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Background: COPD phenotypes have been identified according to patient clinical characteristics and, more recently, to their immunological markers. However, the role of these biomarkers in relation to exacerbations in different COPD phenotypes is not yet clear. Thus it is important to continue investigating this topic to plan the most appropriate treatment, to contrast the decline of respiratory function and to reduce subsequent exacerbations in COPD patients. Therefore the aim of this study was to assess whether biomarkers are only predictors of exacerbations and mortality in COPD patients or instead play a causal role in these adverse COPD developments. Methods: COPD phenotypes were identified according to patient clinical characteristics or immunological markers. Immunological and inflammatory biomarkers were identified as predictors of mortality and exacerbations. COPD patients were identified from the hospital discharge register of Pisa (Italy) in 2000-2006, on the basis of diagnoses and a FEV1/FVC < 0.70, and enrolled in 2003-2006 according to a longitudinal approach. They were characterized at enrollment by age, sex, comorbidities, immunological and inflammatory biomarkers. The phenotype was assigned at enrollment as eosinophilic (eosinophils>2%) or neutrophilic (leukocytes>11.0x109/L and/or neutrophils>65%). Mortality and exacerbations registered in the period 2003-2012 were assessed by phenotype and other possible predictors in regression models. Results: Mortality rates reached 43.3% in COPD patients: 69.1% and 36.5% in neutrophilic and eosinophilic, respectively. The exacerbation rate was higher in neutrophilic (54.4%) than in eosinophilic patients (48.4%). Uni-variable regression confirmed that mortality was related to age, Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD), elevated neutrophil count and Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR). At multivariable analysis only age was associated with mortality, whereas inflammatory biomarkers induced exacerbations. Conclusion: Mortality was influenced by phenotype and age, exacerbations by COPD severity and NLR to suggest that an appropriate treatment and the biomarker’s monitoring might help prevent exacerbations.

Currently, PSI delivers the most intense continuous muon beam in the world with up to a few 108 µ+/s. The High-Intensity Muon Beams (HIMB) project is developing a new target station and muon beamlines able to deliver 1010 µ+/s, with a huge impact for low-energy, high-precision muon experiments. While the next generation of proton drivers with beam powers in excess of the currently achieved 1.4 MW still require significant research and development, the focus of HIMB is to improve the surface muon yield with a new target geometry and to increase capture and transmission with a solenoid-based beamline in order to reach a total efficiency of approximately 10 %. We present the current status of the HIMB project., EPJ Web of Conferences, 282, ISSN:2100-014X, ISSN:2101-6275

We present a field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based technique for the on-line identification of highly ionizing particles in a liquid xenon (LXe) detector. The method was developed and successfully exploited to select $\alpha $ particles emitted by 241Am sources submerged in LXe in an overwhelming, mostly beam-related, $\gamma $ -ray background. After revising the main features of xenon and other liquid noble gases as ultra-violet (UV) scintillating media, we describe the algorithm idea and its firmware implementation. We then present the results in terms of efficiency and background suppression for the real-time $\alpha $ -particle tagging and the limits of the MEG trigger configuration. Finally, we show that in MEG II we are going to overcome the main issues and further improve the performances.

Background:COPD phenotypes have been identified according to patient clinical characteristics and, more recently, to their immunological markers. However, the role of these biomarkers in relation to exacerbations in different COPD phenotypes is not yet clear. Thus it is important to continue investigating this topic to plan the most appropriate treatment, to contrast the decline of respiratory function and to reduce subsequent exacerbations in COPD patients. Therefore the aim of this study was to assess whether biomarkers are only predictors of exacerbations and mortality in COPD patients or instead play a causal role in these adverse COPD developments. Methods:COPD phenotypes were identified according to patient clinical characteristics or immunological markers. Immunological and inflammatory biomarkers were identified as predictors of mortality and exacerbations. COPD patients were identified from the hospital discharge register of Pisa (Italy) in 2000-2006, on the basis of diagnoses and a FEV1/FVC < 0.70, and enrolled in 2003-2006 according to a longitudinal approach. They were characterized at enrollment by age, sex, comorbidities, immunological and inflammatory biomarkers. The phenotype was assigned at enrollment as eosinophilic (eosinophils>2%) or neutrophilic (leukocytes>11.0x109/L and/or neutrophils>65%). Mortality and exacerbations registered in the period 2003-2012 were assessed by phenotype and other possible predictors in regression models. Results:Mortality rates reached 43.3% in COPD patients: 69.1% and 36.5% in neutrophilic and eosinophilic, respectively. The exacerbation rate was higher in neutrophilic (54.4%) than in eosinophilic patients (48.4%). Uni-variable regression confirmed that mortality was related to age, Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD), elevated neutrophil count and Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR). At multivariable analysis only age was associated with mortality, whereas inflammatory biomarkers induced exacerbations. Conclusion:Mortality was influenced by phenotype and age, exacerbations by COPD severity and NLR to suggest that an appropriate treatment and the biomarker’s monitoring might help prevent exacerbations.

The presence of a permanent electric dipole moment in an elementary particle implies Charge-Parity symmetry violation and thus could help explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry observed in our universe. Within the context of the Standard Model, the electric dipole moment of elementary particles is extremely small. However, many Standard Model extensions such as supersymmetry predict large electric dipole moments. Recently, the muon electric dipole moment has become a topic of particular interest due to the tensions in the magnetic anomaly of the muon and the electron, and hints of lepton-flavor universality violation in B-meson decays. In this article, we discuss a dedicated effort at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland to search for the muon electric dipole moment using a 3-T compact solenoid storage ring and the frozen-spin technique. This technique could reach a sensitivity of 6 × 10−23 e·cm after a year of data taking with the p = 125 MeV/c muon beam at the Paul Scherrer Institute. This allows us to probe various Standard Model extensions not reachable by traditional searches using muon g − 2 storage rings., PoS: Proceedings of Science, 402, ISSN:1824-8039, Proceedings of the 22nd International Workshop on Neutrinos from Accelerators (NuFact 2021)

BACKGROUND Heart failure is characterized by a tissue damage that progressively leads to mechanical cardiac dysfunction and remodeling. A recent investigation showed that α-1 antitripsin, an antiprotease, able to inhibit metalloproteinases, provides prognostic information about heart failure and mortality postacute myocardial infarction. Therefore, we conducted a study to establish if α-1 antitrypsin (AAT) could be considered a marker of severity of heart failure. METHODS A total of 182 heart failure patients (Group 1) were enrolled and AAT values were compared with controls (Group 2). RESULTS In Group 1 a significant increment of AAT levels respect to Group 2 was observed (P

The search for a permanent electric dipole moment (EDM) of the muon is an excellent probe for physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. We propose the first dedicated muon EDM search employing the frozen-spin technique at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland, with a sensitivity of 6 × 10^(-23) e·cm, improving the current best limit set by the E821 experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory by more than three orders of magnitude. In preparation for a high precision experiment to measure the muon EDM, several R&D studies have been performed at PSI: the characterisation of a possible beamline to host the experiment for the muon beam injection study and the measurement of the multiple Coulomb scattering of positrons in potential detector materials at low momenta for the positron tracking scheme development. This paper discusses experimental concepts and the current status of the muEDM experiment at PSI., JPS Conference Proceedings, 37, Proceedings of the 24th International Spin Symposium (SPIN2021), ISBN:978-4-89027-150-4

Cerium oxide nanoparticles (nanoceria [NC]) have attracted much attention in biomedicine due to their surface composition that confers interesting redox activities and regenerative properties. Studies have demonstrated that the application of NPs in biomedicine can influence components of hemostatic system, inducing blood clotting, alterations of blood cells, and endothelial cell functions. NC were tested in vitro to assess their hemocompatibility and anticoagulant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-senescence activity in human endothelial cells. Hemocompatibility has been evaluated in vitro looking at the impact of NC on coagulation times, fibrinogen, and platelet aggregation. The effect of NC on vascular endothelial cells were assayed by testing cell viability, antioxidant activity, anticoagulant (tissue factor [TF]-mRNA expression) and anti-inflammatory properties (VCAM-1 exposure, cytokine release), and senescence (telomere shortening). NC did not show significant effects on coagulation process, hemolysis, or platelet aggregation. In endothelial cells, NC did not affect cell viability, reduced oxidative stress, inhibited mRNA-TF expression, VCAM-1 expression, and cytokine release. Moreover, NC reduce telomere shortening, possibly counteracting premature senescence. The hemocompatibility combined with anticoagulant and anti-inflammatory phenotype and the ability of counteract the premature senescence in vascular cells make NC a promising therapeutic tool in oxidative stress-related conditions. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A, 2019.

