Pentacene islands grown on ultra-thin SiO2

Ultra-thin oxide (UTO) films were grown on Si(111) in ultrahigh vacuum at room temperature and characterized by scanning tunneling microscopy. The ultra-thin oxide films were then used as substrates for room temperature growth of pentacene. The apparent height of the first layer is 1.57 +/- 0.05 nm, indicating standing up pentacene grains in the thin-film phase were formed. Pentacene is molecularly resolved in the second and subsequent molecular layers. The measured in-plane unit cell for the pentacene (001) plane (ab plane) is a=0.76+/-0.01 nm, b=0.59+/-0.01 nm, and gamma=87.5+/-0.4 degrees. The films are unperturbed by the UTO's short-range spatial variation in tunneling probability, and reduce its corresponding effective roughness and correlation exponent with increasing thickness. The pentacene surface morphology follows that of the UTO substrate, preserving step structure, the long range surface rms roughness of ~0.1 nm, and the structural correlation exponent of ~1.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure

Search for Lepton-Flavor-Violating and Lepton-Number-Violating tau to lhh' Decay Modes

We search for lepton-flavor-violating and lepton-number-violating tau decays into a lepton (l = electron or muon) and two charged mesons (h, h' = pion or Kaon) using 854 fb^{-1} of data collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e^+e^- collider. We obtain 90% confidence level upper limits on the tau to lhh' branching fractions in the range (2.0-8.4)*10^{-8}. These results improve upon our previously published upper limits by factors of about 1.8 on average.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.

Search for Lepton-Flavor-Violating tau Decays into a Lepton and a Vector Meson

We search for lepton-flavor-violating tau-> ell V^0 decays, where ell is an electron or muon and V^0 is one of the vector mesons rho^0, phi, omega, K*0 and K*0-bar. We use 854 fb^{-1} of data collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e^+e^- collider. No evidence for a signal is found in any decay mode, and we obtain 90% confidence level upper limits on the individual branching fractions in the range (1.2-8.4)*10^{-8}.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.

Design and construction of the MicroBooNE detector

This paper describes the design and construction of the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber and associated systems. MicroBooNE is the first phase of the Short Baseline Neutrino program, located at Fermilab, and will utilize the capabilities of liquid argon detectors to examine a rich assortment of physics topics. In this document details of design specifications, assembly procedures, and acceptance tests are reported

Comprehensive analysis of epigenetic clocks reveals associations between disproportionate biological ageing and hippocampal volume

The concept of age acceleration, the difference between biological age and chronological age, is of growing interest, particularly with respect to age-related disorders, such as Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Whilst studies have reported associations with AD risk and related phenotypes, there remains a lack of consensus on these associations. Here we aimed to comprehensively investigate the relationship between five recognised measures of age acceleration, based on DNA methylation patterns (DNAm age), and cross-sectional and longitudinal cognition and AD-related neuroimaging phenotypes (volumetric MRI and Amyloid-β PET) in the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle (AIBL) and the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). Significant associations were observed between age acceleration using the Hannum epigenetic clock and cross-sectional hippocampal volume in AIBL and replicated in ADNI. In AIBL, several other findings were observed cross-sectionally, including a significant association between hippocampal volume and the Hannum and Phenoage epigenetic clocks. Further, significant associations were also observed between hippocampal volume and the Zhang and Phenoage epigenetic clocks within Amyloid-β positive individuals. However, these were not validated within the ADNI cohort. No associations between age acceleration and other Alzheimer’s disease-related phenotypes, including measures of cognition or brain Amyloid-β burden, were observed, and there was no association with longitudinal change in any phenotype. This study presents a link between age acceleration, as determined using DNA methylation, and hippocampal volume that was statistically significant across two highly characterised cohorts. The results presented in this study contribute to a growing literature that supports the role of epigenetic modifications in ageing and AD-related phenotypes

Volume I. Introduction to DUNE

The preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early universe, the dynamics of the supernovae that produced the heavy elements necessary for life, and whether protons eventually decay—these mysteries at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics are key to understanding the early evolution of our universe, its current state, and its eventual fate. The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is an international world-class experiment dedicated to addressing these questions as it searches for leptonic charge-parity symmetry violation, stands ready to capture supernova neutrino bursts, and seeks to observe nucleon decay as a signature of a grand unified theory underlying the standard model. The DUNE far detector technical design report (TDR) describes the DUNE physics program and the technical designs of the single- and dual-phase DUNE liquid argon TPC far detector modules. This TDR is intended to justify the technical choices for the far detector that flow down from the high-level physics goals through requirements at all levels of the Project. Volume I contains an executive summary that introduces the DUNE science program, the far detector and the strategy for its modular designs, and the organization and management of the Project. The remainder of Volume I provides more detail on the science program that drives the choice of detector technologies and on the technologies themselves. It also introduces the designs for the DUNE near detector and the DUNE computing model, for which DUNE is planning design reports. Volume II of this TDR describes DUNE\u27s physics program in detail. Volume III describes the technical coordination required for the far detector design, construction, installation, and integration, and its organizational structure. Volume IV describes the single-phase far detector technology. A planned Volume V will describe the dual-phase technology

Measurement of the longitudinal diffusion of ionization electrons in the MicroBooNE detector

Abstract: Accurate knowledge of electron transport properties is vital to understanding the information provided by liquid argon time projection chambers (LArTPCs). Ionization electron drift-lifetime, local electric field distortions caused by positive ion accumulation, and electron diffusion can all significantly impact the measured signal waveforms. This paper presents a measurement of the effective longitudinal electron diffusion coefficient, DL, in MicroBooNE at the nominal electric field strength of 273.9 V/cm. Historically, this measurement has been made in LArTPC prototype detectors. This represents the first measurement in a large-scale (85 tonne active volume) LArTPC operating in a neutrino beam. This is the largest dataset ever used for this measurement. Using a sample of ∼70,000 through-going cosmic ray muon tracks tagged with MicroBooNE's cosmic ray tagger system, we measure DL = 3.74+0.28 -0.29 cm2/s

Uncovering the heterogeneity and temporal complexity of neurodegenerative diseases with Subtype and Stage Inference

The heterogeneity of neurodegenerative diseases is a key confound to disease understanding and treatment development, as study cohorts typically include multiple phenotypes on distinct disease trajectories. Here we introduce a machine-learning technique\u2014Subtype and Stage Inference (SuStaIn)\u2014able to uncover data-driven disease phenotypes with distinct temporal progression patterns, from widely available cross-sectional patient studies. Results from imaging studies in two neurodegenerative diseases reveal subgroups and their distinct trajectories of regional neurodegeneration. In genetic frontotemporal dementia, SuStaIn identifies genotypes from imaging alone, validating its ability to identify subtypes; further the technique reveals within-genotype heterogeneity. In Alzheimer\u2019s disease, SuStaIn uncovers three subtypes, uniquely characterising their temporal complexity. SuStaIn provides fine-grained patient stratification, which substantially enhances the ability to predict conversion between diagnostic categories over standard models that ignore subtype (p = 7.18 7 10 124 ) or temporal stage (p = 3.96 7 10 125 ). SuStaIn offers new promise for enabling disease subtype discovery and precision medicine