Special Issue: Intercultural discourse in domain-specific English

This monographic issue focuses on intercultural communication in specialist fields and its realizations in English for specific purposes. The concept of interculturality on which this issue is built is rooted in discourse, in line with recent research on interaction in specialized domains. Indeed, language is approached here as inseparable from a given socio-cultural configuration – not merely consistent with it, but deeply involved in its construction of reality and its representations. From single phrases to generic patterns, linguistic constructs encode a culture-bound world view. The analysis of discourse often shows that texts are not only where cultures are built, but also where at times they are distorted, rejected or ignored

Characterization of high impedance connecting links for Bolometric detectors

Abstract High impedance connecting links and cables are tested at low frequency in terms of their parasitic impedance to ground and to neighboring connecting links. These parameters must be well characterized with detectors operated at low temperature, especially when the very front-end is at room temperature, which results in a long link. This is the case of the LUCIFER experiment, an array of crystals where every event of interest produces two signals, one composed of phonons, the other of photons. The parasitic impedance is usually considered to be the parallel combination of a resistance and a capacitance. We characterized both and found that from the static measurements the capacitance of the cable resulted much larger. On the basis of this result we optimized the measurement set-up and developed a model to account for this behavior

The Readout and Biasing System for the MARE Experiment in Milan

The complete readout and biasing system for the MARE experiment in Milan is presented. The experiment aims at a direct measurement of the neutrino mass, and is based on an array of microcalorimeters coupled to semiconductor thermistors. The readout is based on JFETs operated inside the cryostat at cold (130 K), to buffer the voltage signal from the thermistors. The sources of the JFETs are fed into second stage amplifiers with very low noise (less than $0.5~\mathrm{nV}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ white noise) and programmable high gain. The outputs are then processed by Bessel filters and acquired with a commercial DAQ system. Every 20 channels, an additional group of 4 is used to amplify the ground reference from inside the cryostat; this common ground signal is then subtracted from each channel. This approach allows to recover a fully differential readout with a smaller number of cables with respect to the standard differential configuration. The detector bias is programmable in voltage and sign with 8-bit resolution. A test signal can be superimposed on the bias voltage, in order to test each channel individually. All the readout system is remotely programmable from a PC, coupled through optical fibers

Auxiliary protein and chaperone regulation of neuronal nicotinic receptor subtype expression and function

Neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are a family of pentameric, ligand-gated ion channels that are located on the surface of neurons and non-neuronal cells and have multiple physiological and pathophysiological functions. In order to reach the cell surface, many nAChR subtypes require the help of chaperone and/or auxiliary/accessory proteins for their assembly, trafficking, pharmacological modulation, and normal functioning in vivo. The use of powerful genome-wide cDNA screening has led to the identification and characterisation of the molecules and mechanisms that participate in the assembly and trafficking of receptor subtypes, including chaperone and auxiliary or accessory proteins. The aim of this review is to describe the latest findings concerning nAChR chaperones and auxiliary proteins and pharmacological chaperones, and how some of them control receptor biogenesis or regulate channel activation and pharmacology. Some auxiliary proteins are subtype selective, some regulate various subtypes, and some not only modulate nAChRs but also target other receptors and signalling pathways. We also discuss how changes in auxiliary proteins may be involved in nAChR dysfunctions

Characterization of the Hamamatsu R11265-103-M64 multi-anode photomultiplier tube

The aim of this paper is to fully characterize the new multi-anode photomultiplier tube R11265-103-M64, produced by Hamamatsu. Its high effective active area (77%), its pixel size, the low dark signal rate and the capability to detect single photon signals make this tube suitable for an application in high energy physics, such as for RICH detectors. Four tubes and two different bias voltage dividers have been tested. The results of a standard characterization of the gain and the anode uniformity, the dark signal rate, the cross-talk and the device behaviour as a function of temperature have been studied. The behaviour of the tube is studied in a longitudinal magnetic field up to 100 Gauss. Shields made of a high permeability material are also investigated. The deterioration of the device performance due to long time operation at intense light exposure is studied. A quantitative analysis of the variation of the gain and the dark signals rate due to the aging is described.Comment: 22 page

Laser-Based Primary Thermometry: A Review

Laser-based primary thermometry was initiated almost 15 years ago by the proposal to determine the absolute temperature of a gas at thermodynamic equilibrium through the Doppler width of an associated absorption transition, exploiting the potentially very accurate measurement of an optical frequency to infer the elusive thermal energy of a molecular or atomic absorber. This approach, commonly referred to as Doppler broadening thermometry, has benefited across the years from substantial improvements, of both technical and fundamental nature, eventually reaching an accuracy of about 10 ppm on the temperature determination in the best cases. This is sufficient for Doppler broadening thermometry to play a significant role in the practical realization of the new kelvin, which follows the 2019's redefinition from a fixed value of the Boltzmann constant, and to tackle the challenge, among others, to quantify and possibly fix systematic uncertainties of the international temperature scale of 1990. This paper reviews and comparatively analyzes methods and results achieved so far in the field of laser-based primary thermometry, also including spectroscopic approaches that leverage the temperature-dependent distribution of line intensities and related absorbances across the rovibrational band of a molecular sample. Although at an early stage of development, these approaches show a promising degree of robustness with respect to the choice of the line-shape model adopted for the fitting of the absorption spectra, which is a delicate aspect for all laser-based thermometers. We conclude by identifying possible technical and scientific evolution axes of the current scenario.& nbsp;Published by AIP Publishing on behalf of the National Institute of Standards and Technology

An ultra fast, low power readout chain for single photon sensitivity with multi-anode photomultiplier tubes for the RICH upgrade at LHCb

Abstract An upgrade proposal for the LHCb RICH detectors at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN is being developed at the INFN section of Milano Bicocca, based on multi-anode photomultiplier tubes. The application requires the fast readout of Cherenkov rings of photons, with single photon sensitivity, at an event rate up to 40 MHz. The proposed readout chain is tailored for the R7600 multi-anode photomultiplier tubes from Hamamatsu, which proved to fit the single photon sensitivity requirement. The readout electronics for each pixel will be composed of an analog pulse shaper, a binary discriminator and additional digital circuitry to count the pulses. A prototype of the analog shaper was built with commercial discrete transistors in Silicon–Germanium (SiGe) Heterojunction technology. The tradeoff between response speed and power dissipation was investigated; and power as low as a few mW per channel could be achieved with response times of the order of one nanosecond. Furthermore, noise and jitter were evaluated, showing very good performances of the prototype