Design and commissioning of a timestamp-based data acquisition system for the DRAGON recoil mass separator

The DRAGON recoil mass separator at TRIUMF exists to study radiative proton and alpha capture reactions, which are important in a variety of astrophysical scenarios. DRAGON experiments require a data acquisition system that can be triggered on either reaction product ($\gamma$ ray or heavy ion), with the additional requirement of being able to promptly recognize coincidence events in an online environment. To this end, we have designed and implemented a new data acquisition system for DRAGON which consists of two independently triggered readouts. Events from both systems are recorded with timestamps from a $20$ MHz clock that are used to tag coincidences in the earliest possible stage of the data analysis. Here we report on the design, implementation, and commissioning of the new DRAGON data acquisition system, including the hardware, trigger logic, coincidence reconstruction algorithm, and live time considerations. We also discuss the results of an experiment commissioning the new system, which measured the strength of the $E_{\text{c}.\text{m}.} = 1113$ keV resonance in the $^{20}$Ne$\left(p, \gamma \right)^{21}$Na radiative proton capture reaction.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in EPJ A "tools for experiment and theory

The Impact of regulatory capital regulation on balance sheet structure, intermediation cost and growth

URL des Documents de travail : http://ces.univ-paris1.fr/cesdp/cesdp2016.htmlDocuments de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 2016.61 - ISSN : 1955-611XAs Europe is subject to a protracted recession, it should be asked whether the reform of the financial sector is not costly in terms of potential growth. Our analysis shows that the negative effect of the Basel III package excepted by the pre-QE studies are almost annihilated today. The recession must then have other causes: falling corporate lending volumes resulted from falling demand in the aftermath of the financial crisis, but this is longer the case. The EU is trying to incentivize corporate lending, via forward guidance as well as ‘supporting factor’ cutting down the Basel capital requirements. The macroeconomic theorists are trying to account for future success of monetary policy around zero nominal interest rate via the risk-taking channel. All these clever initiatives failed to deliver. As a consequence, we might infer that banks are simply not taking any risks: rather than appealing to risk aversion, we would like to argue that the banks seem especially embarrassed by future regulatory developments, which appear remote and uncertain. The binding constraint for corporate lending and growth in the EU is then plausibly a combination of banks' expectations of future regulation and strong uncertainty aversion. While we offer some mitigation prospects, we hope that the theoretical developments of the recent years will quickly yield both theoretical advances and practical results.Malgré les assouplissements récents de la règlementation bancaire afin de permettre une reprise des prêts aux entreprises, il semble que le paquet Bâle III ait un effet néfaste sur la croissance. Le texte s'interroge sur la contrainte active parmi l'ensemble des nouvelles règles. Il semblerait que les banques soient devenues très averses à l'incertitude, en particulier à l'incertitude sur l'évolution des règles qui leurs sont imposées. En conséquence nous proposons de modifier la nature des provisions en capital et le nombre de régulateurs ayant un pouvoir de décision sur le niveau des capitaux

Double-beta decay Q values of 130Te, 128Te, and 120Te

The double-beta decay Q values of 130Te, 128Te, and 120Te have been determined from parent-daughter mass differences measured with the Canadian Penning Trap mass spectrometer. The 132Xe-129Xe mass difference, which is precisely known, was also determined to confirm the accuracy of these results. The 130Te Q value was found to be 2527.01(32) keV which is 3.3 keV lower than the 2003 Atomic Mass Evaluation recommended value, but in agreement with the most precise previous measurement. The uncertainty has been reduced by a factor of 6 and is now significantly smaller than the resolution achieved or foreseen in experimental searches for neutrinoless double-beta decay. The 128Te and 120Te Q values were found to be 865.87(131) keV and 1714.81(125) keV, respectively. For 120Te, this reduction in uncertainty of nearly a factor of 8 opens up the possibility of using this isotope for sensitive searches for neutrinoless double-electron capture and electron capture with positron emission.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Mass measurements near the rr-process path using the Canadian Penning Trap mass spectrometer

The masses of 40 neutron-rich nuclides from Z = 51 to 64 were measured at an average precision of $\delta m/m= 10^{-7}$ using the Canadian Penning Trap mass spectrometer at Argonne National Laboratory. The measurements, of fission fragments from a $^{252}$Cf spontaneous fission source in a helium gas catcher, approach the predicted path of the astrophysical $r$ process. Where overlap exists, this data set is largely consistent with previous measurements from Penning traps, storage rings, and reaction energetics, but large systematic deviations are apparent in $\beta$-endpoint measurements. Differences in mass excess from the 2003 Atomic Mass Evaluation of up to 400 keV are seen, as well as systematic disagreement with various mass models.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures. v2 updated, published in Physical Review

Measurement of radiative proton capture on F 18 and implications for oxygen-neon novae reexamined

Background: The rate of the F18(p,γ)Ne19 reaction affects the final abundance of the radioisotope F18 ejected from novae. This nucleus is important as its abundance is thought to significantly influence the first-stage 511-keV and continuum γ-ray emission in the aftermath of novae. No successful measurement of this reaction existed prior to this work, and the rate used in stellar models had been calculated based on incomplete information from contributing resonances. Purpose: Of the two resonances thought to provide a significant contribution to the astrophysical reaction rate, located at Ec.m.=330 and 665 keV, the former has a radiative width estimated from the assumed analog state in the mirror nucleus, F19, while the latter resonance does not have an analog state assignment, resulting in an arbitrary radiative width being assumed. As such, a direct measurement was needed to establish what role this resonance plays in the destruction of F18 at nova temperatures. This paper extends and takes the place of a previous Letter which reported the strength of the Ec.m.=665 keV resonance. Method: The DRAGON recoil separator was used to directly measure the strength of the important 665-keV resonance in this reaction, in inverse kinematics, by observing Ne19 reaction products. A radioactive F18 beam was provided by the ISAC facility at TRIUMF. R-matrix calculations were subsequently used to evaluate the significance of the results at astrophysical energies. Results: We report the direct measurement of the F18(p,γ)Ne19 reaction with the reevaluation of several detector efficiencies and the use of an updated Ne19 level scheme in the reaction rate analysis. The strength of the 665-keV resonance (Ex=7.076 MeV) is found to be an order of magnitude weaker than currently assumed in nova models. An improved analysis of the previously reported data is presented here, resulting in a slightly different value for the resonance strength. These small changes, however, do not alter the primary conclusions. Conclusions: Reaction rate calculations definitively show that the 665-keV resonance plays no significant role in the destruction of F18 at nova temperatures

The risk to relatives of patients with sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a neurodegenerative disease of motor neurons with a median survival of 2 years. Most patients have no family history of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, but current understanding of such diseases suggests there should be an increased risk to relatives. Furthermore, it is a common question to be asked by patients and relatives in clinic. We therefore set out to determine the risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to first degree relatives of patients with sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis attending a specialist clinic. Case records of patients with sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis seen at a tertiary referral centre over a 16-year period were reviewed, and pedigree structures extracted. All individuals who had originally presented with sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, but who subsequently had an affected first degree relative, were identified. Calculations were age-adjusted using clinic population demographics. Probands (n = 1502), full siblings (n = 1622) and full offspring (n = 1545) were identified. Eight of the siblings and 18 offspring had developed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The unadjusted risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis over the observation period was 0.5% for siblings and 1.0% for offspring. Age information was available for 476 siblings and 824 offspring. For this subset, the crude incidence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis was 0.11% per year (0.05–0.21%) in siblings and 0.11% per year (0.06–0.19%) in offspring, and the clinic age-adjusted incidence rate was 0.12% per year (0.04–0.21%) in siblings. By age 85, siblings were found to have an 8-fold increased risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, in comparison to the background population. In practice, this means the risk of remaining unaffected by age 85 dropped from 99.7% to 97.6%. Relatives of people with sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis have a small but definite increased risk of being affected

Targeted cell imaging properties of a deep red luminescent iridium(III) complex conjugated with a c-Myc signal peptide

A nuclear localisation sequence (NLS) peptide, PAAKRVKLD, derived from the human c-Myc regulator gene, has been functionalised with a long wavelength (λex = 550 nm; λem = 677 nm) cyclometalated organometallic iridium(III) complex to give the conjugate Ir-CMYC. Confocal fluorescence microscopy studies on human fibroblast cells imaged after 18–24 h incubation show that Ir-CMYC concentrations of 80–100 μM promote good cell uptake and nuclear localisation, which was confirmed though co-localisation studies using Hoechst 33342. In comparison, a structurally related, photophysically analogous iridium(III) complex lacking the peptide sequence, Ir-PYR, showed very different biological behaviour, with no evidence of nuclear, lysosomal or autophagic vesicle localisation and significantly increased toxicity to the cells at concentrations >10 μM that induced mitochondrial dysfunction. Supporting UV-visible and circular dichroism spectroscopic studies show that Ir-PYR and Ir-CMYC display similarly low affinities for DNA (ca. 103 M−1), consistent with electrostatic binding. Therefore the translocation and nuclear uptake properties of Ir-CMYC are attributed to the presence of the PAAKRVKLD nuclear localisation sequence in this complex

The ethics of uncertainty for data subjects

Modern health data practices come with many practical uncertainties. In this paper, I argue that data subjects’ trust in the institutions and organizations that control their data, and their ability to know their own moral obligations in relation to their data, are undermined by significant uncertainties regarding the what, how, and who of mass data collection and analysis. I conclude by considering how proposals for managing situations of high uncertainty might be applied to this problem. These emphasize increasing organizational flexibility, knowledge, and capacity, and reducing hazard

Examining the quality and management of non-geometric building information modelling data at project hand-over

Through the exponential global increase of Building Information Modelling (BIM) adoption across the Construction industry, and the emergence of inter-connected, strategic and data-rich solutions; such as Big Data, the Internet of Things and Smart Cities, the importance associated with activities and decisions reliant on exact data input, transaction, analysis, and resulting actions becomes exponentially magnified. The supply of inaccurate BIM data may negatively impact on systems and processes that require fully assured data of appropriate quality/veracity, to support informed decision making, deliver functionality, facilitate services, or direct strategic actions within the built environment. This preliminary research intends to provide a catalyst for discussion, analysis and information retrieval relating to Building Information Modelling (BIM) processes where non-geometric data errors may; or are predicted to occur within a project environment. This may result in the delivery of data that cannot be described as representing truth or of good quality, and therefore of little value or use to the data user. The wider aspects of this research investigates specifically non-geometric data veracity & associated dimensions of data quality; in order to discover and explore future solutions to resolve current industry data quality assessment challenges. This paper provides feedback from the research focusing on the current state, presenting existing industry challenges and proposes further research areas based on initial findings