Background
We previously reported that probiotic and peanut oral immunotherapy (PPOIT) was effective at inducing sustained unresponsiveness compared with placebo in a double‐blind, placebo‐controlled ...randomized trial. This study evaluated the impact of PPOIT on health‐related quality of life (HRQL).
Method
Fifty‐one participants (PPOIT 24; placebo 27) from the PPOIT trial completed Food Allergy Quality of Life Questionnaire (FAQLQ‐PF) and Food Allergy Independent Measure (FAIM) at pre‐treatment, end‐of‐treatment and 3 months after end‐of‐treatment. A total of 42 participants (20 PPOIT; 22 placebo) completed measures at 12 months post‐treatment. Changes over time in PPOIT and placebo groups were examined by repeated‐measures analysis of variance and paired t tests.
Results
Probiotic and peanut oral immunotherapy was associated with significant improvement in FAQLQ‐PF (F = 3.63, P = .02), with mean difference 0.8 at 3 months post‐treatment (P = .05) and 1.3 at 12 months post‐treatment (P = .005), exceeding the 0.5 minimal clinically important difference for FAQLQ‐PF. For FAIM, mean difference was 0.5 (P = .03) at 3 months and 0.4 (P = .04) at 12 months post‐treatment. In placebo group, post‐treatment FAQLQ and FAIM remained unchanged from pretreatment. Improvement in FAQLQ‐PF and FAIM scores related specifically to acquisition of sustained unresponsiveness rather than to receiving PPOIT treatment or participation in the trial.
Conclusions
Probiotic and peanut oral immunotherapy has a sustained beneficial effect on psychosocial impact of food allergy at 3 and 12 months after end‐of‐treatment. Treatment was not associated with reduced HRQL relative to baseline in either PPOIT or placebo groups, indicating that PPOIT was well tolerated and psychological well‐being was not negatively impacted. Improved HRQL was specifically associated with acquisition of sustained unresponsiveness.
Although most field and modeling studies of river corridor exchange have been conducted at scales ranging from tens to hundreds of meters, results of these studies are used to predict their ...ecological and hydrological influences at the scale of river networks. Further complicating prediction, exchanges are expected to vary with hydrologic forcing and the local geomorphic setting. While we desire predictive power, we lack a complete spatiotemporal relationship relating discharge to the variation in geologic setting and hydrologic forcing that is expected across a river basin. Indeed, the conceptual model of Wondzell (2011) predicts systematic variation in river corridor exchange as a function of (1) variation in baseflow over time at a fixed location, (2) variation in discharge with location in the river network, and (3) local geomorphic setting. To test this conceptual model we conducted more than 60 solute tracer studies including a synoptic campaign in the 5th-order river network of the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest (Oregon, USA) and replicate-in-time experiments in four watersheds. We interpret the data using a series of metrics describing river corridor exchange and solute transport, testing for consistent direction and magnitude of relationships relating these metrics to discharge and local geomorphic setting. We confirmed systematic decrease in river corridor exchange space through the river networks, from headwaters to the larger main stem. However, we did not find systematic variation with changes in discharge through time or with local geomorphic setting. While interpretation of our results is complicated by problems with the analytical methods, the results are sufficiently robust for us to conclude that space-for-time and time-for-space substitutions are not appropriate in our study system. Finally, we suggest two strategies that will improve the interpretability of tracer test results and help the hyporheic community develop robust datasets that will enable comparisons across multiple sites and/or discharge conditions.
We present timing solutions for 10 pulsars discovered in 350 MHz searches with the Green Bank Telescope. Nine of these were discovered in the Green Bank Northern Celestial Cap survey and one was ...discovered by students in the Pulsar Search Collaboratory program during an analysis of drift-scan data. Following the discovery and confirmation with the Green Bank Telescope, timing has yielded phase-connected solutions with high-precision measurements of rotational and astrometric parameters. Eight of the pulsars are slow and isolated, including PSR J0930−2301, a pulsar with a nulling fraction lower limit of ∼30% and a nulling timescale of seconds to minutes. This pulsar also shows evidence of mode changing. The remaining two pulsars have undergone recycling, accreting material from binary companions, resulting in higher spin frequencies. PSR J0557−2948 is an isolated, 44 ms pulsar that has been partially recycled and is likely a former member of a binary system that was disrupted by a second supernova. The paucity of such so-called "disrupted binary pulsars" (DRPs) compared to double neutron star (DNS) binaries can be used to test current evolutionary scenarios, especially the kicks imparted on the neutron stars in the second supernova. There is some evidence that DRPs have larger space velocities, which could explain their small numbers. PSR J1806+2819 is a 15 ms pulsar in a 44-day orbit with a low-mass white dwarf companion. We did not detect the companion in archival optical data, indicating that it must be older than 1200 Myr.
Background
The possibility that lifestyle factors such as diet, specifically potassium intake, may modify the risk of stroke has been suggested by several observational cohort studies, including some ...recent reports. We performed a systematic review and meta‐analysis of existing studies and assessed the dose–response relation between potassium intake and stroke risk.
Methods and Results
We reviewed the observational cohort studies addressing the relation between potassium intake, and incidence or mortality of total stroke or stroke subtypes published through August 6, 2016. We carried out a meta‐analysis of 16 cohort studies based on the relative risk (RR) of stroke comparing the highest versus lowest intake categories. We also plotted a pooled dose–response curve of RR of stroke according to potassium intake. Analyses were performed with and without adjustment for blood pressure. Relative to the lowest category of potassium intake, the highest category of potassium intake was associated with a 13% reduced risk of stroke (RR=0.87, 95% CI 0.80–0.94) in the blood pressure–adjusted analysis. Summary RRs tended to decrease when original estimates were unadjusted for blood pressure. Analysis for stroke subtypes yielded comparable results. In the spline analysis, the pooled RR was lowest at 90 mmol of potassium daily intake (RRs=0.78, 95% CI 0.70–0.86) in blood pressure–adjusted analysis, and 0.67 (95% CI 0.57–0.78) in unadjusted analysis.
Conclusions
Overall, this dose–response meta‐analysis confirms the inverse association between potassium intake and stroke risk, with potassium intake of 90 mmol (≈3500 mg)/day associated with the lowest risk of stroke.
Greater height and body mass index (BMI) have been associated with an increased risk of thyroid cancer, particularly papillary carcinoma, the most common and least aggressive subtype. Few studies ...have evaluated these associations in relation to other, more aggressive histologic types or thyroid cancer-specific mortality.
This large pooled analysis of 22 prospective studies (833,176 men and 1,260,871 women) investigated thyroid cancer incidence associated with greater height, BMI at baseline and young adulthood, and adulthood BMI gain (difference between young-adult and baseline BMI), overall and separately by sex and histological subtype using multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models. Associations with thyroid cancer mortality were investigated in a subset of cohorts (578,922 men and 774,373 women) that contributed cause of death information.
During follow-up, 2996 incident thyroid cancers and 104 thyroid cancer deaths were identified. All anthropometric factors were positively associated with thyroid cancer incidence: hazard ratios (HR) confidence intervals (CIs) for height (per 5 cm) = 1.07 1.04-1.10, BMI (per 5 kg/m2) = 1.06 1.02-1.10, waist circumference (per 5 cm) = 1.03 1.01-1.05, young-adult BMI (per 5 kg/m2) = 1.13 1.02-1.25, and adulthood BMI gain (per 5 kg/m2) = 1.07 1.00-1.15. Associations for baseline BMI and waist circumference were attenuated after mutual adjustment. Baseline BMI was more strongly associated with risk in men compared with women (p = 0.04). Positive associations were observed for papillary, follicular, and anaplastic, but not medullary, thyroid carcinomas. Similar, but stronger, associations were observed for thyroid cancer mortality.
The results suggest that greater height and excess adiposity throughout adulthood are associated with higher incidence of most major types of thyroid cancer, including the least common but most aggressive form, anaplastic carcinoma, and higher thyroid cancer mortality. Potential underlying biological mechanisms should be explored in future studies.
We present new constraints on sub-GeV dark-matter particles scattering off electrons based on 6780.0 kg d of data collected with the DarkSide-50 dual-phase argon time projection chamber. This ...analysis uses electroluminescence signals due to ionized electrons extracted from the liquid argon target. The detector has a very high trigger probability for these signals, allowing for an analysis threshold of three extracted electrons, or approximately 0.05 keVee. We calculate the expected recoil spectra for dark matter-electron scattering in argon and, under the assumption of momentum-independent scattering, improve upon existing limits from XENON10 for dark-matter particles with masses between 30 and 100 MeV/c^{2}.
Liquid argon is a bright scintillator with potent particle identification properties, making it an attractive target for direct-detection dark matter searches. The DarkSide-50 dark matter search here ...reports the first WIMP search results obtained using a target of low-radioactivity argon. DarkSide-50 is a dark matter detector, using a two-phase liquid argon time projection chamber, located at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. The underground argon is shown to contain super(39) Ar at a level reduced by a factor (1.4+ or -0.2)x10 super(3) relative to atmospheric argon. We report a background-free null result from (2616+ or -43)kgd of data, accumulated over 70.9 live days. When combined with our previous search using an atmospheric argon, the 90% C.L. upper limit on the WIMP-nucleon spin-independent cross section, based on zero events found in the WIMP search regions, is 2.0x10 super(-44)cm super(2)(8.6x10-44cm super(2), 8.0x10 super(-43)cm super(2)) for a WIMP mass of 100GeV/c super(2)(1TeV/c super(2), 10TeV/c super(2)).
.
Building on the successful experience in operating the DarkSide-50 detector, the DarkSide Collaboration is going to construct DarkSide-20k, a direct WIMP search detector using a two-phase Liquid ...Argon Time Projection Chamber (LAr TPC) with an active (fiducial) mass of 23 t (20 t). This paper describes a preliminary design for the experiment, in which the DarkSide-20k LAr TPC is deployed within a shield/veto with a spherical Liquid Scintillator Veto (LSV) inside a cylindrical Water Cherenkov Veto (WCV). This preliminary design provides a baseline for the experiment to achieve its physics goals, while further development work will lead to the final optimization of the detector parameters and an eventual technical design. Operation of DarkSide-50 demonstrated a major reduction in the dominant
39
Ar background when using argon extracted from an underground source, before applying pulse shape analysis. Data from DarkSide-50, in combination with MC simulation and analytical modeling, shows that a rejection factor for discrimination between electron and nuclear recoils of
>
3
×
10
9
is achievable. This, along with the use of the veto system and utilizing silicon photomultipliers in the LAr TPC, are the keys to unlocking the path to large LAr TPC detector masses, while maintaining an experiment in which less than
<
0
.
1
events (other than
ν
-induced nuclear recoils) is expected to occur within the WIMP search region during the planned exposure. DarkSide-20k will have ultra-low backgrounds than can be measured
in situ
, giving sensitivity to WIMP-nucleon cross sections of
1
.
2
×
10
-
47
cm
2
(
1
.
1
×
10
-
46
cm
2
) for WIMPs of 1 TeV/c
2
(10 TeV/c
2
) mass, to be achieved during a 5 yr run producing an exposure of 100 t yr free from any instrumental background.
A novel mcr colistin resistance gene was identified in a strain of Salmonella enterica, monophasic variant of serovar Typhimurium (4,5,12:i:- ), isolated from a pig at slaughter in Italy in 2013, and ...in Escherichia coli strains collected during routine diagnostic of post-weaning diarrhoea in pigs from Spain and Belgium in 2015 and 2016. Immediate implementation of mcr-screening including this novel gene variant is required for Salmonella and E. coli from humans and food-producing animals in Europe.
The purpose of this study is to determine preoperative factors that are predictive of malignancy in patients undergoing pancreatic resection for intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMN).
IPMN ...of the pancreas may be precursor lesions to pancreatic cancer (PC) and represent a target for early diagnosis or prevention. While there has been much effort to define preoperative risk factors for malignant pathology, guidelines are ever-changing and controversy remains surrounding which patients would benefit most from resection.
We performed a retrospective analysis of 901 consecutive patients obtained from two tertiary referral centers who underwent pancreatic resection for histologically proven IPMN between 2004 and 2017. Collected data included patient demographic characteristics, preoperative symptoms, radiological findings, and laboratory data.
Main pancreatic duct (MPD) dilatation was the only variable that was significantly associated with increased probability of malignancy (defined high-dysplasia or invasion) on both univariate and multivariate analysis. Even middle-range MPD dilatation from 5 mm to 9.9 mm (n = 286) was associated with increased odds of HG-IPMN (OR = 2.74; 95% CI = 1.80-4.16) and invasion (OR = 4.42; 95% CI = 2.55-7.66). MPD dilatation >10 mm (n = 150) had even greater odds of HG-IPMN (OR = 6.57; 95% CI = 3.94-10.98) and invasion (OR = 15.07; 95% CI = 8.21-27.65). A cutoff of 5 to 7 mm MPD diameter was determined to be the best predictor to discriminate between malignant and benign lesions.
In agreement with current IPMN management guidelines, we found MPD dilatation, even low levels from 5 mm to 9.9 mm, to be the single best predictor of HG-IPMN or invasion, highlighting the critical role that MPD plays in the selection of surgical candidates.
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