| 1. |
- Abgrall, N., et al.
(författare)
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The large enriched germanium experiment for neutrinoless double beta decay (LEGEND)
- 2017
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Ingår i: AIP Conference Proceedings. - : Author(s). - 1551-7616 .- 0094-243X. ; 1894
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ) would show that lepton number is violated, reveal that neu-trinos are Majorana particles, and provide information on neutrino mass. A discovery-capable experiment covering the inverted ordering region, with effective Majorana neutrino masses of 15 - 50 meV, will require a tonne-scale experiment with excellent energy resolution and extremely low backgrounds, at the level of ∼0.1 count /(FWHM·t·yr) in the region of the signal. The current generation 76Ge experiments GERDA and the Majorana Demonstrator, utilizing high purity Germanium detectors with an intrinsic energy resolution of 0.12%, have achieved the lowest backgrounds by over an order of magnitude in the 0νββ signal region of all 0νββ experiments. Building on this success, the LEGEND collaboration has been formed to pursue a tonne-scale 76Ge experiment. The collaboration aims to develop a phased 0νββ experimental program with discovery potential at a half-life approaching or at 1028 years, using existing resources as appropriate to expedite physics results.
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| 2. |
- Abdelhameed, A. H., et al.
(författare)
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Cryogenic characterization of a LiAlO2 crystal and new results on spin-dependent dark matter interactions with ordinary matter: CRESST Collaboration
- 2020
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Ingår i: European Physical Journal C. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1434-6044 .- 1434-6052. ; 80:9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this work, a first cryogenic characterization of a scintillating LiAlO2 single crystal is presented. The results achieved show that this material holds great potential as a target for direct dark matter search experiments. Three different detector modules obtained from one crystal grown at the Leibniz-Institut fur Kristallzuchtung (IKZ) have been tested to study different properties at cryogenic temperatures. Firstly, two 2.8 g twin crystals were used to build different detector modules which were operated in an above-ground laboratory at the Max Planck Institute for Physics (MPP) in Munich, Germany. The first detector module was used to study the scintillation properties of LiAlO2 at cryogenic temperatures. The second achieved an energy threshold of (213.02 +/- 1.48) eV which allows setting a competitive limit on the spin-dependent dark matter particle-proton scattering cross section for dark matter particle masses between 350 MeV/c2 and 1.50 GeV/c2. Secondly, a detector module with a 373 g LiAlO2 crystal as the main absorber was tested in an underground facility at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS): from this measurement it was possible to determine the radiopurity of the crystal and study the feasibility of using this material as a neutron flux monitor for low-background experiments.
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| 3. |
- Abdelhameed, A. H., et al.
(författare)
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Geant4-based electromagnetic background model for the CRESST dark matter experiment
- 2019
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Ingår i: European Physical Journal C. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1434-6044 .- 1434-6052. ; 79:10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The CRESST (Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers) dark matter search experiment aims for the detection of dark matter particles via elastic scattering off nuclei in CaWO4 crystals. To understand the CRESST electromagnetic background due to the bulk contamination in the employed materials, a model based on Monte Carlo simulations was developed using the Geant4 simulation toolkit. The results of the simulation are applied to the TUM40 detector module of CRESST-II phase 2. We are able to explain up to (68 +/- 16)% of the electromagnetic background in the energy range between 1 and 40 keV.
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| 4. |
- Bertoldo, E., et al.
(författare)
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Lithium-Containing Crystals for Light Dark Matter Search Experiments
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Low Temperature Physics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0022-2291 .- 1573-7357. ; 199:1-2, s. 510-518
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the current direct dark matter search landscape, the leading experiments in the sub-GeV mass region mostly rely on cryogenic techniques which employ crystalline targets. One attractive type of crystals for these experiments is those containing lithium, due to the fact that 7Li is an ideal candidate to study spin-dependent dark matter interactions in the low mass region. Furthermore, 6Li can absorb neutrons, a challenging background for dark matter experiments, through a distinctive signature which allows the monitoring of the neutron flux directly on site. In this work, we show the results obtained with three different detectors based on LiAlO 2, a target crystal never used before in cryogenic experiments.
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| 5. |
- Kluck, H., et al.
(författare)
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Latest results of CRESST-III's search for sub-GeV/c(2) dark matter
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Physics: Conference Series. - : IOP Publishing. - 1742-6596 .- 1742-6588. ; 1468:1
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The CRESST-III experiment searches for direct interactions of dark matter with ordinary matter. The main event signature would be a nuclear recoil inside one of the scintillating CaWO4 crystals. Operating the crystals as cryogenic calorimeters provides a phonon signal as measure of the deposited energy. The simultaneous readout of both signals is used to actively discriminate backgrounds. CRESST-III focuses on the sub-GeV/c(2) mass region where the sensitivity is driven by the threshold. In the first data taking campaign of CRESST-III from 2016-2018 an unprecedented low threshold of 30.1 eV for nuclear recoils was obtained. In this contribution, we will report the status of the experiment and the latest results. [GRAPHICS]
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| 6. |
- Mancuso, M., et al.
(författare)
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Searches for Light Dark Matter with the CRESST-III Experiment
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Low Temperature Physics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0022-2291 .- 1573-7357. ; 199:1-2, s. 547-555
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers (CRESST) is a long-standing direct dark matter detection experiment with cryogenic detectors located at the underground facility Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. CRESST-III, the third generation of CRESST, was specifically designed to have a world-leading sensitivity for low-mass dark matter (DM) (less than 2 GeV/c 2) to probe the spin-independent DM-nucleus cross section. At present, a large part of the parameter space for spin-independent scattering off nuclei remains untested for dark matter particles with masses below few GeV/c 2 although many motivated theoretical models having been proposed. The CRESST-III experiment employs scintillating CaWO 4 crystals of ∼ 25 g as target material for dark matter interactions operated as cryogenic scintillating calorimeters at ∼ 10 mK. CRESST-III first data taking was successfully completed in 2018, achieving an unprecedented energy threshold for nuclear recoils. This result extended the present sensitivity to DM particles as light as ∼ 160 MeV/c 2. In this paper, an overview of the CRESST-III detectors and results will be presented.
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| 7. |
- Cuneo, Bettina F., et al.
(författare)
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Mothers with long QT syndrome are at increased risk for fetal death : findings from a multicenter international study
- 2020
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Ingår i: American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. - : MOSBY-ELSEVIER. - 0002-9378 .- 1097-6868. ; 222:3, s. 1-11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Most fetal deaths are unexplained. Long QT syndrome is a genetic disorder of cardiac ion channels. Affected individuals, including fetuses, are predisposed to sudden death. We sought to determine the risk of fetal death in familial long QT syndrome, in which the mother or father carries the long QT syndrome genotype. In addition, we assessed whether risk differed if the long QT syndrome genotype was inherited from the mother or father. OBJECTIVE: This was a retrospective review of pregnancies in families with the 3 most common heterozygous pathogenic long QT syndrome genotypes in KCNQ1 (LQT1), KCNH2 (LQT2), or SCN5A (LQT3), which occur in approximately 1 in 2000 individuals. The purpose of our study was to compare pregnancy and birth outcomes in familial long QT syndrome with the normal population and between maternal and paternal carriers of the long QT syndrome genotype. We hypothesized that fetal death before (miscarriage) and after (stillbirths) 20 weeks gestation would be increased in familial long QT syndrome compared with the normal population and that the parent of origin would not affect birth outcomes. STUDY DESIGN: Our study was a multicenter observational case series of 148 pregnancies from 103 families (80 mothers, 23 fathers) with familial long QT syndrome (60 with LQT1, 29 with LQT2, 14 with LQT3) who were recruited from 11 international centers with expertise in hereditary heart rhythm diseases, pediatric and/or adult electrophysiology, and high-risk pregnancies. Clinical data-bases from these sites were reviewed for long QT syndrome that occurred in men or women of childbearing age (18-40 years). Pregnancy outcomes (livebirth, stillbirth, and miscarriage), birthweights, and gestational age at delivery were compared among long QT syndrome genotypes and between maternal vs paternal long QT syndrome-affected status with the use of logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Most offspring (80%; 118/148) were liveborn at term; 66% of offspring (73/110) had long QT syndrome. Newborn infants of mothers with long QT syndrome were delivered earlier and, when the data were controlled for gestational age, weighed less than newborn infants of long QT syndrome fathers. Fetal arrhythmias were observed rarely, but stillbirths (fetal death at >20 weeks gestation) were 8 times more frequent in long QT syndrome (4% vs approximately 0.5%); miscarriages (fetal death at <= 20 weeks gestation) were 2 times that of the general population (16% vs 8%). The likelihood of fetal death was significantly greater with maternal vs paternal long QT syndrome (24.4% vs 3.4%; P = .036). Only 10% of all fetal deaths underwent postmortem long QT syndrome testing; 2 of 3 cases were positive for the family long QT syndrome genotype. CONCLUSION: This is the first report to demonstrate that mothers with long QT syndrome are at increased risk of fetal death and to uncover a previously unreported cause of stillbirth. Our results suggest that maternal effects of long QT syndrome channelopathy may cause placental or myometrial dysfunction that confers increased susceptibility to fetal death and growth restriction in newborn survivors, regardless of long QT syndrome status.
