Educational cosmic ray experiments with Geiger counters

Experiments concerning the physics of cosmic rays offer to high-school teachers and students a relatively easy approach to the field of research in high energy physics. The detection of cosmic rays does not necessarily require the use of sophisticated equipment, and various properties of the cosmic radiation can be observed and analysed even by the use of a single Geiger counter. Nevertheless, the variety of such kind of experiments and the results obtained are limited because of the inclusive nature of these measurements. A significant improvement may be obtained when two or more Geiger counters are operated in coincidence. In this paper we discuss the potential of performing educational cosmic ray experiments with Geiger counters. In order to show also the educational value of coincidence techniques, preliminary results of cosmic ray experiments carried out by the use of a simple coincidence circuit are briefly discussed

Insights to redesign business education in a covid-19 world for a sustainable future

Higher education institutions in general, and business schools in particular, are under increasing pressure to include sustainability in their teaching. The 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have pushed the debate globally, across geographic and sectorial borders, while allowing for a more holistic and systemic view of sustainability. The emergence of sustainability concerns and the need for more responsible leaders and managers has only become more evident with the COVID-19 pandemic. On the one hand, COVID-19 has boosted the online learning environment, opening new possibilities for higher education institutions and their students; but on the other hand, it has revealed profound inequalities in terms of education. The present chapter contributes to this debate with insights to redesign post-COVID-19 business education for a sustainable future, by exploring the literature and the field to answer the following research questions: 1) Why does business education need to be re-designed; 2) What can business schools do to redesign their education in terms of content and learning environment, and 3) How can they do it in terms of tools, methods, and resources. The methodology includes the content analysis of mainstream academic research literature and documents published by international institutions. We examine efforts that have shaped the sector by advocating for the inclusion of sustainability into higher education in general, and business schools in particular. This chapter contributes to the literature on the integration of sustainability into higher education, while shedding light on the challenges and opportunities posed by COVID-19 to higher education.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Beam Test Performance and Simulation of Prototypes for the ALICE Silicon Pixel Detector

The silicon pixel detector (SPD) of the ALICE experiment in preparation at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is designed to provide the precise vertex reconstruction needed for measuring heavy flavor production in heavy ion collisions at very high energies and high multiplicity. The SPD forms the innermost part of the Inner Tracking System (ITS) which also includes silicon drift and silicon strip detectors. Single assembly prototypes of the ALICE SPD have been tested at the CERN SPS using high energy proton/pion beams in 2002 and 2003. We report on the experimental determination of the spatial precision. We also report on the first combined beam test with prototypes of the other ITS silicon detector technologies at the CERN SPS in November 2004. The issue of SPD simulation is briefly discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, prepared for proceedings of 7th International Position Sensitive Detectors Conference, Liverpool, Sept. 200

Advancing responsible management education (RME) and education for sustainable development (ESD) through online resources

Business and management related education, as well as higher education more broadly, is called upon to play a very important role in integrating responsibility as well as sustainability across their teaching and learning. As we have now entered the Decade of Action for the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this need becomes even more critical and it is suggested that “advancements we see in the field (of responsible business and management education) could be in part due to a greater understanding of the nature of the subject with all its complexity and challenges” (Moosmayer, D. C., Laasch, O., Parkes, C., & Brown, K. G. The SAGE handbook of responsible management learning and education. SAGE. https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=31jGDwAAQBAJ, 2020, p.24). While the COVID-19 pandemic has shaken up traditional ways of teaching and learning, the role that online content and tools, particularly, Open Educational Resources (OER) can have (in advancing responsible management education (RME) and sustainable development) in remote teaching and learning has also been made more evident. This chapter aims to provide a better understanding on how online resources and specifically content and tools, including Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Open Educational Resources (OER) can be utilized to enhance RME and discuss some of the challenges including the role of the COVID-19 pandemic. The chapter will feature the case of the SDG Academy—the flagship education initiative of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), a global initiative for the United Nations—with the mandate of creating and curating the best available educational content on sustainable development and making it available as a global public good (https://sdgacademy.org/). With a large catalogue of MOOCs, videos and podcasts this initiative aims to support the current and next generation of educators, practitioners and citizens to advance sustainable development everywhere. Finally, the chapter will discuss the opportunities and challenges and provide recommendations for faculty and practitioners on how to make the most of online content and tools to teach and learn responsibility and sustainable development.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Light scattering as an easy tool to measure vesicles weight concentration

Over the last few decades, liposomes have emerged as promising drug delivery systems and effective membrane models for studying biophysical and biological processes. For all applications, knowing their concentration after preparation is crucial. Thus, the development of methods for easily controlling vesicles concentration would be of great utility. A new assay is presented here, based on a suitable analysis of light scattering intensity from liposome dispersions. The method, tested for extrusion preparations, is precise, easy, fast, non-destructive and uses a tiny amount of sample. Furthermore, the scattering intensity can be measured indifferently at different angles, or even by using the elastic band obtained from a standard spectrofluorimeter. To validate the method, the measured concentrations of vesicles of different matrix compositions and sizes, measured by light scattering with different angles and instruments, were compared to the data obtained by the standard Stewart assay. Consistent results were obtained. The light scattering assay is based on the assessment of the mass fraction lost in the preparation, and can be applied for methods such as extrusion, homogenization, French press and other microfluidic procedures

Performance of ALICE pixel prototypes in high energy beams

The two innermost layers of the ALICE inner tracking system are instrumented with silicon pixel detectors. Single chip assembly prototypes of the ALICE pixels have been tested in high energy particle beams at the CERN SPS. Detection efficiency and spatial precision have been studied as a function of the threshold and the track incidence angle. The experimental method, data analysis and main results are presented.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, contribution to PIX2005 Workshop, Bonn (Germany), 5-8 September 200

Educational cosmic-ray experiments with Geiger counters

Experiments concerning the physics of cosmic rays offer to highschool teachers and students a relatively easy approach to the field of research in high-energy physics. The detection of cosmic rays does not necessarily require the use of sophisticated equipment, and various properties of the cosmic radiation can be observed and analysed even by the use of a single Geiger counter. Nevertheless, the variety of such kind of experiments and the results obtained are limited because of the inclusive nature of these measurements. A significant improvement may be obtained when two or more Geiger counters are operated in coincidence. In this paper we discuss the potential of performing educational cosmic-ray experiments with Geiger counters. In order to show also the educational value of coincidence techniques, preliminary results of cosmic-ray experiments carried out by the use of a simple coincidence circuit are briefly discussed

Performance of prototypes for the ALICE electromagnetic calorimeter

The performance of prototypes for the ALICE electromagnetic sampling calorimeter has been studied in test beam measurements at FNAL and CERN. A $4\times4$ array of final design modules showed an energy resolution of about 11% /$\sqrt{E(\mathrm{GeV})}$ $\oplus$ 1.7 % with a uniformity of the response to electrons of 1% and a good linearity in the energy range from 10 to 100 GeV. The electromagnetic shower position resolution was found to be described by 1.5 mm $\oplus$ 5.3 mm /$\sqrt{E \mathrm{(GeV)}}$. For an electron identification efficiency of 90% a hadron rejection factor of $>600$ was obtained.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure

The ALICE Silicon Pixel Detector System (SPD)

The ALICE silicon pixel detector (SPD) comprises the two innermost layers of the ALICE inner tracker system. The SPD includes 120 detector modules (half-staves) each consisting of 10 ALICE pixel chips bump bonded to two silicon sensors and one multi-chip read-out module. Each pixel chip contains 8192 active cells, so that the total number of pixel cells in the SPD is ≈ 107. The on-detector read-out is based on a multi-chip-module containing 4 ASICs and an optical transceiver module. The constraints on material budget and detector module dimensions are very demanding