Anisotropic flow in the forward directions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV

The addition of the two Forward TPCs to the STAR detector allows one to measure anisotropic flow at forward pseudorapidities. This made possible the first measurement of directed flow at collision energies of sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV. PHOBOS' results on elliptic flow at forward rapidities were confirmed, and the sign of v2 was determined to be positive for the first time at RHIC energies. The higher harmonic, v4, is consistent with the recently suggested v2^2 scaling behavior.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures; write-up of a poster (see http://cern.ch/Oldenburg/Talks/QM2004_Flow_Poster.pdf) presented at Quark Matter 2004, Oakland; reference 10 correcte

Novel integrated CMOS pixel structures for vertex detectors

Novel CMOS active pixel structures for vertex detector applications have been designed and tested. The overriding goal of this work is to increase the signal to noise ratio of the sensors and readout circuits. A large-area native epitaxial silicon photogate was designed with the aim of increasing the charge collected per struck pixel and to reduce charge diffusion to neighboring pixels. The photogate then transfers the charge to a low capacitance readout node to maintain a high charge to voltage conversion gain. Two techniques for noise reduction are also presented. The first is a per-pixel kT/C noise reduction circuit that produces results similar to traditional correlated double sampling (CDS). It has the advantage of requiring only one read, as compared to two for CDS, and no external storage or subtraction is needed. The technique reduced input-referred temporal noise by a factor of 2.5, to 12.8 e{sup -}. Finally, a column-level active reset technique is explored that suppresses kT/C noise during pixel reset. In tests, noise was reduced by a factor of 7.6 times, to an estimated 5.1 e{sup -} input-referred noise. The technique also dramatically reduces fixed pattern (pedestal) noise, by up to a factor of 21 in our tests. The latter feature may possibly reduce pixel-by-pixel pedestal differences to levels low enough to permit sparse data scan without per-pixel offset corrections

Emicizumab prophylaxis in infants with hemophilia A (HAVEN 7): primary analysis of a phase 3b, open-label trial

Subcutaneous emicizumab enables prophylaxis for people with hemophilia A (HA) from birth, potentially reducing risk of bleeding and intracranial hemorrhage (ICH). HAVEN 7 (NCT04431726) is the first clinical trial of emicizumab dedicated to infants, designed to investigate the efficacy, safety, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of emicizumab in those aged ≤12 months with severe HA without factor VIII (FVIII) inhibitors. Participants in this phase 3b trial received emicizumab 3 mg/kg maintenance dose every 2 weeks for 52 weeks and are continuing emicizumab during the 7-year long-term follow-up. Efficacy end points included annualized bleed rate (ABR): treated, all, treated spontaneous, and treated joint bleeds. Safety end points included adverse events (AEs), thromboembolic events (TEs), thrombotic microangiopathies (TMAs), and immunogenicity (anti-emicizumab antibodies [ADAs] and FVIII inhibitors). At primary analysis, 55 male participants had received emicizumab (median treatment duration: 100.3; range, 52-118 weeks). Median age at informed consent was 4.0 months (range, 9 days to 11 months 30 days). Model-based ABR for treated bleeds was 0.4 (95% confidence interval, 0.30–0.63), with 54.5% of participants (n = 30) having zero treated bleeds. No ICH occurred. All 42 treated bleeds in 25 participants (45.5%) were traumatic. Nine participants (16.4%) had ≥1 emicizumab-related AE (all grade 1 injection-site reactions). No AE led to treatment changes. No deaths, TEs, or TMAs occurred. No participant tested positive for ADAs. Two participants were confirmed positive for FVIII inhibitors. This primary analysis of HAVEN 7 indicates that emicizumab is efficacious and well tolerated in infants with severe HA without FVIII inhibitors

Exercising control at the urban scale: Towards a theory of spatial organisation and surveillance

The purpose of this chapter is to explore how urban spaces are implicated in the control and surveillance of users in a culture saturated by the notion of the self as a consuming body or entity. Using the work of Foucault on disciplinary cultures, Lefebvre in relation to the production of space, and other seminal theorists such as Baudrillard, Bauman, Shields, and Walzer, a model for analysing the three dimensions of social spatialisation is proposed and illustrated by reference to contemporary public spaces, and specifically spaces of mundane leisure such as shopping malls and high streets. The chapter deals with how the public realm as a controlling space has been theorised in terms of opposition to such controlling tendencies—from the flaneur, through the self-constructed narratives of De Certeau’s walker to the digitally ‘enhanced’ individual today, appropriating space via technology and their own projects in tinder and so on, and other potentially subversive media

Anisotropic flow in the forward directions at {radical}s{sub NN} = 200 GeV

The addition of the two Forward TPCs to the STAR detector allows one to measure anisotropic flow at forward pseudorapidities. This made possible the first measurement of directed flow at collision energies of {radical}s{sub NN} = 200 GeV. PHOBOS' results on elliptic flow at forward rapidities were confirmed, and the sign of v{sub 2} was determined to be positive for the first time at RHIC energies. The higher harmonic, v{sub 4}, is consistent with the recently suggested v{sub 2}2 scaling behavior

