Highlights from the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Observatory is the world's largest cosmic ray observatory. Our current exposure reaches nearly 40,000 km$^2$ str and provides us with an unprecedented quality data set. The performance and stability of the detectors and their enhancements are described. Data analyses have led to a number of major breakthroughs. Among these we discuss the energy spectrum and the searches for large-scale anisotropies. We present analyses of our X$_{max}$ data and show how it can be interpreted in terms of mass composition. We also describe some new analyses that extract mass sensitive parameters from the 100% duty cycle SD data. A coherent interpretation of all these recent results opens new directions. The consequences regarding the cosmic ray composition and the properties of UHECR sources are briefly discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figures, talk given at the 33rd International Cosmic Ray Conference, Rio de Janeiro 201

Grain Size Control of Tetragonal Zirconia Polycrystals Using the Space Charge Concept

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65680/1/j.1151-2916.1990.tb06449.x.pd

"To work, or not to work, that is the question" – recent trends and avenues for research on presenteeism

This position paper brings together recent and emerging developments in the field of presenteeism. A critical synthesis of the evidence is needed due to persisting conceptual and methodological challenges as well as the increased volume of research in the field. This paper integrates emerging evidence and critical thinking into three areas: (1) concept, (2) measurement and methodological issues, and (3) the context of presenteeism. First, due to the variety of existing definitions, competing understandings, as well as the notion of positive presenteeism, it is important to reconsider the notion of presenteeism. Second, it is important to reflect on the measurement of the act of presenteeism and the productivity loss associated with that. Third, following the call to investigate presenteeism in specific contexts, it is important to explain the social, occupational, cross-cultural aspects, as well as the contemporary workplace changes. Based on this critical synthesis, we conclude by identifying recommendations for future research on presenteeism

Results of a self-triggered prototype system for radio-detection of extensive air showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory

We describe the experimental setup and the results of RAuger, a small radio-antenna array, consisting of three fully autonomous and self-triggered radio-detection stations, installed close to the center of the Surface Detector (SD) of the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina. The setup has been designed for the detection of the electric field strength of air showers initiated by ultra-high energy cosmic rays, without using an auxiliary trigger from another detection system. Installed in December 2006, RAuger was terminated in May 2010 after 65 registered coincidences with the SD. The sky map in local angular coordinates (i.e., zenith and azimuth angles) of these events reveals a strong azimuthal asymmetry which is in agreement with a mechanism dominated by a geomagnetic emission process. The correlation between the electric field and the energy of the primary cosmic ray is presented for the first time, in an energy range covering two orders of magnitude between 0.1 EeV and 10 EeV. It is demonstrated that this setup is relatively more sensitive to inclined showers, with respect to the SD. In addition to these results, which underline the potential of the radio-detection technique, important information about the general behavior of self-triggering radio-detection systems has been obtained. In particular, we will discuss radio self-triggering under varying local electric-field conditions