The radical left's turn towards civil society in Greece: One strategy, two paths

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) made remarkable ‘turns towards civil society’ over the last decade. It is argued that this was primarily a response aimed at strengthening their social legitimacy, which had reached its lowest point in the early 1990s. Differences in the way the two parties attempted to stabilise and engage their membership and re-establish links to trade unions and new social movements can be attributed to their distinct ideological and organisational legacies. Despite those differences, their respective linkage strategies were both successful until the game-changing 2012 Greek national elections, which brought about the remarkable rise of SYRIZA and the electoral demise of the KKE

Labor Market Dynamics and Technology Adoption: Theory and Empirical Evidence

Using 'search' theory, technology adoption is conceived of as a critical factor in the aftermath of a technological shock, which increases employment in the leading sectors and total output in the economy. These implications are further investigated in the present paper, both formally and empirically. Our attempt to investigate this hypothesis empirically across ten OECD countries, appears to provide various affirmative results

Magnetoinductive breathers in magnetic metamaterials

The existence and stability of discrete breathers (DBs) in one-dimensional and two-dimensional magnetic metamaterials (MMs), which consist of periodic arrangem ents (arrays) of split-ring resonators (SRRs), is investigated numerically. We consider different configurations of the SRR arrays, which are related to the relative orientation of the SRRs in the MM, both in one and two spatial dimensions. In the latter case we also consider anisotropic MMs. Using standard numerical methods we construct several types of linearly stable breather excitations both in Hamiltonian and dissipative MMs (dissipative breathers). The study of stability in both cases is performed using standard Floquet analysi s. In both cases we found that the increase of dimensionality from one to two spatial dimensions does not destroy the DBs, which may also exist in the case of moderate anisotropy (in two dimensions). In dissipative MMs, the dynamics is governed by a power balance between the mainly Ohmic dissipation and driving by an alternating magnetic field. In that case it is demonstrated that DB excitation locally alters the magnetic response of MMs from paramagnetic to diamagnetic. Moreover, when the frequency of the applied field approaches the SRR resonance frequency, the magnetic response of the MM in the region of the DB excitation may even become negative (extreme diamagnetic).Comment: 12 pages 15 figure

Theory of a mode-locked atom laser with toroidal geometry

We consider a possible technique for mode locking an atom laser, based on the generation of a dark soliton in a ring-shaped Bose-Einstein condensate, with repulsive atomic interactions. The soliton is a kink, with angular momentum per particle equal to (h) over bar /2. It emerges naturally when the condensate is stirred at the soliton velocity and cleansed with a periodic out coupler. The result is a replicating coherent field inside the atom laser, stabilized by topology. We give a numerical demonstration of the generation and stabilization of the soliton

Screening assays for primary haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis in children presenting with suspected macrophage activation syndrome

BACKGROUND: Primary haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) screening assays are increasingly being performed in patients presenting with macrophage activation syndrome (MAS). The objective of this study was to describe their diagnostic and prognostic relevance in children who had presented to paediatric rheumatology and had undergone investigative work up for MAS. METHODS: Data was obtained retrospectively from an existing protein screening assay database and patient records. Assays included: intracellular expression of perforin in CD56+ Natural Killer (NK) cells; CD107a Granule Release Assay (GRA) in response to PHA in NK cells, or anti-CD3 stimulation of CD8 lymphocytes; in males Signal Lymphocyte Activating Molecule Associated Protein (SAP), and X-linked Inhibitor of Apoptosis Protein (XIAP) expression. All assays, requested by paediatric rheumatology, of children who had undergone investigative work up for MAS over a 5-year period (2007-2011) were included. RESULTS: Twenty-one patients (15 female), median age 6.5 years (range 0.6-16) with follow-up of 16 months (range 1-51), were retrospectively identified. At presentation, 3/21 (14 %) fulfilled HLH-2004 diagnostic criteria. At least one screening test result was available for all 21 patients; 7/21 (33 %) had at least one persistent screening test abnormality. Of this group 4/7 (57 %) died or required haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), compared to 1/14 (7 %) with no screening test abnormality (p = 0.025). 3/21 (14 %) ultimately had a diagnosis of primary HLH (two confirmed genetically; XIAP, familial HLH type 3, and one confirmed clinically). Of the six patients with abnormal GRA 5/6 had negative routine genetic results. CONCLUSIONS: Screening for primary HLH is warranted for children whose first rheumatological presentation is with MAS, since overall 14 % had an eventual diagnosis of primary HLH. A persistently abnormal GRA in patients presenting with MAS defines a high-risk group with poor outcome (mortality or HSCT), possibly due to as yet unidentified genetic cause

Stability and collapse of a coupled Bose-Einstein condensate

The dynamics of a coupled Bose-Einstein condensate involving trapped atoms in two quantum states is studied using the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation including an interaction which can transform atoms from one state to the other. We find interesting oscillation of the number of atoms in each of the states. For all repulsive interactions, stable condensates are formed. When some of the atomic interactions are attractive, the possibility of collapse is studied by including an absorptive contact interaction and a quartic three-body recombination term. One or both components of the condensate may undergo collapse when one or more of the nonlinear terms are attractive in nature.Comment: 14 Latex pages, 6 postscript figure

Magnetic resonance imaging findings in children with Parry-Romberg syndrome and en coup de sabre

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to: (i) describe the abnormalities seen on brain imaging in a group of children with en coup de sabre (EDCS) with/without Parry-Romberg syndrome (PRS); and (ii) identify clinical predictors of brain imaging abnormalities. METHODS: This was a single centre (Great Ormond Street Hospital, London) retrospective case series of patients with ECDS/PRS seen from 2000 to 2018. We identified patients with cutaneous manifestations consistent with the clinical descriptions of ECDS/PRS. Presenting clinical, laboratory, and radiological brain findings are described. Results are expressed as medians and ranges or frequencies and percentages. Fisher's exact test was used to identify clinical associations with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) abnormalities. RESULTS: Fourteen patients were studied: 6 males and 8 females; median age 14 years (range 3-20). We observed neuroimaging abnormalities in 2/6 ECDS and 5/8 ECDS/PRS patients. White matter signal abnormality, dystrophic calcification, leptomeningeal enhancement, and sulcal crowding were the typical findings on brain imaging. A total of 50% of patients had no MRI abnormality despite some of these patients having neurological symptoms. The presence of seizures was significantly associated with ipsilateral enhanced white matter signalling on MRI (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In summary, we observed several distinct radiographic patterns associated with ECDS/PRS. Seizure disorder was strongly associated with the presence of ipsilateral enhanced white matter signalling. Improved neuroimaging techniques that combine morphological with functional imaging may improve the detection rate of brain involvement in children with ECDS/PRS in the future

Observations on the Stress Related Variations of Soil Radon Concentration in the Gulf of Corinth, Greece

Our observations indicate a characteristic pattern in the long-term variation of soil radon concentrations, which seems to be consistent with the expected variation of regional stress in relation to seismicity. However, it seems that the major changes in radon level begin before the rock rapture, i.e. before the earthquake occurs. These conclusions have emerged after long-term observations with continuous and thorough real-time gamma-radiation monitoring in the seismically active area of the Gulf of Corinth, Greece. The recordings acquired close to a hot spring were of very high quality, implying that the deep hydraulic flow can possibly play a key role in the pre-earthquake variation of radon level. We were able to observe outstanding examples of radon level variations before significant seismic events in the Gulf of Corinth that cannot be attributed to other external factors such as atmospheric phenomena

Isolated central nervous system familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (fHLH) presenting as a mimic of demyelination in children

Isolated central nervous system (CNS) presentations of haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), traditionally a systemic inflammatory condition, have been reported in adults and children. We identified nine patients with a diagnosis of isolated CNS familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (fHLH) with symptom onset <18 years of age, and one asymptomatic sibling. Children with atypical chronic/recurrent CNS inflammation should be considered for immunological and genetic panel testing for fHLH even in the absence of any systemic inflammatory features. Despite haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) being a mainstay of treatment, treatment failure and high morbidity and mortality post-HSCT suggest that alternative immune therapies may be worth considering