102 research outputs found
Impaired dexamethasone-related increase of anticoagulants is associated with the development of osteonecrosis in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Coagulation alterations may be involved in osteonecrosis in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Retrospectively, we evaluated the available coagulation parameters at diagnosis and during induction treatment of 161 acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients: 24 with symptomatic osteonecrosis (median age: 13.8 years, range 4.0-17.2) and 137 without osteonecrosis (median age: 4.9 years, range 1.0-16.7). Coagulation parameters of both groups were similar at diagnosis. After four weeks of treatment including dexamethasone, levels of antithrombin and protein S were significantly less in osteonecrosis-positive than in osteonecrosis-negative patients. Subsequently, after four doses of asparaginase and tapering dexamethasone, these coagulation parameters equally decreased in both groups. Consequently, nadirs of antithrombin and protein S were significantly lower in osteonecrosis-positive than in osteonecrosis- negative patients, even reaching levels below lower normal limits in the osteonecrosis-positive group. A reduced dexamethasone related increase of antithrombin and protein S, and subsequent decline below normal levels after introduction of asparaginase, may result in a hypercoagulable state, contributing to development of symptomatic osteonecrosis
Asparagine synthetase expression is linked with L-asparaginase resistance in TEL-AML1-negative but not TEL-AML1-positive pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Resistance to L-asparaginase in leukemic cells may be caused by an
elevated cellular expression of asparagine synthetase (AS). Previously, we
reported that high AS expression did not correlate to L-asparaginase
resistance in TEL-AML1-positive B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia
(ALL). In the present study we confirmed this finding in TEL-AML1-positive
patients (n = 28) using microarrays. In contrast, 35
L-asparaginase-resistant TEL-AML1-negative B-lineage ALL patients had a
significant 3.5-fold higher AS expression than 43 sensitive patients (P <
.001). Using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RTQ-PCR),
this finding was confirmed in an independent group of 39 TEL-AML1-negative
B-lineage ALL patients (P = .03). High expression of AS was associated
with poor prognosis (4-year probability of disease-free survival [pDFS]
58% +/- 11%) compared with low expression (4-year pDFS 83% +/- 7%; P =
.009). We conclude that resistance to l-asparaginase and relapse risk are
associated with high expression of AS in TEL-AML1-negative but not
TEL-AML1-positive B-lineage ALL
Leptonic and Semileptonic Decays of Charm and Bottom Hadrons
We review the experimental measurements and theoretical descriptions of
leptonic and semileptonic decays of particles containing a single heavy quark,
either charm or bottom. Measurements of bottom semileptonic decays are used to
determine the magnitudes of two fundamental parameters of the standard model,
the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements and . These
parameters are connected with the physics of quark flavor and mass, and they
have important implications for the breakdown of CP symmetry. To extract
precise values of and from measurements, however,
requires a good understanding of the decay dynamics. Measurements of both charm
and bottom decay distributions provide information on the interactions
governing these processes. The underlying weak transition in each case is
relatively simple, but the strong interactions that bind the quarks into
hadrons introduce complications. We also discuss new theoretical approaches,
especially heavy-quark effective theory and lattice QCD, which are providing
insights and predictions now being tested by experiment. An international
effort at many laboratories will rapidly advance knowledge of this physics
during the next decade.Comment: This review article will be published in Reviews of Modern Physics in
the fall, 1995. This file contains only the abstract and the table of
contents. The full 168-page document including 47 figures is available at
http://charm.physics.ucsb.edu/papers/slrevtex.p
How To Find Charm in Nuclear Collisions at RHIC and LHC
Measurements of dilepton production from charm decay and Drell-Yan processes
respectively probe the gluon and sea quark distributions in hadronic
collisions. In nucleus-nucleus collisions, these hard scattering processes
constitute a `background' to thermal contributions from the hot matter produced
by the collision. To determine the magnitude and behavior of this background,
we calculate the hard scattering contribution to dilepton production in nuclear
collisions at RHIC and LHC at next to leading order in perturbative QCD.
Invariant mass, rapidity and transverse momentum distributions are presented.
We compare these results to optimistic hydrodynamic estimates of the thermal
dilepton production. We find that charm production from hard scattering is by
far the dominant contribution. Experiments therefore can measure the gluon
distribution in the nuclear target and projectile and, consequently, can
provide new information on gluon shadowing. We then illustrate how experimental
cuts on the rapidity gap between the leptons can aid in reducing the charm
background, thereby enhancing thermal information.Comment: 32 pages, latex, 19 figure
On the mechanisms governing gas penetration into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection
A new 1D radial fluid code, IMAGINE, is used to simulate the penetration of gas into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection (MGI). The main result is that the gas is in general strongly braked as it reaches the plasma, due to mechanisms related to charge exchange and (to a smaller extent) recombination. As a result, only a fraction of the gas penetrates into the plasma. Also, a shock wave is created in the gas which propagates away from the plasma, braking and compressing the incoming gas. Simulation results are quantitatively consistent, at least in terms of orders of magnitude, with experimental data for a D 2 MGI into a JET Ohmic plasma. Simulations of MGI into the background plasma surrounding a runaway electron beam show that if the background electron density is too high, the gas may not penetrate, suggesting a possible explanation for the recent results of Reux et al in JET (2015 Nucl. Fusion 55 093013)
Physics with the KLOE-2 experiment at the upgraded DANE
Investigation at a --factory can shed light on several debated issues
in particle physics. We discuss: i) recent theoretical development and
experimental progress in kaon physics relevant for the Standard Model tests in
the flavor sector, ii) the sensitivity we can reach in probing CPT and Quantum
Mechanics from time evolution of entangled kaon states, iii) the interest for
improving on the present measurements of non-leptonic and radiative decays of
kaons and eta/eta mesons, iv) the contribution to understand the
nature of light scalar mesons, and v) the opportunity to search for narrow
di-lepton resonances suggested by recent models proposing a hidden dark-matter
sector. We also report on the physics in the continuum with the
measurements of (multi)hadronic cross sections and the study of gamma gamma
processes.Comment: 60 pages, 41 figures; added affiliation for one of the authors; added
reference to section
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