Prevalence of <i>Anaplasma phagocytophilum</i> and <i>Coxiella burnetii</i> in <i>Ixodes ricinus</i> ticks in Switzerland: an underestimated epidemiologic risk.

Ticks are vectors of several microorganisms responsible for infectious diseases in human and animals, such as &lt;i&gt;Anaplasma phagocytophilum&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;Coxiella burnetii.&lt;/i&gt; In this study, we investigated the prevalence of these two bacteria in 62 889 &lt;i&gt;Ixodes ricinus&lt;/i&gt; ticks in selected regions covering all Switzerland. A high prevalence of 11.9% of &lt;i&gt;A. phagocytophilum&lt;/i&gt; DNA was observed by real-time PCR on 8534 pools of ticks. This pool prevalence corresponds to an estimated prevalence of 1.71% in individual tick. A total of 144 of the 171 collection sites (84.2%) were positive for the presence of &lt;i&gt;A. phagocytophilum,&lt;/i&gt; and these sites were homogenously distributed throughout Switzerland. Such prevalence and geographical distribution underline the risk of human and animal exposure to &lt;i&gt;A. phagocytophilum&lt;/i&gt; and highlight the need to assess the epidemiology and clinical diagnosis of human and animal anaplasmosis in Switzerland. However, DNA of &lt;i&gt;C. burnetii&lt;/i&gt; was never found in any tick pool. This absence suggests a very low role of &lt;i&gt;I. ricinus&lt;/i&gt; ticks as vector and reservoir of &lt;i&gt;C. burnetii&lt;/i&gt; in Switzerland, and it supports previous reports demonstrating the role of sheep and goats in the epidemiology of Q fever. However, considering its pathogenic potential, it is necessary to keep monitoring for the possible reemergence of this bacterium in ticks in the future

Installation and Hardware commissioning of the Multi-Turn extraction at the CERN proton synchrotron

The implementation of the new Multi-Turn Extraction (MTE) at the CERN Proton Synchrotron required major hardware changes for the nearly 50-year old accelerator. The installation of new Pulse Forming Networks (PFN) and refurbished kicker magnets for the extraction, new sextupole and octupole magnets, new power converters, together with an in-depth review of the machine aperture leading to the design of new vacuum chambers was required. As a result, a heavy programme of interventions had to be scheduled during the winter shut-down 2007-8. The newly installed hardware and its commissioning is presented and discussed in details

IONS FOR LHC: STATUS OF THE INJECTOR CHAIN

The LHC will, in addition to proton runs, be operated with Pb ions and provide collisions at energies of 5.5 TeV per nucleon pair, i.e. more than 1.1 PeV per event, to experiments. The transformation of CERN's ion injector complex (Linac3-LEIR-PS-SPS) to allow collision of ions in LHC in 2008 is well under way. The status of these modifications and the latest results of commissioning will be presented. The remaining challenges are reviewed

The CERN PS multi-turn extraction based on beam splittting in stable islands of transverse phase space: Design Report

Since 2001 considerable effort has been devoted to the study of a possible replacement of the continuous-transfer extraction mode from the PS to the SPS. Such an approach, called Multi-Turn Extraction (MTE), is based on capture of the beam inside stable islands of transverse phase space, generated by sextupoles and octupoles, thanks to a properly chosen tune variation. Both numerical simulations and measurements with beam were performed to understand the properties of this new extraction mode. The experimental study was completed at the end of 2004 and by the end of 2005 a scheme to implement this novel approach in the PS machine was defined and its performance assessed. This design report presents the outcome of the studies undertaken both in terms of technical issues as well as of resources necessary to implement the proposed scheme

An evidence-based recommendation on bed head elevation for mechanically ventilated patients

A semi-upright position in ventilated patients is recommended to prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and is one of the components in the Ventilator Bundle of the Institute for Health Care Improvement. This recommendation, however, is not an evidence-based one.status: publishe

The energy calibration of LEP in the 1993 scan

This report summarizes the procedure for providing the absolute energy calibration of the LEP beams during the energy scan in 1993. The average beam energy around the LEP ring was measured in 25 calibrations with the resonant depolarization technique. The time variation of this average beam energy is well described by a model of the accelerator based on monitored quantities. The absolute calibration of the centre of mass energies of the off-peak points is determined with a precision of 2 parts in 10(5) resulting in a systematic error on the Z-mass of about 1.4 MeV and on the Z-width of about 1.5 MeV

Genetic Association and Expression Studies Indicate a Role of Toll-Like Receptor 8 in Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Despite high rates of exposure, only 5–10% of people infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis will develop active tuberculosis (TB) disease, suggesting a significant role for genetic variation in the human immune response to this infection. Here, we studied TB association and expression of 18 genes involved in the Toll-like receptor (TLR) pathways. Initially, we genotyped 149 sequence polymorphisms in 375 pulmonary TB patients and 387 controls from Indonesia. We found that four polymorphisms in the TLR8 gene on chromosome X showed evidence of association with TB susceptibility in males, including a non-synonymous polymorphism rs3764880 (Met1Val; P = 0.007, odds ratio (OR) = 1.8, 95% c.i. = 1.2–2.7). We genotyped these four TLR8 polymorphisms in an independent collection of 1,837 pulmonary TB patients and 1,779 controls from Russia and again found evidence of association in males (for rs3764880 P = 0.03, OR = 1.2, 95% c.i. = 1.02–1.48). Combined evidence for association is P = 1.2×10−3–6×10−4. In addition, a quantitative PCR analysis indicated that TLR8 transcript levels are significantly up-regulated in patients during the acute phase of disease (P = 9.36×10−5), relative to baseline levels following successful chemotherapy. A marked increase in TLR8 protein expression was also observed directly in differentiated macrophages upon infection with M. bovis bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG). Taken together, our results provide evidence, for the first time, of a role for the TLR8 gene in susceptibility to pulmonary TB across different populations