Cardiovascular risk in rheumatoid arthritis versus osteoarthritis: acute phase response related decreased insulin sensitivity and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol as well as clustering of metabolic syndrome features in rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients experience a markedly increased frequency of cardiovascular disease. We evaluated cardiovascular risk profiles in 79 RA patients and in 39 age-matched and sex-matched osteoarthritis (OA) patients. Laboratory tests comprised ultrasensitive C-reactive protein (CRP) and fasting lipids. Insulin sensitivity (IS) was determined by the Quantitative Insulin Sensitivity Check Index (QUICKI) in all OA patients and in 39 of the RA patients. Ten RA patients were on glucocorticoids. RA patients exercised more frequently than OA patients (χ(2) = 3.9, P < 0.05). Nine RA patients and one OA patient had diabetes (χ(2) = 4.5, P < 0.05). The median CRP, the mean QUICKI and the mean high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol were 9 mg/l (range, 0.5–395 mg/l), 0.344 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.332–0.355) and 1.40 mmol/l (95% CI, 1.30–1.49 mmol/l) in RA patients, respectively, as compared with 2.7 mg/l (range, 0.3–15.9 mg/l), 0.369 (95% CI, 0.356–0.383) and 1.68 mmol/l (95% CI, 1.50–1.85 mmol/l) in OA patients. Each of these differences was significant (P < 0.05). After controlling for the CRP, the QUICKI was similar in RA and OA patients (P = 0.07), while the differences in HDL cholesterol were attenuated but still significant (P = 0.03). The CRP correlated with IS, while IS was associated with high HDL cholesterol and low triglycerides in RA patients and not in OA patients. A high CRP (≥ 8 mg/l) was associated with hypertension (χ(2) = 7.4, P < 0.05) in RA patients. RA glucocorticoid and nonglucocorticoid users did not differ in IS and lipids (P > 0.05). Excess cardiovascular risk in RA patients as compared with OA patients includes the presence of decreased IS and HDL cholesterol in RA patients. The latter is only partially attributable to the acute phase response. The CRP, IS, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides and hypertension are inter-related in RA patients, whereas none of these relationships were found in OA patients

Maternal-fetal prognosis of obstetric emergencies at the maternity ward of the Mamou regional hospital

Background: Pregnant women may be at risk of unpredictable obstetric complications such as: bleeding, dystocia, acute fetal suffering, pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. This maternal-fetal prognosis of obstetric emergencies is influenced by factors that are most often related to complications that alter the course or outcome of a pregnancy and require prompt care. The objectives of this study are to analyze the factors that influence the maternal-fetal prognosis of obstetric emergencies; determine their frequency, describe the clinical profiles of patients and evaluate the maternal-fetal prognosis.Methods: The study was conducted at the Mamou Regional Hospital. It was a 6-month quantitative, descriptive and analytical study, from July 1st to December 31st, 2016, including all parturient women whose term is greater than or equal to 28 weeks of amenorrhoea.Results: The study covered 377 obstetric emergencies out of a total of 1273 deliveries, or 29.61%. Factors influencing the prognosis were: young age, parity, unfavorable socio-economic conditions and difficult baseline conditions. The main obstetric emergencies recorded were acute fetal suffering, disproportion and narrowed pelvis. The dominant mode of delivery was caesarean section with a frequency of 89.65%. Maternal lethality is 3.44% and fetal lethality is 5.14%.Conclusions: Obstetric emergency is a frequent situation where better management would improve the prognosis of the mother and fetus

Semileptonic Hyperon Decays and CKM Unitarity

Using a technique that is not subject to first-order SU(3) symmetry breaking effects, we determine the $V_{us}$ element of the CKM matrix from data on semileptonic hyperon decays. We obtain $V_{us}$ =0.2250(27). This value is of similar precision to the one derived from $K_{l3}$, but higher and in better agreement with the unitarity requirement, $|V_{ud}|^2+|V_{us}|^2+|V_{ub}|^2=1$.Comment: 3 pages, 1 tabl

Transport, optical and electronic properties of the half metal CrO2

The electronic structure of CrO_2 is critically discussed in terms of the relation of existing experimental data and well converged LSDA and GGA calculations of the electronic structure and transport properties of this half metal magnet, with a particular emphasis on optical properties. We find only moderate manifestations of many body effects. Renormalization of the density of states is not large and is in the typical for transition metals range. We find substantial deviations from Drude behavior in the far-infrared optical conductivity. These appear because of the unusually low energy of interband optical transitions. The calculated mass renormalization is found to be rather sensitive to the exchange-correlation functional used and varies from 10% (LSDA) to 90% (GGA), using the latest specific heat data. We also find that dressing of the electrons by spin fluctuations, because of their high energy, renormalizes the interband optical transition at as high as 4 eV by about 20%. Although we find no clear indications of strong correlations of the Hubbard type, strong electron-magnon scattering related to the half metallic band structure is present and this leads to a nontrivial temperature dependence of the resistivity and some renormalization of the electron spectra.Comment: 9 Revtex 2 column pages, including 8 postscript figures. Two more figures are included in the submission that are not embedded in the paper, representing DOS and bandstructure of the paramagnetic CrO

Quantum Corrections to the Reissner-Nordstrom and Kerr-Newman Metrics: Spin 1

A previous evaluation of one-photon loop corrections to the energy-momentum tensor has been extended to particles with unit spin and speculations are presented concerning general properties of such forms.Comment: 21 pages, 1 Figur

Global citizenship as the completion of cosmopolitanism

A conception of global citizenship should not be viewed as separate from, or synonymous with, the cosmopolitan moral orientation, but as a primary component of it. Global citizenship is fundamentally concerned with individual moral requirements in the global frame. Such requirements, framed here as belonging to the category of individual cosmopolitanism, offer guidelines on right action in the context of global human community. They are complementary to the principles of moral cosmopolitanism – those to be used in assessing the justice of global institutions and practices – that have been emphasised by cosmopolitan political theorists. Considering principles of individual and moral cosmopolitanism together can help to provide greater clarity concerning individual duties in the absence of fully global institutions, as well as clarity on individual obligations of justice in relation to emerging and still-developing trans-state institutions

A supplement containing multiple types of gluconeogenic substrates alters intake but not productivity of heat-stressed Afshari lambs

Citation: Mahjoubi, E., Amanlou, H., Yazdi, M. H., Aghaziarati, N., Noori, G. R., Vahl, C. I., . . . Baumgard, L. H. (2016). A supplement containing multiple types of gluconeogenic substrates alters intake but not productivity of heat-stressed Afshari lambs. Journal of Animal Science, 94(6), 2497-2505. doi:10.2527/jas2015-9697Thirty-two Afshari lambs were used in a completely randomized design with a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement of treatments to evaluate a nutritional supplement designed to provide multiple gluconeogenic precursors during heat stress (HS). Lambs were housed in thermal neutral (TN) conditions and fed ad libitum for 8 d to obtain covariate data (period 1 [P1]) for the subsequent experimental period (period 2 [P2]). During P2, which lasted 9 d, half of the lambs were subjected to HS and the other 16 lambs were maintained in TN conditions but pair fed (PFTN) to the HS lambs. Half of the lambs in each thermal regime were fed (top-dressed) 100 g/d of a feed supplement designed to provide gluconeogenic precursors (8 lambs in HS [heat stress with Glukosa {HSG}] and 8 lambs in PFTN [pair-fed thermal neutral with Glukosa]) and the other lambs in both thermal regimes were fed only the basal control diet (HS without Glukosa [HSC] and pair-fed thermal neutral without Glukosa). Heat stress decreased DMI (14%) and by design there were no differences between the thermal treatments, but HSG lambs had increased DMI (7.5%; P < 0.05) compared with the HSC lambs. Compared with PFTN lambs, rectal temperature and skin temperature at the rump, shoulder, and legs of HS lambs were increased (P < 0.05) at 0700 and 1400 h. Rectal temperature at 1400 h decreased for HSG lambs (0.15 +/- 0.03 degrees C; P < 0.05) compared with HSC lambs. Despite similar DMI between thermal treatments, ADG for HS and PFTN lambs in P2 was decreased 55 and 85%, respectively, compared with lambs in P1 (P < 0.01). Although the prefeeding glucose concentration was not affected by thermal treatment or diet, HSG lambs had increased postfeeding glucose concentration compared with HSC lambs (P < 0.05). In contrast to the glucose responses, circulating insulin was influenced only by thermal treatment; HS lambs had increased insulin concentration (P < 0.01) before feeding and decreased concentration (P < 0.05) after feeding compared with PFTN lambs. Heat-stressed lambs had decreased NEFA concentration before feeding (P < 0.01) but not after feeding relative to PFTN lambs. Although this nutritional strategy did not affect ADG, the lower rectal temperature in HSG lambs indicates that dietary inclusion of a mixture of glucogenic precursors can potentially benefit animal health during HS