The ProtoDUNE-SP detector is a large-scale prototype of the Single-Phase (SP) Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) design proposed for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). 15,360 ...LArTPC wires are instrumented with low electronic noise pre-amplifier and digitization ASICs integrated into Front End Motherboards (FEMBs) operating at cryogenic temperature within the cryostat. The large number of electronics channels and high performance specifications required a large-scale production electronics quality control effort, careful installation into Anode Plane Assemblies (APAs), and rigorous detector commissioning. This successful collaboration-wide effort achieved a working LArTPC electronics channel percentage of 99.7% (15,318 of 15,360 channels in total), whose operating performance exceeded expectations. We summarize the ProtoDUNE-SP cold electronics design and quality control, installation, and commissioning efforts that enabled this excellent electronics performance.
The ICARUS T600 liquid argon (LAr) time projection chamber (TPC) underwent a major overhaul at CERN in 2016-2017 to prepare for the operation at FNAL in the Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) program. ...This included a major upgrade of the photo-multiplier system and of the TPC wire read-out electronics. The full TPC wire read-out electronics together with the new wire biasing and interconnection scheme are described. The design of a new signal feed-through flange is also a fundamental piece of this overhaul whose major feature is the integration of all electronics components onto the signal flange. Initial functionality tests of the full TPC electronics chain installed in the T600 detector at FNAL are also described.
ICARUS T600 is the far detector of the Short Baseline Neutrino program at Fermilab(USA), which foresees three Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers along the Booster Neutrino Beam line to search for ...LSND-like sterile neutrino signal. The T600 detector underwent a significant overhauling process at CERN, introducing new technological developments while maintaining the already achieved performances. The realization of a new liquid argon scintillation light detection system is a primary task of the detector overhaul. As the detector will be subject to a huge flux of cosmic rays, the light detection system should allow the 3D reconstruction of events contributing to the identification of neutrino interactions in the beam spill gate. The design and implementationof the new scintillation light detection system of ICARUS T600 is described.
The accumulation of positive ions, produced by ionizing particles crossing Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers (LAr-TPCs), may generate distortions of the electric drift field affecting the track ...reconstruction of the ionizing events. These effects could become relevant for large LAr-TPCs operating at surface or at shallow depth, where the detectors are exposed to a copious flux of cosmic rays. A detailed study of such possible field distortions in the ICARUS T600 LAr-TPC has been performed analyzing a sample of cosmic muon tracks recorded with one T600 module operated at surface in 2001. The maximum track distortion turns out to be of few mm in good agreement with the prediction by a numerical calculation. As a cross-check, the same analysis has been performed on a cosmic muon sample recorded during the ICARUS T600 run at the LNGS underground laboratory, where the cosmic ray flux was suppressed by a factor \(\sim 10^6\) by 3400 m water equivalent shielding. No appreciable distortion has been observed, confirming that the effects measured on surface are actually due to ion space charge.
The therapeutic model for severe obesity includes bariatric surgery, representing the safest way to keep weight down and to prevent relapses. The selection of patients for the most suitable type of ...surgery implies multidisciplinary approach (nutritionist, dietist, clinical psychologist and surgeon). The intragastric balloon may represent a relatively invasive method to help the medical team to select and prepare severely obese patients for restrictive bariatric surgery.
In our study we considered 48 severely obese patients: initial weight 111+/-14.8 kg, BMI 43+/-5.02, excess weight 77.47+/-16.14%. These patients have been treated with intragastric balloon (BIB) filled to a volume of 500 cc for 6 months. We considered variations induced by BIB treatment on a number of parameters--clinical, anthropometric, food intake, partition of nourishing elements and psychological and psychometric data.
At the end of the treatment the patients showed significant reductions of excess weight (67.35+/-20.19%), of weight (103.4+/-16.72 kg) and food intake, without modification of the items in the EDI2 test, but with important motivational support for a change in life style between the beginning and the end of the treatment, clearly resulting from the medical, dietist and clinical-psychological follow-up.
BIB is a relatively invasive means capable of modifying eating habits in the short term; it induces weight loss, may help to reduce the anaesthesiological risk and to foster a change in the patient's behaviour. In our experience treatment with BIB is useful from the educational point of view and can be used to select patients for bariatric surgery only within a multidisciplinary team. Further clinical studies are necessary.
ICARUS T600 will be operated as far detector of the Short Baseline Neutrino program at FNAL (USA), which foresees three liquid argon time projection chambers along the Booster Neutrino Beam line to ...search for LSND-like sterile neutrino signal. The detector employs 360 photomultiplier tubes, Hamamatsu model R5912-MOD, suitable for cryogenic applications. A total of 400 PMT were procured from Hamamatsu and tested at room temperature to evaluate the performance of the devices and their compliance to detect the liquid argon scintillation light in the T600 detector. Furthermore 60 units were also characterized at cryogenic temperature, in liquid argon bath, to evaluate any parameter variation which could affect the scintillation light detection. All the tested PMTs were found to comply with the requirements of ICARUS T600 and a subset of 360 specimens were selected for the final installation in the detector.
