The Heavy Photon Search Experiment

Interest in new physics models including so-called hidden sectors has increased in recent years as a result of anomalies from astrophysical observations. The Heavy Photon Search (HPS) experiment proposed at Jefferson Lab will look for a mediator of a new force, a GeV-scale massive U(1) vector boson, the Heavy Photon, which acquires a weak coupling to electrically charged matter through kinetic mixing. The HPS detector, a large acceptance forward spectrometer based on a dipole magnet, consists of a silicon tracker-vertexer, a lead-tungstate electromagnetic calorimeter, and a muon detector. HPS will search for the e+e- or mu+mu- decay of the Heavy Photon produced in the interaction of high energy electrons with a high Z target, possibly with a displaced decay vertex. In this article, the description of the detector and its sensitivity are presented.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, contributed to the 8th Patras Workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISPs, Chicago, July 18-22, 201

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Relationship between Ketones, Ghrelin, and, Appetite on Isocaloric Diets with Varying Carbohydrate Quality and Amount: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial in People with Obesity (CARBFUNC)

Background - Low-carbohydrate high-fat (LCHF) diets may suppress the increase in appetite otherwise seen after diet-induced fat loss. However, studies of diets without severe energy restriction are lacking, and the effects of carbohydrate quality relative to quantity have not been directly compared. Objectives - To evaluated short- (3 mo) and long-term (12 mo) changes in fasting plasma concentrations of total ghrelin, β-hydroxybutyrate (βHB), and subjective feelings of appetite on 3 isocaloric eating patterns within a moderate caloric range (2000–2500 kcal/d) and with varying carbohydrate quality or quantity. Methods - We performed a randomized controlled trial of 193 adults with obesity, comparing eating patterns based on “acellular” carbohydrate sources (e.g., flour-based whole-grain products; comparator arm), “cellular” carbohydrate sources (minimally processed foods with intact cellular structures), or LCHF principles. Outcomes were compared by an intention-to-treat analysis using constrained linear mixed modeling. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03401970. Results - Of the 193 adults, 118 (61%) and 57 (30%) completed 3 and 12 mo of follow-up. Throughout the intervention, intakes of protein and energy were similar with all 3 eating patterns, with comparable reductions in body weight (5%−7%) and visceral fat volume (12%−17%) after 12 mo. After 3 mo, ghrelin increased significantly with the acellular (mean: 46 pg/mL; 95% CI: 11, 81) and cellular (mean: 54 pg/mL; 95% CI: 21, 88) diets but not with the LCHF diet (mean: 11 pg/mL; 95% CI: −16, 38). Although βHB increased significantly more with the LCHF diet than with the acellular diet after 3 m (mean: 0.16 mmol/L; 95% CI: 0.09, 0.24), this did not correspond to a significant group difference in ghrelin (unless the 2 high-carbohydrate groups were combined [mean: −39.6 pg/mL; 95% CI: −76, −3.3]). No significant between-group differences were seen in feelings of hunger. Conclusions - Modestly energy-restricted isocaloric diets differing in carbohydrate cellularity and amount showed no significant differences in fasting total ghrelin or subjective hunger feelings. An increase in ketones with the LCHF diet to 0.3–0.4 mmol/L was insufficient to substantially curb increases in fasting ghrelin during fat loss

The Heavy Photon Search test detector

The Heavy Photon Search (HPS), an experiment to search for a hidden sector photon in fixed target electroproduction, is preparing for installation at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) in the Fall of 2014. As the first stage of this project, the HPS Test Run apparatus was constructed and operated in 2012 to demonstrate the experiment׳s technical feasibility and to confirm that the trigger rates and occupancies are as expected. This paper describes the HPS Test Run apparatus and readout electronics and its performance. In this setting, a heavy photon can be identified as a narrow peak in the e+e− invariant mass spectrum above the trident background or as a narrow invariant mass peak with a decay vertex displaced from the production target, so charged particle tracking and vertexing are needed for its detection. In the HPS Test Run, charged particles are measured with a compact forward silicon microstrip tracker inside a dipole magnet. Electromagnetic showers are detected in a PbW04 crystal calorimeter situated behind the magnet, and are used to trigger the experiment and identify electrons and positrons. Both detectors are placed close to the beam line and split top-bottom. This arrangement provides sensitivity to low-mass heavy photons, allows clear passage of the unscattered beam, and avoids the spray of degraded electrons coming from the target. The discrimination between prompt and displaced e+e− pairs requires the first layer of silicon sensors be placed only 10 cm downstream of the target. The expected signal is small, and the trident background huge, so the experiment requires very large statistics. Accordingly, the HPS Test Run utilizes high-rate readout and data acquisition electronics and a fast trigger to exploit the essentially 100% duty cycle of the CEBAF accelerator at JLab

Attainment of Brown Adipocyte Features in White Adipocytes of Hormone-Sensitive Lipase Null Mice

BACKGROUND: Hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) is expressed predominantly in adipose tissue, where it plays an important role in catecholamine-stimulated hydrolysis of stored tri- and diglycerides, thus mobilizing fatty acids. HSL exhibits broad substrate specificity and besides acylglycerides it hydrolyzes cholesteryl esters, retinyl esters and lipoidal esters. Despite its role in fatty acid mobilization, HSL null mice have been shown to be resistant to diet-induced obesity. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Following a high-fat diet (HFD) regimen, energy expenditure, measured using indirect calorimetry, was increased in HSL null mice. White adipose tissue of HSL null mice was characterized by reduced mass and reduced protein expression of PPARgamma, a key transcription factor in adipogenesis, and stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1, the expression of which is known to be positively correlated to the differentiation state of the adipocyte. The protein expression of uncoupling protein-1 (UCP-1), the highly specific marker of brown adipocytes, was increased 7-fold in white adipose tissue of HSL null mice compared to wildtype littermates. Transmission electron microscopy revealed an increase in the size of mitochondria of white adipocytes of HSL null mice. The mRNA expression of pRb and RIP140 was decreased in isolated white adipocytes, while the expression of UCP-1 and CPT1 was increased in HSL null mice compared to wildtype littermates. Basal oxygen consumption was increased almost 3-fold in white adipose tissue of HSL null mice and was accompanied by increased uncoupling activity. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that HSL is involved in the determination of white versus brown adipocytes during adipocyte differentiation The exact mechanism(s) underlying this novel role of HSL remains to be elucidated, but it seems clear that HSL is required to sustain normal expression levels of pRb and RIP140, which both promote differentiation into the white, rather than the brown, adipocyte lineage

Temperature and Resource Availability May Interactively Affect Over-Wintering Success of Juvenile Fish in a Changing Climate

The predicted global warming may affect freshwater systems at several organizational levels, from organism to ecosystem. Specifically, in temperate regions, the projected increase of winter temperatures may have important effects on the over-winter biology of a range of organisms and especially for fish and other ectothermic animals. However, temperature effects on organisms may be directed strongly by resource availability. Here, we investigated whether over-winter loss of biomass and lipid content of juvenile roach (Rutilus rutilus) was affected by the physiologically relatively small (2-5°C) changes of winter temperatures predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), under both natural and experimental conditions. This was investigated in combination with the effects of food availability. Finally, we explored the potential for a correlation between lake temperature and resource levels for planktivorous fish, i.e., zooplankton biomass, during five consecutive winters in a south Swedish lake. We show that small increases in temperature (+2°C) affected fish biomass loss in both presence and absence of food, but negatively and positively respectively. Temperature alone explained only a minor part of the variation when food availability was not taken into account. In contrast to other studies, lipid analyses of experimental fish suggest that critical somatic condition rather than critical lipid content determined starvation induced mortality. Our results illustrate the importance of considering not only changes in temperature when predicting organism response to climate change but also food-web interactions, such as resource availability and predation. However, as exemplified by our finding that zooplankton over-winter biomass in the lake was not related to over-winter temperature, this may not be a straightforward task

Sensory capacity of reinnervated skin after redirection of amputated upper limb nerves to the chest

Targeted reinnervation is a new neural-machine interface that has been developed to help improve the function of new-generation prosthetic limbs. Targeted reinnervation is a surgical procedure that takes the nerves that once innervated a severed limb and redirects them to proximal muscle and skin sites. The sensory afferents of the redirected nerves reinnervate the skin overlying the transfer site. This creates a sensory expression of the missing limb in the amputee's reinnervated skin. When these individuals are touched on this reinnervated skin they feel as though they are being touched on their missing limb. Targeted reinnervation takes nerves that once served the hand, a skin region of high functional importance, and redirects them to less functionally relevant skin areas adjacent to the amputation site. In an effort to better understand the sensory capacity of the reinnervated target skin following this procedure, we examined grating orientation thresholds and point localization thresholds on two amputees who had undergone the targeted reinnervation surgery. Grating orientation thresholds and point localization thresholds were also measured on the contralateral normal skin of the targeted reinnervation amputees and on analogous sites in able-bodied controls. Grating orientation thresholds for the reinnervated skin of the targeted reinnervation amputees were found to be similar to normal ranges for both the amputees’ contralateral skin and also for the control population. Point localization thresholds for these amputees were found to be lower for their reinnervated skin than for their contralateral skin. Reinnervated point localization thresholds values were also lower in comparison to homologous chest sites on the control population. Mechanisms appear to be in place to maximize re-established touch input in targeted reinnervation amputees. It seems that sound sensory function is provided to the denervated skin of the residual limb when connected to afferent pathways once serving highly functionally relevant regions of the brain. This suggests that tactile interface devices could be used to give a physiologically appropriate sense of touch to a prosthetic limb, which would likely help with better functional utilization of the prosthetic device and possibly help to more effectively integrate the device with the user's self-image

Climate change and freshwater zooplankton: what does it boil down to?

Recently, major advances in the climate–zooplankton interface have been made some of which appeared to receive much attention in a broader audience of ecologists as well. In contrast to the marine realm, however, we still lack a more holistic summary of recent knowledge in freshwater. We discuss climate change-related variation in physical and biological attributes of lakes and running waters, high-order ecological functions, and subsequent alteration in zooplankton abundance, phenology, distribution, body size, community structure, life history parameters, and behavior by focusing on community level responses. The adequacy of large-scale climatic indices in ecology has received considerable support and provided a framework for the interpretation of community and species level responses in freshwater zooplankton. Modeling perspectives deserve particular consideration, since this promising stream of ecology is of particular applicability in climate change research owing to the inherently predictive nature of this field. In the future, ecologists should expand their research on species beyond daphnids, should address questions as to how different intrinsic and extrinsic drivers interact, should move beyond correlative approaches toward more mechanistic explanations, and last but not least, should facilitate transfer of biological data both across space and time