Multilocus sequence typing of the pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus

A multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme was devised for Aspergillus fumigatus. The system involved sequencing seven gene fragments and was applied to a panel of 100 isolates of A. fumigatus from diverse sources. Thirty different sequence types were found among the 100 isolates, and 93% of the isolates differed from the other isolates by only one allele sequence, forming a single clonal cluster as indicated by the eBURST algorithm. The discriminatory power of the MLST method was only 0.93. These results strongly indicate that A. fumigatus is a species of a relatively recent origin, with low levels of sequence dissimilarity. Typing methods based on variable numbers of tandem repeats offer higher levels of strain discrimination. Mating type data for the 100 isolates showed that 71 isolates were type MAT1-2 and 29 isolates were MAT1-1

Measurement of the B0-anti-B0-Oscillation Frequency with Inclusive Dilepton Events

The $B^0$-$\bar B^0$ oscillation frequency has been measured with a sample of 23 million \B\bar B pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B Factory at SLAC. In this sample, we select events in which both B mesons decay semileptonically and use the charge of the leptons to identify the flavor of each B meson. A simultaneous fit to the decay time difference distributions for opposite- and same-sign dilepton events gives $\Delta m_d = 0.493 \pm 0.012{(stat)}\pm 0.009{(syst)}$ ps$^{-1}$.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Updated Performance of the Micra Transcatheter Pacemaker in the Real-World Setting : a Comparison to the Investigational Study and a Transvenous Historical Control

BACKGROUND: Early results of the Micra Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) study and Micra Post-Approval Registry (PAR) demonstrated excellent safety and efficacy performance; however, intermediate-term results across a large patient population in the real-world setting have not been evaluated. OBJECTIVES: We report updated performance of the Micra transcatheter pacemaker from a worldwide PAR and compare it with the IDE study as well as a transvenous historical control. METHODS: The safety objective of the analysis was system- or procedure-related major complications through 12 months postimplantation. We compared the major complication rate with that of the 726 patients from the IDE and with a reference data set of 2667 patients with transvenous pacemakers by using a Fine-Gray competing risk model. RESULTS: The Micra device was successfully implanted in 1801 of 1817 patients (99.1%). The mean follow-up period was 6.8 \ub1 6.9 months. Through 12 months, the major complication rate was 2.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.0%-3.7%). The risk of major complications for Micra PAR patients was 63% lower than that for patients with transvenous pacemakers through 12 months postimplantation (hazard ratio 0.37; 95% CI 0.27-0.52; P < .001). The major complication rate trended lower in the PAR than in the IDE study (hazard ratio 0.71; 95% CI 0.44-1.1; P = .160), driven by the lower pericardial effusion rate in the PAR. There were 3 cases of infection associated with the procedure, but none required device removal and there were no battery or telemetry issues. Pacing thresholds were low and stable through 12 months postimplantation. CONCLUSION: Performance of the Micra transcatheter pacemaker in international clinical practice remains consistent with previously reported data. Major complications were infrequent and occurred 63% less often compared to transvenous systems

Psychosocial Treatment of Children in Foster Care: A Review

A substantial number of children in foster care exhibit psychiatric difficulties. Recent epidemiologi-cal and historical trends in foster care, clinical findings about the adjustment of children in foster care, and adult outcomes are reviewed, followed by a description of current approaches to treatment and extant empirical support. Available interventions for these children can be categorized as either symptom-focused or systemic, with empirical support for specific methods ranging from scant to substantial. Even with treatment, behavioral and emotional problems often persist into adulthood, resulting in poor functional outcomes. We suggest that self-regulation may be an important mediat-ing factor in the appearance of emotional and behavioral disturbance in these children

Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR

Measurement of the CP-Violating Asymmetry Amplitude sin2β\beta

We present results on time-dependent CP-violating asymmetries in neutral B decays to several CP eigenstates. The measurements use a data sample of about 88 million Y(4S) --> B Bbar decays collected between 1999 and 2002 with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B Factory at SLAC. We study events in which one neutral B meson is fully reconstructed in a final state containing a charmonium meson and the other B meson is determined to be either a B0 or B0bar from its decay products. The amplitude of the CP-violating asymmetry, which in the Standard Model is proportional to sin2beta, is derived from the decay-time distributions in such events. We measure sin2beta = 0.741 +/- 0.067 (stat) +/- 0.033 (syst) and |lambda| = 0.948 +/- 0.051 (stat) +/- 0.017 (syst). The magnitude of lambda is consistent with unity, in agreement with the Standard Model expectation of no direct CP violation in these modes