576 research outputs found
Dic(9;20)(p13;q11) in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is related to low cellular resistance to asparaginase, cytarabine and corticosteroids.
To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links fieldDic(9;20)(p13;q11) was first described as a nonrandom chromosome abnormality in B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (BCP ALL) in the mid 1990s,1, 2 and 71 dic(9;20)-positive cases have since then been reported.3, 4, 5 Approximately 90% of these cases were children or adolescents, with dic(9;20) occurring in about 2% of childhood BCP ALL.6 The recent review by Forestier et al.5 describes that dic(9;20)-leukaemias are of B-cell precursor immunophenotype, never have a high hyperdiploid modal number, show a female predominance, and have a significant age incidence peak at 3 years. Most patients are allocated to non-standard risk treatment arms due to high WBC (median 24 109/l) and a relatively high frequency of CNS disease or other extra-medullary leukaemia (EML) at diagnosis. The prognostic implications of dic(9;20) are to a large extent unknown. A relatively large proportion of the relapses reported in the literature have been extra-medullary, and post-relapse treatment including block therapy has been successful in several patients, as illustrated by a p-EFS of 0.62 and a predicted overall survival of 0.82 at 5 years for the 24 Nordic cases.
Collisionless Shock Acceleration of protons in a plasma slab produced in a gas jet by the collision of two laser-driven hydrodynamic shockwaves
We recently proposed a new technique of plasma tailoring by laser-driven
hydrodynamic shockwaves generated on both sides of a gas jet [J.-R. Marqu\`es
et al., Phys. Plasmas 28, 023103 (2021)]. In the continuation of this numerical
work, we studied experimentally the influence of the tailoring on proton
acceleration driven by a high-intensity picosecond-laser, in three cases:
without tailoring, by tailoring only the entrance side of the ps-laser, or both
sides of the gas jet. Without tailoring the acceleration is transverse to the
laser axis, with a low-energy exponential spectrum, produced by Coulomb
explosion. When the front side of the gas jet is tailored, a forward
acceleration appears, that is significantly enhanced when both the front and
back sides of the plasma are tailored. This forward acceleration produces
higher energy protons, with a peaked spectrum, and is in good agreement with
the mechanism of Collisionless Shock Acceleration (CSA). The spatio-temporal
evolution of the plasma profile was characterized by optical shadowgraphy of a
probe beam. The refraction and absorption of this beam was simulated by
post-processing 3D hydrodynamic simulations of the plasma tailoring. Comparison
with the experimental results allowed to estimate the thickness and
near-critical density of the plasma slab produced by tailoring both sides of
the gas jet. These parameters are in good agreement with those required for
CSA
'Choosing shoes': a preliminary study into the challenges facing clinicians in assessing footwear for rheumatoid patients
Background: Footwear has been accepted as a therapeutic intervention for the foot affected
by rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Evidence relating to the objective assessment of footwear in
patients with RA is limited. The aims of this study were to identify current footwear styles,
footwear characteristics, and factors that influence footwear choice experienced by patients
with RA.
Methods: Eighty patients with RA were recruited from rheumatology clinics during the
summer months. Clinical characteristics, global function, and foot impairment and disability
measures were recorded. Current footwear, footwear characteristics and the factors
associated with choice of footwear were identified. Suitability of footwear was recorded using
pre-determined criteria for assessing footwear type, based on a previous study of foot pain.
Results: The patients had longstanding RA with moderate-to severe disability and
impairment. The foot and ankle assessment demonstrated a low-arch profile with both
forefoot and rearfoot structural deformities. Over 50% of shoes worn by patients were opentype
footwear. More than 70% of patients’ footwear was defined as being poor. Poor
footwear characteristics such as heel rigidity and sole hardness were observed. Patients
reported comfort (17%) and fit (14%) as important factors in choosing their own footwear.
Only five percent (5%) of patients wore therapeutic footwear.
Conclusions: The majority of patients with RA wear footwear that has been previously
described as poor. Future work needs to aim to define and justify the specific features of
footwear that may be of benefit to foot health for people with RA
Dose-Dependent Immunomodulation of Human Dendritic Cells by the Probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus Lcr35
The response of the immune system to probiotics remains controversial. Some strains modulate the cytokine production of dendritic cells (DCs) in vitro and induce a regulatory response, while others induce conversely a pro-inflammatory response. These strain-dependent effects are thought to be linked to specific interactions between bacteria and pattern recognition receptors. We investigated the effects of a well characterized probiotic strain, Lactobacillus rhamnosus Lcr35, on human monocyte-derived immature DCs, using a wide range of bacterial concentrations (multiplicity of infection, MOI, from 0.01 to 100). DNA microarray and qRT-PCR analysis showed that the probiotic induced a large-scale change in gene expression (nearly 1,700 modulated genes, with 3-fold changes), but only with high doses (MOI, 100). The upregulated genes were mainly involved in immune response and identified a molecular signature of inflammation according to the model of Torri. Flow cytometry analysis also revealed a dose-dependent maturation of the DC membrane phenotype, until DCs reached a semi-mature state, with an upregulation of the membrane expression of CD86, CD83, HLA-DR and TLR4, associated with a down-regulation of DC-SIGN, MR and CD14. Measurement of the DC-secreted cytokines showed that Lcr35 induced a strong dose-dependent increase of the pro-Th1/Th17 cytokine levels (TNFα, IL-1β, IL-12p70, IL-12p40 and IL-23), but only a low increase in IL-10 concentration. The probiotic L. rhamnosus Lcr35 therefore induce a dose-dependent immunomodulation of human DCs leading, at high doses, to the semi-maturation of the cells and to a strong pro-inflammatory effect. These results contribute to a fuller understanding of the mechanism of action of this probiotic, and thus of its potential clinical indications in the treatment of either infectious or IgE-dependent allergic diseases
Clinical practice guidelines for the foot and ankle in rheumatoid arthritis: a critical appraisal
Background: Clinical practice guidelines are recommendations systematically developed to assist clinical decision-making and inform healthcare. In current rheumatoid arthritis (RA) guidelines, management of the foot and ankle is under-represented and the quality of recommendation is uncertain. This study aimed to identify and critically appraise clinical practice guidelines for foot and ankle management in RA. Methods: Guidelines were identified electronically and through hand searching. Search terms 'rheumatoid arthritis', 'clinical practice guidelines' and related synonyms were used. Critical appraisal and quality rating were conducted using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument. Results: Twenty-four guidelines were included. Five guidelines were high quality and recommended for use. Five high quality and seven low quality guidelines were recommended for use with modifications. Seven guidelines were low quality and not recommended for use. Five early and twelve established RA guidelines were recommended for use. Only two guidelines were foot and ankle specific. Five recommendation domains were identified in both early and established RA guidelines. These were multidisciplinary team care, foot healthcare access, foot health assessment/review, orthoses/insoles/splints, and therapeutic footwear. Established RA guidelines also had an 'other foot care treatments' domain. Conclusions: Foot and ankle management for RA features in many clinical practice guidelines recommended for use. Unfortunately, supporting evidence in the guidelines is low quality. Agreement levels are predominantly 'expert opinion' or 'good clinical practice'. More research investigating foot and ankle management for RA is needed prior to inclusion in clinical practice guidelines
Transverse energy production and charged-particle multiplicity at midrapidity in various systems from to 200 GeV
Measurements of midrapidity charged particle multiplicity distributions,
, and midrapidity transverse-energy distributions,
, are presented for a variety of collision systems and energies.
Included are distributions for AuAu collisions at ,
130, 62.4, 39, 27, 19.6, 14.5, and 7.7 GeV, CuCu collisions at
and 62.4 GeV, CuAu collisions at
GeV, UU collisions at GeV,
Au collisions at GeV, HeAu collisions at
GeV, and collisions at
GeV. Centrality-dependent distributions at midrapidity are presented in terms
of the number of nucleon participants, , and the number of
constituent quark participants, . For all collisions
down to GeV, it is observed that the midrapidity data
are better described by scaling with than scaling with . Also presented are estimates of the Bjorken energy density,
, and the ratio of to ,
the latter of which is seen to be constant as a function of centrality for all
systems.Comment: 706 authors, 32 pages, 20 figures, 34 tables, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010,
2011, and 2012 data. v2 is version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Quantitative Constraints on the Transport Properties of Hot Partonic Matter from Semi-Inclusive Single High Transverse Momentum Pion Suppression in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
The PHENIX experiment has measured the suppression of semi-inclusive single
high transverse momentum pi^0's in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV.
The present understanding of this suppression is in terms of energy-loss of the
parent (fragmenting) parton in a dense color-charge medium. We have performed a
quantitative comparison between various parton energy-loss models and our
experimental data. The statistical point-to-point uncorrelated as well as
correlated systematic uncertainties are taken into account in the comparison.
We detail this methodology and the resulting constraint on the model
parameters, such as the initial color-charge density dN^g/dy, the medium
transport coefficient , or the initial energy-loss parameter epsilon_0.
We find that high transverse momentum pi^0 suppression in Au+Au collisions has
sufficient precision to constrain these model dependent parameters at the +/1
20%-25% (one standard deviation) level. These constraints include only the
experimental uncertainties, and further studies are needed to compute the
corresponding theoretical uncertainties.Comment: 422 authors, 13 pages text, RevTeX-4, 9 figures, 2 tables. This
version is updated with changes made during the review process and is now the
same as what was published in Physical Review C. Plain text data tables for
the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are
publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
Charged hadron multiplicity fluctuations in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions from sqrt(s_NN) = 22.5 to 200 GeV
A comprehensive survey of event-by-event fluctuations of charged hadron
multiplicity in relativistic heavy ions is presented. The survey covers Au+Au
collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 62.4 and 200 GeV, and Cu+Cu collisions sqrt(s_NN) =
22.5, 62.4, and 200 GeV. Fluctuations are measured as a function of collision
centrality, transverse momentum range, and charge sign. After correcting for
non-dynamical fluctuations due to fluctuations in the collision geometry within
a centrality bin, the remaining dynamical fluctuations expressed as the
variance normalized by the mean tend to decrease with increasing centrality.
The dynamical fluctuations are consistent with or below the expectation from a
superposition of participant nucleon-nucleon collisions based upon p+p data,
indicating that this dataset does not exhibit evidence of critical behavior in
terms of the compressibility of the system. An analysis of Negative Binomial
Distribution fits to the multiplicity distributions demonstrates that the heavy
ion data exhibit weak clustering properties.Comment: 464 authors from 60 institutions, 17 pages, 12 figures, 1 table.
Submitted to Physical Review C. Plain text data tables for the points plotted
in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be)
publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
Transverse momentum and centrality dependence of dihadron correlations in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV: Jet-quenching and the response of partonic matter
Azimuthal angle \Delta\phi correlations are presented for charged hadrons
from dijets for 0.4 < p_T < 10 GeV/c in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200
GeV. With increasing p_T, the away-side distribution evolves from a broad to a
concave shape, then to a convex shape. Comparisons to p+p data suggest that the
away-side can be divided into a partially suppressed "head" region centered at
Delta\phi ~ \pi, and an enhanced "shoulder" region centered at Delta\phi ~ \pi
+/- 1.1. The p_T spectrum for the "head" region softens toward central
collisions, consistent with the onset of jet quenching. The spectral slope for
the "shoulder" region is independent of centrality and trigger p_T, which
offers constraints on energy transport mechanisms and suggests that the
"shoulder" region contains the medium response to energetic jets.Comment: 420 authors from 58 institutions, 6 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to
Physical Review Letters. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in
figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly
available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
Transverse-energy distributions at midrapidity in , Au, and AuAu collisions at --200~GeV and implications for particle-production models
Measurements of the midrapidity transverse energy distribution, d\Et/d\eta,
are presented for , Au, and AuAu collisions at
GeV and additionally for AuAu collisions at
and 130 GeV. The d\Et/d\eta distributions are first
compared with the number of nucleon participants , number of
binary collisions , and number of constituent-quark participants
calculated from a Glauber model based on the nuclear geometry. For
AuAu, \mean{d\Et/d\eta}/N_{\rm part} increases with , while
\mean{d\Et/d\eta}/N_{qp} is approximately constant for all three energies.
This indicates that the two component ansatz, , which has been used to represent
distributions, is simply a proxy for , and that the term
does not represent a hard-scattering component in distributions. The
distributions of AuAu and Au are then calculated from
the measured distribution using two models that both reproduce
the AuAu data. However, while the number-of-constituent-quark-participant
model agrees well with the Au data, the additive-quark model does not.Comment: 391 authors, 24 pages, 19 figures, and 15 Tables. Submitted to Phys.
Rev. C. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and
previous PHENIX publications are publicly available at
http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
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