The CLIC Programme: Towards a Staged e+e- Linear Collider Exploring the Terascale : CLIC Conceptual Design Report

This report describes the exploration of fundamental questions in particle physics at the energy frontier with a future TeV-scale e+e- linear collider based on the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) two-beam acceleration technology. A high-luminosity high-energy e+e- collider allows for the exploration of Standard Model physics, such as precise measurements of the Higgs, top and gauge sectors, as well as for a multitude of searches for New Physics, either through direct discovery or indirectly, via high-precision observables. Given the current state of knowledge, following the observation of a 125 GeV Higgs-like particle at the LHC, and pending further LHC results at 8 TeV and 14 TeV, a linear e+e- collider built and operated in centre-of-mass energy stages from a few-hundred GeV up to a few TeV will be an ideal physics exploration tool, complementing the LHC. In this document, an overview of the physics potential of CLIC is given. Two example scenarios are presented for a CLIC accelerator built in three main stages of 500 GeV, 1.4 (1.5) TeV, and 3 TeV, together with operating schemes that will make full use of the machine capacity to explore the physics. The accelerator design, construction, and performance are presented, as well as the layout and performance of the experiments. The proposed staging example is accompanied by cost estimates of the accelerator and detectors and by estimates of operating parameters, such as power consumption. The resulting physics potential and measurement precisions are illustrated through detector simulations under realistic beam conditions.Comment: 84 pages, published as CERN Yellow Report https://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/147522

Age-related changes in the prefrontal cortex: from single cell properties to neuromodulatory and long-range synaptic connectivity

In vitro whole-cell patch clamping experiments were performed in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of 3-26 months old mice divided into three age cohorts. Many single-cell properties were observed to alter in a U-shaped age-dependent manner. In particular, action potential (AP) width decreased from young (3.05 ± 0.31ms) to mature (1.95 ± 0.10ms), and increased from mature to old (2.64 ± 0.13ms) in putative pyramidal neurons. A similar effect was also observed in putative fast-spiking (FS) interneurons. Moreover, AP properties in pyramidal neurons appeared to be more affected by ageing in male mice than in female ones. To assay strength of functional connectivity between distal brain regions, optogenetics and in vitro electrophysiology techniques were employed to physiologically stimulate afferents in the PFC arriving from the tuberomammillary nucleus (TMN), and to assay ipsilateral-to-contralateral medial PFC (mPFC) strength of connectivity. Overall, histamine and GABA arriving from TMN axons increased the excitability of putative non-accommodating FS interneurons (+96.8% ± 37.4%), dramatically decreased the firing rate of pyramidal neurons (-65.7% ± 8.4%), and left the excitability of accommodating FS interneurons unaffected (-7.3% ± 9.3%). An age-related shift in the PFC towards greater and less specific inhibition from the TMN was also observed, which may adversely impact PFC cognitive abilities. In assessing ipsilateral-to-contralateral mPFC connectivity, preliminary results support the hypothesis of an age-related increase in strength of connectivity (circa 7 times greater) as a compensatory mechanism for dedifferentiation. The validity of this approach was further explored by comparison with a newly-developed anatomical measure of synapse number (mGRASP) in a descending cortico-collicular projection known to exhibit differences in contralateral and ipsilateral projection strength. We postulate that an increasing AP width from mature to old mice represents an adaptive change to counter-act the observed age-related shift towards inhibition in the PFC and the (implied) reduced local functional connectivity.Open Acces

EVALUATION OF MASS TRANSFER PARAMETERS FOR UREA DISSOLUTION IN FIXED-BED WITH DOWNWARD FLOW OF WATER

The current study aimed to evaluate the mass transfer parameters for the dissolution of spherical urea particles in fixed bed with downward flow of water. The impact of several operating parameters (particle size, height of the bed, liquid flow rate) on the key mass transfer parameters was investigated in isothermal conditions and atmospheric pressure. It was found that the mass transfer coefficient and urea dissolution degree increases by flow rate increase and decreases with the increase of particle size and bed height. The experimental values of the mass transfer coefficients were in good agreement with the ones found in the literature and the ones predicted by the Cussler equation

Computational Methods for Game Options

Game options are American-type options with the additional property that the seller of the option has the right the cancel the option at any time prior to the buyer exercise or the expiration date of the option. The cancelation by the seller can be achieved through a payment of an additional penalty to the exercise payoff or using a payoff process greater than or equal to the exercise value. The main contribution of this thesis is a numerical framework for computing the value of such options with finite maturity time as well as in the perpetual setting. This framework employs the theory of weak solutions of parabolic and elliptic variational inequalities. These solutions will be computed using finite element methods. The computational advantage of this framework is that it allows the user to go from one type of process to another by changing the stiffness matrix in the algorithm. Several types of Levy processes will be used to show the functionality of this method. The processes considered are of pure diffusion type (Black-Scholes model), the CGMY process as a pure jump model and a combination of the two for the case of jump diffusion. Computational results of the option prices as well as exercise, hold and cancelation regions are shown together with numerical estimates of the error convergence rates with respect to the L2 norm and the energy norm

