Blood pressure changes after renal denervation at 10 European expert centers.

We did a subject-level meta-analysis of the changes (Δ) in blood pressure (BP) observed 3 and 6 months after renal denervation (RDN) at 10 European centers. Recruited patients (n=109; 46.8% women; mean age 58.2 years) had essential hypertension confirmed by ambulatory BP. From baseline to 6 months, treatment score declined slightly from 4.7 to 4.4 drugs per day. Systolic/diastolic BP fell by 17.6/7.1 mm Hg for office BP, and by 5.9/3.5, 6.2/3.4, and 4.4/2.5 mm Hg for 24-h, daytime and nighttime BP (P0.03 for all). In 47 patients with 3- and 6-month ambulatory measurements, systolic BP did not change between these two time points (P0.08). Normalization was a systolic BP of <140 mm Hg on office measurement or <130 mm Hg on 24-h monitoring and improvement was a fall of 10 mm Hg, irrespective of measurement technique. For office BP, at 6 months, normalization, improvement or no decrease occurred in 22.9, 59.6 and 22.9% of patients, respectively; for 24-h BP, these proportions were 14.7, 31.2 and 34.9%, respectively. Higher baseline BP predicted greater BP fall at follow-up; higher baseline serum creatinine was associated with lower probability of improvement of 24-h BP (odds ratio for 20-μmol l(-1) increase, 0.60; P=0.05) and higher probability of experiencing no BP decrease (OR, 1.66; P=0.01). In conclusion, BP responses to RDN include regression-to-the-mean and remain to be consolidated in randomized trials based on ambulatory BP monitoring. For now, RDN should remain the last resort in patients in whom all other ways to control BP failed, and it must be cautiously used in patients with renal impairment.

Late Early Triassic climate change: Insights from carbonate carbon isotopes, sedimentary evolution and ammonoid paleobiogeography

The late Early Triassic sedimentary-facies evolution and carbonate carbon-isotope marine record (delta(13)C(carb)) of ammonoid-rich, outer platform settings show striking similarities between the South ChinaBlock (SCB) and the widely distant Northern Indian Margin (NIM). The studied sections are located within the Triassic Tethys Himalayan belt (Losar section, Himachal Pradesh, India) and the Nanpanjiang Basin in the South China Block (Jinya section, Guangxi Province), respectively. Carbon isotopes from the studied sections confirm the previously observed carbon cycle perturbations at a time of major paleoceanographic changes in the wake of the end-Permian biotic crisis. This study documents the coincidence between a sharp increase in the carbon isotope composition and the worldwide ammonoid evolutionary turnover (extinction followed by a radiation) occurring around the Smithian-Spathian boundary. Based on recent modeling studies on ammonoid paleobiogeography and taxonomic diversity, we demonstrate that the late Early Triassic (Smithian and Spathian) was a time of a major climate change. More precisely, the end Smithian climate can be characterized by a warm and equable climate underlined by a flat, pole-to-equator, sea surface temperature (SST) gradient, while the steep Spathian SST gradient suggests latitudinally differentiated climatic conditions. Moreover, sedimentary evidence suggests a transition from a humid and hot climate during the Smithian to a dryer climate from the Spathian onwards. By analogy with comparable carbon isotope perturbations in the Late Devonian, Jurassic and Cretaceous we propose that high atmospheric CO(2) levels could have been responsible for the observed carbon cycle disturbance at the Smithian-Spathian boundary. We suggest that the end Smithian ammonoid extinction has been essentially caused by a warm and equable climate related to an increased CO(2) flux possibly originating from a short eruptive event of the Siberian igneous province. This increase in atmospheric CO(2) concentrations could have additionally reduced the marine calcium carbonate oversaturation and weakened the calcification potential of marine organisms, including ammonoids, in late Smithian oceans. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The politics of contaminated sites management : institutional regime change and actor's mode of participation in the environmental management of the Bonfol Chemical Waste Landfill in Switzerland

By the end of the 1970s, contaminated sites had emerged as one of the most complex and urgent environmental issues affecting industrialized countries. The authors show that small and prosperous Switzerland is no exception to the pervasive problem of sites contamination, the legacy of past practices in waste management having left some 38,000 contaminated sites throughout the country. This book outlines the problem, offering evidence that open and polycentric environmental decision-making that includes civil society actors is valuable. They propose an understanding of environmental management of contaminated sites as a political process in which institutions frame interactions between strategic actors pursuing sometimes conflicting interests. In the opening chapter, the authors describe the influences of politics and the power relationships between actors involved in decision-making in contaminated sites management, which they term a "wicked problem." Chapter Two offers a theoretical framework for understanding institutions and the environmental management of contaminated sites. The next five chapters present a detailed case study on environmental management and contaminated sites in Switzerland, focused on the Bonfol Chemical Landfill. The study and analysis covers the establishment of the landfill under the first generation of environmental regulations, its closure and early remediation efforts, and the gambling on the remediation objectives, methods and funding in the first decade of the 21st Century. The concluding chapter discusses the question of whether the strength of environmental regulations, and the type of interactions between public, private, and civil society actors can explain the environmental choices in contaminated sites management. Drawing lessons from research, the authors debate the value of institutional flexibility for dealing with environmental issues such as contaminated sites.

Influence de l'administration des preuves sur l'activité mentale menant à la formation du verdict au cours d'un procès pénal

Abstract : The role of order effects has been widely shown and discussed in areas such as memory and social impression formation. This work focuses in a first half on order effects influencing the verdict chosen at the end of a criminal trial. Contrary to impression formation but according to trial's characteristics, it has been hypothesised that a recency effect would influence the verdict's choice. Three groups of students (N = 576) received a mock trial resume with a specific order stemming from the combination of three witnesses, one expert and two ocular witnesses. Results show a recency effect, the last testimony provoking significantly more acquittals if discriminating, and more condemnations if incriminating. The second half of this work starts from Gestalt and sociopsychological researches presenting numerous insights into cognitive organization of perceptions and opinions. It has been postulated that a witness probative value will change according to the emitted verdict, an incriminating witness or expert possessing a higher probative value in a condemning verdict than in an innocenting one, on the other hand a discriminating witness or expert having a higher probative value in an acquittal than in a condemnation. Results using a seven points scale measuring witnesses' probative value confirm this hypothesis. Argumentations written by the subjects to explain their verdict and refering to the accusing expert also show a congruency effect as categories of arguments are identical in case of condemnation or acquittal, the only difference between both types of verdicts residing in the frequency of these categories following the judgement, higher use of incriminating arguments in case of guiltiness and higher use of discriminating ones if the accused is found innocent. Résumé : L'intervention des effets sériels a fait l'objet de nombreuses recherches dans le domaine de la mémoire et de la formation d'impression en psychologie sociale. Ce travail s'intéresse dans une première partie aux effets d'ordre pouvant influencer le choix du verdict à la fin d'un procès pénal. Contrairement aux résultats obtenus en matière de formation d'impression, mais conformément aux caractéristiques d'un procès, l'hypothèse de l'intervention d'un effet de récence a été formulée, affirmant que les derniers témoins influencent le plus le choix du verdict. Trois groupes d'étudiants (N = 576) ont lu le résumé d'un procès fictif présentant trois témoignages, deux témoins visuels à décharge et un expert à charge. Chaque groupe recevait un ordre spécifique de présentation des témoins de sorte que l'expert se trouvait en première, deuxième ou troisième position. Les résultats montrent un effet de récence, le dernier témoin provoquant davantage d'acquittements s'il est disculpant et davantage de condamnations s'il est inculpant. La seconde partie de ce travail émane des recherches effectuées dans le domaine de la théorie de la forme et de la psychologie sociale ayant un intérêt marqué pour l'organisation cognitive de nos perceptions et de nos opinions. L'hypothèse que nous avons posée souligne le lien entretenu entre l'évaluation de la force probante d'un témoin et le verdict émis : un témoignage discriminant possédera plus de poids en cas d'acquittement qu'en cas de condamnation, inversement un témoignage incriminant aura plus de poids en cas de condamnation qu'en cas d'acquittement. L'utilisation d'une échelle en sept points mesurant la force probante des deux types de témoins confirme cette hypothèse, l'estimation de la valeur accordée à un même témoin variant selon le type de verdict choisi. Les argumentations de chaque verdict ont également montré que les catégories d'arguments se référant à l'expert étaient identiques en cas de condamnation ou d'acquittement de l'inculpé, par contre les fréquences de ces catégories entretiennent un lien congruent avec le verdict, celles inculpantes étant majoritairement utilisées pour asseoir la culpabilité mais peu représentées en cas d'acquittement, inversement celles disculpantes apparaissant bien plus lorsqu'il s'agit d'innocenter l'inculpé que pour le condamner.

Predictors of Weight Change in Sedentary Smokers Receiving a Standard Smoking Cessation Intervention.

INTRODUCTION: Quitting smoking is associated with weight gain, which may threaten motivation to engage or sustain a quit attempt. The pattern of weight gained by smokers treated according to smoking cessation guidelines has been poorly described. We aimed to determine the weight gained after smoking cessation and its predictors, by smokers receiving individual counseling and nicotine replacement therapies for smoking cessation. METHODS: We performed an ancillary analysis of a randomized controlled trial assessing moderate physical activity as an aid for smoking cessation in addition to standard treatment in sedentary adult smokers. We used mixed longitudinal models to describe the evolution of weight over time, thus allowing us to take every participant into account. We also fitted a model to assess the effect of smoking status and reported use of nicotine replacement therapy at each time point. We adjusted for intervention group, sex, age, nicotine dependence, and education. RESULTS: In the whole cohort, weight increased in the first 3 months, and stabilized afterwards. Mean 1-year weight gain was 3.3kg for women and 3.9kg for men (p = .002). Higher nicotine dependence and male sex were associated with more weight gained during abstinence. Age over median was associated with continuing weight gain during relapse. There was a nonsignificant trend toward slower weight gain with use of nicotine replacement therapies. CONCLUSION: Sedentary smokers receiving a standard smoking cessation intervention experience a moderate weight gain, limited to the first 3 months. Older age, male sex, and higher nicotine dependence are predictors of weight gain.

