Leading particles and diffractive spectra in the Interacting Gluon Model

We discuss the leading particle spectra and diffractive mass spectra from the novel point of view, namely by treating them as particular examples of the general energy flow phenomena taking place in the multiparticle production processes. We argue that they show a high degree of universality what allows for their simple description in terms of the Interacting Gluon Model developed by us some time ago.Comment: Presented at Diffraction2002, Alushta, Crimea (Ukraina), August 31 - September 5, 2002. To be published by Kluwer Academic Publishers (2003) (necessary style files attached). Rewritten according to the Kluwer specification

The ALICE Silicon Pixel Detector System

The European Organization for Particle Physics (CERN) in Geneva is currently constructing the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which will allow the study of the subnuclear ranges of physics with an accuracy never achieved before. Within the LHC project, ALICE is to the study of strongly interacting matter at extreme densities and high temperatures. ALICE as many other modern High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments uses silicon pixel detectors for tracking close to the interaction point (IP). The ALICE Silicon Pixel Detector (SPD) will constitute the two innermost layers of ALICE, and will due to its high granularity provide precise tracking information. In heavy ion collisions, the track density could be as high as 80 tracks/cm2 in the first SPD layer. The SPD will provide tracking information at radii of 3.9 and 7.6 cm from the IP. It is a fundamental element for the study of the weak decays of the particles carrying heavy flavour, whose typical signature will be a secondary vertex separated from the primary vertex by a few hundred microns only. The SPD will provide a spatial resolution of around 12 µm in the rÏ-direction. One of the specific challenges for the ALICE SPD will be the stringent material budget constraints (<1% per layer) in order to have as small as possible influence on the traversing particles. In the design and production process, these constraints were followed to the point, so will the sensor and the readout chip have a total thickness of only 350 µm and the signal lines from the front-end to the on-detector electronics will be deployed in complete aluminum. The results presented in this thesis illustrate the measurements performed in order to characterize the detector performance and qualify components for inclusion in the detector and depicts the work carried out needed for the production phase of the SPD. Quality assurance criteria and test procedures have been developed and fine-tuned for the different components of the SPD. The tests involved visual inspection, electrical tests as well as measurements using a radioactive source. Two beam tests were carried out in the past years. In October 2003 one pixel plane was studied in a heavy ion beam as well as in a proton/pion beam. Four other pixel planes were used as reference planes for tracking. In November 2004 a joint beam test with two planes of each subdetector of the ALICE Inner Tracking System (ITS) took place. For the first time the ALICE data acquisition system (DATE) and the ALICE trigger system were used with two planes of each subdetector. A new tracking algorithm for the proton/pion beam data taking the tilt and the azimuthal angle into account was developed. With this new tracking method it was possible also to analyze the data taken at the wide beam setting during the beam tests 2003. Further, a study of the cluster sizes as function of different operating parameters, i.e. threshold, and track incidence angle was performed giving a comparison between two sensor thicknesses (200 µm and 300 µm). A test system based on a pulsed infrared laser was established in order to test SPD assemblies and the FastOr signal generated by the pixel chip. This laser allowed for the first time a complete characterization of the working point and performance of the chip internally generated FastOr signal. This signal will contribute to the L0 trigger decision in ALICE proton-proton runs. It will be the first time a large high energy physics experiment uses tracking information from a pixel detector for low level triggering. Furthermore, the setup allowed a detailed study of the ALICE1LHCB chip characteristics with well defined timing and energy deposition in the silicon sensor. A laser calibration was performed using the internal threshold DAC and two radioactive sources (55Fe and 109Cd) providing a precise absolute calibration of the detector for the first time. The laser measurements on ALICE assemblies could directly be compared with the results of the beam test 2002 and 2003. During my doctoral thesis at CERN, I have developed and applied test criteria for the SPD components. Furthermore, I developed an infra red laser test system which allowed a detailed study of the detector performance, a special cluster size study and the functionality of the FastOr signal. The cluster size studies obtained with the laser measurements are compared with the results from the beam test data taken in high energy particle beams

A new tourist train in Sagunto

Treball Final de Grau en Turisme. Codi: TU0944. Curs 2013-2014The Town hall of Sagunto, with the target to promote the tourist services that give to the city visitors, considers interesting to make possible a tourist circuit that passes through the most emblematic areas of the city, like the museum, the Roman theater and the castle. Points where big part of the monumental patrimony of Sagunto is concentrated, at the same time that it allows an approach to the commerce of the city center

Comparative Field Evaluation of Combinations of Long-Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets and Indoor Residual Spraying, Relative to Either Method Alone, for Malaria Prevention in an Area where the main Vector is Anopheles Arabiensis.

Long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS) are commonly used together in the same households to improve malaria control despite inconsistent evidence on whether such combinations actually offer better protection than nets alone or IRS alone. Comparative tests were conducted using experimental huts fitted with LLINs, untreated nets, IRS plus untreated nets, or combinations of LLINs and IRS, in an area where Anopheles arabiensis is the predominant malaria vector species. Three LLIN types, Olyset®, PermaNet 2.0® and Icon Life® nets and three IRS treatments, pirimiphos-methyl, DDT, and lambda cyhalothrin, were used singly or in combinations. We compared, number of mosquitoes entering huts, proportion and number killed, proportions prevented from blood-feeding, time when mosquitoes exited the huts, and proportions caught exiting. The tests were done for four months in dry season and another six months in wet season, each time using new intact nets. All the net types, used with or without IRS, prevented >99% of indoor mosquito bites. Adding PermaNet 2.0® and Icon Life®, but not Olyset® nets into huts with any IRS increased mortality of malaria vectors relative to IRS alone. However, of all IRS treatments, only pirimiphos-methyl significantly increased vector mortality relative to LLINs alone, though this increase was modest. Overall, median mortality of An. arabiensis caught in huts with any of the treatments did not exceed 29%. No treatment reduced entry of the vectors into huts, except for marginal reductions due to PermaNet 2.0® nets and DDT. More than 95% of all mosquitoes were caught in exit traps rather than inside huts. Where the main malaria vector is An. arabiensis, adding IRS into houses with intact pyrethroid LLINs does not enhance house-hold level protection except where the IRS employs non-pyrethroid insecticides such as pirimiphos-methyl, which can confer modest enhancements. In contrast, adding intact bednets onto IRS enhances protection by preventing mosquito blood-feeding (even if the nets are non-insecticidal) and by slightly increasing mosquito mortality (in case of LLINs). The primary mode of action of intact LLINs against An. arabiensis is clearly bite prevention rather than insecticidal activity. Therefore, where resources are limited, priority should be to ensure that everyone at risk consistently uses LLINs and that the nets are regularly replaced before being excessively torn. Measures that maximize bite prevention (e.g. proper net sizes to effectively cover sleeping spaces, stronger net fibres that resist tears and burns and net use practices that preserve net longevity), should be emphasized

Measurement of overall insecticidal effects in experimental hut trials

BACKGROUND: The 'overall insecticidal effect' is a key measure used to evaluate public health pesticides for indoor use in experimental hut trials. It depends on the proportion of mosquitoes that are killed out of those that enter the treated hut, intrinsic mortality in the control hut, and the ratio of mosquitoes entering the treatment hut to those entering the control hut. This paper critically examines the way the effect is defined, and discusses how it can be used to infer effectiveness of intervention programmes. FINDINGS: The overall insecticidal effect, as defined by the World Health Organization in 2006, can be negative when deterrence from entering the treated hut is high, even if all mosquitoes that enter are killed, wrongly suggesting that the insecticide enhances mosquito survival. Also in the absence of deterrence, even if the insecticide kills all mosquitoes in the treatment hut, the insecticidal effect is less than 100%, unless intrinsic mortality is nil. A proposed alternative definition for the measurement of the overall insecticidal effect has the desirable range of 0 to 1 (100%), provided mortality among non-repelled mosquitoes in the treated hut is less than the corresponding mortality in the control hut. This definition can be built upon to formulate the coverage-dependent insecticidal effectiveness of an intervention programme. Coverage-dependent population protection against feeding can be formulated similarly. CONCLUSIONS: This paper shows that the 2006 recommended quantity for measuring the overall insecticidal effect is problematic, and proposes an alternative quantity with more desirable propertie

Diel transcriptional response of a California Current plankton microbiome to light, low iron, and enduring viral infection.

Phytoplankton and associated microbial communities provide organic carbon to oceanic food webs and drive ecosystem dynamics. However, capturing those dynamics is challenging. Here, an in situ, semi-Lagrangian, robotic sampler profiled pelagic microbes at 4 h intervals over ~2.6 days in North Pacific high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll waters. We report on the community structure and transcriptional dynamics of microbes in an operationally large size class (&gt;5 μm) predominantly populated by dinoflagellates, ciliates, haptophytes, pelagophytes, diatoms, cyanobacteria (chiefly Synechococcus), prasinophytes (chiefly Ostreococcus), fungi, archaea, and proteobacteria. Apart from fungi and archaea, all groups exhibited 24-h periodicity in some transcripts, but larger portions of the transcriptome oscillated in phototrophs. Periodic photosynthesis-related transcripts exhibited a temporal cascade across the morning hours, conserved across diverse phototrophic lineages. Pronounced silica:nitrate drawdown, a high flavodoxin to ferredoxin transcript ratio, and elevated expression of other Fe-stress markers indicated Fe-limitation. Fe-stress markers peaked during a photoperiodically adaptive time window that could modulate phytoplankton response to seasonal Fe-limitation. Remarkably, we observed viruses that infect the majority of abundant taxa, often with total transcriptional activity synchronized with putative hosts. Taken together, these data reveal a microbial plankton community that is shaped by recycled production and tightly controlled by Fe-limitation and viral activity

Using a New Odour-Baited Device to Explore Options for Luring and Killing Outdoor-Biting Malaria Vectors: A Report on Design and Field Evaluation of the Mosquito Landing Box.

Mosquitoes that bite people outdoors can sustain malaria transmission even where effective indoor interventions such as bednets or indoor residual spraying are already widely used. Outdoor tools may therefore complement current indoor measures and improve control. We developed and evaluated a prototype mosquito control device, the 'Mosquito Landing Box' (MLB), which is baited with human odours and treated with mosquitocidal agents. The findings are used to explore technical options and challenges relevant to luring and killing outdoor-biting malaria vectors in endemic settings. Field experiments were conducted in Tanzania to assess if wild host-seeking mosquitoes 1) visited the MLBs, 2) stayed long or left shortly after arrival at the device, 3) visited the devices at times when humans were also outdoors, and 4) could be killed by contaminants applied on the devices. Odours suctioned from volunteer-occupied tents were also evaluated as a potential low-cost bait, by comparing baited and unbaited MLBs. There were significantly more Anopheles arabiensis, An. funestus, Culex and Mansonia mosquitoes visiting baited MLB than unbaited controls (P<=0.028). Increasing sampling frequency from every 120 min to 60 and 30 min led to an increase in vector catches of up to 3.6 fold (P<=0.002), indicating that many mosquitoes visited the device but left shortly afterwards. Outdoor host-seeking activity of malaria vectors peaked between 7:30 and 10:30pm, and between 4:30 and 6:00am, matching durations when locals were also outdoors. Maximum mortality of mosquitoes visiting MLBs sprayed or painted with formulations of candidate mosquitocidal agent (pirimiphos-methyl) was 51%. Odours from volunteer occupied tents attracted significantly more mosquitoes to MLBs than controls (P<0.001). While odour-baited devices such as the MLBs clearly have potential against outdoor-biting mosquitoes in communities where LLINs are used, candidate contaminants must be those that are effective at ultra-low doses even after short contact periods, since important vector species such as An. arabiensis make only brief visits to such devices. Natural human odours suctioned from occupied dwellings could constitute affordable sources of attractants to supplement odour baits for the devices. The killing agents used should be environmentally safe, long lasting, and have different modes of action (other than pyrethroids as used on LLINs), to curb the risk of physiological insecticide resistance