A search for massive neutrinos has been made in the decay π+→e+ν. No evidence was found for extra peaks in the positron energy spectrum indicative of pion decays involving massive neutrinos (π→e+νh). ...Upper limits (90% C.L.) on the neutrino mixing matrix element |Uei|2 in the neutrino mass region 60–135 MeV/c2 were set and are an order of magnitude improvement over previous results.
A new measurement of the branching ratio R_{e/μ}=Γ(π^{+}→e^{+}ν+π^{+}→e^{+}νγ)/Γ(π^{+}→μ^{+}ν+π^{+}→μ^{+}νγ) resulted in R_{e/μ}^{exp}=1.2344±0.0023(stat)±0.0019(syst)×10^{-4}. This is in agreement ...with the standard model prediction and improves the test of electron-muon universality to the level of 0.1%.
The three body pion decays ... where X is a weakly interacting neutral boson, were searched for using the full data set from the PIENU experiment. An improved limit on ... in the mass range ... and a ...first result for ... in the region ... were obtained. The Majoron-neutrino coupling model was also constrained using the current experimental result of the ... branching ratio.(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)
Charged lepton flavor violating muon decay μ+ → e+XH, where XH is a massive neutral boson, was sought by searching for extra peaks in the muon decay μ+ → e+ν¯ν energy spectrum in the mXH mass region ...47.8–95.1 MeV/c2. No signal was found and 90% confidence level upper limits were set on the branching ratio Γ(μ+ → e+XH)/Γ(μ+ → e+ν¯ν) at the level of 10−5 for this region.
CsI calorimeter for the J-PARC KOTO experiment Sato, K.; Lee, J.W.; Banno, S. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
12/2020, Letnik:
982, Številka:
C
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
An electromagnetic calorimeter made of undoped CsI crystals is used in the J-PARC KOTO experiment to search for new physics beyond the standard model with the KL→π0νν̄ decay. The calorimeter is ...designed to operate in vacuum of 0.1 Pa and in a high-rate environment where the counting rate due to KL decays is O(100) kHz. A special method to calibrate the calorimeter during the data taking without using a tracking system for charged particles is reported. The energy, position, and timing resolutions of the calorimeter were evaluated in several beam tests, and the resolutions satisfy the required performance. The energy resolution with the total energy E is 0.66⊕1.81∕EGeV% in the inner region of the calorimeter.
Ethyl carbamate is a common contaminant prevalent in fermented food with probable carcinogenic effects in animals. To date, other toxicological properties of ethyl carbamate are not well ...characterized. Using the genetic model Caenorhabditis elegans, we found that chronic exposure to ethyl carbamate during larval development impedes growth while exposure during adulthood inhibits reproduction, shortens lifespan, and promotes degeneration to dopaminergic neurons. Through whole-transcriptome RNA-sequencing, we found that ethyl carbamate invokes a widespread transcriptomic response inducing the differential expression of > 4,000 genes by at least 2-fold. Functional analysis of RNA-sequencing data revealed that up-regulated genes enrich to various neuron regulatory processes and xenobiotic defense. Gene expression analysis confirms that various genes encoding antioxidant enzymes and those functioning within phase I and II detoxification responses along with ABC transporters are highly up-regulated after ethyl carbamate exposure, suggesting the onset of oxidative stress. Overall, these findings report new toxicological properties of chronic ethyl carbamate exposure and provide new insights on its effects on transcriptome regulation in the C. elegans model.
Display omitted
•Ethyl carbamate is toxic towards development, reproduction, and aging in C. elegans.•Dopaminergic neurodegeneration is induced after prolonged ethyl carbamate exposure.•C. elegans respond to ethyl carbamate by activating xenobiotic detoxification.
Mature minor consent only became available in Australia in 2007. There is neither an explicitly defined protocol, nor a clear definition evident in the literature relating to use of the mature minor ...concept in health research. Due to difficulties in defining fixed age ranges to varying levels of maturity and vulnerability, there is a lack of clarity surrounding when it might be reasonable and ethical to apply for or grant a waiver for parental consent. This paper describes the challenges faced and solutions created when gaining approval for use of mature minor consent in a respondent-driven sampling (RDS) study to explore the social norms and alcohol consumption among 14-17-year-old adolescents (n = 1012) in the community. The University's Human Research Ethics Committee granted mature minor consent for this study, and the techniques applied enabled recruitment of adolescents from community-based settings through use of RDS to achieve the required sample. This paper has relevance for research that requires a waiver for parental consent; it presents a case study for assessing mature minors and makes recommendations on how ethical guidelines can be improved to assist human research ethics application processes.
Flash ADC data processing with correlation coefficients Blyth, D.; Gibson, M.; Mcfarland, D. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
02/2014, Letnik:
738
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The large growth of flash ADC techniques for processing signals, especially in applications of streaming data, raises issues such as data flow through an acquisition system, long-term storage, and ...greater complexity in data analysis. In addition, experiments that push the limits of sensitivity need to distinguish legitimate signals from noise. The use of correlation coefficients is examined to address these issues. They are found to be quite successful well into the noise region. The methods can also be extended to Field Programmable Gate Array modules for compressing the data flow and greatly enhancing the event rate capabilities.
Context
Testing the influence of edges on animal distributions depends on our capacity to quantify ‘edge’, particularly in heterogeneous landscapes. Habitat quality is likely to differ in instances ...where edges are abrupt and anthropogenic in origin, versus diffuse, disturbance-created edges.
Objectives
We tested whether or not structurally distinct edge types influence northern spotted owl habitat selection and whether the relationship between edge type and use varied across spatial scales relevant to owl foraging (<3 ha) and home range selection (50–800 ha).
Methods
We used remotely sensed disturbance severity data to define two distinct edge types, ‘hard’ and ‘diffuse’, following a 11,000 ha fire and subsequent salvage logging in southern Oregon. The approach quantifies the steepness of gradients directly by measuring the ‘slope’ of change in disturbance severity. We tested the degree to which 23 radio-collared spotted owls responded to edge characteristics caused by fire and logging.
Results
Spotted owls showed a strong negative association with hard edge, even after accounting for habitat suitability and other confounding variables. However, this negative relationship was highly scale-dependent; spotted owls were resilient to hard edges at broad scales, but avoided the same feature at fine scales. On the other hand, spotted owls showed a positive association with diffuse edge, especially at broader scales.
Conclusions
Differential use of edge types indicates that owls favor disturbances that create diffuse edge habitat (e.g. low and mixed-severity fire) and rather than abrupt boundaries created by high severity disturbance.
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