388 research outputs found
Collecting close-contact social mixing data with contact diaries: reporting errors and biases
The analysis of contact networks plays a major role to understanding the dynamics of disease spread. Empirical contact data is often collected using contact diaries. Such studies rely on self-reported perceptions of contacts, and arrangements for validation are usually not made. Our study was based on a complete network study design that allowed for the analysis of reporting accuracy in contact diary studies. We collected contact data of the employees of three research groups over a period of 1 work week. We found that more than one third of all reported contacts were only reported by one out of the two involved contact partners. Non-reporting is most frequent in cases of short, non-intense contact. We estimated that the probability of forgetting a contact of â©˝5 min duration is greater than 50%. Furthermore, the number of forgotten contacts appears to be proportional to the total number of contact
A First Comparison of the responses of a He4-based fast-neutron detector and a NE-213 liquid-scintillator reference detector
A first comparison has been made between the pulse-shape discrimination
characteristics of a novel He-based pressurized scintillation detector
and a NE-213 liquid-scintillator reference detector using an Am/Be mixed-field
neutron and gamma-ray source and a high-resolution scintillation-pulse
digitizer. In particular, the capabilities of the two fast neutron detectors to
discriminate between neutrons and gamma-rays were investigated. The NE-213
liquid-scintillator reference cell produced a wide range of scintillation-light
yields in response to the gamma-ray field of the source. In stark contrast, due
to the size and pressure of the He gas volume, the He-based
detector registered a maximum scintillation-light yield of 750~keV to
the same gamma-ray field. Pulse-shape discrimination for particles with
scintillation-light yields of more than 750~keV was excellent in the
case of the He-based detector. Above 750~keV its signal was
unambiguously neutron, enabling particle identification based entirely upon the
amount of scintillation light produced.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics
Research Section A review addresse
Tagging fast neutrons from an 241Am/9Be source
We report on an investigation of the fast-neutron spectrum emitted by
241Am/9Be. Well-understood shielding, coincidence, and time-of-flight
measurement techniques are employed to produce a continuous, polychromatic,
energy-tagged neutron beam.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Journal of Applied Radiation and
Isotope
The Interplay between PolyQ and Protein Context Delays Aggregation by Forming a Reservoir of Protofibrils
Polyglutamine (polyQ) diseases are inherited neurodegenerative disorders caused by the expansion of CAG codon repeats, which code for polyQ in the corresponding gene products. These diseases are associated with the presence of amyloid-like protein aggregates, induced by polyQ expansion. It has been suggested that the soluble aggregates rather than the mature fibrillar aggregates are the toxic species, and that the aggregation properties of polyQ can be strongly modulated by the surrounding protein context. To assess the importance of the protein carrier in polyQ aggregation, we have studied the misfolding pathway and the kinetics of aggregation of polyQ of lengths above (Q41) and below (Q22) the pathological threshold fused to the well-characterized protein carrier glutathione S-transferase (GST). This protein, chosen as a model system, is per se able to misfold and aggregate irreversibly, thus mimicking the behaviour of domains of naturally occurring polyQ proteins. We prove that, while it is generally accepted that the aggregation kinetics of polyQ depend on its length and are faster for longer polyQ tracts, the presence of GST alters the polyQ aggregation pathway and reverses this trend. Aggregation occurs through formation of a reservoir of soluble intermediates whose populations and kinetic stabilities increase with polyQ length. Our results provide a new model that explains the toxicity of expanded polyQ proteins, in which the interplay between polyQ regions and other aggregation-prone domains plays a key role in determining the aggregation pathway
Generalisability of vaccine effectiveness estimates: an analysis of cases included in a postlicensure evaluation of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in the USA
External validity, or generalisability, is the measure of how well results from a study pertain to individuals in the target population. We assessed generalisability, with respect to socioeconomic status, of estimates from a matched case–control study of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine effectiveness for the prevention of invasive pneumococcal disease in children in the USA
Response of a Li-glass/multi-anode photomultiplier detector to collimated thermal-neutron beams
The response of a position-sensitive Li-glass scintillator detector being
developed for thermal-neutron detection with 6 mm position resolution has been
investigated using collimated beams of thermal neutrons. The detector was moved
perpendicularly through the neutron beams in 0.5 to 1.0 mm horizontal and
vertical steps. Scintillation was detected in an 8 X 8 pixel multi-anode
photomultiplier tube on an event-by-event basis. In general, several pixels
registered large signals at each neutron-beam location. The number of pixels
registering signal above a set threshold was investigated, with the
maximization of the single-hit efficiency over the largest possible area of the
detector as the primary goal. At a threshold of ~50% of the mean of the
full-deposition peak, ~80% of the events were registered in a single pixel,
resulting in an effective position resolution of ~5 mm in X and Y. Lower
thresholds generally resulted in events demonstrating higher pixel
multiplicities, but these events could also be localized with ~5 mm position
resolution.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure
Light-yield response of liquid scintillators using 2–6 MeV tagged neutrons
Knowledge of the neutron light-yield response is crucial to the understanding of scintillator-based neutron detectors. In this work, neutrons from 2–6MeV have been used to study the scintillation light-yield response of the liquid scintillators NE 213A, EJ 305, EJ 331 and EJ 321P using event-by-event waveform digitization. Energy calibration was performed using a GEANT4 model to locate the edge positions of the Compton distributions produced by gamma-ray sources. The simulated light yield for neutrons from a PuBe source was compared to measured recoil proton distributions, where neutron energy was selected by time-of-flight. This resulted in an energy-dependent Birks parameterization to characterize the non-linear response to the lower energy neutrons. The NE 213A and EJ 305 results agree very well with existing data and are reproduced nicely by the simulation. New results for EJ 331 and EJ 321P, where the simulation also reproduces the data well, are presented
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