872 research outputs found
Free electron lifetime achievements in Liquid Argon Imaging TPC
A key feature for the success of the liquid Argon imaging TPC (LAr-TPC)
technology is the industrial purification against electro-negative impurities,
especially Oxygen and Nitrogen remnants, which have to be continuously kept at
an exceptionally low level by filtering and recirculating liquid Argon.
Improved purification techniques have been applied to a 120 liters LAr-TPC test
facility in the INFN-LNL laboratory. Through-going muon tracks have been used
to determine the free electron lifetime in liquid Argon against
electro-negative impurities. The short path length here observed (30 cm) is
compensated by the high accuracy in the observation of the specific ionization
of cosmic ray muons at sea level as a function of the drift distance. A free
electron lifetime of (21.4+7.3-4.3) ms, namely > 15.8 ms at 90 % C.L. has been
observed over several weeks under stable conditions, corresponding to a
residual Oxygen equivalent of about 15 ppt (part per trillion). At 500 V/cm,
the free electron speed is 1.5 m/ms. In a LAr-TPC a free electron lifetime in
excess of 15 ms corresponds for instance to an attenuation of less than 15 %
after a drift path of 5 m, opening the way to the operation of the LAr-TPC with
exceptionally long drift distances.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures; Accepted for publication in JINS
The Fermat-Torricelli problem in normed planes and spaces
We investigate the Fermat-Torricelli problem in d-dimensional real normed
spaces or Minkowski spaces, mainly for d=2. Our approach is to study the
Fermat-Torricelli locus in a geometric way. We present many new results, as
well as give an exposition of known results that are scattered in various
sources, with proofs for some of them. Together, these results can be
considered to be a minitheory of the Fermat-Torricelli problem in Minkowski
spaces and especially in Minkowski planes. This demonstrates that substantial
results about locational problems valid for all norms can be found using a
geometric approach
A hardware implementation of Region-of-Interest selection in LAr-TPC for data reduction and triggering
Large Liquid Argon TPC detectors in the range of multikton mass for neutrino
and astroparticle physics require the extraction and treatment of signals from
some 105 wires. In order to enlarge the throughtput of the DAQ system an
on-line lossless data compression has been realized reducing almost a factor 4
the data flow. Moreover a trigger system based on a new efficient on-line
identification algorithm of wire hits was studied, implemented on the actual
ICARUS digital read- out boards and fully tested on the ICARINO LAr-TPC
facility operated at LNL INFN Laboratory with cosmic-rays. Capability to
trigger isolated low energy events down to 1 MeV visible energy was also
demonstrated.Comment: 26 pages, 26 Figure; to be submitted to JINS
Augmentation of Leptin and Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1 alpha mRNAs in Preeclamptic Placenta
Schizophrenia is characterized by marked deficits in executive and psychomotor functions, as demonstrated for goal-directed actions in the antisaccade task. Recent studies, however, suggest that this deficit represents only one manifestation of a general deficit in stimulus-response integration and volitional initiation of motor responses. We here used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate brain activation patterns during a manual stimulus-response compatibility task in 18 schizophrenic patients and 18 controls. We found that across groups incongruent vs. congruent responses recruited a bilateral network consisting of dorsal fronto-parietal circuits as well as bilateral anterior insula, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the presupplementary motor area (preSMA). When testing for the main-effect across all conditions, patients showed significantly lower activation of the right DLPFC and, in turn, increased activation in a left hemispheric network including parietal and premotor areas as well as the preSMA. For incongruent responses patients showed significantly increased activation in a similar left hemispheric network, as well as additional activation in parietal and premotor regions in the right hemisphere. The present study reveals that hypoactivity in the right DLPFC in schizophrenic patients is accompanied by hyperactivity in several fronto-parietal regions associated with task execution. Impaired top-down control due to a dysfunctional DLPFC might thus be partly compensated by an up-regulation of task-relevant regions in schizophrenic patients
Measurement of the production of the four-fermion final states mediated by neutral current processes
Web-based Surveillance and Global Salmonella Distribution, 2000â2002
Surveillance improves control of Salmonella infections
Transdiagnostic commonalities and differences in resting state functional connectivity of the default mode network in schizophrenia and major depression
Schizophrenia and depression are prevalent psychiatric disorders, but their underlying neural bases remains poorly understood. Neuroimaging evidence has pointed towards the relevance of functional connectivity aberrations in defaultmode network (DMN) hubs, dorso-medial prefrontal cortex and precuneus, in both disorders, but commonalities and differences in resting state functional connectivity of those two regions across disorders has not been formally assessed. Here, we took a transdiagnostic approach to investigate resting state functional connectivity of those two regions in 75 patients with schizophrenia and 82 controls from 4 scanning sites and 102 patients with depression and 106 controls from 3 sites. Our results demonstrate common dysconnectivity patterns as indexed by a significant reduction of functional connectivity between precuneus and bilateral superior parietal lobe in schizophrenia and depression. Furthermore, our findings highlight diagnosis-specific connectivity reductions of the parietal operculum in schizophrenia relative to depression. In light of evidence that points towards the importance of the DMN for social cognitive abilities and well documented impairments of social interaction in both patient groups, it is conceivable that the observed transdiagnostic connectivity alterations may contribute to interpersonal difficulties, but this could not be assessed directly in our study as measures of social behavior were not available. Given the operculum's role in somatosensory integration, diagnosis-specific connectivity reductions may indicate a pathophysiological mechanism for basic self-disturbances that is characteristic of schizophrenia, but not depression. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc
Measurement of a large electron lifetime in a liquid argon TPC
An unprecedentedly high value of electron lifetime in a liquid argon TPC, about 21ms, has been measured in a test facility at INFN-LNL. This results opens the way to the future development of TPCs with very long drift distances
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