54 research outputs found
Searches for Heavy Neutrinos and Supersymmetry in Dilepton Events at the ATLAS Experiment
No full textTwo searches for new physics in events containing exactly two leptons performed at the ATLAS experiment are presented. The first searches for a new family of neutrinos in order to explain the observed small masses of the known neutrinos, while the second searches for the electroweak production of Supersymmetric particles. The Standard Model backgrounds are common between the two analyses, and an emphasis will be placed on the estimation techniques used. In both cases, the observed data candidates are found to be in agreement with the estimated Standard Model background
Single Particle Tracking: Analysis Techniques for Live Cell Nanoscopy.
No full textSingle molecule experiments are a set of experiments designed specifically to study the properties of individual molecules. It has only been in the last three decades where single molecule experiments have been applied to the life sciences; where they have been successfully implemented in systems biology for probing the behaviors of sub-cellular mechanisms. The advent and growth of super-resolution techniques in single molecule experiments has made the fundamental behaviors of light and the associated nano-probes a necessary concern among life scientists wishing to advance the state of human knowledge in biology. This dissertation disseminates some of the practices learned in experimental live cell microscopy. The topic of single particle tracking is addressed here in a format that is designed for the physicist who embarks upon single molecule studies. Specifically, the focus is on the necessary procedures to generate single particle tracking analysis techniques that can be implemented to answer biological questions. These analysis techniques range from designing and testing a particle tracking algorithm to inferring model parameters once an image has been processed. The intellectual contributions of the author include the techniques in diffusion estimation, localization filtering, and trajectory associations for tracking which will all be discussed in detail in later chapters. The author of this thesis has also contributed to the software development of automated gain calibration, live cell particle simulations, and various single particle tracking packages. Future work includes further evaluation of this laboratory\u27s single particle tracking software, entropy based approaches towards hypothesis validations, and the uncertainty quantification of gain calibration
IceCube-Gen2: A Vision for the Future of Neutrino Astronomy in Antarctica
No full text20 pages, 12 figures. Address correspondence to: E. Blaufuss, F. Halzen, C. Kopper (Changed to add one missing author, no other changes from initial version.)20 pages, 12 figures. Address correspondence to: E. Blaufuss, F. Halzen, C. Kopper (Changed to add one missing author, no other changes from initial version.)20 pages, 12 figures. Address correspondence to: E. Blaufuss, F. Halzen, C. Kopper (Changed to add one missing author, no other changes from initial version.)The recent observation by the IceCube neutrino observatory of an astrophysical flux of neutrinos represents the "first light" in the nascent field of neutrino astronomy. The observed diffuse neutrino flux seems to suggest a much larger level of hadronic activity in the non-thermal universe than previously thought and suggests a rich discovery potential for a larger neutrino observatory. This document presents a vision for an substantial expansion of the current IceCube detector, IceCube-Gen2, including the aim of instrumenting a volume of clear glacial ice at the South Pole to deliver substantial increases in the astrophysical neutrino sample for all flavors. A detector of this size would have a rich physics program with the goal to resolve the sources of these astrophysical neutrinos, discover GZK neutrinos, and be a leading observatory in future multi-messenger astronomy programs
Clinical comparison and agreement of PCR, antigen, and viral culture for the diagnosis of COVID-19: Clinical Agreement Between Diagnostics for COVID19
No full textThe aim of this study is to compare the COVID-19 nasopharyngeal PCR (NP PCR) to antigen, nasal PCR, and viral culture. One-hundred-and-fourteen risk-stratified patients were tested by culture, nasal PCR, NP PCR, and Ag testing. Twenty (48%) of the high risk and 23 (32%) of the low risk were NP PCR positive. Compared with NP PCR, the sensitivity of nasal PCR, Sofia Ag, BinaxNOW Ag, and culture were 44%, 31%, 37%, and 15%. In the high risk group, the sensitivity of these tests improved to 71%, 37%, 50%, and 22%. Agreement between tests was highest between nasal PCR and both antigen tests. Patients who were NP PCR positive but antigen negative were more likely to have remote prior COVID-19 infection (p<0.01). Nasal PCR and antigen positive patients were more likely to have symptoms (p = 0.01)
