We describe the design and measurement of feedhorn-coupled, transition-edge sensor (TES) polarimeters with two passbands centered at 220 GHz and 280 GHz, intended for observations of the cosmic ...microwave background. Each pixel couples polarized light in two linear polarizations by use of a planar orthomode transducer and senses power via four TES bolometers, one for each band in each linear polarization. Previous designs of this detector architecture incorporated passbands from 27 to 220 GHz; we now demonstrate this technology at frequencies up to 315 GHz. Observational passbands are defined with an on-chip diplexer, and Fourier-transform-spectrometer measurements are in excellent agreement with simulations. We find coupling from feedhorn to TES bolometer using a cryogenic, temperature-controlled thermal source. We determine the optical efficiency of our device is
η
=
77
%
±
6
%
(
75
%
±
5
%
) for 220 (280) GHz, relative to the designed passband shapes. Lastly, we compare two power-termination schemes commonly used in wide-bandwidth millimeter-wave polarimeters and find equal performance in terms of optical efficiency and passband shape.
The aim of this study was to develop and validate an automated pipeline that could assist the diagnosis of active aortitis using radiomic imaging biomarkers derived from 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose ...Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography (FDG PET-CT) images. The aorta was automatically segmented by convolutional neural network (CNN) on FDG PET-CT of aortitis and control patients. The FDG PET-CT dataset was split into training (43 aortitis:21 control), test (12 aortitis:5 control) and validation (24 aortitis:14 control) cohorts. Radiomic features (RF), including SUV metrics, were extracted from the segmented data and harmonized. Three radiomic fingerprints were constructed: A-RFs with high diagnostic utility removing highly correlated RFs; B used principal component analysis (PCA); C-Random Forest intrinsic feature selection. The diagnostic utility was evaluated with accuracy and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Several RFs and Fingerprints had high AUC values (AUC > 0.8), confirmed by balanced accuracy, across training, test and external validation datasets. Good diagnostic performance achieved across several multi-centre datasets suggests that a radiomic pipeline can be generalizable. These findings could be used to build an automated clinical decision tool to facilitate objective and standardized assessment regardless of observer experience.
Watch and wait is a novel management strategy in patients with rectal cancer who have a clinical complete response after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. Surveillance of these patients is generally ...intensive, because local regrowth (with the potential for salvage) occurs in 25% of patients, and distant metastases occur in 10% of patients. It is unclear for how long these patients should be followed up. To address this issue, we did conditional survival modelling using the International Watch & Wait Database (IWWD), which is a large-scale registry of patients with a clinical complete response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy who have been managed by a watch-and-wait strategy.
We did a retrospective, multicentre registry study using a dataset from the IWWD, which includes data from 47 clinics across 15 countries. We selected patients (aged ≥18 years) with rectal cancer who had a clinical complete response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and who were subsequently managed by a watch-and-wait strategy between Nov 25, 1991, and Dec 31, 2015. Patients who had not achieved a clinical complete response or who had undergone any surgical procedure were excluded. The criteria used for defining a clinical complete response and the specific surveillance strategies were at the discretion of each participating centre. We used conditional survival modelling to estimate the probability of patients remaining free of local regrowth or distant metastasis for an additional 2 years after sustaining a clinical complete response or being distant metastasis-free for 1, 3, and 5 years from the date of the decision to commence watch and wait. The primary outcomes were conditional local regrowth-free survival at 3 years, and conditional distant metastasis-free survival at 5 years.
We identified 793 patients in the IWWD with clinical complete response who had been managed by a watch-and-wait strategy. Median follow-up was 55·2 months (IQR 36·0–75·6). The probability of remaining free from local regrowth for an additional 2 years if a patient had a sustained clinical complete response for 1 year was 88·1% (95% CI 85·8–90·9), for 3 years was 97·3% (95·2–98·6), and for 5 years was 98·6% (97·6–100·0). The probably of remaining free from distant metastasis for a further 2 years in patients who had a clinical complete response without distant metastasis for 1 year was 93·8% (92·3–95·9), for 3 years was 97·8% (96·6–99·3), and for 5 years was 96·6% (94·0–98·9).
These results suggest that the intensity of active surveillance in patients with rectal cancer managed by a watch-and-wait approach could be reduced if they achieve and maintain a clinical complete response within the first 3 years of starting this approach.
European Registration of Cancer Care, financed by the European Society of Surgical Oncology, the Champalimaud Foundation Lisbon, the Bas Mulder Award, granted by the Alpe d’HuZes Foundation and the Dutch Cancer Society, the European Research Council Advanced Grant, and the National Institute of Health and Research Manchester Biomedical Research Centre.
Advanced ACTPol (AdvACT) is a third-generation cosmic microwave background receiver to be deployed in 2016 on the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT). Spanning five frequency bands from 25 to 280 GHz ...and having just over 5600 transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers, this receiver will exhibit increased sensitivity and mapping speed compared to previously fielded ACT instruments. This paper presents the fabrication processes developed by NIST to scale to large arrays of feedhorn-coupled multichroic AlMn-based TES polarimeters on 150-mm diameter wafers. In addition to describing the streamlined fabrication process which enables high yields of densely packed detectors across larger wafers, we report the details of process improvements for sensor (AlMn) and insulator (SiN(sub x)) materials and microwave structures, and the resulting performance improvements.
In the next decade, new ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments such as Simons Observatory, CCAT-prime, and CMB-S4 will increase the number of detectors observing the CMB by an ...order of magnitude or more, dramatically improving our understanding of cosmology and astrophysics. These projects will deploy receivers with as many as hundreds of thousands of transition edge sensor (TES) bolometers coupled to superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID)-based readout systems. It is well known that superconducting devices such as TESes and SQUIDs are sensitive to magnetic fields. However, the effects of magnetic fields on TESes are not easily predicted due to the complex behavior of the superconducting transition, which motivates direct measurements of the magnetic sensitivity of these devices. We present comparative four-lead measurements of the critical temperature versus applied magnetic field of AlMn TESes varying in geometry, doping, and leg length, including Advanced ACT and POLARBEAR-2/Simons Array bolometers. MoCu ACTPol TESes are also tested and are found to be more sensitive to magnetic fields than the AlMn devices. We present an observation of weak-link-like behavior in AlMn TESes at low critical currents. We also compare measurements of magnetic sensitivity for time division multiplexing SQUIDs and frequency division multiplexing microwave (
μ
MUX) rf-SQUIDs. We discuss the implications of our measurements on the magnetic shielding required for future experiments that aim to map the CMB to near-fundamental limits.
The Advanced ACTPol 27/39 GHz Array Simon, S. M.; Beall, J. A.; Cothard, N. F. ...
Journal of low temperature physics,
12/2018, Letnik:
193, Številka:
5-6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Advanced ACTPol (AdvACT) will observe the temperature and polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at multiple frequencies and high resolution to place improved constraints on inflation, ...dark matter, and dark energy. Foregrounds from synchrotron and dust radiation are a source of contamination that must be characterized and removed across a wide range of frequencies. AdvACT will thus observe at five frequency bands from 27 to 230 GHz. We discuss the design of the pixels and feedhorns for the 27/39 GHz multichroic array for AdvACT, which will target the synchrotron radiation that dominates at these frequencies. To gain 35% in mapping speed in the 39 GHz band where the foreground signals are faintest, the pixel number was increased through reducing the pixel diameter to
1.08
λ
at the lowest frequency, which represents a 22% decrease in size compared to our previously most tightly packed pixels.
To determine what factors are associated with the time people take to consult with symptoms of lung cancer, with a focus on those from rural and socially deprived areas.
A cross-sectional ...quantitative interview survey was performed of 360 patients with newly diagnosed primary lung cancer in three Scottish hospitals (two in Glasgow, one in NE Scotland). Supplementary data were obtained from medical case notes. The main outcome measures were the number of days from (1) the date participant defined first symptom until date of presentation to a medical practitioner; and (2) the date of earliest symptom from a symptom checklist (derived from clinical guidelines) until date of presentation to a medical practitioner.
179 participants (50%) had symptoms for more than 14 weeks before presenting to a medical practitioner (median 99 days; interquartile range 31-381). 270 participants (75%) had unrecognised symptoms of lung cancer. There were no significant differences in time taken to consult with symptoms of lung cancer between rural and/or deprived participants compared with urban and/or affluent participants. Factors independently associated with increased time before consulting about symptoms were living alone, a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and longer pack years of smoking. Haemoptysis, new onset of shortness of breath, cough and loss of appetite were significantly associated with earlier consulting, as were a history of chest infection and renal failure.
For many people with lung cancer, regardless of location and socioeconomic status, the time between symptom onset and consultation was long enough to plausibly affect prognosis. Long-term smokers, those with COPD and/or those living alone are at particular risk of taking longer to consult with symptoms of lung cancer and practitioners should be alert to this.
Recent in vivo evidence suggests that Wnt signaling plays a central role in determining the fate of stem cells in the ectoderm and in the neural crest by modulating bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) ...levels, which, in turn, influence Msx gene expression. However, the molecular mechanism regulating the expression of the Msx genes as key regulators of cell fate has not been elucidated. Here we show in murine embryonic stem cells that BMP-dependent activation of Msx2 is mediated via the cooperative binding of Smad4 at two Smad binding elements and of lymphoid enhancing factor (Lef1) at two Lef1/TCF binding sites. Lef1 can synergize with Smad4 and Smad1 to activate Msx2 promoter, and this transcriptional complex is assembled on the endogenous promoter in response to BMP2. The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway can activate Msx2 via the binding of Lef1 to its promoter and synergizes with BMP2 to activate Msx2 expression, possibly via enhanced recruitment of the p300/cAMP-response element-binding protein-binding protein co-factor. Interestingly, the Wnt/β-catenin-dependent activation of Msx2 was defective in Smad4-deficient embryonic stem cells or when Smad binding elements were mutated but persisted in the presence of various BMP antagonists, indicating that Smad4 was involved in transducing the Wnt/β-catenin signals in the absence of a BMP autocrine loop. A chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis revealed that endogenous Smad4, but not Smad1, was part of the Lef1 transcriptional complex in response to β-catenin activation, dismissing any implication of BMP signaling in this response. We propose that Wnt signaling pathway could dictate cell fate not only by modulating BMP levels but also by directly regulating cooperatively BMP-target genes.
This study examined the effects a synbiotic feed additive (PoultryStar meUS) on performance and intestinal health parameters in turkey poults administered a mixed Eimeria inoculation. The synbiotic ...feed additive consisted of Lactobacillus reuteri, Enterococcus faecium, Bifidobacterium animalis, Pediococcus acidilactici and a fructo-oligosaccharide prebiotic. Dietary treatments began on day of hatch, and poults were placed on a normal starter, starter containing Clinacox, or starter containing PoultryStar until the conclusion of the experiment on day 42. In addition, on day of hatch, all poults, with exception of the negative control, were orally inoculated with Salmonella enterica Enteritidis. On day 16, poults in inoculated treatment groups received an oral dose of Eimeria adenoides and Eimeria meleagrimitis oocysts resulting in a 2 × 3 factorial arrangement of treatments. BW were measured at weekly intervals after challenge, and fecal samples were collected from all pens during day 21 to day 33 to monitor fecal shedding and calculate oocyst per gram of feces. Five day after Eimeria inoculation, inoculated PoultryStar-fed (I-PS) and inoculated Clinacox-fed (I-CL) poults, on average, weighed and gained significantly more weight (P < 0.05) than inoculated controls (I-CON) and were similar to uninoculated treatments. Between day 21 and day 28, I-PS and I-CL poults showed a 23% improvement (P < 0.001) in percent change in BW gained relative to I-CON, and overall weight gain as a percentage was similar to the uninoculated control. Overall incidence of macroscopic intestinal lesions on day 21 and day 28 was low, but I-PS and I-CL poults were generally less positive than I-CON, and no oocysts were detected in the feces of any group except I-CON which cycled as expected. From this study, it can be concluded that incorporating PoultryStar into the diet of poults reared to 6 wk ameliorates and prevents aspects of performance loss and negative impacts on gut health seen with mixed Eimeria inoculation.
Summary
Androgen deprivation therapy in 80 men was associated with declines in bone mineral density (BMD), which were greatest in the first year, and in the lumbar spine compared to controls. Vitamin ...D use was associated with improved BMD in the lumbar spine and in the first year.
Introduction
Decreased BMD is a common side effect of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), leading to increased risk of fractures. Although loss of BMD appears to be greatest within the first year of starting ADT, there are few long-term studies of change in BMD, and risk factors for bone loss are not well-characterized.
Methods
Men aged 50+ with nonmetastatic prostate cancer starting continuous ADT were enrolled in a prospective longitudinal study. BMD was determined by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry at baseline and yearly for 3 years. Matched controls were men with prostate cancer not receiving ADT. Multivariable regression analysis examined predictors of BMD loss.
Results
Eighty ADT users and 80 controls were enrolled (mean age 69 years); 52.5 % had osteopenia and 8.1 % had osteoporosis at baseline. After 1 year, in adjusted models, ADT was associated with significant losses in lumbar spine BMD compared to controls (−2.57 %,
p
= 0.006), with a trend towards greater declines at the total hip (
p
= 0.09). BMD changes in years 2 and 3 were much smaller and not statistically different from controls. Use of vitamin D but not calcium was associated with improved BMD in the lumbar spine in year 1 (+6.19 %,
p
< 0.001) with smaller nonsignificant increases at other sites (+0.86 % femoral neck, +0.86 % total hip,
p
> 0.10) primarily in the first year.
Conclusions
Loss of BMD associated with ADT is greatest at the lumbar spine and in the first year. Vitamin D but not calcium may be protective particularly in the first year of ADT use.
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