404 research outputs found
Treatment Options for Paediatric Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (ALCL): Current Standard and beyond.
Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK)-positive Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (ALCL), remains one of the most curable cancers in the paediatric setting; multi-agent chemotherapy cures approximately 65-90% of patients. Over the last two decades, major efforts have focused on improving the survival rate by intensification of combination chemotherapy regimens and employing stem cell transplantation for chemotherapy-resistant patients. More recently, several new and 'renewed' agents have offered the opportunity for a change in the paradigm for the management of both chemo-sensitive and chemo-resistant forms of ALCL. The development of ALK inhibitors following the identification of the EML4-ALK fusion gene in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) has opened new possibilities for ALK-positive ALCL. The uniform expression of CD30 on the cell surface of ALCL has given the opportunity for anti-CD30 antibody therapy. The re-evaluation of vinblastine, which has shown remarkable activity as a single agent even in the face of relapsed disease, has led to the consideration of a revised approach to frontline therapy. The advent of immune therapies such as checkpoint inhibition has provided another option for the treatment of ALCL. In fact, the number of potential new agents now presents a real challenge to the clinical community that must prioritise those thought to offer the most promise for the future. In this review, we will focus on the current status of paediatric ALCL therapy, explore how new and 'renewed' agents are re-shaping the therapeutic landscape for ALCL, and identify the strategies being employed in the next generation of clinical trials
Astronomy outreach in Namibia: H.E.S.S. and beyond
Astronomy plays a major role in the scientific landscape of Namibia. Becauseof its excellent sky conditions, Namibia is home to ground-based observatorieslike the High Energy Spectroscopic System (H.E.S.S.), in operation since 2002.Located near the Gamsberg mountain, H.E.S.S. performs groundbreaking science bydetecting very-high-energy gamma rays from astronomical objects. Thefascinating stories behind many of them are featured regularly in the ``Sourceof the Month'', a blog-like format intended for the general public with morethan 170 features to date. In addition to other online communication via socialmedia, H.E.S.S. outreach activities have been covered locally, e.g. through`open days' and guided tours on the H.E.S.S. site itself. An overview of theH.E.S.S. outreach activities are presented in this contribution, along withdiscussions relating to the current landscape of astronomy outreach andeducation in Namibia. There has also been significant activity in the countryin recent months, whereby astronomy is being used to further sustainabledevelopment via human capacity-building. Finally, as we take into account thefuture prospects of radio astronomy in the country, momentum for a wider rangeof astrophysics research is clearly building -- this presents a greatopportunity for the astronomy community to come together to capitalise on thismovement and support astronomy outreach, with the overarching aim to advancesustainable development in Namibia.<br
Astronomy outreach in Namibia: H.E.S.S. and beyond
Astronomy plays a major role in the scientific landscape of Namibia. Because
of its excellent sky conditions, Namibia is home to ground-based observatories
like the High Energy Spectroscopic System (H.E.S.S.), in operation since 2002.
Located near the Gamsberg mountain, H.E.S.S. performs groundbreaking science by
detecting very-high-energy gamma rays from astronomical objects. The
fascinating stories behind many of them are featured regularly in the ``Source
of the Month'', a blog-like format intended for the general public with more
than 170 features to date. In addition to other online communication via social
media, H.E.S.S. outreach activities have been covered locally, e.g. through
`open days' and guided tours on the H.E.S.S. site itself. An overview of the
H.E.S.S. outreach activities are presented in this contribution, along with
discussions relating to the current landscape of astronomy outreach and
education in Namibia. There has also been significant activity in the country
in recent months, whereby astronomy is being used to further sustainable
development via human capacity-building. Finally, as we take into account the
future prospects of radio astronomy in the country, momentum for a wider range
of astrophysics research is clearly building -- this presents a great
opportunity for the astronomy community to come together to capitalise on this
movement and support astronomy outreach, with the overarching aim to advance
sustainable development in Namibia.Comment: ICRC 2021 conference proceedings, 9 pages, 1 figure, 1 tabl
Progress in Monte Carlo design and optimization of the Cherenkov Telescope Array
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be an instrument covering a wide
energy range in very-high-energy (VHE) gamma rays. CTA will include several
types of telescopes, in order to optimize the performance over the whole energy
range. Both large-scale Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of CTA super-sets
(including many different possible CTA layouts as sub-sets) and smaller-scale
simulations dedicated to individual aspects were carried out and are on-going.
We summarize results of the prior round of large-scale simulations, show where
the design has now evolved beyond the conservative assumptions of the prior
round and present first results from the on-going new round of MC simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. In Proceedings of the 33rd International Cosmic
Ray Conference (ICRC2013), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). All CTA contributions at
arXiv:1307.223
Discovery of Very High Energy Gamma Rays from 1ES 1440+122
The BL Lacertae object 1ES 1440+122 was observed in the energy range from 85
GeV to 30 TeV by the VERITAS array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes.
The observations, taken between 2008 May and 2010 June and totalling 53 hours,
resulted in the discovery of -ray emission from the blazar, which has a
redshift =0.163. 1ES 1440+122 is detected at a statistical significance of
5.5 standard deviations above the background with an integral flux of
(2.8) 10
cm s (1.2\% of the Crab Nebula's flux) above 200 GeV. The
measured spectrum is described well by a power law from 0.2 TeV to 1.3 TeV with
a photon index of 3.1 0.4 0.2.
Quasi-simultaneous multi-wavelength data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope
(0.3--300 GeV) and the Swift X-ray Telescope (0.2--10 keV) are additionally
used to model the properties of the emission region. A synchrotron self-Compton
model produces a good representation of the multi-wavelength data. Adding an
external-Compton or a hadronic component also adequately describes the data.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Observations of the unidentified gamma-ray source TeV J2032+4130 by VERITAS
TeV J2032+4130 was the first unidentified source discovered at very high
energies (VHE; E 100 GeV), with no obvious counterpart in any other
wavelength. It is also the first extended source to be observed in VHE gamma
rays. Following its discovery, intensive observational campaigns have been
carried out in all wavelengths in order to understand the nature of the object,
which have met with limited success. We report here on a deep observation of
TeV J2032+4130, based on 48.2 hours of data taken from 2009 to 2012 by the
VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) experiment.
The source is detected at 8.7 standard deviations () and is found to be
extended and asymmetric with a width of 9.51.2 along
the major axis and 4.00.5 along the minor axis. The
spectrum is well described by a differential power law with an index of 2.10
0.14 0.21 and a normalization of (9.5
1.6 2.2) 10TeV cm
s at 1 TeV. We interpret these results in the context of multiwavelength
scenarios which particularly favor the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) interpretation
Investigating the TeV Morphology of MGRO J1908+06 with VERITAS
We report on deep observations of the extended TeV gamma-ray source MGRO
J1908+06 made with the VERITAS very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray observatory.
Previously, the TeV emission has been attributed to the pulsar wind nebula
(PWN) of the Fermi-LAT pulsar PSR J1907+0602. We detect MGRO J1908+06 at a
significance level of 14 standard deviations (14 sigma) and measure a photon
index of 2.20 +/- 0.10_stat +/- 0.20_sys. The TeV emission is extended,
covering the region near PSR J1907+0602 and also extending towards SNR
G40.5--0.5. When fitted with a 2-dimensional Gaussian, the intrinsic extension
has a standard deviation of sigma_src = 0.44 +/- 0.02 degrees. In contrast to
other TeV PWNe of similar age in which the TeV spectrum softens with distance
from the pulsar, the TeV spectrum measured near the pulsar location is
consistent with that measured at a position near the rim of G40.5--0.5, 0.33
degrees away.Comment: To appear in ApJ, 8 page
Deep Broadband Observations of the Distant Gamma-ray Blazar PKS 1424+240
We present deep VERITAS observations of the blazar PKS 1424+240, along with
contemporaneous Fermi Large Area Telescope, Swift X-ray Telescope and Swift UV
Optical Telescope data between 2009 February 19 and 2013 June 8. This blazar
resides at a redshift of , displaying a significantly attenuated
gamma-ray flux above 100 GeV due to photon absorption via pair-production with
the extragalactic background light. We present more than 100 hours of VERITAS
observations from three years, a multiwavelength light curve and the
contemporaneous spectral energy distributions. The source shows a higher flux
of (2.1) ph ms above 120 GeV in 2009 and
2011 as compared to the flux measured in 2013, corresponding to
(1.02) ph ms above 120 GeV. The measured
differential very high energy (VHE; GeV) spectral indices are
3.80.3, 4.30.6 and 4.50.2 in 2009, 2011 and 2013,
respectively. No significant spectral change across the observation epochs is
detected. We find no evidence for variability at gamma-ray opacities of greater
than , where it is postulated that any variability would be small and
occur on longer than year timescales if hadronic cosmic-ray interactions with
extragalactic photon fields provide a secondary VHE photon flux. The data
cannot rule out such variability due to low statistics.Comment: ApJL accepted March 17, 201
Detection of variable VHE gamma-ray emission from the extra-galactic gamma-ray binary LMC P3
Context. Recently, the high-energy (HE, 0.1-100 GeV) -ray emission
from the object LMC P3 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) has been discovered
to be modulated with a 10.3-day period, making it the first extra-galactic
-ray binary.
Aims. This work aims at the detection of very-high-energy (VHE, >100 GeV)
-ray emission and the search for modulation of the VHE signal with the
orbital period of the binary system.
Methods. LMC P3 has been observed with the High Energy Stereoscopic System
(H.E.S.S.); the acceptance-corrected exposure time is 100 h. The data set has
been folded with the known orbital period of the system in order to test for
variability of the emission. Energy spectra are obtained for the orbit-averaged
data set, and for the orbital phase bin around the VHE maximum.
Results. VHE -ray emission is detected with a statistical
significance of 6.4 . The data clearly show variability which is
phase-locked to the orbital period of the system. Periodicity cannot be deduced
from the H.E.S.S. data set alone. The orbit-averaged luminosity in the
TeV energy range is erg/s. A luminosity of erg/s is reached during 20% of the orbit. HE and VHE
-ray emissions are anti-correlated. LMC P3 is the most luminous
-ray binary known so far.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in A&
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