Institutional isomorphism, negativity bias and performance information use by politicians : a survey experiment

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Thermal neutron induced (n,p) and (n,alpha) reactions on 37Ar

The 37Ar(n_th,alpha)34S and 37Ar(n_th,p)37Cl reactions were studied at the high flux reactor of the ILL in Grenoble. For the 37Ar(n_th,alpha_0) and 37Ar(n_th,p) reaction cross sections, values of (1070+/-80)b and (37+/-4)b, respectively, were obtained. Both values are about a factor 2 smaller than results of older measurements. The observed suppression of the 37(n_th,alpha_1) transition could be verified from theoretical considerations. Finally, evidence was found for the two-step 37Ar(n_th,gamma-alpha) process.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Nuclear Physics

Gitana: a SQL-based Git Repository Inspector

International audienceSoftware development projects are notoriously complex and difficult to deal with. Several support tools such as issue tracking, code review and Source Control Management (SCM) systems have been introduced in the past decades to ease development activities. While such tools efficiently track the evolution of a given aspect of the project (e.g., bug reports), they provide just a partial view of the project and often lack of advanced querying mechanisms limiting themselves to command line or simple GUI support. This is particularly true for projects that rely on Git, the most popular SCM system today. In this paper, we propose a conceptual schema for Git and an approach that, given a Git repository, exports its data to a relational database in order to (1) promote data integration with other existing SCM tools and (2) enable writing queries on Git data using standard SQL syntax. To ensure efficiency, our approach comes with an incremental propagation mechanism that refreshes the database content with the latest modifications. We have implemented our approach in Gitana, an open-source tool available on GitHub

The measurement and therapeutic implications of circulating tumour cells in breast cancer

Circulating tumours cells (CTCs) represent an important biologic link in the spread of breast cancer from primary to metastatic disease. CTCs are strong predictors of prognosis in patients with metastatic breast cancer. Research to date has focused on development of methods with adequate sensitivity and specificity to reproducibly identify these rare events. Future research will focus on the biologic phenotypes of these cells with goals to understand mechanisms of metastasis, to identify novel therapeutic targets, and to monitor response to therapy

Bronchiectasis insanity:Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?

Bronchiectasis is an increasingly common disease with a significant impact on quality of life and morbidity of affected patients. It is also a very heterogeneous disease with numerous different underlying etiologies and presentations. Most treatments for bronchiectasis are based on low-quality evidence; consequently, no treatments have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration or the European Medicines Agency for the treatment of bronchiectasis. The last several years have seen numerous clinical trials in which the investigational agent, thought to hold great promise, did not demonstrate a clinically or statistically significant benefit. This commentary will review the likely reasons for these disappointing results and a potential approach that may have a greater likelihood of defining evidence-based treatment for bronchiectasis

Bronchiectasis and asthma: Data from the European Bronchiectasis Registry (EMBARC)

\ua9 2024 The AuthorsBackground: Asthma is commonly reported in patients with a diagnosis of bronchiectasis. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether patients with bronchiectasis and asthma (BE+A) had a different clinical phenotype and different outcomes compared with patients with bronchiectasis without concomitant asthma. Methods: A prospective observational pan-European registry (European Multicentre Bronchiectasis Audit and Research Collaboration) enrolled patients across 28 countries. Adult patients with computed tomography–confirmed bronchiectasis were reviewed at baseline and annual follow-up visits using an electronic case report form. Asthma was diagnosed by the local investigator. Follow-up data were used to explore differences in exacerbation frequency between groups using a negative binomial regression model. Survival analysis used Cox proportional hazards regression. Results: Of 16,963 patients with bronchiectasis included for analysis, 5,267 (31.0%) had investigator-reported asthma. Patients with BE+A were younger, were more likely to be female and never smokers, and had a higher body mass index than patients with bronchiectasis without asthma. BE+A was associated with a higher prevalence of rhinosinusitis and nasal polyps as well as eosinophilia and Aspergillus sensitization. BE+A had similar microbiology but significantly lower severity of disease using the bronchiectasis severity index. Patients with BE+A were at increased risk of exacerbation after adjustment for disease severity and multiple confounders. Inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) use was associated with reduced mortality in patients with BE+A (adjusted hazard ratio 0.78, 95% CI 0.63-0.95) and reduced risk of hospitalization (rate ratio 0.67, 95% CI 0.67-0.86) compared with control subjects without asthma and not receiving ICSs. Conclusions: BE+A was common and was associated with an increased risk of exacerbations and improved outcomes with ICS use. Unexpectedly we identified significantly lower mortality in patients with BE+A