Interleukin-7 deficiency in rheumatoid arthritis: consequences for therapy-induced lymphopenia

We previously demonstrated prolonged, profound CD4+ T-lymphopenia in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients following lymphocyte-depleting therapy. Poor reconstitution could result either from reduced de novo T-cell production through the thymus or from poor peripheral expansion of residual T-cells. Interleukin-7 (IL-7) is known to stimulate the thymus to produce new T-cells and to allow circulating mature T-cells to expand, thereby playing a critical role in T-cell homeostasis. In the present study we demonstrated reduced levels of circulating IL-7 in a cross-section of RA patients. IL-7 production by bone marrow stromal cell cultures was also compromised in RA. To investigate whether such an IL-7 deficiency could account for the prolonged lymphopenia observed in RA following therapeutic lymphodepletion, we compared RA patients and patients with solid cancers treated with high-dose chemotherapy and autologous progenitor cell rescue. Chemotherapy rendered all patients similarly lymphopenic, but this was sustained in RA patients at 12 months, as compared with the reconstitution that occurred in cancer patients by 3–4 months. Both cohorts produced naïve T-cells containing T-cell receptor excision circles. The main distinguishing feature between the groups was a failure to expand peripheral T-cells in RA, particularly memory cells during the first 3 months after treatment. Most importantly, there was no increase in serum IL-7 levels in RA, as compared with a fourfold rise in non-RA control individuals at the time of lymphopenia. Our data therefore suggest that RA patients are relatively IL-7 deficient and that this deficiency is likely to be an important contributing factor to poor early T-cell reconstitution in RA following therapeutic lymphodepletion. Furthermore, in RA patients with stable, well controlled disease, IL-7 levels were positively correlated with the T-cell receptor excision circle content of CD4+ T-cells, demonstrating a direct effect of IL-7 on thymic activity in this cohort

Successful Strategies for Promoting Self-Advocacy Among Students with LD: The LEAD Group

Students with learning disabilities (LD) often need to be taught self-determination skills to be better prepared for life after high school. This article describes the methods used by one school district to promote self-advocacy and self-awareness skills for students with LD. Through multicomponent group activities, students learned about their strengths and disabilities and how to advocate for their educational needs and rights. Advocacy skills were also applied to leadership roles, mentoring, and community education activities. Important features that contributed to the success of the program are described.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Hard Scattering Factorization from Effective Field Theory

In this paper we show how gauge symmetries in an effective theory can be used to simplify proofs of factorization formulae in highly energetic hadronic processes. We use the soft-collinear effective theory, generalized to deal with back-to-back jets of collinear particles. Our proofs do not depend on the choice of a particular gauge, and the formalism is applicable to both exclusive and inclusive factorization. As examples we treat the pi-gamma form factor (gamma gamma* -> pi^0), light meson form factors (gamma* M -> M), as well as deep inelastic scattering (e- p -> e- X), Drell-Yan (p pbar -> X l+ l-), and deeply virtual Compton scattering (gamma* p -> gamma(*) p).Comment: 35 pages, 4 figures, typos corrected, journal versio

“Drinkers like me” : a thematic analysis of comments responding to an online article about moderating alcohol consumption

Background: There has been media coverage surrounding the dangers of heavy drinking and benefits of moderation, with TV and radio presenter, Adrian Chiles, documenting his experience of moderating alcohol consumption in an online article for the Guardian. By analysing the comments in response to Chiles’ article, this study aimed to explore (i) posters’ (someone who has posted a comment in response to the article) attitudes or beliefs toward moderating alcohol and (ii) posters’ experiences of moderating or abstaining from alcohol. Method: A secondary qualitative analysis of online comments in response to an article about moderating alcohol consumption. Main outcome measures: Comments (n = 784) in response to a United Kingdom online news article about moderating alcohol consumption were extracted and inductive thematic analysis was used. Results: For aim one, two themes were developed; “general attitudes toward drinking” and “general attitudes toward reducing consumption”. These themes reflect negative perceptions of alcohol and issues around changing attitudes. For aim two, three themes were developed: “moderation vs. abstention”, “reflection on past drinking behaviours”, and “current drinking behaviours”. These themes represent posters’ experiences and implications changing their drinking habits. Conclusion: Our analysis provides a novel insight into perceptions and experiences of moderating or abstaining from alcohol. Alcohol is embedded within United Kingdom culture, creating difficulties for those who choose to moderate or abstain from alcohol. Our analysis highlights the need for public health to focus on shifting the current drinking culture, through clearer drinking guidelines and a wider availability of alcohol-free alternatives

Interference-induced gain in Autler-Townes doublet of a V-type atom in a cavity

We study the Autler-Townes spectrum of a V-type atom coupled to a single-mode, frequency-tunable cavity field at finite termperature, with a pre-selected polarization in the bad cavity limit, and show that, when the mean number of thermal photons $N\gg 1$ and the excited sublevel splitting is very large (the same order as the cavity linewidth), the probe gain may occur at either sideband of the doublet, depending on the cavity frequency, due to the cavity-induced interference.Comment: Minor changes are mad

Cavity implementation of quantum interference in a Λ\Lambda-type atom

A scheme for engineering quantum interference in a $\Lambda$-type atom coupled to a frequency-tunable, single-mode cavity field with a pre-selected polarization at finite temperature is proposed. Interference-assisted population trapping, population inversions and probe gain at one sideband of the Autler-Townes spectrum are predicted for certain cavity resonant frequencies.Comment: 2 postscript figures are adde

Nucleation of a sodium droplet on C60

We investigate theoretically the progressive coating of C60 by several sodium atoms. Density functional calculations using a nonlocal functional are performed for NaC60 and Na2C60 in various configurations. These data are used to construct an empirical atomistic model in order to treat larger sizes in a statistical and dynamical context. Fluctuating charges are incorporated to account for charge transfer between sodium and carbon atoms. By performing systematic global optimization in the size range 1<=n<=30, we find that Na_nC60 is homogeneously coated at small sizes, and that a growing droplet is formed above n=>8. The separate effects of single ionization and thermalization are also considered, as well as the changes due to a strong external electric field. The present results are discussed in the light of various experimental data.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figure

Machine Learning in Automated Text Categorization

The automated categorization (or classification) of texts into predefined categories has witnessed a booming interest in the last ten years, due to the increased availability of documents in digital form and the ensuing need to organize them. In the research community the dominant approach to this problem is based on machine learning techniques: a general inductive process automatically builds a classifier by learning, from a set of preclassified documents, the characteristics of the categories. The advantages of this approach over the knowledge engineering approach (consisting in the manual definition of a classifier by domain experts) are a very good effectiveness, considerable savings in terms of expert manpower, and straightforward portability to different domains. This survey discusses the main approaches to text categorization that fall within the machine learning paradigm. We will discuss in detail issues pertaining to three different problems, namely document representation, classifier construction, and classifier evaluation.Comment: Accepted for publication on ACM Computing Survey

Current status of turbulent dynamo theory: From large-scale to small-scale dynamos

Several recent advances in turbulent dynamo theory are reviewed. High resolution simulations of small-scale and large-scale dynamo action in periodic domains are compared with each other and contrasted with similar results at low magnetic Prandtl numbers. It is argued that all the different cases show similarities at intermediate length scales. On the other hand, in the presence of helicity of the turbulence, power develops on large scales, which is not present in non-helical small-scale turbulent dynamos. At small length scales, differences occur in connection with the dissipation cutoff scales associated with the respective value of the magnetic Prandtl number. These differences are found to be independent of whether or not there is large-scale dynamo action. However, large-scale dynamos in homogeneous systems are shown to suffer from resistive slow-down even at intermediate length scales. The results from simulations are connected to mean field theory and its applications. Recent work on helicity fluxes to alleviate large-scale dynamo quenching, shear dynamos, nonlocal effects and magnetic structures from strong density stratification are highlighted. Several insights which arise from analytic considerations of small-scale dynamos are discussed.Comment: 36 pages, 11 figures, Spa. Sci. Rev., submitted to the special issue "Magnetism in the Universe" (ed. A. Balogh

Contribution of machining to the fatigue behaviour of metal matrix composites (MMCs) of varying reinforcement size

The high cycle constant stress amplitude fatigue performance of metal matrix composite (MMC) components machined by a milling process was investigated in this study as a function of machining speed, feed rate and reinforcement particle size. The presence of reinforcement and particle size were found to be the most influential factors that affected the fatigue life. In contrast to this, the effect of feed and speed on tool-particle interaction, strain hardening and heat generation during milling of MMCs were balanced in such a way that the contributions of feed and speed on fatigue life were negligible. The interactions of different parameters contributed significantly to the fatigue life which indicated that the modelling of fatigue life based on these three parameters was relatively complex. The fatigue life of the machined MMC samples increased with decreasing particle size and increasing feed. However, the fatigue life was not influenced by speed variation. The presence of smaller or no particles induced a complete separation of failed samples, in contrast to that of specimens containing larger reinforcing particles where crack growth was arrested or deflected by the reinforcing particles