Prevalence of cam-type deformity on hip magnetic resonance imaging in young males: a cross-sectional study

Objective To determine the prevalence of cam-type deformities on hip magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in young males. Methods This was a population-based cross-sectional study in young asymptomatic male individuals who underwent clinical examination and completed a self-report questionnaire. A random sample of participants was invited for MRI of the hip. We graded the maximal offset at the femoral head–neck junction on radial sequences using grades from 0 to 3, where 0 = normal, 1 = possible, 2 = definite, and 3 = severe deformity. The prespecified main analyses were based on definite cam-type deformity grades 2 or 3. We estimated the prevalence of the cam-type deformity adjusted for the sampling process overall and according to the extent of internal rotation. Then we determined the location of the deformity on radial MRI sequences. Results A total of 1,080 subjects were included in the study and 244 asymptomatic males with a mean age of 19.9 years attended MRI. Sixty-seven definite cam-type deformities were detected. The adjusted overall prevalence was 24% (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 19–30%). The prevalence increased with decreasing internal rotation (P < 0.001 for trend). Among those with a clinically decreased internal rotation of <30°, the estimated prevalence was 48% (95% CI 37–59%). Sixty-one of 67 cam-type deformities were located in an anterosuperior position. Conclusion Cam-type deformities can be found on MRI in every fourth young asymptomatic male individual and in every second male with decreased internal rotation. The majority of deformities are located in an anterosuperior position.

Patients with substance use and personality disorders: a comparison of patient characteristics, treatment process, and outcomes in Swiss and U.S. substance use disorder programs

Cross-cultural comparisons may increase our understanding of different models of substance use treatment and help identify consistent associations between patients' characteristics, treatment conditions, and outcomes.

Medication errors in a swiss cardiovascular surgery department: a cross-sectional study based on a novel medication error report method

The purpose of this study was (1) to determine frequency and type of medication errors (MEs), (2) to assess the number of MEs prevented by registered nurses, (3) to assess the consequences of ME for patients, and (4) to compare the number of MEs reported by a newly developed medication error self-reporting tool to the number reported by the traditional incident reporting system. We conducted a cross-sectional study on ME in the Cardiovascular Surgery Department of Bern University Hospital in Switzerland. Eligible registered nurses (n = 119) involving in the medication process were included. Data on ME were collected using an investigator-developed medication error self reporting tool (MESRT) that asked about the occurrence and characteristics of ME. Registered nurses were instructed to complete a MESRT at the end of each shift even if there was no ME. All MESRTs were completed anonymously. During the one-month study period, a total of 987 MESRTs were returned. Of the 987 completed MESRTs, 288 (29%) indicated that there had been an ME. Registered nurses reported preventing 49 (5%) MEs. Overall, eight (2.8%) MEs had patient consequences. The high response rate suggests that this new method may be a very effective approach to detect, report, and describe ME in hospitals.

Loss of the high-affinity pentamidine transporter is responsible for high levels of cross-resistance between arsenical and diamidine drugs in African trypanosomes

Treatment of many infectious diseases is under threat from drug resistance. Understanding the mechanisms of resistance is as high a priority as the development of new drugs. We have investigated the basis for cross-resistance between the diamidine and melaminophenyl arsenical classes of drugs in African trypanosomes. We induced high levels of pentamidine resistance in a line without the tbat1 gene that encodes the P2 transporter previously implicated in drug uptake. We isolated independent clones that displayed very considerable cross-resistance with melarsen oxide but not phenylarsine oxide and reduced uptake of [(3)H]pentamidine. In particular, the high-affinity pentamidine transport (HAPT1) activity was absent in the pentamidine-adapted lines, whereas the low affinity pentamidine transport (LAPT1) activity was unchanged. The parental tbat1(-/-) line was sensitive to lysis by melarsen oxide, and this process was inhibited by low concentrations of pentamidine, indicating the involvement of HAPT1. This pentamidine-inhibitable lysis was absent in the adapted line KO-B48. Likewise, uptake of the fluorescent diamidine 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole dihydrochloride was much delayed in live KO-B48 cells and insensitive to competition with up to 10 muM pentamidine. No overexpression of the Trypanosoma brucei brucei ATP-binding cassette transporter TbMRPA could be detected in KO-B48. We also show that a laboratory line of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, adapted to high levels of resistance for the melaminophenyl arsenical drug melarsamine hydrochloride (Cymelarsan), had similarly lost TbAT1 and HAPT1 activity while retaining LAPT1 activity. It seems therefore that selection for resistance to either pentamidine or arsenical drugs can result in a similar phenotype of reduced drug accumulation, explaining the occurrence of cross-resistance.

Life and death partners: apoptosis, autophagy and the cross-talk between them

It is not surprising that the demise of a cell is a complex well-controlled process. Apoptosis, the first genetically programmed death process identified, has been extensively studied and its contribution to the pathogenesis of disease well documented. Yet, apoptosis does not function alone to determine a cell's fate. More recently, autophagy, a process in which de novo-formed membrane-enclosed vesicles engulf and consume cellular components, has been shown to engage in a complex interplay with apoptosis. In some cellular settings, it can serve as a cell survival pathway, suppressing apoptosis, and in others, it can lead to death itself, either in collaboration with apoptosis or as a back-up mechanism when the former is defective. The molecular regulators of both pathways are inter-connected; numerous death stimuli are capable of activating either pathway, and both pathways share several genes that are critical for their respective execution. The cross-talk between apoptosis and autophagy is therefore quite complex, and sometimes contradictory, but surely critical to the overall fate of the cell. Furthermore, the cross-talk is a key factor in the outcome of death-related pathologies such as cancer, its development and treatment.

A Team-Oriented Investigation of ERP Post-Implementation Integration Projects: How Cross-Functional Collaboration Influences ERP Benefits

The benefits companies achieve by implementing an ERP system vary considerably. Many companies need to adapt their ERP integration solution in the post-implementation stage. But after the completion of such a usually very complex integration project, benefits do not emerge by all means. A misfit between the organization and the IS, especially the aspect of cross-functional team collaboration, could explain these divergences. Using an initial theoretical framework, we conducted a single case study to explore the team-oriented perceptions in a post-implementation ERP integration project. To analyze the benefits and the influences in greater depth we disentangled the integration benefits into their particular parts (process, system and information quality). Our findings show that post-implementation ERP integration changes are not always perceived as beneficiary by the involved teams and that cross-functional collaboration has an important influence.

Institutions and coalitions in policy processes: a cross-sectoral comparison

Actors with joint beliefs in a decision-making process form coalitions in order to translate their goals into policy. Yet, coalitions are not formed in an institutional void, but rather institutions confer opportunities and constraints to actors. This paper studies the institutional conditions under which either coalition structures with a dominant coalition or with competing coalitions emerge. It takes into account three conditions, i.e. the degree of federalism of a project, its degree of Europeanisation and the openness of the pre-parliamentary phase of the decision-making process. The cross-sectoral comparison includes the 11 most important decision-making processes in Switzerland between 2001 and 2006 with a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Results suggest that Europeanisation or an open pre-parliamentary phase lead to a dominant coalition, whereas only a specific combination of all three conditions is able to explain a structure with competing coalitions.

Measurement of the low-mass Drell-Yan differential cross section at √8 = 7 TeV using the ATLAS detector

The differential cross section for the process Z/√ → ℓℓ (ℓ = e, μ) as a function of dilepton invariant mass is measured in pp collisions at ps = 7TeV at the LHC using the ATLAS detector. The measurement is performed in the e and μ channels for invariant masses between 26 GeV and 66 GeV using an integrated luminosity of 1.6 fb−1 collected in 2011 and these measurements are combined. The analysis is extended to invariant masses as low as 12 GeV in the muon channel using 35 pb−1 of data collected in 2010. The cross sections are determined within fiducial acceptance regions and corrections to extrapolate the measurements to the full kinematic range are provided. Next-to-next-to-leading-order QCD predictions provide a significantly better description of the results than next-to-leadingorder QCD calculations, unless the latter are matched to a parton shower calculation.

Measurement of the production cross section of prompt J/ψ mesons in association with a W± boson in pp collisions at √8 = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The process pp ! W±J/ provides a powerful probe of the production mechanism of charmonium in hadronic collisions, and is also sensitive to multiple parton interactions in the colliding protons. Using the 2011 ATLAS dataset of 4.5 fb−1 of p s =7TeV pp collisions at the LHC, the first observation is made of the production of W± +prompt J/ events in hadronic collisions, using W± → μѵμ and Jψ → μ+μ−. A yield of 27.4+7.5−6.5 W± + prompt J/ψ events is observed, with a statistical significance of 5.1ơ. The production rate as a ratio to the inclusive W± boson production rate is measured, and the double parton scattering contribution to the cross section is estimated.

Automated NNLL + NLO resummation for jet-veto cross sections

In electroweak-boson production processes with a jet veto, higher-order corrections are enhanced by logarithms of the veto scale over the invariant mass of the boson system. In this paper, we resum these Sudakov logarithms at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy and match our predictions to next-to-leading-order (NLO) fixed-order results. We perform the calculation in an automated way, for arbitrary electroweak final states and in the presence of kinematic cuts on the leptons produced in the decays of the electroweak bosons. The resummation is based on a factorization theorem for the cross sections into hard functions, which encode the virtual corrections to the boson production process, and beam functions, which describe the low-pT emissions collinear to the beams. The one-loop hard functions for arbitrary processes are calculated using the MadGraph5_aMC@NLO framework, while the beam functions are process independent. We perform the resummation for a variety of processes, in particular for W+W− pair production followed by leptonic decays of the W bosons.

The Process-Outcome Mindfulness Effects in Trainees (PrOMET) study: protocol of a pragmatic randomized controlled trial

Background Mindfulness has its origins in an Eastern Buddhist tradition that is over 2500 years old and can be defined as a specific form of attention that is non-judgmental, purposeful, and focused on the present moment. It has been well established in cognitive-behavior therapy in the last decades, while it has been investigated in manualized group settings such as mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. However, there is scarce research evidence on the effects of mindfulness as a treatment element in individual therapy. Consequently, the demand to investigate mindfulness under effectiveness conditions in trainee therapists has been highlighted. Methods/Design To fill in this research gap, we designed the PrOMET Study. In our study, we will investigate the effects of brief, audiotape-presented, session-introducing interventions with mindfulness elements conducted by trainee therapists and their patients at the beginning of individual therapy sessions in a prospective, randomized, controlled design under naturalistic conditions with a total of 30 trainee therapists and 150 patients with depression and anxiety disorders in a large outpatient training center. We hypothesize that the primary outcomes of the session-introducing intervention with mindfulness elements will be positive effects on therapeutic alliance (Working Alliance Inventory) and general clinical symptomatology (Brief Symptom Checklist) in contrast to the session-introducing progressive muscle relaxation and treatment-as-usual control conditions. Treatment duration is 25 therapy sessions. Therapeutic alliance will be assessed on a session-to-session basis. Clinical symptomatology will be assessed at baseline, session 5, 15 and 25. We will conduct multilevel modeling to address the nested data structure. The secondary outcome measures include depression, anxiety, interpersonal functioning, mindful awareness, and mindfulness during the sessions. Discussion The study results could provide important practical implications because they could inform ideas on how to improve the clinical training of psychotherapists that could be implemented very easily; this is because there is no need for complex infrastructures or additional time concerning these brief session-introducing interventions with mindfulness elements that are directly implemented in the treatment sessions.