Joint Observation of the Galactic Center with MAGIC and CTA-LST-1

MAGIC is a system of two Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs), designed to detect very-high-energy gamma rays, and is operating in stereoscopic mode since 2009 at the Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos in La Palma, Spain. In 2018, the prototype IACT of the Large-Sized Telescope (LST-1) for the Cherenkov Telescope Array, a next-generation ground-based gamma-ray observatory, was inaugurated at the same site, at a distance of approximately 100 meters from the MAGIC telescopes. Using joint observations between MAGIC and LST-1, we developed a dedicated analysis pipeline and established the threefold telescope system via software, achieving the highest sensitivity in the northern hemisphere. Based on this enhanced performance, MAGIC and LST-1 have been jointly and regularly observing the Galactic Center, a region of paramount importance and complexity for IACTs. In particular, the gamma-ray emission from the dynamical center of the Milky Way is under debate. Although previous measurements suggested that a supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* plays a primary role, its radiation mechanism remains unclear, mainly due to limited angular resolution and sensitivity. The enhanced sensitivity in our novel approach is thus expected to provide new insights into the question. We here present the current status of the data analysis for the Galactic Center joint MAGIC and LST-1 observations

Offene Versorgungsbedarfe pflegender Angehöriger von Menschen mit Demenz - Primärärztliche Versorgung /Unmet needs of family dementia caregivers of persons with dementia - Primary medical care

Hintergrund Aktuelle Studien zeigen, dass die Pflege von Menschen mit Demenz (MmD) mit erhöhten Belastungen und negativen Gesundheitsfolgen für pflegende Angehörige assoziiert ist. Um adäquate Unterstützungsangebote für pflegende Angehörige anbieten zu können, ist die Kenntnis und Identifizierung offener Versorgungsbedarfe der pflegenden Angehörigen in der hausärztlichen und fachärztlichen Grundversorgung notwendig. Ziele der Arbeit Ziel des Artikels ist es, eine Übersicht über offene Versorgungsbedarfe pflegender Angehöriger von MmD sowie über geeignete Assessments für Fachärzte in der Allgemeinmedizin, Neurologie, Psychiatrie, Psychotherapie sowie Psychosomatik zu geben. Material und Methoden Die Übersicht basiert auf bisherigen Reviews zu Versorgungsbedarfen pflegender Angehöriger von MmD sowie Ergebnissen der hausarztbasierten, clusterrandomisierten kontrollierten Interventionsstudie DelpHi-MV (Demenz: lebensweltorientierte und personenzentrierte Hilfen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern; Reg.-Nr.: NCT01401582). Ergebnisse Der Artikel gibt eine Übersicht über Versorgungsbedarfe pflegender Angehöriger von MmD, insbesondere in den Bereichen der sozialen Integration, psychischen Gesundheit, körperlichen Gesundheit sowie in sozialrechtlichen und finanziellen Fragen sowie über verfügbare valide Messinstrumente. Diskussion Der Artikel illustriert die Bedeutsamkeit offener Versorgungsbedarfe pflegender Angehöriger von MmD und Möglichkeiten zu ihrer Identifizierung in der hausärztlichen und fachärztlichen Grundversorgung. Inwieweit derartige Identifizierungsmöglichkeiten systematisch in die Regelversorgung eingebettet und finanziert werden können, ist bislang noch offen

Can allocation of risk be used to guide management in patients undergoing stress echocardiography?

Background This study evaluated the ability of intravenous myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) performed in the setting of acute myocardial infarction for prediction of left ventricular (LV) remodeling. Methods. Intravenous MCE was performed immediately before, 1 hour, and 24 hours after primary percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) in 35 patients with a first myocardial infarction. The MCE was used to define the relative perfusion defect size (in %; relMCD). Two-dimensional echocardiography was performed directly after angioplasty and after 4 weeks to determine LV end-diastolic volumes (LVEDV). The increase in LVEDV at 4 weeks defined a remodeling (>15% increase) and a nonremodeling group (less than or equal to15% increase). Results: Patients with remodeling had larger relMCD before (22.0+/-16.1 vs 8.0+/-11.9, P=.015), 1 hour (20.0+/-13.0 vs 4.9+/-11.6, P=.001), and 24 hours after PTCA (22.9+/-14.1 vs 1.2+/-2.8, P<.001). There was a significant correlation between relMCD 24 hours after PTCA and the increase in LVEDV at 4 weeks (r=0.648; P<.001). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis revealed a relMCD at 24 hours of 5.1% or more to predict remodeling with a sensitivity of 94% and a specificity of 87% (area under ROC curve=0.917; SE=0.054). Multivariate analysis demonstrated relMCD at 24 hours to be the only predictor of remodeling (odds ratio=173.4; P=.022). Conclusion: The size of the persistent MCE perfusion defect after revascularization for acute myocardial infarction has a high predictive value for LV remodeling during a 4-week follow-up period

Performance of the Large-Sized Telescope prototype of the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The next-generation ground-based gamma-ray Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) will consist of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) of three different sizes distributed in two sites. The Large-Sized Telescopes will cover the low-energy end of the CTA energy range, starting at about 20 GeV. After its first years of operation at the CTA northern site, the Large-Sized Telescope prototype (LST-1) is in the final stage of its commissioning phase, having collected a significant amount of scientific data to date.In this contribution, we present the physics performance of the telescope using low-zenith Crab Nebula observations and Monte Carlo simulations fine-tuned accordingly. We show performance figures of merit such as the energy threshold, effective area, energy and angular resolution, and sensitivity based on the standard Hillas-parameters approach and following the source-independent and dependent analysis methods. The analysis threshold is estimated at 30 GeV. The energy resolution is around 30%, and the angular resolution is 0.3 degrees at 100 GeV.The best integral sensitivity of LST-1 is about 1.1% of the Crab Nebula flux above 250 GeV for 50 hours of observations. We also show the spectral energy distribution and light curve from Crab Nebula observations, which agree with results from other IACTs and link smoothly with Fermi-LAT when considering statistical and systematic uncertainties near the energy threshold

The association between lower educational attainment and depression owing to shared genetic effects? Results in ∼25 000 subjects: Results in ~25,000 subjects

An association between lower educational attainment (EA) and an increased risk for depression has been confirmed in various western countries. This study examines whether pleiotropic genetic effects contribute to this association. Therefore, data were analyzed from a total of 9662 major depressive disorder (MDD) cases and 14 949 controls (with no lifetime MDD diagnosis) from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium with additional Dutch and Estonian data. The association of EA and MDD was assessed with logistic regression in 15 138 individuals indicating a significantly negative association in our sample with an odds ratio for MDD 0.78 (0.75-0.82) per standard deviation increase in EA. With data of 884 105 autosomal common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), three methods were applied to test for pleiotropy between MDD and EA: (i) genetic profile risk scores (GPRS) derived from training data for EA (independent meta-analysis on ∼120 000 subjects) and MDD (using a 10-fold leave-one-out procedure in the current sample), (ii) bivariate genomic-relationship-matrix restricted maximum likelihood (GREML) and (iii) SNP effect concordance analysis (SECA). With these methods, we found (i) that the EA-GPRS did not predict MDD status, and MDD-GPRS did not predict EA, (ii) a weak negative genetic correlation with bivariate GREML analyses, but this correlation was not consistently significant, (iii) no evidence for concordance of MDD and EA SNP effects with SECA analysis. To conclude, our study confirms an association of lower EA and MDD risk, but this association was not because of measurable pleiotropic genetic effects, which suggests that environmental factors could be involved, for example, socioeconomic status