Dichloridobis(di-tert-butylmethylphosphine oxide-[kappa]O)diphenyltin(IV)

The complete molecule of the title compound, [Sn(C6H5)2Cl2(C9H21OP)2], is generated by crystallographic inversion symmetry, the Sn atom is located on a special position of site symmetry \overline{1}. The Sn atom adopts an all-trans SnC2O2Cl2 octahedral geometry. As a consequence of the bulky substituents at the O atom, the P-O-Sn bond angle is 163.9 (3)°. Key indicators: single-crystal X-ray study; T = 173 K; mean σ(C–C) = 0.012 Å; R factor = 0.058; wR factor = 0.099; data-to-parameter ratio = 18.6

Effects of requested, forced and denied shift schedule change on work ability and health of nurses in Europe: results from the European NEXT-Study

Background: Previous cross-sectional findings from the European Nurses Early Exit Study (NEXT) show that nurses who were dissatisfied with their work schedule tended to consider leaving the nursing profession. Mediating factors in this decision process may be caused by self-perceived poor work ability and/or health. The aim of this paper is to investigate changes in work ability and general health among nurses in relation to requested, forced and denied change of shift schedule. Methods: Longitudinal data from the NEXT Study was used. In total 11,102 nurses from Belgium, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, France and Italy completed both the ‘basic questionnaire’ (t1) and the ’12 month follow-up questionnaire’ (t2). To examine the time-effect (repeated measures) and the group-effect of five defined groups of nurses on the Work Ability Index (WAI) and general health (SF36), an adjusted 2-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed. Results: The nurses who wanted to, but could not change their shifts during the 12 month follow-up had the lowest initial and follow-up scores for WAI (t1: 37.6, t2: 36.6, p <0.001), lowest general health (t1: 63.9, t2: 59.2, p <0.001) and showed the highest decrease in both outcomes. Shift pattern change in line with the nurses’ wishes was associated with improved work ability and to a lesser comparatively low extent with increased decline in health scores. A forced change of shift against the nurses’ will was significantly associated with a deteriorating work ability and health. Conclusions: The findings would suggest that nurses’ desire to change their shift patterns may be an indicator for perceived low work ability and/or low health. The results also indicate that fulfilling nurses’ wishes with respect to their shift work pattern may improve their personal resources such as work ability and – to somewhat lesser extent – health. Disregarding nurses’ preferences, however, bears the risk for further resource deterioration. The findings imply that shift schedule organization may constitute a valuable preventive tool to promote nurses’ work ability and – to lesser extent – their perceived health, not least in aging nursing work forces

Text mining meets community curation: a newly designed curation platform to improve author experience and participation at WormBase

Biological knowledgebases rely on expert biocuration of the research literature to maintain up-to-date collections of data organized in machine-readable form. To enter information into knowledgebases, curators need to follow three steps: (i) identify papers containing relevant data, a process called triaging; (ii) recognize named entities; and (iii) extract and curate data in accordance with the underlying data models. WormBase (WB), the authoritative repository for research data on Caenorhabditis elegans and other nematodes, uses text mining (TM) to semi-automate its curation pipeline. In addition, WB engages its community, via an Author First Pass (AFP) system, to help recognize entities and classify data types in their recently published papers. In this paper, we present a new WB AFP system that combines TM and AFP into a single application to enhance community curation. The system employs string-searching algorithms and statistical methods (e.g. support vector machines (SVMs)) to extract biological entities and classify data types, and it presents the results to authors in a web form where they validate the extracted information, rather than enter it de novo as the previous form required. With this new system, we lessen the burden for authors, while at the same time receive valuable feedback on the performance of our TM tools. The new user interface also links out to specific structured data submission forms, e.g. for phenotype or expression pattern data, giving the authors the opportunity to contribute a more detailed curation that can be incorporated into WB with minimal curator review. Our approach is generalizable and could be applied to additional knowledgebases that would like to engage their user community in assisting with the curation. In the five months succeeding the launch of the new system, the response rate has been comparable with that of the previous AFP version, but the quality and quantity of the data received has greatly improved

