The Primary patency in endovascular treatment of femoropopliteal lesions with Eluvia Paclitaxel-Eluting Stent: single-centre experience.

Restenosis of the obstructive lesions in the superficial femoral or proximal popliteal artery, treated with angioplasty or bare nitinol stenting, frequently occurs. Paclitaxel-eluting stents have been developed to protect against restenosis with the sustained antiproliferative agent release over time. The aim of this study was to report the results about the primary patency in a cohort of patients with long and complex femoropopliteal lesions treated with the Eluvia Drug-Eluting Vascular Stent. The single-center, retrospective, single-arm, study enrolled 61 patients with chronic, symptomatic or asymptomatic, lower limb ischemia and stenotic or occlusive lesions in the superficial femoral artery or proximal popliteal artery. Mean lesion length was 129,3 ± 88,6. Efficacy measures at 18 months included primary patency, defined as duplex ultrasound peak systolic velocity ratio of ≤2.4 and the absence of target lesion revascularization or bypass. The Kaplan–Meier estimate of primary patency through 18 months was on average 83% and precisely 87.5% for patients TASC II A, 91% for patients TASC II B, 83% for patients TASC II C and 73% for patients TASC II D. Six months after the initial procedure primary patency was on average 91,5% and precisely 87.5% for patients TASC II A, 91% for patients TASC II B, 89,5% for patients TASC II C and 100% for patients TASC II D. No stent fractures were identified, and no major target limb amputations occurred. This study confirmed the efficacy of he paclitaxel-eluting Eluvia stent to treat long and complex femoropopliteal lesions

Prior Use of Antiplatelet Therapy and Outcomes after Endovascular Therapy in Acute Ischemic Stroke Due to Large Vessel Occlusion: A Single-Center Experience

Endovascular therapy (EVT) represents the gold standard treatment in patients affected by acute ischemic stroke (AIS) due to large vessel occlusion (LVO). Prior antiplatelet (APT) therapy might increase the risk of bleeding and modify the clinical outcome of AIS patients treated with EVT. Thus, we compared effectiveness and safety of EVT in Caucasian patients with and without previous use of APT agents. We recruited consecutive patients admitted to Udine University Hospital with AIS undergoing EVT from January 2015 to December 2017. The following outcomes were documented: successful recanalization, 3-month favorable outcome, symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH), parenchymal hematoma (PH), and 3-month mortality. The study population included 100 patients (mean age 70.1 \ub1 11.2 years, 58% males). At time of admission, 34 patients were taking APT agents. Patients on APT pretreatment were older, had more vascular risk factors, and showed higher levels of serum creatinine than APT na\uefve patients. Moreover, prior APT therapy was associated with a higher rate of pre-stroke disability and a more severe stroke at admission. Patients pretreated with APT had higher rates of successful recanalization (91.2% vs. 74.2%, p = 0.04). Prevalence of 3-month unfavorable outcome and 3-month mortality was significantly higher in APT-pretreated patients than in those without APT pretreatment. However, these associations were not confirmed on multivariable analyses. Prevalence of sICH and PH did not differ in the two groups. APT pretreatment is associated to successful recanalization rate, without increasing the risk of intracranial bleeding in patients with LVO undergoing EVT

New European Metrology Network for advanced manufacturing

Advanced manufacturing has been identified as one of the key enabling technologies with applications in multiple industries. The growing importance of advanced manufacturing is reflected by an increased number of publications on this topic in recent years. Advanced manufacturing requires new and enhanced metrology methods to assure the quality of manufacturing processes and the resulting products. However, a high-level coordination of the metrology community is currently absent in this field and consequently this limits the impact of metrology developments on advanced manufacturing. In this article we introduce the new European Metrology Network (EMN) for Advanced Manufacturing within EURAMET, the European Association of National Metrology Institutes (NMIs). The EMN is intended to be operated sustainably by NMIs and Designated Institutes in close cooperation with stakeholders interested in advanced manufacturing. The objectives of the EMN are to set up a permanent stakeholder dialogue, to develop a Strategic Research Agenda for the metrology input required for advanced manufacturing technologies, to create and maintain a knowledge sharing programme and to implement a web-based service desk for stakeholders. The EMN development is supported by a Joint Network Project within the European Metrology Programme for Innovation and Research

Neutrino Physics with JUNO

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), a 20 kton multi-purposeunderground liquid scintillator detector, was proposed with the determinationof the neutrino mass hierarchy as a primary physics goal. It is also capable ofobserving neutrinos from terrestrial and extra-terrestrial sources, includingsupernova burst neutrinos, diffuse supernova neutrino background, geoneutrinos,atmospheric neutrinos, solar neutrinos, as well as exotic searches such asnucleon decays, dark matter, sterile neutrinos, etc. We present the physicsmotivations and the anticipated performance of the JUNO detector for variousproposed measurements. By detecting reactor antineutrinos from two power plantsat 53-km distance, JUNO will determine the neutrino mass hierarchy at a 3-4sigma significance with six years of running. The measurement of antineutrinospectrum will also lead to the precise determination of three out of the sixoscillation parameters to an accuracy of better than 1\%. Neutrino burst from atypical core-collapse supernova at 10 kpc would lead to ~5000inverse-beta-decay events and ~2000 all-flavor neutrino-proton elasticscattering events in JUNO. Detection of DSNB would provide valuable informationon the cosmic star-formation rate and the average core-collapsed neutrinoenergy spectrum. Geo-neutrinos can be detected in JUNO with a rate of ~400events per year, significantly improving the statistics of existing geoneutrinosamples. The JUNO detector is sensitive to several exotic searches, e.g. protondecay via the $p\to K^++\bar\nu$ decay channel. The JUNO detector will providea unique facility to address many outstanding crucial questions in particle andastrophysics. It holds the great potential for further advancing our quest tounderstanding the fundamental properties of neutrinos, one of the buildingblocks of our Universe

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Azimuthal anisotropy of charged jet production in root s(NN)=2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collisions

We present measurements of the azimuthal dependence of charged jet production in central and semi-central root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collisions with respect to the second harmonic event plane, quantified as nu(ch)(2) (jet). Jet finding is performed employing the anti-k(T) algorithm with a resolution parameter R = 0.2 using charged tracks from the ALICE tracking system. The contribution of the azimuthal anisotropy of the underlying event is taken into account event-by-event. The remaining (statistical) region-to-region fluctuations are removed on an ensemble basis by unfolding the jet spectra for different event plane orientations independently. Significant non-zero nu(ch)(2) (jet) is observed in semi-central collisions (30-50% centrality) for 20 <p(T)(ch) (jet) <90 GeV/c. The azimuthal dependence of the charged jet production is similar to the dependence observed for jets comprising both charged and neutral fragments, and compatible with measurements of the nu(2) of single charged particles at high p(T). Good agreement between the data and predictions from JEWEL, an event generator simulating parton shower evolution in the presence of a dense QCD medium, is found in semi-central collisions. (C) 2015 CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Peer reviewe

Production of He-4 and (4) in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S=2.76 TeV at the LHC

Results on the production of He-4 and (4) nuclei in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S = 2.76 TeV in the rapidity range vertical bar y vertical bar <1, using the ALICE detector, are presented in this paper. The rapidity densities corresponding to 0-10% central events are found to be dN/dy4(He) = (0.8 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.3 (syst)) x 10(-6) and dN/dy4 = (1.1 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.2 (syst)) x 10(-6), respectively. This is in agreement with the statistical thermal model expectation assuming the same chemical freeze-out temperature (T-chem = 156 MeV) as for light hadrons. The measured ratio of (4)/He-4 is 1.4 +/- 0.8 (stat) +/- 0.5 (syst). (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

Forward-central two-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions at root s(NN)=5.02 TeV

Two-particle angular correlations between trigger particles in the forward pseudorapidity range (2.5 2GeV/c. (C) 2015 CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B. V.Peer reviewe

Global maps of soil temperature

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km² resolution for 0–5 and 5–15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e., offset) between in-situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km² pixels (summarized from 8500 unique temperature sensors) across all the world’s major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (-0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in-situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications