Reflective career dialogues

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From Controlling to Constructive: Youth unemployment policy in Australia and The Netherlands

Youth unemployment is an issue that has increasingly troubledwestern countries since the 1970s. This paper provides data on youth unemployment in Australia and the Netherlands, and discusses government policy in both countries. The rate of youth unemployment was similar in both countries in the mid 1980s, but since then it has declined dramatically in the Netherlands, while changing little in Australia. Youth unemployment policy in Australia has been driven by the concept of obligation, while in the Netherlands youth unemployment policy has been organised around the principle of a guarantee for youth. The Dutch labour market programme offers more continuity and coherence than the rather ad hoc Australian programmes.However, the paper argues that youth labour market policy in both countries is of a controlling nature, and does not serve marginalised youth. Moreover, policy in neither country meets OECD criteria for effective labour market programs. The paper concludes with the description of a Dutch program which, to a large extent, does meet the OECD criteria, and demonstrates that a more constructive approach to youth unemployment is possible

Thrombin-Activatable Fibrinolysis Inhibitor Binds To Streptococcus Pyogenes By Interacting With Collagen-Like Proteins A And B

Regulation of proteolysis is a critical element of the host immune system and plays an important role in the induction of pro- and anti-inflammatory reactions in response to infection. Some bacterial species take advantage of these processes and recruit host proteinases to their surface in order to counteract the host attack. Here we show that Thrombin-activatable Fibrinolysis Inhibitor (TAFI), a zinc-dependent procarboxypeptidase, binds to the surface of group A streptococci of an M41 serotype. The interaction is mediated by the streptococcal collagen-like surface proteins A and B (Sc1A and Sc1B), and the streptococcal-associated TAFI is then processed at the bacterial surface via plasmin and thrombin-thrombomodulin. These findings suggest an important role for TAFI in the modulation of host responses by streptococci

Thrombin-Activatable Fibrinolysis Inhibitor Binds To Streptococcus Pyogenes By Interacting With Collagen-Like Proteins A And B

Regulation of proteolysis is a critical element of the host immune system and plays an important role in the induction of pro- and anti-inflammatory reactions in response to infection. Some bacterial species take advantage of these processes and recruit host proteinases to their surface in order to counteract the host attack. Here we show that Thrombin-activatable Fibrinolysis Inhibitor (TAFI), a zinc-dependent procarboxypeptidase, binds to the surface of group A streptococci of an M41 serotype. The interaction is mediated by the streptococcal collagen-like surface proteins A and B (Sc1A and Sc1B), and the streptococcal-associated TAFI is then processed at the bacterial surface via plasmin and thrombin-thrombomodulin. These findings suggest an important role for TAFI in the modulation of host responses by streptococci

Using XDAQ in Application Scenarios of the CMS Experiment

XDAQ is a generic data acquisition software environment that emerged from a rich set of of use-cases encountered in the CMS experiment. They cover not the deployment for multiple sub-detectors and the operation of different processing and networking equipment as well as a distributed collaboration of users with different needs. The use of the software in various application scenarios demonstrated the viability of the approach. We discuss two applications, the tracker local DAQ system for front-end commissioning and the muon chamber validation system. The description is completed by a brief overview of XDAQ.Comment: Conference CHEP 2003 (Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics, La Jolla, CA

Basic science research opportunities in thrombosis and hemostasis : Communication from the SSC of the ISTH

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank Drs. Hari Hara Sudhan Lakshmanan and Sven Olson for illustrative assistance and design.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

HE4 Serum Levels Are Associated with Heart Failure Severity in Patients With Chronic Heart Failure

AbstractBackgroundThe novel biomarker human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) shows prognostic value in acute heart failure (HF) patients. We measured HE4 levels in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) and correlated them to HF severity, kidney function, and HF biomarkers, and determined its predictive value.MethodsSerum HE4 levels in patients (n = 101) with stable CHF with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF <45%) from the Vitamin D CHF (VitD-CHF) study (NCT01092130) were compared with those in age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects (n = 58) from the Prevention of Renal and Vascular End-Stage Disease (PREVEND) study.ResultsHE4 levels were higher in CHF compared with control subjects (69.2 pmol/L [interquartile range 55.6-93.8] vs 56.1 pmol/L [46.6-69.0]; P < .001) and were higher with increasing New York Heart Association functional class. Levels were associated with HF risk factors, including age, gender, diabetes, smoking and N-terminal prohormone of B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP). HE4 demonstrated strong associations with kidney function and HF fibrosis biomarkers. In a multivariable model, we identified creatinine, NT-proBNP, galectin-3, high-sensitive troponin T, and smoking as factors associated with HE4. Independently from these factors, HE4 levels predicted death and HF rehospitalization (5-year follow-up, hazard ratio 3.8; confidence interval 1.31–11.1; P = .014).ConclusionsHE4 levels are increased in CHF, correlate with HF severity and kidney function, and predict HF outcome

