The Antiquity of the Avesta

Paper read before the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, read 26th June 1896. Dr. Gerson Da Cunha in the Chair

Wie ist die aktuelle Datenlage zur Behandlung von COVID-19 mit Remdesivir?

Dieses Dokument umfasst Beobachtungen der u.g. Autoren im Umgang mit COVID-19 Erkrankten. Die Autoren möchten Ihre persönlichen Erkenntnisse daraus denjenigen Klinikern und Klinikerinnen zur Verfügung stellen, die bislang weniger Erfahrung im Umgang mit COVID-19 Erkrankten haben. Den im Folgenden dargestellten Beobachtungen und Erkenntnissen fehlt es bislang an hinreichender Evidenz. Sie sind nur für den Erfahrungsaustausch gedacht. Umfassende Hinweise zu Erkennung, Diagnostik und Therapie von Patienten mit COVID-19 erstellt von STAKOB, DGPI, DGI und DGP finden Sie auf der Internetseite des RKI unter www.rki.de/covid-19-therapie

Graphene Saturable Absorbers at Terahertz Frequency from Liquid Phase Exfoliation of Graphite

© 2018 OSA. We report on the development of terahertz (THz) saturable-absorbers exploiting printable graphene inks. The achieved 80% transparency modulation at 3.5 THz makes these devices potential candidates as passive components for THz solid-state lasers.EPSR

User-centred design of flexible hypermedia for a mobile guide: Reflections on the hyperaudio experience

A user-centred design approach involves end-users from the very beginning. Considering users at the early stages compels designers to think in terms of utility and usability and helps develop the system on what is actually needed. This paper discusses the case of HyperAudio, a context-sensitive adaptive and mobile guide to museums developed in the late 90s. User requirements were collected via a survey to understand visitors’ profiles and visit styles in Natural Science museums. The knowledge acquired supported the specification of system requirements, helping defining user model, data structure and adaptive behaviour of the system. User requirements guided the design decisions on what could be implemented by using simple adaptable triggers and what instead needed more sophisticated adaptive techniques, a fundamental choice when all the computation must be done on a PDA. Graphical and interactive environments for developing and testing complex adaptive systems are discussed as a further step towards an iterative design that considers the user interaction a central point. The paper discusses how such an environment allows designers and developers to experiment with different system’s behaviours and to widely test it under realistic conditions by simulation of the actual context evolving over time. The understanding gained in HyperAudio is then considered in the perspective of the developments that followed that first experience: our findings seem still valid despite the passed time

Terahertz saturable absorbers from liquid phase exfoliation of graphite

Saturable absorbers (SA) operating at terahertz (THz) frequencies can open new frontiers in the development of passively mode-locked THz micro-sources. Here we report the fabrication of THz SAs by transfer coating and inkjet printing single and few-layer graphene films prepared by liquid phase exfoliation of graphite. Open-aperture z-scan measurements with a 3.5 THz quantum cascade laser show a transparency modulation ∼80%, almost one order of magnitude larger than that reported to date at THz frequencies. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy provides evidence of intraband-controlled absorption bleaching. These results pave the way to the integration of graphene-based SA with electrically pumped THz semiconductor micro-sources, with prospects for applications where excitation of specific transitions on short time scales is essential, such as time-of-flight tomography, coherent manipulation of quantum systems, time-resolved spectroscopy of gases, complex molecules and cold samples and ultra-high speed communications, providing unprecedented compactness and resolution.We acknowledge funding from ERC grants SPRINT, Hetero2D, HiGRAPHINK, the EU Graphene Flagship, and EPSRC grants EP/K01711X/1, EP/K017144/1, EP/L016087/1 and EP/N010345/1

Foxp3 expression in human cancer cells

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Relationship between the anti-inflammatory properties of salmeterol/fluticasone and the expression of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells in COPD

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Salmeterol and fluticasone combination (SFC) has anti-inflammatory effects and improves clinical symptoms in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, the anti-inflammatory mechanism of SFC remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the inflammatory responses of COPD, as well as the relationship of the inflammatory factors with the levels of CD4⁺CD25⁺Foxp3⁺regulatory T cells (Foxp3⁺Tregs) after SFC therapy.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Twenty-one patients with moderate or severe COPD received treatment with 50/500 μg of SFC twice a day for 12 weeks. Before and after treatment, the patients were evaluated using the Modified Medical Research Council (MMRC) dyspnea scale and by conducting a 6-min walk test. The number of neutrophils, monocytes and lymphocytes in induced sputum were counted. Levels of cytokines, including pre-inflammatory IL-8, TNF-α, IL-17A and cytokine IL-10, in the sputum supernatant and peripheral blood were measured by ELISA. The proportion of Foxp3⁺Tregs in the total CD4⁺T cell of the peripheral blood was determined by flow cytometry. The relationship between IL-17A levels and the percentage of Foxp3⁺Tregs was analyzed by statistical analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>After treatment with SFC, the forced expiratory volume in 1 s as a percentage of predicted values (FEV1%) and the 6-min walk distance in the COPD patients significantly increased, while dyspnea scores decreased. The total number of cells, neutrophils, and the percentage of neutrophils in induced sputum reduced notably, while the proportion of monocytes was significantly increased. Levels of the inflammatory cytokines IL-8, TNF-α, and IL-17A in the sputum supernatant and in the blood were markedly lowered, while IL-10 levels were unchanged. The proportion of Foxp3⁺Tregs in the total CD4⁺T cell population in the peripheral blood was drastically higher than that before treatment. The level of IL-17A was negatively correlated with the proportion of Foxp3⁺Tregs in CD4⁺T cells.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>SFC can reduce the levels of inflammatory factors and improve symptoms of COPD. The levels of inflammatory factors are associated with the variation of Foxp3⁺Tregs in COPD.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>This study was registered with <url>http://www.chictr.org</url> (Chinese Clinical Trial Register) as follows: ChiCTR-TNC-10001270</p