A New Species of Flamella (Amoebozoa, Variosea, Gracilipodida) Isolated from a Freshwater Pool in Southern Mississippi, USA

We isolated and identified a freshwater amoebozoan species that belongs to the genus Flamella Schaeffer, 1926 by single cell isolation and light microscopy. Our specific strain was isolated from a water sample obtained on the cover of a swimming pool in Petal, Mississippi, USA collected during the winter of 2015. Morphologically, our isolate is a fan-shaped amoeba with a large, frontal hyaloplasm and distinctive granuloplasm. It is capable of encystment and trophozoites occasionally have two nuclei. The isolate (GFP151sc) is phylogenetically sister to but unique from the freshwater environmental flamellid clone from Borok, Yaroslavl region, Russia originally published in 2006. Here we describe and place this isolate into a new species, Flamella piscinae n. sp

Pan-European early switch/early discharge opportunities exist for hospitalised patients with methicillin-resistant <em>Staphylococcus</em> <em>aureus</em> complicated skin and soft-tissue infections

AbstractThe objective of this study was to document pan-European real-world treatment patterns and healthcare resource use and estimate opportunities for early switch (ES) from intravenous (IV) to oral antibiotics and early discharge (ED) in hospitalized patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) complicated skin and soft tissue infections (cSSTIs). This retrospective observational medical chart review study enrolled 342 physicians across 12 European countries who collected data from 1542 patients with documented MRSA cSSTI who were hospitalized (July 2010 to June 2011) and discharged alive (by July 2011). Data included clinical characteristics and outcomes, hospital length of stay (LOS), MRSA-targeted IV and oral antibiotic use, and ES and ED eligibility according to literature-based and expert-validated criteria. The most frequent initial MRSA-active antibiotics were vancomycin (50.2%), linezolid (15.1%), clindamycin (10.8%), and teicoplanin (10.4%). Patients discharged with MRSA-active antibiotics (n = 480) were most frequently prescribed linezolid (42.1%) and clindamycin (19.8%). IV treatment duration (9.3 ± 6.5 vs. 14.6 ± 9.9 days; p <0.001) and hospital LOS (19.1 ± 12.9 vs. 21.0 ± 18.2 days; p 0.162) tended to be shorter for patients switched from IV to oral treatment than for patients who received IV treatment only. Of the patients, 33.6% met ES criteria and could have discontinued IV treatment 6.0 ± 5.5 days earlier, and 37.9% met ED criteria and could have been discharged 6.2 ± 8.2 days earlier. More than one-third of European patients hospitalized for MRSA cSSTI could be eligible for ES and ED, resulting in substantial reductions in IV days and bed-days, with potential savings of €2000 per ED-eligible patient

The MINERν\nuA Data Acquisition System and Infrastructure

MINER$\nu$A (Main INjector ExpeRiment $\nu$-A) is a new few-GeV neutrino cross section experiment that began taking data in the FNAL NuMI (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Neutrinos at the Main Injector) beam-line in March of 2010. MINER$\nu$A employs a fine-grained scintillator detector capable of complete kinematic characterization of neutrino interactions. This paper describes the MINER$\nu$A data acquisition system (DAQ) including the read-out electronics, software, and computing architecture.Comment: 34 pages, 16 figure

MINERvA neutrino detector response measured with test beam data

The MINERvA collaboration operated a scaled-down replica of the solid scintillator tracking and sampling calorimeter regions of the MINERvA detector in a hadron test beam at the Fermilab Test Beam Facility. This article reports measurements with samples of protons, pions, and electrons from 0.35 to 2.0 GeV/c momentum. The calorimetric response to protons, pions, and electrons are obtained from these data. A measurement of the parameter in Birks' law and an estimate of the tracking efficiency are extracted from the proton sample. Overall the data are well described by a Geant4-based Monte Carlo simulation of the detector and particle interactions with agreements better than 4%, though some features of the data are not precisely modeled. These measurements are used to tune the MINERvA detector simulation and evaluate systematic uncertainties in support of the MINERvA neutrino cross section measurement program.Comment: as accepted by NIM

Single neutral pion production by charged-current νˉμ\bar{\nu}_\mu interactions on hydrocarbon at ⟨Eν⟩=\langle E_\nu \rangle = 3.6 GeV

Single neutral pion production via muon antineutrino charged-current interactions in plastic scintillator (CH) is studied using the \minerva detector exposed to the NuMI low-energy, wideband antineutrino beam at Fermilab. Measurement of this process constrains models of neutral pion production in nuclei, which is important because the neutral-current analog is a background for $\bar{\nu}_e$ appearance oscillation experiments. The differential cross sections for $\pi^0$ momentum and production angle, for events with a single observed $\pi^0$ and no charged pions, are presented and compared to model predictions. These results comprise the first measurement of the $\pi^0$ kinematics for this process.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Physics Letters

First evidence of coherent K+K^{+} meson production in neutrino-nucleus scattering

Neutrino-induced charged-current coherent kaon production, $\nu_{\mu}A\rightarrow\mu^{-}K^{+}A$, is a rare, inelastic electroweak process that brings a $K^+$ on shell and leaves the target nucleus intact in its ground state. This process is significantly lower in rate than neutrino-induced charged-current coherent pion production, because of Cabibbo suppression and a kinematic suppression due to the larger kaon mass. We search for such events in the scintillator tracker of MINERvA by observing the final state $K^+$, $\mu^-$ and no other detector activity, and by using the kinematics of the final state particles to reconstruct the small momentum transfer to the nucleus, which is a model-independent characteristic of coherent scattering. We find the first experimental evidence for the process at $3\sigma$ significance.Comment: added ancillary file with information about the six kaon candidate