The Solar Orbiter magnetometer Horbury, T. S.; O’Brien, H.; Carrasco Blazquez, I. ...
Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin),
10/2020, Letnik:
642
Journal Article
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The magnetometer instrument on the Solar Orbiter mission is designed to measure the magnetic field local to the spacecraft continuously for the entire mission duration. The need to characterise not ...only the background magnetic field but also its variations on scales from far above to well below the proton gyroscale result in challenging requirements on stability, precision, and noise, as well as magnetic and operational limitations on both the spacecraft and other instruments. The challenging vibration and thermal environment has led to significant development of the mechanical sensor design. The overall instrument design, performance, data products, and operational strategy are described.
Please cite this paper as: Murphy V, Namazy J, Powell H, Schatz M, Chambers C, Attia J, Gibson P. A meta‐analysis of adverse perinatal outcomes in women with asthma. BJOG 2011;118:1314–1323.
...Background Asthma is a common condition during pregnancy and may be associated with adverse perinatal outcomes.
Objective This meta‐analysis sought to establish if maternal asthma is associated with an increased risk of adverse perinatal outcomes, and to determine the size of these effects.
Search strategy Electronic databases were searched for the following terms: (asthma or wheeze) and (pregnan* or perinat* or obstet*).
Selection criteria Cohort studies published between 1975 and March 2009 were considered for inclusion. Studies were included if they reported at least one perinatal outcome in pregnant women with and without asthma.
Data collection and analysis A total of 103 articles were identified, and of these 40 publications involving 1 637 180 subjects were included. Meta‐analysis was conducted with subgroup analyses by study design and active asthma management.
Main results Maternal asthma was associated with an increased risk of low birthweight (RR 1.46, 95% CI 1.22–1.75), small for gestational age (RR 1.22, 95% CI 1.14–1.31), preterm delivery (RR 1.41, 95% CI 1.22–1.61) and pre‐eclampsia (RR 1.54, 95% CI 1.32–1.81). The relative risk of preterm delivery and preterm labour were reduced to non‐significant levels by active asthma management (RR 1.07, 95% CI 0.91–1.26 for preterm delivery; RR 0.96, 95% CI 0.73–1.26 for preterm labour).
Author’s conclusions Pregnant women with asthma are at increased risk of perinatal complications, including pre‐eclampsia and outcomes that affect the baby’s size and timing of birth. Active asthma management with a view to reducing the exacerbation rate may be clinically useful in reducing the risk of perinatal complications, particularly preterm delivery.
Transient ischemic attack (TIA) patients are at high risk of recurrent vascular events; timely management can reduce that risk by 70%. The Protocol-guided Rapid Evaluation of Veterans Experiencing ...New Transient Neurological Symptoms (PREVENT) developed, implemented, and evaluated a TIA quality improvement (QI) intervention aligned with Learning Healthcare System principles.
This stepped-wedge trial developed, implemented and evaluated a provider-facing, multi-component intervention to improve TIA care at six facilities. The unit of analysis was the medical center. The intervention was developed based on benchmarking data, staff interviews, literature, and electronic quality measures and included: performance data, clinical protocols, professional education, electronic health record tools, and QI support. The effectiveness outcome was the without-fail rate: the proportion of patients who receive all processes of care for which they are eligible among seven processes. The implementation outcomes were the number of implementation activities completed and final team organization level. The intervention effects on the without-fail rate were analyzed using generalized mixed-effects models with multilevel hierarchical random effects. Mixed methods were used to assess implementation, user satisfaction, and sustainability.
PREVENT advanced three aspects of a Learning Healthcare System. Learning from Data: teams examined and interacted with their performance data to explore hypotheses, plan QI activities, and evaluate change over time. Learning from Each Other: Teams participated in monthly virtual collaborative calls. Sharing Best Practices: Teams shared tools and best practices. The approach used to design and implement PREVENT may be generalizable to other clinical conditions where time-sensitive care spans clinical settings and medical disciplines.
clinicaltrials.gov: NCT02769338 May 11, 2016.
Plant volatiles play important roles in attraction of certain pollinators and in host location by herbivorous insects. Virus infection induces changes in plant volatile emission profiles, and this ...can make plants more attractive to insect herbivores, such as aphids, that act as viral vectors. However, it is unknown if virus-induced alterations in volatile production affect plant-pollinator interactions. We found that volatiles emitted by cucumber mosaic virus (CMV)-infected tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and Arabidopsis thaliana plants altered the foraging behaviour of bumblebees (Bombus terrestris). Virus-induced quantitative and qualitative changes in blends of volatile organic compounds emitted by tomato plants were identified by gas chromatography-coupled mass spectrometry. Experiments with a CMV mutant unable to express the 2b RNA silencing suppressor protein and with Arabidopsis silencing mutants implicate microRNAs in regulating emission of pollinator-perceivable volatiles. In tomato, CMV infection made plants emit volatiles attractive to bumblebees. Bumblebees pollinate tomato by 'buzzing' (sonicating) the flowers, which releases pollen and enhances self-fertilization and seed production as well as pollen export. Without buzz-pollination, CMV infection decreased seed yield, but when flowers of mock-inoculated and CMV-infected plants were buzz-pollinated, the increased seed yield for CMV-infected plants was similar to that for mock-inoculated plants. Increased pollinator preference can potentially increase plant reproductive success in two ways: i) as female parents, by increasing the probability that ovules are fertilized; ii) as male parents, by increasing pollen export. Mathematical modeling suggested that over a wide range of conditions in the wild, these increases to the number of offspring of infected susceptible plants resulting from increased pollinator preference could outweigh underlying strong selection pressures favoring pathogen resistance, allowing genes for disease susceptibility to persist in plant populations. We speculate that enhanced pollinator service for infected individuals in wild plant populations might provide mutual benefits to the virus and its susceptible hosts.
Acute allergic symptoms are caused by allergen-induced crosslinking of allergen-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) bound to Fc-epsilon receptors on effector cells. Desensitization with allergen-specific ...immunotherapy (SIT) has been used for over a century, but the dominant protective mechanism remains unclear. One consistent observation is increased allergen-specific IgG, thought to competitively block allergen binding to IgE. Here we show that the blocking potency of the IgG response to Cat-SIT is heterogeneous. Next, using two potent, pre-selected allergen-blocking monoclonal IgG antibodies against the immunodominant cat allergen Fel d 1, we demonstrate that increasing the IgG/IgE ratio reduces the allergic response in mice and in cat-allergic patients: a single dose of blocking IgG reduces clinical symptoms in response to nasal provocation (ANCOVA, p = 0.0003), with a magnitude observed at day 8 similar to that reported with years of conventional SIT. This study suggests that simply augmenting the blocking IgG/IgE ratio may reverse allergy.
Mirvetuximab soravtansine (MIRV) is an antibody-drug conjugate comprising a folate receptor alpha (FRα)-binding antibody, cleavable linker, and the maytansinoid DM4, a potent tubulin-targeting agent. ...The randomized, open-label, phase III study FORWARD I compared MIRV and investigator's choice chemotherapy in patients with platinum-resistant epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC).
Eligible patients with 1-3 prior lines of therapy and whose tumors were positive for FRα expression were randomly assigned, in a 2 : 1 ratio, to receive MIRV (6 mg/kg, adjusted ideal body weight) or chemotherapy (paclitaxel, pegylated liposomal doxorubicin, or topotecan). The primary endpoint was progression-free survival PFS, Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) version 1.1, blinded independent central review in the intention-to-treat (ITT) population and in the prespecified FRα high population.
A total of 366 patients were randomized; 243 received MIRV and 109 received chemotherapy. The primary endpoint, PFS, did not reach statistical significance in either the ITT hazard ratio (HR), 0.98, P = 0.897 or the FRα high population (HR, 0.69, P = 0.049). Superior outcomes for MIRV over chemotherapy were observed in all secondary endpoints in the FRα high population including improved objective response rate (24% versus 10%), CA-125 responses (53% versus 25%), and patient-reported outcomes (27% versus 13%). Fewer treatment-related grade 3 or higher adverse events (25.1% versus 44.0%), and fewer events leading to dose reduction (19.8% versus 30.3%) and treatment discontinuation (4.5% versus 8.3%) were seen with MIRV compared with chemotherapy.
