Lupus nephritis . Part ll. A clinicopathological correlation and study of outcome

A 5-year retrospective study of lupus nephritis at Tygerberg Hospital was performed in an attempt to document the clinical and histological spectrum of the disease and to study the outcome of the Illness. Activity and chronicity scores were used in addition to the World Health Organisation classification system. Of 55 biopsies from 51 patients reviewed, 6 were class 11,13 class Ill, 32 class IV and 4 class V. There were 19 deaths and in 15 of these the histological classification was IV. Renal failure and infections, often with uncommon pathogens, were the most important causes of death. Serum creatinine values and creatinine clearance at the time of biopsy or follow-up, and hypertension at follow-up showed a significant relationship with outcome. WHO class IV was associated with a poor outcome (P = 0,048) when compared with the other WHO classes combined. Activity scores showed a significant relationship to the outcome (P = 0,018). The anticardiolipin antibodies IgG and IgM were not associated with WHO class or outcome. The study revealed a spectrum of histological results similar to that of other studies, with a high mortality rate, particularly in class IV disease. Poor renal function, persistent hypertension, histological classification IV, and high activity scores were found to be important prognostic indicators

The ACTN3 Gene and Differences between Playing Positions in Bone Mineral Content, Fat Mass and Lean Tissue Mass in the Arms, Legs and Trunk Of Rugby Union Football Players

Aim: The function of the present study was to identify differences between individual playing positions in bone mineral content, fat mass, and lean tissue mass, in the arms, trunk and legs of young adult Rugby Union football players who carried the ACTN3 gene. Subjects and methods: A cross-sectional case control study was carried out using a candidate gene approach (n=55). Individuals belonged to a homogeneous group of players relative to age, gender, ability, and ethnicity. Players were allocated to their preferred playing position. These were the front row (n=14), second and back rows (n=16), scrum and outside-half (n=11), and centres, wings and fullbacks (n=14). A 5 ml sample of saliva was obtained from each player and specimens stored at 4oC until buccal cell DNA extraction was carried out. Height was measured to the nearest 0.1 cm and body mass to the closest 0.1 kg. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was measured using a Hologic QDR Discovery fan beam model. Statistical analyses were undertaken using ANOVA, ANCOVA and MANOVA. Results: The study sample comprised 22% RR, 60% RX, and 18% XX genotypes of the ACTN3 gene respectively. Players in the second and back rows were significantly taller than other positions. Body mass differences, were significantly greater in forwards than backs. There were non-significant differences between positions in adjusted bone mineral content or adjusted lean tissue mass. Adjusted fat mass reflected differences between left and right arms, but not left and right legs. Conclusion: At a developmental level of performance, an understanding and practical application of the structural, physiological and body composition characteristics of individual players, will facilitate personal and team accomplishment, efficiency of training and conditioning, and nurture the potential of young adult players

Reprocessing of CHP datasets (HI 1567 & 1570) and seafloor substrate interpretation for selected areas : Inner Sound off Skye on the west coast of Scotland

This report describes the methodology for the processing of multibeam echosounder bathymetry, production of multibeam echosounder layers (bathymetry, hillshade, slope, aspect and rugosity) for display and interpretative purposes. Furthermore, an overview of the sea-bed substrate interpretation undertaken by the British Geological Survey (BGS) for three selected areas within Inner Sound off Skye on the west coast of Scotland is provided

Two-sided combinatorial volume bounds for non-obtuse hyperbolic polyhedra

We give a method for computing upper and lower bounds for the volume of a non-obtuse hyperbolic polyhedron in terms of the combinatorics of the 1-skeleton. We introduce an algorithm that detects the geometric decomposition of good 3-orbifolds with planar singular locus and underlying manifold the 3-sphere. The volume bounds follow from techniques related to the proof of Thurston's Orbifold Theorem, Schl\"afli's formula, and previous results of the author giving volume bounds for right-angled hyperbolic polyhedra.Comment: 36 pages, 19 figure

SL(2,C) Chern-Simons theory and the asymptotic behavior of the colored Jones polynomial

We clarify and refine the relation between the asymptotic behavior of the colored Jones polynomial and Chern-Simons gauge theory with complex gauge group SL(2,C). The precise comparison requires a careful understanding of some delicate issues, such as normalization of the colored Jones polynomial and the choice of polarization in Chern-Simons theory. Addressing these issues allows us to go beyond the volume conjecture and to verify some predictions for the behavior of the subleading terms in the asymptotic expansion of the colored Jones polynomial.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure

PDF and scale uncertainties of various DY distributions in ADD and RS models at hadron colliders

In the extra dimension models of ADD and RS we study the dependence of the various parton distribution functions on observable of Drell-Yan process to NLO in QCD at LHC and Tevatron energies. Uncertainties at LHC due to factorisation scales in going from leading to next-to-leading order in QCD for the various distributions get reduced by about 2.75 times for a $\mu_F$ range $0.5 ~Q < \mu_F < 1.5 ~Q$. Further uncertainties arising from the error on experimental data are estimated using the MRST parton distribution functions.Comment: 27 pages, 11 figures, the version to appear in European Physical Journal

Gendered endings: Narratives of male and female suicides in the South African Lowveld

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11013-012-9258-y. Copyright @ Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012.Durkheim’s classical theory of suicide rates being a negative index of social solidarity downplays the salience of gendered concerns in suicide. But gendered inequalities have had a negative impact: worldwide significantly more men than women perpetrate fatal suicides. Drawing on narratives of 52 fatal suicides in Bushbuckridge, South Africa, this article suggests that Bourdieu’s concepts of ‘symbolic violence’ and ‘masculine domination’ provide a more appropriate framework for understanding this paradox. I show that the thwarting of investments in dominant masculine positions have been the major precursor to suicides by men. Men tended to take their own lives as a means of escape. By contrast, women perpetrated suicide to protest against the miserable consequences of being dominated by men. However, contra the assumption of Bourdieu’s concept of ‘habitus’, the narrators of suicide stories did reflect critically upon gender constructs

Domain wall generation by fermion self-interaction and light particles

A possible explanation for the appearance of light fermions and Higgs bosons on the four-dimensional domain wall is proposed. The mechanism of light particle trapping is accounted for by a strong self-interaction of five-dimensional pre-quarks. We obtain the low-energy effective action which exhibits the invariance under the so called \tau-symmetry. Then we find a set of vacuum solutions which break that symmetry and the five-dimensional translational invariance. One type of those vacuum solutions gives rise to the domain wall formation with consequent trapping of light massive fermions and Higgs-like bosons as well as massless sterile scalars, the so-called branons. The induced relations between low-energy couplings for Yukawa and scalar field interactions allow to make certain predictions for light particle masses and couplings themselves, which might provide a signature of the higher dimensional origin of particle physics at future experiments. The manifest translational symmetry breaking, eventually due to some gravitational and/or matter fields in five dimensions, is effectively realized with the help of background scalar defects. As a result the branons acquire masses, whereas the ratio of Higgs and fermion (presumably top-quark) masses can be reduced towards the values compatible with the present-day phenomenology. Since the branons do not couple to fermions and the Higgs bosons do not decay into branons, the latter ones are essentially sterile and stable, what makes them the natural candidates for the dark matter in the Universe.Comment: 34 pages, 2 figures, JHEP style,few important refs. adde

Magnetic field generation from non-equilibrium phase transitions

We study the generation of magnetic fields during the stage of particle production resulting from spinodal instabilities during phase transitions out of equilibrium. The main premise is that long-wavelength instabilities that drive the phase transition lead to strong non-equilibrium charge and current fluctuations which generate electromagnetic fields. We present a formulation based on the non-equilibrium Schwinger-Dyson equations that leads to an exact expression for the spectrum of electromagnetic fields valid for general theories and cosmological backgrounds and whose main ingredient is the transverse photon polarization out of equilibrium. This formulation includes the dissipative effects of the conductivity in the medium. As a prelude to cosmology we study magnetogenesis in Minkowski space-time in a theory of N charged scalar fields to lowest order in the gauge coupling and to leading order in the large N within two scenarios of cosmological relevance. The long-wavelength power spectrum for electric and magnetic fields at the end of the phase transition is obtained explicitly. It follows that equipartition between electric and magnetic fields does not hold out of equilibrium. In the case of a transition from a high temperature phase, the conductivity of the medium severely hinders the generation of magnetic fields, however the magnetic fields generated are correlated on scales of the order of the domain size, which is much larger than the magnetic diffusion length. Implications of the results to cosmological phase transitions driven by spinodal unstabilities are discussed.Comment: Preprint no. LPTHE 02-55, 30 pages, latex, 2 eps figures. Added one reference. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Life path analysis: scaling indicates priming effects of social and habitat factors on dispersal distances

1. Movements of many animals along a life-path can be separated into repetitive ones within home ranges and transitions between home ranges. We sought relationships of social and environmental factors with initiation and distance of transition movements in 114 buzzards Buteo buteo that were marked as nestlings with long-life radio tags. 2. Ex-natal dispersal movements of 51 buzzards in autumn were longer than for 30 later in their first year and than 35 extra-natal movements between home ranges after leaving nest areas. In the second and third springs, distances moved from winter focal points by birds that paired were the same or less than for unpaired birds. No post-nuptial movement exceeded 2 km. 3. Initiation of early ex-natal dispersal was enhanced by presence of many sibs, but also by lack of worm-rich loam soils. Distances travelled were greatest for birds from small broods and with relatively little short grass-feeding habitat near the nest. Later movements were generally enhanced by the absence of loam soils and short grassland, especially with abundance of other buzzards and probable poor feeding habitats (heathland, long grass). 4. Buzzards tended to persist in their first autumn where arable land was abundant, but subsequently showed a strong tendency to move from this habitat. 5. Factors that acted most strongly in ½-km buffers round nests, or round subsequent focal points, usually promoted movement compared with factors acting at a larger scale. Strong relationships between movement distances and environmental characteristics in ½-km buffers, especially during early ex-natal dispersal, suggested that buzzards became primed by these factors to travel far. 6. Movements were also farthest for buzzards that had already moved far from their natal nests, perhaps reflecting genetic predisposition, long-term priming or poor habitat beyond the study area