642 research outputs found
Sub-Pixel Response Measurement of Near-Infrared Sensors
Wide-field survey instruments are used to efficiently observe large regions
of the sky. To achieve the necessary field of view, and to provide a higher
signal-to-noise ratio for faint sources, many modern instruments are
undersampled. However, precision photometry with undersampled imagers requires
a detailed understanding of the sensitivity variations on a scale much smaller
than a pixel. To address this, a near-infrared spot projection system has been
developed to precisely characterize near-infrared focal plane arrays and to
study the effect of sub-pixel non uniformity on precision photometry.
Measurements of large format near-infrared detectors demonstrate the power of
this system for understanding sub-pixel response.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figures, submitted to PAS
The Longitudinal Polarimeter at HERA
The design, construction and operation of a Compton back-scattering laser
polarimeter at the HERA storage ring at DESY are described. The device measures
the longitudinal polarization of the electron beam between the spin rotators at
the HERMES experiment with a fractional systematic uncertainty of 1.6%. A
measurement of the beam polarization to an absolute statistical precision of
0.01 requires typically one minute when the device is operated in the
multi-photon mode. The polarimeter also measures the polarization of each
individual electron bunch to an absolute statistical precision of 0.06 in
approximately five minutes. It was found that colliding and non-colliding
bunches can have substantially different polarizations. This information is
important to the collider experiments H1 and ZEUS for their future
longitudinally polarized electron program because those experiments use the
colliding bunches only.Comment: 21 pages (Latex), 14 figures (EPS
Improving IBD diagnosis and monitoring by understanding preanalytical, analytical and biological fecal calprotectin variability
BACKGROUND: The appropriate clinical use of fecal calprotectin (fCal) might be compromised by incomplete harmonization between assays and within- and between-subjects variability. Our aim was to investigate the analytical and biological variability of fCal in order to provide tools for interpreting fCal in the clinical setting. METHODS: Experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of temperature and storage time on fCal. Thirty-nine controls were enrolled to verify biological variability, and a case-control study was conducted on 134 controls and 110 IBD patients to compare the clinical effectiveness of three different fCal assays: ELISA, CLIA and turbidimetry. RESULTS: A 12% decline in fCal levels was observed within 24 h following stool collection irrespective of storage temperature. Samples were unstable following a longer storage time interval at room temperature. Within- and between-subjects fCal biological variability, at 31% and 72% respectively, resulted in a reference change value (RCV) in the region of 100%. fCal sensitivity in distinguishing between controls and IBD patients is satisfactory (68%), and the specificity high (93%) among young (<65 years), but not among older ( 6565 years) subjects (ROC area: 0.584; 95% CI: 0.399-0.769). Among the young, assays have different optimal thresholds (120 \u3bcg/g for ELISA, 50 \u3bcg/g for CLIA and 100 \u3bcg/g for turbidimetry). CONCLUSIONS: We recommend a standardized preanalytical protocol for fCal, avoiding storage at room temperature for more than 24 h. Different cutoffs are recommended for different fCal assays. In monitoring, the difference between two consecutive measurements appears clinically significant when higher than 100%, the fCal biological variability-derived RCV
Estimation of Combinatoric Background in SeaQuest using an Event-Mixing Method
All experiments observing dilepton pairs (e.g. , ) must
confront the existence of a combinatoric background caused by the combining of
tracks not arising from the same physics vertex. Some method must be devised to
calculate and remove this background. In this document we describe a particular
event-mixing method relying on many of the unique aspects of the SeaQuest
spectrometer and data. The method described here calculates the combinatoric
background with correct normalization; i.e., there is no need to assign a
floating normalization factor that is then determined in a subsequent fitting
procedure. Numerous tests are applied to demonstrate the reliability of the
method.Comment: Submitted to JINST; revised due to second round of referee comment
The proton and deuteron F_2 structure function at low Q^2
Measurements of the proton and deuteron structure functions are
presented. The data, taken at Jefferson Lab Hall C, span the four-momentum
transfer range GeV, and Bjorken values from 0.009 to
0.45, thus extending the knowledge of to low values of at low .
Next-to-next-to-leading order calculations using recent parton distribution
functions start to deviate from the data for GeV at the low and
high -values. Down to the lowest value of , the structure function is
in good agreement with a parameterization of based on data that have been
taken at much higher values of or much lower values of , and which is
constrained by data at the photon point. The ratio of the deuteron and proton
structure functions at low remains well described by a logarithmic
dependence on at low .Comment: 3 figures, submitted pape
Flavor decomposition of the sea quark helicity distributions in the nucleon from semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering
Double-spin asymmetries of semi-inclusive cross sections for the production
of identified pions and kaons have been measured in deep-inelastic scattering
of polarized positrons on a polarized deuterium target. Five helicity
distributions including those for three sea quark flavors were extracted from
these data together with re-analyzed previous data for identified pions from a
hydrogen target. These distributions are consistent with zero for all three sea
flavors. A recently predicted flavor asymmetry in the polarization of the light
quark sea appears to be disfavored by the data.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Nuclear Polarization of Molecular Hydrogen Recombined on a Non-metallic Surface
The nuclear polarization of molecules formed by recombination
of nuclear polarized H atoms on the surface of a storage cell initially coated
with a silicon-based polymer has been measured by using the longitudinal
double-spin asymmetry in deep-inelastic positron-proton scattering. The
molecules are found to have a substantial nuclear polarization, which is
evidence that initially polarized atoms retain their nuclear polarization when
absorbed on this type of surfac
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