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526 results on '"Azzarello, P"'

1. Hadronic cross section measurements with the DAMPE space mission using 20GeV-10TeV cosmic-ray protons and $^4$He

Author

Alemanno, F., An, Q., Azzarello, P., Barbato, F. C. T., Bernardini, P., Bi, X. J., Cagnoli, I., Cai, M. S., Casilli, E., Catanzani, E., Chang, J., Chen, D. Y., Chen, J. L., Chen, Z. F., Coppin, P., Cui, M. Y., Cui, T. S., Cui, Y. X., Dai, H. T., De Benedittis, A., De Mitri, I., de Palma, F., Di Giovanni, A., Ding, Q., Dong, T. K., Dong, Z. X., Donvito, G., Droz, D., Duan, J. L., Duan, K. K., Fan, R. R., Fan, Y. Z., Fang, F., Fang, K., Feng, C. Q., Feng, L., Frieden, J. M., Fusco, P., Gao, M., Gargano, F., Gong, K., Gong, Y. Z., Guo, D. Y., Guo, J. H., Han, S. X., Hu, Y. M., Huang, G. S., Huang, X. Y., Huang, Y. Y., Ionica, M., Jiang, L. Y., Jiang, Y. Z., Jiang, W., Kong, J., Kotenko, A., Kyratzis, D., Lei, S. J., Li, W. H., Li, W. L., Li, X., Li, X. Q., Liang, Y. M., Liu, C. M., Liu, H., Liu, J., Liu, S. B., Liu, Y., Loparco, F., Luo, C. N., Ma, M., Ma, P. X., Ma, T., Ma, X. Y., Marsella, G., Mazziotta, M. N., Mo, D., Niu, X. Y., Pan, X., Parenti, A., Peng, W. X., Peng, X. Y., Perrina, C., Putti-Garcia, E., Qiao, R., Rao, J. N., Ruina, A., Sarkar, R., Savina, P., Serpolla, A., Shangguan, Z., Shen, W. H., Shen, Z. Q., Shen, Z. T., Silveri, L., Song, J. X., Stolpovskiy, M., Su, H., Su, M., Sun, H. R., Sun, Z. Y., Surdo, A., Teng, X. J., Tykhonov, A., Wang, J. Z., Wang, L. G., Wang, S., Wang, S. X., Wang, X. L., Wang, Y., Wang, Y. F., Wang, Y. Z., Wang, Z. M., Wei, D. M., Wei, J. J., Wei, Y. F., Wu, D., Wu, J., Wu, S. S., Wu, X., Xia, Z. Q., Xu, H. T., Xu, J., Xu, Z. H., Xu, Z. L., Xu, E. H., Xu, Z. Z., Xue, G. F., Yang, H. B., Yang, P., Yang, Y. Q., Yao, H. J., Yu, Y. H., Yuan, G. W., Yuan, Q., Yue, C., Zang, J. J., Zhang, S. X., Zhang, W. Z., Zhang, Yan, Zhang, Yi, Zhang, Y. J., Zhang, Y. L., Zhang, Y. P., Zhang, Y. Q., Zhang, Z., Zhang, Z. Y., Zhao, C., Zhao, H. Y., Zhao, X. F., Zhou, C. Y., and Zhu, Y.

Subjects
High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract

Precise direct cosmic-ray (CR) measurements provide an important probe to study the energetic particle sources in our Galaxy, and the interstellar environment through which these particles propagate. Uncertainties on hadronic models, ion-nucleon cross sections in particular, are currently the limiting factor towards obtaining more accurate CR ion flux measurements with calorimetric space-based experiments. We present an energy-dependent measurement of the inelastic cross section of protons and helium-4 nuclei (alpha particles) on a Bi$_4$Ge$_3$O$_{12}$ target, using 88 months of data collected by the DAMPE space mission. The kinetic energy range per nucleon of the measurement points ranges from 18 GeV to 9 TeV for protons, and from 5 GeV/n to 3 TeV/n for helium-4 nuclei. Our results lead to a significant improvement of the CR flux normalisation. In the case of helium-4, these results correspond to the first cross section measurements on a heavy target material at energies above 10 GeV/n., Comment: 17 pages, submitted to PRD

Published
2024

3. FEW questions, many answers: using machine learning to assess how students connect food–energy–water (FEW) concepts

Author

Emily A. Royse, Amanda D. Manzanares, Heqiao Wang, Kevin C. Haudek, Caterina Belle Azzarello, Lydia R. Horne, Daniel L. Druckenbrod, Megan Shiroda, Sol R. Adams, Ennea Fairchild, Shirley Vincent, Steven W. Anderson, and Chelsie Romulo

Subjects
History of scholarship and learning. The humanities, AZ20-999, Social Sciences
Abstract

Abstract There is growing support and interest in postsecondary interdisciplinary environmental education, which integrates concepts and disciplines in addition to providing varied perspectives. There is a need to assess student learning in these programs as well as rigorous evaluation of educational practices, especially of complex synthesis concepts. This work tests a text classification machine learning model as a tool to assess student systems thinking capabilities using two questions anchored by the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus phenomena by answering two questions (1) Can machine learning models be used to identify instructor-determined important concepts in student responses? (2) What do college students know about the interconnections between food, energy, and water, and how have students assimilated systems thinking into their constructed responses about FEW? Reported here is a broad range of model performances across 26 text classification models associated with two different assessment items, with model accuracy ranging from 0.755 to 0.992. Expert-like responses were infrequent in our dataset compared to responses providing simpler, incomplete explanations of the systems presented in the question. For those students moving from describing individual effects to multiple effects, their reasoning about the mechanism behind the system indicates advanced systems thinking ability. Specifically, students exhibit higher expertise in explaining changing water usage than discussing trade-offs for such changing usage. This research represents one of the first attempts to assess the links between foundational, discipline-specific concepts and systems thinking ability. These text classification approaches to scoring student FEW Nexus Constructed Responses (CR) indicate how these approaches can be used, in addition to several future research priorities for interdisciplinary, practice-based education research. Development of further complex question items using machine learning would allow evaluation of the relationship between foundational concept understanding and integration of those concepts as well as a more nuanced understanding of student comprehension of complex interdisciplinary concepts.

Published
2024
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5. Implementing interdisciplinary sustainability education with the food-energy-water (FEW) nexus

Author

Romulo, Chelsie, Venkataraman, Bhawani, Caplow, Susan, Ajgaonkar, Shamili, Allen, Craig R., Anandhi, Aavudai, Anderson, Steven W., Azzarello, Caterina Belle, Brundiers, Katja, Blavascunas, Eunice, Dauer, Jenny M., Druckenbrod, Daniel L., Fairchild, Ennea, Horne, Lydia R., Lee, Kyungsun, Mwale, Marizvkuru, Mischler, John, Pappo, Emily, Patel, Nirav S., Sintov, Nicole D., Ramsdell, Carla S., and Vincent, Shirley G.

Published
2024
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7. Measurement of the cosmic p+He energy spectrum from 50 GeV to 0.5 PeV with the DAMPE space mission

Author

DAMPE Collaboration, Alemanno, F., Altomare, C., An, Q., Azzarello, P., Barbato, F. C. T., Bernardini, P., Bi, X. J., Cagnoli, I., Cai, M. S., Casilli, E., Catanzani, E., Chang, J., Chen, D. Y., Chen, J. L., Chen, Z. F., Coppin, P., Cui, M. Y., Cui, T. S., Cui, Y. X., Dai, H. T., De Benedittis, A., De Mitri, I., de Palma, F., Deliyergiyev, M., Di Giovanni, A., Di Santo, M., Ding, Q., Dong, T. K., Dong, Z. X., Donvito, G., Droz, D., Duan, J. L., Duan, K. K., Fan, R. R., Fan, Y. Z., Fang, F., Fang, K., Feng, C. Q., Feng, L., Alonso, M. Fernandez, Frieden, J. M., Fusco, P., Gao, M., Gargano, F., Gong, K., Gong, Y. Z., Guo, D. Y., Guo, J. H., Han, S. X., Hu, Y. M., Huang, G. S., Huang, X. Y., Huang, Y. Y., Ionica, M., Jiang, L. Y., Jiang, Y. Z., Jiang, W., Kong, J., Kotenko, A., Kyratzis, D., Lei, S. J., Li, W. H., Li, W. L., Li, X., Li, X. Q., Liang, Y. M., Liu, C. M., Liu, H., Liu, J., Liu, S. B., Liu, Y., Loparco, F., Luo, C. N., Ma, M., Ma, P. X., Ma, T., Ma, X. Y., Marsella, G., Mazziotta, M. N., Mo, D., Salinas, M. Muñoz, Niu, X. Y., Pan, X., Parenti, A., Peng, W. X., Peng, X. Y., Perrina, C., Putti-Garcia, E., Qiao, R., Rao, J. N., Ruina, A., Shangguan, Z., Shen, W. H., Shen, Z. Q., Shen, Z. T., Silveri, L., Song, J. X., Stolpovskiy, M., Su, H., Su, M., Sun, H. R., Sun, Z. Y., Surdo, A., Teng, X. J., Tykhonov, A., Wang, J. Z., Wang, L. G., Wang, S., Wang, S. X., Wang, X. L., Wang, Y., Wang, Y. F., Wang, Y. Z., Wang, Z. M., Wei, D. M., Wei, J. J., Wei, Y. F., Wu, D., Wu, J., Wu, L. B., Wu, S. S., Wu, X., Xia, Z. Q., Xu, H. T., Xu, J., Xu, Z. H., Xu, Z. L., Xu, E. H., Xu, Z. Z., Xue, G. F., Yang, H. B., Yang, P., Yang, Y. Q., Yao, H. J., Yu, Y. H., Yuan, G. W., Yuan, Q., Yue, C., Zang, J. J., Zhang, S. X., Zhang, W. Z., Zhang, Yan, Zhang, Yi, Zhang, Y. J., Zhang, Y. L., Zhang, Y. P., Zhang, Y. Q., Zhang, Z., Zhang, Z. Y., Zhao, C., Zhao, H. Y., Zhao, X. F., Zhou, C. Y., and Zhu, Y.

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract

Recent observations of the light component of the cosmic-ray spectrum have revealed unexpected features that motivate further and more precise measurements up to the highest energies. The Dark Matter Particle Explorer is a satellite-based cosmic-ray experiment that has been operational since December 2015, continuously collecting data on high-energy cosmic particles with very good statistics, energy resolution, and particle identification capabilities. In this work, the latest measurements of the energy spectrum of proton+helium in the energy range from 46 GeV to 464 TeV are presented. Among the most distinctive features of the spectrum, a spectral hardening at 600 GeV has been observed, along with a softening at 29 TeV measured with a 6.6{\sigma} significance. Moreover, the detector features and the analysis approach allowed for the extension of the spectral measurement up to the sub-PeV region. Even if with small statistical significance due to the low number of events, data suggest a new spectral hardening at about 150 TeV., Comment: Published on PRD

Published
2023
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8. Implementing interdisciplinary sustainability education with the food-energy-water (FEW) nexus

Author

Chelsie Romulo, Bhawani Venkataraman, Susan Caplow, Shamili Ajgaonkar, Craig R. Allen, Aavudai Anandhi, Steven W. Anderson, Caterina Belle Azzarello, Katja Brundiers, Eunice Blavascunas, Jenny M. Dauer, Daniel L. Druckenbrod, Ennea Fairchild, Lydia R. Horne, Kyungsun Lee, Marizvkuru Mwale, John Mischler, Emily Pappo, Nirav S. Patel, Nicole D. Sintov, Carla S. Ramsdell, and Shirley G. Vincent

Subjects
History of scholarship and learning. The humanities, AZ20-999, Social Sciences
Abstract

Abstract Growth in the green jobs sector has increased demand for college graduates who are prepared to enter the workforce with interdisciplinary sustainability skills. Simultaneously, scholarly calls for interdisciplinary collaboration in the service of addressing the societal challenges of enhancing resilience and sustainability have also increased in recent years. However, developing, executing, and assessing interdisciplinary content and skills at the post-secondary level has been challenging. The objective of this paper is to offer the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus as a powerful way to achieve sustainability competencies and matriculate graduates who will be equipped to facilitate the transformation of the global society by meeting the targets set by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The paper presents 10 curricular design examples that span multiple levels, including modules, courses, and programs. These modules enable clear evaluation and assessment of key sustainability competencies, helping to prepare graduates with well-defined skillsets who are equipped to address current and future workforce needs.

Published
2024
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9. Machine-learning-guided recognition of α and β cells from label-free infrared micrographs of living human islets of Langerhans

Author

Fabio Azzarello, Francesco Carli, Valentina De Lorenzi, Marta Tesi, Piero Marchetti, Fabio Beltram, Francesco Raimondi, and Francesco Cardarelli

Subjects
Medicine, Science
Abstract

Abstract Human islets of Langerhans are composed mostly of glucagon-secreting α cells and insulin-secreting β cells closely intermingled one another. Current methods for identifying α and β cells involve either fixing islets and using immunostaining or disaggregating islets and employing flow cytometry for classifying α and β cells based on their size and autofluorescence. Neither approach, however, allows investigating the dynamic behavior of α and β cells in a living and intact islet. To tackle this issue, we present a machine-learning-based strategy for identification α and β cells in label-free infrared micrographs of living human islets without immunostaining. Intrinsic autofluorescence is stimulated by infrared light and collected both in intensity and lifetime in the visible range, dominated by NAD(P)H and lipofuscin signals. Descriptive parameters are derived from micrographs for ~ 103 cells. These parameters are used as input for a boosted decision-tree model (XGBoost) pre-trained with immunofluorescence-derived cell-type information. The model displays an optimized-metrics performance of 0.86 (i.e. area under a ROC curve), with an associated precision of 0.94 for the recognition of β cells and 0.75 for α cells. This tool promises to enable longitudinal studies on the dynamic behavior of individual cell types at single-cell resolution within the intact tissue.

