Dethinning Extensive Air Shower Simulations

We describe a method for restoring information lost during statistical thinning in extensive air shower simulations. By converting weighted particles from thinned simulations to swarms of particles with similar characteristics, we obtain a result that is essentially identical to the thinned shower, and which is very similar to non-thinned simulations of showers. We call this method dethinning. Using non-thinned showers on a large scale is impossible because of unrealistic CPU time requirements, but with thinned showers that have been dethinned, it is possible to carry out large-scale simulation studies of the detector response for ultra-high energy cosmic ray surface arrays. The dethinning method is described in detail and comparisons are presented with parent thinned showers and with non-thinned showers

Systemic restoration of UBA1 ameliorates disease in spinal muscular atrophy

Acknowledgments Blood biochemistry analysis and serum analysis were performed by the Easter Bush Pathology Department, University of Edinburgh. Animal husbandry was performed by Centre for Integrative Physiology bio-research restructure technical staff, University of Edinburgh. Assistance with intravenous injections was provided by Ian Coldicott (University of Sheffield) and Hannah Shorrock (University of Edinburgh). Human blood cDNA was a gift to GH from Kathy Evans, University of Edinburgh. Imaging was performed at the IMPACT imaging facility, University of Edinburgh, with technical assistance from Anisha Kubasik-Thayil. The authors would also like to thank Lyndsay Murray for technical discussions relating to qRT-PCR analysis. This work was supported by funding from the SMA Trust and the Anatomical Society (via grants to THG); the Euan MacDonald Centre for Motor Neurone Disease Research (via grants to THG and SHP); the Wellcome Trust (via grants to EJNG and THG); Muscular Dystrophy UK (via grants to THG and CGB); a Elphinstone Scholarship from the University of Aberdeen (to SHP); and The French Muscular Dystrophy Association (via grants to CM and JC).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Guidelines for Perioperative Care for Liver Surgery: Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) Society Recommendations 2022.

Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) has been widely applied in liver surgery since the publication of the first ERAS guidelines in 2016. The aim of the present article was to update the ERAS guidelines in liver surgery using a modified Delphi method based on a systematic review of the literature. A systematic literature review was performed using MEDLINE/PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library. A modified Delphi method including 15 international experts was used. Consensus was judged to be reached when >80% of the experts agreed on the recommended items. Recommendations were based on the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations system. A total of 7541 manuscripts were screened, and 240 articles were finally included. Twenty-five recommendation items were elaborated. All of them obtained consensus (>80% agreement) after 3 Delphi rounds. Nine items (36%) had a high level of evidence and 16 (64%) a strong recommendation grade. Compared to the first ERAS guidelines published, 3 novel items were introduced: prehabilitation in high-risk patients, preoperative biliary drainage in cholestatic liver, and preoperative smoking and alcohol cessation at least 4 weeks before hepatectomy. These guidelines based on the best available evidence allow standardization of the perioperative management of patients undergoing liver surgery. Specific studies on hepatectomy in cirrhotic patients following an ERAS program are still needed

A Measurement of Time-Averaged Aerosol Optical Depth using Air-Showers Observed in Stereo by HiRes

Air fluorescence measurements of cosmic ray energy must be corrected for attenuation of the atmosphere. In this paper we show that the air-showers themselves can yield a measurement of the aerosol attenuation in terms of optical depth, time-averaged over extended periods. Although the technique lacks statistical power to make the critical hourly measurements that only specialized active instruments can achieve, we note the technique does not depend on absolute calibration of the detector hardware, and requires no additional equipment beyond the fluorescence detectors that observe the air showers. This paper describes the technique, and presents results based on analysis of 1258 air-showers observed in stereo by the High Resolution Fly's Eye over a four year span.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication by Astroparticle Physics Journa

Search for Global Dipole Enhancements in the HiRes-I Monocular Data above 10^{18.5} eV

Several proposed source models for Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) consist of dipole distributions oriented towards major astrophysical landmarks such as the galactic center, M87, or Centaurus A. We use a comparison between real data and simulated data to show that the HiRes-I monocular data for energies above 10^{18.5} eV is, in fact, consistent with an isotropic source model. We then explore methods to quantify our sensitivity to dipole source models oriented towards the Galactic Center, M87, and Centaurus A.Comment: 17 pages, 31 figure

Air fluorescence measurements in the spectral range 300-420 nm using a 28.5 GeV electron beam

Measurements are reported of the yield and spectrum of fluorescence, excited by a 28.5 GeV electron beam, in air at a range of pressures of interest to ultra-high energy cosmic ray detectors. The wavelength range was 300 - 420 nm. System calibration has been performed using Rayleigh scattering of a nitrogen laser beam. In atmospheric pressure dry air at 304 K the yield is 20.8 +/- 1.6 photons per MeV.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to Astroparticle Physic

Anisotropy at the end of the cosmic ray spectrum?

The starburst galaxies M82 and NGC253 have been proposed as the primary sources of cosmic rays with energies above $10^{18.7}$ eV. For energies \agt 10^{20.3} eV the model predicts strong anisotropies. We calculate the probabilities that the latter can be due to chance occurrence. For the highest energy cosmic ray events in this energy region, we find that the observed directionality has less than 1% probability of occurring due to random fluctuations. Moreover, during the first 5 years of operation at Auger, the observation of even half the predicted anisotropy has a probability of less than $10^{-5}$ to occur by chance fluctuation. Thus, this model can be subject to test at very small cost to the Auger priors budget and, whatever the outcome of that test, valuable information on the Galactic magnetic field will be obtained.Comment: Final version to be published in Physical Review

Observation of the Ankle and Evidence for a High-Energy Break in the Cosmic Ray Spectrum

We have measured the cosmic ray spectrum at energies above $10^{17}$ eV using the two air fluorescence detectors of the High Resolution Fly's Eye experiment operating in monocular mode. We describe the detector, PMT and atmospheric calibrations, and the analysis techniques for the two detectors. We fit the spectrum to models describing galactic and extragalactic sources. Our measured spectrum gives an observation of a feature known as the ``ankle'' near $3\times 10^{18}$ eV, and strong evidence for a suppression near $6\times 10^{19}$ eV.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures. To appear in Physics Letters B. Accepted versio

Measurement of Pressure Dependent Fluorescence Yield of Air: Calibration Factor for UHECR Detectors

In a test experiment at the Final Focus Test Beam of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, the fluorescence yield of 28.5 GeV electrons in air and nitrogen was measured. The measured photon yields between 300 and 400 nm at 1 atm and 29 deg C are Y(760 Torr, air) = 4.42 +/- 0.73 and Y(760 Torr, nitrogen) = 29.2 +/- 4.8 photons per electron per meter. Assuming that the fluorescence yield is proportional to the energy deposition of a charged particle traveling through air, good agreement with measurements at lower particle energies is observed.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Astroparticle Physic

Relativistic Wigner Function Approach to Neutrino Propagation in Matter

In this work we study the propagation of massive Dirac neutrinos in matter with flavor mixing, using statistical techniques based on Relativistic Wigner Functions. First, we consider neutrinos in equilibrium within the Hartree approximation, and obtain the corresponding relativistic dispersion relations and effective masses. After this, we analyze the same system out of equilibrium. We verify that, under the appropiate physical conditions, the well known equations for the MSW effect are recovered. The techniques we used here appear as an alternative to describe neutrino properties and transport equations in a consistent way.Comment: 18 pages, no figures. Revte