AOC: Analysis of Orthologous Collections -- an application for the characterization of natural selection in protein-coding sequences

Motivation Modern molecular sequence analysis increasingly relies on automated and robust software tools for interpretation, annotation, and biological insight. The Analysis of Orthologous Collections (AOC) application automates the identification of genomic sites and species/lineages influenced by natural selection in coding sequence analysis. AOC quantifies different types of selection: negative, diversifying or directional positive, or differential selection between groups of branches. We include all steps necessary to go from unaligned homologous sequences to complete results and interactive visualizations that are designed to aid in the useful interpretation and contextualization. Results We are motivated by a desire to make evolutionary analyses as simple as possible, and to close the disparity in the literature between genes which draw a significant amount of interest and those that are largely overlooked and underexplored. We believe that such underappreciated and understudied genetic datasets can hold rich biological information and offer substantial insights into the diverse patterns and processes of evolution, especially if domain experts are able to perform the analyses themselves. Availability and implementation A Snakemake [M\"older et al., 2021] application implementation is publicly available on GitHub at https://github.com/aglucaci/AnalysisOfOrthologousCollections and is accompanied by software documentation and a tutorial

REMOVAL OF LEAD FROM INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER BY ELECTROCOAGULATION USING SACRIFICIAL ALUMINIUM ELECTRODES

The aim of this study was to develop an ecological method for the removal of Pb2+ ions from industrial wastewater. The electrocoagulation (EC) process of Pb2+ has been studied, using an electrolytic flow cell (flow rate of 20, 40, 60 mL/min) equipped with sacrificial Al electrodes, operated under galvanostatic mode (current density of 5, 10 and 15 mA/cm2). In all experimental conditions the concentration of Pb2+ was lowered below the maximum allowable concentration (0.5 ppm). The experimental results showed that the performances of the process are more strongly dependent on the applied current density than on the applied flow rate. The electrolytic flow cell has proved to be quite effective, allowing the complete removal of lead with a specific energy consumption of 3.08 kWh/kg Pb removed

Implications of stabilometric assessment in determining functional deficits in patients with severe knee osteoarthritis: observational study

Background: Osteoarthritis is one of the most frequent joint disorders in the world. The specialists in the field strongly support the role of physical exercise as a key component in the holistic management of arthrosis. The aim of the current study was to identify and assess the functional deficit of these patients and to identify means to alleviate it through pre-surgery physiotherapy programs. Methods: The study was conducted on two samples of patients: a witness sample, encompassing 126 subjects without pathologies at the level of their lower limbs, and a study sample, formed of 116 subjects diagnosed with severe gonarthrosis with total knee arthroplasty indication. The assessment protocol was accomplished with the GPS 400 stabilometric platform. Results: The barycenter differences within the support polygon, recorded for the two samples within sagittal deviation, emphasize that the barycenter shifting mainly towards the healthy lower limb will demand, from the individual, more intense rebalancing postural reactions that will place the center-of-gravity projection in the sagittal plane, closer to the central area of the support polygon. Conclusions: In the case of gonarthrosis and other joint disorders, the use of functional testing to assess body weight distribution and center-of-gravity imbalances represents a promising direction in the research on and management of these disorders, providing essential information for functional diagnosing and thus enabling the elaboration and monitoring of individualized functional rehabilitation plans

The Time Structure of Hadronic Showers in highly granular Calorimeters with Tungsten and Steel Absorbers

The intrinsic time structure of hadronic showers influences the timing capability and the required integration time of hadronic calorimeters in particle physics experiments, and depends on the active medium and on the absorber of the calorimeter. With the CALICE T3B experiment, a setup of 15 small plastic scintillator tiles read out with Silicon Photomultipliers, the time structure of showers is measured on a statistical basis with high spatial and temporal resolution in sampling calorimeters with tungsten and steel absorbers. The results are compared to GEANT4 (version 9.4 patch 03) simulations with different hadronic physics models. These comparisons demonstrate the importance of using high precision treatment of low-energy neutrons for tungsten absorbers, while an overall good agreement between data and simulations for all considered models is observed for steel.Comment: 24 pages including author list, 9 figures, published in JINS

Pion and proton showers in the CALICE scintillator-steel analogue hadron calorimeter

Showers produced by positive hadrons in the highly granular CALICE scintillator-steel analogue hadron calorimeter were studied. The experimental data were collected at CERN and FNAL for single particles with initial momenta from 10 to 80 GeV/c. The calorimeter response and resolution and spatial characteristics of shower development for proton- and pion-induced showers for test beam data and simulations using Geant4 version 9.6 are compared.Comment: 26 pages, 16 figures, JINST style, changes in the author list, typos corrected, new section added, figures regrouped. Accepted for publication in JINS