Correlation between inflammation state and successful medical cardioversion using bepridil for refractory atrial fibrillation

AbstractBackgroundIt has been reported that inflammation is associated with long-term maintenance of sinus rhythm after electrical cardioversion for non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF). However, the relation between high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and the recurrence of AF after medical cardioversion is unknown. On the other hand, bepridil is very effective in restoring sinus rhythm for patients with refractory AF.Methods and resultsIn 119 patients with non-valvular AF lasting >6 months who failed to maintain sinus rhythm after medical cardioversion without bepridil or electrical cardioversion, we prescribed bepridil. We divided our patients into success group who maintained sinus rhythm for at least 6 months using bepridil and failure group, and compared the following parameters, which were measured just before prescription of bepridil, between the two groups: hs-CRP as a marker of inflammation, left ventricular end-diastolic dimension, ejection fraction, and left atrial dimension as echocardiographic markers, and the incidence of dyslipidemia, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus. After the treatment with bepridil, 57 patients converted to sinus rhythm; however, 12 patients among these 57 patients could not maintain sinus rhythm. Therefore, the success group consisted of 45 patients (38%). Univariate analysis revealed that left atrial dimension and the value of hs-CRP were significantly lower and ejection fraction was significantly higher in the success group than the failure group. Multivariate analysis showed that hs-CRP and left atrial dimension were independent factors for AF recurrence.ConclusionsBepridil is effective in restoring sinus rhythm for refractory AF patients. Inflammation, in addition to left atrial dimension, may be associated with successful cardioversion using bepridil

Encapsulated Papillary Thyroid Tumor with Delicate Nuclear Changes and a Mutation as a Possible Novel Subtype of Borderline Tumor

Although papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC)–type nuclear changes are the most reliable morphological feature in the diagnosis of PTC, the nuclear assessment used to identify these changes is highly subjective. Here, we report a noninvasive encapsulated thyroid tumor with a papillary growth pattern measuring 23 mm at its largest diameter with a nuclear score of 2 in a 26-year-old man. After undergoing left lobectomy, the patient was diagnosed with an encapsulated PTC. However, a second opinion consultation suggested an alternative diagnosis of follicular adenoma with papillary hyperplasia. When providing a third opinion, we identified a low MIB-1 labeling index and a heterozygous point mutation in the KRAS gene but not the BRAF gene. We speculated that this case is an example of a novel borderline tumor with a papillary structure. Introduction of the new terminology “noninvasive encapsulated papillary RAS-like thyroid tumor (NEPRAS)” without the word “cancer” might relieve the psychological burden of patients in a way similar to the phrase “noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features (NIFTP).

Constraints on axion-like polarization oscillations in the cosmic microwave background with POLARBEAR

Very light pseudoscalar fields, often referred to as axions, are compelling dark matter candidates and can potentially be detected through their coupling to the electromagnetic field. Recently a novel detection technique using the cosmic microwave background (CMB) was proposed, which relies on the fact that the axion field oscillates at a frequency equal to its mass in appropriate units, leading to a time-dependent birefringence. For appropriate oscillation periods this allows the axion field at the telescope to be detected via the induced sinusoidal oscillation of the CMB linear polarization. We search for this effect in two years of POLARBEAR data. We do not detect a signal, and place a median $95 \%$ upper limit of $0.65 ^\circ$ on the sinusoid amplitude for oscillation frequencies between $0.02\,\text{days}^{-1}$ and $0.45\,\text{days}^{-1}$, which corresponds to axion masses between $9.6 \times 10^{-22} \, \text{eV}$ and $2.2\times 10^{-20} \,\text{eV}$. Under the assumptions that 1) the axion constitutes all the dark matter and 2) the axion field amplitude is a Rayleigh-distributed stochastic variable, this translates to a limit on the axion-photon coupling $g_{\phi \gamma} < 2.4 \times 10^{-11} \,\text{GeV}^{-1} \times ({m_\phi}/{10^{-21} \, \text{eV}})$.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables. Published in Physical Review

CMB-S4: Forecasting Constraints on Primordial Gravitational Waves

CMB-S4---the next-generation ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiment---is set to significantly advance the sensitivity of CMB measurements and enhance our understanding of the origin and evolution of the Universe, from the highest energies at the dawn of time through the growth of structure to the present day. Among the science cases pursued with CMB-S4, the quest for detecting primordial gravitational waves is a central driver of the experimental design. This work details the development of a forecasting framework that includes a power-spectrum-based semi-analytic projection tool, targeted explicitly towards optimizing constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r$, in the presence of Galactic foregrounds and gravitational lensing of the CMB. This framework is unique in its direct use of information from the achieved performance of current Stage 2--3 CMB experiments to robustly forecast the science reach of upcoming CMB-polarization endeavors. The methodology allows for rapid iteration over experimental configurations and offers a flexible way to optimize the design of future experiments given a desired scientific goal. To form a closed-loop process, we couple this semi-analytic tool with map-based validation studies, which allow for the injection of additional complexity and verification of our forecasts with several independent analysis methods. We document multiple rounds of forecasts for CMB-S4 using this process and the resulting establishment of the current reference design of the primordial gravitational-wave component of the Stage-4 experiment, optimized to achieve our science goals of detecting primordial gravitational waves for $r > 0.003$ at greater than $5\sigma$, or, in the absence of a detection, of reaching an upper limit of $r < 0.001$ at $95\%$ CL.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, 9 tables, submitted to ApJ. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1907.0447

CMB-S4

We describe the stage 4 cosmic microwave background ground-based experiment CMB-S4

CMB-S4: Forecasting Constraints on Primordial Gravitational Waves

Abstract: CMB-S4—the next-generation ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiment—is set to significantly advance the sensitivity of CMB measurements and enhance our understanding of the origin and evolution of the universe. Among the science cases pursued with CMB-S4, the quest for detecting primordial gravitational waves is a central driver of the experimental design. This work details the development of a forecasting framework that includes a power-spectrum-based semianalytic projection tool, targeted explicitly toward optimizing constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r, in the presence of Galactic foregrounds and gravitational lensing of the CMB. This framework is unique in its direct use of information from the achieved performance of current Stage 2–3 CMB experiments to robustly forecast the science reach of upcoming CMB-polarization endeavors. The methodology allows for rapid iteration over experimental configurations and offers a flexible way to optimize the design of future experiments, given a desired scientific goal. To form a closed-loop process, we couple this semianalytic tool with map-based validation studies, which allow for the injection of additional complexity and verification of our forecasts with several independent analysis methods. We document multiple rounds of forecasts for CMB-S4 using this process and the resulting establishment of the current reference design of the primordial gravitational-wave component of the Stage-4 experiment, optimized to achieve our science goals of detecting primordial gravitational waves for r > 0.003 at greater than 5σ, or in the absence of a detection, of reaching an upper limit of r < 0.001 at 95% CL

Direct Measurement of Electron Transfer through a Hydrogen Bond between Single Molecules

Understanding electron transfer (ET) from a single molecule to another single molecule holds essential importance to realize bottom-up molecular devices in which constituent molecules are self-assembled via noncovalent interactions between each other. However, rather little is currently known about the ET properties at the single-molecule interface. Here we employ molecular tips to quantify the ET through a H-bond between single molecules. We found that a H-bond conducts electrons better than a covalent σ bond at short-range. Its conductance, however, decays steeply as the chain length of the H-bonded molecules increases. First-principle calculations were performed to reveal the electronic origin of the facile ET through the H-bond. Our results demonstrate that H-bonding in a molecular junction significantly affects its transport property

High-precision temperature monitoring system for room-temperature equipment in astrophysical observations

We present a precise thermometry system to monitor room-temperature components of a telescope for radio-astronomy such as cosmic microwave background (CMB) observation. The system realizes precision of 1 mK${\rm \sqrt{s}}$ on a timescale of 20 seconds at 300 K. We achieved this high precision by tracking only relative fluctuation and combining thermistors with a low-noise measurement device. In this paper we show the required precision of temperature monitors for CMB observation and introduce the performance of our thermometry system. This precise room-temperature monitoring system enables us to reduce the low-frequency noise in a wide range of radio-astronomical detector signals observation and to operate a large detector array perform at its designed high sensitivity.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figure