Commissioning and performance of the NA62 RICH detector Anzivino, G.; Aisa, D.; Barbanera, M. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
12/2017, Letnik:
876
Journal Article
Recenzirano
NA62 is the last generation kaon experiment at CERN SPS aiming to study the decay K+→π+νν¯. The goal of the experiment is to measure the decay branching ratio, O(10−10), with 10% precision collecting ...about 100 K+→π+νν¯ events in three years of data taking and assuming a 10% signal acceptance. The weak signal and the huge background make the experiment very challenging. The NA62 detector must be able to reject background events from decay channels with branching ratios up to 10 orders of magnitude higher than the signal one and with similar experimental signature. In order to achieve the designed goal, good Particle Identification (PID), kinematic rejection and precise timing are required. The key element of the PID in NA62 is the Ring Imaging Cherenkov detector (RICH) to identify pions and muons and to measure the particle arrival time. After a pilot run in 2014, installation and commissioning of the detector were completed in 2015, when also the first physics run took place. Results on the detector performance will be presented together with preliminary results from the 2015 and 2016 physics runs.
The use of GPUs to implement general purpose computational tasks, known as GPGPU since fifteen years ago, has reached maturity. Applications take advantage of the parallel architectures of these ...devices in many different domains. Over the last few years several works have demonstrated the effectiveness of the integration of GPU-based systems in the high level trigger of various HEP experiments. On the other hand, the use of GPUs in the DAQ and low level trigger systems, characterized by stringent real-time constraints, poses several challenges. In order to achieve such a goal we devised NaNet, a FPGA-based PCI-Express Network Interface Card design capable of direct (zero-copy) data transferring with CPU and GPU (GPUDirect) while online processing incoming and outgoing data streams. The board provides as well support for multiple link technologies (1/10/40GbE and custom ones). The validity of our approach has been tested in the context of the NA62 CERN experiment, harvesting the computing power of last generation NVIDIA Pascal GPUs and of the FPGA hosted by NaNet to build in real-time refined physics-related primitives for the RICH detector (i.e. the Cerenkov rings parameters) that enable the building of more stringent conditions for data selection in the low level trigger.
Introduction: Charged Particle Therapy plays a key role in the treatment of deep-seated tumours, because of the advantageous energy deposition culminating in the Bragg peak. However, knowledge of the ...dose delivered in the entrance channel is limited by the lack of data on the beam and fragmentation of the target. Methods: The FOOT experiment has been designed to measure the cross sections of the nuclear fragmentation of projectile and target with two different detectors: an electronic setup for the identification of Z ≥ 3 fragments and a nuclear emulsion spectrometer for Z ≤ 3 fragments. In this paper, we analyze the data taken by exposing four nuclear emulsion spectrometers, with C and C 2 H 4 targets, to 200 MeV/n and 400 MeV/n oxygen beams at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung (Darmstadt, Germany), and we report the charge identification of produced fragments based on the controlled fading induced on nuclear emulsion films. Results: The goal of identifying fragments as heavy as lithium has been achieved. Discussion: The results will contribute to a better understanding of the nuclear fragmentation process in charged particle therapy and have implications for refining treatment planning in the presence of deep-seated tumors.
Microbiological analysis is an integral part of food quality control, as well as of the management of food chain safety. Microbiological testing of foodstuffs complements the preventive approach to ...food safety activities based mainly on implementation and application of the concept of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP). Traditional microbiological methods are powerful but lengthy and cumbersome and therefore not fully compatible with current requirements. Even more, pathogens exist that are fastidious to cultivate or uncultivable at all. Besides immunological tests, molecular methods, specifically those based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR), are available options to meet industry and enforcement needs. The clear advantage of PCR over all other rapid methods is the striking analytical principle that is based on amplification of DNA, a molecule being present in every cell prone to multiply. Just by changing primers and probes, different genomes such as bacteria, viruses or parasites can be detected. A second advantage is the ability to both detect and quantify a biotic contaminant. Some previously identified obstacles of implementation of molecular methods have already been overcome. Technical measures became available that improved robustness of molecular methods, and equipment and biochemicals became much more affordable. Unfortunately, molecular methods suffer from certain drawbacks that hamper their full integration to food safety control. Those encompass a suitable sample pre-treatment especially for a quantitative extraction of bacteria and viruses from solid foods, limited availability of appropriate controls to evaluate the effectiveness of the analytical procedure, the current inability of molecular methods to distinguish DNA from viable cells and DNA from dead or non-cultivable cells, and the slow progress of international harmonisation and standardisation, which limit full acceptance of PCR-based methods in food control. The aim of this review is to describe the context and the prospects of PCR-based methods, as well as trends in research and development aimed at solving the next decade challenges in order to achieve full integration of molecular methods in food safety control.
Abstract
Green Public Procurement (GPP) is a policy instrument to decrease the environmental impact of products and services and create environmental value for society. A new method for assessing ...environmental award criteria in GPP processes was developed to integrate environmental and economic criteria into public tenders for External Thermal Insulation Composite Systems (ETICS). The main objective of this study was to identify the effect that the inclusion of environmental impacts can have on decision-making in public procurement. At this scope, an environmental benchmark for the main phases of the supply chain (production, installation and disposal) of ETICS that use different insulating materials, including EPS and mineral wool, was defined for different Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) impact categories after a detailed literature review. Then the monetisation method of the externalities was applied to combine the environmental impacts and the direct costs associated with the manufacture of the ETICS system by obtaining a single score for the selection of the best bid from the environmental and economic point of view. This methodology was implemented in a spreadsheet and a case study was analysed as a practical application of the tool developed for the determination of the global index. The case study simulated a tender in which three contractors provided their bid for an ETICS system. The overall investigation of the results obtained in the case study showed that the environmental externalities have a rather limited incidence compared to direct costs (between 0.8 and 10%). However, even if the lower direct costs were provided by contractor 1 (87.72 €/m
2
) in comparison to contractor 2 (87.80 €/m
2
) and contractor 3 (92.74 €/m
2
), the slightly higher environmental impacts caused the costs to rise. The most environmentally and economically advantageous bid was then provided by contractor 2, for which the global index was the lowest for each monetisation method applied. For all the impact categories considered, the production stage (A1-A3) represents the most significant contribution. The thermal insulation material and the finishing coat provide the greatest contribution to the environmental impact. The tool was designed to improve the knowledge of the economic and environmental performances of ETICS systems, which might be also used by public administrations to define minimum environmental requirements and maximum specific costs when preparing tenders for the energy requalification of buildings.
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