(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae and/or non-USASCII text omitted; see image) An update of the ALEPH non-strange spectral functions from hadronic ... decays is presented. Compared to the 2005 ALEPH ...publication, the main improvement is related to the use of a new method to unfold the measured mass spectra from detector effects. This procedure also corrects a previous problem in the correlations between the unfolded mass bins. Results from QCD studies and for the evaluation of the hadronic vacuum polarisation contribution to the anomalous muon magnetic moment are derived using the new spectral functions. They are found in agreement with published results based on the previous set of spectral functions.
Although it is widely recognised that people turn to spirituality in times of crises, the interest in exploring the spiritual needs of cancer patients is just beginning to grow. The purpose of this ...study was to conduct a spiritual needs assessment with cancer patients living in a Northern European metropolitan region in order to (a) examine the relevance and nature of spiritual needs; (b) to clarify the role of demographic and clinical characteristics in spiritual needs; and (c) to identify their associations with dimensions of psychological distress. N = 285 outpatients with mixed cancer sites and of all tumour stages were surveyed cross‐sectionally. Instruments included the Spiritual Needs Questionnaire (SpNQ) and measures of anxiety, distress, hopelessness and meaning‐related life attitudes. Almost all patients (94%) reported at least one spiritual need. The needs for Inner Peace and Actively Giving emerged to be of greatest importance. Significant, but weak differences were found for age, gender and being in a partnership. No associations for medical characteristics were observed. Regression analyses revealed anxiety as the strongest predictor for the subscales Existential Needs, Inner Peace and Actively Giving. The results emphasise the relevance of spiritual needs in cancer patients. The call for spiritual assessment and interventions to meet spiritual needs in cancer patients is strengthened.
The toolkit for multivariate analysis, TMVA, provides a large set of advanced multivariate analysis techniques for signal/background classification. In addition, TMVA now also contains regression ...analysis, all embedded in a framework capable of handling the preprocessing of the data and the evaluation of the output, thus allowing a simple and convenient use of multivariate techniques. The analysis techniques implemented in TMVA can be invoked easily and the direct comparison of their performance allows the user to choose the most appropriate for a particular data analysis. This article gives an overview of the TMVA package and presents recently developed features.
A quench detection system was developed for protecting and monitoring the superconducting (SC) solenoids for the Muon-to-Electron Conversion Experiment (Mu2e) at Fermilab. The quench system was ...designed for a high level of dependability and long-term continuous operation. It is based on three tiers: Tier-1, FPGA-based Digital Quench Detection (DQD); Tier-2, Analog Quench Detection (AQD); and Tier-3, the quench controls and data management system. The Tier-1 and Tier-2 systems are completely independent and fully redundant. The Tier-3 system is based on National Instruments (NI) cRIO and provides the user interface for quench controls and data management. It is independent from Tiers 1 & 2. The DQD provides both quench detection and quench characterization (monitoring) capability. Both DQD and AQD have built-in high voltage isolation and user programmable gains and attenuations. The DQD and AQD also includes user configured current dependent thresholding and validation times. A 1 st article of the three-tier system was fully implemented on the new Fermilab magnet test stand for the HL-LHC Accelerator Upgrade Project (AUP). It successfully provided quench protection and monitoring (QPM) for a cold superconducting bus test in November 2020. The Mu2e quench detection design has since been implemented for production testing of the AUP magnets. A detailed description of the system along with results from the AUP superconducting bus test will be presented.
A better understanding of the role of psychosocial resources and factors associated with participating in patient support groups appears to be important for the development and implementation of ...cancer survivorship care plans. We therefore investigated the frequency of participation in and satisfaction with patient support groups after completion of a rehabilitation programme and aimed to examine differences in demographic, medical and psychosocial characteristics between group participants and non‐participants. We further aimed to identify predictors of participation in patient support groups. A total of 1281 eligible patients (75.5% participation rate) were recruited on average 11 months post diagnosis and assessed at the beginning (t1), at the end (t2) and 12 months after rehabilitation (t3). Study participants completed self‐report measures assessing support‐group participation and satisfaction, psychosocial distress (anxiety, fear of cancer recurrence, depression), social support, coping, quality of life, pain and treatment‐related characteristics. Sixty‐seven patients (7.6%) participated in a patient self‐help group. Being unemployed, undergoing an increased number of overall treatments, and a higher active emotion‐oriented coping style significantly predicted self‐help group participation; the predictive power of the multivariate logistic regression model was rather weak (Nagelkerke's R2 = 0.07). Our data provide evidence that self‐help group participation in cancer patients may be largely related to other factors than medical or psychosocial distress.
