High performance n(+)/p and p(+)/n germanium diodes at low-temperature activation annealing

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Search for muon-neutrino emission from GeV and TeV gamma-ray flaring blazars using five years of data of the ANTARES telescope

The ANTARES telescope is well-suited for detecting astrophysical transient neutrino sources as it can observe a full hemisphere of the sky at all times with a high duty cycle. The background due to atmospheric particles can be drastically reduced, and the point-source sensitivity improved, by selecting a narrow time window around possible neutrino production periods. Blazars, being radio-loud active galactic nuclei with their jets pointing almost directly towards the observer, are particularly attractive potential neutrino point sources, since they are among the most likely sources of the very high-energy cosmic rays. Neutrinos and gamma rays may be produced in hadronic interactions with the surrounding medium. Moreover, blazars generally show high time variability in their light curves at different wavelengths and on various time scales. This paper presents a time-dependent analysis applied to a selection of flaring gamma-ray blazars observed by the FERMI/LAT experiment and by TeV Cherenkov telescopes using five years of ANTARES data taken from 2008 to 2012. The results are compatible with fluctuations of the background. Upper limits on the neutrino fluence have been produced and compared to the measured gamma-ray spectral energy distribution.Comment: 27 pages, 16 figure

Analysis Tools for Next-Generation Hadron Spectroscopy Experiments

The series of workshops on New Partial-Wave Analysis Tools for Next-Generation Hadron Spectroscopy Experiments was initiated with the ATHOS 2012 meeting, which took place in Camogli, Italy, June 20-22, 2012. It was followed by ATHOS 2013 in Kloster Seeon near Munich, Germany, May 21-24, 2013. The third, ATHOS3, meeting is planned for April 13-17, 2015 at The George Washington University Virginia Science and Technology Campus, USA. The workshops focus on the development of amplitude analysis tools for meson and baryon spectroscopy, and complement other programs in hadron spectroscopy organized in the recent past including the INT-JLab Workshop on Hadron Spectroscopy in Seattle in 2009, the International Workshop on Amplitude Analysis in Hadron Spectroscopy at the ECT*-Trento in 2011, the School on Amplitude Analysis in Modern Physics in Bad Honnef in 2011, the Jefferson Lab Advanced Study Institute Summer School in 2012, and the School on Concepts of Modern Amplitude Analysis Techniques in Flecken-Zechlin near Berlin in September 2013. The aim of this document is to summarize the discussions that took place at the ATHOS 2012 and ATHOS 2013 meetings. We do not attempt a comprehensive review of the field of amplitude analysis, but offer a collection of thoughts that we hope may lay the ground for such a document.Comment: 28 pages, 11 figures, proceedings of the ATHOS 2012 and ATHOS 2013 meeting

Acapsular Staphylococcus aureus with a non-functional agr regains capsule expression after passage through the bloodstream in a bacteremia mouse model

Selection pressures exerted on Staphylococcus aureus by host factors during infection may lead to the emergence of regulatory phenotypes better adapted to the infection site. Traits convenient for persistence may be fixed by mutation thus turning these mutants into microevolution endpoints. The feasibility that stable, non-encapsulated S. aureus mutants can regain expression of key virulence factors for survival in the bloodstream was investigated. S. aureus agr mutant HU-14 (IS256 insertion in agrC) from a patient with chronic osteomyelitis was passed through the bloodstream using a bacteriemia mouse model and derivative P3.1 was obtained. Although IS256 remained inserted in agrC, P3.1 regained production of capsular polysaccharide type 5 (CP5) and staphyloxanthin. Furthermore, P3.1 expressed higher levels of asp23/SigB when compared with parental strain HU-14. Strain P3.1 displayed decreased osteoclastogenesis capacity, thus indicating decreased adaptability to bone compared with strain HU-14 and exhibited a trend to be more virulent than parental strain HU-14. Strain P3.1 exhibited the loss of one IS256 copy, which was originally located in the HU-14 noncoding region between dnaG (DNA primase) and rpoD (sigA). This loss may be associated with the observed phenotype change but the mechanism remains unknown. In conclusion, S. aureus organisms that escape the infected bone may recover the expression of key virulence factors through a rapid microevolution pathway involving SigB regulation of key virulence factors.Fil: Suligoy Lozano, Carlos Mauricio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; ArgentinaFil: Díaz, Rocío E.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; ArgentinaFil: Gehrke, Ana-katharina Elsa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Maimónides. Área de Investigaciones Biomédicas y Biotecnológicas. Centro de Estudios Biomédicos, Biotecnológicos, Ambientales y de Diagnóstico; ArgentinaFil: Ring, Natalie. University of Edinburgh; Reino UnidoFil: Yebra, Gonzalo. University of Edinburgh; Reino UnidoFil: Alves, Joana. University of Edinburgh; Reino UnidoFil: Gómez, Marisa Ileana. Universidad Maimónides. Área de Investigaciones Biomédicas y Biotecnológicas. Centro de Estudios Biomédicos, Biotecnológicos, Ambientales y de Diagnóstico; ArgentinaFil: Wendler, Sindy. Universitätsklinikum Jena Und Medizinische Fakultät; AlemaniaFil: Fitzgerald, J. Ross. University of Edinburgh; Reino UnidoFil: Tuchscherr, Lorena. Jena University Hospital; AlemaniaFil: Löffler, Bettina. Jena University Hospital; AlemaniaFil: Sordelli, Daniel Oscar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; ArgentinaFil: Noto Llana, Mariangeles. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; ArgentinaFil: Buzzola, Fernanda Roxana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; Argentin

Time calibration of the ANTARES neutrino telescope

The ANTARES deep-sea neutrino telescope comprises a three-dimensional array of photomultipliers to detect the Cherenkov light induced by upgoing relativistic charged particles originating from neutrino interactions in the vicinity of the detector. The large scattering length of light in the deep sea facilitates an angular resolution of a few tenths of a degree for neutrino energies exceeding 10 TeV. In order to achieve this optimal performance, the time calibration procedures should ensure a relative time calibration between the photomultipliers at the level of similar to 1 ns. The methods developed to attain this level of precision are described

The positioning system of the ANTARES Neutrino Telescope

The ANTARES neutrino telescope, located 40km off the coast of Toulon in the Mediterranean Sea at a mooring depth of about 2475m, consists of twelve detection lines equipped typically with 25 storeys. Every storey carries three optical modules that detect Cherenkov light induced by charged secondary particles (typically muons) coming from neutrino interactions. As these lines are flexible structures fixed to the sea bed and held taut by a buoy, sea currents cause the lines to move and the storeys to rotate. The knowledge of the position of the optical modules with a precision better than 10cm is essential for a good reconstruction of particle tracks. In this paper the ANTARES positioning system is described. It consists of an acoustic positioning system, for distance triangulation, and a compass-tiltmeter system, for the measurement of the orientation and inclination of the storeys. Necessary corrections are discussed and the results of the detector alignment procedure are described

Search for muon-neutrino emission from GeV and TeV gamma-ray flaring blazars using five years of data of the ANTARES telescope

The ANTARES telescope is well-suited for detecting astrophysical transient neutrino sources as it can observe a full hemisphere of the sky at all times with a high duty cycle. The background due to atmospheric particles can be drastically reduced, and the point-source sensitivity improved, by selecting a narrow time window around possible neutrino production periods. Blazars, being radio-loud active galactic nuclei with their jets pointing almost directly towards the observer, are particularly attractive potential neutrino point sources, since they are among the most likely sources of the very high-energy cosmic rays. Neutrinos and gamma rays may be produced in hadronic interactions with the surrounding medium. Moreover, blazars generally show high time variability in their light curves at different wavelengths and on various time scales. This paper presents a time-dependent analysis applied to a selection of flaring gamma-ray blazars observed by the FERMI/LAT experiment and by TeV Cherenkov telescopes using five years of ANTARES data taken from 2008 to 2012. The results are compatible with fluctuations of the background. Upper limits on the neutrino fluence have been produced and compared to the measured gamma-ray spectral energy distributionThe authors acknowledge the financial support of the funding agencies: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Commissariat a l'energie atomique et aux energies alternatives (CEA), Commission Europeenne (FEDER fund and Marie Curie Program), Region Ile-de-France (DIM-ACAV) Region Alsace (contrat CPER), Region Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, Departement du Var and Ville de La Seyne-sur-Mer, France; Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), Germany; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Italy; Stichting voor Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie (FOM), Nederlandse organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), the Netherlands; Council of the President of the Russian Federation for young scientists and leading scientific schools supporting grants, Russia; National Authority for Scientific Research (ANCS), Romania; Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO), Prometeo and Grisolia programs of Generalitat Valenciana and MultiDark, Spain; Agence de l'Oriental and CNRST, Morocco. We also acknowledge the technical support of Ifremer, AIM and Foselev Marine for the sea operation and the CC-IN2P3 for the computing facilities.Adrián Martínez, S.; Albert, A.; André, M.; Anton, G.; Ardid Ramírez, M.; Aubert, J.; Baret, B.... (2015). Search for muon-neutrino emission from GeV and TeV gamma-ray flaring blazars using five years of data of the ANTARES telescope. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. 12(14):1-26. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2015/12/014S1261214Becker, J. K. (2008). High-energy neutrinos in the context of multimessenger astrophysics. Physics Reports, 458(4-5), 173-246. doi:10.1016/j.physrep.2007.10.006Bloom, S. D., & Marscher, A. P. (1996). An Analysis of the Synchrotron Self-Compton Model for the Multi--Wave Band Spectra of Blazars. The Astrophysical Journal, 461, 657. doi:10.1086/177092Maraschi, L., Ghisellini, G., & Celotti, A. (1992). A jet model for the gamma-ray emitting blazar 3C 279. 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Physical Review D, 80(8). doi:10.1103/physrevd.80.083008Mücke, A., & Protheroe, R. J. (2001). A proton synchrotron blazar model for flaring in Markarian 501. Astroparticle Physics, 15(1), 121-136. doi:10.1016/s0927-6505(00)00141-9Abdo, A. A., Ackermann, M., Ajello, M., Allafort, A., Antolini, E., Atwood, W. B., … Barbiellini, G. (2010). THE FIRST CATALOG OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI DETECTED BY THEFERMILARGE AREA TELESCOPE. The Astrophysical Journal, 715(1), 429-457. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/715/1/429Ageron, M., Aguilar, J. A., Al Samarai, I., Albert, A., Ameli, F., André, M., … Ardid, M. (2011). ANTARES: The first undersea neutrino telescope. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 656(1), 11-38. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2011.06.103Aguilar, J. A., Samarai, I. A., Albert, A., André, M., Anghinolfi, M., Anton, G., … Astraatmadja, T. (2011). Search for a diffuse flux of high-energy νμ with the ANTARES neutrino telescope. Physics Letters B, 696(1-2), 16-22. doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2010.11.070Adrián-Martínez, S., Al Samarai, I., Albert, A., André, M., Anghinolfi, M., Anton, G., … Aubert, J.-J. (2012). SEARCH FOR COSMIC NEUTRINO POINT SOURCES WITH FOUR YEARS OF DATA FROM THE ANTARES TELESCOPE. The Astrophysical Journal, 760(1), 53. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/760/1/53Adrián-Martínez, S., Albert, A., André, M., Anghinolfi, M., Anton, G., Ardid, M., … Barrios, J. (2014). A search for time dependent neutrino emission from microquasars with the ANTARES telescope. Journal of High Energy Astrophysics, 3-4, 9-17. doi:10.1016/j.jheap.2014.06.002Adrián-Martínez, S., Albert, A., Al Samarai, I., André, M., Anghinolfi, M., Anton, G., … Aubert, J.-J. (2013). Search for muon neutrinos from gamma-ray bursts with the ANTARES neutrino telescope using 2008 to 2011 data. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 559, A9. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201322169Abdo, A. A., Ackermann, M., Ajello, M., Antolini, E., Baldini, L., Ballet, J., … Bellazzini, R. (2010). GAMMA-RAY LIGHT CURVES AND VARIABILITY OF BRIGHTFERMI-DETECTED BLAZARS. The Astrophysical Journal, 722(1), 520-542. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/722/1/520Ackermann, M., Ajello, M., Allafort, A., Antolini, E., Atwood, W. B., Axelsson, M., … Bastieri, D. (2011). THE SECOND CATALOG OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI DETECTED BY THEFERMILARGE AREA TELESCOPE. The Astrophysical Journal, 743(2), 171. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/743/2/171Hovatta, T., Pavlidou, V., King, O. G., Mahabal, A., Sesar, B., Dancikova, R., … Surace, J. (2014). Connection between optical and γ-ray variability in blazars. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 439(1), 690-702. doi:10.1093/mnras/stt2494Adrián-Martínez, S., Al Samarai, I., Albert, A., André, M., Anghinolfi, M., Anton, G., … Aubert, J.-J. (2012). Search for neutrino emission from gamma-ray flaring blazars with the ANTARES telescope. Astroparticle Physics, 36(1), 204-210. doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2012.06.001Aguilar, J. A., Albert, A., Ameli, F., Amram, P., Anghinolfi, M., Anton, G., … Aubert, J.-J. (2005). Study of large hemispherical photomultiplier tubes for the ANTARES neutrino telescope. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 555(1-2), 132-141. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2005.09.035Amram, P., Anghinolfi, M., Anvar, S., Ardellier-Desages, F. ., Aslanides, E., Aubert, J.-J., … Battaglieri, M. (2002). The ANTARES optical module. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 484(1-3), 369-383. doi:10.1016/s0168-9002(01)02026-5Adrián-Martínez, S., Ageron, M., Aguilar, J. A., Samarai, I. A., Albert, A., André, M., … Ardid, M. (2012). The positioning system of the ANTARES Neutrino Telescope. 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I - Modeling random processes in the time domain. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 45, 1. doi:10.1086/190706Scargle, J. D. (1998). Studies in Astronomical Time Series Analysis. V. Bayesian Blocks, a New Method to Analyze Structure in Photon Counting Data. The Astrophysical Journal, 504(1), 405-418. doi:10.1086/306064Scargle, J. D., Norris, J. P., Jackson, B., & Chiang, J. (2013). STUDIES IN ASTRONOMICAL TIME SERIES ANALYSIS. VI. BAYESIAN BLOCK REPRESENTATIONS. The Astrophysical Journal, 764(2), 167. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/764/2/167Neyman, J. (1937). Outline of a Theory of Statistical Estimation Based on the Classical Theory of Probability. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 236(767), 333-380. doi:10.1098/rsta.1937.0005Aartsen, M. G., Ackermann, M., Adams, J., Aguilar, J. A., Ahlers, M., Ahrens, M., … Arguelles, C. (2015). SEARCHES FOR TIME-DEPENDENT NEUTRINO SOURCES WITH ICECUBE DATA FROM 2008 TO 2012. 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A search for neutrino emission from the Fermi bubbles with the ANTARES telescope

Analysis of the Fermi-LAT data has revealed two extended structures above and below the Galactic Centre emitting gamma rays with a hard spectrum, the so-called Fermi bubbles. Hadronic models attempting to explain the origin of the Fermi bubbles predict the emission of high-energy neutrinos and gamma rays with similar fluxes. The ANTARES detector, a neutrino telescope located in the Mediterranean Sea, has a good visibility to the Fermi bubble regions. Using data collected from 2008 to 2011 no statistically significant excess of events is observed and therefore upper limits on the neutrino flux in TeV range from the Fermi bubbles are derived for various assumed energy cutoffs of the source

Murchison Widefield Array limits on radio emission from Antares neutrino events

We present a search, using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), for electromagnetic (EM) counterparts to two candidate high-energy neutrino events detected by the ANTARES neutrino telescope in 2013 November and 2014 March. These events were selected by ANTARES because they are consistent, within 0°.4, with the locations of galaxies within 20 Mpc of Earth. Using MWA archival data at frequencies between 118 and 182 MHz, taken ~20 days prior to, at the same time as, and up to a year after the neutrino triggers, we look for transient or strongly variable radio sources that are consistent with the neutrino positions. No such counterparts are detected, and we set a 5s upper limit for low-frequency radio emission of ~1037 erg s-1 for progenitors at 20 Mpc. If the neutrino sources are instead not in nearby galaxies, but originate in binary neutron star coalescences, our limits place the progenitors at z 0.2. While it is possible, due to the high background from atmospheric neutrinos, that neither event is astrophysical, the MWA observations are nevertheless among the first to follow up neutrino candidates in the radio, and illustrate the promise of wide-field instruments like MWA for detecting EM counterparts to such events

Altered infective competence of the human gut microbiome in COVID-19

BACKGROUND: Infections with SARS-CoV-2 have a pronounced impact on the gastrointestinal tract and its resident microbiome. Clear differences between severe cases of infection and healthy individuals have been reported, including the loss of commensal taxa. We aimed to understand if microbiome alterations including functional shifts are unique to severe cases or a common effect of COVID-19. We used high-resolution systematic multi-omic analyses to profile the gut microbiome in asymptomatic-to-moderate COVID-19 individuals compared to a control group. RESULTS: We found a striking increase in the overall abundance and expression of both virulence factors and antimicrobial resistance genes in COVID-19. Importantly, these genes are encoded and expressed by commensal taxa from families such as Acidaminococcaceae and Erysipelatoclostridiaceae, which we found to be enriched in COVID-19-positive individuals. We also found an enrichment in the expression of a betaherpesvirus and rotavirus C genes in COVID-19-positive individuals compared to healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS: Our analyses identified an altered and increased infective competence of the gut microbiome in COVID-19 patients. Video Abstract