Pheochromocytoma in the Adrenal Gland of a Horse

A pheochromocytoma which elevated the dorsal surface of the left adrenal gland was encountered in a 22 year old female horse (Quarter Horse-Standard-bred) used as an anatomy cadaver in the gross dissection laboratory at Iowa State University

Validity and responsiveness of the Daily- and Clinical visit-PROactive Physical Activity in COPD (D-PPAC and C-PPAC) instruments

BACKGROUND The Daily-PROactive and Clinical visit-PROactive Physical Activity (D-PPAC and C-PPAC) instruments in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) combines questionnaire with activity monitor data to measure patients' experience of physical activity. Their amount, difficulty and total scores range from 0 (worst) to 100 (best) but require further psychometric evaluation. OBJECTIVE To test reliability, validity and responsiveness, and to define minimal important difference (MID), of the D-PPAC and C-PPAC instruments, in a large population of patients with stable COPD from diverse severities, settings and countries. METHODS We used data from seven randomised controlled trials to evaluate D-PPAC and C-PPAC internal consistency and construct validity by sex, age groups, COPD severity, country and language as well as responsiveness to interventions, ability to detect change and MID. RESULTS We included 1324 patients (mean (SD) age 66 (8) years, forced expiratory volume in 1 s 55 (17)% predicted). Scores covered almost the full range from 0 to 100, showed strong internal consistency after stratification and correlated as a priori hypothesised with dyspnoea, health-related quality of life and exercise capacity. Difficulty scores improved after pharmacological treatment and pulmonary rehabilitation, while amount scores improved after behavioural physical activity interventions. All scores were responsive to changes in self-reported physical activity experience (both worsening and improvement) and to the occurrence of COPD exacerbations during follow-up. The MID was estimated to 6 for amount and difficulty scores and 4 for total score. CONCLUSIONS The D-PPAC and C-PPAC instruments are reliable and valid across diverse COPD populations and responsive to pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions and changes in clinically relevant variables

Physical Activity Characteristics across GOLD Quadrants Depend on the Questionnaire Used

BACKGROUND:The GOLD multidimensional classification of COPD severity combines the exacerbation risk with the symptom experience, for which 3 different questionnaires are permitted. This study investigated differences in physical activity (PA) in the different GOLD quadrants and patient's distribution in relation to the questionnaire used. METHODS:136 COPD patients (58±21% FEV1 predicted, 34F/102M) completed COPD assessment test (CAT), clinical COPD questionnaire (CCQ) and modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) questionnaire. Exacerbation history, spirometry and 6MWD were collected. PA was objectively measured for 2 periods of 1 week, 6 months apart, in 5 European centres; to minimise seasonal and clinical variation the average of these two periods was used for analysis. RESULTS:GOLD quadrants C+D had reduced PA compared with A+B (3824 [2976] vs. 5508 [4671] steps.d-1, p<0.0001). The choice of questionnaire yielded different patient distributions (agreement mMRC-CAT κ = 0.57; CCQ-mMRC κ = 0.71; CCQ-CAT κ = 0.72) with different clinical characteristics. PA was notably lower in patients with an mMRC score ≥2 (3430 [2537] vs. 5443 [3776] steps.d-1, p <0.001) in both the low and high risk quadrants. CONCLUSIONS:Using different questionnaires changes the patient distribution and results in different clinical characteristics. Therefore, standardization of the questionnaire used for classification is critical to allow comparison of different studies using this as an entry criterion. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION:ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01388218

Morita base change in Hopf-cyclic (co)homology

In this paper, we establish the invariance of cyclic (co)homology of left Hopf algebroids under the change of Morita equivalent base algebras. The classical result on Morita invariance for cyclic homology of associative algebras appears as a special example of this theory. In our main application we consider the Morita equivalence between the algebra of complex-valued smooth functions on the classical 2-torus and the coordinate algebra of the noncommutative 2-torus with rational parameter. We then construct a Morita base change left Hopf algebroid over this noncommutative 2-torus and show that its cyclic (co)homology can be computed by means of the homology of the Lie algebroid of vector fields on the classical 2-torus.Comment: Final version to appear in Lett. Math. Phy

Phase transitions in the sdgsdg interacting boson model

A geometric analysis of the $sdg$ interacting boson model is performed. A coherent-state is used in terms of three types of deformation: axial quadrupole ($\beta_2$), axial hexadecapole ($\beta_4$) and triaxial ($\gamma_2$). The phase-transitional structure is established for a schematic $sdg$ hamiltonian which is intermediate between four dynamical symmetries of U(15), namely the spherical ${\rm U}(5)\otimes{\rm U}(9)$, the (prolate and oblate) deformed ${\rm SU}_\pm(3)$ and the $\gamma_2$-soft SO(15) limits. For realistic choices of the hamiltonian parameters the resulting phase diagram has properties close to what is obtained in the $sd$ version of the model and, in particular, no transition towards a stable triaxial shape is found.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, submitted to J. Phys.

Multifragmentation process for different mass asymmetry in the entrance channel around the Fermi energy

The influence of the entrance channel asymmetry upon the fragmentation process is addressed by studying heavy-ion induced reactions around the Fermi energy. The data have been recorded with the INDRA 4pi array. An event selection method called the Principal Component Analysis is presented and discussed. It is applied for the selection of central events and furthermore to multifragmentation of single source events. The selected subsets of data are compared to the Statistical Multifragmentation Model (SMM) to check the equilibrium hypothesis and get the source characteristics. Experimental comparisons show the evidence of a decoupling between thermal and compresional (radial flow) degrees of freedom in such nuclear systems.Comment: 28 pages, 15 figures, article sumitted to Nuclear Physics

Response of CsI(Tl) scintillators over a large range in energy and atomic number of ions (Part I): recombination and delta -- electrons

A simple formalism describing the light response of CsI(Tl) to heavy ions, which quantifies the luminescence and the quenching in terms of the competition between radiative transitions following the carrier trapping at the Tl activator sites and the electron-hole recombination, is proposed. The effect of the delta rays on the scintillation efficiency is for the first time quantitatively included in a fully consistent way. The light output expression depends on four parameters determined by a procedure of global fit to experimental data.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Nucl. Inst. Meth.