Four methods for determining the composition of low-level uranium- and thorium-chain surface contamination are presented. One method is the observation of Cherenkov light production in water. In two ...additional methods a position-sensitive proportional counter surrounding the surface is used to make both a measurement of the energy spectrum of alpha particle emissions and also coincidence measurements to derive the thorium-chain content based on the presence of short-lived isotopes in that decay chain. The fourth method is a radiochemical technique in which the surface is eluted with a weak acid, the eluate is concentrated, added to liquid scintillator and assayed by recording beta–alpha coincidences. These methods were used to characterize two ‘hotspots’ on the outer surface of one of the 3He proportional counters in the Neutral Current Detection array of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory experiment. The methods have similar sensitivities, of order tens of ng, to both thorium- and uranium-chain contamination.
We investigated the relationship between telemetry measurements of heart rate and swimming activity and the physiological status in farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) to assess the potential to use ...telemetry measurements as proxies for stress. Sensor tags measuring heart rate and swimming activity were surgically implanted into the peritoneal cavity of Atlantic salmon individuals kept in tanks. Four tanks were stocked with three tagged fish and four untagged cohabitants, while two additional tanks containing 16 untagged fish were used as reference groups. Following surgery, tagged fish were kept undisturbed for 14 days as acclimation period. All fish were then subjected to physical stress by reducing the tank water level in 4 consecutive rounds, after which they were left undisturbed for another ten days before the experiment ended. Plasma cortisol, glucose, lactate and osmolality were measured to assess stress levels from fish in the reference groups before and after being subjected to stressing and from all fish at the end of the experiment. Both heart rate and swimming activity rose after the stress treatment, remaining elevated for 24.5 and 16.2 Hrs respectively. Glucose, plasma cortisol, lactate and osmolality levels were significantly greater when measured immediately after stress. Results from the experiment indicate that heart rate and swimming activity can be used as proxies for fish stress, thus opening the possibility for on-line stress monitoring in full scale production.
•Atlantic salmon were implanted with electronic sensors.•Experiment animals were subject to reduced water level as repeating stressor.•Heart rate and activity increased.•Stress elevated plasma cortisol, glucose, lactate and osmolality.•Measurements from implants were linked to stress levels.
The molecular characterization of leukemia has demonstrated that genetic alterations in the leukemic clone frequently fall into 2 classes, those affecting transcription factors (e.g., AML1-ETO) and ...mutations affecting genes involved in signal transduction (e.g., activating mutations of FLT3 and KIT). This finding has favored a model of leukemogenesis in which the collaboration of these 2 classes of genetic alterations is necessary for the malignant transformation of hematopoietic progenitor cells. The model is supported by experimental data indicating that AML1-ETO and FLT3 length mutation (FLT3-LM), 2 of the most frequent genetic alterations in AML, are both insufficient on their own to cause leukemia in animal models. Here we report that AML1-ETO collaborates with FLT3-LM in inducing acute leukemia in a murine BM transplantation model. Moreover, in a series of 135 patients with AML1-ETO-positive AML, the most frequently identified class of additional mutations affected genes involved in signal transduction pathways including FLT3-LM or mutations of KIT and NRAS. These data support the concept of oncogenic cooperation between AML1-ETO and a class of activating mutations, recurrently found in patients with t(8;21), and provide a rationale for therapies targeting signal transduction pathways in AML1-ETO-positive leukemias.
A direct search for Higgs bosons produced via vector-boson fusion and subsequently decaying into invisible particles is reported. The analysis uses 139 fb(-1) of pp collision data at a centre-of-mass ...energy of root s =13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The observed numbers of events are found to be in agreement with the background expectation from Standard Model processes. For a scalar Higgs boson with a mass of 125 GeV and a Standard Model production cross section, an observed upper limit of 0.145 is placed on the branching fraction of its decay into invisible particles at 95% confidence level, with an expected limit of 0.103. These results are interpreted in the context of models where the Higgs boson acts as a portal to dark matter, and limits are set on the scattering cross section of weakly interacting massive particles and nucleons. Invisible decays of additional scalar bosons with masses from 50 GeV to 2 TeV are also studied, and the derived upper limits on the cross section times branching fraction decrease with increasing mass from 1.0 pb for a scalar boson mass of 50 GeV to 0.1 pb at a mass of 2 TeV.
The flavour-tagging algorithms developed by the ATLAS Collaboration and used to analyse its dataset of
s
=
13
TeV
pp
collisions from Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider are presented. These new ...tagging algorithms are based on recurrent and deep neural networks, and their performance is evaluated in simulated collision events. These developments yield considerable improvements over previous jet-flavour identification strategies. At the 77%
b
-jet identification efficiency operating point, light-jet (charm-jet) rejection factors of 170 (5) are achieved in a sample of simulated Standard Model
t
t
¯
events; similarly, at a
c
-jet identification efficiency of 30%, a light-jet (
b
-jet) rejection factor of 70 (9) is obtained.
A search for new phenomena in final states with hadronically decaying tau leptons, b-jets, and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analyzed dataset comprises pp collision data at a ...center-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb(-1), delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector from 2015 to 2018. The observed data are compatible with the expected Standard Model background. The results are interpreted in simplified models for two different scenarios. The first model is based on supersymmetry and considers pair production of top squarks, each of which decays into a b-quark, a neutrino and a tau slepton. Each tau slepton in turn decays into a tau lepton and a nearly massless gravitino. Within this model, top-squark masses up to 1.4 TeV can be excluded at the 95% confidence level over a wide range of tau-slepton masses. The second model considers pair production of leptoquarks with decays into third-generation leptons and quarks. Depending on the branching fraction into charged leptons, leptoquarks with masses up to around 1.25 TeV can be excluded at the 95% confidence level for the case of scalar leptoquarks and up to 1.8 TeV (1.5 TeV) for vector leptoquarks in a Yang-Mills (minimal-coupling) scenario. In addition, model-independent upper limits are set on the cross section of processes beyond the Standard Model.
The correlations between flow harmonics vn for n = 2, 3, and 4 and mean transverse momentum pT in 129Xe + 129Xe and 208Pb + 208Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 5.44 and 5.02 TeV, respectively, are ...measured using charged particles with the ATLAS detector. The correlations are potentially sensitive to the shape and size of the initial geometry, nuclear deformation, and initial momentum anisotropy. The effects from nonflow and centrality fluctuations are minimized, respectively, via a subevent cumulant method and an event-activity selection based on particle production at very forward rapidity. The vn-pT correlations show strong dependencies on centrality, harmonic number n, pT, and pseudorapidity range. Current models qualitatively describe the overall centralityand system-dependent trends but fail to quantitatively reproduce all features of the data. In central collisions, where models generally show good agreement, the v2-pT correlations are sensitive to the triaxiality of the quadruple deformation. Comparison of the model with the Pb + Pb and Xe + Xe data confirms that the 129Xe nucleus is a highly deformed triaxial ellipsoid that has neither a prolate nor oblate shape. This provides strong evidence for a triaxial deformation of the 129Xe nucleus from high-energy heavy-ion collisions.
A search is made for potential cccover ¯cover ¯ tetraquarks decaying into a pair of charmonium states in the four muon final state using proton-proton collision data at sqrts=13 TeV, corresponding ...to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb^{-1} recorded by the ATLAS experiment at LHC. Two decay channels, J/ψ+J/ψ→4μ and J/ψ+ψ(2S)→4μ, are studied. Backgrounds are estimated based on a hybrid approach involving Monte Carlo simulations and data-driven methods. Statistically significant excesses with respect to backgrounds dominated by the single parton scattering are seen in the di-J/ψ channel consistent with a narrow resonance at 6.9 GeV and a broader structure at lower mass. A statistically significant excess is also seen in the J/ψ+ψ(2S) channel. The fitted masses and decay widths of the structures are reported.
A
bstract
The production of dark matter in association with Higgs bosons is predicted in several extensions of the Standard Model. An exploration of such scenarios is presented, considering final ...states with missing transverse momentum and
b
-tagged jets consistent with a Higgs boson. The analysis uses proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC during Run 2, amounting to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb
−
1
. The analysis, when compared with previous searches, benefits from a larger dataset, but also has further improvements providing sensitivity to a wider spectrum of signal scenarios. These improvements include both an optimised event selection and advances in the object identification, such as the use of the likelihood-based significance of the missing transverse momentum and variable-radius track-jets. No significant deviation from Standard Model expectations is observed. Limits are set, at 95% confidence level, in two benchmark models with two Higgs doublets extended by either a heavy vector boson
Z
′ or a pseudoscalar singlet
a
and which both provide a dark matter candidate
χ
. In the case of the two-Higgs-doublet model with an additional vector boson
Z
′, the observed limits extend up to a
Z
′ mass of 3 TeV for a mass of 100 GeV for the dark matter candidate. The two-Higgs-doublet model with a dark matter particle mass of 10 GeV and an additional pseudoscalar
a
is excluded for masses of the
a
up to 520 GeV and 240 GeV for tan
β
= 1 and tan
β
= 10 respectively. Limits on the visible cross-sections are set and range from to 0.05 fb to 3.26 fb, depending on the missing transverse momentum and
b
-quark jet multiplicity requirements.
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