Cross-species chromosome painting in bats from Madagascar: the contribution of Myzopodidae to revealing ancestral syntenies in Chiroptera

The chiropteran fauna of Madagascar comprises eight of the 19 recognized families of bats, including the endemic Myzopodidae. While recent systematic studies of Malagasy bats have contributed to our understanding of the morphological and genetic diversity of the island’s fauna, little is known about their cytosystematics. Here we investigate karyotypic relationships among four species, representing four families of Chiroptera endemic to the Malagasy region using cross-species chromosome painting with painting probes of Myotis myotis: Myzopodidae (Myzopoda aurita, 2n=26), Molossidae (Mormopterus jugularis, 2n=48), Miniopteridae (Miniopterus griveaudi, 2n=46), and Vespertilionidae (Myotis goudoti, 2n=44). This study represents the first time a member of the family Myzopodidae has been investigated using chromosome painting. Painting probes of Myotis. myotis were used to delimit 30, 24, 23, and 22 homologous chromosomal segments in the genomes of Myzopoda aurita, Mormopterus jugularis, Miniopterus . griveaudi and Myotis . goudoti, respectively. Comparison of GTG-banded homologous chromosomes/chromosomal segments among the four species revealed the genome of M. aurita has been structured through 15 fusions of chromosomes and chromosomal segments of Myotis. myotis chromosomes leading to a karyotype consisting solely of bi-armed chromosomes. In addition, chromosome painting revealed a novel X-autosome translocation in Myzopoda. aurita. Comparison of our results with published chromosome maps provided further evidence for karyotypic conservatism within the genera Mormopterus, Miniopterus and Myotis. Mapping of chromosomal rearrangements onto a molecular consensus phylogeny revealed ancestral syntenies shared between Myzopoda and other bat species of the infraorders Pteropodiformes and Vespertilioniformes. Our study provides further evidence for the involvement of Robertsonian (Rb) translocations and fusions/fissions in chromosomal evolution within Chiroptera

Starch safety in resuscitation

The Western Cape Department of Health (WC DoH) has taken a decision to withdraw all intravenous fluids (IVFs) containing hydroxyethyl starch (HES) from hospitals in the Western Cape, with similar action contemplated in the Free State and Gauteng. This was in response to recommendations from: The European Medicines Agency's Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (EMA PRAC) that HES IVFs be withdrawn from clinical use. The United Kingdom Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) which has issued a recall of all HES IVFs in the UK. The United States Food and Drug Administration which advises that HES IVFs be used with caution in ICU, cardiac surgery and patients with known kidney disease or coagulopathy. Further advice was that HES should be stopped if coagulopathy or renal dysfunction develops, as well as that renal function should be monitored for 90 days after HES administration.http://www.samj.org.zaam2013ay201

Critical Care Society of Southern Africa adult patient blood management guidelines: 2019 Round-table meeting, CCSSA Congress, Durban, 2018

The CCSSA PBM Guidelines have been developed to improve patient blood management in critically ill patients in southern Africa. These consensus recommendations are based on a rigorous process by experts in the field of critical care who are also practicing in South Africa (SA). The process comprised a Delphi process, a round-table meeting (at the CCSSA National Congress, Durban, 2018), and a review of the best available evidence and international guidelines. The guidelines focus on the broader principles of patient blood management and incorporate transfusion medicine (transfusion guidelines), management of anaemia, optimisation of coagulopathy, and administrative and ethical considerations. There are a mix of low-middle and high-income healthcare structures within southern Africa. Blood products are, however, provided by the same notfor- profit non-governmental organisations to both private and public sectors. There are several challenges related to patient blood management in SA due most notably to a high incidence of anaemia, a frequent shortage of blood products, a small donor population, and a healthcare system under financial strain. The rational and equitable use of blood products is important to ensure best care for as many critically ill patients as possible. The summary of the recommendations provides key practice points for the day-to-day management of critically ill patients. A more detailed description of the evidence used to make these recommendations follows in the full clinical guidelines section.http://www.sajcc.org.za/index.php/SAJCCam2021Critical Car