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| 8. |
- Kaizer, Alexander M., et al.
(författare)
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Effects of cohort, genotype, variant, and maternal β-blocker treatment on foetal heart rate predictors of inherited long QT syndrome
- 2023
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Ingår i: Europace. - : Oxford University Press. - 1099-5129 .- 1532-2092. ; 25:11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- AIMS: In long QT syndrome (LQTS), primary prevention improves outcome; thus, early identification is key. The most common LQTS phenotype is a foetal heart rate (FHR) < 3rd percentile for gestational age (GA) but the effects of cohort, genotype, variant, and maternal β-blocker therapy on FHR are unknown. We assessed the influence of these factors on FHR in pregnancies with familial LQTS and developed a FHR/GA threshold for LQTS.METHODS AND RESULTS: In an international cohort of pregnancies in which one parent had LQTS, LQTS genotype, familial variant, and maternal β-blocker effects on FHR were assessed. We developed a testing algorithm for LQTS using FHR and GA as continuous predictors. Data included 1966 FHRs at 7-42 weeks' GA from 267 pregnancies/164 LQTS families [220 LQTS type 1 (LQT1), 35 LQTS type 2 (LQT2), and 12 LQTS type 3 (LQT3)]. The FHRs were significantly lower in LQT1 and LQT2 but not LQT3 or LQTS negative. The LQT1 variants with non-nonsense and severe function loss (current density or β-adrenergic response) had lower FHR. Maternal β-blockers potentiated bradycardia in LQT1 and LQT2 but did not affect FHR in LQTS negative. A FHR/GA threshold predicted LQT1 and LQT2 with 74.9% accuracy, 71% sensitivity, and 81% specificity.CONCLUSION: Genotype, LQT1 variant, and maternal β-blocker therapy affect FHR. A predictive threshold of FHR/GA significantly improves the accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity for LQT1 and LQT2, above the infant's a priori 50% probability. We speculate this model may be useful in screening for LQTS in perinatal subjects without a known LQTS family history.
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| 9. |
- Fuvesi, J., et al.
(författare)
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Proteomic Analysis of Cerebrospinal Fluid in a Fulminant Case of Multiple Sclerosis
- 2012
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Ingår i: International Journal of Molecular Sciences. - : MDPI AG. - 1661-6596 .- 1422-0067. ; 13:6, s. 7676-7693
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease, but in rare fulminant cases rapid progression may lead to death shortly after diagnosis. Currently there is no diagnostic test to predict disease course. The aim of this study was to identify potential biomarkers/proteins related to rapid progression. We present the case history of a 15-year-old male MS patient. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was taken at diagnosis and at the time of rapid progression leading to the patient's death. Using isobaric tag labeling and nanoflow liquid chromatography in conjunction with matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight tandem mass spectrometry we quantitatively analyzed the protein content of two CSF samples from the patient with fulminant MS as well as one relapsing-remitting (RR) MS patient and one control headache patient, whose CSF analysis was normal. Seventy-eight proteins were identified and seven proteins were found to be more abundant in both fulminant MS samples but not in the RR MS sample compared to the control. These proteins are involved in the immune response, blood coagulation, cell proliferation and cell adhesion. In conclusion, in this pilot study we were able to show differences in the CSF proteome of a rapidly progressing MS patient compared to a more typical clinical form of MS and a control subject.
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