Simulation of denitrification and ozone loss for the Arctic winter 2002/2003

We present simulations with the Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere (CLaMS) for the Arctic winter 2002/2003. We integrated a Lagrangian denitrification scheme into the three-dimensional version of CLaMS that calculates the growth and sedimentation of nitric acid trihydrate (NAT) particles along individual particle trajectories. From those, we derive the HNO3 downward flux resulting from different particle nucleation assumptions. The simulation results show a clear vertical redistribution of total inorganic nitrogen (NOy), with a maximum vortex average permanent NOy removal of over 5 ppb in late December between 500 and 550 K and a corresponding increase of NOy of over 2 ppb below about 450 K. The simulated vertical redistribution of NOy is compared with balloon observations by MkIV and in-situ observations from the high altitude aircraft Geophysica. Assuming a globally uniform NAT particle nucleation rate of 3.4·10&#8722;6 cm&#8722;3 h&#8722;1 in the model, the observed denitrification is well reproduced. In the investigated winter 2002/2003, the denitrification has only moderate impact (<=10%) on the simulated vortex average ozone loss of about 1.1 ppm near the 460 K level. At higher altitudes, above 600 K potential temperature, the simulations show significant ozone depletion through NOx-catalytic cycles due to the unusual early exposure of vortex air to sunlight

High-sensitivity troponin assays in the evaluation of patients with acute chest pain in the emergency department

Evaluating patients with acute chest pain presenting to the emergency department remains an ongoing challenge. The spectrum of etiologies in acute chest pain ranges from minor disease entities to life-threatening diseases, such as pulmonary embolism, acute aortic dissection or acute myocardial infarction (MI). The diagnosis of acute MI is usually made integrating the triad of patient history and clinical presentation, readings of 12-lead ECG and measurement of cardiac troponins (cTn). Introduction of high-sensitivity cTn assays substantially increases sensitivity to identify patients with acute MI even at the time of presentation to the emergency department at the cost of specificity. However, the proportion of patients presenting with cTn positive, non-vascular cardiac chest pain triples with the implementation of new sensitive cTn assays increasing the difficulty for the emergency physician to identify those patients who are at need for invasive diagnostics. The main objectives of this mini-review are 1) to discuss elements of disposition decision made by the emergency physician for the evaluation of chest pain patients, 2) to summarize recent advances in assay technology and relate these findings into the clinical context, and 3) to discuss possible consequences for the clinical work and suggest an algorithm for the clinical evaluation of chest pain patients in the emergency departmen

Rituximab Mediates a Strong Elevation of B-Cell-Activating Factor Associated with Increased Pathogen-Specific IgG but Not Autoantibodies in Pemphigus Vulgaris

Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is a severe autoimmune disease affecting the skin and mucous membranes, characterized by autoantibodies mainly against desmoglein 3 (dsg3). This study investigated the effects of different treatment options on two B-cell mediators, B-cell-activating factor (BAFF) and a proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL), in 19 PV patients on immunosuppressive drugs alone or in combination with immunoadsorption and anti-CD20 antibody, respectively. Serum BAFF and APRIL levels, circulating desmoglein-reactive autoantibodies, and serum IgG specific for varicella-zoster virus (VZV) and Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) were determined by ELISA before and at different time points after initiation of the respective therapy. In contrast to immunosuppressive therapy alone and in combination with adjuvant immunoadsorption, respectively, rituximab treatment led to a strong and significant elevation of BAFF, but not of APRIL levels, which normalized upon recovery of peripheral CD19+ B cells. Moreover, rituximab treatment led to a statistically significant increase of anti-VZV-IgG and anti-EBV-IgG titers, whereas anti-dsg1 and -3 specific autoantibody titers decreased significantly. Our results suggest that elevated BAFF levels might exert a differential effect on the induction of autoreactive versus pathogen-specific IgG antibody production in PV patients, possibly due to promotion of antibody release of pathogen-specific long-lived plasma cells