Clinical outcomes of the Lotus Valve in patients with bicuspid aortic valve stenosis: An analysis from the RESPOND study

Aims: Patients with bicuspid valves represent a challenging anatomical subgroup for transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). This analysis evaluated the clinical outcomes of the fully repositionable and retrievable Lotus Valve System in patients with bicuspid aortic valves enrolled in the RESPOND post-market registry. Methods and Results: The prospective, open-label RESPOND study enrolled 1,014 patients at 41 centers in Europe, New Zealand, and Latin America, 31 (3.1%) of whom had bicuspid aortic valves. The mean age in the bicuspid patient cohort was 76.4 years, 64.5% were male, and the baseline STS score was 6.0 ± 10.2. Procedural success was 100%, with no cases of malpositioning, valve migration, embolization, or valve-in-valve. Repositioning was attempted in 10 cases (32.3%). There was one death (3.2%) and one stroke (3.2%) at 30-day follow-up. Mean AV gradient was reduced from 48.7 ± 17.0 mmHg at baseline to 11.8 ± 5.1 mmHg at hospital discharge (P < 0.001); mean effective orifice area (EOA

Ancestral predisposition toward a domesticated lifestyle in the termite-cultivated fungus Termitomyces

The ancestor of termites relied on gut symbionts for degradation of plant material, an association that persists in all termite families.1,2 However, the single-lineage Macrotermitinae has additionally acquired a fungal symbiont that complements digestion of food outside the termite gut.3 Phylogenetic analysis has shown that fungi grown by these termites form a clade-the genus Termitomyces-but the events leading toward domestication remain unclear.4 To address this, we reconstructed the lifestyle of the common ancestor of Termitomyces using a combination of ecological data with a phylogenomic analysis of 21 related non-domesticated species and 25 species of Termitomyces. We show that the closely related genera Blastosporella and Arthromyces also contain insect-associated species. Furthermore, the genus Arthromyces produces asexual spores on the mycelium, which may facilitate insect dispersal when growing on aggregated subterranean fecal pellets of a plant-feeding insect. The sister-group relationship between Arthromyces and Termitomyces implies that insect association and asexual sporulation, present in both genera, preceded the domestication of Termitomyces and did not follow domestication as has been proposed previously. Specialization of the common ancestor of these two genera on an insect-fecal substrate is further supported by similar carbohydrate-degrading profiles between Arthromyces and Termitomyces. We describe a set of traits that may have predisposed the ancestor of Termitomyces toward domestication, with each trait found scattered in related taxa outside of the termite-domesticated clade. This pattern indicates that the origin of the termite-fungus symbiosis may not have required large-scale changes of the fungal partner

Symmetry plane correlations in Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV

A newly developed observable for correlations between symmetry planes, which characterize the direction of the anisotropic emission of produced particles, is measured in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN−−−√=2.76 TeV with ALICE. This so-called Gaussian Estimator allows for the first time the study of these quantities without the influence of correlations between different flow amplitudes. The centrality dependence of various correlations between two, three and four symmetry planes is presented. The ordering of magnitude between these symmetry plane correlations is discussed and the results of the Gaussian Estimator are compared with measurements of previously used estimators. The results utilizing the new estimator lead to significantly smaller correlations than reported by studies using the Scalar Product method. Furthermore, the obtained symmetry plane correlations are compared to state-of-the-art hydrodynamic model calculations for the evolution of heavy-ion collisions. While the model predictions provide a qualitative description of the data, quantitative agreement is not always observed, particularly for correlators with significant non-linear response of the medium to initial state anisotropies of the collision system. As these results provide unique and independent information, their usage in future Bayesian analysis can further constrain our knowledge on the properties of the QCD matter produced in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions

Measurement of the radius dependence of charged-particle jet suppression in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02 TeV

The ALICE Collaboration reports a new differential measurement of inclusive jet suppression using pp and Pb–Pb collision data at center-of-mass energy per nucleon–nucleon collision $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV. Charged-particle jets are reconstructed using the anti-$k_{\rm T}$ algorithm with resolution parameters $R$ = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, and 0.6 in pp collisions and $R$ = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 in central (0–10\%), semi-central (30–50\%), and peripheral (60–80\%) Pb–Pb collisions. The analysis uses a novel approach based on machine learning to mitigate the influence of jet background in central heavy-ion collisions, which enables measurements of inclusive jet suppression for jet $p_{\rm T} \ge 40$ GeV/$c$ in central collisions at a resolution parameter of $R$ = 0.6. This is the lowest value of jet $p_{\rm T}$ achieved for inclusive jet measurements at $R$ = 0.6 at the LHC, and is an important step for discriminating different models of jet quenching in the quark-gluon plasma. The transverse momentum spectra, nuclear modification factors, and derived cross section and nuclear modification factor ratios for different jet resolution parameters of charged-particle jets are presented and compared to model predictions. A mild dependence of the nuclear modification factor ratios on collision centrality and resolution parameter is observed. The results are compared to a variety of jet quenching models with varying levels of agreement, demonstrating the effectiveness of this observable to discriminate between models.The ALICE Collaboration reports a new differential measurement of inclusive jet suppression using pp and Pb$-$Pb collision data at center-of-mass energy per nucleon-nucleon collision $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV. Charged-particle jets are reconstructed using the anti-$k_{\rm T}$ algorithm with resolution parameters $R =$ 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, and 0.6 in pp collisions and $R =$ 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 in central (0$-$10%), semi-central (30$-$50%), and peripheral (60$-$80%) Pb$-$Pb collisions. The analysis uses a novel approach based on machine learning to mitigate the influence of jet background in central heavy-ion collisions, which enables measurements of inclusive jet suppression for jet $p_{\rm T} \geq 40$ GeV/$c$ in central collisions at a resolution parameter of $R = 0.6$. This is the lowest value of jet $p_{\rm T}$ achieved for inclusive jet measurements at $R=0.6$ at the LHC, and is an important step for discriminating different models of jet quenching in the quark-gluon plasma. The transverse momentum spectra, nuclear modification factors, and derived cross section and nuclear modification factor ratios for different jet resolution parameters of charged-particle jets are presented and compared to model predictions. A mild dependence of the nuclear modification factor ratios on collision centrality and resolution parameter is observed. The results are compared to a variety of jet quenching models with varying levels of agreement, demonstrating the effectiveness of this observable to discriminate between models

Production of Λ and K0S in jets in p–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV and pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV

The production of Λ baryons and K0S mesons (V0 particles) was measured in p-Pb collisions at sNN−−−√=5.02 TeV and pp collisions at s√=7 TeV with ALICE at the LHC. The production of these strange particles is studied separately for particles associated with hard scatterings and the underlying event to shed light on the baryon-to-meson ratio enhancement observed at intermediate transverse momentum (pT) in high multiplicity pp and p-Pb collisions. Hard scatterings are selected on an event-by-event basis with jets reconstructed with the anti-kT algorithm using charged particles. The production of strange particles associated with jets pchT,jet>10 and pchT,jet>20 GeV/c in p-Pb collisions, and with jet pchT,jet>10 GeV/c in pp collisions is reported as a function of pT. Its dependence on angular distance from the jet axis, R(V0,jet), for jets with pchT,jet>10 GeV/c in p-Pb collisions is reported as well. The pT-differential production spectra of strange particles associated with jets are found to be harder compared to that in the underlying event and both differ from the inclusive measurements. In events containing a jet, the density of the V0 particles in the underlying event is found to be larger than the density in the minimum bias events. The Λ/K0S ratio associated with jets in p-Pb collisions is consistent with the ratio in pp collisions and follows the expectation of jets fragmenting in vacuum. On the other hand, this ratio within jets is consistently lower than the one obtained in the underlying event and it does not show the characteristic enhancement of baryons at intermediate pT often referred to as "baryon anomaly" in the inclusive measurements

Measurement of Λ(1520) production in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV and p–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV

The production of the Λ(1520) baryonic resonance has been measured at midrapidity in inelastic pp collisions at s√ = 7 TeV and in p-Pb collisions at sNN−−−√ = 5.02 TeV for non-single diffractive events and in multiplicity classes. The resonance is reconstructed through its hadronic decay channel Λ(1520) → pK− and the charge conjugate with the ALICE detector. The integrated yields and mean transverse momenta are calculated from the measured transverse momentum distributions in pp and p-Pb collisions. The mean transverse momenta follow mass ordering as previously observed for other hyperons in the same collision systems. A Blast-Wave function constrained by other light hadrons (π, K, K0S, p, Λ) describes the shape of the Λ(1520) transverse momentum distribution up to 3.5 GeV/c in p-Pb collisions. In the framework of this model, this observation suggests that the Λ(1520) resonance participates in the same collective radial flow as other light hadrons. The ratio of the yield of Λ(1520) to the yield of the ground state particle Λ remains constant as a function of charged-particle multiplicity, suggesting that there is no net effect of the hadronic phase in p-Pb collisions on the Λ(1520) yield