Performance of a spaghetti calorimeter prototype with tungsten absorber and garnet crystal fibres

A spaghetti calorimeter (SPACAL) prototype with scintillating crystal fibres was assembled and tested with electron beams of energy from 1 to 5 GeV. The prototype comprised radiation-hard Cerium-doped GdAlGaO (GAGG:Ce) and YAlO (YAG:Ce) embedded in a pure tungsten absorber. The energy resolution was studied as a function of the incidence angle of the beam and found to be of the order of 10%/E⊕1%, in line with the LHCb Shashlik technology. The time resolution was measured with metal channel dynode photomultipliers placed in contact with the fibres or coupled via a light guide, additionally testing an optical tape to glue the components. Time resolution of a few tens of picosecond was achieved for all the energies reaching down to (18.5 ± 0.2) ps at 5 GeV.We acknowledge support by the CERN Strategic Programme on Technologies for Future Experiments, https://ep-rnd.web.cern.ch/, by the MCIN/AEI, GenCat and GVA (Spain), and by the NSFC (China) under grant Nos. 12175005, 12061141007. The measurements were performed at the Test Beam Facility at DESY Hamburg (Germany), a member of the Helmholtz Association (HGF). The authors would like to thank T. Schneider, H. Gerwig, N. Siegrist, and D. Deyrail (CERN) for their help in designing and assembling the prototype and the set-up, A. Barnyakov, Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (BINP), Novosibirsk, for kindly providing the MCPs, and the ITEP ATLAS group for the DWCs

Progress towards the first measurement of charm baryon dipole moments

Electromagnetic dipole moments of short-lived particles are sensitive to physics within and beyond the Standard Model of particle physics but have not been accessible experimentally to date. To perform such measurements it has been proposed to exploit the spin precession of channeled particles in bent crystals at the LHC. Progress that enables the first measurement of charm baryon dipole moments is reported. In particular, the design and characterization on beam of silicon and germanium bent crystal prototypes, the optimization of the experimental setup, and advanced analysis techniques are discussed. Sensitivity studies show that first measurements of Λ+c and Ξ+c baryon dipole moments can be performed in two years of data taking with an experimental setup positioned upstream of the LHCb detector. Figur

The LHCb upgrade I

The LHCb upgrade represents a major change of the experiment. The detectors have been almost completely renewed to allow running at an instantaneous luminosity five times larger than that of the previous running periods. Readout of all detectors into an all-software trigger is central to the new design, facilitating the reconstruction of events at the maximum LHC interaction rate, and their selection in real time. The experiment's tracking system has been completely upgraded with a new pixel vertex detector, a silicon tracker upstream of the dipole magnet and three scintillating fibre tracking stations downstream of the magnet. The whole photon detection system of the RICH detectors has been renewed and the readout electronics of the calorimeter and muon systems have been fully overhauled. The first stage of the all-software trigger is implemented on a GPU farm. The output of the trigger provides a combination of totally reconstructed physics objects, such as tracks and vertices, ready for final analysis, and of entire events which need further offline reprocessing. This scheme required a complete revision of the computing model and rewriting of the experiment's software

Linfoma T-NK extranasal y extranodal en hipofaringe: un tipo de linfoma poco frecuente en nuestro medio

Varón de 81 años que presenta una lesión en la hipofaringe de crecimiento rápido. Se le diagnostica de linfoma T de tipo “Natural Killer” (NK), un tipo de linfoma raro en esta localización. Con el estudio inmunhistoquímico pudo caracterizarse este linfoma. Fallece en el transcurso del primer ciclo de tratamiento quimioterápico. Se le realiza estudio necrópsico para evaluar la rápida evolución del tumor, su extensión y la causa de la muerte. La autopsia sigue mostrándose una herramienta básica y fundamental para el estudio de ciertas entidades raras en su frecuencia o localización. En este caso además, debido a su rápida evolución, la autopsia fue fundamental para demostrar la persistencia de enfermedad y su extensión a otros órganos no identificados en vida, como la médula ósea, con implicaciones en el estadiaje de la enfermedad

PACIFIC: A 64-channel ASIC for scintillating fiber tracking in LHCb upgrade

The LHCb detector will be upgraded during the next LHC shutdown in 2018/19 [1]. The tracker system will have a major overhaul. Its components will be replaced with new technologies in order to cope with the increased hit occupancy and radiation environment. Here we describe a detector made of scintillating fibers read out by silicon photomultipliers (SiPM), with a view to its application for this upgrade. This technology has been shown to achieve high efficiency and spatial resolution, but its integration within a LHCb experiment presents new challenges. This article gives an overview of the R&D; status of the low-Power ASIC for the sCIntillating FIbres traCker (PACIFIC) chip implemented in a 130 nm CMOS technology. The PACIFIC chip is a 64-channel ASIC which can be connected to a SiPM without the need of any external component. It includes analog signal processing and digitization. The first stage is a current conveyor followed by a tunable fast shaper (≈10 ns) and a gated integrator. The digitization is performed using a 3 threshold non-linear flash ADC operating at 40 MHz. The PACIFIC chip has the ability to cope with different SiPM suppliers with a power consumption below 8 mW per channel and it is radiation-tolerant. Lastly, simulation and test results show the proper read out of the SiPMs with the PACIFIC chip

In Vitro Antithrombotic and Hypocholesterolemic Activities of Milk Fermented with Specific Strains of Lactococcus lactis

Milk fermented with specific lactic acid bacteria (LAB) was reported to be a rich source of metabolites, such as peptides with different biological activities that may have a positive effect on cardiovascular health. Thus, in this study, the antithrombotic and hypocholesterolemic activities of fermented milk with specific strains of Lactococcus lactis were investigated before and after exposure to a simulated gastrointestinal digestion (SGD) model. The inhibition of thrombin-induced fibrin polymerization (IC50 peptide concentration necessary to inhibit thrombin activity by 50%), anticoagulant activity, inhibition of micellar solubility of cholesterol and bile acid binding capacity of water soluble fractions (WSF) <3 kDa from fermented milk were evaluated. Results indicated that the WSF from fermented milk with Lc-572 showed antithrombotic (IC50 = 0.049 mg/mL) and hypocholesterolemic (55% inhibition of micellar solubility of cholesterol and 27% bile acid binding capacity) activities. Meanwhile, fermented milk with Lc-571 showed mainly antithrombotic activity (IC50 = 0.045 mg/mL). On the other hand, fermented milk with Lc-600 presented mainly hypocholesterolemic activity (31.4% inhibition of micellar solubility of and 70% bile acid binding capacity). Moreover, biological activities were not lost after simulated gastrointestinal digestion conditions. Thus, fermented milk with these specific L. lactis strains show potential for the development of functional foods