CUPID is a next-generation tonne-scale bolometric neutrinoless double beta decay experiment that will probe the Majorana nature of neutrinos and discover lepton number violation in case of ...observation of this singular process. CUPID will be built on experience, expertise and lessons learned in CUORE and will be installed in the current CUORE infra-structure in the Gran Sasso underground laboratory. The CUPID detector technology, successfully tested in the CUPID-Mo experiment, is based on scintillating bolometers of Li
2
MoO
4
enriched in the isotope of interest
100
Mo. In order to achieve its ambitious science goals, the CUPID collaboration aims to reduce the backgrounds in the region of interest by a factor 100 with respect to CUORE. This performance will be achieved by introducing the high efficient
α
/
β
discrimination demonstrated by the CUPID-0 and CUPID-Mo experiments, and using a high transition energy double beta decay nucleus such as
100
Mo to minimize the impact of the gamma background. CUPID will consist of about 1500 hybrid heat-light detectors for a total isotope mass of 250 kg. The CUPID scientific reach is supported by a detailed and safe background model based on CUORE, CUPID-Mo and CUPID-0 results. The required performances have already been demonstrated and will be presented.
The CRESST experiment observes an unexplained excess of events at low energies. In the current CRESST-III data-taking campaign we are operating detector modules with different designs to narrow down ...the possible explanations. In this work, we show first observations of the ongoing measurement, focusing on the comparison of time, energy and temperature dependence of the excess in several detectors. These exclude dark matter, radioactive backgrounds and intrinsic sources related to the crystal bulk as a major contribution.
The CRESST-III experiment aims at the direct detection of dark matter particles via their elastic scattering off nuclei in a scintillating CaWO
_4
4
target crystal. For many years CaWO
_4
4
crystals ...have successfully been produced in-house at Technische Universität München with a focus on high radiopurity. To further improve the CaWO
_4
4
crystals, an extensive chemical purification of the raw materials has been performed and the crystal TUM93 was produced from this powder. We present results from an
\alpha
α
-decay rate analysis performed on 344 days of data collected in the ongoing CRESST-III data-taking campaign. The
\alpha
α
-decay rate could significantly be reduced.
Calorimeters with a high granularity are a fundamental requirement of the Particle Flow paradigm. This paper focuses on the prototype of a hadron calorimeter with analog readout, consisting of ...thirty-eight scintillator layers alternating with steel absorber planes. The scintillator plates are finely segmented into tiles individually read out via Silicon Photomultipliers. The presented results are based on data collected with pion beams in the energy range from 8GeV to 100 GeV. The fine segmentation of the sensitive layers and the high sampling frequency allow for an excellent reconstruction of the spatial development of hadronic showers. A comparison between data and Monte Carlo simulations is presented, concerning both the longitudinal and lateral development of hadronic showers and the global response of the calorimeter. The performance of several GEANT4 physics lists with respect to these observables is evaluated.
For the future e+ e- International Linear Collider (ILC) the ASIC SPIROC (Silicon Photomultiplier Integrated Read-Out Chip) was designed to read out the Analog Hadronic Calorimeter (AHCAL) equipped ...with Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM). It is an evolution of the FLC_SiPM chip designed by the OMEGA group in 2005. SPIROC2 1 was realized in AMS SiGe 0.35 mu m technology 2 and developed to match the requirements of large dynamic range, low noise, low consumption, high precision and large number of read-out channels. This ASIC is a very front-end read-out chip that integrates 36 self triggered channels with variable gain to achieve charge and time measurements. The charge measurement must be performed from 1 up to 2000 photo-electrons (p.e.) corresponding to 160 fC up to 320 pC for SiPM gain 10 super(6). The time measurement is performed with a coarse 12-bit counter related to the bunch crossing clock (up to 5 MHz) and a fine time ramp based on this clock (down to 200 ns) to achieve a resolution of 1 ns. An analog memory array with a depth of 16 for each channel is used to store the time information and the charge measurement. The analog memory content (time and charge) is digitized thanks to an internal 12-bit Wilkinson ADC. The data is then stored in a 4kbytes RAM. A complex digital part is necessary to manage all these features and to transfer the data to the DAQ. SPIROC2 is the second generation of the SPIROC ASIC family designed in 2008 by the OMEGA group. A very similar version (SPIROC2c) was submitted in February 2012 to improve the noise performance and also to integrate a new TDC (Time to Digital Converter) structure. This paper describes SPIROC2 and SPIROC2c ASICs and illustrates the main characteristics thank to a series of measurements.
The CRESST experiment is a direct dark matter search which aims to measure interactions of potential dark matter particles in an Earth-bound detector. With the current stage, CRESST-III, we focus on ...a low energy threshold for increased sensitivity towards light dark matter particles. In this paper we describe the analysis of one detector operated in the first run of CRESST-III (05/2016–02/2018) achieving a nuclear recoil threshold of 30.1 eV. This result was obtained with a 23.6 g CaWO4 crystal operated as a cryogenic scintillating calorimeter in the CRESST setup at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS). Both the primary phonon (heat) signal and the simultaneously emitted scintillation light, which is absorbed in a separate silicon-on-sapphire light absorber, are measured with highly sensitive transition edge sensors operated at ∼15 mK. The unique combination of these sensors with the light element oxygen present in our target yields sensitivity to dark matter particle masses as low as 160 MeV/c2.
Abstract Background Achilles tendon ruptures are becoming more common. Complications after open or minimally invasive surgery are: recurrent rupture (2–8%), wound breakdown, deep infections, ...granuloma, and fistulas. The authors expose their experience with a personal technique. Materials In 8 patients with acute rupture of Achilles tendon the surgery was performed at least 25 days after trauma. Clinical exam and MR demonstrated in all case a total lesion of tendon. After a posterolateral skin incision the tendon stumps were debrided and suture in end-to-end fashion. A tendon flap was harvested from the proximal part of the tendon, in order to protect and reinforce the suture itself. A plaster cast was applied for 3 weeks and the patients started the rehabilitation protocol. Results After 4 months all patients returned to pre-injury daily activities. The mean follow up was 13 months (ranged between 6 and 24 months). No major complications occurred. Conclusion The posterolateral skin incision, not above the tendon, preserves the vascularity of the soft tissues, allows identifying and not accidentally injuring the sural nerve, and prevents the cutaneous scar is overlapped the tendon. In this way is favoured physiological tendon sliding. The preparation of the flap tendon does not weaken the overall strength of the tendon and protects the tendon suture. The tension on sutured stumps is less than being spread over a larger area. In our sample of 8 patients the absence of short-and long-term complications and the rapid functional recovery after surgery suggest that the technique used is safe and effective.
ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to determine whether glutamic acid decarboxylase antibody (GADA) titer and other clinical parameters could define the risk of progression to insulin therapy in ...latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) patients during a 7-year follow-up.MethodsThis study involved 220 LADA and 430 type 2 diabetes subjects followed up for 7 years from the time of GADA screening to evaluate their progression toward insulin therapy. Kaplan–Meier curves and multivariate logistic regression analysis were performed to identify the markers capable of influencing this progression.ResultsDuring the follow-up, the drop out was 4% in both groups. A total of 119 (56.1%) out of 212 LADA patients required insulin during the 7 years of follow-up. The Kaplan–Meier plots showed that 74/104 (71.1%) of high GADA titer required insulin compared with 45/108 (41.6%) of low GADA titer and with 86/412 (20.9%) of type 2 diabetes (P<0.0001 for both). A BMI of ≤25 kg/m2 and IA-2IC and zinc transporter 8 (ZnT8) positivity were also shown as the markers of faster progression (P<0.0001 for both). The proportion of LADA patients requiring insulin was significantly higher in the group of subjects treated also with sulfonylurea in the first year from diagnosis compared with those treated with diet and/or insulin sensitizers (P<0.001). The multivariate analysis confirmed that the presence of high GADA titer was a significant predictor of insulin requirement (P<0.0001, OR=6.95).ConclusionsHigh GADA titer, BMI ≤ 25, ZnT8 and IA-2IC positivity and sulfonylurea treatment, in the first year from diagnosis, significantly increase the progression toward insulin requirement in LADA patients.
Background
Primary tumor characteristics, which are readily available to all clinicians, may aid in selecting the optimal adjuvant therapy for patients with breast cancer (BC). Herein, we ...investigated the relationship between tumor size, hormone receptor and HER2 status, Ki67 and age with axillary lymph node metastases (ALNM) in early-BC patients.
Methods
We analyzed data on consecutive 2600 early-BC cases collected in the registry of Fondazione IRCC Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milano, Italy. Correlation between Ki67 and primary tumor size (T-size) was calculated by Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. Association of ALNM with Ki67 and other tumor characteristics was investigated by logistic regression. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were estimated in all cases, and separately analyzed according to age, T-size and BC subtype.
Results
Large tumor size strongly associated to ALNM, with an adjusted odds ratio (OR) for each 5-mm increase of 1.32 (95% CI 1.24–1.41), except for triple-negative BC (TNBC) cases. In tumors =10 mm, without lymphovascular invasion, representing the strongest predictor of ALNM (OR 6.09, 95% CI 4.93–7.53), Ki67 resulted particularly informative, with a fourfold increased odds of ALNM for values > 30%.
Conclusions
These results raise the question whether axillary node status is redundant in cases with exceptionally good features, i.e., small tumors with low Ki67, or in those candidate to adjuvant systemic treatment/radiotherapy anyway including TNBC, and support the incorporation of primary BC tumor characteristics as stratification factors in ongoing trials aiming at de-escalating axillary surgical procedures.
The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso of INFN in Italy is an experiment searching for neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay. Its main ...goal is to investigate this decay in 130Te, but its ton-scale mass and low background make CUORE sensitive to other rare processes as well. Here, in this Letter, we present our first results on the search for 0νββ decay of 128Te, the Te isotope with the second highest natural isotopic abundance. We find no evidence for this decay, and using a Bayesian analysis we set a lower limit on the 128Te 0νββ decay half-life of T1/2 > 3.6 x 1024 yr (90% CI). This represents the most stringent limit on the half-life of this isotope, improving by over a factor of 30 the previous direct search results, and exceeding those from geochemical experiments for the first time.
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