Persistence of low disease activity after tumour necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) discontinuation in patients with psoriatic arthritis.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the duration of clinical benefit among patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) discontinuing tumour necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) therapy while in low disease activity (LDA), and to identify patient characteristics associated with prolonged clinical benefit. METHODS: We performed an observational cohort study assessing patients with PsA from the Consortium of Rheumatology Researchers of North America (CORRONA) registry who had discontinued TNFi after achieving LDA, defined as clinical disease activity index (CDAI) score ≤10 and physician\u27s global assessment (PGA) of skin psoriasis ≤20/100. Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate the duration of clinical benefit. RESULTS: Of the 5945 patients with PsA in CORRONA, 302 patients had discontinued TNFi (n=325) while in LDA and had follow-up data available. At time of discontinuation, mean PsA duration was 9.8 years, mean CDAI was 3.9, and mean duration of TNFi use was 1.5 years; 52.6% of patients had discontinued their first TNFi. Median time to loss of benefit was 29.2 months. 179 (55.1%) patients had persistent benefit at their previous clinic visit. An increased risk of losing clinical benefit was seen among patients with higher disease activity at discontinuation (CDAI≥3.2 vs CONCLUSIONS: Patients with PsA who achieve LDA may maintain clinical benefit after discontinuation of TNFi therapy

Radio Observations of the Hubble Deep Field South Region III: The 2.5, 5.2 and 8.7 GHz Catalogues and Radio Source Properties

Deep radio observations of a wide region centred on the Hubble Deep Field South have been performed, providing one of the most sensitive set of radio observations acquired on the Australia Telescope Compact Array to date. A central rms of ~10 microJy is reached at four frequencies (1.4, 2.5, 5.2 and 8.7 GHz). In this paper the full source catalogues from the 2.5, 5.2 and 8.7 GHz observations are presented to complement Paper II, along with a detailed analysis of image quality and noise. We produce a consolidated catalogue by matching sources across all four frequencies of our survey. Radio spectral indices are used to investigate the nature of the radio sources and identify a number of sources with flat or inverted radio spectra, which indicates AGN activity. We also find several other interesting sources, including a broadline emitting radio galaxy, a giant radio galaxy and three Gigahertz Peaked Spectrum sources.Comment: Accepted by AJ. 13 figures and 13 table

The Spitzer Archival Far-InfraRed Extragalactic Survey

We present the Spitzer Archival Far-InfraRed Extragalactic Survey (SAFIRES). This program produces refined mosaics and source lists for all far-infrared extragalactic data taken during the more than six years of the cryogenic operation of the Spitzer Space Telescope. The SAFIRES products consist of far-infrared data in two wavelength bands (70 um and 160 um) across approximately 180 square degrees of sky, with source lists containing far-infrared fluxes for almost 40,000 extragalactic point sources. Thus, SAFIRES provides a large, robust archival far-infrared data set suitable for many scientific goals.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, published in ApJ

Facile Solution Route to Synthesize Nanostructure Li 4

High rate Li-ion batteries have been given great attention during the last decade as a power source for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs, EVs, etc.) due to the highest energy and power density. These lithium batteries required a new design of material structure as well as innovative electrode materials. Among the promising candidates, spinel Li4Ti5O12 has been proposed as a high rate anode to replace graphite anode because of high capacity and a negligible structure change during intercalation of lithium. In this work, we synthesized a spinel Li4Ti5O12 in nanosize by a solution route using LiOH and Ti(OBu)4 as precursor. An evaluation of structure and morphology by XRD and SEM exhibited pure spinel phase Li4Ti5O12 and homogenous nanoparticles around 100 nm. In the charge-discharge test, nanospinel Li4Ti5O12 presents excellent discharge capacity 160 mAh/g at rate C/10, as well as good specific capacities of 120, 110, and 100 mAh/g at high rates C, 5C and 10C, respectively

Facile Solution Route to Synthesize Nanostructure Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 for High Rate Li-Ion Battery

High rate Li-ion batteries have been given great attention during the last decade as a power source for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs, EVs, etc.) due to the highest energy and power density. These lithium batteries required a new design of material structure as well as innovative electrode materials. Among the promising candidates, spinel Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 has been proposed as a high rate anode to replace graphite anode because of high capacity and a negligible structure change during intercalation of lithium. In this work, we synthesized a spinel Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 in nanosize by a solution route using LiOH and Ti(OBu) 4 as precursor. An evaluation of structure and morphology by XRD and SEM exhibited pure spinel phase Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 and homogenous nanoparticles around 100 nm. In the charge-discharge test, nanospinel Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 presents excellent discharge capacity 160 mAh/g at rate C/10, as well as good specific capacities of 120, 110, and 100 mAh/g at high rates C, 5C and 10C, respectively

DEVELOPING THE JUNGLEFY BREATHING WALL FOR ENHANCED INDOOR AIR QUALITY REMEDIATION

KEY RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS Operational parameters of the Junglefy Breathing Wall system were determined and characterised. Data collected included system water loss, pressure drop, air distribution and the system’s effect on ambient temperature and relative humidity. Clean air delivery rates were calculated utilising the removal efficiencies. The system produced 25.86¬–28.70 m3/h per module, depending on particle size and airflow rate. A typical Breathing Wall of 10 m2, utilising 40 modules would thus produce up to 12,700 m3/h of particle-free air. Tests were conducted to identify the most appropriate plant species for survival in high pollution environments. All of the plant species tested, which are currently used in commercial applications of the Breathing Wall, recorded moderate air pollutant tolerance, and thus the system using the current plant species could possibly be used in industrial applications. Pollutant effect on air filled porosity of the substrate was negligible, even under extremely high pollutant loads. Air quality tests were conducted at the Lend Lease Head Office, and the efficiency of the first Breathing Wall installation was monitored. The Breathing Wall is successfully reducing ambient particulate matter and carbon dioxide relative to outdoors and other areas throughout the building. Additionally, air pollutants including carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds and sulphur dioxide were below the detection limit of the equipment being used, indicating excellent indoor environmental quality. The results indicate that the Breathing Wall is working as intended

Measurement of air flow through a green-wall module

© 2006 Australasian Fluid Mechanics Society. All rights reserved. Green or living walls are active bio-filters developed to enhance air quality. Often, these walls form the base from which plants are grown; and the plant-wall system helps to remove both gaseous and particulate air pollutants. A green wall can be found indoors as well as outdoors, and could be assembled from modules in an arrangement similar to tiling. Measurement of air flow through such a module has been conducted in this work. The module is essentially a rectangular plastic box (dimensions about 500 mm x 500 mm x 130 mm) that holds a permeable bag containing a plant-growing medium (replacement for soil). The front face of the module has multiple openings for plants to protrude out from the bag inside. Plant roots are imbedded in the medium. A fan positioned at a central opening on the module‟s back face drives air through the medium-plant-roots mix and then onward through the plants‟ canopy; and these would help to remove both gaseous and particulate pollutants from the air. Drip-irrigation water is dispensed from a tube running along the open top-face of the module. The module has also a small drainage hole on its bottom face. Pressure drop across the module, air-flow distribution through it as well as flow rate have been obtained, in terms of variable parameters which include moisture content, growing-medium-plant-roots mix and plant type. The measurements help to determine the pattern of flow resistances which in turn will be used in a future CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) analysis for improving the design of the module, such that more appropriate flow distribution and flow rate would be achieved. All this is in addition to the better understanding of air flow through complex moist porous media

Silver and Palladium Complexes of a Bis(benzimidazolin-2-ylidene)pyridine Pincer Ligand

Reaction of 2,6-bis(3-butylbenzimidazol-1-ium)pyridine dibromide with silVer oxide affords a dinuclear complex of the type [L2Ag2]2+ [L ) 2,6-bis(3-butylbenzimidazolin-2-ylidene)pyridine]. 1H NMR spectroscopic studies suggest that the dinuclear structure is also present in solution. Transmetalationof the silVer-NHC complex with PdCl2(CH3CN)2 yields a mononuclear palladium complex of the type [LPdCl]+, with a chelating C,N,C pincer ligand

The dust un-biased cosmic star formation history from the 20 cm VLA-COSMOS survey

We derive the cosmic star formation history (CSFH) out to z=1.3 using a sample of ~350 radio-selected star-forming galaxies, a far larger sample than in previous, similar studies. We attempt to differentiate between radio emission from AGN and star-forming galaxies, and determine an evolving 1.4 GHz luminosity function based on these VLA-COSMOS star forming galaxies. We precisely measure the high-luminosity end of the star forming galaxy luminosity function (SFR>100 M_Sol/yr; equivalent to ULIRGs) out to z=1.3, finding a somewhat slower evolution than previously derived from mid-infrared data. We find that more stars are forming in luminous starbursts at high redshift. We use extrapolations based on the local radio galaxy luminosity function; assuming pure luminosity evolution, we derive $L_* \propto (1+z)^{2.1 \pm 0.2}$ or $L_* \propto (1+z)^{2.5 \pm 0.1}$, depending on the choice of the local radio galaxy luminosity function. Thus, our radio-derived results independently confirm the ~1 order of magnitude decline in the CSFH since z~1.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures; submitted to ApJ (revised following the referee report

The VLA-COSMOS Survey. IV. Deep Data and Joint Catalog

In the context of the VLA-COSMOS Deep project additional VLA A array observations at 1.4 GHz were obtained for the central degree of the COSMOS field and combined with the existing data from the VLA-COSMOS Large project. A newly constructed Deep mosaic with a resolution of 2.5" was used to search for sources down to 4 sigma with 1 sigma ~ 12 microJy/beam in the central 50'x50'. This new catalog is combined with the catalog from the Large project (obtained at 1.5"x1.4" resolution) to construct a new Joint catalog. All sources listed in the new Joint catalog have peak flux densities of >5 sigma at 1.5" and/or 2.5" resolution to account for the fact that a significant fraction of sources at these low flux levels are expected to be slighty resolved at 1.5" resolution. All properties listed in the Joint catalog such as peak flux density, integrated flux density and source size are determined in the 2.5" resolution Deep image. In addition, the Joint catalog contains 43 newly identified multi-component sources.Comment: 34 pages, 20 figures (3 at reduced resolution). Accepted for publication in ApJS