Inspiration for the Future: The Role of Inspiratory Muscle Training in Cystic Fibrosis.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an inherited, multi-system, life-limiting disease characterized by a progressive decline in lung function, which accounts for the majority of CF-related morbidity and mortality. Inspiratory muscle training (IMT) has been proposed as a rehabilitative strategy to treat respiratory impairments associated with CF. However, despite evidence of therapeutic benefits in healthy and other clinical populations, the routine application of IMT in CF can neither be supported nor refuted due to the paucity of methodologically rigorous research. Specifically, the interpretation of available studies regarding the efficacy of IMT in CF is hampered by methodological threats to internal and external validity. As such, it is important to highlight the inherent risk of bias that differences in patient characteristics, IMT protocols, and outcome measurements present when synthesizing this literature prior to making final clinical judgments. Future studies are required to identify the characteristics of individuals who may respond to IMT and determine whether the controlled application of IMT can elicit meaningful improvements in physiological and patient-centered clinical outcomes. Given the equivocal evidence regarding its efficacy, IMT should be utilized on a case-by-case basis with sound clinical reasoning, rather than simply dismissed, until a rigorous evidence-based consensus has been reached

Identification of a novel retroviral gene unique to human immunodeficiency virus type 2 and simian immunodeficiency virus SIVMAC

Human and simian immunodeficiency-associated retroviruses are extraordinarily complex, containing at least five genes, tat, art, sor, R, and 3' orf, in addition to the structural genes gag, pol, and env. Recently, nucleotide sequence analysis of human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) and simian immunodeficiency virus SIVMAC revealed the existence of still another open reading frame, termed X, which is highly conserved between these two viruses but absent from HIV-1. In this report, we demonstrate for the first time that the X open reading frame represents a functional retroviral gene in both HIV-2 and SIVMAC and that it encodes a virion-associated protein of 14 and 12 kilodaltons, respectively. We also describe the production of recombinant TrpE/X fusion proteins in Escherichia coli and show that sera from some HIV-2-infected individuals specifically recognize these proteins

Investigation of relative expression level of SLC4 bicarbonate transporter family in mouse and Human corneal endothelial cells

Master'sMASTER OF SCIENC

Large N limit of SO(N) gauge theory of fermions and bosons

In this paper we study the large N_c limit of SO(N_c) gauge theory coupled to a Majorana field and a real scalar field in 1+1 dimensions extending ideas of Rajeev. We show that the phase space of the resulting classical theory of bilinears, which are the mesonic operators of this theory, is OSp_1(H|H )/U(H_+|H_+), where H|H refers to the underlying complex graded space of combined one-particle states of fermions and bosons and H_+|H_+ corresponds to the positive frequency subspace. In the begining to simplify our presentation we discuss in detail the case with Majorana fermions only (the purely bosonic case is treated in our earlier work). In the Majorana fermion case the phase space is given by O_1(H)/U(H_+), where H refers to the complex one-particle states and H_+ to its positive frequency subspace. The meson spectrum in the linear approximation again obeys a variant of the 't Hooft equation. The linear approximation to the boson/fermion coupled case brings an additonal bound state equation for mesons, which consists of one fermion and one boson, again of the same form as the well-known 't Hooft equation.Comment: 27 pages, no figure

Fermionic solutions of chiral Gross-Neveu and Bogoliubov-de Gennes systems in nonlinear Schr\"odinger hierarchy

The chiral Gross-Neveu model or equivalently the linearized Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation has been mapped to the nonlinear Schr\"odinger (NLS) hierarchy in the Ablowitz-Kaup-Newell-Segur formalism by Correa, Dunne and Plyushchay. We derive the general expression for exact fermionic solutions for all gap functions in the arbitrary order of the NLS hierarchy. We also find that the energy spectrum of the n-th NLS hierarchy generally has n+1 gaps. As an illustration, we present the self-consistent two-complex-kink solution with four real parameters and two fermion bound states. The two kinks can be placed at any position and have phase shifts. When the two kinks are well separated, the fermion bound states are localized around each kink in most parameter region. When two kinks with phase shifts close to each other are placed at distance as short as possible, the both fermion bound states have two peaks at the two kinks, i.e., the delocalization of the bound states occurs.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, Phys. Lett. B, in pres

