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Traditional therapeutic oral anticoagulation strategies often require invasive dosing or monitoring. Vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) have a large number of interactions, delayed onset requires frequent dose monitoring, and they have a small margin between therapeutic dose and bleeding complications. Novel oral anticoagulants, such as dabigatran, rivaroxaban and apixaban, are being developed to prevent those VKAs drawbacks. Besides oral bioavailability, those compounds are designed to require minimal to no monitoring and have a favourable safety profile. This review reports efficacy and safety data of these compounds throughout clinical development, as well as new approaches for oral pharmacological management of venous thromboembolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims (i) Evaluation of delayed time to blood culture extraction by the Sepsityper kit and impact of shipping pellets off-site for MALDI- TOF MS analysis. (ii) Comparison of Sepsityper and laboratory-developed extraction methods from a literature review. Methods and Results Using two blood culture systems ( BD BACTEC and Versa TREK), we extracted 411 positive blood cultures using the Sepsityper kit to mimic a potential protocol for institutions without a MALDI- TOF MS. Extracted pellets were shipped and analysed on the Bruker Ultraflex III. Successful extraction of 358 (87·1%) samples was determined by the presence of detectable proteins. MALDI- TOF MS correctly identified 332 (80·8%) samples. Conclusions Delayed time to extraction did not affect Sepsityper extraction or MALDI- TOF MS accuracy. The extracted pellets remain stable and provide accurate results by MALDI- TOF MS when shipped at room temperature to off-site reference laboratories. Significance and Impact of the Study This is the first study to show that institutions without a MALDI- TOF MS can take advantage of this innovative technology by shipping a volume of blood to an off-site laboratory for extraction and MALDI- TOF MS analysis. We also performed a literature review to compare various extraction methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let $G$ denote a finite group and $\mathrm{cd} (G)$ the set of irreducible character degrees of $G$. Huppert conjectured that if $H$ is a finite nonabelian simple group such that $\mathrm{cd} (G)= \mathrm{cd} (H)$, then $G\cong H\times A$, where $A$ is an abelian group. He verified the conjecture for many of the sporadic simple groups and we complete its verification for the remainder. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The importance of using dedicated high-end computing resources to enable high spatial resolution in global climate models and advance knowledge of the climate system has been evaluated in an international collaboration called Project Athena. Inspired by the World Modeling Summit of 2008 and made possible by the availability of dedicated high-end computing resources provided by the National Science Foundation from October 2009 through March 2010, Project Athena demonstrated the sensitivity of climate simulations to spatial resolution and to the representation of subgrid-scale processes with horizontal resolutions up to 10 times higher than contemporary climate models. While many aspects of the mean climate were found to be reassuringly similar, beyond a suggested minimum resolution, the magnitudes and structure of regional effects can differ substantially. Project Athena served as a pilot project to demonstrate that an effective international collaboration can be formed to efficiently exploit dedicated supercomputing resources. The outcomes to date suggest that, in addition to substantial and dedicated computing resources, future climate modeling and prediction require a substantial research effort to efficiently explore the fidelity of climate models when explicitly resolving important atmospheric and oceanic processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents several abstracts which were presented at the 11th meeting of the European Venous Forum, which was held on June 24-26, 2010 in Antwerp, Belgium, including abstracts on post-thrombotic vein wall remodeling, the Caprini risk assessment model in plastic and reconstructive surgery patients and delayed secondary procedures following endovenous ablation.

Purpose: This study evaluates the effectiveness of calf muscle strengthening with compression stockings on the haemodynamics in patients with venous disease. Method: Patients were assigned to a protocol of aggressive management of their chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) including compression stockings (Jobst knee high, 30–40 mmHg ankle), intermittent leg elevation, and a supervised calf muscle strengthening programme. Patients underwent baseline air plethysmography (APG) with and without stockings (T1) and SF-12, Aberdeen varicose vein questionnaire and venous severity score. Exercise sessions included a total of 18, 1 h supervised sessions, 2–3 times per week, consisting of 15 min on treadmill, 10 min on a Stairmaster, 10 min on a Nustep, and 5 min on an airdyne bicycle and lower body strength training. The sessions were supervised by an exercise physiologist. At completion, patients underwent a second APG (T2) and a third (T3) one month later, as well as answering questionnaires. A final venous severity score was assigned. Results: Eleven patients (7M, 4F), 22 limbs, 14 with CVI and eight without CVI, mean age 60, made up this study. Only two patients suffered from postphlebitic syndrome. In all, 10/11 subjects completed the entire protocol. Although no significant differences were noted in any of the APG parameters between T1 and T2 or T2 and T3, there were significant differences when segregating into C2 (n = 6 patients with eight involved limbs) and C4, 5 (n = 5 patients with six involved limbs). Concerning the affected extremities, statistically significant decreases in venous volume (VV) with stockings on between T1 and T2, which reverted back to baseline at T3, and in venous filling index (VFI) between T2 and T3 without stockings were noted (P<0.05) in C2 limbs. Similar findings were not observed in the C4, C5 limbs, with actual increases in these parameters. Greater increases in ejection fraction were noted in C2 limbs than in C4, C5 limbs. Despite the decrease in reflux in C2 limbs, residual volume fraction (RVF) increased in C2 limbs at T2 both with (P<0.05) and without stockings, while it decreased in C4, C5 limbs with stockings in place. Finally, outflow fraction (OF) increased only in C2 limbs without stockings in place. Regarding the other parameters, all patients noted improvement in swelling by Aberdeen questionnaire, physical health was improved by SF-12 and patients lost a mean of 3.8 lb of weight. Conclusions: An exercise programme along with compression stockings resulted in a decrease in reflux, especially during the supervised exercise programme, in patients with mild (C2) chronic venous disease. For more extensive disease (C4, C5), the programme tended to decrease RVF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]