Z° bosons have been produced by collisions of longitudinally polarized electrons with unpolarized positrons at the SLAC Linear Collider and their decays have been recorded by the SLD experiment. We present preliminary measurements of the properties of the resulting Z° decays into multi-hadronic final states. We find good agreement with the predictions of perturbative QCD and fragmentation models.

Z[degrees] bosons have been produced by collisions of longitudinally polarized electrons with unpolarized positrons at the SLAC Linear Collider and their decays have been recorded by the SLD experiment. We present preliminary measurements of the properties of the resulting Z[degrees] decays into multi-hadronic final states. We find good agreement with the predictions of perturbative QCD and fragmentation models.

We use the Mark II detector to study Z decays into bottom quark-anti-quark pairs, leading to the production of bottom hadrons. The Z bosons are formed in ee− annihilation at the SLC at center-of-mass energies between 89 and 93 GeV. We identify events containing semileptonic decays of bottom hadrons by detecting isolated leptons, i.e leptons with high transverse momenta relative to the nearest hadronic jet. Using isolated electrons and muons, we measure the B-hadron semileptonic branching ratio times the fraction of hadronic Z decays which contain bottom hadrons, B(B 2!Xl[nu]){center dot}[Gamma](Z 2!b{bar b})/[Gamma](Z 2!had) = 0.025 {sub -0.009}{sup +0.100} {plus minus} 0.005, where we have listed the statistical errors followed by the systematic error. Assuming B(B 2!X(ell)[nu]) = 11% {plus minus} 1%, we measure [Gamma](Z 2!b{bar b})/[Gamma](Z 2!had) = 0.23 {sub -0.09}{sup +0.11}, in good agreement with the standard-model prediction of 0.22. We find [Gamma](Z 2!b{bar b}) = 0.40 {sub -0.16}{sup +0.19} GeV. 83 refs., 34 figs., 19 tabs.

The book is a compilation of the most important experimental results achieved during the past 60 years at CERN - from the mid-1950s to the latest discovery of the Higgs particle. Covering the results from the early accelerators at CERN to those most recent at the LHC, the contents provide an excellent review of the achievements of this outstanding laboratory. Not only presented is the impressive scientific progress achieved during the past six decades, but also demonstrated is the special way in which successful international collaboration exists at CERN.

For many measurements at hadron colliders, such as cross sections and branching ratios, the uncertainty of the integrated luminosity is an important contribution to the error of the final result. In 1997, the ETH Zurich group proposed a new approach to determine the integrated luminosity via a counting measurement of the W and Z bosons through their decays to leptons. In this thesis this proposal has been applied on real data as well as on simulation for a future experiment.

For the first time, this invaluable book shows how cardiac perfusion and pumping can be quantified and correlated. Self-contained and unified in presentation, the explanations in the compendium are detailed enough to capture the reader's curiosity and complete enough to provide the background material to explore further into the subject. Mathematically rigorous and clinically oriented, the book is a major resource for cardiologists, cardiac surgeons and clinicians. For students, it is an ideal textbook for senior-level courses in cardiovascular engineering.