771 research outputs found
True infliximab resistance in rheumatoid arthritis: a role for lymphotoxin α?
Background: The combination of methotrexate and the anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF) antibody infliximab is a very effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, a proportion of patients are not responsive to this treatment. Inefficacy may represent a TNF independent disease or insufficient drug at the site of action.
Case report: A patient with RA resistant to repeated high dose infliximab infusions and intra-articular infliximab into an inflamed knee is described. No beneficial clinical effect was observed. Pre-injection arthroscopic biopsy of the study knee demonstrated TNF staining but also confirmed the presence of lymphotoxin (LT or TNFß) on immunohistochemistry. Subsequent treatment with etanercept (which blocks LT as well as TNF) resulted in clinical remission of disease.
Conclusion: This case suggests that resistance to TNF blockade may occur when TNF is not the dominant inflammatory cytokine and suggests that LT may have a pathogenic role in RA
Rotational kinetics of absorbing dust grains in neutral gas
We study the rotational and translational kinetics of massive particulates
(dust grains) absorbing the ambient gas. Equations for microscopic phase
densities are deduced resulting in the Fokker-Planck equation for the dust
component. It is shown that although there is no stationary distribution, the
translational and rotational temperatures of dust tend to certain values, which
differ from the temperature of the ambient gas. The influence of the inner
structure of grains on rotational kinetics is also discussed.Comment: REVTEX4, 20 pages, 2 figure
Plasmon-pole approximation for semiconductor quantum wire electrons
We develop the plasmon-pole approximation for an interacting electron gas
confined in a semiconductor quantum wire. We argue that the plasmon-pole
approximation becomes a more accurate approach in quantum wire systems than in
higher dimensional systems because of severe phase-space restrictions on
particle-hole excitations in one dimension. As examples, we use the
plasmon-pole approximation to calculate the electron self-energy due to the
Coulomb interaction and the hot-electron energy relaxation rate due to
LO-phonon emission in GaAs quantum wires. We find that the plasmon-pole
approximation works extremely well as compared with more complete many-body
calculations.Comment: 16 pages, RevTex, figures included. Also available at
http://www-cmg.physics.umd.edu/~lzheng
Interaction and dynamical binding of spin waves or excitons in quantum Hall systems
Interaction between spin waves (or excitons) moving in the lowest Landau
level is studied using numerical diagonalization. Becuse of complicated
statistics obeyed by these composite particles, their effective interaction is
completely different from the dipole-dipole interaction predicted in the model
of independent (bosonic) waves. In particular, spin waves moving in the same
direction attract one another which leads to their dynamical binding. The
interaction pseudopotentials V_[up,up](k) and V_[up,down](k) for two spin waves
with equal wavevectors k and moving in the same or opposite directions have
been calculated and shown to obey power laws V(k) ~ k^alpha at small k. A high
value of alpha_[up,up]~4 explains the occurrence of linear bands in the spin
excitation spectra of quantum Hall droplets.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR
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Using MODFLOW drains to simulate groundwater flow in a karst environment
Modeling groundwater flow in a karst environment is both numerically challenging and highly uncertain because of potentially complex flowpaths and a lack of site-specific information. This study presents the results of MODFLOW numerical modeling in which drain cells in a finite-difference model are used as analogs for preferential flowpaths or conduits in karst environments. In this study, conduits in mixed-flow systems are simulated by assigning connected pathways of drain cells from the locations of tracer releases, sinkholes, or other karst features to outlet springs along inferred flowpaths. These paths are determined by the locations of losing stream segments, ephemeral stream beds, geophysical surveys, fracture lineaments, or other surficial characteristics, combined with the results of dye traces. The elevations of the drains at the discharge ends of the inferred flowpaths are estimated from field data and are adjusted when necessary during model calibration. To simulate flow in a free-flowing conduit, a high conductance is assigned to each drain to eliminate the need for drain-specific information that would be very difficult to obtain. Calculations were performed for a site near Hohenfels, Germany. The potentiometric surface produced by the simulations agreed well with field data. The head contours in the vicinity of the karst features behaved in a manner consistent with a flow system having both diffuse and conduit components, and the sum of the volumetric flow out of the drain cells agreed closely with spring discharges and stream flows. Because of the success of this approach, it is recommended for regional studies in which little site-specific information (e.g., location, number, size, and conductivity of fractures and conduits) is available, and general flow characteristics are desired
Multibeam Maser Survey of methanol and excited OH in the Magellanic clouds: new detections and maser abundance estimates
‘The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com.’ Copyright Blackwell Publishing DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.12888.xPeer reviewe
Experimental nitrogen addition alters structure and function of a boreal poor fen: Implications for critical loads
Bogs and fens cover 6 and 21%, respectively, of the 140,329 km2 Oil Sands Administrative Area in northern Alberta. Regional background atmospheric N deposition is low (b2 kg N ha−1 yr−1 ), but oil sands development has led to increasing N deposition (as high as 17 kg N ha−1 yr−1 ). To examine responses to N deposition, over five years, we experimentally applied N (as NH4NO3) to a poor fen near Mariana Lake, Alberta, unaffected by oil sands activities, at rates of 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 kg N ha−1 yr−1 , plus controls (no water or N addition). At Mariana Lake Poor Fen (MLPF), increasing N addition: 1) progressively inhibited N2-fixation; 2) had no effect on net primary production (NPP) of Sphagnum fuscum or S. angustifolium, while stimulating S. magellanicum NPP; 3) led to decreased abundance of S. fuscum and increased abundance of S. angustifolium, S. magellanicum, Andromeda polifolia, Vaccinium oxycoccos, and of vascular plants in general; 4) led to an increase in stem N concentrations in S. angustifolium and S. magellanicum, and an increase in leaf N concentrations in Chamaedaphne calyculata, Andromeda polifolia, and Vaccinium oxycoccos; 5) stimulated root biomass and production;6) stimulated decomposition of cellulose, but not of Sphagnum or vascular plant litter; and 7) had no or minimal effects on net N mineralization in surface peat, NH4 +-N, NO3 −-N or DON concentrations in surface porewater, or peat microbial composition. Increasing N addition led to a switch from new N inputs being taken up primarily by Sphagnum to being taken up primarily by shrubs. MLPF responses to increasing N addition did not exhibit threshold triggers, but rather began as soon as N additions increased. Considering all responses to N addition, we recommend a critical load for poor fens in Alberta of 3 kg N ha−1 yr−1
Jurassic stratigraphy of the Faroe-Shetland region : implications for the evolution of the proto-NE Atlantic margin
This report is the result of a joint study by the British Geological Survey (BGS) and Jarðfeingi (the Faroese Earth and Energy Directorate) on behalf of the Faroe-Shetland Consortium (FSC) and presents a regional analysis of Jurassic stratigraphy of the Faroe-Shetland region and the implications for the evolution of the proto-NE Atlantic margin.
This report integrates the main conclusions of the various component studies that comprise the ‘Jurassic Project’. Readers are directed to the individual, detailed reports for further background information, a discussion of methodology and a fuller discussion of the conclusions. The detailed reports cover the following subjects: seismic interpretation, structure and thickness (Quinn 2018), sedimentology (Dodd, 2018) and palynology (Riding, 2018a-i and Thomas, 2018a-j)
Defective protein prenylation is a diagnostic biomarker of mevalonate kinase deficiency
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Negatively Charged Excitons and Photoluminescence in Asymmetric Quantum Well
We study photoluminescence (PL) of charged excitons () in narrow
asymmetric quantum wells in high magnetic fields B. The binding of all
states strongly depends on the separation of electron and hole layers.
The most sensitive is the ``bright'' singlet, whose binding energy decreases
quickly with increasing even at relatively small B. As a result, the
value of B at which the singlet--triplet crossing occurs in the spectrum
also depends on and decreases from 35 T in a symmetric 10 nm GaAs well
to 16 T for nm. Since the critical values of at which
different states unbind are surprisingly small compared to the well
width, the observation of strongly bound states in an experimental PL
spectrum implies virtually no layer displacement in the sample. This casts
doubt on the interpretation of PL spectra of heterojunctions in terms of
recombination
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