Mass production of event simulations for the BaBar experiment using the Grid

The BaBar experiment has been taking data since 1999, investigating the violation of charge and parity (CP) symmetry in the field of High Energy Physics. Event simulation is an intensive computing task, due to the complexity of the algorithm based on the Monte Carlo method implemented using the GEANT engine. The simulation input data are stored in ROOT format, they are classified into two categories: conditions data for describing the detector status when data are recorded, and background triggers data for including the noise signal necessary to obtain a realistic simulation. In order to satisfy these requirements, in the traditional BaBar computing model events are distributed over several sites involved in the collaboration where each site manager centrally manages a private farm dedicated to simulation production. The new grid approach applied to the BaBar production framework is discussed along with the schema adopted for data deployment via Xrootd/Scalla servers, including data management using grid middleware on distributed storage facilities spread over the INFN-GRID network. A comparison between the two models is provided, describing also the custom applications developed for performing the whole production task on the grid and showing the results achieved

Permeation Fill-Tube Design for Inertial Confinement Fusion Target Capsules

A unique approach for permeation filling of nonpermeable inertial confinement fusion target capsules with deuterium— tritium (DT) is presented. This process uses a permeable capsule coupled into the final target capsule with a 0.03-mm-diameter fill tube. Leak free permeation filling of glow-discharge polymerization (GDP) targets using this method have been successfully demonstrated, as well as ice layering of the target, yielding an inner ice surface roughness of 1-µm rms (root mean square). Finally, the measured DT ice-thickness profile for this experiment was used to validate a thermal model’s prediction of the same thickness profile

Fiscal Stimulus with Learning-By-Doing

Using a Bayesian SVAR analysis, we document that an increase in government purchases raises private consumption, the real wage and total factor productivity (TFP) while reducing inflation. Each of these facts is hard to reconcile with both neoclassical and New-Keynesian models. We extend a standard New-Keynesian model to allow for skill accumulation through past work experience, following Chang, Gomes and Schorfheide (2002). An increase in government spending increases hours and induces skill accumulation and higher measured TFP and real wages in subsequent periods. Future marginal costs fall lowering future expected inflation and, through the monetary policy rule, the real interest rate. Consumption increases as a result

Genetic background modifies amyloidosis in a mouse model of ATTR neuropathy

AbstractPenetrance and age of onset of ATTRV30M amyloidotic neuropathy varies significantly among different populations. This variability has been attributed to both genetic and environmental modifiers. We studied the effect of genetic background on phenotype in two lines of transgenic mice bearing the same ATTRV30M transgene. Amyloid deposition, transthyretin (TTR), megalin, clusterin and disease markers of endoplasmic reticulum stress, the ubiquitin-proteasome system, apoptosis, and complement activation were assessed with WB and immunohistochemistry in donor and recipient tissue. Our results indicate that genetic background modulates amyloid deposition by influencing TTR handling in recipient tissue and may partly account for the marked variability in penetrance observed in various world populations

Low-dimensional perovskite nanoplatelet synthesis using in situ photophysical monitoring to establish controlled growth.

Perovskite nanoparticles have attracted the attention of research groups around the world for their impressive photophysical properties, facile synthesis and versatile surface chemistry. Here, we report a synthetic route that takes advantage of a suite of soluble precursors to generate CsPbBr3 perovskite nanoplatelets with fine control over size, thickness and optical properties. We demonstrate near unit cell precision, creating well characterized materials with sharp, narrow emission lines at 430, 460 and 490 nm corresponding to nanoplatelets that are 2, 4, and 6 unit cells thick, respectively. Nanoplatelets were characterized with optical spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy to explicitly correlate growth conditions, thickness and resulting photophysical properties. Detailed in situ photoluminescence spectroscopic studies were carried out to understand and optimize particle growth by correlating light emission with nanoplatelet growth across a range of synthetic conditions. It was found that nanoplatelet thickness and emission wavelength increase as the ratio of oleic acid to oleyl amine or the reaction temperature is increased. Using this information, we control the lateral size, width and corresponding emission wavelength of the desired nanoplatelets by modulating the temperature and ratios of the ligand

Earliest Olduvai hominins exploited unstable environments ~ 2 million years ago

Rapid environmental change is a catalyst for human evolution, driving dietary innovations, habitat diversification, and dispersal. However, there is a dearth of information to assess hominin adaptions to changing physiography during key evolutionary stages such as the early Pleistocene. Here we report a multiproxy dataset from Ewass Oldupa, in the Western Plio-Pleistocene rift basin of Olduvai Gorge (now Oldupai), Tanzania, to address this lacuna and offer an ecological perspective on human adaptability two million years ago. Oldupai’s earliest hominins sequentially inhabited the floodplains of sinuous channels, then river-influenced contexts, which now comprises the oldest palaeolake setting documented regionally. Early Oldowan tools reveal a homogenous technology to utilise diverse, rapidly changing environments that ranged from fern meadows to woodland mosaics, naturally burned landscapes, to lakeside woodland/palm groves as well as hyper-xeric steppes. Hominins periodically used emerging landscapes and disturbance biomes multiple times over 235,000 years, thus predating by more than 180,000 years the earliest known hominins and Oldowan industries from the Eastern side of the basin.Introduction Results - Stratigraphy and archaeology - Early Oldowan ecology at ~ 2 Ma Discussion Methods - Biomarkers - Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence - Excavation - Fauna - Mineral geochemistry - Phytolith analysis - Pollen and microcharcoal - Stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis of faunal dental enamel - Stone tool

Computing at SuperB

Domenico Del Prete*, Fabrizio Bianchi, Vania Boccia, Vincenzo Ciaschini, Marco Corvo, Guglielmo De Nardo, Andrea Di Simone, Giacinto Donvito, Armando Fella, Paolo Franchini, Francesco Giacomini, Alberto Gianoli, Giuliano Laccetti, Stefano Longo, Steffen Luitz, Eleonora Luppi, Matteo Manzali, Leonardo Merola, Silvio Pardi, Alejandro Perez, Matteo Rama, Guido Russo, Bruno Santeramo, Roberto Stroili, Luca Tommasett

Expanding horizons of cross-linguistic research on reading: The Multilingual Eye-movement Corpus (MECO)

Scientific studies of language behavior need to grapple with a large diversity of languages in the world and, for reading, a further variability in writing systems. Yet, the ability to form meaningful theories of reading is contingent on the availability of cross-linguistic behavioral data. This paper offers new insights into aspects of reading behavior that are shared and those that vary systematically across languages through an investigation of eye-tracking data from 13 languages recorded during text reading. We begin with reporting a bibliometric analysis of eye-tracking studies showing that the current empirical base is insufficient for cross-linguistic comparisons. We respond to this empirical lacuna by presenting the Multilingual Eye-Movement Corpus (MECO), the product of an international multi-lab collaboration. We examine which behavioral indices differentiate between reading in written languages, and which measures are stable across languages. One of the findings is that readers of different languages vary considerably in their skipping rate (i.e., the likelihood of not fixating on a word even once) and that this variability is explained by cross-linguistic differences in word length distributions. In contrast, if readers do not skip a word, they tend to spend a similar average time viewing it. We outline the implications of these findings for theories of reading. We also describe prospective uses of the publicly available MECO data, and its further development plans

Text reading in English as a second language: Evidence from the Multilingual Eye-Movements Corpus

Research into second language (L2) reading is an exponentially growing field. Yet, it still has a relatively short supply of comparable, ecologically valid data from readers representing a variety of first languages (L1). This article addresses this need by presenting a new data resource called MECO L2 (Multilingual Eye Movements Corpus), a rich behavioral eye-tracking record of text reading in English as an L2 among 543 university student speakers of 12 different L1s. MECO L2 includes a test battery of component skills of reading and allows for a comparison of the participants' reading performance in their L1 and L2. This data resource enables innovative large-scale cross-sample analyses of predictors of L2 reading fluency and comprehension. We first introduce the design and structure of the MECO L2 resource, along with reliability estimates and basic descriptive analyses. Then, we illustrate the utility of MECO L2 by quantifying contributions of four sources to variability in L2 reading proficiency proposed in prior literature: reading fluency and comprehension in L1, proficiency in L2 component skills of reading, extralinguistic factors, and the L1 of the readers. Major findings included (a) a fundamental contrast between the determinants of L2 reading fluency versus comprehension accuracy, and (b) high within-participant consistency in the real-time strategy of reading in L1 and L2. We conclude by reviewing the implications of these findings to theories of L2 acquisition and outline further directions in which the new data resource may support L2 reading research