713 research outputs found
Quantitative assessment of tear production: A review of methods and utility in dry eye drug discovery
The successful development of a therapeutic agent targeting treatment of dry eye syndrome necessitates the demonstration of drug efficacy for both sign and symptom endpoints. As numerous therapeutic strategies incorporate a secretagogue function into their overall mechanism of action, the quantitative assessment of tear production serves as a logical endpoint to anchor “sign” efficacy. Although several methods including the Schirmer, the phenol red thread and tear clearance tests exist, their utility in clinical evaluations of novel therapeutics is unclear. The purpose of this review is to summarize findings and conclusions describing the performance of each of these tests so as to gain insight into which, if any, is most applicable for use in discovering new dry eye therapeutics
Interferometric phase-dispersion microscopy
We describe a new scanning microscopy technique, phase-dispersion microscopy (PDM). The technique is based on measuring the phase difference between the fundamental and the second-harmonic light in a novel interferometer. PDM is highly sensitive to subtle refractive-index differences that are due to dispersion (differential optical path sensitivity, 5 nm). We apply PDM to measure minute amounts of DNA in solution and to study biological tissue sections. We demonstrate that PDM performs better than conventional phase-contrast microscopy in imaging dispersive and weakly scattering samples
Targeting BAFF and APRIL in systemic lupus erythematosus and other antibody-associated diseases.
The B cell-stimulating molecules, BAFF (B cell activating factor) and APRIL (a proliferation-inducing ligand), are critical factors in the maintenance of the B cell pool and humoral immunity. In addition, BAFF and APRIL are involved in the pathogenesis of a number of human autoimmune diseases, with elevated levels of these cytokines detected in the sera of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), IgA nephropathy, Sjögren's syndrome, and rheumatoid arthritis. As such, both molecules are rational targets for new therapies in B cell-driven autoimmune diseases, and several inhibitors of BAFF or BAFF and APRIL together have been investigated in clinical trials. These include the BAFF/APRIL dual inhibitor, atacicept, and the BAFF inhibitor, belimumab, which is approved as an add-on therapy for patients with active SLE. Post hoc analyses of these trials indicate that baseline serum levels of BAFF and BAFF/APRIL correlate with treatment response to belimumab and atacicept, respectively, suggesting a role for the two molecules as predictive biomarkers. It will, however, be important to refine future testing to identify active forms of BAFF and APRIL in the circulation, as well as to distinguish between homotrimer and heteromer configurations. In this review, we discuss the rationale for dual BAFF/APRIL inhibition versus single BAFF inhibition in autoimmune disease, by focusing on the similarities and differences between the physiological and pathogenic roles of the two molecules. A summary of the preclinical and clinical data currently available is also presented
Application of remote sensing to state and regional problems
The author has identified the following significant results. The Lowndes County data base is essentially complete with 18 primary variables and 16 proximity variables encoded into the geo-information system. The single purpose, decision tree classifier is now operational. Signatures for the thematic extraction of strip mines from LANDSAT Digital data were obtained by employing both supervised and nonsupervised procedures. Dry, blowing sand areas of beach were also identified from the LANDSAT data. The primary procedure was the analysis of analog data on the I2S signal slicer
Intraoperative Management of Robotic-Assisted Versus Open Radical Prostatectomy
Robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy was found to be a shorter procedure characterized by minimal blood loss, reduced fluid requirements, and shorter hospital stay compared with traditional open procedures
Submicron scale tissue multifractal anisotropy in polarized laser light scattering
The spatial fluctuations of the refractive index within biological tissues exhibit multifractal anisotropy, leaving its signature as a spectral linear diattenuation of scattered polarized light. The multifractal anisotropy has been quantitatively assessed by the processing of relevant Mueller matrix elements in the Fourier domain, utilizing the Born approximation and subsequent multifractal analysis. The differential scaling exponent and width of the singularity spectrum appear to be highly sensitive to the structural multifractal anisotropy at the micron/sub-micron length scales. An immediate practical use of these multifractal anisotropy parameters was explored for non-invasive screening of cervical precancerous alterations ex vivo, with the indication of a strong potential for clinical diagnostic purposes
Holography Cytometry: Imaging of Cells in Flow
Holographic cytometry (HC) has been developed as an ultra-high throughput implementation of quantitative phase microscopy (QPM). While QPM has been well developed for studying cells based on endogenous contrast, few implementations have imaged cells in flow or provided high throughput measurements. Although QPI offers high resolution imaging, experiments are limited to examining a single cell at a time. The HC approach enables high throughput by imaging cells as they are flowed through microfluidic devices. Stroboscopic illumination is used in an off-axis interferometry configuration to produce holographic images of flowing cell samples without streaking artifact. The ability to profile large number of cells using individual images has been demonstrated in red blood cell and cancer cell samples. The large volume of data provides suitable training data for developing machine learning algorithms, producing excellent accuracy in classifying cell type. Analysis of the adherent cells to flow also produces diagnostically useful information in the form of biomechanical cell properties. Introduction of a new parameter, disorder strength, a measure of the variance of phase fluctuations across a cell, provides an additional window into the cell mechanical properties
The Excursion Set Theory of Halo Mass Functions, Halo Clustering, and Halo Growth
I review the excursion set theory (EST) of dark matter halo formation and
clustering. I recount the Press-Schechter argument for the mass function of
bound objects and review the derivation of the Press-Schechter mass function in
EST. The EST formalism is powerful and can be applied to numerous problems. I
review the EST of halo bias and the properties of void regions. I spend
considerable time reviewing halo growth in the EST. This section culminates
with descriptions of two Monte Carlo methods for generating halo mass accretion
histories. In the final section, I emphasize that the standard EST approach is
the result of several simplifying assumptions. Dropping these assumptions can
lead to more faithful predictions and a more versatile formalism. One such
assumption is the constant height of the barrier for nonlinear collapse. I
review implementations of the excursion set approach with arbitrary barrier
shapes. An application of this is the now well-known improvement to standard
EST that follows from the ellipsoidal-collapse barrier. Additionally, I
emphasize that the statement that halo accretion histories are independent of
halo environments is a simplifying assumption, rather than a prediction of the
theory. I review the method for constructing correlated random walks of the
density field in more general cases. I construct a simple toy model with
correlated walks and I show that excursion set theory makes a qualitatively
simple and general prediction for the relation between halo accretion histories
and halo environments: regions of high density preferentially contain
late-forming halos and conversely for regions of low density. I conclude with a
brief discussion of this prediction in the context of recent numerical studies
of the environmental dependence of halo properties. (Abridged)Comment: 62 pages, 19 figures. Review article based on lectures given at the
Sixth Summer School of the Helmholtz Institute for Supercomputational
Physics. Accepted for Publication in IJMPD. Comments Welcom
Linear systems with adiabatic fluctuations
We consider a dynamical system subjected to weak but adiabatically slow
fluctuations of external origin. Based on the ``adiabatic following''
approximation we carry out an expansion in \alpha/|\mu|, where \alpha is the
strength of fluctuations and 1/|\mu| refers to the time scale of evolution of
the unperturbed system to obtain a linear differential equation for the average
solution. The theory is applied to the problems of a damped harmonic oscillator
and diffusion in a turbulent fluid. The result is the realization of
`renormalized' diffusion constant or damping constant for the respective
problems. The applicability of the method has been critically analyzed.Comment: Plain Latex, no figure, 21 page
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