Mycobacterium vaccae is a rapidly growing nonpathogenic species of the Mycobacteriaceae family of bacteria that can cause pulmonary and disseminated disease in particular in immunocompromised individuals. Here we describe a first case of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass-spectrometry (MS) identification of this pathogen in a patient with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma during chemoimmunotherapy salvage treatment, and its impact on clinical decision making.

The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) provides the world's highest intensity muon beam of Ó(108)μ+/s at 28MeV/c. The HiMB project aims to improve this rate by two orders of magnitude. Meanwhile, the muCool collaboration is developing a device which converts a standard surface μ+ beam of cm-size and MeV-energy into a beam of 1mm-size and 1eV energy spread by achieving a compression of 6-dimensional phase space by 10 orders of magnitude with an efficiency of 10−3., PoS: Proceedings of Science, 369, ISSN:1824-8039, Proceedings of the 21st international workshop on neutrinos from accelerators

The hyperfine splitting of the 5g→4f transitions in muonic Re185,187 has been measured using high resolution high purity germanium detectors and compared to state-of-the-art atomic theoretical predictions. The spectroscopic quadrupole moment has been extracted using modern fitting procedures and compared to the values available in literature obtained from muonic x rays of natural rhenium. The extracted values of the nuclear spectroscopic quadrupole moment are 2.07(5) b and 1.94(5) b, respectively for Re185 and Re187.

We demonstrate efficient transverse compression of a 12.5 MeV/c muon beam stopped in a helium gas target featuring a vertical density gradient and crossed electric and magnetic fields. The muon stop distribution extending vertically over 14 mm was reduced to a 0.25 mm size (rms) within 3.5 μs. The simulation including cross sections for low-energy μ+-He elastic and charge exchange (μ+↔ muonium) collisions describes the measurements well. By combining the transverse compression stage with a previously demonstrated longitudinal compression stage, we can improve the phase space density of a μ+ beam by a factor of 1010 with 10−3 efficiency., Physical Review Letters, 125 (16), ISSN:0031-9007, ISSN:1079-7114

Despite the widespread clinical use of cardioprotection by long-term direct antagonism of P2Y12 receptor, underlying mechanisms are unclear. Here, we identify how release of pro-survival exosomes from human cardiac-derived mesenchymal progenitor cells (hCPCs) is regulated by clinically relevant dose of ticagrelor (1 μM), an oral selective and reversible non-thienopyridine P2Y12 inhibitor. Ticagrelor-induced enhancement of exosome levels is related to increased mitotic activity of hCPCs. We show a drug-response threshold above which the effects on hCPCs are lost due to higher dose of ticagrelor and larger adenosine levels. While it is known that pan-Aurora kinase inhibitor halts cell proliferation through dephosphorylation of histone H3 residue Ser10, we demonstrate that it also prevents ticagrelor-induced effects on release of cardiac progenitor cell-derived exosomes delivering anti-apoptotic HSP70. Indeed, sustained pre-treatment of cardiomyocytes with exosomes released from explant-derived hCPCs exposed to low-dose ticagrelor attenuated hypoxia-induced apoptosis through acute phosphorylation of ERK42/44. Our data indicate that ticagrelor can be leveraged to modulate release of anti-hypoxic exosomes from resident hCPCs.

Tracking systems for modern particle physics experiments, both for the search of extremely rare processes, which require high momentum resolutions in ranges dominated by multiple scattering, and for the next generation of high luminosity lepton colliders, which require large active volumes and high granularity, make use of light drift chambers able to withstand high rates and, therefore, made of large numbers of closely spaced wires. For such chambers, the use of the classical feed-through technique, as wire anchoring system, cannot be implemented and it is necessary to develop an automatic system (wiring robot) to locate the wires with high accuracy and under a well monitored and uniform mechanical tension with fast and reliable operations.

The MEG experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institut searches for the charged-Lepton-Flavor-Violating mu+ -> e+ gamma decay. MEG has already set the world best upper limit on the branching ratio: BR, 11 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, proceeding at INSTR'20 conference, accepted for publication in JINST

The Pencil Beam Scanning (PBS) technique in proton therapy uses fast magnets to scan the tumor volume rapidly. Changing the proton energy allows changing to layers in the third dimension, hence scanning the same volume several times. The PBS approach permits adapting the speed and/or current to modulate the delivered dose. We built a simple prototype that measures the dose distribution in a single step. The active detection material consists of a single layer of scintillating fibers (i.e., 1D) with an active length of 100 mm, a width of 18.25 mm, and an insignificant space (20 &mu, m) between them. A commercial CMOS-based camera detects the scintillation light. Short exposure times allow running the camera at high frame rates, thus, monitoring the beam motion. A simple image processing method extracts the dose information from each fiber of the array. The prototype would allow scaling the concept to multiple layers read out by the same camera, such that the costs do not scale with the dimensions of the fiber array. Presented here are the characteristics of the prototype, studied under two modalities: spatial resolution, linearity, and energy dependence, characterized at the Center for Proton Therapy (Paul Scherrer Institute), the dose rate response, measured at an electron accelerator (Swiss Federal Institute of Metrology).

LaBr3(Ce) is a very attractive candidate as a detector medium thanks to its ultra-high light yield (LY), fast emission and its possibility of internal energy scale monitoring by means of intrinsic La radioactivity. These properties together with its high density result in a good candidate as a crystal for a compact calorimeter able to provide simultaneously very high energy and timing performances. The detector performances can be further enhanced by coupling the crystal to Silicon Photomultipliers (MPPCs). We performed detailed Monte Carlo simulations in order to study the response of a new large calorimeter based on LaBr3(Ce) coupled to MPPCs. It is made of the largest crystal available on the market (3.5” diam. × 8” in length) coupled to relatively large MPPCs ( 6 × 6 mm 2 active area) with the smallest pixel size. Very promising results have been obtained: For gammas with an energy of 55 MeV an energy resolution of σ E ∕ E ∼ 2 . 25 ( 7 ) % and a timing resolution of σ t ∼ 32 ( 1 ) ps have been predicted. The energy resolution can be further improved by using larger crystals (either 5” or 6” diam. × 8” in length) approaching respectively a σ E ∕ E ∼ 1 . 20 ( 3 ) % or a σ E ∕ E ∼ 0 . 91 ( 1 ) % . Such results put this future high energy calorimetry at the detector forefront for beam intensity frontiers.

A positron timing counter (TC) with 30–40 ps time resolution for 50 MeV/c positrons required by the MEG II experiment has been developed. We employed a highly segmented design with 512 scintillator plates (120 × 40 × 5 mm3 and 120 × 50 × 5 mm3) read out by 6-SiPM-arrays at the both ends. Pile up is reduced by the segmented design and multi-counter measurement improves the overall timing resolution. All the single counters were assembled and their resolutions were measured to be below 100 ps in a pre-test with a 90 Sr source. The construction and installation were completed in 2017. An engineering run was performed at the end of 2017 at the π E5 muon beam line in PSI, which supplies the most intense muon beam (7 × 107 stops/s on a target) in the world. We successfully operated the full system of TC in the MEG II environment and achieved a time resolution below 40 ps with more than 6 counter hits. The overall resolution for the signal positrons is estimated to be 38.5 ps by weighting the obtained resolutions with the number of hits distribution of the signal positrons obtained by a Monte Carlo simulation. The time resolution of the TC is improved by a factor of 2 with respect to the MEG experiment.

The search for the Lepton Flavor Violating decay μ → e γ exploits the most intense continuous muon beams, which can currently deliver ∼ 10 8 muons per second. In the next decade, accelerator upgrades are expected in various facilities, making it feasible to have continuous beams with an intensity of 10 9 or even 10 10 muons per second. We investigate the experimental limiting factors that will define the ultimate performances, and hence the sensitivity, in the search for μ → e γ with a continuous beam at these extremely high rates. We then consider some conceptual detector designs and evaluate the corresponding sensitivity as a function of the beam intensity.

The MEG experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute searches for the charged Lepton Flavor Violating μ + → e + γ decay. MEG has already determined in a first data taking phase the world best upper limit on the branching ratio: BR ( μ + → e + γ ) 4 . 2 × 1 0 − 13 An upgrade of the whole detector has been approved to obtain a substantial increase in sensitivity. Currently MEG is in upgrade phases, this phase involves all the detectors. The new positron tracker is a high transparency single volume, fully stereo cylindrical Drift Chamber (CDCH), immersed in a non uniform longitudinal B-field, with length of 1 . 93 m, internal radius of 17 cm and external radius of 30 cm. It is composed of 9 concentric layers, divided into 12 identical sector of 16 drift cells. The single drift cell is approximately square, with a 20 μ m gold plated W sense wire surrounded by 40 μ m silver plated Al field wires in a ratio of 5:1. The total number of wires amounts to 11904 for an equivalent radiation length per track turn of about 1.5x10−3 X0 when the chamber is filled with a gas mixture of helium and iso-butane. Due to the high wire density ( 12 w i r e s ∕ cm 2 ), the use of the classical feed-through technique as wire anchoring system could hardly be implemented and therefore it was necessary to develop new wiring strategies. The number of wires and the stringent requirements impose the use of an automatic system (wiring robot) to operate the wiring procedures. Several tests have been performed in different prototypes of the drift chamber, exposed to cosmic rays, test beams and radioactive sources, to fulfill the requirement on the spatial resolution to be less than 110 μ m. In this paper we describe the CDCH construction and the first tests during the 2018 Engineering Run.

A novel device to compress the phase space of a muon beam by a factor of 1010 with a 10−3 efficiency is under development. A surface muon beam is stopped in a helium gas target consisting of several compression stages, wherein strong electric and magnetic fields are applied. The spatial extent of the stopped muon swarm is decreased by means of these fields until muons with eV energy are extracted into vacuum through a small orifice. It was observed that a 20 cm long muon stop distribution can be compressed in the longitudinal direction to a sub-mm extent within 2 μs. Additionally, a drift perpendicular to the magnetic field of the compressed low-energy muon swarm was successfully demonstrated, paving the way towards extraction from the gas and re-acceleration of the muons., The European Physical Journal C, 79 (5), ISSN:1434-6044, ISSN:1434-6052

A new and high-performance generation of detectors based on scintillating fibres coupled to silicon photomultiplier (SiPM, MPPC) is under development. We focus here on the use of this technology as a beam monitoring detector with the following characteristics: high granularity, high detection efficiency, fast timing response, accurate position resolutions, minimal material budget and insensitivity to magnetic fields . We present a scintillating fibre and silicon photomultiplier-based beam monitoring detector used in one of the most intense muon beam in the world (few × 1 0 8 μ + ∕ s ). A full detector prototype was built and successfully tested at the π E5 beam line of the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). Beam profile and rate measurements were made with a precision of better than 1% and together with particle identification capability, are consistent with standard techniques confirming the viability of this technology for high-rate applications.

The MEG experiment has set the latest limit of 4.2 × 10−13 at 90 % Confidence Level (C.L.) to the branching ratio of the charged Lepton Flavour Violating (cLFV) decay μ + → e + γ . The MEG II experiment will be more sensitive by an order of magnitude. High resolutions in terms of the kinematic variables used to identify a μ + → e + γ event are mandatory among other aspects to achieve this sensitivity. Thus careful calibration and monitoring of the experimental apparatus are required. One of the dedicated calibration methods involves the Mott scattering process of a mono-energetic positron beam on the MEG II target. As a result positrons with energies around the MEG II signal energy get scattered into the drift chamber. The calibration and extraction of resolution can then be done by the double turn method presented in this article.

The challenges for new calorimetry for incoming experiments at the intensity frontier is to provide detectors with ultra-precise time resolution and supreme energy resolution. Two very promising materials on the market are BrilLanCe (Cerium doped Lanthanum Bromide LaBr 3 (Ce)) and LYSO (Lutetium Yttrium OxyorthoSilicate, Lu 2 ( 1 − x ) Y 2 x SiO 5 (Ce)), supported by recent developments aiming at providing relatively large crystals. The response of LaBr 3 (Ce) and LYSO prototypes fired with gammas at an energy of 55 MeV have been studied. Very promising results were obtained. For the newly available (radius R = 4.45 cm, length L = 20.32 cm) LaBr 3 (Ce) crystal an energy resolution of σ E ∕ E ≈ 2.36(8) % and a timing resolution of σ t = 35(1) ps have been predicted. The energy resolution can be further improved by using larger crystals (either R = 6.35 cm or R = 7.62 cm, L = 20.32 cm) approaching respectively a σ E ∕ E = 1.20(3) % or a σ E ∕ E = 0.91(1) % . Due to the shorter radiation length X 0 and smaller Moliere radius (R M ) a LYSO crystal of the available size (radius R = 3.5 cm, L = 16 cm) performs better in terms of energy deposit compared to the currently available larger crystal made of LaBr3(Ce). An energy resolution of σ E ∕ E = 1.48(4) % can be obtained, further improved by using bigger crystals (R = 6.5 cm, L = 25 cm) to σ E ∕ E = 0.74(1) % . A timing resolution less performing than the LaBr 3 (Ce) but better than any nowadays available calorimeter working at this energy can be achieved and is expected to be σ t = 49(1) ps . Such results put these materials coupled to silicon photomultipliers at the detector forefront for future high energy calorimetry at the intensity frontier.

