UC Riverside postdoctoral scholar receives high honor at CERN

Public release date: 8-Nov-2012
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Contact: Iqbal Pittalwala
iqbal@ucr.edu
951-827-6050
University of California - Riverside

Sudan Paramesvaran serves as an operations manager for a key experiment at the Large Hadron Collider

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Sudan Paramesvaran, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Riverside, has won the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) achievement award for the Hadron Calorimeter subdetector at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland.

CERN is the location of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a powerful particle accelerator. UC Riverside faculty, postdoctoral scholars and graduate students are involved in the LHC's CMS experiment, a large particle-capturing detector whose discoveries are expected to help answer questions such as: Are there undiscovered principles of nature? What is the origin of mass? Do extra dimensions exist? What is dark matter? How can we solve the mystery of dark energy? And how did the universe come to be?

The Hadron Calorimeter subdetector is an integral part of the CMS detector, and measures the energy of hadrons particles composed of quarks and gluons. It is one of the central components of CMS, and is the primary detector for the reconstruction of hadronic jets and missing energy, a key signature for physics beyond the Standard Model (a comprehensive theory that explains the interactions between all fundamental elementary particles).

Paramesvaran serves as the Hadron Calorimeter (HCAL) Operations Manager for the 2012-2013 data-collection run of CMS. The data sample collected in this run will be five times larger than last year.

"Sudan works hard, has excellent technical judgment, leadership skills, and a good feel for operations," said Bill Gary, a professor of physics and astronomy and Paramesvaran's advisor. "This is an important position, making him the group leader for a team of around ten physicists in charge of operating the HCAL detectors and their associated systems."

For Paramesvaran, working as part of the HCAL team has been both a challenging and rewarding experience.

"I am delighted to receive this award from CMS," said Paramesvaran, who began working with Gary in June 2010. "I would like to thank HCAL project management for the confidence they expressed in me in appointing me Operations Manager. It has been a thrill and honor to be part of such an interesting and exciting era in CMS operations. I would also like to thank Professors Bill Gary and Owen Long for their support in allowing me to fulfill this role."

Paramesvaran was nominated for the award within the HCAL community. An HCAL committee ranked the shortlisted candidates and then made a single choice for the award.

Paramesvaran will receive a certificate at a ceremony at CERN next month.

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The University of California, Riverside (www.ucr.edu) is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment has exceeded 21,000 students. The campus will open a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion. A broadcast studio with fiber cable to the AT&T Hollywood hub is available for live or taped interviews. UCR also has ISDN for radio interviews. To learn more, call (951) UCR-NEWS.

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Public release date: 8-Nov-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Iqbal Pittalwala
iqbal@ucr.edu
951-827-6050
University of California - Riverside

Sudan Paramesvaran serves as an operations manager for a key experiment at the Large Hadron Collider

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Sudan Paramesvaran, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Riverside, has won the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) achievement award for the Hadron Calorimeter subdetector at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland.

CERN is the location of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a powerful particle accelerator. UC Riverside faculty, postdoctoral scholars and graduate students are involved in the LHC's CMS experiment, a large particle-capturing detector whose discoveries are expected to help answer questions such as: Are there undiscovered principles of nature? What is the origin of mass? Do extra dimensions exist? What is dark matter? How can we solve the mystery of dark energy? And how did the universe come to be?

The Hadron Calorimeter subdetector is an integral part of the CMS detector, and measures the energy of hadrons particles composed of quarks and gluons. It is one of the central components of CMS, and is the primary detector for the reconstruction of hadronic jets and missing energy, a key signature for physics beyond the Standard Model (a comprehensive theory that explains the interactions between all fundamental elementary particles).

Paramesvaran serves as the Hadron Calorimeter (HCAL) Operations Manager for the 2012-2013 data-collection run of CMS. The data sample collected in this run will be five times larger than last year.

"Sudan works hard, has excellent technical judgment, leadership skills, and a good feel for operations," said Bill Gary, a professor of physics and astronomy and Paramesvaran's advisor. "This is an important position, making him the group leader for a team of around ten physicists in charge of operating the HCAL detectors and their associated systems."

For Paramesvaran, working as part of the HCAL team has been both a challenging and rewarding experience.

"I am delighted to receive this award from CMS," said Paramesvaran, who began working with Gary in June 2010. "I would like to thank HCAL project management for the confidence they expressed in me in appointing me Operations Manager. It has been a thrill and honor to be part of such an interesting and exciting era in CMS operations. I would also like to thank Professors Bill Gary and Owen Long for their support in allowing me to fulfill this role."

Paramesvaran was nominated for the award within the HCAL community. An HCAL committee ranked the shortlisted candidates and then made a single choice for the award.

Paramesvaran will receive a certificate at a ceremony at CERN next month.

###

The University of California, Riverside (www.ucr.edu) is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment has exceeded 21,000 students. The campus will open a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion. A broadcast studio with fiber cable to the AT&T Hollywood hub is available for live or taped interviews. UCR also has ISDN for radio interviews. To learn more, call (951) UCR-NEWS.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-11/uoc--urp110812.php

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Software to improve life with AS or autism - Computers, Math ...

I have seen, more than once, requests for software to improve the lives of people with AS or autism, as if there is a need for software, but I haven't seen any specifics about software that might be helpful. I get the idea that some sort of software might be helpful, but not a lot of specifics about what the software could do to help. And I haven't thought up anything myself.

So... how about a brainstorm session? Just give me a wish-list of what software you think is needed. Don't worry about how practical or feasible it is.

What need is not being met? If you could get software today to help you, what would it do? What features would it have?

On what platform would the software run? Desktop PC software seems to be on the way out. Mobile devices are the way to go, but then you're stuck with Apple iOS, Android, Microsoft WinRT, and the parade of also-rans. Developing software for one platform like iOS and Android is intensive, and supporting both would strain a part-time developer to the max. Picking the right platform is not easy. The other way to go would be a web site which is mobile friendly.

Would you pay for this software? The software industry is moving to locked-down, closed devices. Releasing software for these devices requires the up-front payment of fees. That's fine for a big company, where the fees are annoying, but difficult for individuals where the fee may be the deciding factor in a go/no-go decision. (After all, you'd have to sell 100 copies per year of software at $0.99 at the Apple Store just to recoup your fee, and that's not counting getting a Mac and a test device like an iPad. The economics of software development are being set up to push out the individual.)

What software is out there now? What do you use? What are its limits? What would you do to improve it?

Source: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt214860.html

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Transgender Pakistanis face society's scorn

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) ? Dressed up in elaborate, feminine outfits and artfully applied makeup, they are showered with money while dancing at all-male wedding parties. But the lives of transgender people in Pakistan are also marked by harassment, rejection and poverty.

Transgender people live in a tenuous position in conservative Pakistan, where the roles of the sexes are traditionally starkly drawn. Families often push them out of the home when they're young, forcing many to prostitute themselves to earn a living.

One role where they are tolerated is as dancers at weddings and other celebrations at which men and women are strictly segregated. In between the dancing and showers of rupee notes, they must fend off groping from drunken guests.

"I don't understand why people feel it is their duty to tease and taunt us," said one transgender Pakistani who goes by the name Symbal. Many in the transgender community pick a name for themselves and do not use their last name to protect their family.

Others beg on the streets or earn money by blessing newborn babies. The blessings reflect a widespread belief in Pakistan and other South Asian nations that God answers the prayers of someone who was born underprivileged, said Iqbal Hussain, a Pakistani researcher who has studied the transgender community. But he cautioned that didn't mean people were ready to give them equal rights.

In recent years the community has gained some government protection. A Supreme Court ruling in 2011 allowed them to get national identity cards recognizing them as a separate identity ? neither male or female ? and allowing them to vote. In neighboring India, the election commission ruled in 2009 that transgender people could register to vote as "other," rather than male or female.

In other parts of the region and Muslim world, the attitude toward transgenders is also complex. In Thailand, the community is very visible and broadly tolerated. Transgender people are regularly seen on TV soap operas, working at department store cosmetics counters or popular restaurants and walking the runways in numerous transgender beauty pageants.

Many transgender Indonesians publicly wear women's clothes and makeup and work as singers. But societal disdain still runs deep. They have taken a much lower profile in recent years, following a series of attacks by Muslim hard-liners.

