40 research outputs found
Constitutional Law - Separation of Powers: The North Dakota Supreme Court Invalidates a Discovery Statute That Conflicted with a Rule of Procedure
On the Background Field Method Beyond One Loop: A manifestly covariant derivative expansion in super Yang-Mills theories
There are currently many string inspired conjectures about the structure of
the low-energy effective action for super Yang-Mills theories which require
explicit multi-loop calculations. In this paper, we develop a manifestly
covariant derivative expansion of superspace heat kernels and present a scheme
to evaluate multi-loop contributions to the effective action in the framework
of the background field method. The crucial ingredient of the construction is a
detailed analysis of the properties of the parallel displacement propagators
associated with Yang-Mills supermultiples in N-extended superspace.Comment: 32 pages, latex, 7 EPS figures. v2: references, comments added, typos
corrected, incorrect `skeleton' conjecture in sect. 3 replaced by a more
careful treatment. v3: typos corrected, final version published in JHE
Natalizumab treatment for multiple sclerosis: updates and considerations for safer treatment in JCV positive patients
Gold nanoparticles as assisted matrices for the detection of biomolecules in a high-salt solution through laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry
Electronic Structure of cubic GaN with Self-Energy Corrections
Abstract: We present the results of a calculation for the bulk electronic structure of gallium nitride in the zincblende phase. We determine the equilibrium lattice constant, the cohesive energy and the bulk modulus in the Density Functional approach within the Local Density Approximation (DFT-LDA). The one-particle eigenvalues of the DFT Kohn-Sham equation do in principle not agree with the experimental band structure. Therefore, we calculate the quasi-particle energies by including self-energy corrections to the DFT-LDA exchange correlation potential, with the GW approximation for the electron self-energy. We use norm-conserving pseudopotentials and a large plane-wave basis set (100 Ry cut-off) for a converged calculation in the DFT-LDA. The LDA band gap turns out to be very sensitive to the crystal volume. We find that GW corrections to the LDA band gap are significant. A detailed comparison with other DFT-LDA results and approximate GW calculations and with existing experimental data is given
The effects of natalizumab on inflammatory mediators in multiple sclerosis: prospects for treatment-sensitive biomarkers
Osteopontin in cerebrospinal fluid as diagnostic biomarker for central nervous system lymphoma
Central nervous system lymphoma (CNSL) is diagnostically challenging. The identification of reliable and easy to measure biomarkers is desirable to facilitate diagnosis. Here, we evaluated the value of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) osteopontin (OPN) as a diagnostic biomarker for CNSL. OPN concentrations in CSF from 37 patients with CNSL (29 with primary CNSL and 8 with secondary CNS involvement of systemic lymphoma) and 36 controls [6 patients with inflammatory CNS disease other than multiple sclerosis (MS), 8 with MS, 9 with glioblastoma (GBM) and 13 healthy controls] were determined using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Non-parametric tests and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were performed for determination of diagnostic accuracy. Median CSF OPN level in all CNSL patients was 620 ng/mL and higher than in patients with inflammatory CNS disease (356 ng/mL); P < .05, MS (163 ng/mL); P < .01, GBM (41 ng/mL); P < .01, or healthy controls (319 ng/mL); P < .01. The area under the ROC curve was 0.865 [95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.745-0.985] for differentiating CNSL and patients with inflammatory CNS disease; 0.956 (95 % CI 0.898-1.000) for CNSL and MS patients; 0.988 (95 % CI 0.964-1.000) for CNSL and GBM patients, and 0.915 (95 % CI 0.834-0.996) for CNSL patients and healthy controls. In multivariate analysis, high CSF OPN level was associated with shorter progression-free (HR 1.61, 95 % CI 1.13-2.31; P = .009) and overall survival (HR 1.52, 95 % CI 1.04-2.21; P = .029). CSF OPN is a potential biomarker in CNSL
Natalizumab reduces serum pro-angiogenic activity in MS patients
Angiogenesis has been implicated in the pathobiology of multiple sclerosis (MS). Osteopontin exerts a pro-angiogenetic effect and is increased in body fluid of MS patients. To evaluate the effect of 1 year natalizumab treatment on serum pro-angiogenic activity and on plasma osteopontin levels in relapsing (RR) MS patients. Ten RRMS patients scheduled for natalizumab treatment were enrolled and evaluated at baseline and after 1-year natalizumab treatment. Pro-angiogenic activity was assessed by a chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane assay (CAM), osteopontin levels were evaluated by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Plasma and serum samples of 10 treatment-naïve RRMS and 10 healthy controls (HCs) were used as controls of baseline evaluations. Both treatment-naïve and natalizumab scheduled RRMS patients had higher baseline vessel density (22.0 ± 3.9 and 22.5 ± 2.6, p < 0.0001) and higher osteopontin levels (65.7 ± 24.3 ng/ml and 65.9 ± 16.6 ng/ml, p = 0.019 and p = 0.029, respectively) than HCs (9.0 ± 2.2; 48.5 ± 7.8 ng/ml, respectively). Baseline osteopontin levels and vessel density were significantly correlated (rs = 0.373, p = 0.043). After 1 year of treatment, the number of vessels and the osteopontin levels, were significantly reduced (11.9 ± 2.1, p < 0.005; 49.3 ± 20.0 ng/ml, p = 0.028). Our results suggest that natalizumab could exert its anti-inflammatory properties also by inhibiting the angiogenetic mechanisms in RRMS patients