Can plasma exchange therapy induce regulatory T lymphocytes in multiple sclerosis patients?

Plasma exchange is used increasingly as an individual therapeutic decision for treating of severe, steroid-resistant relapses of multiple sclerosis (MS). However, given that its mechanism of action in this CD4(+) T cell-mediated autoimmune disease remains unknown, it is not yet considered as a routine therapy for this prevalent neuroimmune disorder. In this regard, we hypothesized that plasma exchange, by depleting the body of inflammatory mediators that acts as providers of co-stimulatory signals for the adaptive immune system, provides the immune system with an exceptional break for de-novo recognition of autoantigens in a tolerogenic manner. This may lead to an increase in the frequency and function of myelin-specific regulatory T cells. For evaluating this we suggest some in vitro and in vivo studies to analyse the effects of varied dilutions of normal and MS plasmas on the induction of regulatory T cells or on the function of isolated and purified regulatory T cells. Clarifying the effects of therapeutic plasma exchange on regulatory T cells as the major controllers of autoimmune responses may provide us with strong evidence to use this procedure as a disease-modifying treatment in remission phase for reducing the rate and severity of future attacks, in addition to more trustworthy therapy in severe relapses of MS

Modeling the Effect of Surface Energy on Stressed Grain Growth in Cubic Polycrystalline Bodies

A recently-developed constitutive theory of stressed grain growth is augmented to include the effect of excess surface energy via a surface effect state variable. The new constitutive theory is implemented into a coupled finite-element and phase-field computational framework. Through three-dimensional simulations, the new constitutive model is shown to be capable of predicting the experimental data of the annealing-induced texture transition in polycrystalline copper thin films of different thicknesses attached to a polyimide substrate. Our simulations show that the grain growth driving force arising from the through-film thickness grain boundary curvature plays a prominent role in such a transitional behavior

Upper blepharoplasty and lateral wound dehiscence

Purpose: To report the frequency of lateral wound dehiscence (LWD) after upper blepharoplasty (UB), a technique and its outcome to prevent LWD. Materials and Methods:A retrospective review was performed for cases of LWD after UB presenting between 2003 and 2009, and then a prospective comparative study was performed between February 2009 and March 2013. For the comparison, subjects were divided into two groups based on intraoperative assessment of lateral wound tension (same technique and surgeon). Group 1 received 1-3 orbicularis/subcutaneous buried sutures (6-0 polyglactin) before interrupted 6-0 nylon skin closure. Group 2 underwent skin closure only. Subjects, who had re-operation, skin healing disorders, and incomplete follow-up (<6 months), were excluded. P < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: There were 14 (14/678, 2) cases with LWD with a mean age of 36.2 years in the audit (2003-2009). The prospective study included 68 subjects (68/293, 23.2) in Group 1 and 225 in Group 2. Gender and simultaneous forehead and eyebrow procedures were similar between groups (P = 0.3 and P = 0.4 respectively). Group 1 was statistically significantly younger at mean age of 41.4 years, compared to Group 2 at 56.1 years (P = 0.000). The frequency of LWD significantly (P = 0.04) decreased to 0.3 (1/293). Conclusion: In the presence of wound tension on skin closure (intraoperative assessment), tension relieving buried orbicularis/subcutaneous 6-0 polyglactin suturing of the lateral UB incision could prevent LWD. © 2015 Middle East African Journal of Ophthalmology | Published by Wolters Kluwer - Medknow

Derivative pricing for a multi-curve extension of the Gaussian, exponentially quadratic short rate model

The recent financial crisis has led to so-called multi-curve models for the term structure. Here we study a multi-curve extension of short rate models where, in addition to the short rate itself, we introduce short rate spreads. In particular, we consider a Gaussian factor model where the short rate and the spreads are second order polynomials of Gaussian factor processes. This leads to an exponentially quadratic model class that is less well known than the exponentially affine class. In the latter class the factors enter linearly and for positivity one considers square root factor processes. While the square root factors in the affine class have more involved distributions, in the quadratic class the factors remain Gaussian and this leads to various advantages, in particular for derivative pricing. After some preliminaries on martingale modeling in the multi-curve setup, we concentrate on pricing of linear and optional derivatives. For linear derivatives, we exhibit an adjustment factor that allows one to pass from pre-crisis single curve values to the corresponding post-crisis multi-curve values

Avoidance tests with the oribatid mite Oppia nitens (Acari: Oribatida) in cadmium-spiked natural soils

Avoidance behavior can be a useful parameter for assessing the ability of organisms to escape from pollutants in their environment. For soil evaluation, a variety of invertebrates is used including the oribatid mite Oppia nitens. Here, we tested the avoidance behavior of O. nitens using a two-chamber test and an escape test with exposures to different cadmium concentrations of up to 800 mg kg−1 dry LUFA 2.2 soil for 2, 4, and 6 days, and up to 7 weeks. With the two-chamber method, the oribatid mites had the choice between clean and polluted soils, whereas they were allowed to escape from a box with polluted soil to clean containers without soil with the escape method. Avoidance of cadmium was observed after 2 days in both tests and the net response of the mites in the two-chamber test increased with increasing cadmium exposure concentrations. Mite responses varied through time, especially with the escape method; with the avoidance behavior becoming more variable and overall non-significant with longer test durations. This is the first study investigating the escape test simultaneously with long-term avoidance of cadmium by O. nitens. This mite species is a promising species for avoidance testing in soil ecotoxicology, but more experiments are needed to evaluate the factors that influence its responses in laboratory tests and the consequences for its distribution in contaminated ecosystems

A new method for the estimation of variance matrix with prescribed zeros in nonlinear mixed effects models

We propose a new method for the Maximum Likelihood Estimator (MLE) of nonlinear mixed effects models when the variance matrix of Gaussian random effects has a prescribed pattern of zeros (PPZ). The method consists in coupling the recently developed Iterative Conditional Fitting (ICF) algorithm with the Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm. It provides positive definite estimates for any sample size, and does not rely on any structural assumption on the PPZ. It can be easily adapted to many versions of EM.Comment: Accepted for publication in Statistics and Computin

An Overview of Solar Thermal Power Generation Systems

In the world today, fossil fuels as conventional energy sources have a crucial role in energy supply since they are substantial drivers of the “Industrial Revolution”, as well as the technical, social, and economic developments. Global population growth along with high levels of prosperity have resulted in a significant increase in fossil fuels consumption. However, fossil fuels have destructive impacts on the environment, being the major source of the local air pollution and emitter of greenhouse gases (GHGs). To address this issue, using renewable energy sources especially solar energy as an abundant and clean source of energy, has been attracted considerable global attention, which can provide a large portion of electricity demand. To make the most of solar energy, concentrated solar power (CSP) systems integrated with cost effective thermal energy storage (TES) systems are among the best options. A TES system has the ability to store the thermal energy during sunshine hours and release it during the periods with weak or no solar radiation. Thus, it can increase the working hours as well as the reliability of a solar system. In this paper, the main components of the solar thermal power systems including solar collectors, concentrators, TES systems and different types of heat transfer fluids (HTFs) used in solar farms have been discusse

Service Failure-Recovery In Online Shops In Iran

Present article focuses on service failure and recovery in the online shops in Iran. The article investigates interaction between service failure and online shops readiness for service recovery and resulting impact on customer reaction. The data was collected by an e-questionnaire from 615 Iranian online shoppers. The findings suggest, although many online shops are severely breaching few fundamental business principles, defection is not happening as vast as in other similar studies. Furthermore, winning the customers back via service recovery seems to be depended rather on the process than the outcome of service recovery, which is very similar to the findings of another study in Chinese environment. Discussion of the findings suggests the researchers and managers to be conscious of the possible impact of the culture and environment on customer’s responses to service failure and service recovery states

Postchemotherapy retroperitoneal lymph node dissection in patients with nonseminomatous testicular cancer: A single center experiences

Background: Testicular cancer accounts for about 1 - 1.5 of all malignancies in men. Radical orchiectomy is curative in 75 of patients with stage I disease, but advance stage with retroperitoneal lymph node involvement needs chemotherapy. All patients who have residual masses � 1 cm after chemotherapy should undergo postchemotherapy retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (PC-RPLND). Objectives: Treatment of advanced nonseminomatous testicular cancer is usually a combination of chemotherapy and surgery. We described our experience about postchemotherapy retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (PC-RPLND) in our center. Patients and Methods: In a retrospective cross-sectional study between 2006 and 2011, patients with a history of postchemotherapy retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (PC-RPLND) in Imam Khomeini hospital were evaluated. All patients had normal postchemotherapy serum tumor markers and primary nonseminomatous cancer. We reviewed retrospectively clinical, pathological, and surgical parameters associated with PC-RPLND in our center. Results: Twenty-one patients underwent bilateral PC-RPLND. Mean age was 26.3 years (ranged 16 - 47). Mean size of retroperitoneal mass after chemotherapy was 7.6 cm. Mean operative time was 198 minutes (120 - 246 minutes). Mean follow-up time was 38.6 months. Pathologic review showed presence of fibrosis/necrosis, viable germ cell tumor and teratoma in 8 (38.1), 10 (47.6) and 3 (14.28) patients, respectively. One patient in postoperative period of surgery and three patients in two first years after surgery were expired. Of 17 alive patients, only two (11.8) had not retrograde ejaculation. Conclusions: PC-RPLND is one the major operations in the field of urology, which is associated with significant adjunctive surgeries. In appropriate cases, PC-RPLND was associated with good cancer specific survival in tertiary oncology center. © 2015, Nephrology and Urology Research Center