The ALICE electromagnetic calorimeter high level triggers

The ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) detector yields a huge sample of data from different sub-detectors. On-line data processing is applied to select and reduce the volume of the stored data. ALICE applies a multi-level hardware trigger scheme where fast detectors are used to feed a three-level (L0, L1, and L2) deep chain. The High-Level Trigger (HLT) is a fourth filtering stage sitting logically between the L2 trigger and the data acquisition event building. The EMCal detector comprises a large area electromagnetic calorimeter that extends the momentum measurement of photons and neutral mesons up to $p_T=250$ GeV/c, which improves the ALICE capability to perform jet reconstruction with measurement of the neutral energy component of jets. An online reconstruction and trigger chain has been developed within the HLT framework to sharpen the EMCal hardware triggers, by combining the central barrel tracking information with the shower reconstruction (clusters) in the calorimeter. In the present report the status and the functionality of the software components developed for the EMCal HLT online reconstruction and trigger chain will be discussed, as well as preliminary results from their commissioning performed during the 2011 LHC running period.Comment: Proceeding for the CHEP 2012 Conferenc

The lecture video recording in university: A case study

The latest European statistics show that Italy has the second lowest percentage of university graduates because of different reasons such as the outdated teaching methodologies or the high costs of university tuitions. Hence, Italian universities have launched several projects to improve or innovate the pedagogical strategies, to raise the student recruitment and to increase access to education. In this work, we describe a pilot study about the use of the video recording of the traditional lessons in order to create specific university MOOCs. In particular, the degree course in Computer Science of University of Naples Federico II is involved in this project. The use of the lecture video recording reduces the MOOC costs and facilitates the contents management. In fact, the production of these MOOCs does not require professional operators so it is possible to involve students of university part-time job or Civil Service volunteers. The results show a good satisfaction by students and prove as these MOOCs can support the university teaching

Polarization observables in high-energy deuteron photodisintegration within the Quark-Gluon Strings Model

Deuteron two-body photodisintegration is analysed within the framework of the Quark-Gluon Strings Model. The model describes fairly well the recent experimental data from TJNAF in the few GeV region. Angular distributions at different $\gamma$-energies are presented and the effect of a forward-backward asymmetry is discussed. New results from the QGSM for polarization observables from 1.5 -- 6 GeV are presented and compared with the available data.Comment: 3 pages, LaTeX, 4 postscript figures; contribution to QNP2002, Juelich, June 10-14, 200

Self-Diffusion in Random-Tiling Quasicrystals

The first explicit realization of the conjecture that phason dynamics leads to self-diffusion in quasicrystals is presented for the icosahedral Ammann tilings. On short time scales, the transport is found to be subdiffusive with the exponent $\beta\approx0.57(1)$, while on long time scales it is consistent with normal diffusion that is up to an order of magnitude larger than in the typical room temperature vacancy-assisted self-diffusion. No simple finite-size scaling is found, suggesting anomalous corrections to normal diffusion, or existence of at least two independent length scales.Comment: 11 pages + 2 figures, COMPRESSED postscript figures available by anonymous ftp to black_hole.physics.ubc.ca directory outgoing/diffuse (use bi for binary mode to transfer), REVTeX 3.0, CTP-TAMU 21/9

Interleukin-21 sustains inflammatory signals that contribute to sporadic colon tumorigenesis

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.This work received support from the “Fondazione Umberto di Mario ONLUS”, Rome, and AIRC (MFAG-12108 to CS and IG-13049 to GM)

Performance of prototypes for the ALICE electromagnetic calorimeter

The performance of prototypes for the ALICE electromagnetic sampling calorimeter has been studied in test beam measurements at FNAL and CERN. A $4\times4$ array of final design modules showed an energy resolution of about 11% /$\sqrt{E(\mathrm{GeV})}$ $\oplus$ 1.7 % with a uniformity of the response to electrons of 1% and a good linearity in the energy range from 10 to 100 GeV. The electromagnetic shower position resolution was found to be described by 1.5 mm $\oplus$ 5.3 mm /$\sqrt{E \mathrm{(GeV)}}$. For an electron identification efficiency of 90% a hadron rejection factor of $>600$ was obtained.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure

INFN What Next: Ultra-relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

This document was prepared by the community that is active in Italy, within INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), in the field of ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The experimental study of the phase diagram of strongly-interacting matter and of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) deconfined state will proceed, in the next 10-15 years, along two directions: the high-energy regime at RHIC and at the LHC, and the low-energy regime at FAIR, NICA, SPS and RHIC. The Italian community is strongly involved in the present and future programme of the ALICE experiment, the upgrade of which will open, in the 2020s, a new phase of high-precision characterisation of the QGP properties at the LHC. As a complement of this main activity, there is a growing interest in a possible future experiment at the SPS, which would target the search for the onset of deconfinement using dimuon measurements. On a longer timescale, the community looks with interest at the ongoing studies and discussions on a possible fixed-target programme using the LHC ion beams and on the Future Circular Collider.Comment: 99 pages, 56 figure

Photoproduction of phi(1020) mesons on the proton at large momentum transfer

The cross section for $\phi$ meson photoproduction on the proton has been measured for the first time up to a four-momentum transfer -t = 4 GeV^2, using the CLAS detector at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. At low four-momentum transfer, the differential cross section is well described by Pomeron exchange. At large four-momentum transfer, above -t = 1.8 GeV^2, the data support a model where the Pomeron is resolved into its simplest component, two gluons, which may couple to any quark in the proton and in the $\phi$.Comment: 5 pages; 7 figure