FACT -- The G-APD revolution in Cherenkov astronomy

Since two years, the FACT telescope is operating on the Canary Island of La Palma. Apart from its purpose to serve as a monitoring facility for the brightest TeV blazars, it was built as a major step to establish solid state photon counters as detectors in Cherenkov astronomy. The camera of the First G-APD Cherenkov Telesope comprises 1440 Geiger-mode avalanche photo diodes (G-APD), equipped with solid light guides to increase the effective light collection area of each sensor. Since no sense-line is available, a special challenge is to keep the applied voltage stable although the current drawn by the G-APD depends on the flux of night-sky background photons significantly varying with ambient light conditions. Methods have been developed to keep the temperature and voltage dependent response of the G-APDs stable during operation. As a cross-check, dark count spectra with high statistics have been taken under different environmental conditions. In this presentation, the project, the developed methods and the experience from two years of operation of the first G-APD based camera in Cherenkov astronomy under changing environmental conditions will be presented.Comment: Proceedings of the Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference (IEEE-NSS/MIC), 201

Entdeckung eines Pseudoausbruches mit Carbapenem-resistenten Acinetobacter baumannii

Am Nationalen Referenzzentrum für gramnegative Krankenhauserreger wurde im November und Dezember 2020 das gehäufte Auftreten von Isolaten des Acinetobacter baumannii-Komplex mit Carbapenemresistenz beobachtet. Der Beitrag beschreibt die in Kooperation mit dem Robert Koch-Institut durchgeführte Ausbruchsuntersuchung und die Aufklärung als Pseudoausbruch.Peer Reviewe

FACT - The First G-APD Cherenkov Telescope: Status and Results

The First G-APD Cherenkov telescope (FACT) is the first telescope using silicon photon detectors (G-APD aka. SiPM). It is built on the mount of the HEGRA CT3 telescope, still located at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, and it is successfully in operation since Oct. 2011. The use of Silicon devices promises a higher photon detection efficiency, more robustness and higher precision than photo-multiplier tubes. The FACT collaboration is investigating with which precision these devices can be operated on the long-term. Currently, the telescope is successfully operated from remote and robotic operation is under development. During the past months of operation, the foreseen monitoring program of the brightest known TeV blazars has been carried out, and first physics results have been obtained including a strong flare of Mrk501. An instantaneous flare alert system is already in a testing phase. This presentation will give an overview of the project and summarize its goals, status and first results

Physical interactions in swarm robotics: the hand-bot case study

This paper presents a case-study on the performance achieved by the mechanical interactions of self-assembling mobile robots. This study is based on the hand-bot robot, designed to operate within heterogeneous swarms of robots. The hand-bot is specialized in object manipulation and can improve its performance by exploiting physical collaborations by self-assembling with other hand-bots or with foot-bots (ground robots). The paper analyzes the achieved performance and demonstrates the highly super-linear properties of the accessible volume in respect to the number of robots. These extremely interesting performances are strongly linked to the self-assembling mechanisms and the physical nature of the interaction, and do not scale to a large number of robots. Finally, this study suggests that such interesting properties are more accessible for heterogeneous systems or devices achieving complex tasks

Electron spin dynamics in quantum dots and related nanostructures due to hyperfine interaction with nuclei

We review and summarize recent theoretical and experimental work on electron spin dynamics in quantum dots and related nanostructures due to hyperfine interaction with surrounding nuclear spins. This topic is of particular interest with respect to several proposals for quantum information processing in solid state systems. Specifically, we investigate the hyperfine interaction of an electron spin confined in a quantum dot in an s-type conduction band with the nuclear spins in the dot. This interaction is proportional to the square modulus of the electron wave function at the location of each nucleus leading to an inhomogeneous coupling, i.e. nuclei in different locations are coupled with different strength. In the case of an initially fully polarized nuclear spin system an exact analytical solution for the spin dynamics can be found. For not completely polarized nuclei, approximation-free results can only be obtained numerically in sufficiently small systems. We compare these exact results with findings from several approximation strategies.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures. Topical Review to appear in J. Phys.: Condens. Matte

