Bose-Einstein correlations with first LHC data in CMS

Bose-Einstein correlations between identical particles are measured using samples of proton-proton collisions at 0.9 and 2.36TeV centre-of-mass energy, recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The signal is observed in the form of an enhancement of pairs of same sign charged particles with small relative momentum. A significant increase of the size of the correlated particle emission region with the particle multiplicity in the event is observed

Psychiatric Emergencies

Psychiatric emergencies are conditions of acute disturbance of thought, behaviour, affect or psychomotor activity, demanding urgent interventions. They mostly include attempted suicide, severe depression, psychosis, substance abuse, violence or other rapid changes in behaviour. The initial assessment should include a thorough history collection and a general physical examination with a lab screening, to rule out any underlying medical cause, as well as providing a secure environment for both the patient and healthcare workers

Biomimetic graphene for enhanced interaction with the external membrane of astrocytes

© The Royal Society of Chemistry. Graphene and graphene substrates display huge potential as material interfaces for devices and biomedical tools targeting the modulation or recovery of brain functionality. However, to be considered reliable neural interfaces, graphene-derived substrates should properly interact with astrocytes, favoring their growth and avoiding adverse gliotic reactions. Indeed, astrocytes are the most abundant cells in the human brain and they have a crucial physiological role to maintain its homeostasis and modulate synaptic transmission. In this work, we describe a new strategy based on the chemical modification of graphene oxide (GO) with a synthetic phospholipid (PL) to improve interaction of GO with brain astroglial cells. The PL moieties were grafted on GO sheets through polymeric brushes obtained by atom-transfer radical-polymerization (ATRP) between acryloyl-modified PL and GO nanosheets modified with a bromide initiator. The adhesion of primary rat cortical astrocytes on GO-PL substrates increased by about three times with respect to that on glass substrates coated with standard adhesion agents (i.e. poly-d-lysine, PDL) as well as with respect to that on non-functionalized GO. Moreover, we show that astrocytes seeded on GO-PL did not display significant gliotic reactivity, indicating that the material interface did not cause a detrimental inflammatory reaction when interacting with astroglial cells. Our results indicate that the reported biomimetic approach could be applied to neural prosthesis to improve cell colonization and avoid glial scar formation in brain implants. Additionally, improved adhesion could be extremely relevant in devices targeting neural cell sensing/modulation of physiological activity

Les Houches 2015: Physics at TeV Colliders Standard Model Working Group Report

This Report summarizes the proceedings of the 2015 Les Houches workshop on Physics at TeV Colliders. Session 1 dealt with (I) new developments relevant for high precision Standard Model calculations, (II) the new PDF4LHC parton distributions, (III) issues in the theoretical description of the production of Standard Model Higgs bosons and how to relate experimental measurements, (IV) a host of phenomenological studies essential for comparing LHC data from Run I with theoretical predictions and projections for future measurements in Run II, and (V) new developments in Monte Carlo event generators.Comment: Proceedings of the Standard Model Working Group of the 2015 Les Houches Workshop, Physics at TeV Colliders, Les Houches 1-19 June 2015. 227 page

Reduced Graphene Oxide: fundamentals and applications

In this paper we report our recent studies on the fundamental physical/chemical properties of supported reduced Graphene Oxide (rGO) obtained either via standard thermal annealing or under extreme-UV (EUV) light exposure alongside with investigations on its possible technological applications. rGO has been studied by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), micro-Raman Spectroscopy (μRS), and Optical Microscopy. rGO reduction degree has been calibrated on the basis of its color contrast (CC) providing a handy tool to quantitatively determine the fraction of sp The original choice of using EUV instead of UV light to photo-reduce supported GO is not only advantageous in terms of reduction efficiency but it also allows to introduce the concept of EUV photolithography (today limited to the silicon technology only) for the processing of graphene-based materials. Here we demonstrate resistless sub-micrometer GO photo-patterning over large areas ( 10 mm 2 ) This result is a relevant upgrade for the graphene-based technology that can take advantage, in this way, from the entire know-how of the EUV-based technology in view of an eco-sustainable all-carbon technology

Search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu channel in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu decay channel, where l = e or mu, in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is presented. The data were collected at the LHC, with the CMS detector, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 inverse femtobarns. No significant excess is observed above the background expectation, and upper limits are set on the Higgs boson production cross section. The presence of the standard model Higgs boson with a mass in the 270-440 GeV range is excluded at 95% confidence level.Comment: Submitted to JHE

Search for New Physics with Jets and Missing Transverse Momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search for new physics is presented based on an event signature of at least three jets accompanied by large missing transverse momentum, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36 inverse picobarns collected in proton--proton collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. No excess of events is observed above the expected standard model backgrounds, which are all estimated from the data. Exclusion limits are presented for the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model. Cross section limits are also presented using simplified models with new particles decaying to an undetected particle and one or two jets

Search for anomalous t t-bar production in the highly-boosted all-hadronic final state

A search is presented for a massive particle, generically referred to as a Z', decaying into a t t-bar pair. The search focuses on Z' resonances that are sufficiently massive to produce highly Lorentz-boosted top quarks, which yield collimated decay products that are partially or fully merged into single jets. The analysis uses new methods to analyze jet substructure, providing suppression of the non-top multijet backgrounds. The analysis is based on a data sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 inverse femtobarns. Upper limits in the range of 1 pb are set on the product of the production cross section and branching fraction for a topcolor Z' modeled for several widths, as well as for a Randall--Sundrum Kaluza--Klein gluon. In addition, the results constrain any enhancement in t t-bar production beyond expectations of the standard model for t t-bar invariant masses larger than 1 TeV.Comment: Submitted to the Journal of High Energy Physics; this version includes a minor typo correction that will be submitted as an erratu