Testing the daytime oxidizing capacity of the troposphere: 1994 OH field campaign at the Izaña Observatory, Tenerife

A field campaign was carried out during May 1994 at the Izaña station, Tenerife. This campaign was part of the program Environment and Climate sponsored by the European Commission to study the influence of European emissions on the oxidizing capacity of a clean tropospheric environment. Daytime and also nighttime measurements were made, covering the OH as well as the NO3 chemistry. This paper presents the OH measurements taken with a multipass optical absorption spectrometer (MOAS) and discusses the daytime chemistry in a statistical and therefore more preliminary way. All relevant parameters influencing the OH concentration were monitored. From the data the two main contributions to the OH production can clearly be discerned and are given by the primary production following the ozone photolysis and the O(1D)-H2O reaction and by the catalytic reactions of NOx in the recycling process. The latter processes prove to contribute a dominant part to the OH concentration. The measurements of the nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHC) especially of the biogenics, indicate a considerable influence of the NMHC on the absolute values of the OH concentration at Tenerife.This work has been financially supported by the European Commission (grant EV5V-CT93-0321), by the DFG, and by the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie, which is gratefully acknowledged

Evacetrapib and Cardiovascular Outcomes in High-Risk Vascular Disease

BACKGROUND: The cholesteryl ester transfer protein inhibitor evacetrapib substantially raises the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol level, reduces the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol level, and enhances cellular cholesterol efflux capacity. We sought to determine the effect of evacetrapib on major adverse cardiovascular outcomes in patients with high-risk vascular disease. METHODS: In a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 trial, we enrolled 12,092 patients who had at least one of the following conditions: an acute coronary syndrome within the previous 30 to 365 days, cerebrovascular atherosclerotic disease, peripheral vascular arterial disease, or diabetes mellitus with coronary artery disease. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either evacetrapib at a dose of 130 mg or matching placebo, administered daily, in addition to standard medical therapy. The primary efficacy end point was the first occurrence of any component of the composite of death from cardiovascular causes, myocardial infarction, stroke, coronary revascularization, or hospitalization for unstable angina. RESULTS: At 3 months, a 31.1% decrease in the mean LDL cholesterol level was observed with evacetrapib versus a 6.0% increase with placebo, and a 133.2% increase in the mean HDL cholesterol level was seen with evacetrapib versus a 1.6% increase with placebo. After 1363 of the planned 1670 primary end-point events had occurred, the data and safety monitoring board recommended that the trial be terminated early because of a lack of efficacy. After a median of 26 months of evacetrapib or placebo, a primary end-point event occurred in 12.9% of the patients in the evacetrapib group and in 12.8% of those in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 1.01; 95% confidence interval, 0.91 to 1.11; P=0.91). CONCLUSIONS: Although the cholesteryl ester transfer protein inhibitor evacetrapib had favorable effects on established lipid biomarkers, treatment with evacetrapib did not result in a lower rate of cardiovascular events than placebo among patients with high-risk vascular disease. (Funded by Eli Lilly; ACCELERATE ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01687998 .)

Effect of alirocumab on mortality after acute coronary syndromes. An analysis of the ODYSSEY OUTCOMES randomized clinical trial

Background: Previous trials of PCSK9 (proprotein convertase subtilisin-kexin type 9) inhibitors demonstrated reductions in major adverse cardiovascular events, but not death. We assessed the effects of alirocumab on death after index acute coronary syndrome. Methods: ODYSSEY OUTCOMES (Evaluation of Cardiovascular Outcomes After an Acute Coronary Syndrome During Treatment With Alirocumab) was a double-blind, randomized comparison of alirocumab or placebo in 18 924 patients who had an ACS 1 to 12 months previously and elevated atherogenic lipoproteins despite intensive statin therapy. Alirocumab dose was blindly titrated to target achieved low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) between 25 and 50 mg/dL. We examined the effects of treatment on all-cause death and its components, cardiovascular and noncardiovascular death, with log-rank testing. Joint semiparametric models tested associations between nonfatal cardiovascular events and cardiovascular or noncardiovascular death. Results: Median follow-up was 2.8 years. Death occurred in 334 (3.5%) and 392 (4.1%) patients, respectively, in the alirocumab and placebo groups (hazard ratio [HR], 0.85; 95% CI, 0.73 to 0.98; P=0.03, nominal P value). This resulted from nonsignificantly fewer cardiovascular (240 [2.5%] vs 271 [2.9%]; HR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.74 to 1.05; P=0.15) and noncardiovascular (94 [1.0%] vs 121 [1.3%]; HR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.59 to 1.01; P=0.06) deaths with alirocumab. In a prespecified analysis of 8242 patients eligible for ≥3 years follow-up, alirocumab reduced death (HR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.65 to 0.94; P=0.01). Patients with nonfatal cardiovascular events were at increased risk for cardiovascular and noncardiovascular deaths (P<0.0001 for the associations). Alirocumab reduced total nonfatal cardiovascular events (P<0.001) and thereby may have attenuated the number of cardiovascular and noncardiovascular deaths. A post hoc analysis found that, compared to patients with lower LDL-C, patients with baseline LDL-C ≥100 mg/dL (2.59 mmol/L) had a greater absolute risk of death and a larger mortality benefit from alirocumab (HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.56 to 0.90; Pinteraction=0.007). In the alirocumab group, all-cause death declined wit h achieved LDL-C at 4 months of treatment, to a level of approximately 30 mg/dL (adjusted P=0.017 for linear trend). Conclusions: Alirocumab added to intensive statin therapy has the potential to reduce death after acute coronary syndrome, particularly if treatment is maintained for ≥3 years, if baseline LDL-C is ≥100 mg/dL, or if achieved LDL-C is low. Clinical Trial Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01663402

Determining the temperature and density distribution from a Z-pinch radiation source

High temperature radiation sources exceeding one hundred eV can be produced via z-pinches using currently available pulsed power. The usual approach to compare the z-pinch simulation and experimental data is to convert the radiation output at the source, whose temperature and density distributions are computed from the 2-D MHD code, into simulated data such as a spectrometer reading. This conversion process involves a radiation transfer calculation through the axially symmetric source, assuming local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE), and folding the radiation that reaches the detector with the frequency-dependent response function. In this paper the authors propose a different approach by which they can determine the temperature and density distributions of the radiation source directly from the spatially resolved spectral data. This unfolding process is reliable and unambiguous for the ideal case where LTE holds and the source is axially symmetric. In reality, imperfect LTE and axial symmetry will introduce inaccuracies into the unfolded distributions. The authors use a parameter optimization routine to find the temperature and density distributions that best fit the data. They know from their past experience that the radiation source resulting from the implosion of a thin foil does not exhibit good axial symmetry. However, recent experiments carried out at Sandia National Laboratory using multiple wire arrays were very promising to achieve reasonably good symmetry. For these experiments the method will provide a valuable diagnostic tool

Optimal life-style mix: an inductive approach

There are three approaches to assessing life balance: (a) assessing how well the reality of a person’s life fits preconceptions of what a balanced life should be, (b) assessing how balanced people think their own life is, and (c) assessing which lifestyle mixes yield the most happiness. In theory, these approaches can yield quite different results, and the available evidence shows that they also do so in practice. In case of conflict, there are good arguments for favoring the last approach, but the policy process is best served with making the differences explicit