The role of PET/CT in Cogan’s syndrome

We report on the case of a 60-year-old woman with complaints of fatigue, coughing, anorexia, atypical chest pain, recurrent fever, and also ear pain and hearing loss. A test for anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) was myeloperoxidase positive with p-ANCA specificity. Laboratory acute phase parameters were increased. A 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-d-glucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography investigation showed pathological uptake in the aorta ascendens, with no other involvement of the large vessels. After therapy with methylprednisolon intravenously and later prednisolon orally with methothrexate, her general condition and hearing loss improved both subjectively and objectively. “Atypical” Cogan’s syndrome was diagnosed on the basis of sensorineural deafness with improvement on steroids and large-vessel vasculitis of the aortic arch

A Roadmap for HEP Software and Computing R&D for the 2020s

Particle physics has an ambitious and broad experimental programme for the coming decades. This programme requires large investments in detector hardware, either to build new facilities and experiments, or to upgrade existing ones. Similarly, it requires commensurate investment in the R&D of software to acquire, manage, process, and analyse the shear amounts of data to be recorded. In planning for the HL-LHC in particular, it is critical that all of the collaborating stakeholders agree on the software goals and priorities, and that the efforts complement each other. In this spirit, this white paper describes the R&D activities required to prepare for this software upgrade.Peer reviewe

About thermo-oxidative ageing at moderate temperature of conventionally vulcanized natural rubber

cited By 3International audienceThis article is dedicated to the understanding of the mechanisms involved in the evolution of the structure of a “conventionally” vulcanized rubber during thermo-oxidative (TO) aging. Based on swelling measurements, WAXS and DSC, a scenario of these mechanisms is proposed. Our results show that the crosslinking reactions are far from being complete at the end of the vulcanization process. During TO aging carried out at a moderate temperature 77 °C (350 K), the creation of long bridges first takes place via the consumption of residual sulfur; this mechanism is mainly responsible of the increase in the density of elastically active chains. The presence of residual antioxidants inhibits in the early stages of aging the chemical reactions involving oxygen. For longer aging time (here 7 days), these reactions can then occur and create “unidentified” bridges whose formation may also involves sulfur grafted onto the polymer chains. Finally, all these cross-linking reactions seem to enhance the heterogeneity of the spatial distribution of the crosslinks - already existing in the initial material - and to create highly crosslinked domains. © 201

About the elongation at break of unfilled natural rubber elastomers

cited By 0International audienceThis paper presents the characterization of the mechanical properties, of the ability to crystallize thermally or under strain, and of the Elastically Active Chains (EAC) network of Natural Rubber elastomer, whose EAC average density and length distribution were modified by thermo-oxidative ageing. EAC length distribution is not a critical parameter for λ break in elastomers which do not crystallize (as far as the quantity of free and dangling chains stays negligible, which is the case in this study). However, it becomes important in crystallizable materials, since it controls the chains quantity which can be stretched enough to crystallize. When this quantity is large enough, the material can be stretched up to λ c , and the crystallization process will enable to increase both λ break and σ break . Conversely when it is too low, λ break is seemingly mainly governed by the average EAC density and a power law then links both quantities. © 2019 Elsevier Lt

Factors associated with the growing-finishing performances of swine herds: an exploratory study on serological and herd level indicators

Abstract Background Growing and finishing performances of pigs strongly influence farm efficiency and profitability. The performances of the pigs rely on the herd health status and also on several non-infectious factors. Many recommendations for the improvement of the technical performances of a herd are based on the results of studies assessing the effect of one or a limited number of infections or environmental factors. Few studies investigated jointly the influence of both type of factors on swine herd performances. This work aimed at identifying infectious and non-infectious factors associated with the growing and finishing performances of 41 French swine herds. Results Two groups of herds were identified using a clustering analysis: a cluster of 24 herds with the highest technical performance values (mean average daily gain = 781.1 g/day +/− 26.3; mean feed conversion ratio = 2.5 kg/kg +/− 0.1; mean mortality rate = 4.1% +/− 0.9; and mean carcass slaughter weight = 121.2 kg +/− 5.2) and a cluster of 17 herds with the lowest performance values (mean average daily gain =715.8 g/day +/− 26.5; mean feed conversion ratio = 2.6 kg/kg +/− 0.1; mean mortality rate = 6.8% +/− 2.0; and mean carcass slaughter weight = 117.7 kg +/− 3.6). Multiple correspondence analysis was used to identify factors associated with the level of technical performance. Infection with the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus and the porcine circovirus type 2 were infectious factors associated with the cluster having the lowest performance values. This cluster also featured farrow-to-finish type herds, a short interval between successive batches of pigs (≤3 weeks) and mixing of pigs from different batches in the growing or/and finishing steps. Inconsistency between nursery and fattening building management was another factor associated with the low-performance cluster. The odds of a herd showing low growing-finishing performance was significantly increased when infected by PRRS virus in the growing-finishing steps (OR = 8.8, 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 1.8–41.7) and belonging to a farrow-to-finish type herd (OR = 5.1, 95% CI = 1.1–23.8). Conclusions Herd management and viral infections significantly influenced the performance levels of the swine herds included in this study