Muon Physics in ALICE: The MFT Upgrade Project

The ALICE experiment is dedicated to the study of the quark gluon plasma in heavy-ion collisions at the CERN LHC. The Muon Forward Tracker (MFT) is under consideration by the ALICE experiment to be part of its program of detectors upgrade to be installed during the LHC Long Shutdown 2 (LS2) planned for 2018. Designed as a silicon pixel detector added in the Muon Spectrometer acceptance ($-4.0 < \eta < -2.5$) upstream of the hadron absorber, the MFT will allow a drastic improvement of the measurements that are presently done with the Muon Spectrometer and, in addition, will give access to new measurements that are not possible with the present Muon Spectrometer setup. Motivations and preliminary results are discussed here, concerning the measurement of prompt and displaced charmonia, open heavy flavors, and low mass dimuons in central Pb--Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 5.5$ TeV

Light neutral mesons production in p-A collisions at s=27.5\sqrt{s} = 27.5 GeV with the NA60 Experiment

The NA60 experiment has studied low-mass muon pair production in proton-nucleus (p-A) collisions with a system of Be, Cu, In, W, Pb and U targets using a 400 GeV/$c$ proton beam at the CERN SPS. Thanks to the collected data sample of 180\,000 low mass muon pairs, the most precise measurement currently available was performed for the electromagnetic transition form factors of the $\eta$ and $\omega$ mesons. The $\rho$ line shape was quantitatively investigated, and its effective temperature measured for the first time in elementary collisions. The transverse momentum spectra for the $\omega$ and $\phi$ mesons have been studied in the full \pt range accessible, up to 2 GeV/$c$. The cross section ratios $\sigma_\rho/\sigma_\omega$ and $\sigma_\phi/\sigma_\omega$ have been considered in full \pt as a function of the size of the production target. The nuclear dependence of the production cross sections of the $\eta$, $\omega$ and $\phi$ mesons has finally been studied in terms of the power law $\sigma_\mathrm{pA} \propto \mathrm{A}^\alpha$, where the $\alpha$ parameter has been found to increase as a function of \pt.Comment: On behalf of the NA60 Collaboration. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1108.097

Measurement of the η\eta and ω\omega Dalitz decays transition form factors in p-A collisions at 400 GeV/cc with the NA60 apparatus

The NA60 experiment has studied low-mass muon pairs production in proton-nucleus collisions at 400 GeV/$c$ at the CERN SPS. The mass spectrum is well described by the superposition of the two-body and Dalitz decays of the light neutral mesons $\eta$, $\rho$, $\omega$, $\eta'$ and $\phi$. The large collected statistics allows to isolate the contributions due to the Dalitz decays of the $\eta$ and $\omega$ mesons, from which the electromagnetic transition form factors of the two mesons have been extracted. The found values agree with the previous available measurements, improving their uncertainty thanks to the higher statistics. The results thus confirm the discrepancy with the prediction of the Vector Meson Dominance model in the case of the electromagnetic form factor of the $\omega$ meson

Low Mass Dimuon Production in p-A Collisions at s=27.5\sqrt{s} = 27.5 GeV with NA60

The NA60 experiment has studied low-mass muon pair production in proton-nucleus collisions with a system of Be, Cu, In, W, Pb and U targets using a 400 GeV/$c$ proton beam at the CERN SPS. The mass spectrum is well described by the superposition of the two-body and Dalitz decays of the light neutral mesons $\eta$, $\rho$, $\omega$, $\eta'$ and $\phi$. A new high-precision measurement of the electromagnetic transition form factors of the $\eta$ and $\omega$ mesons is presented, complemented with a measurement of the temperature parameter of the $\rho$ meson in cold nuclear matter. The \pt spectra for the $\omega$ and $\phi$ mesons are extracted in the full \pt range accessible, up to \pt = 2 GeV/$c$. The nuclear dependence of the production cross sections for the $\eta$, $\omega$ and $\phi$ mesons has been investigated in terms of the power law $\sigma_\mathrm{pA} \propto \mathrm{A}^\alpha$, and the $\alpha$ parameter was studied as a function of \pt

Study of Low Mass Dimuon Production in 400 GeV Proton-Nucleus Collisions at the CERN-SPS with the NA60 Apparatus

This thesis reports on the data collected at the CERN SPS in p-A collisions at 400 GeV, with the NA60 apparatus, during the 2004 proton run. NA60 is a fixed target experiment at the CERN SPS accelerator, studying both proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions in the dimuonic channel. Data were taken between 2002 and 2004, and the analyses are currently still in progress. The present work focuses on the analysis of the data collected by NA60 during three days within the 2004 run, in collisions between 400 GeV protons and targets of seven different nuclear species. The selection of the data is presented, which allowed to define the final sample of events to be analyzed. Then the transverse momentum spectrum of the phi meson is studied, for each proton-nucleus system. Finally, the average value of the phi's transverse momentum is extracted and studied as a function of the mass number A of the target. The analysis allowed to observe a rising trend of the average transverse momentum of the phi as a function of A, which could be explained in terms of the so-called "Cronin Effect"

Feasibility Study for a Muon Forward Tracker in the ALICE Experiment

ALICE is the experiment dedicated to the study of the quark gluon plasma in heavy-ion collisions at the CERN LHC. Improvements of ALICE sub-detectors are envisaged for the upgrade plans of year 2017. The Muon Forward Tracker (MFT) is a proposal in view of this upgrade, motivated both by the possibility to overcome the intrinsic limitations of the Muon Spectrometer, and by the possibility to perform new measurements of general interest for the whole ALICE physics. The measurement of the offset of single muons and dimuons will permit to disentangle open charm ($c\tau \sim 150 \mu$m) and beauty ($c\tau \sim 500 \mu$m) production. The MFT, thanks to its tracking capabilities, will allow to improve the mass resolution of the resonances for a better separation between $\rho/\omega$ and $\phi$, $J/\psi$ and $\psi'$, and $-$ to a lesser extent $-$ $\Upsilon$ family resonances. In addition, it will help to reject a large fraction of muons coming from pion and kaon decays, improving the signal over background ratio. In order to evaluate the feasibility of this upgrade, a setup composed by five silicon planes was simulated within the AliRoot framework. In this report, we present preliminary results on the MFT performances in a low-multiplicity environment

Low Mass Dimuon Production in p-A Collisions at 400 GeV/c with the NA60 Detector

The NA60 experiment has studied low-mass muon pair production in proton-nucleus collisions with a system of Be, Cu, In, W, Pb and U targets using a 400 GeV/c proton beam at the CERN SPS. The mass spectrum is well described by the superposition of the two-body and Dalitz decays of the light neutral mesons eta, rho, omega, eta' and phi. A new measurement of the electromagnetic transition form factors of the eta and omega was performed. The values found agree with the previous available measurements, improving their uncertainty thanks to the higher statistics, and confirm the discrepancy with the prediction of the Vector Meson Dominance (VMD) model in the case of the electromagnetic form factor of the omega meson; for this latter, the comparison of the data to an improved calculation including also a direct point-like term is discussed. The pT spectra for the omega and phi mesons are studied in the full pT range accessible, up to pT = 2 GeV/c. The pT spectrum of the eta meson is also considered, starting from pT = 0.6 GeV/c. The cross section ratios rho/omega, phi/omega and eta/omega have been studied as a function of the size A of the production target, and an increase of the eta and phi production with respect to the omega is observed from p-Be to p-U collisions. The nuclear dependence of the production cross sections of the eta, omega and phi mesons has been parameterized with the power law A^alpha, where the alpha parameter has been found to increase as a function of pT

Anadolu Mandalarında Sun’i Tohumlama Çalışmaları ve PRID Progesterone Releasing Intravaginal Device Uygulamanın Döl Tutma Oranı Üzerine Etkisi

Bu çalışma, Anadolu manda ineklerinde sun’i tohumlama uygulamak ve kızgınlıkları senkronize etmek için PRID Progesteron Releasing Intravaginal Device uygulamanın etkilerini araştırmak için planlanmıştır. Denme materyalini, en az bir defa doğurmuş 141 adet siklik olmıyan Anadolu manda ineği ve 2 İtalyan boğasından sağlanan semen oluşturmuştur. Kızgınlık senkronizasyonu için PRID kullanılmıştır. Her inek 10 gün uterusta tutulan PRID geri alındıktan 48, 72. ve 96 saat sonra 3 defa sun’i olarak tohumlanmışlardır. Uygulama 5 farklı mevsimde gerçekleştirilmiştir; Nisan 2002 1. grup , Kasım 2002 2. grup , Nisan 2003 3. grup , Kasım 2003 4. grup , Nisan 2004 5. grup . Döl tutma oranlarının hesaplanmasında, tohumlamayı izliyen 90. günde gebe olan inekler esas alınmıştır. Döl tutma oranları tohumlama gruplarında sırası ile %45.5, %17.2, %58.6, %12.5, %46.7 olarak ortalama %36.9 belirlenmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda, siklik olmıyan manda oranının yüksek olduğu yerlerde kızgınlık senkronizasyonunda ve sun’i tohumlama programlarında PRID ‘in tercih edilebilecek bir uygulama olduğu sonucuna varılmıştı

The Effects of Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors (TKIs) in Monotherapy and with Add-on Treatments on Health-related Quality of Life of People with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia: A Systematic Review of Randomized-Controlled Trials

Background: The era of establishing tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) changed the outcome and the course of this life threatening malignancy. People suffering from CML have now a better prognosis and a longer life expectancy due to the development of TKIs, even if it requires long-term, often lifelong, treatments that are nonetheless associated with improved Health-related Quality of life (HRQoL). However, data on the effects of TKIs on HRQoL are not always systematic; sometimes the data have been obtained by studies different from RCTs, or without a clear definition of what HRQoL is. The main purpose of this systematic review is to summarize all randomized-controlled trials (RCTs) including HRQoL as main or secondary outcome in patients with CML treated with TKIs or with TKIs plus an add-on treatment. Methods: A systematic review has been conducted by searching the relevant papers in PubMed/Medline and Web of Science with the following keywords: “quality of life” OR “health-related quality of life” OR “QoL” OR “HRQoL” OR “H-QoL” AND “chronic myeloid leukemia”. Interval was set from January 2000 to December 2020. Results: 40 papers were identified through the search. Out of them, 7 RCTs were included. All the studies used standardized measures to assess HRQoL, even not always specific for CML. 5 RCTs randomized subjects to 2 or 3 arms to evaluate the effects of TKIs of the first, second and third generation in monotherapy. 2 RCTs randomized subjects to TKI therapy plus an add-on treatment versus TKI therapy as usual. The results of all these trials were examined and discussed. Conclusion: All the included RCTs pointed out significant findings regarding the positive effects of TKIs on HRQoL of people with CML, both when they were used in monotherapy or, notably, with an add-on treatment to enhance TKIs effects

Recent advances on ISRU technologies and study of microgravity impact on blood cells for deep space exploration

The long-term solution to problems like overcrowding, fossil fuel depletion, climate change, and decreasing natural resource availability could be overcome through space colonization and human presence in space, as well as the exploitation of extraterrestrial natural resources. In keeping with this, the objective of this work is to analyze current advancements in technology development for deep space exploration and colonization made by our research team as well as by other organizations with which we are collaborating. First, a method for producing tangible goods suited for industrial or civil installations on the Moon, Mars, or asteroids, using in situ available regolith as the main resource, is discussed. In this regard, a new process based on the occurrence of self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) reactions was developed for the fabrication of composite ceramics to be used as construction materials. A theoretical analysis of the process using proper dimensionless numbers is also described to offer potential explanations of the key experimental evidences presented in the relevant literature. For instance, it is found that free convection likely plays a crucial role to make SHS front velocity higher under terrestrial conditions when the reaction ignition is carried out from the bottom side, instead of the top side, of reacting mixture. Next, a method that uses the atmosphere and regolith of Mars as raw feedstock to produce in situ useful material such as oxygen, water, food, fuels and fertilizers, is considered. In the next section, the potential for cultivating Spirulina platensis to provide nourishment for the Martian crew is examined. The possible use of sintered lunar regolith simulants such as JSC-1A is also considered for potential thermal energy storage and solar energy harvesting applications, within the context of resource exploitation. Sintered regolith simulant exhibited, compared to the native material in powder form, superior solar absorptance, which makes it suitable for sunlight absorbers in architectures with a cavity-like solar receiver. Finally, a new study is reported which combines biochemical and biophysical approaches in order to compare, under simulated microgravity and under terrestrial conditions, the functioning and structure of red blood cells, over various intervals of time