The search for particle-like dark matter with meV-to-GeV masses has developed rapidly in the past few years. We summarize the science case for these searches, the recent progress, and the exciting ...upcoming opportunities. Funding for Research and Development and a portfolio of small dark matter projects will allow the community to capitalize on the substantial recent advances in theory and experiment and probe vast regions of unexplored dark-matter parameter space in the coming decade.
In this paper, we study the recent excess of low energy events observed by the CoGeNT collaboration and the annual modulation reported by the DAMA/LIBRA collaboration, and discuss whether these ...signals could both be the result of the same elastically scattering dark matter particle. We find that, without channeling but when taking into account uncertainties in the relevant quenching factors, a dark matter candidate with a mass of approximately ~7.0 GeV and a cross section with nucleons of sigma_{DM-N} ~2x10^-4 pb (2x10^-40 cm^2) could account for both of these observations. We also comment on the events recently observed in the oxygen band of the CRESST experiment and point out that these could potentially be explained by such a particle. Lastly, we compare the region of parameter space favored by DAMA/LIBRA and CoGeNT to the constraints from XENON 10, XENON 100, and CDMS (Si) and find that these experiments cannot at this time rule out a dark matter interpretation of these signals.
In this report we summarize the many dark matter searches currently being pursued through four complementary approaches: direct detection, indirect detection, collider experiments, and astrophysical ...probes. The essential features of broad classes of experiments are described, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The complementarity of the different dark matter searches is discussed qualitatively and illustrated quantitatively in two simple theoretical frameworks. Our primary conclusion is that the diversity of possible dark matter candidates requires a balanced program drawing from all four approaches.
To assess the effectiveness of fluconazole for suppression of relapse of histoplasmosis in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
Retrospective, nonrandomized, open trial.
...Multicenter at two university referral centers and in five private practices.
Seventy-six patients with AIDS and disseminated histoplasmosis who completed induction treatment with amphotericin B, itraconazole, or fluconazole and maintained on treatment with fluconazole to prevent relapse.
Fluconazole was given at dosages of 100 to 400 mg per day. Patients were followed by their primary physicians, who completed questionnaires collecting information about treatment and relapse status. Blood and urine specimens were submitted periodically for Histoplasma capsulatum var. capsulatum antigen determination.
Nine of the 76 patients relapsed during fluconazole therapy and another was removed from the study because of allergic rash. Survival after initiation of therapy for histoplasmosis was 94 weeks, ranging from 74 weeks for those who received less than 1 g of amphotericin B for induction and none for maintenance therapy to 156 weeks for those who received greater than 1 g for induction and additional amphotericin B for maintenance therapy before beginning fluconazole (P < 0.02). Antigen levels fell at rates of 0.05 units/week in urine and 0.02 units/week in serum in patients who were successfully maintained in remission and increased by > or = 2 units/week in 4 of 6 patients who relapsed.
Fluconazole > or = 200 mg daily is a reasonable choice for chronic suppressive therapy of histoplasmosis in patients who cannot take itraconazole because of drug interactions, malabsorption, or side effects.
Snap! (build your own blocks) (abstract only) Harvey, Brian; Garcia, Daniel D.; Barnes, Tiffany ...
Proceedings of the 45th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education,
03/2014
Conference Proceeding
This workshop is for high school and college teachers of general-interest ("CS 0") computer science courses, especially the AP CS: Principles course. SNAP! (Build Your Own Blocks) is a free, ...browser-based, graphical, drag-and-drop language inspired by Scratch. The beauty of the Scratch programming environment, designed for 8-14 year olds, is that it makes abstract concepts more concrete and understandable to a broader audience. SNAP! extends Scratch to support older learners (14-20) with built-in named procedures (thus recursion), procedures as data (thus higher order functions), structured lists, and sprites as first class objects with inheritance.
Participants will learn SNAP! hands-on. See http://snap.berkeley.edu for details. Network connected laptop required.
The Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC) is an introductory computer science curriculum developed at UC Berkeley (and adapted at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte), intended for high school ...juniors through university non-majors. It was used in two of the five initial pilot programs for the AP CS Principles course being developed by the College Board and the National Science Foundation. Our overall goal is to support the CS10K project by preparing instructors to teach the AP CS Principles course through the BJC curriculum. In this workshop, we will share our experiences as instructors of the course at the university and high school level, provide a glimpse into a typical week of the course, and share details of NSF-funded summer professional development opportunities.
In this report we summarize the many dark matter searches currently being pursued through four complementary approaches: direct detection, indirect detection, collider experiments, and astrophysical ...probes. The essential features of broad classes of experiments are described, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The complementarity of the different dark matter searches is discussed qualitatively and illustrated quantitatively in two simple theoretical frameworks. Our primary conclusion is that the diversity of possible dark matter candidates requires a balanced program drawing from all four approaches.
In this Report we discuss the four complementary searches for the identity of dark matter: direct detection experiments that look for dark matter interacting in the lab, indirect detection ...experiments that connect lab signals to dark matter in our own and other galaxies, collider experiments that elucidate the particle properties of dark matter, and astrophysical probes sensitive to non-gravitational interactions of dark matter. The complementarity among the different dark matter searches is discussed qualitatively and illustrated quantitatively in several theoretical scenarios. Our primary conclusion is that the diversity of possible dark matter candidates requires a balanced program based on all four of those approaches.
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