2,084 research outputs found
Early Interferon-γ Production in Human Lymphocyte Subsets in Response to Nontyphoidal Salmonella Demonstrates Inherent Capacity in Innate Cells
Background
Nontyphoidal Salmonellae frequently cause life-threatening bacteremia in sub-Saharan Africa. Young children and HIV-infected adults are particularly susceptible. High case-fatality rates and increasing antibiotic resistance require new approaches to the management of this disease. Impaired cellular immunity caused by defects in the T helper 1 pathway lead to intracellular disease with Salmonella that can be countered by IFNγ administration. This report identifies the lymphocyte subsets that produce IFNγ early in Salmonella infection.
Methodology
Intracellular cytokine staining was used to identify IFNγ production in blood lymphocyte subsets of ten healthy adults with antibodies to Salmonella (as evidence of immunity to Salmonella), in response to stimulation with live and heat-killed preparations of the D23580 invasive African isolate of Salmonella Typhimurium. The absolute number of IFNγ-producing cells in innate, innate-like and adaptive lymphocyte subpopulations was determined.
Principal Findings
Early IFNγ production was found in the innate/innate-like lymphocyte subsets: γδ-T cells, NK cells and NK-like T cells. Significantly higher percentages of such cells produced IFNγ compared to adaptive αβ-T cells (Student's t test, P<0.001 and ≤0.02 for each innate subset compared, respectively, with CD4+- and CD8+-T cells). The absolute numbers of IFNγ-producing cells showed similar differences. The proportion of IFNγ-producing γδ-T cells, but not other lymphocytes, was significantly higher when stimulated with live compared with heat-killed bacteria (P<0.0001).
Conclusion/Significance
Our findings indicate an inherent capacity of innate/innate-like lymphocyte subsets to produce IFNγ early in the response to Salmonella infection. This may serve to control intracellular infection and reduce the threat of extracellular spread of disease with bacteremia which becomes life-threatening in the absence of protective antibody. These innate cells may also help mitigate against the effect on IFNγ production of depletion of Salmonella-specific CD4+-T lymphocytes in HIV infection
Heat-kernel expansion on non compact domains and a generalised zeta-function regularisation procedure
Heat-kernel expansion and zeta function regularisation are discussed for
Laplace type operators with discrete spectrum in non compact domains. Since a
general theory is lacking, the heat-kernel expansion is investigated by means
of several examples. It is pointed out that for a class of exponential
(analytic) interactions, generically the non-compactness of the domain gives
rise to logarithmic terms in the heat-kernel expansion. Then, a meromorphic
continuation of the associated zeta function is investigated. A simple model is
considered, for which the analytic continuation of the zeta function is not
regular at the origin, displaying a pole of higher order. For a physically
meaningful evaluation of the related functional determinant, a generalised zeta
function regularisation procedure is proposed.Comment: Latex, 14 pages, no figures. The version to be published in JM
Vanishing Viscosity Limits and Boundary Layers for Circularly Symmetric 2D Flows
We continue the work of Lopes Filho, Mazzucato and Nussenzveig Lopes [LMN],
on the vanishing viscosity limit of circularly symmetric viscous flow in a disk
with rotating boundary, shown there to converge to the inviscid limit in
-norm as long as the prescribed angular velocity of the
boundary has bounded total variation. Here we establish convergence in stronger
and -Sobolev spaces, allow for more singular angular velocities
, and address the issue of analyzing the behavior of the boundary
layer. This includes an analysis of concentration of vorticity in the vanishing
viscosity limit. We also consider such flows on an annulus, whose two boundary
components rotate independently.
[LMN] Lopes Filho, M. C., Mazzucato, A. L. and Nussenzveig Lopes, H. J.,
Vanishing viscosity limit for incompressible flow inside a rotating circle,
preprint 2006
Pole structure of the Hamiltonian -function for a singular potential
We study the pole structure of the -function associated to the
Hamiltonian of a quantum mechanical particle living in the half-line
, subject to the singular potential . We show that
admits nontrivial self-adjoint extensions (SAE) in a given range of values
of the parameter . The -functions of these operators present poles
which depend on and, in general, do not coincide with half an integer (they
can even be irrational). The corresponding residues depend on the SAE
considered.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, RevTeX. References added. Version to appear in
Jour. Phys. A: Math. Ge
Strong ellipticity and spectral properties of chiral bag boundary conditions
We prove strong ellipticity of chiral bag boundary conditions on even
dimensional manifolds. From a knowledge of the heat kernel in an infinite
cylinder, some basic properties of the zeta function are analyzed on
cylindrical product manifolds of arbitrary even dimension.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX, References adde
Abelian Duality
We show that on three-dimensional Riemannian manifolds without boundaries and
with trivial first real de Rham cohomology group (and in no other dimensions)
scalar field theory and Maxwell theory are equivalent: the ratio of the
partition functions is given by the Ray-Singer torsion of the manifold. On the
level of interaction with external currents, the equivalence persists provided
there is a fixed relation between the charges and the currents.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX, no figures, a reference added, submitted to Phys.
Rev.
Entropy, Dynamics and Instantaneous Normal Modes in a Random Energy Model
It is shown that the fraction f of imaginary frequency instantaneous normal
modes (INM) may be defined and calculated in a random energy model(REM) of
liquids. The configurational entropy S and the averaged hopping rate among the
states R are also obtained and related to f, with the results R~f and
S=a+b*ln(f). The proportionality between R and f is the basis of existing INM
theories of diffusion, so the REM further confirms their validity. A link to S
opens new avenues for introducing INM into dynamical theories. Liquid 'states'
are usually defined by assigning a configuration to the minimum to which it
will drain, but the REM naturally treats saddle-barriers on the same footing as
minima, which may be a better mapping of the continuum of configurations to
discrete states. Requirements of a detailed REM description of liquids are
discussed
Why do house-hunting ants recruit in both directions?
To perform tasks, organisms often use multiple procedures. Explaining the breadth of such behavioural repertoires is not always straightforward. During house hunting, colonies of Temnothorax albipennis ants use a range of behaviours to organise their emigrations. In particular, the ants use tandem running to recruit naïve ants to potential nest sites. Initially, they use forward tandem runs (FTRs) in which one leader takes a single follower along the route from the old nest to the new one. Later, they use reverse tandem runs (RTRs) in the opposite direction. Tandem runs are used to teach active ants the route between the nests, so that they can be involved quickly in nest evaluation and subsequent recruitment. When a quorum of decision-makers at the new nest is reached, they switch to carrying nestmates. This is three times faster than tandem running. As a rule, having more FTRs early should thus mean faster emigrations, thereby reducing the colony’s vulnerability. So why do ants use RTRs, which are both slow and late? It would seem quicker and simpler for the ants to use more FTRs (and higher quorums) to have enough knowledgeable ants to do all the carrying. In this study, we present the first testable theoretical explanation for the role of RTRs. We set out to find the theoretically fastest emigration strategy for a set of emigration conditions. We conclude that RTRs can have a positive effect on emigration speed if FTRs are limited. In these cases, low quorums together with lots of reverse tandem running give the fastest emigration
Asymptotics of the Heat Kernel on Rank 1 Locally Symmetric Spaces
We consider the heat kernel (and the zeta function) associated with Laplace
type operators acting on a general irreducible rank 1 locally symmetric space
X. The set of Minakshisundaram- Pleijel coefficients {A_k(X)}_{k=0}^{\infty} in
the short-time asymptotic expansion of the heat kernel is calculated
explicitly.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX fil
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