430 research outputs found
Response to Interferon-Beta Treatment in Afro-Caribbeans with Multiple Sclerosis
Background. Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients of African ancestry have a more aggressive disease course than white patients and could be resistant to interferon-beta (INFB). Methods. We studied the impact of INFB in treatment-naive Afro-Caribbean (AC) with clinically definite MS using our European Database for Multiple Sclerosis (EDMUS) (2003–2010). Main outcome measures were annual relapse rate after 2 years of treatment, proportion of exacerbation-free subjects 48 weeks after initiating INFB, and time to first relapse. Results. 76 AC-MS (59F/17M) were identified. Annual relapse rate of 1.29 decreased to 0.83 (−35.6%) after 2 years of treatment. The proportion of relapse-free patients at 48 weeks was 46.2%. Median time to first relapse was 52 weeks. Conclusion. INFB is not strong enough to control AC-MS patients in many cases which is problematic in a population of worse MS prognosis
Appropriate counseling approach to disclose HIV status to HIV-infected children: Chiradzulu, Malawi
Mexico AIDS Conference 200
Gateway diversity for a future high throughput satellite system
The continuous increase of traffic demands for satellite networks motivates the evolution of the telecommunication
satellite technology towards wider channels and multiple beam operation with frequency re-use across the coverage.
This is made possible by the use of higher frequency bands. Recent research projects 1,2 have investigated multi-beam
coverages with more than 200 user beams operated in Ka band, to offer very large data throughputs over Europe. Since
2012, the European Commission project Broadband Access via integrated Terrestrial and Satellite systems (BATS) has
explored a similar concept based on a dual satellite solution offering around 302 user beams over EU27 and Turkey,
targeting 2020 timeframe, see Figure 1. In all these systems, so as to maximize the user link capacity, the whole civil
band allocated to Fixed Satellite Services (FSS) in Ka band (20/30 GHz) is dedicated to the user links. The feeder
links thus have to be operated in another band. An attractive option is to rely on Q/V bands (30/40 GHz) to provide
the gateway-to-satellite links. Despite the large available bandwidths in Q/V band (5 GHz in each direction), the very
large user aggregated bandwidths are required to implement several tens of gateways to provide the necessary capacity
Tissue Engineering for Periodontal Ligament Regeneration: Biomechanical Specifications
The periodontal biomechanical environment is very difficult to investigate.
By the complex geometry and composition of the periodontal ligament, its
mechanical behavior is very dependent on the type of loading (compressive vs.
tensile loading; static vs. cyclic loading; uniaxial vs. multiaxial) and the
location around the root (cervical, middle, or apical). These different aspects
of the periodontal ligament make it difficult to develop a functional
biomaterial to treat periodontal attachment due to periodontal diseases. This
review aims to describe the structural and biomechanical properties of the
periodontal ligament. Particular importance is placed in the close
interrelationship that exists between structure and biomechanics: the
periodontal ligament structural organization is specific to its biomechanical
environment, and its biomechanical properties are specific to its structural
arrangement. This balance between structure and biomechanics can be explained
by a mechanosensitive periodontal cellular activity. These specifications have
to be considered in the further tissue engineering strategies for the
development of an efficient biomaterial for periodontal tissues regeneration
Apport diagnostique du dosage des chaînes légères libres sériques d'immunoglobulines pour l'exploration des gammapathies monoconales
RésuméLes gammapathies monoclonales sont d\u27occurrence non négligeable (3,2 %) chez les sujets de plus de 50 ans. Pour environ la moitié d\u27entre elles, elles correspondent, lors de leur découverte, à une gammapathie monoclonale de signification indéterminée (ou MGUS en anglais pour monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance). Un peu plus du tiers sont des hémopathies lymphoïdes B avérées (myélome multiple, maladie de Waldenström, amylose) qui représentent le stade ultime de progression des MGUS avec une incidence annuelle de 1 %. L\u27exploration biologique immunologique validée à ce jour repose sur une analyse conjointe du sérum et des urines par immunoélectrophorèse/immunofixation qui vise à typer l\u27immunoglobuline monoclonale. Depuis 2001, un nouveau dosage est proposé pour la prise en charge diagnostique de ces patients : la détermination néphélémétrique ou turbidimétrique des chaînes légères libres (CLL) d\u27immunoglobulines kappa et lambda à l\u27aide d\u27anti-sérums spécifiques avec détermination du rapport κ/λ dont le déséquilibre peut être indicateur d\u27un excès de production monoclonale. Cela reste cependant un dosage quantitatif qui ne peut faire la preuve d\u27une anomalie qualitative (monoclonalité). L\u27apport pour le diagnostic et pour le suivi de ce dosage doit tenir compte des propriétés de la réaction antigène/anticorps en milieu liquide (phénomène de zone), du métabolisme rénal des chaînes légères avec ses conséquences en cas d\u27insuffisance rénale et des interférences possibles avec les chaînes légères liées des immunoglobulines intactes. L\u27apport diagnostique du dosage des CLL est patent dans les situations cliniques où l\u27absence de marqueur monoclonal peut être un handicap : myélome à chaîne légère, myélome apparemment non sécrétant, amylose et maladie de dépôt des chaînes d\u27immunoglobulines. Dans les autres situations (myélome à immunoglobuline intacte, MGUS), l\u27apport du dosage des CLL comme marqueur diagnostique ou comme indicateur de pronostic ou de suivi thérapeutique n\u27est pas encore prouvé. Son évaluation nécessitera des études prospectives particulièrement rigoureuses
Neonatal cephalohematoma
Background: A few hours after birth a newborn baby developed two soft well-defined bumps situated bilaterally on the posterior part of the parietal regions of the skull. The swellings were separated by the sagittal suture and do not cross the lambdoid suture. The infant was delivered vaginally in a head-first position after a full term pregnancy (G2A1P0) without complications. There was no prolonged labour nor use of forceps, vacuum extractor or other techniques of assisted delivery
Rain attenuation prediction model for satellite communications based on the Météo-France ensemble prediction system PEARP
This paper presents an
example of the usage of ensemble weather forecasting for the control of
satellite-based communication systems. Satellite communication systems become
increasingly sensitive to weather conditions as their operating frequency
increases to avoid electromagnetic spectrum congestion and enhance their
capacity. In the microwave domain, electromagnetic waves that are conveying
information are attenuated between the satellite and Earth terminals in the
presence of hydrometeors (mostly rain drops and more marginally cloud
droplets). To maintain a reasonable level of service availability, even with
adverse weather conditions considering the scarcity of amplification power in
spacecraft, fade mitigation techniques have been developed. The general idea
behind those fade mitigation techniques is to reroute, change the
characteristics or reschedule the transmission in the case of too-significant
propagation impairments. For some systems, a scheduling on how to use those
mechanisms some hours in advance is required, making assumptions on the
future weather conditions affecting the link. To this aim the use of weather
forecast data to control the attenuation compensation mechanisms seems of
particular interest to maximize the performances of the communication links
and hence of the associated economic value. A model to forecast the
attenuation on the link based on forecasted rainfall amounts from
deterministic or ensemble weather forecasting is presented and validated. In
a second phase, the model's application to a simplified telecommunication
system allows us to demonstrate the valuable contribution of weather
forecasting in the system's availability optimization or in the system's
throughput optimization. The benefit of using ensemble forecasts rather than
deterministic ones is demonstrated as well.</p
The helminth product, ES-62, protects against airway inflammation by resetting the Th cell phenotype
We previously demonstrated inhibition of ovalbumin (OVA)-induced allergic airway hyper-responsiveness in the mouse using ES-62, a phosphorylcholine-containing glycoprotein secreted by the filarial nematode, Acanthocheilonema viteae. This inhibition correlated with ES-62-induced mast cell desensitisation, although the degree to which this reflected direct targeting of mast cells remained unclear as suppression of the Th2 phenotype of the inflammatory response, as measured by eosinophilia and IL-4 levels in the lungs, was also observed. We now show that inhibition of the lung Th2 phenotype is reflected in ex vivo analyses of draining lymph node recall cultures and accompanied by a decrease in the serum levels of total and OVA-specific IgE. Moreover, ES-62 also suppresses the lung infiltration by neutrophils that is associated with severe asthma and is generally refractory to conventional anti-inflammatory therapies, including steroids. Protection against Th2-associated airway inflammation does not reflect induction of regulatory T cell (Treg) responses (there is no increased IL-10 or Foxp3 expression) but rather a switch in polarisation towards increased T-bet expression and IFNγ production. This ES-62-driven switch in the Th1/Th2 balance is accompanied by decreased IL-17 responses, a finding in line with reports that IFNγ and IL-17 are counter-regulatory. Consistent with ES-62 mediating its effects via IFNγ-mediated suppression of pathogenic Th2/Th17 responses, we found that neutralising anti-IFNγ antibodies blocked protection against airway inflammation in terms of pro-inflammatory cell infiltration, particularly by neutrophils and lung pathology. Collectively, these studies indicate that ES-62, or more likely small molecule analogues, could have therapeutic potential in asthma, in particular for those subtypes of patients (e.g. smokers, steroid-resistant) who are refractory to current treatments
Report on the first round of the Mock LISA Data Challenges
The Mock LISA Data Challenges (MLDCs) have the dual purpose of fostering the
development of LISA data analysis tools and capabilities, and demonstrating the
technical readiness already achieved by the gravitational-wave community in
distilling a rich science payoff from the LISA data output. The first round of
MLDCs has just been completed: nine data sets containing simulated
gravitational wave signals produced either by galactic binaries or massive
black hole binaries embedded in simulated LISA instrumental noise were released
in June 2006 with deadline for submission of results at the beginning of
December 2006. Ten groups have participated in this first round of challenges.
Here we describe the challenges, summarise the results, and provide a first
critical assessment of the entries.Comment: Proceedings report from GWDAW 11. Added author, added reference,
clarified some text, removed typos. Results unchanged; Removed author, minor
edits, reflects submitted versio
Shape descriptors and statistical classification on areal topography data for tile inspection in tessellated surfaces
Verification of conformance to design specifications in production, and identification of defects related to wear or other damage during maintenance, are key metrological aspects that must be addressed for micro-scale tessellated surfaces. A new algorithmic approach is presented that operates on topography datasets as obtained by areal topography instruments. The approach combines segmentation algorithms with a novel implementation of the angular radial transform, originally adopted by the MPEG-7 standard, to implement shape descriptors and associated similarity metrics. Applications to the inspection and verification of laser-manufactured micro-embossing topographies are illustrated. The topographies are first segmented to extract the individual tiles; the tiles are then encoded through shape descriptors. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis are used to investigate the behaviour of the angular radial transform coefficients. Finally, an algorithmic classifier based on supervised learning (k-nearest neighbours) is implemented and shown to be effective at identifying defects and at discriminating between defect types
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