3,907 research outputs found
Comparison of MHC class I risk haplotypes in Thai and Caucasian psoriatics shows locus heterogeneity at PSORS1
Earlier studies have shown that psoriasis in Japan and Thailand is associated with two different major histocompatibility complex (MHC) haplotypes – those bearing HLA-Cw6 and those bearing HLA-Cw1 and HLA-B46. In an independent case-control sample from Thailand, we confirmed the association of psoriasis with both haplotypes. No association was seen in Thai HLA-Cw1 haplotypes lacking HLA-B46 , nor was HLA-Cw1 associated with psoriasis in a large Caucasian sample. To assess whether these risk haplotypes share a common origin, we sequenced genomic DNA from a Thai HLA-Cw1-B46 homozygote across the ∼300 kb MHC risk interval, and compared it with sequence of a HLA-Cw6-B57 risk haplotype. Three small regions of homology were found, but these regions share equivalent sequence similarity with one or more clearly non-risk haplotypes, and they contain no polymorphism alleles unique to all risk haplotypes. Differences in psoriasis phenotype were also observed, including lower risk of disease, greater nail involvement, and later age at onset in HLA-Cw1-B46 carriers compared with HLA-Cw6 carriers. These findings suggest locus heterogeneity at PSORS1 (psoriasis susceptibility 1), the major psoriasis susceptibility locus in the MHC, with HLA-Cw6 imparting risk in both Caucasians and Asians, and an allele other than HLA-Cw1 on the HLA-Cw1-B46 haplotype acting as an additional risk variant in East Asians.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/79072/1/TAN_1526_sm_tables1.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/79072/2/j.1399-0039.2010.01526.x.pd
Type 0A 2D Black Hole Thermodynamics and the Deformed Matrix Model
Recently, it has been proposed that the deformed matrix model describes a
two-dimensional type 0A extremal black hole. In this paper, the thermodynamics
of 0A charged non-extremal black holes is investigated. We observe that the
free energy of the deformed matrix model to leading order in 1/q can be seen to
agree to that of the extremal black hole. We also speculate on how the deformed
matrix model is able to describe the thermodynamics of non-extremal black
holes.Comment: 12 page
Distribution and exploitation of oyster resources along the southeast and southwest coasts of India
The oysters are sedentary bivalve molluscs
which are gregarious and found in aggregates
attached by their right shell valve to hard
substrata, forming oyster beds or oyster banks
in varied environments, intertidal and subtidal
zones in shallow coastal waters, bays, creeks,
lagoons, backwaters and estuarine environment.
In India, natural stocks of oysters are exploited
on a small scale at a number of places as a
subsistence fishery and oysters are not cultured
commercially
Molecular Dissection of Psoriasis: Integrating Genetics and Biology
Psoriasis is a common and debilitating disease of the skin, nails, and joints, with an acknowledged but complex genetic basis. Early genome-wide linkage studies of psoriasis focused on segregation of microsatellite markers in families; however, the only locus consistently identified resided in the major histocompatibility complex. Subsequently, several groups mapped this locus to the vicinity of HLA-C, and two groups have reported HLA-Cw6 itself to be the major susceptibility allele. More recently, the development of millions of single-nucleotide polymorphisms, coupled with the development of high-throughput genotyping platforms and a comprehensive map of human haplotypes, has made possible a genome-wide association approach using cases and controls rather than families. Taking advantage of these developments, we participated in a collaborative genome-wide association study of psoriasis involving thousands of cases and controls. Initial analysis of these data revealed and/or confirmed association between psoriasis and seven genetic loci—HLA-C, IL12B, IL23R, IL23A, IL4/IL13, TNFAIP3, and TNIP1—and ongoing studies are revealing additional loci. Here, we review the epidemiology, immunopathology, and genetics of psoriasis, and present a disease model integrating its genetics and immunology
Fluctuations and Correlations of net baryon number, electric charge, and strangeness: A comparison of lattice QCD results with the hadron resonance gas model
We calculate the quadratic fluctuations of net baryon number, electric charge
and strangeness as well as correlations among these conserved charges in
(2+1)-flavor lattice QCD at zero chemical potential. Results are obtained using
calculations with tree level improved gauge and the highly improved staggered
quark (HISQ) actions with almost physical light and strange quark masses at
three different values of the lattice cut-off. Our choice of parameters
corresponds to a value of 160 MeV for the lightest pseudo scalar Goldstone mass
and a physical value of the kaon mass. The three diagonal charge
susceptibilities and the correlations among conserved charges have been
extrapolated to the continuum limit in the temperature interval 150 MeV <T <
250 MeV. We compare our results with the hadron resonance gas (HRG) model
calculations and find agreement with HRG model results only for temperatures
T<= 150 MeV. We observe significant deviations in the temperature range 160 MeV
< T < 170 MeV and qualitative differences in the behavior of the three
conserved charge sectors. At T < 160 MeV quadratic net baryon number
fluctuations in QCD agree with HRG model calculations while, the net electric
charge fluctuations in QCD are about 10% smaller and net strangeness
fluctuations are about 20% larger. These findings are relevant to the
discussion of freeze-out conditions in relativistic heavy ion collisions.Comment: 17 pages, 18 EPS-files, 5 tables, revised version includes continuum
limit extrapolations of off-diagonal susceptibilities, to appear in Phys.
Rev.
Anomalous magnetic splitting of the Kondo resonance
The splitting of the Kondo resonance in the density of states of an Anderson
impurity in finite magnetic field is calculated from the exact Bethe-ansatz
solution. The result gives an estimate of the electron spectral function for
nonzero magnetic field and Kondo temperature, with consequences for transport
experiments on quantum dots in the Kondo regime. The strong correlations of the
Kondo ground state cause a significant low-temperature reduction of the peak
splitting. Explicit formulae are found for the shift and broadening of the
Kondo peaks. A likely cause of the problems of large-N approaches to spin-1/2
impurities at finite magnetic field is suggested.Comment: 4 pages, 2 eps figures; published versio
Hadron Spectrum with Wilson fermions
We present results of a high statistics study of the quenched spectrum using
Wilson fermions at on lattices. We calculate the
masses of mesons and baryons composed of both degenerate and non-degenerate
quarks. Using non-degenerate quark combinations allows us to study baryon mass
splittings in detail. We find significant deviations from the lowest order
chiral expansion, deviations that are consistent with the expectations of
quenched chiral perturbation theory. We find that there is a
systematic error in the extracted value of , depending on the meson mass
ratio used to set its value. Using the largest estimate of we find that
the extrapolated octet mass-splittings are in agreement with the experimental
values, as is , while the decuplet splittings are 30% smaller
than experiment. Combining our results with data from the GF11 collaboration we
find considerable ambiguity in the extrapolation to the continuum limit. Our
preferred values are and , suggesting that the quenched approximation is good to only . We also analyze the discretization errors in heavy quark
masses.Comment: 52 pages. Tex. Modified "axis" source for figures also included.
Needs macro packages lanlmac and epsf. Uses hyperbasics if available.
Significant number of typographical errors correcte
Risk Factors for Soil-Transmitted Helminth Infections during the First 3 Years of Life in the Tropics; Findings from a Birth Cohort.
Background: Soil-transmitted helminths (STH) infect more than 2 billion humans worldwide, causing significant morbidity in children. There are few data on the epidemiology and risk factors for infection in pre-school children. To investigate risk factors for infection in early childhood, we analysed data prospectively collected in the ECUAVIDA birth cohort in Ecuador.
Methods and Findings:
Children were recruited at birth and followed up to 3 years of age with periodic collection of stool samples that were examined microscopically for STH parasites. Data on social, demographic, and environmental risk factors were collected from the mother at time of enrolment. Associations between exposures and detection of STH infections were analysed by multivariable logistic regression. Data were analysed from 1,697 children for whom a stool sample was obtained at 3 years. 42.3% had at least one STH infection in the first 3 years of life and the most common infections were caused by A. lumbricoides (33.2% of children) and T. trichiura (21.2%). Hookworm infection was detected in 0.9% of children. Risk of STH infection was associated with factors indicative of poverty in our study population such as Afro-Ecuadorian ethnicity and low maternal educational level. Maternal STH infections during pregnancy were strong risk factors for any childhood STH infection, infections with either A. lumbricoides or T. trichiura, and early age of first STH infection. Children of mothers with moderate to high infections intensities with A. lumbricoides were most at risk.
Conclusions:
Our data show high rates of infection with STH parasites during the first 3 years of life in an Ecuadorian birth cohort, an observation that was strongly associated with maternal STH infections during pregnancy. The targeted treatment of women of childbearing age, in particular before pregnancy, with anthelmintic drugs could offer a novel approach to the prevention of STH infections in pre-school children
Charge Kondo effect toward a non-Fermi-liquid fixed point in the orbitally degenerate exchange model
We show that a Kondo-type model with an orbital degeneracy has a new
non-Fermi-liquid fixed point. Near the fixed point the spin degrees of freedom
are completely quenched, and the residual charge degrees of freedom lead to the
multi-channel Kondo effect. Anomalous behavior appears in electric and thermal
properties, but the magnetic susceptibility should show the local Fermi-liquid
behavior. The non-Fermi-liquid fixed point becomes unstable against
perturbations breaking the particle-hole symmetry. We derive these results
using the third-order scaling for a spherically symmetric model with a
fictitious spin. In contrast to the Coqblin-Schrieffer model, the present model
respects different time-reversal properties of multipole operators.Comment: 4 pages, 2 eps figures, to appear in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 68 No.
Protocol for a prospective study evaluating circulating tumour cells status to predict radical prostatectomy treatment failure in localised prostate cancer patients (C-ProMeta-1)
BACKGROUND:
Treatment decisions in prostate cancer (PCa) rely on disease stratification between localised and metastatic stages, but current imaging staging technologies are not sensitive to micro-metastatic disease. Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) status is a promising tool in this regard. The Parsortix® CTC isolation system employs an epitope-independent approach based on cell size and deformability to increase the capture rate of CTCs. Here, we present a protocol for prospective evaluation of this method to predict post radical prostatectomy (RP) PCa cancer recurrence.
METHODS:
We plan to recruit 294 patients diagnosed with unfavourable intermediate, to high and very high-risk localised PCa. Exclusion criteria include synchronous cancer diagnosis or prior PCa treatment, including hormone therapy. RP is performed according to the standard of care. Two blood samples (20 ml) are collected before and again 3-months after RP. The clinical team are blinded to CTC results and the laboratory researchers are blinded to clinical information. Treatment failure is defined as a PSA ≥ 0.2 mg/ml, start of salvage treatment or imaging-proven metastatic lesions. The CTC analysis entails enumeration and RNA analysis of gene expression in captured CTCs. The primary outcome is the accuracy of CTC status to predict post-RP treatment failure at 4.5 years. Observed sensitivity, positive and negative predictive values will be reported. Specificity will be presented over time.
DISCUSSION:
CTC status may reflect the true potential for PCa metastasis and may predict clinical outcomes better than the current PCa progression risk grading systems. Therefore establishing a robust biomarker for predicting treatment failure in localized high-risk PCa would significantly enhance guidance in treatment decision-making, optimizing cure rates while minimizing unnecessary harm from overtreatment.
TRIAL REGISTRATION:
ISRCTN17332543
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