Discrimination of Cherenkov light in Liquid Scintillator for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Experiment

　A liquid scintillator containing a tetrakis（isopropyl acetoacetato）zirconium has been developed for ZICOS experiment. We will use 180 tons of liquid scintillator containing 75 kg of 96Zr in the inner balloon（45 kg in fiducial volume）surrounding 64 % photo coverage of 20 inch photomultiplier. In order to reach the sensitivity ≥1027 years, we have to reduce 95 % of 208Tl decay backgrounds at least. Using Monte Carlo simulation, we could demonstrate new method using the hit pattern of PMT which received Cherenkov light, and could reduce 93 % of 208Tl background with 78 % efficiency for 0νββ signal. For the discrimination of Cherenkov light, we measured the timing pulse shape of Zr loaded liquid scintillator using FADC digitizer, and we found an inconsistent pulse shape at the rise timing with the template of scintillation. Also the event with an inconsistent pulse shape seems to have a directionality

Hemorrhagic infarction at 33 days after birth in a healthy full-term neonate

Intraparenchymal hemorrhage in the full-term neonate rarely occurs more than 2 weeks after birth, and its definitive cause remains unclear. In the present report, a case of a patient with intraparenchymal hemorrhage occurring 33 days after birth is described. Histological examination of the brain tissue obtained during hematoma evacuation through craniotomy showed hemorrhagic infarction. Patent foramen ovale may have been present and this may have led to spontaneous paradoxical cerebral embolism followed by hemorrhagic infarction

Direct measurement of spectral shape of Cherenkov light using cosmic muons

The spectral pulse shape of Cherenkov lights was directly measured by using cosmic muons. The observed decay times for early and late timing were 5.0 and 5.2ns, respectively. They were actually shorter than the time of scintillation lights which were also measured as 9.3ns and 9.2ns, respectively. However we could not see the difference of the rise time between scintillation and Cherenkov lights. This was due to the slow response of our DAQ equipment, photomultiplier and FADC digitize

Precise pulse shape measurement of Cherenkov light using sub-MeV electrons from Sr-90/Y-90 beta source

The precise spectral pulse shape from Cherenkov lights was directly measured by using sub-MeV electrons from 90Sr/90Y beta source. The observed shape was clearly different from the shape of scintillation light. The pulse rise and fall （decay） time for Cherenkov light were 0.8 ns and 2.5 ns, respectively. They were actually shorter than those times of scintillation light which were also measured by 1.6 ns and 6.5 ns, respectively. This clear Thisclearclear difference of rise time will be used for the pulse shape discrimination in order to select PMTs which receive Cherenkov lights, and the topological information due to Cherenkov light will be used for the reduction of backgrounds from 208Tl beta decay which should be major backgrounds observed around Q-value （3.35MeV）of 96Zr neutrinoless double beta decay

Development of pulse shape discrimination for Cherenkov lights in liquid scintillator

With a liquid scintillation used for ZICOS experiment, we measured pulse shapes in case of several radio isotopes, 60Co, 137Cs, 133Ba, and 57Co. Taking FADC timing at 60 nsec for the peak position, FADC spectra from 58.5 nsec to 80 nsec were almost same shape for each RI, however, before 58.5 nsec, we have found that those were different shape. Especially, in case of 57Co, the energy is lower than Cherenkov threshold, so that the spectra should not include Cherenkov light. Using those spectra between 57.0 nsec and 58.0 nsec（3 bins）, we calculated simply χ2 and it was clearly discriminated that χ2 ≥ 0.1 should be include Cherenkov lights. This was also confirmed by Compton electrons with fixed energy and fixed direction. Obtained detection inefficiency of Cherenkov lights was observed by 21.4 ± 9.6 %. According to Compton edge events which have almost same direction as the incident γ and backgrounds events which should have isotropic direction, the detection inefficiency were 10.4 ± 0.5 % and 49.1 ± 1.4 %, respectively. They were quite different values and the inefficiency of both fixed energy and Compton edge events were statistically same. This is a direct evidence that Cherenkov lights should keep their topology even if they are emitted by around 1 MeV electron

Candidate Brown-dwarf Microlensing Events with Very Short Timescales and Small Angular Einstein Radii

Short-timescale microlensing events are likely to be produced by substellar brown dwarfs (BDs), but it is difficult to securely identify BD lenses based on only event timescales t_E because short-timescale events can also be produced by stellar lenses with high relative lens-source proper motions. In this paper, we report three strong candidate BD-lens events found from the search for lensing events not only with short timescales (t_E ≲ 6 days) but also with very small angular Einstein radii (θ_E ≲ 0.05 mas) among the events that have been found in the 2016–2019 observing seasons. These events include MOA-2017-BLG-147, MOA-2017-BLG-241, and MOA-2019-BLG-256, in which the first two events are produced by single lenses and the last event is produced by a binary lens. From the Monte Carlo simulations of Galactic events conducted with the combined t_E and θ_E constraint, it is estimated that the lens masses of the individual events are 0.051^(+0.100)_(−0.027) M⊙, 0.044^(+0.090)_(−0.023) M⊙, and 0.046^(+0.067)_(−0.023) M⊙/0.038^(+0.056)_(−0.019) M⊙ and the probability of the lens mass smaller than the lower limit of stars is ~80% for all events. We point out that routine lens mass measurements of short-timescale lensing events require survey-mode space-based observations

Qualitative investigation of the factors that generate ambivalent feelings in women who give birth after receiving negative results from non-invasive prenatal testing

Background: Women who receive negative results from non-invasive prenatal genetic testing (NIPT) may find that they later have mixed or ambivalent feelings, for example, feelings of accepting NIPT and regretting undergoing the test. This study aimed to investigate the factors generating ambivalent feelings among women who gave birth after having received negative results from NIPT. Methods: A questionnaire was sent to women who received a negative NIPT result, and a contents analysis was conducted focusing on ambivalent expressions for those 1562 women who responded the questionnaire. The qualitative data gathered from the questionnaire were analyzed using the N-Vivo software package. Results: Environmental factors, genetic counseling-related factors, and increased anticipatory anxiety, affected the feeling of ambivalence among pregnant women. Furthermore, pregnant women desired more information regarding the detailed prognosis for individuals with Down syndrome and living with them and/or termination, assuming the possibility that they were positive. Conclusions: Three major interrelated factors affected the feeling of ambivalence in women. Highlighting and discussing such factors during genetic counseling may resolve some of these ambivalences, thereby enhancing the quality of decisions made by pregnant women