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| 2. |
- Elhai, M, et al.
(författare)
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Outcomes of patients with systemic sclerosis treated with rituximab in contemporary practice: a prospective cohort study
- 2019
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Ingår i: Annals of the rheumatic diseases. - : BMJ. - 1468-2060 .- 0003-4967. ; 78:7, s. 979-987
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To assess the safety and efficacy of rituximab in systemic sclerosis (SSc) in clinical practice.MethodsWe performed a prospective study including patients with SSc from the European Scleroderma Trials and Research (EUSTAR) network treated with rituximab and matched with untreated patients with SSc. The main outcomes measures were adverse events, skin fibrosis improvement, lung fibrosis worsening and steroids use among propensity score-matched patients treated or not with rituximab.Results254 patients were treated with rituximab, in 58% for lung and in 32% for skin involvement. After a median follow-up of 2 years, about 70% of the patients had no side effect. Comparison of treated patients with 9575 propensity-score matched patients showed that patients treated with rituximab were more likely to have skin fibrosis improvement (22.7 vs 14.03 events per 100 person-years; OR: 2.79 [1.47–5.32]; p=0.002). Treated patients did not have significantly different rates of decrease in forced vital capacity (FVC)>10% (OR: 1.03 [0.55–1.94]; p=0.93) nor in carbon monoxide diffusing capacity (DLCO) decrease. Patients having received rituximab were more prone to stop or decrease steroids (OR: 2.34 [1.56–3.53], p<0.0001). Patients treated concomitantly with mycophenolate mofetil had a trend for better outcomes as compared with patients receiving rituximab alone (delta FVC: 5.22 [0.83–9.62]; p=0.019 as compared with controls vs 3 [0.66–5.35]; p=0.012).ConclusionRituximab use was associated with a good safety profile in this large SSc-cohort. Significant change was observed on skin fibrosis, but not on lung. However, the limitation is the observational design. The potential stabilisation of lung fibrosis by rituximab has to be addressed by a randomised trial.
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| 4. |
- Becker, M, et al.
(författare)
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Predictors of disease worsening defined by progression of organ damage in diffuse systemic sclerosis: a European Scleroderma Trials and Research (EUSTAR) analysis
- 2019
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Ingår i: Annals of the rheumatic diseases. - : BMJ. - 1468-2060 .- 0003-4967. ; 78:9, s. 1242-1248
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mortality and worsening of organ function are desirable endpoints for clinical trials in systemic sclerosis (SSc). The aim of this study was to identify factors that allow enrichment of patients with these endpoints, in a population of patients from the European Scleroderma Trials and Research group database.MethodsInclusion criteria were diagnosis of diffuse SSc and follow-up over 12±3 months. Disease worsening/organ progression was fulfilled if any of the following events occurred: new renal crisis; decrease of lung or heart function; new echocardiography-suspected pulmonary hypertension or death. In total, 42 clinical parameters were chosen as predictors for the analysis by using (1) imputation of missing data on the basis of multivariate imputation and (2) least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression.ResultsOf 1451 patients meeting the inclusion criteria, 706 had complete data on outcome parameters and were included in the analysis. Of the 42 outcome predictors, eight remained in the final regression model. There was substantial evidence for a strong association between disease progression and age, active digital ulcer (DU), lung fibrosis, muscle weakness and elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) level. Active DU, CRP elevation, lung fibrosis and muscle weakness were also associated with a significantly shorter time to disease progression. A bootstrap validation step with 10 000 repetitions successfully validated the model.ConclusionsThe use of the predictive factors presented here could enable cohort enrichment with patients at risk for overall disease worsening in SSc clinical trials.
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| 5. |
- Orsini, S., et al.
(författare)
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Inner southern magnetosphere observation of Mercury via SERENA ion sensors in BepiColombo mission
- 2022
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2041-1723. ; 13:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mercury’s southern inner magnetosphere is an unexplored region as it was not observed by earlier space missions. In October 2021, BepiColombo mission has passed through this region during its first Mercury flyby. Here, we describe the observations of SERENA ion sensors nearby and inside Mercury’s magnetosphere. An intermittent high-energy signal, possibly due to an interplanetary magnetic flux rope, has been observed downstream Mercury, together with low energy solar wind. Low energy ions, possibly due to satellite outgassing, were detected outside the magnetosphere. The dayside magnetopause and bow-shock crossing were much closer to the planet than expected, signature of a highly eroded magnetosphere. Different ion populations have been observed inside the magnetosphere, like low latitude boundary layer at magnetopause inbound and partial ring current at dawn close to the planet. These observations are important for understanding the weak magnetosphere behavior so close to the Sun, revealing details never reached before.
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| 6. |
- Arguedas Cuendis, S., et al.
(författare)
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First results on the search for chameleons with the KWISP detector at CAST
- 2019
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Ingår i: Physics of the Dark Universe. - : Elsevier. - 2212-6864. ; 26
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report on a first measurement with a sensitive opto-mechanical force sensor designed for the direct detection of coupling of real chameleons to matter. These dark energy candidates could be produced in the Sun and stream unimpeded to Earth. The KWISP detector installed on the CAST axion search experiment at CERN looks for tiny displacements of a thin membrane caused by the mechanical effect of solar chameleons. The displacements are detected by a Michelson interferometer with a homodyne readout scheme. The sensor benefits from the focusing action of the ABRIXAS X-ray telescope installed at CAST, which increases the chameleon flux on the membrane. A mechanical chopper placed between the telescope output and the detector modulates the incoming chameleon stream. We present the results of the solar chameleon measurements taken at CAST in July 2017, setting an upper bound on the force acting on the membrane of 80pN at 95% confidence level. The detector is sensitive for direct coupling to matter 104≤βm≤108, where the coupling to photons is locally bound to βγ≤1011.
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| 7. |
- Smits, Edsger C. P., et al.
(författare)
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Bottom-up organic integrated circuits
- 2008
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 455:7215, s. 956-959
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Self- assembly - the autonomous organization of components into patterns and structures(1) - is a promising technology for the mass production of organic electronics. Making integrated circuits using a bottom- up approach involving self- assembling molecules was proposed(2) in the 1970s. The basic building block of such an integrated circuit is the self- assembled- monolayer field- effect transistor ( SAMFET), where the semiconductor is a monolayer spontaneously formed on the gate dielectric. In the SAMFETs fabricated so far, current modulation has only been observed in submicrometre channels(3-5), the lack of efficient charge transport in longer channels being due to defects and the limited intermolecular pi-pi coupling between the molecules in the self-assembled monolayers. Low field- effect carrier mobility, low yield and poor reproducibility have prohibited the realization of bottom- up integrated circuits. Here we demonstrate SAMFETs with long- range intermolecular pi - pi coupling in the monolayer. We achieve dense packing by using liquid- crystalline molecules consisting of a pi- conjugated mesogenic core separated by a long aliphatic chain from a monofunctionalized anchor group. The resulting SAMFETs exhibit a bulk- like carrier mobility, large current modulation and high reproducibility. As a first step towards functional circuits, we combine the SAMFETs into logic gates as inverters; the small parameter spread then allows us to combine the inverters into ring oscillators. We demonstrate real logic functionality by constructing a 15- bit code generator in which hundreds of SAMFETs are addressed simultaneously. Bridging the gap between discrete monolayer transistors and functional self-assembled integrated circuits puts bottom- up electronics in a new perspective.
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| 9. |
- Roelofs, W. S. C., et al.
(författare)
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Fast ambipolar integrated circuits with poly(diketopyrrolopyrrole-terthiophene)
- 2011
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Ingår i: Applied Physics Letters. - : American Institute of Physics (AIP). - 0003-6951 .- 1077-3118. ; 98:20
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ambipolar integrated circuits were prepared with poly (diketopyrrolopyrrole-terthiophene) as the semiconductor. The field-effect mobility of around 0.02 cm(2)/V s for both electrons and holes allowed for fabrication of functional integrated complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-like inverters and ring oscillators. The oscillation frequency was found to have a near quadratic dependence on the supply bias. The maximum oscillation frequency was determined to be 42 kHz, which makes this ring oscillator the fastest CMOS-like organic circuit reported to date. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3589986]
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