Retracted randomised controlled trials were cited and not corrected in systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines

[Background and Objectives] To investigate whether and when the correction is done in Systematic Reviews (SRs) and Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) when included Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) have been retracted. [Methods] In this meta-epidemiological study, we included SRs and CPGs citing the retracted RCTs from the Retraction Watch Database. We investigated how often the retracted RCTs were cited in SRs and CPGs. We also investigated whether and when such SRs and CPGs corrected themselves. [Results] We identified 587 articles (525 SRs and 62 CPGs) citing retracted RCTs. Among the 587 articles, 252 (43%) were published after retraction, and 335 (57%) were published before retraction. Among 127 articles published citing already retracted RCTs in their evidence synthesis without caution, none corrected themselves after publication. Of 335 articles published before retraction, 239 included RCTs that were later retracted in their evidence synthesis. Among them, only 5% of SRs (9/196) and 5% of CPGs (2/43) corrected or retracted their results. [Conclusion] Many SRs and CPGs included already or later retracted RCTs without caution. Most of them were never corrected. The scientific community, including publishers and researchers, should make systematic and concerted efforts to remove the impact of retracted RCTs

Development of high-throughput quantitative analytical method for l-cysteine-containing dipeptides by LC–MS/MS toward its fermentative production

l-Cysteine (Cys) is metabolically fundamental sulfur compound and important components in various cellular fac-tors. Interestingly, free-form Cys itself as a simple monomeric amino acid was recently shown to function in a novel antioxidative system (cysteine/cystine shuttle system) in Escherichia coli. However, as for Cys-containing dipeptides, the biological functions, effects, and even contents have still remained largely elusive. The potential functions should be a part of cellular redox system and important in basic and applied biology. For its progress, establishment of reli-able quantitation method is the first. However, such accurate analysis is unexpectedly difficult even in Cys, because thiol compounds convert through disulfide-exchange and air oxidation during sample preparation. Addressing this problem, in this study, thiol molecules like Cys-containing dipeptides were derivatized by using monobromobimane (thiol-specific alkylating reagent) and detected as S-bimanyl derivatives by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS). Sample separation was processed with a C18 column (2.1 mm × 150 mm, 1.7 μm) and with water-acetonitrile gradient mobile phase containing 0.1% (v/v) formic acid at flow rate of 0.25 ml/min. The mass spectrometer was operated in the multiple reaction monitoring in positive/negative mode with electrospray ionization. The derivatization could indeed avoid the unfavorable reactions, namely, developed the method reflecting their correct contents on sampling. Furthermore, the method was successfully applied to monitoring Cys-containing dipeptides in E. coli Cys producer overexpressing bacD gene. This is the first report of the quantitative analysis of Cys-containing dipeptides, which should be useful for further study of fermentative production of Cys-containing dipeptides

大型ヘリカル装置におけるAEバーストと高速イオン損失のハイブリッドシミュレーション, 大型ヘリカル装置におけるAEバーストと高速イオン損失のハイブリッドシミュレーション

Comprehensive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) hybrid simulations with neutral beam injection and collisions were conducted to investigate the Alfvén eigenmode (AE) bursts and the fast-ion losses in the large helical device (LHD) for the realistic conditions close to the experiments. It is found in the simulation of the slowing-down time scale that the AE bursts take place repetitively accompanied by fast-ion redistribution and losses leading to lower saturation levels of stored fast-ion energy than those in a classical calculation where the MHD perturbations are neglected. The fast-ion loss rate caused by the AE burst has the quadratic dependence on AE amplitude, which was observed in the LHD experiment. The majority of the lost fast ions are counter-passing particles whose velocity and pitch-angle are close to those of the beam injection. The second component of the lost fast ions is transit particles whose velocity is close to thermal velocity. The loss of the counter-passing particles occurs mainly during the AE bursts, while the transit particles are lost both during the AE bursts and the quiescent periods with larger loss rate than that in the classical calculation. The initial location of the lost counter-injected particles spreads from the plasma edge to the plasma center, while only the particles initially located in the peripheral region are lost for the co-injected beam

Hybrid simulation of NBI fast-ion losses due to the Alfvén eigenmode bursts in the Large Helical Device and the comparison with the fast-ion loss detector measurements

The multiphase simulations are conducted with the kinetic-magnetohydrodynamics hybrid code MEGA to investigate the spatial and the velocity distributions of lost fast ions due to the Alfvén eigenmode (AE) bursts in the Large Helical Device plasmas. It is found that fast ions are lost along the divertor region with helical symmetry both before and during the AE burst except for the promptly lost particles. On the other hand, several peaks are present in the spatial distribution of lost fast ions along the divertor region. These peaks along the divertor region can be attributed to the deviation of the fast-ion orbits from the magnetic surfaces due to the grad-B and the curvature drifts. For comparison with the velocity distribution of lost fast ions measured by the fast-ion loss detector (FILD), the ‘numerical FILD’ which solves the Newton–Lorentz equation is constructed in the MEGA code. The velocity distribution of lost fast ions detected by the numerical FILD during AE burst is in good qualitative agreement with the experimental FILD measurements. During the AE burst, fast ions with high energy (100–180 keV) are detected by the numerical FILD, while co-going fast ions lost to the divertor region are the particles with energy lower than 50 keV

Comprehensive magnetohydrodynamic hybrid simulations of fast ion driven instabilities in a Large Helical Device experiment

Alfvén eigenmodes (AEs) destabilized by the neutral beam injection (NBI) in a Large Helical Device experiment are investigated using multi-phase magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) hybrid simulation, which is a combination of classical and MHD hybrid simulations for fast ions. The fast ion distribution is simulated with NBI, collisions, and losses in the equilibrium magnetic field in the classical simulation, while the MHD hybrid simulation takes account of the interaction between fast ions and an MHD fluid, in addition to the classical dynamics. It is found in the multi-phase hybrid simulation that the stored fast ion energy is saturated due to the interaction with AEs at a lower level than that of the classical simulation. Two groups of AEs with frequencies close to those observed in the experiment are destabilized alternately at each hybrid simulation. Firstly destabilized are two toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes whose frequency is close to the local minimum of the upper Alfvén continuous spectrum. Secondly destabilized is a global Alfvén eigenmode whose frequency is located well inside the Alfvén continuous spectrum gap. In addition, two AEs whose frequencies are close to that of the ellipticity-induced Alfvén eigenmode are observed with a lower amplitude. When the hybrid simulation is run continuously, the interchange mode grows more slowly than the AEs, but becomes dominant in the long time scale. The interchange mode oscillates with a constant amplitude and a frequency of ∼1 kHz. The interchange mode reduces the stored fast ion energy to a lower level than that of the AEs

Forward photon energy spectrum at LHC 7 TeV p-p collisions measured by LHCf

Abstract The LHCf experiment is one of the LHC forward experiments. The aim is to measure the energy and the transverse momentum spectra of photons, neutrons and π 0 's at the very forward region (the pseudo-rapidity range of η > 8.4 ), which should be critical data to calibrate hadron interaction models used in the air shower simulations. LHCf successfully operated at s = 900 GeV and s = 7 TeV proton–proton collisions in 2009 and 2010. We present the first physics result, single photon energy spectra at s = 7 TeV proton–proton collisions and the pseudo-rapidity ranges of η > 10.94 and 8.81 η 8.9 . The obtained spectra were compared with the predictions by several hadron interaction models and the models do not reproduce the experimental results perfectly

Non-resonant global mode in LHD partial collapse with net toroidal current

A transition from an interchange mode to a non-resonant mode is found in the nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic simulation for the partial collapse in a large helical device (LHD) plasma with a net toroidal current. This transition can occur when the magnetic shear is weak and the rotational transform is close to unity in the core region. In this transition, the mode number of the dominant Fourier component is reduced. As a result of the nonlinear evolution, the (m, n) = (1, 1) component can be dominant, where m and n are the poloidal and the toroidal mode numbers, respectively. This transition is considered to be a candidate to explain the observation in the LHD experiments with the net toroidal current that show partial collapses are caused by the (1, 1) mode

Early results of the LHCf experiment and their contribution to ultra-high-energy cosmic ray physics

LHCf is an experiment dedicated to the measurement of neutral particles emitted in the very forward region of LHC collisions. The physics goal is to provide data for calibrating hadron interaction models that are used in the study of Extremely High-Energy Cosmic-Rays. The LHCf experiment acquired data from April to July 2010 during commissioning time of LHC operations at low luminosity. Production spectra of photons and neutrons emitted in the very forward region (η> 8.4) have been obtained. In this paper preliminary results of the photon spectra taken at s√ = 7TeV are reported

Japanese epidemiological survey with consensus statement on Japanese guidelines for treatment of iron overload in bone marrow failure syndromes

Many patients with bone marrow failure syndromes need frequent transfusions of red blood cells, and most of them eventually suffer from organ dysfunction induced by excessively accumulated iron. The only way to treat transfusion-induced iron overload is iron chelating therapy. However, most patients have not been treated effectively because daily/continuous administration of deferoxamine is difficult for outpatients. Recently, a novel oral iron chelator, deferasirox, has been developed, and introduction of the drug may help many patients benefit from iron chelation therapy. In this review, we will discuss the current status of iron overload in transfusion-dependent patients, and the development of Japanese guidelines for the treatment of iron overload in Japan, which were established by the National Research Group on Idiopathic Bone Marrow Failure Syndromes in Japan