In Malaysia, Muslim men who wear women's clothes can be prosecuted in Islamic courts.

In the Arab world, there is little opportunity for transgender people to openly show their identity in public. In 2007, Kuwait made "imitating members of the opposite sex" a crime, leading to the arrest of hundreds of transgender women, Human Rights Watch said. In Iraq, extremists have targeted and killed people perceived of being gay or effeminate.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/transgender-pakistanis-face-societys-scorn-120235698.html

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Fine-Tuning a Formula 1 Tire

In a sport where the difference between two drivers is hundredths of a second, even tires are incredible pieces of engineering?pieces that have to be fine-tuned for each event. In a teleconference with reporters today, Pirelli?s Head of Motorsport, Paul Hembrey, discussed the challenges involved with getting tires just right for next weekend?s Formula 1 United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.

This is the first F1 race in the U.S. since 2007, and the first time the sport will tackle Austin?s brand-new Circuit of the Americas. The new track presented Pirelli with a new set of unknown characteristics, Hembrey says. With the usual cast of courses the sport frequents?such as Spa, Monaco, and Monza?Pirelli engineers could rely on precedent to inform their tire tinkering. Not in Texas. ?"There?s a lot of tension surrounding the first race at a new track," Hembrey says.

That tension is caused in part by Michelin tire failures in the 2005 U.S. Grand Prix. Organizers deemed the Michelin tires unsafe after a series of them failed in practice; fourteen cars of the field of 20 were forced to retire before the start of the race in one of the biggest controversies in recent F1 history. Although that was seven years ago and a different track, it casts a long shadow over the revived U.S. Grand Prix. So Pirelli is going to great lengths to make sure its rubber is ready for the road.

To match tire to track, Pirelli start with gathering as much data on the circuit as possible. As soon as the final layer of asphalt was laid earlier last month, Pirelli engineers took moldings of the track surface to measure it?s smoothness, as well laser scans of the circuit to record every bump and dip on the tarmac. That information is then fed into a battery of simulation models?both Pirelli?s and the various team simulators?to calculate what kind of loads the drivers will inflict upon the tires, how their balance shifts as the rubber heats up and fuel weight is shed, and most importantly, how the tires will degrade over time.

Hembrey says Pirelli must strike a fine balance between tire degradation and grip. Softer tires will provide more grip and quicker lap times but will wear out much faster; while harder compounds will provide less grip but allow drivers to stay out on the track longer. Since Pirelli is the sole tire supplier for F1, they need to ensure that the balance between performance and durability is relatively the same from race to race?as teams already have enough variables to deal with on the cars.

And there's the question of entertainment, too: If the balance between grip and durability is too even, then teams no longer need to worry about tire management strategy, turning the race into a boring precession. "The tire needs to become a technical challenge for the teams."

Pirelli will offer two types to the teams for the race weekend: a softer "prime" tire and a harder "option" tire. The prime tire provides better grip, but lap times will fall off by as much as .3 seconds as the tire wears out. The option tire provides less grip, but lap times diminish by just .1 second over the tire's lifespan.

Teams will have access to the medium and hard compounds once the first practice sessions start on Friday. "Our initial data suggests the track is quite smooth," Hembrey says. "There was no big shocks or surprises."

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/auto-blog/fine-tuning-a-formula-1-tire-14593129?src=rss

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Scattering of hydroxyl radicals measured with velocity-map imaging

ScienceDaily (Oct. 30, 2012) ? Scientists are using velocity-map imaging to examine inelastic scattering of hydroxyl radicals.

Hydroxyl radicals (OH) are important in many chemical systems, including combustion and atmospheric reactions. Measuring experimentally the speed and direction of travel of OH with specific forms of internal energy (e.g. rotational, vibrational and electronic energy) has proved difficult. However, measuring these aspects is a key diagnostic of the mechanism of the process that formed OH.

Now, these distributions (the state-to-state differential cross sections) for inelastic scattering of fully state-specified OH with He and Ar have been measured for the first time. This has been made possible by exploiting the velocity-map imaging technique in a crossed molecular-beam arrangement. The velocity-map imaging technique was invented at the Radboud University Nijmegen in 1997 by David Parker and coworkers.

The new article by David Parker and coworkers of the Institute for Molecules and Materials (IMM) can now be read online.

The measured speed and angular distributions are shown to compare favorably with theoretical predictions. This confirms the quality of calculated potential energy surfaces that are used to describe the astrochemically relevant collisions of OH with He.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Radboud University Nijmegen, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Gautam Sarma, Sarantos Marinakis, J. J. ter Meulen, David H. Parker, Kenneth G. McKendrick. Inelastic scattering of hydroxyl radicals with helium and argon by velocity-map imaging. Nature Chemistry, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1480

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/biochemistry/~3/kfKTDc9sNjE/121030142807.htm

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Obama to resume campaigning on Thursday

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama plans to return to the campaign trail on Thursday with stops in Wisconsin, Nevada and Colorado, in his first campaign events since before a massive storm throttled the East Coast.

Obama campaign senior adviser David Axelrod said Wednesday the president intends to resume campaigning on Thursday. Campaign officials say the president will make stops in Green Bay, Wis., Las Vegas and Boulder, Colo.

The president's last campaign event was last Saturday in New Hampshire. He flew to Orlando on Sunday to attend a campaign rally on Monday with former President Bill Clinton but scrapped his campaign plans to return to Washington to monitor preparations for superstorm Sandy.

Axelrod was interviewed Wednesday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-10-31-US-Obama/id-55707e5c1fdc4e26952b780a980aed16

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Canada economy shrinks in August as oil, mining slump

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Canadian economy unexpectedly shrank by 0.1 percent in August from July, pointing to slower growth in the third quarter than in the first half of the year and supporting a Bank of Canada message that interest rate hikes are less imminent.

The surprisingly poor performance prompted economists to mark down their forecasts and sent the Canadian dollar skidding to a session low against its U.S. counterpart.

The Canadian economy recovered more quickly than most from the global recession and is set to grow at slightly more than 2 percent this year despite uncertainty from the choppy U.S. recovery and the European debt crisis.

The dip was the first monthly fall in GDP since February and was largely caused by decreased production in the natural resources sector - oil and gas extraction and mining - as well as in manufacturing, Statistics Canada said on Wednesday.

Maintenance work at some mines and oilfields was partly to blame, Statscan said, but economists said the economy had stalled more broadly.

"There are too many negatives in this report to dismiss the headline weakness as being attributable to just temporary disruptions in some sectors," said Derek Holt and Dov Zigler of Scotia Capital.

"Yes, mining disruptions played a significant role, but the most disturbing aspect of the report is the breadth of the decline. Output fell in 10 out of 18 sectors," they wrote in a note to clients.

The Canadian dollar weakened immediately after the data was released to C$1.0002 to the U.S. dollar, or $0.9998, compared with C$0.9985 just before the data and C$0.9993, or $1.0007, at Tuesday's North American close.

Canadian government bond prices turned positive, especially at front end of the curve, and outperformed U.S. Treasuries.

BANK OF CANADA ON HOLD

The Bank of Canada last week halved its forecast for third-quarter growth to an annualized 1 percent, partly reflecting temporary disruptions for plant maintenance in the oil sector. It painted a brighter picture for the next two quarters and saw average growth of more than 2 percent through 2014.

The bank has held its key interest rate at 1.0 percent for over two years. But in April it began saying it would need to hike rates, making it an outlier among the world's major economies, with central banks mostly easing monetary policy.

Last week, the bank made clear that while its next move will be up rather than down, such a move is still far off.

"This report will further lead markets to question the BoC's hiking bias even as it went relatively more dovish than previously," said Holt and Zigler.

Statscan said output in the mining industry slid 2.8 percent in August, partly due to scheduled maintenance at some metal ore sites and declines at potash mines. Oil and gas extraction slumped 0.4 percent, also on maintenance in some oilfields.

The manufacturing sector slid 0.6 percent.

The biggest contributor to growth in the month was wholesale trade.

(Reporting by Louise Egan; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Dan Grebler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/canada-economy-shrinks-august-oil-mining-slump-123951635--business.html

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