Modelling and Operational Effectiveness Evaluation for Integrated Gun and Missile Anti-aircraft System

弹炮结合防空武器系统是随着空袭与反空袭防空作战发展而产生的一种综合防空武器系统，是防空作战武器装备体系的重要组成部分。该系统由中低空地对空导弹和小口径高炮两种防空武器按一定的结合方式组合而成，二者组合可以发挥导弹中高空毁伤率高、高炮低空火力猛、抗干扰能力强等优势，能够在防空作战时取得更好的作战效果。 对防空武器系统的发展论证需要采用定性分析与定量分析相结合的科学方法，寻找防空武器系统作战能力的差距，分析影响防空武器系统效能的关键因素，进而研究防空武器装备建设重点和发展方向及作战使用原则。弹炮结合防空武器系统的研究包括很多方面，本文主要研究弹炮结合防空武器系统的作战模型和效能评估技术。论文分析...With the development of modern air raid and anti-air raid in warfare，integrated anti-aircrafts gun and missile system，as one of important components of air defence equipment system，has become a comprehensive air defence weapon system. This system is made up of two air-defence weapons: mid-low air space from earth to air missile, and small-diameter gun. And these two weapons are integrated in speci...学位：工学硕士院系专业：信息科学与技术学院自动化系_系统工程学号：20033102

Socioeconomic Status and Adherence to Preventive Measures During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Switzerland: A Population Based Digital Cohort Analysis.

OBJECTIVES To assess the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and self-reported adherence to preventive measures in Switzerland during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS 4,299 participants from a digital cohort were followed between September 2020 and November 2021. Baseline equivalised disposable income and education were used as SES proxies. Adherence was assessed over time. We investigated the association between SES and adherence using multivariable mixed logistic regression, stratifying by age (below/above 65 years) and two periods (before/after June 2021, to account for changes in vaccine coverage and epidemiological situation). RESULTS Adherence was high across all SES strata before June 2021. After, participants with higher equivalised disposable income were less likely to adhere to preventive measures compared to participants in the first (low) quartile [second (Adj.OR, 95% CI) (0.56, 0.37-0.85), third (0.38, 0.23-0.64), fourth (0.60, 0.36-0.98)]. We observed similar results for education. CONCLUSION No differences by SES were found during the period with high SARS-CoV-2 incidence rates and stringent measures. Following the broad availability of vaccines, lower incidence, and eased measures, differences by SES started to emerge. Our study highlights the need for contextual interpretation when assessing SES impact on adherence to preventive measures

Low Q^2 Jet Production at HERA and Virtual Photon Structure

The transition between photoproduction and deep-inelastic scattering is investigated in jet production at the HERA ep collider, using data collected by the H1 experiment. Measurements of the differential inclusive jet cross-sections dsigep/dEt* and dsigmep/deta*, where Et* and eta* are the transverse energy and the pseudorapidity of the jets in the virtual photon-proton centre of mass frame, are presented for 0 < Q2 < 49 GeV2 and 0.3 < y < 0.6. The interpretation of the results in terms of the structure of the virtual photon is discussed. The data are best described by QCD calculations which include a partonic structure of the virtual photon that evolves with Q2.Comment: 20 pages, 5 Figure

Hadron Production in Diffractive Deep-Inelastic Scattering

Characteristics of hadron production in diffractive deep-inelastic positron-proton scattering are studied using data collected in 1994 by the H1 experiment at HERA. The following distributions are measured in the centre-of-mass frame of the photon dissociation system: the hadronic energy flow, the Feynman-x (x_F) variable for charged particles, the squared transverse momentum of charged particles (p_T^{*2}), and the mean p_T^{*2} as a function of x_F. These distributions are compared with results in the gamma^* p centre-of-mass frame from inclusive deep-inelastic scattering in the fixed-target experiment EMC, and also with the predictions of several Monte Carlo calculations. The data are consistent with a picture in which the partonic structure of the diffractive exchange is dominated at low Q^2 by hard gluons.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.