SMITE: Single Molecule Imaging Toolbox Extraordinaire (MATLAB)
No full textThis MATLAB-based toolbox provides analysis tools for fluorescence single molecule imaging with an emphasis on single molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) and single particle tracking (SPT).The first two authors contributed equally. The last author is the main contact
Validation of a qualitative real-time PCR assay for the detection of Candida auris in hospital inpatient screening
No full textCandida auris is a multidrug-resistant opportunistic fungal pathogen capable of causing serious infections and healthcare-associated outbreaks. Screening for colonization with C. auris has become routine and is recommended in many hospitals and healthcare facilities as an infection control and prevention strategy. Subsequently, and since there are currently no FDA-approved tests for this purpose, clinical microbiology laboratories have become responsible for developing protocols to detect C. auris using axial and inguinal screening swabs. In a College of American Pathologists-accredited large academic healthcare center setting, we implemented a laboratory-developed nucleic-acid amplification test for the detection of C. auris DNA. Our test validation evaluated the performance of the DiaSorin C. auris primer set used in a real-time qualitative PCR assay on the LIAISON MDX thermocycler with the Simplexa Universal Disc. The assay was highly sensitive and specific, with a limit of detection of 1-2 CFU/reaction, with no observed cross-reactivity with other Candida spp., bacterial skin commensal organisms or commonly encountered viruses. When run in parallel with a culture-based detection method, the PCR assay was 100% sensitive and specific. The assay was precise, with low variability between replicates within and between runs. Lastly, pre-analytical factors, including swab storage time, temperature, and transport media, were assessed and found to have no significant effect on the detection of C. auris at variable concentrations. Taken together, this study expands the available options for nucleic acid detection of C. auris and characterizes pre-analytical factors for implementation in both high- and low-volume laboratory settings.
Importance: This study overviews the validation and implementation of a molecular screening tool for the detection of Candida auris in a College of American Pathologist-accredited clinical laboratory. This molecular laboratory-developed test is both highly sensitive and specific and has significant health-system cost-savings associated with significantly reduced turn-around-time compared to traditional standard-of-care culture-based work up. This method and workflow is of interest to support clinical microbiology diagnostics and to help aid in hospital inpatient, and infection prevention control screening
Search for a CP-odd Higgs boson decaying to Zh in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector
No full textSee paper for full list of authors – 13 pages plus author list + cover pages (30 pages total), 5 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Phys. Lett. B, All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HIGG-2013-06/International audienceA search for a heavy, CP-odd Higgs boson, , decaying into a boson and a 125 GeV Higgs boson, , with the ATLAS detector at the LHC is presented. The search uses proton--proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb. Decays of CP-even bosons to or pairs with the boson decaying to electron or muon pairs are considered, as well as decays with the boson decaying to neutrinos. No evidence for the production of an boson in these channels is found and the 95% confidence level upper limits derived for \sigma (gg\rightarrow A) \times \mbox{BR}(A \rightarrow Zh) \times \mbox{BR}(h \rightarrow f\bar{f}) are 0.098--0.013 pb for and 0.57--0.014 pb for in a range of 220--1000 GeV. The results are combined and interpreted in the context of two-Higgs doublet models
IceCube-Gen2 - The Next Generation Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole: Contributions to ICRC 2015
No full text85 pages, 52 figures, Papers submitted to the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference, The Hague 2015, v2 has a corrected author list85 pages, 52 figures, Papers submitted to the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference, The Hague 2015, v2 has a corrected author listPapers submitted to the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2015, The Hague) by the IceCube-Gen2 Collaboration
Experimental calibration of the ARA radio neutrino telescope with an electron beam in ice
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