A neutron scattering study of the interplay between structure and magnetism in Ba(Fe1−x_{1-x}Cox_{x})2_2As2_2

Single crystal neutron diffraction is used to investigate the magnetic and structural phase diagram of the electron doped superconductor Ba(Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$)$_2$As$_2$. Heat capacity and resistivity measurements have demonstrated that Co doping this system splits the combined antiferromagnetic and structural transition present in BaFe$_2$As$_2$ into two distinct transitions. For $x$=0.025, we find that the upper transition is between the high-temperature tetragonal and low-temperature orthorhombic structures with ($T_{\mathrm{TO}}=99 \pm 0.5$ K) and the antiferromagnetic transition occurs at $T_{\mathrm{AF}}=93 \pm 0.5$ K. We find that doping rapidly suppresses the antiferromagnetism, with antiferromagnetic order disappearing at $x \approx 0.055$. However, there is a region of co-existence of antiferromagnetism and superconductivity. The effect of the antiferromagnetic transition can be seen in the temperature dependence of the structural Bragg peaks from both neutron scattering and x-ray diffraction. We infer from this that there is strong coupling between the antiferromagnetism and the crystal lattice

Large area Si low-temperature light detectors with Neganov-Luke effect

Next generation calorimetric experiments for the search of rare events rely on the detection of tiny amounts of light (of the order of 20 optical photons) to discriminate and reduce background sources and improve sensitivity. Calorimetric detectors are the simplest solution for photon detection at cryogenic (mK) temperatures. The development of silicon based light detectors with enhanced performance thanks to the use of the Neganov-Luke effect is described. The aim of this research line is the production of high performance detectors with industrial-grade reproducibility and reliability.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

EU-NICE, Eurasian University Network for International Cooperation in Earthquakes

Despite the remarkable scientific advancements of earthquake engineering and seismology in many countries, seismic risk is still growing at a high rate in the world’s most vulnerable communities. Successful practices have shown that a community’s capacity to manage and reduce its seismic risk relies on capitalization on policies, on technology and research results. An important role is played by education, than contribute to strengthening technical curricula of future practitioners and researchers through university and higher education programmes. In recent years an increasing number of initiatives have been launched in this field at the international and global cooperation level. Cooperative international academic research and training is key to reducing the gap between advanced and more vulnerable regions. EU-NICE is a European Commission funded higher education partnership for international development cooperation with the objective to build capacity of individuals who will operate at institutions located in seismic prone Asian Countries. The project involves five European Universities, eight Asian universities and four associations and NGOs active in advanced research on seismic mitigation, disaster risk management and international development. The project consists of a comprehensive mobility scheme open to nationals from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, North Korea, Philippines, and Sri Lanka who plan to enrol in school or conduct research at one of five European partner universities in Italy, Greece and Portugal. During the 2010-14 time span a total number of 104 mobilities are being involved in scientific activities at the undergraduate, masters, PhD, postdoctoral and academic-staff exchange levels. This high number of mobilities and activities is selected and designed so as to produce an overall increase of knowledge that can result in an impact on earthquake mitigation. Researchers, future policymakers and practitioners build up their curricula over a range of disciplines in the fields of engineering, seismology, disaster risk management and urban planning. Specific educational and research activities focus on earthquake risk mitigation related topics such as: anti-seismic structural design, structural engineering, advanced computer structural collapse analysis, seismology, experimental laboratory studies, international and development issues in disaster risk management, social-economical impact studies, international relations and conflict resolution

Searches for axioelectric effect of solar axions with BGO-scintillator and BGO-bolometer detectors

A search for axioelectric absorption of 5.5 MeV solar axions produced in the $p + d \rightarrow {^3\rm{He}}+\gamma~(5.5~ \rm{MeV})$ reaction has been performed with a BGO detectors. A model-independent limit on the product of axion-nucleon $g_{AN}^3$ and axion-electron $g_{Ae}$ coupling constants has been obtained: $| g_{Ae}\times g_{AN}^3|< 1.9\times 10^{-10}$ for 90\% C.L..Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of the 10th Patras Workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISP 29 June - 4 July 2014, CERN, Geneva, Switzerlan

Scintillating double beta decay bolometers

We present the results obtained in the development of scintillating Double Beta Decay bolometers. Several Mo and Cd based crystals were tested with the bolometric technique. The scintillation light was measured through a second independent bolometer. A 140 g CdWO_4 crystal was run in a 417 h live time measurement. Thanks to the scintillation light, the alpha background is easily discriminated resulting in zero counts above the 2615 keV gamma line of Thallium 208. These results, combined with an extremely easy light detector operation, represent the first tangible proof demonstrating the feasibility of this kind of technique.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure

Intravesical oxybutynin: mode of action assessed by passive diffusion and electromotive administration with pharmacokinetics of oxybutynin and N-desethyl oxybutynin.

