Gamma ray flares from Mrk421 in 2008 observed with the ARGO-YBJ detector

In 2008 the blazar Markarian 421 entered a very active phase and was one of the brightest sources in the sky at TeV energies, showing frequent flaring episodes. Using the data of ARGO-YBJ, a full coverage air shower detector located at Yangbajing (4300 m a.s.l., Tibet, China), we monitored the source at gamma ray energies E > 0.3 TeV during the whole year. The observed flux was variable, with the strongest flares in March and June, in correlation with X-ray enhanced activity. While during specific episodes the TeV flux could be several times larger than the Crab Nebula one, the average emission from day 41 to 180 was almost twice the Crab level, with an integral flux of (3.6 +-0.6) 10^-11 photons cm^-2 s^-1 for energies E > 1 TeV, and decreased afterwards. This paper concentrates on the flares occurred in the first half of June. This period has been deeply studied from optical to 100 MeV gamma rays, and partially up to TeV energies, since the moonlight hampered the Cherenkov telescope observations during the most intense part of the emission. Our data complete these observations, with the detection of a signal with a statistical significance of 3.8 standard deviations on June 11-13, corresponding to a gamma ray flux about 6 times larger than the Crab one above 1 TeV. The reconstructed differential spectrum, corrected for the intergalactic absorption, can be represented by a power law with an index alpha = -2.1 extending up to several TeV. The spectrum slope is fully consistent with previous observations reporting a correlation between the flux and the spectral index, suggesting that this property is maintained in different epochs and characterizes the source emission processes.Comment: Accepted for publication on ApJ

Economic consequences of investing in anti-HCV antiviral treatment from the Italian NHS perspective : a real-world-based analysis of PITER data

OBJECTIVE: We estimated the cost consequence of Italian National Health System (NHS) investment in direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy according to hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment access policies in Italy. METHODS: A multistate, 20-year time horizon Markov model of HCV liver disease progression was developed. Fibrosis stage, age and genotype distributions were derived from the Italian Platform for the Study of Viral Hepatitis Therapies (PITER) cohort. The treatment efficacy, disease progression probabilities and direct costs in each health state were obtained from the literature. The break-even point in time (BPT) was defined as the period of time required for the cumulative costs saved to recover the Italian NHS investment in DAA treatment. Three different PITER enrolment periods, which covered the full DAA access evolution in Italy, were considered. RESULTS: The disease stages of 2657 patients who consecutively underwent DAA therapy from January 2015 to December 2017 at 30 PITER clinical centres were standardized for 1000 patients. The investment in DAAs was considered to equal €25 million, €15 million, and €9 million in 2015, 2016, and 2017, respectively. For patients treated in 2015, the BPT was not achieved, because of the disease severity of the treated patients and high DAA prices. For 2016 and 2017, the estimated BPTs were 6.6 and 6.2 years, respectively. The total cost savings after 20 years were €50.13 and €55.50 million for 1000 patients treated in 2016 and 2017, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study may be a useful tool for public decision makers to understand how HCV clinical and epidemiological profiles influence the economic burden of HCV

Underground muon energy spectrum and its relevance for muon astronomy

A striking result from the NUSEX (1) and SOUDAN (2) experiments is the discovery of a high flux of muons from the direction of Cygnus X-3 displaying the typical 4.8 hour time modulation of this source. The differential energy spectrum of these muons is much flatter (\u3b3 3c2) than that for ordinary atmospheric muons (\u3b3 3c3.71). This implies a very different shape for the local deep underground muon energy spectrum. We show that a measurement of the content of high-energy muons (> 500 GeV) in underground experiments is a strong signature of their origin

Patients with viro-immunologic discordant response to HAART: High prevalence of M184V mutation and out come after genotypic guided change of therapy.

Patients with viro-immunologic discordant response to HAART: High prevalence of M184V mutation and out come after genotypic guided change of therapy

High prevalence of M184 mutation among patients with viroimmunologic discordant responses to highly active antiretroviral therapy and outcomes after change of therapy guided by genotypic analysis.

I.F 3,44

Die volkswirtschaftlichen Kosten des Naturschutzes in Berlin: oekonom. Begleitstudie zu d. Grundlagen fuer d. Artenschutzprogramm in Berlin

Available from Bibliothek des Instituts fuer Weltwirtschaft, ZBW, Duesternbrook Weg 120, D-24105 Kiel A 164343 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman