Explore the vast range of titles available.

The on-going developments in laser acceleration of protons and light ions, as well as the production of strong bursts of neutrons and multi- MeV photons by secondary processes now provide a basis for novel high-flux nuclear physics experiments. While the maximum energy of protons resulting from Target Normal Sheath Acceleration is presently still limited to around 100 MeV , the generated proton peak flux within the short laser-accelerated bunches can already today exceed the values achievable at the most advanced conventional accelerators by orders of magnitude. This paper consists of two parts covering the scientific motivation and relevance of such experiments and a first proof-of-principle demonstration. In the presented experiment pulses of 200 J at ≈ 500 fs duration from the PHELIX laser produced more than 10 12 protons with energies above 15 MeV in a bunch of sub-nanosecond duration. They were used to induce fission in foil targets made of natural uranium. To make use of the nonpareil flux, these targets have to be very close to the laser acceleration source, since the particle density within the bunch is strongly affected by Coulomb explosion and the velocity differences between ions of different energy. The main challenge for nuclear detection with high-purity germanium detectors is given by the strong electromagnetic pulse caused by the laser-matter interaction close to the laser acceleration source. This was mitigated by utilizing fast transport of the fission products by a gas flow to a carbon filter, where the γ -rays were registered. The identified nuclides include those that have half-lives down to 39 s . These results demonstrate the capability to produce, extract, and detect short-lived reaction products under the demanding experimental condition imposed by the high-power laser interaction. The approach promotes research towards relevant nuclear astrophysical studies at conditions currently only accessible at nuclear high energy density laser facilities.

The highly automated macromolecular crystallography beamline AMX/17‐ID‐1 is an undulator‐based high‐intensity (>5 × 1012 photons s−1), micro‐focus (7 µm × 5 µm), low‐divergence (1 mrad × 0.35 mrad) energy‐tunable (5–18 keV) beamline at the NSLS‐II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA. It is one of the three life science beamlines constructed by the NIH under the ABBIX project and it shares sector 17‐ID with the FMX beamline, the frontier micro‐focus macromolecular crystallography beamline. AMX saw first light in March 2016 and started general user operation in February 2017. At AMX, emphasis has been placed on high throughput, high capacity, and automation to enable data collection from the most challenging projects using an intense micro‐focus beam. Here, the current state and capabilities of the beamline are reported, and the different macromolecular crystallography experiments that are routinely performed at AMX/17‐ID‐1 as well as some plans for the near future are presented. AMX (17‐ID‐1) is the highly automated macromolecular crystallography beamline at the NSLS‐II. Photon delivery system, beamline instrumentation, high‐performance computing environment and suites of applications are described for beamline scientists and users. AMX's primary mission is to support routine structure determination from the most challenging projects.

Background Fabry Disease (FD) is an X-linked hereditary lysosomal storage disorder which leads to a multisystemic intralysosomal accumulation of globotriaosylceramid (Gb3). Besides prominent renal and cardiac organ involvement, patients commonly complain about vestibulocochlear symptoms like high-frequency hearing loss, tinnitus and vertigo. However, comprehensive data especially on vertigo remain scarce. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence and characteristics of vertigo and hearing loss in patients with FD, depending on renal and cardiac parameters and get hints about the site and the pattern of the lesions. Methods Single-center study with 57 FD patients. Every patient underwent an oto-rhino-laryngological examination as well as videonystagmography and vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs) and audiological measurements using pure tone audiometry and auditory brainstem response audiometry (ABR). Renal function was measured by eGFR, cardiac impairment was graduated by NYHA class. Results More than one out of three patients (35.1%) complained about hearing loss, 54.4% about vertigo and 28.1% about both symptom. In 74% a sensorineural hearing loss of at least 25 dB was found, ABR could exclude any retrocochlear lesion. Caloric testing showed abnormal values in 71.9%, VEMPs were pathological in 68%. A correlation between the side or the shape of hearing loss and pathological vestibular testing could not be revealed. Conclusions Hearing loss and vertigo show a high prevalence in FD. While hearing loss seems due to a cochlear lesion, peripheral vestibular as well as central nervous pathologies cause vertigo. Thus, both the site of lesion and the pathophysiological patterns seem to differ.

A correction in the paper by Lazo et al. [(2021). J. Synchrotron Rad.28, 1649–1661] is made. A correction in the paper by Lazo et al. [(2021). J. Synchrotron Rad.28, 1649–1661] is made.

The adsorption behavior of single CO molecules at 4 K bound to Au adatoms on a Ag(001) metal surface is studied with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy (IETS). In contrast to earlier observations two different binding configurations are observed—one on top of a Au adatom and the other one adsorbed laterally to Au on Ag(001). Moreover, IETS reveals different low-energy vibrational energies for the two binding sites as compared to the one for a single CO molecule bound to Ag(001). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations of the adsorption energies, the diffusion barriers, and the vibrational frequencies of the CO molecule on the different binding sites rationalize the experimental findings.

