Candidaemia is a significant problem in neonatal units and is associated with high morbidity, including long-term neurodevelopmental impairment in survivors, and high mortality of very low birth ...weight infants (VLBWI).
A retrospective cohort study amongst VLBWI admitted to the neonatal unit at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH), Johannesburg, South Africa, from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2019. All VLBWI were born at the hospital or transferred to the neonatal unit from birth to day 28 of life with blood culture confirmed candidaemia.
During the study period, 3414 VLBWI were admitted to the unit. Of these, 5.12% (n = 176) developed culture confirmed candidaemia. The incidence was 5.1 per 1000 admissions. The most common species, which persisted throughout the study period, was Candida parapsilosis, followed by Candida albicans. C. parapsilosis peaked in 2018 while C. albicans peaked in 2015. Emergence of C. auris occurred in 2019. Important risk factors associated with the development of candidaemia included necrotizing enterocolitis (p < 0.001, OR 4.63 3.29–6.54), surgery (p < 0.001 OR 7.02 4.48–11.12), conventional ventilation (p < 0.001, OR 6.23 4.48–8.68), patent ductus arteriosus (p < 0.001, OR 3.81 2.67–5.44), intraventricular haemorrhage (p < 0.001, OR 3.32 2.99–5.44) and prolonged hospital stay (p < 0.001). Mortality was not statistically different (p = 0.80 OR 0.950.68–1.31) between the two groups.
There is a high incidence of candidaemia in the neonatal unit. Several modifiable risk factors including improved antifungal stewardship and prevention of candidaemia with oral or systemic antifungal prophylaxis may decrease the incidence of candidaemia, and associated morbidity.
The MEG II experiment (Baldini et al., 2018) 1 is designed to improve the sensitivity to the μ+→e+γ decay. A crucial component is the Pixelated Timing Counter (pTC), dedicated to the measurement of ...the positron time to reduce the combinatorial background (Cattaneo et al., 2014; Nishimura et al., 2016) 3,4. The detector consists of 512 scintillation counters, each performing a precise measurement of the positron crossing time. This approach requires that the time offsets of the counters are calibrated and regularly monitored over the lifetime of the experiment. The pTC time calibration and monitor system will use a laser diode to deliver pulses to each pixel. The system components have been tested in laboratory, the results demonstrate that a calibration and monitoring resolution satisfying the requirements is within reach.
Improved survival in extremely low birth weight infants (ELBWI) in Sub-Saharan Africa has raised the question whether these survivors have an increased chance of adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes.
...To describe neurodevelopmental outcomes of ELBWI in a neonatal unit in South Africa.
This was a prospective follow-up study. All ELBWI who survived to discharge between 1 July 2013 and 31 December 2017 were invited to attend the clinic. Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (version III) were conducted at 9 to 12 months and 18 to 24 months.
There were 723 ELBWI admissions during the study period, 292 (40.4%) survived to hospital discharge and 85/292 (29.1%) attended the neonatal follow up clinic. The mean birth weight was 857.7 g (95% CI: 838.2-877.2) and the mean gestational age was 27.5 weeks (95% CI 27.1-27.9). None of the infants had any major complication of prematurity. A total of 76/85 (89.4%) of the infants had a Bayley-III assessment at a mean corrected age of 17.21 months (95% CI: 16.2-18.3). The mean composite scores for cognition were 98.4 (95% CI 95.1-101.7), language 89.9 (95% CI 87.3-92.5) and motor 97.6 (95% CI 94.5-100.6). All mean scores fell within the normal range, The study found 28 (36.8%) infants to be "
" for neurodevelopmental delay.
Our study demonstrates good neurodevelopmental outcome in a small group of surviving ELBWI, but these results must be interpreted in the context of the high mortality in this group of infants.
The MEG II experiment is designed to improve by an order of magnitude the sensitivity of 4.2×10−13 reached by MEG on the search for μ+→e+γ decay. A pixelated Timing Counter (pTC) has been developed ...to improve the time resolution by measuring the positron time information independently with several counters. We constructed and installed the pTC and performed commissioning runs at the πE5 beam line at PSI. A resolution of 38.5 ps is obtained with commissioning run data.
Design, construction and tests of the ICARUS T600 detector Amerio, S.; Amoruso, S.; Antonello, M. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
07/2004, Letnik:
527, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
We have constructed and operated the ICARUS T600 liquid argon (LAr) time projection chamber (TPC). The ICARUS T600 detector is the largest LAr TPC ever built, with a size of about
500
tons
of fully ...imaging mass. The design and assembly of the detector relied on industrial support and represents the applications of concepts matured in laboratory tests to the kton scale.
The ICARUS T600 was commissioned for a technical run that lasted about 3 months. During this period all the detector features were extensively tested with an exposure to cosmic-rays at surface with a resulting data collection of about 30
000 events.
The detector was developed as the first element of a modular design. Thanks to the concept of modularity, it will be possible to realize a detector with several ktons active mass, to act as an observatory for astroparticle and neutrino physics at the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory and a second-generation nucleon decay experiment.
In this paper a description of the ICARUS T600 is given, detailing its design specifications, assembly procedures and acceptance tests. Commissioning procedures and results of the technical run are also reported, as well as results from the off-line event reconstruction.
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