Development of a SiPM Camera for a Schwarzschild-Couder Cherenkov Telescope for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

We present the development of a novel 11328 pixel silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) camera for use with a ground-based Cherenkov telescope with Schwarzschild-Couder optics as a possible medium-sized telescope for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). The finely pixelated camera samples air-shower images with more than twice the optical resolution of cameras that are used in current Cherenkov telescopes. Advantages of the higher resolution will be a better event reconstruction yielding improved background suppression and angular resolution of the reconstructed gamma-ray events, which is crucial in morphology studies of, for example, Galactic particle accelerators and the search for gamma-ray halos around extragalactic sources. Packing such a large number of pixels into an area of only half a square meter and having a fast readout directly attached to the back of the sensors is a challenging task. For the prototype camera development, SiPMs from Hamamatsu with through silicon via (TSV) technology are used. We give a status report of the camera design and highlight a number of technological advancements that made this development possible.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherlands. All CTA contributions at arXiv:1508.0589

A Candidate Subspecies Discrimination System Involving a Vomeronasal Receptor Gene with Different Alleles Fixed in M. m. domesticus and M. m. musculus

Assortative mating, a potentially efficient prezygotic reproductive barrier, may prevent loss of genetic potential by avoiding the production of unfit hybrids (i.e., because of hybrid infertility or hybrid breakdown) that occur at regions of secondary contact between incipient species. In the case of the mouse hybrid zone, where two subspecies of Mus musculus (M. m. domesticus and M. m. musculus) meet and exchange genes to a limited extent, assortative mating requires a means of subspecies recognition. We based the work reported here on the hypothesis that, if there is a pheromone sufficiently diverged between M. m. domesticus and M. m. musculus to mediate subspecies recognition, then that process must also require a specific receptor(s), also sufficiently diverged between the subspecies, to receive the signal and elicit an assortative mating response. We studied the mouse V1R genes, which encode a large family of receptors in the vomeronasal organ (VNO), by screening Perlegen SNP data and identified one, Vmn1r67, with 24 fixed SNP differences most of which (15/24) are nonsynonymous nucleotide substitutions between M. m. domesticus and M. m. musculus. We observed substantial linkage disequilibrium (LD) between Vmn1r67 and Abpa27, a mouse salivary androgen-binding protein gene that encodes a proteinaceous pheromone (ABP) capable of mediating assortative mating, perhaps in conjunction with its bound small lipophilic ligand. The LD we observed is likely a case of association rather than residual physical linkage from a very recent selective sweep, because an intervening gene, Vmn1r71, shows significant intra(sub)specific polymorphism but no inter(sub)specific divergence in its nucleotide sequence. We discuss alternative explanations of these observations, for example that Abpa27 and Vmn1r67 are coevolving as signal and receptor to reinforce subspecies hybridization barriers or that the unusually divergent Vmn1r67 allele was not a product of fast positive selection, but was derived from an introgressed allele, possibly from Mus spretus

Registration of \u27Manska\u27 Pubescent Intermediate Wheatgrass

\u27MANSKA\u27 pubescent intermediate wheatgrass [Thinopyrum intermedium subsp. barbulatum (Schur) Barkw. & Dewey] (Reg. no. CV-21, PI 562527) was tested as Mandan 12781 and released 16 April 1992 by the USDA-ARS in cooperation with the USDA-SCS; the Agricultural Research Division, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Nebraska; and the North Agricultural Experiment Station

Trouble at the top: The construction of a tenant identity in the governance of social housing organizations

The project of citizen governance has transformed the social housing sector in England where 20,000 tenants now sit as directors on the boards of housing associations, but the entrance of social housing tenants to the boardroom has aroused opposition from the chief executives of housing companies and triggered regulatory intervention from government inspectors. This paper investigates the cause of these tensions through a theoretical framework drawn from the work of feminist philosopher Judith Butler. It interprets housing governance as an identificatory project with the power to constitute tenant directors as regulated subjects, and presents evidence to suggest that this project of identity fails to completely enclose its subject, allowing tenant directors to engage in ‘identity work’ that threatens the supposed unity of the board. The paper charts the development of antagonism and political tension in the board rooms of housing companies to present an innovative account of the construction and contestation of identities in housing governance

