Soft-Dielectron Excess in Proton-Proton Collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV

A measurement of dielectron production in proton-proton (pp) collisions at sqrt[s]=13  TeV, recorded with the ALICE detector at the CERN LHC, is presented in this Letter. The data set was recorded with a reduced magnetic solenoid field. This enables the investigation of a kinematic domain at low dielectron (ee) invariant mass m_{ee} and pair transverse momentum p_{T,ee} that was previously inaccessible at the LHC. The cross section for dielectron production is studied as a function of m_{ee}, p_{T,ee}, and event multiplicity dN_{ch}/dη. The expected dielectron rate from hadron decays, called hadronic cocktail, utilizes a parametrization of the measured η/π^{0} ratio in pp and proton-nucleus collisions, assuming that this ratio shows no strong dependence on collision energy at low transverse momentum. Comparison of the measured dielectron yield to the hadronic cocktail at 0.15<m_{ee}<0.6  GeV/c^{2} and for p_{T,ee}<0.4  GeV/c indicates an enhancement of soft dielectrons, reminiscent of the "anomalous" soft-photon and soft-dilepton excess in hadron-hadron collisions reported by several experiments under different experimental conditions. The enhancement factor over the hadronic cocktail amounts to 1.61±0.13(stat)±0.17(syst,data)±0.34(syst,cocktail) in the ALICE acceptance. Acceptance-corrected excess spectra in m_{ee} and p_{T,ee} are extracted and compared with calculations of dielectron production from hadronic bremsstrahlung and thermal radiation within a hadronic many-body approach.

Evidence-based interventions for children and adolescents with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders - A systematic review

INTRODUCTION

Brain function deficits cause strong negative impacts for the everyday lives of children and adolescents with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). Therefore, evidence-based intervention programs that are specifically designed for patients with FASD are needed but still scarce. The aim of the presented article is a systematic literature review of evidence-based intervention strategies for children and adolescents with FASD.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A comprehensive systematic literature search was conducted in several relevant databases to identify randomized-controlled intervention studies for children and adolescents with FASD.

RESULTS

We identified 25 randomized-controlled studies regarding interventions in FASD. Overall, evidence indicating that some therapeutic interventions are effective in children and adolescents with FASD was found. Even though evidence-based interventions rarely lead to improvements of performance into a "normal range", those measures can alleviate negative consequences of prenatal alcohol exposure and relieve daily burdens.

CONCLUSION

There are only a few randomized-controlled trials regarding therapy research for children and adolescents with FASD. Their results indicate that especially the combination of parent and child sessions present a promising approach for the treatment of FASD. Positive treatment effects of interventions seem to be domain specific, except for interventions regarding self-regulation or social interaction.

Association of ovarian response with picoAMH in women undergoing controlled ovarian hyperstimulation

OBJECTIVE

Our study aims to evaluate the diagnostic performance of a high-sensitivity picoAnti-Müllerian Hormone (picoAMH) for predicting ovarian response in women undergoing controlled ovarian hyperstimulation and occurrence of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.

METHODS

Retrospective cohort study at a single academic fertility center including all patients with picoAMH ELISA who underwent controlled ovarian hyperstimulation. The primary outcome was the number of oocytes retrieved, and secondary outcomes included cycle cancellation and ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. Patients were grouped into poor, normal, and hyper-responders based on number of oocytes retrieved.

RESULTS

The mean AMH and antral follicle count (AFC) were significantly different between normal response vs. hyper response group (p < 0.0001). Only serum AMH and not AFC was significantly increased in patients diagnosed with ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). For prediction of OHSS, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed that AMH (area under the ROC curve [AUC] = 0.85) was significantly better than the AFC (AUC = 0.64). The serum AMH cut-off at sensitivity of 80% for predicting OHSS among hyper responders from ROC curve was 3.67 ng/ml. Serum AMH measured by picoAMH ELISA showed superior correlation to number of oocytes retrieved when compared to AFC in the age group over 40 years old (r² = 0.74 and r² = 0.4, respectively) CONCLUSION: This study shows great utility of picoAMH ELISA for predicting ovarian response to controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH). Diagnostic performance of picoAMH for prediction of OHSS is superior to the AFC in our cohort.

[Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders-diagnosis, prognosis, and prevention]

Die Fetale Alkoholspektrumstörung ist eine der häufigsten bei Geburt bestehenden chronischen Erkrankungen, die zum Großteil nicht oder fehldiagnostiziert wird. Dies führt zu inadäquater, ineffektiver Förderung und Therapie der erkrankten Kinder sowie mangelnder Unterstützung der betroffenen Familien. Daraus resultiert nicht nur ein hohes Maß an Sekundärerkrankungen, sondern auch eine Einbuße in der Möglichkeit der Sekundär- und Tertiärprävention bei erkrankten Kindern und betroffenen Familien. Sekundär und Tertiärprävention sind jedoch bei richtiger und rechtzeitiger Diagnose möglich. Die Primärprävention im Bereich Alkoholkonsum in der Schwangerschaft und Fetale Alkoholspektrumstörung muss auch in Zukunft sowohl von medizinischer als auch politischer Seite strukturiert, interdisziplinär und wissenschaftlich basiert geplant und durchgeführt werden. Neben der Aufklärung der Allgemeinbevölkerung ist hierbei die Wissensvermittlung an ÄrztInnen und andere medizinisch-psychologisch-pädagogische Fachkräfte besonders relevant.

Parity-preserving and magnetic field-resilient superconductivity in InSb nanowires with Sn shells

Improving materials used to make qubits is crucial to further progress in quantum information processing. Of particular interest are semiconductor-superconductor heterostructures that are expected to form the basis of topological quantum computing. We grew semiconductor indium antimonide nanowires that were coated with shells of tin of uniform thickness. No interdiffusion was observed at the interface between Sn and InSb. Tunnel junctions were prepared by in situ shadowing. Despite the lack of lattice matching between Sn and InSb, a 15-nanometer-thick shell of tin was found to induce a hard superconducting gap, with superconductivity persisting in magnetic field up to 4 teslas. A small island of Sn-InSb exhibits the two-electron charging effect. These findings suggest a less restrictive approach to fabricating superconducting and topological quantum circuits.

Masking of High-Translucency Zirconia for Various Cores

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

Various core materials with different shades affect the final color of high-translucency monolithic zirconia restorations. The blue core shows the greatest color difference in final zirconia restorations followed by metal, A3 dentin-shade resin core, and white core.

SUMMARY

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the masking ability of high-translucency monolithic zirconia for various core materials. A computer-aided design-computer-aided manufacturing system was used to design a zirconia disc with a diameter of 10 mm and a thickness of 1.0 mm. Four groups of cores (n=15 each) were fabricated with blue-colored dual-cure resin, white-colored dual-cure resin, A3 dentin-shade composite resin, and titanium block with 10-mm diameter and 5-mm thickness.Dual-cure, self-adhesive resin cement discs with a thickness of 25.0 ± 0.02 μm were fabricated. The color was measured using a handheld spectrophotometer. Color measurements of all specimens were performed on a white background. To assess the masking ability of zirconia, the difference between the values measured with zirconia on a white background and the values measured with zirconia on each of the four types of core material as a background with the cement specimens interposed (zirconia + cement + core) was determined. To enhance the optical connection between the specimens, distilled water was applied between each layer during each measurement.The results showed that the value of ΔE was highest for the blue core followed by metal, A3 dentin-shade resin core, and white-resin core. No significant differences were observed between the metal core and the A3 dentin-shade resin core or between the A3 dentin-shade resin core and the white core. The blue core had the significantly highest ΔE value based on Tukey's honest significant difference test.Different core materials affect the final color of high-translucency monolithic zirconia restorations. Thus, our study showed that the final color of high-translucency monolithic zirconia restorations could be affected by the type of core material used.

Elliptic Flow of Electrons from Beauty-Hadron Decays in Pb-Pb Collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.02 TeV

The elliptic flow of electrons from beauty hadron decays at midrapidity (|y|<0.8) is measured in Pb-Pb collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.02  TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The azimuthal distribution of the particles produced in the collisions can be parametrized with a Fourier expansion, in which the second harmonic coefficient represents the elliptic flow, v_{2}. The v_{2} coefficient of electrons from beauty hadron decays is measured for the first time in the transverse momentum (p_{T}) range 1.3-6  GeV/c in the centrality class 30%-50%. The measurement of electrons from beauty-hadron decays exploits their larger mean proper decay length cτ≈500  μm compared to that of charm hadrons and most of the other background sources. The v_{2} of electrons from beauty hadron decays at midrapidity is found to be positive with a significance of 3.75  σ. The results provide insights into the degree of thermalization of beauty quarks in the medium. A model assuming full thermalization of beauty quarks is strongly disfavored by the measurement at high p_{T}, but is in agreement with the results at low p_{T}. Transport models including substantial interactions of beauty quarks with an expanding strongly interacting medium describe the measurement within uncertainties.

Soft X-ray and ENA Imaging of the Earth's Dayside Magnetosphere

The LEXI and SMILE missions will provide soft X-ray images of the Earth's magnetosheath and cusps after their anticipated launch in 2023 and 2024, respectively. The IBEX mission showed the potential of an Energetic Neutral Atom (ENA) instrument to image dayside magnetosheath and cusps, albeit over the long hours required to raster an image with a single pixel imager. Thus, it is timely to discuss the two imaging techniques and relevant science topics. We simulate soft X-ray and low-ENA images that might be observed by a virtual spacecraft during two interesting solar wind scenarios: a southward turning of the interplanetary magnetic field and a sudden enhancement of the solar wind dynamic pressure. We employ the OpenGGCM global magnetohydrodynamics model and a simple exospheric neutral density model for these calculations. Both the magnetosheath and the cusps generate strong soft X-rays and ENA signals that can be used to extract the locations and motions of the bow shock and magnetopause. Magnetopause erosion corresponds closely to the enhancement of dayside reconnection rate obtained from the OpenGGCM model, indicating that images can be used to understand global-scale magnetopause reconnection. When dayside imagers are installed with high-ENA inner-magnetosphere and FUV/UV aurora imagers, we can trace the solar wind energy flow from the bow shock to the magnetosphere and then to the ionosphere in a self-standing manner without relying upon other observatories. Soft X-ray and/or ENA imagers can also unveil the dayside exosphere density structure and its response to space weather.

Measurement of the Low-Energy Antideuteron Inelastic Cross Section

In this Letter, we report the first measurement of the inelastic cross section for antideuteron-nucleus interactions at low particle momenta, covering a range of 0.3≤p<4  GeV/c. The measurement is carried out using p-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon-nucleon pair of sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.02  TeV, recorded with the ALICE detector at the CERN LHC and utilizing the detector material as an absorber for antideuterons and antiprotons. The extracted raw primary antiparticle-to-particle ratios are compared to the results from detailed ALICE simulations based on the geant4 toolkit for the propagation of (anti)particles through the detector material. The analysis of the raw primary (anti)proton spectra serves as a benchmark for this study, since their hadronic interaction cross sections are well constrained experimentally. The first measurement of the inelastic cross section for antideuteron-nucleus interactions averaged over the ALICE detector material with atomic mass numbers ⟨A⟩=17.4 and 31.8 is obtained. The measured inelastic cross section points to a possible excess with respect to the Glauber model parametrization used in geant4 in the lowest momentum interval of 0.3≤p<0.47  GeV/c up to a factor 2.1. This result is relevant for the understanding of antimatter propagation and the contributions to antinuclei production from cosmic ray interactions within the interstellar medium. In addition, the momentum range covered by this measurement is of particular importance to evaluate signal predictions for indirect dark-matter searches.

Probing the Effects of Strong Electromagnetic Fields with Charge-Dependent Directed Flow in Pb-Pb Collisions at the LHC

The first measurement at the LHC of charge-dependent directed flow (v_{1}) relative to the spectator plane is presented for Pb-Pb collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.02  TeV. Results are reported for charged hadrons and D^{0} mesons for the transverse momentum intervals p_{T}>0.2  GeV/c and 3<p_{T}<6  GeV/c in the 5%-40% and 10%-40% centrality classes, respectively. The difference between the positively and negatively charged hadron v_{1} has a positive slope as a function of pseudorapidity η, dΔv_{1}/dη=[1.68±0.49(stat)±0.41(syst)]×10^{-4}. The same measurement for D^{0} and D[over ¯]^{0} mesons yields a positive value dΔv_{1}/dη=[4.9±1.7(stat)±0.6(syst)]×10^{-1}, which is about 3 orders of magnitude larger than the one of the charged hadrons. These measurements can provide new insights into the effects of the strong electromagnetic field and the initial tilt of matter created in noncentral heavy ion collisions on the dynamics of light (u, d, and s) and heavy (c) quarks. The large difference between the observed Δv_{1} of charged hadrons and D^{0} mesons may reflect different sensitivity of the charm and light quarks to the early time dynamics of a heavy ion collision. These observations challenge some recent theoretical calculations, which predicted a negative and an order of magnitude smaller value of dΔv_{1}/dη for both light flavor and charmed hadrons.

Evidence of Spin-Orbital Angular Momentum Interactions in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

The first evidence of spin alignment of vector mesons (K^{*0} and ϕ) in heavy-ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is reported. The spin density matrix element ρ_{00} is measured at midrapidity (|y|<0.5) in Pb-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy (sqrt[s_{NN}]) of 2.76 TeV with the ALICE detector. ρ_{00} values are found to be less than 1/3 (1/3 implies no spin alignment) at low transverse momentum (p_{T}<2  GeV/c) for K^{*0} and ϕ at a level of 3σ and 2σ, respectively. No significant spin alignment is observed for the K_{S}^{0} meson (spin=0) in Pb-Pb collisions and for the vector mesons in pp collisions. The measured spin alignment is unexpectedly large but qualitatively consistent with the expectation from models which attribute it to a polarization of quarks in the presence of angular momentum in heavy-ion collisions and a subsequent hadronization by the process of recombination.