were found to have elevations (one-eighth of the overall study population). Among patients who had brain natriuretic peptide levels measured, 30% were elevated (10% of the overall study population). One third of women had bradycardia. This study is limited by a small sample size. Laboratory testing and imaging was not uniform due to the retrospective nature of the study. Sampling bias was unavoidable because the decision to measure cardiac markers or perform imaging studies was made by the patient\u27s care team, based on clinical presentation rather than a formal protocol. Few studies have evaluated the risk of cardiac injury or arrhythmia among pregnant women with COVID-19. It is also unknown whether there are long-term sequelae that affect maternal health or future pregnancy outcomes. This is an important area of focus for future research

Increasing Short-Stay Unplanned Hospital Admissions among Children in England; Time Trends Analysis '97-'06

BACKGROUND: Timely care by general practitioners in the community keeps children out of hospital and provides better continuity of care. Yet in the UK, access to primary care has diminished since 2004 when changes in general practitioners' contracts enabled them to 'opt out' of providing out-of-hours care and since then unplanned pediatric hospital admission rates have escalated, particularly through emergency departments. We hypothesised that any increase in isolated short stay admissions for childhood illness might reflect failure to manage these cases in the community over a 10 year period spanning these changes. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We conducted a population based time trends study of major causes of hospital admission in children 2 days. By 2006, 67.3% of all unplanned admissions were isolated short stays <2 days. The increases in admission rates were greater for common non-infectious than infectious causes of admissions. CONCLUSIONS: Short stay unplanned hospital admission rates in young children in England have increased substantially in recent years and are not accounted for by reductions in length of in-hospital stay. The majority are isolated short stay admissions for minor illness episodes that could be better managed by primary care in the community and may be evidence of a failure of primary care services

Bottom Production

We review the prospects for bottom production physics at the LHC.Comment: 74 pages, Latex, 71 figures, to appear in the Report of the ``1999 CERN Workshop on SM physics (and more) at the LHC'', P. Nason, G. Ridolfi, O. Schneider G.F. Tartarelli, P. Vikas (conveners

The ATLAS SCT grounding and shielding concept and implementation

This paper presents a complete description of Virgo, the French-Italian gravitational wave detector. The detector, built at Cascina, near Pisa (Italy), is a very large Michelson interferometer, with 3 km-long arms. In this paper, following a presentation of the physics requirements, leading to the specifications for the construction of the detector, a detailed description of all its different elements is given. These include civil engineering infrastructures, a huge ultra-high vacuum (UHV) chamber (about 6000 cubic metres), all of the optical components, including high quality mirrors and their seismic isolating suspensions, all of the electronics required to control the interferometer and for signal detection. The expected performances of these different elements are given, leading to an overall sensitivity curve as a function of the incoming gravitational wave frequency. This description represents the detector as built and used in the first data-taking runs. Improvements in different parts have been and continue to be performed, leading to better sensitivities. These will be detailed in a forthcoming paper