Radiation hardness qualification of PbWO4 scintillation crystals for the CMS Electromagnetic Calorimeter

This is the Pre-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2010 IOPEnsuring the radiation hardness of PbWO4 crystals was one of the main priorities during the construction of the electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS experiment at CERN. The production on an industrial scale of radiation hard crystals and their certification over a period of several years represented a difficult challenge both for CMS and for the crystal suppliers. The present article reviews the related scientific and technological problems encountered

Intercalibration of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS experiment at start-up

Calibration of the relative response of the individual channels of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS detector was accomplished, before installation, with cosmic ray muons and test beams. One fourth of the calorimeter was exposed to a beam of high energy electrons and the relative calibration of the channels, the intercalibration, was found to be reproducible to a precision of about 0.3%. Additionally, data were collected with cosmic rays for the entire ECAL barrel during the commissioning phase. By comparing the intercalibration constants obtained with the electron beam data with those from the cosmic ray data, it is demonstrated that the latter provide an intercalibration precision of 1.5% over most of the barrel ECAL. The best intercalibration precision is expected to come from the analysis of events collected in situ during the LHC operation. Using data collected with both electrons and pion beams, several aspects of the intercalibration procedures based on electrons or neutral pions were investigated

CMS physics technical design report : Addendum on high density QCD with heavy ions

Peer reviewe

Emergent tracheostomy during the pandemic of COVID-19: Slovenian National Recommendations

Purpose: Emergent tracheostomy under local anaesthesia is a reliable method of airway management when orotracheal intubation is not possible. COVID-19 is spread through aerosol making the emergent tracheostomy a high-risk procedure for surgeons. The surgical establishment of the air conduit in emergency scenarios must be adjusted for safety reasons. Methods: To establish the Slovenian National Guidelines for airway management in cannot intubate—cannot ventilate situations in COVID-19 positive patients. Results: Good communication and coordination between surgeon and anaesthesiologist is absolutely necessary. Deep general anaesthesia, full muscle relaxation and adequate preoxygenation without intubation are initial steps. The surgical cricothyrotomy is performed quickly, the thin orotracheal tube is inserted, the cuff is inflated and ventilation begins. Following patient stabilisation, the conversion to the tracheostomy is undertaken with the following features: skin infiltration with vasoconstrictor, a vertical incision, avoidance of electrical devices in favour of classical manners of haemostasis, the advancement of the tube towards the carina, performing the tracheal window in complete apnoea following adequate oxygenation, the insertion of non-fenestrated canulla attached to a heat and moisture exchanger, the fixation of canulla with stitches and tapes, and the cricothyrotomy entrance closure. Appropriate safety equipment is equally important. Conclusion: The goal of the guidelines is to make the procedure safer for medical teams, without harming the patients. Further improvements of the guidelines will surely appear as COVID-19 is a new entity and there is not yet much experience in handling it

On the possibility to simultaneously determine the long-term average fluxes of solar pp-neutrinos and cosmic ray muons

The Allchar mine in the southern FYR Macedonia contains the world's largest known concentration of thallium bearing minerals. LOREX (acronym for the geo-chemical LORandite EXperiment) is an international collaboration exploring the opportunity to use the rare mineral lorandite (TlAsS2) for the determination of the solar pp-neutrino flux, averaged over the 4.3 million year age of the deposit. Here we discuss the possibility to determine simultaneously both the solar neutrino and the cosmic ray muon flux, averaged over the same period of time. Cosmic-ray muons participate in the reaction 205Tl(μp, n)205Pb, whereas the neutrinos induce the capture reaction 205Tl(νe, e)205Pb* → 205Pb. Both fluxes can in principle be determined by counting the number of atoms of the long-lived 205Pb present in the mineral, produced by both muons and neutrinos in the reactions with the most abundant stable isotope, 205Tl