Status Of The EXCYT Facility at INFN-LNS Cuttone, G.; Alba, R.; Calabretta, L. ...
AIP conference proceedings,
02/2004, Letnik:
701, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The EXCYT facility (EXotics with CYclotron and Tandem) at the INFN-LNS is based on a K-800 Superconducting Cyclotron injecting stable heavy-ion beams (up to 80 MeV/amu, 1 e{mu}A) into a target-ion ...source assembly to produce the required nuclear species, and on a 15 MV Tandem for post-accelerating the radioactive beams. Since December 1999 the Superconducting Cyclotron operates in a stand-alone mode by means of the new axial injection beam line. The primary beam line has been already mounted and tested. The part of mass separator on the two high-voltage platforms together with low intensity diagnostics is already installed while the ancillary items along with the part of mass separator at ground potential will be installed during the next stop of accelerator operations. The target-ion source unit has been successfully tested on-line at GANIL. The goal of such efforts will be represented by the test of the mass separator with stable beams planned at LNS by the end of the year. The commissioning of the EXCYT facility is foreseen in 2004 together with the start of nuclear experiments program.
The system described in this work is meant to be a prototype of a more performing one that will be installed at ELI-Beamlines in Prague for the collection of ions produced after the interaction ...Laser-target, 1. It has been realized by the researchers of INFN-LNS (Laboratori Nazionali del Sud of the Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare) and SIGMAPHI, a French company, using a system of Permanent Magnet Quadrupoles (PMQs), 2. The final system that will be installed in Prague is designed for protons and carbons up to 60 MeV/u, around 10 times more than the energies involved in the present work. The prototype, shown in this work, has been tested in collaboration with the SAPHIR experimental facility group at LOA (Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquee) in Paris using a 200 TW Ti:Sapphire laser system. The purpose of this work is to validate the design and the performances of this large and compact bore system and to characterize the beam produced after the interaction laser-target and its features. Moreover, the optics simulations have been compared with a real beam shape on a GAFChromic film. The procedure used during the experimental campaign and the most relevant results are reported here demonstrating a good agreement with the simulations and a good control on the beam optics.
During the last years big effort was devoted to increase the electrostatic deflectors' reliability; this provided a better comprehension of the most significant effects concerning their working ...conditions. Deflectors were checked during the normal operation of the K800 Superconducting Cyclotron (CS) at LNS, at the operating pressure of 1 10 -6 mbar and a magnetic field of 3.5 T, the maximum cathodes voltage was - 60kV (120 kV/cm). The maximum extracted beam power was, up to now, 100 W; it is foreseen to extract up to 500 W. In this contribution we present the study, the tests and the design of a new water cooled electrostatic deflector. Particular effort was applied to optimise the beam extraction efficiency, the thermal dissipation, and the mechanical stability. In particularly we implemented new insulators, new anodised aluminium cathodes, new Ta septum, new voltage and water feedthroughs and a more efficient cooling system. All these improvements were performed to increase the mean time between failure and the beam current stability.
Mirko D. Grmek (1924-2000) is one of the most significant figures in the history of medicine, and has long been considered a pioneer of the field. The singular trajectory that took Grmek from ...Yugoslavia to the academic culture of post-war France placed him at the crossroads of different intellectual trends and made him an influential figure during the second half of the twentieth century. Yet, scholars have rarely attempted to articulate his distinctive vision of the history of science and medicine with all its tensions, contradictions, and ambiguities. This volume brings together and publishes for the first time in English a range of Grmek’s writings, providing a portrait of his entire career as a historian of science and an engaged intellectual figure. Pathological Realities pieces together Grmek’s scholarship that reveals the interconnections of diseases, societies, and medical theories.
Straddling the sciences and the humanities, Grmek crafted significant new concepts and methods to engage with contemporary social problems such as wars, genocides and pandemics. Uniting some major strands of his published work that are still dispersed or simply unknown, this volume covers the deep epistemological changes in historical conceptions of disease as well as major advances within the life sciences and their historiography. Opening with a classic essay – “Preliminaries for a Historical Study of Diseases,” this volume introduces Grmek’s notions of “pathocenosis” and “emerging infections,” illustrating them with historical and contemporary cases. Pathological Realities also showcases Grmek’s pioneering approach to the history of science and medicine using laboratory notebooks as well as his original work on biological thought and the role of ideologies and myths in the history of science. The essays assembled here reveal Grmek’s significant influence and continued relevance for current research in the history of medicine and biology, medical humanities, science studies, and the philosophy of science.
is a prevalent intestinal nematode. The objective of the research was to study enterobiasis prevalence in symptomatic children <15 years of age attending community health center in North – Western ...part of Slovenia in years 2017 – 2022. Perianal tape tests were performed on three consecutive days. The overall prevalence was 34.2 % (296 out of 864 children included). The mean age of children positive for
was 5.77 (95 % CI: 5.51 – 6.04) and 4.74 (95 % CI: 4.54 – 4.95), p<0.001 for children with negative test results. The positivity rate was not significantly different for boys compared to girls (boys 37.0 %, 95 % CI: 32.4 % – 41.8 %, girls 31.8 %, 95 % CI: 27.6 % – 36.2 %, p=0.107). The number of boys with all three samples positive in a sample set was higher compared to girls (p – value 0.002). Family size affected the positivity rate – the mean number of siblings was higher in positive children. Significant association with
infection was proven by the presence of anal pruritus and absence of abdominal discomfort. High
warrants careful monitoring of trends and public health response. It is necessary to encourage the use of hygiene measures in schools and empower parents to recognize enterobiasis timely.
