Diagnostic accuracy of haemophilia early arthropathy detection with ultrasound (HEAD-US): A comparative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study

Background. Repeated haemarthroses affect approximately 90% of patients with severe haemophilia and lead to progressive arthropathy, which is the main cause of morbidity in these patients. Diagnostic imaging can detect even subclinical arthropathy changes and may impact prophylactic treatment. Magnetic resonance imagining (MRI) is generally the gold standard tool for precise evaluation of joints, but it is not easily feasible in regular follow-up of patients with haemophilia. The development of the standardized ultrasound (US) protocol for detection of early changes in haemophilic arthropathy (HEAD-US) opened new perspectives in the use of US in management of these patients. The HEAD-US protocol enables quick evaluation of the six mostly affected joints in a single study. The aim of this prospective study was to determine the diagnostic accuracy of the HEAD-US protocol for the detection and quantification of haemophilic arthropathy in comparison to the MRI. Patients and methods. The study included 30 patients with severe haemophilia. We evaluated their elbows, ankles and knees (overall 168 joints) by US using the HEAD-US protocol and compared the results with the MRI using the International Prophylaxis Study Group (IPSG) MRI score. Results. The results showed that the overall HEAD-US score correlated very highly with the overall IPSG MRI score (r = 0.92). Correlation was very high for the evaluation of the elbows and knees (r 48 0.95), and slightly lower for the ankles (r 48 0.85). Conclusions. HEAD-US protocol proved to be a quick, reliable and accurate method for the detection and quantification of haemophilic arthropathy

Development, characterization, and applications of high temperature superconductor nanobridge Josephson junctions

A well-controlled, high-yield Josephson junction process in high temperature superconductors (HTS) is necessary for the demonstration of ultra-high-speed devices and circuits which exceed the capabilities of conventional electronics. The authors developed nanobridge Josephson junctions in high quality thin-film YBaCuO with dimensions below 100 nm fabricated using electron-beam nanolithography. They characterized this Josephson junction technology for process yield, junction parameter uniformity, and overall applicability for use in high-performance circuits. To facilitate the determination of junction parameters, they developed a measurement technique based on spectral analysis in the range of 90--160 GHz of phase-locked, oscillating arrays of up to 2,450 Josephson junctions. Because of the excellent yield and uniformity of the nanobridge junctions, they successfully applied the junction technology to a wide variety of circuits. These circuits included transmission-line pulse formers and 32 and 64-bit shift registers. The 32-bit shift register was shown to operate at clock speeds near 100 GHz and is believed to be one of the faster and more complex digital circuit demonstrated to date using high temperature superconductor technology

Influence of dietary protein concentration on the morphology and enzyme activities of the small intestine of the pre-ruminant calf

International audienc

GaAsSb-based heterojunction tunnel diodes for tandem solar cell interconnects

We report a new approach to tunnel junctions that employs a pseudomorphic GaAsSb layer to obtain a band alignment at a InGaAs or InAlAs p-n junction favorable for forward bias tunneling. Since the majority of the band offset between GaAsSb and InGaAs or InAlAs is in the valence band, when an GaAsSb layer is placed at an InGaAs or InAlAs p-n junction the tunneling distance is reduced and the tunneling current is increased. For all doping levels studied, the presence of the GaAsSb-layer enhanced the forward tunneling characteristics. In fact, in a InGaAs/GaAsSb tunnel diode a peak tunneling current sufficient for a 1000 sun intercell interconnect was achieved with p = 1.5{times}l0{sup 18} cm{sup -3} while a similarly doped all-InGaAs diode was rectifying. This approach affords a new degree of freedom in designing tunnel junctions for tandem solar cell interconnects. Previously only doping levels could be varied to control the tunneling properties. Our approach relaxes the doping requirements by employing a GaAsSb-based heterojunction

Extended Metadynamics Protocol for Binding/Unbinding Free Energies of Peptide Ligands to Class A G-Protein-Coupled Receptors

A metadynamics protocol is presented to characterize the binding and unbinding of peptide ligands to class A G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). The protocol expands on the one previously presented for binding and unbinding small-molecule ligands to class A GPCRs and accounts for the more demanding nature of the peptide binding-unbinding process. It applies to almost all class A GPCRs. Exemplary simulations are described for subtypes Y1R, Y2R, and Y4R of the neuropeptide Y receptor family, vasopressin binding to the vasopressin V2 receptor (V2R), and oxytocin binding to the oxytocin receptor (OTR). Binding free energies and the positions of alternative binding sites are presented and, where possible, compared with the experiment

Dos pruebas de confiabilidad interjueces y una descripción de los procedimientos del algoritmo David Liberman (ADL) para el análisis de relatos

This paper fi rst presents two inter-judge reliability tests of the David Liberman algorithm (DLA) and second a description of the procedures for the analysis of narrations. The fi rst reliability test is qualitative and focuses on all the tools of the method, while the second is quantitative and is concentrated just on the instruments for the analysis of narrations. The description of the procedures for the analysis of narrations focuses on the criteria applied in the process of production of the sample.Este trabajo presenta primero dos pruebas de confi abilidad interjueces del algoritmo David Liberman (ADL) y luego una descripción de los procedimientos para el análisis de los relatos. La primera prueba de confi abilidad es de tipo cualitativo y testea todos los instrumentos del método, mientras que la segunda es cuantitativa y testea solo los instrumentos para el análisis de relatos. En cuanto a la descripción de los procedimientos para el análisis de relatos con el ADL, sobre todo se presentan los criterios en que se basa el proceso de producción de la muestra