Annual Modulation of Cosmic Relic Neutrinos

The cosmic neutrino background (CvB), produced about one second after the Big Bang, permeates the Universe today. New technological advancements make neutrino capture on beta-decaying nuclei (NCB) a clear path forward towards the detection of the CvB. We show that gravitational focusing by the Sun causes the expected neutrino capture rate to modulate annually. The amplitude and phase of the modulation depend on the phase-space distribution of the local neutrino background, which is perturbed by structure formation. These results also apply to searches for sterile neutrinos at NCB experiments. Gravitational focusing is the only source of modulation for neutrino capture experiments, in contrast to dark-matter direct-detection searches where the Earth's time-dependent velocity relative to the Sun also plays a role.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Margaret Spitz, MD, Oral History Interview, November 01, 2016

Major Topics Covered: Conceptualizing “integrative epidemiology” Women at MD Anderson Training and education for a new generation of epidemiologistshttps://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewsessions/1189/thumbnail.jp

Margaret Spitz, MD, Oral History Interview, October 13, 2016

Major Topics Covered: Personal background, education, emigration from South Africa History of the Division of Cancer Prevention History of the Department of Epidemiology History of the field of Epidemiology Epidemiology research: predictive models, lung cancerhttps://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewsessions/1188/thumbnail.jp

Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) for Liver Metastasis: Early Experience with the Cyberknife Robotic Radio-Surgery System

Background: The liver is a common site for malignant metastases. Surgical metastatic resection, ablative therapies, and external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) all have advantages and limitations. Preliminary reports reveal SBRT treats hepatic metastases with limited toxicities. We reviewed our institution’s SBRT experience for the treatment of liver metastases to assess toxicity and outcomes.Methods: Hepatic metastases treated with SBRT were retrospectively reviewed from 2008-2010. Computed tomography (CT) identified tumor volume prior to SBRT, local recurrence and out-of-field progression after SBRT. Study endpoints were local recurrence, toxicity, and overall survival.Results: Thirty-three patients had 37 liver metastases treated with a median SBRT dose of 30Gy. Median follow-up was 8.1 months. Five lesions (13.5%) locally recurred after a median of 10.6 months. Seventeen patients had out-of-field progression (15 liver, 6 systemic) after a median of 5.1 months. Overall 23.5-month survival was 45.5%. Five patients reported nausea and seven reported pain after SBRT. There were no grade 4-5 toxicities or cases of liver failure.Conclusion: SBRT is safe and well tolerated in patients with hepatic metastases. SBRT offers a local therapy with limited toxicities to patients with lesions not amenable to traditional ablative, surgical, or regional therapies

A phenomenological approach to the simulation of metabolism and proliferation dynamics of large tumour cell populations

A major goal of modern computational biology is to simulate the collective behaviour of large cell populations starting from the intricate web of molecular interactions occurring at the microscopic level. In this paper we describe a simplified model of cell metabolism, growth and proliferation, suitable for inclusion in a multicell simulator, now under development (Chignola R and Milotti E 2004 Physica A 338 261-6). Nutrients regulate the proliferation dynamics of tumor cells which adapt their behaviour to respond to changes in the biochemical composition of the environment. This modeling of nutrient metabolism and cell cycle at a mesoscopic scale level leads to a continuous flow of information between the two disparate spatiotemporal scales of molecular and cellular dynamics that can be simulated with modern computers and tested experimentally.Comment: 58 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables, pdf onl

Standardisation des piégeages en ligne pour quelques espèces de rongeurs

Une méthode standardisée de piégeage en ligne a été expé rimentée pour les rongeurs suivants : Eliomys quercinus, Pitymys multiplex, Clethrionomys glareolus, Microtus arvalis, Apodemus sylvaticus et Taterillus pygargus. Toutes ces expériences confir ment l’idée générale qu’il existe une relation de proportionnalité entre la densité de population et le nombre de captures en un temps donné sur une longueur donnée de ligne. Mais cette relation dépend étroitement des caractères de l’activité des Rongeurs. Il est montré que le coefficient de ligne est une fonction puissance négative de la moyenne des distances entre recaptures successives de la catégorie considérée. Des coefficients de ligne d’usage pra tique sont indiqués.A standard line trapping technique has been tested with the following Rodent species : Eliomys quercinus, Pitymys multiplex, Clethrionomys glareolus, Microtus arvalis, Apodemus sylvaticus and Taterillus pygargus. A proportional relation occurs between population density and number of catches during a given time- period, along a given length of trap-line. However this rela tionship depends also on the activity pattern and daily movements of the species studied. The « Line coefficient » is a negative power function of the average distance between successive catches (« average-D »)

Analysis of a Large Sample of Neutrino-Induced Muons with the ArgoNeuT Detector

ArgoNeuT, or Argon Neutrino Test, is a 170 liter liquid argon time projection chamber designed to collect neutrino interactions from the NuMI beam at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. ArgoNeuT operated in the NuMI low-energy beam line directly upstream of the MINOS Near Detector from September 2009 to February 2010, during which thousands of neutrino and antineutrino events were collected. The MINOS Near Detector was used to measure muons downstream of ArgoNeuT. Though ArgoNeuT is primarily an R&D project, the data collected provide a unique opportunity to measure neutrino cross sections in the 0.1-10 GeV energy range. Fully reconstructing the muon from these interactions is imperative for these measurements. This paper focuses on the complete kinematic reconstruction of neutrino-induced through-going muons tracks. Analysis of this high statistics sample of minimum ionizing tracks demonstrates the reliability of the geometric and calorimetric reconstruction in the ArgoNeuT detector