| 1. |
- Lawler, Mark, et al.
(author)
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European Groundshot-addressing Europe's cancer research challenges: a Lancet Oncology Commission.
- 2023
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In: The Lancet. Oncology. - 1474-5488 .- 1470-2045. ; 24:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Cancer research is a crucial pillar for countries to deliver more affordable, higher quality, and more equitable cancer care. Patients treated in research-active hospitals have better outcomes than patients who are not treated in these settings. However, cancer in Europe is at a crossroads. Cancer was already a leading cause of premature death before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the disastrous effects of the pandemic on early diagnosis and treatment will probably set back cancer outcomes in Europe by almost a decade. Recognising the pivotal importance of research not just to mitigate the pandemic today, but to build better European cancer services and systems for patients tomorrow, the Lancet Oncology European Groundshot Commission on cancer research brings together a wide range of experts, together with detailed new data on cancer research activity across Europe during the past 12 years. We have deployed this knowledge to help inform Europe's Beating Cancer Plan and the EU Cancer Mission, and to set out an evidence-driven, patient-centred cancer research roadmap for Europe. The high-resolution cancer research data we have generated show current activities, captured through different metrics, including by region, disease burden, research domain, and effect on outcomes. We have also included granular data on research collaboration, gender of researchers, and research funding. The inclusion of granular data has facilitated the identification of areas that are perhaps overemphasised in current cancer research in Europe, while also highlighting domains that are underserved. Our detailed data emphasise the need for more information-driven and data-driven cancer research strategies and planning going forward. A particular focus must be on central and eastern Europe, because our findings emphasise the widening gap in cancer research activity, and capacity and outcomes, compared with the rest of Europe. Citizens and patients, no matter where they are, must benefit from advances in cancer research. This Commission also highlights that the narrow focus on discovery science and biopharmaceutical research in Europe needs to be widened to include such areas as prevention and early diagnosis; treatment modalities such as radiotherapy and surgery; and a larger concentration on developing a research and innovation strategy for the 20 million Europeans living beyond a cancer diagnosis. Our data highlight the important role of comprehensive cancer centres in driving the European cancer research agenda. Crucial to a functioning cancer research strategy and its translation into patient benefit is the need for a greater emphasis on health policy and systems research, including implementation science, so that the innovative technological outputs from cancer research have a clear pathway to delivery. This European cancer research Commission has identified 12 key recommendations within a call to action to reimagine cancer research and its implementation in Europe. We hope this call to action will help to achieve our ambitious 70:35 target: 70% average survival for all European cancer patients by 2035.
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| 3. |
- Almora, Osbel, et al.
(author)
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Device Performance of Emerging Photovoltaic Materials (Version 1)
- 2020
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In: Advanced Energy Materials. - : Wiley. - 1614-6832 .- 1614-6840. ; 11:11
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Emerging photovoltaics (PVs) focus on a variety of applications complementing large scale electricity generation. Organic, dye-sensitized, and some perovskite solar cells are considered in building integration, greenhouses, wearable, and indoor applications, thereby motivating research on flexible, transparent, semitransparent, and multi-junction PVs. Nevertheless, it can be very time consuming to find or develop an up-to-date overview of the state-of-the-art performance for these systems and applications. Two important resources for recording research cells efficiencies are the National Renewable Energy Laboratory chart and the efficiency tables compiled biannually by Martin Green and colleagues. Both publications provide an effective coverage over the established technologies, bridging research and industry. An alternative approach is proposed here summarizing the best reports in the diverse research subjects for emerging PVs. Best performance parameters are provided as a function of the photovoltaic bandgap energy for each technology and application, and are put into perspective using, e.g., the Shockley–Queisser limit. In all cases, the reported data correspond to published and/or properly described certified results, with enough details provided for prospective data reproduction. Additionally, the stability test energy yield is included as an analysis parameter among state-of-the-art emerging PVs.
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| 4. |
- Chintada, Bhaskara R., et al.
(author)
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Phase-Aberration Correction in Shear-Wave Elastography Imaging Using Local Speed-of-Sound Adaptive Beamforming
- 2021
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In: Frontiers in Physics. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 2296-424X. ; 9
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Shear wave elasticity imaging (SWEI) is a non-invasive imaging modality that provides tissue elasticity information by measuring the travelling speed of an induced shear-wave. It is commercially available on clinical ultrasound scanners and popularly used in the diagnosis and staging of liver disease and breast cancer. In conventional SWEI methods, a sequence of acoustic radiation force (ARF) pushes are used for inducing a shear-wave, which is tracked using high frame-rate multi-angle plane wave imaging (MA-PWI) to estimate the shear-wave speed (SWS). Conventionally, these plane waves are beamformed using a constant speed-of-sound (SoS), assuming an a-priori known and homogeneous tissue medium. However, soft tissues are inhomogeneous, with intrinsic SoS variations. In this work, we study the SoS effects and inhomogeneities on SWS estimation, using simulation and phantoms experiments with porcine muscle as an abbarator, and show how these aberrations can be corrected using local speed-of-sound adaptive beamforming. For shear-wave tracking, we compare standard beamform with spatially constant SoS values to software beamforming with locally varying SoS maps. We show that, given SoS aberrations, traditional beamforming using a constant SoS, regardless of the utilized SoS value, introduces a substantial bias in the resulting SWS estimations. Average SWS estimation disparity for the same material was observed over 4.3 times worse when a constant SoS value is used compared to that when a known SoS map is used for beamforming. Such biases are shown to be corrected by using a local SoS map in beamforming, indicating the importance of and the need for local SoS reconstruction techniques.
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| 5. |
- Chintada, Bhaskara Rao, et al.
(author)
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Spectral Ultrasound Imaging of Speed-of-Sound and Attenuation Using an Acoustic Mirror
- 2022
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In: Frontiers in Physics. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 2296-424X. ; 10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Speed-of-sound and attenuation of ultrasound waves vary in the tissues. There exist methods in the literature that allow for spatially reconstructing the distribution of group speed-of-sound (SoS) and frequency-dependent ultrasound attenuation (UA) using reflections from an acoustic mirror positioned at a known distance from the transducer. These methods utilize a conventional ultrasound transducer operating in pulse-echo mode and a calibration protocol with measurements in water. In this study, we introduce a novel method for reconstructing local SoS and UA maps as a function of acoustic frequency through Fourier-domain analysis and by fitting linear and power-law dependency models in closed form. Frequency-dependent SoS and UA together characterize the tissue comprehensively in spectral domain within the utilized transducer bandwidth. In simulations, our proposed methods are shown to yield low reconstruction error: 0.01 dB/cm.MHz(y) for attenuation coefficient and 0.05 for the frequency exponent. For tissue-mimicking phantoms and ex-vivo bovine muscle samples, a high reconstruction contrast was achieved. Attenuation exponents in a gelatin-cellulose mixture and an ex-vivo bovine muscle sample were found to be, respectively, 1.3 and 0.6 on average. Linear dispersion of SoS in a gelatin-cellulose mixture and an ex-vivo bovine muscle sample were found to be, respectively, 1.3 and 4.0 m/s.MHz on average. These findings were reproducible when the inclusion and substrate materials were exchanged. Bulk loss modulus in the bovine muscle sample was computed to be approximately 4 times the bulk loss modulus in the gelatin-cellulose mixture. Such frequency-dependent characteristics of SoS and UA, and bulk loss modulus may therefore differentiate tissues as potential diagnostic biomarkers.
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| 6. |
- Chintada, Bhaskara R, et al.
(author)
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Time Of Arrival Delineation In Echo Traces For Reflection Ultrasound Tomography
- 2021
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Ultrasound Computed Tomography (USCT) is an imaging method to map acoustic properties in soft tissues, e.g., for the diagnosis of breast cancer. A group of USCT methods rely on a passive reflector behind the imaged tissue, and they function by delineating such reflector in echo traces, e.g., to infer time-of-flight measurements for reconstructing local speed-of-sound maps. In this work, we study various echo features and delineation methods to robustly identify reflector profiles in echos. We compared and evaluated the methods on a multi-static data set of a realistic breast phantom. Based on our results, a RANSAC based outlier removal followed by an active contours based delineation using a new “edge” feature we propose that detects the first arrival times of echo performs robustly even in complex media; in particular 2.1 times superior to alternative approaches at locations where diffraction effects are prominent.
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| 7. |
- de Jong, R. S., et al.
(author)
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4MOST : Project overview and information for the First Call for Proposals
- 2019
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In: The Messenger. - : European Southern Observatory. - 0722-6691. ; 175, s. 3-11
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)abstract
- We introduce the 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST), a new high-multiplex, wide-field spectroscopic survey facility under development for the four-metre-class Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at Paranal. Its key specifications are: a large field of view (FoV) of 4.2 square degrees and a high multiplex capability, with 1624 fibres feeding two low-resolution spectrographs (R = λ/Δλ ~ 6500), and 812 fibres transferring light to the high-resolution spectrograph (R ~ 20 000). After a description of the instrument and its expected performance, a short overview is given of its operational scheme and planned 4MOST Consortium science; these aspects are covered in more detail in other articles in this edition of The Messenger. Finally, the processes, schedules, and policies concerning the selection of ESO Community Surveys are presented, commencing with a singular opportunity to submit Letters of Intent for Public Surveys during the first five years of 4MOST operations.
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| 8. |
- Halliday, Alison, et al.
(author)
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10-year stroke prevention after successful carotid endarterectomy for asymptomatic stenosis (ACST-1) : A multicentre randomised trial
- 2010
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In: The Lancet. - 0140-6736 .- 1474-547X. ; 376:9746, s. 1074-1084
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background If carotid artery narrowing remains asymptomatic (ie, has caused no recent stroke or other neurological symptoms), successful carotid endarterectomy (CEA) reduces stroke incidence for some years. We assessed the long-term effects of successful CEA. Methods Between 1993 and 2003, 3120 asymptomatic patients from 126 centres in 30 countries were allocated equally, by blinded minimised randomisation, to immediate CEA (median delay 1 month, IQR 0·3-2·5) or to indefinite deferral of any carotid procedure, and were followed up until death or for a median among survivors of 9 years (IQR 6-11). The primary outcomes were perioperative mortality and morbidity (death or stroke within 30 days) and non-perioperative stroke. Kaplan-Meier percentages and logrank p values are from intention-to-treat analyses. This study is registered, number ISRCTN26156392. Findings 1560 patients were allocated immediate CEA versus 1560 allocated deferral of any carotid procedure. The proportions operated on while still asymptomatic were 89·7 versus 4·8 at 1 year (and 92·1 vs 16·5 at 5 years). Perioperative risk of stroke or death within 30 days was 3·0 (95 CI 2·4-3·9; 26 non-disabling strokes plus 34 disabling or fatal perioperative events in 1979 CEAs). Excluding perioperative events and non-stroke mortality, stroke risks (immediate vs deferred CEA) were 4·1 versus 10·0 at 5 years (gain 5·9, 95 CI 4·0-7·8) and 10·8 versus 16·9 at 10 years (gain 6·1, 2·7-9·4); ratio of stroke incidence rates 0·54, 95 CI 0·43-0·68, p<0·0001. 62 versus 104 had a disabling or fatal stroke, and 37 versus 84 others had a non-disabling stroke. Combining perioperative events and strokes, net risks were 6·9 versus 10·9 at 5 years (gain 4·1, 2·0-6·2) and 13·4 versus 17·9 at 10 years (gain 4·6, 1·2-7·9). Medication was similar in both groups; throughout the study, most were on antithrombotic and antihypertensive therapy. Net benefits were significant both for those on lipid-lowering therapy and for those not, and both for men and for women up to 75 years of age at entry (although not for older patients). Interpretation Successful CEA for asymptomatic patients younger than 75 years of age reduces 10-year stroke risks. Half this reduction is in disabling or fatal strokes. Net benefit in future patients will depend on their risks from unoperated carotid lesions (which will be reduced by medication), on future surgical risks (which might differ from those in trials), and on whether life expectancy exceeds 10 years. Funding UK Medical Research Council, BUPA Foundation, Stroke Association.
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| 9. |
- Kuhn, Eric, et al.
(author)
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PTSD Coach around the world
- 2018
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In: mHealth. - : AME Publishing Company. - 2306-9740. ; 4
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a global public health problem. Unfortunately, many individuals with PTSD do not receive professional care due to a lack of available providers, stigma about mental illness, and other concerns. Technology-based interventions, including mobile phone applications (apps) may be a viable means of surmounting such barriers and reaching and helping those in need. Given this potential, in 2011 the U.S Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD released PTSD Coach, a mobile app intended to provide psycho-education and self-management tools for trauma survivors with PTSD symptoms. Emerging research on PTSD Coach demonstrates high user satisfaction, feasibility, and improvement in PTSD symptoms and other psychosocial outcomes. A model of openly sharing the app's source code and content has resulted in versions being created by individuals in six other countries: Australia, Canada, The Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. These versions are described, highlighting their significant adaptations, enhancements, and expansions to the original PTSD Coach app as well as emerging research on them. It is clear that the sharing of app source code and content has benefited this emerging PTSD Coach community, as well as the populations they are targeting. Despite this success, challenges remain especially reaching trauma survivors in areas where few or no other mental health resources exist.
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