The ATLAS Barrel Level-1 Muon Trigger Calibration

The ATLAS experiment uses a system of three concentric Resistive Plate Chambers detectors layers for the level-1 muon trigger in the air-core barrel toroid region. The trigger classifies muons within different programmable transverse momentum ranges, and tags the identified tracks with the corresponding bunch crossing number. The algorithm looks for hit coincidences within different detector layers inside the programmed geometrical road which defines the transverse momentum cut. The on-detector electronics providing the trigger and detector readout functionalities collects input signals coming from the RPC front-end. Because of the different time-of-flights and cables and optical fibres lengths, signals have to be adjusted in time in order to be correctly aligned before being processed. Programmable delay logics are provided in the trigger and readout system to allow for time adjustment, for hit signals as well as for LHC Timing, Trigger and Control signals. The trigger calibration provides the set of numbers used during electronics initialization for correctly aligning signals inside the trigger and readout system. The functionality scheme and the algorithm of the calibration are presented

Prognostic significance of adiponectin levels in non-metastatic colorectal cancer

Circulating adiponectin levels are inversely correlated with the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). This study was designed to evaluate the association between adiponectin levels and the clinicopathological variables of CRC and to analyze the possible prognostic value of adiponectin in predicting relapse-free survival

Time to Treatment Intensification in Patients Receiving DPP4 Inhibitors Versus Sulfonylureas as the First Add-On to Metformin Monotherapy: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Background: To verify whether, in patients on metformin (MET) monotherapy for type 2 diabetes (T2D), the add-on of a dipeptidyl peptidase inhibitor (DPP4i) compared to a sulfonylurea (SU) can delay the time to the subsequent treatment intensification (TI). Methods: Population-based administrative data banks from four Italian geographic areas were used. Patients aged ≥18 years on MET monotherapy receiving first DPP4i or SU dispensing between 2008 and 2015 (cohort entry) were followed up to the occurrence of TI (insulin dispensing or add-on of a third non-insulin hypoglicemic >180 days after cohort entry), treatment discontinuation, switch, cancer, death, TI occurrence within, end of data availability, end of study period (31 December 2016), whichever came first. Patients on MET + DPP4i were matched 1:1 with those on MET + SU by sex, age, year of cohort entry, and data bank. Hazard Ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were estimated using multivariable Cox regression model including matching variables and potential confounders measured at baseline. Different sensitivity analyses were performed: i) matching at 180 days after cohort entry, ii) intent to treat (ITT) analysis, iii) matching by duration of MET monotherapy, iv) matching by propensity score. Results: The matched study cohort included 10,600 patients. Overall, 763 TI were observed (4.5/100 person-years; mean follow-up = 1.6 years). The primary analysis showed no difference in time to TI between the two groups (HR = 1.02; 95% CI = 0.88–1.19). Sensitivity analyses confirmed this result, except from the ITT analysis (HR = 1.27; 1.13–1.43). Conclusion: The use of a DPP4i rather than a SU as add-on to MET monotherapy was not associated with a delay in treatment intensification

Patterns and trends of utilization of incretin-based medicines between 2008 and 2014 in three Italian geographic areas

Background: The incretin-based medicines GLP1 analogues (GLP1a) and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP4i) are hypoglycaemic agents licensed for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Although these drugs possess comparable efficacy and low risk of hypoglycaemia, differences in terms of route of administration (subcutaneous versus oral), effect on body weight and gastrointestinal tolerabily can impact their actual use in clinical practice. This study aimed to describe the real-world utilization of incretin-based medicines in the Italian clinical practice. Methods: A multi-database, population-based, descriptive, cohort study was performed using administrative data collected between 2008 and 2014 from three Italian geographic areas. Subjects aged 6518 were selected. New users were defined as those with 651 dispensing of GLP1a or DPP4i during the year of interest and none in the past. Trends of cumulative annual incidence of use in the general adult population were observed. New users of GLP1a or DPP4i were respectively described in terms of demographic characteristics and use of antidiabetic drugs during 1 year before and after the first incretin dispensing. Results: The overall study population included 4,943,952 subjects. A total of 7357 new users of GLP1a and 41,907 of DPP4i were identified during the study period. Incidence of use increased between 2008 (0.2\u2030 for both GLP1a and DPP4i) and 2011 (GLP1a = 0.6\u2030; DPP4i = 2.5\u2030) and slightly decreased thereafter. In 2014, 61% of new GLP1a users received once-daily liraglutide while 52% of new DPP4i users received metformin/DPP4i in fixed-dose. The percentage of new DPP4i users older than 65 years of age increased from 30.9 to 62.6% during the study period. Around 12% of new users had not received any antidiabetic before starting an incretin. Conclusions: During the study period, DPP4i rapidly became the most prescribed incretin-based medicine, particularly among older new user. The choice of the specific incretin-based medicine at first prescription appeared to be directed towards those with higher convenience of use (e.g. oral DPP4i rather than subcutaneous GLP1a, once-daily liraglutide rather than twice-daily exenatide). The non-negligibile use of incretin-based medicines as first-line pharmacotherapy for T2DM warrants further effectiveness and safety evaluations to better define their place in therapy

Vaccino antinfluenzale stagionale in Italia: misurare l’efficacia sul campo e la sicurezza : Stagione 2015-2016

In Italia, nella stagione influenzale 2015-2016 sono stati condotti dall\u2019Istituto Superiore di Sanit\ue0 (ISS), con il supporto dell\u2019Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (AIFA), due studi al fine di stimare l\u2019efficacia sul campo (I-MOVE, Influenza - Monitoring Vaccine Effectiveness) e valutare la sicurezza (SVEVA, Studio sulla Valutazione degli Eventi dopo Vaccinazione Antinfluenzale) del vaccino antinfluenzale. Nel complesso hanno aderito 8 Regioni che corrispondono a oltre met\ue0 della popolazione italiana nel 2015 (non tutte le Regioni hanno aderito a entrambi gli obiettivi di studio). Nello studio I-MOVE sono stati reclutati 1.094 casi di ILI (Influenza-Like Illness), dai 64 medici di medicina generale e pediatri di libera scelta partecipanti (506 casi e 498 controlli). I risultati suggeriscono che il vaccino ha conferito una protezione moderata nei confronti del tipo virale A(H1N1)pdm09 e molto bassa per A(H3N2) e B a causa del sostanziale grado di mismatch antigenico osservato, rispetto al ceppo vaccinale. Nello studio SVEVA sono stati monitorati 3.213 soggetti vaccinati e rilevati 854 (26%) eventi dopo 7 giorni dalla vaccinazione, la maggior parte dei quali di lieve entit\ue0. Al fine di ottenere stime di efficacia pi\uf9 solide e descrivere eventi avversi rari, \ue8 necessario tuttavia raggiungere una numerosit\ue0 campionaria maggiore.In Italy, during the 2015/2016 flu season, the National Institute of Health (ISS), with the support of the Italian Drug Agency (AIFA), conducted two studies to estimate vaccine effectiveness (I-MOVE) and evaluate safety (SVEVA) of the flu vaccine. A total of 8 regions, among 21, participated to the study which can correspond to more than 50% of the Italian population in 2015 (not all regions participated to both objectives of the study). For the I-MOVE study, 1094 cases of ILI (506 cases and 498 controls) were recruited by 64 general practitioners and pediatricians. The results indicate that the vaccine gave moderate protection against the virus type A (H1N1) pdm09 and very low protection for A (H3N2) and B due to the antigenic mismatch that was observed, compared to the vaccine strain. For SVEVA study, 3213 vaccinated cases were monitored and 854 (26%) side effects were notified after 7 days of vaccination, the major part were mild. In order to obtain more solid data regarding vaccine effectiveness, and to describe rare adverse events, it is necessary to increase the sample size of both studies

Single hadron response measurement and calorimeter jet energy scale uncertainty with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The uncertainty on the calorimeter energy response to jets of particles is derived for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First, the calorimeter response to single isolated charged hadrons is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo simulation using proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) = 900 GeV and 7 TeV collected during 2009 and 2010. Then, using the decay of K_s and Lambda particles, the calorimeter response to specific types of particles (positively and negatively charged pions, protons, and anti-protons) is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo predictions. Finally, the jet energy scale uncertainty is determined by propagating the response uncertainty for single charged and neutral particles to jets. The response uncertainty is 2-5% for central isolated hadrons and 1-3% for the final calorimeter jet energy scale.Comment: 24 pages plus author list (36 pages total), 23 figures, 1 table, submitted to European Physical Journal

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Measurement of the top quark-pair production cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=7\TeV

A measurement of the production cross-section for top quark pairs(\ttbar) in $pp$ collisions at \sqrt{s}=7 \TeV is presented using data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in two different topologies: single lepton (electron $e$ or muon $\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least four jets, and dilepton ($ee$, $\mu\mu$ or $e\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least two jets. In a data sample of 2.9 pb-1, 37 candidate events are observed in the single-lepton topology and 9 events in the dilepton topology. The corresponding expected backgrounds from non-\ttbar Standard Model processes are estimated using data-driven methods and determined to be $12.2 \pm 3.9$ events and $2.5 \pm 0.6$ events, respectively. The kinematic properties of the selected events are consistent with SM \ttbar production. The inclusive top quark pair production cross-section is measured to be \sigmattbar=145 \pm 31 ^{+42}_{-27} pb where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The measurement agrees with perturbative QCD calculations.Comment: 30 pages plus author list (50 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, CERN-PH number and final journal adde