Methods and restrictions to increase the volume of resonant rectangular-section haloscopes for detecting dark matter axions

Haloscopes are resonant cavities that serve as detectors of dark matter axions when they are immersed in a strong static magnetic field. In order to increase the volume and improve space compatibility with dipole or solenoid magnets for axion searches, various haloscope design techniques for rectangular geometries are discussed in this study. The volume limits of two types of haloscopes are explored: those based on single cavities and those based on multicavities. In both cases, possibilities for increasing the volume of long and/or tall structures are presented. For multicavities, 1D geometries are explored to optimise the space in the magnets. Also, 2D and 3D geometries are introduced as a first step in laying the foundations for the development of these kinds of topologies. The results prove the usefulness of the developed methods, evidencing the ample room for improvement in rectangular haloscope designs nowadays. A factor of three orders of magnitude improvement in volume compared with a single cavity based on the WR-90 standard waveguide is obtained with the design of a long and tall single cavity. Similar procedures have been applied for long and tall multicavities. Experimental measurements are shown for prototypes based on tall multicavities and 2D structures, demonstrating the feasibility of using these types of geometries to increase the volume of real haloscopes.This work was performed within the RADES group. We thank our colleagues for their support. In addition, this work has been funded by the grant PID2019-108122GB-C33, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ and by “ERDF A way of making Europe”. JMGB thanks the grant FPI BES-2017-079787, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ESF Investing in your future”. Also, this project has received partial funding through the European Research Council under grant ERC-2018-StG-802836 (AxScale)

La Cronología de las Necrópolis Neolíticas del NE Peninsular “Bòbila Madurell-Can Gambús” y “Camí de Can Grau” (Segunda mitad del V milenio cal.ANE- Primera mitad del IV milenio cal.ANE)

En esta comunicación se presentarán los resultados de diferentes análisis estadísticos y modelos bayesianos realizados para precisar la cronología de dos necrópolis neolíticas del Horizonte Cultural de los Sepulcres de Fossa: “Bòbila Madurell-Can Gambús”, con un total de 175 estructuras con restos humanos, y “Camí de Can Grau”, con un total de 25. Tradicionalmente el término Sepulcres de fossa ha sido acuñado para referirse a la recurrencia documentada de enterramientos en fosa o en cista con materiales exógenos depositados en sus ajuares durante este período en el NE de la península Ibérica. Entre estos materiales de origen foráneo suelen aparecer herramientas de sílex melado probablemente procedente del sureste de Francia, hachas y azuelas de jadeíta/eclogita procedentes de los Alpes, ornamentos de varicita extraída de la costa del NE de la península Ibérica, vasos cerámicos de tipo “boca cuadrada” parecidos a los encontrados en el norte de Italia (VBQ) y en algunas ocasiones, incluso, obsidiana sarda. Un patrón similar también ha sido identificado durante el mismo período en las prácticas funerarias de otros contextos europeos, como en la llamada cultura Chasséen en el centro y el sur de Francia, Cortaillod en Suiza o la Cultura dei Vasi a Bocca Quadrata en el norte de Italia. La documentación de estas similitudes entre estas prácticas funerarias ha dado lugar a hipótesis que plantean relaciones de intercambio a larga distancia entre estas comunidades como explicación del patrón. Sin embargo, las relaciones temporales entre estas prácticas funerarias todavía no han sido definidas del todo, por lo que no se ha descrito en profundidad el desarrollo cronológico de estas redes. En este trabajo pretendemos aclarar la cronología de “Bòbila Madurell-Can Gambús” y “Camí de Can Grau”, a través de análisis estadísticos y modelizaciones de enfoque bayesiano sobre más de 60 dataciones radiocarbónicas procedentes de distintas estructuras funerárias. La ida de fondo es aclarar la cronología de estas dos necrópolis teniendo en cuenta la sincronía/diacronía del conjunto de enterramientos en relación a la presencia y ausencia de las materias primas exógenas depositadas en sus ajuares. Entendemos este trabajo como una primera aproximación al desarrollo cronológico de estas redes de intercambio de materias primas en el NE de la Península Ibérica.Peer Reviewe

El papel de los estudios bioarqueológicos en las interpretaciones sobre las comunidades neolíticas del noreste peninsular

Resumen del trabajo presentado al VI Congreso del Neolítico en la Península Ibérica: "Los cambios económicos y sus implicaciones sociales durante el Neolítico de la Península Ibérica", celebrado en Granada del 22 al 26 de junio de 2016.-- et al.El marco del proyecto I+D: “Aproximación a las primeras comunidades neolíticas del NE peninsular a través de sus prácticas funerarias” (2011-2015), y su continuidad para los próximos cuatro años al haber sido renovado, tiene por objetivo conocer cada día más y mejor las comunidades de agricultores y pastores que entre finales del V e inicios del IV milenio cal BC ocuparon y enterraron a sus muertos en el noreste de la Península Ibérica. El contexto de estudio es excepcional, puesto que aquellas comunidades inhumaron sistemáticamente a sus congéneres en tumbas habitualmente individuales y ocasionalmente junto a otro individuo. En esta presentación no sólo queremos mostrar los nuevos análisis y metodologías que estamos aplicando al estudio de los restos humanos, sino también el modelo de trabajo que hemos seguido. A este respecto, tres aspectos son fundamentales: 1) las dataciones absolutas son el eje que vertebra los posteriores análisis; 2) la colaboración con los distintos investigadores/as y laboratorios debe ser estrecha (no es cuestión de solicitar los resultados de un análisis a un laboratorio sino trabajar con las personas que manipulan las muestras y conocen los pros y contras de cada una de las técnicas empleadas) y 3) los estudios y análisis a realizar confluyen para responder a las hipótesis planteadas. A este respecto, en el proyecto hemos tenido la fortuna de poder colaborar con numerosos investigadores/as cuya especialidad versa alrededor de los restos funerarios y que firman la presente comunicación: análisis isotópicos, Adn, tafonomía funeraria, estudios de stress muscular y análisis de morfología dental.Peer Reviewe

A DNA damage repair gene-associated signature predicts responses of patients with advanced soft-tissue sarcoma to treatment with trabectedin

Predictive biomarkers of trabectedin represent an unmet need in advanced soft-tissue sarcomas (STS). DNA damage repair (DDR) genes, involved in homologous recombination or nucleotide excision repair, had been previously described as biomarkers of trabectedin resistance or sensitivity, respectively. The majority of these studies only focused on specific factors (ERCC1, ERCC5, and BRCA1) and did not evaluate several other DDR-related genes that could have a relevant role for trabectedin efficacy. In this retrospective translational study, 118 genes involved in DDR were evaluated to determine, by transcriptomics, a predictive gene signature of trabectedin efficacy. A six-gene predictive signature of trabectedin efficacy was built in a series of 139 tumor samples from patients with advanced STS. Patients in the high-risk gene signature group showed a significantly worse progression-free survival compared with patients in the low-risk group (2.1 vs 6.0 months, respectively). Differential gene expression analysis defined new potential predictive biomarkers of trabectedin sensitivity (PARP3 and CCNH) or resistance (DNAJB11 and PARP1). Our study identified a new gene signature that significantly predicts patients with higher probability to respond to treatment with trabectedin. Targeting some genes of this signature emerges as a potential strategy to enhance trabectedin efficacy.This study was funded by the Spanish Group for Research on Sarcoma (GEIS) and partially by PharmaMar. The authors would like to thank the GEIS data center for data management. The authors also thank the donors and the Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío—Instituto de Biomedicina de Sevilla Biobank (Andalusian Public Health System Biobank and ISCIII-Red de Biobancos PT17/0015/0041) for part of the human specimens used in this study. David S. Moura is recipient of a Sara Borrell postdoctoral fellowship funded by the National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII) (CD20/00155)

Design of new resonant haloscopes in the search for the dark matter axion: A review of the first steps in the RADES collaboration

With the increasing interest in dark matter axion detection through haloscopes, in which different international groups are currently involved, the RADES group was established in 2016 with the goal of developing very sensitive detection systems to be operated in dipole magnets. This review deals with the work developed by this collaboration during its first five years: from the first designs—based on the multi-cavity concept, aiming to increase the haloscope volume, and thereby improve sensitivity—to their evolution, data acquisition design, and finally, the first experimental run. Moreover, the envisaged work within RADES for both dipole and solenoid magnets in the short and medium term is also presented.This work has been funded by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) under projects FPA-2016-76978-C3-2-P (supported by the grant FPI BES-2017-079787) and PID2019-108122GB-C33, and was supported by the CERN Doctoral Studentship programme. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under grant ERC-2018-StG-802836 (AxScale project). IGI acknowledges support from the European Research Council (ERC) under grant ERC-2017-AdG-788781 (IAXO+ project)

Scalable haloscopes for axion dark matter detection in the 30 µeV range with RADES