The ICARUS T600, a liquid argon time projection chamber (LAr-TPC) detector mainly devoted to neutrino physics, underwent a major overhauling at CERN in 2016-2017, which included also a new design of ...the read-out electronics, in view of its operation in Fermilab on the Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) beam from 2019. The new more compact electronics showed capability of handling more efficiently the signals also in the intermediate Induction 2 wire plane with a significant increase of signal to noise (S/N), allowing for charge measurement also in this view. The new front-end and the analog to digital conversion (ADC) system are presented together with the results of the tests on 50 liters liquid argon TPC performed at CERN with cosmic rays.
During the years 1993-94, an archaeological survey focusing on the identification of classical sites and itineraries was carried out in Cappadocia, in the area between the cities of Aksaray, ...Nevsehir, and Nigde. This area, which corresponds to the ancient strategia of Garsauritides, is well known for its impressive Byzantine archaeological remains. It has, however, hardly been explored and studied for the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Our first purpose was to explore the Roman road network, verifying the presence of fortresses and their relation to the main roads. The archaeological survey confirmed the data from the literary sources: the western and south-western area, near the boundaries of Lycaonia, revealed the existence of many fortresses, occupied at different periods (Hellenistic to Byzantine), built in order to protect the main road Colonia Archelais-Tyana. A topographical plotting concerned the fortress on the Gelin Tepe at Sivrihisar, a military complex guarding the ancient road network of the valley below. Segments of the wall circuit, made of a facing of small stones filled in with concrete, have been identified on the northern side of the hill. On the north-western side are visible two parallel stretches of wall, possibly built in connection with a gate or defensive structure. A careful study of the two buildings that stand on the southern side of the area has revealed the existence of a Roman-period lookout tower which shows many traces of later reconstructions. To the first phase corresponds masonry of regular blocks, filled in with concrete; an opus reticulatum wall was subsequently built against the tower, possibly to restore or reinforce it. To this phase also belongs the rectangular hall along the eastern side of the tower, built in opus caementicium and originally covered with a barrel vault. In a later phase the complex must have been transformed into a water reservoir and both rooms have been covered inside with hydraulic mortar. In the absence of excavation data, any chronological definition of the phases can only be hypothetical. The use o/opus reticulatum is to be attributed to the presence of Italic workmen: the most probable occasion for the construction of such buildings seems to be the start of the works for the road network, which developed notably during the years between 80 and 122 A.D., for which it is quite likely that military corps of workers were employed. A second topographical plotting was carried out at the site of Viransehir, at about 400 m south of the modern village of Helvadere. The archaeological remains extend over the slopes of four hills and in the narrow valley between. Most of the structures that today occupy the whole site must be identified as surrounding walls of buildings built with large irregular stones laid a secco in a single curtain. In addition to these, there remain some churches and monumental tombs, particularly tumuli with an outer ring of unworked stones and chamber tombs in ashlar masonry, often with a dromos distributed in three burial areas. These funerary monuments may be compared to similar late Hellenistic and early imperial mausoleums in Bithynia, Galatia and Cappadocia itself Completely different is the situation of the north-western hill (no. 1): the long, narrow plateau is surrounded by fortification walls made of a double polygonal curtain filled in with rubble, with a gate flanked by two semicircular towers on the western side and another one on the south-eastern side. Apparently this hill was the first to be occupied, and its fortification system seems to be earlier than the tombs, which belong to a later, systematic development of the site. To a later phase must be assigned the large settlement constituted by the buildings with the single curtain which invaded the burial areas, engulfing and sometimes occluding the tombs. In conclusion, if, in its last phase, the site can be recognised as the Byzantine Mokissos, it is also clear that part of the area was occupied much earlier. It is possible to propose the hypothesis that the fortress on the western hill should be identified as Nora, the small fortress where Antigonos Monoftalmos laid siege to Eumenes of Cardia in 321-320 B.C., as the literary sources report. The research also concerned two other road-axes, the second part of the Aksaray-Nigde route and the first segment of the Nigde-Kayseri main road. In the first case, following the orientation known from the ancient Itineraries, many new sections of the ancient road were found. In the eastern area of the district of Nigde, the presence of Roman settlements was attested by large cemeteries. As for the Cappadocian rock-cut funerary architecture, we investigated the necropoleis of Yesilöz, Guisehir, Ozancik, Macan, Karlik, Mazi, Mavrucan-Güzelöz, the two cemeteries of Güzelyurt, Yassi Ören, the three necropoleis of Dikilitas, and those of Çavdarli, Gideris, Karakapu, Viransehir, Bekarlar, Golçük, and Avanos. The main purpose was to elaborate a first general typology of the graves (see plates). The most common type is the quadrangular rock-cut chamber with funerary beds inside, some with dromos and arcosolia. The façades generally present simple mouldings or a deep arch, opened into the surface like a little porch; some examples have a temple-like front, with tympanon and columns. Stelai with the sculptured rough design of a stylised human figure are very often carved out at the both sides of the entrance. Most of the funerary chambers show evident signs of reuse in the Byzantine period, and this makes it difficult to understand the original situation and to define the exact chronology of the burial complexes.
