5,331 research outputs found
Soluble E-Cadherin: An Early Marker of Severity in Acute Pancreatitis
Background/Aims. At present, there is no simple test for predicting severity in acute pancreatitis. We investigated the use of an assay of soluble E-cadherin (sE-cadherin). Methods. Concentrations of sE-cadherin, from 19 patients with mild acute pancreatitis, 7 patients with severe acute pancreatitis, 11 patients with other acute gastrointestinal pathologies, and 12 healthy subjects were measured using a commercially available sandwich ELISA kit based on two monoclonal antibodies specific to the extracellular fragment of human E-cadherin. Measurements were made at 12 hours or less from onset of pain and also at 24 and 48 hours after onset of pain. Results. Mean (standard deviation) concentration of sE-cadherin in patients with severe acute pancreatitis at <12 hours was 17780 ng/mL (7853), significantly higher than that of healthy volunteers 5180 ng/mL (1350), P = .0039, patients with other gastrointestinal pathologies 7358 ng/mL (6655), P = .0073, and also significantly higher than that of patients with mild pancreatitis, 7332 ng/mL (2843), P = .0019. Discussion. Serum sE-cadherin could be an early (within 12 hours) objective marker of severity in acute pancreatitis. This molecule warrants further investigation in the form of a large multicentre trial
Guide to transverse projections and mass-constraining variables
This paper seeks to demonstrate that many of the existing mass-measurement
variables proposed for hadron colliders (mT, mEff, mT2, missing pT, hT,
rootsHatMin, etc.) are far more closely related to each other than is widely
appreciated, and indeed can all be viewed as a common mass bound specialized
for a variety of purposes. A consequence of this is that one may understand
better the strengths and weaknesses of each variable, and the circumstances in
which each can be used to best effect. In order to achieve this, we find it
necessary first to revisit the seemingly empty and infertile wilderness
populated by the subscript "T" (as in pT) in order to remind ourselves what
this process of transversification actually means. We note that, far from being
simple, transversification can mean quite different things to different people.
Those readers who manage to battle through the barrage of transverse notation
distinguishing mass-preserving projections from velocity preserving
projections, and `early projection' from `late projection', will find their
efforts rewarded towards the end of the paper with (i) a better understanding
of how collider mass variables fit together, (ii) an appreciation of how these
variables could be generalized to search for things more complicated than
supersymmetry, (iii) will depart with an aversion to thoughtless or naive use
of the so-called `transverse' methods of any of the popular computer
Lorentz-vector libraries, and (iv) will take care in their subsequent papers to
be explicit about which of the 61 identified variants of the `transverse mass'
they are employing.Comment: 47 pages, 15 figures. v2: Title change for journal, and minor
typographical correction
Respiratory dysfunction in myotonic dystrophy type 1: A systematic review
Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is one of the most common muscular dystrophies in adults. This review summarises the current literature regarding the natural history of respiratory dysfunction in DM1, the role of central respiratory drive and peripheral respiratory muscle involvement and its significance in respiratory function, and investigates the relationship between genetics (CTG repeat length) and respiratory dysfunction. The review included all articles that reported spirometry on 10 or more myotonic dystrophy patients. The final review included 55 articles between 1964 and 2017. The major conclusions of this review were (1) confirmation of the current consensus that respiratory dysfunction, predominantly a restrictive ventilatory pattern, is common in myotonic dystrophy and is associated with alveolar hypoventilation, chronic hypercapnia, and sleep disturbance in the form of sleep apnoea and sleep related disordered breathing; (2) contrary to commonly held belief, there is no consensus in the literature regarding the relationship between CTG repeat length and severity of respiratory dysfunction and a relationship has not been established; (3) the natural history and time-course of respiratory functional decline is very poorly understood in the current literature; (4) there is a consensus that there is a significant involvement of central respiratory drive in this alveolar hypoventilation however the current literature does not identify the mechanism for this
A New Parameterization for the Lagrangian Density of Relativistic Mean Field Theory
A new parameterization for an effective non-linear Lagrangian density of
relativistic mean field (RMF) theory is proposed, which is able to provide an
excellent description not only for the properties of stable nuclei but also for
those far from the valley of beta-stability. In addition recently measured
superdeformed mimima in the Hg-region are reproduced with high accuracy.Comment: 8 pages, Latex, 1 ps figur
Spreading Width for Decay out of a Superdeformed Band
The attenuation factor F responsible for the decay out of a superdeformed
(SD) band is calculated with the help of a statistical model. This factor is
given by 1/F = (1 + Gamma(down) / Gamma(S)). Here, Gamma(S) is the width for
the collective E2 transition within the superdeformed band, and Gamma(down) is
the spreading width which describes the mixing between a state in the SD band
and the normally deformed (ND) states of equal spin. The attenuation factor F
is independent of the statistical E1 decay widths Gamma(N) of the ND states
provided that the Gamma(N) are much larger than both Gamma(down) and Gamma(S).
This condition is generically met. Previously measured values of F are used to
determine Gamma(down).Comment: Submitted to Physical Review Letter
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S-nitrosylation of endogenous protein tyrosine phosphatases in endothelial insulin signaling.
Nitric oxide (NO) exerts its biological function through S-nitrosylation of cellular proteins. Due to the labile nature of this modification under physiological condition, identification of S-nitrosylated residue in enzymes involved in signaling regulation remains technically challenging. The present study investigated whether intrinsic NO produced in endothelium-derived MS-1 cells response to insulin stimulation might target endogenous protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs). For this, we have developed an approach using a synthetic reagent that introduces a phenylacetamidyl moiety on S-nitrosylated Cys, followed by detection with anti-phenylacetamidyl Cys (PAC) antibody. Coupling with sequential blocking of free thiols with multiple iodoacetyl-based Cys-reactive chemicals, we employed this PAC-switch method to show that endogenous SHP-2 and PTP1B were S-nitrosylated in MS-1 cells exposed to insulin. The mass spectrometry detected a phenylacetamidyl moiety specifically present on the active-site Cys463 of SHP-2. Focusing on the regulatory role of PTP1B, we showed S-nitrosylation to be the principal Cys reversible redox modification in endothelial insulin signaling. The PAC-switch method in an imaging format illustrated that a pool of S-nitrosylated PTP1B was colocalized with activated insulin receptor to the cell periphery, and that such event was endothelial NO synthase (eNOS)-dependent. Moreover, ectopic expression of the C215S mutant of PTP1B that mimics the active-site Cys215 S-nitrosylated form restored insulin responsiveness in eNOS-ablated cells, which was otherwise insensitive to insulin stimulation. This work not only introduces a new method that explores the role of physiological NO in regulating signal transduction, but also highlights a positive NO effect on promoting insulin responsiveness through S-nitrosylation of PTP1B's active-site Cys215
Co-existing structures in 105Ru
New positive-parity states, having a band-like structure, were observed in
105Ru. The nucleus was produced in induced fission reaction and the prompt
gamma-rays, emitted from the fragments, were detected by the EUROBALL III
multi-detector array. The partial scheme of excited 105Ru levels is analyzed
within the Triaxial-Rotor-plus-Particle approach
Spectroscopy of Po
Prompt, in-beam rays following the reaction Yb + 142 MeV
Si were measured at the ATLAS facility using 10 Compton-suppressed Ge
detectors and the Fragment Mass Analyzer. Transitions in Po were
identified and placed using -ray singles and coincidence data gated on
the mass of the evaporation residues. A level spectrum up to
J10 was established. The structure of Po is more
collective than that observed in the heavier polonium isotopes and indicates
that the structure has started to evolve towards the more collective nature
expected for deformed nuclei.Comment: 8 pages, revtex 3.0, 4 figs. available upon reques
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