Hepatitis C virus genotypes in liver transplant recipients: Impact on posttransplant recurrence, infections, response to interferon-α therapy and outcome

Background. End-stage liver disease due to hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the most common indication for liver transplantation in U.S. veterans. We investigated the influence of HCV genotypes on the incidence and timing of recurrent HCV hepatitis, survival, infectious morbidity, and response to interferon-α therapy in this unique patient population. Methods. HCV genotype was determined by direct sequencing of the NS5 region of HCV with type-specific primers. Results. Genotype 1a (66%, 32/47) was the predominant genotype. Type 1b was found in 25% (12/47) of patients and type 2b was found in 9% (4/47). His topathologically recurrent HCV hepatitis developed in 53% (25/47) of the patients after transplantation. This group included 45% (14/31) of the patients with type 1a, 67% (8/12) of the patients with type 1b, and 25% (1/4) of the patients with type 2b (P>0.5). The time to recurrence and the severity of HCV recurrence as defined by aminotransferase levels or Knodell scores were not different among the three genotypes. There was a trend toward a higher incidence of major infections in patients with type 1b (75%) versus type 1a (48%) and type 2b (50%) (P=0.11). The response to interferon-α therapy did not differ significantly among the genotypes. Mortality at 5 years was 16% (5/31) in patients with genotype 1a, 42% (5/12) in patients with genotype 1b, and 50% (2/4) in patients with genotype 2b (P=0.06). Conclusions. The incidence, time to recurrence, and response to interferon-α therapy did not differ be tween the various genotypes in our liver transplant recipients. However, there was a trend toward higher infectious morbidity and overall mortality in patients with genotype 1b after transplantation

A European Turn in Early American History? A Discussion of Evan Haefeli's Accidental Pluralism: America and the Religious Politics of English Expansion, 1497-1662

From the nineteenth century onwards, Americans have naturalized their colonial origins into a consensual nationalist history, emphasizing America’s perceived role as a refuge for the persecuted, while smoothing out a myriad of complexities in the process. Evan Haefeli attempts to overturn the assumptions underpinning this narrative and is convinced that many important aspects of early America need to be understood within a broader European context. In Accidental Pluralism, he argues that the collapse of religious unity in England lies at the root of the emergence of pluralism in colonial America, in which he includes Canada and the Caribbean. Relationships among states, churches, and publics were contested from the earliest decades of colonization and created a pluralistic religious landscape that no one had anticipated. The four reviewers are fulsome in their praise, calling it an impressive, important, powerful, and sweeping book that few scholars could have written. The reviewers also raise questions, for instance by problematizing the incorporation of the colonial American dimension into early British history, criticizing the validity of the chosen end date, and questioning his definitions of diversity, pluralism, and religious toleration. In his response Evan Haefeli takes the opportunity to reflect on what drove him to write the book and to organize it in this way. He acknowledges that connecting early American history with its broader European context was more difficult than it should have been, as the dominant questions in the two historiographies are an ocean apart. While the argument of the book is aimed at early Americanists, Haefeli is grateful that the reviewers situate the story he tells within the broader early modern European history of toleration

Pliocene-Pleistocene marine cyclothems, Wanganui Basin, New Zealand: a lithostratigraphic framework

The Rangitikei River valley between Mangaweka and Vinegar Hill and the surrounding Ohingaiti region in eastern Wanganui Basin contains a late Pliocene to early Pleistocene (c. 2.6-1.7 Ma), c. 1100 m thick, southward-dipping (4-9deg.), marine cyclothemic succession. Twenty sedimentary cycles occur within the succession, each of which contains coarse-grained (siliciclastic sandstone and coquina) and fine-grained (siliciclastic siltstone) units. Nineteen of the cycles are assigned to the Rangitikei Group (new). Six new formations are defined within the Rangitikei Group, and their distribution in the Ohingaiti region is represented in a new geologic map. The new formations are named: Mangarere, Tikapu, Makohine, Orangipongo, Mangaonoho, and Vinegar Hill. Each formation comprises one or more cyclothems and includes a previously described and named distinctive basal horizon. Discrete sandstones, siltstones, and coquinas within formations are assigned member status and correspond to systems tracts in sequence stratigraphic nomenclature. The members provide the link between the new formational lithostratigraphy and the sequence stratigraphy of the Rangitikei Group. Base of cycle coquina members accumulated during episodes of sediment starvation associated with stratigraphic condensation on an open marine shelf during sea-level transgressions. Siltstone members accumulated in mid-shelf environments (50-100 m water depth) during sea-level highstands, whereas the overlying sandstone members are ascribed to inner shelf and shoreface environments (0-50 m water depth) and accumulated during falling eustatic sea-level conditions. Repetitive changes in water depth of 50-100 m magnitude are consistent with a glacio-eustatic origin for the cyclothems, which correspond to an interval of Earth history when successive glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere are known to have occurred. Moreover, the chronology of the Rangitikei River section indicates that Rangitikei Group cyclothems accumulated during short duration, 41 ka cycles in continental ice volume attributed to the dominance of the Milankovitch obliquity orbital parameter. The Ohingaiti region has simple postdepositional structure. The late Pliocene formations dip generally to the SSW between 4deg. and 9deg.. Discernible discordances of c. 1deg. between successively younger formations are attributed to synsedimentary tilting of the shelf concomitant with migration of the tectonic hingeline southward into the basin. The outcrop distribution of the Rangitikei Group is strongly influenced by this regional tilt and also by three major northeast-southwest oriented, high-angle reverse faults (Rauoterangi, Pakihikura, and Rangitikei Faults)

Antecedents and Outcome of Union Commitment

There is an apparent decline in union membership across industries in the Philippines. The study tried to understand this phenomenon by determining factors that lead to union commitment using a framework derived from existing models of union commitment and participation. Survey data were gathered from 194 union members belonging to academic and financial institutions, and pharmaceutical industries. Path analysis was used to analyze the data. The resulting model verified that organization commitment, perceived union instrumentality, pro-union attitude, and union socialization are predictors of union commitment. Furthermore, union commitment leads to union participation. Findings suggest that unions may enhance member commitment and participation in union activities by utilizing informal socialization practices

Acquired immunologic tolerance: with particular reference to transplantation

The first unequivocally successful bone marrow cell transplantation in humans was recorded in 1968 by the University of Minnesota team of Robert A. Good (Gatti et al. Lancet 2: 1366–1369, 1968). This achievement was a direct extension of mouse models of acquired immunologic tolerance that were established 15 years earlier. In contrast, organ (i.e. kidney) transplantation was accomplished precociously in humans (in 1959) before demonstrating its feasibility in any experimental model and in the absence of a defensible immunologic rationale. Due to the striking differences between the outcomes with the two kinds of procedure, the mechanisms of organ engraftment were long thought to differ from the leukocyte chimerism-associated ones of bone marrow transplantation. This and other concepts of alloengraftment and acquired tolerance have changed over time. Current concepts and their clinical implications can be understood and discussed best from the perspective provided by the life and times of Bob Good

Stoichiometrically driven disorder and local diffusion in NMC cathodes

Major structural differences in lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxides (NMC) prepared under identical conditions have been uncovered using neutron powder diffraction. Sample NMC-622 was obtained as a single R[3 with combining macron]m crystal structure with little defects, whereas NMC-811 showed significant Li deficiency and NMC-433 formed three distinct phases; ordered R[3 with combining macron]m, disordered R[3 with combining macron]m and a C2/m phase. Local diffusion behaviour was also studied by muon spin relaxation (μSR). It was observed that single phase R[3 with combining macron]m NMC-622 showed a higher lithium diffusion coefficient (4.4 × 10−11 cm2 s−1) compared to lithium deficient NMC-811 (2.9 × 10−11 cm2 s−1), or the highly disordered NMC-433 (3.4 × 10−11 cm2 s−1). Furthermore, activation energies for the Li diffusion process were estimated to be 58 meV, 61 meV and 28 meV for NMC-811, NMC-622 and NMC-433, respectively

Influence of demagnetization in remanence curves of magnetic thin films

Remanent magnetization curves of perpendicular magnetic thin films are simulated and measured. The simulations are used to investigate the theoretical influence of the strong demagnetizing field present in these films. Conclusions are drawn from this on how remanence curves should be measured and how they should be corrected for the demagnetizing influence. The experimental part consists of measurements on Fe‐Alumite, Co‐Pt–based multilayers, and Co‐Cr. In addition the latter material is also artificially patterned into microstrips in order to investigate the influence of demagnetization on remanence curves experimentally