90 research outputs found
Stagnant Loop Syndrome: A Rare Cause of Severe Malabsorption
Background: Intestinal bacterial overgrowth as a consequence of postsurgical anatomical abnormalities as well as other small bowel diseases can lead to malabsorption. Case Report: A female patient had several abdominal operations due to recurrent intestinal obstructions. Initially, she presented with severe megaloblastic anaemia. Subsequently, she suffered from weight loss, diarrhoea, oedema, recurrent anaemia (despite vitamin B12 substitution), and severe malabsorption of proteins, lipids, iron, and vitamins. Vague information about the performed surgeries, an anatomy of the bowel that was difficult to interpret, and an unusual cholestasis made it difficult to reach the diagnosis of bacterial overgrowth due to a stagnant loop syndrome. Treatment with antibiotics only temporarily improved the condition of the patient. After restoring bowel continuity and after the resection of an enteroenteric fistula as well as of a bowel conglomerate, the patient did not show any further symptoms. Conclusion: The history of this patient indicates that the diagnosis of a stagnant loop syndrome may be difficult. The primary goal regarding surgically created small intestinal bacterial overgrowth should be the correction of the underlying small intestinal abnormality, whenever possible
A Component-Based Middleware for a Reliable Distributed and Reconfigurable Spacecraft Onboard Computer
Emerging applications for space missions require increasing processing performance from the onboard computers. DLR's project “Onboard Computer - Next Generation” (OBC-NG) develops a distributed, reconfigurable computer architecture to provide increased performance while maintaining the high reliability of classical spacecraft computer architectures. Growing system complexity requires an advanced onboard middleware, handling distributed (realtime) applications and error mitigation by reconfiguration. The OBC-NG middleware follows the Component-Based Software Engineering (CBSE) approach. Using composite components, applications and management tasks can easily be distributed and relocated on the processing nodes of the network. Additionally, reuse of components for future missions is facilitated. This paper presents the flexible middleware architecture, the composite component framework, the middleware services and the model-driven Application Programming Interface (API) design of OBC-NG. Tests are conducted to validate the middleware concept and to investigate the reconfiguration efficiency as well as the reliability of the system. A relevant use case shows the advantages of CBSE for the development of distributed reconfigurable onboard software
Genome-wide Association Study Identifies New Loci for Resistance to Leptosphaeria maculans in Canola
Blackleg, caused by Leptosphaeria maculans, is a significant disease which affects the sustainable production of canola. This study reports a genome-wide association study based on 18,804 polymorphic SNPs to identify loci associated with qualitative and quantitative resistance to L. maculans. Genomic regions delimited with 503 significant SNP markers, that are associated with resistance evaluated using 12 single spore isolates and pathotypes from four canola stubble were identified. Several significant associations were detected at known disease resistance loci including in the vicinity of recently cloned Rlm2/LepR3 genes, and at new loci on chromosomes A01/C01, A02/C02, A03/C03, A05/C05, A06, A08, and A09. In addition, we validated statistically significant associations on A01, A07 and A10 in four genetic mapping populations, demonstrating that GWAS marker loci are indeed associated with resistance to L. maculans. One of the novel loci identified for the first time, Rlm12, conveys adult plant resistance and mapped within 13.2 kb from Arabidopsis R gene of TIR-NBS class. We showed that resistance loci are located in the vicinity of R genes of A. thaliana and B. napus on the sequenced genome of B. napus cv. Darmor-bzh. Significantly associated SNP markers provide a valuable tool to enrich germplasm for favorable alleles in order to improve the level of resistance to L. maculans in canola
A non-LTE analysis of the spectra of two narrow lined main sequence stars in the SMC
An analysis of high-resolution VLT/UVES spectra of two B-type main sequence
stars, NGC 346-11 and AV 304, in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), has been
undertaken, using the non-LTE TLUSTY model atmospheres to derive the stellar
parameters and chemical compositions of each star. The chemical compositions of
the two stars are in reasonable agreement. Moreover, our stellar analysis
agrees well with earlier analyses of H II regions. The results derived here
should be representative of the current base-line chemical composition of the
SMC interstellar medium as derived from B-type stars.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 1 online tabl
Chemical compositions of Four B-type Supergiants in the SMC Wing
High-resolution UCLES/AAT spectra of four B-type supergiants in the SMC South
East Wing have been analysed using non-LTE model atmosphere techniques to
determine their atmospheric parameters and chemical compositions. The principle
aim of this analysis was to determine whether the very low metal abundances
(1.1 dex compared with Galactic value) previously found in the Magellanic
Inter Cloud region (ICR) were also present in SMC Wing. The chemical
compositions of the four targets are similar to those found in other SMC
objects and appear to be incompatible with those deduced previously for the
ICR. Given the close proximity of the Wing to the ICR, this is difficult to
understand and some possible explanations are briefly discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figues, A&A accepte
Understanding B-type Supergiants in the Low Metallicity Environment of the SMC
Spectroscopic analyses of 7 SMC B-type supergiants and 1 giant have been
undertaken using high resolution optical data obtained on the VLT with UVES.
FASTWIND, a non-LTE, spherical,line-blanketed model atmosphere code was used to
derive atmospheric and wind parameters of these stars as well as their absolute
abundances. The implications of these results for stellar evolution and line
driven wind theory are discussed.Comment: 19 pages, 6 tables, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy
and Astrophysics (5/12/2003
The Higgs resonance in vector boson scattering
A heavy Higgs resonance is described in a representation-independent way
which is valid for the whole energy range of 2 -> 2 scattering processes,
including the asymptotic behavior at low and high energies. The low-energy
theorems which follow from to the custodial SU_2 symmetry of the Higgs sector
restrict the possible parameterizations of the lineshape that are consistent in
perturbation theory. Matching conditions are specified which are necessary and
sufficient to relate the parameters arising in different expansions. The
construction is performed explicitly up to next-to-leading order.Comment: 25 pages, revtex, uses epsf, amssym
B-type Supergiants in the SMC: Chemical compositions and comparison of static and unified models
High-resolution UCLES/AAT spectra are presented for nine B-type supergiants
in the SMC, chosen on the basis that they may show varying amounts of
nuclear-synthetically processed material mixed to their surface. These spectra
have been analysed using a new grid of approximately 12 000 non-LTE line
blanketed {\sc tlusty} model atmospheres to estimate atmospheric parameters and
chemical composition. The abundance estimates for O, Mg and Si are in excellent
agreement with those deduced from other studies, whilst the low estimate for C
may reflect the use of the \ion{C}{ii} doublet at 4267\AA. The N estimates are
approximately an order of magnitude greater than those found in unevolved
B-type stars or \ion{H}{ii} regions but are consistent with the other estimates
in AB-type supergiants. These results have been combined with results from a
unified model atmosphere analysis of UVES/VLT spectra of B-type supergiants
(Trundle et al. \cite{Tru04}) to discuss the evolutionary status of these
objects. For two stars that are in common with those discussed by Trundle et
al., we have undertaken a careful comparison in order to try to understand the
relative importance of the different uncertainties present in such analyses,
including observational errors and the use of static or unified models. We find
that even for these relatively luminous supergiants, {\sc tlusty} models yield
atmospheric parameters and chemical compositions similar to those deduced from
the unified code {\sc fastwind}.Comment: Submitted to astronomy and astrophysic
Thrombin-receptor antagonist vorapaxar in acute coronary syndromes
Background: Vorapaxar is a new oral protease-activated-receptor 1 (PAR-1) antagonist that inhibits thrombin-induced platelet activation. Methods: In this multinational, double-blind, randomized trial, we compared vorapaxar with placebo in 12,944 patients who had acute coronary syndromes without ST-segment elevation. The primary end point was a composite of death from cardiovascular causes, myocardial infarction, stroke, recurrent ischemia with rehospitalization, or urgent coronary revascularization. RESULTS: Follow-up in the trial was terminated early after a safety review. After a median follow-up of 502 days (interquartile range, 349 to 667), the primary end point occurred in 1031 of 6473 patients receiving vorapaxar versus 1102 of 6471 patients receiving placebo (Kaplan-Meier 2-year rate, 18.5% vs. 19.9%; hazard ratio, 0.92; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.85 to 1.01; P = 0.07). A composite of death from cardiovascular causes, myocardial infarction, or stroke occurred in 822 patients in the vorapaxar group versus 910 in the placebo group (14.7% and 16.4%, respectively; hazard ratio, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.81 to 0.98; P = 0.02). Rates of moderate and severe bleeding were 7.2% in the vorapaxar group and 5.2% in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 1.35; 95% CI, 1.16 to 1.58; P<0.001). Intracranial hemorrhage rates were 1.1% and 0.2%, respectively (hazard ratio, 3.39; 95% CI, 1.78 to 6.45; P<0.001). Rates of nonhemorrhagic adverse events were similar in the two groups. Conclusions: In patients with acute coronary syndromes, the addition of vorapaxar to standard therapy did not significantly reduce the primary composite end point but significantly increased the risk of major bleeding, including intracranial hemorrhage. (Funded by Merck; TRACER ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00527943.
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