Published
2024
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10. Search for relativistic fractionally charged particles in space

Author

DAMPE Collaboration, Alemanno, F., Altomare, C., An, Q., Azzarello, P., Barbato, F. C. T., Bernardini, P., Bi, X. J., Cai, M. S., Casilli, E., Catanzani, E., Chang, J., Chen, D. Y., Chen, J. L., Chen, Z. F., Cui, M. Y., Cui, T. S., Cui, Y. X., Dai, H. T., De-Benedittis, A., De Mitri, I., de Palma, F., Deliyergiyev, M., Di Giovanni, A., Di Santo, M., Ding, Q., Dong, T. K., Dong, Z. X., Donvito, G., Droz, D., Duan, J. L., Duan, K. K., D'Urso, D., Fan, R. R., Fan, Y. Z., Fang, F., Fang, K., Feng, C. Q., Feng, L., Alonso, M. F., Frieden, J. M., Fusco, P., Gao, M., Gargano, F., Gong, K., Gong, Y. Z., Guo, D. Y., Guo, J. H., Han, S. X., Hu, Y. M., Huang, G. S., Huang, X. Y., Huang, Y. Y., Ionica, M., Jiang, L. Y., Jiang, W., Kong, J., Kotenko, A., Kyratzis, D., Lei, S. J., Li, W. L., Li, W. H., Li, X., Li, X. Q., Liang, Y. M., Liu, C. M., Liu, H., Liu, J., Liu, S. B., Liu, Y., Loparco, F., Luo, C. N., Ma, M., Ma, P. X., Ma, T., Ma, X. Y., Marsella, G., Mazziotta, M. N., Mo, D., Salinas, M. M., Niu, X. Y., Pan, X., Parenti, A., Peng, W. X., Peng, X. Y., Perrina, C., Qiao, R., Rao, J. N., Ruina, A., Shangguan, Z., Shen, W. H., Shen, Z. Q., Shen, Z. T., Silveri, L., Song, J. X., Stolpovskiy, M., Su, H., Su, M., Sun, H. R., Sun, Z. Y., Surdo, A., Teng, X. J., Tykhonov, A., Wang, J. Z., Wang, L. G., Wang, S., Wang, S. X., Wang, X. L., Wang, Y., Wang, Y. F., Wang, Y. Z., Wei, D. M., Wei, J. J., Wei, Y. F., Wu, D., Wu, J., Wu, L. B., Wu, S. S., Wu, X., Xia, Z. Q., Xu, E. H., Xu, H. T., Xu, J., Xu, Z. H., Xu, Z. L., Xu, Z. Z., Xue, G. F., Yang, H. B., Yang, P., Yang, Y. Q., Yao, H. J., Yu, Y. H., Yuan, G. W., Yuan, Q., Yue, C., Zang, J. J., Zhang, S. X., Zhang, W. Z., Zhang, Yan, Zhang, Yi., Zhang, Y. J., Zhang, Y. L., Zhang, Y. P., Zhang, Y. Q., Zhang, Z., Zhang, Z. Y., Zhao, C., Zhao, H. Y., Zhao, X. F., Zhou, C. Y., and Zhu, Y.

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, High Energy Physics - Experiment, High Energy Physics - Phenomenology, Physics - Space Physics
Abstract

More than a century after the performance of the oil drop experiment, the possible existence of fractionally charged particles FCP still remains unsettled. The search for FCPs is crucial for some extensions of the Standard Model in particle physics. Most of the previously conducted searches for FCPs in cosmic rays were based on experiments underground or at high altitudes. However, there have been few searches for FCPs in cosmic rays carried out in orbit other than AMS-01 flown by a space shuttle and BESS by a balloon at the top of the atmosphere. In this study, we conduct an FCP search in space based on on-orbit data obtained using the DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) satellite over a period of five years. Unlike underground experiments, which require an FCP energy of the order of hundreds of GeV, our FCP search starts at only a few GeV. An upper limit of $6.2\times 10^{-10}~~\mathrm{cm^{-2}sr^{-1} s^{-1}}$ is obtained for the flux. Our results demonstrate that DAMPE exhibits higher sensitivity than experiments of similar types by three orders of magnitude that more stringently restricts the conditions for the existence of FCP in primary cosmic rays., Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, accepted by PRD

Published
2022
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12. Perceived Life-Readiness from Real-World Curriculum Experiences of Alumni

Author

Azzarello, Caterina Belle, Arakawa, Lee, Edi, Daniel, Sutton, Madasyn, and Larkins, Randy

Abstract

Students pursue college degrees expecting to learn skills necessary to navigate adult life. While this is the expectation of most students, there is a lack of research examining the perceived effectiveness of real-world applicability in undergraduate degrees. Objective: The purpose of this phenomenological and constructivist study was to explore how college alumni perceive their educational experiences in terms of real-world preparedness. Methods: Eight participants in their mid-twenties (5 females, 3 males) were selected using purposeful sampling. Participants participated in informal, semi-structured, one-on-one Zoom interviews and demographic questionnaire responses. Results: Emerging themes indicated that alumni felt the relationships formed had a greater contribution to their life-readiness compared to their real-world curriculum. Other emerging themes revealed alumni believed they developed valuable skills through hands-on experience and group work. Recommendations were made by alumni for curriculum changes, including smaller class sizes and inclusion of more practical courses. Conclusions: Based on these findings, future research should aim to replicate this study using a broader range of alumni to further investigate this phenomenon, as well as studies that investigate various college types and student experiences.

Published
2021

13. Characterization of water-soluble brown carbon chromophores from wildfire plumes in the western USA using size-exclusion chromatography

Author

L. Azzarello, R. A. Washenfelder, M. A. Robinson, A. Franchin, C. C. Womack, C. D. Holmes, S. S. Brown, A. Middlebrook, T. Newberger, C. Sweeney, and C. J. Young

Subjects
Physics, QC1-999, Chemistry, QD1-999
Abstract

Wildfires are an important source of carbonaceous aerosol in the atmosphere. Organic aerosol that absorbs light in the ultraviolet to visible spectral range is referred to as brown carbon (BrC), and its impact on Earth's radiative budget has not been well characterized. We collected water-soluble brown carbon using a particle-into-liquid sampler (PILS) on board a Twin Otter aircraft during the Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) campaign. Samples were collected downwind of wildfires in the western United States from August to September 2019. We applied size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) with ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy to characterize the molecular size distribution of BrC chromophores. The wildfire plumes had transport ages of 0 to 5 h, and the absorption was dominated by chromophores with molecular weights Da. With BrC normalized to a conserved biomass burning tracer, carbon monoxide, a consistent decrease in BrC absorption with plume age was not observed during FIREX-AQ. These findings are consistent with the variable trends in BrC absorption with plume age reported in recent studies. While BrC absorption trends were broadly consistent between the offline SEC analysis and the online PILS measurements, the absolute values of absorption and their spectral dependence differed. We investigate plausible explanations for the discrepancies observed between the online and offline analyses. This included solvent effects, pH, and sample storage. We suspect that sample storage impacted the absorption intensity of the offline measurements without impacting the molecular weight distribution of BrC chromophores.

Published
2023
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14. Search for gamma-ray spectral lines with the DArk Matter Particle Explorer

Author

Alemanno, Francesca, An, Qi, Azzarello, Philipp, Barbato, Felicia Carla Tiziana, Bernardini, Paolo, Bi, Xiao-Jun, Cai, Ming-Sheng, Casilli, Elisabetta, Catanzani, Enrico, Chang, Jin, Chen, Deng-Yi, Chen, Jun-Ling, Chen, Zhan-Fang, Cui, Ming-Yang, Cui, Tian-Shu, Cui, Yu-Xing, Dai, Hao-Ting, De Benedittis, Antonio, De Mitri, Ivan, de Palma, Francesco, Deliyergiyev, Maksym, Di Santo, Margherita, Ding, Qi, Dong, Tie-Kuang, Dong, Zhen-Xing, Donvito, Giacinto, Droz, David, Duan, Jing-Lai, Duan, Kai-Kai, D'Urso, Domenico, Fan, Rui-Rui, Fan, Yi-Zhong, Fang, Fang, Fang, Kun, Feng, Chang-Qing, Feng, Lei, Fusco, Piergiorgio, Gao, Min, Gargano, Fabio, Gong, Ke, Gong, Yi-Zhong, Guo, Dong-Ya, Guo, Jian-Hua, Han, Shuang-Xue, Hu, Yi-Ming, Huang, Guang-Shun, Huang, Xiao-Yuan, Huang, Yong-Yi, Ionica, Maria, Jiang, Wei, Kong, Jie, Kotenko, Andrii, Kyratzis, Dimitrios, Lei, Shi-Jun, Li, Shang, Li, Wen-Hao, Li, Wei-Liang, Li, Xiang, Li, Xian-Qiang, Liang, Yao-Ming, Liu, Cheng-Ming, Liu, Hao, Liu, Jie, Liu, Shu-Bin, Liu, Yang, Loparco, Francesco, Luo, Chuan-Ning, Ma, Miao, Ma, Peng-Xiong, Ma, Tao, Ma, Xiao-Yong, Marsella, Giovanni, Mazziotta, Mario Nicola, Mo, Dan, Mu, Maria, Niu, Xiao-Yang, Pan, Xu, Parenti, Andrea, Peng, Wen-Xi, Peng, Xiao-Yan, Perrina, Chiara, Qiao, Rui, Rao, Jia-Ning, Ruina, Arshia, Shangguan, Zhi, Shen, Wei-Hua, Shen, Zhao-Qiang, Shen, Zhong-Tao, Silveri, Leandro, Song, Jing-Xing, Stolpovskiy, Mikhail, Su, Hong, Su, Meng, Sun, Hao-Ran, Sun, Zhi-Yu, Surdo, Antonio, Teng, Xue-Jian, Tykhonov, Andrii, Wang, Jin-Zhou, Wang, Lian-Guo, Wang, Shen, Wang, Shu-Xin, Wang, Xiao-Lian, Wang, Ying, Wang, Yan-Fang, Wang, Yuan-Zhu, Wei, Da-Ming, Wei, Jia-Ju, Wei, Yi-Feng, Wu, Di, Wu, Jian, Wu, Li-Bo, Wu, Sha-Sha, Wu, Xin, Xia, Zi-Qing, Xu, En-Heng, Xu, Hai-Tao, Xu, Zhi-Hui, Xu, Zun-Lei, Xu, Zi-Zong, Xue, Guo-Feng, Yang, Hai-Bo, Yang, Peng, Yang, Ya-Qing, Yao, Hui-Jun, Yu, Yu-Hong, Yuan, Guan-Wen, Yuan, Qiang, Yue, Chuan, Zang, Jing-Jing, Zhang, Sheng-Xia, Zhang, Wen-Zhang, Zhang, Yan, Zhang, Yi, Zhang, Yong-Jie, Zhang, Yun-Long, Zhang, Ya-Peng, Zhang, Yong-Qiang, Zhang, Zhe, Zhang, Zhi-Yong, Zhao, Cong, Zhao, Hong-Yun, Zhao, Xun-Feng, Zhou, Chang-Yi, Zhu, Yan, and Liang, Yun-Feng

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract

The DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) is well suitable for searching for monochromatic and sharp $\gamma$-ray structures in the GeV$-$TeV range thanks to its unprecedented high energy resolution. In this work, we search for $\gamma$-ray line structures using five years of DAMPE data. To improve the sensitivity, we develop two types of dedicated data sets (including the BgoOnly data which is the first time to be used in the data analysis for the calorimeter-based gamma-ray observatories) and adopt the signal-to-noise ratio optimized regions of interest (ROIs) for different DM density profiles. No line signals or candidates are found between 10 and 300 GeV in the Galaxy. The constraints on the velocity-averaged cross section for $\chi\chi \to \gamma\gamma$ and the decay lifetime for $\chi \to \gamma\nu$, both at 95% confidence level, have been calculated and the systematic uncertainties have been taken into account. Comparing to the previous Fermi-LAT results, though DAMPE has an acceptance smaller by a factor of $\sim 10$, similar constraints on the DM parameters are achieved and below 100 GeV the lower limits on the decay lifetime are even stronger by a factor of a few. Our results demonstrate the potential of high-energy-resolution observations on dark matter detection., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures. Update the content to keep up with the published version

Published
2021
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15. Observations of Forbush Decreases of cosmic ray electrons and positrons with the Dark Matter Particle Explorer

Author

Alemanno, Francesca, An, Qi, Azzarello, Philipp, Barbato, Felicia Carla Tiziana, Bernardini, Paolo, Bi, XiaoJun, Cai, MingSheng, Casilli, Elisabetta, Catanzani, Enrico, Chang, Jin, Chen, DengYi, Chen, JunLing, Chen, ZhanFang, Cui, MingYang, Cui, TianShu, Cui, YuXing, Dai, HaoTing, De Benedittis, Antonio, De Mitri, Ivan, de Palma, Francesco, Deliyergiyev, Maksym, Di Santo, Margherita, Ding, Qi, Dong, TieKuang, Dong, ZhenXing, Donvito, Giacinto, Droz, David, Duan, JingLai, Duan, KaiKai, D'Urso, Domenico, Fan, RuiRui, Fan, YiZhong, Fang, Fang, Fang, Kun, Feng, ChangQing, Feng, Lei, Fusco, Piergiorgio, Gao, Min, Gargano, Fabio, Gong, Ke, Gong, YiZhong, Guo, DongYa, Guo, JianHua, Han, ShuangXue, Hu, YiMing, Huang, GuangShun, Huang, XiaoYuan, Huang, YongYi, Ionica, Maria, Jiang, Wei, Kong, Jie, Kotenko, Andrii, Kyratzis, Dimitrios, Li, ., Lei, ShiJun, Li, WenHao, Li, WeiLiang, Li, Xiang, Li, XianQiang, Liang, YaoMing, Liu, ChengMing, Liu, Hao, Liu, Jie, Liu, ShuBin, Liu, Yang, Loparco, Francesco, Luo, ChuanNing, Ma, Miao, Ma, PengXiong, Ma, Tao, Ma, XiaoYong, Marsella, Giovanni, Mazziotta, Mario Nicola, Mo, Dan, Niu, XiaoYang, Pan, Xu, Parenti, Andrea, Peng, WenXi, Peng, XiaoYan, Perrina, Chiara, Qiao, Rui, Rao, JiaNing, Ruina, Arshia, Salinas, MariaMunoz, Shangguan, Zhi, Shen, WeiHua, Shen, ZhaoQiang, Shen, ZhongTao, Silveri, Leandro, Song, JingXing, Stolpovskiy, Mikhail, Su, Hong, Su, Meng, Sun, HaoRan, Sun, ZhiYu, Surdo, Antonio, Teng, XueJian, Tykhonov, Andrii, Wang, JinZhou, Wang, LianGuo, Wang, Shen, Wang, ShuXin, Wang, XiaoLian, Wang, Ying, Wang, YanFang, Wang, YuanZhu, Wei, DaMing, Wei, JiaJu, Wei, YiFeng, Wu, Di, Wu, Jian, Wu, LiBo, Wu, Sha Sha, Wu, Xin, Xia, ZiQing, Xu, EnHeng, Xu, HaiTao, Xu, ZhiHui, Xu, ZunLei, Xue, GuoFeng, Xu, ZiZong, Yang, HaiBo, Yang, Peng, Yang, YaQing, Yao, Hui Jun, Yu, YuHong, Yuan, GuanWen, Yuan, Qiang, Yue, Chuan, Zang, JingJing, Zhang, ShengXia, Zhang, WenZhang, Zhang, Yan, Zhang, Yi, Zhang, YongJie, Zhang, YunLong, Zhang, YaPeng, Zhang, YongQiang, Zhang, ZhiYong, Zhang, Zhe, Zhao, Cong, Zhao, HongYun, Zhao, XunFeng, Zhou, ChangYi, Zhu, Yan, Chen, Wei, Feng, Li, Luo, Xi, and Zhu, ChengRui

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Abstract

The Forbush Decrease (FD) represents the rapid decrease of the intensities of charged particles accompanied with the coronal mass ejections (CMEs) or high-speed streams from coronal holes. It has been mainly explored with ground-based neutron monitors network which indirectly measure the integrated intensities of all species of cosmic rays by counting secondary neutrons produced from interaction between atmosphere atoms and cosmic rays. The space-based experiments can resolve the species of particles but the energy ranges are limited by the relative small acceptances except for the most abundant particles like protons and helium. Therefore, the FD of cosmic ray electrons and positrons have just been investigated by the PAMELA experiment in the low energy range ($<5$ GeV) with limited statistics. In this paper, we study the FD event occurred in September, 2017, with the electron and positron data recorded by the Dark Matter Particle Explorer. The evolution of the FDs from 2 GeV to 20 GeV with a time resolution of 6 hours are given. We observe two solar energetic particle events in the time profile of the intensity of cosmic rays, the earlier and weak one has not been shown in the neutron monitor data. Furthermore, both the amplitude and recovery time of fluxes of electrons and positrons show clear energy-dependence, which is important in probing the disturbances of the interplanetary environment by the coronal mass ejections., Comment: This article is dedicated to the 72nd anniversary of People's Republic of China

Published
2021
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16. Follow-up of breast cancer: why is it necessary to start a Consensus in 2024?

Author

Stefania Gori, Alberto Zambelli, Catia Angiolini, Antonella Ferro, Fiorenza De Rose, Alessandra Fabi, Giuseppe Azzarello, Giuseppe Bogina, Maurizio Cancian, Matteo Valerio, Michela Cinquini, Fabrizio Nicolis, and Giovanni Pappagallo

Subjects
Consensus, Early breast cancer, Follow-up, Mini-Delphi methodology, Medicine
Abstract

In Italy, breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women, with 55,900 new cases in 2023 (over 90% in the early stages). Due to the screening, early diagnosis and adjuvant treatment, these patients have a 5-years survival rate of 87% after the diagnosis. There are 834,154 women in Italy with a previous diagnosis of breast cancer: most of these women require a follow-up. The AIOM, ESMO and ASCO Guidelines recommend for early breast cancer (EBC) a clinical follow-up with only physical examination (and eliciting of symptoms) and an annual X-ray mammography, on the basis of the results of two randomized trials published in 1994 that showed no benefit in overall survival with intensive follow-up. However, an Italian survey reported the application by 80% of oncologists of an intensive follow-up based on the individual patient’s risk of recurrence. In fact, the oncologists believe that an early diagnosis of locoregional or distant recurrence may allow an early start of very effective therapies. In this lack of up-to-date scientific data, many questions about follow-up remain unanswered and the few ongoing studies will provide results in several years. Non-compliance with guideline recommendations leads to increased costs for the healthcare system. Furthermore, management varies widely from centre to centre with regard to guideline recommendations, resulting in inequalities between patients. For these reasons, the follow-up of breast cancer should be reconsidered. In the absence of recent scientific evidence, a multidisciplinary group of breast cancer experts has initiated a Consensus on the follow-up of EBC according to the mini-Delphi methodology. The project will be completed by the end of 2024.

Published
2024
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17. Measurement of the cosmic ray helium energy spectrum from 70 GeV to 80 TeV with the DAMPE space mission

Author

Alemanno, F., An, Q., Azzarello, P., Barbato, F. C. T., Bernardini, P., Bi, X. J., Cai, M. S., Catanzani, E., Chang, J., Chen, D. Y., Chen, J. L., Chen, Z. F., Cui, M. Y., Cui, T. S., Cui, Y. X., Dai, H. T., D'Amone, A., De Benedittis, A., De Mitri, I., de Palma, F., Deliyergiyev, M., Di Santo, M., Dong, T. K., Dong, Z. X., Donvito, G., Droz, D., Duan, J. L., Duan, K. K., D'Urso, D., Fan, R. R., Fan, Y. Z., Fang, K., Fang, F., Feng, C. Q., Feng, L., Fusco, P., Gao, M., Gargano, F., Gong, K., Gong, Y. Z., Guo, D. Y., Guo, J. H., Guo, X. L., Han, S. X., Hu, Y. M., Huang, G. S., Huang, X. Y., Huang, Y. Y., Ionica, M., Jiang, W., Kong, J., Kotenko, A., Kyratzis, D., Lei, S. J., Li, S., Li, W. L., Li, X., Li, X. Q., Liang, Y. M., Liu, C. M., Liu, H., Liu, J., Liu, S. B., Liu, W. Q., Liu, Y., Loparco, F., Luo, C. N., Ma, M., Ma, P. X., Ma, T., Ma, X. Y., Marsella, G., Mazziotta, M. N., Mo, D., Niu, X. Y., Pan, X., Parenti, A., Peng, W. X., Peng, X. Y., Perrina, C., Qiao, R., Rao, J. N., Ruina, A., Salinas, M. M., Shang, G. Z., Shen, W. H., Shen, Z. Q., Shen, Z. T., Silveri, L., Song, J. X., Stolpovskiy, M., Su, H., Su, M., Sun, Z. Y., Surdo, A., Teng, X. J., Tykhonov, A., Wang, H., Wang, J. Z., Wang, L. G., Wang, S., Wang, X. L., Wang, Y., Wang, Y. F., Wang, Y. Z., Wang, Z. M., Wei, D. M., Wei, J. J., Wei, Y. F., Wen, S. C., Wu, D., Wu, J., Wu, L. B., Wu, S. S., Wu, X., Xia, Z. Q., Xu, H. T., Xu, Z. H., Xu, Z. L., Xu, Z. Z., Xue, G. F., Yang, H. B., Yang, P., Yang, Y. Q., Yao, H. J., Yu, Y. H., Yuan, G. W., Yuan, Q., Yue, C., Zang, J. J., Zhang, F., Zhang, S. X., Zhang, W. Z., Zhang, Y., Zhang, Y. J., Zhang, Y. L., Zhang, Y. P., Zhang, Y. Q., Zhang, Z., Zhang, Z. Y., Zhao, C., Zhao, H. Y., Zhao, X. F., Zhou, C. Y., and Zhu, Y.

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract

The measurement of the energy spectrum of cosmic ray helium nuclei from 70 GeV to 80 TeV using 4.5 years of data recorded by the DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) is reported in this work. A hardening of the spectrum is observed at an energy of about 1.3 TeV, similar to previous observations. In addition, a spectral softening at about 34 TeV is revealed for the first time with large statistics and well controlled systematic uncertainties, with an overall significance of $4.3\sigma$. The DAMPE spectral measurements of both cosmic protons and helium nuclei suggest a particle charge dependent softening energy, although with current uncertainties a dependence on the number of nucleons cannot be ruled out., Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures, published in Phys. Rev. Lett. Add one more digit for first three columns in Table S2

Published
2021
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18. Cardiac wasting in head and neck cancer and in cardiac autopsies from different cancer types: A study in a chemo‐naïve setting

Author

Sara Calamelli, Samantha Noto, Alessandra Baldoni, Alessandra Casarin, Alessandro Calzavara, Irene Bolgan, Silvia Coccato, Salvatore Saccà, Licia Laurino, Giuseppe Azzarello, and Simonetta Ausoni

Subjects
Autoptic analysis, Cardiac wasting, Chemo‐naive patients, Head and neck cancer, Left ventricular wall thickness, Diseases of the musculoskeletal system, RC925-935, Human anatomy, QM1-695
Abstract

Abstract Background Cardiac wasting is a detrimental consequence of cancer that has been traditionally ignored and often misinterpreted as an iatrogenic effect. Methods We conducted a retrospective study on 42 chemo‐naive patients affected by locally advanced head and neck cancer (HNC). Based on unintentional weight loss, patients were divided into cachectic and non‐cachectic. Left ventricular mass (LVM), LV wall thickness (LVWT), interventricular septal (IVS) thickness, left ventricular internal diameter diastolic (LVIDd), left ventricular internal diameter systolic (LVIDs), internal ventricular septum diastolic (IVSd), left ventricular posterior wall thickness diastolic (LVPWd) and LV ejection fraction (LVEF) were analysed by echocardiography. In parallel, we retrospectively analysed 28 cardiac autoptic specimens of patients who either died of cancer before chemotherapy or with a diagnosis of cancer at autopsy. Presence or absence of myocardial fibrosis at microscopic observation was used for sample stratification. Conventional histology was performed. Results Cachectic and non‐cachectic patients had a significantly different value of LVWT and IVS thickness and LVPWd. LVWT was 9.08 ± 1.57 versus 10.35 ± 1.41 mm (P = 0.011) in cachectic and non‐cachectic patients, IVS was 10.00 mm (8.50–11.00) versus 11.00 mm (10.00–12.00) (P = 0.035), and LVPWd was 9.0 (8.5–10.0) and 10.00 mm (9.5–11.0) (P = 0.019) in cachectic and non‐cachectic patients. LVM adjusted for body surface area or height squared did not differ between the two populations. Similarly, LVEF did not show any significant decline. At multivariate logistic regression analysis for some independent predictors of weight loss, only LVWT maintained significant difference between cachectic and non‐cachectic patients (P = 0.035, OR = 0.240; P = 0.019). The secondary analysis on autoptic specimens showed no significant change in heart weight, whereas LVWT declined from 9.50 (7.25–11.00) to 7.50 mm (6.00–9.00) in cardiac specimens with myocardial fibrosis (P = 0.043). These data were confirmed in multivariate logistic regression analysis (P = 0.041, OR = 0.502). Histopathological analysis confirmed severe atrophy of cardiomyocytes, fibrosis and oedema as compared with controls. Conclusions Subtle changes in heart structure and function occur early in HNC patients. These can be detected with routine echocardiography and may help to select appropriate cancer treatment regimens for these patients. Histopathological analysis provided conclusive evidence that atrophy of cardiomyocytes, oedema and fibrosis occur during cancer progression and may precede the onset of overt cardiac pathology. To our knowledge, this is the first clinical study that establishes a direct relationship between tumour progression and cardiac remodelling in HNCs and the first pathological study conducted on human cardiac autopsies from selected chemo‐naïve cancer patients.

Published
2023
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19. Tracker-In-Calorimeter (TIC): a calorimetric approach to tracking gamma rays in space experiments

Author

Adriani, O., Ambrosi, G., Azzarello, P., Basti, A., Berti, E., Bertucci, B., Bigongiari, G., Bonechi, L., Bongi, M., Bottai, S., Brianzi, M., Brogi, P., Castellini, G., Catanzani, E., Checchia, C., D'Alessandro, R., Detti, S., Duranti, M., Finetti, N., Formato, V., Ionica, M., Maestro, P., Maletta, F., Marrocchesi, P. S., Mori, N., Pacini, L., Papini, P., Ricciarini, S., Silvestre, G., Spillantini, P., Starodubtsev, O., Stolzi, F., Suh, J. E., Sulaj, A., Tiberio, A., and Vannuccini, E.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Abstract

A multi-messenger, space-based cosmic ray detector for gamma rays and charged particles poses several design challenges due to the different instrumental requirements for the two kind of particles. Gamma-ray detection requires layers of high Z materials for photon conversion and a tracking device with a long lever arm to achieve the necessary angular resolution to separate point sources; on the contrary, charge measurements for atomic nuclei requires a thin detector in order to avoid unwanted fragmentation, and a shallow instrument so to maximize the geometric factor. In this paper, a novel tracking approach for gamma rays which tries to reconcile these two conflicting requirements is presented. The proposal is based on the Tracker-In-Calorimeter (TIC) design that relies on a highly-segmented calorimeter to track the incident gamma ray by sampling the lateral development of the electromagnetic shower at different depths. The effectiveness of this approach has been studied with Monte Carlo simulations and has been validated with test beam data of a detector prototype., Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables

Published
2020
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20. Characterization of a Large Area Hybrid Pixel Detector of Timepix3 Technology for Space Applications

Author

Martin Farkas, Benedikt Bergmann, Pavel Broulim, Petr Burian, Giovanni Ambrosi, Philipp Azzarello, Lukáš Pušman, Mateusz Sitarz, Petr Smolyanskiy, Daniil Sukhonos, and Xin Wu

Subjects
PAN, Timepix3 low-power modes, Timepix3 Quad, Timepix3 temperature dependency, Timpepix3 space application, Physics, QC1-999, Nuclear and particle physics. Atomic energy. Radioactivity, QC770-798
Abstract

We present the characterization of a highly segmented “large area” hybrid pixel detector (Timepix3, 512 × 512 pixels, pixel pitch 55 µm) for application in space experiments. We demonstrate that the nominal power consumption of 6 W can be reduced by changing the settings of the Timepix3 analog front-end and reducing the matrix clock frequency (from the nominal 40 MHz to 5 MHz) to 2 W (in the best case). We then present a comprehensive study of the impact of these changes on the particle tracking performance, the energy resolution and time stamping precision by utilizing data measured at the Super-Proton-Synchrotron (SPS) at CERN and at the Danish Center for Particle Therapy (DCPT). While the impact of the slower sampling frequency on energy measurement can be mitigated by prolongation of the falling edge of the analog signal, we find a reduction of the time resolution from 1.8 ns (in standard settings) to 5.6 ns (in analog low-power), which is further reduced utilizing a lower sampling clock (e.g., 5 MHz, in digital low-power operation) to 73.5 ns. We have studied the temperature dependence of the energy measurement for ambient temperatures between −20 °C and 50 °C separately for the different settings.

Published
2024
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21. Measurement of the cosmic-ray proton spectrum from 40 GeV to 100 TeV with the DAMPE satellite

Author

An, Q., Asfandiyarov, R., Azzarello, P., Bernardini, P., Bi, X. J., Cai, M. S., Chang, J., Chen, D. Y., Chen, H. F., Chen, J. L., Chen, W., Cui, M. Y., Cui, T. S., Dai, H. T., D'Amone, A., De Benedittis, A., De Mitri, I., Di Santo, M., Ding, M., Dong, T. K., Dong, Y. F., Dong, Z. X., Donvito, G., Droz, D., Duan, J. L., Duan, K. K., D'Urso, D., Fan, R. R., Fan, Y. Z., Fang, F., Feng, C. Q., Feng, L., Fusco, P., Gallo, V., Gan, F. J., Gao, M., Gargano, F., Gong, K., Gong, Y. Z., Guo, D. Y., Guo, J. H., Guo, X. L., Han, S. X., Hu, Y. M., Huang, G. S., Huang, X. Y., Huang, Y. Y., Ionica, M., Jiang, W., Jin, X., Kong, J., Lei, S. J., Li, S., Li, W. L., Li, X., Li, X. Q., Li, Y., Liang, Y. F., Liang, Y. M., Liao, N. H., Liu, C. M., Liu, H., Liu, J., Liu, S. B., Liu, W. Q., Liu, Y., Loparco, F., Luo, C. N., Ma, M., Ma, P. X., Ma, S. Y., Ma, T., Ma, X. Y., Marsella, G., Mazziotta, M. N., Mo, D., Niu, X. Y., Pan, X., Peng, W. X., Peng, X. Y., Qiao, R., Rao, J. N., Salinas, M. M., Shang, G. Z., Shen, W. H., Shen, Z. Q., Shen, Z. T., Song, J. X., Su, H., Su, M., Sun, Z. Y., Surdo, A., Teng, X. J., Tykhonov, A., Vitillo, S., Wang, C., Wang, H., Wang, H. Y., Wang, J. Z., Wang, L. G., Wang, Q., Wang, S., Wang, X. H., Wang, X. L., Wang, Y. F., Wang, Y. P., Wang, Y. Z., Wang, Z. M., Wei, D. M., Wei, J. J., Wei, Y. F., Wen, S. C., Wu, D., Wu, J., Wu, L. B., Wu, S. S., Wu, X., Xi, K., Xia, Z. Q., Xu, H. T., Xu, Z. H., Xu, Z. L., Xu, Z. Z., Xue, G. F., Yang, H. B., Yang, P., Yang, Y. Q., Yang, Z. L., Yao, H. J., Yu, Y. H., Yuan, Q., Yue, C., Zang, J. J., Zhang, F., Zhang, J. Y., Zhang, J. Z., Zhang, P. F., Zhang, S. X., Zhang, W. Z., Zhang, Y., Zhang, Y. J., Zhang, Y. L., Zhang, Y. P., Zhang, Y. Q., Zhang, Z., Zhang, Z. Y., Zhao, H., Zhao, H. Y., Zhao, X. F., Zhou, C. Y., Zhou, Y., Zhu, X., Zhu, Y., and Zimmer, S.

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Abstract

The precise measurement of the spectrum of protons, the most abundant component of the cosmic radiation, is necessary to understand the source and acceleration of cosmic rays in the Milky Way. This work reports the measurement of the cosmic ray proton fluxes with kinetic energies from 40 GeV to 100 TeV, with two and a half years of data recorded by the DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE). This is the first time an experiment directly measures the cosmic ray protons up to ~100 TeV with a high statistics. The measured spectrum confirms the spectral hardening found by previous experiments and reveals a softening at ~13.6 TeV, with the spectral index changing from ~2.60 to ~2.85. Our result suggests the existence of a new spectral feature of cosmic rays at energies lower than the so-called knee, and sheds new light on the origin of Galactic cosmic rays., Comment: 37 pages, 5 figures, published in Science Advances

Published
2019
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22. The on-orbit calibration of DArk Matter Particle Explorer

Author

Ambrosi, G., An, Q., Asfandiyarov, R., Azzarello, P., Bernardini, P., Cai, M. S., Caragiulo, M., Chang, J., Chen, D. Y., Chen, H. F., Chen, J. L., Chen, W., Cui, M. Y., Cui, T. S., Dai, H. T., D'Amone, A., De Benedittis, A., De Mitri, I., Ding, M., Di Santo, M., Dong, J. N., Dong, T. K., Dong, Y. F., Dong, Z. X., Droz, D., Duan, K. K., Duan, J. L., D'Urso, D., Fan, R. R., Fan, Y. Z., Fang, F., Feng, C. Q., Feng, L., Fusco, P., Gallo, V., Gan, F. J., Gao, M., Gao, S. S., Gargano, F., Garrappa, S., Gong, K., Gong, Y. Z., Guo, J. H., Hu, Y. M., Huang, G. S., Huang, Y. Y., Ionica, M., Jiang, D., Jiang, W., Jin, X., Kong, J., Lei, S. J., Li, S., Li, X., Li, W. L., Li, Y., Liang, Y. F., Liang, Y. M., Liao, N. H., Liu, C. M., Liu, H., Liu, J., Liu, S. B., Liu, W. Q., Liu, Y., Loparco, F., Ma, M., Ma, P. X., Ma, S. Y., Ma, T., Ma, X. Q., Ma, X. Y., Marsella, G., Mazziotta, M. N., Mo, D., Niu, X. Y., Pan, X., Peng, X. Y., Peng, W. X., Qiao, R., Rao, J. N., Salinas, M. M., Shang, G. Z., Shen, W. H., Shen, Z. Q., Shen, Z. T., Song, J. X., Su, H., Su, M., Sun, Z. Y., Surdo, A., Teng, X. J., Tian, X. B., Tykhonov, A., Vitillo, S., Wang, C., Wang, H., Wang, H. Y., Wang, J. Z., Wang, L. G., Wang, Q., Wang, S., Wang, X. H., Wang, X. L., Wang, Y. F., Wang, Y. P., Wang, Y. Z., Wang, Z. M., Wen, S. C., Wei, D. M., Wei, J. J., Wei, Y. F., Wu, D., Wu, J., Wu, L. B., Wu, S. S., Wu, X., Xi, K., Xia, Z. Q., Xin, Y. L., Xu, H. T., Xu, Z. H., Xu, Z. L., Xu, Z. Z., Xue, G. F., Yang, H. B., Yang, P., Yang, Y. Q., Yang, Z. L., Yao, H. J., Yu, Y. H., Yuan, Q., Yue, C., Zang, J. J., Zhang, D. L., Zhang, F., Zhang, J. B., Zhang, J. Y., Zhang, J. Z., Zhang, L., Zhang, P. F., Zhang, S. X., Zhang, W. Z., Zhang, Y., Zhang, Y. J., Zhang, Y. Q., Zhang, Y. L., Zhang, Y. P., Zhang, Z., Zhang, Z. Y., Zhao, H., Zhao, H. Y., Zhao, X. F., Zhou, C. Y., Zhou, Y., Zhu, X., Zhu, Y., and Zimmer, S.

Subjects
Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract

The DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE), a satellite-based cosmic ray and gamma-ray detector, was launched on December 17, 2015, and began its on-orbit operation on December 24, 2015. In this work we document the on-orbit calibration procedures used by DAMPE and report the calibration results of the Plastic Scintillator strip Detector (PSD), the Silicon-Tungsten tracKer-converter (STK), the BGO imaging calorimeter (BGO), and the Neutron Detector (NUD). The results are obtained using Galactic cosmic rays, bright known GeV gamma-ray sources, and charge injection into the front-end electronics of each sub-detector. The determination of the boundary of the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), the measurement of the live time, and the alignments of the detectors are also introduced. The calibration results demonstrate the stability of the detectors in almost two years of the on-orbit operation.

Published
2019
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23. Penetrating particle ANalyzer (PAN)

Author

Wu, X., Ambrosi, G., Azzarello, P., Bergmann, B., Bertucci, B., Cadoux, F., Campbell, M., Duranti, M., Ionica, M., Kole, M., Krucker, S., Maehlum, G., Meier, D., Paniccia, M., Pinsky, L., Plainaki, C., Pospisil, S., Stein, T., Thonet, P. A., Tomassetti, N., and Tykhonov, A.

Subjects
Physics - Space Physics, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Abstract

PAN is a scientific instrument suitable for deep space and interplanetary missions. It can precisely measure and monitor the flux, composition, and direction of highly penetrating particles ($> \sim$100 MeV/nucleon) in deep space, over at least one full solar cycle (~11 years). The science program of PAN is multi- and cross-disciplinary, covering cosmic ray physics, solar physics, space weather and space travel. PAN will fill an observation gap of galactic cosmic rays in the GeV region, and provide precise information of the spectrum, composition and emission time of energetic particle originated from the Sun. The precise measurement and monitoring of the energetic particles is also a unique contribution to space weather studies. PAN will map the flux and composition of penetrating particles, which cannot be shielded effectively, precisely and continuously, providing valuable input for the assessment of the related health risk, and for the development of an adequate mitigation strategy. PAN has the potential to become a standard on-board instrument for deep space human travel. PAN is based on the proven detection principle of a magnetic spectrometer, but with novel layout and detection concept. It will adopt advanced particle detection technologies and industrial processes optimized for deep space application. The device will require limited mass (~20 kg) and power (~20 W) budget. Dipole magnet sectors built from high field permanent magnet Halbach arrays, instrumented in a modular fashion with high resolution silicon strip detectors, allow to reach an energy resolution better than 10\% for nuclei from H to Fe at 1 GeV/n.

Published
2019
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24. Single-cell imaging of α and β cell metabolic response to glucose in living human Langerhans islets

Author

Fabio Azzarello, Luca Pesce, Valentina De Lorenzi, Gianmarco Ferri, Marta Tesi, Silvia Del Guerra, Piero Marchetti, and Francesco Cardarelli

Subjects
Biology (General), QH301-705.5
Abstract

A combination of live imaging and immunofluorescence on donor islet cells uncover an anti-correlation of enzyme-bound NAD(P)H and insulin secretion power.

Published
2022
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25. In-flight performance of the DAMPE silicon tracker

Author

Tykhonov, A., Ambrosi, G., Asfandiyarov, R., Azzarello, P., Bernardini, P., Bertucci, B., Bolognini, A., Cadoux, F., D'Amone, A., De Benedittis, A., De Mitri, I., Di Santo, M., Dong, Y. F., Duranti, M., D'Urso, D., Fan, R. R., Fusco, P., Gallo, V., Gao, M., Gargano, F., Garrappa, S., Gong, K., Ionica, M., La Marra, D., Loparco, F., Marsella, G., Mazziotta, M. N., Peng, W. X., Qiao, R., Salinas, M. M., Surdo, A., Vagelli, V., Vitillo, S., Wang, H. Y., Wang, J. Z., Wang, Z. M., Wu, D., Wu, X., Zhang, F., Zhang, J. Y., Zhao, H., and Zimmer, S.

Subjects
Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

DAMPE (DArk Matter Particle Explorer) is a spaceborne high-energy cosmic ray and gamma-ray detector, successfully launched in December 2015. It is designed to probe astroparticle physics in the broad energy range from few GeV to 100 TeV. The scientific goals of DAMPE include the identification of possible signatures of Dark Matter annihilation or decay, the study of the origin and propagation mechanisms of cosmic-ray particles, and gamma-ray astronomy. DAMPE consists of four sub-detectors: a plastic scintillator strip detector, a Silicon-Tungsten tracKer-converter (STK), a BGO calorimeter and a neutron detector. The STK is composed of six double layers of single-sided silicon micro-strip detectors interleaved with three layers of tungsten for photon conversions into electron-positron pairs. The STK is a crucial component of DAMPE, allowing to determine the direction of incoming photons, to reconstruct tracks of cosmic rays and to estimate their absolute charge (Z). We present the in-flight performance of the STK based on two years of in-flight DAMPE data, which includes the noise behavior, signal response, thermal and mechanical stability, alignment and position resolution.

Published
2018
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26. Internal alignment and position resolution of the silicon tracker of DAMPE determined with orbit data

Author

Tykhonov, A., Ambrosi, G., Asfandiyarov, R., Azzarello, P., Bernardini, P., Bertucci, B., Bolognini, A., Cadoux, F., D'Amone, A., De Benedittis, A., De Mitri, I., Di Santo, M., Dong, Y. F., Duranti, M., D'Urso, D., Fan, R. R., Fusco, P., Gallo, V., Gao, M., Gargano, F., Garrappa, S., Gong, K., Ionica, M., La Marra, D., Lei, S. J., Li, X., Loparco, F., Marsella, G., Mazziotta, M. N., Peng, W. X., Qiao, R., Salinas, M. M., Surdo, A., Vagelli, V., Vitillo, S., Wang, H. Y., Wang, J. Z., Wu, D., Wu, X., Zhang, F., Zhang, J. Y., Zhao, H., and Zimmer, S.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

The DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) is a space-borne particle detector designed to probe electrons and gamma-rays in the few GeV to 10 TeV energy range, as well as cosmic-ray proton and nuclei components between 10 GeV and 100 TeV. The silicon-tungsten tracker-converter is a crucial component of DAMPE. It allows the direction of incoming photons converting into electron-positron pairs to be estimated, and the trajectory and charge (Z) of cosmic-ray particles to be identified. It consists of 768 silicon micro-strip sensors assembled in 6 double layers with a total active area of 6.6 m$^2$. Silicon planes are interleaved with three layers of tungsten plates, resulting in about one radiation length of material in the tracker. Internal alignment parameters of the tracker have been determined on orbit, with non-showering protons and helium nuclei. We describe the alignment procedure and present the position resolution and alignment stability measurements.

Published
2017
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27. Direct detection of a break in the teraelectronvolt cosmic-ray spectrum of electrons and positrons

Author

Ambrosi, G., An, Q., Asfandiyarov, R., Azzarello, P., Bernardini, P., Bertucci, B., Cai, M. S., Chang, J., Chen, D. Y., Chen, H. F., Chen, J. L., Chen, W., Cui, M. Y., Cui, T. S., D'Amone, A., De Benedittis, A., De Mitri, I., Di Santo, M., Dong, J. N., Dong, T. K., Dong, Y. F., Dong, Z. X., Donvito, G., Droz, D., Duan, K. K., Duan, J. L., Duranti, M., D'Urso, D., Fan, R. R., Fan, Y. Z., Fang, F., Feng, C. Q., Feng, L., Fusco, P., Gallo, V., Gan, F. J., Gao, M., Gao, S. S., Gargano, F., Garrappa, S., Gong, K., Gong, Y. Z., Guo, D. Y., Guo, J. H., Hu, Y. M., Huang, G. S., Huang, Y. Y., Ionica, M., Jiang, D., Jiang, W., Jin, X., Kong, J., Lei, S. J., Li, S., Li, X., Li, W. L., Li, Y., Liang, Y. F., Liang, Y. M., Liao, N. H., Liu, H., Liu, J., Liu, S. B., Liu, W. Q., Liu, Y., Loparco, F., Ma, M., Ma, P. X., Ma, S. Y., Ma, T., Ma, X. Q., Ma, X. Y., Marsella, G., Mazziotta, M. N., Mo, D., Niu, X. Y., Peng, X. Y., Peng, W. X., Qiao, R., Rao, J. N., Salinas, M. M., Shang, G. Z., Shen, W. H., Shen, Z. Q., Shen, Z. T., Song, J. X., Su, H., Su, M., Sun, Z. Y., Surdo, A., Teng, X. J., Tian, X. B., Tykhonov, A., Vagelli, V., Vitillo, S., Wang, C., Wang, H., Wang, H. Y., Wang, J. Z., Wang, L. G., Wang, Q., Wang, S., Wang, X. H., Wang, X. L., Wang, Y. F., Wang, Y. P., Wang, Y. Z., Wen, S. C., Wang, Z. M., Wei, D. M., Wei, J. J., Wei, Y. F., Wu, D., Wu, J., Wu, L. B., Wu, S. S., Wu, X., Xi, K., Xia, Z. Q., Xin, Y. L., Xu, H. T., Xu, Z. L., Xu, Z. Z., Xue, G. F., Yang, H. B., Yang, P., Yang, Y. Q., Yang, Z. L., Yao, H. J., Yu, Y. H., Yuan, Q., Yue, C., Zang, J. J., Zhang, C., Zhang, D. L., Zhang, F., Zhang, J. B., Zhang, J. Y., Zhang, J. Z., Zhang, L., Zhang, P. F., Zhang, S. X., Zhang, W. Z., Zhang, Y., Zhang, Y. J., Zhang, Y. Q., Zhang, Y. L., Zhang, Y. P., Zhang, Z., Zhang, Z. Y., Zhao, H., Zhao, H. Y., Zhao, X. F., Zhou, C. Y., Zhou, Y., Zhu, X., Zhu, Y., and Zimmer, S.

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, High Energy Physics - Experiment, High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Abstract

High energy cosmic ray electrons plus positrons (CREs), which lose energy quickly during their propagation, provide an ideal probe of Galactic high-energy processes and may enable the observation of phenomena such as dark-matter particle annihilation or decay. The CRE spectrum has been directly measured up to $\sim 2$ TeV in previous balloon- or space-borne experiments, and indirectly up to $\sim 5$ TeV by ground-based Cherenkov $\gamma$-ray telescope arrays. Evidence for a spectral break in the TeV energy range has been provided by indirect measurements of H.E.S.S., although the results were qualified by sizeable systematic uncertainties. Here we report a direct measurement of CREs in the energy range $25~{\rm GeV}-4.6~{\rm TeV}$ by the DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) with unprecedentedly high energy resolution and low background. The majority of the spectrum can be properly fitted by a smoothly broken power-law model rather than a single power-law model. The direct detection of a spectral break at $E \sim0.9$ TeV confirms the evidence found by H.E.S.S., clarifies the behavior of the CRE spectrum at energies above 1 TeV and sheds light on the physical origin of the sub-TeV CREs., Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, Nature in press, doi:10.1038/nature24475

Published
2017
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28. De Novo Pathogenic Variants in N-cadherin Cause a Syndromic Neurodevelopmental Disorder with Corpus Collosum, Axon, Cardiac, Ocular, and Genital Defects

Author

Accogli, Andrea, Calabretta, Sara, St-Onge, Judith, Boudrahem-Addour, Nassima, Dionne-Laporte, Alexandre, Joset, Pascal, Azzarello-Burri, Silvia, Rauch, Anita, Krier, Joel, Fieg, Elizabeth, Pallais, Juan C, Network, Undiagnosed Diseases, Acosta, Maria T, Adams, David R, Agrawal, Pankaj, Alejandro, Mercedes E, Allard, Patrick, Alvey, Justin, Andrews, Ashley, Ashley, Euan A, Azamian, Mahshid S, Bacino, Carlos A, Bademci, Guney, Baker, Eva, Balasubramanyam, Ashok, Baldridge, Dustin, Bale, Jim, Barbouth, Deborah, Batzli, Gabriel F, Bayrak-Toydemir, Pinar, Beggs, Alan H, Bejerano, Gill, Bellen, Hugo J, Bernstein, Jonathan A, Berry, Gerard T, Bican, Anna, Bick, David P, Birch, Camille L, Bivona, Stephanie, Bohnsack, John, Bonnenmann, Carsten, Bonner, Devon, Boone, Braden E, Bostwick, Bret L, Botto, Lorenzo, Briere, Lauren C, Brokamp, Elly, Brown, Donna M, Brush, Matthew, Burke, Elizabeth A, Burrage, Lindsay C, Butte, Manish J, Carey, John, Carrasquillo, Olveen, Chang, Ta Chen Peter, Chao, Hsiao-Tuan, Clark, Gary D, Coakley, Terra R, Cobban, Laurel A, Cogan, Joy D, Cole, F Sessions, Colley, Heather A, Cooper, Cynthia M, Cope, Heidi, Craigen, William J, D’Souza, Precilla, Dasari, Surendra, Davids, Mariska, Dayal, Jyoti G, Dell’Angelica, Esteban C, Dhar, Shweta U, Dorrani, Naghmeh, Dorset, Daniel C, Douine, Emilie D, Draper, David D, Duncan, Laura, Eckstein, David J, Emrick, Lisa T, Eng, Christine M, Esteves, Cecilia, Estwick, Tyra, Fernandez, Liliana, Ferreira, Carlos, Fieg, Elizabeth L, Fisher, Paul G, Fogel, Brent L, Forghani, Irman, Fresard, Laure, Gahl, William A, Godfrey, Rena A, Goldman, Alica M, Goldstein, David B, Gourdine, Jean-Philippe F, Grajewski, Alana, Groden, Catherine A, Gropman, Andrea L, Haendel, Melissa, Hamid, Rizwan, Hanchard, Neil A, and Hayes, Nichole

Subjects
Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Genetics, Biological Sciences, Neurosciences, 2.1 Biological and endogenous factors, Aetiology, Axons, Cadherins, Corpus Callosum, Eye, Frameshift Mutation, Genitalia, Heart Defects, Congenital, Heterozygote, Humans, Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Undiagnosed Diseases Network, ACOG, CDH2, N-cadherin, cardiac defects, cell-cell adhesion, corpus callosum, eye defects, genital defects, intellectual disability, Medical and Health Sciences, Genetics & Heredity, Biological sciences, Biomedical and clinical sciences, Health sciences
Abstract

Cadherins constitute a family of transmembrane proteins that mediate calcium-dependent cell-cell adhesion. The extracellular domain of cadherins consists of extracellular cadherin (EC) domains, separated by calcium binding sites. The EC interacts with other cadherin molecules in cis and in trans to mechanically hold apposing cell surfaces together. CDH2 encodes N-cadherin, whose essential roles in neural development include neuronal migration and axon pathfinding. However, CDH2 has not yet been linked to a Mendelian neurodevelopmental disorder. Here, we report de novo heterozygous pathogenic variants (seven missense, two frameshift) in CDH2 in nine individuals with a syndromic neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by global developmental delay and/or intellectual disability, variable axon pathfinding defects (corpus callosum agenesis or hypoplasia, mirror movements, Duane anomaly), and ocular, cardiac, and genital anomalies. All seven missense variants (c.1057G>A [p.Asp353Asn]; c.1789G>A [p.Asp597Asn]; c.1789G>T [p.Asp597Tyr]; c.1802A>C [p.Asn601Thr]; c.1839C>G [p.Cys613Trp]; c.1880A>G [p.Asp627Gly]; c.2027A>G [p.Tyr676Cys]) result in substitution of highly conserved residues, and six of seven cluster within EC domains 4 and 5. Four of the substitutions affect the calcium-binding site in the EC4-EC5 interdomain. We show that cells expressing these variants in the EC4-EC5 domains have a defect in cell-cell adhesion; this defect includes impaired binding in trans with N-cadherin-WT expressed on apposing cells. The two frameshift variants (c.2563_2564delCT [p.Leu855Valfs∗4]; c.2564_2567dupTGTT [p.Leu856Phefs∗5]) are predicted to lead to a truncated cytoplasmic domain. Our study demonstrates that de novo heterozygous variants in CDH2 impair the adhesive activity of N-cadherin, resulting in a multisystemic developmental disorder, that could be named ACOG syndrome (agenesis of corpus callosum, axon pathfinding, cardiac, ocular, and genital defects).

Published
2019

29. Measurement of the cosmic ray proton spectrum from 40 GeV to 100 TeV with the DAMPE satellite.

Author

DAMPE Collaboration, An, Q, Asfandiyarov, R, Azzarello, P, Bernardini, P, Bi, XJ, Cai, MS, Chang, J, Chen, DY, Chen, HF, Chen, JL, Chen, W, Cui, MY, Cui, TS, Dai, HT, D'Amone, A, De Benedittis, A, De Mitri, I, Di Santo, M, Ding, M, Dong, TK, Dong, YF, Dong, ZX, Donvito, G, Droz, D, Duan, JL, Duan, KK, D'Urso, D, Fan, RR, Fan, YZ, Fang, F, Feng, CQ, Feng, L, Fusco, P, Gallo, V, Gan, FJ, Gao, M, Gargano, F, Gong, K, Gong, YZ, Guo, DY, Guo, JH, Guo, XL, Han, SX, Hu, YM, Huang, GS, Huang, XY, Huang, YY, Ionica, M, Jiang, W, Jin, X, Kong, J, Lei, SJ, Li, S, Li, WL, Li, X, Li, XQ, Li, Y, Liang, YF, Liang, YM, Liao, NH, Liu, CM, Liu, H, Liu, J, Liu, SB, Liu, WQ, Liu, Y, Loparco, F, Luo, CN, Ma, M, Ma, PX, Ma, SY, Ma, T, Ma, XY, Marsella, G, Mazziotta, MN, Mo, D, Niu, XY, Pan, X, Peng, WX, Peng, XY, Qiao, R, Rao, JN, Salinas, MM, Shang, GZ, Shen, WH, Shen, ZQ, Shen, ZT, Song, JX, Su, H, Su, M, Sun, ZY, Surdo, A, Teng, XJ, Tykhonov, A, Vitillo, S, Wang, C, Wang, H, Wang, HY, and Wang, JZ

Subjects
DAMPE Collaboration, astro-ph.HE
Abstract

The precise measurement of the spectrum of protons, the most abundant component of the cosmic radiation, is necessary to understand the source and acceleration of cosmic rays in the Milky Way. This work reports the measurement of the cosmic ray proton fluxes with kinetic energies from 40 GeV to 100 TeV, with 2 1/2 years of data recorded by the DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE). This is the first time that an experiment directly measures the cosmic ray protons up to ~100 TeV with high statistics. The measured spectrum confirms the spectral hardening at ~300 GeV found by previous experiments and reveals a softening at ~13.6 TeV, with the spectral index changing from ~2.60 to ~2.85. Our result suggests the existence of a new spectral feature of cosmic rays at energies lower than the so-called knee and sheds new light on the origin of Galactic cosmic rays.

Published
2019

30. Measurement of the cosmic ray proton spectrum from 40 GeV to 100 TeV with the DAMPE satellite

Author

Collaboration, DAMPE, An, Q, Asfandiyarov, R, Azzarello, P, Bernardini, P, Bi, XJ, Cai, MS, Chang, J, Chen, DY, Chen, HF, Chen, JL, Chen, W, Cui, MY, Cui, TS, Dai, HT, D’Amone, A, De Benedittis, A, De Mitri, I, Di Santo, M, Ding, M, Dong, TK, Dong, YF, Dong, ZX, Donvito, G, Droz, D, Duan, JL, Duan, KK, D’Urso, D, Fan, RR, Fan, YZ, Fang, F, Feng, CQ, Feng, L, Fusco, P, Gallo, V, Gan, FJ, Gao, M, Gargano, F, Gong, K, Gong, YZ, Guo, DY, Guo, JH, Guo, XL, Han, SX, Hu, YM, Huang, GS, Huang, XY, Huang, YY, Ionica, M, Jiang, W, Jin, X, Kong, J, Lei, SJ, Li, S, Li, WL, Li, X, Li, XQ, Li, Y, Liang, YF, Liang, YM, Liao, NH, Liu, CM, Liu, H, Liu, J, Liu, SB, Liu, WQ, Liu, Y, Loparco, F, Luo, CN, Ma, M, X., P, Y., S, Ma, T, Y., X, Marsella, G, Mazziotta, MN, Mo, D, Niu, XY, Pan, X, Peng, WX, Peng, XY, Qiao, R, Rao, JN, Salinas, MM, Shang, GZ, Shen, WH, Shen, ZQ, Shen, ZT, Song, JX, Su, H, Su, M, Sun, ZY, Surdo, A, Teng, XJ, Tykhonov, A, Vitillo, S, Wang, C, Wang, H, Wang, HY, and Wang, JZ

Subjects
Nuclear and Plasma Physics, Particle and High Energy Physics, Physical Sciences, DAMPE Collaboration, astro-ph.HE
Abstract

The precise measurement of the spectrum of protons, the most abundant component of the cosmic radiation, is necessary to understand the source and acceleration of cosmic rays in the Milky Way. This work reports the measurement of the cosmic ray proton fluxes with kinetic energies from 40 GeV to 100 TeV, with 2 1/2 years of data recorded by the DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE). This is the first time that an experiment directly measures the cosmic ray protons up to ~100 TeV with high statistics. The measured spectrum confirms the spectral hardening at ~300 GeV found by previous experiments and reveals a softening at ~13.6 TeV, with the spectral index changing from ~2.60 to ~2.85. Our result suggests the existence of a new spectral feature of cosmic rays at energies lower than the so-called knee and sheds new light on the origin of Galactic cosmic rays.

Published
2019

31. Heterozygous Variants in KMT2E Cause a Spectrum of Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Epilepsy

Author

O’Donnell-Luria, Anne H, Pais, Lynn S, Faundes, Víctor, Wood, Jordan C, Sveden, Abigail, Luria, Victor, Jamra, Rami Abou, Accogli, Andrea, Amburgey, Kimberly, Anderlid, Britt Marie, Azzarello-Burri, Silvia, Basinger, Alice A, Bianchini, Claudia, Bird, Lynne M, Buchert, Rebecca, Carre, Wilfrid, Ceulemans, Sophia, Charles, Perrine, Cox, Helen, Culliton, Lisa, Currò, Aurora, Study, Deciphering Developmental Disorders, McRae, Jeremy F, Clayton, Stephen, Fitzgerald, Tomas W, Kaplanis, Joanna, Prigmore, Elena, Rajan, Diana, Sifrim, Alejandro, Aitken, Stuart, Akawi, Nadia, Alvi, Mohsan, Ambridge, Kirsty, Barrett, Daniel M, Bayzetinova, Tanya, Jones, Philip, Jones, Wendy D, King, Daniel, Krishnappa, Netravathi, Mason, Laura E, Singh, Tarjinder, Tivey, Adrian R, Ahmed, Munaza, Anjum, Uruj, Archer, Hayley, Armstrong, Ruth, Awada, Jana, Balasubramanian, Meena, Banka, Siddharth, Baralle, Diana, Barnicoat, Angela, Batstone, Paul, Baty, David, Bennett, Chris, Berg, Jonathan, Bernhard, Birgitta, Bevan, A Paul, Bitner-Glindzicz, Maria, Blair, Edward, Blyth, Moira, Bohanna, David, Bourdon, Louise, Bourn, David, Bradley, Lisa, Brady, Angela, Brent, Simon, Brewer, Carole, Brunstrom, Kate, Bunyan, David J, Burn, John, Canham, Natalie, Castle, Bruce, Chandler, Kate, Chatzimichali, Elena, Cilliers, Deirdre, Clarke, Angus, Clasper, Susan, Clayton-Smith, Jill, Clowes, Virginia, Coates, Andrea, Cole, Trevor, Colgiu, Irina, Collins, Amanda, Collinson, Morag N, Connell, Fiona, Cooper, Nicola, Cresswell, Lara, Cross, Gareth, Crow, Yanick, D’Alessandro, Mariella, Dabir, Tabib, Davidson, Rosemarie, Davies, Sally, de Vries, Dylan, Dean, John, Deshpande, Charu, Devlin, Gemma, Dixit, Abhijit, and Dobbie, Angus

Subjects
Biological Sciences, Genetics, Autism, Neurosciences, Brain Disorders, Neurodegenerative, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD), Pediatric, Clinical Research, Epilepsy, Mental Health, Aetiology, 2.1 Biological and endogenous factors, Neurological, Adolescent, Adult, Child, Child, Preschool, DNA-Binding Proteins, Female, Genetic Variation, Haploinsufficiency, Heterozygote, Humans, Infant, Male, Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Pedigree, Phenotype, Young Adult, Deciphering Developmental Disorders (DDD) Study, H3K4 methylation, KMT2E, autism, epilepsy, epileptic encephalopathy, global developmental delay, intellectual disability, neurodevelopmental disorder, Medical and Health Sciences, Genetics & Heredity, Biological sciences, Biomedical and clinical sciences, Health sciences
Abstract

We delineate a KMT2E-related neurodevelopmental disorder on the basis of 38 individuals in 36 families. This study includes 31 distinct heterozygous variants in KMT2E (28 ascertained from Matchmaker Exchange and three previously reported), and four individuals with chromosome 7q22.2-22.23 microdeletions encompassing KMT2E (one previously reported). Almost all variants occurred de novo, and most were truncating. Most affected individuals with protein-truncating variants presented with mild intellectual disability. One-quarter of individuals met criteria for autism. Additional common features include macrocephaly, hypotonia, functional gastrointestinal abnormalities, and a subtle facial gestalt. Epilepsy was present in about one-fifth of individuals with truncating variants and was responsive to treatment with anti-epileptic medications in almost all. More than 70% of the individuals were male, and expressivity was variable by sex; epilepsy was more common in females and autism more common in males. The four individuals with microdeletions encompassing KMT2E generally presented similarly to those with truncating variants, but the degree of developmental delay was greater. The group of four individuals with missense variants in KMT2E presented with the most severe developmental delays. Epilepsy was present in all individuals with missense variants, often manifesting as treatment-resistant infantile epileptic encephalopathy. Microcephaly was also common in this group. Haploinsufficiency versus gain-of-function or dominant-negative effects specific to these missense variants in KMT2E might explain this divergence in phenotype, but requires independent validation. Disruptive variants in KMT2E are an under-recognized cause of neurodevelopmental abnormalities.

Published
2019

33. The DArk Matter Particle Explorer mission

Author

Chang, J., Ambrosi, G., An, Q., Asfandiyarov, R., Azzarello, P., Bernardini, P., Bertucci, B., Cai, M. S., Caragiulo, M., Chen, D. Y., Chen, H. F., Chen, J. L., Chen, W., Cui, M. Y., Cui, T. S., D'Amone, A., De Benedittis, A., De Mitri, I., Di Santo, M., Dong, J. N., Dong, T. K., Dong, Y. F., Dong, Z. X., Donvito, G., Droz, D., Duan, K. K., Duan, J. L., Duranti, M., D'Urso, D., Fan, R. R., Fan, Y. Z., Fang, F., Feng, C. Q., Feng, L., Fusco, P., Gallo, V., Gan, F. J., Gan, W. Q., Gao, M., Gao, S. S., Gargano, F., Gong, K., Gong, Y. Z., Guo, J. H., Hu, Y. M., Huang, G. S., Huang, Y. Y., Ionica, M., Jiang, D., Jiang, W., Jin, X., Kong, J., Lei, S. J., Li, S., Li, X., Li, W. L., Li, Y., Liang, Y. F., Liang, Y. M., Liao, N. H., Liu, Q. Z., Liu, H., Liu, J., Liu, S. B., Liu, W. Q., Liu, Y., Loparco, F., Lü, J., Ma, M., Ma, P. X., Ma, S. Y., Ma, T., Ma, X. Q., Ma, X. Y., Marsella, G., Mazziotta, M. N., Mo, D., Miao, T. T., Niu, X. Y., Pohl, M., Peng, X. Y., Peng, W. X., Qiao, R., Rao, J. N., Salinas, M. M., Shang, G. Z., Shen, W. H., Shen, Z. Q., Shen, Z. T., Song, J. X., Su, H., Su, M., Sun, Z. Y., Surdo, A., Teng, X. J., Tian, X. B., Tykhonov, A., Vagelli, V., Vitillo, S., Wang, C., Wang, Chi, Wang, H., Wang, H. Y., Wang, J. Z., Wang, L. G., Wang, Q., Wang, S., Wang, X. H., Wang, X. L., Wang, Y. F., Wang, Y. P., Wang, Y. Z., Wen, S. C., Wang, Z. M., Wei, D. M., Wei, J. J., Wei, Y. F., Wu, D., Wu, J., Wu, S. S., Wu, X., Xi, K., Xia, Z. Q., Xin, Y. L., Xu, H. T., Xu, Z. L., Xu, Z. Z., Xue, G. F., Yang, H. B., Yang, J., Yang, P., Yang, Y. Q., Yang, Z. L., Yao, H. J., Yu, Y. H., Yuan, Q., Yue, C., Zang, J. J., Zhang, C., Zhang, D. L., Zhang, F., Zhang, J. B., Zhang, J. Y., Zhang, J. Z., Zhang, L., Zhang, P. F., Zhang, S. X., Zhang, W. Z., Zhang, Y., Zhang, Y. J., Zhang, Y. Q., Zhang, Y. L., Zhang, Y. P., Zhang, Z., Zhang, Z. Y., Zhao, H., Zhao, H. Y., Zhao, X. F., Zhou, C. Y., Zhou, Y., Zhu, X., Zhu, Y., and Zimmer, S.

Subjects
Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

The DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE), one of the four scientific space science missions within the framework of the Strategic Pioneer Program on Space Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is a general purpose high energy cosmic-ray and gamma-ray observatory, which was successfully launched on December 17th, 2015 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The DAMPE scientific objectives include the study of galactic cosmic rays up to $\sim 10$ TeV and hundreds of TeV for electrons/gammas and nuclei respectively, and the search for dark matter signatures in their spectra. In this paper we illustrate the layout of the DAMPE instrument, and discuss the results of beam tests and calibrations performed on ground. Finally we present the expected performance in space and give an overview of the mission key scientific goals., Comment: 45 pages, including 29 figures and 6 tables. Published in Astropart. Phys

Published
2017
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34. Charge reconstruction study of the DAMPE Silicon-Tungsten Tracker with ion beams

Author

Qiao, Rui, Peng, Wen-Xi, Guo, Dong-Ya, Zhao, Hao, Wang, Huan-Yu, Gong, Ke, Zhang, Fei, Wu, Xin, Azzarello, Phillip, Tykhonov, Andrii, Asfandiyarov, Ruslan, Gallo, Valentina, Ambrosi, Giovanni, Mazziotta, Nicola, and De Mitri, Ivan

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Abstract

The DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) is one of the four satellites within Strategic Pioneer Research Program in Space Science of the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS). DAMPE can detect electrons, photons in a wide energy range (5 GeV to 10 TeV) and ions up to iron (100GeV to 100 TeV). Silicon-Tungsten Tracker (STK) is one of the four subdetectors in DAMPE, providing photon-electron conversion, track reconstruction and charge identification for ions. Ion beam test was carried out in CERN with 60GeV/u Lead primary beams. Charge reconstruction and charge resolution of STK detectors were investigated., Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures

Published
2017
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36. Design of the readout electronics for the DAMPE Silicon Tracker detector

Author

Zhang, Fei, Peng, Wen-Xi, Gong, Ke, Wu, Di, Dong, Yi-Fan, Qiao, Rui, Fan, Rui-Rui, Wang, Jin-Zhou, Wang, Huan-Yu, Wu, Xin, La Marra, Daniel, Azzarello, Philipp, Gallo, Valentina, Ambrosi, Giovanni, and Nardinocchi, Andrea

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Abstract

The Silicon Tracker (STK) is a detector of the DAMPE satellite to measure the incidence direction of high energy cosmic ray. It consists of 6 X-Y double layers of silicon micro-strip detectors with 73,728 readout channels. It's a great challenge to readout the channels and process the huge volume of data in the critical space environment. 1152 Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) and 384 ADCs are adopted to readout the detector channels. The 192 Tracker Front-end Hybrid (TFH) modules and 8 identical Tracker Readout Board (TRB) modules are designed to control and digitalize the front signals. In this paper, the design of the readout electronics for STK and its performance will be presented in detail., Comment: 10 pages, 17 figures

Published
2016
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37. PD-1/PD-L1 immune-checkpoint blockade induces immune effector cell modulation in metastatic non-small cell lung cancer patients: A single-cell flow cytometry approach

Author

Antonella Fameli, Valerio Nardone, Mojtaba Shekarkar Azgomi, Giovanna Bianco, Claudia Gandolfo, Bianca Maria Oliva, Marika Monoriti, Rita Emilena Saladino, Antonella Falzea, Caterina Romeo, Natale Daniele Calandruccio, Domenico Azzarello, Rocco Giannicola, Luigi Pirtoli, Antonio Giordano, Pierfrancesco Tassone, Pierosandro Tagliaferri, Maria Grazia Cusi, Luciano Mutti, Cirino Botta, and Pierpaolo Correale

Subjects
immune checkpoint inhibitors, NSCL, flow cytometry, bioinformatics, NKT, Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology. Including cancer and carcinogens, RC254-282
Abstract

Peripheral immune-checkpoint blockade with mAbs to programmed cell death receptor-1 (PD-1) (either nivolumab or pembrolizumab) or PD-Ligand-1 (PD-L1) (atezolizumab, durvalumab, or avelumab) alone or in combination with doublet chemotherapy represents an expanding treatment strategy for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (mNSCLC) patients. This strategy lays on the capability of these mAbs to rescue tumor-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) inactivated throughout PD-1 binding to PD-L1/2 in the tumor sites. This inhibitory interactive pathway is a physiological mechanism of prevention against dangerous overreactions and autoimmunity in case of prolonged and/or repeated CTL response to the same antigen peptides. Therefore, we have carried out a retrospective bioinformatics analysis by single-cell flow cytometry to evaluate if PD-1/PD-L1-blocking mAbs modulate the expression of specific peripheral immune cell subsets, potentially correlated with autoimmunity triggering in 28 mNSCLC patients. We recorded a treatment-related decline in CD4+ T-cell and B-cell subsets and in the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio coupled with an increase in natural killer T (NKT), CD8+PD1+ T cells, and eosinophils. Treatment-related increase in autoantibodies [mainly antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) and extractable nuclear antigen (ENA) antibodies] as well as the frequency of immune-related adverse events were associated with the deregulation of specific immune subpopulations (e.g., NKT cells). Correlative biological/clinical studies with deep immune monitoring are badly needed for a better characterization of the effects produced by PD-1/PD-L1 immune-checkpoint blockade.

Published
2022
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39. The ASTRO-H X-ray Astronomy Satellite

Author

Takahashi, Tadayuki, Mitsuda, Kazuhisa, Kelley, Richard, Aharonian, Felix, Akamatsu, Hiroki, Akimoto, Fumie, Allen, Steve, Anabuki, Naohisa, Angelini, Lorella, Arnaud, Keith, Asai, Makoto, Audard, Marc, Awaki, Hisamitsu, Azzarello, Philipp, Baluta, Chris, Bamba, Aya, Bando, Nobutaka, Bautz, Marshall, Bialas, Thomas, Blandford, Roger, Boyce, Kevin, Brenneman, Laura, Brown, Greg, Cackett, Edward, Canavan, Edgar, Chernyakova, Maria, Chiao, Meng, Coppi, Paolo, Costantini, Elisa, de Plaa, Jelle, Herder, Jan-Willem den, DiPirro, Michael, Done, Chris, Dotani, Tadayasu, Doty, John, Ebisawa, Ken, Eckart, Megan, Enoto, Teruaki, Ezoe, Yuichiro, Fabian, Andrew, Ferrigno, Carlo, Foster, Adam, Fujimoto, Ryuichi, Fukazawa, Yasushi, Funk, Stefan, Furuzawa, Akihiro, Galeazzi, Massimiliano, Gallo, Luigi, Gandhi, Poshak, Gilmore, Kirk, Guainazzi, Matteo, Haas, Daniel, Haba, Yoshito, Hamaguchi, Kenji, Harayama, Atsushi, Hatsukade, Isamu, Hayashi, Takayuki, Hayashi, Katsuhiro, Hayashida, Kiyoshi, Hiraga, Junko, Hirose, Kazuyuki, Hornschemeier, Ann, Hoshino, Akio, Hughes, John, Hwang, Una, Iizuka, Ryo, Inoue, Yoshiyuki, Ishibashi, Kazunori, Ishida, Manabu, Ishikawa, Kumi, Ishimura, Kosei, Ishisaki, Yoshitaka, Ito, Masayuki, Iwata, Naoko, Iyomoto, Naoko, Jewell, Chris, Kaastra, Jelle, Kallman, Timothy, Kamae, Tuneyoshi, Kataoka, Jun, Katsuda, Satoru, Katsuta, Junichiro, Kawaharada, Madoka, Kawai, Nobuyuki, Kawano, Taro, Kawasaki, Shigeo, Khangulyan, Dmitry, Kilbourne, Caroline, Kimball, Mark, Kimura, Masashi, Kitamoto, Shunji, Kitayama, Tetsu, Kohmura, Takayoshi, Kokubun, Motohide, Konami, Saori, Kosaka, Tatsuro, Koujelev, Alex, Koyama, Katsuji, Krimm, Hans, Kubota, Aya, Kunieda, Hideyo, LaMassa, Stephanie, Laurent, Philippe, Lebrun, Franccois, Leutenegger, Maurice, Limousin, Olivier, Loewenstein, Michael, Long, Knox, Lumb, David, Madejski, Grzegorz, Maeda, Yoshitomo, Makishima, Kazuo, Markevitch, Maxim, Masters, Candace, Matsumoto, Hironori, Matsushita, Kyoko, McCammon, Dan, Mcguinness, Daniel, McNamara, Brian, Miko, Joseph, Miller, Jon, Miller, Eric, Mineshige, Shin, Minesugi, Kenji, Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki, Miyazawa, Takuya, Mizuno, Tsunefumi, Mori, Koji, Mori, Hideyuki, Moroso, Franco, Muench, Theodore, Mukai, Koji, Murakami, Hiroshi, Murakami, Toshio, Mushotzky, Richard, Nagano, Housei, Nagino, Ryo, Nakagawa, Takao, Nakajima, Hiroshi, Nakamori, Takeshi, Nakashima, Shinya, Nakazawa, Kazuhiro, Namba, Yoshiharu, Natsukari, Chikara, Nishioka, Yusuke, Nobukawa, Masayoshi, Noda, Hirofumi, Nomachi, Masaharu, Dell, Steve O', Odaka, Hirokazu, Ogawa, Hiroyuki, Ogawa, Mina, Ogi, Keiji, Ohashi, Takaya, Ohno, Masanori, Ohta, Masayuki, Okajima, Takashi, Okamoto, Atsushi, Okazaki, Tsuyoshi, Ota, Naomi, Ozaki, Masanobu, Paerels, Frits, Paltani, St'ephane, Parmar, Arvind, Petre, Robert, Pinto, Ciro, Pohl, Martin, Pontius, James, Porter, F. Scott, Pottschmidt, Katja, Ramsey, Brian, Reis, Rubens, Reynolds, Christopher, Ricci, Claudio, Russell, Helen, Safi-Harb, Samar, Saito, Shinya, Sakai, Shin-ichiro, Sameshima, Hiroaki, Sato, Goro, Sato, Yoichi, Sato, Kosuke, Sato, Rie, Sawada, Makoto, Serlemitsos, Peter, Seta, Hiromi, Shibano, Yasuko, Shida, Maki, Shimada, Takanobu, Shinozaki, Keisuke, Shirron, Peter, Simionescu, Aurora, Simmons, Cynthia, Smith, Randall, Sneiderman, Gary, Soong, Yang, Stawarz, Lukasz, Sugawara, Yasuharu, Sugita, Hiroyuki, Sugita, Satoshi, Szymkowiak, Andrew, Tajima, Hiroyasu, Takahashi, Hiromitsu, Takahashi, Hiroaki, Takeda, Shin-ichiro, Takei, Yoh, Tamagawa, Toru, Tamura, Takayuki, Tamura, Keisuke, Tanaka, Takaaki, Tanaka, Yasuo, Tanaka, Yasuyuki, Tashiro, Makoto, Tawara, Yuzuru, Terada, Yukikatsu, Terashima, Yuichi, Tombesi, Francesco, Tomida, Hiroshi, Tsuboi, Yohko, Tsujimoto, Masahiro, Tsunemi, Hiroshi, Tsuru, Takeshi, Uchida, Hiroyuki, Uchiyama, Yasunobu, Uchiyama, Hideki, Ueda, Yoshihiro, Ueda, Shutaro, Ueno, Shiro, Uno, Shinichiro, Urry, Meg, Ursino, Eugenio, de Vries, Cor, Wada, Atsushi, Watanabe, Shin, Watanabe, Tomomi, Werner, Norbert, White, Nicholas, Wilkins, Dan, Yamada, Takahiro, Yamada, Shinya, Yamaguchi, Hiroya, Yamaoka, Kazutaka, Yamasaki, Noriko, Yamauchi, Makoto, Yamauchi, Shigeo, Yaqoob, Tahir, Yatsu, Yoichi, Yonetoku, Daisuke, Yoshida, Atsumasa, Yuasa, Takayuki, Zhuravleva, Irina, Zoghbi, Abderahmen, and ZuHone, John

Subjects
Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Abstract

The joint JAXA/NASA ASTRO-H mission is the sixth in a series of highly successful X-ray missions developed by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), with a planned launch in 2015. The ASTRO-H mission is equipped with a suite of sensitive instruments with the highest energy resolution ever achieved at E > 3 keV and a wide energy range spanning four decades in energy from soft X-rays to gamma-rays. The simultaneous broad band pass, coupled with the high spectral resolution of Delta E < 7 eV of the micro-calorimeter, will enable a wide variety of important science themes to be pursued. ASTRO-H is expected to provide breakthrough results in scientific areas as diverse as the large-scale structure of the Universe and its evolution, the behavior of matter in the gravitational strong field regime, the physical conditions in sites of cosmic-ray acceleration, and the distribution of dark matter in galaxy clusters at different redshifts., Comment: 24 pages, 18 figures, Proceedings of the SPIE Astronomical Instrumentation "Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray"

Published
2014
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40. The Large Area Detector of LOFT: the Large Observatory for X-ray Timing

Author

Zane, S., Walton, D., Kennedy, T., Feroci, M., Herder, J. -W. Den, Ahangarianabhari, M., Argan, A., Azzarello, P., Baldazzi, G., Barbera, M., Barret, D., Bertuccio, G., Bodin, P., Bozzo, E., Bradley, L., Cadoux, F., Cais, P., Campana, R., Coker, J., Cros, A., Del Monte, E., De Rosa, A., Di Cosimo, S., Donnarumma, I., Evangelista, Y., Favre, Y., Feldman, C., Fraser, G., Fuschino, F., Grassi, M., Hailey, M. R., Hudec, R., Labanti, C., Macera, D., Malcovati, P., Marisaldi, M., Martindale, A., Mineo, T., Muleri, F., Nowak, M., Orlandini, M., Pacciani, L., Perinati, E., Petracek, V., Pohl, M., Rachevski, A., Smith, P., Santangelo, A., Seyler, J. -Y., Schmid, C., Soffitta, P., Suchy, S., Tenzer, C., Uttley, P., Vacchi, A., Zampa, G., Zampa, N., Wilms, J., and Winter, B.

Subjects
Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Abstract

LOFT (Large Observatory for X-ray Timing) is one of the five candidates that were considered by ESA as an M3 mission (with launch in 2022-2024) and has been studied during an extensive assessment phase. It is specifically designed to perform fast X-ray timing and probe the status of the matter near black holes and neutron stars. Its pointed instrument is the Large Area Detector (LAD), a 10 m 2 -class instrument operating in the 2-30keV range, which holds the capability to revolutionise studies of variability from X-ray sources on the millisecond time scales. The LAD instrument has now completed the assessment phase but was not down-selected for launch. However, during the assessment, most of the trade-offs have been closed leading to a robust and well documented design that will be re- proposed in future ESA calls. In this talk, we will summarize the characteristics of the LAD design and give an overview of the expectations for the instrument capabilities., Comment: Proc. SPIE 9144, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 91442W

Published
2014
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41. The design of the wide field monitor for LOFT

Author

Brandt, S., Hernanz, M., Alvarez, L., Argan, A., Artigues, B., Azzarello, P., Barret, D., Bozzo, E., Budtz-Jørgensen, Campana, R., Cros, A., del Monte, E., Donnarumma, I., Evangelista, Y., Feroci, M., Sanchez, J. L. Galvez, Götz, D., Hansen, F., Herder, J. W. den, Hudec, R., Huovelin, J., Karelin, D., Korpela, S., Lund, N., Michalska, M., Olsen, P., Orleanski, P., Pedersen, S., Pohl, M., Rachevski, A., Santangelo, A., Schanne, S., Schmid, C., Suchy, S., Tenzer, C., Vacchi, A., Walton, D., Wilms, J., Zampa, G., Zampa, N., Zand, J. int, Zane, S., Zdziarski, A., and Zwart, F.

Subjects
Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Abstract

LOFT (Large Observatory For x-ray Timing) is one of the ESA M3 missions selected within the Cosmic Vision program in 2011 to carry out an assessment phase study and compete for a launch opportunity in 2022-2024. The phase-A studies of all M3 missions were completed at the end of 2013. LOFT is designed to carry on-board two instruments with sensitivity in the 2-50 keV range: a 10 m 2 class Large Area Detector (LAD) with a <1{\deg} collimated FoV and a wide field monitor (WFM) making use of coded masks and providing an instantaneous coverage of more than 1/3 of the sky. The prime goal of the WFM will be to detect transient sources to be observed by the LAD. However, thanks to its unique combination of a wide field of view (FoV) and energy resolution (better than 500 eV), the WFM will be also an excellent monitoring instrument to study the long term variability of many classes of X-ray sources. The WFM consists of 10 independent and identical coded mask cameras arranged in 5 pairs to provide the desired sky coverage. We provide here an overview of the instrument design, configuration, and capabilities of the LOFT WFM. The compact and modular design of the WFM could easily make the instrument concept adaptable for other missions., Comment: Proc. SPIE 9144, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 91442V

Published
2014
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42. Optimisation of the design for the LOFT Large Area Detector Module

Author

Walton, D., Winter, B., Zane, S., Kennedy, T., Coker, A. J., Feroci, M., Herder, J. -W. Den, Argan, A., Azzarello, P., Barret, D., Bradley, L., Cadoux, F., Cros, A., Evangelista, Y., Favre, Y., Fraser, G., Hailey, M. R., Hunt, T., Martindale, A., Muleri, F., Pacciani, L., Pohl, M., Smith, P., Santangelo, A., Suchy, S., Tenzer, C., Zampa, G., and Zampa, N.

