Annual Users Research Articles

Trends in glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist use, 2014 to 2022

BackgroundRecent Food and Drug Administration approvals of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists linked to substantial weight loss have generated interest in demand projections. However, a longitudinal analysis in a large, diverse, current, real-world database has not been published. ObjectivesThe study objective was to determine user frequency of GLP-1 receptor agonist products overall and by type 2 diabetes (T2D), cardiovascular disease (CVD), and overweight or obese status. Secondary objective was monthly growth rate estimation by product since first appearance in University of California Health. MethodsThis retrospective cohort study included patients who were dispensed a GLP-1 receptor agonist from 2014 to 2022 in the University of California Health Data Warehouse. Exponential growth rates were estimated using a log-linear regression model. ResultsBetween 2014 and 2018, only Trulicity and Victoza exceeded 5000 annual users. Ozempic users increased from 569 in 2019 to 7667 in 2020. Use accelerated with more than 13,310 users in 2021 to surpass Trulicity. Ozempic count was 22,891 in 2022. Wegovy rose from 989 in 2021 to 2992 in 2022. Mounjaro increased to 1508 users in 2022. Although generally similar trends were observed for T2D, CVD, and overweight or obese subgroups, the ascent of Ozempic as most frequently used was more apparent in the overweight or obese group. The monthly growth rates were 83.9% for Ozempic, 119.2% for Wegovy, 84.8% for Rybelsus, 53.3% for Saxenda, 12.9% for Adlyxin, 78.8% for Trulicity, and 254.3% for Mounjaro. ConclusionThis first cohort study of weight loss–associated GLP-1 receptor agonists in a large, diverse, state-wide health system demonstrated a rapid increased use that represents a clear and likely durable transition in utilization for this category. Informed decision making and longitudinal studies are needed to ensure evidence-concordant prescribing and supply stability.

Can multisite clinical trial results change clinical practice? Use of long-acting injectable risperidone nationally in the Veterans Health Administration

BackgroundMultisite practical clinical trials evaluate treatments in real-world practice. A multisite randomized Veterans Health Administration (VHA) cooperative study (CSP#555) published in 2011 compared the first long-acting injectable (LAI) second-generation antipsychotic (SGA), Risperidone Consta®, in veterans with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, to oral antipsychotics, with unexpected null results for effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. Whether null results of this type could change VHA practice has not been studied.MethodsA longitudinal observational analysis was used to evaluate the impact of the trial findings on VHA clinical practices. National administrative data compared new starts on LAI risperidone during the 4 years before the publication of CSP#555 in 2011 to new starts on LAI risperidone during the 4 years after.ResultsAmong 119,565 Veterans with the indicated diagnoses treated with antipsychotics from 2007 to 2015, the number and proportion of new starts on LAI risperidone declined significantly following the study publication, as did the total number of annual users and drug expenditures. However, data from 2007 to 2010 showed the decline in new starts actually preceded the publication of CSP#555. This change was likely explained by the increase in new starts, total use, and expenditures on a newer medicine, LAI paliperidone, a 4-week LAI treatment, in the 2 years prior to the publication of CSP#555.ConclusionsThe declining use of LAI risperidone likely primarily reflects the substitution of a longer-acting LAI SGA, paliperidone, that came to market 2 years before the study publication, a substitution that may have been reinforced by null CSP#555 study results for LAI risperidone.

10.Q. Workshop: Imbalance in use and impact of public psychotherapy – A Finnish working-age population register study

Abstract Mental disorders are globally among the leading causes of disability in the working-age population. Psychotherapies have proven to be effective in the improvement of mental health. The current evidence on the benefits of psychotherapies is mainly based on randomized control trials and patient-reported outcomes, whereas the potential impact of long-term psychological therapy on work disability and income is not so well known. This emphasizes the need for longitudinal studies on the effects of psychological therapies in a ‘real-world study setting’, and on the distribution of the availability and the use of psychological therapies in different populations. In Finland, rehabilitative psychotherapy is the major single form of publicly provided psychological therapy. It is targeted at those aged 16 to 67 who are at risk of disability or not being able to study because of mental health problems. It is granted an annual period (maximum three years), a maximum of 80 sessions per year and 200 sessions per 3 years. From 2011 on this psychotherapy has been statutorily granted to all at risk of work disability due mental health disorders. The number of annual users has increased from 15 757 (2010) to 56 682 (2020). This workshop presents the results from a research project investigating the use and real-world effects of long-term psychotherapy in the Finnish working-age population in the 2010s. It shows 1) whether the use of psychotherapy is associated with subsequent work disability and labour market outcomes (income, employment), 2) how the use of long-term psychotherapy differed between socio-demographic groups in the 2010s in Finland, and 3) the extent to which state-subsidized psychotherapy is linked to the distinctive profiles of mental health problems in the population. The five presentations offer new results from the Rise of Mental Vulnerability in Work Life Study drawn from the national registers. The presentations are mostly based on three randomly selected population cohorts which each included 33% of the 18-64-year-old permanent Finnish residents at the baseline. These data were sampled (sampling years: 2010, 2013, 2016) by and derived from the Population Register maintained by Statistics Finland and included information on various socio-demographic characteristics (e.g., gender, occupation class, region, income). These were linked to the national health registers. Information on reimbursed psychotherapy and mental health indicators (sickness absence, psychotropic drugs, disability benefits) were obtained from the Social Insurance Institution of Finland and complemented by the disability pension data from the Finnish Centre for Pensions. The data provide a unique opportunity to observe how the use of state-subsidized long-term psychotherapy was distributed across population groups in the 2010s, and to the extent to which disability trajectories and economic outcomes have developed in different groups during and after psychotherapeutic treatment. Key messages • Psychotherapy is likely to decrease the risk of work disability and improve labour market outcomes. • The provision of long-term psychotherapy is related to social inequality in the working population.

Usefulness of Novel Atherogenic Lipid Indices for the Evaluation of Metabolic Status Leading to Coronary Heart Disease in a Real-World Survey of the Japanese Population.

We evaluated the usefulness of two novel cholesterol-triglyceride subgroup (CTS) indices, CTSqlt and CTSqnt, that potentially reflect the metabolic status regarding risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) using a retrospective longitudinal study of the Japanese general population. We recruited 12,373 individuals from the annual users of our healthcare center. Among them, the first onset of CHD was recorded in 131 individuals between April 2014 and March 2020. The multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analyses for all normalized lipid indices revealed that the CTSqnt index showed a comparable hazard ratio for the CHD outcome to non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (nonHDL-c) and triglycerides. The HR of the CTSqlt index was significantly lower than for CTSqnt, but still comparable to that for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c). In comparison with the other indices, CTSqlt is more sensitive to risk increment while the index value increases. Linear regression analyses for the CTS indices and previously known lipid indices suggest that the CTSqnt and CTSqlt indices reflect the quantity of atherogenic lipoproteins and particle size (quality) of smaller and denser LDLs, respectively. Furthermore, the CTSqnt/HDL-c index can be used as a comprehensive risk indicator that may represent the status of lipid metabolism determined by the CTSqlt and CTSqnt indices and thus may be useful for screening. The CTS indices can be used to evaluate the metabolic status of individuals, which may increase the risk of future CHD.

The relationship between capacity and utilization of nonpharmacologic therapies in the US Military Health System

BackgroundNonpharmacologic therapies (NPTs) are recommended as first-line treatments for pain, however the impact of expanding professional capacity to deliver these therapies on use has not been extensively studied. We sought to examine whether an effort by the US Military Health System (MHS) to improve access to NPTs by expanding professional capacity increased NPT utilization in a cohort at higher risk for pain – Army soldiers returning from deployment.MethodsOur study involved secondary analysis of MHS workforce data derived from the Defense Medical Human Resources System Internet (DMHRSi), and healthcare utilization data obtained from two ambulatory record systems of the Military Health System (MHS) for a sample of 863,855 Army soldiers previously deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan over a 10-year period (2008–2017). We measured clinical provider capacity in three occupational groups responsible for pain management at 130 military treatment facilities (MTFs): physical therapy, chiropractic, and behavioral health, measured annually as full-time equivalence per 100,000 patients served at each MTF. Utilization in both direct and purchased care settings was measured as annual mean NPT users per 1000 sample members and mean encounters per NPT user. Generalized estimating equation models estimated the associations of facility-level occupational capacity measures and facility-level utilization NPT measures.ResultsIn 2008, nearly all MTFs had some physical therapist and behavioral health provider capacity, but less than half had any chiropractor capacity. The largest increase in capacity from 2008 to 2017 was for chiropractors (89%) followed by behavioral health providers (77%) and physical therapists (37%). Models indicated that increased capacity of physical therapists and chiropractors were associated with significantly increased utilization of six out of seven NPTs. Acupuncture initiation was associated with capacity increases in each occupation. Increased professional capacity in MTFs was associated with limited but positive effects on NPT utilization in purchased care.ConclusionsIncreasing occupational capacity in three professions responsible for delivering NPTs at MTFs were associated with growing utilization of seven NPTs in this Army sample. Despite increasing capacity in MTFs, some positive associations between MTF capacity and purchased care utilization suggest an unmet need for NPTs. Future research should examine if these changes lead to greater receipt of guideline-concordant pain management.

A multiple regression assessment of the biomineral urease activity from urine drainpipes of California public restrooms

Clogging and odor is strongly associated with ureolytic biomineralization in waterless and low-flow urinal drainage systems in high usage settings. These blockages continue to hinder widespread waterless and low-flow urinal adoption due to subsequent high maintenance requirements and hygiene concerns. Through field observations, hypothesis testing, and multiple regression analysis, this study attempts to characterize, for the first time, the ureolytic activity of the biomineralization found in alternative technologies located at 9 State-owned restrooms. Multiple regression analysis (n = 55, df = 4, R2 = 0.665) suggests that intrasystem sampling location ( hat{upbeta} = 1.23, p < 0.001), annual users per rest area ( hat{upbeta} = 0.5, p = 0.004), and the volatile solids to total solids mass fraction ( hat{upbeta} = 0.59, p = 0.003), are statistically significant influencers of the ureolytic activity of biomineral samples (p < 0.05). Conversely, ureC gene abundance (p = 0.551), urinal type (p = 0.521) and sampling season (p = 0.956) are not significant predictors of biomineral ureolytic activity. We conclude that high concentrations of the urease alpha subunit, ureC, which can be interpreted as proxy measure of a strong, potentially ureolytic community, does not necessarily mean that the gene is being expressed. Future studies should assess ureC transcriptional activity to measure gene expression rather than gene abundance to assess the relationship between environmental conditions, their role in transcription, and urease activities. In sum, this study presents a method to characterize biomineral ureolysis. This study establishes baseline values for future ureolytic inhibition treatment studies that seek to improve the usability of urine collection and related source separation technologies.

Use of Google Analytics to Explore Dissemination Activities for an Online CKD Clinical Pathway: A Retrospective Study.