The CMS Event Builder

The data acquisition system of the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider will employ an event builder which will combine data from about 500 data sources into full events at an aggregate throughput of 100 GByte/s. Several architectures and switch technologies have been evaluated for the DAQ Technical Design Report by measurements with test benches and by simulation. This paper describes studies of an EVB test-bench based on 64 PCs acting as data sources and data consumers and employing both Gigabit Ethernet and Myrinet technologies as the interconnect. In the case of Ethernet, protocols based on Layer-2 frames and on TCP/IP are evaluated. Results from ongoing studies, including measurements on throughput and scaling are presented. The architecture of the baseline CMS event builder will be outlined. The event builder is organised into two stages with intelligent buffers in between. The first stage contains 64 switches performing a first level of data concentration by building super-fragments from fragments of 8 data sources. The second stage combines the 64 super-fragments into full events. This architecture allows installation of the second stage of the event builder in steps, with the overall throughput scaling linearly with the number of switches in the second stage. Possible implementations of the components of the event builder are discussed and the expected performance of the full event builder is outlined.Comment: Conference CHEP0

Evaluation of interplay and organ motion effects by means of 4D dose reconstruction and accumulation

PURPOSE: Pencil beam scanned proton therapy (PBS-PT) treatment quality might be compromised by interplay and motion effects. Via fraction-wise reconstruction of 4D dose distributions and dose accumulation, we assess the clinical relevance of motion related target dose degradation in thoracic cancer patients. METHODS AND MATERIALS: For the ten thoracic patients (Hodgkin lymphoma and non-small cell lung cancer) treated at our proton therapy facility, daily breathing pattern records, treatment delivery log-files and weekly repeated 4DCTs were collected. Patients exhibited point-max target motion of up to 20 mm. They received robustly optimized treatment plans, delivered with five-times rescanning in fractionated regimen. Treatment delivery records were used to reconstruct 4D dose distributions and the accumulated treatment course dose per patient. Fraction-wise target dose degradations were analyzed and the accumulated treatment course dose, representing an estimation of the delivered dose, was compared with the prescribed dose. RESULTS: No clinically relevant loss of target dose homogeneity was found in the fraction-wise reconstructed 4D dose distributions. Overall, in 97% of all reconstructed fraction doses, D98 remained within 5% from the prescription dose. The V95 of accumulated treatment course doses was higher than 99.7% for all ten patients. CONCLUSIONS: 4D dose reconstruction and accumulation enables the clinical estimation of actual exhibited interplay and motion effects. In the patients considered here, the loss of homogeneity caused by interplay and organ motion did not show systematic pattern and smeared out throughout the course of fractionated PBS-PT treatment. Dose degradation due to anatomical changes showed to be more severe and triggered treatment adaptations for five patients

A novel CCM2 variant in a family with non-progressive cognitive complaints and cerebral microbleeds

Lobar cerebral microbleeds are most often sporadic and associated with Alzheimer's disease. The aim of our study was to identify the underlying genetic defect in a family with cognitive complaints and multiple lobar microbleeds and a positive family history for early onset Alzheimer's disease. We performed exome sequencing followed by Sanger sequencing for validation purposes on genomic DNA of three siblings with cognitive complaints, reduced amyloid-beta-42 in CSF and multiple cerebral lobar microbleeds. We checked for the occurrence of the variant in a cohort of 363 patients with early onset dementia and/or microbleeds. A novel frameshift variant (c.236_237delAC) generating a premature stop codon in the CCM2 gene shared by all three siblings was identified. Pathogenicity of the variant was supported by the presence of cerebral cavernous malformations in two of the siblings and by the absence of the variant exome variant databases. Two siblings were homozygous for APOE-ϵ4; one heterozygous. The cognitive complaints, reduced amyloid-beta-42 in CSF and microbleeds suggest preclinical Alzheimer's disease, but the stability of the cognitive complaints does not. We hypothesize that the phenotype in this family may be due to a combination of the CCM2 variant and the APOE status. © 2016 The Authors. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc