Factor V Leiden as risk factor for pregnancy complications : Epidemiological study of Finnish women

Factor V Leiden (FV Leiden) is the most common inherited thrombophilia in Caucasians increasing the risk for venous thrombosis. Its prevalence in Finland is 2-3%. FV Leiden has also been associated with several pregnancy complications. However, the importance of FV Leiden as their risk factor is unclear. The aim of the study was to assess FV Leiden as a risk factor for pregnancy complications in which prothrombotic mechanisms may play a part. Specifically, the study aimed to assess the magnitude of the risk, if any, associated with FV Leiden for pregnancy-associated venous thrombosis, pre-eclampsia, unexplained stillbirth, and preterm birth. The study was conducted as a nested case-control study within a fixed cohort of 100,000 consecutive pregnant women in Finland. The study was approved by the ethics committee of the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service and by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. All participants gave written informed consent. Cases and controls were identified by using national registers. The diagnoses of the 100,000 women identified from the National Register of Blood Group and Blood Group Antibodies of Pregnant Women were obtained from the National Hospital Discharge Register. Participants gave blood samples for DNA tests and filled in questionnaires. The medical records of the participants were reviewed in 49 maternity hospitals in Finland. Genotyping was performed in the Finnish Genome Center. When evaluating pregnancy-associated venous thrombosis (34 cases, 641 controls), FV Leiden was associated with 11-fold risk (OR 11.6, 95% CI 3.6-33.6). When only analyzing women with first venous thrombosis, the risk was 6-fold (OR 5.8, 95% CI 1.6-21.8). The risk was increased by common risk factors, the risk being highest in women with FV Leiden and pre-pregnancy BMI over 30 kg/m2 (75-fold), and in women with FV Leiden and age over 35 years (60-fold). When evaluating pre-eclampsia (248 cases, 679 controls), FV Leiden was associated with a trend of increased risk (OR 1.7, 95% CI 0.8-3.9), but the association was not statistically significant. When evaluating unexplained stillbirth (44 cases, 776 controls), FV Leiden was associated with over 3-fold risk (OR 3.8, 95% CI 1.2-11.6). When evaluating preterm birth (324 cases, 752 controls), FV Leiden was associated with over 2-fold risk (OR 2.4, 95% CI 1.3-4.6). FV Leiden was especially associated with late preterm birth (32-36 weeks of gestation), but not with early preterm birth (< 32 weeks of gestation). The results of this large population-based study can be generalized to Finnish women with pregnancies continuing beyond first trimester, and may be applied to Caucasian women in populations with similar prevalence of FV Leiden and high standard prenatal care.

Corporate social responsibilities of Indian public sector enterprises-a case study of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL)

The high level of public accountability attached to Public Sector Enterprises as a result of public ownership makes them socially responsible. The Committee of Public Undertakings in 1992 examined the issue relating to social obligations of Central Public Sector Enterprises and observed that ``being part of the `State', every Public Sector enterprise has a moral responsibility to play an active role in discharging the social obligations endowed on a welfare state, subject to the financial health of the enterprise''. It issued the Corporate Social Responsibility Guidelines in 2010 where all Central Public Enterprises, through a Board Resolution, are mandated to create a CSR budget as a specified percentage of net profit of the previous year. This paper examines the CSR activities of the biggest engineering public sector organization in India, Bharath Heavy Electricals Limited. The objectives are twofold, one, to develop a case study of the organization about the funds allocated and utilized for various CSR activities, and two, to examine its status with regard to other organizations, the 2010 guidelines, and the local socio-economic development. Secondary data analysis results show three interesting trends. One, it reveals increasing organizational social orientation with the formal guidelines in place. Two, Firms can no longer continue to exploit environmental resources and escape from their responsibilities by acting separate entities regardless of the interest of the society and Three the thrust of CSR in public sector is on inclusive growth, sustainable development and capacity building with due attention to the socio-economic needs of the neglected and marginalized sections of the society.

Paciano II: the report of a conversation on whaling and science, 1-3 March 2008 (Paciano, Umbria)

In 2006 the UK-based charity, Global Ocean, with local support from the Third Millennium Foundation, convened a Conversation among specialists about the problems facing the conservation of whales. Called "A consultation on whaling", this gathering was held in the ancient village of Paciano, in Umbria near the border with Tuscany, 15 – 17 October 2006. There were 15 participants from 11 countries. Dr Kees Lankester served as moderator. The outcome was an Aide Memoire which served to guide the participants in the run-up to the 2007 meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), held in Anchorage, Alaska, in June. One point of agreement was that a second consultation should be held in the months following the Anchorage meeting, involving some but not necessarily all of the participants in the first, but concentrating this time on scientific issues – especially those encountered in the Scientific Committee of the IWC –with particular attention to informing a wider public about those scientific activities in relation to the problems confronting the IWC and the views of scientists about them. This document is the report of that Conversation, referred to as Paciano II. The moderator was Dr Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara and the Report was written by Kieran Mulvaney in consultation with all participants, and with reference to an Aide Memoire prepared by the Rapporteur, Dr Russell Leaper. The sponsor and organisers have agreed with the general sentiment expressed by participants in Paciano II that further such conversations should be held at roughly yearly intervals and they will try to satisfy that desire. Although these future gatherings would be concerned with the living ocean they would not necessarily be restricted in future to consideration of whales and whaling. Discussions are on-going for selection of a theme which is of both scientific interest and practical concern for conservation of marine life and management of the uses of ocean space. (Document has 18 pages)

Paciano II: a report of a conversation on whaling and science, 1-3 March 2008

In 2006 the UK-based charity, Global Ocean, with local support from the Third Millennium Foundation, convened a Conversation among specialists about the problems facing the conservation of whales. Called "A consultation on whaling", this gathering was held in the ancient village of Paciano, in Umbria near the border with Tuscany, 15 – 17 October 2006. There were 15 participants from 11 countries. Dr Kees Lankester served as moderator. The outcome was an Aide Memoire which served to guide the participants in the run-up to the 2007 meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), held in Anchorage, Alaska, in June. One point of agreement was that a second consultation should be held in the months following the Anchorage meeting, involving some but not necessarily all of the participants in the first, but concentrating this time on scientific issues – especially those encountered in the Scientific Committee of the IWC –with particular attention to informing a wider public about those scientific activities in relation to the problems confronting the IWC and the views of scientists about them. This document is the report of that Conversation, referred to as Paciano II. The moderator was Dr Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara and the Report was written by Kieran Mulvaney in consultation with all participants, and with reference to an Aide Memoire prepared by the Rapporteur, Dr Russell Leaper. The sponsor and organisers have agreed with the general sentiment expressed by participants in Paciano II that further such conversations should be held at roughly yearly intervals and they will try to satisfy that desire. Although these future gatherings would be concerned with the living ocean they would not necessarily be restricted in future to consideration of whales and whaling. Discussions are on-going for selection of a theme which is of both scientific interest and practical concern for conservation of marine life and management of the uses of ocean space. (19 page document)

Influence of target thickness on the generation of high-density ion bunches by ultrashort circularly polarized laser pulses

Ion acceleration by ultrashort circularly polarized laser pulse in a solid-density target is investigated using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation. The ions are accelerated and compressed by the continuously extending space-charge field created by the evacuation and compression of the target electrons by the laser light pressure. For a sufficiently thin target, the accelerated and compressed ions can reach and exit from the rear surface as a high-density high-energy ion bunch. The peak ion energy depends on the target thickness and reaches maximum when the compressed ion layer can just reach the rear target surface. The compressed ion layer exhibits lateral striation which can be suppressed by using a sharp-rising laser pulse. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.

Nonlinear laser focusing using a conical guide and generation of energetic ions

Using conventional methods, a laser pulse can be focused down to around 6-8 mu m, but further reduction of the spot size has proven to be difficult. Here it is shown by particle-in-cell simulation that with a hollow cone an intense laser pulse can be reduced to a tiny, highly localized, spot of around 1 mu m radius, accompanied by much enhanced light intensity. The pulse shaping and focusing effect is due to a nonlinear laser-plasma interaction on the inner surface of the cone. When a thin foil is attached to the tip of the cone, the cone-focused light pulse compresses and accelerates the ions in its path and can punch through the thin target, creating highly localized energetic ion bunches of high density.

Impact of laser-accelerated micron-size projectile on dense plasma

The impact of a laser-accelerated micron-size projectile on a dense plasma target is studied using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. The projectile is first accelerated by an ultraintense laser. It then impinges on the dense plasma target and merges with the latter. Part of the kinetic energy of the laser-accelerated ions in the projectile is deposited in the fused target, and an extremely high concentration of plasma ions with a mean kinetic energy needed for fusion reaction is induced. The interaction is thus useful for laser-driven impact fusion and as a compact neutron source.

Preparation, characterization and gas sensing properties of nickel octa-iso-pentyloxynaphthalocyanine spin-coating films

Spin-coated films of nickel 1,6,10,15,19,24,28,33-octa-iso-pentyloxy-2,3-naphthalocyanine complex were obtained and characterized by UV-vis absorption spectroscopy. A linear relationship between the absorbance and solution concentration was observed. Low concentration solutions could afford smooth and homogeneous film surfaces as indicated by atomic force microscopy. The film structure was studied by small angle X-ray diffraction. The films were used for NO2 sensing experiments. The results indicate that the elevation of sensing temperature can shorten the response time and increase recovery ratio and response magnitude of the sensing films. High NO2 concentration can also shorten response time. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Compensation of reflectance response deviations of guided-mode resonant filters induced by overetching fabrication

Unless the fabrication error control is well treated, it easily causes overetched fabrication errors, which causes the resonant peak value deviation during the fabrication process of guided-mode resonant filters (GMRFs). Hence, the fabrication error control becomes a key point for improving the performance of GMRF. We find that, within the range of the groove depth from 93 to 105 nm, the relationship between the overetched error and the resonant peak value deviation is nearly linear, which means that we can compensate the reflectance response deviation and reduce the resonant peak value deviation by the method of covering the layer film on the GMRF. Simulation results show that the deviation is compensated perfectly by this way. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America

Application of the phylogenetic analysis in mitochondrial disease study

Mitochondrial disease currently received an increasing concern. However, the case-control design commonly adopted in this field is vulnerable to genetic background, population stratification and poor data quality. Although the phylogenetic analysis could

Development of teaching resources for physical modelling community

Physical modelling of interesting geotechnical problems has helped clarify behaviours and failure mechanisms of many civil engineering systems. Interesting visual information from physical modelling can also be used in teaching to foster interest in geotechnical engineering and recruit young researchers to our field. With this intention, the Teaching Committee of TC2 developed a web-based teaching resources centre. In this paper, the development and organisation of the resource centre using Wordpress. Wordpress is an open-source content management system which allows user content to be edited and site administration to be controlled remotely via a built-in interface. Example data from a centrifuge test on shallow foundations which could be used for undergraduate or graduate level courses is presented and its use illustrated. A discussion on the development of wiki-style addition to the resource centre for commonly used physical model terms is also presented. © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London.

Influence of dew on biomass and photosystem II activity of cyanobacterial crusts in the Hopq Desert, northwest China

Dew is an important water source for desert organisms in semiarid and arid regions. Both field and laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate the possible roles of dew in growth of biomass and photosynthetic activity within cyanobacterial crust. The cyanobacteria, Microcoleus vaginatus Gom. and Scytonema javanicum (Kutz.) Born et Flah., were begun with stock cultures and sequential mass cultivations, and then the field experiment was performed by inoculating the inocula onto shifting sand for forming cyanobacterial crust during late summer and autumn of 2007 in Hopq Desert, northwest China. Measurements of dew amount and Chlorophyll a content were carried out in order to evaluate the changes in crust biomass following dew. Also, we determined the activity of photosystem II(PSII) within the crust in the laboratory by simulating the desiccation/rehydration process due to dew. Results showed that the average daily dew amount as measured by the cloth-plate method (CPM) was 0.154 mm during fifty-three days and that the crust biomass fluctuated from initial inoculation of 4.3 mu g Chlorophyll a cm(-2) sand to 5.8-7.3 mu g Chlorophyll a cm(-2) crust when dew acted as the sole water source, and reached a peak value of approximately 8.2 mu g Chlorophyll a cm(-2) crust owing to rainfalls. It indicated that there was a highly significant correlation between dew amounts and crust moistures (r = 0.897 or r = 0.882, all P < 0.0001), but not a significant correlation between dew and the biomass (r = 0.246 or r = 0.257, all P > 0.05), and thus concluded that dew might only play a relatively limited role in regulating the crust biomass. Correspondingly, we found that rains significantly facilitated biomass increase of the cyanobacterial crust. Results from the simulative experiment upon rehydration showed that approximately 80% of PSII activity could be achieved within about 50 min after rehydration in the dark and at 5 degrees C, and only about 20% of the activity was light-temperature dependent. This might mean that dew was crucial for cyanobacterial crust to rapidly activate photosynthetic activity during desiccation and rehydration despite low temperatures and weak light before dawn. It also showed in this study that the cyanobacterial crusts could receive and retain more dew than sand, which depended on microclimatic characteristics and soil properties of the crusts. It may be necessary for us to fully understanding the influence of dew on regulating the growth and activity of cyanobacterial crust, and to soundly evaluate the crust's potential application in fighting desertification because of the available water due to dew. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Molecular systematics of medusae in the genus Craspedacusta (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa: Limnomedusae) in China with the reference to the identity of species

The objective of this study was to illustrate the phylogenetic relationship of the species in the genus Craspedacusta in China. The medusae samples were collected at 28 localities in China representing seven described species with their entire ITS region (the contiguous sequences of ITS-1, 5.8S and ITS-2 rDNA) rDNA sequences cloned. Among the 28 samples, the range of sequence variation in the complete ITS and 5.8S region was between 0 and 36.2%. Three main clades were revealed by both maximum likelihood and neighbour-joining trees, with sequence difference of 0-0.9, 0-3.7 and 0.1-1.5% in the three clades. The nesting of C. xinyangensis representatives within C. sowerbii, C. brevinema within C. sinensis and C. sichuanensis within C. kiatingi is strongly supported, with interspecific sequence divergence of 0-0.9, 0.1-1.4 and 0.0-0.4%, respectively. Thus, it is suggested that C. xinyangensis should be the synonym of C. sowerbii, C. sichuanensis the synonym of C. kiatingi and C. brevinema the synonym of C. sinensis. However, the taxonomic status of C. ziguiensis is still uncertain. According to the tree topology, C. kiatingi was closer to C. sowerbii than to C. sinensis. Craspedacusta sinensis was the most genetically distinct from distance matrix values, and located at the base of the phylogenetic trees, so it can be speculated that the C. sinensis may be the ancestral form in the genus Craspedacusta.

Application of step-scan FTIR to the research of quantum cascade lasers

The principle of step-scan Fourier transform infrared （FTIR） spectroscopy is introduced. Double modulation step-scan FTIR technique is used to obtain the quantum cascade laser＇s stacked emission spectra in the time domain. Optical property and thermal accumulation of devices due to large drive current are analyzed.

Sequential coupling transport for the dark current of quantum dots-in-well infrared photodetectors

The dark current characteristics and temperature dependence for quantum dot infrared photodetectors have been investigated by comparing the dark current activation energies between two samples with identical structure of the dots-in-well in nanoscale but different microscale n-i-n environments. A sequential coupling transport mechanism for the dark current between the nanoscale and the microscale processes is proposed. The dark current is determined by the additive mode of two activation energies: E-a,E-micro from the built-in potential in the microscale and E-a,E-nano related to the thermally assisted tunneling in nanoscale. The activation energies E-a,E-micro and E-a,E-nano decrease exponentially and linearly with increasing applied electric field, respectively.