Orientation of Galaxies in the Local Supercluster: A Review

The progress of the studies on the orientation of galaxies in the Local Supercluster (LSC) is reviewed and a summary of recent results is given. Following a brief introduction of the LSC, we describe the results of early studies based on two-dimensional analysis, which were mostly not conclusive. We describe next the three-dimensional analysis, which is used widely today. Difficulties and systematic effects are explained and the importance of selection effects is described. Then, results based on the new method and modern databases are given, which are summarized as follows. When the LSC is seen as a whole, galaxy planes tend to align perpendicular to the LSC plane with lenticulars showing the most pronounced tendency. Projections onto the LSC plane of the spin vectors of Virgo cluster member galaxies, and to some extent, those of the total LSC galaxies, tend to point to the Virgo cluster center. This tendency is more pronounced for lenticulars than for spirals. It is suggested that 'field' galaxies, i.e., those which do not belong to groups with more than three members, may be better objects than other galaxies to probe the information at the early epoch of the LSC formation through the analysis of galaxy orientations. Field lenticulars show a pronounced anisotropic distribution of spin vectors in the sense that they lay their spin vectors parallel to the LSC plane while field spirals show an isotropic spin-vector distribution.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures; Accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

The association between body mass index and mortality in incident dialysis patients

Objectives: To study the body mass index (BMI) trajectory in patients with incident end-stage kidney disease and its association with all-cause mortality

Automated and continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis have similar outcomes

We compared survival and death-censored technique survival in patients on automated peritoneal dialysis (automated dialysis) or on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis. All 4128 patients from the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry who started peritoneal dialysis over a 5-year period through March 2004 were included. Times to death and death-censored technique failure were analyzed by Cox proportional hazards models while a conditional risk set model computed technique failure. Compared to patients treated entirely with continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis, automated peritoneal dialysis patients were more likely to be young, Caucasian, have marginally lower body mass index, and were less likely to have baseline cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Using univariate and multivariate analysis, our study showed there were no significant differences in patient survival and death-censored technique failure between the two types of peritoneal dialysis modalities.S V Badve, C M Hawley, S P Mcdonald, D W Mudge, J B Rosman, F G Brown and D W Johnson for The ANZDATA Registry PD Working Grou

Global, regional, and national burden of traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury, 1990-2016: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016

Background Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and spinal cord injury (SCI) are increasingly recognised as global health priorities in view of the preventability of most injuries and the complex and expensive medical care they necessitate. We aimed to measure the incidence, prevalence, and years of life lived with disability (YLDs) for TBI and SCI from all causes of injury in every country, to describe how these measures have changed between 1990 and 2016, and to estimate the proportion of TBI and SCI cases caused by different types of injury. Methods We used results from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors (GBD) Study 2016 to measure the global, regional, and national burden of TBI and SCI by age and sex. We measured the incidence and prevalence of all causes of injury requiring medical care in inpatient and outpatient records, literature studies, and survey data. By use of clinical record data, we estimated the proportion of each cause of injury that required medical care that would result in TBI or SCI being considered as the nature of injury. We used literature studies to establish standardised mortality ratios and applied differential equations to convert incidence to prevalence of long-term disability. Finally, we applied GBD disability weights to calculate YLDs. We used a Bayesian meta-regression tool for epidemiological modelling, used causespecific mortality rates for non-fatal estimation, and adjusted our results for disability experienced with comorbid conditions. We also analysed results on the basis of the Socio-demographic Index, a compound measure of income per capita, education, and fertility. Findings In 2016, there were 27.08 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 24.30-30.30 million) new cases of TBI and 0.93 million (0.78-1.16 million) new cases of SCI, with age-standardised incidence rates of 369 (331-412) per 100 000 population for TBI and 13 (11-16) per 100 000 for SCI. In 2016, the number of prevalent cases of TBI was 55.50 million (53.40-57.62 million) and of SCI was 27.04 million (24.98-30.15 million). From 1990 to 2016, the agestandardised prevalence of TBI increased by 8.4% (95% UI 7.7 to 9.2), whereas that of SCI did not change significantly (-0.2% [-2.1 to 2.7]). Age-standardised incidence rates increased by 3.6% (1.8 to 5.5) for TBI, but did not change significantly for SCI (-3.6% [-7.4 to 4.0]). TBI caused 8.1 million (95% UI 6.0-10.4 million) YLDs and SCI caused 9.5 million (6.7-12.4 million) YLDs in 2016, corresponding to age-standardised rates of 111 (82-141) per 100 000 for TBI and 130 (90-170) per 100 000 for SCI. Falls and road injuries were the leading causes of new cases of TBI and SCI in most regions. Interpretation TBI and SCI constitute a considerable portion of the global injury burden and are caused primarily by falls and road injuries. The increase in incidence of TBI over time might continue in view of increases in population density, population ageing, and increasing use of motor vehicles, motorcycles, and bicycles. The number of individuals living with SCI is expected to increase in view of population growth, which is concerning because of the specialised care that people with SCI can require. Our study was limited by data sparsity in some regions, and it will be important to invest greater resources in collection of data for TBI and SCI to improve the accuracy of future assessments. © 2018 The Author(s)