Subjects
Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Abstract

LOFT (Large Observatory for X-ray Timing) is an X-ray timing observatory that, with four other candidates, was considered by ESA as an M3 mission (with launch in 2022-2024) and has been studied during an extensive assessment phase. Its pointed instrument is the Large Area Detector (LAD), a 10 m 2 -class instrument operating in the 2-30 keV range, which is designed to perform X-ray timing of compact objects with unprecedented resolution down to millisecond time scales. Although LOFT was not downselected for launch, during the assessment most of the trade-offs have been closed, leading to a robust and well documented design that will be reproposed in future ESA calls. The building block of the LAD instrument is the Module, and in this paper we summarize the rationale for the module concept, the characteristics of the module and the trade-offs/optimisations which have led to the current design., Comment: Proc. SPIE 9144, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 914462

Published
2014
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43. The Large Observatory For x-ray Timing

Author

Feroci, M., Herder, J. W. den, Bozzo, E., Barret, D., Brandt, S., Hernanz, M., van der Klis, M., Pohl, M., Santangelo, A., Stella, L., Watts, A., Wilms, J., Zane, S., Ahangarianabhari, M., Albertus, C., Alford, M., Alpar, A., Altamirano, D., Alvarez, L., Amati, L., Amoros, C., Andersson, N., Antonelli, A., Argan, A., Artigue, R., Artigues, B., Atteia, J. -L., Azzarello, P., Bakala, P., Baldazzi, G., Balman, S., Barbera, M., van Baren, C., Bhattacharyya, S., Baykal, A., Belloni, T., Bernardini, F., Bertuccio, G., Bianchi, S., Bianchini, A., Binko, P., Blay, P., Bocchino, F., Bodin, P., Bombaci, I., Bidaud, J. -M. Bonnet, Boutloukos, S., Bradley, L., Braga, J., Brown, E., Bucciantini, N., Burderi, L., Burgay, M., Bursa, M., Budtz-Jørgensen, C., Cackett, E., Cadoux, F. R., Cais, P., Caliandro, G. A., Campana, R., Campana, S., Capitanio, F., Casares, J., Casella, P., Castro-Tirado, A. J., Cavazzuti, E., Cerda-Duran, P., Chakrabarty, D., Château, F., Chenevez, J., Coker, J., Cole, R., Collura, A., Cornelisse, R., Courvoisier, T., Cros, A., Cumming, A., Cusumano, G., D'Aì, A., D'Elia, V., Del Monte, E., De Luca, A., De Martino, D., Dercksen, J. P. C., De Pasquale, M., De Rosa, A., Del Santo, M., Di Cosimo, S., Diebold, S., Di Salvo, T., Donnarumma, I., Drago, A., Durant, M., Emmanoulopoulos, D., Erkut, M. H., Esposito, P., Evangelista, Y., Fabian, A., Falanga, M., Favre, Y., Feldman, C., Ferrari, V., Ferrigno, C., Finger, M., Finger, M. H., Fraser, G. W., Frericks, M., Fuschino, F., Gabler, M., Galloway, D. K., Sanchez, J. L. Galvez, Garcia-Berro, E., Gendre, B., Gezari, S., Giles, A. B., Gilfanov, M., Giommi, P., Giovannini, G., Giroletti, M., Gogus, E., Goldwurm, A., Goluchová, K., Götz, D., Gouiffes, C., Grassi, M., Groot, P., Gschwender, M., Gualtieri, L., Guidorzi, C., Guy, L., Haas, D., Haensel, P., Hailey, M., Hansen, F., Hartmann, D. H., Haswell, C. A., Hebeler, K., Heger, A., Hermsen, W., Homan, J., Hornstrup, A., Hudec, R., Huovelin, J., Ingram, A., Zand, J. J. M. in't, Israel, G., Iwasawa, K., Izzo, L., Jacobs, H. M., Jetter, F., Johannsen, T., Jonker, P., Josè, J., Kaaret, P., Kanbach, G., Karas, V., Karelin, D., Kataria, D., Keek, L., Kennedy, T., Klochkov, D., Kluzniak, W., Kokkotas, K., Korpela, S., Kouveliotou, C., Kreykenbohm, I., Kuiper, L. M., Kuvvetli, I., Labanti, C., Lai, D., Lamb, F. K., Laubert, P. P., Lebrun, F., Lin, D., Linder, D., Lodato, G., Longo, F., Lund, N., Maccarone, T. J., Macera, D., Maestre, S., Mahmoodifar, S., Maier, D., Malcovati, P., Mandel, I., Mangano, V., Manousakis, A., Marisaldi, M., Markowitz, A., Martindale, A., Matt, G., McHardy, I. M., Melatos, A., Mendez, M., Mereghetti, S., Michalska, M., Migliari, S., Mignani, R., Miller, M. C., Miller, J. M., Mineo, T., Miniutti, G., Morsink, S., Motch, C., Motta, S., Mouchet, M., Mouret, G., Mulačová, J., Muleri, F., Muñoz-Darias, T., Negueruela, I., Neilsen, J., Norton, A. J., Nowak, M., O'Brien, P., Olsen, P. E. H., Orienti, M., Orio, M., Orlandini, M., Orleanski, P., Osborne, J. P., Osten, R., Ozel, F., Pacciani, L., Paolillo, M., Papitto, A., Paredes, J. M., Patruno, A., Paul, B., Perinati, E., Pellizzoni, A., Penacchioni, A. V., Perez, M. A., Petracek, V., Pittori, C., Pons, J., Portell, J., Possenti, A., Poutanen, J., Prakash, M., Provost, P. Le, Psaltis, D., Rambaud, D., Ramon, P., Ramsay, G., Rapisarda, M., Rachevski, A., Rashevskaya, I., Ray, P. S., Rea, N., Reddy, S., Reig, P., Aranda, M. Reina, Remillard, R., Reynolds, C., Rezzolla, L., Ribo, M., de la Rie, R., Riggio, A., Rios, A., Gil, P. Rodríguez, Rodriguez, J., Rohlfs, R., Romano, P., Rossi, E. M. R., Rozanska, A., Rousseau, A., Ryde, F., Sabau-Graziati, L., Sala, G., Salvaterra, R., Sanna, A., Sandberg, J., Scaringi, S., Schanne, S., Schee, J., Schmid, C., Shore, S., Schneider, R., Schwenk, A., Schwope, A. D., Seyler, J. -Y., Shearer, A., Smith, A., Smith, D. M., Smith, P. J., Sochora, V., Soffitta, P., Soleri, P., Spencer, A., Stappers, B., Steiner, A. W., Stergioulas, N., Stratta, G., Strohmayer, T. E., Stuchlik, Z., Suchy, S., Sulemainov, V., Takahashi, T., Tamburini, F., Tauris, T., Tenzer, C., Tolos, L., Tombesi, F., Tomsick, J., Torok, G., Torrejon, J. M., Torres, D. F., Tramacere, A., Trois, A., Turolla, R., Turriziani, S., Uter, P., Uttley, P., Vacchi, A., Varniere, P., Vaughan, S., Vercellone, S., Vrba, V., Walton, D., Watanabe, S., Wawrzaszek, R., Webb, N., Weinberg, N., Wende, H., Wheatley, P., Wijers, R., Wijnands, R., Wille, M., Wilson-Hodge, C. A., Winter, B., Wood, K., Zampa, G., Zampa, N., Zampieri, L., Zdunik, L., Zdziarski, A., Zhang, B., Zwart, F., Ayre, M., Boenke, T., van Damme, C. Corral, Kuulkers, E., and Lumb, D.

Subjects
Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Abstract

The Large Observatory For x-ray Timing (LOFT) was studied within ESA M3 Cosmic Vision framework and participated in the final down-selection for a launch slot in 2022-2024. Thanks to the unprecedented combination of effective area and spectral resolution of its main instrument, LOFT will study the behaviour of matter under extreme conditions, such as the strong gravitational field in the innermost regions of accretion flows close to black holes and neutron stars, and the supra-nuclear densities in the interior of neutron stars. The science payload is based on a Large Area Detector (LAD, 10 m 2 effective area, 2-30 keV, 240 eV spectral resolution, 1 deg collimated field of view) and a WideField Monitor (WFM, 2-50 keV, 4 steradian field of view, 1 arcmin source location accuracy, 300 eV spectral resolution). The WFM is equipped with an on-board system for bright events (e.g. GRB) localization. The trigger time and position of these events are broadcast to the ground within 30 s from discovery. In this paper we present the status of the mission at the end of its Phase A study., Comment: Proc. SPIE 9144, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 91442T

Published
2014
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44. Radiation tests of the Silicon Drift Detectors for LOFT

Author

Del Monte, E., Azzarello, P., Bozzo, E., Bugiel, S., Diebold, S., Evangelista, Y., Kendziorra, E., Muleri, F., Perinati, E., Rachevski, A., Zampa, G., Zampa, N., Feroci, M., Pohl, M., Santangelo, A., and Vacchi, A.

Subjects
Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

During the three years long assessment phase of the LOFT mission, candidate to the M3 launch opportunity of the ESA Cosmic Vision programme, we estimated and measured the radiation damage of the silicon drift detectors (SDDs) of the satellite instrumentation. In particular, we irradiated the detectors with protons (of 0.8 and 11 MeV energy) to study the increment of leakage current and the variation of the charge collection efficiency produced by the displacement damage, and we "bombarded" the detectors with hypervelocity dust grains to measure the effect of the debris impacts. In this paper we describe the measurements and discuss the results in the context of the LOFT mission., Comment: Proc. SPIE 9144, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 914464

Published
2014
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45. Measurement of the effect of Non Ionising Energy Losses on the leakage current of Silicon Drift Detector prototypes for the LOFT satellite

Author

Del Monte, E., Rachevski, A., Zampa, G., Zampa, N., Azzarello, P., Bozzo, E., Campana, R., Diebold, S., Evangelista, Y., Perinati, E., Feroci, M., Pohl, M., and Vacchi, A.

Subjects
Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

The silicon drift detectors are at the basis of the instrumentation aboard the Large Observatory For x-ray Timing (LOFT) satellite mission, which underwent a three year assessment phase within the "Cosmic Vision 2015 - 2025" long-term science plan of the European Space Agency. Silicon detectors are especially sensitive to the displacement damage, produced by the non ionising energy losses of charged and neutral particles, leading to an increase of the device leakage current and thus worsening the spectral resolution. During the LOFT assessment phase, we irradiated two silicon drift detectors with a proton beam at the Proton Irradiation Facility in the accelerator of the Paul Scherrer Institute and we measured the increase in leakage current. In this paper we report the results of the irradiation and we discuss the impact of the radiation damage on the LOFT scientific performance., Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication by Journal of Instrumentation (JINST)

Published
2014
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47. A setup for soft proton irradiation of X-ray detectors for future astronomical space missions

Author

Diebold, Sebastian, Azzarello, Philipp, Del Monte, Ettore, Feroci, Marco, Jochum, Josef, Kendziorra, Eckhard, Perinati, Emanuele, Rachevski, Alexandre, Santangelo, Andrea, Tenzer, Christoph, Vacchi, Andrea, Zampa, Gianluigi, and Zampa, Nicola

Subjects
Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

Protons that are trapped in the Earth's magnetic field are one of the main threats to astronomical X-ray observatories. Soft protons, in the range from tens of keV up to a few MeV, impinging on silicon X-ray detectors can lead to a significant degradation of the detector performance. Especially in low earth orbits an enhancement of the soft proton flux has been found. A setup to irradiate detectors with soft protons has been constructed at the Van-de-Graaff accelerator of the Physikalisches Institut of the University of T\"ubingen. Key advantages are a high flux uniformity over a large area, to enable irradiations of large detectors, and a monitoring system for the applied fluence, the beam uniformity, and the spectrum, that allows testing of detector prototypes in early development phases, when readout electronics are not yet available. Two irradiation campaigns have been performed so far with this setup. The irradiated detectors are silicon drift detectors, designated for the use on-board the LOFT space mission. This paper gives a description of the experimental setup and the associated monitoring system., Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, 4 tables

Published
2013
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48. Update Swiss guideline for counselling and testing for predisposition to breast, ovarian, pancreatic and prostate cancer

Author

Susanna Stoll, Sheila Unger, Silvia Azzarello-Burri, Pierre Chappuis, Rossella Graffeo, Gabriella Pichert, Benno Röthlisberger, Francois Taban, and Salome Riniker

Subjects
Medicine
Abstract

This paper presents the Swiss guideline for genetic counselling and testing of individuals with an increased probability for carrying mutations in high risk cancer predisposition genes, particularly BRCA1 and BRCA2. It aims to help providers of genetic counselling to identify valuable candidates for testing and serves as a basis for reimbursement claims to Swiss insurance companies.

Published
2021
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50. Competitiveness for Nodule Colonization in Sinorhizobium meliloti: Combined In Vitro-Tagged Strain Competition and Genome-Wide Association Analysis

Author

Agnese Bellabarba, Giovanni Bacci, Francesca Decorosi, Erki Aun, Elisa Azzarello, Maido Remm, Luciana Giovannetti, Carlo Viti, Alessio Mengoni, and Francesco Pini

Subjects
GWAS, competition, Sinorhizobium meliloti, rhizobia, legume, Microbiology, QR1-502
Abstract

ABSTRACT Associations between leguminous plants and symbiotic nitrogen-fixing rhizobia are a classic example of mutualism between a eukaryotic host and a specific group of prokaryotic microbes. Although this symbiosis is in part species specific, different rhizobial strains may colonize the same nodule. Some rhizobial strains are commonly known as better competitors than others, but detailed analyses that aim to predict rhizobial competitive abilities based on genomes are still scarce. Here, we performed a bacterial genome-wide association (GWAS) analysis to define the genomic determinants related to the competitive capabilities in the model rhizobial species Sinorhizobium meliloti. For this, 13 tester strains were green fluorescent protein (GFP) tagged and assayed versus 3 red fluorescent protein (RFP)-tagged reference competitor strains (Rm1021, AK83, and BL225C) in a Medicago sativa nodule occupancy test. Competition data and strain genomic sequences were employed to build a model for GWAS based on k-mers. Among the k-mers with the highest scores, 51 k-mers mapped on the genomes of four strains showing the highest competition phenotypes (>60% single strain nodule occupancy; GR4, KH35c, KH46, and SM11) versus BL225C. These k-mers were mainly located on the symbiosis-related megaplasmid pSymA, specifically on genes coding for transporters, proteins involved in the biosynthesis of cofactors, and proteins related to metabolism (e.g., fatty acids). The same analysis was performed considering the sum of single and mixed nodules obtained in the competition assays versus BL225C, retrieving k-mers mapped on the genes previously found and on vir genes. Therefore, the competition abilities seem to be linked to multiple genetic determinants and comprise several cellular components. IMPORTANCE Decoding the competitive pattern that occurs in the rhizosphere is challenging in the study of bacterial social interaction strategies. To date, the single-gene approach has mainly been used to uncover the bases of nodulation, but there is still a knowledge gap regarding the main features that a priori characterize rhizobial strains able to outcompete indigenous rhizobia. Therefore, tracking down which traits make different rhizobial strains able to win the competition for plant infection over other indigenous rhizobia will improve the strain selection process and, consequently, plant yield in sustainable agricultural production systems. We proved that a k-mer-based GWAS approach can efficiently identify the competition determinants of a panel of strains previously analyzed for their plant tissue occupancy using double fluorescent labeling. The reported strategy will be useful for detailed studies on the genomic aspects of the evolution of bacterial symbiosis and for an extensive evaluation of rhizobial inoculants.

Published
2021
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