Quartz Cherenkov Counters for Fast Timing: QUARTIC

We have developed particle detectors based on fused silica (quartz) Cherenkov radiators read out with micro-channel plate photomultipliers (MCP-PMTs) or silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) for high precision timing (Sigma(t) about 10-15 ps). One application is to measure the times of small angle protons from exclusive reactions, e.g. p + p - p + H + p, at the Large Hadron Collider, LHC. They may also be used to measure directional particle fluxes close to external or stored beams. The detectors have small areas (square cm), but need to be active very close (a few mm) to the intense LHC beam, and so must be radiation hard and nearly edgeless. We present results of tests of detectors with quartz bars inclined at the Cherenkov angle, and with bars in the form of an "L" (with a 90 degree corner). We also describe a possible design for a fast timing hodoscope with elements of a few square mm.Comment: 24 pages, 14 figure

Προγνωστική αξία και ρόλος ανοσολογικών και αγγειογενετικών παραγόντων του κυτταρικού μηχανισμού της αυτοφαγίας στον καρκίνο του μαστού.

Τα περιφερικά πολυμορφοπύρηνα κύτταρα του αίματος (μονοκύτταρα, μακροφάγα , λεμφοκύτταρα) ενεργοποιούνται όταν το ανοσοποιητικό σύστημα εκτίθεται σε αντίξοες συνθήκες (π.χ. λοίμωξη, φλεγμονή, τραύμα, στρες, έλλειψη θρεπτικών συστατικών, καρκίνο) με σκοπό να ενισχύσουν την άμυνα του οργανισμού και να αποκτήσουν την ομοιόσταση. Η θερμική πρωτείνη Hsp70 συμμετέχει στη διατήρηση της λειτουργίας πρωτεινών του σώματος καθώς και στην ενεργοποίηση του ανοσοποιητικού συστήματος. Η αυτοφαγία αποτελεί κυτταρικό μηχα- νισμό μέσω του οποίου το κύτταρο καταβολίζει και ανακυκλώνει απα- ραίτητα συστατικά όπως πρωτείνες και οργανίδια τα οποία βοηθούν στην επιβίωση του κυττάρου υπό αντίξοες συνθήκες. Πρόσφατες έρευνες έχουν δείξει ότι η αυτοφαγία παίζει σημαντικό ρόλο στην ανάπτυξη και εξέλιξη του καρκίνου του μαστού αλλά και στην ανταπόκριση στην χημειοθεραπεία. Για τους παραπάνω λόγους σχεδιάσαμε μια σειρά πειραμάτων για να διερευνήσουμε την αλληλεπίδραση του μηχανισμού της αυτοφαγίας με κυτταροκίνες και αγγειογενετικούς παράγοντες στον καρκίνο του μαστού. Εξετάσαμε την υπόθεση ότι τα περιφερικά πολυμορφοπύρηνα κύτταρα του αίματος ανταποκρίνονται στην παρουσία μιας κακοήθους μάζας στο μαστό αυξάνοντας την παραγωγή φλεγμονωδών και προ-φλεγμονωδών μοριακών δεικτών. Συγκεκριμένα, χρησιμοποιώντας την ενζυμική ανοσοδοκιμασία ELISA , εξετάσαμε τα επίπεδα έκφρασης των IFN-γ , TNF-α , IL1β, IL-4, IL-10 , LPA, HSP70, στα περιφερικά πολυμορφο- πύρηνα κύτταρα του αίματος γυναικών , οι οποίες είχαν διαγνωσθεί είτε με καρκίνο του μαστού είτε με καλοήθεις μάζες του μαστού. Διαπιστώσαμε ότι στατιστικά σημαντικές διαφορές υπήρξαν μεταξύ Hsp70 και p62. Πιο συγκεκριμένα ,στις γυναίκες με καρκίνο του μαστού παρατηρήθηκε να έχουν υψηλότερα εξωκυττάρια επίπεδα Hsp70 στον ορό τους. Επίσης , η μέση τιμή των ενδοκυττάριων επιπέδων Hsp70 στα περιφερικά πολυμορφοπύρηνα κύτταρα του αίματος γυναικών με καρκίνο του μαστού ήταν σημαντικά υψηλότερα σε σύγκριση με τα αντίστοιχα επίπεδα Hsp70 σε γυναίκες με καλοήθεις μάζες του μαστού. Τέλος, στις γυναίκες με καρκίνο του μαστού η μέση τιμή των επιπέδων p62 ήταν 0,6 ng/ml, ενώ στις γυναίκες με καλοήθη μάζα του μαστού η μέση τιμή των επιπέδων p62 ήταν σημαντικά χαμηλότερη, 2,3 ng/ml. Με βάση τη βιβλιογραφία τα επίπεδα p62 είναι αντιστρόφως ανάλογα των επιπέδων έκφρασης της αυτοφαγίας. Άρα ,στα περιφερικά πολυμορφοπύρηνα κύτταρα του αίματος γυναικών με καρκίνο του μαστού , ο μηχανισμός της αυτοφαγίας είναι σημαντικά πιο ενεργός, συμβάλλοντας στην επιβίωση αυτών των κυττάρων. Επιπλέον, παρατηρήσαμε ότι ο βαθμός έκφρασης της αυτοφαγίας στα περιφερικά πολυμορφοπύρηνα κύτταρα του αίματος γυναικών με καρκίνο του μαστού είναι ανάλογος των ενδοκυττάριων επιπέδων έκφρασης Hsp70 στα ίδια κύτταρα. Ενδεχομένως το ερέθισμα που αυξάνει τα επίπεδα Hsp70 σε ασθενείς με καρκίνο του μαστού να συνεργεί στην ενεργοποίηση του μηχανισμού του μηχανισμού της αυτοφαγίας στα περιφερικά πολυμορφοπύρηνα κύτταρα του αίματος επηρεάζοντας την καρκινογένεση και ανταπόκριση στην χημειοθεραπεία και ανοσοθεραπεία. Τέλος, η ανίχνευση υψηλών επιπέδων Hsp70 και αυτοφαγίας στα περιφερικά πολυμορφοπύρηνα κύτταρα καθώς και τα υψηλότερα επίπεδα Hsp70 στον ορό του αίματος , μπορούν να βοηθήσουν με έναν μη επεμβατικό τρόπο στην προεγχειρητική διαφοροποίηση μεταξύ γυναικών με καρκίνο του μαστού και ασθενών με καλοήθεις μάζες του στήθους.The peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) (monocytes, macrophages, lymphocytes) are activated when the immune system is exposed to adverse physiological conditions (e.g.infection, inflammation, trauma, stress, deprivation of nutrients ,cancer) to support the defense of the body and maintain cellular homeostasis. The 70kDa heat stock protein (Hsp70) is produced to maintain the function of proteins and activates an immune response. Autophagy is a cellular mechanism that the cell uses to metabolize and recycle proteins and organelles to provide sufficient nutrients in response to accelerated gene activation. Recent studies have shown that autophagy plays an important role in development and progression of breast cancer as well as in response to chemotherapy. Considering the above , we designed a series of experiments to investigate the interplay between the mechanism of the autophagy with cytokines and angiogenetic factors in breast cancer. we tested the hypothesis that PBMCS respond to the presence of a malignant breast mass by increasing production of inflammatory and pro-inflammatory markers. Specifically , we used the enzyme -linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to assay the expression of IFN-γ, TNF-α , IL-β, IL-4, IL-10, LPA, Hsp70, in PBMCs from women who were diagnosed with breast cancer or benign breast mass. We found statistically significant differences in the levels of the expression of Hsp70 and p62. Specifically , women with breast cancer had higher levels of extracellular Hsp70 in the serum. Additionally, the mean intracellular Hsp70 levels were higher in PBMCs from women with a malignant lesion than in women with a benign mass. Finally , in women with breast cancer the mean p62 level was 0.6 ng/ml, while in women with a benign breast mass the mean p62 level was significantly lower , 2.3 ng/ml. According to the literature p62 is inversely related to the level of autophagy . This indicates that autophagy is higher in PBMCs from women with a malignant breast lesion , contributing to the survival of breast cancer cells. Moreover, we found that the level of expression of autophagy in MBMCs from women with breast cancer is proportional to the intracellular levels of Hsp70 in the same cells. We can speculate that the trigger that caused an increase in the levels of expression of Hsp70 in women with breast cancer can also activate the mechanism of autophagy in PBMCs thus affecting the tumorigenesis and response to chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Finally, the detection of high levels of expression of Hsp70 and autophagy in PBMCs, as well as , the higher levels of Hsp70 in the serum, can potentially be used as biomarkers in a non -invasive approach to triage preoperatively women with breast cancer from women with benign breast mass

AntiHunter 2.0: increased speed and sensitivity in searching BLAST output for EST antisense transcripts

An increasing number of eukaryotic and prokaryotic genes are being found to have natural antisense transcripts (NATs). There is also growing evidence to suggest that antisense transcription could play a key role in many human diseases. Consequently, there have been several recent attempts to set up computational procedures aimed at identifying novel NATs. Our group has developed the AntiHunter program for the identification of expressed sequence tag (EST) antisense transcripts from BLAST output. In order to perform an analysis, the program requires a genomic sequence plus an associated list of transcript names and coordinates of the genomic region. After masking the repeated regions, the program carries out a BLASTN search of this sequence in the selected EST database, reporting via email the EST entries that reveal an antisense transcript according to the user-supplied list. Here, we present the newly developed version 2.0 of the AntiHunter tool. Several improvements have been added to this version of the program in order to increase its ability to detect a larger number of antisense ESTs. As a result, AntiHunter can now detect, on average, >45% more antisense ESTs with little or no increase in the percentage of the false positives. We also raised the maximum query size to 3 Mb (previously 1 Mb). Moreover, we found that a reasonable trade-off between the program search sensitivity and the maximum allowed size of the input-query sequence could be obtained by querying the database with the MEGABLAST program, rather than by using the BLAST one. We now offer this new opportunity to users, i.e. if choosing the MEGABLAST option, users can input a query sequence up to 30 Mb long, thus considerably improving the possibility to analyze longer query regions. The AntiHunter tool is freely available at

As diferentes ocorrências de /t/ entre o inglês britânico e o inglês norte-americano:: um estudo piloto

According to Gomez (2009), American Standard English has six different ways of pronunciation of /t/. Most of these pronunciations are also found in British English. This work aimed to make a pilot analysis of the different occurrences of the phoneme /t/ in the dialects of British and North American English, using as corpora videos of declamation of the poem “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe by two native speakers of British English. and two native North American English speakers. It was concluded that the use of the stop presents a significant difference in relation to the dialects with interaction in relation to the intervocalic and vowel + nasal context; the occurrence of its pronunciation as rhotic presents a significant difference between the dialects. The results showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the proportions of use of glottalized pronunciation in the two dialects.  Según Gómez (2009), el inglés estándar americano tiene seis formas diferentes de pronunciar /t/. La mayoría de estas pronunciaciones también se encuentran en inglés británico. Este trabajo tuvo como objetivo realizar un análisis piloto de las diferentes ocurrencias del fonema /t/ en los dialectos del inglés británico y norteamericano, utilizando como corpus videos de declamación del poema “The Raven” de Edgar Allan Poe por dos hablantes nativos de inglés británico y dos hablantes nativos de inglés norteamericano. Se concluyó que el uso de la oclusiva presenta una diferencia significativa en relación a los dialectos con interacción en relación al contexto intervocálico y vocal + nasal; la ocurrencia de su pronunciación como rótica presenta una diferencia significativa entre los dialectos. Los resultados mostraron que no hubo diferencia estadísticamente significativa entre las proporciones de uso de la pronunciación glotalizada en los dos dialectos.  Segundo Gomez (2009), o inglês padrão americano possui seis formas diferentes de pronúncia do /t/. A maior parte dessas pronúncias também é encontrada no inglês britânico. Este trabalho se prestou a fazer uma análise piloto das diferentes ocorrências do fonema /t/ nos dialetos do inglês britânico e norte-americano, utilizando como corpora vídeos de declamação do poema “The Raven” de Edgar Allan Poe por dois falantes nativos de inglês britânico e dois falantes nativos de inglês norte-americano. Concluiu-se que o uso da oclusiva apresenta diferença significativa em relação aos dialetos com interação em relação aos contexto intervocálico e vogal + nasal; já a ocorrência da sua pronúncia como rótico apresenta uma diferença significativa entre os dialetos. Os resultados mostraram que não houve diferença estatística relevante entre as proporções de uso da pronúncia glotalizada nos dois dialetos

Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8  TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum