Consumer Bankruptcy Update

Materials from the Consumer Bankruptcy Update presentations held by UK/CLE in December 2000

LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products

(Abridged) We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). A vast array of science will be enabled by a single wide-deep-fast sky survey, and LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a wide-field ground-based system sited at Cerro Pach\'{o}n in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg$^2$ field of view, and a 3.2 Gigapixel camera. The standard observing sequence will consist of pairs of 15-second exposures in a given field, with two such visits in each pointing in a given night. With these repeats, the LSST system is capable of imaging about 10,000 square degrees of sky in a single filter in three nights. The typical 5$\sigma$ point-source depth in a single visit in $r$ will be $\sim 24.5$ (AB). The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. The survey area will be contained within 30,000 deg$^2$ with $\delta<+34.5^\circ$, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, $ugrizy$, covering the wavelength range 320--1050 nm. About 90\% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg$^2$ region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, and yield a coadded map to $r\sim27.5$. The remaining 10\% of the observing time will be allocated to projects such as a Very Deep and Fast time domain survey. The goal is to make LSST data products, including a relational database of about 32 trillion observations of 40 billion objects, available to the public and scientists around the world.Comment: 57 pages, 32 color figures, version with high-resolution figures available from https://www.lsst.org/overvie

Status of the ‘consensus nomenclature rules in radiopharmaceutical sciences’ initiative

The radiopharmaceutical sciences are a relatively recent addition to the field of natural and life sciences. After early basic research following the discovery of radioactivity at the turn of the 20th century, the wider use of radionuclides, especially in chemistry, pharmacy and medicine, became possible after World War II with the availability of ‘artificially’ generated beta-emitters from nuclear reactors, and developments in cyclotron technology allowing the production of neutron-deficient radionuclides [1]. The evolution of the field was naturally accompanied by an equally rapid development of the necessary and corresponding terminology.The scientists involved, often with very different backgrounds, were as active in the invention of terms, names and definitions as in the elaboration of new synthetic and analytical methodologies and processes. The free creation of nomenclature in such a diverse and dynamic environment inevitably resulted in a plethora of unclear, often ambiguous, incorrect or even contradicting descriptions in radiopharmaceutical science communications, frequently resulting in differences in their interpretation. An internationally harmonised and consistent nomenclature is however crucial to ensure unambiguous interpretation and comparison of scientific findings.An attempt to address this issue, the Drug Development Committee of the EANM initiated and assembled an international consortium in 2013 to achieve a consensus on nomenclature rules in radiopharmaceutical chemistry. After about 3 years of deliberation and extensive communication with peers in the field, a consensus was achieved at the International Symposium on Radiopharmaceutical Sciences (ISRS) in 2017, and recommendations on harmonised nomenclature rules were subsequently published [2]. The guidelines immediately attracted attention - as reflected by the number of citations (23) and article downloads (6737) in the 16 months following publication. A summary of the recommendations was also widely disseminated in the form of an “Open letter to journal editors on: international consensus radiochemistry nomenclature guidelines”, in order to reach and inform colleagues beyond our immediate research peer group: journal editors, publishers, pharmacopoeias, IUPAC etc

Consensus nomenclature rules for radiopharmaceutical chemistry — Setting the record straight

Over recent years, within the community of radiopharmaceutical sciences, there has been an increased incidence of incorrect usage of established scientific terms and conventions, and even the emergence of ‘self-invented’ terms. In order to address these concerns, an international Working Group on ‘Nomenclature in Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry and related areas’ was established in 2015 to achieve clarification of terms and to generate consensus on the utilisation of a standardised nomenclature pertinent to the field. Upon open consultation, the following consensus guidelines were agreed, which aim to: • Provide a reference source for nomenclature good practice in the radiopharmaceutical sciences.• Clarify the use of terms and rules concerning exclusively radiopharmaceutical terminology, i.e. nuclear- and radiochemical terms, symbols and expressions.• Address gaps and inconsistencies in existing radiochemistry nomenclature rules.• Provide source literature for further harmonisation beyond our immediate peer group (publishers, editors, IUPAC, pharmacopoeias, etc.)

Splenic autonomic denervation increases inflammatory status but does not aggravate atherosclerotic lesion development

The brain plays a prominent role in the regulation of inflammation. Immune cells are under control of the so-called cholinergic anti-inflammatory reflex, mainly acting via autonomic innervation of the spleen. Activation of this reflex inhibits the secretion of proinflammatory cytokines and may reduce the development of atherosclerosis. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of selective parasympathetic (Px) and sympathetic (Sx) denervation of the spleen on inflammatory status and atherosclerotic lesion development. Female APOE*3-Leiden.CETP mice, a well-established model for human-like lipid metabolism and atherosclerosis, were fed a cholesterol-containing Western-type diet for 4 wk after which they were subdivided into three groups receiving either splenic Px, splenic Sx, or sham surgery. The mice were subsequently challenged with the same diet for an additional 15 wk. Selective Px increased leukocyte counts (i.e., dendritic cells, B cells, and T cells) in the spleen and increased gene expression of proinflammatory cytokines in the liver and peritoneal leukocytes compared with Sx and sham surgery. Both Px and Sx increased circulating proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β and IL-6. However, the increased proinflammatory status in denervated mice did not affect atherosclerotic lesion size or lesion composition. Predominantly selective Px of the spleen enhances the inflammatory status, which, however, does not aggravate diet-induced atherosclerotic lesion developmen