Infected “Mycotic” Aneurysm of the Common Carotid Artery—A Differential Diagnosis to Tumor of the Neck

Introduction: Infected “mycotic” Aneurysm (IA) of the extracranial carotid artery is a rare condition that can be fatal if mistaken for other pathology. An 83-year-old man presented with a mass on the neck initially suspected malignant. Weeks later it grew rapidly and was found to be an IA, thus requiring acute surgery. Via this case report, we discuss diagnostics and approach when diagnosing masses in relation to vessels of the neck not readily explained.Case Report: After diagnostic imaging and clinical assessment an unknown primary tumor of the neck was suspected. Fine needle aspiration was inconclusive. The patient did not present with any signs of infection or neurological symptoms—only discomfort and pain. Approximately two weeks later, the mass grew and the patient became dysphagic, febrile, and confused. Computed tomography angiography revealed an IA of the right common carotid artery. The patient underwent acute surgery consisting of ligation of the internal and external carotid arteries and resection of the internal jugular vein. The pathogen found was E. coli, supposedly from the bladder after surgical intervention due to polyposis.Conclusion: IA is a very rare entity and can have many etiologies. Since it can be fatal, it is necessary to keep IA in mind when diagnosing masses in relation to vessels of the neck. As shown in this case of a E. coli-induced IA, patients can present with atypical symptoms, on diagnostic imaging it can be mistaken for other pathology, and pathogenesis can be unclear

Sinonasal B-cell lymphomas:A nationwide cohort study, with an emphasis on the prognosis and the recurrence pattern of primary diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Lymphomas of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses (NPS) are rare. Knowledge on sinonasal B‐cell lymphoma (SNBCL) primarily comes from case series or single‐center studies on small cohorts. We sought to determine the subtype distribution, clinical characteristics, disease behavior, and prognosis on a nationwide scale, with an emphasis on prognostic factors for the most common sinonasal lymphoma, primary sinonasal diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma (PSDLBCL). We collated all data from medical records and national databases on patients registered with SNBCL from 1980 through 2018 in the national pathology registry and collected all tissue samples for validation of diagnosis. We included 205 patients and found 10 different subtypes of lymphoma. Diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma (DLBCL) was the predominant subtype (80%). The incidence of SNBCL was 0.14/100,000 person‐years. The five‐year progression‐free survival (PFS) and overall survival rates for PSDLBCL were 50% and 56%, respectively. For PSDLBCL, Rituximab showed a statistically significant effect (Hazard Ratio 0.22, p < 0.001), whereas consolidative radiotherapy combined with immunochemotherapy was of limited value (PFS, p = 0.93). When treatment failure occurred, DLBCL showed a distinct pattern of recurrence/dissemination to the NPS, skin, breast, central nervous system (CNS), and/or testis. Collectively, DLBCL comprised a clear majority of SNBCLs, although nine other subtypes were represented. Data showed that immunochemotherapy increased survival for PSDLBCL and that the addition of radiotherapy did not benefit patients. Furthermore, treatment failure for sinonasal DLBCL showed a possible common pathogenesis with primary extranodal lymphomas of specific locations (e.g., CNS, skin, breast, and testis)

Work factors and smoking cessation in nurses' aides: a prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of smoking in nursing personnel remains high. The aim of this study was to identify work factors that predict smoking cessation among nurses' aides. METHODS: Of 2720 randomly selected, Norwegian nurses' aides, who were smoking at least one cigarette per day when they completed a questionnaire in 1999, 2275 (83.6 %) completed a second questionnaire 15 months later. A wide spectrum of work factors were assessed at baseline. Respondents who reported smoking 0 cigarettes per day at follow-up were considered having stopped smoking. The odds ratios and 95 % confidence intervals of stopping smoking were derived from logistic regression models. RESULTS: Compared with working 1–9 hours per week, working 19–36 hours per week (odds ratio (OR) = 0.35; 95 % confidence interval (CI) = 0.13 – 0.91), and working more than 36 hours per week (i.e. more than full-time job) (OR = 0.27; CI = 0.09 – 0.78) were associated with reduced odds of smoking cessation, after adjustments for daily consumption of cigarettes at baseline, age, gender, marital status, and having preschool children. Adjusting also for chronic health problems gave similar results. CONCLUSION: There seems to be a negative association between hours of work per week and the odds of smoking cessation in nurses' aides. It is important that health institutions offer workplace-based services with documented effects on nicotine dependence, such as smoking cessation courses, so that healthcare workers who want to stop smoking, especially those with long working hours, do not have to travel to the programme or to dedicate their leisure time to it

COMAP Early Science: VII. Prospects for CO Intensity Mapping at Reionization

We introduce COMAP-EoR, the next generation of the Carbon Monoxide Mapping Array Project aimed at extending CO intensity mapping to the Epoch of Reionization. COMAP-EoR supplements the existing 30 GHz COMAP Pathfinder with two additional 30 GHz instruments and a new 16 GHz receiver. This combination of frequencies will be able to simultaneously map CO(1--0) and CO(2--1) at reionization redshifts ($z\sim5-8$) in addition to providing a significant boost to the $z\sim3$ sensitivity of the Pathfinder. We examine a set of existing models of the EoR CO signal, and find power spectra spanning several orders of magnitude, highlighting our extreme ignorance about this period of cosmic history and the value of the COMAP-EoR measurement. We carry out the most detailed forecast to date of an intensity mapping cross-correlation, and find that five out of the six models we consider yield signal to noise ratios (S/N) $\gtrsim20$ for COMAP-EoR, with the brightest reaching a S/N above 400. We show that, for these models, COMAP-EoR can make a detailed measurement of the cosmic molecular gas history from $z\sim2-8$, as well as probe the population of faint, star-forming galaxies predicted by these models to be undetectable by traditional surveys. We show that, for the single model that does not predict numerous faint emitters, a COMAP-EoR-type measurement is required to rule out their existence. We briefly explore prospects for a third-generation Expanded Reionization Array (COMAP-ERA) capable of detecting the faintest models and characterizing the brightest signals in extreme detail.Comment: Paper 7 of 7 in series. 19 pages, 10 figures, to be submitted to Ap

COMAP Early Science: VI. A First Look at the COMAP Galactic Plane Survey

We present early results from the COMAP Galactic Plane Survey conducted between June 2019 and April 2021, spanning $20^\circ<\ell<40^\circ$ in Galactic longitude and |b|<1.\!\!^{\circ}5 in Galactic latitude with an angular resolution of $4.5^{\prime}$. The full survey will span $\ell \sim 20^{\circ}$- $220^{\circ}$ and will be the first large-scale radio continuum survey at $30$ GHz with sub-degree resolution. We present initial results from the first part of the survey, including diffuse emission and spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of HII regions and supernova remnants. Using low and high frequency surveys to constrain free-free and thermal dust emission contributions, we find evidence of excess flux density at $30\,$GHz in six regions that we interpret as anomalous microwave emission. Furthermore we model UCHII contributions using data from the $5\,$GHz CORNISH catalogue and reject this as the cause of the $30\,$GHz excess. Six known supernova remnants (SNR) are detected at $30\,$GHz, and we measure spectral indices consistent with the literature or show evidence of steepening. The flux density of the SNR W44 at $30\,$GHz is consistent with a power-law extrapolation from lower frequencies with no indication of spectral steepening in contrast with recent results from the Sardinia Radio Telescope. We also extract five hydrogen radio recombination lines to map the warm ionized gas, which can be used to estimate electron temperatures or to constrain continuum free-free emission. The full COMAP Galactic plane survey, to be released in 2023/2024, will be an invaluable resource for Galactic astrophysics.Comment: Paper 6 of 7 in series. 28 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Ap

COMAP Early Science: III. CO Data Processing

We describe the first season COMAP analysis pipeline that converts raw detector readouts to calibrated sky maps. This pipeline implements four main steps: gain calibration, filtering, data selection, and map-making. Absolute gain calibration relies on a combination of instrumental and astrophysical sources, while relative gain calibration exploits real-time total-power variations. High efficiency filtering is achieved through spectroscopic common-mode rejection within and across receivers, resulting in nearly uncorrelated white noise within single-frequency channels. Consequently, near-optimal but biased maps are produced by binning the filtered time stream into pixelized maps; the corresponding signal bias transfer function is estimated through simulations. Data selection is performed automatically through a series of goodness-of-fit statistics, including $\chi^2$ and multi-scale correlation tests. Applying this pipeline to the first-season COMAP data, we produce a dataset with very low levels of correlated noise. We find that one of our two scanning strategies (the Lissajous type) is sensitive to residual instrumental systematics. As a result, we no longer use this type of scan and exclude data taken this way from our Season 1 power spectrum estimates. We perform a careful analysis of our data processing and observing efficiencies and take account of planned improvements to estimate our future performance. Power spectrum results derived from the first-season COMAP maps are presented and discussed in companion papers.Comment: Paper 3 of 7 in series. 26 pages, 23 figures, submitted to Ap

COMAP Early Science: IV. Power Spectrum Methodology and Results

We present the power spectrum methodology used for the first-season COMAP analysis, and assess the quality of the current data set. The main results are derived through the Feed-feed Pseudo-Cross-Spectrum (FPXS) method, which is a robust estimator with respect to both noise modeling errors and experimental systematics. We use effective transfer functions to take into account the effects of instrumental beam smoothing and various filter operations applied during the low-level data processing. The power spectra estimated in this way have allowed us to identify a systematic error associated with one of our two scanning strategies, believed to be due to residual ground or atmospheric contamination. We omit these data from our analysis and no longer use this scanning technique for observations. We present the power spectra from our first season of observing and demonstrate that the uncertainties are integrating as expected for uncorrelated noise, with any residual systematics suppressed to a level below the noise. Using the FPXS method, and combining data on scales $k=0.051-0.62 \,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ we estimate $P_\mathrm{CO}(k) = -2.7 \pm 1.7 \times 10^4\mu\textrm{K}^2\mathrm{Mpc}^3$, the first direct 3D constraint on the clustering component of the CO(1-0) power spectrum in the literature.Comment: Paper 4 of 7 in series. 18 pages, 11 figures, as accepted in Ap

Dissociable Components of Cognitive Control: An Event-Related Potential (ERP) Study of Response Inhibition and Interference Suppression

Background: Cognitive control refers to the ability to selectively attend and respond to task-relevant events while resisting interference from distracting stimuli or prepotent automatic responses. The current study aimed to determine whether interference suppression and response inhibition are separable component processes of cognitive control. Methodology/Principal Findings: Fourteen young adults completed a hybrid Go/Nogo flanker task and continuous EEG data were recorded concurrently. The incongruous flanker condition (that required interference suppression) elicited a more centrally distributed topography with a later N2 peak than the Nogo condition (that required response inhibition). Conclusions/Significance: These results provide evidence for the dissociability of interference suppression and response inhibition, indicating that taxonomy of inhibition is warranted with the integration of research evidence from neuroscience

COMAP Early Science: II. Pathfinder Instrument

Line intensity mapping (LIM) is a new technique for tracing the global properties of galaxies over cosmic time. Detection of the very faint signals from redshifted carbon monoxide (CO), a tracer of star formation, pushes the limits of what is feasible with a total-power instrument. The CO Mapping Project (COMAP) Pathfinder is a first-generation instrument aiming to prove the concept and develop the technology for future experiments, as well as delivering early science products. With 19 receiver channels in a hexagonal focal plane arrangement on a 10.4 m antenna, and an instantaneous 26-34 GHz frequency range with 2 MHz resolution, it is ideally suited to measuring CO($J$=1-0) from $z\sim3$. In this paper we discuss strategies for designing and building the Pathfinder and the challenges that were encountered. The design of the instrument prioritized LIM requirements over those of ancillary science. After a couple of years of operation, the instrument is well understood, and the first year of data is already yielding useful science results. Experience with this Pathfinder will drive the design of the next generations of experiments.Comment: Paper 2 of 7 in series. 27 pages, 28 figures, submitted to Ap

COMAP Early Science: I. Overview

The CO Mapping Array Project (COMAP) aims to use line intensity mapping of carbon monoxide (CO) to trace the distribution and global properties of galaxies over cosmic time, back to the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). To validate the technologies and techniques needed for this goal, a Pathfinder instrument has been constructed and fielded. Sensitive to CO(1-0) emission from $z=2.4$-$3.4$ and a fainter contribution from CO(2-1) at $z=6$-8, the Pathfinder is surveying $12$ deg$^2$ in a 5-year observing campaign to detect the CO signal from $z\sim3$. Using data from the first 13 months of observing, we estimate $P_\mathrm{CO}(k) = -2.7 \pm 1.7 \times 10^4\mu\mathrm{K}^2 \mathrm{Mpc}^3$ on scales $k=0.051-0.62 \mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ - the first direct 3D constraint on the clustering component of the CO(1-0) power spectrum. Based on these observations alone, we obtain a constraint on the amplitude of the clustering component (the squared mean CO line temperature-bias product) of $\langle Tb\rangle^2<49$ $\mu$K$^2$ - nearly an order-of-magnitude improvement on the previous best measurement. These constraints allow us to rule out two models from the literature. We forecast a detection of the power spectrum after 5 years with signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) 9-17. Cross-correlation with an overlapping galaxy survey will yield a detection of the CO-galaxy power spectrum with S/N of 19. We are also conducting a 30 GHz survey of the Galactic plane and present a preliminary map. Looking to the future of COMAP, we examine the prospects for future phases of the experiment to detect and characterize the CO signal from the EoR.Comment: Paper 1 of 7 in series. 18 pages, 16 figures, submitted to Ap