438 research outputs found
Economics of One Health: Costs and benefits of integrated West Nile virus surveillance in Emilia-Romagna
Since 2013 in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, surveillance information generated in the public health and in the animal health sectors has been shared and used to guide public health interventions to mitigate the risk of West Nile virus (WNV) transmission via blood transfusion. The objective of the current study was to identify and estimate the costs and benefits associated with this One Health surveillance approach, and to compare it to an approach that does not integrate animal health information in blood donations safety policy (uni-sectoral scenario). Costs of human, animal, and entomological surveillance, sharing of information, and triggered interventions were estimated. Benefits were quantified as the averted costs of potential human cases of WNV neuroinvasive disease associated to infected blood transfusion. In the 2009–2015 period, the One Health approach was estimated to represent a cost saving of €160,921 compared to the uni-sectoral scenario. Blood donation screening was the main cost for both scenarios. The One Health approach further allowed savings of €1.21 million in terms of avoided tests on blood units. Benefits of the One Health approach due to short-term costs of hospitalization and compensation for transfusion-associated disease potentially avoided, were estimated to range from €0 to €2.98 million according to the probability of developing WNV neuroinvasive disease after receiving an infected blood transfusion
Volunteering in the care of people with severe mental illness: a systematic review
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
The SABRE project and the SABRE Proof-of-Principle
SABRE aims to directly measure the annual modulation of the dark matter interaction rate with NaI(Tl) crystals. A modulation compatible with the standard hypothesis, in which our Galaxy is immersed in a dark matter halo, has been measured by the DAMA experiment in the same target material. Other direct detection experiments, using different target materials, seem to exclude the interpretation of such modulation in the simplest scenario of WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering. The SABRE experiment aims to carry out an independent search with sufficient sensitivity to confirm or refute the DAMA claim. The goal of the SABRE experiment is to achieve the lowest background rate for a NaI(Tl) experiment (order of 0.1 cpd/kg/keV(ee) in the energy region of interest for dark matter). This challenging goal could be achievable by operating high-purity crystals inside a liquid scintillator veto for active background rejection. In addition, twin detectors will be located in the northern and southern hemispheres to identify possible contributions to the modulation from seasonal or site-related effects. The SABRE project includes an initial Proof-of-Principle phase at LNGS (Italy), to assess the radio-purity of the crystals and the efficiency of the liquid scintillator veto. This paper describes the general concept of SABRE and the expected sensitivity to WIMP annual modulation.The SABRE program is supported by funding from INFN (Italy), NSF (USA), and ARC (Australia Grants:
LE170100162, LE16010080, DP170101675, LP150100075). F. Froborg
has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant
agreement No 703650. We acknowledge the generous hospitality and
constant support of the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (Italy)
A randomised controlled feasibility trial of family and social network intervention for young people who misuse alcohol and drugs : study protocol (Y-SBNT)
Background: A growing body of research has identified family interventions to be effective in treating young people’s substance use problems. However, despite this evidence, take-up of family-based approaches in the UK has been low. Key factors for this appear to include the resource-intensive nature of most family interventions which challenges implementation and delivery in many service settings and the cultural adaptation of approaches developed in the USA to a UK setting. This study aims to demonstrate the feasibility of recruiting young people to a specifically developed family- and wider social network-based intervention by testing an adapted version of adult social behaviour and network therapy (SBNT).
Methods: A pragmatic, randomised controlled, open feasibility trial delivered in two services for young people in the UK. Potential participants are aged 12–18 years referred for drug or alcohol problems to either service. The main purpose of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility of recruiting young people to a specifically developed family and social network-based intervention. The feasibility and acceptability of this intervention will be measured by recruitment rates, treatment retention, follow-up rates and qualitative interviews. The feasibility of training staff from existing services to deliver this intervention will be explored. Using this opportunity to compare the effectiveness of the intervention against treatment as usual, Timeline Follow-Back interviews will document the proportion of days on which the main problem substance was used in the preceding 90-day period at each assessment point. The economic component will examine the feasibility of conducting a full incremental cost-effectiveness analysis of the two treatments. The study will also explore and develop models of patient and public involvement which support the involvement of young people in a study of this nature.
Discussion: An earlier phase of work adapted social behaviour and network therapy (adult approach) to produce a purpose-designed youth version supported by a therapy manual and associated resources. This was achieved by consultation with young people with experience of services and professionals working in services for young people. This feasibility trial alongside ongoing consultations with young people will offer a meaningful understanding of processes of delivery and implementation.
Trial registration: ISRCTN93446265; Date ISRCTN assigned 31/05/2013
Analysis Techniques for the Evaluation of the Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay Lifetime in Te with CUORE-0
We describe in detail the methods used to obtain the lower bound on the
lifetime of neutrinoless double-beta () decay in Te and
the associated limit on the effective Majorana mass of the neutrino using the
CUORE-0 detector. CUORE-0 is a bolometric detector array located at the
Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso that was designed to validate the
background reduction techniques developed for CUORE, a next-generation
experiment scheduled to come online in 2016. CUORE-0 is also a competitive
decay search in its own right and functions as a platform to
further develop the analysis tools and procedures to be used in CUORE. These
include data collection, event selection and processing, as well as an
evaluation of signal efficiency. In particular, we describe the amplitude
evaluation, thermal gain stabilization, energy calibration methods, and the
analysis event selection used to create our final decay search
spectrum. We define our high level analysis procedures, with emphasis on the
new insights gained and challenges encountered. We outline in detail our
fitting methods near the hypothesized decay peak and catalog
the main sources of systematic uncertainty. Finally, we derive the
decay half-life limits previously reported for CUORE-0,
yr, and in combination with the Cuoricino
limit, yr.Comment: 18 pages, 18 figures. (Version 3 reflects only minor changes to the
text. Few additional details, no major content changes.
Search for Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay of Te with CUORE-0
We report the results of a search for neutrinoless double-beta decay in a
9.8~kgyr exposure of Te using a bolometric detector array,
CUORE-0. The characteristic detector energy resolution and background level in
the region of interest are FWHM and ~counts/(keVkgyr), respectively. The
median 90%~C.L. lower-limit sensitivity of the experiment is and surpasses the sensitivity of previous searches. We find
no evidence for neutrinoless double-beta decay of Te and place a
Bayesian lower bound on the decay half-life, ~ at 90%~C.L. Combining CUORE-0 data with the 19.75~kgyr
exposure of Te from the Cuoricino experiment we obtain at 90%~C.L.~(Bayesian), the most stringent
limit to date on this half-life. Using a range of nuclear matrix element
estimates we interpret this as a limit on the effective Majorana neutrino mass,
-- .Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, updated version as published in PR
CUORE and beyond: bolometric techniques to explore inverted neutrino mass hierarchy
The CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events) experiment will
search for neutrinoless double beta decay of Te. With 741 kg of TeO
crystals and an excellent energy resolution of 5 keV (0.2%) at the region of
interest, CUORE will be one of the most competitive neutrinoless double beta
decay experiments on the horizon. With five years of live time, CUORE projected
neutrinoless double beta decay half-life sensitivity is y
at ( y at the 90% confidence level), which
corresponds to an upper limit on the effective Majorana mass in the range
40--100 meV (50--130 meV). Further background rejection with auxiliary light
detector can significantly improve the search sensitivity and competitiveness
of bolometric detectors to fully explore the inverted neutrino mass hierarchy
with Te and possibly other double beta decay candidate nuclei.Comment: Submitted to the Proceedings of TAUP 2013 Conferenc
Status of the CUORE and results from the CUORE-0 neutrinoless double beta decay experiments
CUORE is a 741 kg array of TeO2 bolometers for the search of neutrinoless
double beta decay of 130Te. The detector is being constructed at the Laboratori
Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Italy, where it will start taking data in 2015. If
the target background of 0.01 counts/keV/kg/y will be reached, in five years of
data taking CUORE will have a 1 sigma half life sensitivity of 10E26 y. CUORE-0
is a smaller experiment constructed to test and demonstrate the performances
expected for CUORE. The detector is a single tower of 52 CUORE-like bolometers
that started taking data in spring 2013. The status and perspectives of CUORE
will be discussed, and the first CUORE-0 data will be presented.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, to be published in the proceedings of ICHEP 2014,
37th International Conference on High Energy Physics, Valencia (Spain) 2-9
July 201
Measurement of the Two-Neutrino Double Beta Decay Half-life of Te with the CUORE-0 Experiment
We report on the measurement of the two-neutrino double beta decay half-life
of Te with the CUORE-0 detector. From an exposure of 33.4 kgy of
TeO, the half-life is determined to be = [8.2 0.2
(stat.) 0.6 (syst.)] 10y. This result is obtained after a
detailed reconstruction of the sources responsible for the CUORE-0 counting
rate, with a specific study of those contributing to the Te
neutrinoless double beta decay region of interest.Comment: Corrected typo in section 9: 3.43E5 Bq/kg should have read 3.43E-5
Bq/k
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