PURPOSE: A proportion of patients with detrusor hyperreflexia who are unresponsive to oral oxybutynin often benefit from intravesical oxybutynin instillation. To our knowledge the precise mode of action of this method is obscure. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 12 patients with detrusor hyperreflexia who were previously unresponsive to oral and intravesical passive diffusion of 5 mg. oxybutynin we administered 5 mg. oxybutynin orally as well as increased doses of 15 mg. oxybutynin intravesically with passive diffusion and with 15 mA. associated electric current. Each administration mode per patient was associated with an 8-hour urodynamic monitoring session during which oxybutynin and N-desethyl oxybutynin plasma levels, and intravesical oxybutynin uptake were measured. RESULTS: A dose of 5 mg. oxybutynin orally induced no urodynamic improvement with an area under the plasma concentration time curve of combined N-desethyl oxybutynin plus oxybutynin of 16,297 ng./8 hours and an area under the curve ratio of N-desethyl oxybutynin-to-oxybutynin of 11:1. Passive diffusion oxybutynin resulted in 12 mg. oxybutynin intravesical uptake and significant improvement in 3 of 8 urodynamic measurements, although the area under the curve of combined N-desethyl oxybutynin plus oxybutynin was only 2,123 ng./8 hours and the N-desethyl oxybutynin-to-oxybutynin ratio was 1.1:1.0. Electromotive administration of oxybutynin resulted in almost complete intravesical uptake of the 15 mg. dose, significant improvement in all 8 urodynamic measurements and an increased oxybutynin level versus oral and passive diffusion, although the area under the curve of combined N-desethyl oxybutynin plus oxybutynin was 4,574 ng./8 hours and the N-desethyl oxybutynin-to-oxybutynin ratio was inverted at 1.0:1.4. The oral dose of 5 mg. oxybutynin caused anticholinergic side effects in 8 of the 12 patients. Neither intravesical passive diffusion nor electromotive administration caused side effects with an uptake of 12 and 15 mg., respectively. CONCLUSIONS: A large proportion of intravesical oxybutynin is sequestered, probably in the urothelium. Intravesical oxybutynin administration confers therapeutic benefits via localized direct action within the bladder wall. Comment in Intravesical treatment of bladder dysfunction. [J Urol. 2001

Hunting for the New Symmetries in Calabi-Yau Jungles

It was proposed that the Calabi-Yau geometry can be intrinsically connected with some new symmetries, some new algebras. In order to do this it has been analyzed the graphs constructed from K3-fibre CY_d (d \geq 3) reflexive polyhedra. The graphs can be naturally get in the frames of Universal Calabi-Yau algebra (UCYA) and may be decode by universal way with changing of some restrictions on the generalized Cartan matrices associated with the Dynkin diagrams that characterize affine Kac-Moody algebras. We propose that these new Berger graphs can be directly connected with the generalizations of Lie and Kac-Moody algebras.Comment: 29 pages, 15 figure

The Microcalorimeter Arrays for a Rhenium Experiment (MARE): a next-generation calorimetric neutrino mass experiment

Neutrino oscillation experiments have proved that neutrinos are massive particles, but can't determine their absolute mass scale. Therefore the neutrino mass is still an open question in elementary particle physics. An international collaboration is growing around the project of Microcalorimeter Arrays for a Rhenium Experiment (MARE) for directly measuring the neutrino mass with a sensitivity of about 0.2eV/c2. Many groups are joining their experiences and technical expertise in a common effort towards this challenging experiment. We discuss the different scenarios and the impact of MARE as a complement of KATRIN.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure Nucl. Instr. Meth. A, proceedings of LTD11 workshop, Tokyo 200