Sensitivity on Earth Core and Mantle densities using Atmospheric Neutrinos

Neutrino radiography may provide an alternative tool to study the very deep structures of the Earth. Though these measurements are unable to resolve the fine density layer features, nevertheless the information which can be obtained are independent and complementary to the more conventional seismic studies. The aim of this paper is to assess how well the core and mantle averaged densities can be reconstructed through atmospheric neutrino radiography. We find that about a 2% sensitivity for the mantle and 5% for the core could be achieved for a ten year data taking at an underwater km^3 Neutrino Telescope. This result does not take into account systematics related to the details of the experimental apparatus.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in JCA

Tritordeum breads are well tolerated with preference over gluten-free breads in non-celiac wheat-sensitive patients and its consumption induce changes in gut bacteria

BACKGROUND The ingestion of wheat and other cereals are related to several gut disorders. The specific components responsible for non-celiac wheat-sensitivity (NCWS) may include gluten and other compounds. Tritordeum is a new cereal derived from crossing durum wheat with a wild barley species, which differs from bread wheat in its gluten composition. In the present work, we examined the response of NCWS patients to tritordeum bread Gastrointestinal symptoms as well as tritordeum acceptability, gluten immunogenic peptides excretion, and the composition and structure of the intestinal microbiota were evaluated. RESULTS Gastrointestinal symptoms of the subjects showed no significant change between the gluten-free bread and the tritordeum bread. Participating subjects rated tritordeum bread higher than the gluten-free bread. Analysis of the bacterial gut microbiota indicated that tritordeum consumption does not alter the global structure and composition of the intestinal microbiota, and only a few changes in some butyrate-producing bacteria were observed. CONCLUSIONS All the results derived from acceptability, biochemical and microbiological tests suggest that tritordeum may be tolerated by a sub-set of NCWS sufferers who do not require strict exclusion of gluten from their diet. (c) 2020 Society of Chemical Industry

Efficacy and safety of the combination of reduced duration prophylaxis followed by immuno-guided prophylaxis to prevent cytomegalovirus disease in lung transplant recipients (CYTOCOR STUDY) : An open-label, randomised, non-inferiority clinical trial

Introduction Prolonged use of antivirals to prevent the development of cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease in lung transplant patients has been shown to have significant side effects, for which alternatives are being sought to reduce their use. The monitoring of cell immunity against CMV could be an alternative as it has shown to be useful in identifying transplant patients at low risk of infection, who could benefit from shorter prophylaxis. The aim of the CYTOCOR study is to demonstrate that the combination of a reduced prophylaxis strategy with subsequent CMV-specific immunological monitoring would allow CMV infection to be controlled in lung transplant patients as effectively as the usual strategy (prophylaxis followed by pre-emptive therapy), while reducing the side effects of antivirals due to the shorter duration of prophylaxis. Methods and analysis Phase III randomised, open, multicentre, parallel, non-inferiority clinical trial to study the efficacy and safety of the combination of a prophylaxis strategy up to month +3 post-transplant followed by immuno-guided prophylaxis using the QuantiFERON-CMV technique up to month +12 post-transplant to prevent CMV disease in CMV-seropositive lung transplant recipients. This strategy will be compared with a combination of a usual prophylaxis strategy up to month +6 post-transplant followed by pre-emptive therapy up to month +12. To study the incidence of CMV disease, patients will be followed up to 18 months post-transplantation. A total of 150 patients are expected to be recruited for the study. Ethics and public dissemination The clinical trial has been approved by the Research Ethics Committees and authorised by the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices (AEMPS). If the hypothesis of this clinical trial is verified, the dissemination of the results could change clinical practice by increasing knowledge about the safety and efficacy of discontinuing valganciclovir prophylaxis in lung transplant recipients. Trial registration number NCT03699254

Stringent Constraints on Cosmological Neutrino-Antineutrino Asymmetries from Synchronized Flavor Transformation

We assess a mechanism which can transform neutrino-antineutrino asymmetries between flavors in the early universe, and confirm that such transformation is unavoidable in the near bi-maximal framework emerging for the neutrino mixing matrix. We show that the process is a standard Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein flavor transformation dictated by a synchronization of momentum states. We also show that flavor ``equilibration'' is a special feature of maximal mixing, and carefully examine new constraints placed on neutrino asymmetries. In particular, the big bang nucleosynthesis limit on electron neutrino degeneracy xi_e < 0.04 does not apply directly to all flavors, yet confirmation of the large-mixing-angle solution to the solar neutrino problem will eliminate the possibility of degenerate big bang nucleosynthesis.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures; minor changes to match PRD versio

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross-section in pp collisions at sqrt(s)= 7 TeV using 35 pb-1 of ATLAS data

A measurement of the differential cross-section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented. The measurement covers the pseudorapidity ranges |eta|<1.37 and 1.52<=|eta|<2.37 in the transverse energy range 45<=E_T<400GeV. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 35 pb-1, collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The yields of the signal photons are measured using a data-driven technique, based on the observed distribution of the hadronic energy in a narrow cone around the photon candidate and the photon selection criteria. The results are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and found to be in good agreement over four orders of magnitude in cross-section.Comment: 7 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 4 tables, final version published in Physics Letters

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02