33,305 research outputs found
Is there a role for thoracic aortic calcium to fine-tune cardiovascular risk prediction?
Screening asymptomatic subjects to streamline measures for the prevention of cardiovascular events remains a major challenge. The established primary prevention risk-scoring methods use equations derived from large prospective cohort studies, but further fine-tuning of cardiovascular risk assessment remains important as 25 % of individuals with low estimated risk may experience cardiac events. Independent studies provided evidence that extended risk assessment using coronary artery calcium quantification may improve risk stratification as it can lead to reclassification of persons at increased risk. Particularly in intermediate-risk subjects, coronary artery calcium scoring can help to correctly identify individuals at highest risk. Data on the extent of calcification of the ascending and descending thoracic aorta might be useful for additional cardiovascular risk stratification. Future analyses and studies will be required to answer the question of whether the implementation of such data may allow further fine-tuning of cardiovascular risk prediction in specific subpopulations—for instance in women or men with an increased risk of stroke and/or symptomatic peripheral vascular diseas
Large scale Gd-beta-diketonate based organic liquid scintillator production for antineutrino detection
Over the course of several decades, organic liquid scintillators have formed
the basis for successful neutrino detectors. Gadolinium-loaded liquid
scintillators provide efficient background suppression for electron
antineutrino detection at nuclear reactor plants. In the Double Chooz reactor
antineutrino experiment, a newly developed beta-diketonate gadolinium-loaded
scintillator is utilized for the first time. Its large scale production and
characterization are described. A new, light yield matched metal-free companion
scintillator is presented. Both organic liquids comprise the target and "Gamma
Catcher" of the Double Chooz detectors.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, 5 table
Large scale Gd-beta-diketonate based organic liquid scintillator production for antineutrino detection
Over the course of several decades, organic liquid scintillators have formed
the basis for successful neutrino detectors. Gadolinium-loaded liquid
scintillators provide efficient background suppression for electron
antineutrino detection at nuclear reactor plants. In the Double Chooz reactor
antineutrino experiment, a newly developed beta-diketonate gadolinium-loaded
scintillator is utilized for the first time. Its large scale production and
characterization are described. A new, light yield matched metal-free companion
scintillator is presented. Both organic liquids comprise the target and "Gamma
Catcher" of the Double Chooz detectors.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, 5 table
Large scale Gd-beta-diketonate based organic liquid scintillator production for antineutrino detection
Over the course of several decades, organic liquid scintillators have formed
the basis for successful neutrino detectors. Gadolinium-loaded liquid
scintillators provide efficient background suppression for electron
antineutrino detection at nuclear reactor plants. In the Double Chooz reactor
antineutrino experiment, a newly developed beta-diketonate gadolinium-loaded
scintillator is utilized for the first time. Its large scale production and
characterization are described. A new, light yield matched metal-free companion
scintillator is presented. Both organic liquids comprise the target and "Gamma
Catcher" of the Double Chooz detectors.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, 5 table
Symmetries and Triplet Dispersion in a Modified Shastry-Sutherland Model for SrCu_2(BO_3)_2
We investigate the one-triplet dispersion in a modified Shastry-Sutherland
Model for SrCu_2(BO_3)_2 by means of a series expansion about the limit of
strong dimerization. Our perturbative method is based on a continuous unitary
transformation that maps the original Hamiltonian to an effective, energy
quanta conserving block diagonal Hamiltonian H_{eff}. The dispersion splits
into two branches which are nearly degenerated. We analyse the symmetries of
the model and show that space group operations are necessary to explain the
degeneracy of the dispersion at k=0 and at the border of the magnetic Brillouin
zone. Moreover, we investigate the behaviour of the dispersion for small |k|
and compare our results to INS data.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures accepted by J. Phys.: Condens. Matte
Analysis of the loop length distribution for the negative weight percolation problem in dimensions d=2 through 6
We consider the negative weight percolation (NWP) problem on hypercubic
lattice graphs with fully periodic boundary conditions in all relevant
dimensions from d=2 to the upper critical dimension d=6. The problem exhibits
edge weights drawn from disorder distributions that allow for weights of either
sign. We are interested in in the full ensemble of loops with negative weight,
i.e. non-trivial (system spanning) loops as well as topologically trivial
("small") loops. The NWP phenomenon refers to the disorder driven proliferation
of system spanning loops of total negative weight. While previous studies where
focused on the latter loops, we here put under scrutiny the ensemble of small
loops. Our aim is to characterize -using this extensive and exhaustive
numerical study- the loop length distribution of the small loops right at and
below the critical point of the hypercubic setups by means of two independent
critical exponents. These can further be related to the results of previous
finite-size scaling analyses carried out for the system spanning loops. For the
numerical simulations we employed a mapping of the NWP model to a combinatorial
optimization problem that can be solved exactly by using sophisticated matching
algorithms. This allowed us to study here numerically exact very large systems
with high statistics.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, paper summary available at
http://www.papercore.org/Kajantie2000. arXiv admin note: substantial text
overlap with arXiv:1003.1591, arXiv:1005.5637, arXiv:1107.174
Planetary astronomy program
Observations and analyses of asteroids, Trojans and cometary nuclei are presented. Spectrophotometry was used to observe the cometary nuclei. The spectra are plotted as a function of semimajor axis and eccentricity. Trojans and other asteroids at great solar distances show a variety of spectra, many of them quite red despite the low measured albedoes for many of these asteroids. The asteroid spectra are grouped according to diameter and taxonomic class
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A Universal Live Cell Barcoding-Platform for Multiplexed Human Single Cell Analysis.
Single-cell barcoding enables the combined processing and acquisition of multiple individual samples as one. This maximizes assay efficiency and eliminates technical variability in both sample preparation and analysis. Remaining challenges are the barcoding of live, unprocessed cells to increase downstream assay performance combined with the flexibility of the approach towards a broad range of cell types. To that end, we developed a novel antibody-based platform that allows the robust barcoding of live human cells for mass cytometry (CyTOF). By targeting both the MHC class I complex (beta-2-microglobulin) and a broadly expressed sodium-potassium ATPase-subunit (CD298) with platinum-conjugated antibodies, human immune cells, stem cells as well as tumor cells could be multiplexed in the same single-cell assay. In addition, we present a novel palladium-based covalent viability reagent compatible with this barcoding strategy. Altogether, this platform enables mass cytometry-based, live-cell barcoding across a multitude of human sample types and provides a scheme for multiplexed barcoding of human single-cell assays in general
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