bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
ATLAS public website: evolution to Drupal 8
Authors: Goldfarb Steven
Published: November 2020

Four years after deployment of the public website using the Drupal 7 content management system, the ATLAS Education & Outreach group is in the process of migrating to the new CERN Drupal 8 infrastructure. We present lessons learned from the development, usage and evolution of the original website, and how the choice of technology helped to shape and reinforce our communication strategy. We then discuss tactics for the migration to Drupal 8, including our choice to use the CERN-override theme. This theme was developed by the CERN web team to support clients like the ATLAS experiment at the LHC to develop websites in the relatively complex and non-intuitive environment of Drupal. Furthermore, CERN has encouraged usage of this theme to mitigate support and ease future migration. We present the effects that this choice has on the design, implementation, operation and maintenance of the new website.
International Particle Physics Outreach Group: Reaching across the globe with science
Authors: Goldfarb Steven
Published: November 2020

The International Particle Physics Outreach Group (IPPOG) is a network of scientists, science educators and communication specialists working across the globe in informal science education and outreach for particle physics. The primary methodology adopted by IPPOG requires the direct involvement of scientists active in current research with education and communication specialists, in order to effectively develop and share best practices in public engagement. IPPOG member activities include the International Particle Physics Masterclasses, Global Cosmics, International Muon Week and International Cosmic Day organisation, and participation in activities ranging from public talks, festivals, exhibitions, teacher training, student competitions, and open days at local institutions. These independent activities, often carried out in a variety of languages to public with a variety of backgrounds, all serve to gain the public trust and to improve worldwide understanding and support of science. We present our vision of IPPOG as a strategic pillar of particle physics, fundamental research and evidence-based decision-making around the world.
A culture shift: transforming learning at CERN
Authors: Eastwood-Barzdo Elizabeth Louise , Fiascaris Maria , Kwiatek Michal
Published: November 2020

To accomplish its mission, the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN, Switzerland) is committed to the continuous development of its personnel through a systematic and sustained learning culture, that aims at keeping the knowledge and competences of the personnel in line with the evolving needs of the organisation. With this goal in mind, CERN supports learning in its broadest sense and promotes a variety of learning methods. Over the last few years, CERN has focused its efforts on expanding the learning opportunities of its personnel via newly available software and e-learning tools and methodologies, thereby bringing a shift in the learning culture of the organisation. In September 2018, CERN launched a new Learning Management System centralising all learning opportunities in a single platform, the CERN Learning Hub. In addition, new e-learning resources are now widely available to the personnel, including customised internally created e-learnings, an e-library, a commercial e-learning platform for self-paced learning and online surveys (180 feedback tools for CERN managers and leaders). This paper presents the experience gained by CERN in testing and adopting these new e-learning technologies and discusses the future vision for CERN.
EVE-7 and FireworksWeb: The next generation event visualization tools for ROOT and CMS
Authors: Mrak Tadel Alja , Tadel Matevz , Yagil Avi , Kovalskyi Dmytro , Linev Sergey
Published: November 2020

The CMS experiment supports and contributes to the development of the next-generation Event Visualization Environment (EVE) of the ROOT framework with the intention of superseding Fireworks, the physics analysis oriented event display of CMS, with a new server-web client implementation. EVE-7 is a rewrite of EVE for the ROOT-7 era, using modern C++ and relying on ROOT’s built-in http server for communication with GUI clients. Part of EVE-7 is also implemented in JavaScript and uses OpenUI5, JSROOT, and Three.js as its foundation libraries. While some of the advanced features of EVE have not yet been ported to EVE-7, the existing code-base can be used for building of demonstrator applications serving as technology preview. FireworksWeb is currently at the stage of a minimal application built around EVE-7. Several advanced Fireworks features have been ported into EVE-7 in an experiment-independent manner, relying heavily on Cling, the C++ interpreter of ROOT: dynamic table views, handling of physics object collections, and filtering of objects within physics collections.
Enabling ATLAS big data processing on Piz Daint at CSCS
Authors: Sciacca F G
Published: November 2020

Predictions for requirements for the LHC computing for Run 3 and Run 4 (HLLHC) over the course of the next 10 years show a considerable gap between required and available resources, assuming budgets will globally remain flat at best. This will require some radical changes to the computing models for the data processing of the LHC experiments. Concentrating computational resources in fewer larger and more efficient centres should increase the cost-efficiency of the operation and, thus, of the data processing. Large scale general purpose HPC centres could play a crucial role in such a model. We report on the technical challenges and solutions adopted to enable the processing of the ATLAS experiment data on the European flagship HPC Piz Daint at CSCS, now acting as a pledged WLCG Tier-2 centre. As the transition of the Tier-2 from classic to HPC resources has been finalised, we also report on performance figures over two years of production running and on efforts for a deeper integration of the HPC resource within the ATLAS computing framework at different tiers.
Lattice QCD GPU Inverters on ROCm Platform
Authors: Bi Yujiang , Xiao Yi , Guo WeiYi , Gong Ming , Sun Peng , Xu Shun , Yang Yi-bo
Published: November 2020

The open source ROCm/HIP platform for GPU computing provides a uniform framework to support both the NVIDIA and AMD GPUs, and also the possibility to porting the CUDA code to the HIP-compatible one. We present the porting progress on the Overlap fermion inverter (GWU-code) and also the general Lattice QCD inverter package - QUDA. The manual of using QUDA on HIP and also the tips of porting general CUDA code into the HIP framework are also provided.
Extension of the INFN Tier-1 on a HPC system
Authors: Boccali Tommaso , Dal Pra Stefano , Spiga Daniele , Ciangottini Diego , Zani Stefano , Bozzi Concezio , De Salvo Alessandro , Valassi Andrea , Noferini Francesco , dell’Agnello Luca , Stagni Federico , Doria Alessandra , Bonacorsi Daniele
Published: November 2020

The INFN Tier-1 located at CNAF in Bologna (Italy) is a center of the WLCG e-Infrastructure, supporting the 4 major LHC collaborations and more than 30 other INFN-related experiments.

After multiple tests towards elastic expansion of CNAF compute power via Cloud resources (provided by Azure, Aruba and in the framework of the HNSciCloud project), and building on the experience gained with the production quality extension of the Tier-1 farm on remote owned sites, the CNAF team, in collaboration with experts from the ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb experiments, has been working to put in production a solution of an integrated HTC+HPC system with the PRACE CINECA center, located nearby Bologna. Such extension will be implemented on the Marconi A2 partition, equipped with Intel Knights Landing (KNL) processors. A number of technical challenges were faced and solved in order to successfully run on low RAM nodes, as well as to overcome the closed environment (network, access, software distribution, … ) that HPC systems deploy with respect to standard GRID sites. We show preliminary results from a large scale integration effort, using resources secured via the successful PRACE grant N. 2018194658, for 30 million KNL core hours.
Improvements in utilisation of the Czech national HPC center
Authors: Svatoš Michal , Chudoba Jiří , Vokáč Petr
Published: November 2020

The distributed computing system of the ATLAS experiment at LHC is allowed to opportunistically use resources at the Czech national HPC center IT4Innovations in Ostrava. The jobs are submitted via an ARC Compute Element (ARC-CE) installed at the grid site in Prague. Scripts and input files are shared between the ARC-CE and a shared file system located at the HPC centre via sshfs. This basic submission system has worked there since the end of 2017. Several improvements were made to increase the amount of resource that ATLAS can use. The most significant change was the migration of the submission system to enable pre-emptable jobs, to adapt to the HPC management’s decision to start pre-empting opportunistic jobs. Another improvement of the submission system was related to the sshfs connection which seemed to be a limiting factor of the system. Now, the submission system consists of several ARC-CE machines. Also, various parameters of sshfs were tested in an attempt to increase throughput. As a result of the improvements, the utilisation of the Czech national HPC center by the ATLAS distributed computing increased.
Computing for the DUNE Long-Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Experiment
Authors: Schellman Heidi
Published: November 2020

This paper is based on a talk given at Computing in High Energy Physics in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia in November 2019. It is partially intended to explain the context of DUNE Computing for computing specialists.

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) collaboration consists of over 180 institutions from 33 countries. The experiment is in preparation now, with commissioning of the first 10kT fiducial volume Liquid Argon TPC expected over the period 2025-2028 and a long data taking run with 4 modules expected from 2029 and beyond.

An active prototyping program is already in place with a short test-beam run with a 700T, 15,360 channel prototype of single-phase readout at the Neutrino Platform at CERN in late 2018 and tests of a similar sized dual-phase detector scheduled for mid-2019. The 2018 test-beam run was a valuable live test of our computing model. The detector produced raw data at rates of up to 2GB/s. These data were stored at full rate on tape at CERN and Fermilab and replicated at sites in the UK and Czech Republic. In total 1.2 PB of raw data from beam and cosmic triggers were produced and reconstructed during the six week testbeam run.

Baseline predictions for the full DUNE detector data, starting in the late 2020’s are 30-60 PB of raw data per year. In contrast to traditional HEP computational problems, DUNE’s Liquid Argon TPC data consist of simple but very large (many GB) 2D data objects which share many characteristics with astrophysical images. This presents opportunities to use advances in machine learning and pattern recognition as a frontier user of High Performance Computing facilities capable of massively parallel processing.
Rucio beyond ATLAS: experiences from Belle II, CMS, DUNE, EISCAT3D, LIGO/VIRGO, SKA, XENON
Authors: Lassnig Mario , Barisits Martin , Laycock Paul J , Serfon Cédric , Vaandering Eric W , Ellis Katy , Illingworth Robert A. , Garonne Vincent , White John , Clark James A. , Fronze Gabriele , Joshi Rohini , Johnson Ian , Bauermeister Boris
Published: November 2020

For many scientific projects, data management is an increasingly complicated challenge. The number of data-intensive instruments generating unprecedented volumes of data is growing and their accompanying workflows are becoming more complex. Their storage and computing resources are heterogeneous and are distributed at numerous geographical locations belonging to different administrative domains and organisations. These locations do not necessarily coincide with the places where data is produced nor where data is stored, analysed by researchers, or archived for safe long-term storage. To fulfil these needs, the data management system Rucio has been developed to allow the high-energy physics experiment ATLAS at LHC to manage its large volumes of data in an efficient and scalable way. But ATLAS is not alone, and several diverse scientific projects have started evaluating, adopting, and adapting the Rucio system for their own needs. As the Rucio community has grown, many improvements have been introduced, customisations have been added, and many bugs have been fixed. Additionally, new dataflows have been investigated and operational experiences have been documented. In this article we collect and compare the common successes, pitfalls, and oddities that arose in the evaluation efforts of multiple diverse experiments, and compare them with the ATLAS experience. This includes the high-energy physics experiments Belle II and CMS, the neutrino experiment DUNE, the scattering radar experiment EISCAT3D, the gravitational wave observatories LIGO and VIRGO, the SKA radio telescope, and the dark matter search experiment XENON.
L’inspection à distance sur les rails
Authors:   La rédaction Sfen
Published: November 2020

Depuis le début de la crise sanitaire, la filière nucléaire ainsi que les autorités de contrôle ont modifié leur façon de travailler et d’inspecter, car il n’est pas toujours possible aux inspecteurs de se rendre sur les sites nucléaires ou dans les usines. La mise en oeuvre de nouvelles solutions d’inspections à distance s’inscrira probablement parmi les pratiques usuelles post-épidémie, pour une part des contrôles, l’inspection physique demeurant de toute façon incontournable pour un certain nombre d’opérations.
Les innovations Covid : les compétences à distance
Authors: Crampon Cécile
Published: November 2020

Si le début de la crise de la Covid-19 a eu un effet immédiat, c’est bien celui du travail à distance pour de très nombreux Français, parmi lesquels les salariés opérant dans l’industrie nucléaire. Quelles décisions, quelles organisations les managers, les experts de la filière ont-ils mis en place ? Revue de situations dans les rangs de Framatome, Orano et REEL.
Therapeutic Patient Education in the practice of physicians at the Geneva University Hospitals: a qualitative analysis of representative situations and skills
Authors: Correia Jorge César , Lasserre Moutet Aline , Fristalon Isabelle , Lagger Grégoire , Golay Alain , Braillard Olivia
Published: November 2020

Introduction:Therapeutic patient education (TPE) is a patient-centered approach that requires proper training of healthcare professionals. This study aims to explore representative situations encountered by physicians in their practice where TPE training was useful, which can provide insights for the conception of TPE training programs.Methods:A qualitative approach with both focus groups (FG) and individual interviews with physicians trained in TPE in activity at the Geneva University Hospitals (GUH) was carried out. The data was analyzed using inductive thematic analysis.Results:Two FG of 9 doctors were conducted. Six representative situations emerged from our analysis: non-compliance, maintaining a comprehensive vision for overall care of the patient, the partner patient, matching the patient request to the underlying need, co-constructing the therapeutic action plan, and confronting powerlessness.Discussion:Training in TPE allowed physicians to develop skills to better identify and address these situations. It also favored a change in the posture of the physician, from a posture of teaching and expertise to one of co-construction and learning.Conclusion:These situations show how much the care of complex patients is present in the medical practice and TPE training a valuable skill to deal with this complexity. TPE training targeted at these activities could have a positive impact on the practice of physicians and patient care.
Explorative Untersuchungen zum Stoffwechsel bei Tumorpatienten: Substratbilanzen nicht befallener Organe
Authors: Holm Eggert , Blum Andreas , Konrad Mark-Holger , Heumann Barbara , Stasiunaitis Vytautas , Jentschura Dirk
Published: November 2020

Maligne Tumoren können in tumorfreien Organen metabolische Veränderungen induzieren. Um solche Veränderungen zu kennzeichnen, wurden bei Tumorpatienten die periphere und splanchnische Nettoaufnahme bzw. Nettoabgabe energieliefernder Substrate und der Aminosäuren untersucht. Die Austauschraten von Substraten sind deren arteriovenöse Konzentrationsdifferenzen, multipliziert mit der Durchblutungsgröße.

An der Studie nahmen 14 Patienten mit operablen gastrointestinalen Karzinomen und 16 metabolisch gesunde Kontrollpersonen teil. In die rechte Lebervene wurde ein Katheter geschoben; die splanchnische Durchblutung wurde mithilfe von Indozyaningrün gemessen. Ein zweiter Katheter wurde in einer Femoralvene platziert; die Beindurchblutung wurde durch Venenverschlussplethysmografie bestimmt.

Die peripheren Gewebe der Tumorpatienten nahmen weniger Glukose auf und setzten weniger Glutamin frei als die der Kontrollen. Die übrigen femoralen und alle splanchnischen Substratbilanzen lagen in den Referenzbereichen.

Die Befunde zeigen, dass bei Tumorpatienten Störungen des peripheren Glukose- und Glutaminstoffwechsels schon in einem frühen Krankheitsstadium eintreten. In diesem Stadium ist die hepatische Glukoneogenese noch nicht gesteigert.
Update: Immunsuppression bei Organtransplantationen
Authors: Kniepeiss Daniela , Rosenkranz Alexander R. , Fickert Peter , Schemmer Peter
Published: November 2020

Die Immunsuppression ist eine wesentliche Grundvoraussetzung für eine erfolgreiche Transplantation. Zur Reduktion der teils beträchtlichen Nebenwirkungen werden Kombinationstherapien mit unterschiedlichen Wirkstoffen durchgeführt. Dieser Beitrag soll einen aktuellen Überblick zur Immunsuppression nach Leber- und Nierentransplantation geben.
Endosonografisch gestützteTherapie der Cholangiolithiasis bei chirurgisch veränderter Anatomie – eine monozentrische Fallstudie
Authors: Fueldner Frank , Meyer Frank , Will Uwe
Published: November 2020

Ziel Untersuchung von Machbarkeit und Outcome EUS-gestützter Steinextraktionstechniken über einen transhepatischen Zugang bei Patienten mit postoperativ modifizierter Anatomie.

