216 research outputs found
Mobilization for Low Intensity Conflict
On 22 July 1982 President Reagan revised US mobilization policy through NSDD 47. His goal was to develop an emergency mobilization preparedness capability that will ensure that government at all levels, in partnership with the private sector and the American people, can respond decisively and effectively to any major national emergency, with defense of the United States as the first priority
Relativistic ionization-rescattering with tailored laser pulses
The interaction of relativistically strong tailored laser pulses with an
atomic system is considered. Due to a special tailoring of the laser pulse, the
suppression of the relativistic drift of the ionized electron and a dramatic
enhancement of the rescattering probability is shown to be achievable. The high
harmonic generation rate in the relativistic regime is calculated and shown to
be increased by several orders of magnitude compared to the case of
conventional laser pulses. The energies of the revisiting electron at the
atomic core can approach the MeV domain, thus rendering hard x-ray harmonics
and nuclear reactions with single atoms feasible
HIV non-B subtype distribution: emerging trends and risk factors for imported and local infections newly diagnosed in South Australia
Monitoring HIV subtype distribution is important for understanding transmission dynamics. Subtype B has
historically been dominant in Australia, but in recent years new clades have appeared. Since 2000, clade data
have been collected as part of HIV surveillance in South Australia. The aim of this study was to evaluate the
prevalence of and risk factors for HIV-1 non-B subtypes. The study population was composed of newly diagnosed,
genotyped HIV subjects in South Australia between 2000 and 2010. We analyzed time trends and subtype
patterns in this cohort; notification data were aggregated into three time periods (2000–2003, 2004–2006, and
2007–2010). Main outcome measures were number of new non-B infections by year, exposure route, and other
demographic characteristics. There were 513 new HIV diagnoses; 425 had information on subtype. The majority
(262/425) were in men who have sex with men (MSM), predominantly subtype B and acquired in Australia.
Infections acquired in Australia decreased from 77% (2000–2003) to 64% (2007–2010) ( p = 0.007) and correspondingly
the proportion of subtype B declined from 85% to 68% ( p = 0.002). Non-B infections were predominantly
(83%) heterosexual contacts, mostly acquired overseas (74%). The majority (68%) of non-B patients
were born outside of Australia. There was a non-significant increase from 1.6% to 4.2% in the proportion of
locally transmitted non-B cases (p = 0.3). Three non-B subtypes and two circulating recombinant forms (CRFs)
were identified: CRF_AE (n = 41), C (n = 36), CRF_AG (n = 13), A (n = 9), and D (n = 2). There has been a substantial
increase over the past decade in diagnosed non-B infections, primarily through cases acquired overseas
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Identification of pre-leukaemic haematopoietic stem cells in acute leukaemia.
In acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), the cell of origin, nature and biological consequences of initiating lesions, and order of subsequent mutations remain poorly understood, as AML is typically diagnosed without observation of a pre-leukaemic phase. Here, highly purified haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), progenitor and mature cell fractions from the blood of AML patients were found to contain recurrent DNMT3A mutations (DNMT3A(mut)) at high allele frequency, but without coincident NPM1 mutations (NPM1c) present in AML blasts. DNMT3A(mut)-bearing HSCs showed a multilineage repopulation advantage over non-mutated HSCs in xenografts, establishing their identity as pre-leukaemic HSCs. Pre-leukaemic HSCs were found in remission samples, indicating that they survive chemotherapy. Therefore DNMT3A(mut) arises early in AML evolution, probably in HSCs, leading to a clonally expanded pool of pre-leukaemic HSCs from which AML evolves. Our findings provide a paradigm for the detection and treatment of pre-leukaemic clones before the acquisition of additional genetic lesions engenders greater therapeutic resistance
The association of partial pressures of oxygen and carbon dioxide with neurological outcome after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: an explorative International Cardiac Arrest Registry 2.0 study
Background
Exposure to extreme arterial partial pressures of oxygen (PaO2) and carbon dioxide (PaCO2) following the return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is common and may affect neurological outcome but results of previous studies are conflicting.
Methods
Exploratory study of the International Cardiac Arrest Registry (INTCAR) 2.0 database, including 2162 OHCA patients with ROSC in 22 intensive care units in North America and Europe. We tested the hypothesis that exposure to extreme PaO2 or PaCO2 values within 24 h after OHCA is associated with poor neurological outcome at discharge. Our primary analyses investigated the association between extreme PaO2 and PaCO2 values, defined as hyperoxemia (PaO2 > 40 kPa), hypoxemia (PaO2  6.7 kPa) and hypocapnemia (PaCO2  40 kPa with PaCO2  6.7 kPa and neurological outcome. To define a cut point for the onset of poor neurological outcome, we tested a model with increasing and decreasing PaO2 levels and decreasing PaCO2 levels. Cerebral Performance Category (CPC), dichotomized to good (CPC 1–2) and poor (CPC 3–5) was used as outcome measure.
Results
Of 2135 patients eligible for analysis, 700 were exposed to hyperoxemia or hypoxemia and 1128 to hypercapnemia or hypocapnemia. Our primary analyses did not reveal significant associations between exposure to extreme PaO2 or PaCO2 values and neurological outcome (P = 0.13–0.49). Our secondary analyses showed no significant associations between combinations of PaO2 and PaCO2 and neurological outcome (P = 0.11–0.86). There was no PaO2 or PaCO2 level significantly associated with poor neurological outcome. All analyses were adjusted for relevant co-variates.
Conclusions
Exposure to extreme PaO2 or PaCO2 values in the first 24 h after OHCA was common, but not independently associated with neurological outcome at discharge.publishedVersio
Risk Stratification Among Survivors of Cardiac Arrest Considered for Coronary Angiography.
BACKGROUND: The American College of Cardiology Interventional Council published consensus-based recommendations to help identify resuscitated cardiac arrest patients with unfavorable clinical features in whom invasive procedures are unlikely to improve survival.
OBJECTIVES: This study sought to identify how many unfavorable features are required before prognosis is significantly worsened and which features are most impactful in predicting prognosis.
METHODS: Using the INTCAR (International Cardiac Arrest Registry), the impact of each proposed unfavorable feature on survival to hospital discharge was individually analyzed. Logistic regression was performed to assess the association of such unfavorable features with poor outcomes.
RESULTS: Seven unfavorable features (of 10 total) were captured in 2,508 patients successfully resuscitated after cardiac arrest (ongoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation and noncardiac etiology were exclusion criteria in our registry). Chronic kidney disease was used in lieu of end-stage renal disease. In total, 39% survived to hospital discharge. The odds ratio (OR) of survival to hospital discharge for each unfavorable feature was as follows: age \u3e85 years OR: 0.30 (95% CI: 0.15 to 0.61), time-to-ROSC \u3e30 min OR: 0.30 (95% CI: 0.23 to 0.39), nonshockable rhythm OR: 0.39 (95% CI: 0.29 to 0.54), no bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation OR: 0.49 (95% CI: 0.38 to 0.64), lactate \u3e7 mmol/l OR: 0.50 (95% CI: 0.40 to 0.63), unwitnessed arrest OR: 0.58 (95% CI: 0.44 to 0.78), pH85 years, time-to-ROSC \u3e30 min, and non-ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation) together or ≥6 unfavorable features predicted a ≤10% chance of survival to discharge.
CONCLUSIONS: Patients successfully resuscitated from cardiac arrest with 6 or more unfavorable features have a poor long-term prognosis. Delaying or even forgoing invasive procedures in such patients is reasonable
Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas
This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing
molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin
Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context
Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts
Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas
Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN
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