In patients with platinum-resistant EOC, MIRV did not result in a significant improvement in PFS compared with chemotherapy. Secondary endpoints consistently favored MIRV, particularly in patients with high FRα expression. MIRV showed a differentiated and more manageable safety profile than chemotherapy.
•In platinum-resistant EOC MIRV did not significantly improve PFS over chemotherapy.•No unexpected toxicities were observed, and tolerability profiles were consistent with those observed in previous studies.•The most promising signals of efficacy were observed with MIRV in patients with high FRα expression.•The findings support ongoing trials designed to select the patients with EOC most likely to derive benefit from this agent.
We previously reported Keck telescope observations suggesting a smaller value of the fine structure constant α at high redshift. New Very Large Telescope (VLT) data, probing a different direction in ...the Universe, shows an inverse evolution; α increases at high redshift. Although the pattern could be due to as yet undetected systematic effects, with the systematics as presently understood the combined data set fits a spatial dipole, significant at the 4.2 σ level, in the direction right ascension 17.5 ± 0.9 h, declination -58 ± 9 deg. The independent VLT and Keck samples give consistent dipole directions and amplitudes, as do high and low redshift samples. A search for systematics, using observations duplicated at both telescopes, reveals none so far which emulate this result.
All hospitalisations for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in the Scottish population were examined to determine the epidemiological features of PAH. These data were compared with expert data ...from the Scottish Pulmonary Vascular Unit (SPVU). Using the linked Scottish Morbidity Record scheme, data from all adults aged 16-65 yrs admitted with PAH (idiopathic PAH, pulmonary hypertension associated with congenital heart abnormalities and pulmonary hypertension associated with connective tissue disorders) during the period 1986-2001 were identified. These data were compared with the most recent data in the SPVU database (2005). Overall, 374 Scottish males and females aged 16-65 yrs were hospitalised with incident PAH during 1986-2001. The annual incidence of PAH was 7.1 cases per million population. On December 31, 2002, there were 165 surviving cases, giving a prevalence of PAH of 52 cases per million population. Data from the SPVU were available for 1997-2006. In 2005, the last year with a complete data set, the incidence of PAH was 7.6 cases per million population and the corresponding prevalence was 26 cases per million population. Hospitalisation data from the Scottish Morbidity Record scheme gave higher prevalences of pulmonary arterial hypertension than data from the expert centres (Scotland and France). The hospitalisation data may overestimate the true frequency of pulmonary arterial hypertension in the population, but it is also possible that the expert centres underestimate the true frequency.
During the ARCPAC (Aerosol, Radiation, and Cloud Processes affecting Arctic Climate) airborne field experiment in April 2008 in northern Alaska, about 50 plumes were encountered with the NOAA WP‐3 ...aircraft between the surface and 6.5 km. Onboard measurements and the transport model FLEXPART showed that most of the plumes were emitted by forest fires in southern Siberia‐Lake Baikal area and by agricultural burning in Kazakhstan‐southern Russia. Unexpectedly, these biomass burning plumes were the dominant aerosol and gas‐phase features encountered in this area during April. The influence on the plumes from sources other than burning was small. The chemical characteristics of plumes from the two source regions were different, with higher enhancements relative to CO for most gas and aerosol species from the agricultural fires. In 2008, the fire season started earlier than usual in Siberia, which may have resulted in unusually efficient transport of biomass burning emissions into the Arctic.
With four years of nearly continuous photometry from Kepler, we are finally in a good position to apply asteroseismology to ... Doradus stars. In particular, several analyses have demonstrated the ...possibility to detect non-uniform period spacings, which have been predicted to be directly related to rotation. In this paper, we define a new seismic diagnostic for rotation in ... Doradus stars which are too rapidly rotating to present rotational splittings. Based on the non-uniformity of their period spacings, we define the observable S as the slope of the period spacing when plotted as a function of period. We provide a one-to-one relation between this observable S and the internal rotation, which applies widely in the instability strip of ... Doradus stars. We apply the diagnostic to a handful of stars observed by Kepler. Thanks to g modes in ... Doradus stars, we are now able to determine the internal rotation of stars on the lower main sequence, which is still not possible for Sun-like stars. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
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