Negative Feedback Regulation of HIV-1 by Gene Editing Strategy

The CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing method is comprised of the guide RNA (gRNA) to target a specific DNA sequence for cleavage and the Cas9 endonuclease for introducing breaks in the double-stranded DNA identified by the gRNA. Co-expression of both a multiplex of HIV-1-specific gRNAs and Cas9 in cells results in the modification and/or excision of the segment of viral DNA, leading to replication-defective virus. In this study, we have personalized the activity of CRISPR/Cas9 by placing the gene encoding Cas9 under the control of a minimal promoter of HIV-1 that is activated by the HIV-1 Tat protein. We demonstrate that functional activation of CRISPR/Cas9 by Tat during the course of viral infection excises the designated segment of the integrated viral DNA and consequently suppresses viral expression. This strategy was also used in a latently infected CD4+ T-cell model after treatment with a variety of HIV-1 stimulating agents including PMA and TSA. Controlled expression of Cas9 by Tat offers a new strategy for safe implementation of the Cas9 technology for ablation of HIV-1 at a very early stage of HIV-1 replication during the course of the acute phase of infection and the reactivation of silent proviral DNA in latently infected cells

The Sensitivity of HAWC to High-Mass Dark Matter Annihilations

The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory is a wide field-of-view detector sensitive to gamma rays of 100 GeV to a few hundred TeV. Located in central Mexico at 19 degrees North latitude and 4100 m above sea level, HAWC will observe gamma rays and cosmic rays with an array of water Cherenkov detectors. The full HAWC array is scheduled to be operational in Spring 2015. In this paper, we study the HAWC sensitivity to the gamma-ray signatures of high-mass (multi- TeV) dark matter annihilation. The HAWC observatory will be sensitive to diverse searches for dark matter annihilation, including annihilation from extended dark matter sources, the diffuse gamma-ray emission from dark matter annihilation, and gamma-ray emission from non-luminous dark matter subhalos. Here we consider the HAWC sensitivity to a subset of these sources, including dwarf galaxies, the M31 galaxy, the Virgo cluster, and the Galactic center. We simulate the HAWC response to gamma rays from these sources in several well-motivated dark matter annihilation channels. If no gamma-ray excess is observed, we show the limits HAWC can place on the dark matter cross-section from these sources. In particular, in the case of dark matter annihilation into gauge bosons, HAWC will be able to detect a narrow range of dark matter masses to cross-sections below thermal. HAWC should also be sensitive to non-thermal cross-sections for masses up to nearly 1000 TeV. The constraints placed by HAWC on the dark matter cross-section from known sources should be competitive with current limits in the mass range where HAWC has similar sensitivity. HAWC can additionally explore higher dark matter masses than are currently constrained.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, version to be published in PR

Measurement of the rate of nu_e + d --> p + p + e^- interactions produced by 8B solar neutrinos at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

Solar neutrinos from the decay of $^8$B have been detected at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) via the charged current (CC) reaction on deuterium and by the elastic scattering (ES) of electrons. The CC reaction is sensitive exclusively to nu_e's, while the ES reaction also has a small sensitivity to nu_mu's and nu_tau's. The flux of nu_e's from ^8B decay measured by the CC reaction rate is \phi^CC(nu_e) = 1.75 +/- 0.07 (stat)+0.12/-0.11 (sys.) +/- 0.05(theor) x 10^6 /cm^2 s. Assuming no flavor transformation, the flux inferred from the ES reaction rate is \phi^ES(nu_x) = 2.39+/-0.34 (stat.)+0.16}/-0.14 (sys) x 10^6 /cm^2 s. Comparison of \phi^CC(nu_e) to the Super-Kamiokande Collaboration's precision value of \phi^ES(\nu_x) yields a 3.3 sigma difference, providing evidence that there is a non-electron flavor active neutrino component in the solar flux. The total flux of active ^8B neutrinos is thus determined to be 5.44 +/-0.99 x 10^6/cm^2 s, in close agreement with the predictions of solar models.Comment: 6 pages (LaTex), 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Letter