A systematic review of primary Sjögren’s syndrome in male and paediatric populations

Primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) is a chronic multisystem autoimmune rheumatic disease characterised by female predominance. Although the disease is rare in the male and paediatric populations, it has been suggested that it may have a different disease phenotype, which has not been investigated before using a systematic approach. A systematic literature search of PubMed databases (updated to December 2016) was performed to identify all published data on the epidemiological, clinical and laboratory manifestations of pSS in the male and paediatric populations. The literature search of the male and paediatric pSS studies identified 2025 and 186 citations, respectively, out of which 7 and 5 fulfilled our inclusion criteria and were analysed further. The range of age at disease onset was 9.4–10.7 years for children and 39.4–56.9 years at diagnosis for male patients. We identified a prevalence of extra-glandular manifestations between 52.6–92.3% in the male population and 50.0–84.6% in children, while abnormal sialometry was only reported in the paediatric population, with a prevalence between 71.4 and 81.8%. There was a significant variation of positive serological markers, with anti-Ro antibodies reported between 15.7–75.0% and 36.4–84.6%, and anti-La antibodies between 5.6–51.7% and 27.3–65.4%, in the male and paediatric populations, respectively. The characteristics of pSS in the male and paediatric populations varied according to different studies. When compared to data available from pSS adult populations, children diagnosed with pSS reported less dryness and had a higher prevalence of parotitis, lymphadenopathy and systemic symptoms and male patients were younger at the time of diagnosis. This systematic review contributes to a better understanding of the epidemiology of pSS in rare populations. Large longitudinal cohort studies comparing male with female patients and adult with paediatric patients are needed

12/02/1947 Letter from the Town of Porter-Kezar Falls, Maine

Letter from the Office of Selectmen, Assessors, and Overseers of the Poor of the Town of Porter-Kezar Falls, Maine, to Louis-Philippe Gagné. The letter offers gratitude to the City of Lewiston for their assistance with a fire incident in Kezar Falls. The fire was likely part of the Great Fires of 1947.https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/fac-lpg-1947-10-12/1041/thumbnail.jp

Axial light emission and Ar metastable densities in a parallel plate dc micro discharge in steady state and transient regimes

Axial emission profiles in a parallel plate dc micro discharge (feedgas: argon; discharge gap d=1mm; pressure p=10Torr) were studied by means of time resolved imaging with a fast ICCD camera. Additionally, volt-ampere (V-A) characteristics were recorded and Ar* metastable densities were measured by tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS). Axial emission profiles in the steady state regime are similar to corresponding profiles in standard size discharges (d=1cm, p=1Torr). For some discharge conditions relaxation oscillations are present when the micro discharge switches periodically between low current Townsend-like mode and normal glow. At the same time the axial emission profile shows transient behavior, starting with peak distribution at the anode, which gradually moves towards the cathode during the normal glow. The development of argon metastable densities highly correlates with the oscillating discharge current. Gas temperatures in the low current Townsend-like mode (T= 320-400K) and the high current glow mode (T=469-526K) were determined by the broadening of the recorded spectral profiles as a function of the discharge current.Comment: submitted to Plasma Sources Sci. Techno

Biomarkers Associated with Organ-Specific Involvement in Juvenile Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus (JSLE) is characterised by onset before 18 years of age and more severe disease phenotype, increased morbidity and mortality compared to adult-onset SLE. Management strategies in JSLE rely heavily on evidence derived from adult-onset SLE studies; therefore, identifying biomarkers associated with the disease pathogenesis and reflecting particularities of JSLE clinical phenotype holds promise for better patient management and improved outcomes. This narrative review summarises the evidence related to various traditional and novel biomarkers that have shown a promising role in identifying and predicting specific organ involvement in JSLE and appraises the evidence regarding their clinical utility, focusing in particular on renal biomarkers, while also emphasising the research into cardiovascular, haematological, neurological, skin and joint disease-related JSLE biomarkers, as well as genetic biomarkers with potential clinical applications

Technological Progress, Employment and the Lifetime of Capital

We study the impact of technological progress on the level of employment in a vintage capital model where: i) capital and labor are gross complementary; ii) labor supply is endogenous and indivisible; iii) there is full employment, and iv) the rate of labor-saving technological progress is endogenous. We characterize the stationary distributions of vintage capital goods and the corresponding equilibrium values for employment and capital lifetime. It is shown that both variables are non-monotonic functions of technological progress indicators. Technological accelerations are found to increase employment provided innovations are not too radical

Iron Supply and Demand in Antarctic Shelf Ecosystem

The Ross Sea sustains a rich ecosystem and is the most productive sector of the Southern Ocean. Most of this production occurs within a polynya during the November-February period, when the availability of dissolved iron (dFe) is thought to exert the major control on phytoplankton growth. Here we combine new data on the distribution of dFe, high-resolution model simulations of ice melt and regional circulation, and satellite-based estimates of primary production to quantify iron supply and demand over the Ross Sea continental shelf. Our analysis suggests that the largest sources of dFe to the euphotic zone are wintertime mixing and melting sea ice, with a lesser input from intrusions of Circumpolar Deep Water and a small amount from melting glacial ice. Together these sources are in approximate balance with the annual biological dFe demand inferred from satellite-based productivity algorithms, although both the supply and demand estimates have large uncertainties

New technologies and firm organization : the case of electronic traceability systems in French agribusiness

This paper considers the relationship between the adoption of electronic traceability systems (ETSs) and the organization of firms. More precisely, it analyzes the respective roles of a firm's organizational structure, and organizational changes, in the process of ETS adoption in agribusiness. We use data from the French "Organizational Changes and Computerization" survey from 2006. We test a probit model to demonstrate the organizational structure and organizational changes underlying the firm's ETS adoption choice. Results show that ETS adoption is strongly favored by organizations with heavy hierarchical structures, standardized managerial practices and contractual mechanisms with external partners. This adoption process seems to coevolve with the organization: firms that implemented an ETS during the observed period (2003-2006) have experienced the most important organizational changes in terms of managerial practices, information systems and contractual relations, as well as the strengthening of the intermediate levels in the hierarchy

Stirring by small-scale vortices caused by patchy mixing

Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2005. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 35 (2005): 1245-1262, doi:10.1175/JPO2713.1.Evidence is presented that lateral dispersion on scales of 1–10 km in the stratified waters of the continental shelf may be significantly enhanced by stirring by small-scale geostrophic motions caused by patches of mixed fluid adjusting in the aftermath of diapycnal mixing events. Dye-release experiments conducted during the recent Coastal Mixing and Optics (CMO) experiment provide estimates of diapycnal and lateral dispersion. Microstructure observations made during these experiments showed patchy turbulence on vertical scales of 1–10 m and horizontal scales of a few hundred meters to a few kilometers. Momentum scaling and a simple random walk formulation were used to estimate the effective lateral dispersion caused by motions resulting from lateral adjustment following episodic mixing events. It is predicted that lateral dispersion is largest when the scale of mixed patches is on the order of the internal Rossby radius of deformation, which seems to have been the case for CMO. For parameter values relevant to CMO, lower-bound estimates of the effective lateral diffusivity by this mechanism ranged from 0.1 to 1 m2s−1. Revised estimates after accounting for the possibility of long-lived motions were an order of magnitude larger and ranged from 1 to 10 m2s−1. The predicted dispersion is large enough to explain the observed lateral dispersion in all four CMO dye-release experiments examined.The Coastal Mixing and Optics dye studies were funded by the Office of Naval Research under Grants N00014-95-1-0633 (tracer experiments) and N00014-95-1-1063 (AASERT fellowship). Additional analysis was also performed under ONR Grant N00014-01-1-0984