Dynamical Generation of Extended Objects in a 1+11+1 Dimensional Chiral Field Theory: Non-Perturbative Dirac Operator Resolvent Analysis

We analyze the $1+1$ dimensional Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model non-perturbatively. In addition to its simple ground state saddle points, the effective action of this model has a rich collection of non-trivial saddle points in which the composite fields \sigx=\lag\bar\psi\psi\rag and \pix=\lag\bar\psi i\gam_5\psi\rag form static space dependent configurations because of non-trivial dynamics. These configurations may be viewed as one dimensional chiral bags that trap the original fermions (``quarks") into stable extended entities (``hadrons"). We provide explicit expressions for the profiles of these objects and calculate their masses. Our analysis of these saddle points is based on an explicit representation we find for the diagonal resolvent of the Dirac operator in a \{\sigx, \pix\} background which produces a prescribed number of bound states. We analyse in detail the cases of a single as well as two bound states. We find that bags that trap $N$ fermions are the most stable ones, because they release all the fermion rest mass as binding energy and become massless. Our explicit construction of the diagonal resolvent is based on elementary Sturm-Liouville theory and simple dimensional analysis and does not depend on the large $N$ approximation. These facts make it, in our view, simpler and more direct than the calculations previously done by Shei, using the inverse scattering method following Dashen, Hasslacher, and Neveu. Our method of finding such non-trivial static configurations may be applied to other $1+1$ dimensional field theories

Induced vacuum condensates in the background of a singular magnetic vortex in 2+1-dimensional space-time

We show that the vacuum of the quantized massless spinor field in 2+1-dimensional space-time is polarized in the presence of a singular magnetic vortex. Depending on the choice of the boundary condition at the location of the vortex, either chiral symmetry or parity is broken; the formation of the appropriate vacuum condensates is comprehensively studied. In addition, we find that current, energy and other quantum numbers are induced in the vacuum.Comment: LaTeX2e, 27 page

Reliability and Validity of the HD-PRO-TriadTM, a Health-Related Quality of Life Measure Designed to Assess the Symptom Triad of Huntington\u27s Disease.

BACKGROUND: Huntington\u27s disease (HD), is a neurodegenerative disorder that is associated with cognitive, behavioral, and motor impairments that diminish health related quality of life (HRQOL). The HD-PRO-TRIADTM is a quality of life measure that assesses health concerns specific to individuals with HD. Preliminary psychometric characterization was limited to a convenience sample of HD participants who completed measures at home so clinician-ratings were unavailable. OBJECTIVES: The current study evaluates the reliability and validity of the HD-PRO-TRIADTM in a well-characterized sample of individuals with HD. METHODS: Four-hundred and eighty-two individuals with HD (n = 192 prodromal, n = 193 early, and n = 97 late) completed the HD-PRO-TRIADTM questionnaire. Clinician-rated assessments from the Unified Huntington Disease Rating Scales, the short Problem Behaviors Assessment, and three generic measures of HRQOL (WHODAS 2.0, RAND-12, and EQ-5D) were also examined. RESULTS: Internal reliability for all domains and the total HD-PRO-TRIADTM was excellent (all Cronbach\u27s α \u3e0.93). Convergent and discriminant validity were supported by significant associations between the HD-PRO-TRIADTM domains, and other patient reported outcome measures as well as clinician-rated measures. Known groups validity was supported as the HD-PRO-TRIADTM differentiated between stages of the disease. Floor and ceiling effects were generally within acceptable limits. There were small effect sizes for 12-month change over time and moderate effect sizes for 24-month change over time. CONCLUSIONS: Findings support excellent internal reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, known groups validity, and responsiveness to change over time. The current study supports the clinical efficacy of the HD-PRO-TRIADTM. Future research is needed to assess the test-retest reliability of this measure