Association between mid-wall late gadolinium enhancement and sudden cardiac death in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy and mild and moderate left ventricular systolic dysfunction

Background—Current guidelines only recommend the use of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) for the primary prevention of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in those with a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF)35%. Patients with a LVEF>35% also have low competing risks of death from non-sudden causes. Therefore, those at high-risk of SCD may gain longevity from successful ICD therapy. We investigated whether late gadolinium enhancement cardiovascular magnetic resonance (LGE-CMR) identified patients with DCM without severe LV systolic dysfunction at high-risk of SCD. Methods—We prospectively investigated the association between mid-wall late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) and the pre-specified primary composite outcome of SCD or aborted SCD amongst consecutive referrals with DCM and a LVEF≥40% to our center between January 2000 and December 2011, who did not have a pre-existing indication for ICD implantation. Results—Of 399 patients (145 women, median age 50 years, median LVEF 50%, 25.3% with LGE) followed for a median of 4.6 years, 18 of 101 (17.8%) patients with LGE reached the pre-specified end-point, compared to 7 of 298 (2.3%) without (HR 9.2; 95% CI 3.9-21.8; p5% compared to those without LGE were 10.6 (95%CI 3.9-29.4), 4.9 (95% CI 1.3-18.9) and 11.8 (95% CI 4.3-32.3) respectively. Conclusions—Mid-wall LGE identifies a group of patients with DCM and LVEF≥40% at increased risk of SCD and low-risk of non-sudden death who may benefit from ICD implantation

Functional Characterization of EngAMS, a P-Loop GTPase of Mycobacterium smegmatis

Bacterial P-loop GTPases belong to a family of proteins that selectively hydrolyze a small molecule guanosine tri-phosphate (GTP) to guanosine di-phosphate (GDP) and inorganic phosphate, and regulate several essential cellular activities such as cell division, chromosomal segregation and ribosomal assembly. A comparative genome sequence analysis of different mycobacterial species indicates the presence of multiple P-loop GTPases that exhibit highly conserved motifs. However, an exact function of most of these GTPases in mycobacteria remains elusive. In the present study we characterized the function of a P-loop GTPase in mycobacteria by employing an EngA homologue from Mycobacterium smegmatis, encoded by an open reading frame, designated as MSMEG_3738. Amino acid sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis suggest that MSMEG_3738 (termed as EngAMS) is highly conserved in mycobacteria. Homology modeling of EngAMS reveals a cloverleaf structure comprising of α/β fold typical to EngA family of GTPases. Recombinant EngAMS purified from E. coli exhibits a GTP hydrolysis activity which is inhibited by the presence of GDP. Interestingly, the EngAMS protein is co-eluted with 16S and 23S ribosomal RNA during purification and exhibits association with 30S, 50S and 70S ribosomal subunits. Further studies demonstrate that GTP is essential for interaction of EngAMS with 50S subunit of ribosome and specifically C-terminal domains of EngAMS are required to facilitate this interaction. Moreover, EngAMS devoid of N-terminal region interacts well with 50S even in the absence of GTP, indicating a regulatory role of the N-terminal domain in EngAMS-50S interaction

First measurement of the |t|-dependence of coherent J/ψ photonuclear production

The first measurement of the cross section for coherent J/ψ photoproduction as a function of |t|, the square of the momentum transferred between the incoming and outgoing target nucleus, is presented. The data were measured with the ALICE detector in ultra-peripheral Pb–Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair sNN=5.02TeV with the J/ψ produced in the central rapidity region |y|<0.8, which corresponds to the small Bjorken-x range (0.3−1.4)×10−3. The measured |t|-dependence is not described by computations based only on the Pb nuclear form factor, while the photonuclear cross section is better reproduced by models including shadowing according to the leading-twist approximation, or gluon-saturation effects from the impact-parameter dependent Balitsky–Kovchegov equation. These new results are therefore a valid tool to constrain the relevant model parameters and to investigate the transverse gluonic structure at very low Bjorken-x.publishedVersio

First measurement of coherent ρ0 photoproduction in ultra-peripheral Xe–Xe collisions at √sNN = 5.44 TeV

The first measurement of the coherent photoproduction of ρ0 vector mesons in ultra-peripheral Xe–Xe collisions at sNN=5.44 TeV is presented. This result, together with previous HERA γp data and γ–Pb measurements from ALICE, describes the atomic number (A) dependence of this process, which is particularly sensitive to nuclear shadowing effects and to the approach to the black-disc limit of QCD at a semi-hard scale. The cross section of the Xe+Xe→ρ0+Xe+Xe process, measured at midrapidity through the decay channel ρ0→π+π−, is found to be dσ/dy=131.5±5.6(stat.)−16.9+17.5(syst.) mb. The ratio of the continuum to resonant contributions for the production of pion pairs is also measured. In addition, the fraction of events accompanied by electromagnetic dissociation of either one or both colliding nuclei is reported. The dependence on A of cross section for the coherent ρ0 photoproduction at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon of the γA system of WγA,n=65 GeV is found to be consistent with a power-law behaviour σ(γA→ρ0A)∝Aα with a slope α=0.96±0.02(syst.). This slope signals important shadowing effects, but it is still far from the behaviour expected in the black-disc limit.publishedVersio

Azimuthal anisotropy of charged jet production in root s(NN)=2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collisions

We present measurements of the azimuthal dependence of charged jet production in central and semi-central root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collisions with respect to the second harmonic event plane, quantified as nu(ch)(2) (jet). Jet finding is performed employing the anti-k(T) algorithm with a resolution parameter R = 0.2 using charged tracks from the ALICE tracking system. The contribution of the azimuthal anisotropy of the underlying event is taken into account event-by-event. The remaining (statistical) region-to-region fluctuations are removed on an ensemble basis by unfolding the jet spectra for different event plane orientations independently. Significant non-zero nu(ch)(2) (jet) is observed in semi-central collisions (30-50% centrality) for 20 <p(T)(ch) (jet) <90 GeV/c. The azimuthal dependence of the charged jet production is similar to the dependence observed for jets comprising both charged and neutral fragments, and compatible with measurements of the nu(2) of single charged particles at high p(T). Good agreement between the data and predictions from JEWEL, an event generator simulating parton shower evolution in the presence of a dense QCD medium, is found in semi-central collisions. (C) 2015 CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Peer reviewe

Production of He-4 and (4) in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S=2.76 TeV at the LHC

Results on the production of He-4 and (4) nuclei in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S = 2.76 TeV in the rapidity range vertical bar y vertical bar <1, using the ALICE detector, are presented in this paper. The rapidity densities corresponding to 0-10% central events are found to be dN/dy4(He) = (0.8 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.3 (syst)) x 10(-6) and dN/dy4 = (1.1 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.2 (syst)) x 10(-6), respectively. This is in agreement with the statistical thermal model expectation assuming the same chemical freeze-out temperature (T-chem = 156 MeV) as for light hadrons. The measured ratio of (4)/He-4 is 1.4 +/- 0.8 (stat) +/- 0.5 (syst). (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

Forward-central two-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions at root s(NN)=5.02 TeV

Two-particle angular correlations between trigger particles in the forward pseudorapidity range (2.5 2GeV/c. (C) 2015 CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B. V.Peer reviewe

Event-shape engineering for inclusive spectra and elliptic flow in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S=2.76 TeV

Peer reviewe