Although biased offspring sex ratios are common in species with sexual size dimorphism, the proximate causes are often unresolved. This is because two general mechanisms operating in different ways and in various periods of reproduction can lead to the bias: sex-biased survival or parental sex-allocation. We examined nestling sex ratio patterns between hatching and fledging, sexual size dimorphism, and factors affecting nestling survival using growth and survival data of 846 individual little owl Athene noctua nestlings with known sex from 307 broods from Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark. Nestling sex ratio was female-biased, mainly due to a significant female bias in the first-hatched chicks. Females showed a higher body weight than male nestlings at ringing and body weight of nestlings decreased with hatching sequence. Nestling survival was higher in females (Φ = 0.91) than in males (Φ = 0.85), and survival rates were positively related to body mass and negatively to brood size. Although the observed lower survival of males can cause an overall female-biased sex ratio, the sex dimorphism and survival patterns found here are unlikely to explain the conspicuous sex ratio pattern with a female bias in the first-hatched nestlings and the increase in female bias across the season. Thus, these results point towards interacting mechanisms of parental sex allocation strategies and sex-specific survival. As the female bias was allocated to the first rank that is most likely to survive, the female bias will increase under suboptimal breeding conditions. We therefore suggest that under suboptimal ecological conditions, higher investment into females is adaptive in little owls.

Abstract The on-going developments in laser acceleration of protons and light ions, as well as the production of strong bursts of neutrons and multi- $$\\hbox {MeV}$$ MeV photons by secondary processes now provide a basis for novel high-flux nuclear physics experiments. While the maximum energy of protons resulting from Target Normal Sheath Acceleration is presently still limited to around $$100 \\, \\hbox {MeV}$$ 100 MeV , the generated proton peak flux within the short laser-accelerated bunches can already today exceed the values achievable at the most advanced conventional accelerators by orders of magnitude. This paper consists of two parts covering the scientific motivation and relevance of such experiments and a first proof-of-principle demonstration. In the presented experiment pulses of $$200 \\, \\hbox {J}$$ 200 J at $$\\approx \\, 500 \\, \\hbox {fs}$$ ≈ 500 fs duration from the PHELIX laser produced more than $$10^{12}$$ 10 12 protons with energies above $$15 \\, \\hbox {MeV}$$ 15 MeV in a bunch of sub-nanosecond duration. They were used to induce fission in foil targets made of natural uranium. To make use of the nonpareil flux, these targets have to be very close to the laser acceleration source, since the particle density within the bunch is strongly affected by Coulomb explosion and the velocity differences between ions of different energy. The main challenge for nuclear detection with high-purity germanium detectors is given by the strong electromagnetic pulse caused by the laser-matter interaction close to the laser acceleration source. This was mitigated by utilizing fast transport of the fission products by a gas flow to a carbon filter, where the $$\\upgamma$$ γ -rays were registered. The identified nuclides include those that have half-lives down to $$39 \\, \\hbox {s}$$ 39 s . These results demonstrate the capability to produce, extract, and detect short-lived reaction products under the demanding experimental condition imposed by the high-power laser interaction. The approach promotes research towards relevant nuclear astrophysical studies at conditions currently only accessible at nuclear high energy density laser facilities.

KAMO and Blend provide particularly effective tools to automatically manage the merging of large numbers of data sets from serial crystallography. The requirement for manual intervention in the process can be reduced by extending Blend to support additional clustering options to increase the sensitivity to differences in unit cell parameters and to allow for clustering of nearly complete datasets on the basis of intensity or amplitude differences. If datasets are already sufficiently complete to permit it, apply KAMO once, just for reflections. If starting from incomplete datasets, one applies KAMO twice, first using cell parameters. In this step either the simple cell vector distance of the original Blend is used, or the more sensitive NCDist, to find clusters to merge to achieve sufficient completeness to allow intensities or amplitudes to be compared. One then uses KAMO again using the correlation between the reflections at the common HKLs to merge clusters in a way sensitive to structural differences that may not perturb the cell parameters sufficiently to make meaningful clusters. Many groups have developed effective clustering algorithms that use a measurable physical parameter from each diffraction still or wedge to cluster the data into categories which can then be merged to, hopefully, yield the electron density from a single protein iso-form. What is striking about many of these physical parameters is that they are largely independent from one another. Consequently, it should be possible to greatly improve the efficacy of data clustering software by using a multi-stage partitioning strategy. Here, we have demonstrated one possible approach to multi-stage data clustering. Our strategy was to use unit-cell clustering until merged data was of sufficient completeness to then use intensity based clustering. We have demonstrated that, using this strategy, we were able to accurately cluster data sets from crystals that had subtle differences.

The southern end of the Upper Rhine Graben is one of the zones in Switzerland where recent crustal movements can be expected because of ongoing seismotectonic processes as witnessed by seismicity clusters occurring in this region. Therefore, in 1973 a control network with levelling profiles across the eastern Rhine Graben fault was installed and measured in the vicinity of the city of Basel in order to measure relative vertical movements and investigate their relationship with seismic events. As a contribution to EUCOR-URGENT, the profiles were observed a third time in the years 2002 and 2003 and connected to the Swiss national levelling network. The results of these local measurements are discussed in terms of accuracy and significance. Furthermore, they are combined and interpreted together with the extensive data set of recent vertical movements in Switzerland (Jura Mountains, Central Plateau and the Alps). In order to be able to prove height changes with precise levelling, their values should amount to at least 3–4 mm (1σ). The present investigations, however, have not shown any significant vertical movements over the past 30 years.