The quality of educational work is inextricably linked to many factors at the system, school, teacher, and student levels. This research was carried out within the project ‘Education of Teachers as a ...Factor of Providing High-quality Life-long Learning in the Learning Society/The Society of Fast Socio-economic Changes and Unsure Future’, funded by the Slovenian Research Agency. This paper provides a basic overview of the characteristics of open instruction, an umbrella term that combines active and learner-centred didactic strategies. The empirical section focuses on the use of didactic strategies. The survey was carried out with 1,536 primary school1 pupils in Grades 7 and 9 and 263 of their teachers. Both pupils and teachers cited problem-based learning and research-based learning as the most commonly used didactic strategies, while project-based learning was the least frequently used. Despite the agreement on the most and least frequently used didactic strategies, there are statistically significant differences between pupils’ and teachers’ perceptions of all selected didactic strategies. Teachers reported that they used these strategies more often than was perceived by their pupils. We also found a statistically significant impact of better learning performance on the perception of certain didactic strategies. The results of the study raise new research questions, especially in the design of more detailed analyses of the use of didactic strategies in pedagogical practice.
1 Slovenian basic education lasts nine years. Students enter primary school at the age of 6 and complete it at the age of 15.
Although the distinction between the Community-Associated-Methicillin-Resistant
(CA-MRSA) and Hospital-Associated-Methicillin-Resistant
(HA-MRSA) has blurred in recent years, the CA-MRSA is an ...important group because of its potential to cause fulminant and severe infections. Its importance has further increased with the emergence of Livestock-Associated-Methicillin-Resistant
(LA-MRSA).
In the present study we analysed clonal distributions and virulence factors in presumptive CA-MRSA isolated from January 2014 to December 2015 and compared the results with our previous study from 2010. Phenotypic definition for presumptive CA-MRSA was based on resistance to cefoxitin and oxacillin and susceptibility to at least two of the following four antibiotics: ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, clindamycin and gentamicin.
In 2014 and 2015 altogether 304 MRSA isolates fulfilled our screening phenotypic definition, 45 isolates were cultivated from clinical specimens and 259 from screening specimens. Sequence types ST398, LA-MRSA and
C MRSA increased significantly in 2015 compared to 2010 (p-value <0.05) and were spread over Slovenia.
The clonal distribution of presumptive CA-MRSA has changed within the study period in Slovenia. In 2015 the most frequent clone among clinical and screening specimens was a pig-associated clone, ST398, but the number of confirmed ST398 infections remains low. While previously ST398 and
C positive MRSA strains were geographically limited, they have spread throughout the country since 2010.
Abstract
Introduction
According to the existing literature, a heterogeneous sequence type (ST) or clones of community-associated methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus
(CA-MRSA) circulate in ...Europe. In Europe, the European clone that belongs to sequence type ST80 is predominant.
Methods
The aim of the study was to investigate the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics and epidemiological data of CA-MRSA ST80 and its occurrence in Slovenia. We retrospectively analyzed those CA-MRSA isolates that were isolated during microbiological procedures in microbiological laboratories between 2006 and 2013. Only CA-MRSA isolates from the national collection of CA-MRSA strains that belonged to ST80 (European clone) were analyzed. We determined the Pantone-Valentine leukocidin (PVL),
mec
A genes, exfoliative toxin genes and type of staphylococcal cassette chromosome (SCC
mec
) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We determined also spa type and sequence type.
Results
ST80 was confirmed in only 2 (0.5%) out of 385 CA-MRSA isolates, collected in a national collection of CAMRSA. Both isolates were positive for the PVL genes,
mec
A gene, exfoliative toxin type D gene and SCC
mec
IV. One CA-MRSA isolate was confirmed in a wound swab taken from a 47-year-old male, and the second was isolated from blood cultures of a 69-year-old female. No epidemiological connections between them were found.
Conclusions
In Slovenia CA-MRSA infections caused by ST80 are rare. In the future, it is necessary that a surveillance study of CA-MRSA at the national level continues and CA-MRSA be considered as a public health threat.
Livestock‐associated methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LA‐MRSA) represents a concern in both human and veterinary medicine. The aim of this study was to investigate potential LA‐MRSA ...transmission between animals and humans in rural settings. To this aim, a study was designed to include 14 farms in Slovenia, which were selected on the basis of a farmer (initial patient) with confirmed LA‐MRSA infection and regular animal contacts. On all farms, the initial patients, their household members, animals and barn environment were analysed for the presence of LA‐MRSA. In addition, the epidemiologically linked hospital‐related LA‐MRSA isolates were included to investigate possible nosocomial transmissions. On five farms, LA‐MRSA was discovered both in animals and in humans. In total, 49 LA‐MRSA isolates of different origins underwent whole‐genome sequencing, antimicrobial susceptibility testing and spa typing. All 49 isolates belonged to the sequence type 398 (ST398), spa types t011 and t034, and harboured staphylococcal chromosomal cassette mec Vc. High levels of concordance between resistance phenotypes and genotypes were observed. No transmission pairs between animals and initial patients were discovered. However, several isolates originating from farm animals and other household members formed clusters with pairwise distances of ≤14 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), indicating recent transmission events. In addition, three closely related isolates (0 SNP) form hospitalized patients were observed, indicating a possible nosocomial transmission. Two hospital‐related isolates harboured the immune evasion cluster genes, which are associated with adaptation to the human host; however, these two isolates differed in >30 SNPs from the remaining isolates. Characteristics of LA‐MRSA from Slovenia reflect those observed previously in other European studies. Immune evasion cluster‐positive LA‐MRSA ST398 suggests its re‐adaptation to the human host and calls for a closer monitoring of such emerging LA‐MRSA lineages, in addition to monitoring and preventing the introduction of LA‐MRSA from farms to hospitals where transmission is highly plausible.
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