49 research outputs found
Poly-Sarcosine and Poly(ethylene-glycol) interactions with proteins investigated using molecular dynamics simulations
Nanoparticles coated with hydrophilic polymers often show a reduction in
unspecific interactions with the biological environment, which improves their
biocompatibility. The molecular determinants of this reduction are not very
well understood yet, and their knowledge may help improving nanoparticle
design. Here we address, using molecular dynamics simulations, the interactions
of human serum albumin, the most abundant serum protein, with two promising
hydrophilic polymers used for the coating of therapeutic nanoparticles,
poly(ethylene-glycol) and poly-sarcosine. By simulating the protein immersed in
a polymer-water mixture, we show that the two polymers have a very similar
affinity for the protein surface, both in terms of the amount of polymer
adsorbed and also in terms of the type of amino acids mainly involved in the
interactions. We further analyze the kinetics of adsorption and how it affects
the polymer conformations. Minor differences between the polymers are observed
in the thickness of the adsorption layer, that are related to the different
degree of flexibility of the two molecules. In comparison poly-alanine, an
isomer of poly-sarcosine known to self-aggregate and induce protein
aggregation, shows a significantly larger affinity for the protein surface than
PEG and PSar, which we show to be related not to a different patterns of
interactions with the protein surface, but to the different way the polymer
interacts with water
Test beam performance measurements for the Phase I upgrade of the CMS pixel detector
A new pixel detector for the CMS experiment was built in order to cope with the instantaneous luminosities anticipated for the Phase I Upgrade of the LHC. The new CMS pixel detector provides four-hit tracking with a reduced material budget as well as new cooling and powering schemes. A new front-end readout chip mitigates buffering and bandwidth limitations, and allows operation at low comparator thresholds. In this paper, comprehensive test beam studies are presented, which have been conducted to verify the design and to quantify the performance of the new detector assemblies in terms of tracking efficiency and spatial resolution. Under optimal conditions, the tracking efficiency is (99.95 ± 0.05) %, while the intrinsic spatial resolutions are (4.80 ± 0.25) μm and (7.99 ± 0.21) μm along the 100 μm and 150 μm pixel pitch, respectively. The findings are compared to a detailed Monte Carlo simulation of the pixel detector and good agreement is found.Peer reviewe
Trapping in irradiated p-on-n silicon sensors at fluences anticipated at the HL-LHC outer tracker
The degradation of signal in silicon sensors is studied under conditions expected at the CERN High-Luminosity LHC. 200 m thick n-type silicon sensors are irradiated with protons of different energies to fluences of up to neq/cm. Pulsed red laser light with a wavelength of 672 nm is used to generate electron-hole pairs in the sensors. The induced signals are used to determine the charge collection efficiencies separately for electrons and holes drifting through the sensor. The effective trapping rates are extracted by comparing the results to simulation. The electric field is simulated using Synopsys device simulation assuming two effective defects. The generation and drift of charge carriers are simulated in an independent simulation based on PixelAV. The effective trapping rates are determined from the measured charge collection efficiencies and the simulated and measured time-resolved current pulses are compared. The effective trapping rates determined for both electrons and holes are about 50% smaller than those obtained using standard extrapolations of studies at low fluences and suggests an improved tracker performance over initial expectations
The CMS Phase-1 pixel detector upgrade
The CMS detector at the CERN LHC features a silicon pixel detector as its innermost subdetector. The original CMS pixel detector has been replaced with an upgraded pixel system (CMS Phase-1 pixel detector) in the extended year-end technical stop of the LHC in 2016/2017. The upgraded CMS pixel detector is designed to cope with the higher instantaneous luminosities that have been achieved by the LHC after the upgrades to the accelerator during the first long shutdown in 2013–2014. Compared to the original pixel detector, the upgraded detector has a better tracking performance and lower mass with four barrel layers and three endcap disks on each side to provide hit coverage up to an absolute value of pseudorapidity of 2.5. This paper describes the design and construction of the CMS Phase-1 pixel detector as well as its performance from commissioning to early operation in collision data-taking.Peer reviewe
Characterisation of irradiated thin silicon sensors for the CMS phase II pixel upgrade
The high luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider, foreseen for 2026, necessitates the replacement of the CMS experiment's silicon tracker. The innermost layer of the new pixel detector will be exposed to severe radiation, corresponding to a 1 MeV neutron equivalent fluence of up to Phi(eq) = 2x10(16) cm(-2), and an ionising dose of approximate to 5 MGy after an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb(-1). Thin, planar silicon sensors are good candidates for this application, since the degradation of the signal produced by traversing particles is less severe than for thicker devices. In this paper, the results obtained from the characterisation of 100 and 200 mu m thick p-bulk pad diodes and strip sensors irradiated up to fluences of Phi(eq) = 1.3 x 10(16) cm(-2) are shown.Peer reviewe
Alignment of the CMS tracker with LHC and cosmic ray data
© CERN 2014 for the benefit of the CMS collaboration, published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License by IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab srl. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation and DOI.The central component of the CMS detector is the largest silicon tracker ever built. The precise alignment of this complex device is a formidable challenge, and only achievable with a significant extension of the technologies routinely used for tracking detectors in the past. This article describes the full-scale alignment procedure as it is used during LHC operations. Among the specific features of the method are the simultaneous determination of up to 200 000 alignment parameters with tracks, the measurement of individual sensor curvature parameters, the control of systematic misalignment effects, and the implementation of the whole procedure in a multi-processor environment for high execution speed. Overall, the achieved statistical accuracy on the module alignment is found to be significantly better than 10μm
P-Type Silicon Strip Sensors for the new CMS Tracker at HL-L-HC
Abstract: The upgrade of the LHC to the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) is expected to increase
the LHC design luminosity by an order of magnitude. This will require silicon tracking detectors
with a significantly higher radiation hardness. The CMS Tracker Collaboration has conducted an
irradiation and measurement campaign to identify suitable silicon sensor materials and strip designs
for the future outer tracker at the CMS experiment. Based on these results, the collaboration has
chosen to use n-in-p type silicon sensors and focus further investigations on the optimization of that
sensor type