Exposure to bioaerosols, respiratory health and lung-specific proteins: a prospective study in garbage and wastewater workers.

Objectives To prospectively assess respiratory health in wastewater workers and garbage collectors over 5 years. Methods Exposure, respiratory symptoms and conditions, spirometry and lung-specific proteins were assessed yearly in a cohort of 304 controls, 247 wastewater workers and 52 garbage collectors. Results were analysed with random coefficient models and linear regression taking into account several potential confounders. Results Symptoms, spirometry and lung-specific proteins were not affected by occupational exposure. Conclusions In this population no effects of occupational exposure to bioaerosols were found, probably because of good working conditions.

Expressive concatenative synthesis by reusing samples from real performance recordings

Here we describe an approach to the expressive synthesis of jazz saxophone melodies that reuses audio recordings and carefully concatenates note samples. The aim is to generate an expressive audio sequence from the analysis of an arbitrary input score using a previously induced performance model and an annotated saxophone note database extracted from real performances. We push the idea of using the same corpus for both inducing an expressive performance model and synthesizing sound by concatenating samples in the corpus. Therefore, a connection between the performers’ instrument sound and performance characteristics is kept during the synthesis process.

An epidemiologic study to determine the prevalence of the HLA-B*5701 allele among HIV-positive patients in Europe.

OBJECTIVES: HLA-B*5701 is a major histocompatibility complex class I allele associated with an immunologically-mediated hypersensitivity reaction to abacavir. The objectives of this study were to evaluate HLA-B*5701 prevalence among European, HIV-1-infected patients and to compare the local and central laboratory screening results. METHODS: Data were combined from six multicentre, prospective studies involving 10 European countries in which HIV-1-infected patients (irrespective of treatment experience or previous HLA-B*5701 screening), >or=18 years of age, were evaluated for HLA-B*5701 carriage, determined by the central and local laboratory methods. RESULTS: A total of 9720 patients from 272 centres were included in the analysis. The overall estimate of HLA-B*5701 prevalence in Europe was 4.98%, with country-specific estimates ranging from 1.53 to 7.75%. HLA-B*5701 prevalence was highest in the self-reported white population (6.49%) and lowest in the black population (0.39%). Local laboratory results had a high specificity (99.9%) and sensitivity (99.2%) when compared with the central laboratory results. CONCLUSION: This study supports data from previous studies regarding the prevalence of HLA-B*5701 in the HIV population and the variation of HLA-B*5701 prevalence between different racial groups. The high specificity and sensitivity of local laboratory results, suggests that clinicians can be confident in using local laboratories for pretreatment HLA-B*5701 screening. However, it is essential that local laboratories participate in HLA-B*5701-specific quality assurance programs to maintain 100% sensitivity. In HIV-infected patients, pretreatment HLA-B*5701 screening may allow more informed decisions regarding abacavir use and has the potential to significantly reduce the frequency of abacavir-related hypersensitivity reactions and costs associated with managing these reactions.

Cross-country differences in disclosure quality: a study of fair value disclosures by european real estate companies

Companies are under IAS 40 required to report fair values of investment properties on the balance sheet or to disclose them in the notes. The standard requires also that companies have to disclose the methods and significant assumptions applied in determining fair values of investment properties. However, IAS 40 does not include any illustrative examples or other guidance on how to apply the disclosure requirements. We use a sample with publicly traded companies from the real estate sector in the EU. We find that a majority of the companies use income based methods for the measurement of fair values but there are considerable cross-country variations in the level of disclosures about the assumptions used in determining fair values. More specifically, we find that Scandinavian and German origin companies disclose more than French and English origin companies. We also test whether disclosure quality is associated with enforcement quality measured with the “Rule of Law” index according to Kaufmann et al. (2010), and associated with a secrecy- versus transparency-measure based on Gray (1988). We find a positive association between disclosure and earnings quality and a negative association with secrecy.

Mood and nonmood components of perceived stress and exacerbation of Crohn's disease.

BACKGROUND: Diverse psychological factors are involved in the pathophysiology of stress. In order to devise effective intervention strategies, it is important to elucidate which factors play the most important role in the association between psychological stress and exacerbation of Crohn's disease (CD). We hypothesized that the association between perceived stress and exacerbation of CD would remain after removal of mood and anxiety components, which are largely involved in stress perception. METHODS: In all, 468 adults with CD were recruited and followed in different hospitals and private practices of Switzerland for 18 months. At inclusion, patients completed the Perceived Stress Questionnaire and anxiety and depression were assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. During the follow-up, gastroenterologists assessed whether patients presented with a CD exacerbation. By means of binary logistic regression analysis, we estimated the factor by which one standard deviation of perceived stress would increase the odds of exacerbation of CD with and without controlling for anxiety and depression. RESULTS: The odds of exacerbation of CD increased by 1.85 times (95% confidence interval 1.43-2.40, P < 0.001) for 1 standard deviation of perceived stress. After removing the anxiety and depression components, the residuals of perceived stress were no longer associated with exacerbation of CD. CONCLUSIONS: The association between perceived stress and exacerbation of CD was fully attributable to the mood components, specifically anxiety and depression. Future interventional studies should evaluate the treatment of anxiety and depression as a strategy for potential prevention of CD exacerbations.

Isolation and in vitro chondrogenic potential of human foetal spine cells.

Cell therapy for nucleus pulposus (NP) regeneration is an attractive treatment for early disc degeneration as shown by studies using autologous NP cells or stem cells. Another potential source of cells is foetal cells. We investigated the feasibility of isolating foetal cells from human foetal spine tissues and assessed their chondrogenic potential in alginate bead cultures. Histology and immunohistochemistry of foetal tissues showed that the structure and the matrix composition (aggrecan, type I and II collagen) of foetal intervertebral disc (IVD) were similar to adult IVD. Isolated foetal cells were cultured in monolayer in basic media supplemented with 10% Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) and from each foetal tissue donation, a cell bank of foetal spine cells at passage 2 was established and was composed of around 2000 vials of 5 million cells. Gene expression and immunohistochemistry of foetal spine cells cultured in alginate beads during 28 days showed that cells were able to produce aggrecan and type II collagen and very low level of type I and type X collagen, indicating chondrogenic differentiation. However variability in matrix synthesis was observed between donors. In conclusion, foetal cells could be isolated from human foetal spine tissues and since these cells showed chondrogenic potential, they could be a potential cell source for IVD regeneration.

Seroepidemiology of herpes simplex virus type 1 and 2 in pregnant women in Switzerland: an obstetric clinic based study.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the seroprevalence of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2) IgG antibodies and the seroincidence of HSV-1 and HSV-2 infections in pregnant women attending the maternity clinic of the University Hospital Lausanne. STUDY DESIGN: Blood samples from 1030 women were taken at the usual pregnancy visit in the first trimester to assess the prevalence rate of IgG antibodies against HSV-1 and HSV-2 using a type-specific assay. A second blood sample was taken 6-8 weeks postpartum from returning women who were seronegative for HSV-2 or HSV-1 to assess the incidence of seroconversion (primary infection). RESULTS: The seroprevalence rates were 79.4% (95% CI: 76.9-81.9) for HSV-1 and 21.2% (18.7-23.7) for HSV-2 in women 14-46 years old. Type-specific serostatus patterns were as follows: 17.3% HSV-1/-2: +/+, 62.1% HSV-1/-2: +/-, 3.9% HSV-1/-2: -/+, 16.7% HSV-1/-2: -/-. Two hundred and sixty five women (59 of the 212 seronegative for HSV-1 (27.8%) and 265 of the 812 seronegative for HSV-2 (32.6%)) returned to the outpatient clinic for the post-delivery check and a second blood sample was obtained. One HSV-1 seroconversion was detected (HSV-1 seroconversion rate 2.4%/100 patient×year (95% CI: 0.06-13.4)) in a patient who had symptoms compatible with primary genital herpes. No HSV-2 seroconversion was detected (HSV-2 seroconversion rate: 0/100 patient×year (97.5% one-sided CI: 0-2)). CONCLUSION: Compared to a previous population-based study, our study results suggest a rise in the prevalence of HSV-2 among pregnant women in Switzerland. The low incidence of seroconversion detected during pregnancy is consistent with the very low reported incidence of neonatal herpes in Switzerland. CONDENSATION: This study in a public hospital in Western Switzerland suggests an increasing prevalence of HSV-2, but a low incidence of primary infections in women of childbearing age.

Nd:YAG Laser Welding of 5083 Aluminium Alloy using Filler Wire

High reflectivity and high thermal conductivity, high vapour pressure of alloyingelements as well as low liquid surface tension and low ionisation potential, make laser welding of aluminium and its alloys a demanding task.Problems that occur during welding are mainly process instabilities of the keyhole and the melt pool, increased plasma formation above the melt pool and loss of alloying elements. These problems lead to unwanted metallurgical defects like hot cracks and porosity in the weld bead andother problems concerning the shape and appearance of the weld bead. In order to minimise the defects and improve the weld quality, the process and beam parameters need to be carefully adjusted along with a consideration concerning the use of filler wire for the welding process. In this work the welding of 3,0 mm thick grade 5083 aluminium alloy plates using a 3,0 kW Nd:YAG laser with grade 5183 filler wire addition is investigated. The plates were welded as butt joints with air gap sizes 0,5 mm, 0,7mm and 1,0 mm. The analysis of the weld beads obtained from the weldedsamples showed that the least imperfections were produced with 0,7 mm air gaps at moderate welding speeds. The analysis also covered the calculation of the melting efficiency and the study of the shape of the weld bead. The melting efficiency was on average around 20 % for the melting process of the welded plates. The weld beads showed the characteristic V-shape of a laser weld and retained this shape during the whole series of experiments.