University of Cyprus

About: University of Cyprus is a education organization based out in Nicosia, Cyprus. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Large Hadron Collider & Standard Model. The organization has 3624 authors who have published 15157 publications receiving 412135 citations.

Quantification of Tumor Microvascularity with Respiratory Gated Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound for Monitoring Therapy

Abstract: The aim of this feasibility study was to evaluate the response to cytotoxic and antiangiogenic treatment of colorectal liver metastasis using respiratory gated contrast enhanced ultrasonography. Seven patients were monitored with contrast enhanced ultrasound. Sulfur hexafluoride filled microbubbles (SonoVue; Bracco S.P.A., Milan, Italy) were used as contrast agent and the scans were performed with a nonlinear imaging technique (power modulation) at low transmit power (MI=0.06). The mean image intensity in the metastatic lesion and in the normal liver parenchyma were measured as a function of time and time-intensity curves from linearized image data were formed. A novel respiratory gating technique was utilized to minimize the effects of respiratory motion on the images. A reference position of the diaphragm (or other echogenic interface) was selected and all frames where the diaphragm deviated from that position were rejected. The wash-in time (start of enhancement to peak) of metastasis and adjacent normal liver parenchyma was measured from time-intensity curves. The ratio of wash-in time of the lesion to that of the normal parenchyma (WITR) was used to compare the perfusion rate. In a reproducibility study (five patients), the average deviation of WITR was found to be 9%. There was an increase in the WITR for patients responding to treatment (mean WITR increase of 17% after first dose of treatment and 75% at the end of the therapy). In four out of five patients (80%) responding to therapy WITR predicted their response from the first treatment. All six patients that responded to therapy by the end of the therapy cycle (6-9 doses) were correctly predicted by using WITR. The WITR may be a new surrogate marker indicative of early tumor response for colorectal cancer patients undergoing cytotoxic and antiangiogenic therapy. (E-mail: maverk@ucy.ac.cy).

Strategic Investment under Uncertainty: A Synthesis

Abstract: Research contributions providing insights at the intersection of real options analysis and industrial organization have become numerous in the recent decade. In the present paper, we provide an overview aimed at categorizing and relating these research streams. We highlight managerial insights about the type of competitive reaction, the manner in which information is revealed, the nature of the competitive advantage (first vs. second-mover advantage), firm heterogeneity, capital divisibility, and the number of competing firms.

A Semiparametric Approach to the One-Way Layout

Abstract: We consider m distributions in which the first m − 1 are obtained by multiplicative exponential distortions of the mth distribution, which is a reference. The combined data fromm samples, one from each distribution, are used in the semiparametric large-sample problem of estimating each distortion and the reference distribution and testing the hypothesis that the distributions are identical. The approach generalizes the classical normal-based one-way analysis of variance in the sense that it obviates the need for a completely specified parametric model. An advantage is that the probability density of the reference distribution is estimated from the combined data and not only from the mth sample. A power comparison with the t and F tests and with two nonparametric tests, obtained by means of a simulation, points to the merit of the present approach. The method is applied to rain-rate data from meteorological instruments.

Measurement And Qcd Analysis Of Double-differential Inclusive Jet Cross Sections In Pp Collisions At √s=8 Tev And Cross Section Ratios To 2.76 And 7 Tev

Abstract: A measurement of the double-differential inclusive jet cross section as a function of the jet transverse momentum pT and the absolute jet rapidity abs(y) is presented. Data from LHC proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 inverse-femtobarns, have been collected with the CMS detector. Jets are reconstructed using the anti-kT clustering algorithm with a size parameter of 0.7 in a phase space region covering jet pT from 74 GeV up to 2.5 TeV and jet absolute rapidity up to abs(y) = 3.0. The low-pT jet range between 21 and 74 GeV is also studied up to abs(y) = 4.7, using a dedicated data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.6 inverse-picobarns. The measured jet cross section is corrected for detector effects and compared with the predictions from perturbative QCD at next-to-leading order (NLO) using various sets of parton distribution functions (PDF). Cross section ratios to the corresponding measurements performed at 2.76 and 7 TeV are presented. From the measured double-differential jet cross section, the value of the strong coupling constant evaluated at the Z mass is alpha[S](M[Z]) = 0.1164 +0.0060 -0.0043, where the errors include the PDF, scale, nonperturbative effects and experimental uncertainties, using the CT10 NLO PDFs. Improved constraints on PDFs based on the inclusive jet cross section measurement are presented.