In a nanoscience lab

The production, observation and manipulation of very small objects is a tour de force, but these objects, which could infiltrate anywhere without being seen, may arouse suspicion. To assess the situation at best, we describe the activity of a nanoscience research institution, some of the methods used there, the spirit of its researchers and their attitude towards risk.Comment: article accept\'e pour publication dans les C.R. Physique. El\'ement d'un dossier 'Nanosciences et nanotechnologies: esp\'erances et inqui\'etudes". D'autres articles de ce dossier, ainsi que la version fran\c{c}aise de cet articles, seront \'egalement soumis \`a HA

The Dickey-Fuller-test for exponential random walks

We derive the probability limit of the standard Dickey-Fuller-test in the context of an exponential random walk. This result might be useful in interpreting tests for unit roots when the test is inadvertantly applied to the levels of the data when the "true" random walk is in the logs

A patient on RIPE therapy presenting with recurrent isoniazid-associated pleural effusions: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>The clinical scenario of a new or worsening pleural effusion following the initiation of antituberculous therapy has been classically referred to as a 'paradoxical' pleural response, presumably explained by an immunological rebound phenomenon. Emerging evidence suggests that there also may be a role for a lupus-related reaction in the pathophysiology of this disorder.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>An 84-year-old Asian man treated with isoniazid, along with rifampin, pyrazinamide and ethambutol for suspected extrapulmonary tuberculosis, presented with a recurrent pleural effusion, his third episode since the initiation of this therapy. The first effusion occurred one month after the start of treatment, without any prior evidence of pulmonary tuberculosis involvement. Follow-up testing, including thoracoscopic pleural biopsies, never confirmed tuberculosis infection. Further evaluation yielded serological evidence suggesting drug-induced lupus. No effusions recurred following the discontinuation of isoniazid, although other antituberculosis medications were continued.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The immunological rebound construct is inconsistent with the evolution of this case, which indicates rather that drug-induced lupus may explain at least some cases of new pleural effusions following the initiation of isoniazid.</p

ジツブツ シサン オ フクメタ カケイ ノ シサン センタク ノ コウリツセイ

In this paper, we test for the efficiency of the observed Japanese household portfolios including real asset （housing） in three cases, （1） treat real asset （housing） as fully unconstrained, （2） conditional on real asset （housing） （3） conditional on real asset （housing） and the correlation between real asset （housing） return and financial assets returns are zero. We use two methods for the efficiency test, one is to plot the efficient frontiers, and another is econometric statistic

Tulle – Place Monseigneur Berteaud, Place Gambetta

Identifiant de l'opération archéologique : 2632 Date de l'opération : 2006 (MH) Dans le cadre du projet d’aménagement des places Monseigneur Berteaud et Gambetta situées à l’ouest et au nord de la cathédrale de Tulle, un diagnostic archéologique a été réalisé en 2004 sous la responsabilité de D. Jouneau (BSR, 2004, p. 32). Les tranchées de sondages réalisées sur la place Berteaud ont montré des vestiges de bâtiments et de niveau de voierie à faible profondeur. La même année, des travaux d’ass..

Dans un laboratoire de nanosciences

An english version of this article is available (http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.5566) and will be published in the C.R. Physique in a dossier devoted to the merits and risks of Nanotechnologies.La fabrication, l'observation et la manipulation d'objets très petits est un tour de force, mais ces objets, susceptibles de s'infiltrer partout sans être perçus, peuvent susciter la méfiance. Pour mieux apprécier la situation, nous décrivons l'activité d'un institut de recherche spécialisé dans les nanosciences, certaines des méthodes qui y sont utilisées, l'esprit de ses chercheurs et leur attitude vis à vis des risques. An english version of this article is available (http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.5566) and will be published in the C.R. Physique in a dossier devoted to the merits and risks of Nanotechnologies

New Opportunities for Automated Pedestrian Performance Measures

Pedestrian safety is an important concern when evaluating intersections. Previous literature has shown that exclusive pedestrian phases improve safety, but at the expense of imposing greater pedestrian and motorist delay. However, outside of crash data, there are no easily implementable performance measures for pedestrians at traffic signals. This study proposes two performance metrics: (1) a time-to-jaywalk measure, and (2) the Conflict Occupancy Ratio (COR) for evaluating concurrent pedestrian signal phasing with turning vehicles. The COR quantifies conflicts between turning vehicles and pedestrians in the crosswalk. The COR is based upon a commercially deployed video detection system that correctly identified the presence of pedestrians to within two per cycle in this study. This performance is likely sufficient for the current application, but as the technology matures it will provide a scalable screening tool to identify intersections that have opportunities for capacity adjustments or warrant further direct field investigation

AB0160 CARDIAC AUTONOMIC NEUROPATHY PREVALENCE IN A COHORT OF SYSTEMIC SCLEROSIS (SSC) PATIENTS

Background:Systemic sclerosis is a rare disease determining a damage to the connective tissue and, consequently, an involvement of several organs. Besides the damage of the connective tissue, preminent is also the small vessels injury, detectable by videocapillaroscopy. Some authors report that the vascular damage may be also responsible of a cardiovascular impairment as cardiac autonomic disease (CAN) and heart rate variability [1].Objectives:Our study aims to assess the presence and entity of CAN in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc).Methods:This is a pilot prospective cohort study. We enrolled 28 patients in a period of six months, from May 2019 to November 2019, afferent to the outpatient clinic of internal medicine and immunology of the Primo Policlinico of Naples, with definite SSc diagnosis in absence of other comorbidities. All patients underwent diagnostic tests for autonomic cardiac neuropathy (NAC) and videocapillaroscopy. In particular, four test were performed to search for the presence of NAC: orthostatic hypotension, deep breathing, lying to standing and Valsalva maneuver. Each test was corrected for age and diagnosis was made in the case at least two tests resulted positive. Primary endpoint of the study was the assessment of the prevalence of autonomic cardiac neuropathy in the study population.Results:Our cohort was mainly characterized by females (92.9%), with a median age of 58.5 years [IQR: 49-64.8 yrs.] and a median duration of the disease of 4 years [IQR 2-13 yrs.]. The observed prevalence of NAC was equal to the 46.4% (13 cases). In addition, we evaluated the potential association of NAC with age, duration of disease, gastrointestinal dysmotility, sicca syndrome, cutaneous involvement and type of videocapillaroscopy pattern, from which no statistically significant result emerged. Hence, a further analysis, by using a time-dependent Cox regression model (with the duration of disease as time covariate), was performed on the same variables. From this model a significant association emerged in particular between the presence of NAC and the active videocapillaroscopy pattern (OR 6.23; 95% CI: 1.058-36.71, p=0.043).Conclusion:Though current data in the literature on this topic are poor, cardiac autonomic neuropathy is among the clinical manifestations of SSc. In our study population, though the limited sample size, we observed a high percentage of patients with autonomic cardiac neuropathy, which seems much more frequent with the increase in the duration of disease and based on the type of videocapillaroscopy pattern.References:[1]Ferri C, Emdin M, Giuggioli D, Carpeggiani C, Maielli M, Varga A, Michelassi C, Pasero G, L'Abbate A. Autonomic dysfunction in systemic sclerosis: time and frequency domain 24 hour heart rate variability analysis. Br J Rheumatol. 1997[2]Adler BL, Russell JW, Hummers LK, McMahan ZH. Symptoms of Autonomic Dysfunction in Systemic Sclerosis Assessed by the COMPASS-31 Questionnaire. J Rheumatol. 2018 Aug;45(8):1145-1152. doi: 10.3899/jrheum.170868. Epub 2018 JunDisclosure of Interests:None declare