Labor Artibitration in Public Agencies: An Unconstitutional Delegation of Power or the Waking of a Sleeping Giant - United Transportation Union v. Southern California Rapid Transit

The use of arbitration to resolve labor disputes has become an irreplaceable method of dispute resolution in private enterprises and corporations all over the United States. Arbitration\u27s popularity has come about partially from a realization of the utility of arbitration and partially from government pressure through the enactment of federal statutes. However, the government itself has resisted the imposition of arbitration to resolve disputes between its agencies and their employees. This Note will address some of the issues involved in private arbitration of public agency labor disputes

Particle Acceleration and Magnetic Dissipation in Relativistic Current Sheet of Pair Plasmas

We study linear and nonlinear development of relativistic and ultrarelativistic current sheets of pair plasmas with antiparallel magnetic fields. Two types of two-dimensional problems are investigated by particle-in-cell simulations. First, we present the development of relativistic magnetic reconnection, whose outflow speed is an order of the light speed c. It is demonstrated that particles are strongly accelerated in and around the reconnection region, and that most of magnetic energy is converted into "nonthermal" part of plasma kinetic energy. Second, we present another two-dimensional problem of a current sheet in a cross-field plane. In this case, the relativistic drift kink instability (RDKI) occurs. Particle acceleration also takes place, but the RDKI fast dissipates the magnetic energy into plasma heat. We discuss the mechanism of particle acceleration and the theory of the RDKI in detail. It is important that properties of these two processes are similar in the relativistic regime of T > mc^2, as long as we consider the kinetics. Comparison of the two processes indicates that magnetic dissipation by the RDKI is more favorable process in the relativistic current sheet. Therefore the striped pulsar wind scenario should be reconsidered by the RDKI.Comment: To appear in ApJ vol. 670; 60 pages, 27 figures; References and typos are fixe

Left ventricular clefts - incidental finding or pathologic sign of Wilson's disease?

Background: Wilson’s disease is an inherited autosomal recessive multi-systemic disorder characterized by reduced excretion and consequently excessive accumulation of copper in different organs, such as the heart. Results: In a prospective controlled trial, which is the largest to date, we evaluated 61 patients with Wilson’s disease, age- and sex-matched to 61 healthy patients, for cardiac manifestation using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. Patients were under stable disease and had no signs of heart failure at the time of examination. We detected a left ventricular cleft, an invagination penetrating more than 50% wall thickness of the adjoining compact myocardium in diastole, in 20% of the patients (12 out of 61) compared to 5% among control patients (3 out of 61, p = 0.013). No correlation between the incidence of cleft and a certain genotype of Wilson’s disease was found. All described cases were incidental findings and none of the patients showed other signs of cardiac involvement. Conclusions: To conclude, the results of this study suggests that the increased occurrence of left ventricular clefts is due to Wilson’s disease. Large studies with a long observation period are needed for further evaluation

SARS-CoV-2 structural features may explain limited neutralizing-antibody responses.

Neutralizing antibody responses of SARS-CoV-2-infected patients may be low and of short duration. We propose here that coronaviruses employ a structural strategy to avoid strong and enduring antibody responses. Other viruses induce optimal and long-lived neutralizing antibody responses, thanks to 20 or more repetitive, rigid antigenic epitopes, spaced by 5–10 nm, present on the viral surface. Such arrays of repetitive and highly organized structures are recognized by the immune system as pathogen-associated structural patterns (PASPs), which are characteristic for pathogen surfaces. In contrast, coronaviruses are large particles with long spikes (S protein) embedded in a fluid membrane. Therefore, the neutralizing epitopes (which are on the S protein) are loosely “floating” and widely spaced by an average of about 25 nm. Consequently, recruitment of complement is poor and stimulation of B cells remains suboptimal, offering an explanation for the inefficient and short-lived neutralizing antibody responses

Profile of a Serial Killer: Cellular and Molecular Approaches to Study Individual Cytotoxic T-Cells following Therapeutic Vaccination

T-cell vaccination may prevent or treat cancer and infectious diseases, but further progress is required to increase clinical efficacy. Step-by-step improvements of T-cell vaccination in phase I/II clinical studies combined with very detailed analysis of T-cell responses at the single cell level are the strategy of choice for the identification of the most promising vaccine candidates for testing in subsequent large-scale phase III clinical trials. Major aims are to fully identify the most efficient T-cells in anticancer therapy, to characterize their TCRs, and to pinpoint the mechanisms of T-cell recruitment and function in well-defined clinical situations. Here we discuss novel strategies for the assessment of human T-cell responses, revealing in part unprecedented insight into T-cell biology and novel structural principles that govern TCR-pMHC recognition. Together, the described approaches advance our knowledge of T-cell mediated-protection from human diseases

Ricci flow for homogeneous compact models of the universe

Using quaternions, we give a concise derivation of the Ricci tensor for homogeneous spaces with topology of the 3-dimensional sphere. We derive explicit and numerical solutions for the Ricci flow PDE and discuss their properties. In the collapse (or expansion) of these models, the interplay of the various components of the Ricci tensor are studied. We dedicate this paper to honor the work of Josh Goldberg.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figure

Elevated serum liver-type fatty acid binding protein levels in non-acetaminophen acute liver failure patients with organ dysfunction.

Liver-type fatty acid binding protein (FABP1) has previously been demonstrated to improve prognostic discrimination in acetaminophen (APAP)-induced ALF but has not been investigated in other etiologies of ALF. AIM: To determine whether FABP1 levels (early: admission or late: days 3-5) are associated with 21-day transplant-free survival in non-APAP ALF. METHODS: FABP1 was measured in serum samples from 384 ALF patients (n = 88 transplant-free survivors (TFS), n = 296 died/LT-NTFS) using solid-phase enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and analyzed with US ALFSG registry data. RESULTS: Of 384 ALF patients (autoimmune hepatitis n = 125, drug-induced liver injury n = 141, Hepatitis B n = 118), 177 (46%) patients received LT. Early FABP1 levels were significantly higher in ALF patients requiring vasopressor support (203.4 vs. 76.3 ng/mL) and renal replacement therapy (203.4 vs. 78.8 ng/mL; p < 0.001 for both). Late FABP1 levels were significantly higher in patients requiring mechanical ventilation (77.5 vs. 53.3 ng/mL), vasopressor support (116.4 vs. 53.3 ng/mL) and in patients with grade 3/4 hepatic encephalopathy (71.4 vs. 51.4 ng/mL; p = 0.03 for all). Late FABP1 levels were significantly lower in TFS patients (TFS 54 vs. NTFS 66 ng/mL; p = 0.049) but not admission (TFS 96 vs. NTFS 87 ng/mL; p = 0.67). After adjusting for significant covariates, serum FABP1 did not discriminate significantly between TFS and patients who died/received LT at day 21 either on admission (p = 0.29) or late (days 3-5, p = 0.087) time points. CONCLUSION: In this first report of FABP1 in non-APAP ALF, FABP1 levels at late time points (days 3-5) were significantly lower in ALF patients who were alive without transplant at day 21 but not after adjusting for covariates reflecting severity of illness. Higher FABP1 levels were associated with the presence of increased organ failure