University of Los Andes

About: University of Los Andes is a education organization based out in Bogotá, Colombia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Large Hadron Collider. The organization has 17616 authors who have published 25555 publications receiving 413463 citations.

Safety and Efficacy of the Intravenous Infusion of Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Patients With Heart Failure: A Phase 1/2 Randomized Controlled Trial (RIMECARD Trial [Randomized Clinical Trial of Intravenous Infusion Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells on Cardiopathy]).

Abstract: Rationale: Umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSC) are easily accessible and expanded in vitro, possess distinct properties, and improve myocardial remodeling and function in experimental models of cardiovascular disease. While bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) have been previously assessed for their therapeutic potential in individuals with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), no clinical trial has evaluated UC-MSCs in these patients. Objective: Evaluate the safety and efficacy of the infusion of UC-MSC in patients with chronic stable HFrEF. Methods and Results: HFrEF patients under optimal medical treatment were randomized to intravenous infusion of allogenic UC-MSCs (Cellistem, Cells for Cells S.A., Santiago, Chile) (1x10 6 cells/Kg) or placebo (n=15 per group). UC-MSCs in vitro , compared to BM-MSCs, displayed a 55-fold increase in the expression of Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF), known to be involved in myogenesis, cell migration and immunoregulation. UC-MSC treated patients presented no adverse events related to the cell infusion and none of the patients tested at 0, 15 and 90 days presented alloantibodies to the UC-MSCs (n=7). Only the UC-MSC treated group exhibited significant improvements in left ventricular ejection fraction at 3, 6 and 12 months of follow-up assessed both through transthoracic echocardiography (p=0.0167 versus baseline) and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (p=0.025 versus baseline). Echocardiographic LVEF change from baseline to month 12 differed significantly between groups (+7.07±6.22% vs +1.85±5.60, p=0.028). In addition, at all follow-up time points, UC-MSCs treated patients displayed improvements of NYHA functional class (p=0.0167 versus baseline) and MLHFQ (p<0.05 versus baseline). At study completion, groups did not differ in mortality, heart failure admissions, arrhythmias or incident malignancy. Conclusions: Intravenous infusion of UC-MSC was safe in this group of patients with stable HFrEF under optimal medical treatment. Improvements in left ventricular function, functional status and quality of life were observed in patients treated with UC-MSCs. Trial registration number : NCT01739777. Registry URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01739777.

The DØ detector

Abstract: The DO detector is a large general purpose detector for the study of short-distance phenomena in high energy antiproton-proton collisions, now in operation at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The detector focusses upon the detection of electrons, muons, jets and missing transverse momentum. We describe the design and performance of the major elements of the detector, including the tracking chambers, transition radiation detector, liquid argon calorimetry and muon detection. The associated electronics, triggering systems and data acquisition systems are presented. The global mechanical, high voltage, and experiment monitoring and control systems which support the detector are described. We also discuss the design and implementation of software and software support systems that are specific to DO.

Understanding the exploration–exploitation dilemma: An fMRI study of attention control and decision-making performance

Abstract: This paper studies the cognitive processes that enable decision makers to switch between exploitation and exploration We use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a sample of expert decision makers to make two main contributions First, we identify and contrast the specific brain regions and cognitive processes associated with exploitation and exploration decisions Exploitation activates regions associated with reward seeking, which track and evaluate the value of current choices, while exploration relies on regions associated with attentional control, tracking the value of alternative choices Second, we propose and test the idea that stronger activation of the brain circuits related to attentional control allows individuals to achieve better decision-making performance as a result We discuss the implications of these results for strategic management research and practice

Extraction and validation of a new set of CMS pythia8 tunes from underlying-event measurements

Abstract: New sets of CMS underlying-event parameters (“tunes”) are presented for the pythia8 event generator. These tunes use the NNPDF3.1 parton distribution functions (PDFs) at leading (LO), next-to-leading (NLO), or next-to-next-to-leading (NNLO) orders in perturbative quantum chromodynamics, and the strong coupling evolution at LO or NLO. Measurements of charged-particle multiplicity and transverse momentum densities at various hadron collision energies are fit simultaneously to determine the parameters of the tunes. Comparisons of the predictions of the new tunes are provided for observables sensitive to the event shapes at LEP, global underlying event, soft multiparton interactions, and double-parton scattering contributions. In addition, comparisons are made for observables measured in various specific processes, such as multijet, Drell–Yan, and top quark-antiquark pair production including jet substructure observables. The simulation of the underlying event provided by the new tunes is interfaced to a higher-order matrix-element calculation. For the first time, predictions from pythia8 obtained with tunes based on NLO or NNLO PDFs are shown to reliably describe minimum-bias and underlying-event data with a similar level of agreement to predictions from tunes using LO PDF sets.