Geiger-Mode Avalanche Photodiodes in Particle Detection

It is well known that avalanche photodiodes operated in the Geiger mode above the breakdown voltage offer a virtually infinite sensitivity and time accuracy in the picosecond range that can be used for single photon detection. However, their performance in particle detection remains still unexplored. In this contribution, we are going to expose the different steps that we have taken in order to prove the efficiency of Geiger mode avalanche photodiodes in the aforementioned field. In particular, we will present an array of pixels of 1mmx1mm fabricated with a standard CMOS technology for characterization in a test beam.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of LCWS1

Extracting Hα\alpha flux from photometric data in the J-PLUS survey

We present the main steps that will be taken to extract H$\alpha$ emission flux from Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) photometric data. For galaxies with $z\lesssim0.015$, the H$\alpha$+[NII] emission is covered by the J-PLUS narrow-band filter $F660$. We explore three different methods to extract the H$\alpha$ + [NII] flux from J-PLUS photometric data: a combination of a broad-band and a narrow-band filter ($r'$ and $F660$), two broad-band and a narrow-band one ($r'$, $i'$ and $F660$), and a SED-fitting based method using 8 photometric points. To test these methodologies, we simulated J-PLUS data from a sample of 7511 SDSS spectra with measured H$\alpha$ flux. Based on the same sample, we derive two empirical relations to correct the derived H$\alpha$+[NII] flux from dust extinction and [NII] contamination. We find that the only unbiased method is the SED fitting based one. The combination of two filters underestimates the measurements of the H$\alpha$ + [NII] flux by a 28%, while the three filters method by a 9%. We study the error budget of the SED-fitting based method and find that, in addition to the photometric error, our measurements have a systematic uncertainty of a 4.3%. Several sources contribute to this uncertainty: differences between our measurement procedure and the one used to derive the spectroscopic values, the use of simple stellar populations as templates, and the intrinsic errors of the spectra, which were not taken into account. Apart from that, the empirical corrections for dust extinction and [NII] contamination add an extra uncertainty of 14%. Given the J-PLUS photometric system, the best methodology to extract H$\alpha$ + [NII] flux is the SED-fitting based one. Using this method, we are able to recover reliable H$\alpha$ fluxes for thousands of nearby galaxies in a robust and homogeneous way.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figures. Minor changes to match the published versio

Opportunity lost: Mystification, elite politics and financial reform in the UK

The first phase of the crisis in Britain – from the 2007 failure of Northern Rock to the post Lehman systemic crisis of autumn 2008 – was a demystifying moment, when finance sector alibis, technocratic expertise and the assumptions of the political classes were tested and found wanting under pressure of unanticipated events. The banking rescue of 2007-8 amounted to the socialization of banking losses at a cost to the UK taxpayer of up to £1,000 billion or more (if we include contingent liabilities and exclude quantitative easing). British taxpayers got very little in return. The challenge of a brief democratic moment was met by the restatement of old pre-crisis narratives about the importance of ‘flexible’, market responsive regulation, and about the social value of finance. The result so far is marginalisation of left and radical forces (or no change on the past twenty-five years). Against this background, this essay has two interlinked aims. First, it presents an analysis of political obstacles to democratic control and reform of the finance sector that caused the financial crisis of 2007-8; a crisis that, after extreme intervention to save banks and support markets, has by 2010-11 become a fiscal crisis for individual states and a sovereign debt crisis for the eurozone. Second, it addresses (in this context) the role of ‘ideology’ within the socio-political process by examining how discourses format the world through what is now called ‘performativity’. And it shows how this new kind of discursive description can be developed and integrated with more established kinds of institutional analysis so as to generate new insights into the political obstacles to reform. The argument below is illustrated with UK evidence and our aim is to provide an analysis of national peculiarities, but the issues raised are relevant to other jurisdictions (national and supra national). We hope to raise broad questions about the mechanisms of elite power in present day capitalism where the importance of narrative has intensified since Reagan and Thatcher. We also aim to encourage reflection on how narrative power could be challenged so as to deliver a more democratic reform of finance

Benchmarking genetically improved BarraCUDA on epigenetic methylation NGS datasets and nVidia GPUs

BarraCUDA uses CUDA graphics cards to map DNA reads to the human genome. Previously its software source code was genetically improved for short paired end next generation sequences. On longer noisy epigenetics strings using nVidia Titan and twin Tesla K40 the same GI-ed code is more than 3 times faster than bwa-meth on an 8 core CPU

Isolamento e caracterização de bactérias endofíticas não patogênicas em milho.

bitstream/item/58846/1/Pesq.And.-31-1.pd

Resistance of commercial hybrids and lines of sorghum, Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench., to Diatraea saccharalis (Fabr.) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae).

Híbridos comerciais e uma coleção de linhagens de sorgo da Embrapa, foram avaliados quanto a resistência à broca de cana-de-açúcar, Diatraea saccharalis (Fabr.). Dois experimentos foram instalados no campo de Sete Lagoas, MG, na época da "safrinha", em blocos casualizados, com três repetições e conduzidos sob infestação natural. As plantas foram avaliadas quanto ao estande, ciclo, altura e número de galerias, o número total de internóides e o número de internóides danificados para o calculo do Índice de Infestação (II) e ìndice de Intensidade de Infestação (III). Entre os hibridos comerciais, BR 304 e CMSXS9701 apresentaram os menores II enquanto que Z 732 e Esmeralda destacaram-se com os menores III. Entre as linhagens, 9815017 apresentou o menor II, e 9816003 o menor II. Os dois índices correlacionaram-se positivamente com a altura das plantas nos dois ensaios e negativamente com o ciclo das linhagens. Entretanto, nenhuma correlação foi observada entre eles no ensaio. Embora exista variabilidade genética entre os híbridos comerciais de sorgo para resistência e broca da cana, sob altas infestações, perdas significativas nas produtividades poderão ocorrer em todos os híbridos avaliados. Por outro lado, a variabilidade genética observada entre as linhagens de sorgo indicaram um grande potencial para a seleção de cultivares resistentes nos programas de melhoramento

Sensitisation to Act 2d in patientsallergic to Alternaria alternanta: an epiphenomenom without clinical significance?

In the last few years, the introduction of microarrays in the diagnosis of type I allergy is allowing the clinicians to have a much more accurate picture of their allergenic profile. However, the simultaneous measurement of specific IgE to multiple molecules can show unexpected sensitisations, without knowing their clinical relevance. For instance, we have been observing a high prevalence (74%) of sensitisation to Act d 2 (the thaumatin of kiwifruit) in patients sensitised to Alt a 1 (major allergen of Alternaria alternata) with a confirmed allergy to this mould. The aim of the present study was to clarify if there was any clinical relevance in this finding