2,472 research outputs found
Detection of donor-specific hyporesponsiveness following late failure of human renal allografts
Detection of donor-specific hyporesponsiveness following late failure of human renal allografts. Limiting dilution assays to measure the frequency of interleukin-2-secreting peripheral blood T cells were carried out in patients, whose renal allografts had failed due to acute rejection (9 patients) and in patients whose grafts failed more than two years after transplantation without any recent evidence of acute rejection. Using a modified form of the assay we demonstrate that nearly half of 18 patients whose renal transplants had failed after more than two years have low or undetectable HTLp frequencies against donor, but not third-party DR antigens. No such difference was observed in any of the nine patients studied whose transplants were lost from early acute rejection. These results provide the first indication that, as in rodent models of transplantation, T cell unresponsiveness towards donor MHC antigens can occur following prolonged residence of an allograft in humans. Furthermore, the results suggest that chronic rejection may be driven by mechanisms other than direct allorecognition. The assay may be a valuable tool to study the evolution of donor-specific direct T cell alloresponsiveness in patients with well-functioning grafts
Intestinal helminths of spiny mice (Acomys cahirinus dimidiatus) from St Katherine's Protectorate in the Sinai, Egypt
High-throughput Saccharification Assay for Lignocellulosic Materials
Polysaccharides that make up plant lignocellulosic biomass can be broken down to produce a range of sugars that subsequently can be
used in establishing a biorefinery. These raw materials would constitute a new industrial platform, which is both sustainable and carbon neutral, to replace
the current dependency on fossil fuel. The recalcitrance to deconstruction observed in lignocellulosic materials is produced by several intrinsic properties
of plant cell walls. Crystalline cellulose is embedded in matrix polysaccharides such as xylans and arabinoxylans, and the whole structure is encased by the
phenolic polymer lignin, that is also difficult to digest 1. In order to improve the digestibility of plant materials we need to discover the main bottlenecks
for the saccharification of cell walls and also screen mutant and breeding populations to evaluate the variability in saccharification 2. These tasks require
a high throughput approach and here we present an analytical platform that can perform saccharification analysis in a 96-well plate format. This platform has
been developed to allow the screening of lignocellulose digestibility of large populations from varied plant species. We have scaled down the reaction volumes
for gentle pretreatment, partial enzymatic hydrolysis and sugar determination, to allow large numbers to be assessed rapidly in an automated system
Correcting the z~8 Galaxy Luminosity Function for Gravitational Lensing Magnification Bias
We present a Bayesian framework to account for the magnification bias from
both strong and weak gravitational lensing in estimates of high-redshift galaxy
luminosity functions. We illustrate our method by estimating the UV
luminosity function using a sample of 97 Y-band dropouts (Lyman break galaxies)
found in the Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies (BoRG) survey and from the
literature. We find the luminosity function is well described by a Schechter
function with characteristic magnitude of ,
faint-end slope of , and number density of
. These
parameters are consistent within the uncertainties with those inferred from the
same sample without accounting for the magnification bias, demonstrating that
the effect is small for current surveys at , and cannot account for the
apparent overdensity of bright galaxies compared to a Schechter function found
recently by Bowler et al. (2014a,b) and Finkelstein et al. (2014). We estimate
that the probability of finding a strongly lensed source in our sample
is in the range depending on limiting magnitude. We identify one
strongly-lensed candidate and three cases of intermediate lensing in BoRG
(estimated magnification ) in addition to the previously known
candidate group-scale strong lens. Using a range of theoretical luminosity
functions we conclude that magnification bias will dominate wide field surveys
-- such as those planned for the Euclid and WFIRST missions -- especially at
. Magnification bias will need to be accounted for in order to derive
accurate estimates of high-redshift luminosity functions in these surveys and
to distinguish between galaxy formation models.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 20 pages, 13 figure
The Importance of Direct and Indirect Trophic Interactions in Determining the Presence of a Locally Rare Day-Flying Moth
Ecosystem engineers affect other organisms by creating, maintaining or modifying habitats, potentially supporting species of conservation concern. However, it is important to consider these interactions alongside non-engineering trophic pathways. We investigated the relative importance of trophic and non-trophic effects of an ecosystem engineer, red deer, on a locally rare moth, the transparent burnet ( Zygaena purpuralis ). This species requires specific microhabitat conditions, including the foodplant, thyme, and bare soil for egg-laying. The relative importance of grazing (i.e., trophic effect of modifying microhabitat) and trampling (i.e., non-trophic effect of exposing bare soil) by red deer on transparent burnet abundance are unknown. We tested for these effects using a novel method of placing pheromone-baited funnel traps in the field. Imago abundance throughout the flight season was related to plant composition, diversity and structure at various scales around each trap. Indirect effects of red deer activity were accounted for by testing red deer pellet and trail presence against imago abundance. Imago abundance was positively associated with thyme and plant diversity, whilst negatively associated with velvet grass and heather species cover. The presence of red deer pellets and trails were positively associated with imago abundance. The use of these sites by red deer aids the transparent burnet population via appropriate levels of grazing and the provision of a key habitat condition, bare soil, in the form of deer trails. This study shows that understanding how both trophic and non-trophic interactions affect the abundance of a species provides valuable insights regarding conservation objectives
A High Angular Resolution Survey of Massive Stars in Cygnus OB2: Results from the Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensors
We present results of a high angular resolution survey of massive OB stars in
the Cygnus OB2 association that we conducted with the Fine Guidance Sensor 1R
(FGS1r) on the Hubble Space Telescope. FGS1r is able to resolve binary systems
with a magnitude difference delta-V < 4 down to separations as small as 0.01
arcsec. The sample includes 58 of the brighter members of Cyg OB2, one of the
closest examples of an environment containing a large number of very young and
massive stars. We resolved binary companions for 12 targets and confirmed the
triple nature of one other target, and we offer evidence of marginally resolved
companions for two additional stars. We confirm the binary nature of 11 of
these systems from complementary adaptive optics imaging observations. The
overall binary frequency in our study is 22% to 26% corresponding to orbital
periods ranging from 20 - 20,000 years. When combined with the known
short-period spectroscopic binaries, the results supports the hypothesis that
the binary fraction among massive stars is > 60%. One of the new discoveries is
a companion to the hypergiant star MT 304 = Cyg OB2-12, and future measurements
of orbital motion should provide mass estimates for this very luminous star.Comment: accepted for AJ, 84 pages, 61 figure
Intestinal helminths of spiny mice (Acomys cahirinus dimidiatus) from St Katherine's Protectorate in the Sinai, Egypt
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Habitat availability explains variation in climate-driven range shifts across multiple taxonomic groups
Range shifting is vital for species persistence, but there is little consensus on why individual species vary so greatly in the rates at which their ranges have shifted in response to recent climate warming. Here, using 40 years of distribution data for 291 species from 13 invertebrate taxa in Britain, we show that interactions between habitat availability and exposure to climate change at the range margins explain up to half of the variation in rates of range shift. Habitat generalists expanded faster than more specialised species, but this intrinsic trait explains less of the variation in range shifts than habitat availability, which additionally depends on extrinsic factors that may be rare or widespread at the range margin. Similarly, while climate change likely underlies polewards expansions, we find that more of the between-species variation is explained by differences in habitat availability than by changes in climatic suitability. A model that includes both habitat and climate, and their statistical interaction, explains the most variation in range shifts. We conclude that climate-change vulnerability assessments should focus as much on future habitat availability as on climate sensitivity and exposure, with the expectation that habitat restoration and protection will substantially improve species' abilities to respond to uncertain future climates
Can Short-Range Interactions Mediate a Bose Metal Phase in 2D?
We show here based on a 1-loop scaling analysis that short-range interactions
are strongly irrelevant perturbations near the insulator-superconductor (IST)
quantum critical point. The lack of any proof that short-range interactions
mediate physics which is present only in strong coupling leads us to conclude
that short-range interactions are strictly irrelevant near the IST quantum
critical point. Hence, we argue that no new physics, such as the formation of a
uniform Bose metal phase can arise from an interplay between on-site and
nearest-neighbour interactions.Comment: 3 pages, 1 .eps file. SUbmitted to Phys. Rev.
A Phase Glass is a Bose Metal: New Conducting State in 2D
In the quantum rotor model with random exchange interactions having a
non-zero mean, three phases, a 1) phase (Bose) glass, 2) superfluid, and 3)
Mott insulator, meet at a bi-critical point. We demonstrate that proximity to
the bi-critical point and the coupling between the energy landscape and the
dissipative degrees of freedom of the phase glass lead to a metallic state at
T=0. Consequently, the phase glass is unique in that it represents a concrete
example of a metallic state that is mediated by disorder, even in 2D. We
propose that the experimentally observed metallic phase which intervenes
between the insulator and the superconductor in a wide range of thin films is
in actuality a phase glass.Comment: 4 pages, 1 .eps figure, final version to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
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