Hodgkin Lymphoma at the Paediatric Oncology Unit of Gabriel Touré Teaching Hospital, Bamako, Mali: 5-Year Experience

Introduction. The aim of this retrospective, unicentric study over 5 years is to describe the epidemiologic, pathologic, clinic and therapeutic aspects of children treated for Hodgkin lymphoma in our paediatric oncology unit. Patients and Methods. From January 2005 to December 2009, all children under 18 years of age, with Hodgkin lymphoma were included in this study. The treatment protocol was the GFAOP (Groupe Franco—Africain d'Oncologie Pédiatrique) Hodgkin lymphoma treatment protocol. Results. During the study period, 217 cancer cases were diagnosed in our centre. Of these cases, 7 were Hodgkin Lymphoma (LH) (0.04%). The mean age was 11.7 years. The sex-ratio was 6/1. 4% (5/7) of patients were stage IIB and 28.6% (2/7) stage IIIB of Ann-Arbor classification. There were 3 cases (42.8%) of sclero-nodular subtype, 2 cases (28.6%) of lymphocyte-rich classical HL subtype, 1 case (14.3%) of mixed cellularity and 1 case (14.3%) of lymphocyte depleted subtype. With a median followup of 37 months, 5 patients (71.4%) are alive, and 2 patients (28.6%) died. Conclusion. Broader multicentric studies are needed for more accurate data on this malignancy

Dietary patterns and changes in body composition in children between 9 and 11 years

Objective: Childhood obesity is rising and dietary intake is a potentially modifiable factor that plays an important role in its development. We aim to investigate the association between dietary patterns, obtained through principal components analysis and gains in fat and lean mass in childhood. Design : Diet diaries at 10 years of age collected from children taking part in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Body composition was assessed using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry at 9 and 11. Setting: Longitudinal birth cohort. Subjects: 3911 children with complete data. Results: There was an association between the Health Aware (positive loadings on high-fiber bread, and fruits and vegetables; negative loadings on chips, crisps, processed meat, and soft drinks) pattern score and decreased fat mass gain in girls. After adjusting for confounders, an increase of 1 standard deviation (sd) in this score led to an estimated 1.2% decrease in fat mass gain in valid-reporters and 2.1% in under-reporters. A similar decrease was found only in under-reporting boys. There was also an association between the Packed Lunch (high consumption of white bread, sandwich fillings, and snacks) pattern score and decreased fat mass gain (1.1% per sd) in valid-reporting but not under-reporting girls. The main association with lean mass gain was an increase with Packed Lunch pattern score in valid-reporting boys only. Conclusions: There is a small association between dietary patterns and change in fat mass in mid-childhood. Differences between under- and valid-reporters emphasize the need to consider valid-reporters separately in such studies. © 2014 Andrew D. A. C. Smith et al

MORBIDITE ET MORTALITE CHEZ LES ENFANTS DE 01 A 59 MOIS HOSPITALISES AU SERVICE DE PEDIATRIE GENERALE DU CHU GABRIEL TOURE DE JANVIER A DECEMBRE 2013

Objectif : Ce travail visait à étudier la morbidité et la mortalité chez les enfants âgés de 01 à 59 mois hospitalisés dans le service de pédiatrie générale du CHU Gabriel Touré. Matériels et Méthodes : Il s’agissait d’une étude rétrospective, descriptive, sur une période de 12 mois allant du 1er janvier au 31 décembre 2013. Résultats : Nous avons inclus 1625 enfants âgés de 01 à 59 mois soit 58% des patients hospitalisés. Le tiers des patients avait moins d’un an. Les garçons représentaient 57 % de notre échantillon avec un sex ratio de 1,33. La majorité des patients (83%) était issu de milieu social défavorisé. Les principaux diagnostics retrouvés étaient le paludisme (45%), les infections respiratoires aiguës (20,30%), et la malnutrition aiguë sévère (20,06%). Les patients guéris représentaient 82,3% et le taux de mortalité était estimé à 3,3%. La majorité des patients décédés était des filles (51%). Les décès étaient plus fréquents en juillet et aout. Les trois principales causes de décès étaient la malnutrition (47%), le paludisme (32%) et les infections respiratoires aigües (19%). Nous avons enregistré 48 sorties contre avis médical (3%) et 81 cas d’évasion (5%). Conclusion : La morbidité et la mortalité en pédiatrie restent préoccupantes dans notre pratique. Elles sont liées à des affections pour la plupart évitables par l’information, l’éducation et la communication

Prospect for Charge Current Neutrino Interactions Measurements at the CERN-PS

Tensions in several phenomenological models grew with experimental results on neutrino/antineutrino oscillations at Short-Baseline (SBL) and with the recent, carefully recomputed, antineutrino fluxes from nuclear reactors. At a refurbished SBL CERN-PS facility an experiment aimed to address the open issues has been proposed [1], based on the technology of imaging in ultra-pure cryogenic Liquid Argon (LAr). Motivated by this scenario a detailed study of the physics case was performed. We tackled specific physics models and we optimized the neutrino beam through a full simulation. Experimental aspects not fully covered by the LAr detection, i.e. the measurements of the lepton charge on event-by-event basis and their energy over a wide range, were also investigated. Indeed the muon leptons from Charged Current (CC) (anti-)neutrino interactions play an important role in disentangling different phenomenological scenarios provided their charge state is determined. Also, the study of muon appearance/disappearance can benefit of the large statistics of CC muon events from the primary neutrino beam. Results of our study are reported in detail in this proposal. We aim to design, construct and install two Spectrometers at "NEAR" and "FAR" sites of the SBL CERN-PS, compatible with the already proposed LAr detectors. Profiting of the large mass of the two Spectrometers their stand-alone performances have also been exploited.Comment: 70 pages, 38 figures. Proposal submitted to SPS-C, CER

Accounting students' IT applicaton skills over a 10-year period

This paper reports on the changing nature of a range of information technology (IT) application skills that students declare on entering an accounting degree over the period from 1996 to 2006. Accounting educators need to be aware of the IT skills students bring with them to university because of the implications this has for learning and teaching within the discipline and the importance of both general and specific IT skills within the practice and craft of accounting. Additionally, IT skills constitute a significant element within the portfolio of employability skills that are increasingly demanded by employers and emphasized within the overall Higher Education (HE) agenda. The analysis of students' reported IT application skills on entry to university, across a range of the most relevant areas of IT use in accounting, suggest that their skills have continued to improve over time. However, there are significant differential patterns of change through the years and within cohorts. The paper addresses the generalizability of these findings and discusses the implications of these factors for accounting educators, including the importance of recognising the differences that are potentially masked by the general increase in skills; the need for further research into the changing nature, and implications, of the gender gap in entrants' IT application skills; and the low levels of entrants' spreadsheet and database skills that are a cause for concern

An optically stimulated superconducting-like phase in K3C60 far above equilibrium Tc

The control of non-equilibrium phenomena in complex solids is an important research frontier, encompassing new effects like light induced superconductivity. Here, we show that coherent optical excitation of molecular vibrations in the organic conductor K3C60 can induce a non-equilibrium state with the optical properties of a superconductor. A transient gap in the real part of the optical conductivity and a low-frequency divergence of the imaginary part are measured for base temperatures far above equilibrium Tc=20 K. These findings underscore the role of coherent light fields in inducing emergent order.Comment: 40 pages, 23 figure

La bronchiolite aiguë du nourrisson: à propos de 112 cas hospitalisés au département pédiatrie du CHU Gabriel Touré

Introduction : Les infections respiratoires aiguës (IRA) constituent l’une des principales causes de morbidité et de mortalité infantile au Mali. L’objectif de ce travail était de décrire les aspects épidémiologiques, cliniques et thérapeutiques de la bronchiolite aiguë du nourrisson au service de pédiatrie du CHU Gabriel Touré. Méthodologie: Il s’agit d’une étude rétrospective portant sur 112 nourrissons âgés de 1 à 24 mois hospitalisés dans le service de pédiatrie générale pour bronchiolite aiguë. L’étude s’étalait sur une période d’un an (du 1er janvier au 31 décembre 2012). Résultats: Les nourrissons âgés de 1 à 6 mois étaient majoritaires (69%). L’âge moyen des patients était de 6 mois avec des extrêmes de 1 et 24 mois. Le sexe masculin était prédominant (63%) avec un sex-ratio de 1,73. Le principal motif de consultation était la difficulté respiratoire (87%). Le pic d’hospitalisation était au mois de novembre (33%). Les principaux signes cliniques en plus des sibilants étaient la toux, la rhinorrhée et la détresse respiratoire (97%). La fièvre était présente dans 38% des cas et la cyanose chez 4% des patients. La saturation en oxygène était inférieure à 94% chez 50% des patients. La kinésithérapie respiratoire a été faite chez un tiers des malades. Tous les malades avaient reçu une corticothérapie et une nébulisation avec du salbutamol et sérum physiologique. Une antibiothérapie a été faite chez 85% des patients. La durée moyenne d’hospitalisation était de 6 jours avec des extrêmes de 1 et 30 jours. Le taux de guérison était de 98 %. Conclusion : La bronchiolite est une pathologie bénigne et fréquente chez le nourrisson de 1 à 6 mois qui évolue favorablement dans la majorité des cas

Prospects for the measurement of muon-neutrino disappearance at the FNAL-Booster

Neutrino physics is nowadays receiving more and more attention as a possible source of information for the long-standing problem of new physics beyond the Standard Model. The recent measurement of the mixing angle $\theta_{13}$ in the standard mixing oscillation scenario encourages us to pursue the still missing results on leptonic CP violation and absolute neutrino masses. However, puzzling measurements exist that deserve an exhaustive evaluation. The NESSiE Collaboration has been setup to undertake conclusive experiments to clarify the muon-neutrino disappearance measurements at small $L/E$, which will be able to put severe constraints to models with more than the three-standard neutrinos, or even to robustly measure the presence of a new kind of neutrino oscillation for the first time. To this aim the use of the current FNAL-Booster neutrino beam for a Short-Baseline experiment has been carefully evaluated. This proposal refers to the use of magnetic spectrometers at two different sites, Near and Far. Their positions have been extensively studied, together with the possible performances of two OPERA-like spectrometers. The proposal is constrained by availability of existing hardware and a time-schedule compatible with the CERN project for a new more performant neutrino beam, which will nicely extend the physics results achievable at the Booster. The possible FNAL experiment will allow to clarify the current $\nu_{\mu}$ disappearance tension with $\nu_e$ appearance and disappearance at the eV mass scale. Instead, a new CERN neutrino beam would allow a further span in the parameter space together with a refined control of systematics and, more relevant, the measurement of the antineutrino sector, by upgrading the spectrometer with detectors currently under R&D study.Comment: 76 pages, 52 figure

Search for anomalies in the neutrino sector with muon spectrometers and large LArTPC imaging detectors at CERN

A new experiment with an intense ~2 GeV neutrino beam at CERN SPS is proposed in order to definitely clarify the possible existence of additional neutrino states, as pointed out by neutrino calibration source experiments, reactor and accelerator experiments and measure the corresponding oscillation parameters. The experiment is based on two identical LAr-TPCs complemented by magnetized spectrometers detecting electron and muon neutrino events at Far and Near positions, 1600 m and 300 m from the proton target, respectively. The ICARUS T600 detector, the largest LAr-TPC ever built with a size of about 600 ton of imaging mass, now running in the LNGS underground laboratory, will be moved at the CERN Far position. An additional 1/4 of the T600 detector (T150) will be constructed and located in the Near position. Two large area spectrometers will be placed downstream of the two LAr-TPC detectors to perform charge identification and muon momentum measurements from sub-GeV to several GeV energy range, greatly complementing the physics capabilities. This experiment will offer remarkable discovery potentialities, collecting a very large number of unbiased events both in the neutrino and antineutrino channels, largely adequate to definitely settle the origin of the observed neutrino-related anomalies.Comment: Contribution to the European Strategy for Particle Physics - Open Symposium Preparatory Group, Kracow 10-12 September 201

Final results of magnetic monopole searches with the MACRO experiment

We present the final results obtained by the MACRO experiment in the search for GUT magnetic monopoles in the penetrating cosmic radiation, for the range $4\times 10^{-5}< \beta < 1$. Several searches with all the MACRO sub-detectors (i.e. scintillation counters, limited streamer tubes and nuclear track detectors) were performed, both in stand alone and combined ways. No candidates were detected and a 90% Confidence Level (C.L.) upper limit to the local magnetic monopole flux was set at the level of $1.4\times 10^{-16}$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ sr$^{-1}$. This result is the first experimental limit obtained in direct searches which is well below the Parker bound in the whole $\beta$ range in which GUT magnetic monopoles are expected.Comment: 12 pages, Latex, 9 figures and 2 Table