The NIKA2 polarization channel at 260 GHz (1.15 mm) has been proposed primarily to observe galactic star-forming regions and probe the critical scales between 0.01-0.05 pc at which magnetic field ...lines may channel the matter of interstellar filaments into growing dense cores. The NIKA2 polarime-ter consists of a room temperature continuously rotating multi-mesh HWP and a cold polarizer that separates the two orthogonal polarizations onto two 260 GHz KIDs arrays. We describe in this paper the preliminary results obtained during the most recent commissioning campaign performed in December 2018. We concentrate here on the analysis of the extended sources, while the observation of compact sources is presented in a companion paper 12. We present preliminary NIKA2 polarization maps of the Crab nebula. We find that the integrated polarization intensity flux measured by NIKA2 is consistent with expectations. In terms of polarization angle, we are still limited by systematic uncertainties that will be further investigated in the forthcoming commissioning campaigns.
The steps taken to tailor to NIKA2 observations the Scanamorphos algorithm (initially developed to subtract low-frequency noise from Herschel on-the-fly observations) are described, focussing on the ...consequences of the different instrument architecture and observation strategy. The method, making the most extensive use of the redundancy built in the multi-scan coverage with large arrays of a given region of the sky, is applicable to extended sources, while the pipeline is so far optimized for compact sources. An example of application is given. A related tool to build consistent broadband SEDs from 60 microns to 2 mm, combining Herschel and NIKA2 data, has also been developed. Its main task is to process the data least affected by low-frequency noise and coverage limitations (i.e. the Herschel data) through the same transfer function as the NIKA2 data, simulating the same scan geometry and applying the same noise and atmospheric signal as extracted from the 1mm and 2mm data.
High-resolution mapping of the hot gas in galaxy clusters is a key tool for cluster-based cosmological analyses. Taking advantage of the NIKA2 millimeter camera operated at the IRAM 30-m telescope, ...the NIKA2 SZ Large Program seeks to get a high-resolution follow-up of 45 galaxy clusters covering a wide mass range at high redshift in order to re-calibrate some of the tools needed for the cosmological exploitation of SZ surveys. We present the second cluster analysis of this program, targeting one of the faintest sources of the sample in order to tackle the difficulties in data reduction for such faint, low-SNR clusters. In this study, the main challenge is the precise estimation of the contamination by sub-millimetric point sources, which greatly affects the tSZ map of the cluster. We account for this contamination by performing a joint fit of the SZ signal and of the flux density of the compact sources. A prior knowledge of these fluxes is given by the adjustment of the SED of each source using data from both NIKA2 and the Herschel satellite. The first results are very promising and demonstrate the possibility to estimate thermodynamic properties with NIKA2, even in a compact cluster heavily contaminated by point sources.
Objective The purpose of this study was to examine the association between gestational age (GA) at the time of treatment initiation for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and maternal and perinatal ...outcomes. Study Design We conducted a secondary analysis of a multicenter randomized treatment trial of mild GDM in which women with mild GDM were assigned randomly to treatment vs usual care. The primary outcome of the original trial, as well as this analysis, was a composite perinatal adverse outcome that included neonatal hypoglycemia, hyperbilirubinemia, hyperinsulinemia, and perinatal death. Other outcomes that were examined included the frequency of large for GA, birthweight, neonatal intensive care unit admission, gestational hypertension/preeclampsia, and cesarean delivery. The interaction between GA at treatment initiation (stratified as 24-26, 27, 28, 29, and ≥30 weeks of gestation) and treatment group (treated vs routine care), with the outcomes of interest, was used to determine whether GA at treatment initiation was associated with outcome differences. Results Of 958 women whose cases were analyzed, those who initiated treatment at an earlier GA did not gain an additional treatment benefit compared with those who initiated treatment at a later GA (probability value for interaction with the primary outcome, .44). Similarly, there was no evidence that other outcomes were improved significantly by earlier initiation of GDM treatment (large for GA, P = .76; neonatal intensive care unit admission, P = .8; cesarean delivery, P = .82). The only outcome that had a significant interaction between GA and treatment was gestational hypertension/preeclampsia ( P = .04), although there was not a clear cut GA trend where this outcome improved with treatment. Conclusion Earlier initiation of treatment of mild GDM was not associated with stronger effect of treatment on perinatal outcomes.
Among the considerable number of studies that can be carried out using muons, we pay specific attention to the radiography of volcanoes based on the same principle of the X-ray radiography of human ...body. Thanks to their high penetration capability, cosmic-ray muons can be used to reconstruct the density distribution of the interior of huge structures by measuring the attenuation induced by the material on the muon flux. In particular, the quantitative understanding of the inner structure of volcanoes is a key-point to forecast the dangerous stages of activity and mitigate volcanic hazards. The instrumental approach is currently based on the detection of muons crossing hodoscopes made up of scintillator planes. Unfortunately, these detectors are affected by a strong background comprised by accidental coincidence of vertical shower particles, horizontal high-energy electrons and upward going particles. We propose an alternative technique based on the detection of the Cherenkov light produced by muons. This can be achieved with an imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope composed of a high reflectivity optical system that focus the Cherenkov light onto a multi-pixel focal camera with fast read-out electronics. The Cherenkov light emitted by a muon is imaged on the camera as an annular pattern which contains information to reconstruct the direction of the incident muon. We have estimated that using the Cherenkov imaging technique for muon radiography of volcanoes gives the advantage of a negligible background and improved spatial resolution, compared to the majority of the particle detectors. We present results of simulations based on a telescope with a positioning resolution of 13.5 m which corresponds to an acceptance of 9 cm2 sr. The telescope is located 1500 m far from a toy-model volcano, namely, a cone with a base diameter of 500 m and a height of 240 m. We test the feasibility of the proposed method by estimating the minimum number of observation nights needed to resolve inner empty conduits of different diameter.
Abstract
Carotid atherosclerosis is a cause of brain ischemic events. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) can assess plaque vulnerability. We investigated atherosclerosis vulnerability in ...relation to plaque location, eccentricity and vessel remodeling. Methods-Baseline CMR evaluations of the MAGNETIC observational study, were analyzed. We quantitated with MRI-Plaque View™, vessel lumen/wall and vulnerable plaque components of a 32-mm segment of common carotid artery (12 mm), bulb (8 mm) and internal carotid artery (12 mm). Lipid-rich necrotic core LRNC, fibrous cap CAP and intraplaque hemorrhage IPH were expressed as percent of wall area. Results-A data-set of 8080 sections of adequate quality in 260 patients (198 male 76%, median age 71 years 65–76), were analyzed. Patients were on therapy with antiplatelet, ACE-inhibitors/ARB and statins (196–229 out of 260 75–88%). We found significant differences in plaque composition according to longitudinal and circumferential location, eccentricity and vessel remodeling (table). At multivariate regression analysis, including classical RF and atherosclerotic burden, we found an independent association of: LRNC and IPH with longitudinal location, eccentricity and positive remodeling, and of CAP with eccentricity (p<0.001 for all).
Lipid-rich necrotic core
Fibrous cap
Intraplaque hemorrhage
Longitudinal distribution
Common carotid artery
4% 1–10
p<0.001
6% 4–11
p<0.001
0% 0–3
p<0.001
Carotid bulb
7% 3–13
9% 5–13
1% 0–4
Internal carotid artery
3% 0–10
7% 4–11
0% 0–1
Circunferenzial location
Antero-medial
4% 0–11
p<0.001
7% 4–12
p=0.07
0% 0–2
p<0.001
Antero-lateral
6% 1–12
8% 5–12
1% 0–4
Postero-lateral
5% 0–11
7% 4–12
0% 0–3
Postero-medial
5% 0–11
7% 4–12
0% 0–1
Plaque eccentricity
Concentric
3% 0–9
p<0.001
7% 4–11
p<0.001
0% 0–2
p<0.001
Eccentric
9% 4–15
9% 5–13
1% 0–4
Remodelling pattern
Negative
4% 0–10
p<0.001
7% 4–11
p<0.001
0% 0–2
p<0.001
Positive
7% 3–13
8% 5–13
1% 0–4
Plaque eccentricity was defined as eccentricity index (EI = maximum wall thickness − minimum wall thickness/maximum wall thickness) in the highest quartile. Positive remodeling was defined as remodeling index (= vessel cross-sectional area − reference area/cross-sectional area) in the highest quartile.
Conclusions
Carotid atherosclerotic plaque vulnerability seems to be independently associated with longitudinal location, plaque eccentricity and vessel positive remodeling.
Acknowledgement/Funding
Bayer AG, Leverkusen, Germany
Although healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) pose an extraordinary burden on public health, the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is still a matter of debate.
To describe trends of ...HAIs in Italian intensive care units (ICUs) from 2006 to 2021, and to compare characteristics and outcomes of patients with or without COVID-19.
We evaluated patients participating in the ‘Italian Nosocomial Infections Surveillance in Intensive Care Units’ (SPIN-UTI) project, who were admitted to ICUs for more than 48 h. Data regarding diagnosis, clinical conditions, therapies, treatments and outcomes of COVID-19 patients were also collected.
From a total of 21,523 patients from 2006 to 2021, 3485 (16.2%) presented at least one HAI. We observed an increasing trend for both the incidence of patients with HAI and the incidence density of HAIs (P-trend <0.001). Compared with the pre-pandemic period, the incidence density of HAIs increased by about 15% in 2020–2021, with pneumoniae being the greatest contributors to this increase (P-trend <0.001). Moreover, incidence of HAIs was higher in ICUs dedicated to COVID-19 patients (P<0.001), who showed a greater risk of HAIs and death than patients without COVID-19 (P-values <0.001). Accordingly, the mortality in ICUs increased over the years and doubled during the pandemic (P-trend <0.001). Notably, co-infected patients had higher mortality (75.2%) than those with COVID-19 (66.2%) or HAI (39.9%) alone, and those without any infection (23.2%).
Our analysis provides useful insight into whether and how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced HAI incidence and death in Italian ICUs, highlighting the need for evaluation of the long-term effects of the pandemic.
Substructures in the hot gas atmosphere of galaxy clusters are related to their formation history and to the astrophysical processes at play in the intracluster medium (ICM). The thermal ...Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (tSZ) effect is directly sensitive to the line-of-sight integrated ICM pressure, and is thus particularly adapted to study ICM substructures. In this paper, we apply structure-enhancement filtering algorithms to high-resolution tSZ observations (e.g., NIKA) of distant clusters in order to search for pressure discontinuities, compressions, and secondary peaks in the ICM. The same filters are applied to toy-model images and to synthetic tSZ images extracted from RHAPSODY-G cosmological hydrodynamic simulations, in order to better interpret the extracted features. We also study the noise propagation through the filters and quantify the impact of systematic effects, such as data-processing-induced artifacts and point-source residuals, the latter being identified as the dominant potential contaminant. In three of our six NIKA-observed clusters we identify features at high signal-to-noise ratio that show clear evidence for merger events. In MACS J0717.5+3745 (z = 0.55), three strong pressure gradients are observed on the east, southeast, and west sectors, and two main peaks in the pressure distribution are identified. We observe a lack of tSZ compact structure in the cool-core cluster PSZ1 G045.85+57.71 (z = 0.61), and a tSZ gradient ridge dominates in the southeast. In the highest redshift cluster, CL J1226.9+3332 (z = 0.89), we detect a ridge pressure gradient of ~45 arcsec (360 kpc) in length associated with a secondary pressure peak in the west region. Our results show that current tSZ facilities have now reached the angular resolution and sensitivity to allow an exploration of the details of pressure substructures in clusters, even at high redshift. This opens the possibility to quantify the impact of the dynamical state on the relation between the tSZ signal and the mass of clusters, which is important when using tSZ clusters to test cosmological models. This work also marks the first NIKA cluster sample data release.
Antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) is the leading cause of graft failure. While donor-specific antibodies (DSAs) are associated with a higher risk of AMR, not all patients with DSAs develop rejection, ...suggesting that the characteristics of alloantibodies determining their pathogenicity remain undefined. Using human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-A2-specific antibodies as a model, we apply systems serology tools to investigate qualitative features of immunoglobulin G (IgG) alloantibodies including Fc-glycosylation patterns and FcγR-binding properties. Levels of afucosylated anti-A2 antibodies are elevated in seropositive patients, especially those with AMR, suggesting potential cytotoxicity via FcγRIII-mediated mechanisms. Afucosylation of both glycoengineered monoclonal and naturally glycovariant polyclonal serum IgG specific to HLA-A2 drives potentiated binding to, slower dissociation from, and enhanced signaling through FcγRIII, a receptor widely expressed on innate effector cells, and greater cytotoxicity against HLA-A2+ cells mediated by natural killer (NK) cells. Collectively, these results suggest that afucosylated DSA may be a biomarker of AMR and contribute to pathogenesis.
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•HLA-A2-specific antibodies are purified from reactive sera for Fc glycan analysis•Afucosylated anti-A2 antibodies are elevated in sensitized subjects•Afucosylated anti-A2 antibodies exhibit enhanced ADCC activity via FcγRIIIa•Afucosylated DSA may be a biomarker of AMR and contribute to pathogenesis
Bharadwaj et al. investigate relationships between Fc glycosylation profiles and antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) in kidney transplantation. They observe elevated afucosylated anti-A2 antibodies that are associated with cytotoxicity via FcγIII-mediated mechanisms, suggesting that afucosylated transplant-specific antibodies may be a biomarker and mechanism of AMR.
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