Diagnostiek van mogelijk cardiale klachten door de huisarts : een evaluatie van diagnostische hulp in de vorm van electrocardiografie en serumenzymbepalingen

De onderhavige studie is een onderzoek naar de toepasbaarheid van een dergelijke diagnostische hulpdienst op grote schaal (Rotterdam, Capelle aan den !Jssel en Krimpen aan den !Jssel ). Het project kreeg de oorspronkelijke naam 'Town of Rotterdam Acute Coronary Events' (TRACE). Deze naam suggereert mogelijk dat hiermee alle 1acute coronaire episoden' (acuut myocard infarct of plotse dood) in Rotterdam gedurende een bepaalde periode worden bedoeld, doch dit is onjuist. De hulpdienst is bedoeld voor mensen met nieuwe of veranderde klachten, waarbij de huisarts denkt aan een ischaemische hartziekte en belang hecht aan uitslag van diagnostische hulp dezelfde dag, doch waarvoor hij in eerste instantie géén direkte opname noodzakelijk acht. Met nadruk wordt gesteld dat de hulpdienst geen alternatief is voor een opname, wanneer dit in eerste instantie noodzakelijk wordt geacht. De vraagstellingen van het onderzoek luiden als volgt: Is de hulpdienst praktisch uitvoerbaar; Voorziet de hulpdienst in een behoefte; Brengt de hulpdien st een gerichte be 1 ei dsveranderi ng teweeg, die de behandeling van de patient verbetert; Brengt het inroepen van de hulpdienst een onaanvaardbaar risico voor de patient met zich mee; Welke zijn de financiële kosten.

New dynamics in cerebellar Purkinje cells: torus canards

We describe a transition from bursting to rapid spiking in a reduced mathematical model of a cerebellar Purkinje cell. We perform a slow-fast analysis of the system and find that -- after a saddle node bifurcation of limit cycles -- the full model dynamics follow temporarily a repelling branch of limit cycles. We propose that the system exhibits a dynamical phenomenon new to realistic, biophysical applications: torus canards.Comment: 4 pages; 4 figures (low resolution); updated following peer-review: language and definitions updated, Figures 1 and 4 updated, typos corrected, references added and remove

The supportive effects of IL-7 on eosinophil progenitors from human bone marrow cells can be blocked by anti-IL-5

Human rIL-7 was studied for its effects on myeloid and erythroid progenitors from human bone marrow cells. IL-7 did not support the granulocytic/monocytic or erythroid lineage but exclusively stimulated eosinophil colony formation (CFU-Eo) (4 ± 3 vs 48 ± 17 CFU-Eo/105 nonadherent fraction-non-T cell (NAF-NT) cells). This supportive effect was not mediated by T cells or monocytes because similar results were obtained with or without T cell or adherent depleted cell fractions. In addition, it was shown that CD34+ sorted cells could be stimulated by IL-7 (0 vs 15 ± 9 CFU-Eo/3 x 103 CD34+ cells). Furthermore studies with IL-3 or granulocyte- macrophage CSF (GM-CSF) demonstrated an additive effect on the IL-7 supported colony formation. Finally, experiments were performed with anti-IL-3, anti- GM-CSF, anti-IL-1, and anti-IL-5 to exclude the possibility that IL-7 indirectly stimulated the eosinophil progenitor cell. Anti-GM-CSF, anti-IL-1, or anti-IL-3 did not influence the supportive effects of IL-7. However, anti- IL-5 did abolish the effects of IL-7 on the eosinophil colony formation (69 ± 15 vs 3 ± 2 CFU-Eo/105 NAF-NT, n = 3). Similar results were obtained with CD34+ sorted cells. Moreover, IL-5 mRNA expression could be demonstrated in IL-7-stimulated NAF-NT cells. These data suggest that the supportive effects of IL-7 on eosinophil precursors are mediated by the endogenous release of IL-5.</p

Mesoscopic structure and social aspects of human mobility

The individual movements of large numbers of people are important in many contexts, from urban planning to disease spreading. Datasets that capture human mobility are now available and many interesting features have been discovered, including the ultra-slow spatial growth of individual mobility. However, the detailed substructures and spatiotemporal flows of mobility - the sets and sequences of visited locations - have not been well studied. We show that individual mobility is dominated by small groups of frequently visited, dynamically close locations, forming primary "habitats" capturing typical daily activity, along with subsidiary habitats representing additional travel. These habitats do not correspond to typical contexts such as home or work. The temporal evolution of mobility within habitats, which constitutes most motion, is universal across habitats and exhibits scaling patterns both distinct from all previous observations and unpredicted by current models. The delay to enter subsidiary habitats is a primary factor in the spatiotemporal growth of human travel. Interestingly, habitats correlate with non-mobility dynamics such as communication activity, implying that habitats may influence processes such as information spreading and revealing new connections between human mobility and social networks.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures (main text); 11 pages, 9 figures, 1 table (supporting information

Poverty is Bad: Ways forward in livelihood research

In this paper, we take the view that the essence of poverty is the fact that one or several basic conditions for generating a living are not being met. The conditions considered most vital for making a living are to a certain extent context specific and subject to (cultural and social) interpretation and evaluation

Inhibition of activin/nodal signalling is necessary for pancreatic differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Proton Interaction Vertex Imaging With Silicon-Pixel CMOS Telescope For Carbon Therapy Quality control

International audienceMonitoring of the dose deposition during carbon ion therapy is a crucial issue for the quality control of such treatments. Recent studies have demonstrated that an ion-range control with millimeter resolution is feasible on a pencil-beam basis in homogeneous targets with prompt gamma detection for proton beams [1] and with Proton Interaction Vertex Imaging (PIVI) for carbon beams [2]. The present communication aims at describing our experimental and Monte Carlo simulation results. [1] J. Smeets et al., Phys. Med. Biol. 57 (2012) 3371-3405 [2] P. Henriquet et al., Phys. Med. Biol. 57 (2012) 4655-466

Search for the exotic Ξ−−(1860)\Xi^{--}(1860) Resonance in 340GeV/c Σ−\Sigma^--Nucleus Interactions

We report on a high statistics search for the $\Xi^{--}(1860)$ resonance in $\Sigma^-$-nucleus collisions at 340GeV/c. No evidence for this resonance is found in our data sample which contains 676000 $\Xi^-$ candidates above background. For the decay channel $\Xi^{--}(1860) \to \Xi^-\pi^-$ and the kinematic range 0.15$<x_F<$0.9 we find a 3$\sigma$ upper limit for the production cross section of 3.1 and 3.5 $\mu$b per nucleon for reactions with carbon and copper, respectively.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, modification of ref. 43 and 4

Can Google search Data help predict macroeconomic series?

We make use of Google search data in an attempt to predict unemployment, CPI and consumer confidence for the US, UK, Canada, Germany and Japan. Google search queries have previously proven valuable in predicting macroeconomic variables in an in-sample context. However, to the best of our knowledge, the more challenging question of whether such data have out-of-sample predictive value has not yet been answered satisfactorily. We focus on out-of-sample nowcasting, and extend the Bayesian structural time series model using the Hamiltonian sampler for variable selection. We find that the search data retain their value in an out-of-sample predictive context for unemployment, but not for CPI or consumer confidence. It is possible that online search behaviours are a relatively reliable gauge of an individual’s personal situation (employment status), but less reliable when it comes to variables that are unknown to the individual (CPI) or too general to be linked to specific search terms (consumer confidence)

Measurement of the Omega_c Lifetime

We present the measurement of the lifetime of the Omega_c we have performed using three independent data samples from two different decay modes. Using a Sigma- beam of 340 GeV/c we have obtained clean signals for the Omega_c decaying into Xi- K- pi+ pi+ and Omega- pi+ pi- pi+, avoiding topological cuts normally used in charm analysis. The short but measurable lifetime of the Omega_c is demonstrated by a clear enhancement of the signals at short but finite decay lengths. Using a continuous maximum likelihood method we determined the lifetime to be tau(Omega_c) = 55 +13-11(stat) +18-23(syst) fs. This makes the Omega_c the shortest living weakly decaying particle observed so far. The short value of the lifetime confirms the predicted pattern of the charmed baryon lifetimes and demonstrates that the strong interaction plays a vital role in the lifetimes of charmed hadrons.Comment: 15 pages, including 7 figures; gzipped, uuencoded postscrip