The Estimation of the Effective Centre of Mass Energy in q-qbar-gamma Events from DELPHI

The photon radiation in the initial state lowers the energy available for the e$^+$e$^-$ collisions; this effect is particularly important at LEP2 energies (above the mass of the Z boson). Being aligned to the beam direction, such initial state radiation is mostly undetected. This article describes the procedure used by the DELPHI experiment at LEP to estimate the effective centre-of-mass energy in hadronic events collected at energies above the Z peak. Typical resolutions ranging from 2 to 3 GeV on the effective center-of-mass energy are achieved, depending on the event topology.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

A Second Large Subglacial Impact Crater in Northwest Greenland?

Following the discovery of the Hiawatha impact crater beneath the northwest margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet, we explored satellite and aerogeophysical data in search of additional such craters. Here we report the discovery of a possible second subglacial impact crater that is 36.5 km wide and 183 km southeast of the Hiawatha impact crater. Although buried by 2 km of ice, the structure's rim induces a conspicuously circular surface expression, it possesses a central uplift and it causes a negative gravity anomaly. The existence of two closely-spaced and similarlysized complex craters raises the possibility that they formed during related impact events. However, the second structure's morphology is shallower, its overlying ice is conformal and older, and such an event can be explained by chance. We conclude that the identified structure is very likely an impact crater, but it is unlikely to be a twin of the Hiawatha impact crater

Associations between duck harvest, hunting wing ratios and measures of reproductive output in Northern Europe

Ducks are important game species, hunted in several countries throughout their annual cycle. We investigated whether the size of the annual duck harvest in Finland and Denmark reflected annual reproductive output in three common quarry duck species. Finland represents an important breeding area and Denmark important staging/wintering grounds for common teal (Anas crecca), Eurasian wigeon (Mareca penelope) and common goldeneye (Bucephala clangula). We assessed whether (i) annual duck harvest in these two countries correlated with variation in Finnish reproductive output or adult population size during 1990-2016 and (ii) variation in reproductive output of Finnish ducks was reflected in the juvenile ratios of birds harvested in Finland (2005-2007, 2014-2016) or Denmark (1990-2016). We hypothesised that variation in Finnish reproductive output would positively affect the size and juvenile ratio of the harvest, and that this effect would be stronger closer to the breeding grounds. Our data showed that the annual harvest of goldeneye in Finland was positively correlated with reproductive output, a desirable basis for applying sustainable management to this species. Teal and wigeon have much longer, more complex flyways, and their harvest did not mirror the annual production of young, although the wigeon harvest in Denmark increased with increasing juvenile ratio there. For these populations, we need to better define population units if we are to be able to assess harvest sustainability. We urgently need to monitor duck breeding success and harvest at larger spatial scales to support a comprehensive analysis of how well the harvest reflects reproductive output.Peer reviewe

Improved PET imaging of uPAR expression using new (64)Cu-labeled cross-bridged peptide ligands:comparative in vitro and in vivo studies

The correlation between uPAR expression, cancer cell invasion and metastases is now well-established and has prompted the development of a number of uPAR PET imaging agents, which could potentially identify cancer patients with invasive and metastatic lesions. In the present study, we synthesized and characterized two new cross-bridged (64)Cu-labeled peptide conjugates for PET imaging of uPAR and performed a head-to-head comparison with the corresponding and more conventionally used DOTA conjugate. Based on in-source laser-induced reduction of chelated Cu(II) to Cu(I), we now demonstrate the following ranking with respect to the chemical inertness of their complexed Cu ions: DOTA-AE105 << CB-TE2A-AE105 < CB-TE2A-PA-AE105, which is correlated to their corresponding demetallation rate. No penalty in the uPAR receptor binding affinity of the targeting peptide was encountered by conjugation to either of the macrobicyclic chelators (IC(50) ~ 5-10 nM) and high yields and radiochemical purities (>95%) were achieved in all cases by incubation at 95ºC. In vivo, they display identical tumor uptake after 1h, but differ significantly after 22 hrs, where the DOTA-AE105 uptake remains surprisingly high. Importantly, the more stable of the new uPAR PET tracers, (64)Cu-CB-TE2A-PA-AE105, exhibits a significantly reduced liver uptake compared to (64)Cu-DOTA-AE105 as well as (64)Cu-CB-TE2A-AE105, (p<0.0001), emphasizing that our new in vitro stability measurements by mass spectrometry predicts in vivo stability in mice. Specificity of the best performing ligand, (64)Cu-CB-TE2A-PA-AE105 was finally confirmed in vivo using a non-binding (64)Cu-labeled peptide as control ((64)Cu-CB-TE2A-PA-AE105(mut)). This control PET-tracer revealed significantly reduced tumor uptake (p<0.0001), but identical hepatic uptake compared to its active counterpart ((64)Cu-CB-TE2A-PA-AE105) after 1h. In conclusion, our new approach using in-source laser-induced reduction of Cu(II)-chelated PET-ligands provides useful information, which are predictive for the tracer stability in vivo in mice. Furthermore, the increased stability of our new macrobicyclic (64)Cu-CB-TE2A-PA-AE105 PET ligand is paralleled by an excellent imaging contrast during non-invasive PET scanning of uPAR expression in preclinical mouse cancer models. The translational promises displayed by this PET-tracer for future clinical cancer patient management remains, however, to be investigated

The association between subgroups of MRI findings identified with latent class analysis and low back pain in 40-year old Danes

Background: Research into the clinical importance of spinal MRI findings in patients with low back pain (LBP) has primarily focused on single imaging findings, such as Modic changes or disc degeneration, and found only weak associations with the presence of pain. However, numerous MRI findings almost always co-exist in the lumbar spine and are often present at more than one lumbar level. It is possible that multiple MRI findings are more strongly associated with LBP than single MRI findings. Latent Class Analysis is a statistical method that has recently been tested and found useful for identifying latent classes (subgroups) of MRI findings within multivariable datasets. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between subgroups of MRI findings and the presence of LBP in people from the general population. Methods: To identify subgroups of lumbar MRI findings with potential clinical relevance, Latent Class Analysis was initially performed on a clinical dataset of 631 patients seeking care for LBP. Subsequently, 412 participants in a general population cohort (the ‘Backs on Funen’ project) were statistically allocated to those existing subgroups by Latent Class Analysis, matching their MRI findings at a segmental level. The subgroups containing MRI findings from the general population were then organised into hypothetical pathways of degeneration and the association between subgroups in the pathways and the presence of LBP was tested using exact logistic regression. Results: Six subgroups were identified in the clinical dataset and the data from the general population cohort fitted the subgroups well, with a median posterior probability of 93%–100%. These six subgroups described two pathways of increasing degeneration on upper (L1-L3) and lower (L4-L5) lumbar levels. An association with LBP was found for the subgroups describing severe and multiple degenerative MRI findings at the lower lumbar levels but none of the other subgroups were associated with LBP

Automatic Detection of Cortical Arousals in Sleep and their Contribution to Daytime Sleepiness

Cortical arousals are transient events of disturbed sleep that occur spontaneously or in response to stimuli such as apneic events. The gold standard for arousal detection in human polysomnographic recordings (PSGs) is manual annotation by expert human scorers, a method with significant interscorer variability. In this study, we developed an automated method, the Multimodal Arousal Detector (MAD), to detect arousals using deep learning methods. The MAD was trained on 2,889 PSGs to detect both cortical arousals and wakefulness in 1 second intervals. Furthermore, the relationship between MAD-predicted labels on PSGs and next day mean sleep latency (MSL) on a multiple sleep latency test (MSLT), a reflection of daytime sleepiness, was analyzed in 1447 MSLT instances in 873 subjects. In a dataset of 1,026 PSGs, the MAD achieved a F1 score of 0.76 for arousal detection, while wakefulness was predicted with an accuracy of 0.95. In 60 PSGs scored by multiple human expert technicians, the MAD significantly outperformed the average human scorer for arousal detection with a difference in F1 score of 0.09. After controlling for other known covariates, a doubling of the arousal index was associated with an average decrease in MSL of 40 seconds ($\beta$ = -0.67, p = 0.0075). The MAD outperformed the average human expert and the MAD-predicted arousals were shown to be significant predictors of MSL, which demonstrate clinical validity the MAD.Comment: 40 pages, 13 figures, 9 table

Democratic cultural policy : democratic forms and policy consequences

The forms that are adopted to give practical meaning to democracy are assessed to identify what their implications are for the production of public policies in general and cultural policies in particular. A comparison of direct, representative, democratic elitist and deliberative versions of democracy identifies clear differences between them in terms of policy form and democratic practice. Further elaboration of these differences and their consequences are identified as areas for further research

A Possible Second Large Subglacial Impact Crater in Northwest Greenland

Following the discovery of the Hiawatha impact crater beneath the northwest margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet, we explored satellite and aerogeophysical data in search of additional such craters. Here we report the discovery of a possible second subglacial impact crater that is 36.5 km wide and 183 km southeast of the Hiawatha impact crater. Although buried by 2 km of ice, the structure's rim induces a conspicuously circular surface expression, it possesses a central uplift and it causes a negative gravity anomaly. The existence of two closely-spaced and similarlysized complex craters raises the possibility that they formed during related impact events. However, the second structure's morphology is shallower, its overlying ice is conformal and older, and such an event can be explained by chance. We conclude that the identified structure is very likely an impact crater, but it is unlikely to be a twin of the Hiawatha impact crater

Author Correction: The Aurora B specificity switch is required to protect from non-disjunction at the metaphase/anaphase transition.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper