Status Report Of The Schenberg Gravitational Wave Antenna

Here we present a status report of the Schenberg antenna. In the past three years it has gone to a radical upgrading operation, in which we have been installing a 1K pot dilution refrigerator, cabling and amplifiers for nine transducer circuits, designing a new suspension and vibration isolation system for the microstrip antennas, and developing a full set of new transducers, microstrip antennas, and oscillators. We are also studying an innovative approach, which could transform Schenberg into a broadband gravitational wave detector.3631Aguiar, O.D., (2002) Class. Quantum Grav., 19, p. 1949Aguiar, O.D., (2004) Class. Quantum Grav., 21, pp. S457Aguiar, O.D., (2005) Class. Quantum Grav., 22, pp. S209Aguiar, O.D., (2006) Class. Quantum Grav., 23, pp. S239Aguiar, O.D., (2008) Class. Quantum Grav., 25, p. 114042Costa, C.A., (2008) Class. Quantum Grav., 25, p. 184002Johnson, W.W., Merkowitz, S.M., (1993) Phys. Rev. Lett., 70, p. 2367Coccia, E., Lobo, J.A., Ortega, J.A., (1995) Phys. Rev. D, 52, p. 3735Thorne, K.S., (1978) Phys. Rev. Lett., 40, p. 667Tobar, M.E., Ivanov, E.N., Blair, D.G., (2000) Gen. Rel. Grav., 32, p. 1799De Waard, (2005) Class. Quantum Grav., 22, pp. S215Vinet, J.-Y., (2010) Research in Astron Astrophys., 10, p. 956Costa, C.A., Aguiar, O.D., Magalhães, N.S., (2004) Class. Quantum Grav., 21, pp. S827Forward, R.L., (1971) Gen. Rel. Grav., 2, p. 149Eardley, D.M., Lee, D.L., Lightman, A.P., Wagoner, R.V., Will, C.M., (1973) Phys. Rev. Lett., 30, p. 884Bianchi, M., Coccia, E., Colacino, C.N., Fafone, V., Fucito, F., (1996) Class. Quantum Grav., 13, p. 2865Andrade, L.A., (2009) Microwave and Optical Tech. Lett., 51, p. 1120Furtado, S.R., (2012), in preparationIvanov, E.N., Hartnett, J.G., Tobar, M.E., (2000) IEEE Trans. Ultrason., Ferroelect., Freq. Contr., 47, p. 1526Pimentel, G.L., (2008) J. Phys. Conf. Series, 122, p. 012028Aguiar, (2009) Int. J. Modern Phys. D, 18, p. 2317Furtado, S.R., (2009), Ph.D. Thesis at INPE, not publishedBraginsky, V.B., Vorontsov, Y.I., Thorne, K.S., (1980) Science, 209, p. 547Thorne, K.S., The Quantum Limit for Gravitational-Wave Detectors and Methods of Circumventing It (1979) Sources of Gravitational Waves, p. 49. , ed. L L Smarr, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, US

Clinical characteristics of women captured by extending the definition of severe postpartum haemorrhage with 'refractoriness to treatment': a cohort study

Background: The absence of a uniform and clinically relevant definition of severe postpartum haemorrhage hampers comparative studies and optimization of clinical management. The concept of persistent postpartum haemorrhage, based on refractoriness to initial first-line treatment, was proposed as an alternative to common definitions that are either based on estimations of blood loss or transfused units of packed red blood cells (RBC). We compared characteristics and outcomes of women with severe postpartum haemorrhage captured by these three types of definitions. Methods: In this large retrospective cohort study in 61 hospitals in the Netherlands we included 1391 consecutive women with postpartum haemorrhage who received either ≥4 units of RBC or a multicomponent transfusion. Clinical characteristics and outcomes of women with severe postpartum haemorrhage defined as persistent postpartum haemorrhage were compared to definitions based on estimated blood loss or transfused units of RBC within 24 h following birth. Adverse maternal outcome was a composite of maternal mortality, hysterectomy, arterial embolisation and intensive care unit admission. Results: One thousand two hundred sixty out of 1391 women (90.6%) with postpartum haemorrhage fulfilled the definition of persistent postpartum haemorrhage. The majority, 820/1260 (65.1%), fulfilled this definition within 1 h following birth, compared to 819/1391 (58.7%) applying the definition of ≥1 L blood loss and 37/845 (4.4%) applying the definition of ≥4 units of RBC. The definition persistent postpartum haemorrhage captured 430/471 adverse maternal outcomes (91.3%), compared to 471/471 (100%) for ≥1 L blood loss and 383/471 (81.3%) for ≥4 units of RBC. Persistent postpartum haemorrhage did not capture all adverse outcomes because of missing data on timing of initial, first-line treatment. Conclusion: The definition persistent postpartum haemo

Colorectal liver metastases: Surgery versus thermal ablation (COLLISION) - a phase III single-blind prospective randomized controlled trial

Background: Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and microwave ablation (MWA) are widely accepted techniques to eliminate small unresectable colorectal liver metastases (CRLM). Although previous studies labelled thermal ablation inferior to surgical resection, the apparent selection bias when comparing patients with unresectable disease to surgical candidates, the superior safety profile, and the competitive overall survival results for the more recent reports mandate the setup of a randomized controlled trial. The objective of the COLLISION trial is to prove non-inferiority of thermal ablation compared to hepatic resection in patients with at least one resectable and ablatable CRLM and no extrahepatic disease. Methods: In this two-arm, single-blind multi-center phase-III clinical trial, six hundred and eighteen patients with at least one CRLM (≤3cm) will be included to undergo either surgical resection or thermal ablation of appointed target lesion(s) (≤3cm). Primary endpoint is OS (overall survival, intention-to-treat analysis). Main secondary endpoints are overall disease-free survival (DFS), time to progression (TTP), time to local progression (TTLP), primary and assisted technique efficacy (PTE, ATE), procedural morbidity and mortality, length of hospital stay, assessment of pain and quality of life (QoL), cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) and quality-adjusted life years (QALY). Discussion: If thermal ablation proves to be non-inferior in treating lesions ≤3cm, a switch in treatment-method may lead to a reduction of the post-procedural morbidity and mortality, length of hospital stay and incremental costs without compromising oncological outcome for patients with CRLM. Trial registration:NCT03088150 , January 11th 2017

Fighting against spam: The ETIS anti-spam pilot project

Unsolicited e-mail, better known as spam, is considered to be one of the largest problems of todays Internet. Some sources claim that up to 90 percent of all e-mail is spam which is a large resource claim on e-mail infrastructures. In this paper we report the results of an anti-spam pilot held between four European ISPs during the first six months of 2007. The combined effort on several areas from technical to procedural is tested. One of these is passive network monitoring technology (such as Lobster) used in cooperation with spam filtering appliances

Patient preferences for expectant management vs. surgical evacuation in first-trimester uncomplicated miscarriage.

OBJECTIVE: Expectant and surgical management are widely accepted treatment options in case of a miscarriage. In the absence of differences in complications, the choice between both options can be based on patient preferences. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: We studied treatment preferences for future miscarriages in women with a miscarriage randomized to expectant or surgical treatment or managed according to their own choice. RESULTS: Data from 136 patients were analyzed. Women randomized either to expectant or surgical management opted for the allocated treatment in future in 55 and 74%, respectively. Of the women randomized to expectant management and with a successful spontaneous loss, 71% opted again for this treatment. Women who were managed according to their own treatment choice, held on to their initial treatment preference (expectant vs. surgical management; 84 and 88%, respectively). Preferences after treatment were strong. CONCLUSION: A strong treatment preference should be taken into account in the counseling process. Women without a preference should be well informed on all medical aspects of the two options in order to facilitate informed-shared decision-making