2,414 research outputs found
NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute: Merging Science and Exploration
NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) represents a close collaboration between science, technology and exploration, and was created to enable a deeper understanding of the Moon and other airless bodies. SSERVI is supported jointly by NASA's Science Mission Directorate and Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. The institute currently focuses on the scientific aspects of exploration as they pertain to the Moon, Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) and the moons of Mars, but the institute goals may expand, depending on NASA's needs, in the future. The 9 initial teams, selected in late 2013 and funded from 2014-2019, have expertise across the broad spectrum of lunar, NEA, and Martian moon sciences. Their research includes various aspects of the surface, interior, exosphere, near-space environments, and dynamics of these bodies. NASA anticipates a small number of additional teams to be selected within the next two years, with a Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN) likely to be released in 2016. Calls for proposals are issued every 2-3 years to allow overlap between generations of institute teams, but the intent for each team is to provide a stable base of funding for a five year period. SSERVI's mission includes acting as a bridge between several groups, joining together researchers from: 1) scientific and exploration communities, 2) multiple disciplines across a wide range of planetary sciences, and 3) domestic and international communities and partnerships. The SSERVI central office is located at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA. The administrative staff at the central office forms the organizational hub for the domestic and international teams and enables the virtual collaborative environment. Interactions with geographically dispersed teams across the U.S., and global partners, occur easily and frequently in a collaborative virtual environment. This poster will provide an overview of the 9 current US teams and international partners, as well as information about outreach efforts and future opportunities to participate in SSERVI
Relationship and patterns of distribution among grapevine viroids from California and Europe
Analyses of California and European grapevine sources indicated a ubiquitous occurrence of viroids in these materials. Hybridization results indicated sequence homology to both GV-1 and GV-3 for viroids of varieties grown in California as well as from European sources. Wine and rootstock varieties contained a greater proportion of the more common GV-1 plus GV-3 viroid profile, whereas the table varieties contained a larger proportion of the relatively unusual viroid profile of GV-1, -2, and-3. An unexpected divergence of four viroid profiles emerged in the rootstock species. These profiles were 1) Gv-1, -2, and -3, 2) GV-1 plus GV-3, 3) GV-3, and 4) viroid-free. V. californica was the only grapevine analyzed which was found to be viroid-free
LHC Optics Measurement with Proton Tracks Detected by the Roman Pots of the TOTEM Experiment
Precise knowledge of the beam optics at the LHC is crucial to fulfil the
physics goals of the TOTEM experiment, where the kinematics of the scattered
protons is reconstructed with the near-beam telescopes -- so-called Roman Pots
(RP). Before being detected, the protons' trajectories are influenced by the
magnetic fields of the accelerator lattice. Thus precise understanding of the
proton transport is of key importance for the experiment. A novel method of
optics evaluation is proposed which exploits kinematical distributions of
elastically scattered protons observed in the RPs. Theoretical predictions, as
well as Monte Carlo studies, show that the residual uncertainty of this optics
estimation method is smaller than 0.25 percent.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, 5 figures, to be submitted to New J. Phy
Double diffractive cross-section measurement in the forward region at LHC
The first double diffractive cross-section measurement in the very forward
region has been carried out by the TOTEM experiment at the LHC with
center-of-mass energy of sqrt(s)=7 TeV. By utilizing the very forward TOTEM
tracking detectors T1 and T2, which extend up to |eta|=6.5, a clean sample of
double diffractive pp events was extracted. From these events, we measured the
cross-section sigma_DD =(116 +- 25) mub for events where both diffractive
systems have 4.7 <|eta|_min < 6.5 .Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, submitted for publicatio
Performance of the TOTEM Detectors at the LHC
The TOTEM Experiment is designed to measure the total proton-proton
cross-section with the luminosity-independent method and to study elastic and
diffractive pp scattering at the LHC. To achieve optimum forward coverage for
charged particles emitted by the pp collisions in the interaction point IP5,
two tracking telescopes, T1 and T2, are installed on each side of the IP in the
pseudorapidity region 3.1 < = |eta | < = 6.5, and special movable beam-pipe
insertions - called Roman Pots (RP) - are placed at distances of +- 147 m and
+- 220 m from IP5. This article describes in detail the working of the TOTEM
detector to produce physics results in the first three years of operation and
data taking at the LHC.Comment: 40 pages, 31 figures, submitted to Int. J. Mod. Phys.
Diamond Detectors for the TOTEM Timing Upgrade
This paper describes the design and the performance of the timing detector
developed by the TOTEM Collaboration for the Roman Pots (RPs) to measure the
Time-Of-Flight (TOF) of the protons produced in central diffractive
interactions at the LHC. The measurement of the TOF of the protons allows the
determination of the longitudinal position of the proton interaction vertex and
its association with one of the vertices reconstructed by the CMS detectors.
The TOF detector is based on single crystal Chemical Vapor Deposition (scCVD)
diamond plates and is designed to measure the protons TOF with about 50 ps time
precision. This upgrade to the TOTEM apparatus will be used in the LHC run 2
and will tag the central diffractive events up to an interaction pileup of
about 1. A dedicated fast and low noise electronics for the signal
amplification has been developed. The digitization of the diamond signal is
performed by sampling the waveform. After introducing the physics studies that
will most profit from the addition of these new detectors, we discuss in detail
the optimization and the performance of the first TOF detector installed in the
LHC in November 2015.Comment: 26 pages, 18 figures, 2 tables, submitted for publication to JINS
Evidence for non-exponential elastic proton-proton differential cross-section at low |t| and sqrt(s) = 8 TeV by TOTEM
The TOTEM experiment has made a precise measurement of the elastic
proton-proton differential cross-section at the centre-of-mass energy sqrt(s) =
8 TeV based on a high-statistics data sample obtained with the beta* = 90
optics. Both the statistical and systematic uncertainties remain below 1%,
except for the t-independent contribution from the overall normalisation. This
unprecedented precision allows to exclude a purely exponential differential
cross-section in the range of four-momentum transfer squared 0.027 < |t| < 0.2
GeV^2 with a significance greater than 7 sigma. Two extended parametrisations,
with quadratic and cubic polynomials in the exponent, are shown to be well
compatible with the data. Using them for the differential cross-section
extrapolation to t = 0, and further applying the optical theorem, yields total
cross-section estimates of (101.5 +- 2.1) mb and (101.9 +- 2.1) mb,
respectively, in agreement with previous TOTEM measurements.Comment: Final version published in Nuclear Physics
Large-scale proteomic identification of S100 proteins in breast cancer tissues
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Attempts to reduce morbidity and mortality in breast cancer is based on efforts to identify novel biomarkers to support prognosis and therapeutic choices. The present study has focussed on S100 proteins as a potentially promising group of markers in cancer development and progression. One reason of interest in this family of proteins is because the majority of the S100 genes are clustered on a region of human chromosome 1q21 that is prone to genomic rearrangements. Moreover, there is increasing evidence that S100 proteins are often up-regulated in many cancers, including breast, and this is frequently associated with tumour progression.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Samples of breast cancer tissues were obtained during surgical intervention, according to the bioethical recommendations, and cryo-preserved until used. Tissue extracts were submitted to proteomic preparations for 2D-IPG. Protein identification was performed by N-terminal sequencing and/or peptide mass finger printing.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The majority of the detected S100 proteins were absent, or present at very low levels, in the non-tumoral tissues adjacent to the primary tumor. This finding strengthens the role of S100 proteins as putative biomarkers. The proteomic screening of 100 cryo-preserved breast cancer tissues showed that some proteins were ubiquitously expressed in almost all patients while others appeared more sporadic. Most, if not all, of the detected S100 members appeared reciprocally correlated. Finally, from the perspective of biomarkers establishment, a promising finding was the observation that patients which developed distant metastases after a three year follow-up showed a general tendency of higher S100 protein expression, compared to the disease-free group.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This article reports for the first time the comparative proteomic screening of several S100 protein members among a large group of breast cancer patients. The results obtained strongly support the hypothesis that a significant deregulation of multiple S100 protein members is associated with breast cancer progression, and suggest that these proteins might act as potential prognostic factors for patient stratification. We propose that this may offer a significant contribution to the knowledge and clinical applications of the S100 protein family to breast cancer.</p
- …