A search for neutrinoless double-β decay (0νββ) in Xe136 is performed with the full EXO-200 dataset using a deep neural network to discriminate between 0νββ and background events. Relative to ...previous analyses, the signal detection efficiency has been raised from 80.8% to 96.4±3.0%, and the energy resolution of the detector at the Q value of Xe136 0νββ has been improved from σ/E=1.23% to 1.15±0.02% with the upgraded detector. Accounting for the new data, the median 90% confidence level 0νββ half-life sensitivity for this analysis is 5.0×1025 yr with a total Xe136 exposure of 234.1 kg yr. No statistically significant evidence for 0νββ is observed, leading to a lower limit on the 0νββ half-life of 3.5×1025 yr at the 90% confidence level.
Purpose: To describe factors that enable the routine use of long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIs) for appropriate patients in the current clinical practice, including changes in LAI ...prescribing due to the COVID-19 pandemic and expectations for prescribing in 2021 in the United States (US). Methods: Frequent LAI prescribers recruited from a nationwide panel in 2020 completed an online survey regarding practice characteristics, perspectives on healthcare system conditions enabling routine use of LAIs, and prescribing patterns and changes in patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Of 408 prescribers who completed the survey, 77.7% were physicians and 59.1% had greater than or equal to10 years of psychiatry practice. More than half of frequent prescribers (57.1%) reported treating >20% of their patients with schizophrenia with LAIs. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) guideline was followed by 64.0% of prescribers. Most prescribers identified poor adherence to antipsychotics as a circumstance when LAIs are recommended (94.9%) and patient/caregiver involvement in treatment decisions as a key factor impacting the decision to prescribe LAIs (97.3%). Most prescribers reported that LAI prescribing rates were unchanged in 2020 (59.8%). Similar proportions of prescribers expected no change (44.1%) or an increase (42.9%) in LAI prescribing rates in 2021. The number of patients followed, cost of treatment, and availability of staff to administer LAIs were the main driving factors identified by prescribers expecting an increase in LAI prescribing rates. Conclusion: LAIs were commonly recommended to patients with poor adherence, and patient/caregiver involvement was an important factor affecting prescribers' treatment decisions. LAI prescribing rates remained unchanged during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Keywords: COVID-19, healthcare providers, long-acting injectable antipsychotics, prescribing patterns, schizophrenia
Our previous study has shown that individuals with untreated hypothyroidism display significantly higher partial error scores (
) along the blue-yellow axis compared to the red-green axis than normal ...individuals using the Farnsworth-Munsell 100 hue test J. Opt. Soc. Am. A37, A18 (2020)JOAOD60740-323210.1364/JOSAA.382390. We wished to determine how color discrimination may change when hypothyroidism has been treated to the point of euthyroidism. Color discrimination was reassessed for 17 female individuals who had undergone treatment for hypothyroidism, and the results were compared with 22 female individuals without thyroid dysfunction. No statistically significant difference was found in the total error score (
) for the first and second measurements for both groups (
>0.45). The
for the hypothyroid group improved significantly in the previously impaired color regions after the treatment. Color discrimination defects found in untreated hypothyroidism can be negated with treatment of the condition over an appropriate time period.
Purpose: To describe changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the prescribing of long-acting antipsychotics (LAI) for schizophrenia, patient outcomes, and patient and healthcare provider (HCP) ...attitudes regarding COVID-19 vaccination in the United States (US). Methods: An anonymous online survey was administered to US-based LAI prescribers with a psychiatry specialty in May 2021. Information on prescriber and clinical practice characteristics, LAI prescribing, patient outcomes, and attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination was collected and described. Results: Of the 401 LAI prescribers meeting survey criteria, 64.6% reported that LAI prescribing remained unchanged (increase: 19.2%, decrease: 14.0%). The majority did not switch patients from LAIs to oral antipsychotics (OAP; 63.3%) or to LAI formulations with lower frequency of administration (68.1%); most prescribers switched the same number of patients from OAPs to LAIs during the pandemic as in previous practice (65.1%). Half of LAI prescribers (50.1%) reported antipsychotic adherence as unchanged among most patients; 44.6% reported symptom control/relapse frequency as unchanged. Most prescribers believed their patients with schizophrenia should be prioritized for COVID-19 vaccination (74.1%) and encouraged all patients to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine (84.0%). However, 64.1% of prescribers reported hesitancy among some patients about vaccines’ safety; 51.4% reported that some patients were willing to be vaccinated despite the hesitancy, 48.6% indicated that some patients perceived COVID-19 vaccines as safe, effective, and important. Conclusion: LAI prescribing and prescriber-reported antipsychotic adherence in patients with schizophrenia remained largely unchanged approximately one year after the start of COVID-19. Focused efforts to overcome patients’ COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy are warranted.
The TELEACE study showed reductions in tumor size in patients with neuroendocrine tumors, receiving telotristat ethyl in US clinical practice. Here, we report progression-free survival, time to tumor ...progression, changes in carcinoid syndrome symptoms, and indictors of overall health.
This was a retrospective, single arm, pre-post medical chart review of patients with locally advanced or metastatic neuroendocrine tumors and documented carcinoid syndrome receiving telotristat ethyl for at least 6 months. Patients with poorly differentiated tumors, mixed tumor types or conflicting clinical trial enrollment were excluded. Descriptive statistics, Kaplan-Meier and chi-square tests were used to evaluate PFS, tumor progression, changes in symptoms, body weight and ECOG performance status before and after telotristat ethyl initiation. Subgroup analyses were conducted in patients with the same pre- and post-telotristat ethyl background treatment.
Anonymized data for 200 patients were provided by 114 physicians; patients received telotristat ethyl for a median of 9 months. Median time to tumor progression was 39.8 months (IQR, 18.7-39.8); most had no tumor progression at 6 (92%) and 12 months (87%). Median progression-free survival was 23.7 months (17.8-39.8); most had progression-free survival at 6 (90%) and 12 months (80%). Results were consistent in the subgroup of 65 patients with the same pre/post background treatment. Nearly all patients had improved carcinoid syndrome symptoms, stable or improved weight and ECOG performance status.
Patients showed improvements in clinical outcomes and indicators of overall health following treatment with telotristat ethyl in this exploratory pilot study, consistent with previously observed reductions in tumor size.
Measurements of electron drift properties in liquid and gaseous xenon are reported. The electrons are generated by the photoelectric effect in a semi-transparent gold photocathode driven in ...transmission mode with a pulsed ultraviolet laser. The charges drift and diffuse in a small chamber at various electric fields and a fixed drift distance of 2.0 cm. At an electric field of 0.5 kV/cm, the measured drift velocities and corresponding temperature coefficients respectively are 1.97±0.04mm∕μs and (−0.69±0.05)%/K for liquid xenon, and 1.42±0.03mm∕μs and (+0.11±0.01)%/K for gaseous xenon at 1.5 bar. In addition, we measure longitudinal diffusion coefficients of 25.7±4.6 cm2/s and 149±23 cm2/s, for liquid and gas, respectively. The quantum efficiency of the gold photocathode is studied at the photon energy of 4.73 eV in liquid and gaseous xenon, and vacuum. These charge transport properties and the behavior of photocathodes in a xenon environment are important in designing and calibrating future large scale noble liquid detectors.
nEXO is a proposed tonne-scale neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) experiment using liquid 136Xe (LXe) in a Time Projection Chamber (TPC) to read out ionization and scintillation signals. Between ...the field cage and the LXe vessel, a layer of LXe (“skin” LXe) is present, where no ionization signal is collected. Only scintillation photons are detected, owing to the lack of optical barrier around the field cage. In this work, we show that the light originating in the skin LXe region can be used to improve background discrimination by 5% over previous published estimates. This improvement comes from two elements. First, a fraction of the γ-ray background is removed by identifying light from interactions with an energy deposition in the skin LXe. Second, background from 222Rn dissolved in the skin LXe can be efficiently rejected by tagging the α decay in the 214Bi-214Po chain in the skin LXe.
Liquid xenon (LXe) is employed in a number of current and future detectors for rare event searches. We use the EXO-200 experimental data to measure the absolute scintillation and ionization yields ...generated by γ interactions from 228Th (2615 keV), 226Ra (1764 keV), and 60Co (1332 keV and 1173 keV) calibration sources, over a range of electric fields. The W value that defines the recombination-independent energy scale is measured to be 11.5 ± 0.5 (syst.) ±0.1 (stat.) eV. These data are also used to measure the recombination fluctuations in the number of electrons and photons produced by the calibration sources at the MeV scale, which deviate from extrapolations of lower-energy data. Additionally, a semiempirical model for the energy resolution of the detector is developed, which is used to constrain the recombination efficiency, i.e., the fraction of recombined electrons that result in the emission of a detectable photon. Detailed measurements of the absolute charge and light yields for MeV-scale electron recoils are important for predicting the performance of future neutrinoless double β-decay detectors.
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