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Pal Network
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PAL Network To NuMoney: 6 Cryptocurrency Startups In S'pore That Are No Longer Around
0 Singapore prides itself as the crypto hub in the Southeast Asia and surrounding region, with blockchain being ranked among the three top industry trends in the country as of 2020 and new cryptocurrency startups being set up in recent years. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has adopted a pro-blockchain stance with favourable tax treatments and public funding for blockchain development. It also considers blockchain technology "fundamental" to the economic development in Singapore. Singapore has also joined ranks with a handful of countries to set up a Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Industry Association , dedicated to assisting small and medium-sized cryptocurrency and blockchain enterprises. This makes it relatively easy for locals and foreigners alike to set up a cryptocurrency business in Singapore, which is why cryptocurrency and blockchain companies are mushrooming here. However, many startups seem to be merely riding trends and burning investors' money instead of showing real results and utility. Worse, some of them actually prove to be pump-and-dump or Ponzi schemes that defraud users' money. Here's a look at six cryptocurrency startups that have launched over the past few years in Singapore, but are now no longer in operation. 1. Torque Trading Systems Image Credit: TBBOB Incorporated in 2019 in British Virgin Islands as an online crypto-currency trading platform by Singaporean Bernard Ong, Torque appeared to be a multi-level marketing (MLM) investment platform , in which new investors need to put in their money as well as recruit new investors to sign up with Torque. Members are then paid by referral commission downline investment via a unilevel compensation structure. A multi-level marketing or pyramid selling scheme will typically require participants to pay an upfront charge. In return, the participants are promised financial rewards for each additional participant recruited, hence the pyramid-like structure. As more salespersons are recruited, participants hope to recover their upfront charges and earn sizeable profits. However, such pyramid schemes will eventually collapse when they run out of new recruits, resulting in those salespersons at the bottom of the pyramid losing all their upfront charges. Earlier in February, Bernard announced the collapse of the company and the suspension of all trading activities. The company blamed a dishonest employee that allegedly made unauthorised leveraged trading on the platform and suffered losses, thus draining members' investing accounts. A police report has since been lodged against the employee, who is allegedly responsible for the losses. However, the employee was said to be based outside of Singapore and could not be contacted. As of April 2021, there are up to 115 police reports filed against Torque Trading Systems from defrauded investors. It had also been reported that many Singaporeans have lost their life savings and investments of up to S$1 million from the Torque debacle. 2. TenX Image Credit: TenX Founded in 2015 at a hackathon in Singapore, TenX was a platform that connected users' assets stored on the blockchain with "real-world" payment platforms through an all-in-one, blockchain-based crypto platform. Users could leverage TenX's app to store different types of blockchain assets in one place, as well as use its physical debit card to pay with crypto at retailers around the world. In 2017, the company raised an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) of US$80 million (S$107 million) and positioned themselves as one of the strongest crypto players from Singapore. New signups were being disabled and members were told to withdraw all their funds from TenX wallet. Meanwhile, its website stated that they are migrating to a new project called Mimo. One of the main reasons behind their downfall was the wirecard insolvency in Europe and Singapore. Wirecard — the parent company that powers TenX crypto debit cards — filed for insolvency in June 2020 after facing allegations of misappropriating over US$2.1 billion of its funds. Reddit sources and an interview with a displaced co-founder Dr. Julian Hosp suggests the lack of innovation, the lack of growth of products and user base, and management scandal as other unfavourable factors contributing to its ultimate demise. 3. PAL Network Image Credit: PAL Network PAL Network (PAL) was a Singapore-based dual-layered protocol for financial assets that aimed to enhance access to insurance protection. Founded by CEO Val Ji-hsuan Yap in 2016, PAL was a mobile app that allows users to track all their insurance policies on one platform. It used artificial intelligence (AI) and smart contract technology to digitise and store the policies in a more secure and transparent way. The company had also struck partnerships with several major insurance providers such as AIG, Aviva, AXA, Etiqa and NTUC Income. In a Medium post that was published in October 2020, the PAL Network team issued a statement on the conclusion of their blockchain journey. The post stated that they would cease operations, delist PAL tokens from all exchanges, and burn all remaining PAL tokens by 30 October 2020. Additionally, they would donate their remaining capital to World Vision. According to the post, the reason behind this closure was due to them running out of funds to continue operations and development. The depletion of their funding was attributed to the erosion of the market value of ETH, which was the primary digital asset contribution received by PAL Network for their PAL token sale. Within two months of completion of the token sale, ETH went on a downward spiral in the 2018 crypto crash. This erosion in ETH value resulted in PAL Network losing close to 60 per cent of its funding from the PAL token sale which significantly shortened PAL Network's development and operations runway by more than half — two years, down from five years. The company also mentioned that due to Covid-19 pandemic, interest from insurance partners have dropped significantly. They had also failed to gain mass market adoption of their insurance product offerings. 4. CoinPip Image Credit: CoinPip Founded in 2012, CoinPip was a Singapore-based international remittances startup that aimed to disrupt the remittances industry by allowing business-to-business (B2B) customers to make payments and transfers overseas with Bitcoin to facilitate the transactions on the backend. The team had landed investment and advisors from DBS Bank, PayPal, Visa, among others. As of 11 February 2020, CoinPip has suspended all operations "until further notice" to focus on reviewing license requirements under the Singapore payment services act. The MAS had updated its regulatory framework for crypto-related activities, including digital payments. CoinPip and other crypto businesses in Singapore were required to first register and then apply for a license, as well as disclose their traders' identities and report suspicious activities. 5. FYB-SG Image Credit: FYB-SG FYB-SG was a Singapore cryptocurrency trading exchange that had been operating since 2014. It was owned Dealworks Pte Ltd, which was registered as a deposit stored value facility and did not require the approval of MAS. The company had the full functionality of a trading platform and allowed placing, canceling and viewing of orders, price info, trade history and order book. It also had a mobile app for Android and iOS devices. Apparently, issues with banking relationships is a common reason for the closure of many cryptocurrency companies. Most times however, the banks involved do not offer any reason for the closure of companies' bank accounts. 6. NuMoney Image Credit: TechinAsia Launched in 2017, NuMoney was a company that allows customers to buy and sell Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies over-the-counter (OTC). They helped non tech-savvy Singaporeans to purchase crypto physically at their counters . Users would have to register with their ID and transact cryptocurrency on the spot with the help of NuMoney staff. On top of their OTC services, the company had had their own online trading exchange platform. As of 2019, NuMoney was no longer operational due to the closure of their bank accounts – OCBC, Maybank, and DBS. Apparently, they received too much money from their customers, in the average of four-digit sums. (hyperlink source) Although NuMoney had proper documents and invoices to back up these transactions, the banks flagged NuMoney and shut down their accounts. In a blog post, founder Steven Goh expressed his disappointment with Singapore's banking system and unfair practices that limit the growth of the fintech players. Easy To Start, Hard To Survive It might be relatively easy to start a cryptocurrency business in Singapore, however the road to profitability and adoption is much longer and arduous than the average startups in other industries. Moreover, blockchain and cryptocurrency technology is relatively new and complex, hence there is limited programming ecosystem to develop products, not to mention difficulties to find use cases and product-market fit. The volatility of cyptocurrency value also poses a lot of other problems to crypto businesses. Pushback from traditional banking industry and MAS might also cripple the operations of these new businesses, as legal framework regulating the space has not been properly set and might change at a moment's notice. The long-term potential of having a successful cryptocurrency business is limitless, but just like the value of cryptocurrency — one can expect roller-coaster fluctuations along the way. Therefore, it's not an understatement to say that starting a cryptocurrency business is not for the faint-hearted. Featured Image Credit: Logos of respective companies
PAL Network Signs Memorandum of Understanding with Toyota Tsusho and Allianz
PAL Network Signs MoU Agreements
PAL Network Signs MoU with Toyota Tsusho and Allianz to Establish Foothold in Southeast Asian Markets
PAL Network to develop insurtech products for Toyota Tsusho and Allianz Malaysia
Pal Network Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
When was Pal Network founded?
Pal Network was founded in 2018.
What is Pal Network's latest funding round?
Pal Network's latest funding round is Incubator/Accelerator.
Who are the investors of Pal Network?
Investors of Pal Network include Plug and Play Accelerator.


A well-kept secret, Michigan's upper peninsula is a treasure trove of wonderful things to experience. From the majesty of mother nature to adventures second to none, the U.P. truly offers something for everyone. Whether you are seeking a single destination for your group or even a tour of places you've never been before, the U.P. has many hidden gems to share. Here are five to get you thinking about the possibilities!
Moving along, Sable Falls in the easternmost part of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is west of scenic Grand Marais and falls 75 feet over several cliffs of sandstone. For the hearty, a trail past the falls will take you down to where Sable Creek flows into Lake Superior.
Further west along the Lake Superior shoreline the Munising Falls are a favorite in all seasons. Located within the city of Munising the 50-foot falls offers accessible viewing platforms. Just 15 miles away from Munising you can feast your eyes on Mosquito Falls, a secluded waterfall with three drops of eight feet or less. There are also many more Munising area falls that can be added to your trip.
#1 Island Resort & Casino in Harris (west of Escanaba).
#2 Kewadin Shores Casino in Saint Ignace.
#3 Kewadin Casino in Sault Ste. Marie.
#4 Bay Mills Resort & Casino in Brimley.
#5 Kewadin Casino in Christmas.
Perhaps the best-known U.P. lake cruises are to see the majestic Pictured Rocks, departing from Munising during the warm months. Considered the best way to see the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, the 2-3-hour tours will leave you wanting more. Another favorite is the cruise to Isle Royale National Park. Ferries depart from the Keweenaw Peninsula's Houghton for a six-hour cruise or from Copper Harbor for a shorter three-hour cruise. If you prefer the slap of wind in your sails, try the Coaster II, an historic schooner built in 1933, offering sails as short as two hours or as long as overnight.
There are so many things to do outdoors in the U.P. here are just a few that are hard to duplicate. For birders, the Whitefish Point Bird Observatory, north of Paradise on the far eastside of the peninsula, is one of the nation's premier points to observe migratory birds of all types and sizes. Visitors are welcome, and events are posted on the WPBO website. If you want to really test your mettle in the water, how about whitewater rafting? Yup, no need to go east, the Menominee River is ready to take you on. Check out Northwoods Adventures for more info! Or if a little exercise coupled with a little silent floating is more what you have in mind, try a kayak or canoe trip to view the lakeshore and the lake closeup. Depending upon your desired destination, Trip Advisor ranks several companies to get you going out on the water.
Last but by far not least, if your group loves boats, you have to head to Hessel for the incomparable 41st Les Cheneaux Islands Antique Wooden Boat Show and Festival of Crafts. This week-end long event showcases all manner of wooden boats or "woodies," classic and new, all in tip-top shape and gleaming in the sunshine. For 2018 the show will be held Friday and Saturday August 10-11. This amazing show would make a great beginning or ending to one of the tours above!
Need more ideas? Check out our great group trip ideas for more inspiration!
While you and your group ponder the possibilities, feel free to contact Indian Trails for assistance or quotes. We are always standing by to help you plan the perfect charter.


Nestled on a bustling corner in the heart of Vienna's historic First District, Hotel Lamée transports travelers into Austria's elegant past. Caught in the beautiful midst of Austria's cultural hub, this boutique hotel is just a short stroll away from St. Stephen's Cathedral, the city's holiest building, Hofburg, the former palace of Habsburg royalty, Café Central, once frequented by Trotsky, and other historic, quintessential landmarks.
Inspired by twentieth century, Austrian-American actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr, Hotel Lamée's interior design reincarnates her spirit– combining innovation and 'Old Hollywood' glamour in a classic Viennese way. To create such ambiance, Art Deco wood cabinets and wall panelings, velvet fuschia couches, and spherical tasseled lamps–each remincient of Europe's Orient Express train– embellish all thirty-two rooms. Cloud-like mattresses, plush pillows, sheer gold curtains, brown marble baths, and Molton Brown body products emulate Hedy Lamarr's chic Viennese repertoire. While all of Lamée's guest rooms are supremely swanky, number 83 –a deluxe suite– is coveted for its unobstructed, dignified view of St. Stephen's Cathedral.
The swank does not end with Lamée's interior design. Situated on the main floor, Café Bar Bloom fuses Hedy Lamarr-inspired elegance with quintessentially quaint café charm. Once again, colorful patterned upholstery and gold finishing complement Art Deco wood paneling and brown marble floors. The bistro's intimate size is expanded by floor to ceiling windows, which open to the street, immersing guests into the effervescent city centre.
Located on the eighth floor is Lamée Rooftop. This eclectically colorful terrace is beloved by travelers and locals alike for its bold, geometric style and panoramic city views. Black and white zigzag floors–echoing Viennese painter Gustav Klimt's artistic style– clash pleasantly against baby blue and white striped walls; seasonally changing umbrella designs help set the mood; and varying shades of pink, yellow, and blue prism tables further dynamicize the eye-catching space. Standing out amongst the terrace's lively facade is its scenic visibility. With views of Vienna City Hall's gothic architecture, St. Peter's Church's seafoam green dome, and St. Stephen Cathedral's vivid roof tiles, a sunset atop Lamée Rooftop should not be missed.


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Children skipping meals in majority of families in Lebanon, UNICEF says
Tuesday, 23 November 2021 11:06 GMT
A child peeks from behind a corner of a building in Beirut's Karantina district, Lebanon November 22, 2021. Picture taken November 22, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
About our Economies coverage
We report on how to ensure people globally have economic security and a decent standard of living.
Children have been hit hard by Lebanon's deep economic crisis with eight in 10 people poor and threats to the education of some 700,000 children a UN report revealed
BEIRUT, Nov 23 (Reuters) - More than half of families in Lebanon had at least one child who skipped a meal by October 2021 amid a "dramatic deterioration of living conditions", the UN's children's fund said in a report released on Tuesday.
Children have been hit hard by the country's deep economic crisis exacerbated by the global coronavirus pandemic which has left about eight in 10 people poor and threatens the education of some 700,000 children including 260,000 Lebanese, the report said.
The multifaceted crisis, rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement, has led to a breakdown in the provision of basic services such as electricity and water.
Nearly half of households had insufficient drinking water by October 2021, the report said, with a third of them citing cost as the main factor.
"The staggering magnitude of the crisis must be a wake-up call," said Yukie Mokuo, UNICEF representative in Lebanon.
The report noted that less than three in 10 families had received social assistance, leading them to take "desperate measures".
The proportion of Lebanese families sending children to work increased sevenfold to seven percent between April and October, the report said.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati's government has been slow to implement social safety programmes including a $246 million World bank-funded one adopted by parliament in March and a $556 million ration card scheme backed by the legislature in June.
"Urgent action is needed to ensure no child goes hungry, becomes sick or has to work instead of receiving an education," Mokuo said.
(Reporting by Timour Azhari, Editing by Ed Osmond)
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Asian Bedroom Furniture Sets Platform Bed Asian Style Bedroom For Oriental Bedroom Furniture Ideas | Staceyalickman.com japanese bedroom furniture. oriental inspired bedroom furniture. black oriental bedroom furniture.


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Thoracic Oncology: Special Features| Volume 157, ISSUE 6, P1674-1679, June 01, 2020
The Integral Role of the Electronic Health Record and Tracking Software in the Implementation of Lung Cancer Screening—A Call to Action to Developers
A White Paper From the National Lung Cancer Roundtable
Joelle T. Fathi, DNP, MN
Joelle T. Fathi
CORRESPONDENCE TO: Joelle T. Fathi, DNP, MN, School of Nursing, University of Washington, 1959 NE Pacific St, Box 357266, Seattle, WA 98195-7266
Department of Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Informatics, School of Nursing, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Charles S. White, MD
Charles S. White
Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
Grant M. Greenberg, MD, MHSA
Grant M. Greenberg
Lehigh Valley Health Network, Allentown, PA
Peter J. Mazzone, MD, MPH
Peter J. Mazzone
Respiratory Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH
Robert A. Smith, PhD
Robert A. Smith
Cancer Control Department, American Cancer Society Inc, Atlanta, GA
Carey C. Thomson, MD, MPH
Carey C. Thomson
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Department of Medicine, Mount Auburn Hospital, Cambridge, MA
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
Published:December 23, 2019DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2019.12.004
Previous ArticlePrognostic Value of 6-Min Walk Test to Predict Postoperative Cardiopulmonary Complications in Patients With Non-small Cell Lung Cancer
Next Articlee-Cigarette or Vaping Product Use-Associated Lung Injury
The development of a high-quality lung cancer screening (LCS) program poses many operational challenges. Compared with criteria for other cancer screening target populations, the criteria for LCS eligibility are more complex, including age, smoking history, and general health status. Furthermore, among Medicare-eligible adults who qualify for LCS, which is a substantial proportion of the target population, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has regulatory mandates that apply to the screening process and must be met for reimbursement. Integrated LCS tracking software and tools within the electronic health record (EHR) that can capture, manage, and store data, as well as assist with the performance of specific LCS-related tasks, could contribute to addressing these challenges and accelerate the adoption of LCS. Currently, variations in EHR and tracking system capabilities, inadequate programmatic resources to manage the required data collection and reporting, and gaps in knowledge present hurdles to optimal program implementation.
lung cancer screening software
CMS ( Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services), EHR ( electronic health record), IT ( Information Technology), LCS ( lung cancer screening), LDCT ( low-dose CT)
Aberle D.R.
Adams A.M.
Berg C.D.
Reduced lung-cancer mortality with low-dose computed tomographic screening.
Decision memo for screening for lung cancer with low dose computed tomography.
https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/details/nca-decision-memo.aspx?NCAId=274&NcaName=Screening+for+Lung+Cancer+with+Low+Dose+Computed+Tomography+(LDCT)&TimeFrame=7&DocType=All&bc=AQAAIAAAAgAAAA%3d%3d&
Date accessed: September 1, 2018
Bade B.C.
Brasher P.B.
Luna B.W.
Silvestri G.A.
Tanner N.T.
Reviewing lung cancer screening: the who, where, when, why, and how.
Clin Chest Med. 2018; 39: 31-43
Scopus (8)
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http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/Page/Document/RecommendationStatementFinal/lung-cancer-screening#update-of-previous-uspstf-recommendation-
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Carter-Harris L.
Gould M.K.
Multilevel barriers to the successful implementation of lung cancer screening: why does it have to be so hard?.
Ann Am Thoracic Soc. 2017; 14: 1261-1265
Borondy-Kitts A, Thomson CC, Christie A, et al. Massachusetts Lung Cancer Screening Learning Collaborative: facilitating and accelerating implementation of statewide lung cancer screening. Paper presented at: Academy Health/NIH Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation; December 3, 2018; Washington, DC.
American Lung Association, American Thoracic Society
Lung cancer screening implementation guide.
https://www.lungcancerscreeningguide.org
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J Thoracic Oncol. 2016; 11: 1856-1862
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The impact of fluctuations in pack-year smoking history in the electronic health record on lung cancer screening practices.
Modin H.E.
Fathi J.T.
Gilbert C.R.
Pack-year cigarette smoking history for determination of lung cancer screening eligibility, comparison of the electronic medical record versus a shared decision-making conversation.
Patel M.S.
Volpp K.G.
Small D.S.
Using active choice within the electronic health record to increase influenza vaccination rates.
J Gen Intern Med. 2017; 32: 790-795
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https://nrdrsupport.acr.org/support/solutions/articles/11000041252-lcsr-required-data-elements
Date accessed: January 30, 2020
FUNDING/SUPPORT: This work was supported by the National Lung Cancer Roundtable and the Task Group on Implementation of Lung Cancer Screening. The American Cancer Society receives an unrestricted educational grant from AstraZeneca for support of the National Lung Cancer Roundtable.
© 2020 Published by Elsevier Inc under license from the American College of Chest Physicians.


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Berkeley Entrepreneurship Week Brings Entrepreneurs, VCs to Campus, Nov. 18-22
November 12, 2013 | by Haas News
The first Berkeley Entrepreneurship Week organized by Startup@Berkeley, an interdisciplinary club on campus, will bring nearly two dozen entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from such companies as Evernote and Sequoia Capital to campus Nov. 18 to Nov. 22 to inspire students to pursue entrepreneurial careers.
Startup@Berkeley partnered with Alsop Louie Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Y-Combinator to create speaker panels every day of the week from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., concluding with a demo date Friday with Berkeley-affiliated startups. Two Haas alumni will participate in the inaugural Berkeley Entrepreneurship Week: Danae Ringelmann, MBA 08, co-founder of Indiegogo, and Nikita Bier, BS 12, CEO of Outline.
All events are free, although registration is required. (For registration links visit berkeleyeweek.com or click on links below for each event.) Students are invited to submit their resumes on the event website for opportunities to work at speaker and sponsor companies.
"We noticed there weren't any campus groups at Berkeley that unified all the campus initiatives centered on entrepreneurship. We wanted to create this event to bring everyone together," says Startup@Berkeley Co-president Rachel Tsao, BA 15, who is double-majoring in statistics and cognitive science. "We chose panels whose topics were broad enough that a computer science major or a business student will be inspired by these stories."
The series of events was timed to coincide with Global Entrepreneurship Week, started in 2008 to create a global movement to inspire people everywhere to unleash their ideas and take the next step in their entrepreneurial journey.
In addition to events organized by Startup@Berkeley, the Haas School's Lester Center for Entrepreneurship will be hosting three events during Berkeley Entrepreneurship Week. Following is a schedule for the week:
Monday, Nov. 18
Founder Panel
7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Andersen Auditorium, Haas School
Keynote speaker Quinn Slack of Sourcegraph; panelists Alon Salant of Good Eggs, Matt DeBergalis of Meteor, Adam Ely of Bluebox, Josh Buckley of Minomonsters, and Anson Tusi of Spoonrocket.
Tuesday, Nov. 19
Technology Leadership Panel
Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall
Speakers: Dave Engberg, CTO, Evernote; Brandon Golm, senior director engineering, Eventbrite; and Jeff Burton, executive director, SkyDeck, UC Berkeley's startup accelerator.
Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum/Peterson Series: The Sharing Economy
Co-hosted by the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and the Center for Responsible Business
Wednesday, Nov. 20
Bplan Competition Presents: Hacking Startups
5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Bank of America Forum, Haas School of Business
Social and Networks Panel
Maude Fife Room, Wheeler Hall
Speakers: Danae Ringelmann of Indiegogo, Aman Khanna of Collegefeed, Andrew Mager of Spotify, Daniel Brusilovsky of Ribbon, Sharran Deora of Mounza, and Eric Chen of Uj Ventures.
Thursday, Nov. 21
Venture Capital Panel
10 Evans Hall
Speakers: Michael Berolzheimer of Bee Partners; representatives from Google Capital, Alsop Louie Partners, and Lightspeed Venture Partners (tentatively confirmed).
Entrepreneurial Best Practices Series: Intellectual Property for Entrepreneurs
7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Wells Fargo Room, Haas School
Friday, Nov. 22
Demo Day 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Keynote Speaker: Kevin Hale, a partner at Y-Combinator and founder of Wufoo
Campus startups: Outline; Dropsense; and Eko Devices.
Visit the Berkeley Entrepreneurship Week website
Visit the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship website
Posted in Student News, School News, Alumni News
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Startup Spotlight: Alokee wants to be your virtual realtor


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Ultimate Circus è il primo album e l'album di debutto del gruppo giapponese Nightmare, pubblicato il 25 dicembre 2003. Questo album è presente in due versioni, la versione normale e un altro in slip nero. L'album raggiunse la 115ª posizione nella classifica Oricon.
La maggior parte delle canzoni sono di genere Rock pesante,ad eccezione di "Mind Ocean" e "Aquaria",che sono le più lente ballate rock per rilanciare l'album. L'album include il loro singolo di debutto a una major discografica "Believe",così come il loro triplo singolo A-side "Akane/Hate/Over".

Tracce

Singoli
 Believe

Pubblicato: 21 agosto 2003

Posizione nella classifica Oricon:24

 Akane / HATE / Over

Pubblicato: 21 novembre 2003

Posizione nella classifica Oricon:25

Collegamenti esterni

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Ádám Horváth
Learn Hungarian – Part 3: Essential Hungarian verbs and adjectives
Verbs and adjectives are critical parts of any language. Usually, they make sense to a sentence alongside with nouns, adverbs or numerals....
Leonardo exhibition in Budapest!
The interactive exhibition "Leonardo da Vinci: Artist - Inventor - Genius" arrived in Budapest on the 500th anniversary of his death....
Is Budapest really safe? Let's take a look at crime rates
The number of crimes registered in the capital declined by about ten per cent in 2018 compared to the figures of the previous year, according...
Porn, the tax-free business in Hungary
The Hungarian government unobtrusively abolished the so-called cultural tax, which also affects pornographic content on the internet....
Budapest restaurants receive two new Michelin stars!
Michelin Guide's inspectors voted a star for two Hungarian restaurants Stand and Babel. Meanwhile, all of the previously acknowledged Budapest...
Isaszeg victory 170 years ago – The town replays the battle to commemorate
Today, it is the 170th anniversary of the great Hungarian victory of Isaszeg against the Habsburg Empire (on the...
Deep Purple returns to Budapest!
Only a short time after Iggy Pop announced their summer concert, Deep Purple also announced the date that they are giving a performance in...
Shooting on Grand Boulevard, Budapest! – Video!
The weapon was a gas-alarm gun, two men were put under arrest on the evening of 27 February 2019 near Oktogon. Around 7.30 pm last...
Who has translated the very first Hungarian Bible?
The first Hungarian Bible translation, the so-called Hussite Bible, is the only surviving Hungarian memory of the Hussite movement, translated...
First vegan pub in Budapest opened!
Budapest has now become a city, where you do not have to search too much for vegan shops and restaurants. We can find vegan hamburger bars,...
Rent prices have gone up in Hungary yet again
Fidesz urges further talks concerning Gyöngyöspata segregation victims
In county seats, rent prices have increased by 11 per cent, while in Budapest the…
Kata Fónai
Negotiations between the government and the families of Roma children formerly…


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You are here: Home / Articles / The Truth Behind the Death of General Gott
The Truth Behind the Death of General Gott
24th July 2006 /8 Comments/in Articles /by James Holland
August 7, 1942, around a quarter to three in the afternoon. Sergeant Pilot Jimmy James was pacing up and down anxiously on the rough landing strip at Burg el Arab, some thirty-five miles west of Alexandria. The tented headquarters of the British Eighth Army and the RAF's Desert Air Force, Burg el Arab was well within range of marauding enemy aircraft, and so normally whenever Jimmy landed his lumbering Bristol Bombay transport plane, he kept the engines running and flew off again as quickly as possible. Five minutes was all it usually took to unload the mail bags and supplies and load up any return post and wounded troops. Straight in and straight out again – that was the safest way.
But nothing about the day was proving normal. Missions were usually flown early in the morning, before the heat of the day played havoc with the turbulence, but Jimmy had not been allowed to leave until two in the afternoon, and inevitably, the Bombay had lurched all over the place. And now he had been given direct orders to switch off the engines and wait for an 'important' passenger.
Jimmy strode back to the Ops Tent, and had just learned that his passenger was to be none other than General 'Strafer' Gott, when at last, two staff cars drew up. Jimmy immediately spotted the General – he was tall, smart and very alert and had remarkable presence. As he strode over, Jimmy suddenly felt conspicuously scruffy.
"Are you the captain? the General asked.
"Yes sir, Jimmy replied. "I'm terribly sorry, sir, I don't have a hat. I can't salute you.
"My boy, don't worry about that, Gott smiled. "Are you ready to go?
"Yes, sir, we're starting the engines up now. And just as he said that, Jimmy heard the engines catch and whirr into life.
With relief surging over him, he showed the General to his seat, apologising for the squash and lack of comfort. Again, Gott reassured him. "Don't worry about me, I'll sit anywhere, he said. Jimmy was greatly impressed.
'Strafer' Gott, as he was known, was one of the most popular British generals of the North African campaign, and one of the few commanders whose reputation remained intact during the defeat and retreat of May and June 1942. After the sacking of General Auchinleck, Gott had just been appointed the new commander of Eighth Army. It was to be his job to defeat Rommel when battle was inevitably rejoined at El Alamein.
Jimmy had never flown such an important person before, and by now extremely anxious about the time they'd spent on the ground, and the even greater responsibility now resting on his young shoulders, he hastily opened up the throttles and took off as quickly as he could, warning his Canadian Second Pilot to keep a sharp watch on the engines. 'The engines were so hot they were in the danger zone,' Jimmy explains. 'I was desperately hoping to get out of the battle zone where it would be safe to climb and find some cooler air.'
Jimmy was still only nineteen. From a coal-mining village in South Wales, he had joined the RAF aged seventeen in 1940 after lying about his age. 'I was so naïve,' he admits. 'The world's most naïve little boy.' Nonetheless, he passed his wings with an 'above average' score, and was almost immediately posted to the Middle East, where, in February 1942, he joined 216 Squadron. Although a transport squadron, the flying was challenging, and often both dangerous and exciting. The Bombay was 'the mother duck of the Middle East' but appreciated by the troops, because they ferried to the front any number of much-needed supplies, such as fuel and ammunition, and, most important of all, the mail bags. Moreover, by June 1942, when he became captain of his own aircraft, Eighth Army was in retreat, and 216 Squadron could not have been busier.
Despite the danger, Jimmy was enjoying himself. He relished the gypsy life, constantly on the move and feeling like a buccaneer of old, and valued the intense camaraderie and fellowship within the squadron. It was, he says, 'the most wonderful schoolboy dream come true.'
But on that baking hot afternoon in early August 1942, events were soon about to take a catastrophic turn. Jimmy was still flying at just fifty feet off the ground when suddenly there was a loud bang and a whip-lashing noise, and the starboard engine stopped dead.
"You fool! Jimmy shouted at his Number Two.
"But look! the second pilot shouted back.
Jimmy did so and to his horror saw cannon and machinegun tracers whooshing past him and into and all over the plane. The starboard engine was now on fire, smoke billowing from it as it came to a dead stop. Jimmy felt utterly cornered. 'I've never felt tension like it,' he says. 'I thought, what are you doing? You're in charge!' He then experienced a very strange sensation. He felt a yellow streak go from the back of his head, and run all the way down his body. 'It was a greenish-yellow. The most peculiar feeling. That is the best way I can describe it.' Frantically searching for somewhere to land, and praying to God, he felt momentarily paralysed. All sound had gone. 'At that moment,' says Jimmy, 'I changed from being a small, naïve, little schoolboy on his adventures, into an aggressive man.'
A sense of resolve suddenly gripped him. Shouting at the Second Pilot to duck down and get the Medical Orderly from the back, he then saw the other engine stop dead. Although the cockpit was now rapidly filling with smoke, Jimmy used what remaining speed there was to climb to about a 120 feet. Two Messerschmitt 109s hurtled past his wing, then another roared through the smoke, and two more opened fire. On this second pass, the enemy punctured his main fuel tanks in the high wing. Fuel began pouring into the stricken aircraft between the cockpit and the passenger area. As he looked back momentarily he could see that his Wireless Operator had had his arm badly shot up. His Second Pilot had also been wounded but managed to bring back the Medical Orderly, jumping through the flames that were burning between the cockpit and the main body of the plane.
"Get all the wounded off the stretcher hooks and lie them on the floor, Jimmy ordered. At this time no-one in the back was injured.
By now, Jimmy was merely gliding the plane. Ahead the desert sloped slightly downwards in a long and very gradual descent, and by a fine piece of flying, he managed to glide the heavy old Bombay down gradually so that they touched down quite gently. But although the front two wheels were now on the ground, he couldn't get the tail to lower as he was landing in a crosswind. 'It just wouldn't drop and so I dared not use my brakes without risking a turnover.' There were other problems: the desert was strewn with rocks, which he tried to swerve around by kicking his rudders one way and then the other; and in between the sand was very soft. If the wheels had dug themselves in at any point, the Bombay would have been beyond control and crashed. Concentrating as hard as he possibly could, he had to manhandle the control column and rudders as the Bombay continued to rumble forwards. 'It was like driving a ten-ton truck over sand,' says Jimmy.
Eventually, however, the tail came down, but when Jimmy then finally applied the brakes he discovered they no longer worked, so still the Bombay sped forwards down the long desert incline. Only when they had slowed to about forty miles per hour did he tell his Second Pilot to warn the passengers to stand by to evacuate. 'Get the door off and make sure it's right off its hinge,' he told him, 'and then when I give the word, drop them out onto the sand.'
By now, the flames had spread into the cockpit. Jimmy was in a bad way: his face, but particularly his hands, were badly burned. Smoke choked his lungs. And at that moment, he saw through the windscreen his attackers circling low down in the distance. 'The bastards,' he thought with horror, 'they're going to come back!' This was unusual. The Bombay was clearly never going to fly again and normally the 109s would have disappeared as quickly as possible in case there were any British fighters about. "Stand by! he yelled at his Second Pilot and Medical Orderly, who had come back through the flames and smoke for more instructions. "Open the hatch on the cockpit floor, Jimmy told him, conscious that his Wireless Operator would not be able to get to the back of the plane with only one arm. The Medical Orderly did so, then the Second Pilot confirmed that everyone in the back was ready.
'And I looked back,' says Jimmy, 'and through the smoke I could see some of them and they were giving me a thumbs-up.' Hitting some softer sand, the Bombay slowed down to about 20mph. "Now! shouted Jimmy, and suddenly he was alone in the cockpit.
Desperately hoping he'd done everything he could, he slid sideways off his seat to go back and help the evacuation, and as he did so, the 109s unleashed their second attack. Bullets and cannon shells tore through the cockpit and blew up the instrumental panel; had they come just a second earlier, Jimmy would have been torn to shreds. 'There were bits of shrapnel whistling and crashing all over the place,' says Jimmy, 'the smoke and noise was dreadful.' Glancing at his feet, he noticed the heels of his desert boots were on fire. In front of him, the Perspex of the canopy was melting. Somehow, however, he pulled himself together and tried to get to the back to check that everyone was safely off the aircraft before finally making his own leap for his life. As the 109s made another pass, their guns broke up the Bombay's fuel tanks completely. A surge of flame blew Jimmy back into the cockpit and although he tried twice more to get through, the flames were now too thick.
The plane had finally come to a halt, so Jimmy lowered himself through the cockpit hatch. Instead of falling six feet, however, the drop was little more than a foot – on the last pass, the Bombay's landing gear had finally buckled. Crawling blindly underneath the aircraft amidst the thick smoke, Jimmy passed one of the blazing main tires and realised that the moment it burst he would be crushed to death. Scrambling out, he emerged through the smoke into brilliant, blinding sunshine. As he stumbled clear, there was a loud bang and a grinding crash as the Bombay collapsed completely.
Staggering around the wing to the rear of the plane, he expected to see twenty-one people waiting there. Instead there were just four. Utterly stunned, he could scarcely believe it. "What the hell have you done with all the passengers? Where are they? Where are they? he asked incredulously.
"In there, they told him, pointing to the plane. Jimmy looked. The entire aircraft was now a ball of fire, and changing shape with the heat; melting before his eyes. It had been the job of the two ground crew, who always came on every desert flight, to take the door off its hinges. Unknown to Jimmy, one of these experienced men had been taken off at the last minute and replaced at base just before take off by a new boy. 'Had we gone at 11am, as we were supposed to,' says Jimmy, 'we would have had two very experienced ground crew on that flight.' But it was not to be. Instead of taking the door off as Jimmy had ordered, it had merely been latched backwards and during the long, wild, landing run, the latch had broken and the door jammed shut. It was only a matter of a few minutes before the second attack started, and the passengers at the back, with General Gott nearest the door, were trapped and unable to get out. The only survivors had been those who had escaped out of the front floor hatch: the badly wounded Wireless Operator, the Second Pilot, a very sick and disorientated soldier, and the Medical Orderly.
Jimmy tried to approach the jammed doors of the burning aircraft several times but on each attempt was blown back by the billowing flames and heat. Eventually, the Medical Orderly grabbed him and held him back. Aghast, Jimmy looked at the survivors. 'Most were in a state near to death,' he says, and although there was nothing but open desert in all directions, he instinctively decided to go for help. He told the Medical Orderly to do his best for the others, and placed him in charge with orders not to move under any circumstances. Then having taken some swigs of water, he left the rest of water bottles behind for the others, and set off to the north-west in an effort to try and get help.
In a numbed state of shock, Jimmy had not really considered how badly wounded he was. His shoes and socks were burned, his shorts frayed and his shirt in shreds. And although he had not realised at the time, he had also been shot in the back. Alternating between walking and jogging, he covered at least three miles until he looked down and saw that one of his boots was full of blood. Although he felt no pain, he stumbled as he clambered over a sandhill and fainted.
Help was at hand, however. A nearby Bedouin strapped him to a camel and eventually they ran into an army truck that was being tested by the Royal Army Service Corps. The RASC men took Jimmy to their camp but having told them that Gott had been killed, he insisted on leading them back to the burning plane before being taken to hospital. "I promised my crew I'd be back, he told the major in charge, "and only I know the way.
"Don't be a damn fool, said the major, but Jimmy was adamant. 'I had a sense of duty to the others that was entirely instinctive,' he explains. 'I don't know where it came from, but I did feel it – very strongly.' Not until they spotted the column of smoke rising into the sky dead ahead did Jimmy finally pass out.
He was in hospital for four long months, and for a time was close to death. But he was young and strong and made it through the ordeal. During this time, he was told he'd been awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal, the second highest award in the RAF to be given for valour – after the Victoria Cross. He then returned to the squadron, taking part in a number of campaigns throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East, eventually receiving a commission and staying with them until the very end of the war. In fact, Jimmy was one of the few pilots chosen for a permanent commission after the war, and went on to command his own jet squadron.
He's had a full and varied life, yet has always been dogged by the events of that August day in 1942. Gott's replacement was none other than General Montgomery – and as it happened, working alongside General Alexander, Monty did achieve the emphatic battlefield victory Britain so craved.
Yet in the aftermath of Gott's death, an immediate news clampdown was put in place, and in doing so, the facts were never widely revealed. 'I kept getting fed up hearing I was dead from various people,' says Jimmy. Historians would make the same mistake. He lost count of the different versions of what was supposed to have happened, none of which were ever close to the real truth. He made several efforts to persuade the RAF Air Historical Branch that they had got it all wrong, but to no avail.
Then incredibly, sixty years later, Jimmy finally found the witness he had needed for so long. In a book about wartime fighter tactics, Herr Emil Clade recounted shooting down the Bombay exactly as Jimmy had remembered. 'I was flabberghasted,' he admits, 'because many years before I'd been told that none of the pilots that had been in that particular unit at that time had survived the war.'
Two years later, he eventually tracked down Herr Clade, and in March 2005 they met at Bonn airport in Germany,
sixty-two-and-a-half years after the events of that fateful August afternoon. Herr Clade greeted Jimmy with the emotion normally reserved for an old friend. Although over ninety, he remembered well what had happened that day – and his memories coincided almost exactly with Jimmy's.
Herr Clade then told him something else. After they had landed, they had been greeted by a senior officer – a 'kommandant' – who said, 'Congratulations, gentlemen! You have just killed General 'Strafer' Gott, the new Commander of Eighth Army!'
Jimmy reckoned that must have been at about five o'clock at the very latest. Neither he nor anyone else in the Bombay had sent a radio signal about the catastrophe, and at that time he had still been stumbling across the desert. In other words, the Germans had known Gott was dead before the British. The Germans must have found out that the Army Commander was going to be on board. Somehow the news had been intercepted. Gott had been assassinated.
"How many were killed? Herr Clade asked. "Five?
No, Jimmy told him. Eighteen. And all had died because of the second strafing attack. 'When I told him that,' says Jimmy, 'he burst into tears and could not be consolled.'
Despite this, Jimmy assured him he bore him no grudge and they embraced as friends. Herr Clade's family had arranged for them to then fly together, so up they went, over Germany, two former enemies now taking to the skies side by side. 'He was a good man,' says Jimmy, 'and he had done his duty and done it well.' Their meeting was, Jimmy admits, 'a staggeringly emotional experience.' But at last he feels he has learnt the truth about what happened that day – a day that changed his life forever, and possibly even the course of the war.
https://www.griffonmerlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo-griffon-merlin.png 0 0 James Holland https://www.griffonmerlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/logo-griffon-merlin.png James Holland2006-07-24 22:34:582006-08-22 16:44:25The Truth Behind the Death of General Gott
David H. Lippman says:
22nd October 2006 at 1:24 am
One of the supreme ironies of Monty taking over 8th Army was that he was supposed to command the British 1st Army in Tunisia. I've often wondered what would have happened if Gott had been the boss at Alamein and Monty in Tunisia…with Patton as his subordinate.
Andy Gott says:
4th March 2007 at 3:48 pm
I often wondered about the story my Grandma told me as a young boy in the eighties. She remembers parts of the above tale, mostly the basics and the fact he was a Gott. The story sheds some light and makes sense now. I didn't realise him position and the importance of the mission. Great website, by the way, many thanks from a distant relative.
jockenglish says:
23rd September 2008 at 10:33 pm
In July , 1942, my father, Flying Officer Joseph A. English a Canadian pilot was attached to the 216 Squadron which was stationed in North Africa. On July 24th, he was 2nd pilot with F/O Penfold in a Bristol Bombay aircraft and flew a short delivery run to Burg el Arab ( LG90 ). They completed the run and on takeoff to return to base at an altitude of about 200 ft, they had just completed a right turn when they met an ME109F head on. They found themselves in the middle of a funnel of tracer fire. One engine stopped so the other engine was shut down and they proceeded to make an emergency landing straight ahead. As soon as the Bombay slowed sufficiently, they opened the floor escape hatch, dropped out and dispersed as quickly as possible. The Australian wireless operator and English ran in the same direction, looking for any depression in the ground that might offer some protection from 3 more strafing runs made by the ME109. None of the crew were hit and the Bombay blazed sending a large plume of black smoke aloft. After the ME109 left, the crew noticed a cloud of dust in the distance heading in their direction. It turned out to be General "Strafer" Gott in his staff car. He had noticed the action and hade filmed the entire incident with his movie camera. Gen Gott took down my father's address and promised to send a copy of the film to my father. The film never arrived and some time later, my father learned that General Gott had been shot down in a Bombay on August 7th while departing Burg el Arab to return to Cairo.
jimmy cooper says:
Some years ago around 1996 I was involved in the research of a tv programme with a french producer. In the research I was privilidged to meet a Mr Robert Leach who had published a book Massacre at El Alamein. Robert was a very nice gentlemen I only meet him once during the remembrance at Whitehall. It was the first time he had attended as he was very anti war and explained how difficult it was for him to get over the war. A truely brave and decent man. He had alot to say about General Gott and what might have or did happen – Leach was an Intelligence Officer . I was astounded when my friend also tracked down Jimmy James and interviewed him . Leach said the Germans were beaten before the Battle of El Alamien and El Alamein was a show. The film maker Roy Boulting made the film Battle of El Alamein months before it happend -the only known real footage being the Artillery Barrage and an interesting story in how they rushed it back to the uk to finish to the film and put it in the cinemas. Nothing is black and white – 13,000 men perished in the minefields of the desert. Surely Gott a real desert expert and Gentleman officer would not have allowed that!
patlawless1 says:
8th March 2009 at 9:49 am
Very interested to read this account. My uncle, F/O James Lawless, from Kingston, Ontario, Canada, was the 2nd pilot mentioned in the account. I first heard about this incident from my father, and he showed me the entry in my uncles log book relating to it. Unfortunately that was many years ago, and I can't remember the details, although it did mention being strafed on the ground by 109's and the number of fatalities. My uncle was later shot down and killed over Leewarden in the Netherlands in a Mosquito bomber on a day ranger sortie. Pat Lawless Brantford, Ontario
Dave Allen says:
My late father in law Thomas Meadows was in the 8th Army and he told me that in 1942 he went into the crashed (what he described as a Wellington bomber) that General Gott was killed in, located between Cairo and Tobruk in the desert.
People were taking memento's from the plane.
Many years later he gave me a small precision brass component which bears a serial number which is a small gear mechanism which he took from that plane at that time.
He said it was from the front of the aircraft and it was part of the bomb aiming mechanism.
I know the plane is described on this site as a Bombay aircraft but i am certain as he was that this part came of General Gotts aircraft.
I still have the part in my garage. If anyone would like a photo of it then let me know.
Dave Allen.
Shevington
Wigan.
James Holland says:
2nd April 2009 at 6:17 pm
That's fascinating – I shall tell Jimmy James.
Dave Atkinson says:
9th May 2009 at 8:17 pm
With regard to the story of the flight of the Bombay aircraft and the subsequent crash of same. In the comment about the survivors, mentioned there is one of the survivors being "a very sick and disorientated soldier". This soldier was my father Leonard Atkinson, driver in the RASC. He was being transported to Cairo after having being badly wounded around the El Alamein area. he was taken to the hospital at Kantara from the crash, but died of his wounds on 18th October 1942. He was initially buried in Kantara West New war cemetery, but later moved and reburied In Moascar war cemetery. Myself and family have recently visited his grave. The Moascar cemetery is beautifully kept by the War Grave Commission and our visit after sixty six years was a very moving experience.
The Mysterious Death of a Battle of Britain Spitfire Pilot Should Italy Still Put Former SS Soldiers on Trial for War Crimes?


text:
Frank John Fenner (Ballarat, 21 december 1914 - Victoria, 22 november 2010) was een Australische viroloog. Zijn grootste verdiensten waren zijn bijdrage aan  de uitroeiing van het pokkenvirus en de bestrijding van de konijnenplaag in zijn thuisland met het myxomavirus.

Werk
Toen Australië met een konijnenplaag kampte in de jaren 40 en 50 van de 20e eeuw opperde Fenner het myxomavirus in te zetten, waar hij onderzoek naar gedaan had. Ongeveer 99,5% van de konijnen bezweken er binnen negen tot elf dagen aan. Een kleine minderheid ontwikkelde een immuniteit en overleefde. Om te bewijzen dat het virus onschadelijk was voor mensen, injecteerden Fenner, Frank Macfarlane Burnet en Ian Clunies Ross het bij zichzelf.

In 1980 maakte Fenner als voorzitter van de Global Commission for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication de uitschakeling van het pokkenvirus bekend.

In 2010 verklaarde Fenner dat volgens hem het menselijk ras bezig is met een onomkeerbaar proces richting het uitsterven van de soort, mogelijk binnen honderd jaar. Dit komt volgens hem doordat de bevolking te veel groeit en een steeds grotere en oncontroleerbare consumptiedrang heeft, waardoor de aarde aan haar eigen gewicht zal bezwijken. De eerste gevolgen daarvan zijn al zichtbaar.

Academisch
Fenner bezocht de Thebarton Technical High School. Hij behaalde vervolgens bachelors ('undergraduates') in wetenschap en geneeskunde aan de University of Adelaide.

In 1949 werd hij hoogleraar microbiologie aan de Australian National University.

Onderscheidingen
Fenner werd onderscheiden met onder meer de Japanprijs (1988), de Copley Medal (1995) en de WHO Medal.

Persoonlijk
Fenner was een atheïst.

Australisch viroloog
Australisch hoogleraar
Australisch atheïst


text:
\section{Introduction}
\label{sec:introduction}

The turn-on of the Large Hadron Collider ushers in a data-driven era
of particle physics.  Major theoretical frameworks, such as
supersymmetry (SUSY) and universal extra dimensions (UED), will be
tested using present and upcoming collider data.  In many such models,
the lightest new physics particle is protected from decaying into
Standard Model particles because of a discrete  symmetry, e.g.
$R$-parity or Kaluza-Klein parity for SUSY and UED, respectively.  The
resulting lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) or lightest KK-odd
particle (LKP), if neutral, is usually a viable dark matter candidate.

Measuring the properties of this dark matter candidate is critical for
determining its cosmological behavior and its ultimate suitability as
the dark matter.  Because of the discrete symmetry, these particles
must be produced in pairs at colliders, but since they escape, they
manifest themselves in a collider event as large amounts of missing
transverse momentum.  Since only the total missing transverse momentum
can be measured, the kinematics of these events cannot be fully
reconstructed, and as a result, the dark matter candidate mass cannot
in general be measured in any given event.  It is therefore important
to have methods of measuring this mass, which also serves to set the
overall scale of new physics.

A large number of kinematic analysis techniques have been proposed in
the literature to extract the mass of the dark matter candidate.
Broadly speaking, these can be divided into three categories.  The
first is based on edge measurements of invariant mass distributions,
using the fact that the algebraic expressions for such endpoints are
related to the on-shell masses of the cascade decay
chain~\cite{Baer:1995nq, Hinchliffe:1996iu, Baer:1998sz,
  Hinchliffe:1998ys, Bachacou:1999zb, Hinchliffe:1999zc,
  Allanach:2000kt,Hisano:2002xq, Hisano:2003qu}.  The second class of
analysis methods is known as the polynomial method, which solves the
non-linear kinematic four-momentum conservation equations and thus
determines the masses of the entire decay chain~\cite{Nojiri:2003tu,
  Kawagoe:2004rz, Cheng:2007xv, Cheng:2008mg, Cheng:2009fw}.  The last
broad category of approaches uses new kinematic observables and
functions such as $m_{T2}$, $m_{CT}$, and
$m_{CT2}$~\cite{Lester:1999tx, Barr:2003rg, Lester:2007fq, Cho:2007qv,
  Gripaios:2007is, Barr:2007hy, Cho:2007dh, Nojiri:2008hy,
  Tovey:2008ui, Nojiri:2008vq, Cheng:2008hk, Burns:2008va, Barr:2009jv,
  Cho:2009ve, Kim:2009nq, Barr:2010zj, Blanke:2010cm, Cho:2010vz}.

While these methods work well under idealized conditions, in practice
there can be serious obstacles to implementing them successfully.
Perhaps the most important problem, common to all these approaches, is
the presence of combinatoric backgrounds which occur because the new
particles must be produced in pairs.  For example, consider the
process where two gluinos are produced and decay through a squark to a
neutralino: $\tilde{g} \tilde{g} \rightarrow qqqq \tilde{\chi}_1^0
\tilde{\chi}_1^0$.  We will observe four jets, but we do not know
which were emitted first nor from which gluino each was emitted.
There is thus an ambiguity in reconstructing the event from the
visible particles; we will refer to this as a combinatorial ambiguity.
In general, with pair-produced parents that decay via identical long
cascades, combinatorial ambiguities present a major hurdle in
distinguishing the appropriate assignment of particles to each chain
as well as the unique ordering of these particles, as discussed in a
recent review on mass reconstruction techniques~\cite{Barr:2010zj}.
Wrong assignments can lead to significant suppression of mass peaks
and cause large tails in distributions~\cite{Cheng:2009fw}.  We also
note that understanding these ambiguities is crucial in extracting the
nature of the new physics.

We emphasize that these kinematic reconstruction methods are not
affected equally by wrong combinations.  In fact, the most general
transverse variable based on $m_{T2}$, known as
$m_{TGen}$~\cite{Lester:2007fq}, does not suffer from combinatorial
ambiguities since it explicitly includes a minimization over all
possible decay chain assignments of the observed object momenta.  For
regular $m_{T2}$ studies, the assignment ambiguity, {\textit{i.e.}}
assigning particles to separate decay chains, is relevant, while the
ordering ambiguity, {\textit{i.e.}} the sequence of the particles on
the decay chain, is not important: by construction, the transverse
mass of each decay chain is irrespective of decay chain placement, but
is clearly dependent on decay chain assignments.  The subsystem
$m_{T2}$ reconstruction method~\cite{Nojiri:2008vq, Burns:2008va},
however, is adversely affected by both the assignment ambiguity and
the ordering ambiguity.  Similarly, wrong assignment combinations and
wrong ordering choices degrade the effectiveness of the polynomial
method~\cite{Nojiri:2003tu, Cheng:2008mg, Cheng:2009fw} and can also
worsen results from the kinematic edges approach if the invariant mass
distributions do not encapsulate entire decay chains.

In this paper, we will focus on resolving the combinatorial ambiguity
arising from decay chain assignments, leaving the question of
resolving ordering ambiguities for the future.  Thus, our results
should improve the effectiveness of all of the aforementioned
kinematic reconstruction methods except $m_{TGen}$, which, as noted
above, does not suffer from assignment ambiguities.  Henceforth,
``combinatorial ambiguity'' will refer solely to the decay chain
assignment ambiguity discussed above.

In previous kinematic reconstruction studies, past authors have
designed a variety of methods to address combinatorial ambiguities.
For example, in~\cite{Cheng:2008mg, Cheng:2009fw}, they apply the
polynomial method to pairs of events, and they address combinatorial
ambiguities by favoring, for a given event, the assignment that
maximizes the number of event pairings that give algebraic solutions.
In this way, they hoped to discard wrong combinations of a given event
that would give unphysical solutions when paired with correct
combinations of other events.  In~\cite{Blanke:2010cm}, which used
$m_{T2}$-- and sub-system $m_{T2}$--based methods, they chose the
combinations of jet pairs with smaller invariant masses and smaller
angular separation as well as discarding the largest sub-system
$m_{T2}$ values, arguing that correct jet pairings should be
directionally focused, and high invariant mass jet pairings are more
likely incorrect.  While these representative approaches at reducing
wrong combinations work on an individual analysis basis, we note that
these methods are not interchangeable.  Even though the combinatorial
ambiguity for kinematic reconstruction studies is in general a common
difficulty, many of the specific approaches to resolve such
combinatorial ambiguities used in the literature cannot be generalized
when using more than one kinematic reconstruction technique.

One exception is the hemisphere method, used in~\cite{Cho:2007dh,
  Nojiri:2008hy, Nojiri:2008vq, Kim:2009nq} (we will describe this
method in detail below in~\secref{hemisphere}).  If the parent
particles of each decay chain are strongly boosted, their decay
products will be collimated along the initial momenta. By considering
events with suitably large transverse momenta, one may hope to avoid
combinatorial ambiguities (cf. Sec.~13.4 of~\cite{Ball:2007zza}).
However, this can lead to significant loss in signal statistics.  On
the other hand, the hemisphere method of reducing combinatorial
ambiguities allows for the simultaneous application of multiple
kinematic reconstruction methods, without a specialized approach.

In this paper, we present a new method for resolving such
combinatorial ambiguities in decay chains. Our method is described
in~\secref{ptvm}.  We show that our method can yield highly accurate
assignments of particles to decay chains which have little
contamination from wrong combinations.  We contrast our method with a
parallel study of the efficacy of the more familiar hemisphere method.
Our results show that for cascade decay chains with on-shell mass
resonances, our method improves signal retention up to a factor of 2
over the usual hemisphere method.

We begin by presenting two toy models, which we shall use to compare
the two methods.  In~\secref{models}, we present the model masses and
aspects of the simulation.  In~\secref{hemisphere}, we review the
hemisphere method and give our hemisphere method implementation
details.  We then discuss our new method (which we shall call the
$p_T$ v. $M$ method) in~\secref{ptvm} and describe the specifics of
our procedure in~\secref{ptvmprocedure}.  We compare the two methods
in~\secref{comparison} and conclude in~\secref{conclusion}.

\section{Models}
\label{sec:models}

In this section, we present the toy models used in our analysis.  The
masses of the two models considered are summarized
in~\tableref{model}.  Roughly, Model A mimics a SPS1a-style mass
spectrum, while Model B represents an off-shell squark scenario.

Our aim is to isolate the combinatorial ambiguities arising from pure
signal events when the final state particles are indistinguishable
inside the detector.  We focus solely on gluino pair production with
each gluino decaying to the lightest neutralino and two quarks:
$\tilde{g} \tilde{g} \rightarrow qqqq \tilde{\chi}_1^0
\tilde{\chi}_1^0$.  The intermediate squark is on-shell (Model A) or
off-shell (Model B).  All quarks are treated at parton level, and
effects from initial state radiation or parton showering are not
considered.  These events have three distinct pair-pair combinations.
Isolating which particles arise from the same decay chain is a first
step in any kinematic event analysis.  Since we are tackling the
combinatorial ambiguity that arises even when dealing with only signal
events, we shall not complicate our analysis by adding background
events or multiple production or decay modes.

\begin{table}[tbp]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{|l||c|c|c|c|}
\hline
Model Name       & $\tilde{g}$ (GeV) & $\tilde{q}$ (GeV)
& $\tilde{\chi}_1^0$ (GeV)
& Diquark Invariant Mass edge (GeV) \\
\hline
Model A     &  600 &  400 & 100 & 433 \\
\hline
Model B     &  600 &  800 & 100 & 500 \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\caption{\label{table:model} Model spectra. }
\end{table}

It is well known that cascade decays impose restrictions on the
kinematics of the outgoing decay products.  For our gluino cascade
decay, the diquark invariant mass edge for on-shell intermediate
squarks is
\begin{equation}
\left. m_{qq} \right|_{\text{edge}} = \sqrt{ \frac{ (m_{\tilde{g}}^2 -
    m_{\tilde{q}}^2) (m_{\tilde{q}}^2 - m_{\tilde{\chi}_1^0}^2) }{
    m_{\tilde{q}}^2 }} \ ,
\label{eqn:onshelledge}
\end{equation}
assuming the quarks are massless, and where $m_{\tilde{g}}$,
$m_{\tilde{q}}$, and $m_{\tilde{\chi}}$ are the mass of the gluino,
squark, and neutralino, respectively.  For the off-shell squark case,
the edge value is simply
\begin{equation}
\left. m_{qq} \right|_{\text{edge}} = m_{\tilde{g}} - m_{\tilde{\chi}_1^0} \ .
\label{eqn:offshelledge}
\end{equation}

Of necessity, a correct assignment of the jets to the two sides of the
event will have the invariant mass of the jet-jet pair below the
kinematic edge.  Naturally, an incorrect pair assignment can produce
an invariant mass beyond the relevant kinematic edge, since the two
quarks are uncorrelated. Also, note that the diquark invariant mass
distribution through an on-shell squark possesses a characteristic
triangular shape, with its rising edge saturating the upper endpoint.
On the other hand, the off-shell squark case has the upper invariant
mass edge characteristically falling near the endpoint. Thus, the
kinematic edge is easier to identify in on-shell scenarios, and in
either case, rejection of pair assignments with invariant masses
beyond the edge serves to reduce combinatorial ambiguities.

Having defined our models, we now try and resolve combinatorial
ambiguities in these models. We used MadGraph/MadEvent
4.4.26~\cite{Alwall:2007st} to generate 100,000 events of
pair-produced gluinos at masses of 600 GeV with a 7 TeV and 14 TeV LHC
without initial state radiation.  Using BRIDGE
2.18~\cite{Meade:2007js}, we force these gluinos to decay to the
lightest neutralino through an on-shell or off-shell squark.  We do
not simulate any direct squark pair production or squark-gluino
associated production.

\section{The hemisphere method}
\label{sec:hemisphere}

The hemisphere method attempts to delineate two hemispheres in an
event, whereby all objects in a given hemisphere are ideally from the
same decay chain.  The rationale for this method is the assumption
that hard scattered parent particles are approximately back-to-back in
the lab frame.  This is not quite correct in hadron colliders because
the longitudinal parton momenta of the initial state cannot be tuned.
The hope is, however, that the  parent particles give a
large boost to their separate decay chains, and so a given cone or
hemisphere for each parent particle will generally capture all of
their daughter particles.

In practice, the hemisphere method is implemented as a two-step
process.  First, one chooses two seeds that will serve as the
starting object for each side of the event.  Second, one clusters the
remaining objects according to some figure of merit with one seed or
the other.  This figure of merit is typically taken to be $p dR$,
where $p \equiv |\Delta (\vec{p})|$ is the magnitude of the
three-momentum difference between the object and a given seed and $dR
\equiv \sqrt{ (\Delta \phi)^2 + (\Delta \eta)^2}$ is roughly the
angular separation: the object is clustered with whichever seed
minimizes $p dR$.

One also needs some method for choosing the seeds.  In our analysis,
we adopt the traditional method of choosing the highest $p_T$ object
to be the first seed.  For the second seed, following the treatment in
Sec.~13.4 of~\cite{Ball:2007zza}, we choose either (\textbf{PDR1}) the
object that maximizes $p dR$ relative to the first seed or
(\textbf{PDR2}) the object that maximizes the invariant mass of the
pair.  With these two seeds, we then calculate the $p dR$ value of the
object with respect to each seed, and we cluster the object to be with
seed 1 or seed 2 according to which seed minimizes the produced $p
dR$.

We note that since we have four quarks in each event, we have a
possibility of an assignment where one seed is by itself and three
quarks are assigned to the other side; we will refer to these as
singlet-triplet assignments.  These are all incorrect assignments,
since the proper partition of the event in the particular case we are
considering requires two quarks assigned to each side.  Though these
events do contain useful kinematic information, we choose to discard
them for simplicity.

We implement selection cuts at each stage of seed selection and object
clustering.  These cuts are summarized as follows:
\begin{my_itemize}
\item Cut 1: The $p_T$ of the initial seed quark (the
  highest $p_T$ object in the event) must be at least 200 GeV.
\item PDR1 Cut 2: The minimum $p dR$ between seed 1 and seed 2 must be
  1800 GeV.
\item PDR2 Cut 2: The invariant mass $M$ between seed 1 and seed 2
  must be greater than the theoretically calculated diquark kinematic
  edge value (we assume this can be experimentally measured
  accurately).
\item Cut 3: We discard all singlet-triplet events, ensuring that we
  work with events that have been divided into pair-pair combinations.
\item Cut 4: We impose the restriction that the maximum seed-object
  invariant mass is the theoretical diquark kinematic edge value,
  calculated from~\eqnref{onshelledge} and~\eqnref{offshelledge}.
\end{my_itemize}
The cut efficiency, which is the percentage of all events that survive
cuts, is summarized in~\tableref{cuts} for the above cuts.

\begin{table}[tbp]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{|l||c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|}
\hline
 &           \multicolumn{4}{c|}{\textbf{PDR1}}
           & \multicolumn{4}{c|}{\textbf{PDR2}} \\
\hline
Model Name & Cut 1 & Cuts 1--2 & Cuts 1--3 & Cuts 1--4
           & Cut 1 & Cuts 1--2 & Cuts 1--3 & Cuts 1--4 \\
\hline
Model A - 7 TeV  & 78.8\% & 25.2\% & 12.4\% & 12.2\%
                 & 78.8\% & 51.4\% & 26.1\% & 25.7\% \\
\hline
Model A - 14 TeV & 81.7\% & 35.8\% & 18.5\% & 18.2\%
                 & 81.7\% & 58.1\% & 30.5\% & 30.1\% \\
\hline
Model B - 7 TeV  & 81.8\% & 27.1\% & 13.4\% & 13.3\%
                 & 81.8\% & 38.5\% & 19.6\% & 19.6\% \\
\hline
Model B - 14 TeV & 83.9\% & 37.5\% & 19.2\% & 18.7\%
                 & 83.9\% & 46.1\% & 24.4\% & 24.4\% \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\caption{\label{table:cuts} Efficiencies for PDR1 and PDR2 cuts.}
\end{table}

Finally, one can place a cut on the difference of the two values of $p
dR$ calculated for each object with respect to the two seeds. The
rationale is that if the $p dR$ between an object and seed 1 is much
smaller than the corresponding $p dR$ value with respect to seed 2,
then it is more likely that the object is associated with seed 1.  By
making the minimum required difference of these two $p dR$ values
larger, the probability of an incorrect assignment can be reduced, at
the cost of losing signal events.  We therefore adopt a variable cut
that progressively obtains higher event purity at the expense of
decreasing event efficiency, which will serve as a performance measure
for later comparison.
\begin{my_itemize}
\item We change the minimum difference in $p dR$ in order for an
  object to be assigned to a given seed from 0 to 2000 GeV.
\end{my_itemize}

\section{The $p_T$ v. $M$ method}
\label{sec:ptvm}
Our method is similar in spirit to the hemisphere method, but it is
more flexible, more model-independent, and performs better for
on-shell cascade decay chains.  We have already seen that considering
cuts in invariant mass (i.e. considering events below the diquark edge)
can reject some wrong combinations.  On the other hand, the hemisphere
method takes advantage of large $p_T$ boosts to help separate
hemispheres and reduce ambiguities.  Our goal is to combine these
ideas; simply stated, we look for correlations in high transverse
momentum pairs with low invariant mass.

We begin by considering Model A at a 7 TeV $pp$ collider.  We generate
a large number of events as described above, and plot all diquark
combinations (both correct and incorrect assignments) according to
their summed $p_T$ and invariant mass $M$, in~\figref{modelApTvMallAB}.
\begin{figure}[tbp]
\includegraphics[scale=1.0]{ModelA_7_14_pTvMall_box.eps}
\caption{\label{fig:modelApTvMallAB} (color online). (A) Model A - 7
  TeV; (B) Model A - 14 TeV - Diquark transverse momentum v. invariant
  mass, correct and wrong combinations.  The shading of the point
  reflects the fraction of correct combinations according to the key
  on the right.  The boxes of (A) $p_T > 400$ GeV and $M_{qq} \leq
  433$ GeV and (B) $p_T > 425$ GeV and $M_{qq} \leq 433$ GeV indicate
  regions with (A) 91.9\% event purity and 5.7\% event efficiency; (B)
  95.7\% event purity and 7.2\% event efficiency.}
\end{figure}
Considering the left panel and neglecting the shading for the moment,
we notice two prominent features. The first is the kinematic edge in
the invariant mass, especially visible for high $p_T$; as we move
towards large invariant mass at high $p_T$, the number of combinations
drops off beyond a certain invariant mass. This is just a new way of
seeing that correct diquark assignments must all lie below the
knematic edge, while incorrect assignments can have much larger values
of invariant mass, producing an excess of events at lower invariant
mass.  Correspondingly, the excess of diquark combinations with
invariant mass larger than the edge value must all be wrong
combinations.

We also recognize a second feature; as we increase $p_T$, there is
again an excess in the diquark combinations below the kinematic edge.
This is particularly noticeable if we only look at the events which
have invariant masses larger than the kinematic edge (which are all
incorrect combinations). These events tail off quickly towards higher
$p_T$, while events below the kinematic edge (a mixture of correct and
incorrect combinations) extend to higher $p_T$.  A natural guess
(based on the success of the hemisphere method) is that the
combinations at large $p_T$ are dominated by correct assignments.
Roughly, we expect correct combinations to carry higher $p_T$ than
wrong combinations because correct combinations share the same
transverse momentum of the parent gluino in the lab frame, while wrong
combinations should generically have canceling parent gluino
transverse momenta.

We have used our knowledge of the parton-level information to
shade~\figref{modelApTvMallAB} according to the percentage of diquark
pairs at each $p_T$ v. $M$ point that are correct.  We see explicitly
that the correct and incorrect combinations occupy distinct regions of
this plot; the correct combinations characteristically have larger
$p_T$ and lower invariant masses.  Moreover, as we increase to a 14
TeV LHC, we expect the population of high $p_T$ correct combinations
to increase, because of the higher boost of the parent particles, as
depicted in the right panel of~\figref{modelApTvMallAB}.  Similar
results are also evident for Model B, as seen
in~\figref{modelBpTvMallAB}.

\begin{figure}[tbp]
\includegraphics[scale=1.0]{ModelB_7_14_pTvMall_box.eps}
\caption{\label{fig:modelBpTvMallAB} (color online). (A) Model B -
    7 TeV; (B) Model B - 14 TeV - Diquark transverse momentum
    v. invariant mass, correct and wrong combinations.  Same shading
  scheme as~\figref{modelApTvMallAB}.  The boxes of (A) $p_T > 450$ GeV
  and $M_{qq} \leq 500$ GeV and (B) $p_T > 475$ GeV and $M_{qq} \leq
  500$ GeV indicate regions with (A) 91.7\% event purity and 3.1\%
  event efficiency; (B) 94.4\% event purity and 4.2\% event
  efficiency.}
\end{figure}

This strongly suggests that a cut on combinations with invariant mass
below the kinematic edge and high $p_T$ can guarantee an event sample
dominated by correct combinations.  We now present a practical method
for performing this cut.

\section{The $p_T$ v. $M$ procedure}
\label{sec:ptvmprocedure}

Given an event with four quarks, we implement our method
according to the following procedure:
\begin{my_enumerate}
\item For each event, plot the $p_T$ and $M$ of each diquark pair (all
  six pairings).
\item Isolate the diquark invariant mass edge $M_0$.  This is usually
  immediately visible as a cutoff at larger invariant masses.
\item Now only consider the pairs with invariant mass larger
  than the kinematic edge.  Choose a $p_T$ threshold value $P_0$ such
  that fewer than 5\% of these pairings have $p_T$ larger than this
  threshold value.  For example, in Model A at a 7 TeV LHC, this
  corresponds to a threshold value of about 400 GeV.
\item For each event, we require that there be a division of the 4
  quarks into two pairs such that the $p_T$ of each pair is larger
  than $P_0$, and the invariant mass of each pair is below $M_0$. If
  there is no such division possible or if more than one division is
  possible, we discard the event. If exactly one division passing the
  requirement is possible, the event is retained and the assignment
  which passes the cut is treated as the proper assignment of the
  quarks to the two sides.
\end{my_enumerate}

We note that neither the $p_T$ cut nor the invariant mass cut we have
chosen have been optimized.  Choosing a higher $P_0$ would generally
ensure a purer event sample with fewer incorrect combinations;
however, a higher $P_0$ also reduces signal statistics. Finding an
optimum balance between event purity and signal statistics will be a
model-dependent, search channel-dependent question.  Moreover, this
procedure is readily extended to more complicated event signatures,
such as multi-jet and multi-lepton events, and can also be used as a
figure of merit to cluster entire sides all at once.

\section{Comparison of Methods}
\label{sec:comparison}
In this section, we present a comparison between the hemisphere method
and our new $p_T$ v. $M$ method.  We will use event purity against
event efficiency as a comparison measure.  We will define event purity
as the percentage of events where the quarks of the event are paired
correctly.  Event efficiency is defined as the percentage of total
events that pass the imposed cuts.

We can benchmark the performance of the hemisphere method and the
$p_T$ v. $M$ method by adjusting cuts.  For the hemisphere method,
increasing the minimum difference in $p dR$ in order for an object to
be assigned to a seed makes it more likely that a given object and
seed are from the same decay chain.  For the $p_T$ v. $M$ method, we
can increase the success of isolating the correct pair-pair
combination by increasing the $p_T$ cut on each pair of a pair-pair
combination.

In~\figref{modelab_evt}, we show the event purities as a function of
event efficiencies for Model A with a 7 TeV and 14 TeV LHC.  For this
on-shell mass spectrum, we can readily see that the $p_T$ v. $M$
method delivers far better event efficiency for a given event purity
than either PDR1 or PDR2.  For 85\% purity, the Model A - 7 TeV event
sample from $p_T$ v. $M$ is approximately twice as large as either
hemisphere method sample.  While the difference in performance is
moderately reduced for a 14 TeV LHC, the superiority in performance is
still impressive.  At 90\% purity, for example, the $p_T$ v. $M$ event
sample is about 33\% more.  From our earlier procedure given
in~\secref{ptvmprocedure}, where the survival rate of wrong diquark
pairings in the region to the right of the invariant mass edge was
about 5\%, we obtain the two marked points of (91.9\%, 5.7\%) for
Model A - 7 TeV and (95.7\%, 7.2\%) for Model A - 14 TeV.

\begin{figure}[tbp]
\includegraphics[scale=1.0]{ModelA_B_7_14_EvtEff.eps}
\caption{\label{fig:modelab_evt} (color online). Models A and B - Event
  purity v. efficiency, as defined in the text.  The marked points of
  (91.9\%, 5.7\%) and (95.7\%, 7.2\%) for Model A and (91.7\%, 3.1\%)
  and (94.4\%, 4.2\%) for Model B correspond to the outlined boxes
  in~\figref{modelApTvMallAB} and~\figref{modelBpTvMallAB}, respectively.}
\end{figure}

For the off-shell scenario, also shown in~\figref{modelab_evt}, the
performance for all three methods is approximately the same at a 7 TeV
LHC.  A 14 TeV LHC, however, shows the PDR2 method performing best,
with a 50\% gain in event efficiency over the $p_T$ v. $M$ method for
85\% event purity.  The difference is greater for higher purities,
becoming approximately 100\% for 95\% purity.  Using the procedure
of~\secref{ptvmprocedure} with a survival rate of about 5\%, we find
the points (91.7\%, 3.1\%) and (94.4\%, 4.2\%) for Model B - 7 TeV and
14 TeV, respectively.  While good purity can be obtained for off-shell
models using the $p_T$ v. $M$ method, the hemisphere method is better.
We can hypothesize that the hemisphere methods work better in the
off-shell case because the directionality of the diquark pairs is
roughly uniform.  Because the hemispheres created using $p dR$ can lie
in an arbitrary orientation with respect to the beam axis, they are
more flexible in capturing the correct diquark pairings than the $p_T$
v. $M$ method, which necessarily requires the two quarks to have lots
of momenta in the plane transverse to the beam axis.  When the
intermediate squark is on-shell, however, the squark typically gives a
large boost to the second emitted quark, which helps result in a high
$p_T$ diquark pair.  From the plots, we thus observe that the
traditional $p dR$ method of assigning particles to decay chains seems
well-suited for off-shell decays, but is significantly outperformed by
our new $p_T$ v. $M$ method for on-shell cascade decays.

\section{Conclusion}
\label{sec:conclusion}

We have compared the performance of the hemisphere method with the
$p_T$ v. $M$ method using the models presented in~\tableref{model}.
We have shown the $p_T$ v. $M$ selection criteria
of~\secref{ptvmprocedure} delivers $\mathcal{O}(25\%)$ to
$\mathcal{O}(100\%)$ more event statistics for a given purity between
$85\%$ to $95\%$ than the traditional $p dR$ methods for an on-shell
decay chain.  This is a substantial increase in the number of viable
signal events and would be a useful method for any study that suffers
from decay chain assignment combinatorial ambiguities.  The hemisphere
method, on the other hand, seems well-suited for off-shell decay
chains.  A realistic collider study should benefit from adopting both
methods in parallel, since it is not generally known beforehand
whether the observed decay products are produced on-shell or
off-shell.  One possibility for improving the off-shell performance of
$p_T$ v. $M$ is to salvage the events with more than one combination
(not ``pure'') by retaining only the pair-pair combination that has
the largest scalar total $p_T$.  This is left for future work.

We remark that although this study was performed using simplified
models without detector effects, ISR/FSR, or background simulation, we
believe the major features of our results are retained when going to
full models.  As an important validation, our hemisphere method
performance results are qualitatively similar to those presented in
Sec.~13.4 of~\cite{Ball:2007zza}, which used a CMS detector
simulation.  At high LHC energies, however, the effects of ISR is
clearly not negligible, especially when the ISR jet gives a large
$p_T$ boost to the entire hard process.  In such scenarios, we would
expect the additional ISR jet to adversely degrade both efficiency and
purity of retained signal events.  We expect the effect to be similar
to both the hemisphere method and the $p_T$ v. $M$ method, though,
since the inclusion of a large $p_T$ ISR jet makes the remaining jets
more isotropic.  We are currently studying possible implementations of
the $p_T$ v. $M$ method to tag events with large $p_T$ ISR jets and
potentially tag ISR jets.

One drawback of our method is the assumed observation of the dijet
invariant mass edge.  While we do not prescribe an exact method to
extract this edge largely because of jet energy scale uncertainties,
our method highlights the fact that wrong combinations (which can
pollute and exceed the edge value) can be removed with moderate dijet
$p_T$ cuts, perhaps allowing a more accurate extrapolation of the edge
value if one understands the expected shape of the resulting invariant
mass distribution.  Moreover, mass measurements initially will focus
on dilepton invariant mass edges, which are relatively straightforward
to observe given the good understanding of lepton kinematics in
detectors.  We envision that once dilepton edges are measured, the
$p_T$ v. $M$ method could be used to isolate any available
dilepton+jet and dilepton+dijet edges; given this information, the
edge in the dijet cross channel could be extracted and further
kinematic studies in multi--jet final states would proceed given the
relatively pure signal samples determined from the $p_T$ v. $M$
method.

A separate issue is that our on-shell Model A spectrum, which was
chosen to mimic the SPS1A benchmark point, gives distinct, highly
energetic jets.  If the jets were less energetic, reflecting a
compressed SUSY spectrum, (for example, $\tilde{g} = 600$ GeV,
$\tilde{q} = 500$ GeV, and $\tilde{\chi}_1^0 = 400$ GeV) we would find
that the $p_T$ v. $M$ method performs approximately as well as the
hemisphere method at a 7 TeV LHC and slightly worse (about 15\%--25\%
less efficient) for a 14 TeV LHC, but the overall efficiency is
increased by a factor of 2 for the $p_T$ v. $M$ method.  For
compressed spectra, we thus see the relative performance of the $p_T$
v. $M$ method matches that presented for the off-shell Model B
spectrum.

We expect the $p_T$ v. $M$ method to be useful for other signatures
besides the one presented in this study, since we are taking advantage
of kinematic features found in all cascade decay chains.  It is
straightforward to consider combinatorial ambiguities arising from
multi--lepton or leptons+jets final states.  Additionally, we could
extend our method to resolve ambiguities when the final state includes
heavy, reconstructed $W$ or $Z$ gauge bosons with minor modifications
to the expected invariant mass spectrum.  One main difficulty with
such a generalization, however, is multiple branching modes occur with
similar kinematics, such as a gluino decay via multiple on-shell
squark modes where the squarks are largely degenerate.  Here, the
signal-only combinatorial ambiguity among light jets is shared among
multiple decay modes, and because the observed kinematics are similar,
it will be difficult to apply kinematic cuts to distinguish distinct
decay chains.  We are currently in the process of applying this method
to analyze new physics models passing through a realistic detector
simulation.  In particular, a study of precision determination of
invariant mass edges including dilepton and dijet edges at the SPS1A
benchmark point is underway and seeks to demonstrate the usefulness of
this method in a collider environment.

A further direction of research is to improve the $p_T$ v. $M$ method,
for example by performing a shape analysis of the correct vs. wrong
combinations in the $p_T$ v. $M$ plane in order to optimize the $p_T$
v. $M$ cut.  It may also be possible to implement the $p_T$ v. $M$
method on an event-by-event basis, for example, by preferentially
choosing pair-pair combinations at the event level according to the
maximum $p_T / M$ or another similar figure of merit.  Such a measure
may be superior to the $p dR$ method for off-shell decay scenarios.
Finally, we would also want to study how our method can be applied to
improve the determination of the overall mass scale and the LSP/LKP
mass at colliders.  We hope to return to these issues in future work.

\section*{Acknowledgements}
\label{sec:acknowledge}

FY is supported by an LHC Theory Initiative Graduate Fellowship, NSF
Grant No. PHY-0705682.  AR and FY are supported by NSF Grant
No. PHY-0653656 and PHY-0970173.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
Waste Management Act 1996
Transfer of functions from local authorities to Agency, etc.
21.— (1) The Minister may, following consultation with the Agency, where he or she is satisfied that any function conferred on a local authority by this Act could be more effectively performed by the Agency in lieu of being performed by that authority, by regulations provide that the function shall be performed by the Agency with effect from a date specified in the regulations.
(2) Whenever regulations under subsection (1) are in force in relation to a particular function, a reference in this Act to a local authority shall, where appropriate, be construed as a reference to the Agency and the function to which the regulations relate shall be a function of the Agency.
(3) The Minister may, where he or she is satisfied that any function conferred on a local authority by this Act could, as respects the functional area of the corporation of a borough (other than a county borough), or the council of an urban district, that is situate in the functional area of that local authority, be more effectively performed by the said corporation or council in lieu of being performed by that authority, by regulations provide that the said function shall, with effect from a date specified in the regulations, be performed, as respects the first-mentioned functional area, by the said corporation or, as the case may be, council.
(4) Whenever regulations under subsection (3) are in force in relation to a particular function, a reference in this Act to a local authority shall, where appropriate, be construed as a reference to the corporation of the borough or the council of the urban district to which the regulations relate and the function to which the regulations relate shall be a function of the said corporation or council.
(5) Regulations under this section may contain such incidental, supplementary, consequential and transitional provisions (including provisions modifying and applying any provision of this Act or of any other enactment) as appear to the Minister to be necessary for the purpose or in consequence of, or to give full effect to, the regulations.


A committee of the United Nations is set to review the compliance of the Philippines with the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment which it has ratified.
In a media advisory, the UN Committee Against Torture will conduct the review on April 27 to 28 in Geneva.
The Philippine government delegation will be led by Interior undersecretary Peter Irving Corvera. Representatives from some nongovernment organizations were also invited for the review.
The results of the committee's observations on the Philippines' torture record will be revealed in a news conference on May 13, 2016 at Palais des Nations in Geneva.


text:
Wage Hour Claims
Harassment in the Workplace
Discrimination In the Workplace
The FINAL New York State Sexual Harassment Model Policy and Training Are Out!
On October 1, 2018, a little over one week before the October 9, 2018 effective date, New York State published the FINAL model policy and training for employers and employees to view on the New York State website. The following documents and information can be found here:
Model Sexual Harassment Prevention Policy;
Model Complaint Form;
Model Harassment Prevention Training Program;
Sexual Harassment Prevention Training Case Studies;
Model Sexual Harassment Poster;
Minimum Standards for Sexual Harassment Prevention Policies; and
Minimum Standards for Training Programs.
As well, the State has updated its Frequently Asked Questions guide. The toolkit for employers can be found here. The toolkit for workers can be found here.
The deadline to distribute compliant policies that meet or exceed the model policy for ALL New York State employers, REGARDLESS OF THE NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES, is October 9, 2018. The deadline to complete compliant training for ALL New York State employers has been pushed back to October 9, 2019 (it was January 1, 2019). New hires must be trained "as soon as possible" after their hire (it was within 30 days).
While the models can be used by employers in the State, it would be prudent for employers to use the template to update any anti-harassment and/or anti-discrimination policies that are currently in place. Although sexual harassment is the focus of the policies being issued by the State right now, it is still unlawful to discriminate or harass any employee because of any protected characteristic.
The Law Offices of Yale Pollack, P.C. can assist with providing updated policies that cover all forms of discrimination and harassment in the workplace with appropriate complaint forms that are in line with the guidance issued by the State. As well, the Law Offices of Yale Pollack, P.C. can conduct training for employees – both management and non-management – throughout the Tri-State Area, including New York City and Long Island.
Please contact (516) 634-6340 or email ypollack@yallepollacklaw.com for additional information or assistance with compliance.
Yale Pollack, Esq.
Law Offices of Yale Pollack, P.C.
66 Split Rock Road
Syosset, New York 11791
Ronkonkoma Office:
4175 Veterans Memorial Highway Suite 400
Westbury Office:
1025 Old Country Road Suite 405
ypollack@yalepollacklaw.com
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