On-detector electronics for high speed data transport, control and power distribution for the LHCb VELO and ATLAS Pixel Upgrades

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will see an upgrade to higher luminosity to widen the scope of study of particle physics and this will be a major upgrade of the LHC. The LHC collides protons at an energy of 13 TeV in order to study the fundamental components of matter and the forces that bind them together. The High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) will enter service after 2025, increasing the volume of the data for analysis by a factor of 10. The phenomena that physicists are looking for have a very low probability of occurring and this is why a very large amount of data is needed to detect them. Vertexing and tracking sub-detectors for these High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments deliver very high data rates that require multi-gigabit transmission links. Commercial solutions such as optical transmission or wire cabling are investigated, however, due to high radiation environments and low radiation length requirements, electrical transmission with low mass custom designs have to be considered. Designing transmission lines with this requirement does pose a challenge and optical data transmission is used when space and radiation limits allow. The increase in luminosity will produce more data making it possible to study the phenomena in more detail by increasing the number of collisions by a factor of between five and seven. The increase in data will require an enhanced readout system and related electronics to be able to transmit and read out the data for further processing. At the same time powering systems need to be looked at to understand cost effcient and reliable techniques to be able to power such electronics. The thesis focuses on the readout electronics of the LHCb Vertex Locator (known as the 'VELO') Upgrade and the ATLAS Inner Tracker (known as the 'ITk') Upgrade including design of some components of the sub-systems, testing for high-speed data signaling, powering schemes and analysis of PCB designs and scope for improvements. An introduction to the LHC and the four experiments that use its beam - ATLAS, CMS, ALICE and LHCb is outlined. The thesis work is focused on two of these detectors namely ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS) and LHCb (Large Hadron Collider beauty) and these are further explained and details of the sub-systems that make up these detectors are elaborated. Major differences to the upgrade of the experiments is explained highlighting the changes and the main challenges that would need to be addressed. The work on the On-detector electronics of the LHCb VELO Upgrade with details of the design requirements and implementations for the different components is described and test results are presented. Data tapes for carrying high speed data signals and control signals from the front-end chip to the Vacuum Feedthoough (VF) were designed and successfully tested to have a loss of < 10 dB at the Nyquist frequency of 2.5 GHz and a characteristic impedance of approximately 94 Ω which is within the 10% tolerance of 100 Ω for differential signals. Sensitivity to radiation damage as well as additional mass in the detector acceptance were some factors that motivated the design of the Opto Power board (OPB). In addition, there was a need to power the front-end ASICs but from outside the vacuum tank. The OPB was designed to meet these requirements in addition to be more easily accessible for repair and maintenance. The OPB is realised in an 8-layer stackup, with custom designed radiation hard ICs, and was designed for optical to electrical conversion of 20 high-speed data links at 5.12 Gb/s per link to be read by the Off-detector electronics. The board comprises 13 DC-DC converters for powering 12 ASICs, two front-end hybrids and the OPB itself with a total current supply of 26 A. The ATLAS experiment will implement the Inner Tracker (ITk) which is a new tracker to be installed during the major ATLAS Upgrade during Long Shutdown 3. The work on the ATLAS ITK addresses two topics; a novel pixel powering scheme adopting layout techniques for high-speed design. A serial powering scheme was evaluated to be an optimal option and this scheme was tested to understand its scope and implementation in the pixel endcap design and results are presented. A study to understand the existing Crescent Tape PCB layout and techniques to improve the design for high-speed data transmission was evaluated. Methods for analysing high-speed data using S-parameters and eye diagrams, sources of signal degradation and mitigation techniques, are detailed. The laboratory test setup for high-speed measurements with the equipments used is also explained

Neuroendocrine inhibition of glucose production and resistance to cancer in dwarf mice

Pit1 null (Snell dwarf) and Proph1 null (Ames dwarf) mutant mice lack GH, PRL and TSH. Snell and Ames dwarf mice also exhibit reduced IGF-I, resistance to cancer and a longer lifespan than control mice. Endogenous glucose production during fasting is reduced in Snell dwarf mice compared to fasting control mice. In view of cancer cell dependence on glucose for energy, low endogenous glucose production may provide Snell dwarf mice with resistance to cancer. We investigated whether endogenous glucose production is lower in Snell dwarf mice during feeding. Inhibition of endogenous glucose production by glucose injection was enhanced in 12 to 14 month-old female Snell dwarf mice. Thus, we hypothesize that lower endogenous glucose production during feeding and fasting reduces cancer cell glucose utilization providing Snell dwarf mice with resistance to cancer. The elevation of circulating adiponectin, a hormone produced by adipose tissue, may contribute to the suppression of endogenous glucose production in 12 to 14 month-old Snell dwarf mice. We compared the incidence of cancer at time of death between old Snell dwarf and control mice. Only 18% of old Snell dwarf mice had malignant lesions at the time of death compared to 82% of control mice. The median ages at death for old Snell dwarf and control mice were 33 and 26 months, respectively. By contrast, previous studies showed a high incidence of cancer in old Ames dwarf mice at the time of death. Hence, resistance to cancer in old Snell dwarf mice may be mediated by neuroendocrine factors that reduce glucose utilization besides elevated adiponectin, reduced IGF-I and a lack of GH, PRL and TSH, seen in both Snell and Ames dwarf mice. Proteomics analysis of pituitary secretions from Snell dwarf mice confirmed the absence of GH and PRL, the secretion of ACTH and elevated secretion of Chromogranin B and Secretogranin II. Radioimmune assays confirmed that circulating Chromogranin B and Secretogranin II were elevated in 12 to 14 month-old Snell dwarf mice. In summary, our results in Snell dwarf mice suggest that the pituitary gland and adipose tissue are part of a neuroendocrine loop that lowers the risk of cancer during aging by reducing the availability of glucose

New determination of the D0→K -π +π0 and D0→K -π +π +π - coherence factors and average strong-phase d

Measurements of the coherence factors (RKππ0 and R K3π) and the average strong-phase differences (δDKππ0 and δDK3π) for the decays D0→K -π +π0 and D0→K -π +π +π - are presented. These parameters are important inputs to the determination of the unitarity triangle angle γ in B ∓→DK ∓ decays, where D designates a D0 or D-0 meson decaying to a common final state. The measurements are made using quantum correlated DD- decays collected by the CLEO-c experiment at the ψ(3770) resonance, and augment a previously published analysis by the inclusion of new events in which the signal decay is tagged by the mode D→KS0π+π- The measurements also benefit from improved knowledge of external inputs, namely the D0D-0 mixing parameters, rDKπ and several D-meson branching fractions. The measured values are RKππ0=0.82±0.07, δDKππ0=(164-14+20)°, RK3π=0.32-0.28+0.20 and δDK3π=(225-78+21)°. Consideration is given to how these measurements can be improved further by using the larger quantum-correlated data set collected by BESIII

Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome in Pre as Well as Postmenopausal Women in A Tertiary Care CENTER: A Hospital Based Observational Study

Background: Metabolic syndrome is a constellation of metabolic abnormalities and a complex&nbsp; pre-disease&nbsp; state that predicts future development of type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases. Epidemiologically it is observed that incidence of metabolic syndrome increases with age and more so in women once they attain menopause. Objectives: To study the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in pre as well as post-menopausal women and to study the various components of metabolic syndrome. Materials and Methods: We performed an observational study in a tertiary care teaching institute. Women attending general health checkup were selected for the study A total of 484 women were selected. 267 were in the postmenopausal group and 217 in premenopausal group. After a detailed collection of demographic data, medical, surgical, obstetrical and gynecological history, general physical and systemic examination was done. Height, weight, waist circumference were measured. BMI was calculated. Venous blood sample sent for Fasting blood glucose, HDL, Triglycerides. Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed when three out of five parameters were found abnormal. Results: Metabolic syndrome was seen in 158 women (32.6%). Among these women, 118 (44.19%) were postmenopausal women and 40 (18.4%) were premenopausal. Postmenopausal women are at twice the risk of developing metabolic syndrome