Medium power 352 MHz solid state pulsed RF amplifiers for the CERN linac4 project

International audience

Graft repair during machine perfusion:a current overview of strategies

The possibility to repair injured donor livers during ex situ machine perfusion might increase the utilization of ECD-livers. Application of defatting agents is currently explored in clinical trials, whereas other therapeutics require further research or optimization before entering clinical research.</p

The property of k-colourable graphs is uniquely decomposable

An additive hereditary graph property is a class of simple graphs which is closed under unions, subgraphs and isomorphisms. If P1; : : : ;Pn are graph properties, then a (P1; : : : ;Pn)-decomposition of a graph G is a partition E1; : : : ;En of E(G) such that G[Ei], the subgraph of G induced by Ei, is in Pi, for i = 1; : : : ; n. The sum of the properties P1; : : : ;Pn is the property P1 Pn = fG 2 I : G has a (P1; : : : ;Pn)-decompositiong. A property P is said to be decomposable if there exist non-trivial additive hereditary properties P1 and P2 such that P = P1 P2. A property is uniquely decomposable if, apart from the order of the factors, it can be written as a sum of indecomposable properties in only one way. We show that not all properties are uniquely decomposable; however, the property of k-colourable graphs Ok is a uniquely decomposable property. Keywords: graph property, decomposable propertyhttp://www.elsevier.com/locate/dischb201

Quantification of the Potential Impact of Cost-effectiveness Thresholds on Dutch Drug Expenditures Using Retrospective Analysis

AbstractBackgroundOther than the UK, The Netherlands has no formal threshold for cost-per-QALY values defined yet. For example, a cutoff value at €20,000 per QALY is sometimes mentioned in various discussions, however it has no formal status at all. Yet, since 2005, all new innovative do have to go through a cost-effectiveness evaluation though, with the assessment being focused on the methodology rather than on the exact cost-per-QALY outcome.ObjectiveOur objective was to estimate the potential impacts on Dutch drug expenditures had a formal threshold been applied in recent years.MethodsWe analyzed national Dutch prescription data for the period 2005–2007, with respect to the costs of specific newly introduced drugs with reported positive cost-effectiveness ratios. Various threshold values were investigated.ResultsIn particular, our analysis suggests that modest, though annually increasing, reductions in Dutch drug expenditures could have been achieved in the recent period 2005–2007 if a threshold for cost-effectiveness at, for example, €20,000 per QALY been applied in The Netherlands. At thresholds of €0 and €20,000 estimated reductions in drug expenditures reflect approximately 0.25% of total Dutch drug expenditures and for thresholds of €50,000 and €80,000 this is only 0.01%.ConclusionsModest reductions in drug expenditures can be achieved if a formal threshold would be applied in The Netherlands. Potential reductions may be expected to increase in next years as expenditures for listed drugs increase further and new drugs become listed. Finally, we argue that for optimal and fair allocation of resources the in the health-care sector, application of a straightforward threshold is eminent and should not be postponed anymore

The anti-inflammatory mechanisms of Hsp70

Immune responses to heat shock proteins (Hsp) develop in virtually all inflammatory diseases; however, the significance of such responses is only now becoming clear. In experimental disease models, Hsp administration can prevent or arrest inflammatory damage, and in initial clinical trials in patients with chronic inflammatory diseases, Hsp peptides have been shown to promote the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines, indicating immunoregulatory potential of Hsp. Therefore, the presence of immune responses to Hsp in inflammatory diseases can be seen as an attempt of the immune system to correct the inflammatory condition. Hsp70 can modulate inflammatory responses in models of arthritis, colitis and graft rejection, and the mechanisms underlying this effect are now being elucidated. Incubation with microbial Hsp70 was seen to induce tolerogenic dendritic cells (DCs) and to promote a suppressive phenotype in myeloid-derived suppressor cells and monocytes. These DC could induce regulatory T cells (Tregs), independently of the antigens they presented. Some Hsp70 family members are associated with autophagy, leading to a preferential uploading of Hsp70 peptides in MHC class II molecules of stressed cells. Henceforth, conserved Hsp70 peptides may be presented in these situations and constitute targets of Tregs, contributing to downregulation of inflammation. Finally, an interfering effect in multiple intracellular inflammatory signaling pathways is also known for Hsp70. Altogether it seems attractive to use Hsp70, or its derivative peptides, for modulation of inflammation. This is a physiological immunotherapy approach, without the immediate necessity of defining disease-specific auto-antigens. In this article, we present the evidence on anti-inflammatory effects of Hsp70 and discuss the need for experiments that will be crucial for the further exploration of the immunosuppressive potential of this protein

Особенности немецкого языка переселенцев из бывшего СССР в Германии

Previous studies have suggested that murine peritoneal cavity-derived B-1a cells possess similarities with described regulatory B cell subsets. The aim of the current study was to examine the potential immunoregulatory function of peritoneal cavity-derived B(-1a) cells. In vitro activation of peritoneal cavity-derived B- and B-1a cells shows that activation of these B cells with anti-CD40 and LPS induces these cells to secrete more IL-10, IL-6 and IgM as compared to splenic B cells. In a suppression assay, CD40/TLR4-activated peritoneal cavity B cells possess regulatory B cell functions as they inhibit the capacity of CD4(+) T cells to produce both tumor necrosis factor-α and interferon-γ. Splenic B cells did not show this, whereas non-activated peritoneal cavity B cells augmented the capacity of CD4(+) T cells to produce tumor necrosis factor-α, while the ability to produce interferon-γ was not altered. The current paper compares splenic B cells to peritoneal cavity B(-1a) cells in an in vitro activation- and an suppression-assay and concludes that peritoneal cavity B(-1a) cells possess properties that appear similar to splenic autoimmune-suppressive regulatory B cell subsets described in the literature

Asymmetric games on networks: Towards an Ising-model representation

We here study the Battle of the Sexes game, a textbook case of asymmetric games, on small networks. Due to the conflicting preferences of the players, analytical approaches are scarce and most often update strategies are employed in numerical simulations of repeated games on networks until convergence is reached. As a result, correlations between the choices of the players emerge. Our approach is to study these correlations with a generalized Ising model. First, we show that these correlations emerge in simulations and can have an Ising-like form. Then, using the response strategy framework, we describe how the actions of the players can bring the network into a steady configuration, starting from an out-of-equilibrium one. We obtain these configurations using game-theoretic tools, and describe the results using Ising parameters. We exhaust the two-player case, giving a detailed account of all the equilibrium possibilities. Going to three players, we generalize the Ising model and compare the equilibrium solutions of three representative types of networks. We find that players that are not directly linked retain a degree of correlation that is proportional to their initial correlation. We also find that the local network structure is the most relevant for small values of the magnetic field and the interaction strength of the Ising model. Finally, we conclude that certain parameters of the equilibrium states are network independent, which opens up the possibility of an analytical description of asymmetric games played on networks. (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V