Early vein bypass thrombectomy is associated with an increased risk of graft related stenoses

Objectives:To assess the risk of graft stenoses following early thrombectomy of peripheral vein bypasses.Design:Prospective study of 371 vein bypasses performed at the Vascular Service, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen from January 1991 through December 1992.Materials and methods:Thirty-six vein bypasses reopened by thrombectomy within 30 days postoperatively (group I) and 335 bypasses not subjected to early thrombectomy (group II) were studied by ultrasound duplex scanning 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36 and 48 months postoperatively. A localised increase in the peak systolic velocity of 250% or more was considered an indicator for significant stenosis.Results:In the perioperative period nine (2%) patients died, 30 (8%) bypasses occluded and 14 (4%) patients were lost to follow-up. Among the 318 patients remaining at risk at 1 month graft stenoses were identified in 39% (9/23) in group I compared to 17% (51/295) in group II, p = 0.03. Late bypass revisions were required in 35% (8/23) in group I as opposed to 9% (28/295) in group II, p = 0.004. Despite this high number of revisional procedures the 12-months secondary bypass patency was lower in recanalised grafts (38% vs. 82%, p < 0.00001).Conclusion:Early vein bypass thrombectomy is associated with a two-fold increased risk of graft related stenoses and a reduced secondary bypass patency

Effect of nasal inflammation and of intranasal anti-inflammatory treatment on bronchial asthma

AbstractIt is logical to look upon the nose and the bronchi as integrated parts of one ‘united airway’ and we would like to advance the hypothesis that optimal management of airway disease, caused by inhaled allergens, may necessitate control of inflammation in all parts of the airways. Nasal inflammation can aggravate asthma symptoms, and there is a rationale for giving intranasal anti-inflammatory treatment to patients with asthma. (i) Inhaled allergens are predominantly deposited in the nose, whether a patient suffers from rhinitis, asthma or both. (ii) Antigen presentation consequently takes place in the nose, and the response of the airway immune system is thus initiated in the nasal mucous membrane. (iii) Antigen presentation in the nose may possibly induce cell recruitment and activation not only in the nasal mucosa but also in the lower airways. (iv) Suppression of nasal inflammation may therefore be necessary for optimal management of asthma

The geochemical fingerprint of microbial long-distance electron transport in the seafloor

Recently, a novel “electrogenic” type of sulfur oxidation has been documented in marine sediments, whereby long filamentous cable bacteria are generating electrical currents over centimeter-scale distances. Here we propose a numerical model description that is capable of quantitatively simulating the solute depth profiles and biogeochemical transformations in such electro-active marine sediments. The model is based on a conventional reactive transport description of marine sediments, which is extended with a new model formulation for the long-distance electron transport induced by the cable bacteria. The mechanism of electron hopping is implemented to describe the electron transport along the longitudinal axis of the microbial filaments. We demonstrate that this model is capable of reproducing the observed geochemical fingerprint of electrogenic sulfur oxidation, which consists of a characteristic set of O2, pH and H2S depth profiles. Our simulation results suggest that the cable bacteria must have a high affinity for both oxygen and sulfide, and that intensive cryptic sulfur cycling takes place within the suboxic zone. A sensitivity analysis shows how electrogenic sulfur oxidation strongly impacts the biogeochemical cycling of sulfur, iron, carbon and calcium in marine sediments

Improved testing inference in mixed linear models

Mixed linear models are commonly used in repeated measures studies. They account for the dependence amongst observations obtained from the same experimental unit. Oftentimes, the number of observations is small, and it is thus important to use inference strategies that incorporate small sample corrections. In this paper, we develop modified versions of the likelihood ratio test for fixed effects inference in mixed linear models. In particular, we derive a Bartlett correction to such a test and also to a test obtained from a modified profile likelihood function. Our results generalize those in Zucker et al. (Journal of the Royal Statistical Society B, 2000, 62, 827-838) by allowing the parameter of interest to be vector-valued. Additionally, our Bartlett corrections allow for random effects nonlinear covariance matrix structure. We report numerical evidence which shows that the proposed tests display superior finite sample behavior relative to the standard likelihood ratio test. An application is also presented and discussed.Comment: 17 pages, 1 figur

Probability distributions consistent with a mixed state

A density matrix $\rho$ may be represented in many different ways as a mixture of pure states, \rho = \sum_i p_i |\psi_i\ra \la \psi_i|. This paper characterizes the class of probability distributions $(p_i)$ that may appear in such a decomposition, for a fixed density matrix $\rho$. Several illustrative applications of this result to quantum mechanics and quantum information theory are given.Comment: 6 pages, submitted to Physical Review

Purifying and Reversible Physical Processes

Starting from the observation that reversible processes cannot increase the purity of any input state, we study deterministic physical processes, which map a set of states to a set of pure states. Such a process must map any state to the same pure output, if purity is demanded for the input set of all states. But otherwise, when the input set is restricted, it is possible to find non-trivial purifying processes. For the most restricted case of only two input states, we completely characterize the output of any such map. We furthermore consider maps, which combine the property of purity and reversibility on a set of states, and we derive necessary and sufficient conditions on sets, which permit such processes.Comment: 5 pages, no figures, v2: only minimal change

A String Approximation for Cooper Pair in High-Tc_{\bf c} superconductivity

It is assumed that in some sense the High-T$_c$ superconductivity is similar to the quantum chromodynamics (QCD). This means that the phonons in High-T$_c$ superconductor have the strong interaction between themselves like to gluons in the QCD. At the experimental level this means that in High-T$_c$ superconductor exists the nonlinear sound waves. It is possible that the existence of the strong phonon-phonon interaction leads to the confinement of phonons into a phonon tube (PT) stretched between two Cooper electrons like a hypothesized flux tube between quark and antiquark in the QCD. The flux tube in the QCD brings to a very strong interaction between quark-antiquark, the similar situation can be in the High-T$_c$ superconductor: the presence of the PT can essentially increase the binding energy for the Cooper pair. In the first rough approximation the PT can be approximated as a nonrelativistic string with Cooper electrons at the ends. The BCS theory with such potential term is considered. It is shown that Green's function method in the superconductivity theory is a realization of discussed Heisenberg idea proposed by him for the quantization of nonlinear spinor field. A possible experimental testing for the string approximation of the Cooper pair is offered.Comment: Essential changes: (a) the section is added in which it is shown that Green's function method in the superconductivity theory is a realization of discussed Heisenberg quantization method; (b) Veneziano amplitude is discussed as an approximation for the 4-point Green's function in High-T_c; (c) it is shown that Eq.(53) has more natural solution on the layer rather than on 3 dimensional spac

On the Origin of the Outgoing Black Hole Modes

The question of how to account for the outgoing black hole modes without drawing upon a transplanckian reservoir at the horizon is addressed. It is argued that the outgoing modes must arise via conversion from ingoing modes. It is further argued that the back-reaction must be included to avoid the conclusion that particle creation cannot occur in a strictly stationary background. The process of ``mode conversion" is known in plasma physics by this name and in condensed matter physics as ``Andreev reflection" or ``branch conversion". It is illustrated here in a linear Lorentz non-invariant model introduced by Unruh. The role of interactions and a physical short distance cutoff is then examined in the sonic black hole formed with Helium-II.Comment: 12 pages, plain latex, 2 figures included using psfig; Analogy to ``Andreev reflection" in superfluid systems noted, references and acknowledgment added, format changed to shorten tex

Intracellular calcite and sulfur dynamics of Achromatium cells observed in a lab-based enrichment and aerobic incubation experiment

We investigated the intracellular dynamics of calcite and sulfur in the large sulfur-oxidizing, calcite-accumulating bacterium Achromatium, with an emphasis on oxygen exposure as a physiological control. For this purpose, morphological changes and possible accretion mechanisms of calcite granules in cells that were freshly collected from natural Achromatium-containing sediment were compared to cells from the same source after prolonged exposure to atmospheric oxygen. Intracellular sulfur is oxidized and removed in response to oxygen exposure. Calcite granules also undergo distinct oxygen-related dynamics; they alternate between tightly packaged, smooth granules with narrow but sharply defined interstitial spaces in atmospheric oxygen-exposed cells, and more loosely packaged granules with irregular, bumpy surface texture and larger interstitial spaces in cells that were not artificially exposed to oxygen. These results suggest that morphological changes of the calcite granules reflect their changing physiological role inside the cell. Sulfur oxidation and calcite dissolution appear to be linked in that proton generation during sulfur oxidation is buffered by gradual calcite erosion, visible in the smooth, rounded surface morphology observed after oxygen exposure. Our results support the hypothesis that calcite dynamics buffer the intracellular pH fluctuations linked to electron acceptor limitation during proton-consuming sulfide oxidation to sulfur, and electron acceptor abundance during proton-generating sulfur oxidation to sulfate

Volume element structure and roton-maxon-phonon excitations in superfluid helium beyond the Gross-Pitaevskii approximation

We propose a theory which deals with the structure and interactions of volume elements in liquid helium II. The approach consists of two nested models linked via parametric space. The short-wavelength part describes the interior structure of the fluid element using a non-perturbative approach based on the logarithmic wave equation; it suggests the Gaussian-like behaviour of the element's interior density and interparticle interaction potential. The long-wavelength part is the quantum many-body theory of such elements which deals with their dynamics and interactions. Our approach leads to a unified description of the phonon, maxon and roton excitations, and has noteworthy agreement with experiment: with one essential parameter to fit we reproduce at high accuracy not only the roton minimum but also the neighboring local maximum as well as the sound velocity and structure factor.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure