Probing nonlocal effects in metals with graphene plasmons

In this paper we analyze the effects of nonlocality on the optical properties of a system consisting of a thin metallic film separated from a graphene sheet by a hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) layer. We show that nonlocal effects in the metal have a strong impact on the spectrum of the surface plasmon-polaritons on graphene. If the graphene sheet is shaped into a grating, we show that the extinction curves can be used to shed light on the importance of nonlocal effects in metals. Therefore, graphene surface plasmons emerge as a tool for probing nonlocal effects in metallic nanostructures, including thin metallic films. As a byproduct of our study, we show that nonlocal effects lead to smaller losses for the graphene plasmons than what is predicted by a local calculation. We show that these effects can be very well mimicked using a local theory with an effective spacer thickness larger than its actual value.The authors thank Sébastien Nanot and Itai Epstein for valuable discussions and comments. E.J.C.D., Yu.V.B. and N.M.R.P. acknowledge support from the European Commission through the project GrapheneDriven Revolutions in ICT and Beyond (Ref. No. 785219), and from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Financing UID/FIS/04650/2013. E.J.C.D. acknowledges FCT for the grant CFUM-BI-14/2016. D.A.I. acknowledges the FPI grant BES-2014-068504. F.H.L.K. acknowledges financial support from the Government of Catalonia trough the SGR grant (2014-SGR-1535), and from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (SEV-2015-0522), support by Fundacio Cellex Barcelona, CERCA Programme / Generalitat de Catalunya and the Mineco grants Ramn y Cajal (RYC-2012-12281) and Plan Nacional (FIS201347161-P and FIS2014-59639-JIN). Furthermore, the research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement no.696656 Graphene Flagship, the ERC starting grant (307806, CarbonLight), and project GRASP (FP7-ICT-2013-613024-GRASP). N. A. M. is a VILLUM Investigator supported by VILLUM FONDEN (grant No. 16498). Center for Nano Optics is financially supported by the University of Southern Denmark (SDU 2020 funding). Center for Nanostructured Graphene is supported by the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF103).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies in uveitis

Antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies were detected in patients with some autoimmune and vascular disease such as Wegner’s granulomatosis polyarthritis nodosa and systemic lupus erythematosus. Indirect immunofluorescence technique was employed to detect these autoantibodies. By this method, two general patterns of antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies were seen: a cytoplasmic (C-ANCA) and a perinuclear form (P-ANCA). These antibodies also were observed in uveitis. In this study the presence of antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies in 25 patients with uveitis and its relationship with uveitis and its relationship with anatomical location of the disease is evaluated. According to the results antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies was detected in 16% (4 out of 25) of the patients all of them being C-ANCA type. The results also showed that there was not any significant correlation between the presence of antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies and anatomical location of the disease (P=0.65)

Production And Partial Purification Of IL-2 Cells From Jurcat Cell Line Culture

Background: Role of cytokines in regulation of immune system has been the subject of studies and clinical investigations. One of these cytokines, IL-2 has been well initially introduced as T cell Growth factor (TCGF), but subsequently it appeared that IL-2 is one of the important mediators affecting growth, development and activity of T, B, NK and LAK cells. Nowadays this cytokines has extensive use in clinical and research fields of immunotherapy of cancer and infectious disease. Materials and Methods: In this study, we used Jurcat cell line for production and partial purification of IL-2 106 cell/ml were stimulated by PHA (1 µg/ml) and PMA (10 µg/ml) at the third day of the culture and then supernatant were collected after 22 hrs. Results & Conclusion: In order to obtain sufficient amount of IL-2 and eliminate interfacing materials, supernatants were concentrated using Amicon 10 and 30 PM filters. After concentrating, bioassay and Elisa were performed to detect the biological activity and amount of produced IL-2. Reversed phase-HPLC was used to confirm the IL-2 identity and purification

Patterns and trends of potentially inappropriate high-density lipoprotein cholesterol testing in Australian adults at high risk of cardiovascular disease from 2008 to 2014 : analysis of linked individual patient data from the Australian Medicare Benefits Schedule and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme

Objectives We examine the extent to which the adult Australian population on lipid-lowering medications receives the level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) testing recommended by national guidelines. Data We analysed records from 7 years (2008–2014) of the 10% publicly available sample of deidentified, individual level, linked Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) electronic databases of Australia. Methods The PBS data were used to identify individuals on stable prescriptions of lipid-lowering treatment. The MBS data were used to estimate the annual frequency of HDL-C testing. We developed a methodology to address the issue of ‘episode coning’ in the MBS data, which causes an undercounting of pathology tests. We used a published figure on the proportion of unreported HDL-C tests to correct for the undercounting and estimate the probability that an HDL-C test was performed. We judged appropriateness of testing frequency by comparing the HDL-C testing rate to guidelines’ recommendations of annual testing for people at high risk for cardiovascular disease. Results We estimated that approximately 49% of the population on stable lipid-lowering treatment did not receive any HDL-C test in a given year. We also found that approximately 19% of the same population received two or more HDL-C tests within the year. These levels of underutilisation and overutilisation have been changing at an average rate of 2% and −4% a year, respectively, since 2009. The yearly expenditure associated with test overutilisation was approximately $A4.3 million during the study period, while the cost averted because of test underutilisation was approximately$A11.3 million a year. Conclusions We found that approximately half of Australians on stable lipid-lowering treatment may be having fewer HDL-C testing than recommended by national guidelines, while nearly one-fifth are having more tests than recommended