2,146 research outputs found
Early-Onset Autoimmune Disease as a Manifestation of Primary Immunodeficiency
Autoimmune disorders (AID) have been increasingly observed in association with primary immunodeficiencies (PIDs). Here, we discuss the interface between PID and AID, focusing on autoimmune manifestations early in life, which can be diagnostic clues for underlying PIDs. Inflammatory bowel disease in infants and children has been associated with IL-10 and IL-10R deficiencies, chronic granulomatous disease, immunedysregulation-polyendocrinopathy-enteropathy-X-linked syndrome (IPEX), autoinflammatory disorders, and others. Some PIDs have been identified as underlying defects in juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus: C1q-, IgA-, IgM deficiencies, alterations of the IFN-α pathway (in Aicardi-Goutières syndrome due to TREX1 mutation). IPEX (due to FOXP3 mutation leading to Treg cell deficiency), usually appearing in the first months of life, was recently observed in miscarried fetuses with hydrops who presented with CD3+ infiltrating lymphocytes in the pancreas. Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis due to perforin deficiency was also identified as a cause of fetal hydrops. In conclusion, PID should be suspected in any infant with signs of autoimmunity after excluding transferred maternal effects, or in children with multiple and/or severe AID.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)
Theoretical impact of insecticide-impregnated school uniforms on dengue incidence in Thai children.
BACKGROUND: Children carry the main burden of morbidity and mortality caused by dengue. Children spend a considerable amount of their day at school; hence strategies that reduce human-mosquito contact to protect against the day-biting habits of Aedes mosquitoes at schools, such as insecticide-impregnated uniforms, could be an effective prevention strategy. METHODOLOGY: We used mathematical models to calculate the risk of dengue infection based on force of infection taking into account the estimated proportion of mosquito bites that occur in school and the proportion of school time that children wear the impregnated uniforms. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The use of insecticide-impregnated uniforms has efficacy varying from around 6% in the most pessimistic estimations, to 55% in the most optimistic scenarios simulated. CONCLUSIONS: Reducing contact between mosquito bites and human hosts via insecticide-treated uniforms during school time is theoretically effective in reducing dengue incidence and may be a valuable additional tool for dengue control in school-aged children. The efficacy of this strategy, however, is dependent on the compliance of the target population in terms of proper and consistent wearing of uniforms and, perhaps more importantly, the proportion of bites inflicted by the Aedes population during school time
On Flavourful Easter eggs for New Physics hunger and Lepton Flavour Universality violation
Within the standard approach of effective field theory of weak interactions
for transitions, we look for possibly unexpected subtle New
Physics effects, here dubbed "flavourful Easter eggs". We perform a Bayesian
global fit using the publicly available HEPfit package, taking into account
state-of-the-art experimental information concerning these processes, including
the suggestive measurements from LHCb of and , the latter
available only very recently. We parametrize New Physics contributions to transitions in terms of shifts of Wilson coefficients of the
electromagnetic dipole and semi-leptonic operators, assuming CP-conserving
effects, but allowing in general for violation of lepton flavour universality.
We show how optimistic/conservative hadronic estimates can impact
quantitatively the size of New Physics extracted from the fit. With a
conservative approach to hadronic uncertainties we find nonzero New Physics
contributions to Wilson coefficients at the level of , depending
on the model chosen. Furthermore, given the interplay between hadronic
contributions and New Physics effects in the leptonic vector current, a
scenario with nonstandard leptonic axial currents is comparable to the more
widely advocated one with New Physics in the leptonic vector current.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figures and 5 tables. v2: numerical results and plots
replaced with higher statistics MC runs, references added. v3: final version
to appear in EPJ
Envelhecimento e dependência: desafios a serem enfrentados = Aging and dependence: challenges to be faced
O envelhecimento da população mundial e a questão da dependência são dois importantes desafios que os países terão que enfrentar neste século. Esses desafios requerem maiores exigências econômicas e sociais e necessitam de políticas e programas adequados para que a seguridade social possa continuar atendendo as necessidades das pessoas com mais de 65 anos e das que sofrem de algum tipo de dependência. A Organização Mundial da Saúde (OMS) sustenta que todos os países e, principalmente, os em vias de desenvolvimento precisam fazer planos e agir, pois as medidas para ajudar que as pessoas de mais idade continuem ativas devem ser tratadas prioritariamente. As taxas de dependência das pessoas idosas mudam rapidamente em todo mundo (a tendência é de que quase dupliquem até 2025) e mostram o prognóstico das políticas previdenciárias ao longo dos anos. Este estudo bibliográfico tem por objetivo mostrar a importância da seguridade social no Brasil, nas formas de aposentadoria, pensão e benefícios. Para tanto fará uso de dados secundários colhidos através do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística IBGE (2002
Modified lepton couplings and the Cabibbo-angle anomaly
Significant discrepancies between the different determinations of the Cabibbo
angle have been observed. Here, we point out that this "Cabibbo-angle anomaly"
can be explained by lepton flavour universality (LFU) violating New Physics
(NP) in the neutrino sector. However, modified neutrino couplings to Standard
Model gauge bosons also affect many other observables sensitive to LFU
violation, which have to be taken into account in order to assess the viability
of this explanation. Therefore, we perform a model-independent Bayesian global
analysis and find that non-zero modifications of electron and muon neutrino
couplings are preferred at more than (corresponding to
more than ). Our results show that constructive effects in the muon
sector are necessary, meaning simple models with right-handed neutrinos are
discarded and more sophisticated NP models required.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, proceedings for LHCP202
Exact solution for a fermion in the background of a scalar inversely linear potential
The problem of a fermion subject to a general scalar potential in a
two-dimensional world is mapped into a Sturm-Liouville problem for nonzero
eigenenergies. The searching for possible bounded solutions is done in the
circumstance of power-law potentials. The normalizable zero-eigenmode solutions
are also searched. For the specific case of an inversely linear potential,
which gives rise to an effective Kratzer potential, exact bounded solutions are
found in closed form. The behaviour of the upper and lower components of the
Dirac spinor is discussed in detail and some unusual results are revealed.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure
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