EULAR recommendations for the management of large-vessel vasculitis.

Objectives: To develop European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) recommendations for the management of large vessel vasculitis. Methods: An expert group (10 rheumatologists, 3 nephrologists, 2 immunolgists, 2 internists representing 8 European countries and the USA, a clinical epidemiologist and a representative from a drug regulatory agency) identified 10 topics for a systematic literature search through a modified Delphi technique. In accordance with standardised EULAR operating procedures, recommendations were derived for the management of large vessel vasculitis. In the absence of evidence, recommendations were formulated on the basis of a consensus opinion. Results: Seven recommendations were made relating to the assessment, investigation and treatment of patients with large vessel vasculitis. The strength of recommendations was restricted by the low level of evidence and EULAR standardised operating procedures. Conclusions: On the basis of evidence and expert consensus, management recommendations for large vessel vasculitis have been formulated and are commended for use in everyday clinical practice.

Large scale purification of presynaptic plasma membranes from Torpedo marmorata electric organ

The presynaptic plasma membrane (PSPM) of cholinergic nerve terminals was purified from Torpedo electric organ using a large-scale procedure. Up to 500 g of frozen electric organ were fractioned in a single run, leading to the isolation of greater than 100 mg of PSPM proteins. The purity of the fraction is similar to that of the synaptosomal plasma membrane obtained after subfractionation of Torpedo synaptosomes as judged by its membrane-bound acetylcholinesterase activity, the number of Glycera convoluta neurotoxin binding sites, and the binding of two monoclonal antibodies directed against PSPM. The specificity of these antibodies for the PSPM is demonstrated by immunofluorescence microscopy.

Stochastic delay equations with non-negativity constraints driven by fractional Brownian motion

In this note we prove an existence and uniqueness result for the solution of multidimensional stochastic delay differential equations with normal reflection. The equations are driven by a fractional Brownian motion with Hurst parameter H > 1/2. The stochastic integral with respect to the fractional Brownian motion is a pathwise Riemann¿Stieltjes integral.

Large deviations for stochastic Volterra equations

This paper is devoted to prove a large-deviation principle for solutions to multidimensional stochastic Volterra equations.

Stochastic delay differential equations driven by fractional Brownian motion with Hurst parameter H 1/2

We consider the Cauchy problem for a stochastic delay differential equation driven by a fractional Brownian motion with Hurst parameter H>¿. We prove an existence and uniqueness result for this problem, when the coefficients are sufficiently regular. Furthermore, if the diffusion coefficient is bounded away from zero and the coefficients are smooth functions with bounded derivatives of all orders, we prove that the law of the solution admits a smooth density with respect to Lebesgue measure on R.

Bioinformatics: making large-scale science happen

Bionformatics is a rapidly evolving research field dedicated toanalyzing and managing biological data with computational resources. This paperaims to overview some of the processes and applications currently implementedat CCiT-UB¿s Bioinformatics Unit, focusing mainly on the areas of Genomics,Transcriptomics and Proteomics

Revisió sobre l’eficàcia de les intervencions dirigides a cuidadors informals de malalts amb demència per a reduir els nivells de morbiditat psicològica

Revisió sobre l’eficàcia de les intervencions dirigides a cuidadorsinformals de malalts amb demència per a reduir els nivells de morbiditatpsicològicaAntecedentsL’envelliment de la població està relacionat amb l’augment de la prevalença dedemències tals com la malaltia d’Alzheimer. El caràcter progressiu, incapacitanti irreversible de la malaltia d’Alzheimer comporta dependència i demanda,obligant l’aparició d’un cuidador informal per cobrir les necessitats del malalt.Amb l’evolució de la malaltia, augmenta l’exigència de les cures i el cuidador esveu en risc de patir alteracions a qualsevol nivell, principalment a nivellpsicològic.Objectius1. Avaluar l’efectivitat de les intervencions dirigides a cuidadors informals depersones amb demència per a reduir la morbiditat psicològica, segons latipologia de les intervencions i els seus components.2. Avaluar l’efectivitat de les intervencions dirigides a cuidadors informals depersones amb demència per a reduir la morbiditat psicològica, segons lescaracterístiques sociodemogràfiques del cuidador i la persona que rep lescures, el tipus de càrrega i els instruments de mesura.Material i mètodesEs va realitzar una revisió bibliogràfica en les bases de dades: MEDLINEPubMed, CSIC-IME, CUIDEN i Biblioteca Cochrane Plus sobre lesintervencions dirigides a cuidadors informals de demència o Alzheimerd’estudis publicats entre el gener de 2002 i febrer de 2013. Els criteris d’inclusióvan ser: cuidadors informals que convisquessin amb la persona a qui donen lescures i sense remuneració econòmica, persones amb demència o Alzheimer noinstitucionalitzades, intervencions comparades entre un grup experimental i ungrup control, prioritat per revisions sistemàtiques i metanàlisis. La mostra finalla van composar 7 estudis.ResultatsLes diferents intervencions analitzades van mostrar dades estadísticamentsignificatives tot i produir efectes discrets en les diferents variables demorbiditat psicològica. Les intervencions psicoeducatives i les intervencionsdirigides als pacients van resultar efectives en la millora de la sensació debenestar i la simptomatologia del malalt. Les intervencions psicològiques vanincidir en la sobrecàrrega i la depressió. Les intervencions de suport vanproduir un augment dels coneixements, habilitats i de la xarxa social delcuidador. El dia de descans va disminuir l’estrès, l’ansietat i la càrrega objectivaperò els efectes van ser a curt termini. Les intervencions múltiplesestructurades van mostrar una disminució del risc d’institucionalització. Lesintervencions centrades en la resolució de problemes, superiors a 6 sessions oaquelles que havien realitzat seguiment, van mostrar efectes a llarg termini finsals 12 mesos. Altres intervencions pràctiques com les realitzades al domicili oamb tecnologia, no van mostrar suficient evidència científica. El sexe i l’edat delcuidador així com la relació de parentesc amb el malalt van mostrar diferènciesen els efectes de les intervencions.ConclusionsLes intervencions s’han de planificar en funció de les necessitats del cuidadorja que no hi ha cap intervenció que incideixi en totes les variables de morbiditatpsicològica. La variabilitat de tipologia i composició de les intervencions, lesdiferències sociodemogràfiques del cuidador i la persona que rep les cures i lescaracterístiques dels estudis influeixen en l’heterogeneïtat de resultats de larevisió. Aquests fets limiten la contundència de resultats pel que cal seguirinvestigant

Fluid dynamical prediction of changed v1-flow at energies available at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

Substantial collective flow is observed in collisions between lead nuclei at Large Hadron Collider (LHC) as evidenced by the azimuthal correlations in the transverse momentum distributions of the produced particles. Our calculations indicate that the global v1-flow, which at RHIC peaked at negative rapidities (named third flow component or antiflow), now at LHC is going to turn toward forward rapidities (to the same side and direction as the projectile residue). Potentially this can provide a sensitive barometer to estimate the pressure and transport properties of the quark-gluon plasma. Our calculations also take into account the initial state center-of-mass rapidity fluctuations, and demonstrate that these are crucial for v1 simulations. In order to better study the transverse momentum flow dependence we suggest a new"symmetrized" vS1(pt) function, and we also propose a new method to disentangle global v1 flow from the contribution generated by the random fluctuations in the initial state. This will enhance the possibilities of studying the collective Global v1 flow both at the STAR Beam Energy Scan program and at LHC.

