71 research outputs found
Electrical cardioversion during pregnancy: safe or not?
Two pregnant patients with a sustained symptomatic maternal supraventricular arrhythmia are presented. Both patients were treated with direct-current cardioversion. Electrical cardioversion during pregnancy is a rarely applied but highly effective procedure in the treatment of maternal cardiac arrhythmias and is assumed safe for both mother and child. However, once foetal viability is reached, monitoring of the foetal heart rate is advised and facilities for immediate caesarean section should be available
1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 modulates the phenotype and function of Monocyte derived dendritic cells in cattle
Abstract Background The active form of the vitamin D3, 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25-(OH)2D3) has been shown to have major effects not only on physiological processes but also on the regulation of the immune system of vertebrates. Dendritic cells are specialised antigen presenting cells which are in charge of the initiation of T-cell dependant immune responses and as such are key regulators of responses towards pathogens. In this study we set out to evaluate the effects of 1,25-(OH)2D3 on the phenotype of cattle monocyte-derived dendritic cells (MoDCs) and how the conditioning with this vitamin affects the function of these myeloid cells. Results MoDCs were generated from CD14+ monocytes with bovine IL-4 and GM-CSF with or without 1,25-(OH)2D3 supplementation for 10Â days. Vitamin D conditioned MoDCs showed a reduced expression of co-stimulatory and antigen presenting molecules, as well as a reduced capability of endocytose ovalbumin. Furthermore, the capacity of MoDCs to induce proliferation in an allogeneic mixed leukocyte reaction was abolished when MoDCs were generated in presence of 1,25-(OH)2D3. LPS induced maturation of 1,25-(OH)2D3conditioned MoDCs resulted in lower secretion of IL-12 and higher IL-10 than that observed in MoDCs. Conclusions The typical immunotolerant phenotype observed in cattle DCs after exposure to 1,25-(OH)2D3 has a significant effect on the functionality of these immune cells, inhibiting the T-cell stimulatory capacity of MoDCs. This could have profound implications on how the bovine immune system deals with pathogens, particularly in diseases such as tuberculosis or paratuberculosis
Development and validation of a search filter to identify equity-focused studies: reducing the number needed to screen
Search strategies and validation set papers. Contains validated search strategies, the number of records retrieved, and the MEDLINE validation set of papers. (PDF 722 kb
Long-term follow-up in primary Sjögren’s syndrome reveals differences in clinical presentation between female and male patients
Stability of the homopentameric b subunits of shiga toxins 1 and 2 in solution and the gas phase as revealed by nanoelectrospray fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry
Fabrication and characterization of suspended oxidised silicon nanowire channels for near zero leakage logic switches
Transfer-last suspended graphene fabrication on gold, graphite and silicon nanostructures
While most graphene devices fabricated so far have been by transferring graphene onto flat substrates first, an interesting approach would be to transfer graphene onto patterned substrates to suspend graphene for future graphene nanoelectromechanical device applications. This novel "transfer-last" fabrication is beneficial for reducing possible damage of the suspended graphene caused by subsequent undercutting processes and typical substrate interactions. On the other hand, reduction of contact resistance between graphene and various electrodes, and possible integration with silicon technology are the issues to be investigated. This work focuses on developing the technique to transfer graphene on patterned nanostructures made of gold, nanocrystalline graphite (NCG) and silicon
Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for suspended graphene integrated with silicon nanowire array
Local chemical and mechanical properties of suspended graphene structure integrated with an array of slicon nanowires (SiNW) are investigated by employing Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (TERS). Clear difference in the shift of the major graphene peak positions is observed between Raman spectra without the tip and TERS spectra across the graphene located on the edge of the SiNW underneath. Localised defects that might be induced by the graphene transfer on the array are identified with the spatial resolution of approximately 100nm by the analysis of the peak intensity ratio. The results suggest that TERS is a promising technology for further improvement of graphene-based nanoelectromechanical device fabrication processes
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