High frequency of inadequate test requests for antiphospholipid antibodies in daily clinical practice

Abstract Background: We have empirically noted that many physicians routinely request anti-phospholipid antibodies (aPL) without a correct clinical indication. The aim of this study was to evaluate retrospectively whether aPL testing at our Thrombosis Centre was justified. Methods: Medical records from 520 subjects for aPL screening tests for various clinical conditions were reviewed. The aPL screening tests were: lupus anticoagulant (LA), anti-cardiolipin antibodies (aCL) and anti-β(2) glycoptotein I (aβ(2) GPI). Requests for aPL screening were divided into justified, potentially justified or not adequately justified. Results: aPL testing requests were considered justified in 358 (69%) patients, potentially justified in 66 (12.6%) and not adequately justified in 96 (18.4%). LA was positive in 65 (18%) of justified requests and in only one (1%) of the 96 potentially justified requests. None of the 66 not adequately justified for aPL testing was positive for LA. aβ(2) ..

The agent programming language meta-APL

Abstract. We describe a novel agent programming language, Meta-APL, and give its operational semantics. Meta-APL allows both agent programs and their associated deliberation strategy to be encoded in the same programming language. We define a notion of equivalence between programs written in different agent programming languages based on the notion of weak bisimulation equivalence. We show how to simulate (up to this notion of equivalence) programs written in other agent programming languages by programs of Meta-APL. This involves translating both the agent program and the deliberation strategy under which it is executed into Meta-APL.

Anti-phospholipid-antibodies in patients with relapsing polychondritis

Relapsing polychondritis (RP) is an extremly rare multisystemic disease thought to be of autoimmune origin. In order to assess if RP is associated with anti-phospholipid antibodies (aPL), clinical data and sera of 21 patients with RP were collected in a multicentre study. Concentration of anti-cardiolipin antibodies (aCL) (IgG-, IgM-and IgA-isotypes), anti-phosphatidylserine-antibodies (aPS) (IgG-and IgM-isotypes) and anti-β-2-glycoprotein I-antibodies (aβ2 GPI) were measured by ELISA. In eight patients aCL were found to be elevated. One patient had elevated aPS. No patient had elevated aβ2 GPI. No patient had clinical signs and symptoms of a aPL syndrome. Interestingly, the two RP patients with the highest aPL had concomitant systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Therefore the presence of elevated aPL in RP is probably more closely related to an associated SLE than to RP itself. There is no convincing evidence that aPL are associated with RP

Users guide for information retrieval using APL

A Programming Language (APL) is a precise, concise, and powerful computer programming language. Several features make APL useful to managers and other potential computer users. APL is interactive; therefore, the user can communicate with his program or data base in near real-time. This, coupled with the fact that APL has excellent debugging features, reduces program checkout time to minutes or hours rather than days or months. Of particular importance is the fact that APL can be utilized as a management science tool using such techniques as operations research, statistical analysis, and forecasting. The gap between the scientist and the manager could be narrowed by showing how APL can be used to do what the scientists and the manager each need to do, retrieve information. Sometimes, the information needs to be retrieved rapidly. In this case APL is ideally suited for this challenge

Push-pull modulated analog photonic link with enhanced sfdr

We demonstrate an analog photonic link (APL) with a high multioctave spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of 120 dB.Hz2/3 at the frequency of 2.50 GHz. The APL consists of a pair of distributed-feedback laser diodes (DFB LDs), modulated in a push-pull manner, and a balanced photodetector aiming at suppressing the second-order intermodulation distortion (IMD2). At the frequency of 2.50 GHz, an IMD2 suppression of 40 dB, relative to the case of a single arm APL with one laser, is obtained. In a wide frequency range of 600 MHz (2.60 to 3.20 GHz), an improvement of 5 to 18 dB of the second-order SFDR relative to the single arm APL has been achieved.\ud \u

Enhanced dynamic range in a directly modulated analog photonic link

We demonstrate a directly modulated analog photonic link (APL) capable of a high multioctave spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR). The APL consists of a pair of laser diodes, modulated in a push–pull manner, and a balanced photodetector aiming at suppressing the second-order intermodulation distortion (IMD2). In a wide frequency range of 600 MHz (2.60–3.20 GHz), an IMD2 suppression as high as 23 dB and an improvement of 5–18 dB of the second-order SFDR, relative to a conventional single arm photonic link, have been achieved. In this frequency range, the APL SFDR is in excess of 116 dB.Hz2/3}

The Tribble with APL: a new road to therapy

The t(15;17) translocation generates a PML-RARα fusion protein causative for acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). Li et al. now identify the pseudokinase stress protein TRIB3 as an important factor in APL disease progression and therapy resistance. Targeting the interaction of TRIB3 and PML-RARα using peptide technology provides a novel therapeutic approach

Locking Local Oscillator Phase to the Atomic Phase via Weak Measurement

We propose a new method to reduce the frequency noise of a Local Oscillator (LO) to the level of white phase noise by maintaining (not destroying by projective measurement) the coherence of the ensemble pseudo-spin of atoms over many measurement cycles. This scheme uses weak measurement to monitor the phase in Ramsey method and repeat the cycle without initialization of phase and we call, "atomic phase lock (APL)" in this paper. APL will achieve white phase noise as long as the noise accumulated during dead time and the decoherence are smaller than the measurement noise. A numerical simulation confirms that with APL, Allan deviation is averaged down at a maximum rate that is proportional to the inverse of total measurement time, tau^-1. In contrast, the current atomic clocks that use projection measurement suppress the noise only down to the level of white frequency, in which case Allan deviation scales as tau^-1/2. Faraday rotation is one of the possible ways to realize weak measurement for APL. We evaluate the strength of Faraday rotation with 171Yb+ ions trapped in a linear rf-trap and discuss the performance of APL. The main source of the decoherence is a spontaneous emission induced by the probe beam for Faraday rotation measurement. One can repeat the Faraday rotation measurement until the decoherence become comparable to the SNR of measurement. We estimate this number of cycles to be ~100 cycles for a realistic experimental parameter.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, submitted to New Journal of Physic

Seeing (ultra)sound in real-time through the Acousto-PiezoLuminescent lens

In this contribution, we focus on a recently developed piezoluminescent phosphor BaSi2O2N2:Eu (BaSiON), and report on Acoustically induced PiezoLuminescence (APL). Insonification of the BaSiON phosphor with (ultra)sound waves leads to intense light emission patterns which are clearly visible by the bare eye. The emitted light intensity has been measured with a calibrated photometer revealing it is directly proportional to the applied acoustic power. As such, APL can be used to devise a simple but effective acoustic power sensor. Further, the emitted APL light pattern has a specific geometrical shape which we successfully linked to the pressure field of the incident (ultra)sonic wave. This is explicitly demonstrated for an ultrasonic (f = 3.3 MHz) transducer. By varying the insonification distance (from near- to far-field), multiple 2D slices of the transducer's radiation field light up on the BaSiON phosphor plate. By simply photographing these light patterns, and stacking them one after another, the 3D spatial radiation field of the ultrasonic transducer was reconstructed. Good agreement was found with both classical scanning hydrophone experiments and simulations. Recently we found that APL can also be activated by acoustic waves in the kHz range, thus covering a wide frequency range. Some first preliminary results are shown