1. |
- De Jong, R. S., et al.
(author)
-
4MOST - 4-metre multi-object spectroscopic telescope
- 2012
-
In: Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering. - : SPIE. - 9780819491473 ; , s. 84460T-
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The 4MOST consortium is currently halfway through a Conceptual Design study for ESO with the aim to develop a wide-field (>3 square degree, goal >5 square degree), high-multiplex (>1500 fibres, goal 3000 fibres) spectroscopic survey facility for an ESO 4m-class telescope (VISTA). 4MOST will run permanently on the telescope to perform a 5 year public survey yielding more than 20 million spectra at resolution R∼5000 (λ=390-1000 nm) and more than 2 million spectra at R∼20,000 (395-456.5 nm & 587-673 nm). The 4MOST design is especially intended to complement three key all-sky, space-based observatories of prime European interest: Gaia, eROSITA and Euclid. Initial design and performance estimates for the wide-field corrector concepts are presented. Two fibre positioner concepts are being considered for 4MOST. The first one is a Phi-Theta system similar to ones used on existing and planned facilities. The second one is a new R-Theta concept with large patrol area. Both positioner concepts effectively address the issues of fibre focus and pupil pointing. The 4MOST spectrographs are fixed configuration two-arm spectrographs, with dedicated spectrographs for the high- and low-resolution fibres. A full facility simulator is being developed to guide trade-off decisions regarding the optimal field-of-view, number of fibres needed, and the relative fraction of high-to-low resolution fibres. The simulator takes mock catalogues with template spectra from Design Reference Surveys as starting point, calculates the output spectra based on a throughput simulator, assigns targets to fibres based on the capabilities of the fibre positioner designs, and calculates the required survey time by tiling the fields on the sky. The 4MOST consortium aims to deliver the full 4MOST facility by the end of 2018 and start delivering high-level data products for both consortium and ESO community targets a year later with yearly increments.
|
|
2. |
- Majounie, Elisa, et al.
(author)
-
Frequency of the C9orf72 hexanucleotide repeat expansion in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia: a cross-sectional study
- 2012
-
In: Lancet Neurology. - 1474-4465. ; 11:4, s. 323-330
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background We aimed to accurately estimate the frequency of a hexanucleotide repeat expansion in C9orf72 that has been associated with a large proportion of cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Methods We screened 4448 patients diagnosed with ALS (El Escorial criteria) and 1425 patients with FTD (Lund-Manchester criteria) from 17 regions worldwide for the GGGGCC hexanucleotide expansion using a repeat-primed PCR assay. We assessed familial disease status on the basis of self-reported family history of similar neurodegenerative diseases at the time of sample collection. We compared haplotype data for 262 patients carrying the expansion with the known Finnish founder risk haplotype across the chromosomal locus. We calculated age-related penetrance using the Kaplan-Meier method with data for 603 individuals with the expansion. Findings In patients with sporadic ALS, we identified the repeat expansion in 236 (7.0%) of 3377 white individuals from the USA, Europe, and Australia, two (4.1%) of 49 black individuals from the USA, and six (8.3%) of 72 Hispanic individuals from the USA. The mutation was present in 217 (39.3%) of 552 white individuals with familial MS from Europe and the USA. 59 (6.0%) of 981 white Europeans with sporadic FTD had the mutation, as did 99 (24.8%) of 400 white Europeans with familial FTD. Data for other ethnic groups were sparse, but we identified one Asian patient with familial ALS (from 20 assessed) and two with familial FTD (from three assessed) who carried the mutation. The mutation was not carried by the three Native Americans or 360 patients from Asia or the Pacific Islands with sporadic MS who were tested, or by 41 Asian patients with sporadic FTD. All patients with the repeat expansion had (partly or fully) the founder haplotype, suggesting a one-off expansion occurring about 1500 years ago. The pathogenic expansion was non-penetrant in individuals younger than 35 years, 50% penetrant by 58 years, and almost fully penetrant by 80 years. Interpretation A common Mendelian genetic lesion in C9472 is implicated in many cases of sporadic and familial ALS and FTD. Testing for this pathogenic expansion should be considered in the management and genetic counselling of patients with these fatal neurodegenerative diseases.
|
|
3. |
|
|
4. |
- Ansorge, C, et al.