Material/Methoden Alle konsekutiven Patienten (Pat.) mit Cholangiolithiasis und operativ veränderter Anatomie nach ggf. frustranem ERC-Versuch wurden in diese monozentrische Fallstudie eingeschlossen und bzgl. des technischen/klinischen Erfolgs charakterisiert.

Ergebnisse Von 2004 bis 03/2020 wurden bei 449 Pat. EUS-gestützte Gallenwegdrainagen durchgeführt (n = 37 Pat. mit Cholangiolithiasis). Bei 8 der 37 Pat. erfolgte die Steinextraktion in EUS-ERCP-Rendezvoustechnik (kein Bestandteil der Studie, da keine operativ veränderte Anatomie vorlag). Bei 13 der verbleibenden 29 Pat. (45 %) wurden im Vorfeld frustrane Versuche der ballonenteroskopischen ERCP bei fehlender Erreichbarkeit der Papilla Vateri bzw. der biliodigestiven Anastomose unternommen. Der EUS-gestützte Zugang zu den Gallenwegen gelang bei allen 29 Pat. Die Steinextraktion erfolgte bei 26 Pat. (90 %) in antegrader Push-Technik nach vorheriger Ballondilatation der Papilla Vateri beziehungsweise der biliodigestiven Anastomose. Bei 11 Pat. (42 %) erfolgte nachfolgend zur Schienung der Papilla Vateri/biliodigestiven Anastomose die Einlage einer Doppelpigtailprothese („Ringdrainage“), die in der Regel nach 3 Monaten nach vorheriger sonografischer und laborchemischer Kontrolle mittels Gastroskopie wieder entfernt wurde. Bei 2 Pat. (7 %) erfolgte die Steinextraktion retrograd über den transhepatischen Zugang, bei 1 Pat. (3 %) wurde die Steinextraktion kombiniert in antegrader und retrograder Technik vorgenommen. Bei 2 Pat. (7 %) kam eine Cholangioskopie mit elektrohydraulischer Lithotripsie zum Einsatz.

Die technische und klinische Erfolgsrate der Steinextraktion lag bei 100 % (29 von 29 Pat.). Re-Interventionen erfolgten bei 6 Pat. (21 %), Komplikationen traten bei 6 Pat. (21 %) auf.

Schlussfolgerung Die EUS-gestützte Steinextraktion in antegrader oder retrograder Technik bei Patienten mit operativ veränderter Anatomie ist eine sichere, wenn auch technisch anspruchsvolle Methode der interventionellen Endoskopie/EUS. Sie hat eine hohe technische und klinische Erfolgsrate und eine niedrige Komplikationsrate. Sie hat das Potenzial, die zeitaufwendige ERCP mit Ballon-Enteroskopen und v. a. auch die PTCD und somit sekundäre und tertiäre Therapiealternativen zu ersetzen.
Immunoembolization of Liver Metastases from Uveal Melanoma
Authors: Eschelman David J. , Orloff Marlana M.
Published: November 2020

The authors review the use of immunoembolization as a liver-directed treatment for uveal melanoma metastatic to the liver.
Immunotherapy in Pancreatic Cancer
Authors: El-Rayes Bassel F. , Akce Mehmet
Published: November 2020

Pancreatic cancer has a dismal prognosis and is projected to be the second most common cause of cancer-related mortality by 2030. Although modest improvement in survival with current conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy-based regimens, 5-year overall survival is still 9%. Despite becoming standard of care in several malignancies, single agent or dual check point inhibitor therapy is not effective in pancreatic cancer except in subgroup of patients with high microsatellite instability or high tumor mutational burden. Profoundly immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment of pancreatic cancer is a major barrier for success of immunotherapy. Rigorous research efforts are underway to explore immune-based combination therapy with chemotherapy, radiation therapy, stroma-modifying agents, vaccines, and targeted therapies. This article aims to provide a review of the ongoing research in pancreatic cancer immunotherapy.
Sex and gender considerations in health research: a trainee and allied research personnel perspective
Authors: Kalenga C. Z. , Parsons Leigh J. , Griffith J. , Wolf D. C. , Dumanski S. M. , Desjarlais A. , Petermann L. , Ahmed S. B.
Published: November 2020

The first step in precision health is the incorporation of sex and gender-based considerations and increasingly, a number of national organizations have instituted policies to support and encourage this practice. However, perspectives of trainees and allied research personnel on incorporation of sex and gender into research is lacking. We assessed trainee (undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, clinical trainees) and allied research personnel (study nurses, laboratory managers) perspectives on the barriers to incorporating sex and gender into their own university-based health research and recommendations to improve the process. Two separate focus groups were completed, and a qualitative analysis was employed to derive themes within perceived barriers and solutions. Participants described three overarching themes consistent with barriers including, lack of knowledge and skill, lack of applicability and feasibility, and lack of funding agency and institutional culture. Participants recommended: (1) increasing awareness and skill of incorporation of sex and gender considerations into health research; (2) implementing practical education curricula to facilitate understanding; and (3) fostering greater transparency and accountability by funding organizations and journal editors. Sex and gender considerations in research contribute to precision health, drive innovation and foster breakthroughs in science and medicine.
Overview offers an inkling on 3D bioprinting
Authors: Patrick Chris
Published: November 2020

A review of inkjet printing outlines recent developments as well as future directions for expanding this technology for medical applications such as bioprinting.
Investigation of displacement damage to vertical-cavity surface-emitting red lasers due to 1 MeV electron radiation
Authors: Chen J. W. , Li Y. D. , Heini M. , Liu B. K. , Lei Q. Q. , Guo Q. , Wen L. , Zhou D. , Lu W. , He C. F. , Aierke A.
Published: November 2020

The effects of displacement damage due to 1 MeV electron radiation on 680 nm and 850 nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) were experimentally investigated. The displacement damage dose was calculated using the MULASSIS tool, where it was found that radiation significantly affects the threshold current of VCSELs. The threshold current damage factor is 2.46 × 10−18 cm2/e for 680 nm VCSELs and 1.48 × 10−18 cm2/e for 850 nm VCSELs. In addition, the power intensity distribution and light output power degradation were characterized to evaluate the radiation hardness of VCSELs. An understanding of the performance degradation of VCSELs under electron exposure would be useful in optimizing their applications in hostile environments.
Climate change and soil organic matter in Scotland: time to turn over a new leaf?
Authors: Aitkenhead M. J.
Published: November 2020

The Scottish Government has recognised that soils perform many vital functions for the health of the environment and economy. In the last decade, there has been significant research output from several organisations across Scotland, in collaboration with partners in the rest of the UK and further afield. In this review, I highlight recent research focused on soil organic matter in the context of the main external drivers (land management and climate change). This review demonstrates the strengths and successes of the relatively tightly integrated policy-research-regulatory landscape in Scotland. It also highlights the need for more and greater impact through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research involving soil scientists, social scientists, policymakers and land managers. Evidence is presented that meaningful (rather than incremental) changes to climate change mitigation and adaptation policies and practices are necessary, with a further need for researchers and policymakers to consider both local conditions and global impacts of future climate on the practical implementation of soil-based climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies in Scotland. The role of environmental and social scientists through advocacy as well as research is explored and discussed.
Synaptic vesicles burst into sight
Authors: Short Ben
Published: November 2020

JGP study shows that small voltage changes disrupt semi-regular bursts of vesicle release from rod photoreceptors, potentially facilitating low-light vision.
Supplementary comparison EURAMET.L-S25 (#1354). Comparison of pocket type laser distance measuring instruments
Authors: Prieto Emilio , Pérez Ma Mar , Ruíz Juan A , Matus Michael , Kotte Gerard
Published: November 2020

Supplementary comparison of distance measurements using pocket-type laser instruments (EDMs), following the previous comparison EURAMET.L-S20.

Originally proposed by CEM (ES) as billateral comparison with BEV (AT), after the open call made at the 2014 EURAMET TC-L meeting, VSL (NL) joined the comparison too.

Registered as Supplementary Comparison EURAMET.L-S25 with CEM acting as Coordinator and Pilot laboratory.

Transfer devices were two Leica DISTO EDMs, being the measurands the distances from the rear part of the EDMs to a target plate situated at 0.3 m and every 5 m until covering a range of 50 m.

Main text

To reach the main text of this paper, click on Final Report. Note that this text is that which appears in Appendix B of the BIPM key comparison database kcdb.bipm.org/.

The final report has been peer-reviewed and approved for publication by the EURAMET and CCL WG-MRA, according to the provisions of the CIPM Mutual Recognition Arrangement (CIPM MRA).
Pancakes as opposed to Swiss cheese
Authors: Nájera S , Sussman R A
Published: November 2020

We examine a novel class of toy models of cosmological inhomogeneities by smoothly matching along a suitable hypersurface an arbitrary number of sections of ‘quasi flat’ inhomogeneous and anisotropic Szekeres-II models to sections of any spatially flat cosmology that can be described by the Robertson–Waker metric (including de Sitter, anti de Sitter and Minkowski spacetimes). The resulting ‘pancake’ models are quasi-flat analogues to the well known spherical ‘Swiss-cheese’ models found in the literature. Since Szekeres-II models can be, in general, compatible with a wide range of sources (dissipative fluids, mixtures of non-comoving fluids, mixtures of fluids with scalar or magnetic fields or gravitational waves), the pancake configurations we present allow for a description of a wide collection of localized sources embedded in a Robertson–Waker geometry. We provide various simple examples of arbitrary numbers of Szekeres-II regions (whose sources are comoving dust and energy flux interpreted as a field of peculiar velocities) matched with Einstein de Sitter, ΛCDM and de Sitter backgrounds. We also prove that the Szekeres-II regions can be rigorously regarded as ‘exact’ covariant perturbations on a background defined by the matching discussed above. We believe that these models can be useful to test ideas on averaging and backreaction and on the effect of inhomogeneities on cosmic evolution and observations.
Automated multi-parameter high-dose-rate brachytherapy quality assurance via radioluminescence imaging
Authors: Jia Mengyu , Kim Tae Jin , Yang Yong , Xing Lei , Jean Paul De , Grafil Elliot , Jenkins Cesare H , Fahimian Benjamin P
Published: November 2020

The purpose of this study is to leverage radioluminescence imaging for the development of an automated high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy quality assurance (QA) system that enables simultaneous measurements of dwell position, dwell time, wire velocity, and relative source strength in a single test. The system consists of a radioluminescence phosphor sheet (a mixture of Gd2O2S:Tb and PDMS) positioned atop a HDR needle applicator, a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor digital camera used to capture the emitted radioluminescence signals from the scintillator sheet, and an in-house graphical user interface for signal processing. The signal processing was used to extract source intensity, location, and elapsed time, yielding the final measurements on dwell position, dwell time, and wire velocity. The source strength relative to the well chamber calibration (in unit of Air-Kerma strength, Sk
) is measured by establishing a calibration curve that correlates Sk
with the detector response. Validation experiments are performed using three customized treatment plans. With these plans, the dwell position and dwell time are verified for a range of 110.0 cm–117.5 cm and 2 s–16 s, respectively, and the linear correlation with Sk
is demonstrated for the source strength varying between 28 348 U (cGy cm2 h−1) and 41 906 U. The wire velocity, i.e. the speed of the radioactive source averaged over the distance in between dwell positions, is calculated for various distances ranging from 5 mm to 50 mm. Results show that the mean deviations of the measured dwell position and dwell time are 0.1 mm (range from 0 to 0.2 mm) and 32.5 ms (range from 0 to 60.0 ms) with respect to the planned values, respectively, and the system response is highly linear with Sk
( R2 = 0.998). Moreover, the measured wire velocities are comparable to previously reported values. Benefitting from the compact hardware design and image processing algorithms, the system provides a practical, reliable, and comprehensive solution for HDR QA.
Mechanically tunable ultrasonic metamaterial lens with a subwavelength resolution at long working distances for bioimaging
Authors: Yang Teng , Jin Yuqi , Choi Tae-Youl , Dahotre Narendra , Neogi Arup
Published: November 2020

In this study, a novel acoustic doublet meta-material lens has been designed and tested to demonstrate both a far-field focal point and ultra-long collimation characteristics past the Fresnel zone. The switching of the two behaviors can be adjusted by a simple linear mechanical translation of one of the lens units. The doublet lens can focus the sound wave beyond 38λ away from the experiment’s lens, which is farther than any existing ultrasonic transducer or meta-lenses lenses. In terms of collimating behavior, the doublet lens is a unique metamaterial lens that experimentally demonstrates a long and narrow collimating beam over 70λ. Besides the design and characterization, the meta-lens have been used to detect real objects, including inorganic and organic matter. A subwavelength spatial resolution has been demonstrated. The detection limit was 0.26λ in the monostatic setup and 0.62λ in a bistatic experimental setup. This lens demonstrates super-resolution detection capabilities at distances of 42λ and can enable ultrasonic diagnostics deep within a material or a biological tissue. The experimental performance of the doublet meta-material lens illustrated its potential to apply acoustic metamaterial elements in a practical imaging application, including the detection of biological tissues
Graph-theoretic approach to dimension witnessing
Authors: Ray Maharshi , Boddu Naresh Goud , Bharti Kishor , Kwek Leong-Chuan , Cabello Adán
Published: November 2020

A fundamental problem in quantum computation and quantum information is finding the minimum quantum dimension needed for a task. For tasks involving state preparation and measurements, this problem can be addressed using only the input–output correlations. This has been applied to Bell, prepare-and-measure, and Kochen–Specker contextuality scenarios. Here, we introduce a novel approach to quantum dimension witnessing for scenarios with one preparation and several measurements, which uses the graphs of mutual exclusivity between sets of measurement events. We present the concepts and tools needed for graph-theoretic quantum dimension witnessing and illustrate their use by identifying novel quantum dimension witnesses, including a family that can certify arbitrarily high quantum dimensions with few events.
Adsorption geometry and electronic structure of a charge-transfer-complex: TTF-PYZ2 on Ag(110)
Authors: Kretz Patrick , Waltar Kay , Geng Yan , Metzger Christian , Graus Martin , Schöll Achim , Reinert Friedrich , Liu Shi-Xia , Decurtins Silvio , Hengsberger Matthias , Osterwalder Jürg , Castiglioni Luca
Published: November 2020

We study electronic properties and adsorption geometries of the molecular charge-transfer-complex tetrathiafulvalene-dipyrazine on Ag(110). Using a combination of angle-resolved photoemission and electron diffraction, supported by DFT-based simulations, renders a comprehensive picture of this interesting system. We find low interaction between the substrate and the molecule and thus little changes of the molecular geometry upon adsorption, as compared to the free gas phase molecule. Five electronic valence states can be unambiguously assigned owing to their distinctive photoemission patterns. The molecules adsorb aligned with the Ag rows in the first layer, while they are slightly rotated in the second layer. Additional intensity of the molecular photoemission signal near the Fermi energy indicates partial charge-transfer into formerly unoccupied states, most likely of intermolecular origin.
Stability analysis of the uniform motion of electrodynamic bodies
Authors: López Álvaro G
Published: November 2020

We show that when an electrodynamic body is perturbed from a state of uniform motion, it starts to perform fast oscillations, irrespective of the frequency of the perturbation. It has been demonstrated in previous works that the state of uniform motion can be Lyapunov unstable for particles having a prolate geometry with respect to the direction of motion. Here we show that the limit cycle oscillations are destabilized through a Hopf bifurcation as the geometry of the electrodynamic body gradually switches from prolate to oblate. The resulting symmetry breaking of the Lorentz group implies that the principle of inertia only holds on average, suggesting that the default state of matter is not uniform motion, but self-oscillation as well. We propose that the excitability of electrodynamic bodies under external perturbations is at the basis of the wave-particle duality and its related quantum effects.
Theoretical modelling of competitive microbial range expansion with heterogeneous mechanical interactions
Authors: Maikranz E , Santen L
Published: November 2020

Microbial range expansion experiments provide insight into the complex link between dynamic structure, pattern formation and evolutionary dynamics of growing populations. In this work, we develop a theoretical model in order to investigate the interplay of growth statistics and mechanical interactions which are implemented as division driven pushing and swapping of cells. For the case of the competitive growth of a strongly and a weakly interacting strain we investigate the influence of different mean division times, as well as different mechanical interactions on the development of the colony. Our results show that the susceptibility to cell division induced pushing has a much stronger influence on the structure of the colony than cell sorting towards the colony’s perimeter. Motivated by microbial range expansion experiments of Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacteria, we also consider the influence of mutating cells on the structure of the colony. We show that the outgrowth of the three different strains is strongly influenced by the relative strengths of their mechanical interaction. The experimentally observed patterns are reproduced for mechanical interactions of the mutants, which range between those of the strongly and weakly interacting strain.
Dynamics of weak-magnetic-shear-sustained internal transport barrier during supersonic molecular-beam injection in JT-60U
Authors: Kin F. , Yoshida M. , Takenaga H. , Honda M. , Tamura N. , Narita E. , Kamiya K. , Bando T. , Wakatsuki T. , Isayama A.
Published: November 2020

The characteristics of ion heat transport inside the internal transport barrier (ITB), which is sustained by weak magnetic shear, are investigated using a cold pulse induced by supersonic molecular-beam injection (SMBI) in JT-60U. It is known that cold-pulse propagation in ITBs usually significantly reduces the temperature and degrades the temperature gradient. When subsequent SMBIs are launched before the temperature has recovered, it is observed that the temperature gradient of the ITB is not monotonically decreased but alternately decreased and increased. Alternating decreasing and increasing phases of the ITB temperature gradient continue for about 1 s (∼6τ
E), and the properties of the cold-pulse propagation and the flux-gradient relations differ according to the phase. The usual transient transport analysis is also provided by inducing a cold pulse in stationary ITBs. A rapid reduction and recovery of the temperature is observed inside the ITBs, and it is found that the ion-heat flux changes without a variation in the local ion-temperature gradient or a change to the other observable local parameters. The flux-gradient relations exhibit significant hysteresis in two ITB cases: (i) ITBs with strong electron-density gradients and (ii) ITBs with weak ion-temperature gradients. In addition, the range in which hysteresis appears is most likely to depend on the width of the ITB.
Application of ZnO/CNT@Fe3O4 nanocomposite in amplifying the anti-leukemic effects of Imatinib: a novel strategy to adjuvant therapy in chronic myeloid leukemia
Authors: Yousefi Amir-Mohammad , Safaroghli-Azar Ava , Pourbagheri-Sigaroodi Atieh , Fakhroueian Zahra , Momeny Majid , Bashash Davood
Published: November 2020

The advent of tyrosine kinase inhibitors in the therapeutic protocols of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) was a revolution in the treatment strategies that guaranteed the achievement of complete remission for patients. However, due to different mutations bypassing the efficacy of Imatinib, novel and more effective treatments are indeed required for the treatment of CML. Our study declared that the combination of synthesized ZnO/CNT@Fe3O4 nanocomposite with Imatinib decreased survival of CML-derived K562 cells, probably through inducing reactive oxygen species-mediated apoptosis. We also found improved cytotoxicity in the presence of a well known autophagy inhibitor, indicating that the apoptotic effect of this treatment is enhanced via autophagy suppression. Investigating the molecular mechanisms for the growth-suppressive effect of ZnO/CNT@Fe3O4-plus-Imatinib suggested that up-regulation of SIRT1 ceased cell cycle progression by increasing the expression of p21 and p27 cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors. Notably, we reported here for the first time that either direct or indirect suppression of c-Myc results in enhanced anti-leukemic efficacy, suggesting that overexpression of c-Myc plays a contributory role in attenuating the efficacy of ZnO/CNT@Fe3O4—Imatinib in K562 cells. Given the promising effect of ZnO/CNT@Fe3O4 in potentiating the anti-cancer effects of Imatinib in K562 cells, our study suggested that nanocomposite could be used as a tool for combined-strategy treatment. However, further in vivo experiments are needed to provide clues for the safety and efficacy of this nanocomposite.
The boundary density profile of a Coulomb droplet. Freezing at the edge
Authors: Cardoso Gabriel , Stéphan Jean-Marie , Abanov Alexander G
Published: November 2020

