Spreading of waves in nonlinear disordered media

We analyze mechanisms and regimes of wave packet spreading in nonlinear disordered media. We predict that wave packets can spread in two regimes of strong and weak chaos. We discuss resonance probabilities, nonlinear diffusion equations, and predict a dynamical crossover from strong to weak chaos. The crossover is controlled by the ratio of nonlinear frequency shifts and the average eigenvalue spacing of eigenstates of the linear equations within one localization volume. We consider generalized models in higher lattice dimensions and obtain critical values for the nonlinearity power, the dimension, and norm density, which influence possible dynamical outcomes in a qualitative way.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0901.441

Targeting gp100 and TRP-2 with a DNA vaccine: incorporating T cell epitopes with a human IgG1 antibody induces potent T cell responses that are associated with favourable clinical outcome in a phase I/II trial

A DNA vaccine, SCIB1, incorporating two CD8 and two CD4 epitopes from TRP-2/gp100 was evaluated in patients with metastatic melanoma. Each patient received SCIB1 via intramuscular injection with electroporation. The trial was designed to find the safest dose of SCIB1 which induced immune/clinical responses in patients with or without tumour. Fifteen patients with tumor received SCIB1 doses of 0.4-8 mg whilst 20 fully-resected patients received 2-8 mg doses. Twelve patients elected to continue immunization every 3 months for up to 39 months. SCIB1 induced dose-dependent T cell responses in 88% of patients with no serious adverse effects or dose limiting toxicities. The intensity of the T cell responses was significantly higher in patients receiving 4 mg doses without tumor when compared to those with tumor (p< 0.01). In contrast, patients with tumor showed a significantly higher response to the 8 mg dose than the 4 mg dose (p< 0.03) but there was no significant difference in the patients without tumor. One of 15 patients with measurable disease showed an objective tumor response and 7/15 showed stable disease. 5/20 fully-resected patients have experienced disease recurrence but all remained alive at the cut-off date with a median observation time of 37 months. A positive clinical outcome was associated with MHC-I and MHC-II expression on tumors prior to therapy (p=0.027). We conclude that SCIB1 is well tolerated and stimulates potent T cell responses in melanoma patients. It deserves further evaluation as a single agent adjuvant therapy or in combination with checkpoint inhibitors in advanced disease

A clinical trial of a DNA vaccine (SCIB1) that targets dendritic cells in vivo in fully resected melanoma patients; a vaccine to prevent disease recurrence?

Background: SCIB1 is a DNA vaccine encoding a human IgG1 antibody with CDRs that contain four epitopes from two melanoma antigens (three from gp100 and one from TRP2). The vaccine elicits potent anti-tumour responses by stimulating high frequency, high avidity T-cells via both direct and cross-presentation of antibody. A clinical study in stage III/IV melanoma patients, all with tumour present at study entry, showed that 2-8mg doses could induce T-cell responses in 7/9 patients with no associated toxicity. Encouragingly overall survival was 31 months. This study addresses the question as to whether SCIB1 can be used as an adjuvant therapy in fully resected melanoma patients to prevent further disease. Methods: Sixteen patients with fully resected stage III (n=9) or stage IV (n=7) melanoma were immunised with 4mg of SCIB1 by intramuscular electroporation at 3 weekly intervals and subsequently at 3 and 6 months. Patients could continue treatment for 5 years. Results: All 16 patients showed vaccine-epitope-specific T-cell responses (i.e. proliferation ex vivo and/or γIFN Elispot responses in-vitro). Twelve patients responded to all four epitopes, two patients to three epitopes, one to two epitopes and one to a single epitope. Five patients remain in the continuation phase - all show strong T-cell memory responses following boosting. At present, median survival time is 37 months from trial entry and 41.5 months from diagnosis of metastases. Overall survival is 100% for both groups. Five patients relapsed at 1, 4, 14, 17 and 18 months but have shown no further recurrences at follow-up. Conclusion: These results show that a DNA vaccine encoding epitopes from melanoma antigens can induce measurable T-cell responses and, furthermore, it may confer protection from recurrence of melanoma with little associated toxicity. SCIB1 deserves further evaluation as an adjuvant therapy

Quantitative importance of staminodes for female reproductive success in Parnassia palustris under contrasting environmental conditions.

The five sterile stamens, or staminodes, in Parnassia palustris act both as false and as true nectaries. They attract pollinators with their conspicuous, but non-rewarding tips, and also produce nectar at the base. We removed staminodes experimentally and compared pollinator visitation rate and duration and seed set in flowers with and without staminodes in two different populations. We also examined the relative importance of the staminode size to other plant traits. Finally, we bagged, emasculated, and supplementary cross-pollinated flowers to determine the pollination strategy and whether reproduction was limited by pollen availability. Flowers in both populations were highly dependent on pollinator visitation for maximum seed set. In one population pollinators primarily cross-pollinated flowers, whereas in the other the pollinators facilitated self-pollination. The staminodes caused increased pollinator visitation rate and duration to flowers in both populations. The staminodes increased female reproductive success, but only when pollen availability constrained female reproduction. Simple linear regression indicated a strong selection on staminode size, multiple regression suggested that selection on staminode size was mainly caused by correlation with other traits that affected female fitness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR

Quality appraisal at Scottish and international museums and heritage attractions : a basis in consumer experience

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

'Stop! a Buddhist is here': Bodhisattva masculinity on Death Row in Jarvis Masters' Finding freedom

article published in Journal of Global Buddhism; Vol 6 (2005

Condemned men : representations of masculinity, ethnicity, and identity in contemporary American prison writing

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo