Different strategies for recovering metals from CARON process residue

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2011.03.048The capacity of Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans DMS 11478 to recover the heavy metals contained in the residue obtained from the CARON process has been evaluated. Different bioreactor configurations were studied: a two-stage batch system and two semi-continuous systems (stirred-tank reactor leaching and column leaching). In the two-stage system, 46.8% Co, 36.0% Mg, 26.3% Mn and 22.3% Ni were solubilised after 6 h of contact between the residue and the bacteria-free bioacid. The results obtained with the stirred-tank reactor and the column were similar: 50% of the Mg and Co and 40% of the Mn and Ni were solubilised after thirty one days. The operation in the column reactor allowed the solid–liquid ratio to be increased and the pH to be kept at low values (<1.0). Recirculation of the leachate in the column had a positive effect on metal removal; at sixty five days (optimum time) the solubilisation levels were as follows: 86% Co, 83% Mg, 72% Mn and Ni, 62% Fe and 23% Cr. The results corroborate the feasibility of the systems studied for the leaching of metals from CARON process residue and these methodologies can be considered viable for the recovery of valuable metals

Extended gamma-ray sources around pulsars constrain the origin of the positron flux at Earth

The unexpectedly high flux of cosmic ray positrons detected at Earth may originate from nearby astrophysical sources, dark matter, or unknown processes of cosmic-ray secondary production. We report the detection, using the HighAltitude Water Cherenkov Observatory (HAWC), of extended tera-electron volt gamma-ray emission coincident with the locations of two nearby middle-aged pulsars (Geminga and PSR B0656+14). The HAWC observations demonstrate that these pulsars are indeed local sources of accelerated leptons, but the measured tera-electron volt emission profile constrains the diffusion of particles away from these sources to be much slower than previously assumed. We demonstrate that the leptons emitted by these objects are therefore unlikely to be the origin of the excess positrons, which may have a more exotic origin.Comment: 16 pages (including supplementary material), 5 figure

Horizontal muon track identification with neural networks in HAWC

Nowadays the implementation of artificial neural networks in high-energyphysics has obtained excellent results on improving signal detection. In thiswork we propose to use neural networks (NNs) for event discrimination in HAWC.This observatory is a water Cherenkov gamma-ray detector that in recent yearshas implemented algorithms to identify horizontal muon tracks. However, thesealgorithms are not very efficient. In this work we describe the implementationof three NNs: two based on image classification and one based on objectdetection. Using these algorithms we obtain an increase in the number ofidentified tracks. The results of this study could be used in the future toimprove the performance of the Earth-skimming technique for the indirectmeasurement of neutrinos with HAWC.<br

Letter of interest for a neutrino beam from Protvino to KM3NeT/ORCA

The Protvino accelerator facility located in the Moscow region, Russia, is in a good position to offer a rich experimental research program in the field of neutrino physics. Of particular interest is the possibility to direct a neutrino beam from Protvino towards the KM3NeT/ORCA detector, which is currently under construction in the Mediterranean Sea 40 km offshore Toulon, France. This proposal is known as P2O. Thanks to its baseline of 2595 km, this experiment would yield an unparalleled sensitivity to matter effects in the Earth, allowing for the determination of the neutrino mass ordering with a high level of certainty after only a few years of running at a modest beam intensity of ≈ 90 kW. With a prolonged exposure (≈1500 kWyear), a 2σ sensitivity to the leptonic CP-violating Dirac phase can be achieved. A second stage of the experiment, comprising a further intensity upgrade of the accelerator complex and a densified version of the ORCA detector (Super-ORCA), would allow for up to a 6σ sensitivity to CP violation and a 10º−17º resolution on the CP phase after 10 years of running with a 450 kW beam, competitive with other planned experiments. The initial composition and energy spectrum of the neutrino beam would need to be monitored by a near detector, to be constructed several hundred meters downstream from the proton beam target. The same neutrino beam and near detector set-up would also allow for neutrino-nucleus cross section measurements to be performed. A short-baseline sterile neutrino search experiment would also be possible

Genome-wide haplotype association study identifies the FRMD4A gene as a risk locus for Alzheimer's disease.

International audienceRecently, several genome wide association studies (GWAS) have led to the discovery of 9 new loci of genetic susceptibility in Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the landscape of the AD genetic susceptibility is far away to be complete and in addition to single-SNP analyses as performed in conventional GWAS, complementary strategies need to be applied to overcome limitations inherent to this type of approaches.. We performed a genome wide haplotype association (GWHA) study in the EADI1 study (n=2,025 AD cases and 5,328 controls) by applying a sliding-windows approach. After exclusion of loci already known to be involved in AD (APOE, BIN1 and CR1), 91 regions with suggestive haplotype effects were identified. In a second step, we attempted to replicate the best suggestive haplotype associations in the GERAD1 consortium (2,820 AD cases and 6,356 controls) and observed that 9 of them showed nominal association. In a third step, we tested relevant haplotype associations in a combined analysis of five additional case-control studies (5,093 AD cases and 4,061 controls). We consistently replicated the association of a haplotype within FRMD4A on Chr.10p13 in all the data set analysed (OR=1.68, 95% CI 1.43- 1.96; p=1.1x10-10). We finally searched for association between SNPs within the FRMD4A locus and Ab plasma concentrations in three independent non demented populations (n=2,579). We reported that polymorphisms were associated with plasma Ab42/Ab40 ratio (best signal, p=5.4x10-7). In conclusion, combining both GWHA study and a conservative three-stage replication approach, we characterised FRMD4A as a new genetic risk factor of AD

Observation of the cosmic ray shadow of the Sun with the ANTARES neutrino telescope

[EN] The ANTARES detector is an undersea neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean Sea. The search for pointlike neutrino sources is one of the main goals of the ANTARES telescope, requiring a reliable method to evaluate the detector angular resolution and pointing accuracy. This work describes the study of the Sun ¿shadow¿ effect with the ANTARES detector. The shadow is the deficit in the atmospheric muon flux in the direction of the Sun caused by the absorption of the primary cosmic rays. This analysis is based on the data collected between 2008 and 2017 by the ANTARES telescope. The observed statistical significance of the Sun shadow detection is 3.7¿, with an estimated angular resolution of 0.59° +- 0.10°for downward-going muons. The pointing accuracy is found to be consistent with the expectations and no evidence of systematic pointing shifts is observed.The authors acknowledge the financial support of the funding agencies: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Commissariat `a l'' energie atomique et aux energies alternatives, Commission Europeenne (FEDER fund and Marie Curie Program), Institut Universitaire de France, LabEx UnivEarthS (ANR-10-LABX-0023 and ANR-18-IDEX-0001), R ' egion Ile-de-France (DIM-ACAV), Region Alsace (contract CPER), Region Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, Departement du Var and Ville de La Seyne-sur-Mer, France; Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung, Germany; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Italy; Nederlandse organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, the Netherlands; Council of the President of the Russian Federation for Young Scientists and Leading Scientific Schools supporting grants, Russia; Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation (UEFISCDI), Romania; Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion, Investigacion y Universidades (MCIU): Programa Estatal de Generacion de Conocimiento (refs. PGC2018-096663-B-C41, -A-C42, -B-C43, -B-C44) (MCIU/FEDER), Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence and MultiDark Consolider (MCIU), Junta de Andalucia (refs. SOMM17/6104/UGR and A-FQM-053-UGR18), Generalitat Valenciana: Grisolia (ref. GRISOLIA/2018/119), Spain; Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Professional Training, Morocco. We also acknowledge the technical support of Ifremer, AIM and Foselev Marine for the sea operation and the CC-IN2P3 for the computing facilities.Albert, A.; Andre, M.; Anghinolfi, M.; Anton, G.; Ardid Ramírez, M.; Aubert, J.; Aublin, J.... (2020). Observation of the cosmic ray shadow of the Sun with the ANTARES neutrino telescope. Physical Review D: covering particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology. 102(12):1-7. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.102.122007S1710212Ageron, M., Aguilar, J. A., Al Samarai, I., Albert, A., Ameli, F., André, M., … Ardid, M. (2011). ANTARES: The first undersea neutrino telescope. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 656(1), 11-38. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2011.06.103Alexandreas, D. E., Allen, R. C., Berley, D., Biller, S. D., Burman, R. L., Cady, D. R., … Zhang, W. (1991). Observation of shadowing of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays by the Moon and the Sun. Physical Review D, 43(5), 1735-1738. doi:10.1103/physrevd.43.1735Andreyev, Y. M., Zakidyshev, V. N., Karpov, S. N., & Khodov, V. N. (2002). Cosmic Research, 40(6), 559-564. doi:10.1023/a:1021553713199Borione, A., Catanese, M., Covault, C. E., Cronin, J. W., Fick, B. E., Gibbs, K. G., … van der Velde, J. C. (1994). Observation of the shadows of the Moon and Sun using 100 TeV cosmic rays. Physical Review D, 49(3), 1171-1177. doi:10.1103/physrevd.49.1171Cobb, J. H., Marshak, M. L., Allison, W. W. M., Alner, G. J., Ayres, D. S., Barrett, W. L., … Wall, D. (2000). Observation of a shadow of the Moon in the underground muon flux in the Soudan 2 detector. Physical Review D, 61(9). doi:10.1103/physrevd.61.092002Bartoli, B., Bernardini, P., Bi, X. J., Bleve, C., Bolognino, I., Branchini, P., … Cao, Z. (2012). Measurement of the cosmic ray antiproton/proton flux ratio at TeV energies with the ARGO-YBJ detector. Physical Review D, 85(2). doi:10.1103/physrevd.85.022002Abeysekara, A. U., Albert, A., Alfaro, R., Alvarez, C., Álvarez, J. D., Arceo, R., … Belmont-Moreno, E. (2018). Constraining the p¯/p ratio in TeV cosmic rays with observations of the Moon shadow by HAWC. Physical Review D, 97(10). doi:10.1103/physrevd.97.102005Adamson, P., Andreopoulos, C., Ayres, D. S., Backhouse, C., Barr, G., Barrett, W. L., … Bock, G. J. (2011). Observation in the MINOS far detector of the shadowing of cosmic rays by the sun and moon. Astroparticle Physics, 34(6), 457-466. doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2010.10.010Aartsen, M. G., Ackermann, M., Adams, J., Aguilar, J. A., Ahlers, M., Ahrens, M., … Ansseau, I. (2019). Detection of the Temporal Variation of the Sun’s Cosmic Ray Shadow with the IceCube Detector. The Astrophysical Journal, 872(2), 133. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aaffd1Albert, A., André, M., Anghinolfi, M., Anton, G., Ardid, M., Aubert, J.-J., … Barrios-Martít, J. (2018). The cosmic ray shadow of the Moon observed with the ANTARES neutrino telescope. The European Physical Journal C, 78(12). doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-018-6451-3First search for neutrinos in correlation with gamma-ray bursts with the ANTARES neutrino telescope. (2013). Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2013(03), 006-006. doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2013/03/006Aguilar, J. A., Al Samarai, I., Albert, A., André, M., Anghinolfi, M., Anton, G., … Astraatmadja, T. (2011). A fast algorithm for muon track reconstruction and its application to the ANTARES neutrino telescope. Astroparticle Physics, 34(9), 652-662. doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2011.01.003BECHERINI, Y., MARGIOTTA, A., SIOLI, M., & SPURIO, M. (2006). A parameterisation of single and multiple muons in the deep water or ice. Astroparticle Physics, 25(1), 1-13. doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2005.10.005Carminati, G., Bazzotti, M., Margiotta, A., & Spurio, M. (2008). Atmospheric MUons from PArametric formulas: a fast GEnerator for neutrino telescopes (MUPAGE). Computer Physics Communications, 179(12), 915-923. doi:10.1016/j.cpc.2008.07.014Yepes-Ramírez, H. (2013). Characterization of optical properties of the site of the ANTARES neutrino telescope. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 725, 203-206. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2012.11.143Fusco, L. A., & Margiotta, A. (2016). The Run-by-Run Monte Carlo simulation for the ANTARES experiment. EPJ Web of Conferences, 116, 02002. doi:10.1051/epjconf/201611602002Albert, A., André, M., Anghinolfi, M., Anton, G., Ardid, M., Aubert, J.-J., … Basa, S. (2017). First all-flavor neutrino pointlike source search with the ANTARES neutrino telescope. Physical Review D, 96(8). doi:10.1103/physrevd.96.082001Albert, A., André, M., Anghinolfi, M., Anton, G., Ardid, M., Aubert, J.-J., … Belhorma, B. (2020). ANTARES and IceCube Combined Search for Neutrino Point-like and Extended Sources in the Southern Sky. The Astrophysical Journal, 892(2), 92. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab7afbAdrián-Martínez, S., Albert, A., André, M., Anghinolfi, M., Anton, G., Ardid, M., … Basa, S. (2014). SEARCHES FOR POINT-LIKE AND EXTENDED NEUTRINO SOURCES CLOSE TO THE GALACTIC CENTER USING THE ANTARES NEUTRINO TELESCOPE. The Astrophysical Journal, 786(1), L5. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/786/1/l

Natural History of MYH7-Related Dilated Cardiomyopathy

BACKGROUND Variants in myosin heavy chain 7 (MYH7) are responsible for disease in 1% to 5% of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM); however, the clinical characteristics and natural history of MYH7-related DCM are poorly described. OBJECTIVES We sought to determine the phenotype and prognosis of MYH7-related DCM. We also evaluated the influence of variant location on phenotypic expression. METHODS We studied clinical data from 147 individuals with DCM-causing MYH7 variants (47.6% female; 35.6 +/- 19.2 years) recruited from 29 international centers. RESULTS At initial evaluation, 106 (72.1%) patients had DCM (left ventricular ejection fraction: 34.5% +/- 11.7%). Median follow-up was 4.5 years (IQR: 1.7-8.0 years), and 23.7% of carriers who were initially phenotype-negative developed DCM. Phenotypic expression by 40 and 60 years was 46% and 88%, respectively, with 18 patients (16%) first diagnosed at <18 years of age. Thirty-six percent of patients with DCM met imaging criteria for LV noncompaction. During follow-up, 28% showed left ventricular reverse remodeling. Incidence of adverse cardiac events among patients with DCM at 5 years was 11.6%, with 5 (4.6%) deaths caused by end-stage heart failure (ESHF) and 5 patients (4.6%) requiring heart transplantation. The major ventricular arrhythmia rate was low (1.0% and 2.1% at 5 years in patients with DCM and in those with LVEF of <= 35%, respectively). ESHF and major ventricular arrhythmia were significantly lower compared with LMNA-related DCM and similar to DCM caused by TTN truncating variants. CONCLUSIONS MYH7-related DCM is characterized by early age of onset, high phenotypic expression, low left ventricular reverse remodeling, and frequent progression to ESHF. Heart failure complications predominate over ventricular arrhythmias, which are rare. (C) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier on behalf of the American College of Cardiology Foundation

Searches for neutrinos in the direction of radio-bright blazars with the ANTARES telescope

Active galaxies, especially blazars, are among the most promising neutrino source candidates. To date, ANTARES searches for these objects considered GeV-TeV $\gamma$-ray bright blazars. Here, a statistically complete radio-bright blazar sample is used as the target for searches of origins of neutrinos collected by the ANTARES neutrino telescope over 13 years of operation. The hypothesis of a neutrino-blazar directional correlation is tested by pair counting and by a complementary likelihood-based approach. The resulting post-trial $p$-value is $3.0\%$ ($2.2\sigma$ in the two-sided convention), possibly indicating a correlation. Additionally, a time-dependent analysis is performed to search for temporal clustering of neutrino candidates as a mean of detecting neutrino flares in blazars. None of the investigated sources alone reaches a significant flare detection level. However, the presence of 18 sources with a pre-trial significance above $3\sigma$ indicates a $p=1.4\%$ ($2.5\sigma$ in the two-sided convention) detection of a time-variable neutrino flux. An \textit{a posteriori} investigation reveals an intriguing temporal coincidence of neutrino, radio, and $\gamma$-ray flares of the J0242+1101 blazar at a $p=0.5\%$ ($2.9\sigma$ in the two-sided convention) level. Altogether, the results presented here suggest a possible connection of neutrino candidates detected by the ANTARES telescope with radio-bright blazars

Limits on the nuclearite flux using the ANTARES neutrino telescope

In this work, a search for nuclearites of strange quark matter by using nine years of ANTARES data taken in the period 2009-2017 is presented. The passage through matter of these particles is simulated %according to the model of de R\'{u}jula and Glashow taking into account a detailed description of the detector response to nuclearites and of the data acquisition conditions. A down-going flux of cosmic nuclearites with Galactic velocities ($\beta = 10^{-3}$) was considered for this study. The mass threshold for detecting these particles at the detector level is \mbox{ $4 \times 10^{13}$ GeV/c$^{2}$}. Upper limits on the nuclearite flux for masses up to $10^{17}$ GeV/c$^{2}$ at the level of $\sim 5 \times 10^{-17}$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ sr$^{-1}$ are obtained. These are the first upper limits on nuclearites established with a neutrino telescope and the most stringent ever set for Galactic velocities.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure

Measurement of the atmospheric νe and νμ energy spectra with the ANTARES neutrino telescope

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the funding agencies: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives(CEA), Commission Europeenne (FEDER fund and Marie Curie Program), Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), Labex UnivEarthS(ANR-10-LABX-0023 and ANR-18-IDEX-0001), Region Ile-de-France (DIM-ACAV), Region Alsace (contrat CPER), Region Provence-AlpesCote d'Azur, Departement du Var and Ville de La Seyne-sur-Mer, France; Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), Germany; Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare(INFN), Italy; Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek(NWO), the Netherlands; Council of the President of the Russian Federation for young scientists and leading scientific schools supporting grants, Russia; Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation (UEFISCDI), Romania; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (MCI) and Agencia Estatal de Investigacion: Programa Estatal de Generacion de Conocimiento (refs. PGC2018096663-B-C41, -A-C42, -B-C43, -B-C44) (MCI/FEDER), Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence and MultiDark Consolider, Junta de Andalucia (ref. SOMM17/6104/UGR and A-FQM-053-UGR18), Generalitat Valenciana: Grisolia (ref. GRISOLIA/2018/119) and GenT (ref. CIDEGENT/2018/034) programs, Spain; Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Professional Training, Morocco. We also acknowledge the technical support of Ifremer, AIM and Foselev Marine for the sea operation and the CC-IN2P3 for the computing facilities. The authors acknowledge the financial support of the funding agencies: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives(CEA), Commission Europeenne (FEDER fund and Marie Curie Program), Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), Labex UnivEarthS(ANR-10-LABX-0023 and ANR-18-IDEX-0001), Region Ile-de-France (DIM-ACAV), Region Alsace (contrat CPER), Region Provence-AlpesCote d'Azur, Departement du Var and Ville de La Seyne-sur-Mer, France; Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), Germany; Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare(INFN), Italy; Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek(NWO), the Netherlands; Council of the President of the Russian Federation for young scientists and leading scientific schools supporting grants, Russia; Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation (UEFISCDI), Romania; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (MCI) and Agencia Estatal de Investigacion: Programa Estatal de Generacion de Conocimiento (refs. PGC2018096663-B-C41, -A-C42, -B-C43, -B-C44) (MCI/FEDER), Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence and MultiDark Consolider, Junta de Andalucia (ref. SOMM17/6104/UGR and A-FQM-053-UGR18), Generalitat Valenciana: Grisolia (ref. GRISOLIA/2018/119) and GenT (ref. CIDEGENT/2018/034) programs, Spain; Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Professional Training, Morocco. We also acknowledge the technical support of Ifremer, AIM and Foselev Marine for the sea operation and the CC-IN2P3 for the computing facilities.This letter presents a combined measurement of the energy spectra of atmospheric nu(e) and nu(mu) in the energy range between similar to 100 GeV and similar to 50 TeV with the ANTARES neutrino telescope. The analysis uses 3012 days of detector livetime in the period 2007-2017, and selects 1016 neutrinos interacting in (or close to) the instrumented volume of the detector, yielding shower-like events (mainly from nu(e) + (nu) over bar (e) charged current plus all neutrino neutral current interactions) and starting track events (mainly from nu(mu) + (nu) over bar (mu) charged current interactions). The contamination by atmospheric muons in the final sample is suppressed at the level of a few per mill by different steps in the selection analysis, including a Boosted Decision Tree classifier. The distribution of reconstructed events is unfolded in terms of electron and muon neutrino fluxes. The derived energy spectra are compared with previous measurements that, above 100 GeV, are limited to experiments in polar ice and, for nu(mu), to Super-Kamiokande.Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)French Atomic Energy CommissionCommission Europeenne (FEDER fund)Institut Universitaire de France (IUF)Labex UnivEarthS ANR-10-LABX-0023 ANR-18-IDEX-0001Region Ile-de-FranceRegion Grand-EstRegion Provence-Alpes-Cote d'AzurRegion Provence-Alpes-Cote d'AzurFederal Ministry of Education & Research (BMBF)Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare(INFN), ItalyNetherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO)Netherlands GovernmentCouncil of the President of the Russian Federation for young scientists and leading scientific schools supporting grants, RussiaConsiliul National al Cercetarii Stiintifice (CNCS)Unitatea Executiva pentru Finantarea Invatamantului Superior, a Cercetarii, Dezvoltarii si Inovarii (UEFISCDI)Spanish Government PGC2018096663-B-C41 PGC2018096663-A-C42 PGC2018096663-B-C43 PGC2018096663-B-C44Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence and MultiDark ConsoliderJunta de Andalucia SOMM17/6104/UGR A-FQM-053-UGR18Generalitat Valenciana: Grisolia program, Spain GRISOLIA/2018/119Generalitat Valenciana: GenT program, Spain CIDEGENT/2018/034Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Professional Training, MoroccoAgencia Estatal de Investigacion PGC2018096663-B-C41 PGC2018096663-A-C42 PGC2018096663-B-C43 PGC2018096663-B-C44Commission Europeenne (Marie Curie Program