4,656 research outputs found
Which patient takes centre stage? Placing patient voices in animal research
This is the author accepted manuscript . The final version is available from Springer via the DOI in this recordWellcome Trus
Advancing the Sea Ice Hypothesis: Trophic Interactions Among Breeding Pygoscelis Penguins With Divergent Population Trends Throughout the Western Antarctic Peninsula
We evaluated annual and regional variation in the dietary niche of Pygoscelis penguins including the sea ice-obligate Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae), and sea ice-intolerant chinstrap (Pygoscelis antarcticus) and gentoo (Pygoscelis papua) penguins, three species that nest throughout the western Antarctic Peninsula (AP) to test the sea ice trophic interaction hypothesis, which posits that penguin breeding populations with divergent trends, i.e., declining or increasing, are reliant on differing food webs. Our study relies on values of naturally occurring carbon (13C/12C, δ13C) and nitrogen (15N/14N, δ15N) stable isotopes as integrated proxies of penguin food webs measuredover three years at three different breeding colonies. At Anvers Island in the north, where reductions in sea ice and changes in breeding population trends among sympatric sea ice-obligate (Adélie) and sea ice-intolerant (chinstrap and gentoo) penguins have been most notable, our analyses show that all three species of Pygoscelis penguins became more similar isotopically over the reproductive period
Environmental Dependence of the Fundamental Plane of Galaxy Clusters
Galaxy clusters approximate a planar (FP) distribution in a three-dimensional
parameter space which can be characterized by optical luminosity, half-light
radius, and X-ray luminosity. Using a high-quality catalog of cluster
redshifts, we find the nearest neighbor cluster for those common to an FP study
and the cluster catalog. Examining scatter about the FP, we find 99.2%
confidence that it is dependent on nearest neighbor distance. Our study of
X-Ray clusters finds that those with high central gas densities are
systematically closer to neighbor clusters. If we combine results here with
those of Fritsch and Buchert, we find an explanation for some of our previous
conclusions: Clusters in close proximity to other clusters are more likely to
have massive cooling flows because they are more relaxed and have higher
central gas densities.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters. Moderate
revisions, including more statistical analysis and discussion. Latex, 7 page
Issues in the Corporate Workplace
Workforce supply and demand has catapulted women\u27s issues to the forefront of the business agenda. These issues will continue to be the poor stepsisters of other corporate needs, however, unless they are recognized as broad-based workforce issues of the 1990s. The dynamics of women\u27s entrance into the labor market have dramatically changed the structure of the family and consequently the needs of both men and women in the business community. The corporate challenge for the next decade will be to solve creatively the work/family puzzle and establish an environment that supports the full utilization of women in business
Techniques for Consecutive TEM and Atom Probe Tomography Analysis of Nanowires
Nanowires show great promise for development in many technological applications including electronics, photonics, and displays . Due to the fine scale of nanowires, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atom probe tomography (APT) are among a limited number of techniques that can measure the crystallographic and chemical nature of these structures which ultimately define their performance
Scenarios of domain pattern formation in a reaction-diffusion system
We performed an extensive numerical study of a two-dimensional
reaction-diffusion system of the activator-inhibitor type in which domain
patterns can form. We showed that both multidomain and labyrinthine patterns
may form spontaneously as a result of Turing instability. In the stable
homogeneous system with the fast inhibitor one can excite both localized and
extended patterns by applying a localized stimulus. Depending on the parameters
and the excitation level of the system stripes, spots, wriggled stripes, or
labyrinthine patterns form. The labyrinthine patterns may be both connected and
disconnected. In the the stable homogeneous system with the slow inhibitor one
can excite self-replicating spots, breathing patterns, autowaves and
turbulence. The parameter regions in which different types of patterns are
realized are explained on the basis of the asymptotic theory of instabilities
for patterns with sharp interfaces developed by us in Phys. Rev. E. 53, 3101
(1996). The dynamics of the patterns observed in our simulations is very
similar to that of the patterns forming in the ferrocyanide-iodate-sulfite
reaction.Comment: 15 pages (REVTeX), 15 figures (postscript and gif), submitted to
Phys. Rev.
Techniques for Consecutive TEM and Atom Probe Tomography Analysis of Nanowires
Nanowires show great promise for development in many technological applications including electronics, photonics, and displays . Due to the fine scale of nanowires, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atom probe tomography (APT) are among a limited number of techniques that can measure the crystallographic and chemical nature of these structures which ultimately define their performance
Recent progress in reduced-scale modelling of vehicle interior noise
The paper gives a review of the recent research into simplified reduced-scale models of structure-borne
vehicle interior noise carried out in Loughborough University. The models under consideration evolve
from the simplest ones to more sophisticated developments that take into consideration some important
structural dynamic and acoustic features of real vehicles. Analytical and numerical approaches to the
theoretical description of such models are discussed. The results of theoretical calculations are compared
with the measurements on some reduced-scale models. The comparison of the theory with the
measurements demonstrates that simplified reduced-scale models can be used successfully for studying
interior noise in real road vehicles. One of the most important issues in this approach is to find a
compromise between the minimum degree of complexity of a model and the required accuracy of
description of frequency contents and noise levels in a real vehicle
Optimizing the second-order optical nonlinearities of organic molecules: asymmetric cyanines and highly polarized polyenes
e recently reported that there is an optimal combination of donor and acceptor strengths for a given molecular length and bridge structure that maximizes (beta) . For this combination, there is the correct degree of bond length alternation and asymmetry in the molecule. Our recent findings suggest that molecules that can be viewed as asymmetric cyanines with relatively small amounts of bond length alternation are nearly optimal. In this manner, we have identified molecules with nonlinearities many times that of conventional chromophores for a given length. In this paper, we will present a new computational analysis that allows the correlation of bond length alternation with hyperpolarizabilities and will present EFISH data on simple donor-acceptor polyene chromophores
Rituximab monitoring and redosing in pediatric neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
To study rituximab in pediatric neuromyelitis optica (NMO)/NMO spectrum disorders (NMOSD) and the relationship between rituximab, B cell repopulation, and relapses in order to improve rituximab monitoring and redosing.
METHODS:
Multicenter retrospective study of 16 children with NMO/NMOSD receiving 652 rituximab courses. According to CD19 counts, events during rituximab were categorized as "repopulation," "depletion," or "depletion failure" relapses (repopulation threshold CD19 6510
7 10(6) cells/L).
RESULTS:
The 16 patients (14 girls; mean age 9.6 years, range 1.8-15.3) had a mean of 6.1 events (range 1-11) during a mean follow-up of 6.1 years (range 1.6-13.6) and received a total of 76 rituximab courses (mean 4.7, range 2-9) in 42.6-year cohort treatment. Before rituximab, 62.5% had received azathioprine, mycophenolate mofetil, or cyclophosphamide. Mean time from rituximab to last documented B cell depletion and first repopulation was 4.5 and 6.8 months, respectively, with large interpatient variability. Earliest repopulations occurred with the lowest doses. Significant reduction between pre- and post-rituximab annualized relapse rate (ARR) was observed (p = 0.003). During rituximab, 6 patients were relapse-free, although 21 relapses occurred in 10 patients, including 13 "repopulation," 3 "depletion," and 4 "depletion failure" relapses. Of the 13 "repopulation" relapses, 4 had CD19 10-50
7 10(6) cells/L, 10 had inadequate monitoring ( 641 CD19 in the 4 months before relapses), and 5 had delayed redosing after repopulation detection.
CONCLUSION:
Rituximab is effective in relapse prevention, but B cell repopulation creates a risk of relapse. Redosing before B cell repopulation could reduce the relapse risk further.
CLASSIFICATION OF EVIDENCE:
This study provides Class IV evidence that rituximab significantly reduces ARR in pediatric NMO/NMOSD. This study also demonstrates a relationship between B cell repopulation and relapses
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