Shower development of particles with momenta from 15 GeV to 150 GeV in the CALICE scintillator-tungsten hadronic calorimeter

We present a study of showers initiated by electrons, pions, kaons, and protons with momenta from 15 GeV to 150 GeV in the highly granular CALICE scintillator-tungsten analogue hadronic calorimeter. The data were recorded at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron in 2011. The analysis includes measurements of the calorimeter response to each particle type as well as measurements of the energy resolution and studies of the longitudinal and radial shower development for selected particles. The results are compared to Geant4 simulations (version 9.6.p02). In the study of the energy resolution we include previously published data with beam momenta from 1 GeV to 10 GeV recorded at the CERN Proton Synchrotron in 2010.Comment: 35 pages, 21 figures, 8 table

Mould Routine Identification in the Clinical Laboratory by Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

BACKGROUND: MALDI-TOF MS recently emerged as a valuable identification tool for bacteria and yeasts and revolutionized the daily clinical laboratory routine. But it has not been established for routine mould identification. This study aimed to validate a standardized procedure for MALDI-TOF MS-based mould identification in clinical laboratory. MATERIALS AND METHODS: First, pre-extraction and extraction procedures were optimized. With this standardized procedure, a 143 mould strains reference spectra library was built. Then, the mould isolates cultured from sequential clinical samples were prospectively subjected to this MALDI-TOF MS based-identification assay. MALDI-TOF MS-based identification was considered correct if it was concordant with the phenotypic identification; otherwise, the gold standard was DNA sequence comparison-based identification. RESULTS: The optimized procedure comprised a culture on sabouraud-gentamicin-chloramphenicol agar followed by a chemical extraction of the fungal colonies with formic acid and acetonitril. The identification was done using a reference database built with references from at least four culture replicates. For five months, 197 clinical isolates were analyzed; 20 were excluded because they were not identified at the species level. MALDI-TOF MS-based approach correctly identified 87% (154/177) of the isolates analyzed in a routine clinical laboratory activity. It failed in 12% (21/177), whose species were not represented in the reference library. MALDI-TOF MS-based identification was correct in 154 out of the remaining 156 isolates. One Beauveria bassiana was not identified and one Rhizopus oryzae was misidentified as Mucor circinelloides. CONCLUSIONS: This work's seminal finding is that a standardized procedure can also be used for MALDI-TOF MS-based identification of a wide array of clinically relevant mould species. It thus makes it possible to identify moulds in the routine clinical laboratory setting and opens new avenues for the development of an integrated MALDI-TOF MS-based solution for the identification of any clinically relevant microorganism

Down-Regulation of Neogenin Accelerated Glioma Progression through Promoter Methylation and Its Overexpression in SHG-44 Induced Apoptosis

Dependence receptors have been proved to act as tumor suppressors in tumorigenesis. Neogenin, a DCC homologue, well known for its fundamental role in axon guidance and cellular differentiation, is also a dependence receptor functioning to control apoptosis. However, loss of neogenin has been reported in several kinds of cancers, but its role in glioma remains to be further investigated.Western blot analysis showed that neogenin level was lower in glioma tissues than in their matching surrounding non-neoplastic tissues (n = 13, p<0.01). By immunohistochemical analysis of 69 primary and 16 paired initial and recurrent glioma sections, we found that the loss of neogenin did not only correlate negatively with glioma malignancy (n = 69, p<0.01), but also glioma recurrence (n = 16, p<0.05). Kaplan-Meier plot and Cox proportional hazards modelling showed that over-expressive neogenin could prolong the tumor latency (n = 69, p<0.001, 1187.6 ± 162.6 days versus 687.4 ± 254.2 days) and restrain high-grade glioma development (n = 69, p<0.01, HR: 0.264, 95% CI: 0.102 to 0.687). By Methylation specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP), we reported that neogenin promoter was methylated in 31.0% (9/29) gliomas, but absent in 3 kinds of glioma cell lines. Interestingly, the prevalence of methylation in high-grade gliomas was higher than low-grade gliomas and non-neoplastic brain tissues (n = 33, p<0.05) and overall methylation rate increased as glioma malignancy advanced. Furthermore, when cells were over-expressed by neogenin, the apoptotic rate in SHG-44 was increased to 39.7% compared with 8.1% in the blank control (p<0.01) and 9.3% in the negative control (p<0.01).These observations recapitulated the proposed role of neogenin as a tumor suppressor in gliomas and we suggest its down-regulation owing to promoter methylation is a selective advantage for glioma genesis, progression and recurrence. Furthermore, the induction of apoptosis in SHG-44 cells after overexpression of neogenin, indicated that neogenin could be a novel target for glioma therapy

Design, construction and commissioning of a technological prototype of a highly granular SiPM-on-tile scintillator-steel hadronic calorimeter

The CALICE collaboration is developing highly granular electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters for detectors at future energy frontier electron-positron colliders. After successful tests of a physics prototype, a technological prototype of the Analog Hadron Calorimeter has been built, based on a design and construction techniques scalable to a collider detector. The prototype consists of a steel absorber structure and active layers of small scintillator tiles that are individually read out by directly coupled SiPMs. Each layer has an active area of 72 × 72 cm^2 and a tile size of 3 × 3 cm^2. With 38 active layers, the prototype has nearly 22,000 readout channels, and its total thickness amounts to 4.4 nuclear interaction lengths. The dedicated readout electronics provide time stamping of each hit with an expected resolution of about 1 ns. The prototype was constructed in 2017 and commissioned in beam tests at DESY. It recorded muons, hadron showers and electron showers at different energies in test beams at CERN in 2018. In this paper, the design of the prototype, its construction and commissioning are described. The methods used to calibrate the detector are detailed, and the performance achieved in terms of uniformity and stability is presented

Design, construction and commissioning of a technological prototype of a highly granular SiPM-on-tile scintillator-steel hadronic calorimeter

The CALICE collaboration is developing highly granular electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters for detectors at future energy frontier electron-positron colliders. After successful tests of a physics prototype, a technological prototype of the Analog Hadron Calorimeter has been built, based on a design and construction techniques scalable to a collider detector. The prototype consists of a steel absorber structure and active layers of small scintillator tiles that are individually read out by directly coupled SiPMs. Each layer has an active area of 72 × 72 cm^2 and a tile size of 3 × 3 cm^2. With 38 active layers, the prototype has nearly 22,000 readout channels, and its total thickness amounts to 4.4 nuclear interaction lengths. The dedicated readout electronics provide time stamping of each hit with an expected resolution of about 1 ns. The prototype was constructed in 2017 and commissioned in beam tests at DESY. It recorded muons, hadron showers and electron showers at different energies in test beams at CERN in 2018. In this paper, the design of the prototype, its construction and commissioning are described. The methods used to calibrate the detector are detailed, and the performance achieved in terms of uniformity and stability is presented

Technical Design Report for the LUXE experiment

This Technical Design Report presents a detailed description of all aspects of the LUXE (Laser Und XFEL Experiment), an experiment that will combine the high-quality and high-energy electron beam of the European XFEL with a high-intensity laser, to explore the uncharted terrain of strong-field quantum electrodynamics characterised by both high energy and high intensity, reaching the Schwinger field and beyond. The further implications for the search of physics beyond the Standard Model are also discussed

Path segmentation for beginners: an overview of current methods for detecting changes in animal movement patterns

Increased availability of high-resolution movement data has led to the development of numerous methods for studying changes in animal movement behavior. Path segmentation methods provide basics for detecting movement changes and the behavioral mechanisms driving them. However, available path segmentation methods differ vastly with respect to underlying statistical assumptions and output produced. Consequently, it is currently difficult for researchers new to path segmentation to gain an overview of the different methods, and choose one that is appropriate for their data and research questions. Here, we provide an overview of different methods for segmenting movement paths according to potential changes in underlying behavior. To structure our overview, we outline three broad types of research questions that are commonly addressed through path segmentation: 1) the quantitative description of movement patterns, 2) the detection of significant change-points, and 3) the identification of underlying processes or ‘hidden states’. We discuss advantages and limitations of different approaches for addressing these research questions using path-level movement data, and present general guidelines for choosing methods based on data characteristics and questions. Our overview illustrates the large diversity of available path segmentation approaches, highlights the need for studies that compare the utility of different methods, and identifies opportunities for future developments in path-level data analysis. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40462-016-0086-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Performance of the CMS High Granularity Calorimeter prototype to charged pion beams of 20−-300 GeV/c

The upgrade of the CMS experiment for the high luminosity operation of the LHC comprises the replacement of the current endcap calorimeter by a high granularity sampling calorimeter (HGCAL). The electromagnetic section of the HGCAL is based on silicon sensors interspersed between lead and copper (or copper tungsten) absorbers. The hadronic section uses layers of stainless steel as an absorbing medium and silicon sensors as an active medium in the regions of high radiation exposure, and scintillator tiles directly readout by silicon photomultipliers in the remaining regions. As part of the development of the detector and its readout electronic components, a section of a silicon-based HGCAL prototype detector along with a section of the CALICE AHCAL prototype was exposed to muons, electrons and charged pions in beam test experiments at the H2 beamline at the CERN SPS in October 2018. The AHCAL uses the same technology as foreseen for the HGCAL but with much finer longitudinal segmentation. The performance of the calorimeters in terms of energy response and resolution, longitudinal and transverse shower profiles is studied using negatively charged pions, and is compared to GEANT4 predictions. This is the first report summarizing results of hadronic showers measured by the HGCAL prototype using beam test data.Comment: To be submitted to JINS