to analyze data collected by the Unit of Home Parenteral Nutrition in Oncology of a tertiary hospital for upper gastrointestinal disease cancer patients care.
patients were assessed for HPN ...eligibility according to the guidelines. Median and range data of clinical and anthropometric features are shown. Duration of therapy and outcome are assessed.
139 patients (50 females, 89 males) were enrolled on HPN from 2015 to 2019. Age was 65 (30-90). Performance status KI was: 50 in 1%, 60 in 17%, 70 in 36%, 80 in 43%, 90 in 3% of cases. Peritoneal carcinosis was present in 44% of patients and metastatic disease in 47% of cases; 32% of patients undergoing chemioteraphy and 35% were treated with curative surgery, 7% with palliative surgery.
Nutritional data at the beginning of HPN were: weight 57 (29-85) kg, BMI 20 (13-32) Kg/m2, weight loss -8 (+15-30) kg during 3 months before HPN beginning.
HPN duration was 64 (5-1198) days. Outcomes were: exitus or worsening of general clinical conditions 67%, enough oral food intake or Home Enteral Nutrition 23%, shift to other care center 4%, ongoing therapy 6%.
Patients with a HPN duration shorter than 60 days were 64 (46% of total patients). There was no statistically significant difference between all patients and the group with shorter HPN duration outcomes.
HPN is a supportive therapy for advanced upper gastrointestinal cancer patients when oral or enteral feeding is not feasible or is contraindicated. Our experience data confirm the adequacy of the selection criteria for HPN enrollment.
A combination of X-ray computed tomography (CT) and focused ion beam - scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) has been employed to investigate substrate and related surface defects in a niobium ...coated superconducting radio frequency (SRF) copper cavity. The cavity was manufactured by spinning, with subsequent application of a sputtering-deposited niobium coating (≈40 μm thick) on the internal surface. Before coating, the copper surface was pre-treated in several stages, ending with chemical polishing. CT and FIB-SEM identified furrow defects (≈20 μm deep) in the copper beneath the coating, which originated from the spinning process. The furrows were filled with niobium and contained voids at the Nb/Cu interface that extended a few microns into the niobium coating. The presence of the defects led to similar furrows at the niobium surface. The study revealed the importance of pre-treatment of the cavity internal surface and control of the spinning process to avoid defects that may have deleterious influence on the Q slope and durability of the niobium coating.
•Nb-coated Cu SRF cavity examined by combination of X-ray-CT and FIB-SEM.•Furrow and void defects identified at Nb/Cu interface.•Defects at Nb/Cu interface correlated with defects at Nb surface.•Defects in Cu substrate originate from the spinning process of cavity manufacture.
Neutrinoless double-beta (0vββ) decay is a hypothesized lepton-number-violating process that offers the only known means of asserting the possible Majorana nature of neutrino mass. The Cryogenic ...Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is an upcoming experiment designed to search for 0vββ decay of sup.130Te using an array of 988 TeO.sub.2 crystal bolometers operated at 10 mK. The detector will contain 206 kg of sup.130Te and have an average energy resolution of 5 keV; the projected 0vββ decay half-life sensitivity after five years of livetime is 1.6 x 10.sup.26 γ at 1σ (9.5 x 10.sup.25 γ at the 90% confidence level), which corresponds to an upper limit on the effective Majorana mass in the range 40-100 meV (50-130 meV). In this paper, we review the experimental techniques used in CUORE as well as its current status and anticipated physics reach.
Using a thin Nb layer on Copper substrate has several advantages compared with the bulk Nb in construction of Superconducting Radiofrequency accelerating cavities (SRF) for particle accelerators. We ...were evaluating the properties of two series of Nb layers deposited on Cu substrate, mainly by determining the start of magnetic flux penetration into the sample - the first magnetic flux entry field Ben, proportional to the Bc1. The values of Ben are compared with the surface roughness and surface morphology of the Nb layers, which have a strong influence on Ben. The surfaces of the samples were also treated by Nd:YAG laser depending on laser irradiation dose. The results of Ben and surface roughness before and after laser polishing are compared.
Bulk niobium is currently the material of choice for superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities and is a well matured process. However, it is possible that SRF cavities could be further improved ...beyond bulk Nb by sputtering thin Nb films onto Cu cavities. Copper has a greater thermal conductivity than Nb and is also easier to machine, while sputtering films on the surface reduces the amount of Nb used to fabricate the whole cavity. However, sputtering Nb on Cu produces other issues, for example, the surface quality of the Cu affects the quality of the Nb deposited on the surface and therefore the superconducting parameters. As the Nb on the surface is not perfect, the magnetic field produced by the RF can enter the cavity earlier than expected, producing RF losses, which can in turn lead to a quench. One approach is to treat the Nb post deposition by irradiating the surface using a laser to polish the surface of the Nb and increase the surface magnetic field that the cavity can maintain while remaining in the Meissner state. A magnetic field penetration experiment designed and built at Daresbury Laboratory has been used to measure the field of full flux penetration to characterize the effect of the laser treatment on the superconducting properties of the Nb. Surface characterization and the response of the Nb in a dc magnetic field have also been performed to try and provide an explanation for the change in the superconducting properties. The results demonstrate that the laser treatment can lead to an increase in the magnetic field at which the flux penetrates from one side of the sample to the other, thus it could potentially improve the performance of Nb coated RF cavities.
The use of standard all-in-one bags is increasingly widespread in patients of all ages across all care settings, in particular for pediatric patients. There are no tools, to our knowledge, that ...guides parenteral nutrition prescription from estimation of energy needs to the selection of the best fitting standard bag. We present a tool that helps the choice of the best standard bag based on the estimation of the patient's needs.
The software considers: age, weight, sex, metabolic phase and type of venous access; energy and macro-micronutrient requirements. It contains a database of the compatible electrolyte and minerals that can be added to the PN bags.
The software selects suitable PN bags, helping to reduce the time of PN prescription. The software limits or eliminates prescription or transcription errors while offering an evidence based prescription process.
According to ESPEN/ESPGHAN guidelines, standard PN bags are suitable to most of the adult and paediatric patients. Using all-in-one standard bags in paediatric patients may be complex due to a wide range of patient ages and variable requirements. Several studies have shown that calculators are more accurate than traditional calculations. Using our tool, over and under feeding can be avoided and PN can be safe. The software is free and works on all fix and mobile devices.
Lowering the CUORE energy threshold Alduino, C.; Alfonso, K.; Artusa, D. R. ...
Journal of physics. Conference series,
09/2017, Letnik:
888, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is a ton-scale double beta decay experiment based on TeO2 cryogenic bolometers and is currently in the last construction stage at the ...Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS). Its primary goal is to observe neutrino-less double beta decay of 130Te, however thanks to the ultra-low background and large projected exposure it could also be suitable for other rare event searches, as the detection of solar axions, neutrinos from type II supernovae or direct detection of dark matter. The sensitivity for these searches will depend on the performance achieved at the low energy threshold. For this reason a trigger algorithm based on continuous data filtering has been developed which will allow lowering the threshold down to the few keV region. The new trigger has been tested in CUORE-0, a single-tower CUORE prototype consisting of 52 TeO2 bolometers and recently concluded, and here we present the results in terms of trigger efficiency, data selection and low-energy calibration.
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