| 1. |
- Ederle, Joerg, et al.
(författare)
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Carotid artery stenting compared with endarterectomy in patients with symptomatic carotid stenosis (International Carotid Stenting Study): an interim analysis of a randomised controlled trial
- 2010
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Ingår i: The Lancet. - 1474-547X. ; 375:9719, s. 985-997
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background Stents are an alternative treatment to carotid endarterectomy for symptomatic carotid stenosis, but previous trials have not established equivalent safety and efficacy. We compared the safety of carotid artery stenting with that of carotid endarterectomy. Methods The International Carotid Stenting Study (ICSS) is a multicentre, international, randomised controlled trial with blinded adjudication of outcomes. Patients with recently symptomatic carotid artery stenosis were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive carotid artery stenting or carotid endarterectomy. Randomisation was by telephone call or fax to a central computerised service and was stratified by centre with minimisation for sex, age, contralateral occlusion, and side of the randomised artery. Patients and investigators were not masked to treatment assignment. Patients were followed up by independent clinicians not directly involved in delivering the randomised treatment. The primary outcome measure of the trial is the 3-year rate of fatal or disabling stroke in any territory, which has not been analysed yet. The main outcome measure for the interim safety analysis was the 120-day rate of stroke, death, or procedural myocardial infarction. Analysis was by intention to treat (ITT). This study is registered, number ISRCTN25337470. Findings The trial enrolled 1713 patients (stenting group, n=855; endarterectomy group, n=858). Two patients in the stenting group and one in the endarterectomy group withdrew immediately after randomisation, and were not included in the ITT analysis. Between randomisation and 120 days, there were 34 (Kaplan-Meier estimate 4.0%) events of disabling stroke or death in the stenting group compared with 27 (3.2%) events in the endarterectomy group (hazard ratio [HR] 1.28, 95% CI 0.77-2.11). The incidence of stroke, death, or procedural myocardial infarction was 8.5% in the stenting group compared with 5.2% in the endarterectomy group (72 vs 44 events; HR 1.69, 1.16-2.45, p=0.006), Risks of any stroke (65 vs 35 events; HR 1.92, 1.27-2.89) and all-cause death (19 vs seven events; HR 2.76, 1.16-6.56) were higher in the stenting group than in the endarterectomy group. Three procedural myocardial infarctions were recorded in the stenting group, all of which were fatal, compared with four, all non-fatal, in the endarterectomy group. There was one event of cranial nerve palsy in the stenting group compared with 45 in the endarterectomy group. There were also fewer haematomas of any severity in the stenting group than in the endarterectomy group (31 vs 50 events; p=0.0197). Interpretation Completion of long-term follow-up is needed to establish the efficacy of carotid artery stenting compared with endarterectomy. In the meantime, carotid endarterectomy should remain the treatment of choice for patients suitable for surgery.
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| 2. |
- Cirasuolo, M., et al.
(författare)
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MOONS: the Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph for the VLT
- 2014
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Ingår i: Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V. - : SPIE. - 0277-786X .- 1996-756X. ; 9147, s. 91470-91470
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- MOONS (the Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph) has been selected by ESO as a third-generation instrument for the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The light grasp of the large collecting area offered by the VLT (8.2m diameter), combined with the large multiplex and wavelength coverage (optical to near-IR: 0.8 -1.8 mu m) of MOONS will provide the European astronomical community with a powerful, unique instrument able to pioneer a wide range of Galactic, extragalactic and cosmological studies, and it will provide crucial follow-up for major facilities such as Gaia, VISTA, Euclid and LSST. MOONS has the observational power needed to unveil galaxy formation and evolution over the entire history of the Universe, from stars in our Milky Way, through the redshift desert, and up to the epoch of very first galaxies and reionization of the Universe at redshifts of z > 8-9, just a few million years after the Big Bang. From five years of observations MOONS will provide high-quality spectra for > 3M stars in our Galaxy and the Local Group, and for 1-2M galaxies at z > 1 (for an SDSS-like survey), promising to revolutionize our understanding of the Universe. The baseline design consists of similar to 1000 fibres, deployable over a field-of-view of similar to 500 arcmin(2), the largest patrol field offered by the Nasmyth focus at the VLT. The total wavelength coverage is 0.8 -1.8 mu m with two spectral resolving powers: in the medium-resolution mode (R similar to 4,000-6,000) the entire wavelength range is observed simultaneously, while the high-resolution mode will cover three selected sub-regions simultaneously: one region with R similar to 8,000 near the Ca II triplet to measure stellar radial velocities, and two regions at R similar to 20,000 (one in each of the J- and H-bands), for precision measurements of chemical abundances.
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| 3. |
- Golosio, B., et al.
(författare)
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The FIRST experiment for nuclear fragmentation measurements at GSI
- 2011
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Ingår i: Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference (NSS/MIC), 2011 IEEE. ; , s. 2277-2280
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Nuclear fragmentation processes are relevant in different fields of physics concerning both basic research and applications. FIRST (Fragmentation of Ions Relevant for Space and Therapy) is an experiment aimed at the measurement of double differential cross sections (DDCS), with respect to kinetic energy and scattering polar angle, of nuclear fragmentation processes relevant for hadron therapy and for space radiation protection applications, in the energy range between 100 and 1000 MeV/u. The experiment was mounted at the GSI laboratories of Darmstadt, in Germany. A first data taking was performed in August 2011, using 400 MeV/u 12C on carbon and gold targets. In this work we present a description of the experimental apparatus and some figures from the data acquisition and from the preliminary work on data analysis
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| 4. |
- Pleskac, R., et al.
(författare)
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The FIRST experiment at GSI
- 2012
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Ingår i: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A. - : Elsevier BV. - 0168-9002 .- 1872-9576. ; 678, s. 130-138
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The FIRST (Fragmentation of Ions Relevant for Space and Therapy) experiment at the SIS accelerator of GSl laboratory in Darmstadt has been designed for the measurement of ion fragmentation crosssections at different angles and energies between 100 and 1000 MeV/nucleon. Nuclear fragmentation processes are relevant in several fields of basic research and applied physics and are of particular interest for tumor therapy and for space radiation protection applications. The start of the scientific program of the FIRST experiment was on summer 2011 and was focused on the measurement of 400 MeV/nucleon C-12 beam fragmentation on thin (8 mm) graphite target. The detector is partly based on an already existing setup made of a dipole magnet (ALADiN). a time projection chamber (TP-MUSIC IV), a neutron detector (LAND) and a time of flight scintillator system (TOFWALL). This pre-existing setup has been integrated with newly designed detectors in the Interaction Region, around the carbon target placed in a sample changer. The new detectors are a scintillator Start Counter, a Beam Monitor drift chamber, a silicon Vertex Detector and a Proton Tagger scintillator system optimized for the detection of light fragments emitted at large angles. In this paper we review the experimental setup, then we present the simulation software, the data acquisition system and finally the trigger strategy of the experiment.
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| 5. |
- Rescigno, R., et al.
(författare)
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Performance of the reconstruction algorithms of the FIRST experiment pixel sensors vertex detector
- 2014
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Ingår i: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A. - : Elsevier BV. - 0168-9002 .- 1872-9576. ; 767, s. 34-40
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Hadrontherapy treatments use charged particles (e.g. protons and carbon ions) to treat tumors. During a therapeutic treatment with carbon ions, the beam undergoes nuclear fragmentation processes giving rise to significant yields of secondary charged particles. An accurate prediction of these production rates is necessary to estimate precisely the dose deposited into the tumours and the surrounding healthy tissues. Nowadays, a limited set of double differential carbon fragmentation cross-section is available. Experimental data are necessary to benchmark Monte Carlo simulations for their use in hadrontherapy. The purpose of the FIRST experiment is to study nuclear fragmentation processes of ions with kinetic energy in the range from 100 to 1000 MeV/u. Tracks are reconstructed using information from a pixel silicon detector based on the CMOS technology. The performances achieved using this device for hadrontherapy purpose are discussed. For each reconstruction step (clustering, tracking and vertexing), different methods are implemented. The algorithm performances and the accuracy on reconstructed observables are evaluated on the basis of simulated and experimental data.
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| 6. |
- Zerbi, F. M., et al.
(författare)
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HIRES : The High Resolution Spectrograph for E-ELT
- 2014
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Ingår i: Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V. - : SPIE. - 9780819496157
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The current instrumentation plan for the E-ELT foresees a High Resolution Spectrograph conventionally indicated as HIRES. Shaped on the study of extra-solar planet atmospheres, Pop-III stars and fundamental physical constants, HIRES is intended to embed observing modes at high-resolution (up to R=150000) and large spectral range (from the blue limit to the K band) useful for a large suite of science cases that can exclusively be tackled by the E-ELT. We present in this paper the solution for HIRES envisaged by the "HIRES initiative", the international collaboration established in 2013 to pursue a HIRES on E-ELT.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Oliva, E., et al.
(författare)
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Concept and optical design of the cross-disperser module for CRIRES
- 2014
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Ingår i: GROUND-BASED AND AIRBORNE INSTRUMENTATION FOR ASTRONOMY V. - : SPIE. - 9780819496157
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- CRIRES, the ESO high resolution infrared spectrometer, is a unique instrument which allows astronomers to access a parameter space which up to now was largely uncharted. In its current setup, it consists of a single-order spectrograph providing long-slit, single-order spectroscopy with resolving power up to R=100,000 over a quite narrow spectral range. This has resulted in sub-optimal efficiency and use of telescope time for all the scientific programs requiring broad spectral coverage of compact objects (e.g. chemical abundances of stars and intergalactic medium, search and characterization of extra-solar planets). To overcome these limitations, a consortium was set-up for upgrading CRIRES to a cross-dispersed spectrometer, called CRIRES+. This paper presents the updated optical design of the cross-dispersion module for CRIRES+. This new module can be mounted in place of the current pre-disperser unit. The new system yields a factor of >10 increase in simultaneous spectral coverage and maintains a quite long slit (10"), ideal for observations of extended sources and for precise sky-background subtraction.
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| 9. |
- Downing, Andrea S., et al.
(författare)
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Coupled human and natural system dynamics as key to the sustainability of Lake Victoria's ecosystem services
- 2014
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Ingår i: Ecology and Society. - 1708-3087. ; 19:4, s. 31-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- East Africa's Lake Victoria provides resources and services to millions of people on the lake's shores and abroad. In particular, the lake's fisheries are an important source of protein, employment, and international economic connections for the whole region. Nonetheless, stock dynamics are poorly understood and currently unpredictable. Furthermore, fishery dynamics are intricately connected to other supporting services of the lake as well as to lakeshore societies and economies. Much research has been carried out piecemeal on different aspects of Lake Victoria's system; e.g., societies, biodiversity, fisheries, and eutrophication. However, to disentangle drivers and dynamics of change in this complex system, we need to put these pieces together and analyze the system as a whole. We did so by first building a qualitative model of the lake's social-ecological system. We then investigated the model system through a qualitative loop analysis, and finally examined effects of changes on the system state and structure. The model and its contextual analysis allowed us to investigate system-wide chain reactions resulting from disturbances. Importantly, we built a tool that can be used to analyze the cascading effects of management options and establish the requirements for their success. We found that high connectedness of the system at the exploitation level, through fisheries having multiple target stocks, can increase the stocks' vulnerability to exploitation but reduce society's vulnerability to variability in individual stocks. We describe how there are multiple pathways to any change in the system, which makes it difficult to identify the root cause of changes but also broadens the management toolkit. Also, we illustrate how nutrient enrichment is not a self-regulating process, and that explicit management is necessary to halt or reverse eutrophication. This model is simple and usable to assess system-wide effects of management policies, and can serve as a paving stone for future quantitative analyses of system dynamics at local scales.
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| 10. |
- Follert, R., et al.
(författare)
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CRIRES plus : a cross-dispersed high-resolution infrared spectrograph for the ESO VLT
- 2014
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Ingår i: GROUND-BASED AND AIRBORNE INSTRUMENTATION FOR ASTRONOMY V. - : SPIE. - 9780819496157
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- High-resolution infrared spectroscopy plays an important role in astrophysics from the search for exoplanets to cosmology. Yet, many existing infrared spectrographs are limited by a rather small simultaneous wavelength coverage. The AO assisted CRIRES instrument, installed at the ESO VLT on Paranal, is one of the few IR (0.92-5.2 mu m) high-resolution spectrographs in operation since 2006. However it has a limitation that hampers its efficient use: the wavelength range covered in a single exposure is limited to similar to 15 nanometers. The CRIRES Upgrade project (CRIRES+) will transform CRIRES into a cross-dispersed spectrograph and will also add new capabilities. By introducing cross-dispersion elements the simultaneously covered wavelength range will be increased by at least a factor of 10 with respect to the present configuration, while the operational wavelength range will be preserved. For advanced wavelength calibration, new custom made absorption gas cells and etalons will be added. A spectro-polarimetric unit will allow one for the first time to record circularly polarized spectra at the highest spectral resolution. This will be all supported by a new data reduction software which will allow the community to take full advantage of the new capabilities of CRIRES+.
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| 11. |
- Nieminen, M. S., et al.
(författare)
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Repetitive use of levosimendan for treatment of chronic advanced heart failure : Clinical evidence, practical considerations, and perspectives: An expert panel consensus
- 2014
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Ingår i: International Journal of Cardiology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-5273 .- 1874-1754. ; 174:2, s. 360-367
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: The intravenous inodilator levosimendan was developed for the treatment of patients with acutely decompensated heart failure. In the last decade scientific and clinical interest has arisen for its repetitive or intermittent use in patients with advanced chronic, but not necessarily acutely decompensated, heart failure. Recent studies have suggested long-lasting favourable effects of levosimendan when administered repetitively, in terms of haemodynamic parameters, neurohormonal and inflammatory markers, and clinical outcomes. The existing data, however, requires further exploration to allow for definitive conclusions on the safety and clinical efficacy of repetitive use of levosimendan. Methods and results: A panel of 30 experts from 15 countries convened to review and discuss the existing data, and agreed on the patient groups that can be considered to potentially benefit from intermittent treatment with levosimendan. The panel gave recommendations regarding patient dosing and monitoring, derived from the available evidence and from clinical experience. Conclusions: The current data suggest that in selected patients and support out-of-hospital care, intermittent/repetitive levosimendan can be used in advanced heart failure to maintain patient stability. Further studies are needed to focus on morbidity and mortality outcomes, dosing intervals, and patient monitoring. Recommendations for the design of further clinical studies are made. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.
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| 12. |
- Oliva, E., et al.
(författare)
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Upgrading CRIRES-VLT to cross-dispersed mode
- 2012
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Ingår i: Proceedings of SPIE. - : SPIE. - 9780819491473
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The cryogenic high resolution IR echelle spectrograph CRIRES is the ESO infrared (0.95-5.4 μm) high resolution spectrograph operating at the Nasmyth A focus of VLT-UT1. The instrument provides long-slit (31″) spectroscopy with resolving power up to R=100,000 over a quite narrow wavelengths range, about 1/70 of the central wavelength. Observations of compact objects (e.g. stellar photospheres) could be made much more efficient by implementing a cross-dispersed mode, which increases the simultaneous spectral coverage by an order of magnitude or more. This paper presents the design of a relatively simple system to add cross-dispersed modes to CRIRES with a minimum impact on the instrument optics and mechanics.
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| 13. |
- Seemann, U., et al.
(författare)
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Wavelength calibration from 1-5 mu m for the CRIRES plus high-resolution spectrograph at the VLT
- 2014
-
Ingår i: GROUND-BASED AND AIRBORNE INSTRUMENTATION FOR ASTRONOMY V. - : SPIE. - 9780819496157
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- CRIRES at the VLT is one of the few adaptive optics enabled instruments that offer a resolving power of 10 5 from 1 - 5 mu m. An instrument upgrade (CRIRES+) is proposed to implement cross-dispersion capabilities, spectro-polarimetry modes, a new detector mosaic, and a new gas absorption cell. CRIRES+ will boost the simultaneous wavelength coverage of the current instrument (similar to lambda/70 in a single-order) by a factor of greater than or similar to 10 in the cross-dispersed configuration, while still retaining a 10 arcsec slit suitable for long-slit spectroscopy. CRIRES+ dramatically enhances the instrument's observing efficiency, and opens new scientific opportunities. These include high-precision radial-velocity studies on the 3m/s level to characterize extra-solar planets and their athmospheres, which demand for specialized, highly accurate wavelength calibration techniques. In this paper, we present a newly developed absorption gas-cell to enable high-precision wavelength calibration for CRIRES+. We also discuss the strategies and developments to cover the full operational spectral range (1-5 mu m), employing hollow-cathode emission lamps, Fabry-Perot etalons, and absorption gas-cells.
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| 14. |
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| 15. |
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| 16. |
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| 17. |
- Austin, James D, et al.
(författare)
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Permanent Genetic Resources added to Molecular Ecology Resources Database 1 February 2011-31 March 2011.
- 2011
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Ingår i: Molecular Ecology Resources. - : Wiley. - 1755-098X .- 1755-0998. ; 11:4, s. 757-758
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article documents the addition of 111 microsatellite marker loci to the Molecular Ecology Resources Database. Loci were developed for the following species: Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi, Anopheles nuneztovari sensu lato, Asellus aquaticus, Calopteryx splendens, Calopteryx virgo, Centaurea aspera, Centaurea seridis, Chilina dombeyana, Proctoeces cf. lintoni and Pyrenophora teres f. teres.
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| 24. |
- Kaiser, Kristine, et al.
(författare)
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When sounds collide : the effect of anthropogenic noise on a breeding assemblage of frogs in Belize, Central America
- 2011
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Ingår i: Behaviour. - 0005-7959 .- 1568-539X. ; 148:2, s. 215-232
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Many organisms depend on acoustic communication for myriad functions, and have evolved behaviours to minimize effects of naturally occurring acoustic interference. However, as habitats are subject to increased alteration, anthropogenic noise becomes unavoidable, and how animals overcome such interference is not well understood. In most ecosystems, only a subset of frog species is associated with disturbed habitats; the ability of these species to overcome exogenous noise suggests that habitat associations may be related to species' response to noise. We tested the hypothesis that frogs associated with largely undisturbed forest habitat would be less likely to increase call output in response to exogenous noise than would those associated with disturbed or open habitat. While this relationship was not significant, we found a slight trend supporting the hypothesis. We then asked whether anthropogenic noise affects chorus tenure at individual- or at chorus-levels. Male frogs exposed to anthropogenic noise decreased both the number of days present at the chorus and the nightly chorus duration relative to controls. Because females generally join choruses late at night to breed, the effects of noise shown here are likely to substantially decrease frog reproductive success; thus, the acoustic environment may play an important role in shaping population dynamics and in amphibian declines.
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| 25. |
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| 26. |
- Solari, N, et al.
(författare)
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Understanding cognitive deficits in Parkinson's disease: lessons from preclinical animal models
- 2013
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Ingår i: Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.). - : Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. - 1549-5485. ; 20:10, s. 592-600
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Parkinson’s disease (PD) has been, until recently, mainly defined by the presence of characteristic motor symptoms, such as rigidity, tremor, bradykinesia/akinesia, and postural instability. Accordingly, pharmacological and surgical treatments have so far addressed these motor disturbances, leaving nonmotor, cognitive deficits an unmet clinical condition. At the preclinical level, the large majority of studies aiming at defining mechanisms and testing novel therapies have similarly focused on the motor aspects of PD. Unfortunately, deterioration of the executive functions, such as attention, recognition, working memory, and problem solving, often appear in an early, premotor phase of the disease and progressively increase in intensity, negatively affecting the quality of life of ∼50%–60% of PD patients. At present, the cellular mechanisms underlying cognitive impairments in PD patients are largely unknown and an adequate treatment is still missing. The preclinical research has recently developed new animal models that may open new perspectives for a more integrated approach to the treatment of both motor and cognitive symptoms of the disease. This review will provide an overview on the cognitive symptoms occurring in early PD patients and then focus on the rodent and nonhuman primate models so far available for the study of discriminative and spatial memory attention and learning abilities related to this pathological condition.
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| 27. |
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