We present new results on charmonium-like states from the BaBar experiment located at the PEP-II asymmetric energy e+e− collider at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
The identification of charged particles based on energy losses in straw tube detectors has been simulated. The response of a new front-end chip developed for the PANDA straw tube tracker was ...implemented in the simulations and corrections for track distance to sense wire were included. Separation power for p−K, p−π and K−π pairs obtained using the time-over-threshold technique was compared with the one based on the measurement of collected charge.
To assess the value of 3-Tesla (3-T) MR imaging (MRI) in the evaluation of the course of the intracranial and extra-cranial tracts of the facial nerve.
83 patients were studied by MRI in order to ...detect the course of facial nerve; a total of 166 facial nerves were examined. T2-weighted 3D Fast imaging employing steady-state acquisition (FIESTA) and T1-weighted Fast spoiled gradient recalled echo (fast SPRG) sequences were used. Two radiologists (reader A and B), independently, evaluated the course of the tracts of the facial nerve according to a qualitative scale (excellent, good, fair, poor). The Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) and Pearson correlation coefficient were used to assess the intra-observer and interobserver variability in the nerve course evaluation.
Reader A evaluated 35 facial nerves as excellent, 94 as good, 33 as fair and 4 as poor. Reader B rated 31 facial nerves excellent, 89 good, 43 fair and 3 poor. The intraobserver variability was ICC = 0.919 in reader A and ICC = 0.842 in reader B. The interobserver variability (Pearson correlation coefficient) was 0.713 (p ≤ 0.01).
According to the preliminary results of our study the use of 3-T MRI with FIESTA and fast SPGR sequences may allow the study of the course of the facial nerve and its branches. The knowledge of the course and of the anatomic relationships of these nerve bundles with surrounding structures, as well as of the anatomical variants, provide useful informations for a prompt neurosurgery and maxillofacial surgical planning.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis TMP kinase (TMPK
Mtub) represents a promising target for developing drugs against tuberculosis because the configuration of its active site is unique in the TMPK family. To ...help elucidate the phosphorylation mechanism employed by this enzyme, structural changes occurring upon binding of substrates and subsequent catalysis were investigated by protein crystallography. Six new structures of TMPK
Mtub were solved at a resolution better than 2.3
Å, including the first structure of an apo-TMPK, obtained by triggering catalysis in a crystal of a TMPK
Mtub–TMP complex, which resulted in the release of the TDP product. A series of snapshots along the reaction pathway is obtained, revealing the closure of the active site in going from an empty to a fully occupied state, suggestive of an induced-fit mechanism typical of NMPKs. However, in TMPK
Mtub the LID closure couples to the binding with an unusual location for a magnesium ion coordinating TMP in the active site. Our data suggest strongly that this ion is required for catalysis, acting as a clamp, possibly in concert with Arg95, to neutralise electrostatic repulsion between the anionic substrates, optimise their proper alignment and activate them through direct and water-mediated interactions. The 3′-hydroxyl moiety of TMP, critical to metal stabilisation, appears to be a target of choice for the design of potent inhibitors. On the other hand, the usual NTP-bound magnesium is not seen in our structures and Arg14, a P-loop residue unique to TMPK
Mtub, may take over its role. Therefore, TMPK
Mtub seems to have swapped the use of a metal ion as compared with e.g. human TMPK. Finally, TTP was observed in crystals of TMPK
Mtub, locked by Arg14, thus providing a structural explanation for the observed inhibitory effect of TTP putatively involved in a mechanism of feedback regulation of the enzymatic activity.
Gas detector development is one of the pillars of the research in fundamental physics. Since several years, a new concept of detectors, called Micro Pattern Gas Detector (MPGD), allowed to overcome ...several problems related to other types of commonly used detectors, like drift chamber and micro strips detectors, reducing the rate of discharges and providing better radiation tolerance. Among the most used MPGDs are the Gas Electron Multipliers (GEMs). Invented by Sauli in 1997, nowadays GEMs have become an important reality for particle detectors in high energy physics. Commonly deployed as fast timing detectors and triggers, their fast response, high rate capability and high radiation hardness make them also suitable as tracking detectors. The readout scheme is one of the most important features in tracking technology. Analog readout based on the calculation of the center of gravity technique allows to overcome the limit imposed by digital pads, whose spatial resolution is limited by the pitch dimensions. However, the presence of high external magnetic fields can distort the electronic cloud and affect the performance. The development of the micro-TPC reconstruction method brings GEM detectors into a new prospective, improving significantly the spatial resolutionin presence of high magnetic fields. This innovative technique allows to reconstruct the 3-dimensional particle position, as Time Projection Chamber, but within a drift gap of a few millimeters. In these report, the charge centroid and micro-TPC methods are described in details. We discuss the results of several test beams performed with planar chambers in magnetic field. These results are one of the first developments of micro-TPC technique for GEM detectors, which allows to reach unprecedented performance in a high magnetic field of 1 T.
A new inner tracker based on a cylindrical gas electron-multiplier detector is under development to replace the current inner drift chamber of the BES III spectrometer. The BES III experiment is ...carried out at the BEPC II e
+
e
-
collider in Beijing at center-of-mass energies in the tau-charm region with a design luminosity of 1.0
x
10
33
cm
-2
s
-1
. The new inner tracker consists of three cylindrical layers of triple GEM surrounding the interaction point, covering 93% of solid angle. To fulfill physics requirements, a spatial resolution of 130 μm must be achieved. Both planar and cylindrical prototypes have been built and tested. A custom ASIC using UMC 110-nm technology has been designed to provide charge and time measurements—the first prototype is in testing. Notable and innovative aspects of the new inner tracker and the performance of the detector prototypes and readout ASIC are reported here.
PDF
