Since early in 2003, several experiments have presented evidence for the existence of a positive strangeness baryon state of mass around 1540 MeV/c{sup 2} and width <8 MeV, the {Theta}(1540), which decays to K{sup +}n and K{sup 0}p. Such a state has minimum quark content udud{bar s} and consequently has been interpreted as the S = +1 member of the anti-decuplet of pentaquark states proposed by Diakonov et al. Subsequently, the NA49 experiment presented evidence for the S = -2 member of the anti-decuplet, the {Xi}{sub 5}(1860){sup --}, but this has yet to be observed in any other experiment. Results from the search for the production of the {Theta}(1540) memember of the anti-decuplet of pentaquark states using data from e{sup +}e{sup -} collisions obtained with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II Collider are presented. No signal is observed, and cross section limits for the {Theta}(1540) are given; these prove to be well below the cross section values for ordinary baryons of similar mass. In addition, a search has been carried out for the electroproduction of the {Theta}(1540) in the material of the BABAR detector. Event selection procedures are discussed in detail, the results of this search are presented, and are …

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This dissertation reports on a study of search for an orbitally excited state of charmed baryons {Sigma}{sub c}{sup 0}(2800) and {Sigma}{sub c}{sup ++}(2800). They measure the widths, momentum spectrum and production cross-section for these states decaying into a {Lambda}{sub c}{sup +} and a charged {pi}. The analysis uses 230 fb{sup -1} of data collected at BABAR detector operating at PEP-II collider at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. The data is collected in the region of {Upsilon}(4S) an {approx} 40 MeV below the resonance. {Lambda}{sub c}{sup +} baryon is reconstructed in the decay mode pK{sup -}{pi}{sup +}. The {Sigma}{sub c}(2800) baryon production at continuum is observed to be quite significant for x{sub p} > 0.7, where x{sub p} = p/{radical}E{sup 2}+M{sup 2} is the scaled momentum and varies from 0.0 to 1.0. The momentum spectrum is measured by considering the corrected yield for momentum bins above x{sub p} > 0.5 and can be parameterized very well by a Peterson function, given by: dN/dx{sub p} {proportional_to} 1/x{sub p}(1 - 1/x{sub p} - {epsilon}/1-x{sub p}){sup 2}. The values for the peterson parameter {epsilon}, are found to be 0.050 {+-} 0.010 for {Sigma}{sub c}{sup 0}(2800) and 0.057 {+-} 0.012 for {Sigma}{sub c}{sup ++}(2800). They use …

Observations of gamma-rays have been made from celestial sources such as active galaxies, gamma-ray bursts and supernova remnants as well as the Galactic ridge. The study of gamma rays can provide information about production mechanisms and cosmic-ray acceleration. In the high-energy regime, one of the dominant mechanisms for gamma-ray production is the decay of neutral pions produced in interactions of ultra-relativistic cosmic-ray nuclei and interstellar matter. Presented here is a parametric model for calculations of inclusive cross sections and transverse momentum distributions for secondary particles--gamma rays, e{sup {+-}}, {nu}{sub e}, {bar {nu}}{sub e}, {nu}{sub {mu}} and {bar {nu}}{sub {mu}}--produced in proton-proton interactions. This parametric model is derived on the proton-proton interaction model proposed by Kamae et al.; it includes the diffraction dissociation process, Feynman-scaling violation and the logarithmically rising inelastic proton-proton cross section. To improve fidelity to experimental data for lower energies, two baryon resonance excitation processes were added; one representing the {Delta}(1232) and the other multiple resonances with masses around 1600 MeV/c{sup 2}. The model predicts the power-law spectral index for all secondary particle to be about 0.05 lower in absolute value than that of the incident proton and their inclusive cross sections to be larger than those predicted …

In recent years, semiconductor nanocrystal quantum dots havegarnered the spotlight as an important new class of biological labelingtool. Withoptical properties superior to conventional organicfluorophores from many aspects, such as high photostability andmultiplexing capability, quantum dots have been applied in a variety ofadvanced imaging applications. This dissertation research goes along withlarge amount of research efforts in this field, while focusing on thedesign and development of new nanoprobes from semiconductor nanocrystalsthat are aimed for useful imaging or sensing applications not possiblewith quantum dots alone. Specifically speaking, two strategies have beenapplied. In one, we have taken advantage of the increasing capability ofmanipulating the shape of semiconductor nanocrystals by developingsemiconductor quantum rods as fluorescent biological labels. In theother, we have assembled quantum dots and gold nanocrystals into discretenanostructures using DNA. The background information and synthesis,surface manipulation, property characterization and applications of thesenew nanoprobes in a few biological experiments are detailed in thedissertation.

For this study, a high throughput method for identifying and testing regulatory elements was examined. In addition, the validity of promoters predicted by FirstEF was tested. It was found that by combining computer based promoter and first exon predictions from FirstEF (Davuluri et al., 2001) with PCR-based cloning to generate luciferase reporter constructs, and by testing reporter activity in cultured mammalian cells plated in a 96 well format one could identify promoter activity in a relatively high throughput manner. The data generated in this study suggest that FirstEF predictions are sometimes incorrect. Therefore, having a strategy for defining which FirstEF predicted promoters to test first may accelerate the process. Initially testing promoters that are at a confirmed transcription start site for a gene, at a possible alternate transcription start site or in a region of conserved sequence would be the best candidates, while promoters predicted in gene desert regions may not be as easy to confirm. The luciferase assay lent itself very well to the high throughput search, however the subcloning did not always go smoothly. The numerous steps that this traditional subcloning method requires were time consuming and increased the opportunities for errors. A faster method that skips many …

The current congestion control mechanism used in TCP has difficulty reaching full utilization on high speed links, particularly on wide-area connections. For example, the packet drop rate needed to fill a Gigabit pipe using the present TCP protocol is below the currently achievable fiber optic error rates. HighSpeed TCP was recently proposed as a modification of TCP's congestion control mechanism to allow it to achieve reasonable performance in high speed wide-area links. In this research, simulation results showing the performance of HighSpeed TCP and the impact of its use on the present implementation of TCP are presented. Network conditions including different degrees of congestion, different levels of loss rate, different degrees of bursty traffic and two distinct router queue management policies were simulated. The performance and fairness of HighSpeed TCP were compared to the existing TCP and solutions for bulk-data transfer using parallel streams.

An experimental study of the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) instability has investigated the effects of velocity gradients and kinetic effects on the saturation of ion-acoustic waves in a plasma. For intensities less than I < 1.5 x 10{sup 15} W cm{sup -2}, the SBS instability is moderated primarily by velocity gradients, and for intensities above this threshold, nonlinear trapping is invoked to saturate the instability. We report direct evidence of detuning of SBS by a velocity gradient which was achieved by directly measuring the frequency shift of the SBS driven acoustic wave relative to the local resonant acoustic frequency. Furthermore, a novel use of Thomson scattering has allowed us to gather direct evidence of kinetic effects associated with the SBS process. Specifically, a measured two-fold increase of the ion temperature has been linked with laser beam excitation of ion-acoustic waves to large amplitudes by the SBS instability. Ion-acoustic waves were excited to large amplitude with a 2{omega} 1.2-ns long interaction beam with intensities up to 5 x 10{sup 15} W cm{sup -2}. The local frequency, amplitude, and spatial range of these waves were measured with a 3{omega} 200ps Thomson-scattering probe beam. These detailed and accurate measurements in well-characterized plasma conditions …

A number of experiments have accumulated over the years a large amount of solar neutrino data. The data indicate that the observed solar neutrino flux is significantly smaller than expected and, furthermore, that the electron neutrino survival probability is energy dependent. This ''solar neutrino problem'' is best solved by assuming that the electron neutrino oscillates into another neutrino species. Even though one can classify the solar neutrino deficit as strong evidence for neutrino oscillations, it is not yet considered a definitive proof. Traditional objections are that the evidence for solar neutrino oscillations relies on a combination of hard, different experiments, and that the Standard Solar Model (SSM) might not be accurate enough to precisely predict the fluxes of different solar neutrino components. Even though it seems unlikely that modifications to the SSM alone can explain the current solar neutrino data, one still cannot completely discount the possibility that a combination of unknown systematic errors in some of the experiments and certain modifications to the SSM could conspire to yield the observed data. To conclusively demonstrate that there is indeed new physics in solar neutrinos, new experiments are aiming at detecting ''smoking gun'' signatures of neutrino oscillations, such as an anomalous …

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