CHARGING AND DETECTION OF MESOSPHERIC DUST WITH INSTRUMENT SPID ON G-CHASER ROCKET

The Smoke Particle Impact Detector (SPID) was flown on the G-Chaser student rocket that was launched from Andøya on 13 January 2019. SPID is a Faraday cup instrument with applied bias voltages to deflect the ambient plasma and a target area inside the probe designed to measure the dust particles by charge detection. The charging process of the dust particles in the detector is important for interpretation of the measurements and the influence of the charging models is discussed. Preliminary analysis of the SPID observations shows that ambient plasma and sunlight had an influence on the signals; further analysis is needed to retrieve information on impacting dust from the data

Twilight foraging enables European shags to survive the winter across their latitudinal range

Species breeding at high latitudes face a significant challenge of surviving the winter. Such conditions are particularly severe for diurnal marine endotherms such as seabirds. A critical question is therefore what behavioural strategies such species adopt to maximise survival probability. We tested 3 hypotheses: (1) they migrate to lower latitudes to exploit longer day length (‘sun-chasing’), (2) they forage at night (‘night-feeding’), or (3) they target high-quality food patches to minimise foraging time (‘feasting’). We studied the winter migration and foraging strategies of European shags Phalacrocorax aristotelis from 6 colonies across a latitudinal gradient from temperate regions to north of the Arctic Circle using geolocators deployed over 11 winters. We found evidence for ‘sun-chasing’, whereby average southerly movements were greatest from colonies at higher latitudes. However, a proportion of individuals from higher latitudes remained resident in winter and, in the absence of daylight, they foraged during twilight and only very occasionally during the night. At lower latitudes, there was little evidence that individuals migrated south, nocturnal feeding was absent, and twilight feeding was infrequent, suggesting that there was sufficient daylight in winter. There was no evidence that winter foraging time was lowest at higher latitudes, as predicted by the ‘feasting’ hypothesis. Our results suggest that shags adopt different behavioural strategies to survive the winter across their latitudinal range, dictated by the differing light constraints. Our study highlights the value of multi-colony studies in testing key hypotheses to explain population persistence in seabird species that occur over large latitudinal ranges

Ruxolitinib for Glucocorticoid-Refractory Acute Graft-versus-Host Disease

BACKGROUND: Acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) remains a major limitation of allogeneic stem-cell transplantation; not all patients have a response to standard glucocorticoid treatment. In a phase 2 trial, ruxolitinib, a selective Janus kinase (JAK1 and JAK2) inhibitor, showed potential efficacy in patients with glucocorticoid-refractory acute GVHD. METHODS: We conducted a multicenter, randomized, open-label, phase 3 trial comparing the efficacy and safety of oral ruxolitinib (10 mg twice daily) with the investigator's choice of therapy from a list of nine commonly used options (control) in patients 12 years of age or older who had glucocorticoid-refractory acute GVHD after allogeneic stem-cell transplantation. The primary end point was overall response (complete response or partial response) at day 28. The key secondary end point was durable overall response at day 56. RESULTS: A total of 309 patients underwent randomization; 154 patients were assigned to the ruxolitinib group and 155 to the control group. Overall response at day 28 was higher in the ruxolitinib group than in the control group (62% [96 patients] vs. 39% [61]; odds ratio, 2.64; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.65 to 4.22; P<0.001). Durable overall response at day 56 was higher in the ruxolitinib group than in the control group (40% [61 patients] vs. 22% [34]; odds ratio, 2.38; 95% CI, 1.43 to 3.94; P<0.001). The estimated cumulative incidence of loss of response at 6 months was 10% in the ruxolitinib group and 39% in the control group. The median failure-free survival was considerably longer with ruxolitinib than with control (5.0 months vs. 1.0 month; hazard ratio for relapse or progression of hematologic disease, non-relapse-related death, or addition of new systemic therapy for acute GVHD, 0.46; 95% CI, 0.35 to 0.60). The median overall survival was 11.1 months in the ruxolitinib group and 6.5 months in the control group (hazard ratio for death, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.60 to 1.15). The most common adverse events up to day 28 were thrombocytopenia (in 50 of 152 patients [33%] in the ruxolitinib group and 27 of 150 [18%] in the control group), anemia (in 46 [30%] and 42 [28%], respectively), and cytomegalovirus infection (in 39 [26%] and 31 [21%]). CONCLUSIONS: Ruxolitinib therapy led to significant improvements in efficacy outcomes, with a higher incidence of thrombocytopenia, the most frequent toxic effect, than that observed with control therapy

Konsertformen och dess tecken : En dekonstruktiv läsning – och en historia om en ensemble en dirigent och en Bellman.

Denna text kommer att kretsa kring min komposition Historien om en ensemble en dirigent och en Bellman, det filosofiska begreppet dekonstruktion och de tankar som uppstod när jag fördjupade min kunskap om detta filosofiska tankegods, vilket resulterade i en mängd idéer och ledde i sin tur fram till kompositionen Historien om en ensemble en dirigent och en Bellman. Som inledning till denna text kommer jag börja med att göra en kort presentation av min tolkning av begreppet dekonstruktion med utgångspunkt i texten Den okända texten av Anders Olsson. I efterföljande kapitel kommer jag att presentera min dekonstruktiva läsning av konsertformen där jag talar om de tecken jag anser ryms i det begreppet. Denna läsning ligger sedan som grund till min fortsatta diskussion om främst min egen musik och hur jag applicerat den i Historien om en ensemble en dirigent och en Bellman. Syftet med denna text är att ge exempel på hur mitt dekonstruktiva förhållningssätt kan öppna upp nya vägar inom komposition genom att lyfta blicken från enbart det ljudande resultatet och även ta i beaktande det performativa skeendet i rummet – detta för att förhoppningsvis få en tilltänkt publik att tvingas aktivera deras lyssnade och perception genom både inbjudande och subversiva gester och tekniker.Till dokumentationen hör även följande verk: Historien om en ensemble en dirigent och en Bellman</p

Controlled trial of a short and a prolonged course with ciprofloxacin in patients undergoing transurethral prostatic surgery

The efficacy of a short (Group I) and a prolonged (Group II) course with ciprofloxacin was assessed in patients undergoing transurethral prostatic resection for benign hyperplasia or cancer of the prostate and compared with that of controls without antibiotic (Group III). Both regiments significantly reduced the frequency of postoperative bacteriuria (p less than 0.01) and of severe infectious complications (p = 0.004) as compared to the controls. Both regimens were equally effective in preventing perioperative and postoperative acquisition of bacteriuria in patients without bacteriuria at surgery. In patients with bacteriuria before surgery, bacteriuria was found postoperatively in 35% in Group I and 10% in Group II (p = 0.012), but in 82% of the patients in Group III. Ciprofloxacin inhibited all but 7 of 176 bacterial strains at an MIC of less than or equal to 1 microgram/ml. Given orally ciprofloxacin is a valuable alternative antimicrobial for use in conjunction with transurethral prostatic resection. A short course is sufficient for prophylaxis, and adequate therapy is achieved with a prolonged regimen

Use of ciprofloxacin in patients undergoing transurethral prostatic surgery

The efficacy of a short (Group I) and a prolonged (Group II) course with ciprofloxacin was assessed in patients undergoing transurethral prostatic resection and compared with that of controls without antibiotic (Group III). Both regimens significantly reduced the frequency of post-operative bacteriuria (p less than 0.01) and of severe infectious complications (p = 0.004) compared to the controls. Both regimens were equally effective in preventing peri-operative and post-operative acquisition of bacteriuria in patients without bacteriuria at surgery. In patients with bacteriuria before surgery, bacteriuria was found post-operatively in 35% in Group I and in 9% in Group II (p = 0.012), but in 82% of the patients in Group III. Ciprofloxacin inhibited all but 7 of 176 bacterial strains at an MIC of less than or equal to 1 microgram/ml. Given orally, ciprofloxacin is a valuable alternative antimicrobial for use in conjunction with transurethral prostatic resection. A short course is sufficient for prophylaxis, and adequate therapy is achieved with a prolonged regimen

Effects on the ciliated epithelium of protein D-producing and -nonproducing nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae in nasopharyngeal tissue cultures

A pair of isogenic, nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae strains, one expressing protein D and the other protein D-negative, was compared in their ability to cause damage in a human nasopharyngeal tissue culture model. Damage was assessed by measuring the ciliary beat frequency (CBF) of tissue specimens at 12 h intervals. Cultures inoculated with H. influenzae manifested a decrease in CBF beginning after 12 h, with a maximum decrease after 36 h. The impairment of ciliary function by the protein D-expressing strain was significantly greater than that caused by the protein D-negative mutant (P<.01). Tissue specimens examined by scanning and transmission electron microscopy after 24 h appeared normal. After 48 h of incubation, the protein D-expressing strain caused a significant loss of cilia. These findings suggest that protein D is involved in the pathogenesis of upper respiratory tract infections due to nontypeable H. influenzae, probably by enhancing functional and morphological damage to cilia