Clonal Population of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Strains Reside within Multiple Lung Cavities

(MTB) are localized within lung cavities of patients suffering from chronic progressive TB.Multiple cavity isolates from lung of 5 patients who had undergone pulmonary resection surgery were analyzed on the basis of their drug susceptibility profile, and genotyped by spoligotyping and 24-loci MIRU-VNTR. The patients past history including treatment was studied. Three of the 5 patients had extensive drug resistant TB. Heteroresistance was also reported within different cavity isolates of the lung. Both genotyping methods reported the presence of clonal population of MTB strain within different cavities of the each patient, even those reporting heteroresistance. Four of the 5 patients were infected with a population of the Beijing genotype. Post-surgery they were prescribed a drug regimen consisting of cycloserine, a fluoroquinolone and an injectable drug. A 6 month post-surgery follow-up reported only 2 patients with positive clinical outcome, showing sputum conversion.Identical spoligotype patterns and MIRU-VNTR profiles between multiple cavities of each patient, characterize the presence of clonal population of MTB strains (and absence of multiple MTB infection)

Politische Dimensionen von Militärübungen und Manövern – ein Projektbericht

Die virtuellen Kriege und Operationen, die in Militärübungen gespielt und geprobt werden, können entweder der Abschreckung dienen oder aber Angriffe vorbereiten bzw. zur Maskierung tatsächlicher Angriffe dienen. Für Beobachter ist es vielfach nicht offensichtlich, um welche Art von Militärübung es sich handelt. Die Ergebnisse eines vierjährigen internationalen Projektes zu politischen Dimensionen von Militärübungen richten das Schlaglicht insbesondere auf Missverständnisse und deren ungewollte politische Auswirkungen, die im Extremfall unbeabsichtigt zum Krieg führen können

Clostridium difficile infection.

Infection of the colon with the Gram-positive bacterium Clostridium difficile is potentially life threatening, especially in elderly people and in patients who have dysbiosis of the gut microbiota following antimicrobial drug exposure. C. difficile is the leading cause of health-care-associated infective diarrhoea. The life cycle of C. difficile is influenced by antimicrobial agents, the host immune system, and the host microbiota and its associated metabolites. The primary mediators of inflammation in C. difficile infection (CDI) are large clostridial toxins, toxin A (TcdA) and toxin B (TcdB), and, in some bacterial strains, the binary toxin CDT. The toxins trigger a complex cascade of host cellular responses to cause diarrhoea, inflammation and tissue necrosis - the major symptoms of CDI. The factors responsible for the epidemic of some C. difficile strains are poorly understood. Recurrent infections are common and can be debilitating. Toxin detection for diagnosis is important for accurate epidemiological study, and for optimal management and prevention strategies. Infections are commonly treated with specific antimicrobial agents, but faecal microbiota transplants have shown promise for recurrent infections. Future biotherapies for C. difficile infections are likely to involve defined combinations of key gut microbiota

Exploring UK medical school differences: the MedDifs study of selection, teaching, student and F1 perceptions, postgraduate outcomes and fitness to practise

BACKGROUND: Medical schools differ, particularly in their teaching, but it is unclear whether such differences matter, although influential claims are often made. The Medical School Differences (MedDifs) study brings together a wide range of measures of UK medical schools, including postgraduate performance, fitness to practise issues, specialty choice, preparedness, satisfaction, teaching styles, entry criteria and institutional factors. METHOD: Aggregated data were collected for 50 measures across 29 UK medical schools. Data include institutional history (e.g. rate of production of hospital and GP specialists in the past), curricular influences (e.g. PBL schools, spend per student, staff-student ratio), selection measures (e.g. entry grades), teaching and assessment (e.g. traditional vs PBL, specialty teaching, self-regulated learning), student satisfaction, Foundation selection scores, Foundation satisfaction, postgraduate examination performance and fitness to practise (postgraduate progression, GMC sanctions). Six specialties (General Practice, Psychiatry, Anaesthetics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Internal Medicine, Surgery) were examined in more detail. RESULTS: Medical school differences are stable across time (median alpha = 0.835). The 50 measures were highly correlated, 395 (32.2%) of 1225 correlations being significant with p < 0.05, and 201 (16.4%) reached a Tukey-adjusted criterion of p < 0.0025. Problem-based learning (PBL) schools differ on many measures, including lower performance on postgraduate assessments. While these are in part explained by lower entry grades, a surprising finding is that schools such as PBL schools which reported greater student satisfaction with feedback also showed lower performance at postgraduate examinations. More medical school teaching of psychiatry, surgery and anaesthetics did not result in more specialist trainees. Schools that taught more general practice did have more graduates entering GP training, but those graduates performed less well in MRCGP examinations, the negative correlation resulting from numbers of GP trainees and exam outcomes being affected both by non-traditional teaching and by greater historical production of GPs. Postgraduate exam outcomes were also higher in schools with more self-regulated learning, but lower in larger medical schools. A path model for 29 measures found a complex causal nexus, most measures causing or being caused by other measures. Postgraduate exam performance was influenced by earlier attainment, at entry to Foundation and entry to medical school (the so-called academic backbone), and by self-regulated learning. Foundation measures of satisfaction, including preparedness, had no subsequent influence on outcomes. Fitness to practise issues were more frequent in schools producing more male graduates and more GPs. CONCLUSIONS: Medical schools differ in large numbers of ways that are causally interconnected. Differences between schools in postgraduate examination performance, training problems and GMC sanctions have important implications for the quality of patient care and patient safety

The Analysis of Teaching of Medical Schools (AToMS) survey: an analysis of 47,258 timetabled teaching events in 25 UK medical schools relating to timing, duration, teaching formats, teaching content, and problem-based learning

BACKGROUND: What subjects UK medical schools teach, what ways they teach subjects, and how much they teach those subjects is unclear. Whether teaching differences matter is a separate, important question. This study provides a detailed picture of timetabled undergraduate teaching activity at 25 UK medical schools, particularly in relation to problem-based learning (PBL). METHOD: The Analysis of Teaching of Medical Schools (AToMS) survey used detailed timetables provided by 25 schools with standard 5-year courses. Timetabled teaching events were coded in terms of course year, duration, teaching format, and teaching content. Ten schools used PBL. Teaching times from timetables were validated against two other studies that had assessed GP teaching and lecture, seminar, and tutorial times. RESULTS: A total of 47,258 timetabled teaching events in the academic year 2014/2015 were analysed, including SSCs (student-selected components) and elective studies. A typical UK medical student receives 3960 timetabled hours of teaching during their 5-year course. There was a clear difference between the initial 2 years which mostly contained basic medical science content and the later 3 years which mostly consisted of clinical teaching, although some clinical teaching occurs in the first 2 years. Medical schools differed in duration, format, and content of teaching. Two main factors underlay most of the variation between schools, Traditional vs PBL teaching and Structured vs Unstructured teaching. A curriculum map comparing medical schools was constructed using those factors. PBL schools differed on a number of measures, having more PBL teaching time, fewer lectures, more GP teaching, less surgery, less formal teaching of basic science, and more sessions with unspecified content. DISCUSSION: UK medical schools differ in both format and content of teaching. PBL and non-PBL schools clearly differ, albeit with substantial variation within groups, and overlap in the middle. The important question of whether differences in teaching matter in terms of outcomes is analysed in a companion study (MedDifs) which examines how teaching differences relate to university infrastructure, entry requirements, student perceptions, and outcomes in Foundation Programme and postgraduate training

Observation of the diphoton decay of the Higgs boson and measurement of its properties

Peer reviewe

Precise determination of the mass of the Higgs boson and tests of compatibility of its couplings with the standard model predictions using proton collisions at 7 and 8 TeV

Peer reviewe

Search for Dark Matter and Supersymmetry with a Compressed Mass Spectrum in the Vector Boson Fusion Topology in Proton-Proton Collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe

Measurement of the production cross section ratio σ(χb2(1P))/σ(χb1(1P))in pp collisions at √s=8TeV

A measurement of the production cross section ratio σ(χb2(1P))/σ(χb1(1P))σ(χb2(1P))/σ(χb1(1P)) is presented. The χb1(1P)χb1(1P) and χb2(1P)χb2(1P) bottomonium states, promptly produced in pp collisions at View the MathML sources=8 TeV, are detected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC through their radiative decays χb1,2(1P)→ϒ(1S)+γχb1,2(1P)→ϒ(1S)+γ. The emitted photons are measured through their conversion to e+e−e+e− pairs, whose reconstruction allows the two states to be resolved. The ϒ(1S)ϒ(1S) is measured through its decay to two muons. An event sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.7 fb−120.7 fb−1 is used to measure the cross section ratio in a phase-space region defined by the photon pseudorapidity, |ηγ|<1.0|ηγ|<1.0; the ϒ(1S)ϒ(1S) rapidity, |yϒ|<1.5|yϒ|<1.5; and the ϒ(1S)ϒ(1S) transverse momentum, View the MathML source7<pTϒ<40 GeV. The cross section ratio shows no significant dependence on the ϒ(1S)ϒ(1S) transverse momentum, with a measured average value of View the MathML source0.85±0.07(stat+syst)±0.08(BF), where the first uncertainty is the combination of the experimental statistical and systematic uncertainties and the second is from the uncertainty in the ratio of the χbχb branching fractions

Measurement of the Zγ production cross section in pp collisions at 8 TeV and search for anomalous triple gauge boson couplings

Open Access, Copyright CERN, for the benefit of the CMS Collaboration. Article funded by SCOAP3.Abstract: The cross section for the production of Zγ in proton-proton collisions at 8 TeV is measured based on data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.5 fb−1. Events with an oppositely-charged pair of muons or electrons together with an isolated photon are selected. The differential cross section as a function of the photon transverse momentum is measured inclusively and exclusively, where the exclusive selection applies a veto on central jets. The observed cross sections are compatible with the expectations of next-to-next-to-leading-order quantum chromodynamics. Limits on anomalous triple gauge couplings of ZZγ and Zγγ are set that improve on previous experimental results obtained with the charged lepton decay modes of the Z boson