The Texas Petawatt Laser And Current Experiments

The Texas Petawatt Laser is operational with experimental campaigns executed in both F/40 and F3 target chambers. Recent improvements have resulted in intensities of >2x10(21) W/cm(2) on target. Experimental highlights include, accelerated electron energies of >2 GeV, DD fusion ion temperatures >25 keV and isochorically heated solids to 10-50 eV.Physic

ANNA Tool: A Way to Connect Future and Past Students in STEM

The 'Increasing Gender Diversity in STEM' project involved six different partner universities around Europe. The scope of the project was to investigate the gender difference in self-perception of students in relation to their career choice. This was done through a web-based app, ANNA tool, that allows high school students to match their own personality, views, and expectations to those of engineering students and professional engineers. In the meantime, the data collection gave the opportunity to take a look at how students perceive their university and undergraduate program. This pilot application is then been further studied in order to analyse its scalability in other countries with broader STEM content

Qualification Tests of 474 Photomultiplier Tubes for the Inner Detector of the Double Chooz Experiment

The hemispherical 10" photomultiplier tube (PMT) R7081 from Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. (HPK) is used in various experiments in particle and astroparticle physics. We describe the test and calibration of 474 PMTs for the reactor antineutrino experiment Double Chooz. The unique test setup at Max-Planck-Institut f\"ur Kernphysik Heidelberg (MPIK) allows one to calibrate 30 PMTs simultaneously and to characterize the single photo electron response, transit time spread, linear behaviour and saturation effects, photon detection efficiency and high voltage calibration

Qualification Tests of 474 Photomultiplier Tubes for the Inner Detector of the Double Chooz Experiment

The hemispherical 10" photomultiplier tube (PMT) R7081 from Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. (HPK) is used in various experiments in particle and astroparticle physics. We describe the test and calibration of 474 PMTs for the reactor antineutrino experiment Double Chooz. The unique test setup at Max-Planck-Institut f\"ur Kernphysik Heidelberg (MPIK) allows one to calibrate 30 PMTs simultaneously and to characterize the single photo electron response, transit time spread, linear behaviour and saturation effects, photon detection efficiency and high voltage calibration

Qualification Tests of 474 Photomultiplier Tubes for the Inner Detector of the Double Chooz Experiment

The hemispherical 10" photomultiplier tube (PMT) R7081 from Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. (HPK) is used in various experiments in particle and astroparticle physics. We describe the test and calibration of 474 PMTs for the reactor antineutrino experiment Double Chooz. The unique test setup at Max-Planck-Institut f\"ur Kernphysik Heidelberg (MPIK) allows one to calibrate 30 PMTs simultaneously and to characterize the single photo electron response, transit time spread, linear behaviour and saturation effects, photon detection efficiency and high voltage calibration

Executive and Daily Life Functioning Influence the Relationship Between ADHD and Mood Symptoms in University Students

Objectives: Many studies have indicated a close relationship between ADHD and mood symptoms in university students. In the present study, we explore the role of daily functional impairments and executive functioning in the ADHD–mood relationship. Method: A total of 343 adults (126 males) filled out (a) the Conners’ Adult ADHD Rating Scale, (b) the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale, (c) the Weiss Functional Impairment Rating Scale, and (d) the Executive Function Index Scale. Results: The correlation between mood symptoms and ADHD was .48 (moderate correlation) and dropped to .15 (weak correlation) when controlling for functional problems and executive functioning. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that both functional impairments and executive functioning significantly explained 42% to 53% of the variance of mood symptoms. The addition of ADHD symptoms to the model slightly increased the explained mood variance by only 1%. Conclusion: These findings underline the role of experienced difficulties in triggering mood symptoms in ADHD symptomatology

Skeletonization of bilateral internal thoracic artery grafts lowers the risk of sternal infection in patients with diabetes

AbstractObjectiveDeep sternal wound infection is a dreaded complication of coronary artery bypass surgery, particularly in patients with diabetes. This study determines whether skeletonization of internal thoracic artery conduits compared with pedicled harvesting reduces the risk of deep sternal wound infection in patients with diabetes undergoing bilateral internal thoracic artery grafting.MethodsWe reviewed prospectively gathered data on all patients who have undergone coronary artery bypass grafting and received bilateral internal thoracic artery grafts at our institution since 1990. We compared patients with diabetes who received skeletonized (n = 79) versus conventional pedicled (n = 36) internal thoracic artery conduits.ResultsThe proportion of patients taking insulin (19.0% vs 14.0% for skeletonized vs conventional grafts, respectively, P = .6) or oral hypoglycemic agents (68.4% vs 69.4%, P = .9), as well as the prevalence of type I diabetes (2.5% vs 8.3%, P = .18), were similar in both groups. Patients who received skeletonized grafts were more likely to receive a free rather than an in situ right internal thoracic artery graft (93.7% vs 30.6%, P < .001). The prevalence of deep sternal wound infection was significantly lower in patients who received skeletonized grafts compared with patients who received conventional grafts (1.3% vs 11.1%, P = .03). Patients in the skeletonized group were also less likely to develop any (superficial or deep) sternal wound infection postoperatively (5.1% vs 22.2%, P = .03). There was no significant difference in the prevalence of deep sternal wound infection between patients with diabetes who received skeletonized internal thoracic arteries and patients without diabetes who underwent conventional internal thoracic artery grafting (n = 578) (1.2% vs 1.6%, respectively, P = .8).ConclusionsSkeletonization of internal thoracic artery conduits lowers the risk of deep sternal wound infection in patients with diabetes undergoing bilateral internal thoracic artery grafting. We no longer consider diabetes a contraindication to bilateral internal thoracic artery grafting, provided the internal thoracic arteries are skeletonized

Microinvasive mitral valve surgery: current status and status quo

Surgical mitral valve repair, performed either through median sternotomy or minimal invasive approach, presents the gold standard treatment for degenerative mitral valve disease. In dedicated centres, high repair and low complication rates have been established with excellent valve repair durability. Recently, new techniques have been introduced, that allow mitral valve repair to be performed through small surgical incisions and while avoiding cardio-pulmonary bypass. These new techniques, however, conceptually differ significantly when compared to surgical repair and it remains questionable whether they are capable of reproducing the results of surgical treatment.Thoracic Surger

Ecological traits affect the sensitivity of bees to land-use pressures in European agricultural landscapes

1. Bees are a functionally important and economically valuable group, but are threatened byland-use conversion and intensification. Such pressures are not expected to affect all species identically; rather, they are likely to be mediated by the species’ ecological traits. 2. Understanding which types of species are most vulnerable under which land uses is an important step towards effective conservation planning.3. We collated occurrence and abundance data for 257 bee species at 1584 European sites from surveys reported in 30 published papers (70 056 records) and combined them with species-level ecological trait data. We used mixed-effects models to assess the importance of land use (land-use class, agricultural use-intensity and a remotely-sensed measure of vegetation),traits and trait 9 land-use interactions, in explaining species occurrence and abundance.4. Species’ sensitivity to land use was most strongly influenced by flight season duration and foraging range, but also by niche breadth, reproductive strategy and phenology, with effects that differed among cropland, pastoral and urban habitats.5. Synthesis and applications. Rather than targeting particular species or settings, conservation action s may be more effective if focused on mitigating situations where species’ traits strongly and negatively interact with land-use pressures. We find evidence that low-intensity agriculture can maintain relatively diverse bee communities; in more intensive settings, added floral resources may be beneficial, but will require careful placement with respect to foraging ranges of smaller bee species. Protection of semi-natural habitats is essential, however; in particular, conversion to urban environments could have severe effects on bee diversity and pollination services. Our results highlight the importance of exploring how ecological traits mediate species responses to human impacts, but further research is needed to enhance the predictive ability of such analyses

Evaluation of MUSICA IASI tropospheric water vapour profiles using theoretical error assessments and comparisons to GRUAN Vaisala RS92 measurements

Volume mixing ratio water vapour profiles have been retrieved from IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer) spectra using the MUSICA (MUlti-platform remote Sensing of Isotopologues for investigating the Cycle of Atmospheric water) processor. The retrievals are done for IASI observations that coincide with Vaisala RS92 radiosonde measurements performed in the framework of the GCOS (Global Climate Observing System) Reference Upper-Air Network (GRUAN) in three different climate zones: the tropics (Manus Island, 2°S), mid-latitudes (Lindenberg, 52°N), and polar regions (Sodankylä, 67°N). The retrievals show good sensitivity with respect to the vertical H2O distribution between 1km above ground and the upper troposphere. Typical DOFS (degrees of freedom for signal) values are about 5.6 for the tropics, 5.1 for summertime mid-latitudes, 3.8 for wintertime mid-latitudes, and 4.4 for summertime polar regions. The errors of the MUSICA IASI water vapour profiles have been theoretically estimated considering the contribution of many different uncertainty sources. For all three climate regions, unrecognized cirrus clouds and uncertainties in atmospheric temperature have been identified as the most important error sources and they can reach about 25%. The MUSICA IASI water vapour profiles have been compared to 100 individual coincident GRUAN water vapour profiles. The systematic difference between the data is within 11% below 12km altitude; however, at higher altitudes the MUSICA IASI data show a dry bias with respect to the GRUAN data of up to 21%. The scatter is largest close to the surface (30%), but never exceeds 21% above 1km altitude. The comparison study documents that the MUSICA IASI retrieval processor provides H2O profiles that capture the large variations in H2O volume mixing ratio profiles well from 1km above ground up to altitudes close to the tropopause. Above 5km the observed scatter with respect to GRUAN data is in reasonable agreement with the combined MUSICA IASI and GRUAN random errors. The increased scatter at lower altitudes might be explained by surface emissivity uncertainties at the summertime continental sites of Lindenberg and Sodankylä, and the upper tropospheric dry bias might suggest deficits in correctly modelling the spectroscopic line shapes of water vapour