Performance of the CMS Cathode Strip Chambers with Cosmic Rays

The Cathode Strip Chambers (CSCs) constitute the primary muon tracking device in the CMS endcaps. Their performance has been evaluated using data taken during a cosmic ray run in fall 2008. Measured noise levels are low, with the number of noisy channels well below 1%. Coordinate resolution was measured for all types of chambers, and fall in the range 47 microns to 243 microns. The efficiencies for local charged track triggers, for hit and for segments reconstruction were measured, and are above 99%. The timing resolution per layer is approximately 5 ns

Adrenomedullin and tumour angiogenesis

The angiogenic activity of peptide adrenomedullin (AM) was first shown in 1998 . Since then, a number of reports have confirmed the ability of AM to induce the growth and migration of isolated vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells in vitro and to promote angiogenesis in xenografted tumours in vivo. In addition, knockout murine models point to an essential role for AM in embryonic vasculogenesis and ischaemic revascularisation. AM expression is upregulated by hypoxia (a typical feature of solid tumours) and a potential role as a regulator of carcinogenesis and tumour progression has been proposed based on studies in vitro and in animal models. Nevertheless, translational research on AM, and in particular, confirmation of its importance in the vascularisation of human tumours has lagged behind. In this commentary, we review current progress and potential directions for future research into the role of AM in tumour angiogenesis

Identification and Filtering of Uncharacteristic Noise in the CMS Hadron Calorimeter

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Psoriasin (S100A7) expression is altered during skin tumorigenesis

BACKGROUND: Psoriasin (S100A7) expression has previously been associated with psoriasiform hyperplasia as well as with tumor progression in breast cancer. Its expression profile for different stages of skin lesions is unknown. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between psoriasin (S100A7) and tumor progression in skin. METHODS: Psoriasin was assessed by immunohistochemistry and levels of expression determined by semi-quantitative scoring in skin biopsies from 50 patients. The cohort included normal skin, actinic keratosis, squamous carcinoma in-situ, invasive squamous cell carcinoma, and basal cell carcinoma. RESULTS: In normal skin, psoriasin was rarely detected in epidermis but was expressed in underlying adnexae. In abnormal epidermis psoriasin was frequently expressed in abnormal keratinocytes in actinic keratosis, in-situ and invasive squamous cell carcinoma, but was rarely observed in the basal epidermal layer or in superficial or invasive basal cell carcinoma. The highest levels of expression were seen within squamous carcinoma in-situ. Significantly reduced levels of expression were observed in both unmatched (p = 0.0001) and matched (p < 0.004) invasive squamous cell carcinoma. Psoriasin expression within abnormal squamous lesions correlated with mitotic count (r = 0.54, p = 0.0036), however no significant relation was found with the intensity of dermal inflammatory cell infiltrates assessed within each pathology. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that altered psoriasin expression occurs in abnormal epidermis and that downregulation may be related to the onset of invasion in squamous cell carcinoma in skin

Crosstalk between Medulloblastoma Cells and Endothelium Triggers a Strong Chemotactic Signal Recruiting T Lymphocytes to the Tumor Microenvironment

Cancer cells can live and grow if they succeed in creating a favorable niche that often includes elements from the immune system. While T lymphocytes play an important role in the host response to tumor growth, the mechanism of their trafficking to the tumor remains poorly understood. We show here that T lymphocytes consistently infiltrate the primary brain cancer, medulloblastoma. We demonstrate, both in vitro and in vivo, that these T lymphocytes are attracted to tumor deposits only after the tumor cells have interacted with tumor vascular endothelium. Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor (MIF)” is the key chemokine molecule secreted by tumor cells which induces the tumor vascular endothelial cells to secrete the potent T lymphocyte attractant “Regulated upon Activation, Normal T-cell Expressed, and Secreted (RANTES).” This in turn creates a chemotactic gradient for RANTES-receptor bearing T lymphocytes. Manipulation of this pathway could have important therapeutic implications

Breast tumour angiogenesis

The central importance of tumour neovascularization has been emphasized by clinical trials using antiangiogenic therapy in breast cancer. This review gives a background to breast tumour neovascularization in in situ and invasive breast cancer, outlines the mechanisms by which this is achieved and discusses the influence of the microenvironment, focusing on hypoxia. The regulation of angiogenesis and the antivascular agents that are used in an antiangiogenic dosing schedule, both novel and conventional, are also summarized

Search for a Higgs boson decaying into a b-quark pair and produced in association with b quarks in proton-proton collisions at 7 TeV

A search for a neutral Higgs boson decaying to a pair of b quarks, and produced in association with at least one additional b quark, is presented. Multijet final states with three jets identified as originating from b quarks, at least one of which may include a non-isolated muon, are studied. The data used in this analysis correspond to an integrated luminosity of 2.7-4.8 fb(-1), collected by the CMS experiment in proton-proton collisions at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. This search is particularly sensitive to Higgs bosons in scenarios of the Minimal Supersymmetric Model (MSSM) with large values of tan beta. No excess over the predicted background from standard model processes is observed. Stringent upper limits on cross section times branching fraction are derived and interpreted as bounds in the MSSM tan beta and m(A) parameter-space. Observed 95% confidence level upper limits reach as low as tang beta approximate to 18 for M-A approximate to 100 GeV

Search for new physics in events with same-sign dileptons and b jets in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV

A search for new physics is performed using events with isolated same-sign leptons and at least two bottom-quark jets in the final state. Results are based on a sample of proton-proton collisions collected at a center-of-mass energy of 8TeV with the CMS detector and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 10.5 fb(-1). No excess above the standard model background is observed. Upper limits are set on the number of events from non-standard-model sources and are used to constrain a number of new physics models. Information on acceptance and efficiencies is also provided so that the results can be used to confront an even broader class of new physics models

Search for top-squark pair production in the single-lepton final state in pp collisions at

This paper presents a search for the pair production of top squarks in events with a single isolated electron or muon, jets, large missing transverse momentum, and large transverse mass. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 19.5 fb(-1) of pp collisions collected in 2012 by the CMS experiment at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of . No significant excess in data is observed above the expectation from standard model processes. The results are interpreted in the context of supersymmetric models with pair production of top squarks that decay either to a top quark and a neutralino or to a bottom quark and a chargino. For small mass values of the lightest supersymmetric particle, top-squark mass values up to around 650 GeV are excluded