636 research outputs found
Synergistic effect of mycophenolate mofetil and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor in patients with chronic allograft nephropathy
Experimental data and few clinical non-randomized studies have shown that inhibition of the renin-angiotensin system by angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) associated or not with the use of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) could delay or even halt the progression of chronic allograft nephropathy (CAN). In this retrospective historical study, we investigated whether ACE inhibition (ACEI) associated or not with the use of MMF has the same effect in humans as in experimental studies and what factors are associated with a clinical response. A total of 160 transplant patients with biopsy-proven CAN were enrolled. Eighty-one of them were on ACE therapy (G1) and 80 on ACEI_free therapy (G2). Patients were further stratified for the use of MMF. G1 patients showed a marked decrease in proteinuria and stabilized serum creatinine with time. Five-year graft survival after CAN diagnosis was more frequent in G1 (86.9 vs 67.7%; P < 0.05). In patients on ACEI-free therapy, the use of MMF was associated with better graft survival. The use of ACEI therapy protected 79% of the patients against graft loss (OR = 0.079, 95%CI = 0.015-0.426; P = 0.003). ACEI and MMF or the use of MMF alone after CAN diagnosis conferred protection against graft loss. This finding is well correlated with experimental studies in which ACEI and MMF interrupt the progression of chronic allograft dysfunction and injury. The use of ACEI alone or in combination with MMF significantly reduced proteinuria and stabilized serum creatinine, consequently improving renal allograft survival.Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Hospital do Rim e Hipertensão Disciplina de NefrologiaUniversidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Departamento de PatologiaUniversidade de São Paulo Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas IV Departamento de ImunologiaUNIFESP, Hospital do Rim e Hipertensão Disciplina de NefrologiaUNIFESP, Depto. de PatologiaSciEL
Atom gratings produced by large angle atom beam splitters
An asymptotic theory of atom scattering by large amplitude periodic
potentials is developed in the Raman-Nath approximation. The atom grating
profile arising after scattering is evaluated in the Fresnel zone for
triangular, sinusoidal, magneto-optical, and bichromatic field potentials. It
is shown that, owing to the scattering in these potentials, two
\QTR{em}{groups} of momentum states are produced rather than two distinct
momentum components. The corresponding spatial density profile is calculated
and found to differ significantly from a pure sinusoid.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure
Multifractal Analysis of inhomogeneous Bernoulli products
We are interested to the multifractal analysis of inhomogeneous Bernoulli
products which are also known as coin tossing measures. We give conditions
ensuring the validity of the multifractal formalism for such measures. On
another hand, we show that these measures can have a dense set of phase
transitions
Search for the Electric Dipole Moment of the tau Lepton
We have searched for a CP violation signature arising from an electric dipole
moment (d_tau) of the tau lepton in the e+e- -> tau+tau- reaction. Using an
optimal observable method and 29.5 fb^{-1} of data collected with the Belle
detector at the KEKB collider at sqrt{s} = 10.58 GeV, we find Re(d_tau) = (1.15
+- 1.70) x 10^{-17} ecm and Im(d_tau) = (-0.83 +- 0.86) x 10^{-17} ecm and set
the 95% confidence level limits -2.2 < Re(d_tau) < 4.5 (10^{-17}ecm) and -2.5 <
Im(d_tau) < 0.8 (10^{-17}ecm).Comment: 15 pages, LaTeX, 21 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.
Search for neutrinoless decays tau -> 3l
We have searched for neutrinoless tau lepton decays into three charged
leptons using an 87.1 fb^{-1} data sample collected with the Belle detector at
the KEKB e^+e^- collider. Since the number of signal candidate events is
compatible with that expected from the background, we set 90% confidence level
upper limits on the branching fractions in the range (1.9-3.5) x 10^{-7} for
various decay modes tau -> l l l where l represents e or mu.Comment: 12 pages, 4figure
Search for B -> h(*) nu nubar Decays at Belle
We present a search for the rare decays B -> h(*) nu nubar, where h(*) stands
for a light meson. A data sample of 535 million BBbar pairs collected with the
Belle detector at the KEKB e+e- collider is used. Signal candidates are
required to have an accompanying B meson fully reconstructed in a hadronic mode
and signal-side particles consistent with a single h(*) meson. No significant
signal is observed and we set upper limits on the branching fractions at 90%
confidence level. The limits on B0 -> K*0 nu nubar and B+ -> K+ nu nubar decays
are more stringent than the previous constraints, while the first searches for
B0 -> K0 nu nubar, pi0 nu nubar, rho0 nu nubar, phi nu nubar and B+ -> K*+ nu
nubar, rho+ nu nubar are reported.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, submit to PR
Spectra of prompt electrons from decays of B+ and B0 mesons and ratio of inclusive semielectronic branching fractions
We present spectra of prompt electrons from decays of neutral and charged B
mesons. The results are based on 140 /fb of data collected by the Belle
detector on the Upsilon(4S) resonance at the KEKB e+e- asymmetric collider. We
tag Upsilon(4S) -> B \bar{B} events by reconstructing a B meson in one of
several hadronic decay modes; the semileptonic decay of the other B meson is
inferred from the presence of an identified electron. We obtain for charged and
neutral B mesons the partial rates of semileptonic decay, to electrons with
momentum greater than 0.6 GeV/c in the B rest frame, and their ratio b_+/b_0 =
1.08 +- 0.05 +- 0.02, where the first and second errors are statistical and
systematic, respectively.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure files, submitted to Phys. Lett.
Observation of B+ -> K+ eta gamma
We report measurements of radiative B decays with K eta gamma final states,
using a data sample of 253 /fb recorded at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the
Belle detector at the KEKB e+e- storage ring. We observe B+ -> K+ eta gamma for
the first time with a branching fraction of (8.4 +- 1.5(stat) +1.2 -0.9(syst))
X 10^{-6} for M(Keta) K0 eta gamma.
We also search for B -> K3*(1780) gamma.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Phys. Lett.
Study of Decays
We report on a study of decays using
29.1 fb of annihilation data recorded at the
resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB storage ring. Making no
assumptions about the intermediate mechanism, the branching fractions for
and are
determined to be and respectively. An analysis of candidates yields to the first observation of the color-suppressed
hadronic decay with the branching fraction . We measure the ratio of branching fractions
= 1.6 0.8.Comment: 13 pages, LaTex, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.
The global functioning: Social and role scales-further validation in a large sample of adolescents and young adults at clinical high risk for psychosis
Objective: Traditional measures for assessing functioning with adult patients with schizophrenia have been shown to be insufficient for assessing the issues that occur in adolescents and young adults at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis. The current study provides an expanded validation of the Global Functioning: Social (GF:Social) and Role (GF:Role) scales developed specifically for use with CHR individuals and explores the reliability and accuracy of the ratings, the validity of the scores in comparison to other established clinical measures, stability of functioning over a 2-year period, and psychosis predictive ability. Methods: Seven hundred fifty-five CHR individuals and 277 healthy control (HC) participants completed the GF:Social and Role scales at baseline as part of the North American Prodrome Longitudinal Study (NAPLS2). Results: Inter-rater reliability and accuracy were high for both scales. Correlations between the GF scores and other established clinical measures demonstrated acceptable convergent and discriminant validity. In addition, GF:Social and Role scores were unrelated to positive symptoms. CHR participants showed large impairments in social and role functioning over 2-years, relative to the HCs, even after adjusting for age, IQ, and attenuated positive symptoms. Finally, social decline prior to baseline was more pronounced in CHR converters, relative to non-converters. Conclusions: The GF scales can be administered in a large-scale multi-site study with excellent inter-rater reliability and accuracy. CHR individuals showed social and role functioning impairments over time that were not confounded by positive symptom severity levels. The results of this study demonstrate that social decline is a particularly effective predictor of conversion outcome
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