Remote Reactor Ranging via Antineutrino Oscillations

Antineutrinos from nuclear reactors can be used for monitoring in the mid- to far-field as part of a non-proliferation toolkit. Antineutrinos are an unshieldable signal and carry information about the reactor core and the distance they travel. Using gadolinium-doped water Cherenkov detectors for this purpose has been previously proposed alongside rate-only analyses. As antineutrinos carry information about their distance of travel in their energy spectrum, the analyses can be extended to a spectral analysis to gain more knowledge about the detected core. Two complementary analyses are used to evaluate the distance between a proposed gadolinium-doped water-based liquid scintillator detector and a detected nuclear reactor. Example cases are shown for a detector in Boulby Mine, near the Boulby Underground Laboratory in the UK, and six reactor sites in the UK and France. The analyses both show strong potential to range reactors, but are limited by the detector design.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure

Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial

SummaryBackground Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatoryactions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.Methods In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospitalwith COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients wererandomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once perday by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatmentgroups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment andwere twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants andlocal study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to theoutcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treatpopulation. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.Findings Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) wereeligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomlyallocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall,561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days(rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87–1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days(rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98–1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, nosignificant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilationor death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87–1·03; p=0·24).Interpretation In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or otherprespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restrictedto patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication

Rent growth near rail stations after the Great Recession

AbstractThis study provides an incisive analysis of U.S. rail station area rent trends from 2012 to 2016, post-Great Recession. Utilizing Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Hierarchical Spatial Autoregressive (HSAR), and Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) models, it uncovers complex interplays between rent changes and socioeconomic, as well as built environment factors. Key findings reveal that increased rents are associated with walkability, higher housing density, and predominantly White neighborhoods. Conversely, rent decreases correlate with diverse land use, higher Black population percentages, and locations further from rail stations or business districts. These results are critical for understanding rent dynamics in transit-oriented development areas, impacting diverse housing market sectors, including workforce and affordable housing. The study’s regional analysis highlights the need for geographically tailored approaches. This research informs policy on housing development and affordability, aiming to mitigate displacement risks for low-income, transit-dependent communities in gentrifying urban areas

Diagnostic accuracy of tests for lymph node status in primary cervical cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Lymph node status is the key to determining the prognosis and treatment of cervical cancer. However, it cannot be assessed clinically, and testing for nodal metastasis is controversial. We sought to systematically review the diagnostic accuracy literature on sentinel node biopsy, positron emission tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography to evaluate the accuracy of each index test in determining lymph node status in patients with cervical cancer. METHODS: We searched MEDLINE (1966–2006), EMBASE (1980–2006), Medion (1980–2006) and the Cochrane library (Issue 2, 2006) for relevant articles. We also manually searched the reference lists from primary articles and reviews, and we contacted experts in the field for conference abstracts and unpublished studies. We performed random-effects meta-analysis of accuracy indices, and we performed meta-regression analysis to test the effect of study quality on diagnostic accuracy and to identify other sources of heterogeneity. RESULTS: We included 72 relevant primary studies, involving a total of 5042 women, in our analysis. We found that, in determining lymph node status, sentinel node biopsy had a pooled positive likelihood ratio of 40.8 (95% confidence interval [CI] 24.6–67.6) and a pooled negative likelihood ratio of 0.18 (95% CI 0.14–0.24). The pooled positive likelihood ratios (and 95% CI) were 15.3 (7.9–29.6) for positron emission tomography, 6.4 (4.9–8.3) for magnetic resonance imaging and 4.3 (3.0–6.2) for computed tomography. The pooled negative likelihood ratios (and 95% CIs) were 0.27 (0.11–0.66) for positron emission tomography, 0.50 (0.39–0.64) for magnetic resonance imaging and 0.58 (0.48–0.70) for computed tomography. Using a 27% pretest probability of lymph node metastasis among all cases (regardless of stage), we found that a positive sentinel node biopsy result increased post-test probability to 94% (95% CI 90%–96%), whereas a positive finding on positron emission tomography increased it to 85% (75%–92%). INTERPRETATION: Sentinel node biopsy has greater accuracy in determining lymph node status among women with primary cervical cancer than current commonly used imaging methods

ACRP Report 3: Analysis of aircraft overruns and undershoots for runway safety areas

ACRP Report 3: Analysis of Aircraft Overruns and Undershoots for Runway Safety Areas covers four areas: (1) Research collected on accident/incident data from several notable sources; (2) inventory of the conditions relating to each; (3) assessment of risk in relation to the runway safety area; and (4) discussion on a set of alternatives to the traditional runway safety area. Overruns and undershoots are factors in the design or improvement of runway safety areas (RSAs). The traditional approach to mitigate risk associated with accidents or incidents is to enlarge the runway safety area, but many airports do not have sufficient land to accommodate standard Federal Aviation Administration or International Civil Aviation Organization recommendations for RSAs. Airports that pursue this approach face extremely expensive and controversial land acquisition or wetlands filling projects to make sufficient land available. This report uses a probabilistic approach—a quantitative assessment—to analyze the RSA and begins a discussion on how alternatives to a standard 1,000-foot RSA may adequately mitigate risk. The report also assesses the factors that increase the risk of such accidents occurring, helps with understanding how these incidents may happen, and suggests that aircraft overrun and undershoot risks are related to specific operational factors. The report suggests that significant improvement to airport operations safety may be achieved by monitoring and managing these operational factors for both RSA planning and during actual aircraft operations, and it provides recommendations for collection and reporting of data in future accident and incident investigations and reporting to allow future improvements to these models