Nondestructive Testing Potential of a Magnetoacoustic Storage Correlator (MASC)

A simple magnetoacoustic storage correlator (MASC) was tested as a pulse compressor in an ultrasonic nondestructive testing application. The pulse compression ratio reached was 30. Higher compression ratios are readily available through choice of different device lengths and device operating regime. The system is flexible; it is not limited to any particular type of large time-bandwidth signal. The correlator reference signal is easily programmable and erasable, and can be changed at any time. This system offers real-time correlation signal processing at a repetition rate that is only limited by the temporal length of the large time-bandwidth signal

Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia and Myelodysplastic Syndrome: Azacitidine for Prophylactic and Preventive Purposes after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

Aim. To evaluate the effectiveness of preventive and prophylactic post-transplantation therapy using azacitidine (5-AZA) in patients at high risk of post-transplantation relapse. Methods. 136 patients were included in the study performed by the pairwise comparison: 68 of them received 5-AZA after allo-HSCT and 68 patients were included in the historical control group. 5-AZA was prescribed for prophylactic or preventive purposes. The results were assessed according to the OS, RR, EFS, DUM, and relapse-free and GVHR-free survival. Results. 1-year OS was 76 % in the 5-AZA group (95% CI 60–84 %) and 44 % in the reference group (95% CI 33–55 %) (p = 0.001); 2-year OS was 63 % (95% CI 39–67 %) and 37 % (95% CI 26–48 %) (p = 0.007), respectively. The relapse rate (RR) in the 5-AZA group was 34 % (95% CI 22–46 %) during 1 year and 51 % (95% CI 38–64 %) in the reference group (p = 0.02). 1- and 2-year disease unrelated mortality (DUM) was similar: 5 % in the 5-AZA group (95% CI 0.1–14.0 %) and 25 % (95% CI 13–37 %) in the reference group (p = 0.005). 1-year EFS was 76 % in the 5-AZA group (95% CI 61–85 %) and 44 % in the reference group (95% CI 33–55 %) (p = 0.001); 2-year EFS was 63 % (95% CI 39–67 %) and 37 % (95% CI 26–48 %) (p = 0.01), respectively. 1-year relapse-free and GVHR-free survival was 55 % in the 5-AZA group (95% CI 41–69 %) and 28 % in the reference group (95% CI 17–39 %) (p = 0.001); 2-year relapse-free and GVHR-free survival was 47 % (95% CI 32–62 %) and 27 % (95% CI 17–37 %) (p = 0.002), respectively. Conclusion. The use of 5-AZA for prophylactic and preventive purposes after allo-HSCT does not increase the risk of GVHR and DUM, does not suppress the GVL effect and can be used in combination with the donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI). The therapy with 5-AZA is safe during the early period after allo-HSCT. The drug does not suppress the GVL effect and can be used in high risk patients to prevent early post-transplantation relapse. The use of 5-AZA in combination with DLI does not increase the incidence of severe GVHR

HERAFitter

HERAFitter is an open-source package that provides a framework for the determination of the parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the proton and for many different kinds of analyses in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). It encodes results from a wide range of experimental measurements in lepton–proton deep inelastic scattering and proton–proton (proton–antiproton) collisions at hadron colliders. These are complemented with a variety of theoretical options for calculating PDF-dependent cross section predictions corresponding to the measurements. The framework covers a large number of the existing methods and schemes used for PDF determination. The data and theoretical predictions are brought together through numerous methodological options for carrying out PDF fits and plotting tools to help to visualise the results. While primarily based on the approach of collinear factorisation, HERAFitter also provides facilities for fits of dipole models and transverse-momentum dependent PDFs. The package can be used to study the impact of new precise measurements from hadron colliders. This paper describes the general structure of HERAFitter and its wide choice of options