Effects of adenotonsillectomy on plasma inflammatory biomarkers in obese children with obstructive sleep apnea: A community-based study.

BackgroundObesity and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA) are highly prevalent and frequently overlapping conditions in children that lead to systemic inflammation, the latter being implicated in the various end-organ morbidities associated with these conditions.AimTo examine the effects of adenotonsillectomy (T&A) on plasma levels of inflammatory markers in obese children with polysomnographically diagnosed OSA who were prospectively recruited from the community.MethodsObese children prospectively diagnosed with OSA, underwent T&A and a second overnight polysomnogram (PSG) after surgery. Plasma fasting morning samples obtained after each of the two PSGs were assayed for multiple inflammatory and metabolic markers including interleukin (IL)-6, IL-18, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), adiponectin, apelin C, leptin and osteocrin.ResultsOut of 122 potential candidates, 100 obese children with OSA completed the study with only one-third exhibiting normalization of their PSG after T&A (that is, apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) ≤1/hour total sleep time). However, overall significant decreases in MCP-1, PAI-1, MMP-9, IL-18 and IL-6, and increases in adropin and osteocrin plasma concentrations occurred after T&A. Several of the T&A-responsive biomarkers exhibited excellent sensitivity and moderate specificity to predict residual OSA (that is, AHI⩾5/hTST).ConclusionsA defined subset of systemic inflammatory and metabolic biomarkers is reversibly altered in the context of OSA among community-based obese children, further reinforcing the concept on the interactive pro-inflammatory effects of sleep disorders such as OSA and obesity contributing to downstream end-organ morbidities

Evidence for the Higgs-boson Yukawa coupling to tau leptons with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for H → τ τ decays are presented, based on the full set of proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC during 2011 and 2012. The data correspond to integrated luminosities of 4.5 fb−1 and 20.3 fb−1 at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV respectively. All combinations of leptonic (τ → `νν¯ with ` = e, µ) and hadronic (τ → hadrons ν) tau decays are considered. An excess of events over the expected background from other Standard Model processes is found with an observed (expected) significance of 4.5 (3.4) standard deviations. This excess provides evidence for the direct coupling of the recently discovered Higgs boson to fermions. The measured signal strength, normalised to the Standard Model expectation, of µ = 1.43 +0.43 −0.37 is consistent with the predicted Yukawa coupling strength in the Standard Model

CIBERER : Spanish national network for research on rare diseases: A highly productive collaborative initiative

Altres ajuts: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII); Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.CIBER (Center for Biomedical Network Research; Centro de Investigación Biomédica En Red) is a public national consortium created in 2006 under the umbrella of the Spanish National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII). This innovative research structure comprises 11 different specific areas dedicated to the main public health priorities in the National Health System. CIBERER, the thematic area of CIBER focused on rare diseases (RDs) currently consists of 75 research groups belonging to universities, research centers, and hospitals of the entire country. CIBERER's mission is to be a center prioritizing and favoring collaboration and cooperation between biomedical and clinical research groups, with special emphasis on the aspects of genetic, molecular, biochemical, and cellular research of RDs. This research is the basis for providing new tools for the diagnosis and therapy of low-prevalence diseases, in line with the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) objectives, thus favoring translational research between the scientific environment of the laboratory and the clinical setting of health centers. In this article, we intend to review CIBERER's 15-year journey and summarize the main results obtained in terms of internationalization, scientific production, contributions toward the discovery of new therapies and novel genes associated to diseases, cooperation with patients' associations and many other topics related to RD research

A922 Sequential measurement of 1 hour creatinine clearance (1-CRCL) in critically ill patients at risk of acute kidney injury (AKI)

Meeting abstrac

Measurement of the t¯tZ and t¯tW cross sections in proton-proton collisions at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A measurement of the associated production of a top-quark pair (t¯t) with a vector boson (W, Z) in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV is presented, using 36.1  fb−1 of integrated luminosity collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in channels with two same- or opposite-sign leptons (electrons or muons), three leptons or four leptons, and each channel is further divided into multiple regions to maximize the sensitivity of the measurement. The t¯tZ and t¯tW production cross sections are simultaneously measured using a combined fit to all regions. The best-fit values of the production cross sections are σt¯tZ=0.95±0.08stat±0.10syst pb and σt¯tW=0.87±0.13stat±0.14syst pb in agreement with the Standard Model predictions. The measurement of the t¯tZ cross section is used to set constraints on effective field theory operators which modify the t¯tZ vertex

Search for a high-mass Higgs boson decaying to a W boson pair in pp collisions at √s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for a high-mass Higgs boson H is performed in the H → WW → ℓνℓν and H → WW → ℓνqq decay channels using pp collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb−¹ collected at √s = 8 TeV by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No evidence of a high-mass Higgs boson is found. Limits on σH × BR(H → WW) as a function of the Higgs boson mass mH are determined in three different scenarios: one in which the heavy Higgs boson has a narrow width compared to the experimental resolution, one for a width increasing with the boson mass and modeled by the complex-pole scheme following the same behavior as in the Standard Model, and one for intermediate widths. The upper range of the search is mH = 1500 GeV for the narrow-width scenario and mH = 1000 GeV for the other two scenarios. The lower edge of the search range is 200–300 GeV and depends on the analysis channel and search scenario. For each signal interpretation, individual and combined limits from the two WW decay channels are presented. At mH = 1500 GeV, the highest-mass point tested, σH × BR(H → WW) for a narrow-width Higgs boson is constrained to be less than 22 fb and 6.6 fb at 95% CL for the gluon fusion and vector-boson fusion production modes, respectively

ATLAS Run 1 searches for direct pair production of third-generation squarks at the Large Hadron Collider

This paper reviews and extends searches for the direct pair production of the scalar supersymmetric partners of the top and bottom quarks in proton-proton collisions collected by the ATLAS collaboration during the LHC Run 1. Most of the analyses use 20 fb$^{-1}$ of collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV, although in some case an additional 4.7 fb$^{-1}$ of collision data at $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV are used. New analyses are introduced to improve the sensitivity to specific regions of the model parameter space. Since no evidence of third-generation squarks is found, exclusion limits are derived by combining several analyses and are presented in both a simplified model framework, assuming simple decay chains, as well as within the context of more elaborate phenomenological supersymmetric models.Comment: 53 pages plus author list + cover page (70 pages total), 24 figures, 10 tables, submitted to Eur. Phys. J., All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/SUSY-2014-07

Search for the Standard Model Higgs boson produced in association with top quarks and decaying into bb¯ in pp collisions at √s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for the Standard Model Higgs boson produced in association with a top-quark pair, tt¯H, is presented. The analysis uses 20.3 fb−1 of pp collision data at √s=8TeV, collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider during 2012. The search is designed for the H→bb¯ decay mode and uses events containing one or two electrons or muons. In order to improve the sensitivity of the search, events are categorised according to their jet and b-tagged jet multiplicities. A neural network is used to discriminate between signal and background events, the latter being dominated by tt¯+jets production. In the single-lepton channel, variables calculated using a matrix element method are included as inputs to the neural network to improve discrimination of the irreducible tt¯+bb¯ background. No significant excess of events above the background expectation is found and an observed (expected) limit of 3.4 (2.2) times the Standard Model cross section is obtained at 95% confidence level. The ratio of the measured tt¯H signal cross section to the Standard Model expectation is found to be μ=1.5±1.1 assuming a Higgs boson mass of 125GeV

Search for lepton-flavour-violating decays of the Higgs and Z bosons with the ATLAS detector

Direct searches for lepton flavour violation in decays of the Higgs and Z bosons with the ATLAS detector at the LHC are presented. The following three decays are considered: H→eτ, H→μτ, and Z→μτ. The searches are based on the data sample of proton–proton collisions collected by the ATLAS detector corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb−1 at a centre-of-mass energy of s√=8 TeV. No significant excess is observed, and upper limits on the lepton-flavour-violating branching ratios are set at the 95 % confidence level: Br (H→eτ)<1.04%, Br (H→μτ)<1.43%, and Br (Z→μτ)<1.69×10−5