A Next-Generation Liquid Xenon Observatory for Dark Matter and Neutrino Physics

The nature of dark matter and properties of neutrinos are among the mostpressing issues in contemporary particle physics. The dual-phase xenontime-projection chamber is the leading technology to cover the availableparameter space for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), whilefeaturing extensive sensitivity to many alternative dark matter candidates.These detectors can also study neutrinos through neutrinoless double-beta decayand through a variety of astrophysical sources. A next-generation xenon-baseddetector will therefore be a true multi-purpose observatory to significantlyadvance particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, solar physics, andcosmology. This review article presents the science cases for such a detector.<br

Cognitive and cognitive-motor interventions affecting physical functioning: A systematic review

Background Several types of cognitive or combined cognitive-motor intervention types that might influence physical functions have been proposed in the past: training of dual-tasking abilities, and improving cognitive function through behavioral interventions or the use of computer games. The objective of this systematic review was to examine the literature regarding the use of cognitive and cognitive-motor interventions to improve physical functioning in older adults or people with neurological impairments that are similar to cognitive impairments seen in aging. The aim was to identify potentially promising methods that might be used in future intervention type studies for older adults. Methods A systematic search was conducted for the Medline/Premedline, PsycINFO, CINAHL and EMBASE databases. The search was focused on older adults over the age of 65. To increase the number of articles for review, we also included those discussing adult patients with neurological impairments due to trauma, as these cognitive impairments are similar to those seen in the aging population. The search was restricted to English, German and French language literature without any limitation of publication date or restriction by study design. Cognitive or cognitive-motor interventions were defined as dual-tasking, virtual reality exercise, cognitive exercise, or a combination of these. Results 28 articles met our inclusion criteria. Three articles used an isolated cognitive rehabilitation intervention, seven articles used a dual-task intervention and 19 applied a computerized intervention. There is evidence to suggest that cognitive or motor-cognitive methods positively affects physical functioning, such as postural control, walking abilities and general functions of the upper and lower extremities, respectively. The majority of the included studies resulted in improvements of the assessed functional outcome measures. Conclusions The current evidence on the effectiveness of cognitive or motor-cognitive interventions to improve physical functioning in older adults or people with neurological impairments is limited. The heterogeneity of the studies published so far does not allow defining the training methodology with the greatest effectiveness. This review nevertheless provides important foundational information in order to encourage further development of novel cognitive or cognitive-motor interventions, preferably with a randomized control design. Future research that aims to examine the relation between improvements in cognitive skills and the translation to better performance on selected physical tasks should explicitly take the relation between the cognitive and physical skills into account.ISSN:1471-231

How safe are the biologicals in treating asthma and rhinitis?

A number of biological agents are available or being investigated for the treatment of asthma and rhinitis. The safety profiles of these biologic agents, which may modify allergic and immunological diseases, are still being elucidated. Subcutaneous allergen immunotherapy, the oldest biologic agent in current use, has the highest of frequency of the most serious and life-threatening reaction, anaphylaxis. It is also one of the only disease modifying interventions for allergic rhinitis and asthma. Efforts to seek safer and more effective allergen immunotherapy treatment have led to investigations of alternate routes of delivery and modified immunotherapy formulations. Sublingual immunotherapy appears to be associated with a lower, but not zero, risk of anaphylaxis. No fatalities have been reported to date with sublingual immunotherapy. Immunotherapy with modified formulations containing Th1 adjuvants, DNA sequences containing a CpG motif (CpG) and 3-deacylated monophospholipid A, appears to provide the benefits of subcutaneous immunotherapy with a single course of 4 to 6 preseasonal injections. There were no serious treatment-related adverse events or anaphylaxis in the clinical trials of these two immunotherapy adjuvants. Omalizumab, a monoclonal antibody against IgE, has been associated with a small risk of anaphylaxis, affecting 0.09% to 0.2% of patients. It may also be associated with a higher risk of geohelminth infection in patients at high risk for parasitic infections but it does not appear to affect the response to treatment or severity of the infection

Best practice for motor imagery: a systematic literature review on motor imagery training elements in five different disciplines

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The literature suggests a beneficial effect of motor imagery (MI) if combined with physical practice, but detailed descriptions of MI training session (MITS) elements and temporal parameters are lacking. The aim of this review was to identify the characteristics of a successful MITS and compare these for different disciplines, MI session types, task focus, age, gender and MI modification during intervention.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>An extended systematic literature search using 24 databases was performed for five disciplines: Education, Medicine, Music, Psychology and Sports. References that described an MI intervention that focused on motor skills, performance or strength improvement were included. Information describing 17 MITS elements was extracted based on the PETTLEP (physical, environment, timing, task, learning, emotion, perspective) approach. Seven elements describing the MITS temporal parameters were calculated: study duration, intervention duration, MITS duration, total MITS count, MITS per week, MI trials per MITS and total MI training time.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Both independent reviewers found 96% congruity, which was tested on a random sample of 20% of all references. After selection, 133 studies reporting 141 MI interventions were included. The locations of the MITS and position of the participants during MI were task-specific. Participants received acoustic detailed MI instructions, which were mostly standardised and live. During MI practice, participants kept their eyes closed. MI training was performed from an internal perspective with a kinaesthetic mode. Changes in MI content, duration and dosage were reported in 31 MI interventions. Familiarisation sessions before the start of the MI intervention were mentioned in 17 reports. MI interventions focused with decreasing relevance on motor-, cognitive- and strength-focused tasks. Average study intervention lasted 34 days, with participants practicing MI on average three times per week for 17 minutes, with 34 MI trials. Average total MI time was 178 minutes including 13 MITS. Reporting rate varied between 25.5% and 95.5%.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>MITS elements of successful interventions were individual, supervised and non-directed sessions, added after physical practice. Successful design characteristics were dominant in the Psychology literature, in interventions focusing on motor and strength-related tasks, in interventions with participants aged 20 to 29 years old, and in MI interventions including participants of both genders. Systematic searching of the MI literature was constrained by the lack of a defined MeSH term.</p

