Electron heat diffusivity in radially-bounded ergodic region of toroidal plasma

Drift-kineticδ f simulations are performed to investigate effect of ergodic field lines caused by resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) on radial heat diffusivity of electrons in the edge region of toroidal plasma of collisionality V* 〜0:1. The following is assumed in the simulations. The ergodic region is bounded radially on both sides by closed magnetic surfaces. The pressure gradient remains nonzero in the ergodic region because of an incomplete flattening of the pressure profile, and the characteristic scale length of the pressure gradient is of larger order than the overlapping width of the neighbouring magnetic islands. It is found in the quasi-steady state of δf that the electron heat diffusivity is of smaller order than the theoretical estimate derived by the Rechester-Rosenbluth model (Rechester A.B. and Rosenbluth M.N. 1978Phys.Rev. Lett.4038). The radial heat conduction is dominated not only by parallelmotions along the ergodic field lines but also by trapped particle motions generated by the RMP field. The contribution of the trapped particles reduces the radial heat conduction enhanced by the parallel motions

Comparison of performance of the 2016 ACR-EULAR classification criteria for primary Sjögren\u27s syndrome with other sets of criteria in Japanese patients

Objectives To compare the performance of the new 2016 American College of Rheumatology (ACR)-European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) classification criteria for primary Sjögren\u27s syndrome (SS) with 1999 revised Japanese Ministry of Health criteria for diagnosis of SS (JPN), 2002 American-European Consensus Group classification criteria for SS (AECG) and 2012 ACR classification criteria for SS (ACR) in Japanese patients.Methods The study subjects were 499 patients with primary SS (pSS) or suspected pSS who were followed up in June 2012 at 10 hospitals in Japan. All patients had been assessed for all four criteria of JPN (pathology, oral, ocular, anti-SS-A/SS-B antibodies). The clinical diagnosis by the physician in charge was set as the ‘gold standard’.Results pSS was diagnosed in 302 patients and ruled out in 197 patients by the physician in charge. The sensitivity of the ACR-EULAR criteria in the diagnosis of pSS (95.4%) was higher than those of the JPN, AECG and ACR (82.1%, 89.4% and 79.1%, respectively), while the specificity of the ACR-EULAR (72.1%) was lower than those of the three sets (90.9%, 84.3% and 84.8%, respectively). The differences of sensitivities and specificities between the ACR-EULAR and other three sets of criteria were statistically significant (p<0.001). Eight out of 302 patients with pSS and 11 cases out of 197 non-pSS cases satisfied only the ACR-EULAR criteria, compared with none of the other three sets.Conclusions The ACR-EULAR criteria had significantly higher sensitivity and lower specificity in diagnosis of pSS, compared with the currently available three sets of criteria

Outcomes in Newly Diagnosed Atrial Fibrillation and History of Acute Coronary Syndromes: Insights from GARFIELD-AF

BACKGROUND: Many patients with atrial fibrillation have concomitant coronary artery disease with or without acute coronary syndromes and are in need of additional antithrombotic therapy. There are few data on the long-term clinical outcome of atrial fibrillation patients with a history of acute coronary syndrome. This is a 2-year study of atrial fibrillation patients with or without a history of acute coronary syndromes