Abstract
In this work, we use muon bundles, which are formed in extensive air showers and detected at the ground level, as a tool for searching for anisotropy in high-energy cosmic rays. Such choice ...is explained by the penetrating ability of muons that allows them to retain the direction of primary particles with good accuracy. In 2012–2022, we performed long-term muon-bundle detection with the coordinate-tracking detector DECOR, which is a part of the Experimental Complex NEVOD (MEPhI, Moscow). To search for cosmic-ray anisotropy, muon bundles arriving at zenith angles in the range from 15° to 75° in the local coordinate system are used. During the entire period of data taking, about 14 million of such events have been accumulated. In this paper, we describe some methods developed in the Experimental Complex NEVOD and implemented in our research, including: the method for compensating for the influence of meteorological conditions on the intensity of muon bundles at the Earth’s surface, the method for accounting for the design features of the detector and the inhomogeneity of the detection efficiency for different directions, as well as the method for estimating the primary energies of cosmic rays. Here we present the results of the search for the dipole anisotropy of cosmic rays with energies in the PeV region and also compare them with the results obtained at other scientific facilities.
New fentanyl analogues have been constantly emerging into the illegal drug market as cheap substitutes of heroin posing a serious health threat for consumers because of their high toxicity. ...Analytical methods to disclose the presence of these compounds in biological fluids of intoxicated individuals need to be updated to keep up with the new trends. In this study, we updated an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method previously developed, for detecting some new fentanyl analogues and metabolites (sufentanil and norsufentanil, cis-3-methylnorfentanyl, trans-3-methylnorfentanyl, metabolites of cis and transmethylfentanyl, beta-phenylfentanyl, phenylfentanyl, para-fluoro furanyl fentanyl, isobutyryl fentanyl and ocfentanil) in urine sample.
Urine samples were simply diluted before injection in the chromatograph equipped with a reversed phase microcolumn. Detection was achieved with a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer with an electrospray ionization source in positive ion mode and operated in multiple reaction monitoring.
The chromatographic separation was short (5 min) and the method was fully validated with a high sensitivity being limits of quantifications from 0.003 to 0.006 µg/L urine for the analytes under investigation.
The suitability of the method was tested with urine specimens from former heroin addicts, which resulted positive by immunological screening to the class of fentanyl analogues. This method represents a valid tool to document recent exposure to the above-reported compounds for clinical and forensic purposes.
NEVOD-DECOR is the unique experiment where systematic studies of cosmic ray muon bundles in a wide range of zenith angles and, accordingly, the energies of primary cosmic rays are carried out. ...Impressive experimental material (more than 100 thousand events) has been accumulated over a long time period from May 2012 to December 2022. The earlier developed method of local muon density spectra allows us to compare experimental data on muon bundles with the results of the EAS muon component simulations. The analysis showed that the observed intensity of muon bundles at primary cosmic ray energies of about 1 EeV and higher can be compatible with the expectation (in frame of widely used hadronic interaction models) only under the assumption of an extremely heavy mass composition. It is consistent with data of several other experiments on investigations of air shower muon content, but contradicts the available measurements of the depth of the shower maximum in the atmosphere by means of fluorescent technique, which favor a light mass composition at these energies. This probably leads to the need to revise the existing hadronic interaction models.
Data of NEVOD-DECOR experiment on investigations of inclined cosmic ray muon bundles for a long time period (May 2012 - May 2020) are presented. Their comparison with the results of calculations ...based on simulations of extensive air shower hadron and muon components is carried out. The analysis showed that the observed intensity of muon bundles at primary particle energies of about 1018 eV and higher can be compatible with the expectation only under the assumption of an extremely heavy mass composition of cosmic rays. On the contrary, measurements of the depth of the shower maximum in the atmosphere in the experiments using air fluorescence technique, favour a light mass composition of primary cosmic rays at these energies.
The available literature assessing Chelidonium majus L. (CM) hepatotoxicity potential, and its risk to benefit assessment has been reviewed in this paper. Identification of significant scientific ...literature was performed via the following research databases: Cochrane Central, Google Scholar, EMBASE, Medline, Science Direct, Scopus, Web of Science, using the following keywords: "Chelidonium majus", "greater celandine", "Hepatotoxicity", "Liver" "Injury", "Toxicity" individually investigated and then again in association. CM named also greater celandine, swallow-wort, or bai-qu-cai (Chinese), has been used for a long time in traditional Chinese medicine and phytotherapy. Its extracts have been claimed to display a wide variety of biological activities: antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, spasmolytic, antineoplastic, hepatoprotective, and analgesic. Moreover, herbal medicine suggests this plant have numerous additional effects which have not yet been scientifically evaluated, such as antitussive, diuretic, and eye-regenerative. However, despite its claimed hepatoprotective effects, several hepatotoxicity cases have been reported to be probably or highly probably connected with CM exposure, after their evaluation through liver-targeted causality assessment methods. CM hepatotoxicity has been defined as a distinct form of herb-induced liver injury (HILI), due to an idiosyncratic reaction of the metabolic type. This evidence has to be considered in relationship with the absence of considerable benefits of CM therapy. Therefore, the risk to benefit ratio of the use of herbal products containing greater celandine can actually be considered as negative.
A new method for studying extensive air showers is considered. The method is based on the phenomenology of the localmuon density. It is shown that measurement ofmuon-density spectra at various zenith ...angles makes it possible to obtain information about the energy spectrum, mass composition, and interaction of cosmic rays over a broad range of energies (10
15
–10
18
eV) by using a single array of comparatively small size. The results obtained from a comparison of experimental data on muon bundles from the DECOR coordinate detector with the results of simulation performed under various assumptions on the properties of the primary flux and for various hadron-interaction models are presented, and possible versions of the interpretation of these results are discussed.
Results are presented from measuring the energy characteristics of muon bundles in inclined extensive air showers in the NEVOD-DECOR experiment. Estimates of the average energy of muons in the ...bundles are obtained in the 10 to 1000 PeV range of primary particle energies and compared to values calculated under different assumptions about the composition of cosmic radiation and models of hadronic interactions. An excess of experimental values of the average muon energy relative to calculations is found for high local densities corresponding to primary particle energies above 100 PeV.
The data of cosmic ray NEVOD-DECOR experiment on the investigation of inclined muon bundles for a long time period (May 2012 - March 2021) are presented. The analysis showed that the observed ...intensity of muon bundles at primary cosmic ray energies of about 1 EeV and higher can be compatible with the expectation in frame of widely used hadron interaction models only under the assumption of an extremely heavy mass composition. This conclusion is consistent with data of several experiments on investigations of muon content in air showers, but contradicts the available fluorescence data on
X_{max}
X
m
a
x
which favor a light mass composition at these energies. In order to clarify the nature of the "muon puzzle", investigations of the muon bundle energy deposit in the detector material were carried out. For the first time, experimental estimates of the average energy of muons in the bundles of inclined air showers initiated by primary particles with energies from 10 to 1000 PeV have been obtained.
The existence of an excessive number of multimuon events observed in many experiments at ultrahigh EAS energies (above 10
17
eV) relative to calculations cannot be explained using modern models of ...hadronic interactions. One way of solving the problem of muon excess is to study the energy characteristics of the EAS muon component. Results are presented from measurements of muon bundle energy characteristics over 7 years of observations. The experimental dependences are compared to results from simulation done with the CORSIKA software package.
The NA62 experiment at the CERN SPS reports the first search for K+→π+νν¯ using the decay-in-flight technique, based on a sample of 1.21×1011K+ decays collected in 2016. The single event sensitivity ...is 3.15×10−10, corresponding to 0.267 Standard Model events. One signal candidate is observed while the expected background is 0.152 events. This leads to an upper limit of 14×10−10 on the K+→π+νν¯ branching ratio at 95% CL.
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