998 research outputs found
Shock Wave Lithotripsy (ESWL) results aren’t improving. What can Radiographers do to improve outcomes with better kidney stone fragmentation?
Findings of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) studies of cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Epstein-
Barr virus (EBV) and breast cancer vary, making it difficult to determine whether either,
both, or neither virus is causally associated with breast cancer. We investigated CMV and
EBV in paired samples of breast cancer and normal breast tissue from 70 women using
quantitative PCR. A serum sample from each woman was tested for CMV and EBV IgG. To
place our results in context, we reviewed the existing literature and performed a meta-analysis
of our results together with previous PCR studies of EBV, CMV, and breast cancer. Of
the serology samples, 67 of 70 (96%) were EBV IgG positive and 49 of 70 (70%) were CMV
IgG positive. QPCR detected EBV in 24 (34%) of the tumour and 9 (13%) of the paired normal
specimens and CMV in 0 (0%) of the tumour and 2 (3%) of the paired normal specimens.
Our findings, together with earlier results summarised in the meta-analysis, suggest
several possibilities: variable findings may be due to limitations of molecular analyses; ‘hit
and run’ oncogenesis may lead to inconsistent results; one or both viruses has a role at a
later stage in breast cancer development; infection with multiple viruses increases breast
cancer risk; or neither virus has a role. Future studies should focus on ways to investigate
these possibilities, and should include comparisons of breast cancer tissue samples with
appropriate normal tissue samples
Harvesting Wind Damaged Trees: A Study of the Safety Implications for Fallers and Choker Setters
Hazards occurring to the fallers and chokersetters (breaker-outs) within cable yarder (hauler) crews working in windthr/ow salvage conditions were recorded. Fallers were exposed to considerably more and potentially more serious hazards than fallers working under normal conditions. The most hazardous parts of the faller's job were those of felling, clearing around the tree to be felled and clearing a path to the tree to be felled. The two most dangerous tree types to deal with were "hung-up" and "rootball trees". The choker setters were exposed to a similar number of hazards per cycle as choker setting in normal conditions, but a number of previously undocumented hazards were recorded. The majority of choking hazards (70%) occurred during the "wait" phase of choking with the most frequent hazard being "standing within one tree length of the turn". The information contained in this article may assist other contractors and forest companies faced with the difficult task of harvesting windthr/own trees
Evaluation of barriers to national CO2 geological storage assessments
A survey to evaluate the main perceived barriers to national CO2 storage assessments was carried out in 2015, targeting countries where some Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS) activity was known or where CCS could potentially be implemented in the future. All the questionnaire respondents indicated that some level of national assessment had been achieved. In most cases, these assessments had been sufficient to allow policy makers to make informed decisions about priorities for follow-up actions. Where national storage assessments had been carried out, the major barriers had been mainly overcome through strong political and regulatory support for CCS and policies enabling access to relevant data
INTEGRAL observations of TeV plerions
Amongst the sources seen in very high gamma-rays several are associated with
Pulsar Wind Nebulae (``TeV plerions''). The study of hard X-ray/soft gamma-ray
emission is providing an important insight into the energetic particle
population present in these objects. The unpulsed emission from pulsar/pulsar
wind nebula systems in the energy range accessible to the INTEGRAL satellite is
mainly synchrotron emission from energetic and fast cooling electrons close to
their acceleration site. Our analyses of public INTEGRAL data of known TeV
plerions detected by ground based Cherenkov telescopes indicate a deeper link
between these TeV plerions and INTEGRAL detected pulsar wind nebulae. The newly
discovered TeV plerion in the northern wing of the Kookaburra region
(G313.3+0.6 powered by the middle aged PSR J1420-6048) is found to have a
previously unknown INTEGRAL counterpart which is besides the Vela pulsar the
only middle aged pulsar detected with INTEGRAL. We do not find an INTEGRAL
counterpart of the TeV plerion associated with the X-ray PWN ``Rabbit''
G313.3+0.1 which is possibly powered by a young pulsar.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, proceedings of conference "The Multi-Messenger
Approach to High-Energy Gamma-ray Sources" Barcelona/Spain (2006
Star and Planet Formation with ALMA: an Overview
Submillimeter observations with ALMA will be the essential next step in our
understanding of how stars and planets form. Key projects range from detailed
imaging of the collapse of pre-stellar cores and measuring the accretion rate
of matter onto deeply embedded protostars, to unravelling the chemistry and
dynamics of high-mass star-forming clusters and high-spatial resolution studies
of protoplanetary disks down to the 1 AU scale.Comment: Invited review, 8 pages, 5 figures; to appear in the proceedings of
"Science with ALMA: a New Era for Astrophysics". Astrophysics & Space
Science, in pres
Non-destructive, dynamic detectors for Bose-Einstein condensates
We propose and analyze a series of non-destructive, dynamic detectors for
Bose-Einstein condensates based on photo-detectors operating at the shot noise
limit. These detectors are compatible with real time feedback to the
condensate. The signal to noise ratio of different detection schemes are
compared subject to the constraint of minimal heating due to photon absorption
and spontaneous emission. This constraint leads to different optimal operating
points for interference-based schemes. We find the somewhat counter-intuitive
result that without the presence of a cavity, interferometry causes as much
destruction as absorption for optically thin clouds. For optically thick
clouds, cavity-free interferometry is superior to absorption, but it still
cannot be made arbitrarily non-destructive . We propose a cavity-based
measurement of atomic density which can in principle be made arbitrarily
non-destructive for a given signal to noise ratio
Accident causation and pre-accidental driving situations. Part 3. Summary report
This report aims to present the final results of the descriptive statistical, in-depth and risk analysis
performed within TRACE Work Package ‘WP2-Type of situations’, in order to identify the main
problems and the magnitude of these problems related to accident causation and risk factors for
the following four types of situations: the stabilized situations, the specific manoeuvres, the
intersection situations and the degraded situations.
The different analysis (descriptive, in-depth and risk) of each of these five tasks has been
performed using the available European accident databases within TRACE (national, in-depth
and exposure databases).
The objectives achieved in this WP are:
• Identify and quantify accident causation factors associated to particular types of driving and
pre-accidental situations, at a statistical level, by analyzing various available databases in
Europe.
• Obtain a focused understanding of accident causation issues related to these types of
situations at an in-depth level by analyzing data from available in-depth databases.
• Identify the level of risk associated to these selected types of situation in causing accidents
Accident causation and pre-accidental driving situations. Part 2. In-depth accident causation analysis
WP2 of the European Project TRACE is concerned with “Types of Situations” to analyse the causation
of road traffic accidents from the pre-accidental driving situation point of view. Four complementary
situations were defined: stabilized situations, intersection, specific manoeuvre and degradation
scenario. To reach this objective, the analysis is based on a common methodology composed on 3
steps: the “descriptive analysis” which from general statistics will allow to identify among the studied
situations those them relevant and to give their characteristics, the “in-depth analysis” allowing to
obtain accident causes from the generic description of the problems identified in the previous step and
the risk analysis identifying the risk of being involved in an accident taking into account the results
obtained from the ‘in–depth’ level. This report is dedicated to the identification of the accident causes
analysed for the pre-accidental driving situation point of view, i.e. the circumstances in which the
driver is involved just prior the accident. This analysis has been conducted from the scenarios
identified for each type of situation during the descriptive analysis realized in a first part (Report D2.1:
Accident causation and pre-accidental driving situations. Part 1. Overview and general statistics).
These results are based on the study of disaggregated data (in-depth accidents collection databases)
available via WP8 in TRACE. With the identification of the main causes and contributing factor, the
aspect related to the human functional failure has been taken into account. This innovative concept
studied in TRACE WP5, has been used here in order to have a more complete overview of the
problems in working on each road users involved in the accident and not only on the whole accident
CD4 cell count and the risk of AIDS or death in HIV-Infected adults on combination antiretroviral therapy with a suppressed viral load: a longitudinal cohort study from COHERE.
BACKGROUND: Most adults infected with HIV achieve viral suppression within a year of starting combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). It is important to understand the risk of AIDS events or death for patients with a suppressed viral load.
METHODS AND FINDINGS: Using data from the Collaboration of Observational HIV Epidemiological Research Europe (2010 merger), we assessed the risk of a new AIDS-defining event or death in successfully treated patients. We accumulated episodes of viral suppression for each patient while on cART, each episode beginning with the second of two consecutive plasma viral load measurements 500 copies/µl, the first of two consecutive measurements between 50-500 copies/µl, cART interruption or administrative censoring. We used stratified multivariate Cox models to estimate the association between time updated CD4 cell count and a new AIDS event or death or death alone. 75,336 patients contributed 104,265 suppression episodes and were suppressed while on cART for a median 2.7 years. The mortality rate was 4.8 per 1,000 years of viral suppression. A higher CD4 cell count was always associated with a reduced risk of a new AIDS event or death; with a hazard ratio per 100 cells/µl (95% CI) of: 0.35 (0.30-0.40) for counts <200 cells/µl, 0.81 (0.71-0.92) for counts 200 to <350 cells/µl, 0.74 (0.66-0.83) for counts 350 to <500 cells/µl, and 0.96 (0.92-0.99) for counts ≥500 cells/µl. A higher CD4 cell count became even more beneficial over time for patients with CD4 cell counts <200 cells/µl.
CONCLUSIONS: Despite the low mortality rate, the risk of a new AIDS event or death follows a CD4 cell count gradient in patients with viral suppression. A higher CD4 cell count was associated with the greatest benefit for patients with a CD4 cell count <200 cells/µl but still some slight benefit for those with a CD4 cell count ≥500 cells/µl
- …