(author)
-
Diagnostic value of abdominal drainage in individual risk assessment of pancreatic fistula following pancreaticoduodenectomy
- 2014
-
In: The British journal of surgery. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1365-2168 .- 0007-1323. ; 101:2, s. 100-108
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BackgroundThe use of prophylactic abdominal drainage following pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) is controversial as its therapeutic value is uncertain. However, the diagnosis of postoperative pancreatic fistula (POPF), the main cause of PD-associated morbidity, is often based on drain pancreatic amylase (DPA) levels. The aim of this study was to assess the predictive value of DPA, plasma pancreatic amylase (PPA) and serum C-reactive protein (CRP) for diagnosing POPF after PD.MethodsPatients undergoing PD with prophylactic drainage between 2008 and 2012 were studied prospectively. DPA, PPA and CRP levels were obtained daily. Differences between groups with clinically relevant POPF (International Study Group on Pancreatic Fistula (ISGPF) grade B/C) and without clinically relevant POPF (no POPF or ISGPF grade A) were evaluated. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were performed to determine the value of DPA, PPA and CRP in prediction of POPF. Risk profiles for clinically relevant POPF were constructed and related to the intraoperative pancreatic risk assessment.ResultsFifty-nine (18·7 per cent) of 315 patients developed clinically relevant POPF. DPA, PPA and CRP levels on postoperative day (POD) 1–3 differed significantly between the study groups. In predicting POPF, the DPA level on POD 1 (cut-off at 1322 units/l; odds ratio (OR) 24·61, 95 per cent confidence interval 11·55 to 52·42) and POD 2 (cut-off at 314 units/l; OR 35·45, 14·07 to 89·33) was superior to that of PPA on POD 1 (cut-off at 177 units/l; OR 13·67, 6·46 to 28·94) and POD 2 (cut-off at 98 units/l; OR 16·97, 8·33 to 34·59). When DPA was combined with CRP (cut-off on POD 3 at 202 mg/l; OR 16·98, 8·43 to 34·21), 90·3 per cent of postoperative courses could be predicted correctly (OR 44·14, 16·89 to 115·38).ConclusionThe combination of serum CRP and DPA adequately predicted the development of clinically relevant pancreatic fistula following PD.
|
|
5. |
- Bras, Jose, et al.
(author)
-
Genetic analysis implicates APOE, SNCA and suggests lysosomal dysfunction in the etiology of dementia with Lewy bodies.
- 2014
-
In: Human molecular genetics. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1460-2083 .- 0964-6906. ; 23:23, s. 6139-6146
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Clinical and neuropathological similarities between dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases (PD and AD, respectively) suggest that these disorders may share etiology. To test this hypothesis, we have performed an association study of 54 genomic regions, previously implicated in PD or AD, in a large cohort of DLB cases and controls. The cohort comprised 788 DLB cases and 2624 controls. To minimize the issue of potential misdiagnosis, we have also performed the analysis including only neuropathologically proven DLB cases (667 cases). The results show that the APOE is a strong genetic risk factor for DLB, confirming previous findings, and that the SNCA and SCARB2 loci are also associated after a study-wise Bonferroni correction, although these have a different association profile than the associations reported for the same loci in PD. We have previously shown that the p.N370S variant in GBA is associated with DLB, which, together with the findings at the SCARB2 locus, suggests a role for lysosomal dysfunction in this disease. These results indicate that DLB has a unique genetic risk profile when compared with the two most common neurodegenerative diseases and that the lysosome may play an important role in the etiology of this disorder. We make all these data available.
|
|
6. |
- de Jong, Roelof S., et al.
(author)
-
4MOST-4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope
- 2014
-
In: Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V. - : SPIE. - 0277-786X .- 1996-756X. ; 9147
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- 4MOST is a wide-field, high-multiplex spectroscopic survey facility under development for the VISTA telescope of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). Its main science drivers are in the fields of galactic archeology, high-energy physics, galaxy evolution and cosmology. 4MOST will in particular provide the spectroscopic complements to the large area surveys coming from space missions like Gaia, eROSITA, Euclid, and PLATO and from ground-based facilities like VISTA, VST, DES, LSST and SKA. The 4MOST baseline concept features a 2.5 degree diameter field-of-view with similar to 2400 fibres in the focal surface that are configured by a fibre positioner based on the tilting spine principle. The fibres feed two types of spectrographs; similar to 1600 fibres go to two spectrographs with resolution R> 5000 (lambda similar to 390-930 nm) and similar to 800 fibres to a spectrograph with R> 18,000 (lambda similar to 392-437 nm & 515-572 nm & 605-675 nm). Both types of spectrographs are fixed-configuration, three-channel spectrographs. 4MOST will have an unique operations concept in which 5 year public surveys from both the consortium and the ESO community will be combined and observed in parallel during each exposure, resulting in more than 25 million spectra of targets spread over a large fraction of the southern sky. The 4MOST Facility Simulator (4FS) was developed to demonstrate the feasibility of this observing concept. 4MOST has been accepted for implementation by ESO with operations expected to start by the end of 2020. This paper provides a top-level overview of the 4MOST facility, while other papers in these proceedings provide more detailed descriptions of the instrument concept[1], the instrument requirements development[2], the systems engineering implementation[3], the instrument model[4], the fibre positioner concepts[5], the fibre feed[6], and the spectrographs[7].
|
|
7. |
|
|
8. |
|
|
9. |
|
|
10. |
|
|
11. |
- Kovacs, Gabor G, et al.
(author)
-
Neuropathology of the hippocampus in FTLD-Tau with Pick bodies : A study of the BrainNet Europe Consortium
- 2013
-
In: Neuropathology and Applied Neurobiology. - : Wiley. - 0305-1846 .- 1365-2990. ; 39:2, s. 166-178
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Aims: Frontotemporal lobar degeneration with Pick bodies (Pick's disease) is characterized by the presence of tau immunoreactive spherical structures in the cytoplasm of neurons. In view of confusion about the molecular pathology of Pick's disease, we aimed to evaluate the spectrum of tau pathology and concomitant neurodegeneration-associated protein depositions in the characteristically affected hippocampus. Methods: We evaluated immunoreactivity for tau (AT8, 3R, 4R), α-synuclein, TDP43, p62, and ubiquitin in the hippocampus, entorhinal and temporal cortex in 66 archival cases diagnosed neuropathologically as Pick's disease. Results: Mean age at death was 68.2 years (range 49 to 96). Fifty-two (79%) brains showed 3R immunoreactive spherical inclusions in the granule cells of the dentate gyrus. These typical cases presented mainly with the behavioural variant of FTD, followed by progressive aphasia, mixed syndromes or early memory disturbance. α-Synuclein immunoreactivity was seen only in occasional spherical tau-positive inclusions, TDP-43 IR was absent, and 4R IR was present only as neurofibrillary tangles in pyramidal neurons. Aβ immunoreactivity was observed in 16 cases; however, the overall level of Alzheimer's disease-related alterations was mainly low or intermediate (n = 3). Furthermore, we identified six cases with unclassifiable tauopathy. Conclusions: 1) Pick's disease may occur also in elderly patients and is characterized by a relatively uniform pathology with 3R tau inclusions particularly in the granule cells of dentate gyrus; 2) even minor deviation from these morphological criteria suggests a different disorder; and 3) immunohistological revision of archival cases expands the spectrum of tauopathies that require further classification.
|
|