191 research outputs found
Predicting chronic renal insufficiency in idiopathic membranous glomerulonephritis
Predicting chronic renal insufficiency in idiopathic membranous glomerulonephritis. We developed an approach in quantifying the risk of developing chronic renal insufficiency (CRI) based on a cohort of 184 patients with idiopathic membranous glomerulonephritis (IMGN), prospectively followed by the Toronto Glomerulonephritis Registry between 1974 and 1988. After a mean follow-up period of 5.8 years, 26% of patients developed CRI (defined as persistent reduction of creatinine clearance (CCr) †60 ml/min/1.73m2 for â„12 months). We found that when compared to the baseline probability of the unselected patients, the severity of proteinuria at kidney biopsy added only marginally to the prediction of CRI. We introduced a special test condition: persistent proteinuria (PP) (that is, duration of proteinuria, g/day, above different cut-off levels). We examined the positive predictive value (PPV) and sensitivity (SEN) of 15 arbitrarily chosen levels of PP (that is, proteinuria â„4, 6 or 8 g/day persisting for â„6, 9, 12, 18 or 24 months) to select levels with optimal predictive characteristics. We found that PP â„ 8 g/day for â„six months was a simple and useful predictor of CRI with a PPV and SEN of 66%. To further improve our prediction, we tested the following parameters: age, sex, initial SCr and CCr, proteinuria, serum albumin, hypertension, rate of change of CCr over time, and therapy (steroids ± immunosuppressive drugs) in a multivariate analysis. Proteinuria, initial CCr, and rate of change of CCr were most important in predicting CRI. Fifteen models were then developed by including each patient's CCr at the start of PP and its rate of change during the time period selected. Two models based on PP â„ 4 g/day for â„18 months, or â„6 g/day for â„9 months significantly improved the PPV's for CRI from those based on the same levels of PP alone. Using these test conditions, we can improve the prediction of CRI from a baseline probability of 26% in unselected patients to a range of 55 to 86% in the âhigh-riskâ patients (with SEN > 60%). Application of these predictive strategies in IMGN will be useful in managing the individual patients and in selecting patients for clinical trials by limiting the exposure of potentially toxic therapy to the âhigh-riskâ patients
Searching for Dust Reddening in SDSS Spectra with Damped Lyman {} Systems
We searched for evidence of reddening of background SDSS QSO spectra due to
dust in intervening DLA systems. We utilise the Data Releases 5 and 7 to arrive
at sample sizes of 475 (DR5) and 676 (DR7) absorbers, based on two different
published lists of SDSS DLAs. Both samples span roughly the redshift range of
2.2 < z_abs < 5.2, with a mean of z~3.0, and the majority of the DLAs (75%)
below z=3.3. We construct geometric mean spectra in the absorber restframes
ranging from 1240 to ~2800 A, and composite spectra of samples matching the
'DLA' QSOs in i band magnitude and emission redshift z_em, but without
absorption lines. By comparing the slopes of these composite spectra with their
matched counterparts, we find no sign of reddening in the ensemble of the
absorbers from these samples. Owing to both the unprecedently large sizes of
the DLA samples themselves and the non-DLA SDSS QSO sample, from which we can
draw our matching spectra, we can place very tight limits for this
non-detection ( =-0.0013+-0.0025 (DR5) and =-0.0017+-0.0022
(DR7). Interestingly, when applying our technique to the samples of York et.
al. (2006), vandenBerk et al. (2008) (intervening and intrinsic MgII absorbers)
and the smaller DLA-subsample and pool of comparison QSOs of Vladilo et al.
(2008), we do recover their results, i.e. detect the same amount of reddening
as these authors do. Furthermore, we have tested whether subsamples of our
large sample in categories involving the absorbers (HI column densities,
presence or absence of accompanying metal absorption, absorber redshift) or the
background quasars (emission redshift, brightness) do reveal dust extinction,
but found no trends. These results are at odds with both detections of dust
reddening from previous studies, and also with expectations from observations
of high-redshift galaxies. (abridged)Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Exploring the dust content of SDSS DR7 damped Lyman alpha systems at 2.155.2
We have studied a sample of 1084 intervening absorption systems with 2.155.2, having log(N) 20.0 in the spectra of QSOs in
Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data release 7 (DR7), with the aim of
understanding the nature and abundance of the dust and the chemical abundances
in the DLA absorbers. Composite spectra were constructed for the full sample
and several subsamples, chosen on the basis of absorber and QSO properties.
Average extinction curves were obtained for the samples by comparing their
geometric mean composite spectra with those of two samples of QSOs, matching in
z and i magnitude with the DLA sample, one sample without any absorbers
along their lines of sight and the other without any DLAs along their lines of
sight irrespective of the presence of other absorption systems. While the
average reddening in the DLA sample is small, we find definite evidence for the
presence of dust in subsamples based on absorber properties, in particular the
strength of metal absorption lines. DLAs along lines of sight to QSOs which are
not colour selected are found to be more dusty compared to those along the
lines of sight to the more numerous colour selected QSOs. From these studies
and from the strengths of absorption lines in the composite spectra, we
conclude that 10% of the DLAs in SDSS DR7 cause significant reddening,
have stronger absorption lines and have higher abundances as compared to the
rest of the sample. The rest of the sample shows little reddening. Due to the
dominant color selection method used to target QSOs in the SDSS DR7, this
fraction of 10% likely represents a lower limit for the global fraction of
dusty DLAs at high-z.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures. To appear in MNRA
A missense mutation in PKD1 attenuates the severity of renal disease
Mutations of PKD1 and PKD2 account for most cases of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). Compared with PKD2, patients with PKD1 typically have more severe renal disease. Here, we report a follow-up study of a unique multigeneration family with bilineal ADPKD (NFL10) in which a PKD1 disease haplotype and a PKD2 (L736X) mutation co-segregated with 18 and 14 affected individuals, respectively. In our updated genotypeâphenotype analysis of the family, we found that PKD1-affected individuals had uniformly mild renal disease similar to the PKD2-affected individuals. By sequencing all the exons and splice junctions of PKD1, we identified two missense mutations (Y528C and R1942H) from a PKD1-affected individual. Although both variants were predicted to be damaging to the mutant protein, only Y528C co-segregated with all of the PKD1-affected individuals in NFL10. Studies in MDCK cells stably expressing wild-type and mutant forms of PKD found that cell lines expressing the Y528C variant formed cysts in culture and displayed increased rates of growth and apoptosis. Thus, Y528C functions as a hypomorphic PKD1 allele. These findings have important implications for pathogenic mechanisms and molecular diagnostics of ADPKD
Cosmological Information from Quasar-Galaxy Correlations induced by Weak Lensing
The magnification bias of large-scale structures, combined with galaxy
biasing, leads to a cross-correlation of distant quasars with foreground
galaxies on angular scales of the order of arc minutes and larger. The
amplitude and angular shape of the cross-correlation function w_QG contain
information on cosmological parameters and the galaxy bias factor. While the
existence of this cross-correlation has firmly been established, existing data
did not allow an accurate measurement of w_QG yet, but wide area surveys like
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey now provide an ideal database for measuring it.
However, w_QG depends on several cosmological parameters and the galaxy bias
factor. We study in detail the sensitivity of w_QG to these parameters and
develop a strategy for using the data. We show that the parameter space can be
reduced to the bias factor b, Omega_0 and sigma_8, and compute the accuracy
with which these parameters can be deduced from SDSS data. Under reasonable
assumptions, it should be possible to reach relative accuracies of the order of
5%-15% for b, Omega_0, and sigma_8. This method is complementary to other
weak-lensing analyses based on cosmic shear.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Measuring Omega_0 with higher-order Quasar-Galaxy Correlations induced by Weak Lensing
Via the magnification bias, gravitational lensing by large-scale structures
causes angular cross-correlations between distant quasars and foreground
galaxies on angular scales of arc minutes and above. We investigate the
three-point cross-correlation between quasars and galaxy pairs measurable via
the second moment of the galaxy counts around quasars and show that it reaches
the level of a few per cent on angular scales near one arc minute. Combining
two- and three-point correlations, a skewness parameter can be defined which is
shown to be virtually independent on the shape and normalisation of the
dark-matter power spectrum. If the galaxy bias is linear and deterministic, the
skewness depends on the cosmic matter density parameter Omega_0 only;
otherwise, it can be used to probe the linearity and stochasticity of the bias.
We finally estimate the signal-to-noise ratio of a skewness determination and
find that around twenty thousand distant quasars e.g. from the Sloan Digital
Sky Survey should suffice for a direct measurement of Omega_0.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysic
Use of enhanced green fluorescent protein to monitor retroviral-mediated gene therapy in human keratinocytes
The color excess of quasars with intervening DLA systems- Analysis of the SDSS data release five
We analyzed the spectroscopic and photometric database of the 5th data
release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to search for evidence of the
quasar reddening produced by dust embedded in intervening damped Ly alpha (DLA)
systems. From a list of 5164 quasars in the interval of emission redshift 2.25
/= 4, we built
up an "absorption sample" of 248 QSOs with a single DLA system in the interval
of absorption redshift 2.2 < z_a </= 3.5 and a "pool" of 1959 control QSOs
without DLA systems or strong metal systems. For each QSO of the absorption
sample we extracted from the pool a subset of control QSOs that are closest in
redshift and magnitude. The mean color of this subset was used as a zero point
to measure the "deviation from the mean color" of individual DLA-QSOs, Delta_i.
The colors were measured using "BEST" ugriz SDSS imaging data. The mean color
excess of the absorption sample, , was estimated by averaging the individual
color deviations Delta_i. We find = 27 +/- 9 x 10**(-3) mag and
= 54 +/- 12 x 10**(-3) mag. These values are representative of the
reddening of DLA systems at z_a ~ 2.7 in SDSS QSOs with limiting magnitude r
=/~ 20.2. The detection of the mean reddening is confirmed by several
statistical tests. Analysis of the results suggests an origin of the reddening
in dust embedded in the DLA systems, with an SMC-type extinction curve. By
converting the reddening into rest-frame extinction, we derive a mean
dust-to-gas ratio ~ 2 to 4 x 10**(-23) mag cm^2. This value is ~
-1.25 dex lower than the mean dust-to-gas ratio of the Milky Way, in line with
the lower level of metallicity in the present DLA sample.Comment: Accepted for publication on Astronomy & Astrophysics, 17 pages, 10
figure
Metallicities and dust content of proximate damped Lyman alpha systems in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Composite spectra of 85 proximate absorbers (log N(HI)>20 and velocity
difference between the absorption and emission redshift, dv<10,000 km/s) in the
SDSS are used to investigate the trends of metal line strengths with velocity
separation from the QSO. We construct composites in 3 velocity bins: dv<3000
km/s, 30006000 km/s, with further sub-samples to
investigate the metal line dependence on N(HI) and QSO luminosity. Low (e.g.
SiII and FeII) and high ionization (e.g. SiIV and CIV) species alike have
equivalent widths (EWs) that are larger by factors of 1.5 -- 3 in the dv<3000
km/s composite, compared to the dv>6000 km/s spectrum. The EWs show an even
stronger dependence on dv if only the highest neutral hydrogen column density
(log N(HI)>20.7) absorbers are considered. We conclude that PDLAs generally
have higher metallicities than intervening absorbers, with the enhancement
being a function of both dv and N(HI). It is also found that absorbers near
QSOs with lower rest-frame UV luminosities have significantly stronger metal
lines. We speculate that absorbers near to high luminosity QSOs may have had
their star formation prematurely quenched. Finally, we search for the signature
of dust reddening by the PDLAs, based on an analysis of the QSO continuum
slopes relative to a control sample and determine a limit of E(B-V)<0.014 for
an SMC extinction curve. This work provides an empirical motivation for
distinguishing between proximate and intervening DLAs, and establishes a
connection between the QSO environment and galaxy properties at high redshifts.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
Polycystic Kidney Disease Caused by Bilineal Inheritance of Truncating PKD1 as Well as PKD2 Mutations
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