Recent results for the CMS tracker silicon detectors

The paper reports on a detailed study of the radiation resistance of p/sup +/ on n silicon microstrip detectors for the CMS tracking system. From this study, it is seen that the use of low-resistivity substrates with crystal lattice orientation promises excellent performance of the Inner Tracker after heavy irradiation in the Large Hadron Collider environment. Furthermore, the advantage of using detectors thicker than 300 mu m in the Outer Tracker is discussed together with experimental measurements on prototypes. (18 refs)

Oral platelet gel supernatant plus supportive medical treatment versus supportive medical treatment in the management of radiation-induced oral mucositis: a matched explorative active control trial by propensity analysis

OBJECTIVES:: In this active control trial, the rate of radio-induced WHO grade 3/4 oral mucositis and the change in quality of life, assessed by OMWQ-HN, were measured in subjects with head and neck cancer treated by platelet gel supernatant (PGS) and supportive medical treatment versus subjects treated by supportive medical treatment alone. MATERIALS AND METHODS:: Eighty patients with nonmetastatic head and neck cancer underwent curative or adjuvant radiotherapy. All patients underwent supportive medical treatment and/or PGS at the beginning and during radiotherapy. Sixteen patients received PGS in association with supportive medical treatment. To obtain 2 groups virtually randomized for important clinical characteristics subjects were matched, by propensity analysis, with a group of subjects (64 patients) treated with supportive medical treatment alone. RESULTS:: Subjects treated with standard supportive treatment experienced significant higher WHO grade 3/4 toxicity (55%; 35/64) than subjects treated by PGS (13%; 3/16). The reduced toxicity found in PGS group paralleled with the evidence that they developed later symptoms with respect to controls. The Cox proportional hazard model indicated that patients treated with standard supportive medical treatment experienced 2.7-fold increase (hazard ratio=2.7; 95% confidence interval, 1.3-5.7) in the occurrence of WHO grade 3/4 toxicity. PGS group significantly experienced higher quality of life than control groups as measured by OMWQ-HN. A significant decrease in the opioid analgesics usage was found in the PGS group. CONCLUSIONS:: These preliminary data should be interpreted with caution and could serve as a framework around which to design future trials

The Calpain System Is Involved in the Constitutive Regulation of β-Catenin Signaling Functions

Beta-catenin is a multifunctional protein serving both as a structural element in cell adhesion and as a signaling component in the Wnt pathway, regulating embryogenesis and tumorigenesis. The signaling fraction of beta-catenin is tightly controlled by the adenomatous polyposis coli-axin-glycogen synthase kinase 3beta complex, which targets it for proteasomal degradation. It has been recently shown that Ca(2+) release from internal stores results in nuclear export and calpain-mediated degradation of beta-catenin in the cytoplasm. Here we have highlighted the critical relevance of constitutive calpain pathway in the control of beta-catenin levels and functions, showing that small interference RNA knock down of endogenous calpain per se (i.e. in the absence of external stimuli) induces an increase in the free transcriptional competent pool of endogenous beta-catenin. We further characterized the role of the known calpain inhibitors, Gas2 and Calpastatin, demonstrating that they can also control levels, function, and localization of beta-catenin through endogenous calpain regulation. Finally we present Gas2 dominant negative (Gas2DN) as a new tool for regulating calpain activity, providing evidence that it counteracts the described effects of both Gas2 and Calpastatin on beta-catenin and that it works via calpain independently of the classical glycogen synthase kinase 3beta and proteasome pathway. Moreover, we provide in vitro biochemical evidence showing that Gas2DN can increase the activity of calpain and that in vivo it can induce degradation of stabilized/mutated beta-catenin. In fact, in a context where the classical proteasome pathway is impaired, as in colon cancer cells, Gas2DN biological effects accounted for a significant reduction in proliferation and anchorage-independent growth of colon cancer

Impact of comprehensive pulmonary rehabilitation on anxiety and depression in hospitalized COPD patients.

To prospectively evaluate the effect of inpatient pulmonary rehabilitation (iPR) on anxiety and depression as outcome measures in patients with COPD, we studied 149 consecutive adults COPD referred to our iPR after an exacerbation. Patients were divided according to the GOLD staging into: Group 1 (stage 2a, n = 48, FEV1 63 +/- 9% pred.), Group 2 (stage 2b, n = 53, FEV1 42 +/- 6% pred.) and Group 3 (stage 3, n = 48, FEV1 25 +/- 7% pred.). The iPR consisted of twelve 3-hours daily sessions. Hospital Anxiety Depression (HAD) Scale as well as 6-minute walk (6MWD) with evaluation of dyspnea (D) and leg fatigue (F) at rest and end of effort, and health related quality of life by means of St. George Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) were assessed before (T0) and after (T1) the iPR. 6MWD, D and F at end of effort and SGRQ total score similarly improved (p < 0.001) in all groups after iPR. The mean level of HAD-anxiety (from 9.1 +/- 4.0 to 7.7 +/- 3.5, from 9.0 +/- 4.6 to 7.2 +/- 4.6 and from 8.1 +/- 4.1 to 6.7 +/- 4.3 in group 1,2 and 3 respectively) and HAD-depression (from 9.4 +/- 3.5 to 8.2 +/- 3.5, from 9.1 +/- 4.2 to 8.2 +/- 4.5 and from 9.0 +/- 4.0 to 7.4 +/- 4.5 respectively) similarly changed (p < 0.0001) over time in all groups. The total percentage of patients with abnormal score (> 10) of HAD-anxiety (from 31% to 21%) and HAD-depression (from 30% to 22%) significantly decreased (p < 0.05) after the iPR. Inpatient pulmonary rehabilitation may improve levels of anxiety and depression as well as symptoms, exercise capacity and health related quality of life in moderate to severe COPD patients after an acute exacerbation

Development of FTK architecture: a fast hardware track trigger for the ATLAS detector

The Fast Tracker (FTK) is a proposed upgrade to the ATLAS trigger system that will operate at full Level-1 output rates and provide high quality tracks reconstructed over the entire detector by the start of processing in Level-2. FTK solves the combinatorial challenge inherent to tracking by exploiting the massive parallelism of Associative Memories (AM) that can compare inner detector hits to millions of pre-calculated patterns simultaneously. The tracking problem within matched patterns is further simplified by using pre-computed linearized fitting constants and leveraging fast DSP's in modern commercial FPGA's. Overall, FTK is able to compute the helix parameters for all tracks in an event and apply quality cuts in approximately one millisecond. By employing a pipelined architecture, FTK is able to continuously operate at Level-1 rates without deadtime. The system design is defined and studied using ATLAS full simulation. Reconstruction quality is evaluated for single muon events with zero pileup, as well as WH events at the LHC design luminosity. FTK results are compared with the tracking capability of an offline algorithm.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of DPF-2009, Detroit, MI, July 2009, eConf C09072

The Evolution of FTK, a Real-Time Tracker for Hadron Collider Experiments

We describe the architecture evolution of the highly-parallel dedicated processor FTK, which is driven by the simulation of LHC events at high luminosity (1034 cm-2 s-1). FTK is able to provide precise on-line track reconstruction for future hadronic collider experiments. The processor, organized in a two-tiered pipelined architecture, execute very fast algorithms based on the use of a large bank of pre-stored patterns of trajectory points (first tier) in combination with full resolution track fitting to refine pattern recognition and to determine off-line quality track parameters. We describe here how the high luminosity simulation results have produced a new organization of the hardware inside the FTK processor core.Comment: 11th ICATPP conferenc

Rehabilitation of Difficult-to-Wean, Tracheostomized Patients Admitted to specialized unit: Retrospective Analyses Over 10-years.

Introduction: Rehabilitation outcomes of difficult-to-wean tracheostomized patients have been reported in relatively small case studies and described for a limited time span. This study de-scribes the characteristics and clinical outcomes of a large cohort of tracheostomized patients admitted to a specialized weaning unit over 10 years. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed da-ta collected from January 2010 to December 2019 on difficult-to-wean tracheostomized patients who underwent comprehensive rehabilitation. Clinical characteristics collected at admission were the level of comorbidity (by the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale \u2013 CIRS) and the clinical se-verity (by the Simplified Acute Physiology Score \u2013 SAPS II). The proportions of patients weaned, decannulated, and able to walk, the change in autonomy level according to the Bristol Activities of Daily Living (BADL) Scale, and the setting of hospital discharge was assessed and compared in a consecutive 5-year time periods (2010-2014 and 2015-2019) subgroup analysis. Results: A to-tal of 180 patients were included in the analysis. Patients\u2019 anthropometry and preadmission clin-ical management in acute care hospital were similar across years, but the categories of underlying diagnosis changed (p<0.001) (e.g. chronic obstructive pulmonary disease \u2013 COPD \u2013 decreased), while the level of comorbidities increased (p=0.003). Decannulation rate was 45.6%. CIRS and SAPS II at admission were both significant predictors of clinical outcomes. The proportion of pa-tients whose gain in BADL score increased 652 points decreased over time. Conclusions: This study confirms the importance of rehabilitation in the weaning units for the severely disabled subset of tracheostomized patients. Comorbidities and severity at admission are significantly as-sociated with rehabilitation outcomes at discharge

Functionally heterogeneous human satellite cells identified by single cell RNA sequencing.

Although heterogeneity is recognized within the murine satellite cell pool, a comprehensive understanding of distinct subpopulations and their functional relevance in human satellite cells is lacking. We used a combination of single cell RNA sequencing and flow cytometry to identify, distinguish, and physically separate novel subpopulations of human PAX7+ satellite cells (Hu-MuSCs) from normal muscles. We found that, although relatively homogeneous compared to activated satellite cells and committed progenitors, the Hu-MuSC pool contains clusters of transcriptionally distinct cells with consistency across human individuals. New surface marker combinations were enriched in transcriptional subclusters, including a subpopulation of Hu-MuSCs marked by CXCR4/CD29/CD56/CAV1 (CAV1+). In vitro, CAV1+ Hu-MuSCs are morphologically distinct, and characterized by resistance to activation compared to CAV1- Hu-MuSCs. In vivo, CAV1+ Hu-MuSCs demonstrated increased engraftment after transplantation. Our findings provide a comprehensive transcriptional view of normal Hu-MuSCs and describe new heterogeneity, enabling separation of functionally distinct human satellite cell subpopulations

Bottom Production

We review the prospects for bottom production physics at the LHC.Comment: 74 pages, Latex, 71 figures, to appear in the Report of the ``1999 CERN Workshop on SM physics (and more) at the LHC'', P. Nason, G. Ridolfi, O. Schneider G.F. Tartarelli, P. Vikas (conveners