1. |
- Aamodt, K., et al.
(author)
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The ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC
- 2008
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In: Journal of Instrumentation. - 1748-0221. ; 3:S08002
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is a general-purpose, heavy-ion detector at the CERN LHC which focuses on QCD, the strong-interaction sector of the Standard Model. It is designed to address the physics of strongly interacting matter and the quark-gluon plasma at extreme values of energy density and temperature in nucleus-nucleus collisions. Besides running with Pb ions, the physics programme includes collisions with lighter ions, lower energy running and dedicated proton-nucleus runs. ALICE will also take data with proton beams at the top LHC energy to collect reference data for the heavy-ion programme and to address several QCD topics for which ALICE is complementary to the other LHC detectors. The ALICE detector has been built by a collaboration including currently over 1000 physicists and engineers from 105 Institutes in 30 countries, Its overall dimensions are 16 x 16 x 26 m(3) with a total weight of approximately 10 000 t. The experiment consists of 18 different detector systems each with its own specific technology choice and design constraints, driven both by the physics requirements and the experimental conditions expected at LHC. The most stringent design constraint is to cope with the extreme particle multiplicity anticipated in central Pb-Pb collisions. The different subsystems were optimized to provide high-momentum resolution as well as excellent Particle Identification (PID) over a broad range in momentum, up to the highest multiplicities predicted for LHC. This will allow for comprehensive studies of hadrons, electrons, muons, and photons produced in the collision of heavy nuclei. Most detector systems are scheduled to be installed and ready for data taking by mid-2008 when the LHC is scheduled to start operation, with the exception of parts of the Photon Spectrometer (PHOS), Transition Radiation Detector (TRD) and Electro Magnetic Calorimeter (EMCal). These detectors will be completed for the high-luminosity ion run expected in 2010. This paper describes in detail the detector components as installed for the first data taking in the summer of 2008.
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2. |
- Abat, E., et al.
(author)
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Study of the response of the ATLAS central calorimeter to pions of energies from 3 to 9 GeV
- 2009
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In: Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research. Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors, and Associated Equipment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-5087 .- 0168-9002 .- 1872-9576. ; 607:2, s. 372-386
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A fully instrumented slice of the ATLAS central detector was exposed to test beams from the SPS (Super Proton Synchrotron) at CERN in 2004. in this paper, the response of the central calorimeters to pions with energies in the range between 3 and 9 GeV is presented. The linearity and the resolution of the combined calorimetry (electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters) was measured and compared to the prediction of a detector simulation program using the toolkit Geant 4. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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3. |
- Emerging Risk Factors, Collaboration, et al.
(author)
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The Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration: analysis of individual data on lipid, inflammatory and other markers in over 1.1 million participants in 104 prospective studies of cardiovascular diseases
- 2007
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In: Eur J Epidemiol. - 0393-2990. ; 22:12, s. 839-69
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Many long-term prospective studies have reported on associations of cardiovascular diseases with circulating lipid markers and/or inflammatory markers. Studies have not, however, generally been designed to provide reliable estimates under different circumstances and to correct for within-person variability. The Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration has established a central database on over 1.1 million participants from 104 prospective population-based studies, in which subsets have information on lipid and inflammatory markers, other characteristics, as well as major cardiovascular morbidity and cause-specific mortality. Information on repeat measurements on relevant characteristics has been collected in approximately 340,000 participants to enable estimation of and correction for within-person variability. Re-analysis of individual data will yield up to approximately 69,000 incident fatal or nonfatal first ever major cardiovascular outcomes recorded during about 11.7 million person years at risk. The primary analyses will involve age-specific regression models in people without known baseline cardiovascular disease in relation to fatal or nonfatal first ever coronary heart disease outcomes. This initiative will characterize more precisely and in greater detail than has previously been possible the shape and strength of the age- and sex-specific associations of several lipid and inflammatory markers with incident coronary heart disease outcomes (and, secondarily, with other incident cardiovascular outcomes) under a wide range of circumstances. It will, therefore, help to determine to what extent such associations are independent from possible confounding factors and to what extent such markers (separately and in combination) provide incremental predictive value.
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4. |
- Villa, Luisa L., et al.
(author)
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Quadrivalent vaccine against human papillomavirus to prevent high-grade cervical lesions
- 2007
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In: New England Journal of Medicine. - 0028-4793 .- 1533-4406. ; 356:19, s. 1915-1927
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Human papillomavirus types 16 (HPV-16) and 18 (HPV-18) cause approximately 70% of cervical cancers worldwide. A phase 3 trial was conducted to evaluate a quadrivalent vaccine against HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18 (HPV-6/11/16/18) for the prevention of high-grade cervical lesions associated with HPV-16 and HPV-18. METHODS: In this randomized, double-blind trial, we assigned 12,167 women between the ages of 15 and 26 years to receive three doses of either HPV-6/11/16/18 vaccine or placebo, administered at day 1, month 2, and month 6. The primary analysis was performed for a per-protocol susceptible population that included 5305 women in the vaccine group and 5260 in the placebo group who had no virologic evidence of infection with HPV-16 or HPV-18 through 1 month after the third dose (month 7). The primary composite end point was cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or 3, adenocarcinoma in situ, or cervical cancer related to HPV-16 or HPV-18. RESULTS: Subjects were followed for an average of 3 years after receiving the first dose of vaccine or placebo. Vaccine efficacy for the prevention of the primary composite end point was 98% (95.89% confidence interval [CI], 86 to 100) in the per-protocol susceptible population and 44% (95% CI, 26 to 58) in an intention-to-treat population of all women who had undergone randomization (those with or without previous infection). The estimated vaccine efficacy against all high-grade cervical lesions, regardless of causal HPV type, in this intention-to-treat population was 17% (95% CI, 1 to 31). CONCLUSIONS: In young women who had not been previously infected with HPV-16 or HPV-18, those in the vaccine group had a significantly lower occurrence of high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia related to HPV-16 or HPV-18 than did those in the placebo group.
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5. |
- Zeggini, Eleftheria, et al.
(author)
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Meta-analysis of genome-wide association data and large-scale replication identifies additional susceptibility loci for type 2 diabetes
- 2008
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In: Nature Genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1546-1718 .- 1061-4036. ; 40:5, s. 638-645
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Genome-wide association (GWA) studies have identified multiple loci at which common variants modestly but reproducibly influence risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D)(1-11). Established associations to common and rare variants explain only a small proportion of the heritability of T2D. As previously published analyses had limited power to identify variants with modest effects, we carried out meta-analysis of three T2D GWA scans comprising 10,128 individuals of European descent and similar to 2.2 million SNPs (directly genotyped and imputed), followed by replication testing in an independent sample with an effective sample size of up to 53,975. We detected at least six previously unknown loci with robust evidence for association, including the JAZF1 (P=5.0 x 10(-14)), CDC123-CAMK1D (P=1.2 x 10(-10)), TSPAN8-LGR5 (P=1.1 x 10(-9)), THADA (P=1.1 x 10(-9)), ADAMTS9 (P=1.2 x 10(-8)) and NOTCH2 (P=4.1 x 10(-8)) gene regions. Our results illustrate the value of large discovery and follow-up samples for gaining further insights into the inherited basis of T2D.
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6. |
- Mikkelsen, T N, et al.
(author)
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Experimental design of multifactor climate change experiments with elevated CO2, warming and drought: the CLIMAITE project
- 2008
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In: Functional Ecology. - : Wiley. - 1365-2435 .- 0269-8463. ; 22:1, s. 185-195
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recent findings indicate that the interactions among CO2, temperature and water can be substantial, and that the combined effects on the biological systems of several factors may not be predicted from experiments with one or a few factors. Therefore realistic multifactorial experiments involving a larger set of main factors are needed. We describe a new Danish climate change-related field scale experiment, CLIMAITE, in a heath/grassland ecosystem. CLIMAITE is a full factorial combination of elevated CO2, elevated temperature and prolonged summer drought. The manipulations are intended to mimic anticipated major environmental changes at the site by year 2075 as closely as possible. The impacts on ecosystem processes and functioning (at ecophysiological levels, through responses by individuals and communities to ecosystem-level responses) are investigated simultaneously. The increase of [CO2] closely corresponds with the scenarios for year 2075, while the warming treatment is at the lower end of the predictions and seems to be the most difficult treatment to increase without unwanted side effects on the other variables. The drought treatment follows predictions of increased frequency of drought periods in summer. The combination of the treatments does not create new unwanted side effects on the treatments relative to the treatments alone.
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7. |
- Tuskan, G A, et al.
(author)
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The genome of black cottonwood, Populus trichocarpa (Torr. & Gray).
- 2006
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In: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 1095-9203 .- 0036-8075. ; 313:5793, s. 1596-604
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report the draft genome of the black cottonwood tree, Populus trichocarpa. Integration of shotgun sequence assembly with genetic mapping enabled chromosome-scale reconstruction of the genome. More than 45,000 putative protein-coding genes were identified. Analysis of the assembled genome revealed a whole-genome duplication event; about 8000 pairs of duplicated genes from that event survived in the Populus genome. A second, older duplication event is indistinguishably coincident with the divergence of the Populus and Arabidopsis lineages. Nucleotide substitution, tandem gene duplication, and gross chromosomal rearrangement appear to proceed substantially more slowly in Populus than in Arabidopsis. Populus has more protein-coding genes than Arabidopsis, ranging on average from 1.4 to 1.6 putative Populus homologs for each Arabidopsis gene. However, the relative frequency of protein domains in the two genomes is similar. Overrepresented exceptions in Populus include genes associated with lignocellulosic wall biosynthesis, meristem development, disease resistance, and metabolite transport.
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9. |
- Helgadottir, Anna, et al.
(author)
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The same sequence variant on 9p21 associates with myocardial infarction, abdominal aortic aneurysm and intracranial aneurysm
- 2008
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In: Nature Genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1546-1718 .- 1061-4036. ; 40:2, s. 217-224
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recently, two common sequence variants on 9p21, tagged by rs10757278-G and rs10811661-T, were reported to be associated with coronary artery disease (CAD)(1-4) and type 2 diabetes (T2D)(5-7), respectively. We proceeded to further investigate the contributions of these variants to arterial diseases and T2D. Here we report that rs10757278-G is associated with, in addition to CAD, abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA; odds ratio (OR) 1.31, P = 1.2 x 10(-12)) and intracranial aneurysm (OR = 1.29, P = 2.5 x 10(-6)), but not with T2D. This variant is the first to be described that affects the risk of AAA and intracranial aneurysm in many populations. The association of rs10811661-T to T2D replicates in our samples, but the variant does not associate with any of the five arterial diseases examined. These findings extend our insight into the role of the sequence variant tagged by rs10757278-G and show that it is not confined to atherosclerotic diseases.
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10. |
- Johnson, Louis Banka, et al.
(author)
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Combination of pre-operative radiotherapy and surgery suppresses local accumulation of collagen and TGF-beta 1 in rats
- 2006
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In: Journal of Surgical Research. - : Elsevier BV. - 1095-8673 .- 0022-4804. ; 133:2, s. 136-142
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background. The systemic and local tissue repair responses of radiation in combination with surgery are still unclear. We have studied the effect of fractionated pre-operative radiotherapy with or without subsequent laparotomy on collagen accumulation using a rodent model. Materials and methods. Thirty-two male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four groups (eight rats per group): 1) sham radiation and sham laparotomy (control); 2) sham radiation and laparotomy; 3) radiation and sham laparotomy; and 4) radiation followed by laparotomy. Expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) tubes were implanted subcutaneously in the abdominal wall in the radiotherapy field and on the back outside the radiotherapy field day 0. The abdomen (3 cm x 4 cm) was irradiated day 3 (10 Gy) and again day 7 (10 Gy). On day 10, implants were extirpated, laparotomy undertaken in groups 2 and 4 and new ePTFE tubes implanted subcutaneously. The second implants were extirpated on day 20. Implants were analyzed for hydroxyproline, total protein and transforming growth factor-ss 1 (TGF-ss 1) levels. Results. On day 10, hydroxyproline (P < 0.05) and TGF-ss 1 (P < 0.001) were lower in ePTFE tubes in irra-diated compared with non-irradiated rats. On day 20, the abdominal ePTFE hydroxyproline remained low (P < 0.001) in animals subjected to laparotomy and pre-operative irradiation while hydroxyproline levels of rats subjected to irradiation only were similar to controls. The effects of radiation on hydroxyproline were confined to the irradiated abdominal area. There was a positive correlation between hydroxyproline and TGF-ss 1 levels in the abdominal wall implant day 20 (r = 0.53, P < 0.005). Conclusion. A clinically relevant fractionated radiation scheme reduced subcutaneous collagen accumulation pre-operatively and profoundly within the radiation field post-operatively after laparotomy, possibly because of lowered TGF ss 1 levels. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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