Incidence and outcome of encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis

Background: Studies report variation in the incidence and outcomes of encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis (EPS). This study reports the incidence and outcome of EPS cases in a national cohort of peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. Methods: The incident cohort of adult patients who started PD between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2007 in Scotland (n = 1238) was identified from the Scottish Renal Registry. All renal units in Scotland identified potential EPS cases diagnosed from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2014, by which point all patients had a minimum of 7 years follow-up from start of PD. Results: By 31 December 2014, 35 EPS cases were diagnosed in the 1238 patient cohort: an overall incidence of 2.8%. The incidence for subgroups with longer PD duration rises exponentially: 1.1% by 1 year, 3.4% by 3 years, 8.8% at 4 years, 9.4% at 5 years and 22.2% by 7 years. Outcomes are poor with mortality of 57.1% by 1 year after diagnosis. Survival analysis demonstrates an initial above-average survival in patients who later develop EPS, which plummets to well below average after EPS diagnosis. Conclusions: The incidence of EPS is reassuringly low provided PD exposure is not prolonged and this supports ongoing use of PD. However, continuing PD beyond 3 years results in an exponential rise in the risk of developing EPS and deciding whether this risk is acceptable should be made on an individual patient basis

Evidence for polar jets as precursors of polar plume formation

Observations from the Hinode/XRT telescope and STEREO/SECCHI/EUVI are utilized to study polar coronal jets and plumes. The study focuses on the temporal evolution of both structures and their relationship. The data sample, spanning April 7-8 2007, shows that over 90% of the 28 observed jet events are associated with polar plumes. EUV images (STEREO/SECCHI) show plume haze rising from the location of approximately 70% of the polar X-ray (Hinode/XRT) and EUV jets, with the plume haze appearing minutes to hours after the jet was observed. The remaining jets occurred in areas where plume material previously existed causing a brightness enhancement of the latter after the jet event. Short-lived, jet-like events and small transient bright points are seen (one at a time) at different locations within the base of pre-existing long-lived plumes. X-ray images also show instances (at least two events) of collimated-thin jets rapidly evolving into significantly wider plume-like structures that are followed by the delayed appearance of plume haze in the EUV. These observations provide evidence that X-ray jets are precursors of polar plumes, and in some cases cause brightenings of plumes. Possible mechanisms to explain the observed jet and plume relationship are discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, accepted as APJ Lette

Cross-validating precipitation datasets in the Indus River basin

Abstract. Large uncertainty remains about the amount of precipitation falling in the Indus River basin, particularly in the more mountainous northern part. While rain gauge measurements are often considered as a reference, they provide information for specific, often sparse, locations (point observations) and are subject to underestimation, particularly in mountain areas. Satellite observations and reanalysis data can improve our knowledge but validating their results is often difficult. In this study, we offer a cross-validation of 20 gridded datasets based on rain gauge, satellite, and reanalysis data, including the most recent and less studied APHRODITE-2, MERRA2, and ERA5. This original approach to cross-validation alternatively uses each dataset as a reference and interprets the result according to their dependency on the reference. Most interestingly, we found that reanalyses represent the daily variability of precipitation as well as any observational datasets, particularly in winter. Therefore, we suggest that reanalyses offer better estimates than non-corrected rain-gauge-based datasets where underestimation is problematic. Specifically, ERA5 is the reanalysis that offers estimates of precipitation closest to observations, in terms of amounts, seasonality, and variability, from daily to multi-annual scale. By contrast, satellite observations bring limited improvement at the basin scale. For the rain-gauge-based datasets, APHRODITE has the finest temporal representation of the precipitation variability, yet it importantly underestimates the actual amount. GPCC products are the only datasets that include a correction factor of the rain gauge measurements, but this factor likely remains too small. These findings highlight the need for a systematic characterisation of the underestimation of rain gauge measurements. European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 648609

Auxiliary field diffusion Monte Carlo calculations of light and medium-mass nuclei with local chiral interactions

Quantum Monte Carlo methods have recently been employed to study properties of nuclei and infinite matter using local chiral effective field theory interactions. In this work, we present a detailed description of the auxiliary field diffusion Monte Carlo algorithm for nuclei in combination with local chiral two- and three-nucleon interactions up to next-to-next-to-leading order. We show results for the binding energy, charge radius, charge form factor, and Coulomb sum rule in nuclei with $3\le A\le16$. Particular attention is devoted to the effect of different operator structures in the three-body force for different cutoffs. The outcomes suggest that local chiral interactions fit to few-body observables give a very good description of the ground-state properties of nuclei up to $^{16}$O, with the exception of one fit for the softer cutoff which predicts overbinding in larger nuclei.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure

Ancient Egypt 1921 Part 1

Part 1 of the 1921 Ancient Egypt books. Contents include the alphabet in the XIIth dynasty, the Lahun caskets, burial rites of West Africa, a Negro captive, and Queen Tetisheri.https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/kweeks_coll/1014/thumbnail.jp

Planetary systems around close binary stars: the case of the very dusty, Sun-like, spectroscopic binary BD+20 307

Field star BD+20 307 is the dustiest known main sequence star, based on the fraction of its bolometric luminosity, 4%, that is emitted at infrared wavelengths. The particles that carry this large IR luminosity are unusually warm, comparable to the temperature of the zodiacal dust in the solar system, and their existence is likely to be a consequence of a fairly recent collision of large objects such as planets or planetary embryos. Thus, the age of BD+20 307 is potentially of interest in constraining the era of terrestrial planet formation. The present project was initiated with an attempt to derive this age using the Chandra X-ray Observatory to measure the X-ray flux of BD+20 307 in conjunction with extensive photometric and spectroscopic monitoring observations from Fairborn Observatory. However, the recent realization that BD+20 307 is a short period, double-line, spectroscopic binary whose components have very different lithium abundances, vitiates standard methods of age determination. We find the system to be metal-poor; this, combined with its measured lithium abundances, indicates that BD+20 307 may be several to many Gyr old. BD+20 307 affords astronomy a rare peek into a mature planetary system in orbit around a close binary star (because such systems are not amenable to study by the precision radial velocity technique).Comment: accepted for ApJ, December 10, 200

Nonlinear force-free and potential field models of active-region and global coronal fields during the Whole Heliospheric Interval

Between 2008/3/24 and 2008/4/2, the three active regions NOAA active regions 10987, 10988 and 10989 were observed daily by the Synoptic Optical Long-term Investigations of the Sun (SOLIS) Vector Spectro-Magnetograph (VSM) while they traversed the solar disk. We use these measurements and the nonlinear force-free magnetic field code XTRAPOL to reconstruct the coronal magnetic field for each active region and compare model field lines with images from the Solar Terrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) and Hinode X-ray Telescope (XRT) telescopes. Synoptic maps made from continuous, round-the-clock Global Oscillations Network Group (GONG) magnetograms provide information on the global photospheric field and potential-field source-surface models based on these maps describe the global coronal field during the Whole Heliospheric Interval (WHI) and its neighboring rotations. Features of the modeled global field, such as the coronal holes and streamer belt locations, are discussed in comparison with extreme ultra-violet and coronagraph observations from STEREO. The global field is found to be far from a minimum, dipolar state. From the nonlinear models we compute physical quantities for the active regions such as the photospheric magnetic and electric current fluxes, the free magnetic energy and the relative helicity for each region each day where observations permit. The interconnectivity of the three regions is addressed in the context of the potential-field source-surface model. Using local and global quantities derived from the models, we briefly discuss the different observed activity levels of the regions.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Solar Physics Whole Heliospheric Interval (WHI) topical issue. We had difficulty squeezing this paper into arXiv's 15 Mb limit. The full paper is available here ftp://gong2.nso.edu/dsds_user/petrie/PetrieCanouAmari.pd

Personalized medicine and hospitalization for heart failure: if we understand it, we may be successful in treating it

Randomized trials in patients with hospitalized heart failure (HHF) continue to frustrate the cardiology community. Promising haemodynamic, structural and biomarker findings from phase 2 studies consistently fail to deliver substantive benefits in larger outcome trials. What underlies these recurrent failures? Why are persistently high readmission and post‐discharge mortality rates not being reduced? Challenging any pre‐conceived ideas about the existence of a ‘typical’ acutely decompensated heart failure patient is fundamental, as is the adoption of a carefully personalized approach. These individuals come from a remarkably heterogeneous group. Surely precise phenotyping should translate to a more successful therapeutic approach

Ancient Egypt 1922 Part 3

Part 3 of the 1922 Ancient Egypt books. Contents include Hittite letters on Egypt, heddle-jacks of looms, loom weights in Egypt, and a discussion of Nebti Sma.https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/kweeks_coll/1020/thumbnail.jp