254 research outputs found
Design and test of an extremely high resolution Timing Counter for the MEG II experiment: preliminary results
No full textTime resolution of time-of-flight detector based on multiple scintillation counters readout by SiPMs
No full textA new timing detector measuring â1⁄450MeV/c positrons is under development for the MEG II experiment, aiming at a time resolution Ïtâ1⁄430ps. The resolution is expected to be achieved by measuring each positron time with multiple counters made of plastic scintillator readout by silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). The purpose of this work is to demonstrate the time resolution for â1⁄450MeV/c positrons using prototype counters. Counters with dimensions of 90Ã40Ã5 mm3readout by six SiPMs (three on each 40Ã5 mm2plane) were built with SiPMs from Hamamatsu Photonics and AdvanSiD and tested in a positron beam at the DAΦNE Beam Test Facility. The time resolution was found to improve nearly as the square root of the number of counter hits. A time resolution Ït=26.2±1.3 ps was obtained with eight counters with Hamamatsu SiPMs. These results suggest that the design resolution is achievable in the MEG II experiment
Characteristics of splenic CD8+ T cell exhaustion in patients with hepatitis C
No full textSummary: There is increasing interest in the role of T cell exhaustion and it is well known that the natural history of chronic hepatitis C virus infection (HCV) is modulated by CD8+ T cell immunobiology. There are many pathways that alter the presence of exhaustive T cells and, in particular, they are functionally impaired by inhibitory receptors, such as programmed death-1 (PD-1) and T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-containing protein 3 (Tim-3). We obtained spleen, liver and peripheral blood (before and after splenectomy) lymphoid cells from 25 patients with HCV-related cirrhosis undergoing liver transplantation for end-stage disease or splenectomy for portal hypertension. In all samples we performed an extensive phenotypic study of exhaustion markers [PD-1, Tim-3, interferon (IFN)-γ) and their ligands (PD-L1, PD-L2, galectin-9] in CD8+ T cell subpopulations (both total and HCV-specific) and in antigen-presenting cells (APC; monocytes and dendritic cells). In the spleen, total and HCV-specific CD8+ T cells demonstrated enhanced markers of exhaustion, predominantly in the effector memory subpopulation. Similarly, splenic APC over-expressed inhibitory receptor ligands when compared to peripheral blood. Finally, when peripheral blood CD8+ T cells were compared before and after splenectomy, markers of exhaustion were reduced in splenic CD8+ T cells and APC. Our data in HCV-related cirrhosis suggest that CD8+ T cells in the spleen manifest a significantly higher exhaustion compared to peripheral blood and may thus contribute to the failure to control HCV. Counteracting this process may contribute to inducing an effective immune response to HCV
"Measuring the Extent and Implications of Director Interlocking in the Pre-war Japanese Banking Industry"
No full textIn prewar Japan, many banks were controlled by industrial companies through capital and personal relationships. Those banks are called "organ banks" (kikan ginko). Organ banks engaged in unsound lending to their related companies, which gave damage to the banks' financial conditions, and consequently made the financial system unstable. This is an accepted view on the financial history in prewar Japan (organ bank hypothesis). However, this view has been based on case studies and casual observations. In this paper we examine the organ bank hypothesis using quantitative data and econometric methodology. To measure the extent of connections between banks and non-banking companies, we compile a comprehensive database of directors and auditors of banks and non-banking companies in 1926. It is found that interlocking of directors and auditors between banks and non-banking companies were very pervasive. More than 80% of ordinary banks had at least one director or auditor who was at the same time a director or auditor of at least one non-banking company. Also, regression analyses confirm that director interlocking had a negative effect on bank performance, especially for small-sized banks.
The Movement of the Ainu Association of Hokkaido and the “Subjectivity” of the Ainu: from the 1960’s to ‘Ainu New Law (draft)’ of 1984
No full textA spatial and statistical analysis of the impact of transformation of raster cost surfaces on the variation of least-cost paths
No full textPlanners who are involved in locational decision-making often useraster-based geographic information systems to quantify the valueof land in terms of suitability or cost for a certain use. From acomputational point of view, this process can be seen as a transformationof one or more sets of values associated with a grid ofcells into another set of such values through a function reflectingone or more criteria. While it is generally anticipated that differenttransformations lead to different ‘best’ locations, little has beenknown on how such differences arise (or do not arise). The paperattempts to answer this question in the context of path planningthrough a series of computational experiments using a number ofrandom landscape grids with a variety of spatial and nonspatialstructures. In the experiments, we generated least-cost paths on anumber of cost grids transformed from the landscape grids usinga variety of transformation parameters and analyzed the locationsand (weighted) lengths of those paths. Results show that the samepair of terminal cells may well be connected by different least-costpaths on different cost grids though derived from the same landscapegrid and that the variation among those paths is affected byhow given values are distributed in the landscape grid as well asby how derived values are distributed in the cost grids. Mostsignificantly, the variation tends to be smaller when the landscapegrid contains more distinct patches of cells potentially attractingor distracting cost-saving passage or when the cost grid contains asmaller number of low-cost cells.QC 20181002</p
An experimental analysis of least-cost path models on ordinal-scaled raster surfaces
No full textSelection of optimal paths or sequences of cells from a grid of cells is one of the most basic functions of raster-based geographic information systems. For this function to work, it is often assumed that the optimality of a path can be evaluated by the sum of the weighted lengths of all its segments–weighted, i.e. by the underlying cell values. The validity of this assumption must be questioned, however, if those values are measured on a scale that does not permit arithmetic operations. Through computational experiments with randomly generated artificial landscapes, this paper compares two models, minisum and minimax path models, which aggregate the values of the cells associated with a path using the sum function and the maximum function, respectively. Results suggest that the minisum path model is effective if the path search can be translated into the conventional least-cost path problem, which aims to find a path with the minimum cost-weighted length between two terminuses on a ratio-scaled raster cost surface. On the other hand, the minimax path model is found mathematically sounder if the cost values are measured on an ordinal scale and practically useful if the problem is concerned not with the minimization of cost but with the maximization of some desirable condition such as suitability.Not duplicate with DiVA 1252643QC 20250318</p
Measurement of Higgs boson decay into -quarks in associated production with a top-quark pair in collisions at TeV with the ATLAS detector
No full textThe associated production of a Higgs boson and a top-quark pair is measured
in events characterised by the presence of one or two electrons or muons. The
Higgs boson decay into a -quark pair is used. The analysed data,
corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb, were collected in
proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider between 2015 and 2018 at
a centre-of-mass energy of TeV. The measured signal strength,
defined as the ratio of the measured signal yield to that predicted by the
Standard Model, is . This result is compatible with the
Standard Model prediction and corresponds to an observed (expected)
significance of 1.0 (2.7) standard deviations. The signal strength is also
measured differentially in bins of the Higgs boson transverse momentum in the
simplified template cross-section framework, including a bin for specially
selected boosted Higgs bosons with transverse momentum above 300 GeV.Comment: 62 pages in total, author list starting page 46, 19 figures, 9
tables, submitted to JHEP. All figures including auxiliary figures are
available at
https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HIGG-2020-23
Search for associated production of a Z boson with an invisibly decaying Higgs boson or dark matter candidates at s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
No full textA search for invisible decays of the Higgs boson as well as searches for dark matter candidates, produced together with a leptonically decaying Z boson, are presented. The analysis is performed using proton−proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, delivered by the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1 and recorded by the ATLAS experiment. Assuming Standard Model cross-sections for ZH production, the observed (expected) upper limit on the branching ratio of the Higgs boson to invisible particles is found to be 19% (19%) at the 95% confidence level. Exclusion limits are also set for simplified dark matter models and two-Higgs-doublet models with an additional pseudoscalar mediator. © 2022 The Author(s
Association between sleep and fatigue in nurses who are engaged in 16 h night shifts in Japan: Assessment using actigraphy
No full textAim To determine the association between sleep and fatigue in nurses who are working in a two-shift system, including 16 h night shifts. Methods Sixty-one nurses were assessed on their sleeping and napping over 9 days, using actigraphy and a sleep diary. Work-related feelings of fatigue were measured by using the "Jikaku-sho shirabe" questionnaire and the Cumulative Fatigue Symptoms Index. Results The main night-time sleep started after 00:00 hours in half of the participants and the average start and end times were significantly delayed among the participants in their 20s, compared to those in their 40s . Although _*_90% of the participants napped during and/or after a night shift, only 50.8% napped for >2 h during their shift and 32.8% napped in the morning after a night shift. In the high-fatigue group, significantly more nurses went to sleep after 00:25 hours than before 00:26 hours the night after a night shift. Furthermore, those nurses who napped for >2 h during their night shift exhibited a significantly lower rate of some cumulative fatigue symptoms, compared to those who did not. In addition, a combination of napping in the morning after a night shift and beginning the following night-time sleep before 00:26 hours were associated with a significant decrease in fatigue symptoms. Conclusions Naps at an appropriate time and of an appropriate duration, along with the practice of beginning the night-time sleep early after a night shift, might relieve cumulative mental fatigue in nurses who are working 16 h night shifts
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