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AbstractObjectiveTo evaluate trends in organisms causing early-onset neonatal sepsis (EONS). Congruent with recent reports, we hypothesized there would be an increase in EONS caused by Escherichia coli.Study DesignNational data on infants admitted to neonatal intensive care units from 2009 to 2014 were compared to previously reported data from 2003 to 2008. We report 430 cases of EONS from 2009 to 2014. Bivariate analyses were used to analyze the distribution of causative organisms over time and differences by gestational age. Linear regression was used to estimate trends in causative organisms.ResultsSince 2003, there has been a trend of increasing numbers of cases caused by E coli (P<0.01). The predominant organism was E coli in preterm infants and Group B Streptococcus in term infants.ConclusionsWith the majority of EONS cases now caused by E coli, our findings emphasize the importance of continued surveillance of causative organism patterns and developing approaches to reduce cases caused by E coli.

It is a golden age for animal movement studies and so an opportune time to assess priorities for future work. We assembled 40 experts to identify key questions in this field, focussing on marine megafauna, which include a broad range of birds, mammals, reptiles, and fish. Research on these taxa has both underpinned many of the recent technical developments and led to fundamental discoveries in the field. We show that the questions have broad applicability to other taxa, including terrestrial animals, flying insects, and swimming invertebrates, and, as such, this exercise provides a useful roadmap for targeted deployments and data syntheses that should advance the field of movement ecology. Workshop funding was granted to M.T., A.M.M.S., and C.M.D. by the UWA Oceans Institute, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, and the Office of Sponsored Research at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). Hays, Graeme C. et al. Peer reviewed

International audience; The effects of dispatch strategy on electrical performance of amorphous silicon-based solar photovoltaic-thermal systems, Renewable Energy 68, pp. 459-465 (2014). http://dx. Abstract: Previous work has shown that high-temperature short-term spike thermal annealing of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) photovoltaic thermal (PVT) systems results in higher electrical energy output. The relationship between temperature and performance of a-Si:H PVT is not simple as high temperatures during thermal annealing improves the immediate electrical performance following an anneal, but during the anneal it creates a marked drop in electrical performance. In addition, the power generation of a-Si:H PVT depends on both the environmental conditions and the Staebler-Wronski Effect kinetics. In order to improve the performance of a-Si:H PVT systems further, this paper reports on the effect of various dispatch strategies on system electrical performance. Utilizing experimental results from thermal annealing, an annealing model simulation for a-Si:H-based PVT was developed and applied to different cities in the U. S. to investigate potential geographic effects on the dispatch optimization of the overall electrical PVT systems performance and annual electrical yield. The results showed that spike thermal annealing once per day maximized the improved electrical energy generation.

The COnstrain Dark Energy with X-ray clusters (CODEX) sample contains the largest flux limited sample of X-ray clusters at $0.35 < z < 0.65$. It was selected from ROSAT data in the 10,000 square degrees of overlap with BOSS, mapping a total number of 2770 high-z galaxy clusters. We present here the full results of the CFHT CODEX program on cluster mass measurement, including a reanalysis of CFHTLS Wide data, with 25 individual lensing-constrained cluster masses. We employ $lensfit$ shape measurement and perform a conservative colour-space selection and weighting of background galaxies. Using the combination of shape noise and an analytic covariance for intrinsic variations of cluster profiles at fixed mass due to large scale structure, miscentring, and variations in concentration and ellipticity, we determine the likelihood of the observed shear signal as a function of true mass for each cluster. We combine 25 individual cluster mass likelihoods in a Bayesian hierarchical scheme with the inclusion of optical and X-ray selection functions to derive constraints on the slope $��$, normalization $��$, and scatter $��_{\ln ��| ��}$ of our richness-mass scaling relation model in log-space: $\left = ����+ ��$, with $��= \ln (M_{200c}/M_{\mathrm{piv}})$, and $M_{\mathrm{piv}} = 10^{14.81} M_{\odot}$. We find a slope $��= 0.49^{+0.20}_{-0.15}$, normalization $ \exp(��) = 84.0^{+9.2}_{-14.8}$ and $��_{\ln ��| ��} = 0.17^{+0.13}_{-0.09}$ using CFHT richness estimates. In comparison to other weak lensing richness-mass relations, we find the normalization of the richness statistically agreeing with the normalization of other scaling relations from a broad redshift range ($0.0 37 pages, 12 figures

Sleep serves crucial learning and memory functions in both nervous and immune systems. Microglia are brain immune cells that actively maintain health through their crucial physiological roles exerted across the lifespan, including phagocytosis of cellular debris and orchestration of neuroinflammation. The past decade has witnessed an explosive growth of microglial research. Considering the recent developments in the field of microglia and sleep, we examine their possible impact on various pathological conditions associated with a gain, disruption, or loss of sleep in this focused mini-review. While there are extensive studies of microglial implication in a variety of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases, less is known regarding their roles in sleep disorders. It is timely to stimulate new research in this emergent and rapidly growing field of investigation.

