69 research outputs found
Role of TNFα in pulmonary pathophysiology
Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) is the most widely studied pleiotropic cytokine of the TNF superfamily. In pathophysiological conditions, generation of TNFα at high levels leads to the development of inflammatory responses that are hallmarks of many diseases. Of the various pulmonary diseases, TNFα is implicated in asthma, chronic bronchitis (CB), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), acute lung injury (ALI) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). In addition to its underlying role in the inflammatory events, there is increasing evidence for involvement of TNFα in the cytotoxicity. Thus, pharmacological agents that can either suppress the production of TNFα or block its biological actions may have potential therapeutic value against a wide variety of diseases. Despite some immunological side effects, anti-TNFα therapeutic strategies represent an important breakthrough in the treatment of inflammatory diseases and may have a role in pulmonary diseases characterized by inflammation and cell death
Moral education at work: on the scope of MacIntyreâs concept of a practice
This paper seeks to show how MacIntyreâs concept of a practice can survive a series of âscope problemsâ which threaten to render the concept inapplicable to business ethics. I begin by outlining MacIntyreâs concept of a practice before arguing that, despite an asymmetry between productive and non-productive practices, the elasticity of the concept of a practice allows us to accommodate productive and profitable activities. This elasticity of practices allows us to sidestep the problem of adjudicating between practitioners and non-practitioners as well as the problem of generic activities. I conclude by suggesting that the contemporary tendency to regard work as an object of consumption, rather than undermining MacIntyreâs account of practices, serves to demonstrate the potential breadth of its applicability
Lawson criterion for ignition exceeded in an inertial fusion experiment
For more than half a century, researchers around the world have been engaged in attempts to achieve fusion ignition as a proof of principle of various fusion concepts. Following the Lawson criterion, an ignited plasma is one where the fusion heating power is high enough to overcome all the physical processes that cool the fusion plasma, creating a positive thermodynamic feedback loop with rapidly increasing temperature. In inertially confined fusion, ignition is a state where the fusion plasma can begin "burn propagation" into surrounding cold fuel, enabling the possibility of high energy gain. While "scientific breakeven" (i.e., unity target gain) has not yet been achieved (here target gain is 0.72, 1.37Â MJ of fusion for 1.92Â MJ of laser energy), this Letter reports the first controlled fusion experiment, using laser indirect drive, on the National Ignition Facility to produce capsule gain (here 5.8) and reach ignition by nine different formulations of the Lawson criterion
Atherosclerosis and Alzheimer - diseases with a common cause? Inflammation, oxysterols, vasculature
Identifiability of Structural Singular Vector Autoregressive Models
We generalize wellâknown results on structural identifiability of vector autoregressive (VAR) models to the case where the innovation covariance matrix has reduced rank. Singular structural VAR models appear, for example, as solutions of rational expectation models where the number of shocks is usually smaller than the number of endogenous variables, and as an essential building block in dynamic factor models. We show that order conditions for identifiability are misleading in the singular case and we provide a rank condition for identifiability of the noise parameters. Since the YuleâWalker (YW) equations may have multiple solutions, we analyse the effect of restricting system parameters on overâ and underidentification in detail and provide easily verifiable conditions.Peer reviewe
Enhancing Patient-Provider Breastfeeding Conversations: Breastfeeding Intention and Prenatal Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy among a Sample of Pregnant Women.
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