674 research outputs found
Numerical Renormalization Group Study of Kondo Effect in Unconventional Superconductors
Orbital degrees of freedom of a Cooper pair play an important role in the
unconventional superconductivity. To elucidate the orbital effect in the Kondo
problem, we investigated a single magnetic impurity coupled to Cooper pairs
with a () symmetry using the numerical
renormalization group method. It is found that the ground state is always a
spin doublet. The analytical solution for the strong coupling limit explicitly
shows that the orbital dynamics of the Cooper pair generates the spin 1/2 of
the ground state.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, JPSJ.sty, to be published in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn.
70 (2001) No. 1
Range of the t--J model parameters for CuO plane: experimental data constraints
The t-J model effective hopping integral is determined from the three-band
Hubbard model for the charge carriers in CuO plane. For this purpose the
values of the superexchange constant and the charge-transfer gap
are calculated in the framework of the three-band model. Fitting values of
and to the experimental data allows to narrow the uncertainty region
of the three-band model parameters. As a result, the ratio of the t-J
model is fixed in the range for holes and for
electrons. Formation of the Frenkel exciton is justified and the main features
of the charge-transfer spectrum are correctly described in the framework of
this approach.Comment: 20pp., REVTEX 3.0, (11 figures), report 66
Development and characterisation of acquired radioresistant breast cancer cell lines
Table S1. RIN values for all samples used in gene expression analysis. (XLSX 10 kb
Subcellular discharge of a serine protease mediates release of invasive malaria parasites from host erythrocytes.
The most virulent form of malaria is caused by waves of replication of blood stages of the protozoan pathogen Plasmodium falciparum. The parasite divides within an intraerythrocytic parasitophorous vacuole until rupture of the vacuole and host-cell membranes releases merozoites that invade fresh erythrocytes to repeat the cycle. Despite the importance of merozoite egress for disease progression, none of the molecular factors involved are known. We report that, just prior to egress, an essential serine protease called PfSUB1 is discharged from previously unrecognized parasite organelles (termed exonemes) into the parasitophorous vacuole space. There, PfSUB1 mediates the proteolytic maturation of at least two essential members of another enzyme family called SERA. Pharmacological blockade of PfSUB1 inhibits egress and ablates the invasive capacity of released merozoites. Our findings reveal the presence in the malarial parasitophorous vacuole of a regulated, PfSUB1-mediated proteolytic processing event required for release of viable parasites from the host erythrocyte
Precision Medicine and the Role of Biomarkers of Radiotherapy Response in Breast Cancer
Radiotherapy remains an important treatment modality in nearly two thirds of all cancers, including the primary curative or palliative treatment of breast cancer. Unfortunately, largely due to tumor heterogeneity, tumor radiotherapy response rates can vary significantly, even between patients diagnosed with the same tumor type. Although in recent years significant technological advances have been made in the way radiation can be precisely delivered to tumors, it is proving more difficult to personalize radiotherapyregimens based on cancer biology. Biomarkers that provide prognostic or predictive information regarding a tumor’s intrinsic radiosensitivity or its response to treatment couldprove valuable in helping to personalize radiation dosing, enabling clinicians to make decisions between different treatment options whilst avoiding radiation-induced toxicity in patients unlikely to gain therapeutic benefit. Studies have investigated numerous waysin which both patient and tumor radiosensitivities can be assessed. Tumor molecular profiling has been used to develop radiosensitivity gene signatures, while the assessment of specific intracellular or secreted proteins, including circulating tumor cells, exosomes and DNA, has been performed to identify prognostic or predictive biomarkers of radiation response. Finally, the investigation of biomarkers related to radiation-induced toxicity could provide another means by which radiotherapy could become personalized. In this review, we discuss studies that have used these methods to identify or develop prognostic/predictive signatures of radiosensitivity, and how such assays could be used in the future as a means of providing personalized radiotherapy
Coronary MR angiography at 3T: fat suppression versus water-fat separation
Objectives: To compare Dixon water-fat suppression with spectral pre-saturation with inversion recovery (SPIR) at 3T for coronary magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) and to demonstrate the feasibility of fat suppressed coronary MRA at 3T without administration of a contrast agent. Materials and methods: Coronary MRA with Dixon water-fat separation or with SPIR fat suppression was compared on a 3T scanner equipped with a 32-channel cardiac receiver coil. Eight healthy volunteers were examined. Contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), right coronary artery (RCA), and left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery sharpness and length were measured and statistically compared. Two experienced cardiologists graded the visual image quality of reformatted Dixon and SPIR images (1: poor quality to 5: excellent quality). Results: Coronary MRA images in healthy volunteers showed improved contrast with the Dixon technique compared to SPIR (CNR blood-fat: Dixon = 14.9 ± 2.9 and SPIR = 13.9 ± 2.1; p = 0.08, CNR blood-myocardium: Dixon = 10.2 ± 2.7 and SPIR = 9.11 ± 2.6; p = 0.1). The Dixon method led to similar fat suppression (fat SNR with Dixon: 2.1 ± 0.5 vs. SPIR: 2.4 ± 1.2, p = 0.3), but resulted in significantly increased SNR of blood (blood SNR with Dixon: 19.9 ± 4.5 vs. SPIR: 15.5 ± 3.1, p < 0.05). This means the residual fat signal is slightly lower with the Dixon compared to the SIPR technique (although not significant), while the SNR of blood is significantly higher with the Dixon technique. Vessel sharpness of the RCA was similar for Dixon and SPIR (57 ± 7 % vs. 56 ± 9 %, p = 0.2), while the RCA visualized vessel length was increased compared to SPIR fat suppression (107 ± 21 vs. 101 ± 21 mm, p < 0.001). For the LAD, vessel sharpness (50 ± 13 % vs. 50 ± 7 %, p = 0.4) and vessel length (92 ± 46 vs. 90 ± 47 mm, p = 0.4) were similar with both techniques. Consequently, the Dixon technique resulted in an improved visual score of the coronary arteries in the water fat separated images of healthy subjects (RCA: 4.6 ± 0.5 vs. 4.1 ± 0.7, p = 0.01, LAD: 4.1 ± 0.7 vs. 3.5 ± 0.8, p = 0.007). Conclusions: Dixon water-fat separation can significantly improve coronary artery image quality without the use of a contrast agent at 3T
Modern microwave methods in solid state inorganic materials chemistry: from fundamentals to manufacturing
No abstract available
Single-Image Depth Prediction Makes Feature Matching Easier
Good local features improve the robustness of many 3D re-localization and
multi-view reconstruction pipelines. The problem is that viewing angle and
distance severely impact the recognizability of a local feature. Attempts to
improve appearance invariance by choosing better local feature points or by
leveraging outside information, have come with pre-requisites that made some of
them impractical. In this paper, we propose a surprisingly effective
enhancement to local feature extraction, which improves matching. We show that
CNN-based depths inferred from single RGB images are quite helpful, despite
their flaws. They allow us to pre-warp images and rectify perspective
distortions, to significantly enhance SIFT and BRISK features, enabling more
good matches, even when cameras are looking at the same scene but in opposite
directions.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication at the European
conference on computer vision (ECCV) 202
The kidney failure risk equation:evaluation of novel input variables including eGFR estimated using the CKD-EPI 2021 equation in 59 cohorts
SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: The kidney failure risk equation (KFRE) uses age, sex, GFR, and urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) to predict 2- and 5-year risk of kidney failure in populations with eGFR <60 ml/min per 1.73 m 2 . However, the CKD-EPI 2021 creatinine equation for eGFR is now recommended for use but has not been fully tested in the context of KFRE. In 59 cohorts comprising 312,424 patients with CKD, the authors assessed the predictive performance and calibration associated with the use of the CKD-EPI 2021 equation and whether additional variables and accounting for the competing risk of death improves the KFRE's performance. The KFRE generally performed well using the CKD-EPI 2021 eGFR in populations with eGFR <45 ml/min per 1.73 m 2 and was not improved by adding the 2-year prior eGFR slope and cardiovascular comorbidities. BACKGROUND: The kidney failure risk equation (KFRE) uses age, sex, GFR, and urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) to predict kidney failure risk in people with GFR <60 ml/min per 1.73 m 2 . METHODS: Using 59 cohorts with 312,424 patients with CKD, we tested several modifications to the KFRE for their potential to improve the KFRE: using the CKD-EPI 2021 creatinine equation for eGFR, substituting 1-year average ACR for single-measure ACR and 1-year average eGFR in participants with high eGFR variability, and adding 2-year prior eGFR slope and cardiovascular comorbidities. We also assessed calibration of the KFRE in subgroups of eGFR and age before and after accounting for the competing risk of death. RESULTS: The KFRE remained accurate and well calibrated overall using the CKD-EPI 2021 eGFR equation. The other modifications did not improve KFRE performance. In subgroups of eGFR 45-59 ml/min per 1.73 m 2 and in older adults using the 5-year time horizon, the KFRE demonstrated systematic underprediction and overprediction, respectively. We developed and tested a new model with a spline term in eGFR and incorporating the competing risk of mortality, resulting in more accurate calibration in those specific subgroups but not overall. CONCLUSIONS: The original KFRE is generally accurate for eGFR <45 ml/min per 1.73 m 2 when using the CKD-EPI 2021 equation. Incorporating competing risk methodology and splines for eGFR may improve calibration in low-risk settings with longer time horizons. Including historical averages, eGFR slopes, or a competing risk design did not meaningfully alter KFRE performance in most circumstances
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