Module Production for the CMS Tracker: Problems and Achieved Quality

The construction of the CMS Inner Tracker is very close to be completed. The various components are being mounted on the large structures and by the end of 2006 the tracker assembly will be finished at CERN. The basic elements of the strip tracker are the silicon sensor modules. In total about 15000 modules of various geometries have been built by a large collaboration of institutes. This paper will explain the design and the semi automatic assembly procedures. The major problems which appeared during this production are discussed. The final section gives an overview of the obtained results

Pion irradiation studies of CVD diamond detectors

We report here the results of a test to ascertain the radiation hardness properties of CVD diamond detectors to 300 MeV/c pions. In this test, CVD diamond detectors were exposed to 8 \times 10^{13} pions per cm^2 using the high intensity pion beam at the Paul Scherrer Institut. For comparison, silicon photodiodes were exposed to similar fluences at the same time. The measurements and the dosimetry during the irradiations are described herein. As expected, the silicon devices degraded. The diamond devices showed no degradation in collected charge and no increase in leakage current

ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222) vaccine-induced Fc receptor binding tracks with differential susceptibility to COVID-19

Despite the success of COVID-19 vaccines, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants of concern have emerged that can cause breakthrough infections. Although protection against severe disease has been largely preserved, the immunological mediators of protection in humans remain undefined. We performed a substudy on the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222) vaccinees enrolled in a South African clinical trial. At peak immunogenicity, before infection, no differences were observed in immunoglobulin (Ig)G1-binding antibody titers; however, the vaccine induced different Fc-receptor-binding antibodies across groups. Vaccinees who resisted COVID-19 exclusively mounted FcγR3B-binding antibodies. In contrast, enhanced IgA and IgG3, linked to enriched FcγR2B binding, was observed in individuals who experienced breakthrough. Antibodies unable to bind to FcγR3B led to immune complex clearance and resulted in inflammatory cascades. Differential antibody binding to FcγR3B was linked to Fc-glycosylation differences in SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies. These data potentially point to specific FcγR3B-mediated antibody functional profiles as critical markers of immunity against COVID-19

Glucose-Restricted Diet Regulates the Tumor Immune Microenvironment and Prevents Tumor Growth in Lung Adenocarcinoma

Background Lung cancer is the second common cancer type in western countries and has a high mortality. During the development and progression of the tumor, the nutrients in its environment play a central role. The tumor cells depend crucially on glucose metabolism and uptake. Tumor cell metabolism is dominated by the Warburg effect, where tumor cells produce large amounts of lactate from pyruvate under aerobic conditions. We thus reasoned that, reducing carbohydrates in the diet might support anti-tumoral effects of current immunotherapy and additionally target tumor immune escape. Objectives The link between reducing carbohydrates to improve current immunotherapy is not clear. We thus aimed at analyzing the effects of different glucose levels on the tumor development, progression and the anti-tumoral immune response. Methods We correlated the clinical parameters of our LUAD cohort with different metabolic markers. Additionally, we performed cell culture experiments with A549 tumor cell line under different glucose levels. Lastly, we investigated the effect of low and high carbohydrate diet in an experimental murine model of lung cancer on the tumor progression and different immune subsets. Results Here we found a positive correlation between the body mass index (BMI), blood glucose levels, reduced overall survival (OS) and the expression of Insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF1R) in the lung tumoral region of patients with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Furthermore, increasing extracellular glucose induced IGF1R expression in A549 LUAD cells. Functional studies in a murine model of LUAD demonstrated that, glucose restricted diet resulted in decreased tumor load in vivo. This finding was associated with increased presence of lung infiltrating cytotoxic CD8+ T effector memory (TEM), tissue resident memory T (TRM) and natural killer cells as well as reduced IGFR mRNA expression, suggesting that glucose restriction regulates lung immunity in the tumor microenvironment. Conclusions These results indicate that, glucose restricted diet improves lung immune responses of the host and suppresses tumor growth in experimental lung adenocarcinoma. As glucose levels in LUAD patients were negatively correlated to postoperative survival rates, glucose-restricted diet emerges as therapeutic avenue for patients with LUAD

Development of CVD diamond radiation detectors

Diamond is a nearly ideal material for detecting ionizing radiation. Its outstanding radiation hardness, fast charge collection and low leakage current allow a diamond detector to be used in high ra diation, high temperature and in aggressive chemical media. We have constructed charged particle detectors using high quality CVD diamond. Characterization of the diamond samples and various detect ors are presented in terms of collection distance, $d=\mu E \tau$, the average distance electron-hole pairs move apart under the influence of an electric field, where $\mu$ is the sum of carrier mo bilities, $E$ is the applied electric field, and $\tau$ is the mobility weighted carrier lifetime. Over the last two years the collection distance increased from $\sim$ 75 $\mu$m to over 200 $\mu$ m. With this high quality CVD diamond a series of micro-strip and pixel particle detectors have been constructed. These devices were tested to determine their position resolution and signal to n oise performance. Diamond detectors were exposed to large fluences of pions, protons and neutrons to establish their radiation hardness properties. The results of these tests and their correlati on with the characterization studies are presented

Micro-strip sensors based on CVD Diamond

In this article we present the performance of recent chemical vapour deposition (CVD) diamond micro-strip sensors in beam tests. In addition we present the first comparison of a CVD diamond micro-strip sensor before and after proton irradiation

Proton Irradiation of CVD Diamond Detectors for High Luminosity Experiments at the LHC

CVD diamond shows promising properties for use as a position sensitive detector for experiments in the highest radiation areas at the Large Hadron Collider. In order to study the radiation hardn ess of diamond we exposed CVD diamond detector samples to 24~GeV/$c$ and 500~MeV protons up to a fluence of $5\times 10^{15}~p/{\rm cm^2}$. We measured the charge collection distance, the ave rage distance electron hole pairs move apart in an external electric field, and leakage currents before, during, and after irradiation. The charge collection distance remains unchanged up to $1\ times 10^{15}~p/{\rm cm^2}$ and decreases by $\approx$40~\% at $5\times 10^{15}~p/{\rm cm^2}$. Leakage currents of diamond samples were below 1~pA before and after irradiation. The particle indu ced currents during irradiation correlate well with the proton flux. In contrast to diamond, a silicon diode, which was irradiated for comparison, shows the known large increase in leakage curren t. We conclude that CVD diamond detectors are radiation hard to 24~GeV/$c$ and 500~MeV protons up to at least $1\times 10^{15}~p/{\rm cm^2}$ without signal loss