917 research outputs found
The Availability Of Full Match Sibling Donors And Feasibility Of Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation In Brazil.
The feasibility of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (alloBMT) in a developing country has not yet been demonstrated. Many adverse factors including social and economic limitations may reduce the overall results of this complex and expensive procedure. Our objective was to characterize the most important clinical, social and economic features of candidates for transplantation and their potential donors as well as the influence of these factors on overall survival in a retrospective and exploratory analysis at a university hospital. From July 1993 to July 2001, candidates for BMT were referred to the Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit by Hematology and Oncology Centers from several regions of Brazil. A total of 1138 patients were referred to us as candidates for alloBMT. Median age was 25 years (range: 2 months-60 years), 684 (60.1%) were males and 454 (39.9%) were females. The clinical indications were severe aplastic anemia and hematological malignancies. From the total of 1138 patients, 923 had HLA-typing; 497/923 (53.8%) candidates had full match donors; 352/1138 (30.8%) were eligible for alloBMT. Only 235 of 352 (66.7%) were transplanted. Schooling was 1st to 8th grade for 123/235 (52.3%); monthly family income ranged from US400 (36%). Overall survival for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia, severe aplastic anemia and acute myeloid leukemia was 58, 60 and 30%, respectively. Thus, overall survival rates for the most frequent hematological diseases were similar to those reported in the International Registry, except for acute myeloid leukemia. This descriptive and exploratory analysis suggests the feasibility of alloBMT in a developing country like Brazil.36315-2
Detection of the Cherenkov light diffused by Sea Water with the ULTRA Experiment
The study of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays represents one of the most
challenging topic in the Cosmic Rays and in the Astroparticle Physics fields.
The interaction of primary particles with atmospheric nuclei produces a huge
Extensive Air Shower together with isotropic emission of UV fluorescence light
and highly directional Cherenkov photons, that are reflected/diffused
isotropically by the impact on the Earth's surface or on high optical depth
clouds. For space-based observations, detecting the reflected Cherenkov signal
in a delayed coincidence with the fluorescence light improves the accuracy of
the shower reconstruction in space and in particular the measurement of the
shower maximum, giving a strong signature for discriminating hadrons and
neutrinos, and helping to estimate the primary chemical composition. Since the
Earth's surface is mostly covered by water, the ULTRA (UV Light Transmission
and Reflection in the Atmosphere)experiment has been designed to provide the
diffusing properties of sea water, overcoming the lack of information in this
specific field. A small EAS array, made up of 5 particle detectors, and an UV
optical device, have been coupled to detect in coincidence both electromagnetic
and UV components. The detector was in operation from May to December, 2005, in
a small private harbor in Capo Granitola (Italy); the results of these
measurements in terms of diffusion coefficient and threshold energy are
presented here.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, PDF format, Proceedings of 30th ICRC,
International Cosmic Ray Conference 2007, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, 3-11 July
200
Study of single muons with the Large Volume Detector at Gran Sasso Laboratory
The present study is based on the sample of about 3 mln single muons observed
by LVD at underground Gran Sasso Laboratory during 36500 live hours from June
1992 to February 1998. We have measured the muon intensity at slant depths from
3 km w.e. to 20 km w.e. Most events are high energy downward muons produced by
meson decay in the atmosphere. The analysis of these muons has revealed the
power index of pion and kaon spectrum: 2.76 \pm 0.05. The reminders are
horizontal muons produced by the neutrino interactions in the rock surrounding
LVD. The value of this flux is obtained. The results are compared with Monte
Carlo simulations and the world data.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in "Physics of Atomic
Nuclei
Upper Limit on the Prompt Muon Flux Derived from the LVD Underground Experiment
We present the analysis of the muon events with all muon multiplicities
collected during 21804 hours of operation of the first LVD tower. The measured
depth-angular distribution of muon intensities has been used to obtain the
normalization factor, A, the power index, gamma, of the primary all-nucleon
spectrum and the ratio, R_c, of prompt muon flux to that of pi-mesons - the
main parameters which determine the spectrum of cosmic ray muons at the sea
level. The value of gamma = 2.77 +/- 0.05 (68% C.L.) and R_c < 2.0 x 10^-3 (95%
C.L.) have been obtained. The upper limit to the prompt muon flux favours the
models of charm production based on QGSM and the dual parton model.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, RevTex. To appear in Phys. Rev.
Study of the diffuse gamma-ray emission from the Galactic plane with ARGO-YBJ
The events recorded by ARGO-YBJ in more than five years of data collection
have been analyzed to determine the diffuse gamma-ray emission in the Galactic
plane at Galactic longitudes 25{\deg} < l < 100{\deg} and Galactic latitudes .
The energy range covered by this analysis, from ~350 GeV to ~2 TeV, allows the
connection of the region explored by Fermi with the multi-TeV measurements
carried out by Milagro. Our analysis has been focused on two selected regions
of the Galactic plane, i.e., 40{\deg} < l < 100{\deg} and 65{\deg} < l <
85{\deg} (the Cygnus region), where Milagro observed an excess with respect to
the predictions of current models. Great care has been taken in order to mask
the most intense gamma-ray sources, including the TeV counterpart of the Cygnus
cocoon recently identified by ARGO-YBJ, and to remove residual contributions.
The ARGO-YBJ results do not show any excess at sub-TeV energies corresponding
to the excess found by Milagro, and are consistent with the predictions of the
Fermi model for the diffuse Galactic emission. From the measured energy
distribution we derive spectral indices and the differential flux at 1 TeV of
the diffuse gamma-ray emission in the sky regions investigated.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, published in AP
4.5 years multi-wavelength observations of Mrk 421 during the ARGO-YBJ and Fermi common operation time
We report on the extensive multi-wavelength observations of the blazar
Markarian 421 (Mrk 421) covering radio to gamma-rays, during the 4.5 year
period of ARGO-YBJ and Fermi common operation time, from August 2008 to
February 2013. In particular, thanks to the ARGO-YBJ and Fermi data, the whole
energy range from 100 MeV to 10 TeV is covered without any gap. In the
observation period, Mrk 421 showed both low and high activity states at all
wavebands. The correlations among flux variations in different wavebands were
analyzed. Seven large flares, including five X-ray flares and two GeV gamma-ray
flares with variable durations (3-58 days), and one X-ray outburst phase were
identified and used to investigate the variation of the spectral energy
distribution with respect to a relative quiescent phase. During the outburst
phase and the seven flaring episodes, the peak energy in X-rays is observed to
increase from sub-keV to few keV. The TeV gamma-ray flux increases up to
0.9-7.2 times the flux of the Crab Nebula. The behavior of GeV gamma-rays is
found to vary depending on the flare, a feature that leads us to classify
flares into three groups according to the GeV flux variation. Finally, the
one-zone synchrotron self-Compton model was adopted to describe the emission
spectra. Two out of three groups can be satisfactorily described using injected
electrons with a power-law spectral index around 2.2, as expected from
relativistic diffuse shock acceleration, whereas the remaining group requires a
harder injected spectrum. The underlying physical mechanisms responsible for
different groups may be related to the acceleration process or to the
environment properties.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables, Accepted for publication in ApJ
Muon `Depth -- Intensity' Relation Measured by LVD Underground Experiment and Cosmic-Ray Muon Spectrum at Sea Level
We present the analysis of the muon events with all muon multiplicities
collected during 21804 hours of operation of the first LVD tower. The measured
angular distribution of muon intensity has been converted to the `depth --
vertical intensity' relation in the depth range from 3 to 12 km w.e.. The
analysis of this relation allowed to derive the power index, , of the
primary all-nucleon spectrum: . The `depth -- vertical
intensity' relation has been converted to standard rock and the comparison with
the data of other experiments has been done. We present also the derived
vertical muon spectrum at sea level.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, to be published on Phys. Rev.
The cosmic ray proton plus helium energy spectrum measured by the ARGO-YBJ experiment in the energy range 3-300 TeV
The ARGO-YBJ experiment is a full-coverage air shower detector located at the
Yangbajing Cosmic Ray Observatory (Tibet, People's Republic of China, 4300 m
a.s.l.). The high altitude, combined with the full-coverage technique, allows
the detection of extensive air showers in a wide energy range and offer the
possibility of measuring the cosmic ray proton plus helium spectrum down to the
TeV region, where direct balloon/space-borne measurements are available. The
detector has been in stable data taking in its full configuration from November
2007 to February 2013. In this paper the measurement of the cosmic ray proton
plus helium energy spectrum is presented in the region 3-300 TeV by analyzing
the full collected data sample. The resulting spectral index is . These results demonstrate the possibility of performing an accurate
measurement of the spectrum of light elements with a ground based air shower
detector.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, preprint submitted to Phys. Rev.
Proton-air cross section measurement with the ARGO-YBJ cosmic ray experiment
The proton-air cross section in the energy range 1-100 TeV has been measured
by the ARGO-YBJ cosmic ray experiment. The analysis is based on the flux
attenuation for different atmospheric depths (i.e. zenith angles) and exploits
the detector capabilities of selecting the shower development stage by means of
hit multiplicity, density and lateral profile measurements at ground. The
effects of shower fluctuations, the contribution of heavier primaries and the
uncertainties of the hadronic interaction models, have been taken into account.
The results have been used to estimate the total proton-proton cross section at
center of mass energies between 70 and 500 GeV, where no accelerator data are
currently available.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure
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