113 research outputs found
CMS Pixel Telescope Addition to T-980 Bent Crystal Collimation Experiment at the Tevatron
An enhancement to the T-980 bent crystal collimation experiment at the
Tevatron has been completed. The enhancement was the installation of a pixel
telescope inside the vacuum-sealed beam pipe of the Tevatron. The telescope is
comprised of six CMS PSI46 pixel plaquettes, arranged as three stations of
horizontal and vertical planes, with the CAPTAN system for data acquisition and
control. The purpose of the pixel telescope is to measure beam profiles
produced by bent crystals under various conditions. The telescope electronics
inside the beam pipe initially were not adequately shielded from the image
current of the passing beams. A new shielding approach was devised and
installed, which resolved the problem. The noise issues encountered and the
mitigating techniques are presented herein, as well as some preliminary results
from the telescope.Comment: 9 pp. 2nd International Conference on Technology and Instrumentation
in Particle Physics 2011: TIPP 2011. 9-14 Jun 2011. Chicago, Illinoi
A Test Stand System for High-Energy Physics Applications
The Front-End R&D group at Fermilab has been developing pixel hybridized modules and silicon strip detectors for the past decade for high-energy physics experiments. To accomplish this goal, one of the activities the group has been working on includes the development of a flexible high-speed and high-bandwidth data acquisition and test system to characterize front-end electronics. In this paper, we present a general purpose PCI-based test stand system developed to meet the stringent requirements of testing silicon strip and pixel detectors. The test stand is based on a platform that is flexible enough to be adapted to different types of front-end electronics. This system has been used to test the performance of the electronics for different experiments such as BTeV, CDF, CMS, and Phenix. The paper presents the capabilities of the system and how it can be adapted to meet the testing requirements of different applications
Pedagogy and deliberative democracy: Insights from recent experiments in the United Kingdom
A growing body of research suggests the existence of a disconnection between citizens, politicians and representative politics in advanced industrial democracies. This has led to a literature on the emergence of post-democratic or post-representative politics that connects to a parallel seam of scholarship on the capacity of deliberative democratic innovations to âclose the gapâ. This latter body of work has delivered major insights in terms of democratic design in ways that traverse âpolitics as theoryâ and âpolitics as practiceâ. And yet the main argument of this article is that this seam of scholarship has generally failed to explore the existence of numerous pedagogical relationships that exist within the very fibre of deliberative processes. As such, the core contribution of this article focuses around the explication of a âpedagogical pyramidâ that applies a micro-political lens to deliberative processes. This theoretical contribution is empirically assessed with reference to a recent project that sought to test different citizen assembly pilots around plans for English regional devolution. The proposition being tested is that a better understanding of relational pedagogy within innovations is vital, not just to increase levels of knowledge, but also to build the capacity, confidence and contribution of democratically active citizens
An Abp1-Dependent Route of Endocytosis Functions when the Classical Endocytic Pathway in Yeast Is Inhibited
Clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME) is a well characterized pathway in both yeast and mammalian cells. An increasing number of alternative endocytic pathways have now been described in mammalian cells that can be both clathrin, actin, and Arf6- dependent or independent. In yeast, a single clathrin-mediated pathway has been characterized in detail. However, disruption of this pathway in many mutant strains indicates that other uptake pathways might exist, at least for bulk lipid and fluid internalization. Using a combination of genetics and live cell imaging, here we show evidence for a novel endocytic pathway in S. cerevisiae that does not involve several of the proteins previously shown to be associated with the âclassicâ pathway of endocytosis. This alternative pathway functions in the presence of low levels of the actin-disrupting drug latrunculin-A which inhibits movement of the proteins Sla1, Sla2, and Sac6, and is independent of dynamin function. We reveal that in the absence of the âclassicâ pathway, the actin binding protein Abp1 is now essential for bulk endocytosis. This novel pathway appears to be distinct from another described alternative endocytic route in S. cerevisiae as it involves at least some proteins known to be associated with cortical actin patches rather than being mediated at formin-dependent endocytic sites. These data indicate that cells have the capacity to use overlapping sets of components to facilitate endocytosis under a range of conditions
Diurnal timing of nonmigratory movement by birds: the importance of foraging spatial scales
Timing of activity can reveal an organism's efforts to optimize foraging either by minimizing energy loss through passive movement or by maximizing energetic gain through foraging. Here, we assess whether signals of either of these strategies are detectable in the timing of activity of daily, local movements by birds. We compare the similarities of timing of movement activity among species using six temporal variables: start of activity relative to sunrise, end of activity relative to sunset, relative speed at midday, number of movement bouts, bout duration and proportion of active daytime hours. We test for the influence of flight mode and foraging habitat on the timing of movement activity across avian guilds. We used 64 570 days of GPS movement data collected between 2002 and 2019 for local (nonâmigratory) movements of 991 birds from 49 species, representing 14 orders. Dissimilarity among daily activity patterns was best explained by flight mode. Terrestrial soaring birds began activity later and stopped activity earlier than pelagic soaring or flapping birds. Broadâscale foraging habitat explained less of the clustering patterns because of divergent timing of active periods of pelagic surface and diving foragers. Among pelagic birds, surface foragers were active throughout all 24 hrs of the day while diving foragers matched their active hours more closely to daylight hours. Pelagic surface foragers also had the greatest daily foraging distances, which was consistent with their daytime activity patterns. This study demonstrates that flight mode and foraging habitat influence temporal patterns of daily movement activity of birds.We thank the Nature Conservancy, the Bailey Wildlife Foundation, the Bluestone Foundation, the Ocean View Foundation, Biodiversity Research Institute, the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund, the Davis Conservation Foundation and The U.S. Department of Energy (DEâEE0005362), and the Darwin Initiative (19-026), EDP S.A. âFundação para a Biodiversidadeâ and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) (DL57/2019/CP 1440/CT 0021), Enterprise St Helena (ESH), Friends of National Zoo Conservation Research Grant Program and Conservation Nation, ConocoPhillips Global Signature Program, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Cellular Tracking Technologies and Hawk Mountain Sanctuary for providing funding and in-kind support for the GPS data used in our analyses
Evolution of clinical features in possible DLB depending on FP-CIT SPECT result
Objective: To test the hypothesis that core and suggestive features in possible dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) would vary in their ability to predict an abnormal dopamine transporter scan and therefore a follow-up diagnosis of probable DLB. A further objective was to assess the evolution of core and suggestive features in patients with possible DLB over time depending on the 123I-FP-CIT SPECT scan result.
Methods: A total of 187 patients with possible DLB (dementia plus one core or one suggestive feature) were randomized to have dopamine transporter imaging or to follow-up without scan. DLB features were compared at baseline and at 6-month follow-up according to imaging results and follow-up diagnosis.
Results: For the whole cohort, the baseline frequency of parkinsonism was 30%, fluctuations 29%, visual hallucinations 24%, and REM sleep behavior disorder 17%. Clinician-rated presence of parkinsonism at baseline was significantly (p = 0.001) more frequent and Unified Parkinsonâs Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) score at baseline was significantly higher (p = 0.02) in patients with abnormal imaging. There was a significant increase in UPDRS score in the abnormal scan group over time (p < 0.01). There was relatively little evolution of the rest of the DLB features regardless of the imaging result.
Conclusions: In patients with possible DLB, apart from UPDRS score, there was no difference in the evolution of DLB clinical features over 6 months between cases with normal and abnormal imaging. Only parkinsonism and dopamine transporter imaging helped to differentiate DLB from non-DLB dementia
The use of variable ratio reinforcement in a token program with chronic psychiatric patients
A token reinforcement program, involving verbal participation in a weekly quiz, was established on a ward of 36 chronic, male, psychiatric patients.Variable ratio schedules of 20%, 33%, 66Ÿ and 80% were used to observe their effects on verbal response rate, and to compare these rates with 100% CRF and an extinction phase. The results did not lend support to the hypothesis that verbal response rate would vary according to the different VR schedules of reinforcement. However, results did indicate that the VR schedules produced significantly different rates of verbal participation as compared with verbal response rate during 100% CRF and extinction, supporting, in the latter case, an inverse relationship between the ratio of reinforcement and maintenance of responding during extinction.
Deficiencies in the experimental design, and implications of the findings in the study, are discussed
Did Jesus Study Vedanta Philosophy
The article examines evidence to show that the teaching of Jesus is derived from the ancient philosophy of Vedanta. Â And that Jesus went to India to study the philosphy between the ages of 12 and 42.</p
The Long Lie of the Christians
We are now in the third decade of the 21st Century and with all this time and with all our intelligence and capability to research the past, we have not clearly shown that the people who call themselves Christians have mislead themselves and hence the whole world with their story about the man they call Jesus
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