1,721,125 research outputs found
Hyperviscosity syndrome in cryoglobulinemia: clinical aspects and therapeutic considerations.
No full textThe term cryoglobulinemia refers to the presence in the serum of proteins that precipitate at temperatures below 37 degrees C and redissolve on rewarming. The cryoglobulins can be divided into three categories: monoclonal, mixed, and polyclonal. Hyperviscosity syndrome is much more common in monoclonal than in mixed or polyclonal cryoglobulinemia. The clinical manifestations of cryoglobulinemia depend on the underlying disease and may involve various organs or systems. Mixed cryoglobulinemia (MC) is dominated by a vasculitic process, and the clinical manifestations can range from mild to life threatening in their severity. Another common feature of this disorder is the presence of a benign smoldering lymphoproliferative process that can evolve (in a limited number of cases) into non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The elective treatment for hyperviscosity syndrome, whether associated with monoclonal, mixed, or polyclonal cryoglobulinemia, is plasma exchange. In monoclonal cryoglobulinemia, this procedure seems to act by removing large amounts of abnormal proteins, but its mechanism in MC is far from clear. Here it is possible that qualitative and quantitative variations in the circulating cryoglobulins, as well as hemodynamic changes, are at play. This article will focus on the hyperviscosity syndrome in cryoglobulinemia, beginning with a discussion of its clinical features and then examining the role of hemorheological parameters in the condition
Delegation and Public Pressure in a Threshold Public Goods Game
No full textMany public goods cannot be provided directly by interested parties (e.g. citizens), as they entail decision-making at nested hierarchical scales: at a lower level individuals elect a representative, while at a higher scale elected delegates decide on the provision level, with some degree of scrutiny from their constituency. Furthermore, many such decisions involve uncertainty about the magnitude of the contribution that is needed for the good to be provided (or bad to be avoided). In such circumstances delegates can serve as important vehicles for coordination by aggregating societal preferences for provision. Yet, the role of delegation in threshold public goods games is understudied. We contrast the behavior of delegates to that of self-representing individuals in the avoidance of a public bad in an experimental setting. We randomly assign twelve subjects into four teams and ask each team to elect a delegate via majority voting. The elected delegates play several variants of a one-shot public goods game in which losses can ensue if the sum of their contributions falls short of a threshold. We find that when delegation is coupled with a mild form of public pressure, it has a significantly negative effect on contributions, even though the non-delegates can only signal their preferred levels of public good contributions. The reason is that delegates give more weight to the least cooperative suggestion: they focus on the lower of the two public good contributions recommended by their teammates
Monitoring and punishment networks in an experimental common pool resource dilemma
No full textWith the aid of a lab experiment, we explored how imperfect monitoring and punishment networks impacted appropriation, punishment and beliefs in a common pool resource appropriation dilemma. We studied the differences between the complete network (with perfect monitoring and punishment, in which everyone can observe and punish everyone else) and two 'imperfect' networks (that systematically reduce the number of subjects who could monitor and punish others): The directed and undirected circle networks. We found that free riders were punished in all treatments, but the network topology impacted the type of punishment: The undirected circle induced more severe punishment and prosocial punishment compared to the other two networks. Both imperfect networks were more efficient because the larger punishment capacity available in the complete network elicited higher punishment amount
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Undifferentiated connective tissue disease: analysis of 83 patients with a minimum followup of 5 years
No full textOBJECTIVE:
Undifferentiated connective tissue disease (UCTD) refers to a cluster of systemic disorders characterized by a simple clinical and autoantibody profile. Previously, we had described a series of 91 patients with UCTD who were followed at our unit for a minimum period of one year; here we report the extended followup of these patients.
METHODS:
Of the original 91 patients, 8 were lost to followup; the remaining 83, with a minimum followup of 5 years, were included in our analysis.
RESULTS:
During the followup 18 patients developed systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and one developed Sjögren's syndrome within a mean period of 54 months after the onset of the disease (range 17-96 mo). On analysis the 18 patients with SLE showed a clinical profile similar to cohorts reported in the literature. In one patient the evolution to SLE occurred during puerperium, but no other triggering factors were observed in our series. The presence of anticardiolipin antibodies and of multiple antibody specificities was significantly correlated with the development of SLE (p < 0.05).
CONCLUSION:
This analysis confirms the findings of our one year followup study that UCTD comprises a distinct group of mild diseases and that the rate of evolution to defined connective tissue diseases is higher during the first years after its onset. Patients who maintain an undifferentiated profile during the followup seem to run a decreasing risk of developing a defined CTD
Low dose cyclophosphamide pulses in the treatment of nephritis and vasculitis in systemic lupus erythematosus
No full text
- …