Autophagy, a self-defense mechanism, has been found to be associated with drug resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Our study was designed to investigate the role and related mechanisms of autophagy in matrine-induced apoptosis in hepatoma cells of HepG2 and Bel7402. Cell apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry analysis (Annexin V–FITC/PI double-staining assay), the activity and activating cleavages of caspase-3, -8, and -9. MTT assay and colony forming assay were used to assess the effect of matrine on growth and proliferation of HCC cells. Autophagic flux in HCC cells was analyzed using the expression of LC3BI/II and p62/SQSTM1, GFP-LC3 transfection, and transmission electron microscopy. Moreover, regarding to the associated mechanisms, the effects of matrine on the phosphoinositide 3-kinase/AKT/mTOR pathway and beclin-1 were studied. Our results showed that: (1) both autophagy and apoptosis could be induced by treatment with matrine; (2) using the autophagic inhibitor chloroquine and beclin-1 small-interfering RNA, cell apoptosis induced by matrine could be enhanced in a caspase-dependent manner; and (3) autophagy was induced via inhibition of PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway and up-regulation of beclin-1. In conclusion, inhibition of autophagy could enhance matrine-induced apoptosis in human hepatoma cells.

Abstract Objectives The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility and safety of transcarotid transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Background Many candidates for TAVR have challenging vascular anatomy that precludes transfemoral access. Transcarotid arterial access may be an option for such patients. Methods The French Transcarotid TAVR Registry is a voluntary database that prospectively collected patient demographics, procedural characteristics, and clinical outcomes among patients undergoing transcarotid TAVR. Outcomes are reported according to the updated Valve Academic Research Consortium criteria. Results Among 96 patients undergoing transcarotid TAVR at 3 French sites (2009 to 2013), the mean age and Society of Thoracic Surgeons predicted risk of mortality were 79.4 ± 9.2 years and 7.1 ± 4.1%, respectively. Successful carotid artery access was achieved in all patients. The Medtronic CoreValve (Medtronic, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota) (n = 89; 92.7%) and Edwards SAPIEN valves (Edwards Lifesciences, Irvine, California) (n = 7; 7.3%) were used. Procedural complications included: valve embolization (3.1%), requirement for a second valve (3.1%), and tamponade (4.2%). There were no major bleeds or major vascular complications related to the access site. There were 3 (3.1%) procedural deaths and 6 (6.3%) deaths at 30 days. The 1-year mortality rate was 16.7%. There were 3 (3.1%) cases of Valve Academic Research Consortium–defined in-hospital stroke (n = 0) or transient ischemic attack (TIA) (n = 3). None of these patients achieved the criteria for stroke and none manifested new ischemic lesions on cerebral computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. At 30 days, a further 3 TIAs were observed, giving an overall stroke/TIA rate of 6.3%. Conclusions Transcarotid vascular access for TAVR is feasible and is associated with encouraging short- and medium-term clinical outcomes. Prospective studies are required to ascertain if transcarotid TAVR yields equivalent results to other nonfemoral vascular access routes.

This study presents a multiparameter analysis of aerosol trends over the last 2 decades at regional and global scales. Regional time series have been computed for a set of nine optical, chemical-composition and mass aerosol properties by using the observations from several ground-based networks. From these regional time series the aerosol trends have been derived for the different regions of the world. Most of the properties related to aerosol loading exhibit negative trends, both at the surface and in the total atmospheric column. Significant decreases in aerosol optical depth (AOD) are found in Europe, North America, South America, North Africa and Asia, ranging from −1.2 % yr−1 to −3.1 % yr−1. An error and representativity analysis of the spatially and temporally limited observational data has been performed using model data subsets in order to investigate how much the observed trends represent the actual trends happening in the regions over the full study period from 2000 to 2014. This analysis reveals that significant uncertainty is associated with some of the regional trends due to time and space sampling deficiencies. The set of observed regional trends has then been used for the evaluation of 10 models (6 AeroCom phase III models and 4 CMIP6 models) and the CAMS reanalysis dataset and of their skills in reproducing the aerosol trends. Model performance is found to vary depending on the parameters and the regions of the world. The models tend to capture trends in AOD, the column Ångström exponent, sulfate and particulate matter well (except in North Africa), but they show larger discrepancies for coarse-mode AOD. The rather good agreement of the trends, across different aerosol parameters between models and observations, when co-locating them in time and space, implies that global model trends, including those in poorly monitored regions, are likely correct. The models can help to provide a global picture of the aerosol trends by filling the gaps in regions not covered by observations. The calculation of aerosol trends at a global scale reveals a different picture from that depicted by solely relying on ground-based observations. Using a model with complete diagnostics (NorESM2), we find a global increase in AOD of about 0.2 % yr−1 between 2000 and 2014, primarily caused by an increase in the loads of organic aerosols, sulfate and black carbon.

ATLAS measurements of the azimuthal anisotropy in lead–lead collisions at \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\sqrt{s_{\mathrm {NN}}}=2.76$$\end{document}sNN=2.76 TeV are shown using a dataset of approximately 7 \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\upmu $$\end{document}μb\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$^{-1}$$\end{document}-1 collected at the LHC in 2010. The measurements are performed for charged particles with transverse momenta \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$0.5