We revisit the problem of computing the boundary density profile of a droplet of two-dimensional one-component plasma (2D OCP) with logarithmic interaction between particles in a confining harmonic potential. At a sufficiently low temperature, but still in the liquid phase, the density exhibits oscillations as a function of the distance to the boundary of the droplet. We obtain the density profile numerically using Monte-Carlo simulations of the 2D OCP. We argue that the decay and period of those oscillations can be explained within a picture of the Wigner crystallization near the boundary, where the crystal is gradually melted with the increasing distance to the boundary.
Synthesis of gold nanoparticles using novel Eucalyptus tereticornis and their in-vitro antibacterial, antioxidant and anticancer studies
Authors: M S Kiran , Betageri Virupaxappa S , C R Rajith Kumar , S P Vinay , M S Latha
Published: November 2020

Development of biologically inspired experimental procedures for synthesis of nanoparticles (NPs) is an important branch of nanotechnology. Synthesis of NPs which are nontoxic, eco-friendly, inexpensive and having potential medicinal properties is challenging. In present study, gold NPs were produced from Eucalyptus tereticornis leaf extract (Et-AuNPs). The Et-AuNPs were confirmed using UV–Vis absorption study which shows surface plasmon resonance peak at 569 nm. Various characteristics of Et-AuNPs were demonstrated by characterisation techniques such as scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction and energy dispersive spectroscopy. It is found that prepared Et-AuNPs are well dispersed and spherical in shape. Significant anticancer effect on MCF-7 cell lines was observed in dose-dependent manner having IC50 value of 52.0 μg ml−1. Further antibacterial studies were carried out by disc-diffusion method, which revealed potential antibacterial activity of Et-AuNPs against pathogenic bacterial strains. Et-AuNPs also exhibited promising free radical scavenging efficiency performed by DPPH assay with IC50 values of 62.6 μg ml−1. The results suggest that green synthesised AuNPs can be exploited for clinical as well as pharmaceutical activities using nanomedicine approach in near future.
Erosion corrosion of Ti and Zr in acidic metastannic acid synthesis
Authors: Li Zulai , Wu Lei , Ge Ru , Zhang Fei , Shan Quan , Huang Yinghong , Su Ruichun
Published: November 2020

In synthesis of metastannic acid, erosion corrosion caused by strong acid and abrasion triggered by stannum granular both create a complex circumstance for reactor. Titanium and zirconium, as the major choices for fabricating the reactor, sustained the combined impact of corrosion and abrasion in the circumstance. While there are very few researches, focusing on the erosion corrosion of the reactor, in the synthesis of metastannic acid. The erosion corrosion behaviors of commercial reactor materials Ti (TA2) and Zr (Zr-1) were investigated in the acidic conditions (20 vol% H2SO4 or 20 vol% HNO3 solutions) according to the complex circumstance. Therefore the wear and corrosion properties were tested by weight loss method and electrochemical method separately, the corrosion situation, such as open circuit potential (OCP) and Tafel plot, of Ti and Zr were tested, the mass loss caused by corrosion and wear were quantitatively, and the surface morphology was observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Moreover the corrosion abrasion situation, OCP, Tafel plot, mass loss and surface morphology, had been investigated using self-made corrosion abrasion testing device too. The results showed that in the solution of 20 vol% HNO3, the corrosion rate of Zr increased by 120 times when the solution was heated to 200 °C under corrosion condition, and the corrosion rate of Ti increased by 8 times, indicating that the corrosion resistance of Zr is easier affected by temperature, the corrosion resistance of Zr is better than Ti. Under abrasion condition, using abrasion quartz sand particles as abrasion material, the mass loss rate of Ti and Zr was 159.23 mg/(m2·h) and 252.23 mg/(m2·h). Under erosion corrosion condition, the synergistic effect of erosion corrosion of Ti and Zr exacerbated the mass loss, their mass loss rate respectively was 788.05 mg/(m2·h) and 225.4 mg/(m2·h) especially in Ti-H2SO4 and Zr-HNO3 systems. A dense oxide layer detected on the surface of Ti and Zr, could improve the corrosion resistance, but it was easy to fatigue and peel off when there was abrasion material in the solution. A erosion corrosion model of Ti and Zr were established for serve life prediction, which could provide theoretical guidance for the design of reaction in production of metastannic acid.
Highly sensitive ethanol sensor based on Ce-doped WO3 with raspberry-like architecture
Authors: Diao Quan , Yin Yuna , Jia Wanshun , Xu Xiumei , Ding Yi , Zhang Xiaomei , Cao Jian , Yang Kai , Jiao Mingli
Published: November 2020

This work reported a highly sensitive ethanol sensor assembled from raspberry-like hierarchical Ce-doped WO3 nanoparticles. The Ce-doped WO3 nanoparticles doped with different contents (0, 2, 4 and 8 at%) of Ce were synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method. The crystalline structure and the micromorphology of Ce-doped WO3 nanoparticles were measured by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), respectively. The x-ray photoelectric spectroscopy (XPS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) attached with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) confirmed the elemental distribution and the chemical state of surface elements. Comparison between the pristine and Ce-doped WO3 samples revealed that the doping of Ce on WO3 can powerfully improve the response ability to ethanol. As the doping content of Ce element was 4 at%, the sensor exhibited optimal response to ethanol in the range of 0.1–50 ppm at the working temperature of 350 °C. The response can achieve a high value of 12.3 for detecting 1 ppm ethanol with a fast response/recovery (6s/6s). Impressively, the sensor still maintained a good response (8.1) to ethanol even at sub-ppm level (0.1 ppm ethanol). This work will pave a platform for design and development of highly sensitive ethanol sensors.