Accelerator system for the PRISM based muon to electron conversion experiment

The next generation of lepton flavor violation experiments need high intensity and high quality muon beams. Production of such beams requires sending a short, high intensity proton pulse to the pion production target, capturing pions and collecting the resulting muons in the large acceptance transport system. The substantial increase of beam quality can be obtained by applying the RF phase rotation on the muon beam in the dedicated FFAG ring, which was proposed for the PRISM project.This allows to reduce the momentum spread of the beam and to purify from the unwanted components like pions or secondary protons. A PRISM Task Force is addressing the accelerator and detector issues that need to be solved in order to realize the PRISM experiment. The parameters of the required proton beam, the principles of the PRISM experiment and the baseline FFAG design are introduced. The spectrum of alternative designs for the PRISM FFAG ring are shown. Progress on ring main systems like injection and RF are presented. The current status of the study and its future directions are discussed.Comment: Studies performed within the PRISM Task Force initiativ

Characterisation of fatty acyl reductases of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) seed

Long and very long chain fatty alcohols are produced from their corresponding acyl-CoAs through the activity of fatty acyl reductases (FARs). Fatty alcohols are important components of the cuticle that protects aerial plant organs, and they are metabolic intermediates in the synthesis of the wax esters in the hull of sunflower (Helianthus annuus) seeds. Genes encoding 4 different FARs (named HaFAR2, HaFAR3, HaFAR4 and HaFAR5) were identified using BLAST, and studies showed that four of the genes were expressed in seed hulls. In this study, the structure and location of sunflower FAR proteins were determined. They were also expressed exogenously in Saccharomyces cerevisiae to evaluate their substrate specificity based on the fatty alcohols synthesized by the transformed yeasts. Three of the four enzymes tested showed activity in yeast. HaFAR3 produced C18, C20 and C22 saturated alcohols, whereas HaFAR4 and HaFAR5 produced C24 and C26 saturated alcohols. The involvement of these genes in the synthesis of sunflower seed wax esters was addressed by considering the results obtained

Interim Design Report

The International Design Study for the Neutrino Factory (the IDS-NF) was established by the community at the ninth "International Workshop on Neutrino Factories, super-beams, and beta- beams" which was held in Okayama in August 2007. The IDS-NF mandate is to deliver the Reference Design Report (RDR) for the facility on the timescale of 2012/13. In addition, the mandate for the study [3] requires an Interim Design Report to be delivered midway through the project as a step on the way to the RDR. This document, the IDR, has two functions: it marks the point in the IDS-NF at which the emphasis turns to the engineering studies required to deliver the RDR and it documents baseline concepts for the accelerator complex, the neutrino detectors, and the instrumentation systems. The IDS-NF is, in essence, a site-independent study. Example sites, CERN, FNAL, and RAL, have been identified to allow site-specific issues to be addressed in the cost analysis that will be presented in the RDR. The choice of example sites should not be interpreted as implying a preferred choice of site for the facility

A regional database management system—the fisheries resource information system and tools (FiRST): Its design, utility and future directions

South and Southeast Asian countries have undertaken demersal trawl surveys to measure the fisheries potential of their waters throughout the 20th century. However, ensuring full use of, and easy access to the resulting data is a challenge in developing countries. The “Fisheries Resource Information System and Tools” (FiRST) was developed through a regional collaborative effort across eight South and Southeast Asian counties to meet these needs. FiRST is a data management system for scientific trawl survey data and includes data summary and visualization tools, an analytical routine to estimate biomass, and data import/export modules. The FiRST software has also facilitated the establishment of a regional database, ‘Trawl Base’, which contains more than 20,000 hauls or stations from scientific trawl surveys in 10 countries conducted between 1926 and 1995. The regional database is an important regional resource for coastal fisheries management complementing national fisheries catch statistics

Muon conversion to electron in nuclei in type-I seesaw models

We compute the muon to electron conversion in the type-I seesaw model, as a function of the right-handed neutrino mixings and masses. The results are compared with previous computations in the literature. We determine the definite predictions resulting for the ratios between the muon to electron conversion rate for a given nucleus and the rate of two other processes which also involve a mu-e flavour transition: mu -> e gamma and mu -> eee. For a quasi-degenerate mass spectrum of right-handed neutrino masses -which is the most natural scenario leading to observable rates- those ratios depend only on the seesaw mass scale, offering a quite interesting testing ground. In the case of sterile neutrinos heavier than the electroweak scale, these ratios vanish typically for a mass scale of order a few TeV. Furthermore, the analysis performed here is also valid down to very light masses. It turns out that planned mu -> e conversion experiments would be sensitive to masses as low as 2 MeV. Taking into account other experimental constraints, we show that future mu -> e conversion experiments will be fully relevant to detect or constrain sterile neutrino scenarios in the 2 GeV-1000 TeV mass range.Comment: 32 pages 14 figures, references added and some minor precisions; results unchange