1,116 research outputs found
Clinical effect of IRT-5 probiotics on immune modulation of autoimmunity or alloimmunity in the eye
Background: Although the relation of the gut microbiota to a development of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases has been investigated in various animal models, there are limited studies that evaluate the effect of probiotics in the autoimmune eye disease. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effect of IRT-5 probiotics consisting of Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus reuteri, Bifidobacterium bifidum, and Streptococcus thermophilus on the autoimmunity of uveitis and dry eye and alloimmunity of corneal transplantation. Methods: Experimental autoimmune uveitis was induced by subcutaneous immunization with interphotoreceptor-binding protein and intraperitoneal injection of pertussis toxin in C57BL/6 (B6) mice. For an autoimmune dry eye model, 12-weeks-old NOD.B10.H2b mice were used. Donor cornea of B6 mice was transplanted into BALB/C mice. IRT-5 probiotics or phosphate buffered saline (PBS) were administered for three weeks immediately after induction of uveitis or transplantation. The inflammation score of the retinal tissues, dry eye manifestations (corneal staining and tear secretion), and graft survival were measured in each model. The changes of T cells were evaluated in drainage lymph nodes using fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Results: Retinal histology score in IRT-5 group of uveitis was lower than that in PBS group (p = 0.045). Ocular staining score was lower (p < 0.0001) and tear secretion was higher (p < 0.0001) in the IRT-5 group of NOD.B10.H2b mice than that in the PBS group. However, the graft survival in the IRT-5 group was not different from those of PBS group. The percentage of regulatory T cells was increased in the IRT-5-treated dry eye models (p = 0.032). The percentage of CD8+IL-17hi (p = 0.027) and CD8+ interferon gamma (IFN��)hi cells (p = 0.022) were significantly decreased in the IRT-5-treated uveitis models and the percentage of CD8+IFN��hi cells was markedly reduced (p = 0.036) in IRT-5-treated dry eye model. Conclusion: Our results suggest that administration of IRT-5 probiotics may modulate clinical manifestations of autoimmunity in the eye, but not on alloimmunity of corneal transplantation. ? 2017 by the authors.112Nsciescopu
Utilizing a biology-driven approach to map the exposome in health and disease:An essential investment to drive the next generation of environmental discovery
BACKGROUND: Recent developments in technologies have offered opportunities to measure the exposome with unprecedented accuracy and scale. However, because most investigations have targeted only a few exposures at a time, it is hypothesized that the majority of the environmental determinants of chronic diseases remain unknown. OBJECTIVES: We describe a functional exposome concept and explain how it can leverage existing bioassays and high-resolution mass spectrometry for exploratory study. We discuss how such an approach can address well-known barriers to interpret exposures and present a vision of next-generation exposomics. DISCUSSION: The exposome is vast. Instead of trying to capture all exposures, we can reduce the complexity by measuring the functional exposome— the totality of the biologically active exposures relevant to disease development—through coupling biochemical receptor-binding assays with affinity purification–mass spectrometry. We claim the idea of capturing exposures with functional biomolecules opens new opportunities to solve critical problems in exposomics, including low-dose detection, unknown annotations, and complex mixtures of exposures. Although novel, biology-based measurement can make use of the existing data processing and bioinformatics pipelines. The functional exposome concept also complements conven-tional targeted and untargeted approaches for understanding exposure-disease relationships. CONCLUSIONS: Although measurement technology has advanced, critical technological, analytical, and inferential barriers impede the detection of many environmental exposures relevant to chronic-disease etiology. Through biology-driven exposomics, it is possible to simultaneously scale up discovery of these causal environmental factors. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP8327
Notes on Supersymmetry Enhancement of ABJM Theory
We study the supersymmetry enhancement of ABJM theory. Starting from a supersymmetric Chern-Simons matter theory with gauge group
U(2)U(2) which is a truncated version of the ABJM theory, we find by
using the monopole operator that there is additional supersymmetry
related to the gauge group. We show this additional supersymmetry can combine
with supersymmetry of the original ABJM theory to an enhanced
SUSY with gauge group U(2)U(2) in the case . We
also discuss the supersymmetry enhancement of the ABJM theory with
U()U() gauge group and find a condition which should be satisfied
by the monopole operator.Comment: 23 pages, no figure, minor corrections, version to appear in JHE
Temperature-dependent Raman spectroscopy in BaRuO systems
We investigated the temperature-dependence of the Raman spectra of a
nine-layer BaRuO single crystal and a four-layer BaRuO epitaxial film,
which show pseudogap formations in their metallic states. From the polarized
and depolarized spectra, the observed phonon modes are assigned properly
according to the predictions of group theory analysis. In both compounds, with
decreasing temperature, while modes show a strong hardening, (or
) modes experience a softening or no significant shift. Their different
temperature-dependent behaviors could be related to a direct Ru metal-bonding
through the face-sharing of RuO. It is also observed that another
mode of the oxygen participating in the face-sharing becomes split at low
temperatures in the four layer BaRuO. And, the temperature-dependence of
the Raman continua between 250 600 cm is strongly correlated to
the square of the plasma frequency. Our observations imply that there should be
a structural instability in the face-shared structure, which could be closely
related to the pseudogap formation of BaRuO systems.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. to be published in Phys. Rev.
Semiclassical stationary states for nonlinear Schroedinger equations with fast decaying potentials
We study the existence of stationnary positive solutions for a class of
nonlinear Schroedinger equations with a nonnegative continuous potential V.
Amongst other results, we prove that if V has a positive local minimum, and if
the exponent of the nonlinearity satisfies N/(N-2)<p<(N+2)/(N-2), then for
small epsilon the problem admits positive solutions which concentrate as
epsilon goes to 0 around the local minimum point of V. The novelty is that no
restriction is imposed on the rate of decay of V. In particular, we cover the
case where V is compactly supported.Comment: 22 page
Registration of 'Jeokwangtangkong' Peanut
'Jeokwangtangkong' peanut (Arachis hypogaea L. subsp.fastigiata var. vulgaris) (Reg. no. CV-63, PI607913 is a spanish-type
developed at the International Crops Research Insitute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India
It was introduced into the Republic Of Korea in 1989 as ICGV 86326. After five years of evaluaton, it was released in 1996
as Jeokwangtangkong for cultivation in Korea
Risk of Bias Assessments and Evidence Syntheses for Observational Epidemiologic Studies of Environmental and Occupational Exposures: Strengths and Limitations.
BACKGROUND: Increasingly, risk of bias tools are used to evaluate epidemiologic studies as part of evidence synthesis (evidence integration), often involving meta-analyses. Some of these tools consider hypothetical randomized controlled trials (RCTs) as gold standards. METHODS: We review the strengths and limitations of risk of bias assessments, in particular, for reviews of observational studies of environmental exposures, and we also comment more generally on methods of evidence synthesis. RESULTS: Although RCTs may provide a useful starting point to think about bias, they do not provide a gold standard for environmental studies. Observational studies should not be considered inherently biased vs. a hypothetical RCT. Rather than a checklist approach when evaluating individual studies using risk of bias tools, we call for identifying and quantifying possible biases, their direction, and their impacts on parameter estimates. As is recognized in many guidelines, evidence synthesis requires a broader approach than simply evaluating risk of bias in individual studies followed by synthesis of studies judged unbiased, or with studies given more weight if judged less biased. It should include the use of classical considerations for judging causality in human studies, as well as triangulation and integration of animal and mechanistic data. CONCLUSIONS: Bias assessments are important in evidence synthesis, but we argue they can and should be improved to address the concerns we raise here. Simplistic, mechanical approaches to risk of bias assessments, which may particularly occur when these tools are used by nonexperts, can result in erroneous conclusions and sometimes may be used to dismiss important evidence. Evidence synthesis requires a broad approach that goes beyond assessing bias in individual human studies and then including a narrow range of human studies judged to be unbiased in evidence synthesis. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP6980
Vector meson production and nucleon resonance analysis in a coupled-channel approach for energies m_N < sqrt(s) < 2 GeV II: photon-induced results
We present a nucleon resonance analysis by simultaneously considering all
pion- and photon-induced experimental data on the final states gamma N, pi N, 2
pi N, eta N, K Lambda, K Sigma, and omega N for energies from the nucleon mass
up to sqrt(s) = 2 GeV. In this analysis we find strong evidence for the
resonances P_{31}(1750), P_{13}(1900), P_{33}(1920), and D_{13}(1950). The
omega N production mechanism is dominated by large P_{11}(1710) and
P_{13}(1900) contributions. In this second part we present the results on the
photoproduction reactions and the electromagnetic properties of the resonances.
The inclusion of all important final states up to sqrt(s) = 2 GeV allows for
estimates on the importance of the individual states for the GDH sum rule.Comment: 41 pages, 26 figures, discussion extended, typos corrected,
references updated, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Vector meson production and nucleon resonance analysis in a coupled-channel approach for energies m_N < sqrt(s) < 2 GeV I: pion-induced results and hadronic parameters
We present a nucleon resonance analysis by simultaneously considering all
pion- and photon-induced experimental data on the final states gamma N, pi N, 2
pi N, eta N, K Lambda, K Sigma, and omega N for energies from the nucleon mass
up to sqrt(s) = 2 GeV. In this analysis we find strong evidence for the
resonances P_{31}(1750), P_{13}(1900), P_{33}(1920), and D_{13}(1950). The
omega N production mechanism is dominated by large P_{11}(1710) and
P_{13}(1900) contributions. In this first part, we present the results of the
pion-induced reactions and the extracted resonance and background properties
with emphasis on the difference between global and purely hadronic fits.Comment: 54 pages, 26 figures, discussion extended, typos corrected,
references updated, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Single Spin Asymmetry in Polarized Proton-Proton Elastic Scattering at GeV
We report a high precision measurement of the transverse single spin
asymmetry at the center of mass energy GeV in elastic
proton-proton scattering by the STAR experiment at RHIC. The was measured
in the four-momentum transfer squared range \GeVcSq, the region of a significant interference between the
electromagnetic and hadronic scattering amplitudes. The measured values of
and its -dependence are consistent with a vanishing hadronic spin-flip
amplitude, thus providing strong constraints on the ratio of the single
spin-flip to the non-flip amplitudes. Since the hadronic amplitude is dominated
by the Pomeron amplitude at this , we conclude that this measurement
addresses the question about the presence of a hadronic spin flip due to the
Pomeron exchange in polarized proton-proton elastic scattering.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure
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