A search for pair production of second-generation scalar leptoquarks in the final state with two muons and two jets is performed using proton-proton collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected by the CMS ...detector at the LHC. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb⁻¹. The number of observed events is in good agreement with the predictions from the standard model processes. An upper limit is set on the second-generation leptoquark cross section times β² as a function of the leptoquark mass, and leptoquarks with masses below 394 GeV are excluded at a 95% confidence level for β = 1, where β is the leptoquark branching fraction into a muon and a quark. These limits are the most stringent to date.
Patients with intermediate-stage squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck traditionally have been treated with initial surgical resection followed by radiotherapy (RT) alone or chemoradiotherapy. ...A previous study in this patient population reported a 91% locoregional control rate and 65% overall survival (OS) rate at 5 years, with chemoradiotherapy used as primary treatment. This study was undertaken to assess whether shortening treatment duration with hyperfractionated RT would be feasible and improve locoregional control, organ preservation, and progression-free survival.
Eligible patients with stage II or III disease received fluorouracil, hydroxyurea, and RT given twice daily on a week-on/week-off schedule. Quality-of-life scores were measured using three validated indexes.
All 53 patients enrolled are included in the analysis, with a median follow-up of 42 months (range, 5 to 98 months). Grade 3 or 4 in-field mucositis was observed in 77% and 9%, respectively. No patients required surgical salvage at the primary tumor site (pathological complete response rate, 100%). The 3-year progression-free and OS rates are 67% and 78%, respectively. The 3-year disease-specific mortality rate is 7%. At the time of analysis, 87% of surviving patients do not require enteral feeding support. Quality-of-life and performance assessment indicated that, although acute treatment toxicities were severe, most patients returned to pretreatment function by 12 months.
Concurrent chemoradiotherapy with hyperfractionated RT is feasible in this patient population and yields high local control and cure rates. Compared with our historical control using once-daily fractionation, hyperfractionation is accompanied by increased acute in-field toxicity.
Data are lacking regarding regional morphological changes among women after prolonged physical training. This study employed dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry to assess changes in whole body and ...regional (i.e., trunk, legs, arms) fat mass, lean mass, and bone mineral content body composition adaptations in 31 healthy women pre-, mid-, and post-6 mo of periodized physical training. These results were compared with those of 1) a control group of women who had not undergone the training program and were assessed pre- and post-6 mo and 2) a group of 18 men that was tested only once. Additionally, magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess changes in muscle morphology of the thigh in a subset of 11 members of the training group. Physical training consisted of a combination of aerobic and resistance exercise in which the subjects engaged for 5 days/wk for 24 wk. Overall, the training group experienced a 2.2% decrease, a 10% decrease, and a 2.2% increase for body mass, fat mass, and soft tissue lean mass, respectively. No changes in bone mineral content were detected. The women had less of their soft tissue lean mass distributed in their arms than did the men, both before and after the women were trained. Novel to this study were the striking differences in the responses in the tissue composition of the arms (31% loss in fat mass but no change in lean mass) compared with the legs (5.5% gain in lean mass but no change in fat mass). There was a 12% fat loss in the trunk with no change in soft tissue lean mass. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and magnetic resonance imaging fat mass measurements showed good agreement (r = 0. 72-0.92); their lean mass measurements were similar as well, showing approximately 5.5% increases in leg lean tissue. These findings show the importance of considering regional body composition changes, rather than whole body changes alone when assessing the effects of a periodized physical training program.
Semen processed with procedures intended to permit a flexible thaw method is used to breed millions of cows yearly. One method of thawing straws, the “pocket thaw” is used extensively with semen ...prepared with these procedures. Published field data is lacking for thaw method comparisons with semen processed to permit flexible-thawing. The objective of the present study was to measure the effect of semen thaw method (warm-water or pocket thaw) over all seasons and its interaction with herds, inseminators, straw package size, and sperm number on conception rate in commercial dairy heifer herds using semen processed with procedures historically optimized for success with flexible-thawing. Professional inseminators performed 11,215 services over a 16-month period in four large herds, achieving a 67.6% conception rate. Thaw method was alternated weekly. Thaw effect on conception status, determined by 70 days non-return rate, was estimated by a generalized linear mixed model. Neither thaw method nor number of sperm per straw significantly affected probability of conception (
P
=
0.658 and 0.769, respectively). No interactions of thaw method with herd, sperm number, season, straw size, and straw size by season were detected (
P
=
0.297, 0.526, 0.365, 0.723, and 0.824, respectively). Bull, herd, inseminator within herd, year, season, and straw size affected conception rate (
P
=
0.002, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, and 0.014, respectively). In conclusion, for semen processed with procedures that permit flexible-thawing, thaw method (pocket thaw versus warm-water thaw) did not affect conception rate under commercial conditions and with routine semen handling methods.
We present a measurement of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) gravitational lensing potential using data from the first two seasons of observations with SPTpol, the polarization-sensitive ...receiver currently installed on the South Pole Telescope. The observations used in this work cover 100 deg{sup 2} of sky with arcminute resolution at 150 GHz. Using a quadratic estimator, we make maps of the CMB lensing potential from combinations of CMB temperature and polarization maps. We combine these lensing potential maps to form a minimum-variance (MV) map. The lensing potential is measured with a signal-to-noise ratio of greater than one for angular multipoles between 100<L<250. This is the highest signal-to-noise mass map made from the CMB to date and will be powerful in cross-correlation with other tracers of large-scale structure. We calculate the power spectrum of the lensing potential for each estimator, and we report the value of the MV power spectrum between 100<L<2000 as our primary result. We constrain the ratio of the spectrum to a fiducial ΛCDM model to be A{sub MV} = 0.92 ± 0.14 (Stat.) ± 0.08 (Sys.). Restricting ourselves to polarized data only, we find A{sub POL} = 0.92 ± 0.24 (Stat.) ± 0.11 (Sys.). This measurement rejects the hypothesis of no lensing at 5.9σ using polarization data alone, and at 14σ using both temperature and polarization data.
The purpose of this prospective study was to determine whether the timing of prophylactic antibiotics at cesarean delivery influences maternal/neonatal infectious morbidity.
In this double-blind ...placebo-controlled trial, cefazolin was given at skin incision (group A) or at cord clamping (group B). Patients were eligible for the trial if they had labored and required a cesarean delivery.
Over a 30-month period 303 patients with singleton pregnancies entered the trial; 153-group A, 149-group B. Demographics, indication for cesarean delivery (
P
=
.54), and operative time (
P
=
.999), as well as rates of endometritis (RR 0.67, 95% CI 0.42–1.07), wound infection (RR 0.84, 95% CI 0.45–1.55), neonatal sepis (RR 1.28, 95% CI 0.91–1.79), and NICU admissions (RR 1.28, 95% CI 0.91–1.79) were similar between the 2 groups.
There was no difference in maternal infectious morbidity whether antibiotics were given before skin incision or at cord clamping.
A
bstract
A measurement is presented of the
$ \mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}} $
production cross section
$ \left( {{\sigma_{{\mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}} \right) $
in proton-proton collisions at ...a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, in the all-jet final state that contains at least six jets, two of which are tagged as originating from b quarks. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 3.54 fb
−1
, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. The cross section is determined through an unbinned maximum likelihood fit of background and
$ \mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}} $
signal to the reconstructed mass spectrum of
$ \mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}} $
candidates in the data, in which events are subjected to a kinematic fit assuming a
$ \mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}\to {{\mathrm{W}}^{+}}\mathrm{b}{{\mathrm{W}}^{-}}\overline{\mathrm{b}}\to 6 $
jets hypothesis. The measurement yields
$ {\sigma_{{\mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}}=139\pm 10\;\left( {\mathrm{stat}.} \right)\pm 26\;\left( {\mathrm{syst}.} \right)\pm 3\left( {\mathrm{lum}.} \right)\;\mathrm{pb} $
, a result consistent with those obtained in other
$ \mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}} $
decay channels, as well as with predictions of the standard model.
To evaluate two clinical procedures, Monocular Estimate Method (MEM) and Nott retinoscopy, for detecting accommodative lags 1.00 diopter (D) or greater in children as identified by an open-field ...autorefractor.
One hundred sixty-eight children 8 to <12 years old with low myopia, normal visual acuity, and no strabismus participated as part of an ancillary study within the screening process for a randomized trial. Accommodative response to a 3.00 D demand was first assessed by MEM and Nott retinoscopy, viewing binocularly with spherocylindrical refractive error corrected, with testing order randomized and each performed by a different masked examiner. The response was then determined viewing monocularly with spherical equivalent refractive error corrected, using an open-field autorefractor, which was the gold standard used for eligibility for the clinical trial. Sensitivity and specificity for accommodative lags of 1.00 D or more were calculated for each retinoscopy method compared to the autorefractor.
One hundred sixteen (69%) of the 168 children had accommodative lag of 1.00 D or more by autorefraction. MEM identified 66 children identified by autorefraction for a sensitivity of 57% (95% CI = 47 to 66%) and a specificity of 63% (95% CI = 49 to 76%). Nott retinoscopy identified 35 children for a sensitivity of 30% (95% CI = 22 to 39%) and a specificity of 81% (95% CI = 67 to 90%). Analysis of receiver operating characteristic curves constructed for MEM and for Nott retinoscopy failed to reveal alternate cut points that would improve the combination of sensitivity and specificity for identifying accommodative lag > or =1.00 D as defined by autorefraction.
Neither MEM nor Nott retinoscopy provided adequate sensitivity and specificity to identify myopic children with accommodative lag > or =1.00 D as determined by autorefraction. A variety of methodological differences between the techniques may contribute to the modest to poor agreement.
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