744 research outputs found
Strange Quarks Nuggets in Space: Charges in Seven Settings
We have computed the charge that develops on an SQN in space as a result of
balance between the rates of ionization by ambient gammas and capture of
ambient electrons. We have also computed the times for achieving that
equilibrium and binding energy of the least bound SQN electrons. We have done
this for seven different settings. We sketch the calculations here and give
their results in the Figure and Table II; details are in the Physical Review
D.79.023513 (2009).Comment: Six pages, one figure. To appear in proceedings of the 2008 UCLA
coference on dark matter and dark energ
Inference with interference between units in an fMRI experiment of motor inhibition
An experimental unit is an opportunity to randomly apply or withhold a
treatment. There is interference between units if the application of the
treatment to one unit may also affect other units. In cognitive neuroscience, a
common form of experiment presents a sequence of stimuli or requests for
cognitive activity at random to each experimental subject and measures
biological aspects of brain activity that follow these requests. Each subject
is then many experimental units, and interference between units within an
experimental subject is likely, in part because the stimuli follow one another
quickly and in part because human subjects learn or become experienced or
primed or bored as the experiment proceeds. We use a recent fMRI experiment
concerned with the inhibition of motor activity to illustrate and further
develop recently proposed methodology for inference in the presence of
interference. A simulation evaluates the power of competing procedures.Comment: Published by Journal of the American Statistical Association at
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01621459.2012.655954 . R package
cin (Causal Inference for Neuroscience) implementing the proposed method is
freely available on CRAN at https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=ci
FOXD3 Regulates VISTA Expression in Melanoma.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors have improved patient survival in melanoma, but the innate resistance of many patients necessitates the investigation of alternative immune targets. Many immune checkpoint proteins lack proper characterization, including V-domain Ig suppressor of T cell activation (VISTA). VISTA expression on immune cells can suppress T cell activity; however, few studies have investigated its expression and regulation in cancer cells. In this study, we observe that VISTA is expressed in melanoma patient samples and cell lines. Tumor cell-specific expression of VISTA promotes tumor onset in vivo, associated with increased intratumoral T regulatory cells, and enhanced PDL-1 expression on tumor-infiltrating macrophages. VISTA transcript levels are regulated by the stemness factor Forkhead box D3 (FOXD3). BRAF inhibition upregulates FOXD3 and reduces VISTA expression. Overall, this study demonstrates melanoma cell expression of VISTA and its regulation by FOXD3, contributing to the rationale for therapeutic strategies that combine targeted inhibitors with immune checkpoint blockade
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