Unrecognized Backscattering in Low Energy Beta Spectroscopy

We present studies on electron backscattering from the surface of plastic scintillator beta detectors. By using a setup of two detectors coaxial with a strong external magnetic field - one detector serving as primary detector, the other as veto-detector to detect backscattering - we investigate amount and spectrum of unrecognized backscattering, i.e. events where only one detector recorded a trigger signal. The implications are important for low energy particle physics experiments.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figures; v2: published NIM A versio

FKBP5 Gene Variants as Predictors for Antidepressant Response in Individuals with Major Depressive Disorder Who Have Experienced Childhood Trauma. A Systematic Review

FKBP5 gene variants may predict antidepressant treatment response in individuals with Major Depressive Disorder. PubMed and Web of Science were searched systematically for articles studying individuals who had received a diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and were given antidepressant treatment. Inclusion criteria were studies that researched FKBP5 and its variants and focused on antidepressant treatment response. Previous studies support a potential underlying epigenetic mechanism, demethylation at FKBP5 polymorphisms (rs1360780, rs3800373, rs9470080, and rs4713916) after experiencing childhood trauma, leading to increased hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis sensitivity and a propensity for the development of MDD. These polymorphisms informed the review, but additional polymorphisms (rs9380514, rs352428) were also considered. Studies conducted prior to 2008, reviews, meta-analyses, editorials, and non-research-based articles were excluded. Studies examined in this article suggest FKBP5 polymorphism rs4713916 and FKBP5 RNA levels may be associated with antidepressant response. Variants rs1360780, rs3800373, and rs9470080 were associated with both positive response and non-response or lack of remission. Variants rs9380514, rs352428, and rs936882 were associated with poor response to antidepressant treatment or non-remission. Further insights into the role FKBP5 plays in development and antidepressant treatment response may be aided by future studies focused on individuals who previously experienced childhood trauma and later developed MDD

DSPSR: Digital Signal Processing Software for Pulsar Astronomy

DSPSR is a high-performance, open-source, object-oriented, digital signal processing software library and application suite for use in radio pulsar astronomy. Written primarily in C++, the library implements an extensive range of modular algorithms that can optionally exploit both multiple-core processors and general-purpose graphics processing units. After over a decade of research and development, DSPSR is now stable and in widespread use in the community. This paper presents a detailed description of its functionality, justification of major design decisions, analysis of phase-coherent dispersion removal algorithms, and demonstration of performance on some contemporary microprocessor architectures.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, to be published in PAS

Footprints of the Newly-Discovered Vela Supernova in Antarctic Ice Cores?

The recently-discovered, nearby young supernova remnant in the southeast corner of the older Vela supernova remnant may have been seen in measurements of nitrate abundances in Antarctic ice cores. Such an interpretation of this twenty-year-old ice-core data would provide a more accurate dating of this supernova than is possible purely using astrophysical techniques. It permits an inference of the supernova4s ${}^{44}$Ti yield purely on an observational basis, without reference to supernova modelling. The resulting estimates of the supernova distance and light-arrival time are 200 pc and 700 years ago, implying an expansion speed of 5,000 km/s for the supernova remnant. Such an expansion speed has been argued elsewhere to imply the explosion to have been a 15 $M_\odot$ Type II supernova. This interpretation also adds new evidence to the debate as to whether nearby supernovae can measurably affect nitrate abundances in polar ice cores.Comment: 12 pages, TeX, 2 enclosed figures. Updated references, and more detailed discussion of how inferences are made of supernova propertie

Laparoscopic Removal of a Copper Intrauterine Device from the Sigmoid Colon

Removal of a migrated intrauterine device by using minimally invasive procedures is indicated even in select asymptomatic patients

Neutron interferometric measurement of the scattering length difference between the triplet and singlet states of n-3^3He

We report a determination of the n-$^3$He scattering length difference $\Delta b^{\prime} = b_{1}^{\prime}-b_{0}^{\prime} =$ ($-5.411$ $\pm$ $0.031$ (statistical) $\pm$ $0.039$ (systematic)) fm between the triplet and singlet states using a neutron interferometer. This revises our previous result $\Delta b^{\prime} =$ (-5.610 $\pm$ $0.027$ (statistical) $\pm$ $0.032$ (systematic) fm obtained using the same technique in 2008. This revision is due to a re-analysis of the 2008 experiment that includes a more robust treatment of the phase shift caused by magnetic field gradients near the $^3$He cell. Furthermore, we more than doubled our original data set from 2008 by acquiring six months of additional data in 2013. Both the new data set and a re-analysis of the older data are in good agreement. Scattering lengths of low Z isotopes are valued for use in few-body nuclear effective field theories, provide important tests of modern nuclear potential models and in the case of $^3$He aid in the interpretation of neutron scattering from quantum liquids. The difference $\Delta b^{\prime}$ was determined by measuring the relative phase shift between two incident neutron polarizations caused by the spin-dependent interaction with a polarized $^3$He target. The target $^3$He gas was sealed inside a small, flat windowed glass cell that was placed in one beam path of the interferometer. The relaxation of $^3$He polarization was monitored continuously with neutron transmission measurements. The neutron polarization and spin flipper efficiency were determined separately using $^3$He analyzers and two different polarimetry analysis methods. A summary of the measured scattering lengths for n-$^3$He with a comparison to nucleon interaction models is given