Kinetic description of hadron-hadron collisions

A transport model based on the mean free path approach to describe pp collisions is proposed. We assume that hadrons can be treated as bags of partons similarly to the MIT bag model. When the energy density in the collision is higher than a critical value, the bags break and partons are liberated. The partons expand and can make coalescence to form new hadrons. The results obtained compare very well with available data and some prediction for higher energies collisions are discussed. Based on the model we suggest that a QGP could already be formed in the pp collisions at high energies

On the mutual effect of ion temperature gradient instabilities and impurity peaking in the reversed field pinch

The presence of impurities is considered in gyrokinetic calculations of ion temperature gradient (ITG) instabilities and turbulence in the reversed field pinch device RFX-mod. This device usually exhibits hollow Carbon/Oxygen profiles, peaked in the outer core region. We describe the role of the impurities in ITG mode destabilization, and analyze whether ITG turbulence is compatible with their experimental gradients.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Plasma Phys. Control. Fusio

EUROnu-WP6 2010 Report

This is a summary of the work done by the Working Package 6 (Physics) of the EU project "EUROnu" during the second year of activity of the project.Comment: 82 pages, 51 eps figure

Architects of time: Labouring on digital futures

Drawing on critical analyses of the internet inspired by Gilles Deleuze and the Marxist autonomia movement, this paper suggests a way of understanding the impact of the internet and digital culture on identity and social forms through a consideration of the relationship between controls exercised through the internet, new subjectivities constituted through its use and new labour practices enabled by it. Following Castells, we can see that the distinction between user, consumer and producer is becoming blurred and free labour is being provided by users to corporations. The relationship between digital technologies and sense of community, through their relationship to the future, is considered for its dangers and potentials. It is proposed that the internet may be a useful tool for highlighting and enabling social connections if certain dangers can be traversed. Notably, current remedies for the lack of trust on the internet are questioned with an alternative, drawing on Zygmunt Bauman and Georg Simmel, proposed which is built on community through a vision of a ‘shared network’

Constitutive androstane receptor 1 is constitutively bound to chromatin and ‘primed’ for transactivation in hepatocytes

The constitutive androstane receptor (CAR) is a xenobiotic sensor expressed in hepatocytes that activates genes involved in drug metabolism, lipid homeostasis, and cell proliferation. Much progress has been made in understanding the mechanism of activation of human CAR by drugs and xenobiotics. However, many aspects of the activation pathway remain to be elucidated. In this report, we have used viral constructs to express human CAR, its splice variants, and mutant CAR forms in hepatocytes from Car-/- mice in vitro and in vivo. We demonstrate CAR expression rescued the ability of Car-/- hepatocytes to respond to a wide range of CAR activators including phenobarbital. Additionally, two major splice isoforms of human CAR, CAR2 and CAR3, were inactive with almost all the agents tested. In contrast to the current model of CAR activation, ectopic CAR1 is constitutively localised in the nucleus and is loaded onto Cyp2b10 gene in the absence of an inducing agent. In studies to elucidate the role of threonine T38 in CAR regulation, we found that the T38D mutant was inactive even in the presence of CAR activators. However, the T38A mutant was activated by CAR inducers, showing that T38 is not essential for CAR activation. Also, using the inhibitor erlotinib, we could not confirm a role for the epidermal growth factor receptor in CAR regulation. Our data suggest that CAR is constitutively bound to gene regulatory regions and is regulated by exogenous agents through a mechanism which involves protein phosphorylation in the nucleus

Topical Review on "Beta-beams"

Neutrino physics is traversing an exciting period, after the important discovery that neutrinos are massive particles, that has implications from high-energy physics to cosmology. A new method for the production of intense and pure neutrino beams has been proposed recently: the ``beta-beam''. It exploits boosted radioactive ions decaying through beta-decay. This novel concept has been the starting point for a new possible future facility. Its main goal is to address the crucial issue of the existence of CP violation in the lepton sector. Here we review the status and the recent developments with beta-beams. We discuss the original, the medium and high-energy scenarios as well as mono-chromatic neutrino beams produced through ion electron-capture. The issue of the degeneracies is mentioned. An overview of low energy beta-beams is also presented. These beams can be used to perform experiments of interest for nuclear structure, for the study of fundamental interactions and for nuclear astrophysics.Comment: Topical Review for Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics, published version, minor corrections, references adde

Introduction to Eurocrisis, Neoliberalism and the Common

This introduction frames the articles collected in the special section as the outcome of a process of ‘self-education’ taking place in the Italian free university network UniNomade 2.0 between 2010 and 2013. The open seminars and conferences orga- nized by UniNomade 2.0 took as their object of inquiry the concept of the Common, while the articles selected focus in particular on the sovereign debt crisis of the European Union (Eurocrisis) following the global financial crisis of 2008. The intro- duction thus summarizes the overall approach of contemporary ‘post-operaist’ authors such as Toni Negri, Christian Marazzi, Maurizio Lazzarato, Andrea Fumagalli and Stefano Lucarelli, and Carlo Vercellone to the new role of financial capital, the transformation of money, the material constitution of Europe, the role played by the relationship between debtors and creditors, and the possibilities opened by the concept of Commonfare for struggles against austerity

Neutrino hierarchy from CP-blind observables with high density magnetized detectors

High density magnetized detectors are well suited to exploit the outstanding purity and intensities of novel neutrino sources like Neutrino Factories and Beta Beams. They can also provide independent measurements of leptonic mixing parameters through the observation of atmospheric muon-neutrinos. In this paper, we discuss the combination of these observables from a multi-kton iron detector and a high energy Beta Beam; in particular, we demonstrate that even with moderate detector granularities the neutrino mass hierarchy can be determined for $\theta_{13}$ values greater than 4$^\circ$.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures. Added a new section discussing systematic errors (sec 5.2); sec.5.1 and 4 have been extended. Version to appear in EPJ

Meal delivery programs reduce the use of costly health care in dually eligible medicare and medicaid beneficiaries

Delivering food to nutritionally vulnerable patients is important for addressing these patients' social determinants of health. However, it is not known whether food delivery programs can reduce the use of costly health services and decrease medical spending among these patients. We sought to determine whether home delivery of either medically tailored meals or nontailored food reduces the use of selected health care services and medical spending in a sample of adults dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. Compared with matched nonparticipants, participants had fewer emergency department visits in both the medically tailored meal program and the nontailored food program. Participants in the medically tailored meal program also had fewer inpatient admissions and lower medical spending. Participation in the nontailored food program was not associated with fewer inpatient admissions but was associated with lower medical spending. These findings suggest the potential for meal delivery programs to reduce the use of costly health care and decrease spending for vulnerable patients

High intensity neutrino oscillation facilities in Europe

The EUROnu project has studied three possible options for future, high intensity neutrino oscillation facilities in Europe. The first is a Super Beam, in which the neutrinos come from the decay of pions created by bombarding targets with a 4 MW proton beam from the CERN High Power Superconducting Proton Linac. The far detector for this facility is the 500 kt MEMPHYS water Cherenkov, located in the Fréjus tunnel. The second facility is the Neutrino Factory, in which the neutrinos come from the decay of μ+ and μ− beams in a storage ring. The far detector in this case is a 100 kt magnetized iron neutrino detector at a baseline of 2000 km. The third option is a Beta Beam, in which the neutrinos come from the decay of beta emitting isotopes, in particular He6 and Ne18, also stored in a ring. The far detector is also the MEMPHYS detector in the Fréjus tunnel. EUROnu has undertaken conceptual designs of these facilities and studied the performance of the detectors. Based on this, it has determined the physics reach of each facility, in particular for the measurement of CP violation in the lepton sector, and estimated the cost of construction. These have demonstrated that the best facility to build is the Neutrino Factory. However, if a powerful proton driver is constructed for another purpose or if the MEMPHYS detector is built for astroparticle physics, the Super Beam also becomes very attractive