The Critical Care Society of Southern Africa consensus statement on ICU triage and rationing (ConICTri)

BACKGROUND: In South Africa (SA), intensive care is faced with the challenge of resource scarcity as well as an increasing demand for intensive care unit (ICU) services. ICU services are expensive, and practitioners in low- to middle-income countries experience daily the consequences of limited resources. Critically limited resources necessitate that rationing and triage (prioritisation) decisions are frequently necessary in SA, particularly in the publicly funded health sector. PURPOSE: The purpose of this consensus statement is to examine key questions that arise when considering the status of ICU resources in SA, and more specifically ICU admission, rationing and triage decisions. The accompanying guideline in this issue is intended to guide frontline triage policy and ensure the best utilisation of intensive care in SA, while maintaining a fair distribution of available resources. Fair and efficient triage is important to ensure the ongoing provision of high-quality care to adult patients referred for intensive care. RECOMMENDATIONS: In response to 14 key questions developed using a modified Delphi technique, 29 recommendations were formulated and graded using an adapted GRADE score. The 14 key questions addressed the status of the provision of ICU services in SA, the degree of resource restriction, the efficiency of resource management, the need for triage, and how triage could be most justly implemented. Important recommendations included the need to formally recognise and accurately quantify the provision of ICU services in SA by national audit; actively seek additional resources from governmental bodies; consider methods to maximise the efficiency of ICU care; evaluate lower level of care alternatives; develop a triage guideline to assist policy-makers and frontline practitioners to implement triage decisions in an efficient and fair way; measure and audit the consequence of triage; and promote research to improve the accuracy and consistency of triage decisions. The consensus document and guideline should be reviewed and revised appropriately within 5 years. CONCLUSIONS: In recognition of the absolute need to limit patient access to ICU because of the lack of sufficient intensive care resources in public hospitals, recommendations and a guideline have been developed to guide policy-making and assist frontline triage decision-making in SA. These documents are not a complete plan for quality practice but rather the beginning of a long-term initiative to engage clinicians, the public and administrators in appropriate triage decision-making, and promote systems that will ultimately maximise the efficient and fair use of available ICU resources.http://www.samj.org.zapm2020SurgeryCritical Car

Kiyang-yang, a West-African Postwar Idiom of Distress

In 1984, a healing cult for young barren women in southern Guinea Bissau developed into a movement, Kiyang-yang, that shook society to its foundations and had national repercussions. “Idiom of distress” is used here as a heuristic tool to understand how Kiyang-yang was able to link war and post-war-related traumatic stress and suffering on both individual and group levels. An individual experience born from a traumatic origin may be generalized into an idiom that diverse sectors of society could embrace for a range of related reasons. We argue that, for an idiom to be understood and appropriated by others, there has to be resonance at the level of symbolic language and shared experiences as well as at the level of the culturally mediated contingent emotions it communicates. We also argue that through its symbolic references to structural causes of suffering, an idiom of distress entails a danger for those in power. It can continue to exist only if its etiology is not exposed or the social suffering it articulates is not eliminated. We finally argue that idioms of distress are not to be understood as discrete diagnostic categories or as monodimensional expressions of “trauma” that can be addressed

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Measurement of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross-section in pp collisions at sqrt(s)= 7 TeV using 35 pb-1 of ATLAS data

A measurement of the differential cross-section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented. The measurement covers the pseudorapidity ranges |eta|<1.37 and 1.52<=|eta|<2.37 in the transverse energy range 45<=E_T<400GeV. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 35 pb-1, collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The yields of the signal photons are measured using a data-driven technique, based on the observed distribution of the hadronic energy in a narrow cone around the photon candidate and the photon selection criteria. The results are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and found to be in good agreement over four orders of magnitude in cross-section.Comment: 7 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 4 tables, final version published in Physics Letters