1,213 research outputs found

    Large spin systematics in CFT

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    20 pages; v2: version published in JHEPUsing conformal field theory (CFT) arguments we derive an infinite number of constraints on the large spin expansion of the anomalous dimensions and structure constants of higher spin operators. These arguments rely only on analiticity, unitarity, crossing-symmetry and the structure of the conformal partial wave expansion. We obtain results for both, perturbative CFT to all order in the perturbation parameter, as well as non-perturbatively. For the case of conformal gauge theories this provides a proof of the reciprocity principle to all orders in perturbation theory and provides a new "reciprocity" principle for structure constants. We argue that these results extend also to non-conformal theories.Peer reviewe

    Immediate vs. Delayed Implant Placement after Anterior Single Tooth Extraction: The Timing Randomised Controlled Clinical Trial.

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    to compare need for bone augmentation, surgical complications, periodontal, radiographic, aesthetic and patient reported outcomes in subjects receiving implant placement at the time of extraction (IMI) or 12 weeks thereafter. METHODS: Subjects requiring single tooth extraction in the anterior and premolar areas were recruited in 7 private practices. Implant position and choice of platform were restoratively driven. Measurements were performed by calibrated and masked examiners. RESULTS: IMI was unfeasible in 7.5% of cases. 124 subjects were randomized. One implant was lost in the IMI group. IMI required bone augmentation in 72% of cases compared with 43.9% for delayed (P=0.01), while wound failure occurred in 26.1% and 5.3% of cases, respectively (P=0.02). At 1 year, IMI had deeper probing depths (4.1±1.2 mm vs. 3.3±1.1 mm, P<0.01). A trend for greater radiographic bone loss was observed at IMI over the initial 3-year period (Ptrend<0.01). Inadequate pink aesthetic scores were obtained in 19% of delayed and in 42% of IMI implant cases (P=0.03). No differences in patient reported outcomes were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Immediate implant placement should not be recommended when aesthetics are important, IMI should be limited to selected cases. Longer follow-up is needed to assess differences in complication rates. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

    Roles for Treg expansion and HMGB1 signaling through the TLR1-2-6 axis in determining the magnitude of the antigen-specific immune response to MVA85A

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    © 2013 Matsumiya 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 creditedA better understanding of the relationships between vaccine, immunogenicity and protection from disease would greatly facilitate vaccine development. Modified vaccinia virus Ankara expressing antigen 85A (MVA85A) is a novel tuberculosis vaccine candidate designed to enhance responses induced by BCG. Antigen-specific interferon-γ (IFN-γ) production is greatly enhanced by MVA85A, however the variability between healthy individuals is extensive. In this study we have sought to characterize the early changes in gene expression in humans following vaccination with MVA85A and relate these to long-term immunogenicity. Two days post-vaccination, MVA85A induces a strong interferon and inflammatory response. Separating volunteers into high and low responders on the basis of T cell responses to 85A peptides measured during the trial, an expansion of circulating CD4+ CD25+ Foxp3+ cells is seen in low but not high responders. Additionally, high levels of Toll-like Receptor (TLR) 1 on day of vaccination are associated with an increased response to antigen 85A. In a classification model, combined expression levels of TLR1, TICAM2 and CD14 on day of vaccination and CTLA4 and IL2Rα two days post-vaccination can classify high and low responders with over 80% accuracy. Furthermore, administering MVA85A in mice with anti-TLR2 antibodies may abrogate high responses, and neutralising antibodies to TLRs 1, 2 or 6 or HMGB1 decrease CXCL2 production during in vitro stimulation with MVA85A. HMGB1 is released into the supernatant following atimulation with MVA85A and we propose this signal may be the trigger activating the TLR pathway. This study suggests an important role for an endogenous ligand in innate sensing of MVA and demonstrates the importance of pattern recognition receptors and regulatory T cell responses in determining the magnitude of the antigen specific immune response to vaccination with MVA85A in humans.This work was funded by the Wellcome Trust. MM has a Wellcome Trust PhD studentship and HM is a Wellcome Trust Senior Fello

    Farm Area Segmentation in Satellite Images Using DeepLabv3+ Neural Networks

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    Farm detection using low resolution satellite images is an important part of digital agriculture applications such as crop yield monitoring. However, it has not received enough attention compared to high-resolution images. Although high resolution images are more efficient for detection of land cover components, the analysis of low-resolution images are yet important due to the low-resolution repositories of the past satellite images used for timeseries analysis, free availability and economic concerns. In this paper, semantic segmentation of farm areas is addressed using low resolution satellite images. The segmentation is performed in two stages; First, local patches or Regions of Interest (ROI) that include farm areas are detected. Next, deep semantic segmentation strategies are employed to detect the farm pixels. For patch classification, two previously developed local patch classification strategies are employed; a two-step semi-supervised methodology using hand-crafted features and Support Vector Machine (SVM) modelling and transfer learning using the pretrained Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). For the latter, the high-level features learnt from the massive filter banks of deep Visual Geometry Group Network (VGG-16) are utilized. After classifying the image patches that contain farm areas, the DeepLabv3+ model is used for semantic segmentation of farm pixels. Four different pretrained networks, resnet18, resnet50, resnet101 and mobilenetv2, are used to transfer their learnt features for the new farm segmentation problem. The first step results show the superiority of the transfer learning compared to hand-crafted features for classification of patches. The second step results show that the model trained based on resnet50 achieved the highest semantic segmentation accuracy.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

    Cellular changes in boric acid-treated DU-145 prostate cancer cells

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    Epidemiological, animal, and cell culture studies have identified boron as a chemopreventative agent in prostate cancer. The present objective was to identify boron-induced changes in the DU-145 human prostate cancer cell line. We show that prolonged exposure to pharmacologically-relevant levels of boric acid, the naturally occurring form of boron circulating in human plasma, induces the following morphological changes in cells: increases in granularity and intracellular vesicle content, enhanced cell spreading and decreased cell volume. Documented increases in β-galactosidase activity suggest that boric acid induces conversion to a senescent-like cellular phenotype. Boric acid also causes a dose-dependent reduction in cyclins A–E, as well as MAPK proteins, suggesting their contribution to proliferative inhibition. Furthermore, treated cells display reduced adhesion, migration and invasion potential, along with F-actin changes indicative of reduced metastatic potential. Finally, the observation of media acidosis in treated cells correlated with an accumulation of lysosome-associated membrane protein type 2 (LAMP-2)-negative acidic compartments. The challenge of future studies will be to identify the underlying mechanism responsible for the observed cellular responses to this natural blood constituent
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