131 research outputs found
Healthcare-associated outbreak of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia: role of a cryptic variant of an epidemic clone
BACKGROUND
New strains of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) may be associated with changes in rates of disease or clinical presentation. Conventional typing techniques may not detect new clonal variants that underlie changes in epidemiology or clinical phenotype.
AIM
To investigate the role of clonal variants of MRSA in an outbreak of MRSA bacteraemia at a hospital in England.
METHODS
Bacteraemia isolates of the major UK lineages (EMRSA-15 and -16) from before and after the outbreak were analysed by whole-genome sequencing in the context of epidemiological and clinical data. For comparison, EMRSA-15 and -16 isolates from another hospital in England were sequenced. A clonal variant of EMRSA-16 was identified at the outbreak hospital and a molecular signature test designed to distinguish variant isolates among further EMRSA-16 strains.
FINDINGS
By whole-genome sequencing, EMRSA-16 isolates during the outbreak showed strikingly low genetic diversity (P < 1 × 10(-6), Monte Carlo test), compared with EMRSA-15 and EMRSA-16 isolates from before the outbreak or the comparator hospital, demonstrating the emergence of a clonal variant. The variant was indistinguishable from the ancestral strain by conventional typing. This clonal variant accounted for 64/72 (89%) of EMRSA-16 bacteraemia isolates at the outbreak hospital from 2006.
CONCLUSIONS
Evolutionary changes in epidemic MRSA strains not detected by conventional typing may be associated with changes in disease epidemiology. Rapid and affordable technologies for whole-genome sequencing are becoming available with the potential to identify and track the emergence of variants of highly clonal organisms
Landscape equivalent of the shoving model
It is shown that the shoving model expression for the average relaxation time
of viscous liquids follows largely from a classical "landscape" estimation of
barrier heights from curvature at energy minima. The activation energy involves
both instantaneous bulk and shear moduli, but the bulk modulus contributes less
than 8% to the temperature dependence of the activation energy. This reflects
the fact that the physics of the two models are closely related.Comment: 4 page
Measurement of charged particle multiplicities in collisions at TeV in the forward region
The charged particle production in proton-proton collisions is studied with
the LHCb detector at a centre-of-mass energy of TeV in different
intervals of pseudorapidity . The charged particles are reconstructed
close to the interaction region in the vertex detector, which provides high
reconstruction efficiency in the ranges and
. The data were taken with a minimum bias trigger, only requiring
one or more reconstructed tracks in the vertex detector. By selecting an event
sample with at least one track with a transverse momentum greater than 1 GeV/c
a hard QCD subsample is investigated. Several event generators are compared
with the data; none are able to describe fully the multiplicity distributions
or the charged particle density distribution as a function of . In
general, the models underestimate the charged particle production
Measurement of prompt hadron production ratios in collisions at 0.9 and 7 TeV
The charged-particle production ratios , , ,
, and are measured with the LHCb detector using of collisions delivered by the LHC at TeV and
at TeV. The measurements are performed as a
function of transverse momentum and pseudorapidity . The
production ratios are compared to the predictions of several Monte Carlo
generator settings, none of which are able to describe adequately all
observables. The ratio is also considered as a function of rapidity
loss, , and is used to constrain models of
baryon transport.Comment: Incorrect entries in Table 2 corrected. No consequences for rest of
pape
Measurement of relative branching fractions of B decays to and mesons
The relative rates of B-meson decays into and mesons are
measured for the three decay modes in pp collisions recorded with the LHCb
detector. The ratios of branching fractions () are measured to be
,
,
where the third uncertainty is from the ratio of the and
branching fractions to .Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur
Observation of X(3872) production in pp collisions at √s=7TeV
Using 34.7 pb−1 of data collected with the LHCb
detector, the inclusive production of the X(3872) meson in
pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV is observed for the first time.
Candidates are selected in the X(3872)→J/ψπ+π− decay
mode, and used to measure σ(pp→X(3872)+anything)B(X(3872)→J/ψπ+π−) = 5.4 ±1.3 (stat)±0.8 (syst) nb, where σ(pp →X(3872) + anything) is the inclusive production cross section of X(3872) mesons with rapidity in the range 2.5–4.5 and transverse momentum in the range 5–20 GeV/c. In addition the masses of both the X(3872) and ψ(2S) mesons, reconstructed in the J/ψπ+π− final state, are measured to be mX(3872) = 3871.95± 0.48 (stat)±0.12 (syst) MeV/c2 and
mψ(2S) = 3686.12±0.06 (stat) ±0.10 (syst) MeV/c2
Measurement of the forward energy flow in pp collisions at √<span style="text-decoration:overline">s</span>=7 TeV
The energy flow created in pp collisions at s√=7 TeV is studied within the pseudorapidity range 1.9<η<4.9 with data collected by the LHCb experiment. The measurements are performed for inclusive minimum-bias interactions, hard scattering processes and events with an enhanced or suppressed diffractive contribution. The results are compared to predictions given by Pythia-based and cosmic-ray event generators, which provide different models of soft hadronic interactions
Análise filogenética e implicações sistemáticas e evolutivas nos Cuculiformes (Aves) com base na osteologia, comportamento e ecologia
Study of the lineshape of the chi(c1) (3872) state
A study of the lineshape of the chi(c1) (3872) state is made using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb(-1) collected in pp collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV with the LHCb detector. Candidate chi(c1)(3872) and psi(2S) mesons from b-hadron decays are selected in the J/psi pi(+)pi(-) decay mode. Describing the lineshape with a Breit-Wigner function, the mass splitting between the chi(c1 )(3872) and psi(2S) states, Delta m, and the width of the chi(c1 )(3872) state, Gamma(Bw), are determined to be (Delta m=185.598 +/- 0.067 +/- 0.068 Mev,)(Gamma BW=1.39 +/- 0.24 +/- 0.10 Mev,) where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. Using a Flatte-inspired model, the mode and full width at half maximum of the lineshape are determined to be (mode=3871.69+0.00+0.05 MeV.)(FWHM=0.22-0.04+0.13+0.07+0.11-0.06-0.13 MeV, ) An investigation of the analytic structure of the Flatte amplitude reveals a pole structure, which is compatible with a quasibound D-0(D) over bar*(0) state but a quasivirtual state is still allowed at the level of 2 standard deviations
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