Antigénicité de l'ARN Ro hY5

Les personnes atteintes de collagénoses développent fréquemment des autoanticorps qui reconnaissent les RNP (ribonucléoprotéines) Ro. Les RNP Ro sont des composantes cellulaires de faible abondance dont on ne connaît pas encore la fonction biologique. Elles sont formées par l'association d'un ARN Ro: hY1, hY3, hY4 ou hY5 à au moins une des trois protéines: 60 kD Ro, 52 kD Ro et La. Les autoanticorps présents dans les sérums anti-Ro sont habituellement dirigés contre les protéines Ro. Nous avons identifié des sérums anti-Ro qui contiennent également des autoanticorps dirigés spécifiquement contre l'ARN hY5 des RNP RohY5. Il s'agit d'une nouvelle spécificité antigénique parmi les sérums anti-Ro et les sérums anti-ARN. La prévalence de cette nouvelle spécificité parmi les sérums contenant des anticorps anti-Ro a été évaluée à 10 %. En analysant 52 sérums anti-Ro provenant de différents patients, 5 sérums anti-ARN hY5 ont été identifiés. Deux de ces sérums, JW et MD, sont très spécifiques puisqu'ils ne reconnaissent pas d'autres ARN et ils ont été choisis pour étudier l'antigénicité de l'ARN hY5. Chez le patient JW, les autoanticorps anti-ARN hY5 sont présents dès le début de la maladie et l'analyse de plusieurs prélèvements indique que le titre de ces anticorps fluctue en fonction du temps. L'ADNc correspondant à l'ARN hY5 a été cloné et utilisé pour produire in vitro l'ARN hY5 et divers mutants de cet ARN. Ces différents transcrits ont permis de définir partiellement le déterminant antigénique reconnu par les anticorps anti-ARN hY5. L'antigénicité de l'ARN hY5 est abolie lorsque des séquences supplémentaires sont ajoutées aux deux extrémités de l'ARN et lorsque l'ARN hY5, préalablement fragmenté à la ribonucléase T1, est dénaturé à la chaleur. Ces observations suggèrent un épitope conformationnel, puisque la structure secondaire des ARN est modifiée dans ces deux situations. Pour localiser l'épitope, l'ARN hY5 fragmenté par la ribonucléase T1 ainsi que des ARN mutants ont été utilisés en immunoprécipitation. L'ensemble des résultats obtenus suggère que les anticorps anti-ARN hY5 reconnaissent un épitope situé au centre de l'ARN hY5 excluant la partie supérieure de la molécule et le site de liaison de la protéine Ro 60 kD. L'extrémité 3' de l'ARN, qui comprend le site d'attachement de la protéine La, participerait au maintien de l'épitope en se liant directement à l'anticorps ou en stabilisant une structure favorable à la reconnaissance par les anticorps. La localisation de ce déterminant antigénique suggère également que les autoanticorps anti-ARN hY5 seraient produits par un mécanisme d'immunisation directe par l'antigène, soit la RNP RohY5 intacte

International critical care nursing considerations and quality indicators for the 2017 surviving sepsis campaign guidelines

This letter is freely available via Open Access. Click on the Publisher URL to access

BFORE: The B-mode Foreground Experiment

The B-mode Foreground Experiment (BFORE) is a proposed NASA balloon project designed to make optimal use of the sub-orbital platform by concentrating on three dust foreground bands (270, 350, and 600 GHz) that complement ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) programs. BFORE will survey ~1/4 of the sky with 1.7 - 3.7 arcminute resolution, enabling precise characterization of the Galactic dust that now limits constraints on inflation from CMB B-mode polarization measurements. In addition, BFORE's combination of frequency coverage, large survey area, and angular resolution enables science far beyond the critical goal of measuring foregrounds. BFORE will constrain the velocities of thousands of galaxy clusters, provide a new window on the cosmic infrared background, and probe magnetic fields in the interstellar medium. We review the BFORE science case, timeline, and instrument design, which is based on a compact off-axis telescope coupled to >10,000 superconducting detectors.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, conference proceedings published in Journal of Low Temperature Physic

International nursing advanced competency-based training for intensive care: a europe-wide survey.

