The ALICE Muon IDentifier

During the LHC Run-I (2010-2013) and Run-II (2015-2018), the selection of interesting events for muon physics in ALICE was performed with a dedicated muon trigger system, based on 72 single-gap bakelite Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs), operated in maxi-avalanche mode (ADULT front-end electronics without amplification and a threshold of 7 mV). From Run-III (starting in 2021) on, in order to fully profit from the increased luminosity of Pb-Pb collisions, the ALICE experiment will run in continuous readout (triggerless) mode and the muon trigger system (MTR) will become a Muon Identifier (MID). The read-out electronics is being upgraded in order to support continuous readout. Moreover, in order to increase the RPC rate capability and to mitigate possible aging effects, it was decided to operate the detectors with a lower gain, and to replace the ADULT front-end cards with new cards (FEERIC), equipped with an amplification stage. Also, an upgrade of the threshold distribution system to the front-end will allow one to tune thresholds at the single front-end card level, while this was previously only possible at the single-RPC level. Finally, since some of the RPCs currently installed in ALICE have integrated a non-negligible charge with respect to their certified life-time, about 25% of the detectors will be replaced with new ones, built with a different type of bakelite laminates. A detailed description of the MTR upgrade and of its current status will be presented in this contribution.Comment: Proceeding of the 15th Workshop on Resistive Plate Chambers and Related Detectors (RPC2020), 10-14 February 2020, University of Roma Tor Vergata, Ital

Commissioning and first performances of the ALICE MID RPCs

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is designed to study p-p and Pb-Pb collisions at ultra-relativistic energies. ALICE is equipped with a Muon Spectrometer (MS) to study the heavy charmonia in p-p and heavy ion collisions via their muonic decay. At first, in the LHC Run 1 and 2 the selection of interesting events for muon physics in the MS was performed with a dedicated Muon Trigger system based on Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) operated in maxi-avalanche mode. During the Long Shutdown 2 (LS2) of LHC ALICE underwent a major upgrade of its apparatus: since Run 3 (started in July 2022), in order to fully profit from the increased luminosity of Pb-Pb collisions (from 20 kHz in Run 2 to 50 kHz in Run 3), the ALICE experiment is running in continuous readout (triggerless) mode and the Muon Trigger became the Muon IDentifier (MID). In order to reduce the RPC ageing and to increase the rate capability, it was decided to use a new front-end electronics FEERIC with a pre-amplification stage to minimize the charge released per hit inside the gas gap. A description of the MID upgrades, together with the results and performances of the RPCs from the commissioning, is presented in this talk

An Alkaloid from a Highly Invasive Seaweed Increases the Voracity and Reproductive Output of a Model Fish Species

The invasive macroalga Caulerpa cylindracea has spread widely in the Mediterranean Sea, becoming a favorite food item for native fish for reasons yet unknown. By using a combination of behavioral, morphological, and molecular approaches, herein we provide evidence that the bisindole alkaloid caulerpin, a major secondary metabolite of C. cylindracea, significantly increases food intake in the model fish Danio rerio, influencing the regulation of genes involved in the orexigenic pathway. In addition, we found that the compound improves fish reproductive performance by affecting the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis. The obtained results pave the way for the possible valorization of C. cylindracea as a sustainable source of a functional feed additive of interest to face critical challenges both in aquaculture and in human nutrition

Off-label long acting injectable antipsychotics in real-world clinical practice: a cross-sectional analysis of prescriptive patterns from the STAR Network DEPOT study

Introduction Information on the off-label use of Long-Acting Injectable (LAI) antipsychotics in the real world is lacking. In this study, we aimed to identify the sociodemographic and clinical features of patients treated with on- vs off-label LAIs and predictors of off-label First- or Second-Generation Antipsychotic (FGA vs. SGA) LAI choice in everyday clinical practice. Method In a naturalistic national cohort of 449 patients who initiated LAI treatment in the STAR Network Depot Study, two groups were identified based on off- or on-label prescriptions. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to test several clinically relevant variables and identify those associated with the choice of FGA vs SGA prescription in the off-label group. Results SGA LAIs were more commonly prescribed in everyday practice, without significant differences in their on- and off-label use. Approximately 1 in 4 patients received an off-label prescription. In the off-label group, the most frequent diagnoses were bipolar disorder (67.5%) or any personality disorder (23.7%). FGA vs SGA LAI choice was significantly associated with BPRS thought disorder (OR = 1.22, CI95% 1.04 to 1.43, p = 0.015) and hostility/suspiciousness (OR = 0.83, CI95% 0.71 to 0.97, p = 0.017) dimensions. The likelihood of receiving an SGA LAI grew steadily with the increase of the BPRS thought disturbance score. Conversely, a preference towards prescribing an FGA was observed with higher scores at the BPRS hostility/suspiciousness subscale. Conclusion Our study is the first to identify predictors of FGA vs SGA choice in patients treated with off-label LAI antipsychotics. Demographic characteristics, i.e. age, sex, and substance/alcohol use co-morbidities did not appear to influence the choice towards FGAs or SGAs. Despite a lack of evidence, clinicians tend to favour FGA over SGA LAIs in bipolar or personality disorder patients with relevant hostility. Further research is needed to evaluate treatment adherence and clinical effectiveness of these prescriptive patterns

The Role of Attitudes Toward Medication and Treatment Adherence in the Clinical Response to LAIs: Findings From the STAR Network Depot Study

Background: Long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotics are efficacious in managing psychotic symptoms in people affected by severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The present study aimed to investigate whether attitude toward treatment and treatment adherence represent predictors of symptoms changes over time. Methods: The STAR Network \u201cDepot Study\u201d was a naturalistic, multicenter, observational, prospective study that enrolled people initiating a LAI without restrictions on diagnosis, clinical severity or setting. Participants from 32 Italian centers were assessed at three time points: baseline, 6-month, and 12-month follow-up. Psychopathological symptoms, attitude toward medication and treatment adherence were measured using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), the Drug Attitude Inventory (DAI-10) and the Kemp's 7-point scale, respectively. Linear mixed-effects models were used to evaluate whether attitude toward medication and treatment adherence independently predicted symptoms changes over time. Analyses were conducted on the overall sample and then stratified according to the baseline severity (BPRS < 41 or BPRS 65 41). Results: We included 461 participants of which 276 were males. The majority of participants had received a primary diagnosis of a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (71.80%) and initiated a treatment with a second-generation LAI (69.63%). BPRS, DAI-10, and Kemp's scale scores improved over time. Six linear regressions\u2014conducted considering the outcome and predictors at baseline, 6-month, and 12-month follow-up independently\u2014showed that both DAI-10 and Kemp's scale negatively associated with BPRS scores at the three considered time points. Linear mixed-effects models conducted on the overall sample did not show any significant association between attitude toward medication or treatment adherence and changes in psychiatric symptoms over time. However, after stratification according to baseline severity, we found that both DAI-10 and Kemp's scale negatively predicted changes in BPRS scores at 12-month follow-up regardless of baseline severity. The association at 6-month follow-up was confirmed only in the group with moderate or severe symptoms at baseline. Conclusion: Our findings corroborate the importance of improving the quality of relationship between clinicians and patients. Shared decision making and thorough discussions about benefits and side effects may improve the outcome in patients with severe mental disorders

An upgraded muon identification system for ALICE at the LHC: from detector construction to testing and re-commissioning

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is designed to study proton-proton (p-p) and Heavy-ion collisions at ultra-relativistic energies. The main goal of the experiment is to assess the properties of Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP), a state of matter where quarks and gluons are de-confined, reached in extreme conditions of temperature and energy density such as those obtained in Heavy-ion collisions at the LHC. The Universe is thought to have been in this state during the first few µs after the Big Bang. One of the main observables used to study the QGP is the production of Heavy quarkonia in Pb-Pb collisions. Quarkonia are bound states of a Heavy quark (c or b) and the corresponding anti-quark. The presence of QGP modifies the quarkonium production rates in Heavy-ion collisions via the competing processes of suppression by colour screening and regeneration by quark recombination. The study of p–p collisions is also crucial to the ALICE physics program since, while the production of the Heavy quark pairs in p–p collisions is relatively well understood, the description of the (non-perturbative) hadronisation process into quarkonium remains unsatisfactory. No model is able to simultaneously describe different aspects of quarkonium production, such as polarization, transverse momentum and energy dependence of the cross sections. For all the above reasons, ALICE is equipped with a forward muon spectrometer, detecting quarkonia via their di-muon decays. The muon spectrometer covers the pseudorapidity range 2.5 < η < 4; it is composed of a silicon forward tracker, a hadron absorber, a dipole magnet, a five-station tracking system and a muon identification system. The Muon IDentifier (MID) is the topic of my PhD project. The system is composed of 4 planes of 18 Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) detectors each, located downstream of an iron wall. RPCs are gaseous detectors with resistive (bakelite) electrodes. During the Long Shutdown 2 (LS2) of LHC, ALICE underwent a major upgrade of its apparatus, in view of the LHC Run 3 started in 2022, in which the experiment is operated at a larger-than-ever luminosity. For the MID system, in order to cope with the increased collision rate (from the current ∼8 kHz to ∼50-100 kHz for Pb–Pb collisions), it is necessary to reduce the charge released per hit in the detector. For this reason, the detectors will be operated at a lower gain and the new front-end electronics will include an amplification stage. Moreover a new production of RPC detectors was launched. This was needed because, at the end of the LHC Run 2, some of the RPCs have integrated a non-negligible charge with respect to their expected life-time, and ageing effects might appear at some point. Therefore, about 25% of the detectors currently installed in ALICE will be replaced during Run 3. The first step of my PhD project was the testing of the new RPCs. These are made with a different type of bakelite, because the one used for the first generation of RPCs is no longer commercially available. The new bakelite has different surface and bulk properties, therefore it was necessary to verify if and how these new features affect the detector performance. The tests were performed in Torino, using cosmic rays and a dedicated set-up. Before the starting of my PhD, the RPCs production with the new bakelite was completely unsatisfactory in terms of performances. After several interactions with the RPC firm during the beginning of my PhD, a pre-production batch of 3 RPCs was launched. After the validation of this batch, the mass production of new modules was launched, completed and tested over my PhD. Starting from summer 2021, I took an active role in the commissioning of the detectors with the new front-end electronics. This included the integration of the upgraded on-line systems (read-out, Detector Control System, Data Quality Control) in the ALICE environment, and in parallel a cosmic-ray data-taking campaign aimed to a first tuning of the new working parameters. Finally, the commissioning of the system was completed with the very first p–p LHC beams, and finally validated with Pb–Pb collisions. The first collected data were used to parameterise in detail the detector response (efficiency, cluster size and charge released in the gas gap per hit) in the new operation mode, and feeded it into the ALICE software

Upgrade and commissioning of the ALICE muon spectrometer

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) isdesigned to study proton–proton and heavy–ion collisions at ultra-relativistic energies. The maingoal of the experiment is to assess the properties of quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter wherequarks and gluons are deconfined, which is reached in extreme conditions of temperature and energydensity. The production of quarkonia (cc and bb bound states) is among the main observablesto study the QGP. During the ongoing Long Shutdown 2 (LS2) of the LHC (2019-2021), ALICEunderwent a major upgrade of its apparatus, in view of the LHC Run 3, which started in 2022.The upgrade will allow a new ambitious program of high-precision measurements. However, thedetectors will have to cope with an increased collision rate, which will go up to 50 kHz in Pb–Pbcollisions. For the Muon Spectrometer (MS) ALICE is implementing new hardware and softwaresolutions. The installation of a new vertex tracker, the Muon Forward Tracker (MFT) upstreamfrom the absorber in the acceptance of the MS will improve the current measurements and enablenew ones. It will allow one to separate, for the first time in ALICE in the forward-rapidity region,the prompt (i.e. the ones directly produced in the interaction point) and non-prompt (i.e. the onescoming from beauty-hadron decays) contributions to the charmonium yield. The matching of themuon tracks reconstructed in the MFT with those in the Muon Spectrometer will provide a precisedetermination of the track parameters in the vicinity of the interaction point allowing one to resolvethe decay vertices of non-prompt charmonia in a broad interval of transverse momenta down to T= 0. It will also improve significantly the invariant mass resolution, allowing for a better separationof the J/ and (2S) states. In addition, the front-end and readout electronics of the Muon Trackingsystem (Cathode Pad - Cathode Strip Chambers) and of the Muon Identification system (ResistivePlate Chambers) has been upgraded, in order to optimize the detector performance in the newrunning conditions. A detailed description of the MS upgrades, together with the results from thecommissioning with cosmic rays and the first LHC beams, will be presented in this talk.ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is designed to study proton-proton and heavy-ion collisions at ultra-relativistic energies. The main goal of the experiment is to assess the properties of quark gluon plasma, a state of matter where quarks and gluons are de-confined, reached in extreme conditions of temperature and energy density. During the ongoing long shutdown 2 of LHC, ALICE is undergoing a major upgrade of its apparatus, in view of the LHC Run 3, scheduled to start in 2022. The upgrade will allow a new ambitious programme of high-precision measurements to be deployed. Moreover, the detectors will have to cope with an increased collision rate, which will go up to 50 kHz in Pb-Pb collisions. For the muon spectrometer (MS) ALICE is implementing new hardware and software solutions. The installation of a new vertex tracker, the Muon Forward Tracker (MFT), in the acceptance of the MS will improve present measurements and enable new ones. It will allow one to separate, for the first time in ALICE in the forward-rapidity region, the prompt and non-prompt contributions to the cross-sections of charmonia. The matching of the muon tracks reconstructed in the MFT with those in the MS will add vertexing capabilities covering a broad range of transverse momenta down to $p_T = 0$ and will improve significantly the invariant mass resolution, allowing for a better separation of the $J/ \psi$ and $\psi$(2S) states. In addition, the front-end and readout electronics of the muon tracking system (cathode pad chambers) and of the muon identification system (resistive plate chambers) will be upgraded, in order to optimize the detector performance in the new running conditions. A detailed description of the MS upgrades, together with the results from the commissioning with cosmic rays and the first LHC beams, will be presented in this talk

MID data taking status

International audienc

MID data taking status

International audienc

Studies of RPC detector operation with eco-friendly gas mixtures under irradiation at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility

International audienceResistive Plate Chamber (RPC) detectors are widely used at the CERN LHC experiments as muon trigger thanks to their excellent time resolution. They are operated with a Freon-based gas mixture containing $C_2 H_2 F_4$ and $SF_6$, both greenhouse gases (GHG) with a very high global warming potential (GWP).The search of new environmentally friendly gas mixtures is necessary to reduce GHG emissions and costs as well as to optimize RPC performance.Several recently available gases with low GWP have been identified as possible replacements for $C_2 H_2 F_4$ and $SF_6$.In particular, eco-friendly gas mixtures based on the HFO-1234ze have been investigated on 1.4 and 2 mm single-gap and double-gap RPCs.The RPC detectors have been tested at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF++), which provides a high energy muon beam combined with an intense gamma source allowing to simulate the background expected at HL-LHC.The performance of RPCs were studied at different gamma rates with the new environmentally friendly gases by measuring ohmic and physics currents, fluorine radicals and HF production, rate capability and induced charge.Preliminary results on the long-term effects on the performance of the detectors are presented in this study