Cellular Variant of Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis Treated with Plasma Exchange

Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) is the most common primary glomerular disease in nephrotic patients in the United States, frequently leading to end stage renal disease (ESRD). The cellular variant is a rare form of FSGS commonly associated with poor outcome. We report a case of cellular variant FSGS with progressive kidney dysfunction successfully treated with plasma exchange (PE). A 49-year-old Caucasian female presented with two days of ankle edema and hypertension. Laboratory findings showed serum creatinine (SCr) 1.6 mg/dL, urine albumin/creatinine ratio (uACR) 2.8 g/g, haematuria 3+ and no immunological abnormalities. Kidney biopsy revealed a cellular FSGS variant with segmental endocapillary proliferation on light microscopic, negative immunofluorescence and widespread foot process effacement by electronic microscopic. Prednisolone 1 mg/Kg was started. Four days later the SCr worsened (3.6 mg/dL) and the patient became severely nephrotic with uACR of6.8g/g, quickly attaining a maximum of 24.6 g/g in a short time and albumin of 2.15g/dL. Pulsed methyl prednisolone was started. Despite a 10 course of steroids, no clinical improvement was observed. Considering the rapidly worsening renal function and severe nephrotic syndrome, PE was begun in association with mycophenolate mofetil and tacrolimus. Kidney function recovered after one week. Complete remission was achieved at 3rd week and remains in complete remission at 27 months follow-up. Prolonged remission is a challenge in primary FSGS. PE associated with combined immunosuppression was effective in the present case. The short and long-term effects of plasma exchange in primary FSGS should be evaluated in prospective studies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Degenerate Parametric Oscillator and Ince's Equation

We construct Green's function for the quantum degenerate parametric oscillator in terms of standard solutions of Ince's equation in a framework of a general approach to harmonic oscillators. Exact time-dependent wave functions and their connections with dynamical invariants and SU(1,1) group are also discussed.Comment: 10 pages, no figure

Nanotailoring Stereolithography Resins for Unique Applications using Carbon Nanotubes

Nanostructured materials and exploiting their properties in stereolithography (SL) may open new markets for unique rapidly manufactured functional devices. Controlled amounts of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were successfully dispersed in SL epoxy-based resins and complex three-dimensional (3D) parts were successfully fabricated by means of a multi-material SL setup. The effect of the nanosized filler was evaluated using mechanical testing. Small dispersions of MWCNTs resulted in significant effects on the physical properties of the polymerized resin. A MWCNT concentration of .05 wt% (w/v) in DSM Somos® WaterShed™ 11120 resin increased the ultimate tensile stress and fracture stress an average of 17% and 37%, respectively. Electron microscopy was used to examine the morphology of the nanocomposite and results showed affinity between the MWCNTs and SL resin and identified buckled nanotubes that illustrated strong interfacial bonding. These improved physical properties may provide opportunities for using nanocomposite SL resins in end-use applications. Varying types and concentrations of nanomaterials can be used to tailor existing SL resins for particular applications.Mechanical Engineerin

Automatically Discovering Hidden Transformation Chaining Constraints

Model transformations operate on models conforming to precisely defined metamodels. Consequently, it often seems relatively easy to chain them: the output of a transformation may be given as input to a second one if metamodels match. However, this simple rule has some obvious limitations. For instance, a transformation may only use a subset of a metamodel. Therefore, chaining transformations appropriately requires more information. We present here an approach that automatically discovers more detailed information about actual chaining constraints by statically analyzing transformations. The objective is to provide developers who decide to chain transformations with more data on which to base their choices. This approach has been successfully applied to the case of a library of endogenous transformations. They all have the same source and target metamodel but have some hidden chaining constraints. In such a case, the simple metamodel matching rule given above does not provide any useful information

Evidence of a Metal Rich Galactic Bar from the Vertex Deviation of the Velocity Ellipsoid

We combine radial velocities, proper motions, and low resolution abundances for a sample of 315 K and M giants in the Baade's Window (l,b)=(0.9,-4) Galactic bulge field. The velocity ellipsoid of stars with [Fe/H]>-0.5 dex shows a vertex deviation in the plot of radial versus transverse velocity, consistent with that expected from a population with orbits supporting a bar. We demonstrate that the significance of this vertex deviation using non-parametric rank correlation statistic is >99%. The velocity ellipsoid for the metal poor ([FeH]<-0.5) part of the population shows no vertex deviation and is consistent with an isotropic, oblate rotating population. We find no evidence for kinematic subgroups, but there is a mild tendency for the vertical velocity dispersion sigma_b to decrease with increasing metallicity.Comment: 4 pages, ApJ Letters, submitte

Planning and Logistics Issues raised by the Individual System Tests during the Installation of the LHC

The running of individual system tests has to fit within tight constraints of the LHC installation planning and of CERN's accelerator activity in general. For instance, the short circuit tests of the power converters that are performed in-situ restrict the possibility to work in neighbouring areas; much in the same way, the cold tests of the cryogenic distribution line involve safety access restrictions that are not compatible with the transport and installation of cryo-magnets or interconnect activities in the sector considered. Still, these individual system tests correspond to milestones that are required to insure that we can continue with the installation of machine elements. This paper reviews the conditions required to perform the individual system tests and describe how the general LHC installation planning is organised to allocate periods for these tests

Seeking Sustainability: COSA preliminary analysis of sustainability initiatives in the coffee sector

The growing economic value and consumer popularity of sustainability standards inevitably raise questions about the extent to which their structure and dynamics actually address many environmental, economic and public welfare issues. The Committee on Sustainable Assessment (COSA) was formed, in part, to develop a scientifically credible framework capable of assessing the impacts associated with the adoption of sustainability initiatives. This paper examines the pilot phase of vetting and testing the COSA method, an innovative management tool used to gather and analyze data using economic, environmental and social metrics.sustainability initiatives, standards, organic, fair trade, Rainforest, social, environmental, economic certification

Discretization effects on renormalized gauge-field Green’s functions, scale setting, and the gluon mass

The SUð3Þ gauge-field propagators computed from the lattice have been exhaustively used in the investigation of the low-momentum dynamics of QCD, in a judicious interplay with results from other nonperturbative approaches, and for the extraction of fundamental parameters of QCD like ΛMS as well. The impact of the discretization artifacts and their role in the extrapolation of the results to the continuum limit have not been fully understood so far. We report here about a very careful analysis of the physical scaling violation of the Landau-gauge propagators renormalized in the momentum subtraction scheme and the Taylor coupling, steering us towards an insightful understanding of the effects from discretization artifacts which makes therefore possible a reliable continuum-limit extrapolation.We thank the support of the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO) No. FPA2017-86380-P research project. The authors are indebted to O. Oliveira and A. Sternbeck for fruitful discussions, mainly in the inception of this work, and to J. Papavassiliou, J. Pawlowski, and C. D. Roberts during its completion. S. Z. acknowledges support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Collaborative Research Centre Sonderforschungsbereich (SFB) 1225 (ISOQUANT). Numerical computations have used resources of Centre Informatique National de l'Enseignement Superieur (CINES), Grand National Equipment for Supercomputing (GENCI) Institut du developpement et des ressources en informatique scientifique (IDRIS), and of the Institut national de physique nucleaire et de physique de particules (IN2P3) computing facility in France as well as of Lattice Computer for Scientific Computing (L-CSC) in Germany

Kidney biopsy in Lupus Nephritis: still essential in clinical practice

Renal involvement in Systemic Lupus Erythematous is common and its management remains a daily challenge for clinical providers. Percutaneous kidney biopsy remains the gold standard for diagnosis of lupus nephritis. More recently, we have seen the role of the biopsy being challenged, considering the widespread use of corticosteroids and mycophenolate mofetil for all forms of lupus nephritis. We present a review of published evidence regarding first and repeat kidney biopsies for patients with lupus nephritis. Based on the available literature, we recommend a kidney biopsy to guide treatment and determine prognosis and we also suggest an algorithm for kidney rebiopsy in lupus nephritis.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio