Synthesis and Encapsulation of Uniform Star‐Shaped Block‐Macromolecules

Linear uniform oligomers synthesized via a two‐step iterative cycle are postmodified with uniform octaethylene glycol monomethyl ether and finally coupled via azide‐alkyne cycloaddition to yield uniform star‐shaped block macromolecules with a mass ranging from 10 to 14 kDa. Each of the molecules is carefully characterized by NMR, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI‐MS), and size exclusion chromatography (SEC) to underline their purity as well as their uniformity. The obtained star‐shaped macromolecules are investigated in their ability to encapsulate dye molecules by carrying out qualitative solid–liquid phase transfer experiments

TREX-DM: a low background Micromegas-based TPC for low-mass WIMP detection

Dark Matter experiments are recently focusing their detection techniques in low-mass WIMPs, which requires the use of light elements and low energy threshold. In this context, we describe the TREX-DM experiment, a low background Micromegas-based TPC for low-mass WIMP detection. Its main goal is the operation of an active detection mass $\sim$0.3 kg, with an energy threshold below 0.4 keVee and fully built with previously selected radiopure materials. This work describes the commissioning of the actual setup situated in a laboratory on surface and the updates needed for a possible physics run at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC) in 2016. A preliminary background model of TREX-DM is also presented, based on a Geant4 simulation, the simulation of the detector's response and two discrimination methods: a conservative muon/electron and one based on a neutron source. Based on this background model, TREX-DM could be competitive in the search for low-mass WIMPs. In particular it could be sensitive, e.g., to the low-mass WIMP interpretation of the DAMA/LIBRA and other hints in a conservative scenario.Comment: Proceedings of the XIV International Conference on Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics (TAUP 2015), 7-11 September 2015, Torino, Ital

Performance of the Micromegas detector in the CAST experiment

The gaseous Micromegas detector designed for the CERN Axion search experiment CAST, operated smoothly during Phase-I, which included the 2003 and 2004 running periods. It exhibited linear response in the energy range of interest (1-10keV), good spatial sensitivity and energy resolution (15-19% FWHM at 5.9keV)as well as remarkable stability. The detector's upgrade for the 2004 run, supported by the development of advanced offline analysis tools, improved the background rejection capability, leading to an average rate 5x10^-5 counts/sec/cm^2/keV with 94% cut efficiency. Also, the origin of the detected background was studied with a Monte Carlo simulation, using the GEANT4 package.Comment: Prepared for PSD7: The Seventh International Conference on Position Sensitive Detectors, Liverpool, United Kingdom, 12-16 Sep. 200

The rise and fall of mandrake in medicine

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Mandrake (Mandragora sp.) is one of the most famous medicinal plants. It has been in continuous medical use throughout written history and is still in use today in popular medicine. Aim of the study: Mandrake derived drugs once played an important role in medicine and in magical practices. Today, the role of mandrake in popular medicine is marginal. However, natural products present in mandrake such as atropine and scopolamine, as well as their semi synthetic derivatives continue to hold and important role in medicine. Here we aim to trace the development of historical rationales and scientific events that led to the abandonment of mandrake as a medicine. Materials and methods: We review the medicinal uses of mandrake drugs since antiquity in an attempt to pinpoint use patterns that were popular in certain periods of time and others that are more general. We compare the uses from the native territories to those from regions where the plant got introduced and use literature reporting mandrake's chemistry and pharmacology in order to explain the diachronic changes of use patterns. Results and conclusion: We found information about 88 different medicinal uses for mandrake, grouped into 39 conditions. According to the number of different medicinal uses, the most versatile period was the medieval (37), followed by the Renaissance (31), the classical (27), and the modern period (21). Considering the higher number of textual sources and use-records collected for the Renaissance period, the decrease of versatility in comparison to the medieval period appears robust. This seems to indicate a more consolidated use pattern, that might be conditioned by the reproduction of classic textual sources as well as by a less experimental approach and reduced popularity of mandrake in medicine. The introduction of the volatile anaesthetics with more reliable narcotic effects set the seal on using mandrake in surgery but opened the way for atropine being used as a prophylactic and antidote during surgical interventions

IoT Enabled Sensory Monitoring System for Fog Optimal Resource Provisioning Method in Health Monitoring System

Fog is data management and analytics service. In this paper gains and most effective novel approach to provide IoT enabled services in healthcare application using Fog Computing. In this research the data is collected from Google Scholar, Science Director and MEDLINE database. IoT based Fog Computing techniques are proposed for delivering quality of services to the user. Optimal Resource Provisioning method is proposed to find edges, service level agreements and administration services for IoT client. The DeepQ residue information processing technique is applied for connecting data centre of the cloud and computing paradigms technique is finding the depth reference of Fog levels. The proposed Optimal resource provisioning algorithm is examining the dataset and TensorFlow tool is used for simulating environment. Fog computing layer consist of IoT sensor data inputs, data centres for the cloud and connected layers for simulations. The Deep belief network is generated based on above inputs using 256 X 256 X 3 layer system and 5000 trained data, 1000 test data are taken for simulations. Each dataset simulation is recording using supervised and unsupervised learning methods. Based on above results IoT enable Fog Computing data management and analytics systems provided 95% accuracy and the compared with existing computing techniques our proposed systems shows better efficiency with respect to safety and convenience

The discrimination capabilities of Micromegas detectors at low energy

The latest generation of Micromegas detectors show a good energy resolution, spatial resolution and low threshold, which make them idoneous in low energy applications. Two micromegas detectors have been built for dark matter experiments: CAST, which uses a dipole magnet to convert axion into detectable x-ray photons, and MIMAC, which aims to reconstruct the tracks of low energy nuclear recoils in a mixture of CF4 and CHF3. These readouts have been respectively built with the microbulk and bulk techniques, which show different gain, electron transmission and energy resolutions. The detectors and the operation conditions will be described in detail as well as their discrimination capabilities for low energy photons will be discussed.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of the TIPP2011 conference (Physics Procedia