Technical University of Dortmund

About: Technical University of Dortmund is a education organization based out in Dortmund, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Large Hadron Collider & Neutrino. The organization has 13028 authors who have published 27666 publications receiving 615557 citations. The organization is also known as: Dortmund University & University of Dortmund.

Experimental Methods for the Analysis of Optimization Algorithms

Abstract: In operations research and computer science it is common practice to evaluate the performance of optimization algorithms on the basis of computational results, and the experimental approach should follow accepted principles that guarantee the reliability and reproducibility of results. However, computational experiments differ from those in other sciences, and the last decade has seen considerable methodological research devoted to understanding the particular features of such experiments and assessing the related statistical methods. This book consists of methodological contributions on different scenarios of experimental analysis. The first part overviews the main issues in the experimental analysis of algorithms, and discusses the experimental cycle of algorithm development; the second part treats the characterization by means of statistical distributions of algorithm performance in terms of solution quality, runtime and other measures; and the third part collects advanced methods from experimental design for configuring and tuning algorithms on a specific class of instances with the goal of using the least amount of experimentation. The contributor list includes leading scientists in algorithm design, statistical design, optimization and heuristics, and most chapters provide theoretical background and are enriched with case studies. This book is written for researchers and practitioners in operations research and computer science who wish to improve the experimental assessment of optimization algorithms and, consequently, their design.

Precision luminosity measurements at LHCb

Abstract: Measuring cross-sections at the LHC requires the luminosity to be determined accurately at each centre-of-mass energy root s. In this paper results are reported from the luminosity calibrations carried out at the LHC interaction point 8 with the LHCb detector for root s = 2.76, 7 and 8TeV (proton-proton collisions) and for root s(NN) = 5TeV (proton-lead collisions). Both the "van der Meer scan" and "beam-gas imaging" luminosity calibration methods were employed. It is observed that the beam density profile cannot always be described by a function that is factorizable in the two transverse coordinates. The introduction of a two-dimensional description of the beams improves significantly the consistency of the results. For proton-proton interactions at root s = 8TeV a relative precision of the luminosity calibration of 1.47% is obtained using van der Meer scans and 1.43% using beam-gas imaging, resulting in a combined precision of 1.12%. Applying the calibration to the full data set determines the luminosity with a precision of 1.16%. This represents the most precise luminosity measurement achieved so far at a bunched-beam hadron collider.

Fungal secretomes—nature’s toolbox for white biotechnology

Abstract: Adapting their metabolism to varying carbon and nitrogen sources, saprophytic fungi produce an arsenal of extracellular enzymes, the secretome, which allows for an efficient degradation of lignocelluloses and further biopolymers. Based on fundamental advances in electrophoretic, chromatographic, and mass spectrometric techniques on the one hand and the availability of annotated fungal genomes and sophisticated bioinformatic software tools on the other hand, a detailed analysis of fungal secretomes has become feasible. While a number of reports on ascomycetous secretomes of, e.g., Aspergillus, Trichoderma, and Fusarium species are already available, studies on basidiomycetes have been mainly focused on the two model organisms Phanerochaete chrysosporium and Coprinopsis cinerea so far. Though an impressive number and diversity of fungal biocatalysts has been revealed by secretome analyses, the identity and function of many extracellular proteins still remains to be elucidated. A comprehensive understanding of the qualitative and quantitative composition of fungal secretomes, together with their synergistic actions and kinetic expression profiles, will allow for the development of optimized enzyme cocktails for white biotechnology.

Clues for flavor from rare lepton and quark decays

Abstract: Flavor symmetries successfully explain lepton and quark masses and mixings yet it is usually hard to distinguish different models that predict the same mixing angles. Further experimental input could be available, if the agents of flavor breaking are sufficiently low in mass and detectable or if new physics with non-trivial flavor charges is sufficiently low in mass and detectable. The recent hint for lepton-nonuniversality in the ratio of branching fractions B → Kμμ over B → Kee, R K , suggests the latter, at least for indirect detection via rare decays. We demonstrate the discriminating power of the rare decay data on flavor model building taking into account viable leptonic mixings and show how correlations with other observables exist in leptoquark models. We give expectations for branching ratios B → Kll′, B (s) → ll′ and l → l′γ, and Higgs decays h → ll′.

A mechanistic classification of clinical phenotypes in neuroblastoma

Abstract: Neuroblastoma is a pediatric tumor of the sympathetic nervous system. Its clinical course ranges from spontaneous tumor regression to fatal progression. To investigate the molecular features of the divergent tumor subtypes, we performed genome sequencing on 416 pretreatment neuroblastomas and assessed telomere maintenance mechanisms in 208 of these tumors. We found that patients whose tumors lacked telomere maintenance mechanisms had an excellent prognosis, whereas the prognosis of patients whose tumors harbored telomere maintenance mechanisms was substantially worse. Survival rates were lowest for neuroblastoma patients whose tumors harbored telomere maintenance mechanisms in combination with RAS and/or p53 pathway mutations. Spontaneous tumor regression occurred both in the presence and absence of these mutations in patients with telomere maintenance-negative tumors. On the basis of these data, we propose a mechanistic classification of neuroblastoma that may benefit the clinical management of patients.