Cognitive group therapy for depressive students: The case study

The aims of this study were to assess whether a course of cognitive group therapy could help depressed students and to assess whether assimilation analysis offers a useful way of analysing students' progress through therapy. “Johanna” was a patient in a group that was designed for depressive students who had difficulties with their studies. The assimilation of Johanna's problematic experience progressed as the meetings continued from level one (unpleasant thoughts) to level six (solving the problem). Johanna's problematic experience manifested itself as severe and excessive criticism towards herself and her study performance. As the group meetings progressed, Johanna found a new kind of tolerance that increased her determination and assertiveness regarding the studies. The dialogical structure of Johanna's problematic experience changed: she found hope and she was more assertive after the process. The results indicated that this kind of psycho-educational group therapy was an effective method for treating depression. The assimilation analysis offered a useful way of analysing the therapy process

The beam and detector of the NA62 experiment at CERN

NA62 is a fixed-target experiment at the CERN SPS dedicated to measurements of rare kaon decays. Such measurements, like the branching fraction of the K+ → π+ ν bar nu decay, have the potential to bring significant insights into new physics processes when comparison is made with precise theoretical predictions. For this purpose, innovative techniques have been developed, in particular, in the domain of low-mass tracking devices. Detector construction spanned several years from 2009 to 2014. The collaboration started detector commissioning in 2014 and will collect data until the end of 2018. The beam line and detector components are described together with their early performance obtained from 2014 and 2015 data

Low-Power Amplifier-Discriminators for High Time Resolution Detection

Low-power amplifier-discriminators based on a so-called NINO architecture have been developed with high time resolution for the readout of radiation detectors. Two different circuits were integrated in the NINO13 chip, processed in IBM 130 nm CMOS technology. The LCO version (Low Capacitance and consumption Optimization) was designed for potential use as front-end electronics in the Gigatracker of the NA62 experiment at CERN. It was developed as pixel readout for solid-state pixel detectors to permit minimum ionizing particle detection with less than 180 ps rms resolution per pixel on the output pulse, for power consumption below 300 mu W per pixel. The HCO version (High Capacitance Optimization) was designed with 4 mW power consumption per channel to provide timing resolution below 20 ps rms on the output pulse, for charges above 10 fC. Results presented show the potential of the LCO and HCO circuits for the precise timing readout of solid-state detectors, vacuum tubes or gas detectors, for applications in high energy physics, biotechnologies or medical imaging

The 5 ns peaking time transimpedance front end amplifier for the silicon pixel detector in the NA62 Gigatracker

We present the design and test results of a front-end prototype circuit developed in 130 nm CMOS technology for the readout of the Gigatracker pixel detector experiment in NA62 at CERN. The main challenges for the front end amplifier are very high signal hit rate (dead time less than 100 ns, average signal rate 100 kHz) and 100 ps timing resolution combined with the level of affordable power consumption (< 2 W/cm/sup 2/) and noise (< 200 e/sup -/ ENC). The predicted ENC levels for the nominal detector capacitance of 250 fF and maximum leakage current of the order of 20 nA are below 200 e/sup -/. The overall power consumed by the analogue and digital part of the pixel cell is in the order of 130 mu W. The optimization of the design as well as test results of the prototype front end chip are evaluated and discussed.Anglai

Success of resin infiltration treatment on interproximal tooth surfaces in young adults:a practice-based follow-up study

Abstract Objectives: Arresting active initial caries lesions is part of the modern caries controlling system. Resin infiltration (RI) system has been found a promising method in arresting interproximal initial lesions. The aim was to investigate whether RI arrests progression of active caries lesions. Materials and methods: Participants (n = 20) of the retrospective study were patients in the Dental Teaching Unit, City of Oulu, Finland, mean age 26 years (SD5.2). Indication for RI was radiographically diagnosed progressing (ICDAS 1–3) interproximal lesions (n = 54). RI treatments were performed in 2015–2017. Controls were initial lesions in the same bitewing radiographs without RI or other treatment (n = 24). For analyzes teeth were categorized as lower and upper premolars and molars. The change in lesions during the follow-up period was recorded surface wise as follows: deterioration / improvement from ICDAS score 3/improvement from ICDAS score 2/improvement per se/at follow-up, lesion was less diffuse/no change. The changes in each tooth surface were analyzed between RI intervention and control teeth by using Chi-square test. Proportions of successful and failed surfaces were given. Results: The mean length of follow-up period was 17.4 m (SD7.2). Arresting of caries lesions (ICDAS scores 2 and 3) was distinctly better in RI group (63.0%) compared with the controls (29.1%). The situation progressed among 29.2% of the controls whereas the respective proportion among the intervention group was 14.8%. Progression of lesions was more distinct in all tooth groups in the control group. Outcome was successful despite the lesion depth. Conclusions: Resin infiltration seems effective in arresting progression of initial caries lesions with monitoring period of 1.5 years

An ultra fast 100 ps, 100 µm 3D pixel imager

We present the development of a charged particle pixel array imager operating in single hit detection mode. This challenging imaging device called GigaTracker (GTK) developed for the CERN NA62 experiment is intended to measure the position and arrival time of a pion/kaon beam with an intensity of 108*cm-2*s-1. Each particle hit is detected in position with a precision of ~100 μm and in time with a precision of 100 ps (rmsc). The readout pixel ASIC circuit in 130 nm CMOS technology comprise an array of 1800 pixels of 300 x 300 μm2. It is connected via bump bonding to an ultra fast solid state pixel sensor array matching the same pixel pattern. The performance of high rate and high timing precision together with an extreme sensitivity of the pixel channel discriminating input signals with a charge as low as 1 fC (6000 electrons) are very demanding; two imaging readout architectures are presented, one with on pixel analogue based time-to-digital-converter (TDC), the other one with digital based TDC placed at the end of each column. The design of two pixel discriminators, a constant fraction discriminator and a time-over-threshold discriminator with time walk correction technique will be discussed. The design challenges of two architectures will be also discussed. Due to the high particle intensity, a huge data flow has to be handled. Hereby only data of pixels, which actually have been hit are buffered on chip and automatically transferred off the chip. The data rate per chip is 4 Gbit/s. We present circuit design challenges and SPICE simulations of both approaches

The front end electronics of the NA62 Gigatracker: Challenges, design and experimental measurements

The beam spectrometer of the NA62 experiment consists of 3 Gigatracker (GTK) stations. Each station comprises a pixel detector of 16cm2 active area made of an assembly of 10 readout ASICs bump bonded to a 200μm thick pixel silicon sensor, comprising 18000 pixels of 300μm×300μm. The main challenge of the NA62 pixel GTK station is the combination of an extremely high kaon/pion beam rate, where the intensity in the center of the beam reaches up to 1.5Mhit s-1mm-2 together with an extreme time resolution of 100ps. To date, it is the first silicon tracking system with this time resolution. To face this challenge, the pixel analogue front end has been designed with a peaking time of 4ns, with a planar silicon sensor operating up to 300V over depletion. Moreover, the radiation level is severe, 2×10141MeVneq.cm-2 per year of operation. Easy replacement of the GTK stations is foreseen as a design requirement. The amount of material of a single station should also be less than 0.5% X0 to minimize the background, which imposes strong constraints on the mechanics and the cooling system. We report upon the design and architecture of the 2 prototype demonstrator chips both designed in 130nm CMOS technology, one with a constant fraction discriminator and the time stamp digitisation in each pixel (In-Pixel), and the other with a time-over-threshold discriminator and the processing of the time stamp located in the End of Column (EoC) region at the chip periphery. Some preliminary results are presented. © 2011 Elsevier B.V