Neural Network Applications to Improve Drift Chamber Track Position Measurements

This paper describes applications of two neural networks to improve drift chamber position measurements. One network calculates a data-driven estimate of the drift cell time-to-distance relationship that is conventionally estimated by a numerical calculation based on the anode and cathode wire geometry, wire potentials, and gas properties. The second network additionally uses the full digital waveform of the signal in the drift chamber, hence accessing information on the full ensemble of ionization clusters. This network uses more information than the conventional position estimate that relies exclusively on the arrival time of the first drift electron. In principle, this technique improves resolution even when multiple ionization clusters cannot be separated, in contrast with a cluster-counting technique. The performance of both networks when applied to MEG II drift chamber data is reported and compared to that of a conventional approach.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figure

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

Funder: European Society of Intensive Care Medicine; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100013347Funder: Flemish Society for Critical Care NursesAbstract: Purpose: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Epidemiologic data is however unavailable. We aimed to provide an international picture of the extent of pressure injuries and factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries in adult ICU patients. Methods: International 1-day point-prevalence study; follow-up for outcome assessment until hospital discharge (maximum 12 weeks). Factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injury and hospital mortality were assessed by generalised linear mixed-effects regression analysis. Results: Data from 13,254 patients in 1117 ICUs (90 countries) revealed 6747 pressure injuries; 3997 (59.2%) were ICU-acquired. Overall prevalence was 26.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.9–27.3). ICU-acquired prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI 15.6–16.8). Sacrum (37%) and heels (19.5%) were most affected. Factors independently associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries were older age, male sex, being underweight, emergency surgery, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Braden score 3 days, comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunodeficiency), organ support (renal replacement, mechanical ventilation on ICU admission), and being in a low or lower-middle income-economy. Gradually increasing associations with mortality were identified for increasing severity of pressure injury: stage I (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–1.8), stage II (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.4–1.9), and stage III or worse (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.3–3.3). Conclusion: Pressure injuries are common in adult ICU patients. ICU-acquired pressure injuries are associated with mainly intrinsic factors and mortality. Optimal care standards, increased awareness, appropriate resource allocation, and further research into optimal prevention are pivotal to tackle this important patient safety threat

Correction to: Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake

Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

Funder: European Society of Intensive Care Medicine; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100013347Funder: Flemish Society for Critical Care NursesAbstract: Purpose: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Epidemiologic data is however unavailable. We aimed to provide an international picture of the extent of pressure injuries and factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries in adult ICU patients. Methods: International 1-day point-prevalence study; follow-up for outcome assessment until hospital discharge (maximum 12 weeks). Factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injury and hospital mortality were assessed by generalised linear mixed-effects regression analysis. Results: Data from 13,254 patients in 1117 ICUs (90 countries) revealed 6747 pressure injuries; 3997 (59.2%) were ICU-acquired. Overall prevalence was 26.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.9–27.3). ICU-acquired prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI 15.6–16.8). Sacrum (37%) and heels (19.5%) were most affected. Factors independently associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries were older age, male sex, being underweight, emergency surgery, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Braden score 3 days, comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunodeficiency), organ support (renal replacement, mechanical ventilation on ICU admission), and being in a low or lower-middle income-economy. Gradually increasing associations with mortality were identified for increasing severity of pressure injury: stage I (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–1.8), stage II (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.4–1.9), and stage III or worse (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.3–3.3). Conclusion: Pressure injuries are common in adult ICU patients. ICU-acquired pressure injuries are associated with mainly intrinsic factors and mortality. Optimal care standards, increased awareness, appropriate resource allocation, and further research into optimal prevention are pivotal to tackle this important patient safety threat

Search for the decay of a muon resulting in a positron-photon pair in the MEG II Experiment's First Physics Dataset and Analysis of the MEG II Drift Chamber Data

The MEG II experiment is an active search for the decay of a muon resulting in a positron-photon pair. The experiment plans to reach a sensitivity of 6*10^-14, improving on the limit of the MEG I experiment by an order of magnitude. The MEG II detector analysis was written by the MEG II collaboration; this thesis details the detector analysis focusing on portions of the analysis I contributed to including the positron analysis and target analysis. These chapters also serve as a thorough description of the analysis for current and future collaborators. The thesis ends with a description of two physics analyses performed on the MEG II experiment's first year of physics data and demonstrates the experiment's expected performance over its lifetime.Chapter 1 is an introduction to the Standard Model of particle physics. Charged lepton flavor violation (CLFV) processes, including the process of a muon decay resulting in a positron-photon pair are realized in the Standard Model, but occur at an extremely small, undetectable, rate (branching fraction of 10^-54). A variety of theoretical models beyond the Standard Model allow for CLFV (and thus the decay of a muon resulting in a positron-photon pair) at a potentially observable rate (branching fraction of 10^-14). CLFV has not been observed despite extensive searches for over 50 years. It's observation would have dramatic implications on the field of particle physics. Chapter 2 discusses past and future experimental searches in the field of CLFV. Chapter 3 describes the MEG II experimental technique, including the signal/background, detectors, electronics, trigger, etc. The remaining chapters discuss MEG II analysis. One of the most critical points of the experiment is the background rejection, which is required to achieve the optimal experimental sensitivity. This background rejection is achieved via precise kinematic measurements of the positron and the photon at the stopping target. The precision of these kinematic measurements is common theme that will be discussed throughout this thesis. In Chapter 4, a novel technique used to monitor the MEG II stopping target using a camera is described along with its results. Chapter 5 presents the reconstruction of positrons in the MEG II drift chamber. The relative alignment of the MEG sub-detectors and their calibrations are discussed in Chapters 6 and 7 respectively. Chapter 8 describes the details of the physics analysis of the 2021 dataset. Conclusions are described in Chapter 9

Autofluorescence from NADH Conformations Associated with Different Metabolic Pathways Monitored Using Nanosecond-Gated Spectroscopy and Spectral Phasor Analysis

Cellular NADH conformation is increasingly recognized as an endogenous optical biomarker and metabolic indicator. Recently, we reported a real-time approach for tracking metabolism on the basis of the quantification of UV-excited autofluorescence spectrum shape. Here, we use nanosecond-gated spectral acquisition, combined with spectrum-shape quantification, to monitor the long excited-state lifetime autofluorescence (usually associated with protein-bound NADH conformations) separately from the autofluorescence signal as a whole. We observe that the autofluorescence response induced by two NADH-oxidation inhibitorscyanide and ethanolare similar in Saccharomyces cerevisiae when monitored using time-integrated detection but easily distinguished using time-gated detection. Results are consistent with the observation of multiple NADH conformations as assessed using spectral phasor analysis. Further, because well-known oxidation inhibitors are used, changes in spectrum shape can be associated with NADH conformations involved in the different metabolic pathways, giving bioanalytic utility to the spectral responses

The search for \ub5+ \u2192 e+\u3b3 with 10 1214 sensitivity: The upgrade of the meg experiment

The MEG experiment took data at the Paul Scherrer Institute in the years 2009\u20132013 to test the violation of the lepton flavor conservation law, which originates from an accidental symmetry that the Standard Model of elementary particle physics has, and published the most stringent limit on the charged lepton flavor violating decay \ub5+ \u2192 e+\u3b3: BR(\ub5+ \u2192 e+\u3b3) < 4.2 7 10 1213 at 90% confidence level. The MEG detector has been upgraded in order to reach a sensitivity of 6 7 10 1214 . The basic principle of MEG II is to achieve the highest possible sensitivity using the full muon beam intensity at the Paul Scherrer Institute (7 7 107 muons/s) with an upgraded detector. The main improvements are better rate capability of all sub-detectors and improved resolutions while keeping the same detector concept. In this paper, we present the current status of the preparation, integration and commissioning of the MEG II detector in the recent engineering runs