Flavour Changing Neutral Currents and Inverted Sfermion Mass Hierarchy

We study the contraints on non-flavour-blind soft supersymmetry breaking terms coming from flavour and CP violating processes in the presence of hierarchical Yukawa couplings, and quantify how much these constraints are weakened in the regions of the MSSM parameter space characterized by heavy gauginos and multi-TeV sfermion masses, respectively. We also study the inverted sfermion mass hierarchy scenario in the context of D-term supersymmetry breaking, and show that generic hierarchical Yukawa couplings with arbitrary phases require first generation squarks in the few 10 TeV range.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures. Talk given at the XLth Rencontres de Moriond on Electroweak Interactions and Unified Theories, La Thuile, Aosta Valley, Italy, 5-12 March 2005. V3: one reference correcte

Evaluating PET-CT in the detection and management of recurrent cervical cancer: Systematic reviews of diagnostic accuracy and subjective elicitation

Background: Positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) is recommended to triage women for exenterative surgery and surveillance after treatment for advanced cervical cancer. Objective: To evaluate diagnostic accuracy of additional whole body PET-CT compared with CT/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) alone in women with suspected recurrent/persistent cervical cancer and in asymptomatic women as surveillance. Design: Systematic reviews. Subjective elicitation to supplement diagnostic information. Search strategy/Selection criteria/Data collection and analysis: Searches of electronic databases were performed to June 2013. Studies in women with suspected recurrent/persistent cervical cancer and in asymptomatic women undergoing follow up with sufficient numeric data were included. We calculated sensitivity, specificity and corresponding 95% confidence intervals. Meta-analyses employed a bivariate model that included a random-effects term for between-study variations (CT studies) and univariate random effects meta-analyses (PET-CT studies) for sensitivity and specificity separately. Subjective elicitation: Prevalence of recurrence and the accuracy of imaging elicited using the allocation of points technique. Coherence of elicited subjective probabilities with estimates in the literature examined. Results: We identified 15 relevant studies; none directly compared additional PET-CT with MRI or CT separately. Most CT and MRI studies used older protocols and the majority did not distinguish between asymptomatic and symptomatic women. Meta-analysis of nine PET-CT studies in mostly symptomatic women showed sensitivity of 94.8 (95% CI 91.2-96.9), and specificity of 86.9% (95% CI 82.2-90.5). The summary estimate of the sensitivity of CT for detection of recurrence was 89.64% (95% CI 81.59-94.41) and specificity was 76% (95% CI 43.68-92.82). Meta-analysis for MRI test accuracy studies was not possible because of clinical heterogeneity. The sensitivity and specificity of MRI in pelvic recurrence varied between 82 and 100% and between 78 and 100%, respectively. Formal statistical comparisons of the accuracy of index tests were not possible. Subjective elicitation provided estimates comparable to the literature. Subjective estimates of the increase in accuracy from the addition of PET-CT were less than elicited increases required to justify the use in PET-CT for surveillance. Conclusion: Evidence to support additional PET-CT is scarce, of average quality and does not distinguish between application for surveillance and diagnosis. Guidelines recommending PET-CT in recurrent cervical cancer need to be reconsidered in the light of the existing evidence base

Positron emission tomography/computerised tomography imaging in detecting and managing recurrent cervical cancer: systematic review of evidence, elicitation of subjective probabilities and economic modelling.

© Queen’s Printer and Controller of HMSO 2013. This work was produced by Meads et al. under the terms of a commissioning contract issued by the Secretary of State for Health. This issue may be freely reproduced for the purposes of private research and study and extracts (or indeed, the full report) may be included in professional journals provided that suitable acknowledgement is made and the reproduction is not associated with any form of advertising.Cancer of the uterine cervix is a common cause of mortality in women. After initial treatment women may be symptom free, but the cancer may recur within a few years. It is uncertain whether it is more clinically effective to survey asymptomatic women for signs of recurrence or to await symptoms or signs before using imaging.National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programm

WYNIKI PRODUKCYJNE KRÓLIKÓW ŻYWIONYCH PODCZAS TUCZU MIESZANKĄ BEZ DODATKU KOKCYDIOSTAKTYKU

The objective of this study was to determine whether meat-type rabbits can be fed a diet without coccidiostatics during the fattening period. The effect of feeding two pelleted diets was compared during the experiment. The control diet was supplemented with the coccidiostatic drug robenidine, while the experimental diet contained no coccidiostatics. Over the experimental period the animals were weighed at 35, 56, 70, 77 and 90 days of age. Feces samples were taken for parasitological analysis and assayed for the presence of coccidia. Mortality rates were determined at particular stages of the experiment. It was found that a diet without the coccidiostatic drug had no statistically significant effect on the final body weights of rabbits. It was also demonstrated that coccidian infection rates and mortality rates were slightly higher in the experimental group.Badania miały na celu wykazanie możliwości żywienia królików mięsnych podczas tuczu mieszanką pełnoporcjową nie zawierającą kokcydiostatyku. W trakcie eksperymentu porównano wpływ żywienia mieszankami pełnoporcjowymi granulowanymi, z których kontrolna zawierała kokcydiostatyk – robenidynę a doświadczalna była go pozbawiona. Podczas badań zwierzęta ważono w 35, 56, 70, 77 i 90 dniu życia, ponadto z pod każdej klatki pobierano próbki kału do badań parazytologicznych na obecność kokcydii. Dodatkowo obliczono procent upadków królików podcza poszczególnych etapów trwania eksperymentu. Przeprowadzone badania pozwoliły na stwierdzenie, że brak kokcydiostatyku w mieszance nie wpłynął statystycznie na końcową masę ciała królików. Wykazano, że poziom zarażenia kokcydiami i procent upadków był nieco wyższy w grupie doświadczalnej, jednak nie został potwierdzony statystycznie

Precision Measurement of 11Li moments: Influence of Halo Neutrons on the 9Li Core

The electric quadrupole moment and the magnetic moment of the 11Li halo nucleus have been measured with more than an order of magnitude higher precision than before, |Q| = 33.3(5)mb and mu=3.6712(3)mu_N, revealing a 8.8(1.5)% increase of the quadrupole moment relative to that of 9Li. This result is compared to various models that aim at describing the halo properties. In the shell model an increased quadrupole moment points to a significant occupation of the 1d orbits, whereas in a simple halo picture this can be explained by relating the quadrupole moments of the proton distribution to the charge radii. Advanced models so far fail to reproduce simultaneously the trends observed in the radii and quadrupole moments of the lithium isotopes.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Measurement of 131I activity in thyroid of nuclear medical staff and internal dose assessment in a Polish nuclear medical hospital

This paper presents results of 131I thyroid activity measurements in 30 members of the nuclear medicine personnel of the Department of Endocrinology and Nuclear Medicine Holy Cross Cancer Centre in Kielce, Poland. A whole-body spectrometer equipped with two semiconductor gamma radiation detectors served as the basic research instrument. In ten out of 30 examined staff members, the determined 131I activity was found to be above the detection limit (DL = 5 Bq of 131I in the thyroid). The measured activities ranged from (5 ± 2) Bq to (217 ± 56) Bq. The highest activities in thyroids were detected for technical and cleaning personnel, whereas the lowest values were recorded for medical doctors. Having measured the activities, an attempt has been made to estimate the corresponding annual effective doses, which were found to range from 0.02 to 0.8 mSv. The highest annual equivalent doses have been found for thyroid, ranging from 0.4 to 15.4 mSv, detected for a cleaner and a technician, respectively. The maximum estimated effective dose corresponds to 32% of the annual background dose in Poland, and to circa 4% of the annual limit for the effective dose due to occupational exposure of 20 mSv per year, which is in compliance with the value recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection

Public health policy-making for hearing loss: stakeholders' evaluation of a novel eHealth tool

Background: Hearing loss (HL) affects 466 million people of all ages worldwide, with a rapidly increasing prevalence, and therefore requires appropriate public health policies. Multi-disciplinary approaches that make use of eHealth services can build the evidence to influence public policy. The European Union-funded project EVOTION developed a platform that is fed with real-time data from hearing aids, a smartphone, and additional clinical data and makes public health policy recommendations based on hypothetical public health policy-making models, a big data engine and decision support system. The present study aimed to evaluate this platform as a new tool to support policy-making for HL. / Methods: A total of 23 key stakeholders in the United Kingdom, Croatia, Bulgaria and Poland evaluated the platform according to the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats methodology. / Results: There was consensus that the platform, with its advanced technology as well as the amount and variety of data that it can collect, has huge potential to inform commissioning decisions, public health regulations and affect healthcare as a whole. To achieve this, several limitations and external risks need to be addressed and mitigated. Differences between countries highlighted that the EVOTION tool should be used and managed according to local constraints to maximise success. / Conclusion: Overall, the EVOTION platform can equip HL policy-makers with a novel data-driven tool that can support public health policy-making for HL in the future

Probing the N = 32 shell closure below the magic proton number Z = 20: Mass measurements of the exotic isotopes 52,53K

The recently confirmed neutron-shell closure at N = 32 has been investigated for the first time below the magic proton number Z = 20 with mass measurements of the exotic isotopes 52,53K, the latter being the shortest-lived nuclide investigated at the online mass spectrometer ISOLTRAP. The resulting two-neutron separation energies reveal a 3 MeV shell gap at N = 32, slightly lower than for 52Ca, highlighting the doubly-magic nature of this nuclide. Skyrme-Hartree-Fock-Boguliubov and ab initio Gorkov-Green function calculations are challenged by the new measurements but reproduce qualitatively the observed shell effect.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure