ProtoDUNE-DP is a 6 × 6 × 6m
3
liquid argon time-projection-chamber (LArTPC) operated at the Neutrino Platform at CERN in 2019-2020 as a prototype of the DUNE Far Detector. DUNE is a dual-site ...experiment for long-baseline neutrino oscillation studies, neutrino astrophysics and nucleon decay searches. The light signal in these detectors is crucial to provide precise timing capabilities. In ProtoDUNE-DP, scintillation light produced by cosmic muons in the LArTPC is collected by the photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) placed up to 7 m away from the point of interaction. The scintillation light production and propagation processes are analyzed and compared to simulations, improving the understanding of some liquid argon properties.
Various secondary plant metabolites or phytochemicals, including polyphenols and carotenoids, have been associated with a variety of health benefits, such as reduced incidence of type 2 diabetes, ...cardiovascular diseases, and several types of cancer, most likely due to their involvement in ameliorating inflammation and oxidative stress. However, discrepancies exist between their putative effects when comparing observational and intervention studies, especially when using pure compounds. These discrepancies may in part be explained by differences in intake levels and their bioavailability. Prior to exerting their bioactivity, these compounds must be made bioavailable, and considerable differences may arise due to their matrix release, changes during digestion, uptake, metabolism, and biodistribution, even before considering dose‐ and host‐related factors. Though many insights have been gained on factors affecting secondary plant metabolite bioavailability, many gaps still exist in our knowledge. In this position paper, we highlight several major gaps in our understanding of phytochemical bioavailability, including effects of food processing, changes during digestion, involvement of cellular transporters in influx/efflux through the gastrointestinal epithelium, changes during colonic fermentation, and their phase I and phase II metabolism following absorption.
Diet has shaped microbiota profiles through human evolution. Traditional gut microbiomes are described to be driven by high levels of
Prevotella
. In the present, however, it is consistently ...described a lower microbial richness in urban industrialized populations compared with individuals living in rural settings,
Bacteroides
being predominant among urban-industrial gut microbiomes. Components of diet are highly influential in shaping the gut microbiota, being fiber, fat, proteins, polyphenols and micronutrients differentially metabolized by generalist and specialized microorganisms alone or through the phenomenon of cross-feeding. The progressive loss of microbial diversity over generations in industrialized societies along with the emerging increase of chronic non-transmissible diseases have been related to the decline in the consumption of dietary fiber. Diet and derived microbial metabolites have strong implications with the development of food associated diseases such as obesity and metabolic syndrome, malnutrition and eating disorders, intestinal inflammatory diseases and colorectal cancer, among others. Still, there is a need of further studies in order to identify microbiota-related biomarkers of risk for these disorders. In turn, healthy diets and specific nutritional interventions, including increase of dietary fiber and the consumption of probiotics and prebiotics, could be valuable for restoration of beneficial bacteria and microbiota diversity capable to shift from disease to health promoting states.
Diet has shaped microbiota profiles through human evolution.
There is an increased interest in secondary plant metabolites, such as polyphenols and carotenoids, due to their proposed health benefits. Much attention has focused on their bioavailability, a ...prerequisite for further physiological functions. As human studies are time consuming, costly, and restricted by ethical concerns, in vitro models for investigating the effects of digestion on these compounds have been developed and employed to predict their release from the food matrix, bioaccessibility, and assess changes in their profiles prior to absorption. Most typically, models simulate digestion in the oral cavity, the stomach, the small intestine, and, occasionally, the large intestine. A plethora of models have been reported, the choice mostly driven by the type of phytochemical studied, whether the purpose is screening or studying under close physiological conditions, and the availability of the model systems. Unfortunately, the diversity of model conditions has hampered the ability to compare results across different studies. For example, there is substantial variability in the time of digestion, concentrations of salts, enzymes, and bile acids used, pH, the inclusion of various digestion stages; and whether chosen conditions are static (with fixed concentrations of enzymes, bile salts, digesta, and so on) or dynamic (varying concentrations of these constituents). This review presents an overview of models that have been employed to study the digestion of both lipophilic and hydrophilic phytochemicals, comparing digestive conditions in vitro and in vivo and, finally, suggests a set of parameters for static models that resemble physiological conditions.
The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is a 40-kton underground liquid argon time-projection-chamber (LAr TPC) detector, for long-baseline neutrino oscillation studies, and for neutrino ...astrophysics and nucleon decay searches. Photon detector systems embedded within the LAr TPC add precise timing capabilities for non-beam events. The ProtoDUNE dual phase detector will consist of a 6×6×6 m3 liquid argon time-projection chamber placed at CERN and the light readout will be formed by 8-inch cryogenic photomultipliers from Hamamatsu. The characterization of the 36 photomultipliers, the base design, and the light calibration system are described. In addition, preliminary results from a 3×1×1 m3 LAr double phase detector operating at CERN are presented.
The Majorana Collaboration is constructing a system containing 44 kg of high-purity Ge (HPGe) detectors to demonstrate the feasibility and potential of a future tonne-scale experiment capable of ...probing the neutrino mass scale to ∼15 meV. To realize this, a major goal of the Majorana Demonstrator is to demonstrate a path forward to achieving a background rate at or below 1 count/(ROI-t-y) in the 4 keV region of interest (ROI) around the Q-value at 2039 keV. This goal is pursued through a combination of a significant reduction of radioactive impurities in construction materials and analytical methods for background rejection, for example using powerful pulse shape analysis techniques profiting from the p-type point contact (PPC) HPGe detectors technology. The effectiveness of these methods is assessed using simulations of the different background components whose purity levels are constrained from radioassay measurements. Preliminary background results obtained during the engineering runs of the Demonstrator are presented.
Global warming is forcing many species to shift their distributions upward, causing consequent changes in the compositions of species that occur at specific locations. This prediction remains largely ...untested for tropical trees. Here we show, using a database of nearly 200 Andean forest plot inventories spread across more than 33.5° latitude (from 26.8° S to 7.1° N) and 3,000-m elevation (from 360 to 3,360 m above sea level), that tropical and subtropical tree communities are experiencing directional shifts in composition towards having greater relative abundances of species from lower, warmer elevations. Although this phenomenon of 'thermophilization' is widespread throughout the Andes, the rates of compositional change are not uniform across elevations. The observed heterogeneity in thermophilization rates is probably because of different warming rates and/or the presence of specialized tree communities at ecotones (that is, at the transitions between distinct habitats, such as at the timberline or at the base of the cloud forest). Understanding the factors that determine the directions and rates of compositional changes will enable us to better predict, and potentially mitigate, the effects of climate change on tropical forests.
Objective
To assess the incidence of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and related severe complications, identify other associated factors and compare maternal and perinatal outcomes in women with ...and without these conditions.
Design
Secondary analysis of the World Health Organization Multicountry Survey on Maternal and Newborn Health (WHOMCS) database.
Setting
Cross‐sectional study implemented at 357 health facilities conducting 1000 or more deliveries annually in 29 countries from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
Population
All women suffering from any hypertensive disorder during pregnancy, the intrapartum or early postpartum period in the participating hospitals during the study period.
Methods
We calculated the proportion of the pre‐specified outcomes in the study population and their distribution according to hypertensive disorders' severity. We estimated the association between them and maternal deaths, near‐miss cases, and severe maternal complications using a multilevel logit model.
Main outcome measures
Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Potentially life‐threatening conditions among maternal near‐miss cases, maternal deaths and cases without severe maternal outcomes.
Results
Overall, 8542 (2.73%) women suffered from hypertensive disorders. Incidences of pre‐eclampsia, eclampsia and chronic hypertension were 2.16%, 0.28% and 0.29%, respectively. Maternal near‐miss cases were eight times more frequent in women with pre‐eclampsia, and increased to up to 60 times more frequent in women with eclampsia, when compared with women without these conditions.
Conclusions
The analysis of this large database provides estimates of the global distribution of the incidence of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. The information on the most frequent complications related to pre‐eclampsia and eclampsia could be of interest to inform policies for health systems organisation.
ABSTRACT
Motivated by the many associations of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with energetic supernova (SN) explosions, we study the propagation of relativistic jets within the progenitor star in which an ...SN shock wave may be launched briefly before the jets start to propagate. Based on analytic considerations and verified with an extensive set of 2D axisymmetric relativistic hydrodynamic simulations, we have estimated a threshold intrinsic jet luminosity, $L_{\rm j}^{\rm thr}$, for successfully launching a jet. This threshold depends on the structure of the progenitor and, thus, it is sensitive to its mass and to its metallicity. For a prototype host of cosmological long GRBs, a low-metallicity star of 35 M⊙, it is $L_{\rm j}^{\rm thr}\simeq 1.35\times 10^{49}$ erg s−1. The observed equivalent isotropic gamma-ray luminosity, $L_{\rm \gamma ,iso,BO} \simeq 4 \epsilon _\gamma L_{\rm j} \theta _{\rm BO}^{-2}$, crucially depends on the jet opening angle after breakout, θBO, and on the efficiency for converting the intrinsic jet luminosity into γ-radiation, εγ. Highly energetic jets can produce low-luminosity events if either their opening angle after the breakout is large, which is found in our models, or if the conversion efficiency of kinetic and internal energy into radiation is low enough. Beyond this theoretical analysis, we show how the presence of an SN shock wave may reduce this luminosity threshold by means of numerical simulations. We foresee that the high-energy transients released by jets produced near the luminosity threshold will be more similar to llGRBs or X-ray flashes than to GRBs.
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