Trauma and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a case-control study from a population-based registry

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Expected performance of the ASTRI-SST-2M telescope prototype

ASTRI (Astrofisica con Specchi a Tecnologia Replicante Italiana) is an Italian flagship project pursued by INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica) strictly linked to the development of the Cherenkov Telescope Array, CTA. Primary goal of the ASTRI program is the design and production of an end-to-end prototype of a Small Size Telescope for the CTA sub-array devoted to the highest gamma-ray energy region. The prototype, named ASTRI SST-2M, will be tested on field in Italy during 2014. This telescope will be the first Cherenkov telescope adopting the double reflection layout in a Schwarzschild-Couder configuration with a tessellated primary mirror and a monolithic secondary mirror. The collected light will be focused on a compact and light-weight camera based on silicon photo-multipliers covering a 9.6 deg full field of view. Detailed Monte Carlo simulations have been performed to estimate the performance of the planned telescope. The results regarding its energy threshold, sensitivity and angular resolution are shown and discussed.Comment: In Proceedings of the 33rd International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2013), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). All CTA contributions at arXiv:1307.223

Mirror production for the Cherenkov telescopes of the ASTRI Mini-Array and of the MST project for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next ground-based $\gamma$-ray observatory in the TeV $\gamma$-ray spectral region operating with the Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Technique. It is based on almost 70 telescopes of different class diameters - LST, MST and SST of 23, 12, and 4 m, respectively - to be installed in two sites in the two hemispheres (at La Palma, Canary Islands, and near Paranal, Chile). Several thousands of reflecting mirror tiles larger than 1 m$^2$ will be produced for realizing the segmented primary mirrors of a so large number of telescopes. Almost in parallel, the ASTRI Mini-Array (MA) is being implemented in Tenerife (Canary Islands), composed of nine 4 m diameter dual-mirror Cherenkov telescopes (very similar to the SSTs). We completed the mirror production for all nine telescopes of the ASTRI MA and two MST telescopes (400 segments in total) using the cold glass slumping replication technology. The results related to the quality achieved with a so large-scale production are presented, also discussing the adopted testing methods and approaches. They will be very useful for the adoption and optimization of the quality assurance process for the huge production (almost 3000 m$^2$ of reflecting surface) of the MST and SST CTA telescopes

The Software Architecture and development approach for the ASTRI Mini-Array gamma-ray air-Cherenkov experiment at the Observatorio del Teide

The ASTRI Mini-Array is an international collaboration led by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and devoted to the imaging of atmospheric Cherenkov light for very-high gamma-ray astronomy. The project is deploying an array of 9 telescopes sensitive above 1 TeV. In this contribution, we present the architecture of the software that covers the entire life cycle of the observatory, from scheduling to remote operations and data dissemination. The high-speed networking connection available between the observatory site, at the Canary Islands, and the Data Center in Rome allows for ready data availability for stereo triggering and data processing

Outcome measures and prognostic indicators in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

The purpose of the study was to assess frequency and predictors of disability measures in ALS. One hundred and fourteen newly diagnosed patients resident in eight administrative districts of Lombardy, Italy (population 4,947,554), included in a population-based registry, were followed for 2570 person-months (mean 22.5 months). The cumulative time-dependent risk of wheelchair, percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, and assisted ventilation was estimated according to the Kaplan-Meier method. Predictors of disability (age, sex, disease duration at diagnosis, type of onset, El-Escorial diagnosis) were assessed with the Cox proportional hazard function. During follow-up, 29 patients (25.4%) became wheelchair bound, 51 (44.7%) received gastrostomy, and 47 (41.2%) received assisted ventilation. The median time to loss of ambulation was 46.7 months (95% CI 36.5-56.8). The median time to gastrostomy and assisted ventilation was 31.1 months (95% CI 26.8-35.4) and 34.6 months (95% CI 29.6-39.6), respectively. Spinal onset ALS was the only predictor of loss of ambulation. Predictors of gastrostomy were older age, definite ALS, and shorter disease duration. Shorter disease duration was the only predictor of assisted ventilation. In conclusion, patients with ALS differ in terms of measures and predictors of disability. These factors are sources of bias and confounding in randomized clinical trials