Overview of recent TJ-II stellarator results

The main results obtained in the TJ-II stellarator in the last two years are reported. The most important topics investigated have been modelling and validation of impurity transport, validation of gyrokinetic simulations, turbulence characterisation, effect of magnetic configuration on transport, fuelling with pellet injection, fast particles and liquid metal plasma facing components. As regards impurity transport research, a number of working lines exploring several recently discovered effects have been developed: the effect of tangential drifts on stellarator neoclassical transport, the impurity flux driven by electric fields tangent to magnetic surfaces and attempts of experimental validation with Doppler reflectometry of the variation of the radial electric field on the flux surface. Concerning gyrokinetic simulations, two validation activities have been performed, the comparison with measurements of zonal flow relaxation in pellet-induced fast transients and the comparison with experimental poloidal variation of fluctuations amplitude. The impact of radial electric fields on turbulence spreading in the edge and scrape-off layer has been also experimentally characterized using a 2D Langmuir probe array. Another remarkable piece of work has been the investigation of the radial propagation of small temperature perturbations using transfer entropy. Research on the physics and modelling of plasma core fuelling with pellet and tracer-encapsulated solid-pellet injection has produced also relevant results. Neutral beam injection driven Alfvénic activity and its possible control by electron cyclotron current drive has been examined as well in TJ-II. Finally, recent results on alternative plasma facing components based on liquid metals are also presented. ISSN:0029-5515 ISSN:1741-432

Cut-offs and response criteria for the Hospital Universitario la Princesa Index (HUPI) and their comparison to widely-used indices of disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis

Objective To estimate cut-off points and to establish response criteria for the Hospital Universitario La Princesa Index (HUPI) in patients with chronic polyarthritis. Methods Two cohorts, one of early arthritis (Princesa Early Arthritis Register Longitudinal PEARL] study) and other of long-term rheumatoid arthritis (Estudio de la Morbilidad y Expresión Clínica de la Artritis Reumatoide EMECAR]) including altogether 1200 patients were used to determine cut-off values for remission, and for low, moderate and high activity through receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis. The areas under ROC (AUC) were compared to those of validated indexes (SDAI, CDAI, DAS28). ROC analysis was also applied to establish minimal and relevant clinical improvement for HUPI. Results The best cut-off points for HUPI are 2, 5 and 9, classifying RA activity as remission if =2, low disease activity if >2 and =5), moderate if >5 and <9 and high if =9. HUPI''s AUC to discriminate between low-moderate activity was 0.909 and between moderate-high activity 0.887. DAS28''s AUCs were 0.887 and 0.846, respectively; both indices had higher accuracy than SDAI (AUCs: 0.832 and 0.756) and CDAI (AUCs: 0.789 and 0.728). HUPI discriminates remission better than DAS28-ESR in early arthritis, but similarly to SDAI. The HUPI cut-off for minimal clinical improvement was established at 2 and for relevant clinical improvement at 4. Response criteria were established based on these cut-off values. Conclusions The cut-offs proposed for HUPI perform adequately in patients with either early or long term arthritis

Análisis experimental del efecto de la turbulencia en la velocidad de caída de sedimentos en suspensión

"Por medio de la técnica de Velocimetría por Imágenes de Partículas (PIV), y mediantela aplicación de filtros discriminadores, se calcularon las velocidades de caída desedimentos para diferentes intervalos de tamaños. Se empleó un canal exper i mentalde

Early primary lymphoedema treated by en bloc excision: A case report

Introduction: Lymphoedema is a pathological condition with a low global incidence where protein-rich fluid accumulates in the interstitium, causing inflammation and degenerative changes in the affected limbs. It is divided into primary and secondary; worldwide the most common causes are cancer or its treatment and filariasis infection. It is diagnosed through the patient's medical history and treatment depends on the severity. Case report: Twenty-one-year-old male with the condition for 8 years, with a gradual increase in volume in the right lower limb, seen in the emergency department due to functional disability; en bloc excision plus split-thickness grafting was performed, fixed with sutures and ABThera, with 85% integration and functional improvement. Conclusions: Lymphoedema has a high socio-economic impact. Its treatment involves several specialists and must be multidisciplinary, who then find the cause and propose management according to the stage. Combined medical and surgical therapy is the best choice for advanced stages. Resumen: Introducción: El linfedema es una condición patológica de baja incidencia mundial, que acumula líquido rico en proteínas en el intersticio, provocando inflamación y cambios degenerativos en las extremidades afectas. Se divide en primario y secundario, la causa global más frecuente es el cáncer o su tratamiento y la infección por filarias. El diagnostico se realiza a través de historia clínica y el tratamiento depende del grado de severidad. Caso clínico: Masculino de 21 años con padecimiento de 8 años, con aumento progresivo de volumen en extremidad inferior derecha, acude a urgencias por incapacidad funcional; se realizó escisión en bloque más aplicación de injertos de espesor parcial, fijados con suturas y Abthera, con integración de 85% y mejoría funcional. Conclusiones: El linfedema tiene alto impacto socioeconómico, su tratamiento involucra diversos especialistas, debe ser multidisciplinario, encontrando la causa y según estadio proponer manejo. La terapia médica y quirúrgica en conjunto es la mejor opción para estadios avanzados. Keywords: Lymphoedema, Filariasis, Cancer, ABThera system, Graft, Palabras clave: Linfedema, Filariasis, Cáncer, Sistema Abthera, Injert

How do shareholders influence international firms’ environmental strategies? The differential impact of strategic and financial investors

Debates about the drivers of corporate environmental strategy as well as the influence of shareholders on environmental investments have grown exponentially in the last decade. This paper provides a novel perspective on the influence of investors on a firm's environmental strategy by theorizing how the shareholders' orientation may provide different resources for firms to outperform environmental institutional pressures, and further analyzing how foreign market exposure moderates this relationship. Our results, produced from a longitudinal sample of 2237 observations between 2007 and 2017 from 276 US firms in 11 industries, show that having a higher percentage of strategic shareholders positively drives firms' environmental proactivity. Meanwhile, having a higher percentage of financial shareholders is positively related to firms' environmental proactivity only at high levels of foreign market exposure, but is negatively related at low levels. Our results contribute to the ownership and environmental strategy literature by delimitating the different influences of strategic and financial investors on firms' environmental strategy and making a bridge between institutional and resource-based perspectives