A system for investigating oesophageal photoplethysmographic signals in anaesthetised patients

The monitoring of arterial blood oxygen saturation in patients with compromised peripheral perfusion is often difficult, because conventional non-invasive techniques such as pulse oximetry (SpO2) can fail. Poor peripheral circulation commonly occurs after major surgery including cardiopulmonary bypass. The difficulties in these clinical situations might be overcome if the sensor were to monitor a better perfused central part of the body such as the oesophagus. A new oesophageal photoplethysmographic (PPG) probe and an isolated processing system have been developed to investigate the pulsatile signals of anaesthetised adult patients undergoing routine surgery. Measurements were made in the middle third of the oesophagus, 25 cm to 30 cm from the upper incisors. The AC PPG signals are sampled by a data acquisition system connected to a laptop computer. The signals recorded correspond to infrared and red AC PPGs from the middle third oesophagus and the finger. Preliminary results from 20 patients show that good quality AC PPG signals can be measured in the human oesophagus. The ratio of the oesophageal to finger AC PPG amplitudes was calculated for the infrared and red wavelengths for each patient. The mean (+/- standard deviation) of this ratio was 2.9 +/- 2.1 (n = 19) for the infrared wavelength and 3.1 +/- 2.4 (n = 16) for the red wavelength. The red and infrared wavelengths used are appropriate for pulse oximetry and this investigation indicates that the mid-oesophagus may be a suitable site for the reliable monitoring of SpO2 in patients with poor peripheral perfusion

"Pathotyping" Multiplex PCR Assay for Haemophilus parasuis: a Tool for Prediction of Virulence.

Haemophilus parasuis is a diverse bacterial species that is found in the upper respiratory tracts of pigs and can also cause Glässer's disease and pneumonia. A previous pangenome study of H. parasuis identified 48 genes that were associated with clinical disease. Here, we describe the development of a generalized linear model (termed a pathotyping model) to predict the potential virulence of isolates of H. parasuis based on a subset of 10 genes from the pangenome. A multiplex PCR (mPCR) was constructed based on these genes, the results of which were entered into the pathotyping model to yield a prediction of virulence. This new diagnostic mPCR was tested on 143 field isolates of H. parasuis that had previously been whole-genome sequenced and a further 84 isolates from the United Kingdom from cases of H. parasuis-related disease in pigs collected between 2013 and 2014. The combination of the mPCR and the pathotyping model predicted the virulence of an isolate with 78% accuracy for the original isolate collection and 90% for the additional isolate collection, providing an overall accuracy of 83% (81% sensitivity and 93% specificity) compared with that of the "current standard" of detailed clinical metadata. This new pathotyping assay has the potential to aid surveillance and disease control in addition to serotyping data

Identification of reduced host transcriptomic signatures for tuberculosis disease and digital PCR-based validation and quantification

Recently, host whole blood gene expression signatures have been identified for diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB). Absolute quantification of the concentrations of signature transcripts in blood have not been reported, but would facilitate diagnostic test development. To identify minimal transcript signatures, we applied a transcript selection procedure to microarray data from African adults comprising 536 patients with TB, other diseases (OD) and latent TB (LTBI), divided into training and test sets. Signatures were further investigated using reverse transcriptase (RT)-digital PCR (dPCR). A four-transcript signature (GBP6, TMCC1, PRDM1, and ARG1) measured using RT-dPCR distinguished TB patients from those with OD (area under the curve (AUC) 93.8% (CI95% 82.2-100%). A three-transcript signature (FCGR1A, ZNF296, and C1QB) differentiated TB from LTBI (AUC 97.3%, CI95%: 93.3-100%), regardless of HIV. These signatures have been validated across platforms and across samples offering strong, quantitative support for their use as diagnostic biomarkers for TB.Immunogenetics and cellular immunology of bacterial infectious disease

Identification of Reduced Host Transcriptomic Signatures for Tuberculosis Disease and Digital PCR-Based Validation and Quantification.

Recently, host whole blood gene expression signatures have been identified for diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB). Absolute quantification of the concentrations of signature transcripts in blood have not been reported, but would facilitate diagnostic test development. To identify minimal transcript signatures, we applied a transcript selection procedure to microarray data from African adults comprising 536 patients with TB, other diseases (OD) and latent TB (LTBI), divided into training and test sets. Signatures were further investigated using reverse transcriptase (RT)-digital PCR (dPCR). A four-transcript signature (GBP6, TMCC1, PRDM1, and ARG1) measured using RT-dPCR distinguished TB patients from those with OD (area under the curve (AUC) 93.8% (CI95% 82.2-100%). A three-transcript signature (FCGR1A, ZNF296, and C1QB) differentiated TB from LTBI (AUC 97.3%, CI95%: 93.3-100%), regardless of HIV. These signatures have been validated across platforms and across samples offering strong, quantitative support for their use as diagnostic biomarkers for TB

Search for new heavy resonances decaying to WW, WZ, ZZ, WH, or ZH boson pairs in the all-jets final state in proton-proton collisions at s=13TeV

A search for new heavy resonances decaying to WW, WZ, ZZ, WH, or ZH boson pairs in the all-jets final state is presented. The analysis is based on proton-proton collision data recorded by the CMS detector in 2016–2018 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1. The search is sensitive to resonances with masses between 1.3 and 6TeV, decaying to bosons that are highly Lorentz-boosted such that each of the bosons forms a single large-radius jet. Machine learning techniques are employed to identify such jets. No significant excess over the estimated standard model background is observed. A maximum local significance of 3.6 standard deviations, corresponding to a global significance of 2.3 standard deviations, is observed at masses of 2.1 and 2.9 TeV. In a heavy vector triplet model, spin-1 Z′ and W′ resonances with masses below 4.8TeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level (CL). These limits are the most stringent to date. In a bulk graviton model, spin-2 gravitons and spin-0 radions with masses below 1.4 and 2.7TeV, respectively, are excluded at 95% CL. Production of heavy resonances through vector boson fusion is constrained with upper cross section limits at 95% CL as low as 0.1 fb. © 2023 The Author(s

Search for a heavy composite Majorana neutrino in events with dilepton signatures from proton-proton collisions at √s=13 Tev

Results are presented of a search for a heavy Majorana neutrino N ⠃ decaying into two same-flavor leptons ⠃ (electrons or muons) and a quark-pair jet. A model is considered in which the N ⠃ is an excited neutrino in a compositeness scenario. The analysis is performed using a sample of proton-proton collisions at & RADIC;s = 13 TeV recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb-1. The data are found to be in agreement with the standard model prediction. For the process in which the N ⠃ is produced in association with a lepton, followed by the decay of the N ⠃ to a same-flavor lepton and a quark pair, an upper limit at 95% confidence level on the product of the cross section and branching fraction is obtained as a function of the N ⠃ mass mN ⠃ and the compositeness scale ⠄. For this model the data exclude the existence of Ne (N & mu;) for mN ⠃ below 6.0 (6.1) TeV, at the limit where mN ⠃ is equal to ⠄. For mN ⠃ N 1 TeV, values of ⠄ less than 20 (23) TeV are excluded. These results represent a considerable improvement in sensitivity, covering a larger parameter space than previous searches in pp collisions at 13 TeV.& COPY; 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons .org /licenses /by /4 .0/). Funded by SCOAP3