ELI-Beamlines (ELI-BL), one of the three pillars of the Extreme Light Infrastructure endeavour, will be in a unique position to perform research in high-energy-density-physics (HEDP), plasma physics ...and ultra-high intensity (UHI) (>1022W/cm2) laser–plasma interaction. Recently the need for HED laboratory physics was identified and the P3 (plasma physics platform) installation under construction in ELI-BL will be an answer. The ELI-BL 10 PW laser makes possible fundamental research topics from high-field physics to new extreme states of matter such as radiation-dominated ones, high-pressure quantum ones, warm dense matter (WDM) and ultra-relativistic plasmas. HEDP is of fundamental importance for research in the field of laboratory astrophysics and inertial confinement fusion (ICF). Reaching such extreme states of matter now and in the future will depend on the use of plasma optics for amplifying and focusing laser pulses. This article will present the relevant technological infrastructure being built in ELI-BL for HEDP and UHI, and gives a brief overview of some research under way in the field of UHI, laboratory astrophysics, ICF, WDM, and plasma optics.
In December 2013, the French public health authorities recommended the use of Bexsero® (meningococcus B vaccine) in areas with endemic risk and for patients at risk for invasive meningococcal B ...disease. In this context, InfoVac-France performed a national survey a few months after the implementation of the vaccine to evaluate physicians' perceptions and experiences with this new vaccine.
This survey was proposed by email in April 2014 to the InfoVac network. An initial email explained the purpose of this study and proposed an online questionnaire.
Between April 29 and May 16, 2014, 1502 physicians answered online: 502 GPs (33%), 939 pediatricians (63%), and 61 other specialists (4%). In response, 91% of physicians would like to use this vaccine and 87% of pediatricians versus 50% of GPs knew that the vaccine was marketed. Physicians had been informed of the vaccine mostly via the InfoVac network (61%). The immunization schedules for all ages were slightly known by physicians (9% for GPs and 43% of pediatricians). This vaccination was still rarely proposed (18%) more often because it was not reimbursed to patients (62%). Although 39% of physicians were planning to propose the vaccine to their patients, 54% remained undecided. A total of 9% of pediatricians and 2% of GPs had already used this vaccination.
This InfoVac-France survey shows that physicians would support the implementation of this vaccine, but questions persist as to its effectiveness, impact on carriage, and duration of protection.
Escherichiacoli is the second cause of bacterial meningitis in neonates. Despite the use for 35 years of third-generation cephalosporins (3GCs), high morbidity and mortality rates with E. coli ...meningitis continue to occur. Because ciprofloxacin has good microbiologic activity against E. coli and good penetration in cerebrospinal fluid and brain, some authors have suggested adding ciprofloxacin to a 3GC regimen. The objective of this study was to assess combining 3GCs with ciprofloxacin versus 3GCs alone in a cohort of infants with E. coli meningitis.
We included all cases of E. coli meningitis diagnosed in infants <12 months of age that were prospectively collected through the French paediatric meningitis surveillance network between 2001 and 2016. The main outcome was the proportion of short-term neurologic complications with versus without ciprofloxacin. The analysis was conducted retrospectively by multivariable regression and propensity score (PS) analysis.
Among the 367 infants enrolled, 201 (54.8%) of 367 had ciprofloxacin and 3GC cotreatment and 166 (45.2%) of 367 only a 3GC. Median age and weight were 15 days (range, 1–318 days) and 3.42 kg (range, 0.66–9.4 kg). A total of 86 (23.4%) of 367 infants presented neurologic complications (seizures, strokes, empyema, abscesses, hydrocephalus, arachnoiditis); 57 received ciprofloxacin cotreatment. Complications were associated with ciprofloxacin cotreatment on multivariable analysis (odds ratio (OR) = 1.9; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.1–3.4) and PS analysis (OR = 1.9; 95% CI, 1.1–3.3). Mortality rate did not differ with and without ciprofloxacin: 22 (10.9%) of 201 versus 16 (9.6%) of 166 deaths (OR = 0.7; 95% CI, 0.3–1.6; PS analysis).
Ciprofloxacin added to 3GCs at least offers no advantage for neurologic outcome and mortality in infants with E. coli meningitis.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the discriminant validity of the RI-48 test, a shorter French version of the Category Cued Recall portion of the Double Memory Test developed initially by ...Buschke and colleagues (1997), in the diagnosis of mild and very mild Alzheimer disease (AD). The distinctive feature of the RI-48 task is that encoding specificity was increased by adding an immediate cued recall stage at the encoding phase. The results show that the RI-48 task seems to be well adapted to the clinical context and to have good psychometric properties, in particular a lack of a ceiling effect. Moreover, this task appears to be especially well suited for the diagnosis of both mild and very mild AD (sensitivity of 93% and 83.8%). From a more theoretical point of view, this study confirms the importance of optimizing the encoding specificity for the diagnosis of very mild AD, since the more encoding specificity is accentuated, the more discriminating power is increased for the diagnosis of very mild AD.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Immunization is experienced as painful and may be responsible for needle fear and noncompliance. There are rare evidence-based methods to reduce pain and improve comfort during immunization. There ...are no French immunization guidelines summarizing the good practices, based on recent studies. This study focused on the methods used by physicians and how they compared with those validated by clinical trials.
An online questionnaire was sent to the practitioners from the Infovac network, and a PubMed bibliographic search was conducted.
Almost 2000 doctors responded to this survey. Purging the needle was a habit in 77.9% of them and aspiration before injection in 21.1%. Only one-quarter of the responding doctors injected in the deltoid muscle between 15 and 24 months, and some injected in the buttocks at any age. Half of the physicians vaccinated infants in their parent's arms, children were seated with half of the pediatricians and only one-third of the general practitioners (GPs), and teenagers were seated when vaccinated by three-quarters of the doctors. Anesthetic creams were used by 46.6% of the physicians, mostly by pediatricians (61.9%), and for infants. Breastfeeding was suggested by three-quarters of the physicians for infants under 4 months of age, and sugared solutions were used by 55.5% of the pediatricians and 32.3% of the GPs. Half of the doctors used rocking and cuddling for babies under 24 months of age and toys between 11 and 24 months.
Many methods are available to distract and improve comfort during immunization. Physicians should choose those they prefer, adjusting for the child's age. There should be French guidelines for immunization techniques, based to the latest clinical surveys, to help improve immunization practice.
Full disk observations of the solar chromosphere in the Ca ii K line represent a valuable dataset for studies of solar magnetic activity. The well known S-index is widely used to investigate the ...magnetic activity of stars, however, its connection to the coverage of stellar magnetic structure is still poorly understood. We use the archives of full disk Ca ii K images taken by the Royal Observatory of Belgium with the Uccle Solar Equatorial Table (USET) to derive the area fraction of the brightest chromospheric structures over the last decade. These data have allowed us to study the end of the solar cycle 24 and the beginning of the solar cycle 25. Our aim is to compare this dataset with the solar S-index from the Telescopio Internacional de Guanajuato Robotico Espectroscopico (TIGRE) lunar spectroscopy to analyze the relationship between a disk coverage index and an integrated spectrum. We also searched for periodic modulations in our two datasets to detect the solar rotation period. We used more than 2700 days of observations since the beginning of the Ca ii K observations with USET in July 2012. We performed a calibration of the images (re-centering and center-to-limb variation correction). The brightest regions of the solar surface (plages and enhanced network) were then segmented using an algorithm based on an intensity threshold. We computed the area fraction over the solar disk and compared it with the S-index from TIGRE. For the detection of periodic modulations, we applied a discrete Fourier power spectrum method to both datasets. A tight linear relationship was found between the USET area fraction and the TIGRE S-index, with an improved correlation obtained in the low-activity regime by considering the enhanced network. In both time series, we detected the modulation caused by the rotation of bright structures on the solar disk. However, this detection is constrained in the case of TIGRE due to its observation strategy. We studied the correlation between the disk coverage with chromospheric structures and the variability of the S-index on an overlapping period of ten years. We concluded that the disk coverage index is a good proxy for the S-index and will be useful in future studies of the magnetic activity of solar-type stars. The USET area fraction dataset is most appropriate for evaluating the solar rotation period and will be used in future works to analyze the impact of the inclination of the stellar rotation axis on the detectability of such periodic modulations in solar-type stars.
Since 2001 in France, a nasopharyngeal carriage study was set up for children six to 24 months old. Any data are available for older children (25 to 60 months). The aim of this study is to compare ...the nasopharyngeal carriage in children with acute otitis media (AOM) or healthy between both age groups (6/24 months versus 25/60 months). Moreover, during the study period, the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) has replaced PCV7 in June 2010.
From October 2010 to June 2011, 58 pediatricians obtained nasopharyngeal swabs from children 6-60 months with acute otitis media (AOM) or healthy controls, to analyse the carriage of pneumococcus, Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis, group A streptococcus and Staphylococcus aureus.
Of the 1557 enrolled children, 1258 were 6 to 24 months old (315 healthy and 943 AOM) and 299 were 25 to 60 months (102 healthy and 197 AOM). More then 85% were PCV7 vaccinated and the children of 25/60 months were rarely PCV13 vaccinated (14.1%) compared to younger children (69.9%, P<0.001). For children 6/24 months, the Streptococcus pneumoniae carriage was higher in AOM group (57.3%) versus healthy (28.9%). By contrast for older children, the difference (58.4% versus 50%) was not significant. In the healthy group, older children carried more often S. pneumoniae than younger children (50% versus 28.9%, P<0.0001). This trend was also observed for H. influenzae carriage (49% versus 18.7%, P<0.0001). Multivariate analysis in the healthy group showed that siblings and day care center (or school) increased the carriage of S. pneumoniae and H. influenzae.
These data from nasopharyngeal carriage in children 6 to 60 months old showed that pneumococcus and H. influenzae carriage is high for patients under 2 years, especially in the healthy group. Moreover, these data from the transition PCV7/PCV13, will serve as baseline in France to evaluate the impact of PCV13.
To determine the effectiveness of endoscopic cricopharyngeal myotomy on upper oesophageal sphincter dysfunction in adults with upper oesophageal sphincter dysfunction and neurological disease.
...Published and unpublished studies with a quasi-experimental design investigating endoscopic cricopharyngeal myotomy effects on upper oesophageal sphincter dysfunction in humans were considered eligible. Electronic databases, grey literature and reference lists of included studies were systematically searched.
Data were extracted by two independent reviewers. Methodological quality was assessed independently using the PEDro scale and MINORS tool.
Of 2938 records identified, 2 studies were eligible. Risk of bias assessment indicated areas of methodological concern in the literature. Statistical analysis was not possible because of the limited number of eligible studies.
No determinations could be made regarding endoscopic cricopharyngeal myotomy effectiveness in the cohort of interest. Reliable and valid evidence on the following is required to support increasing clinical usage of endoscopic cricopharyngeal myotomy: optimal candidacy selection; standardised post-operative management protocol; complications; and endoscopic cricopharyngeal myotomy effects on aspiration of food and laryngeal penetration, mean upper oesophageal sphincter resting pressure and quality of life.
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