Precise mapping of the magnetic field in the CMS barrel yoke using cosmic rays

This is the Pre-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2010 IOPThe CMS detector is designed around a large 4 T superconducting solenoid, enclosed in a 12 000-tonne steel return yoke. A detailed map of the magnetic field is required for the accurate simulation and reconstruction of physics events in the CMS detector, not only in the inner tracking region inside the solenoid but also in the large and complex structure of the steel yoke, which is instrumented with muon chambers. Using a large sample of cosmic muon events collected by CMS in 2008, the field in the steel of the barrel yoke has been determined with a precision of 3 to 8% depending on the location.This work is supported by FMSR (Austria); FNRS and FWO (Belgium); CNPq, CAPES, FAPERJ, and FAPESP (Brazil); MES (Bulgaria); CERN; CAS, MoST, and NSFC (China); COLCIENCIAS (Colombia); MSES (Croatia); RPF (Cyprus); Academy of Sciences and NICPB (Estonia); Academy of Finland, ME, and HIP (Finland); CEA and CNRS/IN2P3 (France); BMBF, DFG, and HGF (Germany); GSRT (Greece); OTKA and NKTH (Hungary); DAE and DST (India); IPM (Iran); SFI (Ireland); INFN (Italy); NRF (Korea); LAS (Lithuania); CINVESTAV, CONACYT, SEP, and UASLP-FAI (Mexico); PAEC (Pakistan); SCSR (Poland); FCT (Portugal); JINR (Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan); MST and MAE (Russia); MSTDS (Serbia); MICINN and CPAN (Spain); Swiss Funding Agencies (Switzerland); NSC (Taipei); TUBITAK and TAEK (Turkey); STFC (United Kingdom); DOE and NSF (USA)

Omics-based molecular techniques in oral pathology centred cancer: Prospect and challenges in Africa

: The completion of the human genome project and the accomplished milestones in the human proteome project; as well as the progress made so far in computational bioinformatics and “big data” processing have contributed immensely to individualized/personalized medicine in the developed world.At the dawn of precision medicine, various omics-based therapies and bioengineering can now be applied accurately for the diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, and risk stratifcation of cancer in a manner that was hitherto not thought possible. The widespread introduction of genomics and other omics-based approaches into the postgraduate training curriculum of diverse medical and dental specialties, including pathology has improved the profciency of practitioners in the use of novel molecular signatures in patient management. In addition, intricate details about disease disparity among diferent human populations are beginning to emerge. This would facilitate the use of tailor-made novel theranostic methods based on emerging molecular evidences

Surgery for necrotising enterocolitis: primary anastomosis or enterostomy?

The ideal surgical management of neonates with necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) is still a matter of debate. The purpose of this study was to compare the results of bowel resection with primary anastomosis with the results of bowel resection with enterostomy. Sixty-three neonates with NEC had a bowel resection in the acute phase of the disease in the period between February 1990 and March 2001. Thirty-four of them (54%) underwent resection of the bowel with primary anastomosis (Group A), and 29 (46%) had resection with enterostomy (Group B). Group A had a lower gestational age and lower birth weight. Mortality, complication rate, and postoperative weight gain were not significantly different between the groups. However, Group B had a significantly longer primary hospital stay (80+/-49 days versus 58+/-31 days,

MRI-based quantification of outflow boundary conditions for computational fluid dynamics of stenosed human carotid arteries

Accurate assessment of wall shear stress (WSS) is vital for studies on the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. WSS distributions can be obtained by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) using patient-specific geometries and flow measurements. If patient-specific flow measurements are unavailable, in- and outflow have to be estimated, for instance by using Murray's Law. It is currently unknown to what extent this law holds for carotid bifurcations, especially in cases where stenoses are involved. We performed flow measurements in the carotid bifurcation using phase-contrast MRI in patients with varying degrees of stenosis. An empirical relation between outflow and degree of area stenosis was determined and the outflow measurements were compared to estimations based on Murray's Law. Furthermore, the influence of outflow conditions on the WSS distribution was studied. For bifurcations with an area stenosis smaller than 65%, the outflow ratio of the internal carotid artery (ICA) to the common carotid artery (CCA) was 0.62 +/- 0.12 while the outflow ratio of the external carotid artery (ECA) was 0.35 +/- 0.13. If the area stenosis was larger than 65%, the flow to the ICA decreased linearly to zero at 100% area stenosis. The empirical relation fitted the flow data well (R-2=0.69), whereas Murray's Law overestimated the flow to the ICA substantially for larger stenosis, resulting in an overestimation of the WSS. If patient-specific flow measurements of the carotid bifurcation are unavailable, estimation of the outflow ratio by the presented empirical relation will result in a good approximation of calculated WSS using CFD. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

MRI-based quantification of outflow boundary conditions for computational fluid dynamics of stenosed human carotid arteries

Accurate assessment of wall shear stress (WSS) is vital for studies on the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. WSS distributions can be obtained by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) using patient-specific geometries and flow measurements. If patient-specific flow measurements are unavailable, in- and outflow have to be estimated, for instance by using Murray’s Law. It is currently unknown to what extent this law holds for carotid bifurcations, especially in cases where stenoses are involved. We performed flow measurements in the carotid bifurcation using phase-contrast MRI in patients with varying degrees of stenosis. An empirical relation between outflow and degree of area stenosis was determined and the outflow measurements were compared to estimations based on Murray’s Law. Furthermore, the influence of outflow conditions on the WSS distribution was studied. For bifurcations with an area stenosis smaller than 65%, the outflow ratio of the internal carotid artery (ICA) to the common carotid artery (CCA) was 0.62±0.12 while the outflow ratio of the external carotid artery (ECA) was 0.35±0.13. If the area stenosis was larger than 65%, the flow to the ICA decreased linearly to zero at 100% area stenosis. The empirical relation fitted the flow data well (R2=0.69), whereas Murray’s Law overestimated the flow to the ICA substantially for larger stenosis, resulting in an overestimation of the WSS. If patient-specific flow measurements of the carotid bifurcation are unavailable, estimation of the outflow ratio by the presented empirical relation will result in a good approximation of calculated WSS using CFD

Genetic variants associated with type 2 diabetes and adiposity and risk of intracranial and abdominal aortic aneurysms

Epidemiological studies show that type 2 diabetes (T2D) is inversely associated with intracranial aneurysms (IA) and abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). Although adiposity has not been considered a risk factor for IA, there have been inconsistent reports relating adiposity to AAA risk. We assessed whether these observations have a genetic, causal basis. To this end, we extracted genotypes of validated single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with T2D (n=65), body mass index (BMI) (n=97) and waist–hip ratio adjusted for BMI (WHRadjBMI) (n=47) from genotype data collected in 717 IA cases and 1988 controls, and in 818 AAA cases and 3004 controls, all of Dutch descent. For each of these three traits, we computed genetic risk scores (GRS) for each individual in these case–control data sets by summing the number of risk alleles weighted by their published effect size, and tested whether these GRS were associated with risk of aneurysm. We divided the cohorts into GRS quartiles, and compared IA and AAA risk in the highest with the lowest GRS quartile using logistic regression. We found no evidence for association in IA or AAA risk between top and bottom quartiles for the genetic risk scores for T2D, BMI and WHRadjBMI. However, additional Mendelian randomization analyses suggested a trend to potentially causal associations between BMI and WHRadjBMI and risk of AAA. Overall, our results do not support epidemiological observations relating T2D to aneurysm risk, but may indicate a potential role of adiposity in AAA that requires further investigation.European Journal of Human Genetics advance online publication, 5 April 2017; doi:10.1038/ejhg.2017.48