10,594 research outputs found
Human monoclonal islet specific autoantibodies share features of islet cell and 64 kDa antibodies
The first human monoclonal islet cell antibodies of the IgG class (MICA 1-6) obtained from an individual with Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus were cytoplasmic islet cell antibodies selected by the indirect immunofluorescence test on pancreas sections. Surprisingly, they all recognized the 64 kDa autoantigen glutamate decarboxylase. In this study we investigated which typical features of cytoplasmic islet cell antibodies are represented by these monoclonals. We show by double immunofluorescence testing that MICA 1-6 stain pancreatic beta cells which is in agreement with the beta-cell specific expression of glutamate decarboxylase. In contrast an islet-reactive IgM monoclonal antibody obtained from a pre-diabetic individual stained all islet cells but lacked the tissue specificity of MICA 1-6 and must therefore be considered as a polyreactive IgM-antibody. We further demonstrate that MICA 1-6 revealed typical features of epitope sensitivity to biochemical treatment of the target tissue which has been demonstrated for islet cell antibodies, and which has been used to argue for a lipid rather than a protein nature of target antigens. Our results provide direct evidence that the epitopes recognized by the MICA are destroyed by methanol/chloroform treatment but reveal a high stability to Pronase digestion compared to proinsulin epitopes. Conformational protein epitopes in glutamate decarboxylase therefore show a sensitivity to biochemical treatment of sections such as ganglioside epitopes. MICA 1-6 share typical features of islet cell and 64 kDa antibodies and reveal that glutamate decarboxylase-reactive islet cell antibodies represent a subgroup of islet cell antibodies present in islet cell antibody-positive sera
Disease Surveillance Networks Initiative Asia: Final Evaluation
The DSN Initiative was launched in 2007 under the new strategy of the Rockefeller Foundation. The initiative intends:[1] To improve human resources for disease surveillance in developing countries, thus bolstering national capacity to monitor, report, and respond to outbreaks;[2] To support regional networks to promote collaboration in disease surveillance and response across countries; and[3] To build bridges between regional and global monitoring effortsThe purpose of the DSN evaluation in the Mekong region was twofold:[1]To inform the work and strategy of the Foundation, its grantees, and the broader field of disease surveillance, based on the experience of DSN investments in the Mekong region. More specifically, the evaluation will inform future directions and strategies for current areas of DSN Initiative work, particularly in Asia, and will highlight potential new areas of work and strategy; and[2] To provide accountability to the Rockefeller Foundation's board, staff, and stakeholders for the DSN funds spent in the Mekong region
Effect of anisotropy on the ground-state magnetic ordering of the spin-one quantum -- model on the square lattice
We study the zero-temperature phase diagram of the
-- Heisenberg model for spin-1 particles on an
infinite square lattice interacting via nearest-neighbour () and
next-nearest-neighbour () bonds. Both bonds have the same -type
anisotropy in spin space. The effects on the quasiclassical N\'{e}el-ordered
and collinear stripe-ordered states of varying the anisotropy parameter
is investigated using the coupled cluster method carried out to high
orders. By contrast with the spin-1/2 case studied previously, we predict no
intermediate disordered phase between the N\'{e}el and collinear stripe phases,
for any value of the frustration , for either the -aligned () or -planar-aligned () states. The quantum phase
transition is determined to be first-order for all values of and
. The position of the phase boundary is determined
accurately. It is observed to deviate most from its classical position (for all values of ) at the Heisenberg isotropic point
(), where . By contrast, at the XY
isotropic point (), we find . In the
Ising limit () as expected.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure
Fatigue crack nucleation in metallic materials
The process of fatigue crack nucleation in metallic materials is reviewed placing emphasis in results derived for pure FCC metals with wavy slip behavior. The relationship between Persistent Slip Bands (PSB`s) and crack initiation will be examined for both single crystals and polycrystals, including the conditions for inter- and transgranular crack nucleation and their connection to type of loading, crystallography and slip geometry. The latter has been found to be an important parameter in the nucleation of intergranular cracks in polycrystals subjected to high strain fatigue, whereby primary slip bands with long slip lengths impinging on a grain boundary produce intergranular crack nucleation under the right conditions. Recent results related to intergranular crack nucleation in copper bicrystals and crack nucleation in Cu/Sapphire interfaces indicate that this mechanism controls crack nucleation in those simpler systems as well. Furthermore, it is found that under multiple slip conditions the crack nucleation location is controlled by the presence of local single slip conditions and long slip lengths for a particular Burgers vector that does not have to be in the primary slip system
Childhood Lead Exposure in the Palestinian Authority, Israel, and Jordan: Results from the Middle Eastern Regional Cooperation Project, 1996–2000
In the Middle East, the major sources of lead exposure have been leaded gasoline, lead-contaminated flour from traditional stone mills, focal exposures from small battery plants and smelters, and kohl (blue color) in cosmetics. In 1998–2000, we measured blood lead (PbB) levels in children 2–6 years of age in Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority (n = 1478), using a fingerstick method. Mean (peak; percentage > 10 μg/dL) PbB levels in Israel (n = 317), the West Bank (n = 344), Jordan (n = 382), and Gaza (n = 435) were 3.2 μg/dL (18.2; 2.2%), 4.2 μg/dL (25.7; 5.2%), 3.2 μg/dL (39.3; < 1%), and 8.6 μg/dL (> 80.0; 17.2%), respectively. High levels in Gaza were all among children living near a battery factory. The findings, taken together with data on time trends in lead emissions and in PbB in children in previous years, indicate the benefits from phasing out of leaded gasoline but state the case for further reductions and investigation of hot spots. The project demonstrated the benefits of regional cooperation in planning and carrying out a jointly designed project
Regularly alternating spin-1/2 anisotropic XY chains: The ground-state and thermodynamic properties
Using the Jordan-Wigner transformation and continued fractions we calculate
rigorously the thermodynamic quantities for the spin-1/2 transverse Ising chain
with periodically varying intersite interactions and/or on-site fields. We
consider in detail the properties of the chains having a period of the
transverse field modulation equal to 3. The regularly alternating transverse
Ising chain exhibits several quantum phase transition points, where the number
of transition points for a given period of alternation strongly depends on the
specific set of the Hamiltonian parameters. The critical behavior in most cases
is the same as for the uniform chain. However, for certain sets of the
Hamiltonian parameters the critical behavior may be changed and weak
singularities in the ground-state quantities appear. Due to the regular
alternation of the Hamiltonian parameters the transverse Ising chain may
exhibit plateau-like steps in the zero-temperature dependence of the transverse
magnetization vs. transverse field and many-peak temperature profiles of the
specific heat. We compare the ground-state properties of regularly alternating
transverse Ising and transverse XX chains and of regularly alternating quantum
and classical chains.
Making use of the corresponding unitary transformations we extend the
elaborated approach to the study of thermodynamics of regularly alternating
spin-1/2 anisotropic XY chains without field. We use the exact expression for
the ground-state energy of such a chain of period 2 to discuss how the exchange
interaction anisotropy destroys the spin-Peierls dimerized phase
Point-of-Care Ultrasound Assessment of Tropical Infectious Diseases—A Review of Applications and Perspectives
The development of good quality and affordable ultrasound machines has led to the establishment and implementation of numerous point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) protocols in various medical disciplines. POCUS for major infectious diseases endemic in tropical regions has received less attention, despite its likely even more pronounced benefit for populations with limited access to imaging infrastructure. Focused assessment with sonography for HIV-associated TB (FASH) and echinococcosis (FASE) are the only two POCUS protocols for tropical infectious diseases, which have been formally investigated and which have been implemented in routine patient care today. This review collates the available evidence for FASH and FASE, and discusses sonographic experiences reported for urinary and intestinal schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis, viral hemorrhagic fevers, amebic liver abscess, and visceral leishmaniasis. Potential POCUS protocols are suggested and technical as well as training aspects in the context of resource-limited settings are reviewed. Using the focused approach for tropical infectious diseases will make ultrasound diagnosis available to patients who would otherwise have very limited or no access to medical imaging
Signatures of partition functions and their complexity reduction through the KP II equation
A statistical amoeba arises from a real-valued partition function when the
positivity condition for pre-exponential terms is relaxed, and families of
signatures are taken into account. This notion lets us explore special types of
constraints when we focus on those signatures that preserve particular
properties. Specifically, we look at sums of determinantal type, and main
attention is paid to a distinguished class of soliton solutions of the
Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (KP) II equation. A characterization of the signatures
preserving the determinantal form, as well as the signatures compatible with
the KP II equation, is provided: both of them are reduced to choices of signs
for columns and rows of a coefficient matrix, and they satisfy the whole KP
hierarchy. Interpretations in term of information-theoretic properties,
geometric characteristics, and the relation with tropical limits are discussed.Comment: 42 pages, 11 figures. Section 7.1 has been added, the organization of
the paper has been change
Long-distance frequency transfer over an urban fiber link using optical phase stabilization
We transferred the frequency of an ultra-stable laser over 86 km of urban
fiber. The link is composed of two cascaded 43-km fibers connecting two
laboratories, LNE-SYRTE and LPL in Paris area. In an effort to realistically
demonstrate a link of 172 km without using spooled fiber extensions, we
implemented a recirculation loop to double the length of the urban fiber link.
The link is fed with a 1542-nm cavity stabilized fiber laser having a sub-Hz
linewidth. The fiber-induced phase noise is measured and cancelled with an all
fiber-based interferometer using commercial off the shelf pigtailed
telecommunication components. The compensated link shows an Allan deviation of
a few 10-16 at one second and a few 10-19 at 10,000 seconds
New structures to solve aggregated queries for trips over public transportation networks
Representing the trajectories of mobile objects is a hot topic from the
widespread use of smartphones and other GPS devices. However, few works have
focused on representing trips over public transportation networks (buses,
subway, and trains) where a user's trips can be seen as a sequence of stages
performed within a vehicle shared with many other users. In this context,
representing vehicle journeys reduces the redundancy because all the passengers
inside a vehicle share the same arrival time for each stop. In addition, each
vehicle journey follows exactly the sequence of stops corresponding to its
line, which makes it unnecessary to represent that sequence for each journey.
To solve data management for transportation systems, we designed a conceptual
model that gave us a better insight into this data domain and allowed us the
definition of relevant terms and the detection of redundancy sources among
those data. Then, we designed two compact representations focused on users'
trips (TTCTR) and on vehicle trips (AcumM), respectively. Each approach owns
some strengths and is able to answer some queries efficiently.
We include experimental results over synthetic trips generated from accurate
schedules obtained from a real network description (from the bus transportation
system of Madrid) to show the space/time trade-off of both approaches. We
considered a wide range of different queries about the use of the
transportation network such as counting-based or aggregate queries regarding
the load of any line of the network at different times.Comment: This research has received funding from the European Union's Horizon
2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sk{\l}odowska-Curie
Actions H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015 BIRDS GA No. 69094
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