Research and investigative analysis using Kron's method of analyzing redundant structures

Response characteristics, frequency, and mode shape of Saturn SA-DI vehicle - analysis of redundant structure

Determinants of antibody persistence across doses and continents after single-dose rVSV-ZEBOV vaccination for Ebola virus disease: an observational cohort study.

BACKGROUND: The recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) vaccine expressing the Zaire Ebola virus (ZEBOV) glycoprotein is efficacious in the weeks following single-dose injection, but duration of immunity is unknown. We aimed to assess antibody persistence at 1 and 2 years in volunteers who received single-dose rVSV-ZEBOV in three previous trials. METHODS: In this observational cohort study, we prospectively followed-up participants from the African and European phase 1 rVSV-ZEBOV trials, who were vaccinated once in 2014-15 with 300 000 (low dose) or 10-50 million (high dose) plaque-forming units (pfu) of rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine to assess ZEBOV glycoprotein (IgG) antibody persistence. The primary outcome was ZEBOV glycoprotein-specific IgG geometric mean concentrations (GMCs) measured yearly by ELISA compared with 1 month (ie, 28 days) after immunisation. We report GMCs up to 2 years (Geneva, Switzerland, including neutralising antibodies up to 6 months) and 1 year (Lambaréné, Gabon; Kilifi, Kenya) after vaccination and factors associated with higher antibody persistence beyond 6 months, according to multivariable analyses. Trials and the observational study were registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (Geneva: NCT02287480 and NCT02933931; Kilifi: NCT02296983) and the Pan-African Clinical Trials Registry (Lambaréné PACTR201411000919191). FINDINGS: Of 217 vaccinees from the original studies (102 from the Geneva study, 75 from the Lambaréné study, and 40 from the Kilifi study), 197 returned and provided samples at 1 year (95 from the Geneva study, 63 from the Lambaréné, and 39 from the Kilifi study) and 90 at 2 years (all from the Geneva study). In the Geneva group, 44 (100%) of 44 participants who had been given a high dose (ie, 10-50 million pfu) of vaccine and who were seropositive at day 28 remained seropositive at 2 years, whereas 33 (89%) of 37 who had been given the low dose (ie, 300 000 pfu) remained seropositive for 2 years (p=0·042). In participants who had received a high dose, ZEBOV glycoprotein IgG GMCs decreased significantly between their peak (at 1-3 months) and month 6 after vaccination in Geneva (p0·05). Neutralising antibodies seem to be less durable, with seropositivity dropping from 64-71% at 28 days to 27-31% at 6 months in participants from the Geneva study. INTERPRETATION: Antibody responses to single-dose rVSV-ZEBOV vaccination are sustained across dose ranges and settings, a key criterion in countries where booster vaccinations would be impractical. FUNDING: The Wellcome Trust and Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking

Tokamak Transport Studies Using Perturbation Analysis

Studies of the transport properties of tokamak plasmas using perturbation analysis are discussed. The focus is on experiments with not too large perturbations, such as sawtooth induced heat and density pulse propagation, power modulation and oscillatory gas-puff experiments. The approximations made in the standard analysis of such experiments are made explicit and are discussed. References are given to papers that deal with specific aspects of the theory. Points of agreement as well as discrepancies between different experiments and gaps in the experimental data base are highlighted. The analysis of cross-coupling between electron thermal and particle transport using simultaneous measurements of heat and density pulses in JET is discussed, as an illustration of the potentiality to measure off-diagonal elements of the transport matrix in perturbative experiments

Resolving Apparent Differences between Heat and Density Pulse-Propagation in Jet and Text

Sawtooth induced heat and density pulse measurements reported in the literature for the JET and TEXT experiments are discussed. In JET the heat pulse travels ten times faster than the density pulse, but in TEXT both pulses travel at the same speed. The measurements are analysed using coupled transport equations for energy and particles. It is shown that the different behaviour of the density pulse in the two experiments can be attributed to differences in the off-diagonal elements of the transport matrix. If the perturbed fluxes of heat and particles are expressed as linear combinations of the thermodynamic forces del p and del T (rather than del n and del T), the corresponding transport matrices are remarkably similar. However, minor differences in this transport matrix between JET and TEXT account for the qualitative difference in the density pulses

Resolving Apparent Differences between Heat and Density Pulse-Propagation in Jet and Text

Sawtooth induced heat and density pulse measurements reported in the literature for the JET and TEXT experiments are discussed. In JET the heat pulse travels ten times faster than the density pulse, but in TEXT both pulses travel at the same speed. The measurements are analysed using coupled transport equations for energy and particles. It is shown that the different behaviour of the density pulse in the two experiments can be attributed to differences in the off-diagonal elements of the transport matrix. If the perturbed fluxes of heat and particles are expressed as linear combinations of the thermodynamic forces del p and del T (rather than del n and del T), the corresponding transport matrices are remarkably similar. However, minor differences in this transport matrix between JET and TEXT account for the qualitative difference in the density pulses