Reanalysis of the ß-ν[over ¯]_{e} Angular Correlation Measurement from the aSPECT Experiment with New Constraints on Fierz Interference.

On the basis of revisions of some of the systematic errors, we reanalyzed the electron-antineutrino angular correlation (a coefficient) in free neutron decay inferred from the recoil energy spectrum of the protons which are detected in 4π by the aSPECT spectrometer. With a=-0.104 02(82) the new value differs only marginally from the one published in 2020. The experiment also has sensitivity to b, the Fierz interference term. From a correlated (b,a) fit to the proton recoil spectrum, we derive a limit of b=-0.0098(193) which translates into a somewhat improved 90% confidence interval region of -0.041≤b≤0.022 on this hypothetical term. Tighter constraints on b can be set from a combined [shown as superscript (c)] analysis of the PERKEO III (ß asymmetry) and aSPECT measurement which suggests a finite value of b with b^{(c)}=-0.0181±0.0065 deviating by 2.82σ from the standard model.

[The transient ischemic attack (TIA)--a valid instrument for intern process analyses in neurological departments]. / Die transient ischämische Attacke (TIA)--ein valides Instrument zur internen Prozessanalyse in neurologischen Abteilungen.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to develop a valid tool for internal process analysis of stroke management in order to identify possible improvements. METHOD: 939 stroke patients were classified into DRG diagnoses. Specific parameters known to influence the length of stay were analysed. Subgroup analyses were carried out in patients with TIA regarding a) differences between the neurological sections/ wards, and b) length of stay in correlation with resident level of training and the physician staffing in the particular department/ ward over the year. RESULTS: A difference in the length of stay of 1-2 days was revealed between the neurological departments/wards. Transfer to rehabilitation centres increased the length of stay by 5 days. Length of stay correlated with the training level of residents and staffing in the department/ward. Capacity overload due to reduced staffing or high fluctuation of staff increased the length of stay significantly. CONCLUSION: TIA patients were shown to be a homogeneous subtype of stroke patients, who can be used as a valid tool to analyse internal processes. This analysis revealed that length of stay depends on resident level of training and workload.

[The injury pattern following the introduction of the junior premier league in Germany compared to professional senior football (soccer)]. / Das Verletzungsmuster nach Einführung der A-Junioren-Fussball-Bundesliga in Deutschland im Vergleich zum Senioren-Profi-Fussball.

In 2003 the junior soccer premier league (U19) has been introduced in Germany to increase the competitive level in this group of age (16 - 18 years). It is the aim of this study to compare the injury pattern accompanying this new league of semi-professional junior soccer with a professional senior team. In a retrospective study all traumatic and overuse injuries, responsible for absence from practice or matches, which occurred in two seasons of one junior premier league team were recorded and analyzed. These data were compared to the injury pattern of a professional senior team based on a one-season survey. Overall, more traumatic than overuse injuries were seen. The lower extremity was predominantly affected by both. The ankle joint was the most injured joint. An injury rate of 2.89 per 1000 hours of soccer was calculated for the juniors and 2.35 for the seniors. Junior players missed 15.8 days and seniors 17.1 days of practice or match as result of an injury. Semi-professional junior and professional senior soccer share the same injury patterns with regard to injury rates and types of injuries. Therefore a professional medical care with special emphasis on prophylaxis is warranted in semi-professional junior soccer.

Endocrine tumours of the gastrointestinal tract: Chemotherapy.

Malignant neuroendocrine tumours are less sensitive to chemotherapy than other epithelial malignancies. If chemotherapy is considered, tumours of pancreatic origin have a higher sensitivity than tumours from the gastrointestinal tract ('carcinoids'). Chemotherapy with streptozocin combinations and with dacarbazine should be considered in patients with progressive malignant neuroendocrine tumours of the pancreas. A favourable response to chemotherapy can be expected in up to 60% of patients receiving a combination of streptozocin plus doxorubicin, and in up to 40% of patients receiving dacarbazine. A survival benefit has been shown for streptozocin combinations. Treatment regimens are effective in functioning and non-functioning tumours. The response to treatment cannot be predicted. Poorly differentiated neuroendocrine tumours, independent of their origin, respond to a combination of etoposide plus cisplatin. Chemotherapy is, however, almost ineffective in patients with well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumours originating in the gastrointestinal tract ('carcinoids').

Clinical situations demanding weaning from long-term ventricular assist devices.

OBJECTIVE: Ventricular assist devices are increasingly used to treat patients with acute or chronic end-stage heart failure. We report on circumstances, exemplified on four cases, where a surprisingly favorable clinical course of the patients ultimately demanded early explantation of the device, which was not anticipated prior to its implantation. METHODS: The four patients were provided with implantable (Micromed BeBakey trade mark, Incor trade mark ) and external pneumatically driven (Thoratec trade mark, Excor trade mark ) devices under emergency conditions and were listed for heart transplantation. RESULTS: All four patients had an unexpected recovery of myocardial pump function. After careful diagnostic evaluation, all device components were completely removed without extracorporeal circulation. No stepwise weaning protocol was employed. CONCLUSIONS: Weaning patients from ventricular assist devices after recovery of myocardial pump function can become necessary. Diagnostic evaluation and the implementation of a weaning protocol is still a matter of debate, while complete surgical removal of all device components without extracorporeal circulation is possible with a low risk.

An optimization of protocol for mixed chimerism induction in mice model.

Studies on mixed chimerism are currently focused primarily on obtaining less toxic conditioning protocols. With these issues in mind, we have undertaken the attempt to optimize the procedure of mixed chimerism induction in mice. In order to reduce toxicity, we used decreasing doses of total body irradiation (TBI) together with combination of blocking antibodies. We also tried to eliminate immunosuppression (cyclophosphamide - CP) treatment after bone marrow transplantation. B6.SJL-PtprcaPep3b mice were injected with 20-30 x 106 bone marrow cells from Balb C mice. Mice were treated with TBI (3 - 1.5 - 0 Gy) on "-1" day of the experiment and blocking antibodies against CD40L ("0", and "4" days) and additionally anti-CD8 ("-2" day) and/or anti-NK1.1 ("-3" day). Mice in certain groups also received CP (175 mg/kg) on "2" day. Presence of mixed chimerism was assessed in peripheral blood cells by flow cytometry on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th and 8th weeks of the experiment by detecting of CD45.1 (characteristic for B6.SJL-PtprcaPep3b strain) and CD45.2 (characteristic for Balb C strain) antigens expression. We also analyzed the percentage of peripheral blood CD8 T-cells (CD3e/CD8a) and NK cells (Ly-49D/NK1.1). We found that reduction of TBI dose and elimination of CP decrease the rate of mixed chimerism formation. The highest percentage of donor cells was obtained in the group of animals treated with 3 Gy of TBI, CP and combination of anti-CD40L, anti-CD8, and anti-NK1.1 antibodies. The 3 Gy TBI was necessary to induce stable mixed chimerism, but it could be obtained without the CP use. The percentage of CD3e/CD8a and Ly-49D/NK1.1 cells was significantly lower in the groups of mice treated by corresponding antibodies. Moreover, we observed the lowest number of peripheral blood Ly-49D/NK1.1 cells in the group of animals with highest mixed chimerism. Our experiments in mice model can help in better understanding of mixed chimerism phenomenon and in selecting the method of mixed chimerism induction with lowest possible toxicity. This also might improve the protocols of stable mixed chimerism induction in humans, and in the future, the effectiveness of vascularized organ transplantation.

["Coffee swallowing syncope"]. / "Kaffeesynkope".

HISTORY: A 38-year-old man was admitted with recurrent syncope. Remarkably the patient had lost consciousness after drinking hot coffee. A vasovagal syncope was considered as the most likely diagnosis. INVESTIGATIONS AND DIAGNOSIS: Following various investigations no pathological findings were revealed. Event-monitoring (R-test) showed high grade atrioventricular block (2 Mobitz and 3 ) induced by swallowing with subsequent syncope. TREATMENT AND COURSE: A two-chamber pacemaker was implanted and the antihypertensive therapy was changed from a beta-blocker to an AT II receptor antagonist. CONCLUSION: Typical vasovagal symptoms during or shortly after meals followed by syncope should point towards an oesophago-cardia reflex mechanism; including a cardiac arrhythmia. Known to be usually triggered by cold meals, vasovagal reflex after hot meals is rare.

Cardiothoracic surgery after heart and heart-lung transplantation.

OBJECTIVE: We sought to examine our management and the outcomes of cardiothoracic procedures after heart and heart lung transplantation. METHODS: We performed a retrospective review of cardiothoracic surgical procedures carried out between 1990 and 2004 in patients who had previously undergone heart or heart-lung transplantation at our institution. RESULTS: Twenty-one out of 340 patients (6.2 %) were identified. Cardiothoracic surgery was performed 44.4 +/- 33 months (range 1 - 115 months) after transplantation. Predominant types of surgery were coronary artery bypass grafting due to allograft vasculopathy (n = 5), aortic surgery due to acute dissection (n = 3), biventricular assist device implantation due to acute rejection (n = 1), tricuspid valve repair (n = 1), multiple cardiac surgical procedures including coronary artery bypass grafting, retransplantation, and tricuspid valve replacement (n = 2), explantation of a functionless heterotopic transplanted heart (n = 1). Lung surgery was performed in six patients due to pneumonia (n = 2), primary lung carcinoma (n = 3), lung torsion following heart-lung transplantation (n = 1). All patients underwent either lobectomy or segmental lung resection. Single lung retransplantation (n = 2) after prior heart-lung transplantation due to bronchiolitis obliterans was performed. In one patient a pneumonectomy (n = 1) due to severe chronic rejection of the contralateral lung was performed. Six subsequent deaths after cardiothoracic procedures were recorded after 1, 4, 78, 163, 205, and 730 days, respectively. Causes of death were advanced carcinoma (n = 1), multi-organ failure due to sepsis (n = 2), sudden heart death (n = 2), and advanced heart failure (n = 1). Fifteen out of 21 patients having undergone cardiothoracic procedures (71.4 %) survived the observation period of 56.6 +/- 34 months (range 1 - 114). CONCLUSIONS: Reasons for cardiothoracic procedures after prior heart or heart-lung transplantation were allograft vasculopathy, aortic dissections years after transplantation, chronic rejection, and either lung infections or malignancies. Surgical repair can be performed with an acceptable operative risk and good long-term survival rates.

Neutral-pion photoproduction off protons in the energy range 0.3 GeV

Single pi(0) photoproduction has been studied with the CB-ELSA experiment at Bonn using tagged photon energies between 0.3 and 3.0 GeV. The experimental setup covers a very large solid angle of approximately 98% of 4pi. Differential cross sections dsigma/dOmega have been measured. Complicated structures in the angular distributions indicate a variety of different resonances being produced in the s channel intermediate state gammap-->N(*)(Delta(*))-->ppi(0). A combined analysis including the data presented in this letter along with other data sets reveals contributions from known resonances and evidence for a new resonance N(2070)D15.

Photoproduction of eta mesons off protons for 0.75 GeV

Total and differential cross sections for the reaction p(gamma,eta)p have been measured for photon energies in the range from 750 MeV to 3 GeV. The low-energy data are dominated by the S11 wave which has two poles in the energy region below 2 GeV. Eleven nucleon resonances are observed in their decay into peta. At medium energies we find evidence for a new resonance N(2070)D15 with (M,Gamma)=(2068+/-22, 295+/-40) MeV. At gamma energies above 1.5 GeV, a strong peak in the forward direction develops, signaling the exchange of vector mesons in the t channel.

Segregation in strongly ordering compounds: a key role of constitutional defects.

For the example of the B2 CoAl(100) surface, we demonstrate that even slight deviations from an ordered alloy's ideal stoichiometry in a subsurface region or in the bulk can drastically affect its surface composition. By experimental surface analysis and first-principles calculations, we show that Co antisite atoms segregate to the very surface, driven by the same strong interactions which enforce order in the bulk. Our findings are consistent with the lack of antisite segregation we found earlier for the much weaker ordering FeAl(100), and resolve contradictory reports for NiAl(100).