Multiple General Anesthesia in Children: A Systematic Review of Its Effect on Neurodevelopment

The effect of multiple general anesthesia (mGA) procedures administered in early life is a critical theme and has led the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue an alert. This systematic review seeks to explore the potential effects on neurodevelopment of mGA on patients under 4 years. The Medline, Embase and Web of Science databases were searched for publications up to 31 March 2021. The databases were searched for publications regarding “children multiple general anesthesia OR pediatric multiple general anesthesia”. Case reports, animal studies and expert opinions were excluded. Systematic reviews were not included, but they were screened to identify any possible additional information. A total of 3156 studies were identified. After removing the duplicates, screening the remaining records and analyzing the systematic reviews’ bibliography, 10 studies were considered suitable for inclusion. Comprehensively, a total cohort of 264.759 unexposed children and 11.027 exposed children were assessed for neurodevelopmental outcomes. Only one paper did not find any statistically significant difference between exposed and unexposed children in terms of neurodevelopmental alterations. Controlled studies on mGA administered before 4 years of age support that there might be a greater risk of neurodevelopmental delay in children receiving mGA, warranting the need for careful risk/benefit considerations

The CUORE cryostat: an infrastructure for rare event searches at millikelvin temperatures

The CUORE experiment is the world's largest bolometric experiment. The detector consists of an array of 988 TeO2 crystals, for a total mass of 742 kg. CUORE is presently taking data at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Italy, searching for the neutrinoless double beta decay of 130Te. A large custom cryogen-free cryostat allows reaching and maintaining a base temperature of about 10 mK, required for the optimal operation of the detector. This apparatus has been designed in order to achieve a low noise environment, with minimal contribution to the radioactive background for the experiment. In this paper, we present an overview of the CUORE cryostat, together with a description of all its sub-systems, focusing on the solutions identified to satisfy the stringent requirements. We briefly illustrate the various phases of the cryostat commissioning and highlight the relevant steps and milestones achieved each time. Finally, we describe the successful cooldown of CUORE

Targeting sustainable competitiveness in Croatia by implementation of “20 Keys” methodology

Throughout the current wave of regulatory reforms, several theoretical models have been proposed that call for the emergence of instruments of self-regulation under some form of state supervision as part of the demand to improve product development performances aligned with awareness of environmental needs, to help with meeting regulation and to reduce the risk of production nonconformance. “20 Keys” is one example of a mass application of a methodology for raising sustainable development and holistic approach to competitiveness in new EU member the Republic of Croatia, and therefore, the aim of this study is to observe the results of the methodology application in Croatian companies. 20 Keys is a methodology that brings an integrated set of tools aimed at increasing overall productive efficiency and quality level with simultaneous reduction of costs. As it was shown in this paper, implementation success is coincident with senior management’s active role in setting the main goals for implementation, assuring that suitable methods and tools are used, allocating resources appropriately and enabling communication within the company

Measurement of the diffractive structure function in deep inelastic scattering at HERA

This paper presents an analysis of the inclusive properties of diffractive deep inelastic scattering events produced in $ep$ interactions at HERA. The events are characterised by a rapidity gap between the outgoing proton system and the remaining hadronic system. Inclusive distributions are presented and compared with Monte Carlo models for diffractive processes. The data are consistent with models where the pomeron structure function has a hard and a soft contribution. The diffractive structure function is measured as a function of \xpom, the momentum fraction lost by the proton, of $\beta$, the momentum fraction of the struck quark with respect to \xpom, and of $Q^2$. The \xpom dependence is consistent with the form \xpoma where $a~=~1.30~\pm~0.08~(stat)~^{+~0.08}_{-~0.14}~(sys)$ in all bins of $\beta$ and $Q^2$. In the measured $Q^2$ range, the diffractive structure function approximately scales with $Q^2$ at fixed $\beta$. In an Ingelman-Schlein type model, where commonly used pomeron flux factor normalisations are assumed, it is found that the quarks within the pomeron do not saturate the momentum sum rule.Comment: 36 pages, latex, 11 figures appended as uuencoded fil

Measurement of the Diffractive Structure Function F\u3csup\u3eD(4)\u3c/sup\u3e\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e at HERA

This paper presents the first analysis of diffractive photon dissociation events in deep inelastic positron-proton scattering at HERA in which the proton in the final state is detected and its momentum measured. The events are selected by requiring a scattered proton in the ZEUS leading proton spectrometer (LPS) with xL \u3e 0.97, where xL is the fraction of the incoming proton beam momentum carried by the scattered proton. The use of the LPS significantly reduces the contamination from events with diffractive dissociation of the proton into low mass states and allows a direct measurement of t, the square of the four-momentum exchanged at the proton vertex. The dependence of the cross section on t is measured in the interval 0.073 \u3c \t\ \u3c 0.4 GeV2 and is found to be described by an exponential shape with the slope parameter b = 7.2 ± 1.1(stat.)+0.7-0.9(syst.) GeV-2. The diffractive structure function FD(4)2 is presented as a function of xIP, ≃ 1 - xL and β, the momentum fraction of the struck quark with respect to xIP, and averaged over the t interval 0.073 \u3c \t\ \u3c 0.4 GeV2 and the photon virtuality range 5 \u3c Q2 \u3c 20 GeV2. In the kinematic range 4 x 10-4 \u3c xIP \u3c 0.03 and 0.015 \u3c β \u3c 0.5, the xIP dependence of FD(4)2 is fitted with a form (1/xIP)a , yielding a = 1.00 ± 0.09 (stat.)+0.11-0.05(syst.). Upon integration over t, the structure function FD(3)2 is determined in a kinematic range extending to higher xIP and lower β compared to our previous analysis; the results are discussed within the framework of Regge theory

Measurement of the t Distribution in Diffractive Photoproduction at HERA

Photon diffractive dissociation, γp → Xp, has been studied at HERA with the ZEUS detector using ep interactions where the virtuality Q2 of the exchanged photon is smaller than 0.02 GeV2. The squared four-momentum t exchanged at the proton vertex was determined in the range 0.073 \u3c \t\ \u3c 0.40 GeV2 by measuring the scattered proton in the ZEUS Leading Proton Spectrometer. In the photonproton centre-of-mass energy interval 176 \u3c W \u3c 225 GeV and for masses of the dissociated photon system 4 \u3c Mx \u3c 32 GeV, the t distribution has an exponential shape, dN/d\t\ ∝ exp (-b\t\), with a slope parameter b = 6.8 ± 0.9 (stat.) +1.2-1.1 (syst.) GeV-2

Elastic and Proton-Dissociative ρ\u3csup\u3e0\u3c/sup\u3e Photoproduction at HERA

Elastic and proton-dissociative ρ0 photoproduction (γp → p0p, γp → ρ0N, respectively, with p0 → π+π-) has been studied in ep interactions at HERA for photon-proton centre-of-mass energies in the range 50 \u3c W \u3c 100 GeV and for |t| \u3c 0.5 GeV2, where t is the square of the four-momentum transfer at the proton vertex; the results on the proton-dissociative reaction are presented for masses of the dissociated proton system in the range M2N \u3c 0.1W2. For the elastic process, the π+π- invariant mass spectrum has been investigated as a function of t. As in fixed target experiments, the ρ0 resonance shape is asymmetric; this asymmetry decreases with increasing |t|, as expected in models in which the asymmetry is ascribed to the interference of resonant and non-resonant π+π- production. The cross section has been studied as a function of W; a fit to the resonant part with the form Wa gives a = 0.16 ± 0.06 (stat.) +0.11-0.15 (syst.). The resonant part of the γp → π+π-p cross section is 11.2 ± 0.1 (stat.) +1.1-1.2 (syst.) μb at 〈W〉 = 71.7 GeV. The t dependence of the cross section can be described by a function of the type Aρ exp (-bρ|t| + cρt2) with bρ = 10.9 ± 0.3 (stat.) +1.0-0.5 (syst.) GeV-2 and cρ = 2.7 ± 0.9 (stat.) +1.9-1.7 (syst.) GeV-4. The t dependence has also been studied as a function of W and a value of the slope of the pomeron trajectory α IP′ = 0.23 ± 0.15 (stat.) +0.10-0.07 (syst.) GeV-2 has been deduced. The ρ0 spin density matrix elements r0400 r041-1 and ℜe[r0410] have been measured and found to be consistent with expectations based on s-channel helicity conservation. For proton-dissociative π+π- photoproduction in the ρ0 mass range, the distributions of the two-pion invariant mass, W and the polar and azimuthal angles of the pions in the helicity frame are the same within errors as those for the elastic process. The t distribution has been fitted to an exponential function with a slope parameter 5.8 ± 0.3 (stat.) ± 0.5 (syst.) GeV-2. The ratio of the elastic to proton-dissociative ρ0 photoproduction cross section is 2.0 ± 0.2 (stat.) ± 0.7 (syst.)

Measurement of the proton structure function F 2 at low x and low Q\u3csup\u3e 2\u3c/sup\u3e at HERA

We report on a measurement of the proton structure function F 2 in the range 3.5×10-5≤x≤4×10-3 and 1.5 GeV2≤Q 2≤15GeV2 at the ep collider HERA operating at a centre-of-mass energy of √s=300GeV. The rise of F 2 with decreasing x observed in the previous HERA measurements persists in this lower x and Q 2 range. The Q 2 evolution of F 2, even at the lowest Q 2 and x measured, is consistent with perturbative QCD. © 1996 Springer-Verlag