Commissioning and performance of the CMS silicon strip tracker with cosmic ray muons

This is the Pre-print version of the Article. The official published version of the Paper can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2010 IOPDuring autumn 2008, the Silicon Strip Tracker was operated with the full CMS experiment in a comprehensive test, in the presence of the 3.8 T magnetic field produced by the CMS superconducting solenoid. Cosmic ray muons were detected in the muon chambers and used to trigger the readout of all CMS sub-detectors. About 15 million events with a muon in the tracker were collected. The efficiency of hit and track reconstruction were measured to be higher than 99% and consistent with expectations from Monte Carlo simulation. This article details the commissioning and performance of the Silicon Strip Tracker with cosmic ray muons.This work is supported by FMSR (Austria); FNRS and FWO (Belgium); CNPq, CAPES, FAPERJ, and FAPESP (Brazil); MES (Bulgaria); CERN; CAS, MoST, and NSFC (China); COLCIENCIAS (Colombia); MSES (Croatia); RPF (Cyprus); Academy of Sciences and NICPB (Estonia); Academy of Finland, ME, and HIP (Finland); CEA and CNRS/IN2P3 (France); BMBF, DFG, and HGF (Germany); GSRT (Greece); OTKA and NKTH (Hungary); DAE and DST (India); IPM (Iran); SFI (Ireland); INFN (Italy); NRF (Korea); LAS (Lithuania); CINVESTAV, CONACYT, SEP, and UASLP-FAI (Mexico); PAEC (Pakistan); SCSR (Poland); FCT (Portugal); JINR (Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan); MST and MAE (Russia); MSTDS (Serbia); MICINN and CPAN (Spain); Swiss Funding Agencies (Switzerland); NSC (Taipei); TUBITAK and TAEK (Turkey); STFC (United Kingdom); DOE and NSF (USA)

A vertical resonant tunneling transistor for application in digital logic circuits

A vertical resonant tunneling transistor (VRTT) has been developed, its properties and its application in digital logic circuits based on the monostable-bistable transition logic element (MOBILE) principle are described. The device consists of a small mesa resonant tunneling diode (RTD) in the GaAs/AlAs material system surrounded by a Schottky gate. We obtain low peak voltages using InGaAs in the quantum well and the devices show an excellent peak current control by means of an applied gate voltage. A self latching inverter circuit has been fabricated using two VRTTs and the switching functionality was demonstrated at low frequencies

Test of CMS tracker silicon detector modules with the ARC readout system

The CMS tracker will be equipped with 16,000 silicon microstrip detector modules covering a surface of approximately 220 m**2. For quality control, a compact and inexpensive DAQ system is needed to monitor the mass production in industry and in the CMS production centres. To meet these requirements a set-up called APV Readout Controller (ARC) system was developed and distributed among all collaborating institutes to perform full readout tests of hybrids and modules at each production step. The system consists of all necessary hardware components, C++ based readout software using LabVIEW **1 Lab VIEW is a product of National Instruments, Austin, USA. as graphical user interface and provides full database connection to track every single module component during the production phase. Two preseries of Tracker End Cap (TEC) silicon detector modules have been produced by the TEC community and tested with the ARC system at Aachen. The results of the second series are presented

Reprogramming macrophages to an anti‐inflammatory phenotype by helminth antigens reduces murine atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis is a lipid-driven inflammatory disease of the vessel wall, characterized by the chronic activation of macrophages. We investigated whether the helminth-derived antigens [soluble egg antigens (SEAs)] could modulate macrophage inflammatory responses and protect against atherosclerosis in mice. In bone marrow-derived macrophages, SEAs induce anti-inflammatory macrophages, typified by high levels of IL-10 and reduced secretion of proinflammatory mediators. In hyperlipidemic LDLR-/- mice, SEA treatment reduced plaque size by 44%, and plaques were less advanced compared with PBS-injected littermate controls. The atheroprotective effect of SEAs was found to be mainly independent of cholesterol lowering and T-lymphocyte responses but instead could be attributed to diminished myeloid cell activation. SEAs reduced circulating neutrophils and inflammatory Ly6C(high) monocytes, and macrophages showed high IL-10 production. In line with the observed systemic effects, atherosclerotic lesions of SEA-treated mice showed reduced intraplaque inflammation as inflammatory markers [TNF-, monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1), intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1), and CD68], neutrophil content, and newly recruited macrophages were decreased. We show that SEA treatment protects against atherosclerosis development by dampening inflammatory responses. In the future, helminth-derived components may provide novel opportunities to treat chronic inflammatory diseases, as they diminish systemic inflammation and reduce the activation of immune cells.Wolfs, I. M. J., Stoger, J. L., Goossens, P., Pottgens, C., Gijbels, M. J. J., Wijnands, E., van der Vorst, E. P. C., van Gorp, P., Beckers, L., Engel, D., Biessen, E. A. L., Kraal, G., van Die, I., Donners, M. M. P. C., de Winther, M. P. J. Reprogramming macrophages to an anti-inflammatory phenotype by helminth antigens reduces murine atherosclerosi

Hematopoietic deficiency of miR155 promotes atherosclerotic lesion development in LDLR^−/− mice.

<p>Representative pictures of toluidine blue-stained sections of the aortic root of wildtype (A) and miR155^−/− (B) transplanted mice, magnification 40×. Hematopoietic miR155 deficiency increases plaque area (C) and promotes plaque progression towards more advanced lesions (D, Chi square test p<0.05). * p<0.05, n = 14 wildtypes and 19 miR155−/− mice.</p

Hematopoietic deficiency of miR155 enhances inflammation in atherosclerotic lesions.

<p>(A) Pathological examination of collagen, necrosis, foam cells, inflammatory cells, monocyte adhesion to the plaque and adventitial influx. AU: arbitrary units. (B) collagen content stained by Sirius red staining, (C) Monocyte/macrophage area stained by moma-2, (D) Neutrophil numbers stained by NIMP, (E) Newly recruited macrophages identified by ERMP58 and (F) T cell numbers stained by KT-3 antibody (directed against CD3). Arrowheads indicate positively stained cells. *p<0.05, n = 14 wildtypes and 19 miR155−/− mice.</p