62 research outputs found
Real-Time Particle Radiography by Means of Scintillating Fibers Tracker and Residual Range Detectors
In this chapter, a detailed description of the construction and the procedure for the measurement of performances of a charged particle imaging system is given. Such a system can be realized by the combined use of a position sensitive detector and a residual range detector. The position sensitive detector is made up of two superimposed and right-angled planes, each of which subsists of two layers of pre-aligned and juxtaposed scintillating fibers. The selected 500 μm square section fibers are optically coupled to two silicon photomultiplier arrays adopting a channel reduction system patented by the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare. The residual range detector consists of 60 parallel layers of the same fibers used in the position detector, each of which is optically coupled to a channel of silicon photomultiplier array by means of two wavelength-shifting fibers. The sensitive area of both detectors is 90 × 90 mm2. The performance of the prototypes was tested in different facilities with protons and carbon ions at energy up to about 250 MeV and rate up to about 109 particles per second. The comparison between simulations and measurements confirms the validity of this system. Based on the results, a future development is a real-time radiography system exploiting high-intensity pencil beams and real-time treatment plan verification
Recent results on heavy-ion induced reactions of interest for neutrinoless double beta decay at INFN-LNS
Abstract. The possibility to use a special class of heavy-ion induced direct reactions, such as double charge exchange reactions, is discussed in view of their application to extract information that may be helpful to determinate the nuclear matrix elements entering in the expression of neutrinoless double beta decay halflife. The methodology of the experimental campaign presently running at INFN - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud is reported and the experimental challenges characterizing such activity are describe
NURE: An ERC project to study nuclear reactions for neutrinoless double beta decay
Neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) is considered the best potential resource to
access the absolute neutrino mass scale. Moreover, if observed, it will signal that neutrinos are
their own anti-particles (Majorana particles). Presently, this physics case is one of the most
important research “beyond Standard Model” and might guide the way towards a Grand
Unified Theory of fundamental interactions.
Since the 0νββ decay process involves nuclei, its analysis necessarily implies nuclear structure
issues. In the NURE project, supported by a Starting Grant of the European Research Council
(ERC), nuclear reactions of double charge-exchange (DCE) are used as a tool to extract
information on the 0νββ Nuclear Matrix Elements. In DCE reactions and ββ decay indeed the
initial and final nuclear states are the same and the transition operators have similar structure.
Thus the measurement of the DCE absolute cross-sections can give crucial information on ββ
matrix elements. In a wider view, the NUMEN international collaboration plans a major
upgrade of the INFN-LNS facilities in the next years in order to increase the experimental
production of nuclei of at least two orders of magnitude, thus making feasible a systematic
study of all the cases of interest as candidates for 0νββ
Community detection in graphs
The modern science of networks has brought significant advances to our
understanding of complex systems. One of the most relevant features of graphs
representing real systems is community structure, or clustering, i. e. the
organization of vertices in clusters, with many edges joining vertices of the
same cluster and comparatively few edges joining vertices of different
clusters. Such clusters, or communities, can be considered as fairly
independent compartments of a graph, playing a similar role like, e. g., the
tissues or the organs in the human body. Detecting communities is of great
importance in sociology, biology and computer science, disciplines where
systems are often represented as graphs. This problem is very hard and not yet
satisfactorily solved, despite the huge effort of a large interdisciplinary
community of scientists working on it over the past few years. We will attempt
a thorough exposition of the topic, from the definition of the main elements of
the problem, to the presentation of most methods developed, with a special
focus on techniques designed by statistical physicists, from the discussion of
crucial issues like the significance of clustering and how methods should be
tested and compared against each other, to the description of applications to
real networks.Comment: Review article. 103 pages, 42 figures, 2 tables. Two sections
expanded + minor modifications. Three figures + one table + references added.
Final version published in Physics Report
Effectiveness of cardiac resynchronization therapy in heart failure patients with valvular heart disease: comparison with patients affected by ischaemic heart disease or dilated cardiomyopathy. The InSync/InSync ICD Italian Registry
AimsTo analyse the effectiveness of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) in patients with valvular heart disease (a subset not specifically investigated in randomized controlled trials) in comparison with ischaemic heart disease or dilated cardiomyopathy patients.Methods and resultsPatients enrolled in a national registry were evaluated during a median follow-up of 16 months after CRT implant. Patients with valvular heart disease treated with CRT (n = 108) in comparison with ischaemic heart disease (n = 737) and dilated cardiomyopathy (n = 635) patients presented: (i) a higher prevalence of chronic atrial fibrillation, with atrioventricular node ablation performed in around half of the cases; (ii) a similar clinical and echocardiographic profile at baseline; (iii) a similar improvement of LVEF and a similar reduction in ventricular volumes at 6-12 months; (iv) a favourable clinical response at 12 months with an improvement of the clinical composite score similar to that occurring in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy and more pronounced than that observed in patients with ischaemic heart disease; (v) a long-term outcome, in term of freedom from death or heart transplantation, similar to patients affected by ischaemic heart disease and basically more severe than that of patients affected by dilated cardiomyopathy.ConclusionIn 'real world' clinical practice, CRT appears to be effective also in patients with valvular heart disease. However, in this group of patients the outcome after CRT does not precisely overlap any of the two other groups of patients, for which much more data are currently available
Southern African Large Telescope Spectroscopy of BL Lacs for the CTA project
In the last two decades, very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy has reached maturity: over 200 sources have been detected, both Galactic and extragalactic, by ground-based experiments. At present, Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) make up about 40% of the more than 200 sources detected at very high energies with ground-based telescopes, the majority of which are blazars, i.e. their jets are closely aligned with the line of sight to Earth and three quarters of which are classified as high-frequency peaked BL Lac objects. One challenge to studies of the cosmological evolution of BL Lacs is the difficulty of obtaining redshifts from their nearly featureless, continuum-dominated spectra. It is expected that a significant fraction of the AGN to be detected with the future Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) observatory will have no spectroscopic redshifts, compromising the reliability of BL Lac population studies, particularly of their cosmic evolution. We started an effort in 2019 to measure the redshifts of a large fraction of the AGN that are likely to be detected with CTA, using the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT). In this contribution, we present two results from an on-going SALT program focused on the determination of BL Lac object redshifts that will be relevant for the CTA observatory
Miomectomia isteroscopica: risultati a lungo termine sui pattern mestruali e sull’outcome riproduttivo
Scopo dello studio è stato quello di valutare retrospettivamente i risultati a distanza della miomectomia isteroscopica sui pattern mestruali e sull’outcome riproduttivo in 77 donne con fibromiomi sottomucosi sintomatici (sanguinamento uterino anormale, algie pelviche, infertilità). L’età media delle pazienti era di 43.9 anni; 72 (93.5%) erano in premenopausa, 5 (6.5%) erano già in postmenopausa. Le dimensioni dei miomi, erano comprese tra 1 e 5 cm di diametro (media 2.8 cm). Per il trattamento preoperatorio sono stati utilizzati, a seconda dei casi, gli analoghi del Gn-RH, il gestrinone, oppure il danazolo. In media, la durata dell’intervento è stata di 22 minuti, la quantità di soluzione impiegata 2.6 litri, quella intravasata o comunque non recuperata di 320 cc. Nel corso degli interventi non si sono avute complicanze importanti ed il decorso post-operatorio è stato regolare. Nel periodo di follow-up (media 2.8 anni), 8 pazienti sono state perse. Delle altre 69, soltanto 5 (7.2%) sono state sottoposte ad isterectomia per persistenza della sintomatologia (sanguinamento, algie pelviche), mentre in 3 su 5 con problemi riproduttivi si è ottenuta la gravidanza. In conclusione, la miomectomia isteroscopica si conferma una tecnica alquanto valida ed efficace per il sanguinamento uterino e l’infertilità da miomi sottomucosi
The Ultra-Violet italian Sky Surveyor (UVISS) on the International Space Station (ISS): UVISS Assessment Study Report: Summary and selected annexes. The UVISS FPA2 Camera for Imaging. UV Sensitive CCDs detectors
Feasibility Study of a New Cherenkov Detector for Improving Volcano Muography
Muography is an expanding technique for internal structure investigation of large volume object, such as pyramids, volcanoes and also underground cavities. It is based on the attenuation of muon flux through the target in a way similar to the attenuation of X-ray flux through the human body for standard radiography. Muon imaging have to face with high background level, especially compared with the tiny near horizontal muon flux. In this paper the authors propose an innovative technique based on the measurement of Cherenkov radiation by Silicon photo-multipliers arrays to be integrated in a standard telescope for muography applications. Its feasibility study was accomplished by means of Geant4 simulations for the measurement of the directionality of cosmic-ray muons. This technique could be particularly useful for the suppression of background noise due to back-scattered particles whose incoming direction is likely to be wrongly reconstructed. The results obtained during the validation study of the technique principle confirm the ability to distinguish the arrival direction of muons with an efficiency higher than 98% above 1 GeV. In addition, a preliminary study on the tracking performance of the presented technique was introduced
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