Impact of calibration algorithms on hypoglycaemia detection in newborn infants using continuous glucose monitors

invited, 6-pagesNeonatal hypoglycaemia is a common condition that can cause seizures and serious brain injury in infants. It is diagnosed by blood glucose (BG) measurements, often taken several hours apart. Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices can potentially improve hypoglycaemia detection, while reducing the number of BG measurements. Calibration algorithms convert the sensor signal into the CGM output. Thus, these algorithms can have a direct impact on measures used to quantify excursions from normal glycaemic levels. The aim of this study was to quantify the effects of calibration sensor error and non-linear filtering of CGM data on measures of hypoglycaemia (defined as BG < 2.6mmol/L) in neonates. CGM data was recalibrated using an algorithm that explicitly recognised the high accuracy of BG measurements available in this study. Median filtering was also implemented either before or after recalibration. Results for the entire cohort show an increase in the total number of hypoglycaemic events (161 to 193), duration of hypoglycaemia (2.2 to 2.6% of total data), and hypoglycaemic index (4.9 to 7.1µmol/L) after recalibration. With the addition of filtering, the number of hypoglycaemic events was reduced (193 to 131), with little or no change to the other metrics. These results show how reference sensor error and thus calibration algorithms play a significant role in quantifying hypoglycaemia. In particular, metrics such as counting the number of hypoglycaemic events were particularly sensitive to recalibration and filtering effects. While this conclusion might be expected, its potential impact is quantified here, in this case for at-risk neonates for whom hypoglycaemia carries potential long-term negative outcomes

Pathogenic Potential to Humans of Bovine Escherichia coli O26, Scotland

Escherichia coli O26 and O157 have similar overall prevalences in cattle in Scotland, but in humans, Shiga toxin–producing E. coli O26 infections are fewer and clinically less severe than E. coli O157 infections. To investigate this discrepancy, we genotyped E. coli O26 isolates from cattle and humans in Scotland and continental Europe. The genetic background of some strains from Scotland was closely related to that of strains causing severe infections in Europe. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling found an association between hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and multilocus sequence type 21 strains and confirmed the role of stx&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; in severe human disease. Although the prevalences of E. coli O26 and O157 on cattle farms in Scotland are equivalent, prevalence of more virulent strains is low, reducing human infection risk. However, new data on E. coli O26–associated HUS in humans highlight the need for surveillance of non-O157 enterohemorrhagic E. coli and for understanding stx&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; phage acquisition

Phenotypic, cytogenetic and spike fertility characterization of a population of male-sterile triticale

Triticale (X Triticosecale Wittmack) is a good cereal for production of flour and feed. A segregating population of triticale was developed from a male-sterile (MS) plant. To determine whether this new source of male sterility in triticale is appropriate for use in breeding programs the expression of the male sterility phenotype was characterized through spike fertility, meiotic behavior, and pollen. Controlled crosses between male-sterile plants and control varieties male-fertile (MF) of triticale were also conducted, and cytological analyses were performed in the F2 and backcross plants. Plants with male-sterile phenotypes displayed reduced spike fertility when compared to plants with male-fertile phenotypes. Compared to male-fertile plants, male-sterile plants exhibited a lower percentage of normal meiotic cells, a reduced meiotic index and reduced pollen viability. The F2 plants had improved pollen fertility when compared to the male-sterile population; however there were no corresponding improvements in the percentage of normal meiotic cells or in the meiotic index. A single generation of backcrosses resulted in an improved meiotic index and increased pollen viability. However, no changes in the percentage of normal meiotic cells were observed. Meiotic instability, which was shown to be inheritable, was the likely cause of male sterility. Therefore, the use of this population in triticale breeding was considered to be inappropriate because it could promote or contribute to the maintenance of meiotic instability, which is commonly observed in this species

Search for intermediate mass black hole binaries in the first and second observing runs of the Advanced LIGO and Virgo network

Gravitational-wave astronomy has been firmly established with the detection of gravitational waves from the merger of ten stellar-mass binary black holes and a neutron star binary. This paper reports on the all-sky search for gravitational waves from intermediate mass black hole binaries in the first and second observing runs of the Advanced LIGO and Virgo network. The search uses three independent algorithms: two based on matched filtering of the data with waveform templates of gravitational-wave signals from compact binaries, and a third, model-independent algorithm that employs no signal model for the incoming signal. No intermediate mass black hole binary event is detected in this search. Consequently, we place upper limits on the merger rate density for a family of intermediate mass black hole binaries. In particular, we choose sources with total masses M=m1+m2ϵ[120,800] M and mass ratios q=m2/m1ϵ[0.1,1.0]. For the first time, this calculation is done using numerical relativity waveforms (which include higher modes) as models of the real emitted signal. We place a most stringent upper limit of 0.20 Gpc-3 yr-1 (in comoving units at the 90% confidence level) for equal-mass binaries with individual masses m1,2=100 M and dimensionless spins χ1,2=0.8 aligned with the orbital angular momentum of the binary. This improves by a factor of ∼5 that reported after Advanced LIGO's first observing run. © 2019 American Physical Society