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Recent studies have found that flight through deep convective storms and ingestion of high mass concentrations of ice crystals, also known as high ice water content (HIWC), into aircraft engines can adversely impact aircraft engine performance. These aircraft engine icing events caused by HIWC have been documented during flight in weak reflectivity regions near convective updraft regions that do not appear threatening in onboard weather radar data. Three airborne field campaigns were conducted in 2014 and 2015 to better understand how HIWC is distributed in deep convection, both as a function of altitude and proximity to convective updraft regions, and to facilitate development of new methods for detecting HIWC conditions, in addition to many other research and regulatory goals. This paper describes a prototype method for detecting HIWC conditions using geostationary (GEO) satellite imager data coupled with in-situ total water content (TWC) observations collected during the flight campaigns. Three satellite-derived parameters were determined to be most useful for determining HIWC probability: 1) the horizontal proximity of the aircraft to the nearest overshooting convective updraft or textured anvil cloud, 2) tropopause-relative infrared brightness temperature, and 3) daytime-only cloud optical depth. Statistical fits between collocated TWC and GEO satellite parameters were used to determine the membership functions for the fuzzy logic derivation of HIWC probability. The products were demonstrated using data from several campaign flights and validated using a subset of the satellite-aircraft collocation database. The daytime HIWC probability was found to agree quite well with TWC time trends and identified extreme TWC events with high probability. Discrimination of HIWC was more challenging at night with IR-only information. The products show the greatest capability for discriminating TWC ≥ 0.5 g m -3 . Product validation remains challenging due to vertical TWC uncertainties and the typically coarse spatio-temporal resolution of the GEO data.

Background: Actinic prurigo, as idiopathic skin reaction involving light-exposed areas, was first described in American Indians. Actinic prurigo was early considered to be a particular form at polymorphous phototoxicity, but can be identified as a specific entity on the bases of clinical features and epidemiological characteristics., Case Reports: Three children in the same family developed photosensitive reactions early in childhood with characteristic polymorphous and persistent eczema-like or papulo-nodular pruriginous lesions which predominated in light-exposed areas and appeared several hours after exposure to sun. The lesions persisted during the winter season. The lesions followed a chronic course but tended to improve at puberty. Clinical laboratory tests, serum and urine porphyrin levels and antinuclear factors were normal. Histology and photobiology explorations gave non-specific results., Discussion: These observations have three points in common with actinic prurigo observed in American Indians. HLA typing showed that our three patients, as in white patients in Great Britain, had a significant association with a specific HLA DR1 subtype: DRB1*0407. This DRB1*0407 alleles could play a role in initiating the immune response to a light-induced peptide antigen. This particular genetic predisposition, if confirmed in other studies, would be an additional argument for distinguishing actinic prurigo as a specific polymorphous phototoxicity entity.

This report describes the ultrastructural characteristics of a Poncet-Spiegler tumor (cylindroma, turban tumor). This tumor was made up of two cell types and showed a ductal differentiation. Cells bordering duct-like structures were joined together by innumerable desmosomes, especially in places where the cell membranes were markedly invaginated. The arguments in favor of an eccrine or an apocrine for the origin of this sweat gland tumor are discussed.

The authors have studied 39 cases of mycosis fungoides in the last 3 years. The confrontation between clinical and histological data remains the best means of diagnosis and prognosis. The classical classification into three clinical forms must be maintained; laboratory investigations do not yet supply practical information for prognosis and therapy. At present, the prognosis cannot be established otherwise than on clinical grounds; a pragmatic staging method is needed.

One cannot say that health was put to the forefront of the reform projects of the left-wing parties and, in particular, of the Socialist Party before their coming to power in May 1981. One cannot say, either, that after the departure of the Socialists in April 1986, the reforms that they accomplished in this area have been considerable. However, some of them are not negligible, even if one cannot yet measure all their effects completely. The policy drive has been marked by two periods. The first was characterized by a profusion of projects and by strong political promises, i.e. from June 1981 to March 1983. It was the period when the Minister of Health was a Communist and when the Social Security administration was linked to another ministry. It was the period of reforms which were promised but not realised, e.g. those concerned with health and labour, those that touched on the issue of psychiatric hospitals. It was the period, nevertheless, when some of the reforms could have been undertaken with success: the reforms of medical education, of the establishment of the Regional Observatories of Health, of the decentralisation of some sectors of the health system, of the elimination of private sector beds in public hospitals. The second, from April 1983 to July 1985, was characterised by an attempt to modify the modality of the functions of the health system. It was during this period that the office of the Minister of Health was reduced to that of Secretary of State attached to the Minister of Social Affairs, whose main concern was with research regarding balancing budgets and who, relatively speaking, succeeded in his rigorous attempt to curb medical costs. One can point out, however, that an attempt was made to bring about 'the integrated health centre', an attempt corresponding to the wish of the militant socialists but which was to have no effect except as a symbolic gesture. But the main reform, launched by the law of 19 January, 1983, was that which was concerned with the mode of financing hospitals by replacing daily hospital fees with general financial budgets, the amounts of which were to be negotiated between the hospitals and the administrative boards. This reform would expand into broader activities, i.e. the creation of the entire organisation of hospitals to a great extent. This reform attempted to introduce the advantage of collective discussion of problems among the persons responsible, no longer nominated by the central authority but elected by their peers.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)