Borexino, a large volume detector for low energy neutrino spectroscopy, is currently running underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Italy. The main goal of the experiment is the real-time measurement of sub MeV solar neutrinos, and particularly of the mono energetic (862 keV) Be7 electron capture neutrinos, via neutrino-electron scattering in an ultra-pure liquid scintillator. This paper is mostly devoted to the description of the detector structure, the photomultipliers, the electronics, and the trigger and calibration systems. The real performance of the detector, which always meets, and sometimes exceeds, design expectations, is also shown. Some important aspects of the Borexino project, i.e. the fluid handling plants, the purification techniques and the filling procedures, are not covered in this paper and are, or will be, published elsewhere (see Introduction and Bibliography)

Geo-neutrinos, electron anti-neutrinos produced in beta decays of naturally occurring radioactive isotopes in the Earth, are a unique direct probe of our planet's interior. We report the first observation at more than 3$\sigma$ C.L. of geo-neutrinos, performed with the Borexino detector at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. Anti-neutrinos are detected through the neutron inverse beta decay reaction. With a 252.6 ton-yr fiducial exposure after all selection cuts, we detected 9.9^{+4.1}_{-3.4}(^{+14.6}_{-8.2}) geo-neutrino events, with errors corresponding to a 68.3%(99.73%) C.L. From the $\ln{\cal{L}}$ profile, the statistical significance of the Borexino geo-neutrino observation corresponds to a 99.997% C.L. Our measurement of the geo-neutrinos rate is 3.9^{+1.6}_{-1.3}(^{+5.8}_{-3.2}) events/(100ton-yr). This measurement rejects the hypothesis of an active geo-reactor in the Earth's core with a power above 3 TW at 95% C.L. The observed prompt positron spectrum above 2.6 MeV is compatible with that expected from european nuclear reactors (mean base line of approximately 1000 km). Our measurement of reactor anti-neutrinos excludes the non-oscillation hypothesis at 99.60% C.L

Two barriers prevent adenovirus-based vectors from having wide application. One is the difficulty of making new adenoviruses, and the second is the strong immunological reaction to viral proteins. Here we describe uses of Cre-lox recombination to overcome these problems. First, we demonstrate a simple method for constructing E1-substituted adenoviruses. Second, we demonstrate a method to construct adenovirus vectors carrying recombinant genes in place of all of the viral genes, so-called gutless adenovirus vectors. The pivotal feature in each method is the use of a negatively selected adenovirus named psi5. We engineered a cis-acting selection into psi5 by flanking its packaging site with loxP sites. When psi5 was grown in cells making a high level of Cre recombinase, the packaging site was deleted by recombination and the yield of psi5 was reduced to 5% of the wild-type level. To make a new E1-substituted virus, we used psi5 as a donor virus and recombined it with a shuttle vector via a loxP site. The resulting recombinant virus has a single loxP site next to the packaging site and therefore outgrows psi5 in the presence of Cre recombinase. To make a gutless virus, we used psi5 as a helper virus. The only viral sequences included in the gutless vector are those needed in cis for its replication and packaging. We found that a loxP site next to the packaging site of the gutless virus was necessary to neutralize homologous recombination between psi5 and the gutless viruses within their packaging domains.

We report the direct measurement of the 7 Be solar neutrino signal rate performed with the Borexino detector at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. The interaction rate of the 0.862 MeV 7 Be neutrinos is 49±3stat±4syst counts/(day·100 ton). The hypothesis of no oscillation for 7 Be solar neutrinos is inconsistent with our measurement at the 4σ C.L.. Our result is the first direct measurement of the survival probability for solar νe in the transition region between matter-enhanced and vacuum-driven oscillations. The measurement improves the experimental determination of the flux of 7 Be, pp, and CNO solar νe, and the limit on the magnetic moment of neutrinos.PACS numbers: 13.35. Hb, 14.60.St, 26.65.+t, 95.55.Vj, 29.40.Mc Neutrino oscillations [1] are the established mechanism to explain the solar neutrino problem, which originated from observations in radiochemical experiments with a sub-MeV threshold [2,3] and from real time observation of high energy neutrinos [4,5]. Neutrino oscillations were also observed in atmospheric neutrinos [4] and have been confirmed with observation of reactorν e [6]. Borexino is the first experiment to report a real-time observation arXiv:0805.3843v2 [astro-ph]

We report the measurement of ν-e elastic scattering from 8 B solar neutrinos with 3 MeV energy threshold by the Borexino detector in Gran Sasso (Italy). The rate of solar neutrino-induced electron scattering events above this energy in Borexino is 0.217 ± 0.038(stat) ± 0.008(syst) cpd/100 t, which corresponds to Φ ES 8 B = 2.4 ± 0.4± 0.1×10 6 cm −2 s −1 , in good agreement with measurements from SNO and SuperKamiokaNDE. Assuming the 8 B neutrino flux predicted by the high metallicity Standard Solar Model, the average 8 B νe survival probability above 3 MeV is measured to be 0.29±0.10. The survival probabilities for 7 Be and 8 B neutrinos as measured by Borexino differ by 1.9 σ. These results are consistent with the prediction of the MSW-LMA solution of a transition in the solar νe survival probability Pee between the low energy vacuum-driven and the high-energy matter-enhanced solar neutrino oscillation regimes.PACS numbers: 14.60. St, 26.65.+t, 95.55.Vj, 29.40.Mc INTRODUCTION Solar8 B-neutrino spectroscopy has been so far performed by the waterČerenkov detectors KamiokaNDE, SuperKamiokaNDE,. The first two experiments used elastic ν-e scattering for the detection of neutrinos, whereas SNO also exploited nuclear reaction channels on deuterium with heavy water as target. These experiments provided robust spectral measurements with ∼5 MeV threshold or higher for scattered electrons; a recent SNO analysis reached a 3.5 MeV threshold [5].We report the first observation of solar 8 B-neutrinos with a liquid scintillator detector, performed by the Borexino experiment [6,7] via elastic ν-e scattering. Borexino is the first experiment to succeed in suppressing all major backgrounds, above the 2.614 MeV γ from the decay of 208 Tl, to a rate below that of electron scatterings from solar neutrinos. This allows to reduce the energy threshold for scattered electrons by 8 B solar neutrinos to 3 MeV, the lowest ever reported for the electron scattering channel. To facilitate a comparison to the results of SuperKamiokaNDE [3] and SNO D 2 O phase [4], we also report the measured 8 B neutrino interaction rate with 5 MeV threshold.Since Borexino also detected low energy solar 7 Be neutri-2 nos [8,9], this is the first experiment where both branches of the solar pp-cycle have been measured simultaneously in the same target. The large mixing angle solution (LMA) of the MSW effect [10] predicts a transition in the ν e survival probability from the vacuum oscillation regime at low energies to the matter dominated regime at high energies. Results on solar 7 Be and 8 B neutrinos from Borexino, combined with prediction on the absolute neutrino fluxes from the Standard Solar Model [11][12][13], confirm that our data are in agreement with the MSW-LMA prediction within 1σ. EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS AND ENERGY THRESHOLDThe Borexino detector is located at the underground Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in central Italy, at a depth of 3600 m.w.e.. Solar neutrinos are detected in Borexino exclusively via elastic ν-e scattering in a li...

Vaccination with irradiated, autologous melanoma cells engineered to secrete GM-CSF by adenoviral-mediated gene transfer augments antitumor immunity in patients with metastatic melanoma.

We observed, for the first time, solar neutrinos in the 1.0-1.5 MeV energy range. We measured the rate of pep solar neutrino interactions in Borexino to be (3.1±0.6stat±0.3syst) counts/(day·100 ton) and provided a constraint on the CNO solar neutrino interaction rate of <7.9 counts/(day·100 ton) (95% C.L.). The absence of the solar neutrino signal is disfavored at 99.97% C.L., while the absence of the pep signal is disfavored at 98% C.L. This unprecedented sensitivity was achieved by adopting novel data analysis techniques for the rejection of cosmogenic 11 C, the dominant background in the 1-2 MeV region. Assuming the MSW-LMA solution to solar neutrino oscillations, these values correspond to solar neutrino fluxes of (1.6±0.3)×10 8 cm −2 s −1 and <7.7×10 8 cm −2 s −1 (95% C.L.), respectively, in agreement with the Standard Solar Model. These results represent the first measurement of the pep neutrino flux and the strongest constraint of the CNO solar neutrino flux to date.PACS numbers: 13.35. Hb, 14.60.St, 26.65.+t, 95.55.Vj, 29.40.Mc Over the past 40 years solar neutrino experiments [1][2][3][4][5] have proven to be sensitive tools to test both astrophysical and elementary particle physics models. Solar neutrino detectors have demonstrated that stars are powered by nuclear fusion reactions. Two distinct processes, the main pp fusion chain and the sub-dominant CNO cycle, are expected to produce solar neutrinos with different energy spectra and fluxes. Until now only fluxes from the pp chain have been measured:7 Be, 8 B, and, indirectly, pp. Experiments involving solar neutrinos and reactor anti-neutrinos [6] have shown that solar neutrinos undergo flavor oscillations.Results from solar neutrino experiments are consistent with the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein Large Mixing Angle (MSW-LMA) model [7], which predicts a transition from vacuum-dominated to matter-enhanced oscillations, resulting in an energy dependent ν e survival probability, P ee . Non-standard neutrino interaction models formulate P ee curves that deviate significantly from MSW-LMA, particularly in the 1-4 MeV transition region, see e.g. [8]. The mono-energetic 1.44 MeV pep neutrinos, which belong to the pp chain and whose StanarXiv:1110.3230v1 [hep-ex] 14 Oct 2011 2 dard Solar Model (SSM) predicted flux has one of the smallest uncertainties (1.2%) due to the solar luminosity constraint [9], are an ideal probe to test these competing hypotheses.The detection of neutrinos resulting from the CNO cycle has important implications in astrophysics, as it would be the first direct evidence of the nuclear process that is believed to fuel massive stars (>1.5M ). Furthermore, its measurement may help to resolve the solar metallicity problem [9,10]. The energy spectrum of neutrinos from the CNO cycle is the sum of three continuous spectra with end point energies of 1.19 ( 13 N), 1.73 ( 15 O) and 1.74 MeV ( 17 F), close to the pep neutrino energy. The total CNO flux is similar to that of the pep neutrinos but its predicted value is strongly dependent on th...

Vaccination with irradiated autologous NSCLC cells engineered to secrete GM-CSF enhances antitumor immunity in some patients with metastatic NSCLC.