The Strategy-Proofness Landscape of Merging

Merging operators aim at defining the beliefs/goals of a group of agents from the beliefs/goals of each member of the group. Whenever an agent of the group has preferences over the possible results of the merging process (i.e., the possible merged bases), she can try to rig the merging process by lying on her true beliefs/goals if this leads to better merged base according to her point of view. Obviously, strategy-proof operators are highly desirable in order to guarantee equity among agents even when some of them are not sincere. In this paper, we draw the strategy-proof landscape for many merging operators from the literature, including model-based ones and formula-based ones. Both the general case and several restrictions on the merging process are considered

Progress in Diamond Detector Development

Detectors based on Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) diamond have been used successfully in Luminosity and Beam Condition Monitors (BCM) in the highest radiation areas of the LHC. Future experiments at CERN will accumulate an order of magnitude larger fluence. As a result, an enormous effort is underway to identify detector materials that can operate under fluences of 1 · 1016 n cm−2 and 1 · 1017 n cm−2. Diamond is one candidate due to its large displacement energy that enhances its radiation tolerance. Over the last 30 years the RD42 collaboration has constructed diamond detectors in CVD diamond with a planar geometry and with a 3D geometry to extend the material's radiation tolerance. The 3D cells in these detectors have a size of 50 µm×50 µm with columns of 2.6 µm in diameter and 100 µm×150 µm with columns of 4.6 µm in diameter. Here we present the latest beam test results from planar and 3D diamond pixel detectors

Activation and Deactivation of a Robust Immobilized Cp*Ir-Transfer Hydrogenation Catalyst: A Multielement in Situ X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy Study

A highly robust immobilized [Cp*IrCl2]2 precatalyst on Wang resin for transfer hydrogenation, which can be recycled up to 30 times, was studied using a novel combination of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) at Ir L3-edge, Cl K-edge, and K K-edge. These culminate in in situ XAS experiments that link structural changes of the Ir complex with its catalytic activity and its deactivation. Mercury poisoning and “hot filtration” experiments ruled out leached Ir as the active catalyst. Spectroscopic evidence indicates the exchange of one chloride ligand with an alkoxide to generate the active precatalyst. The exchange of the second chloride ligand, however, leads to a potassium alkoxide–iridate species as the deactivated form of this immobilized catalyst. These findings could be widely applicable to the many homogeneous transfer hydrogenation catalysts with Cp*IrCl substructure

A complete conclusion-based procedure for judgment aggregation

Judgment aggregation is a formal theory reasoning about how a group of agents can aggregate individual judgments on connected propositions into a collective judgment on the same propositions. Three procedures for successfully aggregating judgments sets are: premise-based procedure, conclusion-based procedure and distance-based merging. The conclusion-based procedure has been little investigated because it provides a way to aggregate the conclusions, but not the premises, thus it outputs an incomplete judgment set. The goal of this paper is to present a conclusion-based procedure outputting complete judgment sets

RF pulse amplifier for CVD-diamond particle detectors

International audienceThis article introduces a design of a Low Noise Amplifier (LNA), for the field of diamond particle detectors. This amplifier is described from simulation to measurements, which include pulses from α particles detection. In hadron therapy, with high-frequency pulsed particle beams, the diamond detector is a promising candidate for beam monitoring and time-stamping, with prerequisite of fast electronics. The LNA is designed with surface mounted components and RF layout techniques to control costs and to allow timing performance suitable for sub-nanosecond edges of pulses. Also this amplifier offers the possibility of high voltage biasing, a characteristic essential for driving diamond detectors. Finally the greatest asset of this study is certainly the minimization of the power consumption, which allows us to consider designs with multiple amplifiers, in limited space, for striped diamond detectors

A CD4(+) T-cell immune response to a conserved epitope in the circumsporozoite protein correlates with protection from natural Plasmodium falciparum infection and disease.

Many human T-cell responses specific for epitopes in Plasmodium falciparum have been described, but none has yet been shown to be predictive of protection against natural malaria infection. Here we report a peptide-specific T-cell assay that is strongly associated with protection of humans in The Gambia, West Africa, from both malaria infection and disease. The assay detects interferon-gamma-secreting CD4(+) T cells specific for a conserved sequence from the circumsporozoite protein, which binds to many human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR types. The correlation was observed using a cultured, rather than an ex vivo, ELISPOT assay that measures central memory-'type T cells rather than activated effector T cells. These findings provide direct evidence for a protective role for CD4(+) T cells in humans, and a precise target for the design of improved vaccines against P. falciparum