Einzelereignisanalyse von Pb+Pb-Stößen bei 158 GeV/Nukleon mit Waveletmomenten

Beim zentralen Stoß zweier ultrarelativistischer Schwerionen wird ein Zustand extremer Dichte und Temperatur erzeugt, der die Bildung des postulierten Quark-Gluon-Plasmas ermöglichen sollte. Diese neue Phase von Kernmaterie zeichnet sich dadurch aus, daß Quarks und Gluonen ohne den unter Normalbedingungen herrschenden Einschluß in Hadronen frei beweglich sind. Das Experiment NA49 am CERN SPS untersucht Kollisionen von 208Pb-Kernen. Dazu wird ein Bleistrahl mit einer Energie von 158 GeV/Nukleon auf ein im Laborsystem ruhendes Bleitarget geschossen. Das Detektorsystem ist auf den Nachweis des hadronischen Endzustands der Reaktion spezialisiert und erlaubt die Messung von mehr als 60% der etwa 2000 produzierten Hadronen. Diese große Zahl von meßbaren Teilchen macht die Untersuchung von Spektren einzelner Ereignisse möglich, die mit dem über alle Ereignisse gemittelten Spektrum verglichen werden können. Damit will man Fluktuationen von Ereignis zu Ereignis, sogenannte Einzelereignisfluktuationen, nachweisen. Um eine von der Unterteilung der Spektren in Bins unabhängige Untersuchung durchführen zu können, wurden die Einzelverteilungen mit Hilfe von Wavelettransformationen in eine Vielskalendarstellung überführt. Durch die anschließende Berechnung von faktoriellen Momenten der Waveletkoeffizienten war daher eine Korrelationsanalyse auf verschiedenen Skalen möglich. Es wurden breit angelegte Simulationen durchgeführt, die quantitative Aussagen über das Verhalten der faktoriellen Waveletmomente bei verschiedenen Arten der Eingangsverteilungen - als Beispiel seien hier flach- und gaußverteilte Spektren genannt - möglich machten. Die Multiplizitätsabhängigkeit der Verteilungsbreite der faktoriellen Waveletmomente der Ordnung q von Ereignissen mit gleichverteilten Einträgen ergab sich so zu einer Gesetzmäßigkeit von der Form sigma q(m) ~ m exp (-q/2). Die Untersuchungen der experimentell erhaltenen p-Spektren zeigten im Rahmen der statistischen Fehler auf keiner Skala eine signifikante Abweichung von den aus Simulationen mit rein zufälligen Einträgen erhaltenen Ergebnissen. Im Vergleich mit Simulationsrechnungen wurde eine obere Grenze für das Auftreten lokaler nichtstatistischer Fluktuationen gesetzt. Solche Fluktuationen werden z.B. in DCC-Modellen vorhergesagt. Die in der Analyse der Waveletmomente festgestellte Abwesenheit lokaler Fluktuationen steht in qualitativer Übereinstimmung mit der Analyse globaler Einzelereignisvariablen (z.B. ), die ebenfalls auf ein System mit minimalem Korrelationsinhalt hinweisen

Anisotropic Flow in the Forward Directions

The STAR Forward TPCs (FTPCs) extend the STAR acceptance for charged particles into the region 2.5 2) where in the case of v_4 a signal is seen in the STAR TPC. With the available statistics for the FTPCs we give an upper limit for these harmonics, since the results agree with zero within the errors. However, the falloff of v_4 from mid-rapidity to forward-rapidities appears to be faster than for v_2.[1] B.B. Back. Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 222301 (2002

NKG2D Engagement Alone Is Sufficient to Activate Cytokine-Induced Killer Cells While 2B4 Only Provides Limited Coactivation

Cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells are an ex vivo expanded heterogeneous cell population with an enriched NK-T phenotype (CD3+CD56+). Due to the convenient and relatively inexpensive expansion capability, together with low incidence of graft versus host disease (GVHD) in allogeneic cancer patients, CIK cells are a promising candidate for immunotherapy. It is well known that natural killer group 2D (NKG2D) plays an important role in CIK cell-mediated antitumor activity; however, it remains unclear whether its engagement alone is sufficient or if it requires additional co-stimulatory signals to activate the CIK cells. Likewise, the role of 2B4 has not yet been identified in CIK cells. Herein, we investigated the individual and cumulative contribution of NKG2D and 2B4 in the activation of CIK cells. Our analysis suggests that (a) NKG2D (not 2B4) is implicated in CIK cell (especially CD3+CD56+ subset)-mediated cytotoxicity, IFN-γ secretion, E/T conjugate formation, and degranulation; (b) NKG2D alone is adequate enough to induce degranulation, IFN-γ secretion, and LFA-1 activation in CIK cells, while 2B4 only provides limited synergy with NKG2D (e.g., in LFA-1 activation); and (c) NKG2D was unable to costimulate CD3. Collectively, we conclude that NKG2D engagement alone suffices to activate CIK cells, thereby strengthening the idea that targeting the NKG2D axis is a promising approach to improve CIK cell therapy for cancer patients. Furthermore, CIK cells exhibit similarities to classical invariant natural killer (iNKT) cells with deficiencies in 2B4 stimulation and in the costimulation of CD3 with NKG2D. In addition, based on the current data, the divergence in receptor function between CIK cells and NK (or T) cells can be assumed, pointing to the possibility that molecular modifications (e.g., using chimeric antigen receptor technology) on CIK cells may need to be customized and optimized to maximize their functional potential