The diagnosis and management of the haematologic manifestations of lupus

Haematological manifestations in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are frequently observed. They are diverse and range from mild to severe. Therefore, different treatment approaches are needed from simply keeping vigilant to significant immunosuppression. Most treatment evidence is based on case-reports or small retrospective studies, as few randomized controlled trials have been performed. The development of biological therapy has opened new possible ways to treat the most severe cases but further clinical trials are necessary. In this review we consider the most common and characteristic haematological manifestations of SLE patients, focusing on their pathogenesis and management

Logistic regression analysis of employment behavior data using randomized response technique

Direct survey techniques deal with collecting information on sensitive issues data, such as induced abortion, drug addiction, and so on. RR (randomized response) techniques are available for many interviewees, who do not feel comfortable to disclose their personal data due to privacy risks. RR techniques are used in the estimation of the number of people having a sensitive attribute say A. When the research is conducted on the disgraceful or ignominious characteristics of persons like rash driving, tax elusion, induced abortion, testing HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) positive etc., RR techniques are used to make sure that the estimates obtained are efficient and unbiased. During these types of surveys, privacy of the respondent is also managed. Among others, the conflict between efficiency and protection of privacy was also discussed by Nayak in 1994. In RR-related techniques, the SRS (simple random sampling) is statistically used in the sample selection. In this paper, RR procedure is used that allows us to estimate the population proportion in addition to the probability of providing a truthful answer. This study also quantifies a method for the estimation of the model having one variable (univariate) while studying logistic regression, where the dependent variables are subject to RR. In addition, an efficiency comparison is carried out to investigate the performance of the proposed technique. It is also assumed that during the study, the respondents will respond keeping in view the instructions of the RR design. The general idea about findings of current study, though, is so as to perform RR techniques comparatively fine

Stability of Massive Cosmological Gravitons

We analyze the physics of massive spin 2 fields in (A)dS backgrounds and exhibit that: The theory is stable only for masses m^2 >= 2\Lambda/3, where the conserved energy associated with the background timelike Killing vector is positive, while the instability for m^2<2\Lambda/3 is traceable to the helicity 0 energy. The stable, unitary, partially massless theory at m^2=2\Lambda/3 describes 4 propagating degrees of freedom, corresponding to helicities (+/-2,+/-1) but contains no 0 helicity excitation.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX, version to appear in Phys. Lett.

The Global Ocean Data Analysis Project version 2 (GLODAPv2) – an internally consistent data product for the world ocean

27 páginas, 11 tablas, 9 figuras.-- Are Olsen ... et al.-- This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.-- Proyecto CarbochangeVersion 2 of the Global Ocean Data Analysis Project (GLODAPv2) data product is composed of data from 724 scientific cruises covering the global ocean. It includes data assembled during the previous efforts GLODAPv1.1 (Global Ocean Data Analysis Project version 1.1) in 2004, CARINA (CARbon IN the Atlantic) in 2009/2010, and PACIFICA (PACIFic ocean Interior CArbon) in 2013, as well as data from an additional 168 cruises. Data for 12 core variables (salinity, oxygen, nitrate, silicate, phosphate, dissolved inorganic carbon, total alkalinity, pH, CFC-11, CFC-12, CFC-113, and CCl4) have been subjected to extensive quality control, including systematic evaluation of bias. The data are available in two formats: (i) as submitted but updated to WOCE exchange format and (ii) as a merged and internally consistent data product. In the latter, adjustments have been applied to remove significant biases, respecting occurrences of any known or likely time trends or variations. Adjustments applied by previous efforts were re-evaluated. Hence, GLODAPv2 is not a simple merging of previous products with some new data added but a unique, internally consistent data product. This compiled and adjusted data product is believed to be consistent to better than 0.005 in salinity, 1 % in oxygen, 2 % in nitrate, 2 % in silicate, 2 % in phosphate, 4 µmol kg−1 in dissolved inorganic carbon, 6 µmol kg−1 in total alkalinity, 0.005 in pH, and 5 % for the halogenated transient tracersThe GLODAPv2 project itself received support from a number of agencies and projects. Importantly, the EU-IP CARBOCHANGE (FP7 264878) provided funding for A. Olsen, M. Hoppema, S. van Heuven, and T. Tanhua as well as travel support for R. Key and the project framework that instigated GLODAPv2. A. Olsen further acknowledges generous support from the FRAM – High North Research Centre for Climate and the Environment, the Centre for Climate Dynamics at the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, the EU AtlantOS (grant agreement no. 633211) project, and the Norwegian Research Council project SNACS (229752). R. Key was supported by KeyCrafts grant 2012-001, CICS grants NA08OAR4320752 and NA14OAR4320106, NASA grant NNX12AQ22G, NSF grants OCE-0825163 (with a supplement via WHOI P.O. C119245) and PLR-1425989, and Battelle contract #4000133565 to CDIAC. A. Kozyr was supported by DOE contract DE-AC05-00OR2272 to UT-Battelle, operators of CDIAC under ORNL. S. K. Lauvset and E. Jeansson appreciate support from the Norwegian Research Council (projects DECApH, 214513 and VENTILATE, 229791). The International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project (IOCCP) also supported this activity through the U.S. National Science Foundation grant (OCE- 1243377) to the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research. A. Velo and F. F. Pérez acknowledge the support provided by BOCATS project (CTM2013-41048-P) co-funded by the Spanish Government and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), and the AtlantOS project (grant agreement no. 633211) funded by EU H2020 research and innovation programme.Peer reviewe

Climatologies of seawater CO2 chemistry variables: A neural network approach

1 poster presented at the 10th International Carbon Dioxide Conference, Interlaken, Switzerland, 21 August 2017 - 25 August 2017.-- Daniel Broullón ... et al.For decades, the anthropogenic modification of the carbon cycle has been widely studied. More recently, ocean acidification studies have increased significantly. Establishing robust climatologies of seawater CO2 chemistry variables and building models are a key point for a better understanding of the associated processes. The availability and quality of data is crucial for the evaluation of climate models and, consequently, to improve their predictions. Version 2 of the Global Ocean Data Analysis Project (GLODAPv2) is an internally consistent data product composed of data from 724 scientific cruises covering the entire global ocean. Among others, it contains seawater CO2 chemistry variables such as total alkalinity (AT), total dissolved inorganic carbon (TCO2) and pH. This sparse dataset has been subjected to extensive quality control and different interpolation techniques have been applied to extend the data coverage on a homogeneous grid (Lauvset et al. 2016). We propose a novel neural network approach to generate annual and monthly climatologies of AT, TCO2, pH and both calcite and aragonite saturation state from the GLODAPv2 dataset for the preindustrial and current periods. These climatologies are fitted to the World Ocean Atlas 2013 version 2 (WOA13v2) grid. WOA13v2 is a set of objectively analyzed (1° grid) climatological fields of different oceanographic variables (but not CO2 system) at standard depth levels for annual, seasonal, and monthly compositing periods for the World Ocean. A feed-forward neural network was chosen in a multi-layer architecture, which allows linear and nonlinear variability to be assimilated by the network. The proposed configuration is able to approximate most functions arbitrarily well (Hagan et al., 2014). We have tested different neural network designs and sizes to obtain the minimum error. For that, the number of neurons in the network was varied and different training techniques were used. The input variables introduced in the network, which must be related to AT and TCO2 variability, were latitude, longitude, depth, potential temperature, phosphate, nitrate, silicate, year, month and atmospheric pCO2. First, the network was trained with GLODAPv2 data and then AT and TCO2 fields were derived from WOA13v2 data. Saturation states and pH were computed from these two variables. The monthly pre-industrial climatology will be generated by eliminating anthropogenic carbon from the ocean.This research was supported by Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (FPU grant FPU15/06026), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad through the A. RIOS (CTM2016-76146-C3-1-R) project co-funded by the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional 2014-2020 (FEDER) and EU Horizon2020 through the AtlantOS project (grant agreement 633211).Peer reviewe

Assessing the internal consistency of the CARINA database in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean

20 pages, 4 figures, 5 tables.-- C. Lo Monaco ... et al.Carbon and carbon-relevant hydrographic and hydrochemical ancillary data from previously not publicly available cruises were retrieved and recently merged to a new data base, CARINA (CARbon IN the Atlantic). The initial North Atlantic project, an international effort for ocean carbon synthesis, was extended to include the Arctic Mediterranean Seas (Arctic Ocean and Nordic Seas) and all three sectors of the Southern Ocean. Of a total of 188 cruises, 37 cruises are part of the Southern Ocean. The present work focuses on data collected in the Indian sector (20° S–70° S; 30° E–150° E). The Southern Indian Ocean dataset covers the period 1992–2004 and includes seasonal repeated observations. Parameters including salinity, dissolved inorganic carbon (TCO2), total alkalinity (TA), oxygen, nitrate, phosphate and silicate were examined for cruise-to-cruise and overall consistency. In addition, data from an existing, quality controlled data base (GLODAP) were introduced in the CARINA analysis to improve data coverage in the Southern Ocean. A global inversion was performed to synthesize the information deduced from objective comparisons of deep measurements (>1500 m) at nearby stations (generally <220 km). The corrections suggested by the inversion were allowed to vary within a fixed envelope, thus accounting for ocean interior variability. The adjustments applied to CARINA data and those recommended for GLODAP data, in order to obtain a consistent merged dataset, are presented and discussed. The final outcome of this effort is a new quality controlled data base for TCO2 and other properties of the carbon system that can now be used to investigate the natural variability or stability of ocean chemistry and the accumulation of anthropogenic carbon. This data product also offers an important new synthesis of seasonal to decadal observations to validate ocean biogeochemical models in a region where available historical data were very sparse.This work has been funded as part of the EU project CARBOCEAN (no. 511176; GOCE), and additional support from the International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project IOCCP (Maria Hood) and the Hanse Institute for Advanced Study (HWK Delmenhorst, Germany). Support for R. M. Key and X. Lin was primarily from NOAA grant NA08OAR4320752 and NA08OAR4310820. Support for M. A´ lvarez was from grant RYC-2006-001836. B. Tilbrook was supported though the Australian Climate Change Science Program and the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystem CRC. A. F. Rios and A. Velo also acknowledge support from PGIDIT05OXIC40203PM Xunta de Galicia and CTM2006-27116-E/MAR MEC.Peer reviewe

"Square Root" of the Proca Equation: Spin-3/2 Field Equation

New equations describing particles with spin 3/2 are derived. The non-local equation with the unique mass can be considered as "square root" of the Proca equation in the same sense as the Dirac equation is related to the Klein-Gordon-Fock equation. The local equation describes spin 3/2 particles with three mass states. The equations considered involve fields with spin-3/2 and spin-1/2, i.e. multi-spin 1/2, 3/2. The projection operators extracting states with definite energy, spin, and spin projections are obtained. All independent solutions of the local equation are expressed through projection matrices. The first order relativistic wave equation in the 20-dimensional matrix form, the relativistically invariant bilinear form and the corresponding Lagrangian are given. Two parameters characterizing non-minimal electromagnetic interactions of fermions are introduced, and the quantum-mechanical Hamiltonian is found. It is proved that there is only causal propagation of waves in the approach considered.Comment: 17 pages, corrections in Eqs. (50), (51

Selfdual Spin 2 Theory in a 2+1 Dimensional Constant Curvature Space-Time

The Lagrangian constraint analysis of the selfdual massive spin 2 theory in a 2+1 dimensional flat space-time and its extension to a curved one, are performed. Demanding consistence of degrees of freedom in the model with gravitational interaction, gives rise to physical restrictions on non minimal coupling terms and background. Finally, a constant curvature scenario is explored, showing the existence of forbidden mass values. Causality in these spaces is discussed. Aspects related with the construction of the reduced action and the one-particle exchange amplitude, are noted.Comment: 20 pages, references added, little modifications performe

Quality control procedures and methods of the CARINA database

Data on the carbon and carbon relevant hydrographic and hydrochemical parameters from previously not publicly available cruises in the Arctic, Atlantic and Southern Ocean have been retrieved and merged to a new data base: CARINA (CARbon IN the Atlantic). These data have gone through rigorous quality control (QC) procedures to assure the highest possible quality and consistency. All CARINA data were subject to primary QC; a process in which data are studied in order to identify outliers and obvious errors. Additionally, secondary QC was performed for several of the measured parameters in the CARINA data base. Secondary QC is a process in which the data are objectively studied in order to quantify systematic differences in the reported values. This process involved crossover analysis, and as a second step the offsets derived from the crossover analysis were used to calculate corrections of the parameters measured on individual cruises using least square models. Significant biases found in the data have been corrected in the data products, i.e. three merged data files containing measured, calculated and interpolated data for each of the three regions (i.e. Arctic Mediterranean Seas, Atlantic, and Southern Ocean). Here we report on the technical details of the quality control and on tools that have been developed and used during the project, including procedures for crossover analysis and least square models. Furthermore, an interactive website for uploading of results, plots, comments etc. was developed and was of critical importance for the success of the project, this is also described here

Role of the circulation on the anthropogenic CO 2 inventory in the North-East Atlantic: A climatological analysis

Climatology-based storage rate of anthropogenic CO2 (Cant, referred to year 2000) in the North-East Atlantic (53 ± 9 kmol s−1, 0.020 ± 0.003 Pg-C yr−1) is described on annual mean terms. Cant advection (32 ± 14 kmol s−1) occurs mostly in the upper 1800 m and contributes to 60% of the Cant storage rate. The Azores and Portugal Currents act as ‘Cant streams’ importing 389 ± 90 kmol s−1, most of which recirculates southwards with the Canary Current (−214 ± 34 kmol s−1). The Azores Counter Current (−79 ± 36 kmol s−1) and the northward-flowing Mediterranean Water advective branch (−31 ± 12 kmol s−1) comprise secondary Cant export routes. By means of Cant transport decomposition, we find horizontal circulation to represent 11% of the Cant storage rate, while overturning circulation is the main driver (48% of the Cant storage rate). Within the domain of this study, overturning circulation is a key mechanism by which Cant in the upper layer (0–500 dbar) is drawdown (74 ± 14 kmol s−1) to intermediate levels (500–2000 dbar), and entrained (37 ± 7 kmol s−1) into the Mediterranean Outflow Water to form Mediterranean Water. This newly formed water mass partly exports Cant to the North Atlantic at a rate of −39 ± 9 kmol s−1 and partly contributes to the Cant storage in the North-East Atlantic (with up to 0.015 ± 0.006 Pg-C yr−1). Closing the Cant budget, 40% of the Cant storage in the North-East Atlantic is attributable to anthropogenic CO2 uptake from the atmosphere (21 ± 10 kmol s−1)