1,711 research outputs found
Gene Transcription Changes in Asthmatic Chronic Rhinosinusitis with Nasal Polyps and Comparison to Those in Atopic Dermatitis
Asthmatic chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (aCRSwNP) is a common disruptive eosinophilic disease without effective medical treatment. Therefore, we sought to identify gene expression changes, particularly those occurring early, in aCRSwNP. To highlight expression changes associated with eosinophilic epithelial inflammation, we further compared the changes in aCRSwNP with those in a second eosinophilic epithelial disease, atopic dermatitis (AD), which is also closely related to asthma.Genome-wide mRNA levels measured by exon array in both nasosinus inflamed mucosa and adjacent polyp from 11 aCRSwNP patients were compared to those in nasosinus tissue from 17 normal or rhinitis subjects without polyps. Differential expression of selected genes was confirmed by qRT-PCR or immunoassay, and transcription changes common to AD were identified. Comparison of aCRSwNP inflamed mucosa and polyp to normal/rhinitis tissue identified 447 differentially transcribed genes at > or = 2 fold-change and adjusted p-value < 0.05. These included increased transcription of chemokines localized to chromosome 17q11.2 (CCL13, CCL2, CCL8, and CCL11) that favor eosinophil and monocyte chemotaxis and chemokines (CCL18, CCL22, and CXCL13) that alternatively-activated monocyte-derived cells have been shown to produce. Additional transcription changes likely associated with Th2-like eosinophilic inflammation were prominent and included increased IL1RL1 (IL33 receptor) and EMR1&3 and decreased CRISP2&3. A down-regulated PDGFB-centric network involving several smooth muscle-associated genes was also implicated. Genes at 17q11.2, genes associated with alternative activation or smooth muscle, and the IL1RL1 gene were also differentially transcribed in AD.Our data implicate several genes or gene sets in aCRSwNP and eosinophilic epithelial inflammation, some that likely act in the earlier stages of inflammation. The identified gene expression changes provide additional diagnostic and therapeutic targets for aCRSwNP and other eosinophilic epithelial diseases
Membrane Partitioning: “Classical” and “Nonclassical” Hydrophobic Effects
The free energy of transfer of nonpolar solutes from water to lipid bilayers is often dominated by a large negative enthalpy rather than the large positive entropy expected from the hydrophobic effect. This common observation has led to the idea that membrane partitioning is driven by the “nonclassical” hydrophobic effect. We examined this phenomenon by characterizing the partitioning of the well-studied peptide melittin using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and circular dichroism (CD). We studied the temperature dependence of the entropic (−TΔS) and enthalpic (ΔH) components of free energy (ΔG) of partitioning of melittin into lipid membranes made of various mixtures of zwitterionic and anionic lipids. We found significant variations of the entropic and enthalpic components with temperature, lipid composition and vesicle size but only small changes in ΔG (entropy–enthalpy compensation). The heat capacity associated with partitioning had a large negative value of about −0.5 kcal mol−1 K−1. This hallmark of the hydrophobic effect was found to be independent of lipid composition. The measured heat capacity values were used to calculate the hydrophobic-effect free energy ΔGhΦ, which we found to dominate melittin partitioning regardless of lipid composition. In the case of anionic membranes, additional free energy comes from coulombic attraction, which is characterized by a small effective peptide charge due to the lack of additivity of hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions in membrane interfaces [Ladokhin and White J Mol Biol 309:543–552, 2001]. Our results suggest that there is no need for a special effect—the nonclassical hydrophobic effect—to describe partitioning into lipid bilayers
Measurement of B(t->Wb)/B(t->Wq) at the Collider Detector at Fermilab
We present a measurement of the ratio of top-quark branching fractions R= B(t
-> Wb)/B(t -> Wq), where q can be a b, s or a d quark, using lepton-plus-jets
and dilepton data sets with integrated luminosity of ~162 pb^{-1} collected
with the Collider Detector at Fermilab during Run II of the Tevatron. The
measurement is derived from the relative numbers of t-tbar events with
different multiplicity of identified secondary vertices. We set a lower limit
of R > 0.61 at 95% confidence level.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, published in Physical Review Letters; changes
made to be consistent with published versio
Observation of Exclusive Gamma Gamma Production in p pbar Collisions at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV
We have observed exclusive \gamma\gamma production in proton-antiproton
collisions at \sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV, using data from 1.11 \pm 0.07 fb^{-1}
integrated luminosity taken by the Run II Collider Detector at Fermilab. We
selected events with two electromagnetic showers, each with transverse energy
E_T > 2.5 GeV and pseudorapidity |\eta| < 1.0, with no other particles detected
in -7.4 < \eta < +7.4. The two showers have similar E_T and azimuthal angle
separation \Delta\phi \sim \pi; 34 events have two charged particle tracks,
consistent with the QED process p \bar{p} to p + e^+e^- + \bar{p} by two-photon
exchange, while 43 events have no charged tracks. The number of these events
that are exclusive \pi^0\pi^0 is consistent with zero and is < 15 at 95% C.L.
The cross section for p\bar{p} to p+\gamma\gamma+\bar{p} with |\eta(\gamma)| <
1.0 and E_T(\gamma) > 2.5$ GeV is
2.48^{+0.40}_{-0.35}(stat)^{+0.40}_{-0.51}(syst) pb.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Measurement of the Lifetime Difference Between B_s Mass Eigenstates
We present measurements of the lifetimes and polarization amplitudes for B_s
--> J/psi phi and B_d --> J/psi K*0 decays. Lifetimes of the heavy (H) and
light (L) mass eigenstates in the B_s system are separately measured for the
first time by determining the relative contributions of amplitudes with
definite CP as a function of the decay time. Using 203 +/- 15 B_s decays, we
obtain tau_L = (1.05 +{0.16}/-{0.13} +/- 0.02) ps and tau_H = (2.07
+{0.58}/-{0.46} +/- 0.03) ps. Expressed in terms of the difference DeltaGamma_s
and average Gamma_s, of the decay rates of the two eigenstates, the results are
DeltaGamma_s/Gamma_s = (65 +{25}/-{33} +/- 1)%, and DeltaGamma_s = (0.47
+{0.19}/-{0.24} +/- 0.01) inverse ps.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables; as published in Physical Review Letters
on 16 March 2005; revisions are for length and typesetting only, no changes
in results or conclusion
Measurement of and Production in Collisions at = 1.96 TeV
The Standard Model predictions for and production are
tested using an integrated luminosity of 200 pb of \ppbar collision data
collected at the Collider Detector at Fermilab. The cross sections are measured
selecting leptonic decays of the and bosons, and photons with
transverse energy GeV that are well separated from leptons. The
production cross sections and kinematic distributions for the and
are compared to SM predictions.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR
Combined search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying to a bb pair using the full CDF data set
We combine the results of searches for the standard model Higgs boson based
on the full CDF Run II data set obtained from sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV p-pbar
collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron corresponding to an integrated luminosity
of 9.45/fb. The searches are conducted for Higgs bosons that are produced in
association with a W or Z boson, have masses in the range 90-150 GeV/c^2, and
decay into bb pairs. An excess of data is present that is inconsistent with the
background prediction at the level of 2.5 standard deviations (the most
significant local excess is 2.7 standard deviations).Comment: To be published in Phys. Rev. Lett (v2 contains minor updates based
on comments from PRL
Shrinking a large dataset to identify variables associated with increased risk of Plasmodium falciparum infection in Western Kenya
Large datasets are often not amenable to analysis using traditional single-step approaches. Here, our general objective was to apply imputation techniques, principal component analysis (PCA), elastic net and generalized linear models to a large dataset in a systematic approach to extract the most meaningful predictors for a health outcome. We extracted predictors for Plasmodium falciparum infection, from a large covariate dataset while facing limited numbers of observations, using data from the People, Animals, and their Zoonoses (PAZ) project to demonstrate these techniques: data collected from 415 homesteads in western Kenya, contained over 1500 variables that describe the health, environment, and social factors of the humans, livestock, and the homesteads in which they reside. The wide, sparse dataset was simplified to 42 predictors of P. falciparum malaria infection and wealth rankings were produced for all homesteads. The 42 predictors make biological sense and are supported by previous studies. This systematic data-mining approach we used would make many large datasets more manageable and informative for decision-making processes and health policy prioritization
Search for ZZ and ZW Production in ppbar Collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV
We present a search for ZZ and ZW vector boson pair production in ppbar
collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV using the leptonic decay channels ZZ --> ll nu
nu, ZZ --> l l l' l' and ZW --> l l l' nu. In a data sample corresponding to an
integrated luminosity of 194 pb-1 collected with the Collider Detector at
Fermilab, 3 candidate events are found with an expected background of 1.0 +/-
0.2 events. We set a 95% confidence level upper limit of 15.2 pb on the cross
section for ZZ plus ZW production, compared to the standard model prediction of
5.0 +/- 0.4 pb.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. This version is accepted for publication by Phys.
Rev. D Rapid Communication
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