Limits on the high-energy gamma and neutrino fluxes from the SGR 1806-20 giant flare of December 27th, 2004 with the AMANDA-II detector

On December 27th 2004, a giant gamma flare from the Soft Gamma-ray Repeater 1806-20 saturated many satellite gamma-ray detectors. This event was by more than two orders of magnitude the brightest cosmic transient ever observed. If the gamma emission extends up to TeV energies with a hard power law energy spectrum, photo-produced muons could be observed in surface and underground arrays. Moreover, high-energy neutrinos could have been produced during the SGR giant flare if there were substantial baryonic outflow from the magnetar. These high-energy neutrinos would have also produced muons in an underground array. AMANDA-II was used to search for downgoing muons indicative of high-energy gammas and/or neutrinos. The data revealed no significant signal. The upper limit on the gamma flux at 90% CL is dN/dE < 0.05 (0.5) TeV^-1 m^-2 s^-1 for gamma=-1.47 (-2). Similarly, we set limits on the normalization constant of the high-energy neutrino emission of 0.4 (6.1) TeV^-1 m^-2 s^-1 for gamma=-1.47 (-2).Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure

Exclusive measurement of two-pion production in the dd --> 4Hepipi reaction

The results from the first kinematically complete measurement of the dd --> 4Hepipi reaction are reported. The aim was to investigate a long standing puzzle regarding the origin of the peculiar pipi-invariant mass distributions appearing in double pion production in light ion collisions, the so-called ABC effect. The measurements were performed at the incident deuteron energies of 712 MeV and 1029 MeV, with the WASA detector assembly at CELSIUS in Uppsala, Sweden. We report the observation of a characteristic enhancement at low pipi-invariant mass at 712 MeV, the lowest energy yet. At the higher energy, in addition to confirming previous experimental observations, our results reveal a strong angular dependence of the pions in the overall centre of mass system. The results are qualitatively reproduced by a theoretical model, according to which the ABC effect is described as resulting from a kinematical enhancement in the production of the pion pairs from two parallel and independent NN--> dpi sub-processes.Comment: 20 pages including 18 figure

First year performance of the IceCube neutrino telescope

The first sensors of the IceCube neutrino observatory were deployed at the South Pole during the austral summer of 2004-2005 and have been producing data since February 2005. One string of 60 sensors buried in the ice and a surface array of eight ice Cherenkov tanks took data until December 2005 when deployment of the next set of strings and tanks began. We have analyzed these data, demonstrating that the performance of the system meets or exceeds design requirements. Times are determined across the whole array to a relative precision of better than 3 ns, allowing reconstruction of muon tracks and light bursts in the ice, of air-showers in the surface array and of events seen in coincidence by surface and deep-ice detectors separated by up to 2.5 km

The ICECUBE prototype string in AMANDA

The Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array (Amanda) is a high-energy neutrino telescope. It is a lattice of optical modules (OM) installed in the clear ice below the South Pole Station. Each OM contains a photomultiplier tube (PMT) that detects photons of Cherenkov light generated in the ice by muons and electrons. IceCube is a cubic-kilometer-sized expansion of Amanda currently being built at the South Pole. In IceCube the PMT signals are digitized already in the optical modules and transmitted to the surface. A prototype string of 41 OMs equipped with this new all-digital technology was deployed in the Amanda array in the year 2000. In this paper we describe the technology and demonstrate that this string serves as a proof of concept for the IceCube array. Our investigations show that the OM timing accuracy is 5 ns. Atmospheric muons are detected in excellent agreement with expectations with respect to both angular distribution and absolute rate

Limits to the muon flux from neutralino annihilations in the Sun with the AMANDA detector

A search for an excess of muon-neutrinos from neutralino annihilations in the Sun has been performed with the AMANDA-II neutrino detector using data collected in 143.7 days of live-time in 2001. No excess over the expected atmospheric neutrino background has been observed. An upper limit at 90% confidence level has been obtained on the annihilation rate of captured neutralinos in the Sun, as well as the corresponding muon flux limit at the Earth, both as functions of the neutralino mass in the range 100 GeV-5000 GeV.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to Astropart. Phy

A case study on measuring process quality : lessons learned

Requiring solid engineering disciplines and best practices rather than human talents for developing complex software systems results an increasing interest in software processes. The quality of software processes has considerable influence over the success of an organization. Process quality measurement addresses an essential and largely overlooked aspect of processes. We performed a case study on the application of a process quality measurement method with the main objective of examining the extent of the support it offers for software process improvement in practice. We discuss the challenges and lessons learned as well as the limitations of the measurement method applied

Business process modeling pluralized

Traditional centralized business process management approaches pose difficulties in coping with rapid changes and evolving process models. We developed the Plural method to allow for decentralized modeling of processes. The Plural method enables process participants, rather than a centralized group of process engineers or managers, to model and maintain their processes. In previous works, we introduced the Plural method and discussed its applications in case studies. This paper elaborates more into the notation component of the Plural method. We describe the diagram types used for capturing process information. We also present a case study performed in a small web application development company. We discuss the results together with a synthesis of the findings and lessons learned from our previous case studies

The Role of Primary Surgery in De Novo Metastatic Breast Carcinoma

Approximately 6-10% of all breast carcinoma is metastatic at diagnosis, termed de novo metastatic breast carcinoma (dnMBC). Systemic therapy remains the first line of treatment in dnMBC, but there is growing evidence that adjuvant locoregional treatment (LRT) of the primary tumor increases progression-free and overall survival (OS). Although selection bias may exist, real-world data from nearly half a million patients show that patients are undergoing primary tumor removal because of the survival benefit. The main question for the advocates for LRT in this patient population is not whether primary surgery is beneficial in dnMBC patients, but rather who is a good candidate for it. Oligometastatic disease (OMD) is a distinct subset of dnMBC that affects a limited number of organs. A better OS can be achieved with LRT in breast cancer patients, especially in those with OMD, bone only, or favorable subtypes. Though there is currently no consensus among breast care specialists on how to treat dnMBC patients, primary surgery for dnMBC should be taken into consideration for a subset of patients following an extensive multidisciplinary discussion. © Copyright 2023 by the Turkish Federation of Breast Diseases Societies / European Journal of Breast Health published by Galenos Publishing House.38. Soran A, Soyder A, Ozbas S, Ozmen V, Karanlik H, Igci A, et al. Breast Health Working Group International (supported by the Turkish Federation of Breast Disease Societies). The role of loco-regional treatment in long-term quality of life in de novo stage IV breast cancer patients: protocol MF07-01Q. Support Care Cancer 2021; 29: 3823-3830. (PMID: 33242163) [Crossref

Making functional similarity count for more reliable effort prediction models

This paper evaluates the impact of functional similarities on the relation between functional size and software development effort. The estimation of the required effort cannot be achieved within reasonable limits at all times. We aimed to address this problem by considering functional similarities. Functional similarity is calculated for COSMIC measurement size results as adjusted functional sizes. The case study includes six cases. We discussed the challenges and the improvement opportunities of the method