332 research outputs found

    Phenotypic and functional abnormalities of bone marrow-derived dendritic cells in systemic lupus erythematosus

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    Introduction: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease characterized by autoreactive T and B cells, which are believed to be secondary to deficient dendritic cells (DCs). However, whether DC abnormalities occur during their development in the bone marrow (BM) or in the periphery is not known.Methods: Thirteen patients with SLE and 16 normal controls were recruited. We studied the morphology, phenotype, and functional abilities of bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) generated by using two culture methods: FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (Flt3)-ligand (FL) and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) plus interleukin-4 (IL-4), respectively.Results: BMDCs induced by FL exhibited both myeloid (mDC) and plasmacytoid DC (pDC) features, whereas GM-CSF/IL-4 induced mDC generation. Substantial phenotypic and functional defects of BMDCs were found from patients with SLE at different stages of cell maturation. When compared with healthy controls, SLE immature BM FLDCs expressed higher levels of CCR7. Both immature and mature SLE BM FLDCs expressed higher levels of CD40 and CD86 and induced stronger T-cell proliferation. SLE BM mDCs expressed higher levels of CD40 and CD86 but lower levels of HLA-DR and a lower ability to stimulate T-cell proliferation when compared with control BM mDCs.Conclusions: Our data are in accordance with previous reports that suggest that DCs have a potential pathogenic role in SLE. Defects of these cells are evident during their development in BM. BM mDCs are deficient, whereas BM pDCs, which are part of BM FLDCs, are the likely culprit in inducing autoimmunity in SLE. © 2010 Nie et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.published_or_final_versio

    KMT-2016-BLG-1107: A New Hollywood-Planet Close/Wide Degeneracy

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    We show that microlensing event KMT-2016-BLG-1107 displays a new type of degeneracy between wide-binary and close-binary Hollywood events in which a giant-star source envelops the planetary caustic. The planetary anomaly takes the form of a smooth, two-day "bump" far out on the falling wing of the light curve, which can be interpreted either as the source completely enveloping a minor-image caustic due to a close companion with mass ratio q=0.036q=0.036, or partially enveloping a major-image caustic due to a wide companion with q=0.004q=0.004. The best estimates of the companion masses are both in the planetary regime (3.3−1.8+3.5 Mjup3.3^{+3.5}_{-1.8}\,M_{\rm jup} and 0.090−0.037+0.096 Mjup0.090^{+0.096}_{-0.037}\,M_{\rm jup}) but differ by an even larger factor than the mass ratios due to different inferred host masses. We show that the two solutions can be distinguished by high-resolution imaging at first light on next-generation ("30m") telescopes. We provide analytic guidance to understand the conditions under which this new type of degeneracy can appear.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A

    Matching in the Wild: Learning Anatomical Embeddings for Multi-Modality Images

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    Radiotherapists require accurate registration of MR/CT images to effectively use information from both modalities. In a typical registration pipeline, rigid or affine transformations are applied to roughly align the fixed and moving images before proceeding with the deformation step. While recent learning-based methods have shown promising results in the rigid/affine step, these methods often require images with similar field-of-view (FOV) for successful alignment. As a result, aligning images with different FOVs remains a challenging task. Self-supervised landmark detection methods like self-supervised Anatomical eMbedding (SAM) have emerged as a useful tool for mapping and cropping images to similar FOVs. However, these methods are currently limited to intra-modality use only. To address this limitation and enable cross-modality matching, we propose a new approach called Cross-SAM. Our approach utilizes a novel iterative process that alternates between embedding learning and CT-MRI registration. We start by applying aggressive contrast augmentation on both CT and MRI images to train a SAM model. We then use this SAM to identify corresponding regions on paired images using robust grid-points matching, followed by a point-set based affine/rigid registration, and a deformable fine-tuning step to produce registered paired images. We use these registered pairs to enhance the matching ability of SAM, which is then processed iteratively. We use the final model for cross-modality matching tasks. We evaluated our approach on two CT-MRI affine registration datasets and found that Cross-SAM achieved robust affine registration on both datasets, significantly outperforming other methods and achieving state-of-the-art performance

    KMT-2018-BLG-1990Lb: A Nearby Jovian Planet From A Low-Cadence Microlensing Field

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    We report the discovery and characterization of KMT-2018-BLG-1990Lb, a Jovian planet (mp=0.57−0.25+0.79 MJ)(m_p=0.57_{-0.25}^{+0.79}\,M_J) orbiting a late M dwarf (M=0.14−0.06+0.20 M⊙)(M=0.14_{-0.06}^{+0.20}\,M_\odot), at a distance (D_L=1.23_{-0.43}^{+1.06}\,\kpc), and projected at 2.6±0.62.6\pm 0.6 times the snow line distance, i.e., a_{\rm snow}\equiv 2.7\,\au (M/M_\odot), This is the second Jovian planet discovered by KMTNet in its low cadence (0.4 hr−10.4\,{\rm hr}^{-1}) fields, demonstrating that this population will be well characterized based on survey-only microlensing data.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figures, 4 table

    KMT-2018-BLG-1292: A Super-Jovian Microlens Planet in the Galactic Plane

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    We report the discovery of KMT-2018-BLG-1292Lb, a super-Jovian Mplanet=4.5±1.3 MJM_{\rm planet} = 4.5\pm 1.3\,M_J planet orbiting an F or G dwarf Mhost=1.5±0.4 M⊙M_{\rm host} = 1.5\pm 0.4\,M_\odot, which lies physically within {\cal O}(10\,\pc) of the Galactic plane. The source star is a heavily extincted AI∼5.2A_I\sim 5.2 luminous giant that has the lowest Galactic latitude, b=−0.28∘b=-0.28^\circ, of any planetary microlensing event. The relatively blue blended light is almost certainly either the host or its binary companion, with the first explanation being substantially more likely. This blend dominates the light at II band and completely dominates at RR and VV bands. Hence, the lens system can be probed by follow-up observations immediately, i.e., long before the lens system and the source separate due to their relative proper motion. The system is well characterized despite the low cadence Γ=0.15\Gamma=0.15--0.20 hr−10.20\,{\rm hr^{-1}} of observations and short viewing windows near the end of the bulge season. This suggests that optical microlensing planet searches can be extended to the Galactic plane at relatively modest cost.Comment: 35 pages, 3 Tables, 8 figure

    OGLE-2018-BLG-0532Lb: Cold Neptune With Possible Jovian Sibling

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    We report the discovery of the planet OGLE-2018-BLG-0532Lb, with very obvious signatures in the light curve that lead to an estimate of the planet-host mass ratio q=Mplanet/Mhost≃1×10−4q=M_{\rm planet}/M_{\rm host}\simeq 1\times10^{-4}. Although there are no obvious systematic residuals to this double-lens/single-source (2L1S) fit, we find that χ2\chi^2 can be significantly improved by adding either a third lens (3L1S, Δχ2=81\Delta\chi^2=81) or second source (2L2S, Δχ2=65\Delta\chi^2=65) to the lens-source geometry. After thorough investigation, we conclude that we cannot decisively distinguish between these two scenarios and therefore focus on the robustly-detected planet. However, given the possible presence of a second planet, we investigate to what degree and with what probability such additional planets may affect seemingly single-planet light curves. Our best estimates for the properties of the lens star and the secure planet are: a host mass M∼0.25 M⊙M\sim 0.25\,M_\odot, system distance DL∼1 D_L\sim 1\,kpc and planet mass mp,1=8 M⊕m_{p,1}= 8\,M_\oplus with projected separation a1,⊥=1.4 a_{1,\perp}=1.4\,au. However, there is a relatively bright I=18.6I=18.6 (and also relatively blue) star projected within <50 <50\,mas of the lens, and if future high-resolution images show that this is coincident with the lens, then it is possible that it is the lens, in which case, the lens would be both more massive and more distant than the best-estimated values above.Comment: 48 pages, 9 figures, 7 table

    OGLE-2016-BLG-1227L: A Wide-separation Planet from a Very Short-timescale Microlensing Event

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    We present the analysis of the microlensing event OGLE-2016-BLG-1227. The light curve of this short-duration event appears to be a single-lens event affected by severe finite-source effects. Analysis of the light curve based on single-lens single-source (1L1S) modeling yields very small values of the event timescale, t_E ∼ 3.5 days, and the angular Einstein radius, θ_E ∼ 0.009 mas, making the lens a candidate of a free-floating planet. Close inspection reveals that the 1L1S solution leaves small residuals with amplitude ΔI ≲ 0.03 mag. We find that the residuals are explained by the existence of an additional widely-separated heavier lens component, indicating that the lens is a wide-separation planetary system rather than a free-floating planet. From Bayesian analysis, it is estimated that the planet has a mass of _p = 0.79^(+1.30)_(−0.39) M_J and it is orbiting a low-mass host star with a mass of M_(host) = 0.10+0.17−0.05 M_⊙ located with a projected separation of a_ = 3.4^(+2.1)_(−1.0) au. The planetary system is located in the Galactic bulge with a line-of-sight separation from the source star of D_(LS) = 1.21^(+0.96)_(−0.63) kpc. The event shows that there are a range of deviations in the signatures of host stars for apparently isolated planetary lensing events and that it is possible to identify a host even when a deviation is subtle
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