Transcatheter electrical shock ablation of ventricular tachycardia

Transcatheter shock ablation of ventricular tachycardia was attempted in seven patients who had drug-resistant ventricular tachycardia and in one patient in whom ventricular tachycardia was electrophysiologically induced during therapy with multiple antiarrhythmic drugs. Seven patients had previous myocardial infarction and five of them were high risk candidates for surgical therapy. One patient without organic heart disease had repetitive ventricular tachycardia manifesting two different patterns of left bundle branch block. After endocardial mapping, synchronized unipolar 250 to 300 J shocks (one to six) were delivered between the pole recording the earliest endocardial activity during ventricular tachycardia (40 to 200 ms before the onset of the QRS complex) and a body surface electrode. Immediate complications included severe but reversible cardiogenic shock (one patient), nonclinical ventricular tachycardia (two patients, requiring cardioversion in one), transient atrioventricular and intraventricular conduction disturbances (three patients) and permanent left bundle branch block (one patient). A late complication in one patient, left heart failure, occurred 3 days after delivery of five intracardiac shocks. In two patients, left ventricular ejection fraction markedly decreased and in one of them new ventricular contraction abnormalities appeared.Clinical ventricular tachycardia did not recur in five of the seven post-myocardial infarction patients after 7 to 17 months, and it was not inducible in the four patients undergoing late electrophysiologic study. In the patient with idiopathic ventricular tachycardia, one of the configurational types of ventricular tachycardia recurred. It is concluded that transcatheter shock ablation of ventricular tachycardia is a promising technique that warrants further investigation, especially in high risk surgical candidates. The high incidence of complications, however, should temper any temptation to consider routine use of this procedure in patients with ventricula

Reviewing research evidence and the case of participation in sport and physical recreation by black and minority ethnic communities

The paper addresses the implications of using the process of systematic review in the many areas of leisure where there is a dearth of material that would be admitted into conventional Cochrane Reviews. This raises important questions about what constitutes legitimate knowledge, questions that are of critical import not just to leisure scholars, but to the formulation of policy. The search for certainty in an area that lacks conceptual consensus results in an epistemological imperialism that takes a geocentric form. While clearly, there is a need for good research design whatever the style of research, we contend that the wholesale rejection of insightful research is profligate and foolhardy. A mechanism has to be found to capitalise on good quality research of whatever form. In that search, we draw upon our experience of conducting a review of the material available on participation in sport and physical recreation by people from Black and minority ethnic groups. The paper concludes with a proposal for a more productive review process that makes better use of the full panoply of good quality research available. © 2012 © 2012 Taylor & Francis

Radiative Correction to the Nuclear-Size Effect and Hydrogen-Deuterium Isotopic Shift

The radiative correction to the nuclear charge radius contribution to the Lamb shift of order $\alpha(Z\alpha)^5m_r^3$ is calculated. In view of the recent high precision experimental data, this theoretical correction produces a significant contribution to the hydrogen-deuterium isotopic shift.Comment: 5 pages, REVTEX, replaced with the final version, to be published in Phys.Rev. A, two references adde

Managing and monitoring equality and diversity in UK sport: An evaluation of the sporting equals Racial Equality Standard and its impact on organizational change

Despite greater attention to racial equality in sport in recent years, the progress of national sports organizations toward creating equality of outcomes has been limited in the United Kingdom. The collaboration of the national sports agencies, equity organizations and national sports organizations (including national governing bodies of sport) has focused on Equality Standards. The authors revisit an earlier impact study of the Racial Equality Standard in sport and supplement it with another round of interview material to assess changing strategies to manage diversity in British sport. In particular, it tracks the impact on organizational commitment to diversity through the period of the establishment of the Racial Equality Standard and its replacement by an Equality Standard that deals with other diversity issues alongside race and ethnicity. As a result, the authors question whether the new, generic Equality Standard is capable of addressing racial diversity and promoting equality of outcomes. © 2006 Sage Publications

Finite nuclear size effect on Lamb shift of s1/2, p1/2, and p3/2 atomic states

We consider one-loop self-energy and vacuum polarization radiative corrections to the shift of atomic energy level due to finite nuclear size. Analytic expressions for vacuum polarization corrections are derived. For the self-energy of p1/2 and p3/2 states in addition to already known terms we derive next-to-leading nonlogarithmic Z\alpha-terms. Together with contributions obtained earlier the terms derived in the present work give explicit analytic expressions for s1/2 and p1/2 corrections which agree with results of previous numerical calculations up to Z=100 (Z is the nuclear charge number). We also show that the finite nuclear size radiative correction for a p3/2 state is not small compared to the similar correction for a p1/2 state at least for small Z.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure

Nazi Punks Folk Off: Leisure, Nationalism, Cultural Identity and the Consumption of Metal and Folk Music

Far-right activists have attempted to infiltrate and use popular music scenes to propagate their racialised ideologies. This paper explores attempts by the far right to co-opt two particular music scenes: black metal and English folk. Discourse tracing is used to explore online debates about boundaries, belonging and exclusion in the two scenes, and to compare such online debates with ethnographic work and previous research. It is argued that both scenes have differently resisted the far right through the policing of boundaries and communicative choices, but both scenes are compromised by their relationship to myths of whiteness and the instrumentality of the pop music industry

‘Race’ Talk! Tensions and Contradictions in Sport and PE

Background: The universal sport discourses of inclusion, belonging, meritocracy, agency, and equality are so widespread that few challenge them. It is clear from the most cursory interest in sport, PE and society that the lived reality is quite different and ambiguous. Racial disparities in the leadership and administration of sport are commonplace world wide; yet from research into ‘race’ in sport and PE the public awareness of these issues is widespread, where many know that racism takes place it is always elsewhere For many this racism is part of the game and something that enables an advantage to be stolen, for others it is trivial and not worthy of deeper thought. This paper explores the contradictions and tensions of the author’s experience of how sport and PE students talk about ‘race’. ‘Race’ talk is considered here in the context of passive everyday ‘race’ talk, dominant discourses in sporting cultures, and colour-blindness. This paper focuses on the pernicious yet persistent nature of ‘race’ talk while demystifying its multifarious, spurious, and more persuasive daily iterations. Theoretical framework: Drawing on Guinier and Torres’ (2003) ideas of resistance through political race consciousness and Bonilla-Silva’s (2010) notion of colour-blindness the semantics of ‘race’ and racialisation in sport and PE are interrogated through the prism of Critical Race Theory (CRT). Critical race scholarship has been used in sport and PE to articulate a political application of ‘race’ as a starting point for critical activism, to disrupt whiteness, and to explore the implications of ‘race’ and racism. CRT is used here to centre ‘race’ and racialised relations where disciplines have consciously or otherwise excluded them. Importantly, the centreing of ‘race’ by critical race scholars has advanced a strategic and pragmatic engagement with this slippery concept that recognises its paradoxical but symbolic location in social relations. Discussion: Before exploring ‘race’ talk in the classroom, using images from the sport media as a pedagogical tool, the paper considers how effortlessly ‘race’ is recreated and renewed. The paper then turns to explore how the effortless turn to everyday ‘race’ talk in the classroom can be viewed as an opportunity to disrupt common racialised assumptions with the potential to implicate those that passively engage in it. Further the diagnostic, aspirational and activist goals of political race consciousness are established as vehicles for a positive sociological experience in the classroom. Conclusion: The work concludes with a pragmatic consideration of the uses and dangers of passive everyday ‘race’ talk and the value of a political race consciousness in sport and PE. Part of the explanation for the perpetuation of ‘race’ talk and the relative lack of concern with its impact in education and wider society is focused on how the sovereignty of sport and PE trumps wider social concerns of ‘race’ and racism because of at least four factors 1) the liberal left discourses of sporting utopianism 2) the ‘race’ logic that pervades sport, based upon the perceived equal access and fairness of sport as it coalesces with the, 3) 'incontrovertible facts' of black and white superiority [and inferiority] in certain sports, ergo the racial justifications for patterns of activity in sport and PE 4) the racist logic of the Right perpetuated through a biological reductionism in sport and PE discourses. Keywords: ‘Race’ Talk; Critical Race Theory; Political Race Consciousnes

B lymphocytes contribute to indirect pathway T cell sensitisation via acquisition of extracellular vesicles

B cells have been implicated in transplant rejection via antibody‐mediated mechanisms and more recently by presenting donor‐antigens to T cells. We have shown in patients with chronic antibody‐mediated rejection that B cells control the indirect T cell alloresponses. To understand more about the role of B cells as antigen presenting cells for CD4⁺ T cell with indirect allospecificity, B cells were depleted in C57BL/6 mice, using an anti‐CD20 antibody, prior to receiving MHC‐class I‐mismatched (Kᵈ) skin. The absence of B cells at the time of transplantation prolonged skin graft survival. To study the mechanisms behind this observation, T cells with indirect allospecificity were transferred in mice receiving a Kᵈ skin transplant. T cell proliferation was markedly inhibited in the absence of recipient B cells, suggesting that B cells contribute to indirect pathway sensitisation. Furthermore, we have shown that a possible way in which B cells present alloantigens is via acquisition of MHC‐peptide complexes. Finally, we demonstrate that the addition of B cell depletion to the transfer of Tregs with indirect alloresponse further prolonged skin graft survival. This study supports an important role for B cells in indirect T cell priming and further emphasises the advantage of combination therapies in prolonging transplant survival