The Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and Ambient Air Pollution: A Novel Association

OBJECTIVES: The inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) emerged after industrialization. We studied whether ambient air pollution levels were associated with the incidence of IBD. METHODS: The health improvement network (THIN) database in the United Kingdom was used to identify incident cases of Crohn's disease (n=367) or ulcerative colitis (n=591), and age- and sex-matched controls. Conditional logistic regression analyses assessed whether IBD patients were more likely to live in areas of higher ambient concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)), sulfur dioxide (SO(2)), and particulate matter <10 μm (PM(10)), as determined by using quintiles of concentrations, after adjusting for smoking, socioeconomic status, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and appendectomy. Stratified analyses investigated effects by age. RESULTS: Overall, NO(2), SO(2), and PM(10) were not associated with the risk of IBD. However, individuals ≤23 years were more likely to be diagnosed with Crohn's disease if they lived in regions with NO(2) concentrations within the upper three quintiles (odds ratio (OR)=2.31; 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.25-4.28), after adjusting for confounders. Among these Crohn's disease patients, the adjusted OR increased linearly across quintile levels for NO(2) (P=0.02). Crohn's disease patients aged 44-57 years were less likely to live in regions of higher NO(2) (OR=0.56; 95% CI=0.33-0.95) and PM(10) (OR=0.48; 95% CI=0.29-0.80). Ulcerative colitis patients ≤25 years (OR=2.00; 95% CI=1.08-3.72) were more likely to live in regions of higher SO(2); however, a dose-response effect was not observed. CONCLUSIONS: On the whole, air pollution exposure was not associated with the incidence of IBD. However, residential exposures to SO(2) and NO(2) may increase the risk of early-onset ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, respectively. Future studies are needed to explore the age-specific effects of air pollution exposure on IBD risk

Constraining R-parity violating couplings from B --> PP decays using QCD improved factorization method

We investigate the role of R-parity violating interaction in the non-leptonic decays of B mesons into two light mesons B --> PP. The decay amplitudes are calculated using the QCD improved factorization method. Using the combined data on B decays from BaBar, Belle and CLEO, we obtain strong constraints on the various products of R-parity violating couplings. Many of these new constraints are stronger than the existing bounds.Comment: 19 pages including two eps figure

The ASAC Flight Segment and Network Cost Models

To assist NASA in identifying research art, with the greatest potential for improving the air transportation system, two models were developed as part of its Aviation System Analysis Capability (ASAC). The ASAC Flight Segment Cost Model (FSCM) is used to predict aircraft trajectories, resource consumption, and variable operating costs for one or more flight segments. The Network Cost Model can either summarize the costs for a network of flight segments processed by the FSCM or can be used to independently estimate the variable operating costs of flying a fleet of equipment given the number of departures and average flight stage lengths

Late-onset renal vein thrombosis: A case report and review of the literature

AbstractINTRODUCTIONRenal vein thrombosis, a rare complication of renal transplantation, often causes graft loss. Diagnosis includes ultrasound with Doppler, and it is often treated with anticoagulation or mechanical thrombectomy. Success is improved with early diagnosis and institution of treatment.PRESENTATION OF CASEWe report here the case of a 29 year-old female with sudden development of very late-onset renal vein thrombosis after simultaneous kidney pancreas transplant. This resolved initially with thrombectomy, stenting and anticoagulation, but thrombosis recurred, necessitating operative intervention. Intraoperatively the renal vein was discovered to be compressed by a large ovarian cyst.DISCUSSIONCompression of the renal vein by a lymphocele or hematoma is a known cause of thrombosis, but this is the first documented case of compression and thrombosis due to an ovarian cyst.CONCLUSIONEarly detection and treatment of renal vein thrombosis is paramount to restoring renal allograft function. Any woman of childbearing age may have thrombosis due to compression by an ovarian cyst, and screening for this possibility may improve long-term graft function in this population

Calibration database for the Murchison Widefield Array All-Sky Virtual Observatory

We present a calibration component for the Murchison Widefield Array All-Sky Virtual Observatory (MWA ASVO) utilising a newly developed PostgreSQL database of calibration solutions. Since its inauguration in 2013, the MWA has recorded over thirty-four petabytes of data archived at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre. According to the MWA Data Access policy, data become publicly available eighteen months after collection. Therefore, most of the archival data are now available to the public. Access to public data was provided in 2017 via the MWA ASVO interface, which allowed researchers worldwide to download MWA uncalibrated data in standard radio astronomy data formats (CASA measurement sets or UV FITS files). The addition of the MWA ASVO calibration feature opens a new, powerful avenue for researchers without a detailed knowledge of the MWA telescope and data processing to download calibrated visibility data and create images using standard radio-astronomy software packages. In order to populate the database with calibration solutions from the last six years we developed fully automated pipelines. A near-real-time pipeline has been used to process new calibration observations as soon as they are collected and upload calibration solutions to the database, which enables monitoring of the interferometric performance of the telescope. Based on this database we present an analysis of the stability of the MWA calibration solutions over long time intervals.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, Accepted for publication in PAS

Acute hepatic failure and multi-system organ failure secondary to replacement of the liver with metastatic melanoma

BACKGROUND: Metastatic malignant melanoma to the liver resulting in fulminant hepatic failure is a rare occurrence. CASE PRESENTATION: A 46 year old man presented to hospital with massive hepatomegaly, elevated liver enzymes and increased lactate three weeks following resection of a malignant melanoma from his shoulder (Clark level 5). Initially stable, he decompensated 24 to 48 hours subsequent to presentation with respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation, distributive shock requiring high dose vasopressor infusion, coagulopathy refractory to plasma infusion, progressive rise in liver enzymes and severe metabolic abnormalities including hyperkalemia, acidosis, hyperphosphatemia, hyperuricemia and hypocalcemia. Refractory to aggressive physiologic support he received palliation. Autopsy revealed >80% liver infiltration by metastatic malignant melanoma. CONCLUSION: We report a case of fulminant hepatic failure secondary to metastatic malignant melanoma infiltration of the liver

VAST: An ASKAP Survey for Variables and Slow Transients

The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) will give us an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the transient sky at radio wavelengths. In this paper we present VAST, an ASKAP survey for Variables and Slow Transients. VAST will exploit the wide-field survey capabilities of ASKAP to enable the discovery and investigation of variable and transient phenomena from the local to the cosmological, including flare stars, intermittent pulsars, X-ray binaries, magnetars, extreme scattering events, interstellar scintillation, radio supernovae and orphan afterglows of gamma ray bursts. In addition, it will allow us to probe unexplored regions of parameter space where new classes of transient sources may be detected. In this paper we review the known radio transient and variable populations and the current results from blind radio surveys. We outline a comprehensive program based on a multi-tiered survey strategy to characterise the radio transient sky through detection and monitoring of transient and variable sources on the ASKAP imaging timescales of five seconds and greater. We also present an analysis of the expected source populations that we will be able to detect with VAST.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figures. Submitted for publication in Pub. Astron. Soc. Australi

Anti-inflammatory effects of antidepressant and atypical antipsychotic medication for the treatment of major depression and comorbid arthritis: a case report

Extent: 4p.Introduction: This case report describes the effects of psychotropic treatment, quetiapine in particular, on systemic inflammation, pain, general functioning and major depression in the treatment of a woman with arthritis. Case presentation: A 49-year-old Caucasian Australian woman with arthritis, pain and depression was treated with a course of escitalopram, mirtazapine and quetiapine. Pain levels, general functioning and degree of depressive symptoms were evaluated with a visual analogue scale. Systemic inflammation had been assessed by C-reactive protein serum levels since 2003. C-reactive protein levels, physical pain, symptoms of arthritis and depression decreased significantly during the past 12 months of treatment with quetiapine, while treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and mirtazapine remained the same. Conclusions: We suggest that the treatment particularly with quetiapine may have anti-inflammatory effects in arthritis and comorbid major depression, which eventually led to a remission of pain and depression and to normal general function.Bernhard T Baune, Harris Eyr

Status of Muon Collider Research and Development and Future Plans

The status of the research on muon colliders is discussed and plans are outlined for future theoretical and experimental studies. Besides continued work on the parameters of a 3-4 and 0.5 TeV center-of-mass (CoM) energy collider, many studies are now concentrating on a machine near 0.1 TeV (CoM) that could be a factory for the s-channel production of Higgs particles. We discuss the research on the various components in such muon colliders, starting from the proton accelerator needed to generate pions from a heavy-Z target and proceeding through the phase rotation and decay ($\pi \to \mu \nu_{\mu}$) channel, muon cooling, acceleration, storage in a collider ring and the collider detector. We also present theoretical and experimental R & D plans for the next several years that should lead to a better understanding of the design and feasibility issues for all of the components. This report is an update of the progress on the R & D since the Feasibility Study of Muon Colliders presented at the Snowmass'96 Workshop [R. B. Palmer, A. Sessler and A. Tollestrup, Proceedings of the 1996 DPF/DPB Summer Study on High-Energy Physics (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Menlo Park, CA, 1997)].Comment: 95 pages, 75 figures. Submitted to Physical Review Special Topics, Accelerators and Beam