Quantization of Higher Spin Superfields in the anti-de Sitter Superspace

We describe a Lagrangian quantization of the free massless gauge superfield theories of higher superspins both in the anti-de Sitter and flat global superspaces.Comment: 9 pages, LaTe

Algorithm of diagnosis and treatment of vascular anomalies

Vascular anomalies (VA) are characterized by a wide range of diseases, occurring at different frequencies and significantly different from each other, which presents great difficulties in their diagnosis and treatment. Since 2001, more than 5000 children and adults with VA have been treated. The work was based on the classification of VA adopted by the ISSVA. Methods that evaluated local hemodynamics (LHD), such as ultrasound with color Doppler mapping, thermal imaging, spectrophotometry, were of significant importance in the differential diagnosis of VA, in determining the stage of development of infant hemangioma (IH), in choosing a method of treatment and monitoring its effectiveness. Methods of managing patients with VA included in IH: observation, treatment with propranolol systemically and locally, laser thermotherapy, non-contact and interstitial; with vascular malformations: sclerotherapy with picibanyl and bleomycin, laser thermotherapy without contact and interstitial, IPL-therapy, excision. The main goal of treatment of VA was to obtain the best cosmetic result while maintaining the functions of the affected area. In children with IH, three variants of LHD - intensive, moderately elevated and normal, were observed. 45% of children with IH with normal or moderately elevated LHD were simply observed. Laser thermotherapy was performed in 10% of children with intensive LHD (in parallel with treatment with propranolol) and in the presence of ulceration of IH. The rest of the children were treated with propranolol systemically or according to the original technology locally. In the treatment of venous or arteriovenous malformations, thermal therapy with laser radiation with a wavelength of 1.56 μm was effective, especially in combination with a wavelength of 1.94 μm. With lymphatic malformation, large cysts were sclerized with picibanyl or bleomycin (efficacy greater than 75%). Small and microcamps were heated by laser radiation with a wavelength of 1.94 microns. In general, the algorithm developed allowed to significantly increase the efficiency of diagnosis and treatment of this difficult and very diverse pathology

Palynomorphs of brackish and marine species in cores from the freshwater Lake Sapanca, NW Turkey

Lake Sapanca, which is located on the Sakarya–Sapanca–İzmit corridor in NW Turkey, is a freshwater lake with numerous fish farms in its catchment. Palynological analyses including non-pollen palynomorphs of a short (38.5 cm) and a longer sediment core (586 cm), taken in the centre of the lake and dated in previous investigations, revealed the presence of brackish and marine palynomorphs. The longer sediment sequence shows the occurrence of Brigantedinium sp., Impagidinium caspienense and Spiniferites cruciformis from the base of the core at c. AD 580 years up to 300 cm depth at shortly after c. AD 910. A similar assemblage, but this time with the additional presence of dinoflagellate thecae and the acritarch, Radiosperma corbiferum, was found in the recent core, especially from AD 1986 until the present. Past connections between the Gulf of İzmit and the Black Sea, via the River Sakarya and Lake Sapanca, could be the origin of these two microfossil assemblages. Accidental re-introduction via fish translocation since the Roman times may have been a additional mechanism. The consequences of the survival of brackish and marine forms in a freshwater lake are discussed in terms of wider euryhalinity than has been suggested for those still poorly known organisms

Present status of IGEX dark matter search at Canfranc Underground Laboratory

One IGEX 76Ge double-beta decay detector is currently operating in the Canfranc Underground Laboratory in a search for dark matter WIMPs, through the Ge nuclear recoil produced by the WIMP elastic scattering. A new exclusion plot has been derived for WIMP-nucleon spin-independent interactions. To obtain this result, 40 days of data from the IGEX detector (energy threshold 4 keV), recently collected, have been analyzed. These data improve the exclusion limits derived from all the other ionization germanium detectors in the mass region from 20 GeV to 200 GeV, where a WIMP supposedly responsible for the annual modulation effect reported by the DAMA experiment would be located. The new IGEX exclusion contour enters, by the first time, the DAMA region by using only raw data, with no background discrimination, and excludes its upper left part. It is also shown that with a moderate improvement of the detector performances, the DAMA region could be fully explored.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, talk delivered at the 7th International Workshop on Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics (TAUP 2001), September 2001, Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Italy (to appear in the Conference Proceedings, Nucl. Phys. B (Proc. Suppl.)

Improved constraints on WIMPs from the International Germanium Experiment IGEX

One IGEX 76Ge double-beta decay detector is currently operating in the Canfranc Underground Laboratory in a search for dark matter WIMPs, through the Ge nuclear recoil produced by the WIMP elastic scattering. A new exclusion plot, has been derived for WIMP-nucleon spin-independent interactions. To obtain this result, 40 days of data from the IGEX detector (energy threshold E \~ 4 keV), recently collected, have been analyzed. These data improve the exclusion limits derived from all the other ionization germanium detectors in the mass region from 20 GeV to 200 GeV, where a WIMP supposedly responsible for the annual modulation effect reported by the DAMA experiment would be located. The new IGEX exclusion contour enters, by the first time, the DAMA region by using only raw data, with no background discrimination, and excludes its upper left part. It is also shown that with a moderate improvement of the detector performances, the DAMA region could be fully explored.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Physics Letters B (revised version after referee's comments, some figures added

New constraints on WIMPs from the Canfranc IGEX dark matter search

The IGEX Collaboration enriched 76Ge double-beta decay detectors are currently operating in the Canfranc Underground Laboratory with an overburden of 2450 m.w.e. A recent upgrade has made it possible to use them in a search for WIMPs. A new exclusion plot has been derived for WIMP-nucleon spin-independent interaction. To obtain this result, 30 days of data from one IGEX detector, which has an energy threshold of ~4 keV, have been considered. These data improve the exclusion limits derived from other germanium diode experiments in the ~50 GeV DAMA region, and show that with a moderate improvement of the background below 10 keV, the DAMA region may be tested with an additional 1 kg-year of exposure.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Physics Letter

Pulse Shape Discrimination in the IGEX Experiment

The IGEX experiment has been operating enriched germanium detectors in the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (Spain) in a search for the neutrinoless double decay of 76Ge. The implementation of Pulse Shape Discrimination techniques to reduce the radioactive background is described in detail. This analysis has been applied to a fraction of the IGEX data, leading to a rejection of ~60 % of their background, in the region of interest (from 2 to 2.5 MeV), down to ~0.09 c/(keV kg y).Comment: 18 pages, 10 figure

Measurement of the Ds lifetime

We report precise measurement of the Ds meson lifetime. The data were taken by the SELEX experiment (E781) spectrometer using 600 GeV/c Sigma-, pi- and p beams. The measurement has been done using 918 reconstructed Ds. The lifetime of the Ds is measured to be 472.5 +- 17.2 +- 6.6 fs, using K*(892)0K+- and phi pi+- decay modes. The lifetime ratio of Ds to D0 is 1.145+-0.049.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures submitted to Phys. Lett.