24,324 research outputs found
Raised serum transaminases during treatment with pegylated interferon for chronic hepatiti C
Introduction : Serum transaminases rose significantly in 7 patients with chronic hepatitis C, genotypes 2 and 3, who were treated with pegylated interferon and ribavirin.
Methods : 219 patients with chronic hepatitis C, genotypes 2 and 3, were treated between 2005 and 2011 following the same protocol. For the 7 patients presented in this paper, the initial liver screen revealed chronic hepatitis C infection only. The same liver screen was repeated following the transaminase rise during the treatment period and failed to reveal additional comorbidity.
Results : 5 male and 2 female patients with chronic hepatitis C experienced a rise in serum transaminases after commencement on treatment with pegylated interferon and ribavirin. They all achieved rapid and end of treatment virological responses. 3 of the patients achieved sustained virological response and 4 relapsed. There was no evidence to suggest that steatosis, development of autoimmunity or intercurrent illness was the cause of the liver injury. In 3 out of 7 patients, the level of transaminases exhibited a downward trend after pegylated interferon was changed to non pegylated interferon. Additionally, it is evident that in those patients whose treatment was temporarily or permanently aborted, the rise in transaminases rapidly improved and returned to baseline.
Conclusion : Our experience suggests the possibility of a toxic reaction to polyethylene glycol in a small number of patients being treated with pegylated interferon, resulting in an acute hepatitic response which resolved when therapy was stopped or switched to non-pegylated interferon
A theoretical/experimental program to develop active optical pollution sensors
Light detection and ranging (LIDAR) technology was applied to the assessment of air quality, and its usefulness was evaluated by actual field tests. Necessary hardware was successfully constructed and operated in the field. Measurements of necessary physical parameters, such as SO2 absorption coefficients were successfully completed and theoretical predictions of differential absorption performance were reported. Plume modeling improvements were proposed. A full scale field test of equipment, data analysis and auxiliary data support was conducted in Maryland during September 1976
Resolving the chemical substructure of Orion-KL
The Kleinmann-Low nebula in Orion (Orion-KL) is the nearest example of a
high-mass star-forming environment. For the first time, we complemented 1.3 mm
Submillimeter Array (SMA) interferometric line survey with IRAM 30 m
single-dish observations of the Orion-KL region. Covering a 4 GHz bandwidth in
total, this survey contains over 160 emission lines from 20 species (25
isotopologues), including 11 complex organic molecules (COMs).
At a spatial resolution of 1200 AU, the continuum substructures are resolved.
Extracting the spectra from individual substructures and providing the
intensity-integrated distribution map for each species, we studied the
small-scale chemical variations in this region. Our main results are: (1) We
identify lines from the low-abundance COMs CH3COCH3 and CH3CH2OH, as well as
tentatively detect CH3CHO and long carbon-chains C6H and HC7N. (2) We find that
while most COMs are segregated by type, peaking either towards the hot core
(e.g., N-bearing species) or the compact ridge (e.g., O-bearing species like
HCOOCH3 and CH3OCH3), while the distributions of others do not follow this
segregated structure (e.g., CH3CH2OH, CH3OH, CH3COCH3). (3) We find a second
velocity component of HNCO, SO2, 34SO2, and SO lines, which may be associated
with a strong shock event in the low-velocity outflow. (4) Temperatures and
molecular abundances show large gradients between central condensations and the
outflow regions, illustrating a transition between hot molecular core and
shock-chemistry dominated regimes.
Our observations of spatially resolved chemical variations in Orion-KL
provide the nearest reference source for hot molecular core and outflow
chemistry, which will be an important example for interpreting the chemistry of
more distant HMSFRs.Comment: 51 pages, 17 figures, accepted on 12 March 2015 Dashed lines in
Figure 10 of the published paper was missin
An experimental/analytical program to assess the utility of lidar for pollution monitoring
The development and demonstration of lidar techniques for the remote measurement of atmospheric constituents and transport processes in the lower troposphere was carried out. Particular emphasis was given to techniques for monitoring SO2 and particulates, the principal pollutants in power plant and industrial plumes. Data from a plume dispersion study conducted in Maryland during September and October 1976 were reduced, and a data base was assembled which is available to the scientific community for plume model verification. A UV Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) was built, and preliminary testing was done
Quantum ratchet transport with minimal dispersion rate
We analyze the performance of quantum ratchets by considering the dynamics of
an initially localized wave packet loaded into a flashing periodic potential.
The directed center-of-mass motion can be initiated by the uniform modulation
of the potential height, provided that the modulation protocol breaks all
relevant time- and spatial reflection symmetries. A poor performance of quantum
ratchet transport is characterized by a slow net motion and a fast diffusive
spreading of the wave packet, while the desirable optimal performance is the
contrary. By invoking a quantum analog of the classical P\'eclet number, namely
the quotient of the group velocity and the dispersion of the propagating wave
packet, we calibrate the transport properties of flashing quantum ratchets and
discuss the mechanisms that yield low-dispersive directed transport.Comment: 6 pages; 3 figures; 1 tabl
Molecular gas in the northern nucleus of Mrk273: Physical and chemical properties of the disk and its outflow
Aiming to characterise the properties of the molecular gas in the
ultraluminous infrared galaxy Mrk273 and its outflow, we used the NOEMA
interferometer to image the dense gas molecular tracers HCN, HCO+, HNC, HOC+
and HC3N at 86GHz and 256GHz with angular resolutions of 4.9x4.5 arcsec
(3.7x3.4 kpc) and 0.61x0.55 arcsec (460x420 pc). We also modelled the flux of
several H2O lines observed with Herschel using a radiative transfer code that
includes excitation by collisions as well as by far-infrared photons. The disk
of the Mrk273 north nucleus has two components with decoupled kinematics. The
gas in the outer parts (1.5 kpc) rotates with a south-east to north-west
direction, while in the inner disk (300 pc) follows a north-east to south-west
rotation. The central 300 pc, which hosts a compact starburst region, is filled
with dense and warm gas, contains a dynamical mass of (4-5)x10^9M_sun, a
luminosity of L'_HCN=(3-4)x10^8 K km/s pc^2, and a dust temperature of 55 K. At
the very centre, a compact core with R~50 pc has a luminosity of
L_IR=4x10^11L_sun (30% of the total infrared luminosity), and a dust
temperature of 95 K. The core is expanding at low velocities ~50-100 km/s,
probably affected by the outflowing gas. We detect the blue-shifted component
of the outflow, while the red-shifted counterpart remains undetected in our
data. Its cold and dense phase reaches fast velocities up to ~1000 km/s, while
the warm outflowing gas has more moderate maximum velocities of ~600 km/s. The
outflow is detected as far as 460 pc from the centre in the northern direction,
and has a mass of dense gas <8x10^8M_sun. The difference between the position
angles of the inner disk (~70 degree) and the outflow (~10 degree) indicates
that the outflow is likely powered by the AGN, and not by the starburst.
Regarding the chemistry, we measure an extremely low HCO+/HOC+ ratio of 10+-5
in the inner disk of Mrk273.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 21 pages, 17 figures, 7 tables, and
a lot of interesting tex
Softly Broken A_4 Symmetry for Nearly Degenerate Neutrino Masses
The leptonic Higgs doublet model of neutrino masses is implemented with an
A_4 discrete symmetry (the even permutation of 4 objects or equivalently the
symmetry of the tetrahedron) which has 4 irreducible representations: 1, 1',
1'', and 3. The resulting spontaneous and soft breaking of A_4 provides a
realistic model of charged-lepton masses as well as a nearly degenerate
neutrino mass matrix. Phenomenological consequences at and below the TeV scale
are discussed.Comment: 11 pages, no figur
Associations among Wine Grape Microbiome, Metabolome, and Fermentation Behavior Suggest Microbial Contribution to Regional Wine Characteristics.
UnlabelledRegionally distinct wine characteristics (terroir) are an important aspect of wine production and consumer appreciation. Microbial activity is an integral part of wine production, and grape and wine microbiota present regionally defined patterns associated with vineyard and climatic conditions, but the degree to which these microbial patterns associate with the chemical composition of wine is unclear. Through a longitudinal survey of over 200 commercial wine fermentations, we demonstrate that both grape microbiota and wine metabolite profiles distinguish viticultural area designations and individual vineyards within Napa and Sonoma Counties, California. Associations among wine microbiota and fermentation characteristics suggest new links between microbiota, fermentation performance, and wine properties. The bacterial and fungal consortia of wine fermentations, composed from vineyard and winery sources, correlate with the chemical composition of the finished wines and predict metabolite abundances in finished wines using machine learning models. The use of postharvest microbiota as an early predictor of wine chemical composition is unprecedented and potentially poses a new paradigm for quality control of agricultural products. These findings add further evidence that microbial activity is associated with wine terroirImportanceWine production is a multi-billion-dollar global industry for which microbial control and wine chemical composition are crucial aspects of quality. Terroir is an important feature of consumer appreciation and wine culture, but the many factors that contribute to terroir are nebulous. We show that grape and wine microbiota exhibit regional patterns that correlate with wine chemical composition, suggesting that the grape microbiome may influence terroir In addition to enriching our understanding of how growing region and wine properties interact, this may provide further economic incentive for agricultural and enological practices that maintain regional microbial biodiversity
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