Microscope investigations of new-type thin-wall tubes (straws) produced for NA62 drift chambers revealed that they are semitransparent and allow anode wires to be observed under illumination by ...visible light. In this work it is shown that positions of wires in straws and thus the anode spacing in the drift chambers can be directly determined with a high accuracy (~5–10µm) using a microscope mounted on a high-precision optical bench. These data are important for decreasing errors during reconstruction of charged particle track coordinates in the drift chambers. The proposed technique is much simpler than the X-ray or radioactive source methods.
A drift chamber with a new type of straws for operation in vacuum Azorskiy, N.; Glonti, L.; Gusakov, Yu ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
07/2016, Volume:
824
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
A 2150×2150mm2 registration area drift chamber capable of working in vacuum is presented. Thin-wall tubes (straws) of a new type are used in the chamber. A large share of these 9.80mm diameter drift ...tubes are made in Dubna from metalized 36µm Mylar film welded along the generatrix using an ultrasonic welding machine created at JINR. The main features of the chamber and some characteristics of the drift tubes are described. Four such chambers with the X, Y, U, V coordinates each, containing 7168 straws in total, are designed and produced at JINR and CERN. They are installed in the vacuum volume of the NA62 setup in order to study the ultra-rare decay K+→π+vv¯ and to search for and study rare meson decays. In autumn 2014 the chambers were used for the first time for the data taking in the experimental run of the NA62 at CERN׳s SPS.
Vestibulospinal reflexes play an important role for body stabilization during locomotion and for postural control. For an appropriate distribution of vestibular signals to spinal motoneurons, the ...orientation of the body relative to the head needs to be taken into account. For different trunk positions, identical vestibular stimuli must activate different sets of muscles to ensure body stabilization. Because the cerebellar vermis and the underlying fastigial nucleus (FN) might be involved in this task, vestibular neurons in the rostral FN of alert rhesus monkeys were recorded during sinusoidal vestibular stimulation (0.1-1.0 Hz) in the roll and pitch planes at different trunk-re-head positions (center and +/-45 degrees ). From the sensitivity and phase values measured in these planes, the response properties in the intermediate planes and the stimulus orientation eliciting the optimal response response vector orientation (RVO) were calculated. In most neurons, the RVOs rotated systematically with respect to the head, when trunk-re-head position was altered, so that they tended to maintain their orientation with respect to the trunk. Sensitivity and phase at the RVO were not affected. This pattern was the same for neurons in the right and left FN and independent of stimulus frequency. The average sensitivity of this partially compensatory RVO shift in response to trunk-re-head displacements, evaluated by linear regression analyses, was 0.59 degrees / degrees (n = 73 neurons). These data show that FN neurons may encode vestibular information in a coordinate system that is closer to a trunk-centered than to a head-centered reference frame. They indicate an important role of this nucleus in motor programs related to posture and gait control.
In the past years, drift chambers with thin-wall tubes (straws) operating in high vacuum (∼10−5 mb) has become to be used in experimental studies of rare decays. Any drift tube of the operating ...chamber may suffer a mechanical or electrical damage and a subsequent leak. The complete failure of the tube is not excluded either. To protect the chambers against the above damage, we have developed and tested a relatively simple protection system based on uniquely designed energy-independent devices. If air-tightness is broken and gas starts leaking from the tube into the vacuum, they automatically cut off the gas flow on both ends of the damaged tube and disconnect it from the gas supply.
•The work can be used for protection the straw drift chamber in vacuum from vacuum penetration.
The design of the prototype detector produced for the NA62 experiment by the Laboratory of High Energy Physics at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research is described. This detector is based on ...thin-walled drift tubes (straws) and is intended for operation in vacuum. The resolution and efficiency of the drift tubes for this prototype detector have been measured on the CERN SPS beams with different front-end electronic systems, gas mixtures, and beam rates. Recommendations for the full-scale detector design are formulated.
The rostral fastigial nucleus contains vestibular neurons, which presumably are involved in spinal mechanisms (neck, gait, posture) and which are not modulated with individual eye movements. ...Single‐unit recordings in the alert behaving monkey during natural stimulus conditions reveal that virtually all neurons demonstrate integration of several sensory inputs. This applies not only for canal‐canal and canal‐otolith interaction, but also for otolith‐otolith interaction. There is also some evidence that most neurons receive not only an utriculus but also a sacculus input. Furthermore, most neurons also respond to large‐field optokinetic stimulation, reflecting visual‐vestibular interaction. Neurons are also affected by the head on trunk position, which would allow these neurons to operate in a body‐centered rather than a head‐centered reference frame. These complex, multisensory features could permit fastigial nucleus neurons to rather specifically affect spinal motor functions.