The MEG experiment has recently set a new upper limit on the branching ratio of the µ+ → e+γ decay, ℬ(µ+ → e+γ) < 4.2 × 10−13 (at 90% confidence level) and un upgrade of the experiment (the MEGII experiment) is ongoing with the aim of improving the single event sensitivity (SES) by one order of magnitude with respect to the previous MEG experiment’s SES. The strong scientific motivation associated with the charged Lepton Flavour Violation (cLFV) searches pushes also towards searching for the complementary muon cLFV µ+ → e+e+e− decay with a completely new apparatus, the Mu3e experiment, aiming at a SES improved by at least three orders of magnitude with respect to the previous SINDRUM experiment’s SES (Mu3e phase I). An ultimate SES of few ×10−16 is foreseen requiring 109 µ/s (Mu3e phase II). Both experiments will be hosted at the Paul Scherrer Institut which currently delivers the most intense continuous low energy muon beam in the world up to few ×108 µ/s. The status of both the MEGII and Mu3e phase I experiments is given.

Muonic atoms have been used to extract the most accurate nuclear charge radii based on the detection of X-rays from the muonic cascades. Most stable and a few unstable isotopes have been investigated with muonic atom spectroscopy techniques. A new research project recently started at the Paul Scherrer Institut aims to extend the highresolution muonic atom spectroscopy for the precise determination of nuclear charge radii and other nuclear structure properties of radioactive isotopes. The challenge to combine the high-energy muon beam with small quantity of stopping mass is being addressed by developing the concept of stopping the muon in a high-density, a high-pressure hydrogen cell and subsequent transfer of the muon to the element of interest. Status and perspectives of the project will be presented., EPJ Web of Conferences

The search for the lepton flavor violating decay $$\mu ^+ \rightarrow e^+ \gamma $$ will reach an unprecedented level of sensitivity within the next five years thanks to the MEG-II experiment. This experiment will take data at the Paul Scherrer Institut where continuous muon beams are delivered at a rate of about $$10^8$$ muons per second. On the same time scale, accelerator upgrades are expected in various facilities, making it feasible to have continuous beams with an intensity of $$10^9$$ or even $$10^{10}$$ muons per second. We investigate the experimental limiting factors that will define the ultimate performances, and hence the sensitivity, in the search for $$\mu ^+ \rightarrow e^+ \gamma $$ with a continuous beam at these extremely high rates. We then consider some conceptual detector designs and evaluate the corresponding sensitivity as a function of the beam intensity.

Diagnostics tools are largely used to tune and set up beams in a vast range of applications. They include particle and nuclear physics, medical physics up to material science and biology, just to mention a few. The requirements on the detectors used to monitor the beam condition accordingly with the specific case. We present here a pixelated Faraday cup we built and used for beam profile monitoring with the peculiar characteristic of simultaneously measuring the proton beam position, shape and intensity. The detector covers a large range of currents from a hundred μ A down to a few nA perfectly matching the range of the proton beam intensity delivered by a 1 MeV Cockcroft–Walton accelerator. The pixel size allows for a beam position determination better than 1 mm.

In the framework of the upgrade of the MEG experiment a new trigger system with demanding performances in terms of latency was designed. To achieve the goal of 512 ns latency the serial connections between trigger boards have been optimized so that they only rely on serial to parallel shift registers for the data flow, minimizing the amount of logic to be crossed by data. A dedicated Finite State Machine (FSM) was designed to select the sampling point of the serial stream with respect to an external precision clock used by both transmitter and receiver. As a proof of concept a 16 000 channel weighted waveform sum including pedestal suppression, was computed, resulting in 700 ns of latency.

The WaveDAQ is a full custom, compact and highly integrated trigger and data acquisition system. Despite the decisive urge from the MEG II experiment at PSI aiming at a sensitivity of 6 × 1 0 − 14 on the μ → e γ decay, it is a general purpose device suited for small and medium-sized applications in the range from 16 to about 10 000 channels. It exploits the performance of the DRS4 waveform digitiser with a sampling speed programmable from 1 to 5 GSPS; each input channel can supply HV to arrays of SiPMs and provides a front-end amplification with gains chain in the range from 0.5 up to 100 and GHz bandwidth. Input signals are, in parallel to the DRS4, digitised at 80 MSPS and used in an FPGA-based trigger; fast discriminators associated to each input channel are also used for online reconstruction. This paper presents the WaveDAQ design principles and the results obtained by a demonstrator in the MEG II pre-engineering run in fall 2017 with a homogeneous LXe detector and a plastic scintillation detector both readout by SiPMs and in the tests associated to the Δ E-TOF prototype of the FOOT detector.

This article presents the MEG II Cylindrical Drift CHamber (CDCH), a key detector for the phase 2 of MEG, which aims at reaching a sensitivity level of the order of $6 \times 10^{-14}$ for the charged Lepton Flavour Violating $\mu^+ \rightarrow \mbox{e}^+ \gamma$ decay. CDCH is designed to overcome the limitations of the MEG $\mbox{e}^+$ tracker and guarantee the proper operation at high rates with long-term detector stability. CDCH is a low-mass unique volume detector with high granularity: 9 layers of 192 drift cells, few mm wide, defined by $\approx 12000$ wires in a stereo configuration for longitudinal hit localization. The total radiation length is $1.5 \times 10^{-3}$ $\mbox{X}_0$, thus minimizing the Multiple Coulomb Scattering (MCS) contribution and allowing for a single-hit resolution of 110 $\mu$m and a momentum resolution of 130 keV/c. CDCH integration into the MEG II experimental apparatus will start in this year., Comment: 2 pages, 3 figures, proceeding at PisaMeeting2018 conference, published in NIMA

Today, high position and timing resolutions can be simultaneously achieved using scintillating fibers coupled to silicon photomultipliers. In the framework of the MEGII experiment (MEG upgrade) which searches for the μ + → e + γ decay we are developing an active muon stopping target of 250 μ m square scintillating fibers coupled to silicon photomultipliers. This tool should provide an unique way to continuously monitor the beam (detecting the stopped muons) at the highest muon beam intensities in the world, and to measure the muon decay vertex (detecting the outgoing positron). A similar technology will also be applicable to the Mu3e experiment which searches for the μ + → e + e − e + decay. In this experiment a timing hodoscope, which complements the silicon tracker, will be made by few layers of 250 μ m square or round scintillating fibers, providing timing measurements with a resolution 1 ns . In this work we report the results obtained with the current prototypes showing that spatial resolutions at a level of 70 μ m and timing resolutions of the order of 350 ps can be reached with a detection efficiency ≥ 90 % .

We investigated the ability of quercetin and apigenin to modulate platelet activation and aggregation, and compared the observed efficacy with that displayed by their synthetic analogues 2-phenyl-4H-pyrido[1,2-a]pyrimidin-4-ones, 1-4, and 2,3-diphenyl-4H-pyrido[1,2-a]pyrimidin-4-ones, 5-7. Platelet aggregation was explored through a spectrophotometric assay on platelet-rich plasma (PRP) treated with the thromboxane A2 mimetic U46619, collagen and thrombin in presence/absence of various bioisosteres of flavonoids (12.5-25-50-100 μM). The platelet density, (mean platelet component, MPC), was measured by the Advia 120 Hematology System as a marker surrogate of platelet activation. The induced P-selectin expression, which reflects platelet degranulation/activation, was quantified by flow cytometry on PRP. Our synthetic compounds modulated significantly both platelet activation and aggregation, thus turning out to be more effective than the analogues quercetin and apigenin when tested at a concentration fully consistent with their use in vivo. Accordingly, they might be used as food supplements to increase the efficacy of natural flavonoids.