Goal setting and monetary incentives: when large stakes are not enough

The aim of this paper is to test the effectiveness of wage-irrelevant goal setting policies in a laboratory environment. In our design, managers can assign a goal to their workers by setting a certain level of performance on the work task. We establish our theoretical conjectures by developing a model where assigned goals act as reference points to workers’ intrinsic motivation. Consistent with our model, we find that managers set goals which are challenging but attainable for an average-ability worker. Workers respond to these goals by increasing effort, performance and by decreasing on-the-job leisure activities with respect to the no-goal setting baseline. Finally, we study the interaction between goal setting and monetary rewards and find that goal setting is most effective when monetary incentives are strong. These results suggest that goal setting may produce intrinsic motivation and increase workers’ performance beyond what is achieved using solely monetary incentives.

Averting risk in the face of large losses: Bernoulli vs. Tversky and Kahneman

We experimentally question the assertion of Prospect Theory that people display risk attraction in choices involving high-probability losses. Indeed, our experimental participants tend to avoid fair risks for large (up to ? 90), high-probability (80%) losses. Our research hinges on a novel experimental method designed to alleviate the house-money bias that pervades experiments with real (not hypothetical) loses.Our results vindicate Daniel Bernoulli?s view that risk aversion is the dominant attitude,But, contrary to the Bernoulli-inspired canonical expected utility theory, we do find frequent risk attraction for small amounts of money at stake.In any event, we attempt neither to test expected utility versus nonexpected utility theories, nor to contribute to the important literature that estimates value and weighting functions. The question that we ask is more basic, namely: do people display risk aversion when facing large losses, or large gains? And, at the risk of oversimplifying, our answer is yes.

Large gypsum nodules in the Paleogene and Neogene evaporites of Spain: distribution and palaeogeographic significance

Sabkha and deep burial set tings are the most com mon sites where diagenetic anhydrite forms. In a sabkha setting, displacive facies (iso lated nodules, bed ded nodules, enterolithic levels) of early diagenetic or primary anhydrite are generated (Shearman, 1966; Hardie, 1967). These anhydrite facies are commonly foundat the top of shoal ing cycles representing the evolution from subaqueous depositional conditions at the base (carbonates, lutites) to exposure conditions at the top where in ter stitially-grown gypsum/anhydrite de velops ( sabkha cy cles). In a deep burial setting, gypsum transforms to tally to anhydrite with in creas ing temperature and lithostatic pressure (Murray, 1964). Al though this mineral transformation usually preserves the depositional gypsum facies, a significant textural change is in volved in other cases, resulting in replacive anhydrite with a nodular-mosaic or"chicken-wire" fabric (Warren, 2006). In the two settings, how ever, the size of the individual anhydrite nodules is relatively small, rarely reaching some tens of centimetres across. More over, bedding is preserved or little disturbed, al though minor de formation is caused by the displacive sabkha nodules.

Polyunsaturated aldehydes from large phytoplankton of the Atlantic Ocean Surface (42ºN to 33ºS)

Polyunsaturated aldehydes (PUAs) are organic compounds mainly produced by diatoms, after cell wounding. These compounds are increasingly reported as teratogenic for species of grazers and deleterious for phytoplanktonic species, but there is still scarce information regarding concentration ranges and the composition of PUAs in the open ocean. In this study, we analyzed the spatial distribution and the type of aldehydes produced by the large-sized (>10 μm) phytoplankton in the Atlantic Ocean surface. Analyses were conducted on PUAs released after mechanical disruption of the phytoplankton cells, referred to here as potential PUAs (pPUAs). Results show the ubiquitous presence of pPUA in the open ocean, including upwelling areas, as well as oligotrophic gyres. Total pPUA concentrations ranged from zero to 4.18 pmol from cells in 1 L. Identified PUAs were heptadienal, octadienal and decadienal, with heptadienal being the most common (79% of total stations). PUA amount and composition across the Atlantic Ocean was mainly related to the nitrogen:phosphorus ratio, suggesting nutrient-driven mechanisms of PUA production. Extending the range of trophic conditions considered by adding data reported for productive coastal waters, we found a pattern of PUA variation in relation to trophic status.