647 research outputs found
Demonstration of a beam loaded nanocoulomb-class laser wakefield accelerator.
Laser-plasma wakefield accelerators have seen tremendous progress, now capable of producing quasi-monoenergetic electron beams in the GeV energy range with few-femtoseconds bunch duration. Scaling these accelerators to the nanocoulomb range would yield hundreds of kiloamperes peak current and stimulate the next generation of radiation sources covering high-field THz, high-brightness X-ray and γ-ray sources, compact free-electron lasers and laboratory-size beam-driven plasma accelerators. However, accelerators generating such currents operate in the beam loading regime where the accelerating field is strongly modified by the self-fields of the injected bunch, potentially deteriorating key beam parameters. Here we demonstrate that, if appropriately controlled, the beam loading effect can be employed to improve the accelerator's performance. Self-truncated ionization injection enables loading of unprecedented charges of ∼0.5 nC within a mono-energetic peak. As the energy balance is reached, we show that the accelerator operates at the theoretically predicted optimal loading condition and the final energy spread is minimized.Higher beam quality and stability are desired in laser-plasma accelerators for their applications in compact light sources. Here the authors demonstrate in laser plasma wakefield electron acceleration that the beam loading effect can be employed to improve beam quality by controlling the beam charge
Anatomical and surgical study of volume determination of the anterolateral epidural space nerve root L5/S1 under the aspect of epidural perineural injection in minimal invasive treatment of lumbar nerve root compression
Herniated intervertebral disc causes in a great number of cases of lumbar nerve root compression, especially in the segment L5/S1. Other reasons responsible for stress to the lumbar spinal root are the spinal canal stenosis and the postdiscotomy syndrome. For patients without neurological deficiencies, the conservative treatment includes different epidural injection techniques. Steroids are often applied. A specific injection technique needing only a small drug amount is the epidural perineural approach using a special two-needle technique. The anatomical spaces of the nerve roots have received little attention in therapy. We have determined the anterolateral epidural space nerve volume of the nerve root L5/S1, and compared the data collected in an anatomical study with operative measurements during discectomy. The volume determination in the human cadavers was performed with liquid silicone filling the anterolateral space after dissection. The in vivo measurements were performed during surgery at the site of the anterolateral space after discectomy. The anatomical studies showed us a mean value volume of 1.1 ml. The surgical volume determinations result in a mean volume of 0.9 ml. A better understanding of the anterolateral epidural space may allow a reduction of the injection volume in the conservative nerve root compression treatment, especially using the epidural perineural technique, avoiding the risk of side effects of high doses of steroids
Compatibility of neutrino DIS data and global analyses of parton distribution functions
Neutrino\antineutrino deep inelastic scattering (DIS) data provide useful
constrains for the flavor decomposition in global fits of parton distribution
functions (PDF). The smallness of the cross-sections requires the use of
nuclear targets in the experimental setup. Understanding the nuclear
corrections is, for this reason, of utmost importance for a precise
determination of the PDFs. Here, we explore the nuclear effects in the
neutrino\antineutrino-nucleon DIS by comparing the NuTeV, CDHSW, and CHORUS
cross-sections to the predictions derived from the latest parton distribution
functions and their nuclear modifications. We obtain a good description of
these data and find no apparent disagreement between the nuclear effects in
neutrino DIS and those in charged lepton DIS. These results also indicate that
further improvements in the knowledge of the nuclear PDFs could be obtained by
a more extensive use of these sets of neutrino data.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figure
Jet-veto in bottom-quark induced Higgs production at next-to-next-to-leading order
We present results for associated Higgs+n-jet production in bottom quark
annihilation, for n=0 and n>=1 at NNLO and NLO accuracy, respectively. We
consider both the cases with and without b-tagging. Numerical results are
presented for parameters relevant for experiments at the LHC.Comment: 27 pages, 13 figures, 8 table
Higgs Interference Effects in \Pg \Pg \to \PZ\PZ and their Uncertainty
Interference between the Standard Model Higgs boson and continuum
contributions is considered in the heavy-mass scenario. Results are available
at leading order for the background. It is discussed how to combine the result
with the next-to-next-to-leading order Higgs production cross-section and a
proposal for estimating the associated theoretical uncertainty is presented.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures; improved numerical accuracy, Numerics updated,
conclusions unchanged, references added. v
Calculation of health expectancies with administrative data for North Rhine-Westphalia, a Federal State of Germany, 1999–2005
Pinheiro JP, Krämer A. Calculation of health expectancies with administrative data for North Rhine-Westphalia, a Federal State of Germany, 1999-2005. Population Health Metrics. 2009;7(1):4.OBJECTIVES: The main objectives of this study were to prove the feasibility of health expectancy analyses with regional administrative health statistics and to explore the utility of the calculated health expectancies in describing the health state of the population living in North Rhine-Westphalia, a Federal State of Germany. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Administrative population and mortality data as well as health data on disability and long-term care provided by public services were used to calculate: a) the life expectancy and b) the health expectancies Severe-Disability-Free Life Expectancy (SDFLE) and Long-Term-Care-Free Life Expectancy (LTCFLE) from 1999 to 2005. Calculations were done using the Sullivan method. RESULTS: SDFLE at birth was 69.9 years (males 66.2 and females 73.2 years) in 1999 and it increased to 71.7 years (males 68.6 and females 74.7 years) in 2005. The proportion of the SDFLE on the total life expectancy at birth was 89.8% (males 88.6 and females 90.8%) in 1999 and 90.7% (males 89.8 and females 91.4%) in 2005.LTCFLE at birth was 75.3 years (males 73.1 and females 77.5 years) in 1999 and it increased to 76.6 years (males 74.7 and females 78.6 years) in 2005. The proportion of the LTCFLE on the total life expectancy at birth was 96.8% (males 97.8 and females 96.1%) in 1999 and 96.8% (males 97.8 and females 96.2%) in 2005. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Both health expectancies indicate an improvement in the quantity as well as in the quality of healthy life for the population living in North Rhine Westphalia and therefore suggest a compression of morbidity from 1999 to 2005. The findings however have several limitations in their sensitivity, since we applied dichotomous valuations to the health states. In addition, the results are restricted to comparisons over time because the morbidity concepts do not allow for comparisons with populations other than the German one. Refined calculations with other summary measures of population health and with health data on other morbidity concepts are therefore reasonable
SUSY parameter determination at the LHC using cross sections and kinematic edges
We study the determination of supersymmetric parameters at the LHC from a
global fit including cross sections and edges of kinematic distributions. For
illustration, we focus on a minimal supergravity scenario and discuss how well
it can be constrained at the LHC operating at 7 and 14 TeV collision energy,
respectively. We find that the inclusion of cross sections greatly improves the
accuracy of the SUSY parameter determination, and allows to reliably extract
model parameters even in the initial phase of LHC data taking with 7 TeV
collision energy and 1/fb integrated luminosity. Moreover, cross section
information may be essential to study more general scenarios, such as those
with non-universal gaugino masses, and distinguish them from minimal,
universal, models.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure
Dosimetric precision of an ion beam tracking system
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Scanned ion beam therapy of intra-fractionally moving tumors requires motion mitigation. GSI proposed beam tracking and performed several experimental studies to analyse the dosimetric precision of the system for scanned carbon beams.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A beam tracking system has been developed and integrated in the scanned carbon ion beam therapy unit at GSI. The system adapts pencil beam positions and beam energy according to target motion.</p> <p>Motion compensation performance of the beam tracking system was assessed by measurements with radiographic films, a range telescope, a 3D array of 24 ionization chambers, and cell samples for biological dosimetry. Measurements were performed for stationary detectors and moving detectors using the beam tracking system.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All detector systems showed comparable data for a moving setup when using beam tracking and the corresponding stationary setup. Within the target volume the mean relative differences of ionization chamber measurements were 0.3% (1.5% standard deviation, 3.7% maximum). Film responses demonstrated preserved lateral dose gradients. Measurements with the range telescope showed agreement of Bragg peak depth under motion induced range variations. Cell survival experiments showed a mean relative difference of -5% (-3%) between measurements and calculations within the target volume for beam tracking (stationary) measurements.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The beam tracking system has been successfully integrated. Full functionality has been validated dosimetrically in experiments with several detector types including biological cell systems.</p
Inclusive double-quarkonium production at the Large Hadron Collider
Based on the nonrelativistic QCD (NRQCD) factorization formalism, we
investigate inclusive productions of two spin-triplet S-wave quarkonia
pp->2J/psi+X, 2Upsilon+X, and J/psi+Upsilon+X at the CERN Large Hadron
Collider. The total production rates integrated over the rapidity (y) and
transverse-momentum (p_T) ranges |y|<2.4 and p_T<50 GGeV are predicted to be
sigma[pp->2J/psi+X] = 22 (35) nb, sigma[pp->2Upsilon+X] = 24 (49) pb, and
sigma[pp->J/psi+Upsilon+X] = 7 (13) pb at the center-of-momentum energy sqrt{s}
= 7 (14) TeV. In order to provide predictions that can be useful in both small-
and large-p_T regions, we do not employ the fragmentation approximation and we
include the spin-triplet S-wave color-singlet and color-octet channels for each
quarkonium final state at leading order in the strong coupling. The p_T
distributions of pp->2J/psi+X and 2Upsilon+X in the low-p_T region are
dominated by the color-singlet contributions. At leading order in the strong
coupling, the color-singlet channel is absent for pp->J/psi+Upsilon+X.
Therefore, the process pp->J/psi+Upsilon+X may provide a useful probe to the
color-octet mechanism of NRQCD.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables, version published in JHE
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