ABSTRACT
The physics output of modern experimental HEP collaborations hinges not only on the quality of its software but also on the ability of the collaborators to make the best possible use of it. With the COVID-19 pandemic making in-person training impossible, the training paradigm at Belle II was shifted from periodic workshops towards guided self-study. To that end, the study material was rebuilt from scratch as a series of modular and hands-on lessons tightly integrated with the software documentation using Sphinx. Each lesson contains multiple exercises that are supplemented with hints and complete solutions. Rather than duplicating information, students are systematically taught to work with the technical reference documentation to find the important sections for themselves. Unit tests ensure that all examples work with different software versions, and feedback buttons make it easy to submit comments for improvements. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.
ABSTRACT
INFN is recognized as an Italian excellence in science. Born in 1951, over time it created a worldwide network of activities spanning from high-energy physics at the most powerful accelerators, to the search for Dark Matter and rare events in deep underground laboratories, flanking the operations of four national laboratories in Italy. However, until a couple of decades ago, its role was not adequately appreciated by the Italian public at large. Since the beginning of the millennium INFN unfurled a strategy aimed not only to promote its image, but also to improve the transfer of knowledge acquired in its operation to different actors. In this paper we will deal with the improvement of outreach, presenting the strategies pursed, and some of the paths followed to this aim. Due to space limitations only a schematic view of a twenty-something years of work will be presented. In the conclusion we will report the results of an external evaluation of our efforts. In this paper we will not discuss the program of refresher courses for teachers, despite their relevance in our strategy to improve INFN participation in lifelong learning activities for the Italian society. Likewise, despite its centrality to improve INFN capability in the realm of outreach, we will not present the training program aimed to our personnel involved in science communication, and we will not touch the complex activity recently started to assess the impact of INFN communication efforts. Finally, we do not discuss the initiatives and the strategies pursued in 2020-2022 due to the COVID19 pandemia, despite the importance of outreach actions taken by the Institute. © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
ABSTRACT
International Masterclasses (IMC) is a program to engage high school students in authentic one-day particle physics analysis experiences at universities and laboratories worldwide. The program is run under the aegis of the International Particle Physics Outreach Group (IPPOG). The COVID pandemic created challenges for IMC in trying to reach the participants and excite them about cutting-edge science. Meeting those challenges not only addressed immediate issues but also expanded the capacity of IMC to deliver its program in the future. The authors will share what they have learned and prospects for the future. © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
ABSTRACT
This study is based on a survey conducted during the International Masterclasses days taken place in almost all the Italian universities during, before, and after the Covid-19 pandemic. More than one thousand students per year mostly enrolled in scientific high schools, performed data analysis using real data collected by high energy physics experiments, about one hundred students per year familiarized with the actual operation technique used for cancer treatment employing x-rays (Particle Therapy). The survey collected the feedback given on a voluntary basis by a sub-sample of the students who participated to the 2018, 2021 (remote), and 2022 editions. Answers show a constant and significant appreciation in the activity, but also a progressive decrease of interest in physics and in technical or scientific professions or research professions in "hard” science matters. In the study presented here, the reasons of interest/disinterest in scientific fields have been investigated. © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
ABSTRACT
As perceived at mostly countries, after the 3th or 4th wave of Covid-19 pandemic, its potential end might be coming. In contrast to previous waves, the last one exhibits different characteristics such as a highly exponential behavior or also a sharped Gauss behavior as seen at the huge number of infections at America and Europe. In this paper is proposed the idea that the whole pandemic is clearly composed by a sinusoid and Gaussian functions. This claim is based at the world-wide data that exhbits a similar shape with the proposed scheme at this study. Thus, the pandemic can also be seen as a signal-noise being the Omicron variant the signal whereas the previous mutations can be seen as their background events or noise. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
With the onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020 all outreach and educational activities with in-person participation had to stop. The ALICE Collaboration adapted to the new situation and continued reaching out to the public using the multitude of online tools and platforms available. Here we focus on two of our main outreach activities, virtual visits and masterclasses. With the cancellation of all in-person visits, virtual visits became the only way to explore the experiment. ALICE had already been offering virtual visits for remote audiences with equipment installed in the ALICE Run Control Centre (ARC). We recently acquired dedicated mobile equipment for the virtual visits to the cavern and developed a scenario which includes both the cavern and the ARC as well as a Q&A session. In this way, visitors from many countries have the opportunity to interact with scientists and to see parts of the experiment that they would never be able to see during a real visit. ALICE has been participating in the International Masterclasses (IMC) programme ever since measurements based on LHC data were introduced in it. The packages used had been developed by simplifying the ALICE event display and were based on ROOT. With the spreading of the COVID pandemic the 2020 IMC programme was interrupted. In 2021, with most activities taking place remotely, it was obvious that web-based versions were needed. The implementation of such versions allowed us to hold remote masterclasses for high-school students, thus ensuring the continuity of this important outreach activity of our community. In addition we reached new countries and also involved high-school teachers in this global effort. © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
ABSTRACT
Scintillators as the core materials of radiation detection play an important role in industrial nondestructive testing, medical imaging, high energy physics and safety inspection, etc.. Theexisting scintillator research faces both opportunities and challenges, especially in the context of COVID-19 pandemic period. It is of great practical significance to develop cost-effective scintillators and optimize their overall performance. The nano-glass composites (i.e., glass ceramics) have some advantages like high emission efficiency of scintillator crystals, simple preparation and low cost as an effective star scintillator. Based on the different luminescence centers, such scintillators can be broadly divided into rare-earth element ions doped or rare-earth-free luminescent nanocrystals embedded materials. This review represented recent development on the preparation of these materials, the relationship between the types of nanocrystals and their luminescence properties, and the potential applications of these materials in high-energy X-ray and gamma-ray detection. In addition, the existing problems in the research were discussed and the future development direction of nano-glass composite scintillators was also prospected. © 2022, Editorial Department of Journal of the Chinese Ceramic Society. All right reserved.
ABSTRACT
This report presents the results of the work of Russian institutes in the processing of ALICE experiment data during the last 3 years of the operation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) including the end of the LHC Run2 and the 1st year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The main problems and tasks facing both ALICE Grid Computing and its Russian segment before the LHC Run3 including the problems of support and modernization of existing resources are considered. Also, plans for the preparation for the operation of the LHC in the HL (High Luminosity) mode are presented. Copyright © 2021 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).