Search for long-lived particles decaying into electron or photon pairs with the D0 detector

In this Letter we report on a search for long-lived particles that decay into final states with two electrons or photons. Such long-lived particles arise in a variety of theoretical models, such as hidden valleys and supersymmetry with gauge-mediated breaking. By precisely reconstructing the direction of the electromagnetic shower we are able to probe much longer lifetimes than previously explored. We see no evidence of the existence of such long-lived particles and interpret this search as a quasi model-independent limit on their production cross section, as well as a limit on a long-lived fourth generation quark. © 2008 The American Physical Society.

Measurement of the charge ratio of atmospheric muons with the CMS detector

We present a measurement of the ratio of positive to negative muon fluxes from cosmic ray interactions in the atmosphere, using data collected by the CMS detector both at ground level and in the underground experimental cavern at the CERN LHC. Muons were detected in the momentum range from 5 GeV/. c to 1 TeV/. c. The surface flux ratio is measured to be 1.2766±0.0032(stat.)±0.0032(syst.), independent of the muon momentum, below 100 GeV/. c. This is the most precise measurement to date. At higher momenta the data are consistent with an increase of the charge ratio, in agreement with cosmic ray shower models and compatible with previous measurements by deep-underground experiments. © 2010.

Adaptive filter feature identification for structural health monitoring in aeronautical panel

This paper presents an approach for structural health monitoring (SHM) by using adaptive filters. The experimental signals from different structural conditions provided by piezoelectric actuators/sensors bonded in the test structure are modeled by a discrete-time recursive least square (RLS) filter. The biggest advantage to use a RLS filter is the clear possibility to perform an online SHM procedure since that the identification is also valid for non-stationary linear systems. An online damage-sensitive index feature is computed based on autoregressive (AR) portion of coefficients normalized by the square root of the sum of the square of them. The proposed method is then utilized in a laboratory test involving an aeronautical panel coupled with piezoelectric sensors/actuators (PZTs) in different positions. A hypothesis test employing the t-test is used to obtain the damage decision. The proposed algorithm was able to identify and localize the damages simulated in the structure. The results have shown the applicability and drawbacks the method and the paper concludes with suggestions to improve it. ©2010 Society for Experimental Mechanics Inc.

Traffic flow breakdown prediction using feature reduction through Rough-Neuro fuzzy Networks

The prediction of the traffic behavior could help to make decision about the routing process, as well as enables gains on effectiveness and productivity on the physical distribution. This need motivated the search for technological improvements in the Routing performance in metropolitan areas. The purpose of this paper is to present computational evidences that Artificial Neural Network ANN could be use to predict the traffic behavior in a metropolitan area such So Paulo (around 16 million inhabitants). The proposed methodology involves the application of Rough-Fuzzy Sets to define inference morphology for insertion of the behavior of Dynamic Routing into a structured rule basis, without human expert aid. The dynamics of the traffic parameters are described through membership functions. Rough Sets Theory identifies the attributes that are important, and suggest Fuzzy relations to be inserted on a Rough Neuro Fuzzy Network (RNFN) type Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) and type Radial Basis Function (RBF), in order to get an optimal surface response. To measure the performance of the proposed RNFN, the responses of the unreduced rule basis are compared with the reduced rule one. The results show that by making use of the Feature Reduction through RNFN, it is possible to reduce the need for human expert in the construction of the Fuzzy inference mechanism in such flow process like traffic breakdown. © 2011 IEEE.

Improving Parkinson's disease identification through evolutionary-based feature selection

Parkinson's disease (PD) automatic identification has been actively pursued over several works in the literature. In this paper, we deal with this problem by applying evolutionary-based techniques in order to find the subset of features that maximize the accuracy of the Optimum-Path Forest (OPF) classifier. The reason for the choice of this classifier relies on its fast training phase, given that each possible solution to be optimized is guided by the OPF accuracy. We also show results that improved other ones recently obtained in the context of PD automatic identification. © 2011 IEEE.

Measurement of the W boson mass with the D0 detector

We present a measurement of the W boson mass using data corresponding to 4.3fb -1 of integrated luminosity collected with the D0 detector during Run II at the Fermilab Tevatron pp̄ collider. With a sample of 1677394 W→eν candidate events, we measure M W=80.367±0. 026GeV. This result is combined with an earlier D0 result determined using an independent Run II data sample, corresponding to 1fb -1 of integrated luminosity, to yield M W=80.375±0.023GeV. © 2012 American Physical Society.

Search for the standard model Higgs boson in ZH→ + -bb̄ production with the D0 detector in 9.7fb -1 of pp̄ collisions at √s=1.96TeV

We present a search for the standard model (SM) Higgs boson produced in association with a Z boson in 9.7fb -1 of pp̄ collisions collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider at √s=1.96TeV. Selected events contain one reconstructed Z→e +e - or Z→μ +μ - candidate and at least two jets, including at least one jet identified as likely to contain a b quark. To validate the search procedure, we also measure the cross section for ZZ production in the same final state. It is found to be consistent with its SM prediction. We set upper limits on the ZH production cross section times branching ratio for H→bb̄ at the 95% C.L. for Higgs boson masses 90≤M H≤150GeV. The observed (expected) limit for M H=125GeV is 7.1 (5.1) times the SM cross section. © 2012 American Physical Society.

Search for the standard model Higgs boson in associated WH production in 9.7fb -1 of pp̄ collisions with the D0 detector

We present a search for the standard model Higgs boson in final states with a charged lepton (electron or muon), missing transverse energy, and two or three jets, at least one of which is identified as a b-quark jet. The search is primarily sensitive to WH→ νbb̄ production and uses data corresponding to 9.7fb -1 of integrated luminosity collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron pp̄ Collider at √s=1.96TeV. We observe agreement between the data and the expected background. For a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV, we set a 95% C.L. upper limit on the production of a standard model Higgs boson of 5.2×σ SM, where σ SM is the standard model Higgs boson production cross section, while the expected limit is 4.7×σ SM. © 2012 American Physical Society.

Measurement of the semileptonic charge asymmetry in B0 meson mixing with the D0 detector

We present a measurement of the semileptonic mixing asymmetry for B0 mesons, asld, using two independent decay channels: B0→μ +D -X, with D -→K +π -π -; and B0→μ +D *-X, with D * -→D ̄0π -, D ̄0→ K +π - (and charge conjugate processes). We use a data sample corresponding to 10.4fb -1 of pp̄ collisions at √s=1.96TeV, collected with the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. We extract the charge asymmetries in these two channels as a function of the visible proper decay length of the B0 meson, correct for detector-related asymmetries using data-driven methods, and account for dilution from charge-symmetric processes using Monte Carlo simulation. The final measurement combines four signal visible proper decay length regions for each channel, yielding asld=[0.68±0.45(stat)±0.14(syst)]%. This is the single most precise measurement of this parameter, with uncertainties smaller than the current world average of B factory measurements. © 2012 American Physical Society.

Identification and feature selection of non-technical losses for industrial consumers using the software WEKA

This work has as objectives the implementation of a intelligent computational tool to identify the non-technical losses and to select its most relevant features, considering information from the database with industrial consumers profiles of a power company. The solution to this problem is not trivial and not of regional character, the minimization of non-technical loss represents the guarantee of investments in product quality and maintenance of power systems, introduced by a competitive environment after the period of privatization in the national scene. This work presents using the WEKA software to the proposed objective, comparing various classification techniques and optimization through intelligent algorithms, this way, can be possible to automate applications on Smart Grids. © 2012 IEEE.

BBA: A binary bat algorithm for feature selection

Feature selection aims to find the most important information from a given set of features. As this task can be seen as an optimization problem, the combinatorial growth of the possible solutions may be in-viable for a exhaustive search. In this paper we propose a new nature-inspired feature selection technique based on the bats behaviour, which has never been applied to this context so far. The wrapper approach combines the power of exploration of the bats together with the speed of the Optimum-Path Forest classifier to find the set of features that maximizes the accuracy in a validating set. Experiments conducted in five public datasets have demonstrated that the proposed approach can outperform some well-known swarm-based techniques. © 2012 IEEE.

Micro-raman spectroscopic characterization of a CR-39 detector

Characterization by micro-Raman spectroscopy of polymeric materials used as nuclear track detectors reveals physico-chemical and morphological information on the material's molecular structure. In this work, the nuclear track detector poly(allyl diglycol carbonate), or Columbia Resin 39 (CR-39), was characterized according to the fluence of alpha particles produced by a 226Ra source and chemical etching time. Therefore, damage of the CR-39 chemical structure due to the alpha-particle interaction with the detector was analyzed at the molecular level. It was observed that the ionization and molecular excitation of the CR-39 after the irradiation process entail cleavage of chemical bonds and formation of latent track. In addition, after the chemical etching, there is also loss of polymer structure, leading to the decrease of the group density C-O-C (∼888 cm-1), CH=CH (∼960 cm -1), C-O (∼1110 cm-1), C-O-C (∼1240 cm -1), C-O (∼1290 cm-1), C-O (∼1741 cm -1), -CH2- (∼2910 cm-1), and the main band -CH2- (∼2950 cm-1). The analyses performed after irradiation and chemical etching led to a better understanding of the CR-39 molecular structure and better comprehension of the process of the formation of the track, which is related to chemical etching kinetics. Copyright © 2013 Society for Applied Spectroscopy.

Structural and Phylogenetic Studies with MjTX-I Reveal a Multi-Oligomeric Toxin - a Novel Feature in Lys49-PLA2s Protein Class

The mortality caused by snakebites is more damaging than many tropical diseases, such as dengue haemorrhagic fever, cholera, leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis and Chagas disease. For this reason, snakebite envenoming adversely affects health services of tropical and subtropical countries and is recognized as a neglected disease by the World Health Organization. One of the main components of snake venoms is the Lys49-phospholipases A2, which is catalytically inactive but possesses other toxic and pharmacological activities. Preliminary studies with MjTX-I from Bothrops moojeni snake venom revealed intriguing new structural and functional characteristics compared to other bothropic Lys49-PLA2s. We present in this article a comprehensive study with MjTX-I using several techniques, including crystallography, small angle X-ray scattering, analytical size-exclusion chromatography, dynamic light scattering, myographic studies, bioinformatics and molecular phylogenetic analyses.Based in all these experiments we demonstrated that MjTX-I is probably a unique Lys49-PLA2, which may adopt different oligomeric forms depending on the physical-chemical environment. Furthermore, we showed that its myotoxic activity is dramatically low compared to other Lys49-PLA2s, probably due to the novel oligomeric conformations and important mutations in the C-terminal region of the protein. The phylogenetic analysis also showed that this toxin is clearly distinct from other bothropic Lys49-PLA2s, in conformity with the peculiar oligomeric characteristics of MjTX-I and possible emergence of new functionalities inresponse to environmental changes and adaptation to new preys. © 2013 Salvador et al.

Determination of sildenafil and vardenafil by capillary zone electrophoresis using capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection

A method based on capillary electrophoresis with capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (CE-C4D) for determination of two important phosphodiesterase type-5 inhibitors (sildenafil and vardenafil) is introduced. The background electrolyte (BGE) consisted of an aqueous solution of 500 mmol L-1 acetic acid, and the capillary was previously treated with polybrene solution to prevent cationic analytes from adsorbing onto the inner surface. Although the analytes migrate in the counter flow, the total time is short. An instrument with two C4D detectors allowed a seamless transition from a fast method (less than one minute) but of low-efficiency using the first detector to a more efficient method using the second detector. The analysis of commercial tablets showed no significant difference between CE-C4D and HPLC methods. Conductivity detection is a well-known low selectivity detection scheme, which in conjunction with the high mobility of the co-ion in the BGE (hydroxonium) allows one to predict that other cationic analogues of sildenafil can also be detected. This is an interesting feature given the increasing number of compounds in this class. © 2013 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Exterior orientation of CBERS-2B imagery using multi-feature control and orbital data

The major contribution of this paper relates to the practical advantages of combining Ground Control Points (GCPs), Ground Control Lines (GCLs) and orbital data to estimate the exterior orientation parameters of images collected by CBERS-2B (China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite) HRC (High-resolution Camera) and CCD (High-resolution CCD Camera) sensors. Although the CBERS-2B is no longer operational, its images are still being used in Brazil, and the next generations of the CBERS satellite will have sensors with similar technical features, which motivates the study presented in this paper. The mathematical models that relate the object and image spaces are based on collinearity (for points) and coplanarity (for lines) conditions. These models were created in an in-house developed software package called TMS (Triangulation with Multiple Sensors) with multi-feature control (GCPs and GCLs). Experiments on a block of four CBERS-2B HRC images and on one CBERS-2B CCD image were performed using both models. It was observed that the combination of GCPs and GCLs provided better bundle block adjustment results than conventional bundle adjustment using only GCPs. The results also demonstrate the advantages of using primarily orbital data when the number of control entities is reduced. © 2013 International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Inc. (ISPRS).