Environmental Factors in the Relapse and Recurrence of Inflammatory Bowel Disease:A Review of the Literature

The causes of relapse in patients with Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are largely unknown. This paper reviews the epidemiological and clinical data on how medications (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, estrogens and antibiotics), lifestyle factors (smoking, psychological stress, diet and air pollution) may precipitate clinical relapses and recurrence. Potential biological mechanisms include: increasing thrombotic tendency, imbalances in prostaglandin synthesis, alterations in the composition of gut microbiota, and mucosal damage causing increased permeability

Dimensions of control and their relation to disordered eating behaviours and obsessive-compulsive symptoms

Background: Issues of personal control have been proposed to play a central role in the aetiology and maintenance of eating disorders. Empirical evidence supporting this relationship is inconsistent, partly due to the multiplicity of constructs used to define "control". This study compares six commonly used measures of control with the aim of determining which operationalisation of control is most centrally relevant to eating pathology. Given the high level of comorbidity between eating disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder and the potentially common risk/maintenance factors for the two disorders, we also examine the relationship between control and obsessive-compulsive symptomatology. Methods: Female community participants (N = 175) completed self-report measures of control, eating disorder pathology and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Results: Multivariate analyses of variance indicated significant differences between individuals with high vs. low levels of psychopathology on most of the measures of control. Using regression analyses, we found that a sense of ineffectiveness and fear of losing self-control were the only significant independent predictors of eating pathology, and fear of losing self-control was the most significant predictor of obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of issues of control, particularly feelings of ineffectiveness and fear of losing self-control, in eating disorder symptoms. Furthermore, our findings suggest that there may be a similar underlying fear of losing self-control among individuals who engage in disordered eating and obsessive-compulsive behaviours. Thus, ineffectiveness and fear of losing self-control are two dimensions that are important to consider in maintenance and treatment models of disordered eating behaviours

OVERVIEW OF KSTAR RESULTS IN PHASE-I OPERATION

The KSTAR (Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research) pursued to develop key technologies for superconducting tokamak operation and to contribute to a few research items for ITER relevant issues. As a result, the KSTAR achieved highly confined mode (H-mode) in 2010 campaign and successfully demonstrated suppression of Edge Localized Mode (ELM) using n=1 Resonant Magnetic Perturbation (RMP) coils. The KSTAR is also initiating machine performance based on the designed machine parameters. The plasma current we achieved was I MA, and longest plasma pulse length has been extended to 10 s. In spite of limited heating power to 3.5 MW, several key actuators satisfactorily supported to implement a few scientific researches such as ELM control. On the basis of big progress in both the plasma performance and the experimental results, the KSTAR operation will explore key scientific and technical research issues under steady state operation condition in phase-2 operation.X112sciescopu

Fusion power production from TFTR plasmas fueled with deuterium and tritium.

Peak fusion power production of 6.2±0.4 MW has been achieved in TFTR plasmas heated by deuterium and tritium neutral beams at a total power of 29.5 MW. These plasmas have an inferred central fusion alpha particle density of 1.2×1017 m-3 without the appearance of either disruptive magnetohydrodynamics events or detectable changes in Alfvén wave activity. The measured loss rate of energetic alpha particles agreed with the approximately 5% losses expected from alpha particles which are born on unconfined orbits. © 1994 The American Physical Society