Arterial blood pressure during early sepsis and outcome

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between arterial blood pressure (ABP) during the first 24 h and mortality in sepsis. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Multidisciplinary intensive care unit (ICU). PATIENTS AND PARTICIPANTS: A total of 274 septic patients. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Hemodynamic, and laboratory parameters were extracted from a PDMS database. The hourly time integral of ABP drops below clinically relevant systolic arterial pressure (SAP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), and mean perfusion pressure (MPP = MAP - central venous pressure) levels was calculated for the first 24 h after ICU admission and compared with 28-day-mortality. Binary and linear regression models (adjusted for SAPS II as a measure of disease severity), and a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis were applied. The areas under the ROC curve were largest for the hourly time integrals of ABP drops below MAP 60 mmHg (0.779 vs. 0.764 for ABP drops below MAP 55 mmHg; P or = 60 mmHg may be as safe as higher MAP levels during the first 24 h of ICU therapy in septic patients. A higher MAP may be required to maintain kidney function

Aryl Hydrocarbon Hydroxylase, Epoxide Hydrolase, and Benzo[a]pyrene Metabolism in Human Epidermis: Comparative Studies in Normal Subjects and Patients with Psoriasis

Prior studies have shown that human skin possesses a cytochrome P-450-dependent microsomal enzyme that is capable of metabolizing drugs and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) carcinogens. This study characterized benzo[a]pyrene (BP) metabolism in human epidermis of normal and psoriatic individuals. The basal level of the cytochrome P-450-dependent microsomal enzyme aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase (AHH) and epoxide hydrolase (EH) were measured in freshly keratomed epidermis from 12 normal individuals and from uninvolved skin sites of 12 patients with psoriasis. The induction response of AHH following the in vitro addition of the PAH benz[A]anthracene (BA) was also assessed. The basal activity (mean ± SE) of AHH in normal epidermis was 62.1 ± 5.6 units (fmol 3-hydroxybenzo[a]pyrene, 3-OH-BP/min/mg protein) whereas the activity in uninvolved skin of psoriatic individuals was 62.9 ± 5.1 units (NS), Epoxide hydrolase activity was 25.1 ± 1.1 (pmol BP 4,5-diol/min/mg protein) units in normal epidermis and 24.8 ± 2.1 units in epidermis from patients with psoriasis (NS). Following addition of BA (100μM), in vitro, AHH activity in normal epidermis increased by a mean value of 165% whereas activity in nonlesional epidermis of psoriatic individuals increased 320%. Kinetic studies in normal epidermis revealed that the AHH reaction was linear up to 60 min and to 50 μg protein, had a pH optimum of 7.4, and the Km for BP was 0.62 MM. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) confirmed that the pattern of metabolism of BP was quite similar in epidermal microsomes prepared from normal and psoriatic individuals, insofar as the formation of diols, phenols, and quinones was concerned. These studies indicate that human epidermis is capable of metabolizing BP and that there is no significant difference between normal individuals and patients with psoriasis insofar as basal AHH activity or total BP metabolism is concerned. Furthermore, the epidermal enzyme system in patients with psoriasis has a greater responsiveness to environmental PAH than does that of normal individuals

Testing Nonstandard Neutrino Properties with a M\"ossbauer Oscillation Experiment

If the neutrino analogue of the M\"ossbauer effect, namely, recoiless emission and resonant capture of neutrinos is realized, one can study neutrino oscillations with much shorter baselines and smaller source/detector size when compared to conventional experiments. In this work, we discuss the potential of such a M\"ossbauer neutrino oscillation experiment to probe nonstandard neutrino properties coming from some new physics beyond the standard model. We investigate four scenarios for such new physics that modify the standard oscillation pattern. We consider the existence of a light sterile neutrino that can mix with \bar \nu_e, the existence of a Kaluza-Klein tower of sterile neutrinos that can mix with the flavor neutrinos in a model with large flat extra dimensions, neutrino oscillations with nonstandard quantum decoherence and mass varying neutrinos, and discuss to which extent one can constrain these scenarios. We also discuss the impact of such new physics on the determination of the standard oscillation parameters.Comment: 28 pages, 11 figures, published version in JHE

New test of modulated electron capture decay of hydrogen-like 142Pm ions: Precision measurement of purely exponential decay

An experiment addressing electron capture (EC) decay of hydrogen-like 142Pm60+ions has been conducted at the experimental storage ring (ESR) at GSI. The decay appears to be purely exponential and no modulations were observed. Decay times for about 9000 individual EC decays have been measured by applying the single-ion decay spectroscopy method. Both visually and automatically analysed data can be described by a single exponential decay with decay constants of 0.0126(7)s−1for automatic analysis and 0.0141(7)s−1for manual analysis. If a modulation superimposed on the exponential decay curve is assumed, the best fit gives a modulation amplitude of merely 0.019(15), which is compatible with zero and by 4.9 standard deviations smaller than in the original observation which had an amplitude of 0.23(4)

Variation de la période du nuclide 7Be en fonction du degré d'ionisation de l'atome

On étudie théoriquement l'influence de l'ionisation de l'atome sur la période de désintégration par capture d'électrons orbitaux. La théorie indique pour le 7Be une variation de la période de l'ordre de 1 pour 100 entre l'atome neutre et l'ion Be++. Les premiers résultats expérimentaux donnent une nette indication en faveur de cette variation. La période du 7Be a été trouvée égale à (54,3 + 0,5)j

Relation entre les propriétés radioactives des noyaux et la structure chimique des molécules qui les renferment

On résume les principaux travaux théoriques et expérimentaux effectués jusqu'ici dans ce domaine. On indique dans quelles directions il semble souhaitable de poursuivre les recherches

Quantum Chemistry Methods and aplications

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