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Background The chronic and progressive evolution of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD), with its prototypical fluctuating trend, creates a condition of psycho-social discomfort, impacting the quality of life in terms of personal, working, and interpersonal. Aims In this article, we want to identify the nature and extent of the research evidence on the life experiences, the perceived engagement, the psychological, social care and welfare needs of people affected by IBD across the lifecycle. Methods Following the approach set out by Arksey and O’Malley and the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews, we conducted a scoping review in March 2019 and closed the review with an update in October 2019. It was performed using electronic databases covering Health and Life Sciences, Social Sciences and Medical Sciences, such as PubMed, Medline, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane, Web of Science, PsycInfo. Results We identified 95 peer-reviewed articles published from 2009 to 2019, that allowed to detection the main needs in children (psychological, need to be accepted, physical activity, feeding, parent style, support, social needs), adolescents (to understand, physical and psychological needs, protection, relational, gratitude, respect, and engagement) and adults (information, medical, psychological, social, work-related, practical, future-related, engagement). Although the literature confirms that the majority of the IBD units have planned provision for the different types of transitions, the quality and appropriateness of these services have not been assessed or audited for all the kinds of challenges across the life cycle. Conclusions The literature shows the relevance of organizing a flexible, personalized health care process across all the critical phases of the life cycle, providing adequate benchmarks for comparison in a multidisciplinary perspective and ensuring continuity between hospital and territory.

High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors are powerful detectors for gamma-ray spectroscopy. The sensitivity to low-intensity gamma-ray peaks is often hindered by the presence of Compton continuum distributions, originated by gamma-rays emitted at higher energies. This study explores novel, pulse shape-based, machine learning-assisted techniques to enhance Compton background discrimination in Broad Energy Germanium (BEGe™) detectors. We introduce two machine learning models: an autoencoder-MLP (Multilayer Perceptron) and a Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM). These models differentiate single-site events (SSEs) from multi-site events (MSEs) and train on signal waveforms produced in the detector. The GMM method differs from previous machine learning efforts in that it is fully unsupervised, hence not requiring specific data labelling during the training phase. Being both label-free and simulation-agnostic makes the unsupervised approach particularly advantageous for tasks where realistic, high-fidelity labeling is challenging or where biases introduced by simulated data must be avoided. In our analysis, the full-energy Peak-to-Compton ratio of the 137 Cs, a radionuclide contained in a cryoconite sample, exhibits an improvement from 0.238 in the original spectrum to 0.547 after the ACM data filtering and 0.414 after the GMM data filtering, demonstrating the effectiveness of these methods. The results also showcase an enhancement in the signal-to-background ratio across many regions of interest, enabling the detection of lower concentrations of radionuclides.

We present the performances of a 330 g zinc molybdate (ZnMoO 4 ) crystal working as scintillating bolometer as a possible candidate for a next generation experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta decay of 100 Mo. The energy resolution, evaluated at the 2615 keV γ -line of 208 Tl, is 6.3 keV FWHM. The internal radioactive contaminations of the ZnMoO 4 were evaluated as <6 μBq/kg ( 228 Th) and 27±6 μBq/kg ( 226 Ra). We also present the results of the α vs β / γ discrimination, obtained through the scintillation light as well as through the study of the shape of the thermal signal alone.

In the framework of rare event searches, the identification of radioactive contaminants in ultra-pure samples is a challenging task, because the signal is often at the same level of the instrumental background. This is a rather common situation for α-spectrometers and other detectors used for low-activity measurements. In order to obtain the target sensitivity without extending the data taking live-time, analysis strategies that highlight the presence of the signal sought should be developed. In this paper, we show how to improve the contaminant tagging capability relying on the time-correlation of radioactive decay sequences. We validate the proposed technique by measuring the impurity level of both contaminated and ultra-pure copper samples, demonstrating the potential of this analysis tool in disentangling different background sources and providing an effective way to mitigate their impact in rare event searches.

In low background experiments the reduction of all possible radioactive contaminants is a crucial point for detector construction. This is also true for the surface contaminants, either those introduced during the production of detector components or those introduced during handling, treatment or storage. One of the most critical issue in this field is the control of the contamination induced by 222 Rn and its progenies in the environment where the detectors are assembled and stored. Radioactive atoms can stick on detector components and create a net increase of the contaminants present on their surfaces, introducing an additional—often not negligible—source of background. The reduction of this kind of contaminations can become of primary importance in the case of fully sensitive devices, like cryogenic particle detectors. In this paper the analysis on the Rn sticking factor for copper and tellurium dioxide—the two main materials used for the construction of the CUORE detector—is discussed. The diffusion of radioactive atoms inside the detector components is considered in order to evaluate the effective contribution of Rn exposure to the background counting rate of an experiment.

Searches for new physics in the coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering require a precise knowledge of the neutrino flux and energy spectrum. In this paper we investigate the feasibility and the performance of an experiment based on a \\[^{51}\\]Cr source, whose neutrino spectrum is known and whose activity can be heat-monitored at few permil level. With a 5 MCi source placed at \\[\\sim 25\\] cm from the detector, under an exposure of two \\[^{51}\\]Cr half-lives (55.4 days), we evaluate 3900 (900) counts on a 2000 cm\\[^3\\] target of germanium (sapphire) featuring an energy threshold of 8 (20) eV. To further increase the exposure, multiple activations of the same source could be possible.

The CUPID-0 experiment searches for double beta decay using cryogenic calorimeters with double (heat and light) read-out. The detector, consisting of 24 ZnSe crystals 95\\[\\%\\] enriched in \\[^{82}\\]Se and two natural ZnSe crystals, started data-taking in 2017 at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. We present the search for the neutrino-less double beta decay of \\[^{82}\\]Se into the 0\\[_1^+\\], 2\\[_1^+\\] and 2\\[_2^+\\] excited states of \\[^{82}\\]Kr with an exposure of 5.74 kg\\[\\cdot \\]yr (2.24\\[\\times \\]10\\[^{25}\\] emitters\\[\\cdot \\]yr). We found no evidence of the decays and set the most stringent limits on the widths of these processes: \\[\\varGamma \\](\\[^{82}\\]Se \\[\\rightarrow ^{82}\\]Kr\\[_{0_1^+}\\])8.55\\[\\times \\]10\\[^{-24}\\] yr\\[^{-1}\\], \\[\\varGamma \\] (\\[^{82}\\] Se \\[\\rightarrow ^{82}\\] Kr \\[_{2_1^+}\\])\\[\\,{<}\\,6.25 \\,{\\times }\\,10^{-24}\\] yr\\[^{-1}\\], \\[\\varGamma \\](\\[^{82}\\]Se \\[\\rightarrow ^{82}\\]Kr\\[_{2_2^+}\\])8.25\\[\\times \\]10\\[^{-24}\\] yr\\[^{-1}\\] (90\\[\\%\\] credible interval).

The LUCIFER project aims at deploying the first array of enriched scintillating bolometers for the investigation of neutrinoless double-beta decay of [Formula: see text]Se. The matrix which embeds the source is an array of ZnSe crystals, where enriched [Formula: see text]Se is used as decay isotope. The radiopurity of the initial components employed for manufacturing crystals, that can be operated as bolometers, is crucial for achieving a null background level in the region of interest for double-beta decay investigations. In this work, we evaluated the radioactive content in 2.5 kg of 96.3 % enriched [Formula: see text]Se metal, measured with a high-purity germanium detector at the Gran Sasso deep underground laboratory. The limits on internal contaminations of primordial decay chain elements of [Formula: see text]Th, [Formula: see text]U and [Formula: see text]U are respectively: [Formula: see text]61, [Formula: see text]110 and [Formula: see text]74 [Formula: see text]Bq/kg at 90 % C.L. The extremely low-background conditions in which the measurement was carried out and the high radiopurity of the [Formula: see text]Se allowed us to establish the most stringent lower limits on the half-lives of the double-beta decay of [Formula: see text]Se to 0[Formula: see text], 2[Formula: see text] and 2[Formula: see text] excited states of [Formula: see text]Kr of 3.4[Formula: see text]10[Formula: see text], 1.3[Formula: see text]10[Formula: see text] and 1.0[Formula: see text]10[Formula: see text] y, respectively, with a 90 % C.L.

Localization and modeling of radioactive contaminations is a challenge that ultra-low background experiments are constantly facing. These are fundamental steps both to extract scientific results and to further reduce the background of the detectors. Here we present an innovative technique based on the analysis of α-α delayed coincidences in 232Th and 238U decay chains, developed to investigate the contaminations of the ZnSe crystals in the CUPID-0 experiment. This method allows to disentangle surface and bulk contaminations of the detectors relying on the different probability to tag delayed coincidences as function of the α decay position.

The CUORE experiment is a large bolometric array searching for the lepton number violating neutrino-less double beta decay (0νββ) in the isotope 130Te. In this work we present the latest results on two searches for the double beta decay (DBD) of 130Te to the first 02+ excited state of 130Xe: the 0νββ decay and the Standard Model-allowed two-neutrinos double beta decay (2νββ). Both searches are based on a 372.5 kg×yr TeO2 exposure. The de-excitation gamma rays emitted by the excited Xe nucleus in the final state yield a unique signature, which can be searched for with low background by studying coincident events in two or more bolometers. The closely packed arrangement of the CUORE crystals constitutes a significant advantage in this regard. The median limit setting sensitivities at 90% Credible Interval (C.I.) of the given searches were estimated as S1/20ν=5.6×1024yr for the 0νββ decay and S1/22ν=2.1×1024yr for the 2νββ decay. No significant evidence for either of the decay modes was observed and a Bayesian lower bound at 90% C.I. on the decay half lives is obtained as: (T1/2)02+0ν>5.9×1024yr for the 0νββ mode and (T1/2)02+2ν>1.3×1024yr for the 2νββ mode. These represent the most stringent limits on the DBD of 130Te to excited states and improve by a factor ∼5 the previous results on this process.