Measurements of neutrino oscillation parameters from the T2K experiment using 3.6×1021 protons on target.

The T2K experiment presents new measurements of neutrino oscillation parameters using 19.7(16.3)×1020 protons on target (POT) in (anti-)neutrino mode at the far detector (FD). Compared to the previous analysis, an additional 4.7×1020 POT neutrino data was collected at the FD. Significant improvements were made to the analysis methodology, with the near-detector analysis introducing new selections and using more than double the data. Additionally, this is the first T2K oscillation analysis to use NA61/SHINE data on a replica of the T2K target to tune the neutrino flux model, and the neutrino interaction model was improved to include new nuclear effects and calculations. Frequentist and Bayesian analyses are presented, including results on sin2θ13 and the impact of priors on the δCP measurement. Both analyses prefer the normal mass ordering and upper octant of sin2θ23 with a nearly maximally CP-violating phase. Assuming the normal ordering and using the constraint on sin2θ13 from reactors, sin2θ23=0.561-0.032+0.021 using Feldman-Cousins corrected intervals, and Δm322=2.494-0.058+0.041×10-3eV2 using constant Δχ2 intervals. The CP-violating phase is constrained to δCP=-1.97-0.70+0.97 using Feldman-Cousins corrected intervals, and δCP=0,π is excluded at more than 90% confidence level. A Jarlskog invariant of zero is excluded at more than 2σ credible level using a flat prior in δCP, and just below 2σ using a flat prior in sinδCP. When the external constraint on sin2θ13 is removed, sin2θ13=28.0-6.5+2.8×10-3, in agreement with measurements from reactor experiments. These results are consistent with previous T2K analyses.

Search for Electron Antineutrino Appearance in a Long-Baseline Muon Antineutrino Beam.

Electron antineutrino appearance is measured by the T2K experiment in an accelerator-produced antineutrino beam, using additional neutrino beam operation to constrain parameters of the Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata (PMNS) mixing matrix. T2K observes 15 candidate electron antineutrino events with a background expectation of 9.3 events. Including information from the kinematic distribution of observed events, the hypothesis of no electron antineutrino appearance is disfavored with a significance of 2.40σ and no discrepancy between data and PMNS predictions is found. A complementary analysis that introduces an additional free parameter which allows non-PMNS values of electron neutrino and antineutrino appearance also finds no discrepancy between data and PMNS predictions.

[Hospital infections in general surgery wards]. / Zakazenia szpitalne w oddzialach chirurgii ogólnej.

In 1997 the hospital infections programme was accepted by the National Association for Infectious Diseases (Polskie Towarzystwo Zakazen Szpitalnych--PTZSz). About 100 hospitals from Poland participated in the surveillence system introducing nosocomial infection registration cards in their units. The results of the research were sent to the PTZSz. The results from general surgery departments in 1998 were analysed. This year 79 general surgery units took part in nosocomial infection programme of PTZSz, sending from 1 to 2259 questionnaires. The analysis included 48,964 nosocomial infection registration cards. Nosocomial infection developed in 1,031 cases in the general surgery departments what accounted for 2.11% of all treated patient in that period. Surgical site infections were the most often place of nosocomial infections (37.1%), next skin and soft tissue infections (20.1%), and finally respiratory tract infections (17.6%). The average duration of hospitalization in general surgery departments was 10.2 days. In case of nosocomial infection occurrence the time of treatment was extended three times. The most frequent aetiological pathogenes of nosocomial infections were as follows: Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.

Apo E isoforms, insulin output and plasma lipid levels in essential hypertension.

BACKGROUND: The association between apo E isoforms and insulin output during the oral glucose test (OGTT) in 60 non-diabetic, non-obese patients with essential hypertension and in control subjects (non-obese, non-diabetic normotensive subjects) was estimated. METHODS: According to low or high insulin output during OGTT, the subjects were divided into the following groups: normotensive subjects with low (NLI) and high (NHI) and hypertensive subjects with low (HLI) and high (HHI) insulin output. RESULTS: The apo E 4/2 phenotype was detected in 32% of hypertensive subjects but not in control subjects. The frequency of apo E 3/2 phenotype in hypertensive subjects was 5% and in normotensive subjects 15%. An increased frequency of phenotype apo E 4/3 was noticed both in HHI (46%) and in NHI (50%) compared with HLI (22%) and NLI (17%) groups. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the determination of phenotypes apo E and insulin output may contribute to an early detection of individuals at high risk of hypertension development.

[Cognitive impairment and cardiovascular disease risk factors. Project CASCADE Kradów. VII: Prevalence of apoprotein E isoforms in women and men at age 65-78 years of age]. / Zaburzenia funkcji poznawczych a czynniki ryzyka chorób ukladu krazenia. Projekt CASCADE Kraków. Czesc VII: Czestosc wystepowania izoform apoproteiny E u kobiet i mezczyzn w wieku 65-78 lat.

There is a growing evidence on the relations between apoprotein E (apo E), in particular apoE4, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer's disease. However, little is known on the prevalence of apoE in Polish population. The goal of this paper was to assess the frequency of apoE phenotypes and isoforms in the sample of elderly people. Studied group were 90 men and 92 women, residents of Polish rural province (Tarnobrzeg Voivodship) at age 65-78 years. Identification of apoE isoforms was done using the immunoblotting method. The most frequent phenotype was apoE3/3, which was found in 70% of men and 73% of women. Phenotype apoE3/2 was identified in 20% men and 15% women. Both in men and in women phenotypes apoE4/2 and apoE4/3 were more rare-in total 10% and 12% participants, respectively. There was nobody with phenotype apoE4/4. In women there was also nobody with phenotype apoE4/2, but in men phenotype apoE4/2 was found in 4% of participants. No person was found with phenotype apoE2/2. Frequency of homozygotes apoE4/4 was low in studied population and could little contribute to the epidemy of cardiovascular disease and dementia in the elderly. However, the 10% frequency of heterozygotes with isoform apoE4 could have more impact.

Heterogeneity of high-density lipoprotein particles and insulin output during oral glucose tolerance test in men with coronary artery disease.

We compared the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) composition and particle heterogeneity in 60 nonobese (normal body mass index, BMI) men suffering from coronary artery disease (CAD) with normolipemia and normoinsulinemia with lower and higher insulin output during the oral glucose tolerance test (silent hyperinsulinemia). The apolipoprotein apoAI, apoAII, and apoE levels were higher in the high insulin response (HI) group than in low insulin response (LI) group. The ratio of apoAI versus total protein and the ratio of apoAI versus total cholesterol were increased in HI compared with LI. The lipid components in HDL were higher in LI than in HI, while for HDL2 they were higher in HI. The fractioning of HDL by gradient gel electrophoresis revealed a different pattern of HDL particles in both groups. The larger particles, HDL2b and HDL2a (mean particle diameters 10.6 and 9.2 nm, respectively), occur more frequently in HI patients (up to 60%) than in LI patients, whereas the smaller particles, HDL3a and HDL3b (mean particle diameters 8.6 and 7.8 nm, respectively), predominate in LI patients. Our results demonstrate that even in the normoglycemic, normocholesterolemic CAD patients, a high insulin output observed during the oral glucose tolerance test may be connected with a different HDL particle pattern, which suggests changes in the reverse cholesterol transport.

Relation between insulinaemia and lipoprotein composition in men with primary arterial hypertension with and without hypertriglyceridaemia.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate a relationship between HDL, triglyceride levels and insulinaemia in primary arterial hypertension. The study population consisted of 60 men aged 32-68 years (mean age 50.87 years, s.d. 8.4) with hypertension duration of 11.1 years (s.d. 6.4 years) who were compared with 60 normotensives matched for sex, age and BMI. We examined blood pressure, plasma lipoprotein content, sum of glucose and sum of insulinaemia (sum ins) during OGTT (oral glucose tolerance test). OGTT revealed insulin secretion almost twice as high in hypertensives (P < 0.001 sum ins 11002 microU min/ml, s.d. 4846) than in normotensives (sum ins 6662 microU min/ml, s.d. 3099). Comparison of concentration of selected VLDL components shows that hypertensives were characterised by markedly higher concentration of triglycerides (1.46 mmol/L, s.d. 0.87 in hypertensives and 1.04 mmol/L, s.d. 0.54 in normotensives), free and esterified cholesterol and protein, including apolipoprotein B than normotensives. It was also found that hypertensives had higher levels of apo CIII0 and lower levels of CIII1 VLDL than normotensives. Hypertensive patients showed also a higher frequency of apo E2 isoforms (three-fold) and apo E4 isoforms (two-fold) than healthy subjects. No changes were detected in the composition of LDL and HDL between the groups. Analysing the discriminating ability of biochemical parameters chosen in a step-wise manner it was found that sum ins and HDL, protein and cholesterol concentrations were the factors most powerfully differentiating men with hypertension from healthy subjects.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

[Decrease in the level of free cholesterol fraction HDL as a risk factor for threatened atherosclerosis in idiopathic hyperinsulinemia]. / Zmniejszenie stezenia wolnego cholesterolu frakcji HDL czynnikiem zagrozenia miazdzyca w samoistnej hiperinsulinemii.

Inversive association between concentration of plasma high density lipoprotein (HDL) components and endogenous insulin response to oral glucose uptake was observed in 89 healthy, normolipidaemic, non obese, non diabetic male subjects. Inversive correlation between sum of insulin released during oral glucose tolerance test and HDL free and esterified cholesterol as well as apolipoprotein A1 concentration were confirmed. Coexistence of increased insulin secretion and low ratio of free cholesterol concentration to esterified cholesterol and to proteins in HDL was also observed. In separate group of subjects with normal glucose tolerance in high insulin response subgroup the cholesterol (free and esterified) and protein concentrations were lower than in subgroup with low insulin response. The free cholesterol/esterified cholesterol and free cholesterol/protein (apoA1) ratios were decreased in high insulin response subgroup. It is concluded that low concentration of free cholesterol is a most significant change of HDL composition in hyperinsulinemic, healthy men.