A next-generation liquid xenon observatory for dark matter and neutrino physics

The nature of dark matter and properties of neutrinos are among the most pressing issues in contemporary particle physics. The dual-phase xenon time-projection chamber is the leading technology to cover the available parameter space for weakly interacting massive particles, while featuring extensive sensitivity to many alternative dark matter candidates. These detectors can also study neutrinos through neutrinoless double-beta decay and through a variety of astrophysical sources. A next-generation xenon-based detector will therefore be a true multi-purpose observatory to significantly advance particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, solar physics, and cosmology. This review article presents the science cases for such a detector

Application of a pulse programmable fiber laser to a broad range of micro-processing applications

Spatial beam shaping has long been utilized to improve laser processes and has often generated spectacular improvements in the end results. Until recently the temporal shape of laser pulses has been limited by the design parameters of the laser cavities and shaping in the temporal domain has remained relatively unexplored. The advent of the MOPA fiber laser has opened the door to creating arbitrary temporal waveforms with shape, energy, and duration being entirely independent from the laser repetition rate and changeable \u201con the fly.\u201d This new degree of freedom in the laser processing parameter space has not only enabled new and improved laser processes but provided a new tool to study the dynamics of the laser material interaction itself which can greatly speed process development. Furthermore having this flexibility allows a single laser to cover a range of process parameters that heretofore normally required using several separate laser system. In this work we report on the application of temporal pulse shaping to CIGS P2 & P3 processing, CIGS P1 processing (molybdenum on glass), a-Silicon P1 processing (ZnO on glass), c-Silicon via hole drilling for emitter wrap through (EWT) and other processes using the PyroFlex 25 pulse programmable fiber laser. The temporal pulse shaping feature of the laser is demonstrated as a tool to probe the process dynamics and speed up the determination of optimal process parameters. When applicable, results between the pulse shape of a traditional laser and an optimized laser pulse shapes are compared.La mise en forme spatiale de faisceaux est utilis\ue9e depuis longtemps pour am\ue9liorer les proc\ue9d\ue9s laser et donne souvent lieu \ue0 des am\ue9liorations spectaculaires dans les r\ue9sultats finaux. Jusqu\u2019\ue0 tout r\ue9cemment, la forme temporelle des impulsions laser \ue9tait limit\ue9e par les param\ue8tres de conception des cavit\ue9s laser, et la mise en forme dans le domaine temporel est rest\ue9e relativement peu explor\ue9e. L\u2019av\ue8nement du laser MOPA a ouvert la voie \ue0 la cr\ue9ation de formes d\u2019onde temporelles arbitraires dont la forme, l\u2019\ue9nergie et la dur\ue9e sont totalement ind\ue9pendantes de la fr\ue9quence de r\ue9p\ue9tition du laser et modifiables \uab \ue0 la vol\ue9e \ubb. Ce nouveau degr\ue9 de libert\ue9 de l\u2019ensemble des param\ue8tres du traitement au laser a permis de mettre au point non seulement de nouveaux proc\ue9d\ue9s laser am\ue9lior\ue9s, mais aussi un outil pour \ue9tudier la dynamique de l\u2019interaction comme telle entre le laser et le mat\ue9riau, ce qui peut acc\ue9l\ue9rer consid\ue9rablement la mise au point de proc\ue9d\ue9s. De plus, cette flexibilit\ue9 permet \ue0 un seul laser de couvrir un \ue9ventail de param\ue8tres de proc\ue9d\ue9 qui, jusqu\u2019ici, n\ue9cessitait normalement l\u2019utilisation de plusieurs syst\ue8mes laser diff\ue9rents. Dans le pr\ue9sent article, nous d\ue9crivons l\u2019application de la mise en forme d\u2019impulsions temporelles au traitement du mat\ue9riau CIGS P2 et P3, du mat\ue9riau CIGS P1 (molybd\ue8ne sur verre) et du a-Silicone P1 (ZnO sur verre), au per\ue7age de trous dans le c-Silicone en utilisant la technologie EWT [pour emitter wrap through] et \ue0 d\u2019autres proc\ue9d\ue9s au moyen du laser \ue0 fibre \ue0 impulsion programmable PyroFlex 25. Nous pr\ue9sentons la caract\ue9ristique de mise en forme d\u2019impulsions temporelles du laser comme un outil pour explorer la dynamique des proc\ue9d\ue9s et acc\ue9l\ue9rer la d\ue9termination de leurs param\ue8tres optimaux. Le cas \ue9ch\ue9ant, nous comparons des r\ue9sultats entre la forme d\u2019impulsion d\u2019un laser classique et celle d\u2019un laser optimis\ue9.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

CIGS P1, P2, and P3 scribing processes using a pulse programmable industrial fiber laser

In this paper, we describe a novel set of laser processes for the CIGS P1, P2 and P3 scribing steps, the development of which has been enabled by a unique pulse-programmable fiber laser. This innovative new laser technology allows pulse duration to be varied from approximately 2 to several 100s of nanoseconds, independent of the laser repetition rate, which can be varied up to 500 kHz. In addition, each pulse can be arbitrarily programmed to generate a specific desired temporal profile of instantaneous laser power. Pulse trains comprised of these shaped pulsed can be applied to the process at high repetition rates.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye