145 research outputs found
Temperature compensated, humidity insensitive, high-T<sub>g</sub> TOPAS FBGs for accelerometers and microphones
Theory of nonlocal soliton interaction in nematic liquid crystals
We investigate interactions between spatial nonlocal bright solitons in nematic liquid crystals using an analytical (“effective particle”) approach as well as direct numerical simulations. The model predicts attraction of out-of-phase solitons and the existence of their stable bound state. This nontrivial property is solely due to the nonlocal nature of the nonlinear response of the liquid crystals. We further predict and verify numerically the critical outwards angle and degree of nonlocality which determine the transition between attraction and repulsion of out-of-phase solitons
Collapse arrest and soliton stabilization in nonlocal nonlinear media
We investigate the properties of localized waves in systems governed by
nonlocal nonlinear Schrodinger type equations. We prove rigorously by bounding
the Hamiltonian that nonlocality of the nonlinearity prevents collapse in,
e.g., Bose-Einstein condensates and optical Kerr media in all physical
dimensions. The nonlocal nonlinear response must be symmetric, but can be of
completely arbitrary shape. We use variational techniques to find the soliton
solutions and illustrate the stabilizing effect of nonlocality.Comment: 4 pages with 3 figure
Administration of Panobinostat Is Associated with Increased IL-17A mRNA in the Intestinal Epithelium of HIV-1 Patients
Intestinal CD4+ T cell depletion is rapid and profound during early HIV-1 infection.This leads to a compromised mucosal barrier that prompts chronic systemic inflammation.The preferential loss of intestinal T helper 17 (Th17) cells in HIV-1 disease is a driver of the damage within the mucosal barrier and of disease progression.Thus, understanding the effects of new therapeutic strategies in the intestines has high priority. Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors (e.g., panobinostat) are actively under investigation as potential latency reversing agents in HIV eradication studies. These drugs have broad effects that go beyond reactivating virus, including modulation of immune pathways. We examined colonic biopsies from ART suppressed HIV-1 infected individuals (clinicaltrials.gov: NCT01680094) for the effects of panobinostat on intestinal T cell activation and on inflammatory cytokine production. We compared biopsy samples that were collected before and during oral panobinostat treatment and observed that panobinostat had a clear biological impact in this anatomical compartment. Specifically, we observed a decrease in CD69+ intestinal lamina propria T cell frequency and increased IL-17A mRNA expression in the intestinal epithelium. These results suggest that panobinostat therapy may influence the restoration of mucosal barrier function in these patients
Modulational instability in nonlocal nonlinear Kerr media
We study modulational instability (MI) of plane waves in nonlocal nonlinear
Kerr media. For a focusing nonlinearity we show that, although the nonlocality
tends to suppress MI, it can never remove it completely, irrespectively of the
particular profile of the nonlocal response function. For a defocusing
nonlinearity the stability properties depend sensitively on the response
function profile: for a smooth profile (e.g., a Gaussian) plane waves are
always stable, but MI may occur for a rectangular response. We also find that
the reduced model for a weak nonlocality predicts MI in defocusing media for
arbitrary response profiles, as long as the intensity exceeds a certain
critical value. However, it appears that this regime of MI is beyond the
validity of the reduced model, if it is to represent the weakly nonlocal limit
of a general nonlocal nonlinearity, as in optics and the theory of
Bose-Einstein condensates.Comment: 8 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Nonlinearity and disorder: Classification and stability of nonlinear impurity modes
We study the effects produced by competition of two physical mechanisms of
energy localization in inhomogeneous nonlinear systems. As an example, we
analyze spatially localized modes supported by a nonlinear impurity in the
generalized nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation and describe three types of
nonlinear impurity modes --- one- and two-hump symmetric localized modes and
asymmetric localized modes --- for both focusing and defocusing nonlinearity
and two different (attractive or repulsive) types of impurity. We obtain an
analytical stability criterion for the nonlinear localized modes and consider
the case of a power-law nonlinearity in detail. We discuss several scenarios of
the instability-induced dynamics of the nonlinear impurity modes, including the
mode decay or switching to a new stable state, and collapse at the impurity
site.Comment: 18 pages, 22 figure
Senicapoc treatment in COVID-19 Patients with Severe Respiratory Insufficiency - A Randomized, Open-Label, Phase II Trial
BACKGROUND: The aim of the current study was to determine if treatment with senicapoc, improves the PaO(2)/FiO(2) ratio in patients with COVID‐19 and severe respiratory insufficiency. METHODS: Investigator‐initiated, randomized, open‐label, phase II trial in four intensive care units (ICU) in Denmark. We included patients aged ≥18 years and admitted to an ICU with severe respiratory insufficiency due to COVID‐19. The intervention consisted of 50 mg enteral senicapoc administered as soon as possible after randomization and again after 24 h. Patients in the control group received standard care only. The primary outcome was the PaO(2)/FiO(2) ratio at 72 h. RESULTS: Twenty patients were randomized to senicapoc and 26 patients to standard care. Important differences existed in patient characteristics at baseline, including more patients being on non‐invasive/invasive ventilation in the control group (54% vs. 35%). The median senicapoc concentration at 72 h was 62.1 ng/ml (IQR 46.7–71.2). The primary outcome, PaO(2)/FiO(2) ratio at 72 h, was significantly lower in the senicapoc group (mean 19.5 kPa, SD 6.6) than in the control group (mean 24.4 kPa, SD 9.2) (mean difference −5.1 kPa [95% CI −10.2, −0.04] p = .05). The 28‐day mortality in the senicapoc group was 2/20 (10%) compared with 6/26 (23%) in the control group (OR 0.36 95% CI 0.06–2.07, p = .26). CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with senicapoc resulted in a significantly lower PaO(2)/FiO(2) ratio at 72 h with no differences for other outcomes
Administration of Panobinostat Is Associated with Increased IL-17A mRNA in the Intestinal Epithelium of HIV-1 Patients
Intestinal CD4+ T cell depletion is rapid and profound during early HIV-1 infection. This leads to a compromised mucosal barrier that prompts chronic systemic inflammation. The preferential loss of intestinal T helper 17 (Th17) cells in HIV-1 disease is a driver of the damage within the mucosal barrier and of disease progression. Thus, understanding the effects of new therapeutic strategies in the intestines has high priority. Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors (e.g., panobinostat) are actively under investigation as potential latency reversing agents in HIV eradication studies. These drugs have broad effects that go beyond reactivating virus, including modulation of immune pathways. We examined colonic biopsies from ART suppressed HIV-1 infected individuals (clinicaltrials.gov: NCT01680094) for the effects of panobinostat on intestinal T cell activation and on inflammatory cytokine production. We compared biopsy samples that were collected before and during oral panobinostat treatment and observed that panobinostat had a clear biological impact in this anatomical compartment. Specifically, we observed a decrease in CD69+ intestinal lamina propria T cell frequency and increased IL-17A mRNA expression in the intestinal epithelium. These results suggest that panobinostat therapy may influence the restoration of mucosal barrier function in these patients
From food to pest: Conversion factors determine switches between ecosystem services and disservices
Ecosystem research focuses on goods and services, thereby ascribing beneficial values to the ecosystems. Depending on the context, however, outputs from ecosystems can be both positive and negative. We examined how provisioning services of wild animals and plants can switch between being services and disservices. We studied agricultural communities in Laos to illustrate when and why these switches take place. Government restrictions on land use combined with economic and cultural changes have created perceptions of rodents and plants as problem species in some communities. In other communities that are maintaining shifting cultivation practices, the very same taxa were perceived as beneficial. We propose conversion factors that in a given context can determine where an individual taxon is located along a spectrum from ecosystem service to disservice, when, and for whom. We argue that the omission of disservices in ecosystem service accounts may lead governments to direct investments at inappropriate targets
Postoperative Deterioration in Health Related Quality of Life as Predictor for Survival in Patients with Glioblastoma: A Prospective Study
BACKGROUND: Studies indicate that acquired deficits negatively affect patients' self-reported health related quality of life (HRQOL) and survival, but the impact of HRQOL deterioration after surgery on survival has not been explored. OBJECTIVE: Assess if change in HRQOL after surgery is a predictor for survival in patients with glioblastoma. METHODS: Sixty-one patients with glioblastoma were included. The majority of patients (n = 56, 91.8%) were operated using a neuronavigation system which utilizes 3D preoperative MRI and updated intraoperative 3D ultrasound volumes to guide resection. HRQOL was assessed using EuroQol 5D (EQ-5D), a generic instrument. HRQOL data were collected 1-3 days preoperatively and after 6 weeks. The mean change in EQ-5D index was -0.05 (95% CI -0.15-0.05) 6 weeks after surgery (p = 0.285). There were 30 patients (49.2%) reporting deterioration 6 weeks after surgery. In a Cox multivariate survival analysis we evaluated deterioration in HRQOL after surgery together with established risk factors (age, preoperative condition, radiotherapy, temozolomide and extent of resection). RESULTS: There were significant independent associations between survival and use of temozolomide (HR 0.30, p = 0.019), radiotherapy (HR 0.26, p = 0.030), and deterioration in HRQOL after surgery (HR 2.02, p = 0.045). Inclusion of surgically acquired deficits in the model did not alter the conclusion. CONCLUSION: Early deterioration in HRQOL after surgery is independently and markedly associated with impaired survival in patients with glioblastoma. Deterioration in patient reported HRQOL after surgery is a meaningful outcome in surgical neuro-oncology, as the measure reflects both the burden of symptoms and treatment hazards and is linked to overall survival
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