405 research outputs found
Clusters of cytokines determine malaria severity in Plasmodium falciparum - Infected patients from endemic areas of central India
We investigated the role of interferon (IFN)- gamma , interleukin (IL)-1 beta , IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)- alpha , and transforming growth factor (TGF)- beta in clinically well-defined groups of Plasmodium falciparum-infected patients manifesting mild malaria (MM), severe noncerebral malaria (SM), or cerebral malaria (CM) and in control subjects from Gondia, a malaria-endemic site in India, as well as in healthy subjects from non-malaria-endemic areas. Two-way coupled cluster analysis revealed 2 clusters of cytokines relevant to clinical subgroups of disease. The first cluster was composed of IFN- gamma , IL-2, IL-5, IL-6, and IL-12, the levels of which were significantly increased during infection but were predominant in patients with MM and allowed us to distinguish them from patients with SM or CM. The second cluster was composed of TGF- beta , TNF- alpha , IL-10, and IL-1 beta , the levels of which were highly correlated with each other in the different clinical groups of patients and significantly increased with disease severity, particularly in CM. Discriminant analyses allowed us to propose a minimal model. Levels of cytokines such as IL-5, IL-1 beta , IL-10, and IL-2 increase with infection. Levels of IL-12, IL-5, and IL-6 discriminate severe forms of malaria from MM. Finally, levels of IL-1 beta , IL-12, and IFN- gamma are relevant for the discrimination of CM from SM: high IL-1 beta levels are associated with CM, and high IL-12 and IFN- gamma levels are associated with S
Crystal structure of Cu-Sn-In alloys around the {\eta} phase field studied by neutron diffraction
The study of the Cu-Sn-In ternary system has become of great importance in
recent years, due to new environmental regulations forcing to eliminate the use
of Pb in bonding technologies for electronic devices. A key relevant issue
concerns the intermetallic phases which grow in the bonding zone and are
determining in their quality and performance. In this work, we focus in the
{\eta}-phase (Cu2In or Cu6Sn5) that exists in both end binaries and as a
ternary phase. We present a neutron diffraction study of the constitution and
crystallography of a series of alloys around the 60 at.% Cu composition, and
with In contents ranging from 0 to 25 at.%, quenched from 300\degreeC. The
alloys were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, probe microanalysis
and high-resolution neutron diffraction. The Rietveld refinement of neutron
diffraction data allowed to improve the currently available model for site
occupancies in the hexagonal {\eta}-phase in the binary Cu-Sn as well as in
ternary alloys. For the first time, structural data is reported in the ternary
Cu-Sn-In {\eta}-phase as a function of composition, information that is of
fundamental technological importance as well as valuable input data for ongoing
modelisations of the ternary phase diagram.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figure
IgG autoantibody to brain beta tubulin III associated with cytokine cluster-II discriminate cerebral malaria in central India
We investigated the significance of these self-reactive antibodies in clinically well-defined groups of P. falciparum infected patients manifesting mild malaria (MM), severe non-cerebral malaria (SM), or cerebral malaria (CM) and in control subjects from Gondia, a malaria epidemic site in central India using quantitative immunoprinting and multivariate statistical analyses. A two-fold complete-linkage hierarchical clustering allows classifying the different patient groups and to distinguish the CM from the others on the basis of their profile of IgG reactivity to brain proteins defined by PANAMA Blot. We identified beta tubulin III (TBB3) as a novel discriminant brain antigen in the prevalence of CM. In addition, circulating IgG from CM patients highly react with recombinant TBB3. Overall, correspondence analyses based on singular value decomposition show a strong correlation between IgG anti-TBB3 and elevated concentration of cluster-II cytokine (IFNγ, IL1β, TNFα, TGFβ) previously demonstrated to be a predictor of CM in the same populatio
New hadrons as ultra-high energy cosmic rays
Ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) protons produced by uniformly
distributed astrophysical sources contradict the energy spectrum measured by
both the AGASA and HiRes experiments, assuming the small scale clustering of
UHECR observed by AGASA is caused by point-like sources. In that case, the
small number of sources leads to a sharp exponential cutoff at the energy
E<10^{20} eV in the UHECR spectrum. New hadrons with mass 1.5-3 GeV can solve
this cutoff problem. For the first time we discuss the production of such
hadrons in proton collisions with infrared/optical photons in astrophysical
sources. This production mechanism, in contrast to proton-proton collisions,
requires the acceleration of protons only to energies E<10^{21} eV. The diffuse
gamma-ray and neutrino fluxes in this model obey all existing experimental
limits. We predict large UHE neutrino fluxes well above the sensitivity of the
next generation of high-energy neutrino experiments. As an example we study
hadrons containing a light bottom squark. These models can be tested by
accelerator experiments, UHECR observatories and neutrino telescopes.Comment: 17 pages, revtex style; v2: shortened, as to appear in PR
Production and Decay of D_1(2420)^0 and D_2^*(2460)^0
We have investigated and final states and
observed the two established charmed mesons, the with mass
MeV/c and width MeV/c and
the with mass MeV/c and width
MeV/c. Properties of these final states, including
their decay angular distributions and spin-parity assignments, have been
studied. We identify these two mesons as the doublet predicted
by HQET. We also obtain constraints on {\footnotesize } as a function of the cosine of the relative phase of the two
amplitudes in the decay.Comment: 15 pages in REVTEX format. hardcopies with figures can be obtained by
sending mail to: [email protected]
Measurement of the branching fraction for
We have studied the leptonic decay of the resonance into tau
pairs using the CLEO II detector. A clean sample of tau pair events is
identified via events containing two charged particles where exactly one of the
particles is an identified electron. We find . The result is consistent with
expectations from lepton universality.Comment: 9 pages, RevTeX, two Postscript figures available upon request, CLNS
94/1297, CLEO 94-20 (submitted to Physics Letters B
Study of the B^0 Semileptonic Decay Spectrum at the Upsilon(4S) Resonance
We have made a first measurement of the lepton momentum spectrum in a sample
of events enriched in neutral B's through a partial reconstruction of B0 -->
D*- l+ nu. This spectrum, measured with 2.38 fb**-1 of data collected at the
Upsilon(4S) resonance by the CLEO II detector, is compared directly to the
inclusive lepton spectrum from all Upsilon(4S) events in the same data set.
These two spectra are consistent with having the same shape above 1.5 GeV/c.
From the two spectra and two other CLEO measurements, we obtain the B0 and B+
semileptonic branching fractions, b0 and b+, their ratio, and the production
ratio f+-/f00 of B+ and B0 pairs at the Upsilon(4S). We report b+/b0=0.950
(+0.117-0.080) +- 0.091, b0 = (10.78 +- 0.60 +- 0.69)%, and b+ = (10.25 +- 0.57
+- 0.65)%. b+/b0 is equivalent to the ratio of charged to neutral B lifetimes,
tau+/tau0.Comment: 14 page, postscript file also available at
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN
Measurement of the Decay Asymmetry Parameters in and
We have measured the weak decay asymmetry parameters (\aLC ) for two \LC\
decay modes. Our measurements are \aLC = -0.94^{+0.21+0.12}_{-0.06-0.06} for
the decay mode and \aLC = -0.45\pm 0.31 \pm
0.06 for the decay mode . By combining these
measurements with the previously measured decay rates, we have extracted the
parity-violating and parity-conserving amplitudes. These amplitudes are used to
test models of nonleptonic charmed baryon decay.Comment: 11 pages including the figures. Uses REVTEX and psfig macros. Figures
as uuencoded postscript. Also available as
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLNS/1995/CLNS95-1319.p
Observation of the Charmed Baryon Decays to , , and
We have observed two new decay modes of the charmed baryon into
and using data collected with the
CLEO II detector. We also present the first measurement of the branching
fraction for the previously observed decay mode . The branching fractions for these three modes relative to
are measured to be , , and , respectively.Comment: 12 page uuencoded postscript file, postscript file also available
through http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN
Measurements of the Ratios and
Using the CLEO~II detector we measure , and .
We find the vector to pseudoscalar ratio, , which is similar to the
ratio found in non strange decays.Comment: 11 page uuencoded postscript file, postscript file also available
through http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN
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