Neurons in the rostral part of the fastigial nucleus (FN) respond to vestibular stimulation but are not related to eye movements. To understand the precise role of these vestibular-only neurons in ...the central processing of vestibular signals, unit activity in the FN of alert monkeys (Macaca mulatta) was recorded. To induce vestibular stimulation, the monkey was rotated sinusoidally around an earth-fixed horizontal axis at stimulus frequencies between 0.06 (+/-15 degrees) and 1.4 Hz (+/-7.5 degrees). During stimulation head orientation was changed continuously, allowing for roll, pitch, and intermediate planes of orientation. At a frequency of 0.6 Hz, 59% of the neurons had an optimal response orientation (ORO) and a null response (i.e., no modulation) 90 degrees apart. The phase of neuronal response was constant except for a steep shift of 180 degrees around the null response. This group I response is compatible with a semicircular canal input, canal convergence, or a single otolith input. Several other features indicated more complex responses, including spatiotemporal convergence (STC). 1) For 35% of the responses at 0.6 Hz, phase changes were gradual with different orientations. Fifteen percent of these had a null response (group II), and 20% showed only a minimal response but no null response (group III). The remaining responses (6%), classified as group IV, were characterized by a constant sensitivity at different orientations in most instances. 2) For the vast majority of neurons, the stimulus frequency determined the response group, i.e., an individual neuron could show a group I response at one frequency and a group II (III or IV) response at another frequency. 3) ORO changed with frequency by >45 degrees for 44% of the neurons. 4) Although phase changes at different frequencies were close to head velocity (+/-45 degrees ) or head position (+/-45 degrees ) for most neurons, they exceeded 90 degrees for 29% of the neurons between 0.1 and 1.0 Hz. In most cases, this was a phase advance. The change in sensitivity with change in frequency showed a similar pattern for all neurons; the average sensitivity increased from 1.24 imp. s-1. deg-1 at 0.1 Hz to 2.97 imp. s-1. deg-1 at 1.0 Hz. These data demonstrate that only an analysis based on measurements at different frequencies and orientations reveals a number of complex features. They moreover suggest that for the vast majority of neurons several sources of canal and otolith information interact at this central stage of vestibular information processing.
The fastigial nucleus (FN) receives vestibular information predominantly from Purkinje cells of the vermis. FN in the monkey can be divided in a rostral part, related to spinal mechanisms, and a ...caudal part with oculomotor functions. To understand the role of FN during movements in space, single-unit activity in alert monkeys was recorded during passive three-dimensional head movements from rostral FN. Seated monkeys were rotated sinusoidally around a horizontal earth-fixed axis (vertical stimulation) at different orientations 15 degrees apart (including roll, pitch, vertical canal plane and intermediate planes). In addition, sinusoidal rotations around an earth-vertical axis (yaw stimulus) included different roll and pitch positions (+/-10 degrees, +/-20 degrees). The latter positions were also used for static stimulation. One hundred fifty-eight neurons in two monkeys were modulated during the sinusoidal vertical search stimulation. The vast majority showed a uniform response pattern: a maximum at a specific head orientation (response vector orientation) and a null response 90 degrees apart. Detailed analysis was obtained from 111 neurons. On the basis of their phase relation during dynamic stimulation and their response to static tilt, these neurons were classified as vertical semicircular canal related (n = 79, 71.2%) or otolith related (n = 25; 22.5%). Only seven neurons did not follow the usual response pattern and were classified as complex neurons. For the vertical canal-related neurons (n = 79) all eight major response vector orientations (ipsilateral or contralateral anterior canal, posterior canal, roll, and nose-down and nose-up pitch) were found in Fn on one side. Neurons with ipsilateral orientations were more numerous and on average more sensitive than those with contralateral orientations. Twenty-eight percent of the vertical canal-related neurons also responded to horizontal canal stimulation. None of the vertical canal-related neurons responded to static tilt. Otolith-related neurons (n = 25) had a phase relation close to head position and were considerably less numerous than canal-related neurons. Except for pitch, all other response vector orientations were found. Seventy percent of these neurons responding during dynamic stimulation also responded during static tilt. The sensitivity during dynamic stimulation was always higher than during static stimulation. Sixty-one percent of the otolith-related neurons responded also to horizontal canal stimulation. These results show that in FN, robust vestibular signals are abundant. Canal-related responses are much more common than otolith-related responses. Although for many canal neurons the responses can be related to single canal planes, convergence between vertical canals but also with horizontal canals is common.
To determine the contribution of the otoliths as well as the horizontal and vertical semicircular canals to the response of "vestibular only" neurons in the rostral fastigial nucleus of the alert ...monkey, we applied natural sinusoidal vestibular stimuli (0.6 Hz; +/-15 deg) around different axes. During the experiment the monkey sat erect in a primate chair with the head immobile. Semicircular canal responses were investigated during tilted yaw stimulation around an earth vertical axis. The tilt angle was varied by 30 deg and included the optimal plane for horizontal canal stimulation (15 deg nose down from the stereotactic plane). The otoliths and mainly the vertical canals made contributions during stimulation around an earth-fixed horizontal axis (vertical stimulation). Head orientation was also slowly altered (2-3 deg/s) over a range of 180 deg under both stimulus conditions (tilted yaw and vertical stimulation). Neuronal data for each paradigm were fitted by a least squares best-sine function. Computation of the hypothetical contributions made by all three pairs of semicircular canals and the otoliths to these responses showed that 74% of the 46 neurons investigated received an otolith input; in most instances it was combined with a canal input. Neurons most often received input from the horizontal and vertical canals as well as the otoliths. Only a minority of neurons received a purely otolith (13%), vertical canal (13%), or horizontal canal (4%) input. Conventional criteria (head position-related activity, spatiotemporal convergence, STC) failed to detect an otolith contribution in several such instances. Thus, canal-otolith convergence is the general rule at this central stage of vestibular information processing in the fastigial nucleus. The large variety of response types allows these neurons to participate in multiple tasks of vestibulospinal movement control.
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