Commissioning and first operation of the pCVD diamond ATLAS Beam Conditions Monitor

The main aim of the ATLAS Beam Conditions Monitor is to protect the ATLAS Inner Detector silicon trackers from high radiation doses caused by LHC beam incidents, e.g. magnet failures. The BCM uses in total 16 1x1 cm2 500 μm thick polycrystalline chemical vapor deposition (pCVD) diamond sensors. They are arranged in 8 positions around the ATLAS LHC interaction point. Time difference measurements with sub nanosecond resolution are performed to distinguish between particles from a collision and spray particles from a beam incident. An abundance of the latter leads the BCM to provoke an abort of the LHC beam. A FPGA based readout system with a sampling rate of 2.56 GHz performs the online data analysis and interfaces the results to ATLAS and the beam abort system. The BCM diamond sensors, the detector modules and their readout system are described. Results of the operation with the first LHC beams are reported and results of commissioning and timing measurements (e.g. with cosmic muons) in preparation for first LHC collisions are summarized

Yoga for posttraumatic stress disorder - a systematic review and meta-analysis

© 2018 The Author(s). Background: Yoga is increasingly used as a therapeutic treatment and seems to improve psychiatric conditions such as anxiety disorders and depression. The aim of this systematic review was to assess the evidence of yoga for reducing symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Methods: The Cochrane Library, Medline/PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus, and IndMED were searched through July 2017 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing the effects of yoga on symptoms of PTSD. Mean differences (MD) and standardized mean differences (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were computed. The quality of evidence and the strength of recommendation were graded according to the GRADE recommendations. Results: Seven RCTs (N = 284) were included. Meta-analysis revealed low quality evidence for clinically relevant effects of yoga on PTSD symptoms compared to no treatment (SMD = - 1.10, 95% CI [- 1.72, - 0.47], p < .001, I2 = 72%; MD = - 13.11, 95% CI [- 17.95, - 8.27]); and very low evidence for comparable effects of yoga and attention control interventions (SMD = - 0.31, 95%CI = [- 0.84, 0.22], p = .25; I2 = 43%). Very low evidence was found for comparable retention of patients in the trial for yoga and no treatment (OR = 0.68, 95%CI [0.06, 7.72]) or attention control interventions (OR = 0.66, 95%CI [0.10, 4.46]). No serious adverse events were reported. Limitations: Few RCTs with only limited sample size were available. Conclusions: Only a weak recommendation for yoga as an adjunctive intervention for PTSD can be made. More high quality research is needed to confirm or disconfirm these findings

Effect of Yoga in the Therapy of Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Systematic Review

© 2016 AGA Institute Background & Aims This review aims to systematically survey the effects of yoga on symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), pain, quality of life, mood, stress, and safety in patients with IBS. Methods MEDLINE/Pubmed, Scopus, the Cochrane Library, CAM-QUEST, CAMbase, and IndMED were screened through November 2015. Randomized controlled trials comparing yoga with usual care, nonpharmacologic, or pharmacologic interventions were analyzed for patients with IBS. Primary outcomes included gastrointestinal symptoms, quality of life, and pain. Anxiety, mood, and safety were defined as secondary outcomes. Risk of bias was assessed according to the Cochrane Collaboration recommendations. Results Six randomized controlled trials with a total of 273 patients were included in the qualitative analysis. There was evidence for a beneficial effect of a yogic intervention over conventional treatment in IBS, with significantly decreased bowel symptoms, IBS severity, and anxiety. Furthermore, there were significant improvements in quality of life, global improvement, and physical functioning after yoga compared with no treatment. Two randomized controlled trials reported safety data stating that no adverse events occurred. Overall, risk of bias of the included studies was unclear. Conclusions The findings of this systematic review suggest that yoga might be a feasible and safe adjunctive treatment for people with IBS. Nevertheless, no recommendation can be made regarding yoga as a routine intervention for patients with IBS because of major flaws in study methods. More research is needed with respect to a high-quality study design and consensus in clinical outcome measurements in IBS. ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02721836

ATLAS Pixel Module Assembly in Dortmund

The ATLAS Pixel detector is the inner- most substructure of the multi-purpose LHC ex- periment ATLAS at CERN and part of the track- ing system. The Pixel vertex system will consist of 1744 hybrid pixel modules, about 280 of them have been assembled at the University of Dortmund. This work provides a detailed description of the ATLAS Pixel module assembly procedure executed at the University of Dortmund. Effort had been put into the developement of a laboratory and testing environment to fulfill all technical demands of a se- rial production of fully efficent pixel modules

Yoga in women with abdominal obesity - Do lifestyle factors mediate the effect? Secondary analysis of a RCT.

INTRODUCTION: The reduction of obesity is an important challenge for health policy. Although dietary interventions are widely available, patient adherence is usually low. A promising alternative is yoga. We hypothesized that weight reduction through yoga is mediated by aspects related to eating habits as well as physical aspects. METHODS: This is an exploratory secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial comparing the effects of yoga to waiting list in women with abdominal obesity. Body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference were assessed as outcomes; physical exercise habits, physical activity habits at leisure time, physical activity habits at work time, daily fruit and vegetable intake, nutrition self-efficacy, and physical self-efficacy were captured as mediators. Measures were assessed at weeks 0 and 12. The original trial was conducted between April and August 2015. The secondary analysis was performed December 2019. RESULTS: Forty patients were randomized to the 12 weekly yoga sessions (48.5 ± 7.9 years) and 20 patients to the waitlist group (46.4 ± 8.9 years). Physical exercise habits fully mediated the effect of yoga on BMI (B=-0.26;CI[-.56;-.07]). Daily fruit and vegetable intake partially mediated the effect of yoga on BMI (B=-0.13;CI[-.38;-.01]). No further mediation effects were found. CONCLUSIONS: Yoga supports people with overweight in eating healthier and increasing their physical activity which in turn leads to a reduced BMI. Yoga's effects on waist circumference seem to be due to other mechanisms

A CVD diamond detector for (n,alpha) cross section measurements

Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike LicenceIn astrophysics, the determination of the optical alpha-nucleus potential for low alpha-particle energies, crucial in understanding the origin of the stable isotopes, has turned out to be a challenge. Theory still cannot predict the optical potentials required for the calculation of the astrophysical reaction rates in the Hauser-Feshbach statistical model and there is scant experimental information on reactions with alpha particles at the relevant astrophysical energies. Measurements of (n,alpha) cross-sections offer a good opportunity to study the alpha channel. At the n_TOF experiment at CERN, a prototype detector, based on the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond technology, has been recently developed for (n,alpha) measurements. A reference measurement of the 10B(n,alpha)7Li reaction was performed in 2011 at n_TOF as a feasibility study for this detector type. The results of this measurement and an outline for future experiments are presented here

An Empirical Test of a Communibiological Model of Trait Verbal Aggressiveness

The purpose of this study was to test Beatty and McCroskey\u27s communibiological model of trait verbal aggressiveness. In general, this model views trait verbal aggressiveness as an expression of temperament; specifically, that trait verbal aggressiveness represents low thresholds for the fight or flight (FFS) neurobiological system. This model further contends that behavioral inhibition circuitry (BIS) moderates FFS activation by tempering aggressive impulses, otherwise FFS activation would manifest itself in the form of physical rather than verbal attacks. Beatty and McCroskey (1997) propose that low thresholds for stimulating the behavioral activation system (BAS) should be related to trait verbal aggressiveness to the extent that the construct involves a proactive rather than a purely reactive interpersonal function. Because previous research indicated that psychoticism (P), neuroticism (N) and extroversion (E) represent psychological manifestations of the FFS, BIS, and BAS systems, respectively, hypotheses linking P, N, and E to trait verbal aggressiveness (VAS) were tested. A multiple regression equation based on disattenuated correlations explained approximately 46% of the variance in VAS scores. Specifically, (1) the results for P and N were consistent with predictions derived from Beatty and McCroskey\u27s model, and (2) the results for E were indicative of a purely reactive function of trait verbal aggressiveness. Implications for theory and research are discussed

High-Resolution Energy and Intensity Measurements with CVD Diamond at REX-ISOLDE

A novel beam instrumentation device for the HIE-REX (High In-tensity and Energy REX) upgrade has been developed and tested at the On-Line Isotope Mass Separator ISOLDE, located at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN). This device is based on CVD diamond detector technology and is used for measuring the beam intensity, particle counting and measuring the energy spectrum of the beam. An energy resolution of 0.6% was measured at a carbon ion energy of 22.8 MeV. This corresponds to an energy spread of ± 140 keV

Strain-free bulk-like GaN grown by hydride-vapor-phase-epitaxy on two-step epitaxial lateral overgrown GaN template

Crack-free bulk-like GaN with high crystalline quality has been obtained by hydride-vapor-phase-epitaxy (HVPE)growth on a two-step epitaxial lateral overgrown GaN template on sapphire. During the cooling down stage, the as-grown 270-μm-thick GaN layer was self-separated from the sapphire substrate. Plan-view transmission electron microscopyimages show the dislocation density of the free-standing HVPE-GaN to be ∼2.5×10 exp 7  cm exp −2 on the Ga-polar face. A low Ga vacancy related defect concentration of about 8×10 exp 15 cm exp−3 is extracted from positron annihilation spectroscopy data. The residual stress and the crystalline quality of the material are studied by two complementary techniques. Low-temperature photoluminescence spectra show the main neutral donor bound exciton line to be composed of a doublet structure at 3.4715 (3.4712) eV and 3.4721 (3.4718) eV for the Ga- (N-) polar face with the higher-energy component dominating. These line positions suggest virtually strain-free material on both surfaces with high crystalline quality as indicated by the small full width at half maximum values of the donor bound exciton lines. The E1(TO) phonon mode position measured at 558.52 cm exp −1 (Ga face) by infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry confirms the small residual stress in the material, which is hence well suited to act as a lattice-constant and thermal-expansion-coefficient matched substrate for further homoepitaxy, as needed for high-quality III-nitride device applications.Peer reviewe