Predicted effect of climate change on the invasibility and distribution of the Western corn root-worm

1 Insect pests, biological invasions and climate change are considered to representmajor threats to biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, agriculture and forestry.Deriving hypothesis of contemporary and/or future potential distributions of insectpests and invasive species is becoming an important tool for predicting the spatialstructure of potential threats.2 The western corn rootworm (WCR) Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte is apest of maize in North America that has invaded Europe in recent years, resultingin economic costs in terms of maize yields in both continents. The present studyaimed to estimate the dynamics of potential areas of invasion by the WCR under aclimate change scenario in the Northern Hemisphere. The areas at risk under thisscenario were assessed by comparing, using complementary approaches, the spatialprojections of current and future areas of climatic favourability of the WCR. Spatialhypothesis were generated with respect to the presence records in the native rangeof the WCR and physiological thresholds from previous empirical studies.3 We used a previously developed protocol specifically designed to estimatethe climatic favourability of the WCR. We selected the most biologicallyrelevant climatic predictors and then used multidimensional envelope (MDE) andMahalanobis distances (MD) approaches to derive potential distributions for currentand future climatic conditions.4 The results obtained showed a northward advancement of the upper physiologicallimit as a result of climate change, which might increase the strength of outbreaksat higher latitudes. In addition, both MDE and MD outputs predict the stability ofclimatic favourability for the WCR in the core of the already invaded area in Europe,which suggests that this zone would continue to experience damage from this pestin Europe.

Neocortical maturation during adolescence: change in neuronal soma dimension.

During adolescence, cognitive abilities increase robustly. To search for possible related structural alterations of the cerebral cortex, we measured neuronal soma dimension (NSD = width times height), cortical thickness and neuronal densities in different types of neocortex in post-mortem brains of five 12-16 and five 17-24 year-olds (each 2F, 3M). Using a generalized mixed model analysis, mean normalized NSD comparing the age groups shows layer-specific change for layer 2 (p < .0001) and age-related differences between categorized type of cortex: primary/primary association cortex (BA 1, 3, 4, and 44) shows a generalized increase; higher-order regions (BA 9, 21, 39, and 45) also show increase in layers 2 and 5 but decrease in layers 3, 4, and 6 while limbic/orbital cortex (BA 23, 24, and 47) undergoes minor decrease (BA 1, 3, 4, and 44 vs. BA 9, 21, 39, and 45: p = .036 and BA 1, 3, 4, and 44 vs. BA 23, 24, and 47: p = .004). These data imply the operation of cortical layer- and type-specific processes of growth and regression adding new evidence that the human brain matures during adolescence not only functionally but also structurally.

Interferon-gamma impacts at multiple points during the progression of autoimmune diabetes.

The role of interferon-gamma in autoimmune diabetes was assessed by breeding a null mutation of the interferon-gamma receptor alpha chain into the nonobese diabetic mouse strain, as well as into a simplified T cell receptor transgenic model of diabetes. In contrast to a previous report on abrogation of the interferon-gamma gene, mutation of the gene encoding its receptor led to drastic effects on disease in both mouse lines. Nonobese diabetic mice showed a marked inhibition of insulitis-both the kinetics and penetrance-and no signs of diabetes; the transgenic model exhibited near-normal insulitis, but this never evolved into diabetes, either spontaneously or after experimental provocation. This failure could not be explained by perturbations in the ratio of T helper cell phenotypes; rather, it reflected a defect in antigen-presenting cells or in the islet beta cell targets.

Early change in defence mechanisms and coping in short-term dynamic psychotherapy: relations with symptoms and alliance.

Several patient-related variables have already been investigated as predictors of change in psychodynamic psychotherapy. Defensive functioning is one of them. However, few studies have investigated adaptational processes, encompassing defence mechanisms and coping, from an integrative or comparative viewpoint. This study includes 32 patients, mainly diagnosed with adjustment disorder and undergoing time-limited psychodynamic psychotherapy lasting up to 40 sessions, and will focus on early change in defence and coping. Observer-rater methodology was applied to the transcripts of two sessions of the first part of the psychotherapeutic process. It is assumed that the contextual-relational variable of therapeutic alliance intervenes as moderator on change in adaptational processes. Results corroborated the hypothesis, but only for coping, whereas for defences, overall functioning remained stable over the first 20 sessions of psychotherapy. These results are discussed within the framework of disentangling processes underlying adaptation, i.e., related to issues on trait and state aspects, as well as the role of the therapeutic alliance.