Background:Data on dissemination strategies that generate awareness of clinical pathways for kidney care are limited.Objective:This study reports the application of Google Analytics to describe the reach and use of the Chronic Kidney Disease Pathway (CKD-P) using a multi-faceted dissemination strategy.Design:The design of this study is a retrospective descriptive study.Setting:This study was conducted in Alberta, Canada.Patients:Individuals who accessed the CKD-P Web site between November 5, 2014, and May 31, 2019.Measurements:Dissemination activities included print, electronic, in-person meetings, and a laboratory prompt. We used Google Analytics over a 5-year period to evaluate the following CKD-P Web site user metrics: number of sessions, pageviews, visit duration, user path, and bounce rate (when an individual visits a single page of the Web site and leaves the Web site without interacting with additional pages).Methods:We plotted dissemination activities alongside Web site metrics using control charts and described the data using means and percentages. We performed chi-square test for trends to evaluate year-over-year usage.Results:There were 83 294 users, 90 805 sessions, and 231 684 pageviews. The overall bounce rate was 45.7%. Each user had an average of 1.5 sessions and a session duration of 2 minutes and 8 seconds. There was a significant positive trend for total annual users (P = .008), new users (P = .009), number of sessions (P = .006), and pageviews per day (P = .016).Limitations:We were unable to confirm if users were primary care providers and if word-of-mouth dissemination among providers/researchers drove people to use the CKD-P.Conclusions:Google Analytics was a useful and accessible tool for evaluating CKD-P reach and use trends. It was challenging to identify how individual dissemination activities contributed to CKD-P reach; however, repeated dissemination appeared to play a role in increasing CKD-P use.Trial registration:Not applicable—observational study design.

Effect of Low-Cost Policy Measures to Promote Public Transport Use: A Case Study of Oyama City, Japan

Breaking away from the dependence on cars, increasing the number of public transport users, and securing operational revenues have been posing a problem for many cities worldwide. As a low-cost policy measure to address this problem, Oyama City (with a population of approximately 167,000) in Japan, conducted a social experiment involving a significant fare reduction (selling passes at Max 70% discount) and a public information campaign (simplified mobility management) for all citizens. This study analysed this policy from two perspectives, namely the change in the attitudes and behaviours of the people, and the maintenance of the financial stability of bus management. The analysis confirmed that the number of pass holders increased by a factor of 2.6, number of pass holders using the bus increased by a factor of 1.16, total number of annual bus users increased by a factor of 1.1, and revenue from bus services was maintained. In addition, public information campaigns increased awareness regarding the passes and the number of citizens who ware attached emotionally to the bus and city. These results suggest that the combination of a significant fare reduction and an appropriate public information campaign may increase bus ridership, without reducing operational revenues.

A natural experimental study of new walking and cycling infrastructure across the United Kingdom: The Connect2 programme

IntroductionHigh quality evaluations of new walking and cycling routes are scarce and understanding contextual mechanisms influencing outcomes is limited. Using different types of data we investigate how context is associated with change in use of new and upgraded walking and cycling infrastructure, and the association between infrastructure use and overall physical activity. MethodsWe conducted repeat cross-sectional pre-post analysis of monitoring data from a variety of walking and cycling routes built in 84 locations across the United Kingdom (the Connect2 programme, 2009–2013), using four-day user counts (pre n = 189,250; post n = 319,531), next-to-pass surveys of route users (pre n = 15,641; post n = 20,253), and automatic counter data that generated estimates of total annual users. Using multivariable logistic regression, we identified contextual features associated with 50% increase and doubling of pedestrians, cyclists, and sub-groups of users. We combined insights from monitoring data with longitudinal cohort data (the iConnect study) from residents living near three Connect2 schemes. Residents were surveyed by post at baseline, one-year (n = 1853) and two-year follow-up (n = 1524) to investigate associations between use of the new infrastructure and meeting physical activity guidelines. ResultsThe routes were associated with increased use (median increase in cyclists 52%, pedestrians 38%; p < 0.001). Large relative increases were associated with low baseline levels (e.g. odds of doubling cycling were halved for each additional 10,000 annual cyclists at baseline: OR 0.52, 95% CI 0.31, 0.77). Use was associated with meeting physical activity guidelines in both repeat cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses (users vs. non-users after one year, OR 2.07, 95% CI 1.37, 3.21; after two years, OR 2.00, 95% CI 1.37, 2.96). ConclusionsThis examination of use, users, benefit-cost ratios, and physical activity associated with new walking and cycling infrastructure across contexts, using multiple types of data, suggests that building walking and cycling infrastructure could improve population health and reduce inequalities.

How to Play Fantasy Sports Strategically (and Win)

Daily fantasy sports (DFS) is a multibillion-dollar industry with millions of annual users and widespread appeal among sports fans across a broad range of popular sports. Building on recent work, we provide a coherent framework for constructing DFS portfolios where we explicitly model the behavior of other DFS players. We formulate an optimization problem that accurately describes the DFS problem for a risk-neutral decision maker in both double-up and top-heavy payoff settings. Our formulation maximizes the expected reward subject to feasibility constraints, and we relate this formulation to mean-variance optimization and the outperformance of stochastic benchmarks. Using this connection, we show how the problem can be reduced to the problem of solving a series of binary quadratic programs. We also propose an algorithm for solving the problem where the decision maker can submit multiple entries to the DFS contest. This algorithm is motivated by submodularity properties of the objective function and by some new results on parimutuel betting. One of the contributions of our work is the introduction of a Dirichlet-multinomial data-generating process for modeling opponents’ team selections, and we estimate the parameters of this model via Dirichlet regressions. A further benefit to modeling opponents’ team selections is that it enables us to estimate the value, in a DFS setting, of both insider trading and collusion. We demonstrate the value of our framework by applying it to DFS contests during the 2017 National Football League season. This paper was accepted by Baris Ata, stochastic models and simulation.

How to Play Fantasy Sports Strategically (and Win)

Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) is a multi-billion dollar industry with millions of annual users and widespread appeal among sports fans across a broad range of popular sports. Building on the recent work of Hunter, Vielma and Zaman (2016), we provide a coherent framework for constructing DFS portfolios where we explicitly model the behavior of other DFS players. We formulate an optimization problem that accurately describes the DFS problem for a risk-neutral decision-maker in both double-up and top-heavy payoff settings. Our formulation maximizes the expected reward subject to feasibility constraints and we relate this formulation to mean-variance optimization and the out-performance of stochastic benchmarks. Using this connection, we show how the problem can be reduced to the problem of solving a series of binary quadratic programs. We also propose an algorithm for solving the problem where the decision-maker can submit multiple entries to the DFS contest. This algorithm is motivated by submodularity properties of the objective function and by some new results on parimutuel betting. One of the contributions of our work is the introduction of a Dirichlet-multinomial data generating process for modeling opponents' team selections and we estimate the parameters of this model via Dirichlet regressions. A further benefit to modeling opponents' team selections is that it enables us to estimate the value in a DFS setting of both insider trading and and collusion. We demonstrate the value of our framework by applying it to DFS contests during the 2017 NFL season.

Board Characteristics and Muslim Ownership Structure on Value Relevance of Accounting Information: Evidence from Malaysian Shariah Compliant Companies

Corporate reporting is considered important because it provides information to assist internal and external corporate annual report users in making informed decisions. The high quality of financial reporting information is really significant, since employing this information can also lead to an increase in investment efficiency. Owners or shareholders need all necessary financial information for decision making. Nevertheless, even though they own the companies but the management is carried out by a pool of professionals – managers and directors. Thus, the directors set the directions and policies for the management team to run the company’s daily affairs. The separation between ownership and managers in firms leads to the agency problem between them. This study looks into the relationship between corporate governance characteristics (the size of the board of directors, the number of Shariah background directors, number of Muslim female in board, Muslim ownership structure) and value relevance of accounting information. Findings show a positive association between board size and value relevance of accounting information in Malaysian Shariah-compliant firms. However, there is not enough evidence to prove Shariah background members on board can enhance the value relevance of accounting information. Regarding the relationship between the presence of Muslim female directors in the board and the value relevance of accounting information, the results reveal insignificant relationship. The findings also indicate that companies with large Muslim ownership are negatively significant for value relevance of accounting information.

Federation in genomics pipelines: techniques and challenges.

Federation is a popular concept in building distributed cyberinfrastructures, whereby computational resources are provided by multiple organizations through a unified portal, decreasing the complexity of moving data back and forth among multiple organizations. Federation has been used in bioinformatics only to a limited extent, namely, federation of datastores, e.g. SBGrid Consortium for structural biology and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) for functional genomics. Here, we posit that it is important to federate both computational resources (CPU, GPU, FPGA, etc.) and datastores to support popular bioinformatics portals, with fast-increasing data volumes and increasing processing requirements. A prime example, and one that we discuss here, is in genomics and metagenomics. It is critical that the processing of the data be done without having to transport the data across large network distances. We exemplify our design and development through our experience with metagenomics-RAST (MG-RAST), the most popular metagenomics analysis pipeline. Currently, it is hosted completely at Argonne National Laboratory. However, through a recently started collaborative National Institutes of Health project, we are taking steps toward federating this infrastructure. Being a widely used resource, we have to move toward federation without disrupting 50 K annual users. In this article, we describe the computational tools that will be useful for federating a bioinformatics infrastructure and the open research challenges that we see in federating such infrastructures. It is hoped that our manuscript can serve to spur greater federation of bioinformatics infrastructures by showing the steps involved, and thus, allow them to scale to support larger user bases.

Measuring the operational efficiency of individual theme park attractions.

This study assesses the operation efficiency of theme park attractions using the data envelopment analysis, utilizing actual data on 15 attractions at Samsung Everland located in Yongin-si, Republic of Korea. In particular, this study identifies crowding and waiting time as one of the main causes of visitor’s satisfaction, and analyzes the efficiency of individual attractions in terms of waiting time. The installation area, installation cost, and annual repair cost are set as input factors and the number of annual users and customer satisfaction as output factors. The results show that the roller coaster-type attractions were less efficient than other types of attractions while rotating-type attractions were relatively more efficient. However, an importance performance analysis on individual attraction’s efficiency and satisfaction showed that operational efficiency should not be the sole consideration in attraction installation. In addition, the projection points for input factors for efficient use of attractions and the appropriate reference set for benchmarking are provided as guideline for attraction efficiency management.

Motivation for voluntary disclosure of cash flow statements in non-listed medium-sized companies

In some EU member states, medium-sized companies are under the obligation to present a cash flow statement, but there are exemption rules similar to those for subgroups' exemption from presenting consolidated financial statements. In a sample consisting of 385 Danish companies, we found that 29 were actually exempted from presenting consolidated financial statements, but chose to voluntarily disclose the cash flow statement. In this study, we investigate the motivation that the companies had for voluntarily disclosing this information. Much to our surprise, for the majority tradition seemed to be the main motivating factor for presenting the cash flow statement, and not an intention of fulfilling the needs of the annual report's users. We also found that some of the companies that voluntarily disclosed information would like to discontinue doing so, but they did not dare to change the accounting practice because of a potential negative reaction.

From bicycle sharing system movements to users: a typology of Vélo’v cyclists in Lyon based on large-scale behavioural dataset

Vélo’v have been available in Lyon, France, since 2005, and are one of the first major public bicycle sharing systems (BSS) implemented in Europe. With up to 7million trips in 2013 and around 50,000 annual users plus occasional users, Vélo’v have increased bicycle use in the city by 50%. Analysing a database gathering both bicycle movement and user data for the calendar year 2011 provided by the operator, we concentrate our analysis on Vélo’v users. We characterise user mobilities and produce a user typology based on cluster analysis, relying on intensity and on annual and weekly temporal patterns. The proposed analysis, which creates user profiles from patterns, contributes to a close-reading of the interplay between BSS and other transports as well as to an improved understanding of conditions leading to a wider use of bicycles in cities.

Parsimonious Prediction Model for the Prevalence of Dental Visits in Chennai, India

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE The aim of the study is to analyze the prevalence of dental visits within the last year in the Behavioural Risk Factor Surveillance System or BRFSS by the simple sociodemographic factors among the adults in 10 different areas of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. METHODS Cross sectional telephone survey (Behavioural Risk Factor Surveillance System) conducted among 500 adults. Data was collected based on a standardized questionnaire to determine the distribution of risk behaviours and health practices among non-institutionalized adults. A multivariable logistic regression model considers the complex sample design of the BRFSS was used to predict the prevalence of dental visits based on four non-clinic parsimonious variables. RESULTS Results showed that the adults with the High household income, Religion (Hindu), High Education(&gt; High School Diploma), and marital status were associated with an annual dental visit with the odd ratios of 0.943, 1.161, 1.243, 0.876 respectively. Besant Nagar had the highest percentage (13%) of estimated annual users, while Redhills had the lowest percentage(8%). CONCLUSION Health promotion organizations, Local governments, Insurance companies, and organizations that administer public health programs will benefit by applying this model to the available nonclinical databases, and will be able to improve planning of dental health services and required dental workforce.

Joint European XFEL and DESY Photon Science Users' Meeting 2013

The European XFEL and DESY Photon Science Annual Users' Meeting 2013 set a new record: more than 800 participants, scientists, staff, and students from 25 countries registered for this event. The three-day meeting took place from January 23 to 25, 2013, at DESY in Hamburg (Germany). There was great interest in the latest news on the construction of the European XFEL and on the extension projects at PETRA III and FLASH, and the participants had plenty of opportunities to catch up on recent free-electron laser (FEL) and synchrotron light source developments ranging from THz to hard X-rays applications.

Sirius: A 5BA Low-Emittance Lattice with Superbends for the New Brazilian Synchrotron Light Source

Starting in the late 1980s and into the 1990s, Brazil developed its own technology for the production of synchrotron light, designing and building UVX, a light source based on a 1.37 GeV electron storage ring with a circumference of 93 m and natural emittance of 100 nm.rad [1]. Over more than 15 years of routine operation for users, the expansion capabilities for this light source, either in terms of new beamlines or upgrades to its accelerators, have reached fundamental limits that can no longer be overcome. The first discussions about a new low-emittance light source for Brazil started in 2006 among the scientific and accelerator communities during the 16th LNLS Annual Users Meeting. In November 2008, a decision by the Brazilian Federal Government was taken to fund preliminary studies for this new source, leading to the final decision to fund the whole project in 2011. The proposed new synchrotron light source, Sirius, is based on a 3 GeV electron storage ring with a circumference of 518 m, a natural emittance of 0.28 nm.rad, and a total of 20 straight sections, of which 18 are for insertion devices. The new facility is being built at the same LNLS site as shown in Figure 1.

Pittsburgh Diffraction Society Conference 2012

The 70th Annual Pittsburgh Diffraction Conference (PDC) was held at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California, from September 30 to October 2, 2012, preceding the LCLS/SSRL Annual Users' Meeting. The PDC Program Committee for 2012 comprised Aina Cohen, Guillermo Calero, Michael Bogan, James Holton, Clyde Smith, Garth Williams, and Joanne Yeh. The PDC is the oldest diffraction-related conference in North America, and the goal of the meeting is to bring together researchers in all areas of fundamental and applied diffraction and crystallographic research. This was the first time in the history of the Pittsburgh Diffraction Society that the meeting was held in the West Coast of the US. The PDC attracted more than 100 participants, including a number of undergraduate and postgraduate students, and 29 speakers. The conference began on the evening of September 30 with an opening reception. The conference was divided into two broad areas of interest: Macromolecular Crystallography on the first day (October 1) and X-ray Free Electron Laser-related Research on the second day (October 2). The two days were further divided into sessions as described below.