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The study of open charm meson production provides an efficient tool for the investigation of the properties of hot and dense matter formed in nucleus–nucleus collisions. The interpretation of the existing di-muon data from the CERN SPS suffers from a lack of knowledge on the mechanism and properties of the open charm particle production. Due to this, the heavy-ion programme of the NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN SPS has been extended by precise measurements of charm hadrons with short lifetimes. A new Vertex Detector for measurements of the rare processes of open charm production in nucleus–nucleus collisions was designed to meet the challenges of track registration and high resolution in primary and secondary vertex reconstruction. A small-acceptance version of the vertex detector was installed in 2016 and tested with Pb + Pb collisions at 150 A GeV / c . It was also operating during the physics data taking on Xe + La and Pb + Pb collisions at 150 A GeV / c conducted in 2017 and 2018. This paper presents the detector design and construction, data calibration, event reconstruction, and analysis procedure.

Background Shared decision-making improves the quality of patient care. Unfortunately, shared decision-making is not yet common practice among vascular surgeons. Thus, decision support tools were developed to assist vascular surgeons and their patients in using shared decision-making. This trial aims to evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of decision support tools to improve shared decision-making during vascular surgical consultations in which a treatment decision is to be made. Methods The study design is a multicentre stepped-wedge cluster-randomised trial. Eligible patients are adult patients, visiting the outpatient clinic of a participating medical centre for whom several treatment options are feasible and who face a primary treatment decision for their abdominal aortic aneurysm, carotid artery disease, intermittent claudication, or varicose veins. Patients and vascular surgeons in the intervention group receive decision support tools that may help them adopt shared decision-making when making the final treatment decision. These decision support tools are decision aids, consultation cards, decision cards, and a practical training. Decision aids are informative websites that help patients become more aware of the pros and cons of the treatment options and their preferences regarding the treatment choice. Consultation cards with text or decision cards with images are used by vascular surgeons during consultation to determine which aspect of a treatment is most important to their patient. In the training vascular surgeons can practice shared decision-making with a patient actor, guided by a medical psychologist. This trial aims to include 502 vascular surgical patients to achieve a clinically relevant improvement in shared decision-making of 10 out of 100 points, using the 5-item OPTION instrument to score the audio-recordings of consultations. Discussion In the OVIDIUS trial the available decision support tools for vascular surgical patients are implemented in clinical practice. We will evaluate whether these tools actually improve shared decision-making in the consultation room. The stepped-wedge cluster-randomised study design will ensure that at the end of the study all participating centres have implemented at least some of the decision support tools and thereby a certain level of shared decision-making. Trial registration Netherlands Trial Registry, NTR6487 . Registered 7 June 2017. URL: http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/admin/rctview.asp?TC=6487

Measurements of inclusive spectra and mean multiplicities of π ± , K ± , p and p ¯ produced in inelastic p + p interactions at incident projectile momenta of 20, 31, 40, 80 and 158  GeV / c ( s = 6.3, 7.7, 8.8, 12.3 and 17.3  GeV , respectively) were performed at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron using the large acceptance NA61/SHINE hadron spectrometer. Spectra are presented as function of rapidity and transverse momentum and are compared to predictions of current models. The measurements serve as the baseline in the NA61/SHINE study of the properties of the onset of deconfinement and search for the critical point of strongly interacting matter.

This paper reports measurements of two-pion femtoscopic correlations in Be+Be collisions at a beam momentum of 150 A GeV / c  (energy available in the center-of-mass system for nucleon pair s NN = 16.84 GeV) by the NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN SPS accelerator. The obtained momentum space correlation functions can be well described by a Lévy distributed source model. The transverse mass dependence of the Lévy source parameters is presented, and their possible theoretical interpretations are discussed. The results show that the Lévy exponent α is approximately constant as a function of m T  , and far from both the Gaussian case of α = 2 or the conjectured value at the critical endpoint, α = 0.5 . The radius scale parameter R shows a slight decrease in m T  , which can be explained as a signature of transverse flow. Finally, an approximately constant trend of the intercept parameter λ as a function of m T  was observed, similar to previous NA44 S + Pb results (obtained with a Gaussian approximation, but unlike RHIC results).

The NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron studies the onset of deconfinement in strongly interacting matter through a beam energy scan of particle production in collisions of nuclei of varied sizes. This paper presents results on inclusive double-differential spectra, transverse momentum and rapidity distributions and mean multiplicities of π ± , K ± , p and p ¯ produced in 40 Ar+ 45 Sc collisions at beam momenta of 13 A , 19 A , 30 A , 40 A , 75 A and 150 A   Ge V / c . The analysis uses the 10% most central collisions, where the observed forward energy defines centrality. The energy dependence of the K ± / π ± ratios as well as of inverse slope parameters of the K ± transverse mass distributions are placed in between those found in inelastic p + p and central Pb + Pb collisions. The results obtained here establish a system-size dependence of hadron production properties that so far cannot be explained either within statistical or dynamical models.

Strong interactions preserve an approximate isospin symmetry between up ( u ) and down ( d ) quarks, part of the more general flavor symmetry. In the case of K meson production, if this isospin symmetry were exact, it would result in equal numbers of charged ( K + and K − ) and neutral ( K 0 and K ¯ 0 ) mesons produced in collisions of isospin-symmetric atomic nuclei. Here, we report results on the relative abundance of charged over neutral K meson production in argon and scandium nuclei collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 11.9 GeV per nucleon pair. We find that the production of K + and K − mesons at mid-rapidity is (18.4 ± 6.1)% higher than that of the neutral K mesons. Although with large uncertainties, earlier data on nucleus-nucleus collisions in the collision center-of-mass energy range 2.6 < s N N < 200 GeV are consistent with the present result. Using well-established models for hadron production, we demonstrate that known isospin-symmetry breaking effects and the initial nuclei containing more neutrons than protons lead only to a small (few percent) deviation of the charged-to-neutral kaon ratio from unity at high energies. Thus, they cannot explain the measurements. The significance of the flavor-symmetry violation beyond the known effects is 4.7 σ when the compilation of world data with uncertainties quoted by the experiments is used. New systematic, high-precision measurements and theoretical efforts are needed to establish the origin of the observed large isospin-symmetry breaking. Strong interaction is blind to quark flavor, so collisions of nuclei with the same number of protons and neutrons should generate the same number of charged and neutral kaons. Here, instead, the authors show a significant excess of charged over neutral kaon production in Ar+Sc nuclei collisions, compatibly with earlier measurements which however suffered from larger uncertainties, and show that known effects cannot explain the result.

Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) is a kidney disease with progressive glomerular scarring and a clinical presentation of nephrotic syndrome. FSGS is a common primary glomerular disorder that causes renal dysfunction which progresses slowly over time to end-stage renal disease. Most cases of FSGS are idiopathic Although kidney transplantation is a potentially curative treatment, 40% of patients have recurrence of FSGS after transplantation. In this review a brief summary of the pathogenesis causing FSGS in humans is given, and a variety of animal models used to study FSGS is discussed. These animal models include the reduction of renal mass by resecting 5/6 of the kidney, reduction of renal mass due to systemic diseases such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia or SLE, drug-induced FSGS using adriamycin, puromycin or streptozotocin, virus-induced FSGS, genetically-induced FSGS such as via Mpv-17 inactivation and α-actinin 4 and podocin knockouts, and a model for circulating permeability factors. In addition, an animal model that spontaneously develops FSGS is discussed. To date, there is no exact understanding of the pathogenesis of idiopathic FSGS, and there is no definite curative treatment. One requirement facilitating FSGS research is an animal model that resembles human FSGS. Most animal models induce secondary forms of FSGS in an acute manner. The ideal animal model for primary FSGS, however, should mimic the human primary form in that it develops spontaneously and has a slow chronic progression. Such models are currently not available. We conclude that there is a need for a better animal model to investigate the pathogenesis and potential treatment options of FSGS.

The critical point of strongly interacting matter is searched for at the CERN SPS by the NA61/SHINE experiment in central 40 Ar +  45 Sc collisions at 13  A , 19  A , 30  A , 40  A , and 75  A  GeV/ c . The dependence of the second-order scaled factorial moments of proton multiplicity distributions on the number of subdivisions in transverse momentum space is measured. The intermittency analysis uses statistically independent data sets for every subdivision in transverse and cumulative-transverse momentum variables. The results obtained do not indicate the searched intermittent pattern. An upper limit on the fraction of correlated protons and the intermittency index is obtained based on a comparison with the Power-law Model.

The yields of K S 0 mesons have been measured in inelastic p+p interactions at incident projectile momenta of 31, 40 and 80  Ge V / c ( s NN = 7.7 , 8.8 and 12.3  Ge V , respectively). The data were recorded by the NA61 / SHINE spectrometer at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron and the K S 0 mesons identified via their decays into π + π - pairs. Double-differential distributions are presented as function of transverse momentum and rapidity. The mean multiplicities of K S 0 mesons were determined to be ( 5.95 ± 0.19 ( s t a t ) ± 0.30 ( s y s ) ) × 10 - 2 at 31  Ge V / c , ( 7.61 ± 0.13 ( s t a t ) ± 0.43 ( s y s ) ) × 10 - 2 at 40  Ge V / c and ( 11.58 ± 0.12 ( s t a t ) ± 0.55 ( s y s ) ) × 10 - 2 at 80  Ge V / c . The results on K S 0 production are compared with the production of charged kaons in corresponding reactions and with model calculations ( Epos1.99 , SMASH 2.0 and PHSD) as well as with published data from other experiments.