PROSPECT-II physics opportunities Andriamirado, M; Balantekin, A B; Band, H R ...
Journal of physics. G, Nuclear and particle physics,
07/2022, Volume:
49, Issue:
7
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Abstract
The precision reactor oscillation and spectrum experiment, PROSPECT, has made world-leading measurements of reactor antineutrinos at short baselines. In its first phase, conducted at the ...high flux isotope reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, PROSPECT produced some of the strongest limits on eV-scale sterile neutrinos, made a precision measurement of the reactor antineutrino spectrum from
235
U, and demonstrated the observation of reactor antineutrinos in an aboveground detector with good energy resolution and well-controlled backgrounds. The PROSPECT collaboration is now preparing an upgraded detector, PROSPECT-II, to probe yet unexplored parameter space for sterile neutrinos and contribute to a full resolution of the reactor antineutrino anomaly, a longstanding puzzle in neutrino physics. By pressing forward on the world’s most precise measurement of the
235
U antineutrino spectrum and measuring the absolute flux of antineutrinos from
235
U, PROSPECT-II will sharpen a tool with potential value for basic neutrino science, nuclear data validation, and nuclear security applications. Following a two-year deployment at HFIR, an additional PROSPECT-II deployment at a low enriched uranium reactor could make complementary measurements of the neutrino yield from other fission isotopes. PROSPECT-II provides a unique opportunity to continue the study of reactor antineutrinos at short baselines, taking advantage of demonstrated elements of the original PROSPECT design and close access to a highly enriched uranium reactor core.
Abstract
Background
Paediatric inflammatory bowel disease (PIBD) patients are especially prone to vaccine-preventable diseases and opportunistic infections. The aim was to evaluate the immunization ...and vaccination status in PIBD.
Methods
Descriptive and retrospective study that analyzes the immunization and/or vaccination for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), hepatitis B virus (HBV), chickenpox, cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) of PIBD patients in a tertiary paediatric hospital (Jan 2015- Oct 2019) in the first 6 months after diagnosis.
Results
Amongst 57 patients, 17 (30%) had ulcerative colitis (UC), 35 (61%) Crohn ́s disease (CD) and 5 (9%) unclassified IBD (uIBD). Up to 35 (61%) were male and the mean age at diagnosis was 10.2±4.1 years. A total of 18 (32%) were currently on biological treatment and 45 (79%) on immunosuppressants. The disease location in CD patients was L3 (Paris classification) in 22 (63%) and L4a in 13 (37%). Only 2 (6%) showed perianal involvement. From the UC patients, 11 (65%) were E4. A delayed growth was observed in 6 (10%), all CD patients. At diagnosis, 37 (65%) were HBV-vaccinated, 13 of them (35%) had a serological response and 22 (59%) had no response. 18 were re-vaccinated and 9 (50%) had a documented serological response. Up to 34 patients (60%) were MMR-vaccinated and 13 (38%) showed a complete response. Only 6 patients could be re-vaccinated. Up to 30 (52%) showed chickenpox immunization. Only 4 of the non-immunized patients could be vaccinated and all of them responded to a single dose. Regarding CMV and EBV, 17 and 16 patients (46 and 43%) were IgG positive respectively, all of them IgM negative. Patients with CD were more likely to need HBV re-vaccination than other IBDs (p< 0.05). Regarding chickenpox, CD patients without growth delay (G0) needed less re-vaccination than those whose growth was affected (G1) (p< 0.05). However, UC patients with extensive disease (E4) needed less re-vaccination than those with limited disease (p< 0.05). Male patients seemed to be less likely to need re-vaccination, with no significant differences.
Conclusion
The serological assessment of vaccine-preventable diseases immunization yielded poor results. A high percentage of HBV and MMR vaccinated patients showed no response. CD patients tended to more likely need revaccination, especially in the most severe cases (G1). Surprisingly, severity was not related with vaccination response in UC. Our results suggest that less than half of the patients had been previously infected by CMV or EBV. It seems reasonable to serologically check the immunization status in PIBD patients in order to, when appropriate, re-vaccinate before starting immunosuppressive therapies.
Reactor neutrino experiments have seen major improvements in precision in recent years. With the experimental uncertainties becoming lower than those from theory, carefully considering all sources of ...¯νe is important when making theoretical predictions. One source of ¯νe that is often neglected arises from the irradiation of the nonfuel materials in reactors. The ¯νe rates and energies from these sources vary widely based on the reactor type, configuration, and sampling stage during the reactor cycle and have to be carefully considered for each experiment independently. In this article, we present a formalism for selecting the possible ¯νe sources arising from the neutron captures on reactor and target materials. We apply this formalism to the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the ¯νe source for the the Precision Reactor Oscillation and Spectrum Measurement (PROSPECT) experiment. Overall, we observe that the nonfuel ¯νe contributions from HFIR to PROSPECT amount to 1% above the inverse β decay threshold with a maximum contribution of 9% in the 1.8–2.0 MeV range. Nonfuel contributions can be particularly high for research reactors like HFIR because of the choice of structural and reflector material in addition to the intentional irradiation of target material for isotope production. We show that typical commercial pressurized water reactors fueled with low-enriched uranium will have significantly smaller nonfuel ¯νe contribution.
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CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UM
The PROSPECT and STEREO collaborations present a combined measurement of the pure ^{235}U antineutrino spectrum, without site specific corrections or detector-dependent effects. The spectral ...measurements of the two highest precision experiments at research reactors are found to be compatible with χ^{2}/ndf=24.1/21, allowing a joint unfolding of the prompt energy measurements into antineutrino energy. This νover ¯_{e} energy spectrum is provided to the community, and an excess of events relative to the Huber model is found in the 5-6 MeV region. When a Gaussian bump is fitted to the excess, the data-model χ^{2} value is improved, corresponding to a 2.4σ significance.
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CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
Nationwide and regional surveys have been conducted to evaluate natural radiation exposure of people in the vicinity of the Spanish nuclear power stations. In these surveys, indoor radon, external ...gamma dose rates outdoors and indoors and radioactivity in soils were measured. Measurements of indoor radon concentrations were performed in 214 dwellings by using nuclear track-etched detectors. External exposure from terrestrial gamma rays outdoors and indoors were measured in a total of 596 points. Radioactivity in soil samples collected at 293 sampling sites are also reported in this paper. By taking into account all sources of natural radiation exposure, mean annual effective doses to the population in the surroundings of the six Spanish nuclear power stations have been estimated and compared with those coming from their normal operation.
The inhibitory activity of natural 4-phenylcoumarins on HIV replication, NF-κB and Tat is evaluated.
We have evaluated the anti-HIV activity of eleven natural 4-phenylcoumarins isolated from
Marila ...pluricostata and three of their derivatives. Antiviral activity was assessed on MT-2 cells infected with viral clones carrying the luciferase gene as reporter. Inhibitions of HIV transcription and Tat function were tested on cells stably transfected with the HIV-LTR and Tat protein. Most of the coumarins tested displayed NF-κB inhibition. Two coumarins were also Tat antagonists and the presence of both activities correlated with a stronger inhibition of HIV replication. Our results show that antiviral effect of 4-phenylcoumarins can be related to the inhibition of NF-κB and Tat, and suggest that these types of compounds can be useful in the treatment of HIV infection as viral transcription inhibitors.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
To describe the incidence and clinical and epidemiological profile of patients with severe preeclampsia admitted to Intensive Care.
A prospective, observational case series.
A specific obstetric ...8-bed ICU belonging to a university hospital with a total of 55 ICU beds.
A total of 262 patients admitted due to severe preeclampsia, eclampsia or HELLP syndrome.
Descriptive analysis of the population and complications in the ICU and hospital mortality.
The mean patient age was 30.47±5.7 years, with the following diagnóstico at admission: A total of 78% of the patients with severe preeclampsia, 16% with HELLP syndrome, and 6% with eclampsia, occurring in gestational week 31.85±4.45. In turn, 63% of the patients were nulliparous and had a low prevalence of previous diseases. The global complications rate was 14% (9% heart failure, 5% acute renal failure and 2% coagulopathy). Maternal mortality was 1.5% (4 patients), and was associated with non-nulliparous status, the presence of complications, and toast > 71mg/dl.
Severe preeclampsia has a low mortality rate (1.5%), though the complications rate is considerable (14%). The condition develops more often in nulliparous women during the third trimester of pregnancy.
In this study, the photocatalytic removal of an emerging contaminant, diclofenac (DCF) sodium, was performed using the nitrogen-doped WO sub(3)/TiO sub(2)-coupled oxide catalyst (WO sub(3)/TiO ...sub(2)-N). The catalyst synthesis was accomplished by a sol-gel method using tetrabutyl orthotitanate (C sub(16)H sub(36)O sub(4)Ti), ammonium p-tungstate (NH sub(4)) sub(10)H sub(2 )W sub(12)O sub(42).4H sub(2)O and ammonium nitrate (NH sub(4)NO sub(3)) as the nitrogen source. For comparison, TiO sub(2) and WO sub(3)/TiO sub(2) were also prepared under similar conditions. Analysis by X-ray diffraction (XRD), N sub(2) adsorption-desorption, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), diffuse reflectance UV-Vis spectroscopy (DRS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were conducted to characterize the synthesized materials. The photocatalytic efficiency of the semiconductors was determined in a batch reactor irradiated with simulated solar light. Residual and mineralized DCF were quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography, total organic carbon analysis and ion exchange chromatography. The results indicated that the tungsten atoms were dispersed on the surface of TiO sub(2) as WO sub(3). The partial substitution of oxygen by nitrogen atoms into the lattice of TiO sub(2) was an important factor to improve the photocatalytic efficiency of WO sub(3)/TiO sub(2). Therefore, the best photocatalytic activity was obtained with the WO sub(3)/TiO sub(2)-N sub( 0.18) catalyst, reaching 100% DCF transformation at 250 kJ m super(-2) and complete mineralization at 400 kJ m super(-2) of solar-accumulated energy.
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