Loose Legendrians and the plastikstufe

We show that the presence of a plastikstufe induces a certain degree of flexibility in contact manifolds of dimension 2n + 1 gt; 3. More precisely, we prove that every Legendrian knot whose complement contains a "nice" plastikstufe can be destabilized (and, as a consequence, is loose). As an application, it follows in certain situations that two nonisomorphic contact structures become isomorphic after connect-summing with a manifold containing a plastikstufe

ESPAD Report 2019: Results From European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs

The main purpose of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) is to collect comparable data on substance use and other forms of risk behaviour among 15- to 16-year-old students in order to monitor trends within, as well as between, countries. Between 1995 and 2019, seven waves of data collection were conducted across 49 European countries. This report presents selected key results. The full set of data on which the current report is based, including all of the standard tables, is available online (http://www.espad.org). All tables can be downloaded in Excel format and used for further analysi

Proof of concept for quantitative urine NMR metabolomics pipeline for large-scale epidemiology and genetics

Background:Quantitative molecular data from urine are rare in epidemiology and genetics. NMR spectroscopy could provide these data in high throughput, and it has already been applied in epidemiological settings to analyse urine samples. However, quantitative protocols for large-scale applications are not available. Methods:We describe in detail how to prepare urine samples and perform NMR experiments to obtain quantitative metabolic information. Semi-automated quantitative line shape fitting analyses were set up for 43 metabolites and applied to data from various analytical test samples and from 1004 individuals from a population-based epidemiological cohort. Novel analyses on how urine metabolites associate with quantitative serum NMR metabolomics data (61 metabolic measures; n = 995) were performed. In addition, confirmatory genome-wide analyses of urine metabolites were conducted (n = 578). The fully automated quantitative regression-based spectral analysis is demonstrated for creatinine and glucose (n = 4548). Results:Intra-assay metabolite variations were mostly <5%, indicating high robustness and accuracy of urine NMR spectroscopy methodology per se. Intra-individual metabolite variations were large, ranging from 6% to 194%. However, population-based inter-individual metabolite variations were even larger (from 14% to 1655%), providing a sound base for epidemiological applications. Metabolic associations between urine and serum were found to be clearly weaker than those within serum and within urine, indicating that urinary metabolomics data provide independent metabolic information. Two previous genome-wide hits for formate and 2-hydroxyisobutyrate were replicated at genome-wide significance. Conclusion:Quantitative urine metabolomics data suggest broad novelty for systems epidemiology. A roadmap for an open access methodology is provided

Quantification of stack emissions from marine vessels

Ship emission data from fixed and mobile platforms were obtained during 5 weeks in October and November of 2015. The main objective was to study the "real life" ship emissions of gases and particles in different modes of ship operation in the vicinity of the harbor, from open sea to berth. These emissions can be used to calculate the impact of shipping activities on air quality in the LA basin. Since ships are supposed to run on low sulfur fuel it is interesting how the new low sulfur fuel impacts also emissions of particles, in addition to sulfur. During the project we found several ships running on high sulfur fuel. During the presentation we will describe the method and show example of data from the project

Quantification of stack emissions from marine vessels

Ship emission data from fixed and mobile platforms were obtained during 5 weeks in October and November of 2015. The main objective was to study the "real life" ship emissions of gases and particles in different modes of ship operation in the vicinity of the harbor, from open sea to berth. These emissions can be used to calculate the impact of shipping activities on air quality in the LA basin. Since ships are supposed to run on low sulfur fuel it is interesting how the new low sulfur fuel impacts also emissions of particles, in addition to sulfur. During the project we found several ships running on high sulfur fuel. During the presentation we will describe the method and show example of data from the project

Remote Quantification of Stack Emissions from Marine Vessels

Stationary and mobile (on-vessel) measurements of ship specific emission factors and total emission were carried out in the port of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The measurement techniques developed to characterize individual ship emissions were presented. The data were obtained with a zenith DOAS technique for NO 2 and "in-situ" sniffer technique for SO 2 , NO x , CO 2 , and particulates. The measured particle properties corresponded to particulate number, particulate mass, and black and organic carbon. Total emissions of NO 2 from the harbors were also obtained through mobile optical zenith sky measurements. The potential VOC emissions were investigated when fueling the ships and other VOC sources in the harbor using techniques like the Solar Occultation Flux technique. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the A & WMA\u27s 109th Annual Conference & Exhibition (New Orleans, LA 6/20-23/2016)

Serum levels of B-cell activating factor of the TNF family (BAFF) correlate with anti-Jo-1 autoantibodies levels and disease activity in patients with anti-Jo-1positive polymyositis and dermatomyositis

Abstract Background B-cell activating factor of the tumour necrosis factor family (BAFF) plays a role in autoantibody production and is elevated in dermatomyositis (DM) and anti-Jo-1-positive polymyositis (PM). We investigated the inter-relationships between serum levels of BAFF, anti-Jo-1 autoantibodies, and disease activity. Methods Serum levels of BAFF and anti-Jo-1 antibodies measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were compared to levels of myoglobin, creatine kinase (CK), aminotransferases (alanine (ALT) and aspartate (AST)), C-reactive protein (CRP), and disease activity assessed by the Myositis Disease Activity Assessment Tool in 63 anti-Jo-1 antibody-positive DM/PM patients. Serial serum samples collected at 2 (46 cases) and 3–5 time points (23 cases) were included. Relationships between BAFF, anti-Jo-1, disease activity, CRP, and their longitudinal changes were evaluated using correlation analysis, multiple regression (MR), path analysis (PA), and hierarchical linear models (HLM). Results Cross-sectional assessment demonstrated significant correlations between the levels of BAFF and anti-Jo-1 antibodies which were associated with levels of CK, myoglobin, AST, and CRP, as well as multivariate associations between BAFF, anti-Jo-1 antibodies, and CK levels. PA revealed direct effects of anti-Jo-1 antibodies on CK (β = 0.41) and both direct (β = 0.42) and indirect (through anti-Jo-1 antibodies; β = 0.17) effects of BAFF on CK. Changes in levels of both BAFF and anti-Jo-1 between two time points (Δ) were associated with Δmyoglobin and Δaminotransferases and changes of BAFF correlated with ΔCK, Δcutaneous, Δmuscle, Δglobal, and Δskeletal disease activities. The longitudinal analysis showed a high intra-individual variability of serum levels of BAFF over time (97%) which could predict 79% of the variance in anti-Jo-1 levels. The anti-Jo-1 variability was explained by inter-individual differences (68%). The close longitudinal relationship between levels of BAFF, anti-Jo-1, and disease activity was supported by high proportions of their variance explained with serum levels of CK and CRP or pulmonary and muscle activities. Conclusion Our findings of associations between levels of BAFF and anti-Jo-1 antibodies in serum and myositis activity suggest a role of this cytokine in disease-specific autoantibody production as part of disease mechanisms, and support BAFF as a potential target for intervention in anti-Jo-1-positive myositis patients

Additional file 5: of Serum levels of B-cell activating factor of the TNF family (BAFF) correlate with anti-Jo-1 autoantibodies levels and disease activity in patients with anti-Jo-1positive polymyositis and dermatomyositis

The scatter plots of source data for correlational analysis presented in Table 3. Changes between first two visits (Δ = 1st visit – 2nd visit) of (A) BAFF plotted against Δanti-Jo-1, changes in both BAFF and anti-Jo-1 plotted in columns against parameters of activity in rows. These are: (B) changes in markers of muscle impairment (ΔCK, Δmyoglobin, ΔALT and ΔAST) and (C) changes in clinical disease activity assessments (Δmuscle, Δglobal, Δskeletal within the entire patient group, Δcutaneous within patients with dermatomyositis (DM), and Δpulmonary within patients with lung involvement (ILD)). Statistics are: r = Spearman’s correlation coefficient; p = p value. A single outlying value of Δanti-Jo-1 is highlighted by a red circle. The graphs with exclusion of the outlier are plotted in the right column. The significance of some correlations became even stronger after exclusion of the outlier. (PDF 535 kb

Hyperfine Splitting and Room-Temperature Ferromagnetism of Ni at Multimegabar Pressure

Magnetic and elastic properties of Ni metal have been studied up to 260 GPa by nuclear forward scattering of synchrotron radiation with the 67.4 keV Mossbauer transition of Ni-61. The observed magnetic hyperfine splitting confirms the ferromagnetic state of Ni up to 260 GPa, the highest pressure where magnetism in any material has been observed so far. Ab initio calculations reveal that the pressure evolution of the hyperfine field, which features a maximum in the range of 100 to 225 GPa, is a relativistic effect. The Debye energy obtained from the Lamb-Mossbauer factor increases from 33 me V at ambient pressure to 60 me V at 100 GPa. The change of this energy over volume compression is well described by a Gruneisen parameter of 2.09