RADES (Relic Axion Detector Exploratory Setup) is a project with the goal of directly searching for axion dark matter above the 30μeV scale employing custom-made microwave filters in magnetic dipole fields. Currently RADES is taking data at the LHC dipole of the CAST experiment. In the long term, the RADES cavities are envisioned to take data in the BabyIAXO magnet. In this article we report on the modelling, building and characterisation of an optimised microwave-filter design with alternating irises that exploits maximal coupling to axions while being scalable in length without suffering from mode-mixing. We develop the mathematical formalism and theoretical study which justifies the performance of the chosen design. We also point towards the applicability of this formalism to optimise the MADMAX dielectric haloscopes.We thank Ciaran O’Hare for his generous and publicly available compilation of axion bounds https://github.com/cajohare /AxionLimits/. This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad – Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) under project FPA-2016-76978, and was supported by the CERN Doctoral Studentship programme. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council and BD, JG and SAC acknowledge support through the European Research Council under grant ERC-2018-StG-802836 (AxScale project). IGI acknowledges also support from the European Research Council (ERC) under grant ERC-2017-AdG-788781 (IAXO+ project). JR has been supported by the Ramon y Cajal Fellowship 2012-10597, the grant PGC2018-095328-B-I00(FEDER/Agencia estatal de investigaci´on) and FSE-DGA2017-2019-E12/7R (Gobierno de Aragón/FEDER) (MINECO/FEDER), the EU through the ITN “Elusives” H2020-MSCA-ITN-2015/674896 and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under grant SFB-1258 as a Mercator Fellow. CPG was supported by PROMETEO II/2014/050 of Generalitat Valenciana, FPA2014-57816-P of MINECO and by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreements 690575 and 674896. AM is supported by the European Research Council under Grant No. 742104. We wish also to thank our colleagues at CAST and at CERN, in particular Marc Thiebert from the coating lab, Sergio Calatroni for many useful discussions, as well as the whole team of the CERN Central Cryogenic Laboratory for their support and advice in specific aspects of the project

First results of the CAST-RADES haloscope search for axions at 34.67 μeV

et al.We present results of the Relic Axion Dark-Matter Exploratory Setup (RADES), a detector which is part of the CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST), searching for axion dark matter in the 34.67 μeV mass range. A radio frequency cavity consisting of 5 sub-cavities coupled by inductive irises took physics data inside the CAST dipole magnet for the first time using this filter-like haloscope geometry. An exclusion limit with a 95% credibility level on the axion-photon coupling constant of gaγ ≳ 4 × 10−13 GeV−1 over a mass range of 34.6738 μeV < ma < 34.6771 μeV is set. This constitutes a significant improvement over the current strongest limit set by CAST at this mass and is at the same time one of the most sensitive direct searches for an axion dark matter candidate above the mass of 25 μeV. The results also demonstrate the feasibility of exploring a wider mass range around the value probed by CAST-RADES in this work using similar coherent resonant cavities.Article funded by SCOAP3.This work has been funded by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) under project FPA-2016-76978-C3-2-P (supported by the grant FPI BES-2017-079787) and PID2019-108122GB-C33, and was supported by the CERN Doctoral Studentship programme. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council and BD, JG and SAC acknowledge support through the European Research Council under grant ERC-2018-StG-802836 (AxScale project). BD also acknowledges fruitful discussions at MIAPP supported by DFG under EXC-2094 – 390783311. IGI acknowledges also support from the European Research Council (ERC) under grant ERC-2017-AdG-788781 (IAXO+ project). JR has been supported by the Ramon y Cajal Fellowship 2012-10597, the grant PGC2018-095328-BI00(FEDER/Agencia estatal de investigación) and FSE-DGA2017-2019-E12/7R (Gobierno de Aragón/FEDER) (MINECO/FEDER), the EU through the ITN “Elusives” H2020-MSCA-ITN-2015/674896 and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under grant SFB-1258 as a Mercator Fellow. CPG was supported by PROMETEO II/2014/050 of Generalitat Valenciana, FPA2014-57816-P of MINECO and by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreements 690575 and 674896. AM is supported by the European Research Council under Grant No. 742104.Peer reviewe

Wide-band full-wave electromagnetic modal analysis of the coupling between dark-matter axions and photons in microwave resonators

The electromagnetic coupling axion–photon in a microwave cavity is revisited with the Boundary Integral-Resonant Mode Expansion (BI-RME) 3D technique. Such full-wave modal technique has been applied for the rigorous analysis of the excitation of a microwave cavity with an axion field. In this scenario, the electromagnetic field generated by the axion–photon coupling can be assumed to be driven by equivalent electrical charge and current densities. These densities have been inserted in the general BI-RME 3D equations, which express the RF electromagnetic field existing within a cavity as an integral involving the Dyadic Green’s functions of the cavity (under Coulomb gauge) as well as such densities. This method is able to take into account any arbitrary spatial and temporal variation of both magnitude and phase of the axion field. Next, we have obtained a simple network driven by the axion current source, which represents the coupling between the axion field and the resonant modes of the cavity. With this approach, it is possible to calculate the extracted and dissipated RF power as a function of frequency along a broad band and without Cauchy–Lorentz approximations, obtaining the spectrum of the electromagnetic field generated in the cavity, and dealing with modes relatively close to the axion resonant mode. Moreover, with this technique we have a complete knowledge of the signal extracted from the cavity, not only in magnitude but also in phase. This can be an interesting issue for future analysis where the axion phase is an important parameter.This work is part of the project PID2019-108122GB-C33 and the grant FPI BES-2017-079787 (under project FPA-2016-76978-C3-2-P), both funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF A way of making Europe. JG acknowledges support through the European Research Council under grant ERC-2018-StG-802836 (AxScale project).Peer reviewe

Colorectal cancer, sun exposure and dietary vitamin D and calcium intake in the MCC-Spain study

Objectives: To explore the association of colorectal cancer with environmental solar radiation and sun exposure behavior, considering phenotypic variables (eye color, hair color and skin phenotype), dietary intake of vitamin D and calcium, and socio-demographic factors. Study design: Multicenter population-based frequency matched case-control study in Spain (MCC-Spain), with 2140 CRC cases and 3950 controls. Methods: Data were obtained through personal interviews using a structured epidemiological questionnaire that included socio-demographic data, residential history, environmental exposures, behavior, phenotypic and dietary information. An environmental-lifetime sun exposure score was constructed combining residential history and average daily solar radiation, direct and diffuse. Logistic regression was used to explore the association between different variables. A structural equation model was used to verify the associations of the conceptual model. Results: We found a lower risk of CRC in subjects frequently exposed to sunlight during the previous summer and skin burning due to sun exposure. No association was observed in relation to the residential solar radiation scores. Subjects with light eye or light hair colors had a lower risk of CRC that those with darker colors. Dietary calcium and vitamin D were also protective factors, but not in the multivariate model. The structural equation model analysis suggested that higher sun exposure was associated with a decreased risk of CRC, as well as dietary intake of calcium and vitamin D, and these factors are correlated among themselves and with environmental solar radiation and skin phenotypes. Conclusion: The results agree with previous observations that sun exposure, dietary vitamin D and calcium intake, and serum 25(OH)D concentration reduce the risk of CRC and indicate that these factors may be relevant for cancer prevention

NEWSHUB: Incubadora de contenidos formativos para la comunicación profesional de los resultados del Aprendizaje Basado en Proyectos (ABP)

El proyecto NEWSHUB pretende ser el punto de unión entre docentes y estudiantes a través de las asignaturas y proyectos que desarrollen ambos colectivos de la comunidad universitaria. En esta relación al mismo nivel entre profesor/alumno se proporciona apoyo, formación y asesoramiento para poder realizar proyectos de diversa índole y materializarlos para su uso y difusión tanto dentro del aula y el ámbito académico como fuera de ella en el terreno profesional. NEWSHUB es una incubadora de proyectos. Rediseñamos actividades y prácticas de clase para que se ajusten a una aplicación eficaz de la metodología de aprendizaje basado en proyectos. Ofrecemos asesoría y acompañamiento a docentes y estudiantes para que desarrollen su actividad académica integrando estrategias y procesos de calidad propios del ámbito profesional. NEWSHUB es una plataforma de formación. Ponemos contenidos formativos sobre comunicación eficiente a disposición de la comunidad educativa e investigadora y del sector de la orientación laboral y el fomento del emprendimiento. Ofrecemos recursos educativos abiertos a través de una plataforma web modular, interoperable y accesible, que alberga contenidos digitales de producción propia y un banco de buenas prácticas. NEWSHUB conecta asignaturas, docentes y estudiantes para que los resultados de los distintos procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje se optimicen para el cumplimiento de los objetivos clave del proyecto: aplicar eficazmente metodologías abiertas en el aula; alimentar el porfolio y el currículum en la búsqueda de empleo y el fomento del emprendimiento; y generar recursos educativos y modelos de buenas prácticas para formar en una comunicación eficiente