61 research outputs found
Comparison of local injection of methotrexate and linear salpingostomy in the conservative laparoscopic treatment of ectopic pregnancy
STUDY OBJECTIVE: To compare local injection of metothrexate (MTX) and linear salpingostomy in the conservative laparoscopic treatment of ectopic pregnancy. DESIGN: Prospective, nonrandomized study, July 1991 to May 1994. SETTING: Department of obstetrics and gynecology in a university hospital. PATIENTS: Fourteen women with unruptured ectopic pregnancies without documented fetal heart motion and size below 50 mm as measured by ultrasound. INTERVENTIONS: All 14 women underwent the laparoscopic treatment by either local injection of MTX or linear salpingostomy (7 patients each). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Both treatments were successful in all patients. Mean length of operation was 32 +/- 5 minutes (range 25-35 min) in the MTX group versus 67 +/- 15 minutes (range 50-90 min) in the salpingostomy group. Mean length of hospital stay was 2.7 days (range 1-5 days) and 1.7 days (range 1-3 days), respectively. No intraoperative complications occurred, and the postoperative course was uneventful in all women. Mean disappearance time of serum beta-human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) levels was similar in both groups, although in the linear salpingostomy group the decrease was immediate. No difference in tubal patency on follow-up hysterosalpingography was observed between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Although this is a preliminary report with a small number of patients, both types of treatment were safe and effective. An advantage of linear salpingostomy was the predictable and consistent decline of circulating beta-hCG, and consequently a reduced need for a close follow-up. Local MTX injection was safe, economic, effective, and easy to perform, and in our experience the surgical time was statistically shorter than that for linear salpingostomy. Therefore, in selected patients, local injection of MTX could be the treatment of choice for unruptured ectopic pregnancy, avoiding a longer and potentially more dangerous procedure. Long-term outcomes do not seem to differ between the two types of treatment
Identification and reconstruction of low-energy electrons in the ProtoDUNE-SP detector
Measurements of electrons from interactions are crucial for the Deep
Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) neutrino oscillation program, as well as
searches for physics beyond the standard model, supernova neutrino detection,
and solar neutrino measurements. This article describes the selection and
reconstruction of low-energy (Michel) electrons in the ProtoDUNE-SP detector.
ProtoDUNE-SP is one of the prototypes for the DUNE far detector, built and
operated at CERN as a charged particle test beam experiment. A sample of
low-energy electrons produced by the decay of cosmic muons is selected with a
purity of 95%. This sample is used to calibrate the low-energy electron energy
scale with two techniques. An electron energy calibration based on a cosmic ray
muon sample uses calibration constants derived from measured and simulated
cosmic ray muon events. Another calibration technique makes use of the
theoretically well-understood Michel electron energy spectrum to convert
reconstructed charge to electron energy. In addition, the effects of detector
response to low-energy electron energy scale and its resolution including
readout electronics threshold effects are quantified. Finally, the relation
between the theoretical and reconstructed low-energy electron energy spectrum
is derived and the energy resolution is characterized. The low-energy electron
selection presented here accounts for about 75% of the total electron deposited
energy. After the addition of lost energy using a Monte Carlo simulation, the
energy resolution improves from about 40% to 25% at 50~MeV. These results are
used to validate the expected capabilities of the DUNE far detector to
reconstruct low-energy electrons.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figure
Reconstruction of interactions in the ProtoDUNE-SP detector with Pandora
The Pandora Software Development Kit and algorithm libraries provide
pattern-recognition logic essential to the reconstruction of particle
interactions in liquid argon time projection chamber detectors. Pandora is the
primary event reconstruction software used at ProtoDUNE-SP, a prototype for the
Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment far detector. ProtoDUNE-SP, located at
CERN, is exposed to a charged-particle test beam. This paper gives an overview
of the Pandora reconstruction algorithms and how they have been tailored for
use at ProtoDUNE-SP. In complex events with numerous cosmic-ray and beam
background particles, the simulated reconstruction and identification
efficiency for triggered test-beam particles is above 80% for the majority of
particle type and beam momentum combinations. Specifically, simulated 1 GeV/
charged pions and protons are correctly reconstructed and identified with
efficiencies of 86.1% and 84.1%, respectively. The efficiencies
measured for test-beam data are shown to be within 5% of those predicted by the
simulation.Comment: 39 pages, 19 figure
Impact of cross-section uncertainties on supernova neutrino spectral parameter fitting in the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment
A primary goal of the upcoming Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is
to measure the MeV neutrinos produced by a Galactic
core-collapse supernova if one should occur during the lifetime of the
experiment. The liquid-argon-based detectors planned for DUNE are expected to
be uniquely sensitive to the component of the supernova flux, enabling
a wide variety of physics and astrophysics measurements. A key requirement for
a correct interpretation of these measurements is a good understanding of the
energy-dependent total cross section for charged-current
absorption on argon. In the context of a simulated extraction of
supernova spectral parameters from a toy analysis, we investigate the
impact of modeling uncertainties on DUNE's supernova neutrino
physics sensitivity for the first time. We find that the currently large
theoretical uncertainties on must be substantially reduced
before the flux parameters can be extracted reliably: in the absence of
external constraints, a measurement of the integrated neutrino luminosity with
less than 10\% bias with DUNE requires to be known to about 5%.
The neutrino spectral shape parameters can be known to better than 10% for a
20% uncertainty on the cross-section scale, although they will be sensitive to
uncertainties on the shape of . A direct measurement of
low-energy -argon scattering would be invaluable for improving the
theoretical precision to the needed level.Comment: 25 pages, 21 figure
Highly-parallelized simulation of a pixelated LArTPC on a GPU
The rapid development of general-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) is allowing the implementation of highly-parallelized Monte Carlo simulation chains for particle physics experiments. This technique is particularly suitable for the simulation of a pixelated charge readout for time projection chambers, given the large number of channels that this technology employs. Here we present the first implementation of a full microphysical simulator of a liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) equipped with light readout and pixelated charge readout, developed for the DUNE Near Detector. The software is implemented with an end-to-end set of GPU-optimized algorithms. The algorithms have been written in Python and translated into CUDA kernels using Numba, a just-in-time compiler for a subset of Python and NumPy instructions. The GPU implementation achieves a speed up of four orders of magnitude compared with the equivalent CPU version. The simulation of the current induced on 10^3 pixels takes around 1 ms on the GPU, compared with approximately 10 s on the CPU. The results of the simulation are compared against data from a pixel-readout LArTPC prototype
Tubal blood flow before and after conservative laparoscopic treatment for ectopic pregnancy.
Ovarian blood flow before and after conservative laparoscopic treatment for endometrioma
To evaluate the vascular changes in ovaries affected by endometriomas 28 women with ovarian endometriosis underwent transvaginal ultrasound with color flow imaging and blood flow analysis of the ovarian artery before and after laparoscopic conservative treatment of the ovarian cyst. Mean pulsatility index (P.I.) and resistance index (R.I.) of the ovarian artery on the side affected by endometrioma were compared using Student's t-test. Mean P.I. after laparoscopy (1.59) was significantly lower (p = 0.001) than before surgical intervention (2.17). Analogously the mean R.I. was significantly different (p = 0.001) when compared before (0.81) and after (0.73) laparoscopy. Color Doppler velocimetry may add greater understanding of the ovarian hemodynamic changes that occur after conservative surgery on the ovary
Laparoscopic treatment of ovarian endometrioma: One year follow-up
Thirty-six women with ultrasonographic diagnosis of ovarian endometrioma (bilateral in nine of them), have been treated laparoscopically. After the surgical procedure the patients were assigned to one of the following regimes: Gn-RH-a for 3 months, oral contraceptives if they wanted to avoid pregnancy, or nothing. The follow-up consisted in 1-3-6-12 months ultrasound. The first recurrences were observed at the 6-month ultrasound with an overall recurrence rate after 12 months of 11%. Improvement of pain symptoms occurred in 87% of the patients and fertility rate was 45%
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