Summary Background National surveillance data should be validated to identify methodological problems within the surveillance programme and data quality issues. Aim To test the validity of ...healthcare-associated infection (HAI) rate data from the Korean National Healthcare-associated Infections Surveillance System (KONIS). Methods Records from intensive care units of 12 (14.8%) of 81 participating hospitals for January–March 2014 were examined. The validation team reviewed 406 medical records of 110 patients with 114 reported HAIs – including 34 urinary tract infections (UTIs), 57 bloodstream infections (BSIs) and 23 cases of pneumonia (PNEU) – and 296 patients with no reported HAIs during one-day visits conducted in August and September 2014. The reviewers' diagnosis of HAI was regarded as the reference standard; in ambiguous cases, the KONIS Steering Committee confirmed the diagnosis of HAI. Findings Sensitivity values for UTIs, BSIs and PNEU were 85.3%, 74.0% and 66.7%, and specificity values were 98.7%, 99.1% and 98.7%, respectively. Positive predictive values were 85.3%, 94.7% and 78.3%, and negative predictive values were 98.7%, 94.6% and 97.7%, respectively. Sensitivity for PNEU was lower than that for UTIs and BSIs. The hospitals participating in KONIS infrequently reported conditions that were not HAIs. Sensitivity for BSIs was lower in this study than in KONIS validation studies conducted in 2008 and 2010. Conclusions KONIS data are generally reliable; however, sensitivity for BSIs exhibited a decrease. This study shows the need for ongoing validation and continuous training of surveillance personnel to maintain the accuracy of surveillance data.
Physical Review Letters 131 (2023) 211802 We report on a search for a heavy neutrino in the decays $\tau^- \to \pi^-
\nu_h$, $\nu_h \to \pi^\pm \ell-+$, $\ell = e, \mu$. The results are obtained
...using the full data sample collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB
asymmetric energy $e^+e^-$ collider. We observe no significant signal and set
90% CL upper limits on the couplings of the heavy right-handed neutrinos to the
conventional SM left-handed neutrinos in the mass range 0.2-1.6 GeV/c$^2$.
In severely hypoxic condition, HIF-1α-mediated induction of Pdk1 was found to regulate glucose oxidation by preventing the entry of pyruvate into the tricarboxylic cycle. Monocyte-derived ...macrophages, however, encounter a gradual decrease in oxygen availability during its migration process in inflammatory areas. Here we show that HIF-1α-PDK1-mediated metabolic changes occur in mild hypoxia, where mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase activity is unimpaired, suggesting a mode of glycolytic reprogramming. In primary macrophages, PKM2, a glycolytic enzyme responsible for glycolytic ATP synthesis localizes in filopodia and lammelipodia, where ATP is rapidly consumed during actin remodelling processes. Remarkably, inhibition of glycolytic reprogramming with dichloroacetate significantly impairs macrophage migration in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, inhibition of the macrophage HIF-1α-PDK1 axis suppresses systemic inflammation, suggesting a potential therapeutic approach for regulating inflammatory processes. Our findings thus demonstrate that adaptive responses in glucose metabolism contribute to macrophage migratory activity.
Several types of nonconventional dysplasia have been recently described in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, strict morphologic criteria are lacking, and their clinicopathologic features ...(including potential association with conventional dysplasia and/or colorectal cancer CRC) are poorly understood. A total of 106 dysplastic or serrated lesions in 58 IBD patients with CRC were retrospectively identified from five institutions. Thirty-six cases of nonconventional dysplasia were identified in 26 (45%) of the 58 patients and occurred with similar frequency in men and women (58% and 42%, respectively), with a mean age of 54 years (range: 24-73) and a long history of IBD (mean: 17 years, range: 2-43). Six morphologic patterns were recognized. Hypermucinous dysplasia (n = 15; 42%) presented as either a 'pure type' (n = 5; 14%) or a 'mixed type' with either conventional or another nonconventional subtype (n = 10; 28%). Serrated lesions, as a group, were equally common (n = 15; 42%) and included three variants: traditional serrated adenoma-like (n = 10; 28%), sessile serrated lesion-like (n = 1; 3%), and serrated lesion, not otherwise specified (n = 4; 11%). Dysplastic lesions with increased Paneth cell differentiation (n = 4; 11%) and goblet cell deficient dysplasia (n = 2; 6%) were rare. Twelve (46%) of the 26 patients had only nonconventional dysplasia, whereas the remaining 14 patients (54%) had both nonconventional and conventional dysplasias. Nonconventional dysplasia was most often graded as low-grade dysplasia (81%), which was less common in conventional dysplasia (37%) (p = 0.003). When present alone, nonconventional dysplasia was predominantly found in the left colon (81%, p = 0.006) as a polypoid or raised lesion (75%, p < 0.001) compared with when it occurred simultaneously with conventional dysplasia (35% and 50%, respectively). When both nonconventional and conventional dysplasias occurred simultaneously, they were found in the same colonic segment in all but 3 patients (79%). Nonconventional dysplasia was also commonly detected in the same colonic segment as CRC or immediately adjacent to the CRC at a rate (85%) similar to conventional dysplasia (96%). CRC occurring in patients with only nonconventional dysplasia was more likely to be high-grade (poorly differentiated; 36%) than CRC that occurred in association with conventional dysplasia (10%) (p = 0.026). In conclusion, nonconventional dysplasia is common in IBD patients with CRC. It appears to develop in the same field of carcinomatous development, and it is not uncommonly associated with conventional dysplasia.
We present a search for the lepton-flavour-violating decays $B^+ \to K^+
\tau^\pm \ell^\mp$, with $\ell = (e, \mu)$, using the full data sample of $772
\times 10^6$ $B\overline{B}$ pairs recorded by ...the Belle detector at the KEKB
asymmetric-energy $e^+ e^-$ collider. We use events in which one $B$ meson is
fully reconstructed in a hadronic decay mode. We find no evidence for $B^\pm
\to K^\pm \tau \ell$ decays and set upper limits on their branching fractions
at the 90% confidence level in the $(1$-$3) \times 10^{-5}$ range. The obtained
limits are the world's best results.
Malignancy is a concern in cardiac transplant recipients, but the temporal trends of de novo malignancy development are unknown.
The goal of this study was to describe the temporal trends of the ...incidence, types, and predictors of de novo malignancy in cardiac transplant recipients.
The authors analyzed the temporal trends of post-transplant incidence, types, and predictors of malignancy using 17,587 primary adult heart-only transplant recipients from the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation registry. The main study outcomes included the incidence of, types of, and time to de novo malignancy.
The risk of any de novo solid malignancy between years 1 and 5 after transplantation was 10.7%. The cumulative incidence by malignancy type was: skin cancer (7.0%), non-skin solid cancer (4.0%), and lymphoproliferative disorders (0.9%). There was no temporal difference in the time to development according to malignancy type. However, the cumulative incidence of de novo solid malignancy increased from 2000 to 2005 vs. 2006 to 2011 (10.0% vs. 12.4%; p < 0.0001). Survival in patients after de novo malignancy was markedly lower than in patients without malignancy (p < 0.0001). Older recipients and patients who underwent transplantation in the recent era had a higher risk of de novo malignancy.
More than 10% of adult heart transplant recipients developed de novo malignancy between years 1 and 5 after transplantation, and this outcome was associated with increased mortality. The incidence of post-transplant de novo solid malignancy increased temporally, with the largest increase in skin cancer. Individualized immunosuppression strategies and enhanced cancer screening should be studied to determine whether they can reduce the adverse outcomes of post-transplantation malignancy.
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One of the most significant and practical figures of merit in axion haloscope searches is the scanning rate, because of the unknown axion mass. Under the best experimental parameters, the ...only way to improve the figure of merit is to increase the experimentally designed signal to noise ratio in the axion haloscope search analysis procedure. In this paper, we report an improved axion haloscope search analysis using the data taken by the CAPP-8TB haloscope. By correcting for the background biased by the background parametrizations in the presence of axion signals, we realized a signal to noise ratio efficiency of about 100%. Given the axion haloscope search analyses to date, the scanning rate can be improved by 21%, with about a 10% improvement in the signal to noise ratio. This improvement is another low cost innovation in axion haloscope searches, where all the experimental parameters are currently at their best.
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