Search

Background We aimed to assess the gene expression profiles of uninflamed small bowels in patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) to identify its accompanying molecular alterations. Methods We performed RNA sequencing of the uninflamed small bowel tissues obtained from 70 patients with ileal CD, and 9 patients with colon cancer (non-CD controls) during bowel resection. Differentially expressed gene (DEG) analyses were performed using DESeq2. Gene set enrichment, correlation, and cell deconvolution analyses were applied to identify modules and functionally enriched transcriptional signatures of CD. Results A comparison of CD patients and non-CD controls revealed that of the 372 DEGs, 49 protein-coding genes and 5 lncRNAs overlapped with the IBD susceptibility loci. The pathways related to immune and inflammatory reactions were upregulated in CD, while metabolic pathways were downregulated in CD. Compared with non-CD controls, CD patients had significantly higher proportions of immune cells, including plasma cells (P=1.15×10-4), and a lower proportion of epithelial cells (P=1.12×10-4). Co-upregulated genes (M14 module) and co-downregulated genes (M9 module) were identified in CD patients. The M14 module was enriched in immune-related genes and significantly associated with the responses to anti-TNF therapy. Intestinal tissue transcriptomic analysis of 3 independent cohorts, identified M14 module upregulation in non-responders at baseline, which was predictive of response with acceptable discrimination ability (area under the curve of 77~83%). Conclusion The differences in gene expression and cellular composition between CD patients and non-CD controls imply significant molecular alterations, which are associated with the response to anti-TNF treatment.

AMoRE is an international project to search for the neutrinoless double beta decay of $^{100}$Mo using a detection technology consisting of magnetic microcalorimeters (MMCs) and molybdenum-based scintillating crystals. Data collection has begun for the current AMORE-I phase of the project, an upgrade from the previous pilot phase. AMoRE-I employs thirteen $^\mathrm{48depl.}$Ca$^{100}$MoO$_4$ crystals and five Li$_2$$^{100}$MoO$_4$ crystals for a total crystal mass of 6.2 kg. Each detector module contains a scintillating crystal with two MMC channels for heat and light detection. We report the present status of the experiment and the performance of the detector modules., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, published in Journal of Low Temperature Physics (2022)

Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass for the International Space Station (ISS-CREAM) was designed to study high-energy cosmic rays up to PeV and recorded data from August 22nd, 2017 to February 12th, 2019 on the ISS. In this analysis, the Silicon Charge Detector (SCD), CALorimeter (CAL), and Top and Bottom Counting Detectors (TCD/BCD) are used. The SCD is composed of four layers and provides the measurement of cosmic-ray charges with a resolution of $\sim$0.2e. The CAL comprises 20 interleaved tungsten plates and scintillators, measures the incident cosmic-ray particles' energies, and provides a high energy trigger. The TCD/BCDs consist of photodiode arrays and plastic scintillators and provide a low-energy trigger. In this analysis, the SCD top layer is used for charge determination. Here, we present the heavy nuclei analysis using the ISS-CREAM instrument.

One of the consequences of having a high-density calorimeter as part of an experiment is a large number of secondary shower particles generated in the calorimeter -- some of which scatter back up towards the charge measurement devices. This so-called "backscatter effect" can interfere severely with accurate charge measurement of the primary nucleus, especially at high energies, as the number of backscattered particles increases with the incident energy. In this analysis, we study the effect of backscattered particles on particle identification by simulating the ISS-CREAM instrument model detector response using the GEANT3 simulation package [1] with the FLUKA hadronic model [2]. Our study shows the importance of the fine segmentation of charge detectors above the calorimeter. It can minimize backscattered particle contamination in the same charge detector segment as the incident particle to avoid its charge misidentification. We present simulation results regarding charge measurements, including the tracking resolution, backscattering effects, and charge determination efficiency.

The Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass for the International Space Station (ISS-CREAM) experiment successfully recorded the data for about 539 days from August 2017 to February 2019. In this talk, we report the measurement of the cosmic-ray proton energy spectrum from the ISS-CREAM experiment in the energy range of 2.5 TeV - 650 TeV. For the analysis, we used the silicon charge detector (SCD) placed at the top of the ISS-CREAM payload to identify the incoming cosmic-ray charge. The SCD is finely segmented to minimize charge misidentification due to backscatter effects. The four-layer SCD consists of 10,752 silicon pixels, each of which is 1.37×1.57×0.05 cm^3 in size. The calorimeter (CAL) consists of 20 layers of tungsten/scintillating fibers preceded by carbon targets. It provided cosmic-ray tracking, energy determination, and the high-energy trigger. The Top and Bottom Counting detectors (T/BCD) are above and below the CAL, respectively, and provided the low energy trigger. Each T/BCD is composed of an array of 20×20 photodiodes on plastic scintillators. The measured proton spectral index of 2.67±0.02 between 2.5 and 12.5 TeV is consistent with prior CREAM measurements. The spectrum softens above∼10 TeV consistent with the bump-like structure as reported by CREAM-I+III, DAMPE, and NUCLEON, but ISS-CREAM extends measurements to higher energies than those prior measurement

Initial performance of the UltraLo-1800 alpha particle detector at the 700 m deep Yangyang underground laboratory in Korea is described. The ionization detector uses Argon as a counting gas for measuring alpha events of a sample. We present initial calibration results and low-activity sample measurements based on the detector's pulse discrimination method and a hardware veto. A likelihood analysis that shows a separation of a bulk component from a surface component with a contamination depth from $^{210}$Po alpha particles using simulated models is presented., Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, nima accepted

OBJECTIVES Patients with pancreatic cancer generally experience increasing pain as their disease progresses, making the titration of opioids difficult. This study aimed to determine a correlation between prescribed opioid doses and survival time in patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer. METHODS This retrospective observational cohort study in a tertiary care institution reviewed the medical records of patients diagnosed with unresectable pancreatic cancer and treated over a 10-year period. RESULTS We screened 1152 patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer, and 566 were eligible for inclusion in this study. There was a statistically significant negative correlation between initial opioid dose and survival time from initial opioid dose (correlation coefficient, -0.184; P < 0.01) and survival time from initial pancreatic cancer diagnosis (correlation coefficient, -0.177; P < 0.01). In addition, there were 0.8% and 0.6% increases in initial opioid dosage (morphine equivalent daily dose) and rate of increasing opioid dose (morphine equivalent daily dose per month), respectively, associated with the risk of early death (≤180 days, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Correlations between patient survival, initial opioid dose, final opioid dose, and the rate of increase of opioid dosage could provide useful information for clinicians treating unresectable pancreatic cancer patients.

We present a systematic trigger study for the Advanced Molybdenum-based Rare process Experiment (AMoRE), an international project searching for the neutrinoless double beta decay ( $$0\nu \beta \beta $$ ) of $$^{100}\hbox {Mo}$$ . AMoRE utilizes a heat and light detection method at millikelvin temperatures. A detector module of AMoRE is composed of a large crystal absorber and metallic magnetic calorimeter temperature sensors. We applied a software filter with various conditions to the continuously saved data from the current AMoRE setup. With a trigger level set to 5 times the standard deviation of the noise signals resulting from a Butterworth filter, an energy threshold, defined as the energy of the signals leading to a 50% trigger efficiency, was found to be 2.2 keV.

The goal of the Advanced Mo-based Rare process Experiment (AMoRE) is to search for the neutrinoless double beta decay of $$^{100}$$ Mo using low-temperature detectors consisting of Mo-based scintillating crystals read out via metallic magnetic calorimeters. Heat and light signals are measured simultaneously at millikelvin temperatures, which are reached using a cryogen-free dilution refrigerator. The AMoRE-Pilot experiment, using six $$^{100}$$ Mo-enriched, $$^{48}$$ Ca-depleted calcium molybdate crystals with a total mass of about 1.9 kg, has been running in the 700-m-deep Yangyang underground laboratory as the pilot phase of the AMoRE project. Several setup improvements through different runs allowed us to achieve a high energy resolution and an efficient particle discrimination. This article briefly presents the status of the AMoRE-Pilot experiment, as well as the plans for the next, larger-scale, experimental stages.

International audience; Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass for the International Space Station (ISS-CREAM) experi-ment is designed to study the composition and energy spectra of cosmic-ray particles from 10^12 to 10^15 eV. ISS-CREAM was launched and deployed to the ISS in August 2017. The ISS-CREAM payload employs a Silicon Charge Detector for charge measurements, Top and Bot-tom Counting Detector for electron-hadron separation and a low-energy trigger, a Boronated Scintillator Detector for additional electron-hadron separation, and a Calorimeter (CAL) for en-ergy measurements and a high-energy trigger. The CAL is constructed of 20 layers of tungsten plates interleaved with scintillating fiber ribbons read out by hybrid-photodiodes (HPDs) and densified carbon targets. Each CAL layer is made of 3.5 mm (1 X_0) thick tungsten plates alter-nating with fifty 0.5 mm thick and 1 cm wide scintillating fiber ribbons. Consecutive layers of fiber ribbons are installed orthogonal to each other. Energy deposition in the CAL determines the particle energy and provides tracking information to determine which segment(s) of the charge detectors to use for the charge measurement. Tracking for showers is accomplished by extrapolating each shower axis back to the charge detectors. The performance of the ISS-CREAM CAL during flight is presented.

International audience; Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass for the International Space Station (ISS-CREAM) is an experiment for studying the origin, acceleration, and propagation mechanisms of high-energy cosmic rays. The ISS-CREAM instrument was launched on the 14th of August 2017 to the ISS aboard the SpaceX-12 Dragon spacecraft. The Top and Bottom Counting Detectors (TCD/BCD) are parts of the ISS-CREAM instrument and designed for studying electron and gamma-ray physics. The TCD/BCD each consist of an array of 20 × 20 photodiodes on a plastic scintillator. The TCD/BCD can separate electrons from protons by using the difference between the shapes of electromagnetic and hadronic showers in the high energy region. The Boosted Decision Tree (BDT) method, which is a deep learning method, is used in this separation study. We will present results of the electron/proton separation study and rejection power in various energy ranges.

International audience; The Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass experiment for the International Space Station (ISS-CREAM) is designed and built to measure the elemental energy spectra of cosmic-ray particles (1 ≤ Z ≤ 26) and electrons. It measures the energy of incident cosmic rays from 10^12 to 10^15 eV. ISS-CREAM was launched and deployed to the ISS in August 2017. The Science Operations Center (SOC) at the University of Maryland has been operating the payload on the Interna-tional Space Station (ISS) in coordination with the Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC) at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The SOC has been responsible for sending commands to and receiving data from the Science Flight Computer (SFC) on board ISS-CREAM. The ISS-CREAM data taking program interfaces with the POIC using the Telescience Resources Kit through the Software Toolkit for Ethernet Lab-Like Architecture developed by the Boeing Company. The command uplink and data downlink have been through the Track-ing and Data Relay Satellite System. We present the ISS-CREAM flight operations including ISS communications, SFC performance, etc.

International audience; Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass for the International Space Station (ISS-CREAM) is designed to directly measure the energy spectra of high-energy cosmic rays, encompassing proton to iron nuclei, over the energy range from 1012 to 1015 eV [1]. The capability to measure an extended energy range enables us to probe the origin and acceleration mechanisms of cosmic rays. The ISS-CREAM instrument is configured with the balloon-borne CREAM calorimeter (CAL) for energy measurements and four layers of a finely segmented Silicon Charge Detector (SCD) for charge measurements. In addition, two new compact detectors have been developed for electron/proton separation: Top and Bottom scintillator-based counting detectors (TCD/BCD) and a boronated scintillator detector (BSD). Simulations use the GEANT3 package [2] with the FLUKA hadronic model [3]. An isotropic event generator was developed for the ISS-CREAM geometry with particles incident from the upper hemisphere. We will present simulation results regarding ISS-CREAM performance, including trigger rates, energy resolution, energy response, tracking resolution, charge efficiency, etc.

In order to investigate discrimination between nuclear recoil and electron recoil events for the KIMS-NaI dark matter search experiment, we measured the pulse shapes produced by neutrons and gamma rays in a NaI(Tl) crystal. Relatively good pulse shape discrimination (PSD) power due to high light output of recently developed crystals makes it possible to test whether the annual modulation signal observed by the DAMA/LIBRA experiment is caused by nuclear recoil events. We applied the PSD to underground data taken with a 9.15 kg low-background and high-light-output NaI(Tl) crystal for 134 days. Good agreement between underground data and electron recoil events was observed.

A calcium molybdate ( $\text{CaMoO}_{4}$ ) crystal scintillator, with molybdenum enriched in $^{100}\text{Mo}$ and calcium depleted in $^{48}\text{Ca}$ ( $^{40}\text{Ca}{}^{100}\text{MoO}_{4}$ ), was developed by the Advanced Molybdenum based Rare process Experiment (AMoRE) collaboration to search for a neutrinoless double beta ( $0\nu \beta \beta $ ) decay of $^{100}\text{Mo}$ . We are planning to use about 10 kg of $^{40}\text{Ca}{}^{100}\text{MoO}_{4}$ crystals as cryogenic bolometers for the first phase of the experiment (AMoRE-I) at the Yang Yang underground laboratory (Y2L) in Korea. This experiment calls for an extremely low level of radioactive contamination in detectors, particularly by thorium, uranium, and radium decay chains. We measured scintillation properties and radioactive contamination of $\text{CaMoO}_{4}$ and $^{40}\text{Ca}{}^{100}\text{MoO}_{4}$ crystals at the Y2L. We also estimated the acceptable level of internal radioactive background using Monte Carlo simulation for the AMoRE-I.

International audience; The Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM) instrument on the International Space Station (ISS) is an experiment to study origin, propagation, acceleration and elemental composition of cosmic rays. The Top Counting Detector (TCD) and Bottom Counting Detector (BCD) are parts of the detector suite of the ISS-CREAM experiment and are designed to separate electrons and protons for studying electron and gamma-ray physics. In addition, the TCD/BCD provide a redundant trigger to that of the calorimeter and a low energy trigger to the ISS-CREAM instrument. After launching, the TCD/BCD trigger was found to be working well. Also, the TCD/BCD have been stable and their hit positions were confirmed to be well matched with other detectors on board. We present the performance and status of the TCD/BCD in flight.

International audience; The Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass experiment for the International Space Station (ISS-CREAM) is a space-borne mission designed for the precision measurement of the energy and elemental composition of cosmic rays. The Silicon Charge Detector (SCD), placed at the top of the ISS-CREAM payload, consists of 4 layers. Each layer has 2688 silicon pixels and associated electronics arranged in such a fashion that its active detection area of 78.2 × 73.6 cm 2 is free of dead area. The foremost goal of the SCD is to efficiently and precisely measure the charge of cosmic rays passing through it. The 4-layer configuration was chosen to achieve the best precision in measuring the charge of cosmic rays within the constraints on the mass, volume and power allotted to it. The amount of material used for its support structure was minimized as well to reduce the chance of interactions of the cosmic ray within the structure. Given the placement of the SCD, its 4-layer configuration and the minimal amount of material in the cosmic-ray trajectory, the SCD is designed to measure the charge of cosmic rays ranging from protons to iron nuclei with excellent detection efficiency and charge resolution. We present the design and fabrication of the SCD as well as its performance during space environment tests which it underwent successfully. We also present its performance in charge measurement using heavy ions in a beam test at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

The Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass for the International Space Station (ISS-CREAM) instrument is a next-generation experiment for the direct detection and study of cosmic-ray nuclei and electrons. With a long exposure in low Earth orbit, the experiment will determine the particle fluxes and spectral details of cosmic-ray nuclei from hydrogen to iron, over an energy range of about 1 0 12 eV to > 1 0 15 eV, and of cosmic-ray electrons over an energy range of about 5 × 1 0 10 eV to > 1 0 13 eV. The instrument was deployed to the ISS in August 2017 on the SpaceX CRS-12 mission. We review the design, implementation and performance of one of the ISS-CREAM detector systems: a boron loaded scintillation detector used in discriminating electron-induced events from the much more abundant cosmic-ray nuclei.

High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) is a prognostic factor for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), while albumin is known to be a disease severity index of the malnutrition status in HCC patients. The present study investigated the association between postoperative hsCRP/albumin ratio and both overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) following HCC surgery. This retrospective observational study examined the medical records of 389 patients who underwent resection for HCC between 2004 and 2013. Postoperative day 0–1 hsCRP/albumin ratio was collected, and the optimal postoperative mortality cut-off point was derived using receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis. A postoperative hsCRP/albumin ratio increase of 1.0 was associated with a 1.171-fold increase in mortality (hazard ratio (HR): 1.171, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.072–1.278, p < 0.001) and a 1.19-fold increase in recurrence (HR: 1.190, 95% CI: 1.108–1.278, p < 0.001). The hsCRP/albumin ratio cut-off point was found to be 0.625 and 0.500. When patients were grouped by this cut-off point, the >0.625 group showed a 2.257-fold increase in mortality (HR: 2.257, 95% CI: 1.470–3.466, p < 0.001), and the >0.500 group showed a 1.518-fold increase in recurrence (HR: 1.518, 95% CI: 1.125–2.050, p = 0.006).

The Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass (CREAM) experiment at the International Space Station (ISS) aims to elucidate the source and acceleration mechanisms of high-energy cosmic rays by measuring the energy spectra from protons to iron. The instrument is planned for launch in 2015 at the ISS, and it comprises a silicon charge detector, a carbon target, top and bottom counting detectors, a calorimeter, and a boronated scintillator detector. The top and bottom counting detectors are developed for separating the electrons from the protons, and each of them comprises a plastic scintillator and a 20×20 silicon photodiode array. Each photodiode is 2.3 cm×2.3 cm in size and exhibits good electrical characteristics. The leakage current is measured to be less than 20 nA/cm 2 at an operating voltage. The signal-to-noise ratio is measured to be better than 70 using commercial electronics, and the radiation hardness is tested using a proton beam. A signal from the photodiode is amplified by VLSI (very-large-scale integration) charge amp/hold circuits, the VA-TA viking chip. Environmental tests are performed using whole assembled photodiode detectors of a flight version. Herein, we present the characteristics of the developed photodiode along with the results of the environmental tests.

International audience; The Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass experiment at the International Space Station (ISS-CREAM) is developed for studying the origin, acceleration and propagation mechanism of high energy cosmic rays. The Top and Bottom Counting Detectors (TCD/BCD), sub-detectors of the ISS-CREAM instrument, are developed for electron/ γ -ray physics. The TCD/BCD help distinguish electrons from protons by comparing the hit and shower width distributions for electrons and protons. The e/p separation capability of the TCD/BCD is studied by using the GEANT3 simulation package, and optimal parameters for the e/p separation are obtained.

International audience; The Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass experiment for the International Space Station (ISS-CREAM) is scheduled for launch in 2017. It is designed to directly measure and identify theelemental composition of incident Galactic cosmic rays from a few hundred GeV to PeV energies.Such large energy range sensitivity is reached by using an electromagnetic sampling calorimeter(CAL) which measures the energy deposit of particle-induced showers. The CAL is composedof twenty layers of tungsten plates interleaved with scintillating fibers, and glued together usingepoxy-coated fiberglass to comply with space launch requirements. In August 2015, beam testmeasurements were performed at CERN to verify the performance of the CAL using layers ofepoxy-coated fiberglass placed between tungsten plates. The CAL response to electron and pionbeams and its performance are reported and compared with previous beam test configurations.

International audience; The Cosmic-Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM) instrument for the International Space Station (ISS) is a detector for studying the origin, acceleration and propagation mechanism of high-energy cosmic rays. The ISS-CREAM instrument is scheduled to launch in 2017 to the ISS. The Top and Bottom Counting Detectors (TCD/BCD) are designed for studying electron and gamma-ray physics. The TCD/BCD are composed of a plastic scintillator and an array of photodiodes The active detection areas of the TCD/BCD are 500 $\times$ 500 mm$^2$ and 600 $\times$ 600 mm$^2$, respectively. The TCD/BCD were completed in 2015 and passed the environmental tests for safety in a space environment. After finishing these tests, the TCD/BCD were integrated with the payload. The TCD is located between the carbon target of the ISS-CREAM instrument and the calorimeter, and the BCD is located below the calorimeter. The TCD/BCD can distinguish between electrons and protons by using the different shapes between electromagnetic and hadronic showers in the high-energy region. We study the TCD/BCD performance in various energy ranges by using GEANT3 simulation data. Here, we present the status of the electron and proton separation study with the TCD/BCD simulation.

International audience; The Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass for the International Space Station (ISS-CREAM) instrument is designed and built to measure elemental spectra of cosmic-ray nuclei (1 ≤ Z ≤ 26) and electrons. It will measure energy of incident cosmic rays from 1011 to 10^15 eV with a tungsten/scintillator sampling calorimeter and densified carbon target with an interaction length of ~ 1 λL. A finely segmented, four-layer silicon charge detector will identify the elemental composition with a resolution of ~ 0.15e. The instrument is triggered by selectable, independent, and combined algorithms from the calorimeter and a scintillator-based counting detector on the top and bottom of the calorimeter. The counting detectors also provide separation of protons and electrons using differences in the shower shapes. A boronated scintillator detector provides additional e/p separation by looking at late scintillation light produced by a particle interacting in the calorimeter system. ISS-CREAM underwent vibrational, electromagnetic, thermal/vacuum, and telemetry systems tests at various NASA f acilities to qualify for rocket transportation and space operations. All testing and integration were completed and ISS-CREAM was delivered to NASA. It is now flight ready and waiting for launch on SpaceX-12 in 2017. ISS-CREAM integration, environmental qualification, and instrument performance will be presented.

10nm 2nd generation BEOL technology is described with an optimized illumination system and multi-patterning lithography. While the optimized illumination system offered a possibility to pattern reduced metal pitches in the preferred orientation, difficulties of T-T and T-S patterning still remained. It was overcome by increasing the number of available multi-patterning colors from 2 to 4. First-ever implementation of LELELELE with tight inter-color misalignment control increased scalability up to 17.1% and was demonstrated with SRAM 128Mb yield.

The time dependence of the relative light emission of Eljen Technology EJ-200 polyvinyltoluene-based plastic scintillator was measured between 1 and 10 μ s after the passage of a particle shower, a singly charged particle (atmospheric muon), and with a UV LED exciting the fluor. This was compared in magnitude to the integrated response for the prompt light (within 500 ns of excitation). A model with a time-dependent yield consisting of three exponentially decaying components (fast, medium, and slow) was developed to fit the data. Note that the exact time structure of early ( 1 μ s ) light emission was not measured for individual components, only for all three components together This model assumes all three components share the same rise time. The decay time constants of the fast, medium and slow components are, respectively, 7.8 ns, 490 ns, and 2370 ns. The relative total normalized yields for each component are: fast 95.8%, medium 2.2%, and slow 2.0%.

International audience; The Boron And Carbon Cosmic rays in the Upper Stratosphere (BACCUS) balloon-borne exper-iment flew for 30 days over Antarctica in December 2016. It is the successor of the CREAMballoon program in Antarctica which recorded a total cumulative exposure of 161 days. BAC-CUS is primarily aimed to measure cosmic-ray boron and carbon fluxes at the highest energiesreachable with a balloon or satellite experiment, in order to provide essential information for abetter understanding of cosmic-ray propagation in the Galaxy. The payload is made of multipleparticle physics detectors which measure the charge up to Z=26 and energy of incident particlesfrom a few hundred GeV to a few PeV. The newly designed Transition Radiation Detector (TRD)measures signals that are a function of the charge and Lorentz factor. In April 2016, BACCUSwas taken to CERN in its flight configuration to characterize its detectors’ response to beams ofelectrons and pions. The performance of the TRD using beam test data are reported in this paper.

International audience; Primary cosmic-ray elemental spectra have been measured with the balloon-borne Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM) experiment since 2004. The third CREAM payload (CREAM-III) flew for 29 days during the 2007–2008 Antarctic season. Energies of incident particles above 1 TeV are measured with a calorimeter. Individual elements are clearly separated with a charge resolution of ∼0.12 e (in charge units) and ∼0.14 e for protons and helium nuclei, respectively, using two layers of silicon charge detectors. The measured proton and helium energy spectra at the top of the atmosphere are harder than other existing measurements at a few tens of GeV. The relative abundance of protons to helium nuclei is 9.53 ± 0.03 for the range of 1 TeV/n to 63 TeV/n. This ratio is considerably smaller than other measurements at a few tens of GeV/n. The spectra become softer above ∼20 TeV. However, our statistical uncertainties are large at these energies and more data are needed.

The Korea Invisible Mass Search (KIMS) collaboration has developed low-background NaI(Tl) crystals that are suitable for the direct detection of WIMP dark matter. Building on experience accumulated during the KIMS-CsI programs, the KIMS-NaI experiment will consist of a 200 kg NaI(Tl) crystal array surrounded by layers of shielding structures and will be operated at the Yangyang underground laboratory. The goal is to provide an unambiguous test of the DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation signature. Measurements of six prototype crystals show progress in the reduction of internal contamination from radioisotopes. Based on our understanding of these measurements, we expect to achieve a background level in the final detector configuration that is less than 1 count/day/keV/kg for recoil energies around 2 keV. The annual modulation sensitivity for the KIMS-NaI experiment shows that an unambiguous 7 $$\sigma $$ test of the DAMA/LIBRA signature would be possible with a 600 kg year exposure with this system.

It is unclear whether the amount of sodium consumed and the degree of saltiness of food is associated with obesity. We examined the association between sodium intake and obesity using the concept of sodium density. This study included 5025 children (7–18 years) and 20 586 adults (⩾19 years) who participated in the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey(KNHANES), 2007–2010. We defined sodium density(mg/g) as the ratio of daily dietary sodium intake (mg/day) and daily food weight consumed (g/day). We examined the association between sodium density and obesity, and abdominal obesity in children and adults. The overall prevalences of obesity and abdominal obesity were 31.4 and 24.5%, respectively, in adults and 4.5 and 6.5%, respectively, in children. The multivariate-adjusted odds ratio (OR) for obesity in adults with the highest quintile of sodium density compared with the lowest quintile was 1.18 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.04–1.35), and a significant dose–response association (P for trend=0.002) was observed. The OR for abdominal obesity in adults with the highest quintile of sodium density was not statistically significant after adjusting for confounding factors, but showed a significant dose–response association (P for trend=0.043). In children, OR values for obesity and abdominal obesity in the highest quintile of sodium density were 1.78 (95% CI, 1.13–2.80) and 2.13 (95% CI, 1.16–3.91), respectively, and both showed significant dose–response associations (P for trend

During its second Antarctic flight, the CREAM (Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass) balloon experiment collected data for 28 days, measuring the charge and the energy of cosmic rays (CR) with a redundant system of particle identification and an imaging thin ionization calorimeter. Preliminary direct measurements of the absolute intensities of individual CR nuclei are reported in the elemental range from carbon to iron at very high energy., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, presented at XV International Symposium on Very High Energy Cosmic Ray Interactions (ISVHECRI 2008)