This article is freely available via Open Access. Click on the 'Additional Link' above to access the full-text via the publisher's site.Published (Open Access

BLAST: Correlations in the Cosmic Far-Infrared Background at 250, 350, and 500 microns Reveal Clustering of Star-Forming Galaxies

We detect correlations in the cosmic far-infrared background due to the clustering of star-forming galaxies in observations made with the Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope, BLAST, at 250, 350, and 500 microns. We perform jackknife and other tests to confirm the reality of the signal. The measured correlations are well fit by a power law over scales of 5-25 arcminutes, with Delta I/I = 15.1 +/- 1.7%. We adopt a specific model for submillimeter sources in which the contribution to clustering comes from sources in the redshift ranges 1.3 <= z <= 2.2, 1.5 <= z <= 2.7, and 1.7 <= z <= 3.2, at 250, 350, and 500 microns, respectively. With these distributions, our measurement of the power spectrum, P(k_theta), corresponds to linear bias parameters, b = 3.8 +/- 0.6, 3.9 +/- 0.6 and 4.4 +/- 0.7, respectively. We further interpret the results in terms of the halo model, and find that at the smaller scales, the simplest halo model fails to fit our results. One way to improve the fit is to increase the radius at which dark matter halos are artificially truncated in the model, which is equivalent to having some star-forming galaxies at z >= 1 located in the outskirts of groups and clusters. In the context of this model we find a minimum halo mass required to host a galaxy is log (M_min / M_sun) = 11.5 (+0.4/-0.1), and we derive effective biases $b_eff = 2.2 +/- 0.2, 2.4 +/- 0.2, and 2.6 +/- 0.2, and effective masses log (M_eff / M_sun) = 12.9 +/- 0.3, 12.8 +/- 0.2, and 12.7 +/- 0.2, at 250, 350, and 500 microns, corresponding to spatial correlation lengths of r_0 = 4.9, 5.0, and 5.2 +/- 0.7 h^-1 Mpc, respectively. Finally, we discuss implications for clustering measurement strategies with Herschel and Planck.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. Maps and other results available at http://blastexperiment.info

Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients. the DecubICUs study

Purpose: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Epidemiologic data is however unavailable. We aimed to provide an international picture of the extent of pressure injuries and fac‐ tors associated with ICU‐acquired pressure injuries in adult ICU patients. Methods: International 1‐day point‐prevalence study; follow‐up for outcome assessment until hospital discharge (maximum 12 weeks). Factors associated with ICU‐acquired pressure injury and hospital mortality were assessed by generalised linear mixed‐effects regression analysis. Results: Data from 13,254 patients in 1117 ICUs (90 countries) revealed 6747 pressure injuries; 3997 (59.2%) were ICU‐acquired. Overall prevalence was 26.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.9–27.3). ICU‐acquired prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI 15.6–16.8). Sacrum (37%) and heels (19.5%) were most affected. Factors independently associated with ICU‐acquired pressure injuries were older age, male sex, being underweight, emergency surgery, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Braden score &lt; 19, ICU stay &gt; 3 days, comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunodeficiency), organ support (renal replacement, mechanical ventilation on ICU admission), and being in a low or lower‐middle income‐economy. Gradually increasing associations with mortality were identified for increasing severity of pressure injury: stage I (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–1.8), stage II (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.4–1.9), and stage III or worse (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.3–3.3)

Evidence for Environmental Changes in the Submillimeter Dust Opacity

The submillimeter opacity of dust in the diffuse Galactic interstellar medium (ISM) has been quantified using a pixel-by-pixel correlation of images of continuum emission with a proxy for column density. We used three BLAST bands at 250, 350, and 500 \mu m and one IRAS at 100 \mu m. The proxy is the near-infrared color excess, E(J-Ks), obtained from 2MASS. Based on observations of stars, we show how well this color excess is correlated with the total hydrogen column density for regions of moderate extinction. The ratio of emission to column density, the emissivity, is then known from the correlations, as a function of frequency. The spectral distribution of this emissivity can be fit by a modified blackbody, whence the characteristic dust temperature T and the desired opacity \sigma_e(1200) at 1200 GHz can be obtained. We have analyzed 14 regions near the Galactic plane toward the Vela molecular cloud, mostly selected to avoid regions of high column density (N_H > 10^{22} cm^-2) and small enough to ensure a uniform T. We find \sigma_e(1200) is typically 2 to 4 x 10^{-25} cm^2/H and thus about 2 to 4 times larger than the average value in the local high Galactic latitude diffuse atomic ISM. This is strong evidence for grain evolution. There is a range in total power per H nucleon absorbed (re-radiated) by the dust, reflecting changes in the interstellar radiation field and/or the dust absorption opacity. These changes affect the equilibrium T, which is typically 15 K, colder than at high latitudes. Our analysis extends, to higher opacity and lower T, the trend of increasing opacity with decreasing T that was found at high latitudes. The recognition of changes in the emission opacity raises a cautionary flag because all column densities deduced from dust emission maps, and the masses of compact structures within them, depend inversely on the value adopted.Comment: Original version (22 Dec 2011): 14 pages, 8 figures. Revised version (24 February 2012) accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal (14 March 2012): elaborated details of analysis, extended discussion including new Appendix; abstract, results, conclusions unchanged. 16 pages, 9 figure

Correction to: Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study.

Funder: European Society of Intensive Care Medicine; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100013347Funder: Flemish Society for Critical Care NursesAbstract: Purpose: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Epidemiologic data is however unavailable. We aimed to provide an international picture of the extent of pressure injuries and factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries in adult ICU patients. Methods: International 1-day point-prevalence study; follow-up for outcome assessment until hospital discharge (maximum 12 weeks). Factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injury and hospital mortality were assessed by generalised linear mixed-effects regression analysis. Results: Data from 13,254 patients in 1117 ICUs (90 countries) revealed 6747 pressure injuries; 3997 (59.2%) were ICU-acquired. Overall prevalence was 26.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.9–27.3). ICU-acquired prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI 15.6–16.8). Sacrum (37%) and heels (19.5%) were most affected. Factors independently associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries were older age, male sex, being underweight, emergency surgery, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Braden score 3 days, comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunodeficiency), organ support (renal replacement, mechanical ventilation on ICU admission), and being in a low or lower-middle income-economy. Gradually increasing associations with mortality were identified for increasing severity of pressure injury: stage I (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–1.8), stage II (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.4–1.9), and stage III or worse (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.3–3.3). Conclusion: Pressure injuries are common in adult ICU patients. ICU-acquired pressure injuries are associated with mainly intrinsic factors and mortality. Optimal care standards, increased awareness, appropriate resource allocation, and further research into optimal prevention are pivotal to tackle this important patient safety threat

Exploring Cosmic Origins with CORE: Cosmological Parameters

We forecast the main cosmological parameter constraints achievable with theCORE space mission which is dedicated to mapping the polarisation of the CosmicMicrowave Background (CMB). CORE was recently submitted in response to ESA'sfifth call for medium-sized mission proposals (M5). Here we report the resultsfrom our pre-submission study of the impact of various instrumental options, inparticular the telescope size and sensitivity level, and review the great,transformative potential of the mission as proposed. Specifically, we assessthe impact on a broad range of fundamental parameters of our Universe as afunction of the expected CMB characteristics, with other papers in the seriesfocusing on controlling astrophysical and instrumental residual systematics. Inthis paper, we assume that only a few central CORE frequency channels areusable for our purpose, all others being devoted to the cleaning ofastrophysical contaminants. On the theoretical side, we assume LCDM as ourgeneral framework and quantify the improvement provided by CORE over thecurrent constraints from the Planck 2015 release. We also study the jointsensitivity of CORE and of future Baryon Acoustic Oscillation and Large ScaleStructure experiments like DESI and Euclid. Specific constraints on the physicsof inflation are presented in another paper of the series. In addition to thesix parameters of the base LCDM, which describe the matter content of aspatially flat universe with adiabatic and scalar primordial fluctuations frominflation, we derive the precision achievable on parameters like thosedescribing curvature, neutrino physics, extra light relics, primordial heliumabundance, dark matter annihilation, recombination physics, variation offundamental constants, dark energy, modified gravity, reionization and cosmicbirefringence. (ABRIDGED