Interrelationship between serum and sputum inflammatory mediators in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Little is known about airway inflammatory markers in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The objective of the present study was to identify and try to correlate pulmonary and peripheral blood inflammatory markers in COPD. In a cross-sectional study on patients with stable COPD, induced sputum and blood samples were collected for the determination of C-reactive protein, eosinophilic cationic protein, serum amyloid A protein, a-1 antitrypsin (a-1AT), and neutrophil elastase. Twenty-two patients were divided into two groups according to post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in the first second (%FEV1): group 1 (N = 12, FEV1 <40%) and group 2 (N = 10, FEV1 ³40%). An increase in serum elastase, eosinophilic cationic protein and a-1AT was observed in serum markers in both groups. Cytology revealed the same total number of cells in groups 1 and 2. There was a significantly higher number of neutrophils in group 1 compared to group 2 (P < 0.05). No difference in eosinophils or macrophages was observed between groups. Serum elastase was positively correlated with serum a-1AT (group 1, r = 0.81, P < 0.002 and group 2, r = 0.83, P < 0.17) and negatively correlated with FEV1 (r = -0.85, P < 0.03 and -0.14, P < 0.85, respectively). The results indicate the presence of chronic and persistent pulmonary inflammation in stable patients with COPD. Induced sputum permitted the demonstration of the existence of a subpopulation of cells in which neutrophils predominated. The serum concentration of all inflammatory markers did not correlate with the pulmonary functional impairment

An analysis of cosmological perturbations in hydrodynamical and field representations

Density fluctuations of fluids with negative pressure exhibit decreasing time behaviour in the long wavelength limit, but are strongly unstable in the small wavelength limit when a hydrodynamical approach is used. On the other hand, the corresponding gravitational waves are well behaved. We verify that the instabilities present in density fluctuations are due essentially to the hydrodynamical representation; if we turn to a field representation that lead to the same background behaviour, the instabilities are no more present. In the long wavelength limit, both approachs give the same results. We show also that this inequivalence between background and perturbative level is a feature of negative pressure fluid. When the fluid has positive pressure, the hydrodynamical representation leads to the same behaviour as the field representation both at the background and perturbative levels.Comment: Latex file, 18 page

An Einstein-Hilbert Action for Axi-Dilaton Gravity in 4-Dimensions

We examine the axi-dilatonic sector of low energy string theory and demonstrate how the gravitational interactions involving the axion and dilaton fields may be derived from a geometrical action principle involving the curvature scalar associated with a non-Riemannian connection. In this geometry the antisymmetric tensor 3-form field determines the torsion of the connection on the frame bundle while the gradient of the metric is determined by the dilaton field. By expressing the theory in terms of the Levi-Civita connection associated with the metric in the ``Einstein frame'' we confirm that the field equations derived from the non-Riemannian Einstein-Hilbert action coincide with the axi-dilaton sector of the low energy effective action derived from string theory.Comment: 6 pages Plain Tex (No Figures), Letter to Editor Classical and Quantum Gravit

A Synthesis of International Rural Education Issues and Responses

This article synthesizes problems impacting rural primary and secondary schools and describes how schools and relevant organizations have responded to the challenges. Given the context of a globally-compressed world, the focus of the literature review is on international rural education research and strategies. The exploration took the path of topical rather than regional or methodological investigation of rural education for the purpose of thematic understanding of issues. The paper opens with a discussion of the ambiguity of the definition of “rural” to reinforce an epistemological challenge with rural education research. An adaptation of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory is used as a framework for the literature review; rural education challenges are synthesized into macro-, mezzo-, and micro-systemic level issues. The paper culminates by positing that rural education issues require inter-sectoral and collaborative responses

Quantum Stephani exact cosmological solutions and the selection of time variable

We study perfect fluid Stephani quantum cosmological model. In the present work the Schutz's variational formalism which recovers the notion of time is applied. This gives rise to Wheeler-DeWitt equation for the scale factor. We use the eigenfunctions in order to construct wave packets for each case. We study the time-dependent behavior of the expectation value of the scale factor, using many-worlds and deBroglie-Bohm interpretations of quantum mechanics.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figure

Children and older adults exhibit distinct sub-optimal cost-benefit functions when preparing to move their eyes and hands

"© 2015 Gonzalez et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited"Numerous activities require an individual to respond quickly to the correct stimulus. The provision of advance information allows response priming but heightened responses can cause errors (responding too early or reacting to the wrong stimulus). Thus, a balance is required between the online cognitive mechanisms (inhibitory and anticipatory) used to prepare and execute a motor response at the appropriate time. We investigated the use of advance information in 71 participants across four different age groups: (i) children, (ii) young adults, (iii) middle-aged adults, and (iv) older adults. We implemented 'cued' and 'non-cued' conditions to assess age-related changes in saccadic and touch responses to targets in three movement conditions: (a) Eyes only; (b) Hands only; (c) Eyes and Hand. Children made less saccade errors compared to young adults, but they also exhibited longer response times in cued versus non-cued conditions. In contrast, older adults showed faster responses in cued conditions but exhibited more errors. The results indicate that young adults (18 -25 years) achieve an optimal balance between anticipation and execution. In contrast, children show benefits (few errors) and costs (slow responses) of good inhibition when preparing a motor response based on advance information; whilst older adults show the benefits and costs associated with a prospective response strategy (i.e., good anticipation)

Developing Sensorimotor Countermeasures to Mitigate Post-Flight Locomotor Dysfunction

Following spaceflight, crewmembers experience postural and locomotor instability. The magnitude and duration of post-flight sensorimotor disturbances increase with longer duration exposure to microgravity. These post-flight postural and locomotor alterations can pose a risk to crew safety and to mission objectives if nominal or emergency vehicle egress is required immediately following long-duration spaceflight. Gait instabilities could prevent or extend the time required to make an emergency egress from the Orbiter, Crew Return Vehicle or a future Martian lander leading to compromised mission objectives. We propose a countermeasure that aids in maintaining functional locomotor performance. This includes retaining the ability to perform vehicular egress and meet early mission objectives soon after landing on a planetary surface

New Constraints from High Redshift Supernovae and Lensing Statistics upon Scalar Field Cosmologies

We explore the implications of gravitationally lensed QSOs and high-redshift SNe Ia observations for spatially flat cosmological models in which a classically evolving scalar field currently dominates the energy density of the Universe. We consider two representative scalar field potentials that give rise to effective decaying $\Lambda$ (``quintessence'') models: pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons ($V(\phi)=M^4(1+\cos (\phi /f))$) and an inverse power-law potential ($V(\phi)=M^{4+\alpha}\phi ^{-\alpha}$). We show that a large region of parameter space is consistent with current data if $\Omega_{m0} > 0.15$. On the other hand, a higher lower bound for the matter density parameter suggested by large-scale galaxy flows, $\Omega_{m0} > 0.3$, considerably reduces the allowed parameter space, forcing the scalar field behavior to approach that of a cosmological constant.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, submitted to PR

Cosmological constraints from lensing statistics and supernovae on the cosmic equation of state

We investigate observational constraints from lensing statistics and high-z type Ia supernovae on flat cosmological models with nonrelativistic matter and an exotic fluid with equation of state, $p_x=(m/3 -1)\rho_x$. We show that agreement with both tests at the 68% confidence level is possible if the parameter $m$ is low ($m \lesssim 0.85$) and $0.24 \lesssim \Omega_{m0} \lesssim 0.38$ with lower values of $\Omega_{m0}$ corresponding to higher $m$. We find that a conventional cosmological constant model with $\Omega_{m0}\simeq 0.33$ is the best fit model of the combined likelihood.Comment: 7 pages, 4 postscript figures, revtex, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Bacteriological studies of blood, tissue fluid, lymph and lymph nodes in patients with acute dermatolymphangioadenitis (DLA) in course of ‘filarial’ lymphedema

Filarial lymphedema is complicated by frequent episodes of dermatolymphangioadenitis (DLA). Severe systemic symptoms during attacks of DLA resemble those of septicemia. The question we asked was whether bacterial isolates can be found in the peripheral blood of patients during the episodes of DLA. Out of 100 patients referred to us with ‘filarial’ lymphedema 14 displayed acute and five subacute symptoms of DLA. All were on admission blood microfilariae negative but had a positive test in the past. Blood bacterial isolates were found in nine cases, four acute (21%) and five subacute (26%). In 10 acute cases blood cultures were found negative. Six blood isolates belonged to Bacilli, four to Cocci and one was Sarcina. To identify the sites of origin of bacterial dissemination, swabs taken from the calf skin biopsy wounds and tissue fluid, lymph and lymph node specimens were cultured. Swabs from the calf skin biopsy wound contained isolates in nine (47%) cases. They were Bacilli in nine, Cocci in three, Acinetobacter and Erwinia in two cases. Tissue fluid was collected from 10 patients and contained Bacilli in four (40%) and Staphylococci in three (30%). Lymph was drained in four patients and contained isolates in all samples (100%). They were Staphylococcus epidermis, xylosus and aureus, Acinetobacter, Bacillus subtilis and Sarcina. Three lymph nodes were biopsied and contained Staphylococcus chromogenes, xylosus, Enterococcus and Bacillus cereus. In six cases the same phenotypically defined species of bacteria were found in blood and limb tissues or fluids. In the ‘control’ group of patients with lymphedema without acute or subacute changes all blood cultures were negative. Interestingly, swabs from biopsy wound of these patients contained isolates in 80%, tissue fluid in 68%, lymph in 70% and lymph nodes in 58% of cases. In healthy controls, tissue fluid did not contain bacteria, and lymph isolates were found only in 12% of cases. This study demonstrates that patients with acute episodes of DLA reveal bacteriemia in a high percentage of cases. Diversity of blood and tissue bacterial isolates in these patients points to a breakdown of the skin immune barrier in lymphedema and subsequently indiscriminate bacterial colonization of deep tissues and spread to an blood circulation. © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved