A field programmable gate array based Langmuir probe system for measurement of plasma parameters at 500 kHz in a high-power impulse magnetron sputtering plasma.

By utilizing Field Programmable Gate Arrays in a configuration similar to that of the Mirror Langmuir Probe, it is possible to bias a single probe at three precise voltages in sequence. These voltages can be dynamically adjusted in real-time based on the measured plasma electron temperature to ensure the transition region is always sampled. The first results have been obtained by employing this method and have generated real-time outputs of electron temperature, ion saturation current, and floating potential on a low temperature pulsed-DC magnetron at 500 kHz. These results are in good agreement with the analysis of a conventionally swept Langmuir probe. This probe is designed with the intention of being implemented on MAST-U to aid in the study of exhaust physics and enable further investigation into filamentary behavior. [Abstract copyright: © 2024 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Human cytomegalovirus-specific cytotoxic T cells. Relative frequency of stage-specific CTL recognizing the 72-kD immediate early protein and glycoprotein B expressed by recombinant vaccinia viruses.

CTL are held to be an important host defense mechanism in persistent herpes-virus infections. We have therefore studied the nature and specificity of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV)-specific CTL in normal persistently infected individuals. This was achieved by using vaccinia recombinants encoding viral genes expressed at different stages of the virus replicative cycle, a structural glycoprotein gB (vac.gB) and the major 72-kD immediate early nonstructural protein (vac.IE) of HCMV, combined with limiting dilution analysis of the CTL response. In two subjects, 43 and 58% of HCMV CTL precursors (CTLp) lysed vac.IE-infected cells, in contrast to less than 6% lysing gB-infected cells. HCMV-specific CTL could also be generated by secondary in vitro stimulation with vac.gB- but not vac.IE-infected autologous fibroblasts. The high frequency of 72-kD IE protein-specific CTL suggests that this is at least a major recognition element for the HCMV-specific CTL response in asymptomatic persistently infected individuals, and CTL with this specificity may be important in maintaining the normal virus/host equilibrium

Prospective associations between dietary patterns and cognitive performance during adolescence

Background: The aim of the study was to investigate prospective associations between dietary patterns and cognitive performance during adolescence .Methods: Participants were sourced from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study that includes 2868 children born between 1989 and 1992 in Perth, Western Australia. When the children were 17 years old (2006–2009), cognitive performance was assessed using a computerized cognitive battery of tests (CogState) that included six tasks. Using a food frequency questionnaire administered when the children were 14 years old (2003–2006), ‘Healthy’ and ‘Western’ dietary patterns were identified by factor analysis. Associations between dietary patterns at 14 years of age and cognitive performance at 17 years of age were assessed prospectively using multivariate regression models.Results: Dietary and cognitive performance data were available for 602 participants. Following adjustment for the ‘Healthy’ dietary pattern, total energy intake, maternal education, family income, father's presence in the family, family functioning and gender, we found that a longer reaction time in the detection task (ß = .016; 95% CI: 0.004; 0.028; p = .009) and a higher number of total errors in the Groton Maze Learning Test – delayed recall task (ß = .060; 95% CI: 0.006; 0.114; p = .029) were significantly associated with higher scores on the ‘Western’ dietary pattern. The ‘Western’ dietary pattern was characterized by high intakes of take-away food, red and processed meat, soft drink, fried and refined food. We also found that within the dietary patterns, high intake of fried potato, crisps and red meat had negative associations, while increased fruit and leafy green vegetable intake had positive associations with some aspects of cognitive performance. Conclusion: Higher dietary intake of the ‘Western’ dietary pattern at age 14 is associated with diminished cognitive performance 3 years later, at 17 years

Long term survival after evidence based treatment of acute myocardial infarction and revascularisation: follow-up of population based Perth MONICA cohort, 1984-2005

Objective To examine trends in long term survival in patients alive 28 days after myocardial infarction and the impact of evidence based medical treatments and coronary revascularisation during or near the event

Ultra-Fast Langmuir Probe in Magnetised Plasma

Conventional Langmuir probes are powerful diagnostics for measuring plasma temperature, ion saturation current, and floating potential and are widely used to diagnose the Scrape-Off Layer (SOL) and divertor of magnetic confinement fusion devices. Plasma in these regions is known to contain fast moving filamentary structures that require highly resolved measurements to fully characterise which are beyond what single and triple probes can provide

Exhaustion of Activated CD8 T Cells Predicts Disease Progression in Primary HIV-1 Infection

The rate at which HIV-1 infected individuals progress to AIDS is highly variable and impacted by T cell immunity. CD8 T cell inhibitory molecules are up-regulated in HIV-1 infection and associate with immune dysfunction. We evaluated participants (n = 122) recruited to the SPARTAC randomised clinical trial to determine whether CD8 T cell exhaustion markers PD-1, Lag-3 and Tim-3 were associated with immune activation and disease progression. Expression of PD-1, Tim-3, Lag-3 and CD38 on CD8 T cells from the closest pre-therapy time-point to seroconversion was measured by flow cytometry, and correlated with surrogate markers of HIV-1 disease (HIV-1 plasma viral load (pVL) and CD4 T cell count) and the trial endpoint (time to CD4 count <350 cells/μl or initiation of antiretroviral therapy). To explore the functional significance of these markers, co-expression of Eomes, T-bet and CD39 was assessed. Expression of PD-1 on CD8 and CD38 CD8 T cells correlated with pVL and CD4 count at baseline, and predicted time to the trial endpoint. Lag-3 expression was associated with pVL but not CD4 count. For all exhaustion markers, expression of CD38 on CD8 T cells increased the strength of associations. In Cox models, progression to the trial endpoint was most marked for PD-1/CD38 co-expressing cells, with evidence for a stronger effect within 12 weeks from confirmed diagnosis of PHI. The effect of PD-1 and Lag-3 expression on CD8 T cells retained statistical significance in Cox proportional hazards models including antiretroviral therapy and CD4 count, but not pVL as co-variants. Expression of 'exhaustion' or 'immune checkpoint' markers in early HIV-1 infection is associated with clinical progression and is impacted by immune activation and the duration of infection. New markers to identify exhausted T cells and novel interventions to reverse exhaustion may inform the development of novel immunotherapeutic approaches

Gender equality and girls education: Investigating frameworks, disjunctures and meanings of quality education

The article draws on qualitative educational research across a diversity of low-income countries to examine the gendered inequalities in education as complex, multi-faceted and situated rather than a series of barriers to be overcome through linear input–output processes focused on isolated dimensions of quality. It argues that frameworks for thinking about educational quality often result in analyses of gender inequalities that are fragmented and incomplete. However, by considering education quality more broadly as a terrain of quality it investigates questions of educational transitions, teacher supply and community participation, and develops understandings of how education is experienced by learners and teachers in their gendered lives and their teaching practices. By taking an approach based on theories of human development the article identifies dynamics of power underpinning gender inequalities in the literature and played out in diverse contexts and influenced by social, cultural and historical contexts. The review and discussion indicate that attaining gender equitable quality education requires recognition and understanding of the ways in which inequalities intersect and interrelate in order to seek out multi-faceted strategies that address not only different dimensions of girls’ and women’s lives, but understand gendered relationships and structurally entrenched inequalities between women and men, girls and boys