2,308 research outputs found
Acute brucella melitensis M16 infection model in mice treated with tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors
Introduction: There is limited data in the literature about brucellosis related to an intracellular pathogen and anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha (anti-TNFα) medication. The aim of this study was to evaluate acute Brucella infections in mice receiving anti-TNFα drug treatment. Methodology: Anti-TNFα drugs were injected in mice on the first and fifth days of the study, after which the mice were infected with B. melitensis M16 strain. Mice were sacrificed on the fourteenth day after infection. Bacterial loads in the liver and spleen were defined, and histopathological changes were evaluated. Results: Neither the liver nor the spleen showed an increased bacterial load in all anti-TNFα drug groups when compared to a non-treated, infected group. The most significant histopathological findings were neutrophil infiltrations in the red pulp of the spleen and apoptotic cells with hepatocellular pleomorphism in the liver. There was no significant difference among the groups in terms of previously reported histopathological findings, such as extramedullary hematopoiesis and granuloma formation. Conclusions: There were no differences in hepatic and splenic bacterial load and granuloma formation, which indicate worsening of the acute Brucella infection in mice; in other words, anti-TNFα treatment did not exacerbate the acute Brucella spp. infection in mice. © 2015 Kutlu et al
Correctors for some nonlinear monotone operators
In this paper we study homogenization of quasi-linear partial differential
equations of the form -\mbox{div}\left( a\left( x,x/\varepsilon _h,Du_h\right)
\right) =f_h on with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Here the
sequence tends to as
and the map is periodic in monotone in
and satisfies suitable continuity conditions. We prove that
weakly in as where
is the solution of a homogenized problem of the form -\mbox{div}\left(
b\left( x,Du\right) \right) =f on We also derive an explicit
expression for the homogenized operator and prove some corrector results,
i.e. we find such that in
Unidirectional Invisibility and PT-Symmetry with Graphene
We investigate the reflectionlessness and invisibility properties in the
transverse electric (TE) mode solution of a linear homogeneous optical system
which comprises the -symmetric structures covered by graphene
sheets. We derive analytic expressions, indicate roles of each parameter
governing optical system with graphene and justify that optimal conditions of
these parameters give rise to broadband and wide angle invisibility. Presence
of graphene turns out to shift the invisible wavelength range and to reduce the
required gain amount considerably, based on its chemical potential and
temperature. We substantiate that our results yield broadband reflectionless
and invisible configurations for realistic materials of small refractive
indices, usually around , and of small thickness sizes with graphene
sheets of rather small temperatures and chemical potentials. Finally, we
demonstrate that pure -symmetric graphene yields invisibility at
small temperatures and chemical potentials.Comment: 20 pages, 1 table 17 figure
Exact norm-conserving stochastic time-dependent Hartree-Fock
We derive an exact single-body decomposition of the time-dependent
Schroedinger equation for N pairwise-interacting fermions. Each fermion obeys a
stochastic time-dependent norm-preserving wave equation. As a first test of the
method we calculate the low energy spectrum of Helium. An extension of the
method to bosons is outlined.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX fil
BPS black holes, quantum attractor flows and automorphic forms
We propose a program for counting microstates of four-dimensional BPS black
holes in N >= 2 supergravities with symmetric-space valued scalars by
exploiting the symmetries of timelike reduction to three dimensions. Inspired
by the equivalence between the four dimensional attractor flow and geodesic
flow on the three-dimensional scalar manifold, we radially quantize stationary,
spherically symmetric BPS geometries. Connections between the topological
string amplitude, attractor wave function, the Ooguri-Strominger-Vafa
conjecture and the theory of automorphic forms suggest that black hole
degeneracies are counted by Fourier coefficients of modular forms for the
three-dimensional U-duality group, associated to special "unipotent"
representations which appear in the supersymmetric Hilbert space of the quantum
attractor flow.Comment: 9 pages, revtex; v2: references added and typos correcte
TG7r1 channel model document for high rate PD communications
Purpose Providing channel models which allow a fair comparison of different physical layer (PHY) High Rate PD Communications proposals submitted to TG7r1 in response to the Call for Proposals (CFP). Notice This document has been prepared to assist the IEEE P802.15. It is offered as a basis for discussion and is not binding on the contributing individual(s) or organization(s). The material in this document is subject to change in form and content after further study. The contributor(s) reserve(s) the right to add, amend or withdraw material contained herein
Local and global behaviour of nonlinear equations with natural growth terms
This paper concerns a study of the pointwise behaviour of positive solutions
to certain quasi-linear elliptic equations with natural growth terms, under
minimal regularity assumptions on the underlying coefficients. Our primary
results consist of optimal pointwise estimates for positive solutions of such
equations in terms of two local Wolff's potentials.Comment: In memory of Professor Nigel Kalto
The Mu2e undoped CsI crystal calorimeter
The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab will search for Charged Lepton Flavor
Violating conversion of a muon to an electron in an atomic field. The Mu2e
detector is composed of a tracker, an electromagnetic calorimeter and an
external system, surrounding the solenoid, to veto cosmic rays. The calorimeter
plays an important role to provide: a) excellent particle identification
capabilities; b) a fast trigger filter; c) an easier tracker track
reconstruction. Two disks, located downstream of the tracker, contain 674 pure
CsI crystals each. Each crystal is read out by two arrays of UV-extended SiPMs.
The choice of the crystals and SiPMs has been finalized after a thorough test
campaign. A first small scale prototype consisting of 51 crystals and 102 SiPM
arrays has been exposed to an electron beam at the BTF (Beam Test Facility) in
Frascati. Although the readout electronics were not the final, results show
that the current design is able to meet the timing and energy resolution
required by the Mu2e experiment.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, proceedings of the "Calorimetry for the high
energy frontier (CHEF17)" conference, 2-6 October 2017, Lyon, Franc
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