Graphene oxide (GO) was incorporated into polyamide-11 (PA11) via in-situ polymerization. The GO-PA11 nano-composite had elevated resistance to hydrolytic degradation. At a loading of 1 mg/g, GO to ...PA11, the accelerated aging equilibrium molecular weight of GO-PA11 was higher (33 and 34 kg/mol at 100 and 120 °C, respectively) compared to neat PA11 (23 and 24 kg/mol at 100 and 120 °C, respectively). Neat PA11 had hydrolysis rate constants (kH) of 2.8 and 12 ( × 10−2 day−1) when aged at 100 and 120 °C, respectively, and re-polymerization rate constants (kP) of 5.0 and 23 ( × 10−5 day−1), respectively. The higher equilibrium molecular weight for GO-PA11 loaded at 1 mg/g was the result of a decreased kH, 1.8 and 4.5 ( × 10−2 day−1), and an increased kP, 10 and 17 ( × 10−5 day−1) compared with neat PA11 at 100 and 120 °C, respectively. The decreased rate of degradation and resulting 40% increased equilibrium molecular weight of GO-PA11 was attributed to the highly asymmetric planar GO nano-sheets that inhibited the molecular mobility of water and the polymer chain. The crystallinity of the polymer matrix was similarly affected by a reduction in chain mobility during annealing due to the GO nanoparticles' chemistry and highly asymmetric nano-planar sheet structure.
Display omitted
•Graphene oxide reduces extent of hydrolytic degradation in polyamide-11.•Graphene oxide reduces molecular mobility in polyamide-11.•Polyamide's amide hydrogen bonds with the graphene oxide surface.
An update of the ALEPH non-strange spectral functions from hadronic
τ
decays is presented. Compared to the 2005 ALEPH publication, the main improvement is related to the use of a new method to unfold ...the measured mass spectra from detector effects. This procedure also corrects a previous problem in the correlations between the unfolded mass bins. Results from QCD studies and for the evaluation of the hadronic vacuum polarisation contribution to the anomalous muon magnetic moment are derived using the new spectral functions. They are found in agreement with published results based on the previous set of spectral functions.
The Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) pursues a broad physics program at Fermilab's Tevatron collider. Between Run II commissioning in early 2001 and the end of operations in September 2011, the ...Tevatron delivered 12fb−1 of integrated luminosity of pp¯ collisions at s=1.96TeV. The physics at CDF includes precise measurements of the masses of the top quark and W boson, measurement of CP violation and Bs mixing, and searches for Higgs bosons and new physics signatures, all of which require heavy flavor tagging with large charged particle tracking acceptance. To realize these goals, in 2001 CDF installed eight layers of silicon microstrip detectors around its interaction region. These detectors were designed for 2–5 years of operation, radiation doses up to 2Mrad (0.02Gy), and were expected to be replaced in 2004. The sensors were not replaced, and the Tevatron run was extended for several years beyond its design, exposing the sensors and electronics to much higher radiation doses than anticipated. In this paper we describe the operational challenges encountered over the past 10 years of running the CDF silicon detectors, the preventive measures undertaken, and the improvements made along the way to ensure their optimal performance for collecting high quality physics data. In addition, we describe the quantities and methods used to monitor radiation damage in the sensors for optimal performance and summarize the detector performance quantities important to CDF's physics program, including vertex resolution, heavy flavor tagging, and silicon vertex trigger performance.
•We have operated the CDF II silicon detector system well beyond its design lifetime.•We describe design of each component, its performance parameters and resource needs.•A history of operational experience and mitigation of encountered problems is given.•Novel methods were found to mitigate wirebond resonance and cooling system corrosion.•Radiation aging effects on silicon sensors from a decade long exposure are presented.
We reevaluate the hadronic contribution to the running of the QED fine structure constant
α(
s) at
s=
M
Z
2. We use data from
e
+
e
− annihilation and
τ decays at low energy and at the
q
q
̄
...thresholds, where resonances occur. Using so-called spectral moments and the Operator Product Expansion (OPE), it is shown that a reliable theoretical prediction of the hadronic production rate
R(
s) is available at relatively low energies. Its application improves significantly the precision on the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution. We obtain
Δα
had(
M
Z
2)=(277.8±2.6)×10
−4 yielding
α
−1(
M
Z
2)=128.923±0.036. Inserting this value in a global electroweak fit using current experimental input, we constrain the mass of the Standard Model Higgs boson to be
M
Higgs
=129
+103
−62
GeV
. Analogously, we improve the precision of the hadronic contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon for which we obtain
a
μ
had=(695.1±7.5)×10
−10.
We present an up-to-date profile of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix with emphasis on the interpretation of recent CP-violation results from the B factories. For this purpose, we review all ...relevant experimental and theoretical inputs from the contributing domains of electroweak interaction. We give the “standard” determination of the apex of the Unitarity Triangle, namely the Wolfenstein parameters \(\overline\rho\) and \(\overline\eta\), by means of a global CKM fit. The fit is dominated by the precision measurement of \(\sin 2 \beta\) by the B factories. A detailed numerical and graphical study of the impact of the results is presented. We propose to include \(\sin 2\alpha\) from the recent measurement of the time-dependent CP-violating asymmetries in \(B^0\to\rho^ + \rho^-\), using isospin relations to discriminate the penguin contribution. The constraint from \(\varepsilon^\prime/\varepsilon\) is discussed. We study the impact from the branching fraction measurement of the rare kaon decay \(K^ + \to\pi^ + \nu\overline\nu\), and give an outlook into the reach of a future measurement of \(K^0_L\to\pi^0\nu\overline\nu\). The B system is investigated in detail. We display the constraint on \(2\beta + \gamma\) and \(\gamma\) from \(B^0\to D^{(*)\pm}\pi^\mp\) and \(B^ + \to D^{(*)0}K^ + \) decays, respectively. A significant part of this paper is dedicated to the understanding of the dynamics of B decays into \(\pi\pi\), \(K\pi\), \(\rho\pi\), \(\rho\rho\) and modes related to these by flavor symmetry. Various phenomenological approaches and theoretical frameworks are discussed. We find a remarkable agreement of the \(\pi\pi\) and \(K\pi\) data with the other constraints in the unitarity plane when the hadronic matrix elements are calculated within QCD Factorization, where we apply a conservative treatment of the theoretical uncertainties. A global fit of QCD Factorization to all \(\pi\pi\) and \(K\pi\) data leads to precise predictions of the related observables. However sizable phenomenological power corrections are preferred. Using an isospin-based phenomenological parameterization, we analyze separately the \(B\to K\pi\) decays, and the impact of electroweak penguins in response to recent discussions. We find that the present data are not sufficiently precise to constrain either electroweak parameters or hadronic amplitude ratios. We do not observe any unambiguous sign of New Physics, whereas there is some evidence for potentially large non-perturbative rescattering effects. Finally we use a model-independent description of a large class of New Physics effects in both \(B^0\overline B^0\) mixing and B decays, namely in the \(b\to d\) and \(b\to s\) gluonic penguin amplitudes, to perform a new numerical analysis. Significant non-standard corrections cannot be excluded yet, however Standard Model solutions are favored in most cases. In the appendix to this paper we propose a frequentist method to extract a confidence level on \(\Delta m_s\) from the experimental information on \(B^0_s \overline B_s^0\) oscillation. In addition we describe a novel approach to combine potentially inconsistent measurements. All results reported in this paper have been obtained with the numerical analysis package CKMfitter, featuring the frequentist statistical approach Rfit.
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