Eco-friendly gas mixtures for Resistive Plate Chambers based on Tetrafluoropropene and Helium

Due to the recent restrictions deriving from the application of the Kyoto protocol, the main components of the gas mixtures presently used in the Resistive Plate Chambers systems of the LHC experiments will be most probably phased out of production in the coming years. Identifying possible replacements with the adequate characteristics requires an intense R&D, which was recently started, also in collaborations across the various experiments. Possible candidates have been proposed and are thoroughly investigated. Some tests on one of the most promising candidate - HFO-1234ze, an allotropic form of tetrafluoropropane- have already been reported. Here an innovative approach, based on the use of Helium, to solve the problems related to the too elevate operating voltage of HFO-1234ze based gas mixtures, is discussed and the relative first results are shown.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl

Application Design and Engagement Strategy of a Game with a Purpose for Climate Change Awareness

The Climate Challenge is an online application in the tradition of games with a purpose that combines practical steps to reduce carbon footprint with predictive tasks to estimate future climate-related conditions. As part of the Collective Awareness Platform, the application aims to increase environmental literacy and motivate users to adopt more sustainable lifestyles. It has been deployed in conjunction with the Media Watch on Climate Change, a publicly available knowledge aggregator and visual analytics system for exploring environmental content from multiple online sources. This paper presents the motivation and goals of the Climate Challenge from an interdisciplinary perspective, outlines the application design including the types of tasks built into the application, discusses incentive mechanisms, and analyses the pursued user engagement strategies

Modified POF Sensor for Gaseous Hydrogen Fluoride Monitoring in the Presence of Ionizing Radiations

This paper describes the development of a sensor designed to detect low concentrations of hydrogen fluoride (HF) in gas mixtures. The sensor employs a plastic optical fiber (POF) covered with a thin layer of glass- like material. HF attacks the glass and alters the fiber transmission capability so that the detection simply requires a LED and a photodiode. The coated POF is obtained by means of low-pressure plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition that allows the glass-like film to be deposited at low temperature without damaging the fiber core. The developed sensor will be installed in the recirculation gas system of the resistive plate chamber muon detector of the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the Large Hadron Collider accelerator of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN

Fiber Bragg Grating sensors for deformation monitoring of GEM foils in HEP detectors

Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors have been so far mainly used in high energy physics (HEP) as high precision positioning and re-positioning sensors and as low cost, easy to mount, radiation hard and low space- consuming temperature and humidity devices. FBGs are also commonly used for very precise strain measurements. In this work we present a novel use of FBGs as flatness and mechanical tensioning sensors applied to the wide Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) foils of the GE1/1 chambers of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of CERN. A network of FBG sensors has been used to determine the optimal mechanical tension applied and to characterize the mechanical stress applied to the foils. The preliminary results of the test performed on a full size GE1/1 final prototype and possible future developments will be discussed.Comment: Four pages, seven figures. Presented by Michele Caponero at IWASI 2015, Gallipoli (Italy

A Support Vector Machine for the Discrimination of MicroRNA Precursors from Other Genomic Hairpin Structures

Motivation: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous, small (~ 20 nt), single-stranded, non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) that result from the nuclear and cytoplasmic processing of transcribed precursor hairpin structures. They are increasingly recognized as playing crucial roles as post-transcriptional antisense regulators of gene expression through regulation of mRNA stability or translational efficiency. miRNAs, first reported in Caenorhabditis elegans, have been identified in the genomes of most higher organisms, including worms, flies, plants, mammals and recently in viruses. Functional studies have shown that miRNAs play important roles in processes such as, cell proliferation, fat metabolism, apoptosis, neuronal cell fate, insulin secretion, haematopoietic differentiation and developmental regulation. The detection of homologs of known miRNAs through comparative genomic approaches has proved relatively tractable. However, the ab-initio prediction of miRNA precursors through computational methods poses several additional difficulties, not least the fact that not all thermodynamically plausible transcribed hairpins are processed to yield mature miRNAs. It has not until now been possible to identify conserved sequence or structural elements that define consensus recognition elements for the enzymes that process miRNA precursors. In the light of these observations we wished to develop and improve methods for the discrimination of true miRNA precursor hairpins from spurious hairpins Methods: We have developed a SVM (Support Vector Machine) that considers up to 74 features associated with the primary and secondary structures and thermodynamic characteristics of candidate hairpin structures. We use a standard heuristic approach to optimize combinations of features used and train the SVM with sets of characterized hairpin miRNA precursors and known non-miRNA hairpins. Results: Our SVM shows highly promising results in the discrimination of true miRNA precursors from \u201cspurious\u201d hairpins (typically around 95% sensitivity) in various species. In particular, our levels of false positive predictions appear to be low relative to comparable methods

Towards an integrated pipeline for the in-silico prediction of plant microRNAs and their precursors

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous, small (~ 20 nt), single-stranded, non-coding RNAs that result from the processing of transcribed precursor hairpin structures. They are increasingly recognized as playing crucial roles as post-transcriptional antisense regulators of gene expression through regulation of mRNA stability or translational efficiency. The detection of homologs of known miRNAs through comparative genomic approaches has proved relatively tractable. However, the ab-initio prediction of potentially lineage-specific miRNA precursors through computational methods poses several additional difficulties, not least the fact that not all thermodynamically plausible transcribed hairpins are processed to yield mature miRNAs. We have developed a Support Vector Machine that considers up to 78 features associated with the primary and secondary structures and thermodynamic characteristics of candidate hairpin structures. Our SVM is highly specific in the discrimination of true miRNA precursors from “spurious” hairpins with levels of false positive predictions that are low relative to comparable methods. We also show how our SVM functions as part of an in-silico pipeline for the prediction of novel miRNA precursors in plant genomes

Properties of potential eco-friendly gas replacements for particle detectors in high-energy physics

Gas detectors for elementary particles require F-based gases for optimal performance. Recent regulations demand the use of environmentally unfriendly F-based gases to be limited or banned. This work studies properties of potential eco-friendly gas replacements by computing the physical and chemical parameters relevant for use as detector media, and suggests candidates to be considered for experimental investigation

Candidate eco-friendly gas mixtures for MPGDs

Modern gas detectors for detection of particles require F-based gases for optimal performance.Recent regulations demand the use of environmentally unfriendly F-based gases t o be limited or banned. This review studies properties of potential eco-friendly gas candidate replacements

Properties of potential eco-friendly gas replacements for particle detectors in high-energy physics

Modern gas detectors for detection of particles require F-based gases for optimal performance. Recent regulations demand the use of environmentally unfriendly F-based gases to be limited or banned. This review studies properties of potential eco-friendly gas candidate replacements.Comment: 38 pages, 9 figures, 8 tables. To be submitted to Journal of Instrumentatio

Multi-channel distribution in the banking sector and the branch network restructuring

European banking groups have been addressing the problem of restructuring their branch networks. Indeed, in the light of the recent digital transition of services, they aim to leverage digital channels to deliver basic services and reduce the number of physical facilities to dedicate to more complex and added-value operations. In order to implement the new business model, banking groups are shrinking their internal branch networks and outsourcing basic services to maintain physical proximity to customers unwilling to adopt digital channels. This work aims to formulate a mathematical programming model to support the decision-making process concerning the branch network restructuring. The model is formulated as a hierarchical covering location problem. Three types of branches providing different categories of services are considered. They are organized according to a three-level hierarchical structure, and each level is associated with a covering radius, representing the related accessibility condition to be guaranteed to users. A further category of facilities is considered, namely external facilities, that may support internal ones in providing basic banking services. The objective is to identify the network structure able to serve all the demand for banking services and minimize the total costs. A specific parameter is introduced to regulate the maximum outsourcing level that the bank is willing to achieve. The model is tested by considering a real case study concerning one of the main banking groups in Italy. The obtained results show the capability of the model to provide interesting scenarios and fruitful managerial implications