Heavy Flavour in a Nutshell

Moriond QCD brings together particle physicists of varied interests. This review and introduction to heavy flavour physics is aimed at those not in the heavy-flavour field to describe the motivation and methodology of precision flavour physics, and introduce the most tantalising searches for new physics. The LHC experiments are expected to make great inroads into constraining the new physics parameter space and discover the new physics which I will argue \emph{must} be present to describe our observed universe.Comment: 46th Rencontres de Moriond, QCD and High Energy Interactions, La Thuile, March 20-27, 201

The LHCb pixel hybrid photon detectors

The Ring Imaging Cherenkov counters of the LHCb experiment use an innovative type of photon detector, the pixel Hybrid Photon Detector. The Cherenkov photons are detected by 484 such devices. The production of the photon detectors is now complete, and the devices have all been fully qualified in dedicated laboratory test facilities. The quantum efficiencies far exceed expectations, with peak values in excess of 30%. We also present the measured ion feedback rates, dead/noisy pixel fractions and dark count rates

The phase sensitivity of a fully quantum three-mode nonlinear interferometer

We study a nonlinear interferometer consisting of two consecutive parametric amplifiers, where all three optical fields (pump, signal and idler) are treated quantum mechanically, allowing for pump depletion and other quantum phenomena. The interaction of all three fields in the final amplifier leads to an interference pattern from which we extract the phase uncertainty. We find that the phase uncertainty oscillates around a saturation level that decreases as the mean number $N$ of input pump photons increases. For optimal interaction strengths, we also find a phase uncertainty below the shot-noise level and obtain a Heisenberg scaling $1/N$. This is in contrast to the conventional treatment within the parametric approximation, where the Heisenberg scaling is observed as a function of the number of down-converted photons inside the interferometer.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Familial Dysfunction in Young Adult Horror Fiction

This paper examines how young adult horror novels use dysfunctional family states to represent the anxieties of the protagonists. Sixteen young adult horror novels written between 1982 and 2002 were studied and subjected to latent content analysis. The study found that every novel depicted dysfunctional families and that dispelling the dysfunction constituted the true resolution of the story

The Origin of Extreme Horizontal Branch Stars

Strong mass loss on the red giant branch (RGB) can result in the formation of extreme horizontal branch (EHB) stars. The EHB stars spend most of their He core and shell burning phase at high temperatures and produce copious ultraviolet flux. They have very small hydrogen envelopes and occupy a small range in mass. We have computed evolutionary RGB models with mass loss for stars with a range of metallicities at initial masses < 1.1 Msun corresponding to populations ages between 12.5 and 14.5 Gyr. We used the Reimers formula to characterize mass loss, but investigated a larger range of the mass loss efficiency parameter, eta, than is common. To understand how the number of EHB stars varies with metallicity in a stellar population we considered how the zero-age horizontal branch (ZAHB) is populated. The range in eta producing EHB stars is comparable to that producing `mid-HB' stars. Somewhat surprisingly, neither the range nor magnitude of eta producing EHB stars varies much metallicity. In contrast, the range of eta producing mid-HB stars decreases with increasing metallicity. Hence the HB of populations with solar metallicity and higher, such as expected in elliptical galaxies and spiral bulges, will be bimodal if the distribution covers a sufficiently large range in eta.Comment: AASLaTeX v.4, 29pp., postscript available at http://shemesh.gsfc.nasa.gov/~dorman/Ben.htm

Emerging Biological Principles of Metastasis

Metastases account for the great majority of cancer-associated deaths, yet this complex process remains the least understood aspect of cancer biology. As the body of research concerning metastasis continues to grow at a rapid rate, the biological programs that underlie the dissemination and metastatic outgrowth of cancer cells are beginning to come into view. In this review we summarize the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in metastasis, with a focus on carcinomas where the most is known, and we highlight the general principles of metastasis that have begun to emerge

LHCb's Potential to Measure Flavour-Specific CP-Asymmetry in Semileptonic and Hadronic Bs0B^0_s Decays

"The CP asymmetry in Bs-Bsbar mixing, denoted as a^s_{fs}, is sensitive to new weak phases in the presence of physics beyond the Standard Model. This can be probed through a measurement of the time-dependent charge asymmetry A^s_{fs}(t) in flavour-specific decays. This note describes the LHCb strategy to measure a^s_{fs} using a time-dependent method, in flavour untagged decays of Bs->Ds mu nu and Bs->Ds pi. We also investigate a measurement of the difference of a^s_{fs} and a^d_{fs} in Bs->Ds mu nu and Bd->Dmu nu decays which allows to control the systematic uncertainty that arise from detection asymmetries.

State of Vermont Health Care Financing Plan Beginning Calendar Year 2017 Analysis

This report, prepared for the Vermont Agency of Administration, details the costs and coverage of a single-payer system in Vermont, and explained that the state must develop new financing mechanisms that raise $1.6 billion to fund single-payer. It was produced in partnership with Wakely Consulting Group Inc. However, on December 17, 2014, Gov. Peter Shumlin announced that now is not the right time to overhaul health care financing and delivery in Vermont

An optic to replace space and its application towards ultra-thin imaging systems

Centuries of effort to improve imaging has focused on perfecting and combining lenses to obtain better optical performance and new functionalities. The arrival of nanotechnology has brought to this effort engineered surfaces called metalenses, which promise to make imaging devices more compact. However, unaddressed by this promise is the space between the lenses, which is crucial for image formation but takes up by far the most room in imaging systems. Here, we address this issue by presenting the concept of and experimentally demonstrating an optical 'spaceplate', an optic that effectively propagates light for a distance that can be considerably longer than the plate thickness. Such an optic would shrink future imaging systems, opening the possibility for ultra-thin monolithic cameras. More broadly, a spaceplate can be applied to miniaturize important devices that implicitly manipulate the spatial profile of light, for example, solar concentrators, collimators for light sources, integrated optical components, and spectrometers.Comment: 4 figures, 3 videos, includes complete S

Perils of Diagnosis and Detection of Subungual Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Subungual squamous cell carcinoma often presents with atypical clinical manifestations, which can lead to delays in diagnosis. The presence of a tumor can be masked by the presence of infections or other misleading pathological conditions. The authors report on techniques for adequate biopsy and excision of such tumors. A case of subungual squamous cell carcinoma with invasion into the underlying bone is presented. Clinical histopathological evidence is reviewed along with human papillomavirus typing. Accurate diagnosis requires a high index of suspicion and appropriate tissue sampling