Dendritic Cells and T Lymphocytes in the Pathogenesis of Pulmonary Sarcoidosis

The history of sarcoidosis begins in 1899 when the Norwegian dermatologist Ceasar Boeck described nodular skin lesions characterized by epitheloid cells and a few giant cells as multiple benign sarcoid of the skin. Now, many years later, a lot more is known about sarcoidosis. The definition of sarcoidosis is described in the American Thoracic Society statement on sarcoidosis in 1999: sarcoidosis is regarded as a multisystem disorder of unknown cause, commonly affecting young and middle aged adults, with bilateral hilar adenopathy, pulmonary infiltrates, eye and skin lesions. Also oth

An Experimental Investigation Into the Performance of a Flush Water-Jet Inlet

An experimental investigation of the flow within a generic flush type water-jet inlet has been carried out to identify the principal flow features and provide a basis for development of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. Tests were performed in a cavitation tunnel with the model inlet fitted to the test section ceiling, and effects of thickening the ingested tunnel wall boundary layer were investigated. The model was fitted with a range of instrumentation to investigate the ramp pressure distribution and boundary layer development, lip incidence, and pump face flow properties. Observations of lip and duct cavitation inception and behavior were also made. The results showed the inlet performance to be generally improved with the ingestion of a thicker boundary layer. The thickened boundary layer significantly reduced ramp boundary layer separation and distortion of flow at the notional pump face. However, a greater range of lip incidence occurred with the thickened boundary layer with consequent greater likelihood of lip separation and cavitation occurrence. Ideal lip incidence and pump face flow uniformity occurred at flow parameters significantly different from those for ideal pump face pressure recovery. Large developed cavities on the inlet lip were observed for a range of conditions typical of conventional high-speed vessel operation

Communion by extension : discrepancies between policy and practice

The growing practice of Communion by Extension was given formal authorisation by the Church of England General Synod in 2000 with the expectation that it would be used in particular circumstances, including explicitly the rural multi-church benefice. This paper reviews the historical origins of the practice of Communion by Extension and clarifies the intentions of the authorisation given in 2000. Then the intentions of the 2000 authorisation are compared and contrasted with current parochial practice within one English diocese. Considerable divergence is found. Five main themes are identified and discussed: the relationship between worship and mission; the pressures on clerical time; sacramental self-sufficiency; the value given to familiarity; and the choice between reservation and congregationalism

Management, regulation and environmental impacts of nitrogen fertilization in northwestern Europe under the Nitrates Directive; a benchmark study

Implementation of the Nitrates Directive (NiD) and its environmental impacts were compared for member states in the northwest of the European Union (Ireland, United Kingdom, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Northern France and Germany). The main sources of data were national reports for the third reporting period for the NiD (2004–2007) and results of the MITERRA-EUROPE model. Implementation of the NiD in the considered member states is fairly comparable regarding restrictions for where and when to apply fertilizer and manure, but very different regarding application limits for N fertilization. Issues of concern and improvement of the implementation of the NiD are accounting for the fertilizer value of nitrogen in manure, and relating application limits for total nitrogen (N) to potential crop yield and N removal. The most significant environmental effect of the implementation of the NiD since 1995 is a major contribution to the decrease of the soil N balance (N surplus), particularly in Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. This decrease is accompanied by a modest decrease of nitrate concentrations since 2000 in fresh surface waters in most countries. This decrease is less prominent for groundwater in view of delayed response of nitrate in deep aquifers. In spite of improved fertilization practices, the southeast of the Netherlands, the Flemish Region and Brittany remain to be regions of major concern in view of a combination of a high nitrogen surplus, high leaching fractions to groundwater and tenacious exceedance of the water quality standards. On average the gross N balance in 2008 for the seven member states in EUROSTAT and in national reports was about 20 kg N ha<sup>−1</sup> yr<sup>−1</sup> lower than by MITERRA. The major cause is higher estimates of N removal in national reports which can amount to more than 50 kg N ha<sup>−1</sup> yr<sup>−1</sup>. Differences between procedures in member states to assess nitrogen balances and water quality and a lack of cross-boundary policy evaluations are handicaps when benchmarking the effectiveness of the NiD. This provides a challenge for the European Commission and its member states, as the NiD remains an important piece of legislation for protecting drinking water quality in regions with many private or small public production facilities and controlling aquatic eutrophication from agricultural sources

Co-Simulation of Networked Embedded Control Systems, a CSP-like Process-oriented Approach

Complex control software problems can be solved by using structured design methods that take advantage of hardware abstraction and concurrency. In our lab, a toolchain has been developed that facilitates such a design method. This paper presents two extensions to this toolchain. The first, a distributed simulation framework, enables one to simulate a complete distributed control system, prior to the actual implementation. Focus has been on the influence the network communication exerts on the overall behavior of the system. The second extension, a new communication framework, allows for a smooth transition from simulation to a real control system, by hiding all low-level communication details from the control software. This separates the concerns of the control software from distribution and inter-node communication issues, creating freedom in process allocation

Simulated maximum likelihood estimation in joint models for multiple longitudinal markers and recurrent events of multiple types, in the presence of a terminal event

In medical studies we are often confronted with complex longitudinal data. During the follow-up period, which can be ended prematurely by a terminal event (e.g. death), a subject can experience recurrent events of multiple types. In addition, we collect repeated measurements from multiple markers. An adverse health status, represented by ‘bad’ marker values and an abnormal number of recurrent events, is often associated with the risk of experiencing the terminal event. In this situation, the missingness of the data is not at random and, to avoid bias, it is necessary to model all data simultaneously using a joint model. The correlations between the repeated observations of a marker or an event type within an individual are captured by normally distributed random effects. Because the joint likelihood contains an analytically intractable integral, Bayesian approaches or quadrature approximation techniques are necessary to evaluate the likelihood. However, when the number of recurrent event types and markers is large, the dimensionality of the integral is high and these methods are too computationally expensive. As an alternative, we propose a simulated maximum-likelihood approach based on quasi-Monte Carlo integration to evaluate the likelihood of joint models with multiple recurrent event types and markers

Measurement of the top quark-pair production cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=7\TeV

A measurement of the production cross-section for top quark pairs(\ttbar) in $pp$ collisions at \sqrt{s}=7 \TeV is presented using data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in two different topologies: single lepton (electron $e$ or muon $\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least four jets, and dilepton ($ee$, $\mu\mu$ or $e\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least two jets. In a data sample of 2.9 pb-1, 37 candidate events are observed in the single-lepton topology and 9 events in the dilepton topology. The corresponding expected backgrounds from non-\ttbar Standard Model processes are estimated using data-driven methods and determined to be $12.2 \pm 3.9$ events and $2.5 \pm 0.6$ events, respectively. The kinematic properties of the selected events are consistent with SM \ttbar production. The inclusive top quark pair production cross-section is measured to be \sigmattbar=145 \pm 31 ^{+42}_{-27} pb where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The measurement agrees with perturbative QCD calculations.Comment: 30 pages plus author list (50 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, CERN-PH number and final journal adde

Inclusive search for same-sign dilepton signatures in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

An inclusive search is presented for new physics in events with two isolated leptons (e or mu) having the same electric charge. The data are selected from events collected from p p collisions at root s = 7 TeV by the ATLAS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb(-1). The spectra in dilepton invariant mass, missing transverse momentum and jet multiplicity are presented and compared to Standard Model predictions. In this event sample, no evidence is found for contributions beyond those of the Standard Model. Limits are set on the cross-section in a fiducial region for new sources of same-sign high-mass dilepton events in the ee, e mu and mu mu channels. Four models predicting same-sign dilepton signals are constrained: two descriptions of Majorana neutrinos, a cascade topology similar to supersymmetry or universal extra dimensions, and fourth generation d-type quarks. Assuming a new physics scale of 1 TeV, Majorana neutrinos produced by an effective operator V with masses below 460 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level. A lower limit of 290 GeV is set at 95% confidence level on the mass of fourth generation d-type quarks

Measurement of the production of a W boson in association with a charm quark in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The production of a W boson in association with a single charm quark is studied using 4.6 fb−1 of pp collision data at s√ = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. In events in which a W boson decays to an electron or muon, the charm quark is tagged either by its semileptonic decay to a muon or by the presence of a charmed meson. The integrated and differential cross sections as a function of the pseudorapidity of the lepton from the W-boson decay are measured. Results are compared to the predictions of next-to-leading-order QCD calculations obtained from various parton distribution function parameterisations. The ratio of the strange-to-down sea-quark distributions is determined to be 0.96+0.26−0.30 at Q 2 = 1.9 GeV2, which supports the hypothesis of an SU(3)-symmetric composition of the light-quark sea. Additionally, the cross-section ratio σ(W + +c¯¯)/σ(W − + c) is compared to the predictions obtained using parton distribution function parameterisations with different assumptions about the s−s¯¯¯ quark asymmetry

Search for squarks and gluinos with the ATLAS detector in final states with jets and missing transverse momentum using √s=8 TeV proton-proton collision data

A search for squarks and gluinos in final states containing high-p T jets, missing transverse momentum and no electrons or muons is presented. The data were recorded in 2012 by the ATLAS experiment in s√=8 TeV proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, with a total integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb−1. Results are interpreted in a variety of simplified and specific supersymmetry-breaking models assuming that R-parity is conserved and that the lightest neutralino is the lightest supersymmetric particle. An exclusion limit at the 95% confidence level on the mass of the gluino is set at 1330 GeV for a simplified model incorporating only a gluino and the lightest neutralino. For a simplified model involving the strong production of first- and second-generation squarks, squark masses below 850 GeV (440 GeV) are excluded for a massless lightest neutralino, assuming mass degenerate (single light-flavour) squarks. In mSUGRA/CMSSM models with tan β = 30, A 0 = −2m 0 and μ > 0, squarks and gluinos of equal mass are excluded for masses below 1700 GeV. Additional limits are set for non-universal Higgs mass models with gaugino mediation and for simplified models involving the pair production of gluinos, each decaying to a top squark and a top quark, with the top squark decaying to a charm quark and a neutralino. These limits extend the region of supersymmetric parameter space excluded by previous searches with the ATLAS detector