Assessing the efficacy of various treatment regimens for patients with endocrine ophthalmopathy associated with Graves’ disease

Purpose: To assess the efficacy of various treatment regimens for patients with EO associated with Graves’ disease based on the retrospective analysis of clinical data, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) receptor autoantibodies (TSHR-Ab) titers and orbital ultrasound imaging findings. Material and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records (including clinical and laboratory data and findings of ultrasound imaging of retrobulbar adipose tissue) of 155 patients with EO associated with Graves’ disease and either euthyroidism (in the presence of antithyroid therapy) or postoperative compensated hypothyroidism that underwent treatment at Komisarenko Institute for Endocrinology and Metabolism between 2009 and 2019. The duration of EO ranged from 8 months to 36 months. Patients with EO associated with Graves’ disease were medically treated in the presence of stable euthyroidism. Patients were divided into 4 groups based on the glucocorticoid treatment scheme. Group 1 of 15 patients received prednisolone tablets per os; group 2 of 68 patients, intravenous methylprednisolone (MP) pulse therapy only; group 3 of 32 patients, intravenous MP pulse therapy plus vitamin D3; and group 4 of 40 patients, intravenous MP pulse therapy 8 to 12 months after thyroidectomy. Results: As soon as 3 months after treatment initiation, there was an improvement in condition of patients in all groups as assessed by clinical examination, followed by further improvement by 6 months and 12 months. The best results were obtained in patients of group 4, with a statistically significant improvement in clinical condition (p < 0.05). Retrobulbar adipose tissue thickness as assessed by orbital ultrasound at baseline and at 6 months and 12 months was statistically significantly greater in patients of all the four groups than controls (p < 0.05). At 6 months, serum TSHR-Ab levels in groups 1, 2 and 3 significantly decreased compared to baseline, with no significant difference between these groups, whereas serum TSHR-Ab level in group 4 was significantly higher than in other groups both at baseline and at 6 months. At 12 months, serum TSHR-Ab level in group 4 was significantly lower (р < 0.05) than in other groups (2.41 ± 0.81 mU/L versus 5.97 ± 1.71 mU/L for group 1, 5.49 ± 1.27 mU/L for group 2, and 6.17 ± 1.18 mU/L for group 3). Conclusion: Patients with EO associated with Graves’ disease in group 4 (intravenous MP pulse therapy after thyroidectomy) showed a significantly better (р < 0.05) treatment outcome than patients in other groups. Ultrasound imaging of retrobulbar adipose tissue thickness is inadequately informative for assessing treatment efficacy

Response of a CMS HGCAL silicon-pad electromagnetic calorimeter prototype to 20-300 GeV positrons

The Compact Muon Solenoid Collaboration is designing a new high-granularity endcap calorimeter, HGCAL, to be installed later this decade. As part of this development work, a prototype system was built, with an electromagnetic section consisting of 14 double-sided structures, providing 28 sampling layers. Each sampling layer has an hexagonal module, where a multipad large-area silicon sensor is glued between an electronics circuit board and a metal baseplate. The sensor pads of approximately 1 cm$^2$ are wire-bonded to the circuit board and are readout by custom integrated circuits. The prototype was extensively tested with beams at CERN's Super Proton Synchrotron in 2018. Based on the data collected with beams of positrons, with energies ranging from 20 to 300 GeV, measurements of the energy resolution and linearity, the position and angular resolutions, and the shower shapes are presented and compared to a detailed Geant4 simulation

Performance of the CMS High Granularity Calorimeter prototype to charged pion beams of 20−-300 GeV/c

The upgrade of the CMS experiment for the high luminosity operation of the LHC comprises the replacement of the current endcap calorimeter by a high granularity sampling calorimeter (HGCAL). The electromagnetic section of the HGCAL is based on silicon sensors interspersed between lead and copper (or copper tungsten) absorbers. The hadronic section uses layers of stainless steel as an absorbing medium and silicon sensors as an active medium in the regions of high radiation exposure, and scintillator tiles directly readout by silicon photomultipliers in the remaining regions. As part of the development of the detector and its readout electronic components, a section of a silicon-based HGCAL prototype detector along with a section of the CALICE AHCAL prototype was exposed to muons, electrons and charged pions in beam test experiments at the H2 beamline at the CERN SPS in October 2018. The AHCAL uses the same technology as foreseen for the HGCAL but with much finer longitudinal segmentation. The performance of the calorimeters in terms of energy response and resolution, longitudinal and transverse shower profiles is studied using negatively charged pions, and is compared to GEANT4 predictions. This is the first report summarizing results of hadronic showers measured by the HGCAL prototype using beam test data.Comment: To be submitted to JINS

Measurements and Modeling of Wetting Efficiency in Trickle-Bed Reactors:Liquid Viscosity and Bed Packing Effects

An experimental parametric study on wetting efficiency is reported which evaluates the influence of liquid viscosity, as well as the effect of particle size(/shape) and bed porosity (εB), separately. A 10-fold increase of liquid viscosity improves slightly catalyst wetting (by about 10%), while an increase of either bed porosity or particle size has the opposite effect. Wetting efficiency is reduced by about 0.1 for an increase of εB from 0.38 and 0.40 due to a change of particle size from 1.8 to 7 × 10−3 m while the decrease is only 0.05 for a similar variation of εB (0.38−0.41) with the same particles. The effect of particle shape (cylindrical/trilobe extrudates or spheres) appears very small in the investigated conditions. A new correlation for wetting efficiency is proposed, using a bounded function and only three dimensionless groups (liquid Froude and Morton numbers and bed porosity). This correlation is able to predict wetting efficiency with a very good precision on a large database, provided wetting liquids are used. Adding fines in the fixed bed is also examined, and its positive effect can be correlated with the size ratio between catalyst particles and fines

Does entrepreneurial leadership foster creativity among employees and team?: The mediating role of creative efficacy beliefs

The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of how entrepreneurial leadership relates to workplace creativity in organizations from the compatibility perspective. Drawing on social cognitive theory, we propose that individual creative self-efficacy and team creative efficacy beliefs mediate the relationships between entrepreneurial leadership and individual and team creativity. This study examines the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and creativity through creative efficacy. Survey data were collected from multiple sources, including 43 leaders and 237 employees in eight Chinese companies. Cross-level relationships are tested by means of a hierarchical linear modeling analysis (HLM). The results reveal that entrepreneurial leadership is positively related to employee and team creativity, and these relationships are found to be mediated by both employee creative self efficacy and team creative efficacy. Furthermore, team creative efficacy is found to exert a cross-level mediating influence on the entrepreneurial leadership-employee creativity relationship. This study suggests that employees and teams led by entrepreneurial leaders are likely to produce creative outcomes. The findings further confirm the important role of creative efficacy beliefs in explaining how entrepreneurial leadership relates to employee and team creativity, as such beliefs serve as a within-level and cross-level mediating mechanism in these relationships. Our study is among the first to empirically investigate the concept of entrepreneurial leadership in a broader organizational context. We examine how entrepreneurial leadership contributes to workplace creativity. Our study shows that creative efficacy beliefs exert both within-level and cross-level mediating influences in the entrepreneurial leadership-creativity relation