Jet to Event Activity Correlations in Small System Collisions at STAR

At sufficient energy densities, ultra-relativistic heavy ioncollisions produce a quark gluon plasma (QGP), in which quarks and gluons are deconfined into an extended medium. High energy partons in the collision scatter at short time scales, may afterward interact with the QGP media, and ultimately hadronize into a collimated spray of particles. Experimentally, these particles are algorithmically clustered into jets, which are used as proxies for the initiating partons and therefore as probes of the QGP\u27s properties. This thesis presents jet measurements from $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$=200~GeV $p$+Au collisionsrecorded by STAR at RHIC in 2015. These are the first reported semi-inclusive jet results for small system collisions (\mbox{$p$/$d$/He+A} or ``\mbox{$s$+A}\u27\u27) at RHIC kinematics and are particularly timely because of an ongoing revolution in the field\u27s perception of, and use for, small system collisions. Originally \mbox{$s$+A} collisions were of principal interest to serve as a QGP-free benchmark of cold nuclear effects, which was used to compare\mbox{A+A} collisions with \pp collisions to quantify actual QGP effects. That paradigm began to shift with the discovery that most signals attributed to QGP formation are present, to some degree, in \mbox{$s$+A} collisions; however, as an exception, no jet quenching has been observed to date. In 2015, the ATLAS and PHENIX collaborations reported event activity (EA)dependent modification of jet spectra in \mbox{$p$+Au} and \mbox{$p$+Pb} collisions, a possible jet quenching signal. Intriguingly, the ATLAS jet modification, in the $p$ going direction, appears to scale with the ``Bjorken-$x_\mathrm{p}$\u27\u27 of the jets ($\approx 2 E_\mathrm{jet} \sqrt{s}$) for $x_\mathrm{p}\gtrsim0.1$; at the same time, measurements of lower $x_\mathrm{p}$ jets from collisions at the same energy by the ALICE experiment found no EA jet spectra modification. Jets at kinematics up to $x_\mathrm{p}\approx0.5$ are reported in this thesis throughtheir $p_\mathrm{T}$ spectra per trigger ($S$), azimuthal distribution per trigger ($A$), and dijet $p_\mathrm{T}$ balance ($A_\mathrm{J}$). There is significant EA dependent modification of $S$, and some of $A$. This modification is demonstrated by this thesis to result primarily, perhaps completely, from observed anti-correlations between EA and the energy of the trigger particle ($E_\mathrm{T}^\mathrm{trig}$). These EA-to-$E_\mathrm{T}^\mathrm{trig}$ anti-correlations are also presented. The $A_\mathrm{J}$ distribution is independent of EA, further supporting the conclusion that the EA dependence of the jet $p_\mathrm{T}$ spectra is a constraint imposed by the initial conditions of the $x_\mathrm{p}$ hard scattering and not a result of subsequent jet-QGP interactions. As a result, EA-to-$E_\mathrm{T}^\mathrm{trig}$ correlations are presented as an opportunity to further probe the initial stage conditions of high energy ion collisions

Florida v. Riley: The Emerging Standard for Aerial Surveillance of the Curtilage

The expression, a man\u27s home is his castle, embodies one of the most cherished individual liberties in American society, the right to en-joy privacy and freedom from unreasonable government intrusion in the confines of one\u27s home.\u27 Recognizing the importance of this right, the first Senate adopted the fourth amendment, which protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures. Initially, the United States Supreme Court narrowly construed the fourth amendment as protecting only physical intrusions of persons,houses, papers, and effects.4 Later, the Court expanded coverage of the fourth amendment to include the area immediately adjacent to the home and used in connection with it. This area is referred to as the curtilage and for fourth amendment purposes is considered part of the home itself. The curtilage does not extend to distant areas that could be considered open fields, which are not protected under the fourth amendment because they do not harbor the intimate activities that the fourth amendment is intended to protect from governmental interference or surveillance. In recent years the increased use of aircraft by government officials to detect illegal activity in areas obstructed from view at ground level has threatened to reduce the amount of privacy traditionally enjoyed in the curtilages of personal residences. In California v. Ciraolo the Court adopted a restrictive view of the amendment\u27s protections, holding that police do not need a warrant to search curtilage areas from the air as long as the police operate at a legal altitude. Last term, in Florida v. Riley, a plurality of the Court affirmed the Ciraolo standard. Significantly, however, Justice O\u27Connor, who concurred in the judgment, and four dissenting justices determined that the proper standard to be applied in aerial surveillance cases should focus on the frequency of public flights at the altitude at which the officials were operating, rather than on whether the altitude was within legal limits. This Recent Development examines the development of the curtilage doctrine to its present status. Part II examines the development of fourth amendment protection, particularly Katz v. United States, in which the Court determined that the scope of fourth amendment protection is governed by reference to objectively reasonable expectations of privacy. Part II also analyzes the aerial surveillance standards of California v. Ciraolo. Part III examines the recent decision of Florida v. Riley and compares the various opinions in the case. Finally, Part IV advocates a new standard to be applied to cases involving aerial surveillance of residential curtilages

Book Review: Maritime Archaeology: A Reader of Substantive and Theoretical Contributions edited by Lawrence E. Babits and Hans Van Tilburg

Book Review: Maritime Archaeology: A Reader of Substantive and Theoretical Contributions edited by Lawrence E. Babits and Hans Van Tilburg 1998, The Plenum Series in Underwater Archaeology, Plenum Press, New York and London, 590 pages, 87 illus., $49.50 (paper)

The Costs of Wrongful-Discharge Laws

We estimate the effects on employment and wages of wrongful-discharge protections in the United States. Over the last three decades, most U.S. state courts have adopted one or more common law wrongful discharge doctrines that limit employers' discretion to terminate workers at-will. Using this cross-state variation with a difference-in-difference framework, we find robust evidence of a modest negative impact ( 0.8 to 1.6 percentage points) of one wrongful-discharge doctrine, the implied-contract exception, on employment to population rates in state labor markets. The short-term impact is most pronounced for female, younger, and less-skilled workers, while the longer term costs appear to be borne by older and more-educated workers those most likely to litigate under this doctrine. We find no robust employment or wage effects of two other widely recognized wrongful-discharge laws: the public -policy and good-faith exceptions. Published findings in the literature range from no effect to very large negative effects. We reanalyze the two leading studies and find the discrepancies can be explained by methodological shortcomings in the one case and limitations in the coding of key court decisions in the other.

Running-mass models of inflation, and their observational constraints

If the inflaton sector is described by softly broken supersymmetry, and the inflaton has unsuppressed couplings, the inflaton mass will run strongly with scale. Four types of model are possible. The prediction for the spectral index involves two parameters, while the COBE normalization involves a third, all of them calculable functions of the relevant masses and couplings. A crude estimate is made of the region of parameter space allowed by present observation.Comment: Latex file, 20 pages, 11 figures, uses epsf.sty. Comment on the observation of the spectral index scale dependence added; Fig. 3-6 improve

Use of Most Bothersome Symptom as a Coprimary Endpoint in Migraine Clinical Trials: A Post-Hoc Analysis of the Pivotal ZOTRIP Randomized, Controlled Trial.

ObjectiveTo better understand the utility of using pain freedom and most bothersome headache-associated symptom (MBS) freedom as co-primary endpoints in clinical trials of acute migraine interventions.BackgroundAdhesive dermally applied microarray (ADAM) is an investigational system for intracutaneous drug administration. The recently completed pivotal Phase 2b/3 study (ZOTRIP), evaluating ADAM zolmitriptan for the treatment of acute moderate to severe migraine, was one of the first large studies to incorporate MBS freedom and pain freedom as co-primary endpoints per recently issued guidance by the US Food and Drug Administration. In this trial, the proportion of patients treated with ADAM zolmitriptan 3.8 mg, who were pain-free and MBS-free at 2 hours post-dose, was significantly higher than for placebo.MethodsWe undertook a post-hoc analysis of data from the ZOTRIP trial to examine how the outcomes from this trial compare to what might have been achieved using the conventional co-primary endpoints of pain relief, nausea, photophobia, and phonophobia.ResultsOf the 159 patients treated with ADAM zolmitriptan 3.8 mg or placebo, prospectively designated MBS were photophobia (n = 79), phonophobia (n = 43), and nausea (n = 37). Two-hour pain free rates in those with photophobia as the MBS were 36% for ADAM zolmitriptan 3.8 mg and 14% for placebo (P = .02). Corresponding rates for those with phonophobia as the MBS were 14% and 41% (P = .05). For those whose MBS was nausea, corresponding values were 56% and 16%, respectively (P = .01). Two-hour freedom from the MBS for active drug vs placebo were 67% vs 35% (P < .01) for photophobia, 55% vs 43% (P = .45) for phonophobia, and 89% vs 58% for nausea (P = .04). MBS freedom but not pain freedom was achieved in 28%. Only 1 patient (1%) achieved pain freedom, but not MBS freedom. The proportion with both pain and MBS freedom was highest (56%) among those whose MBS was nausea.ConclusionIn this study, the use of MBS was feasible and seemed to compare favorably to the previously required 4 co-primary endpoints

The application of inelastic neutron scattering to investigate the interaction of methyl propanoate with silica

A modern industrial route for the manufacture of methyl methacrylate involves the reaction of methyl propanoate and formaldehyde over a silica-supported Cs catalyst. Although the process has been successfully commercialised, little is known about the surface interactions responsible for the forward chemistry. This work concentrates upon the interaction of methyl propanoate over a representative silica. A combination of infrared spectroscopy, inelastic neutron scattering, DFT calculations, X-ray diffraction and temperature-programmed desorption is used to deduce how the ester interacts with the silica surface

Molecular determinants of drug-specific sensitivity for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 19 and 20 mutants in non-small cell lung cancer.

We hypothesized that aberrations activating epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) via dimerization would be more sensitive to anti-dimerization agents (e.g., cetuximab). EGFR exon 19 abnormalities (L747_A750del; deletes amino acids LREA) respond to reversible EGFR kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Exon 20 in-frame insertions and/or duplications (codons 767 to 774) and T790M mutations are clinically resistant to reversible/some irreversible TKIs. Their impact on protein function/therapeutic actionability are not fully elucidated.In our study, the index patient with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harbored EGFR D770_P772del_insKG (exon 20). A twenty patient trial (NSCLC cohort) (cetuximab-based regimen) included two participants with EGFR TKI-resistant mutations ((i) exon 20 D770>GY; and (ii) exon 19 LREA plus exon 20 T790M mutations). Structural modeling predicted that EGFR exon 20 anomalies (D770_P772del_insKG and D770>GY), but not T790M mutations, stabilize the active dimer configuration by increasing the interaction between the kinase domains, hence sensitizing to an agent preventing dimerization. Consistent with predictions, the two patients harboring D770_P772del_insKG and D770>GY, respectively, responded to an EGFR antibody (cetuximab)-based regimen; the T790M-bearing patient showed no response to cetuximab combined with erlotinib. In silico modeling merits investigation of its ability to optimize therapeutic selection based on structural/functional implications of different aberrations within the same gene