Translation of therapeutic strategies to modulate B cell reponses from non-human primate models to human kidney transplantation

Using novel drugs targeting lymphocyte costimulation, cytokines, antibody, complement, and plasma cells, we have developed strategies in a non-human primate model to modulate the B cell response to incompatible kidney transplants. After more than two decades of research supported by mechanistic studies, this has resulted in clinically relevant approaches that are currently enrolling in clinical trials or preparing for such. In this manner, we aim to address the problems of HLA sensitization for very highly sensitized patients awaiting transplantation and the unmet need of effective treatment for antibody-mediated rejection

Microstructural and Electron-Emission Characteristics of Nb-Si-N Films in Surface-Conduction Electron-Emitter Display

AbstractWe proposed ternary nitride Nb-Si-N film as a promising surface-conduction electron emitter (SCE) in surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED). Nb-Si-N films consisted of continuous NbN polycrystalline phase with (Si3-xNb4x)N4 amorphous phase in NbN grain boundaries. After electroforming, serrated nanogaps were observed in Nb-Si-N SCE strips. The emission current of Nb-Si-N SCE array of 1×18 cells was 6.50μA with anode voltage of 1.5kV and device voltage of 22V, indicating satisfying potential for display applications comparing with NbN SCEs. © 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V

Ischemic postconditioning and pinacidil suppress calcium overload in anoxia- reoxygenation cardiomyocytes via down- regulation of the calcium-sensing receptor

ABSTRACT Ischemic postconditioning (IPC) and ATP sensitive potassium channel (KATP) agonists (e.g. pinacidil and diazoxide) postconditioning are effective methods to defeat myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury, but their specific mechanisms of reducing I/R injury are not fully understood. We observed an intracellular free calcium ([Ca 2

Approximate solutions to large nonsymmetric differential Riccati problems with applications to transport theory

In the present paper, we consider large scale nonsymmetric differential matrix Riccati equations with low rank right hand sides. These matrix equations appear in many applications such as control theory, transport theory, applied probability and others. We show how to apply Krylov-type methods such as the extended block Arnoldi algorithm to get low rank approximate solutions. The initial problem is projected onto small subspaces to get low dimensional nonsymmetric differential equations that are solved using the exponential approximation or via other integration schemes such as Backward Differentiation Formula (BDF) or Rosenbrok method. We also show how these technique could be easily used to solve some problems from the well known transport equation. Some numerical experiments are given to illustrate the application of the proposed methods to large-scale problem

Recovery of an embedded obstacle and the surrounding medium for Maxwell's system

In this paper, we are concerned with the inverse electromagnetic scattering problem of recovering a complex scatterer by the corresponding electric far-field data. The complex scatterer consists of an inhomogeneous medium and a possibly embedded perfectly electric conducting (PEC) obstacle. The far-field data are collected corresponding to incident plane waves with a fixed incident direction and a fixed polarisation, but frequencies from an open interval. It is shown that the embedded obstacle can be uniquely recovered by the aforementioned far-field data, independent of the surrounding medium. Furthermore, if the surrounding medium is piecewise homogeneous, then the medium can be recovered as well. Those unique recovery results are new to the literature. Our argument is based on low-frequency expansions of the electromagnetic fields and certain harmonic analysis techniques.Comment: 15 page

Disentangling superconducting and magnetic orders in NaFe_1-xNi_xAs using muon spin rotation

Muon spin rotation and relaxation studies have been performed on a "111" family of iron-based superconductors NaFe_1-xNi_xAs. Static magnetic order was characterized by obtaining the temperature and doping dependences of the local ordered magnetic moment size and the volume fraction of the magnetically ordered regions. For x = 0 and 0.4 %, a transition to a nearly-homogeneous long range magnetically ordered state is observed, while for higher x than 0.4 % magnetic order becomes more disordered and is completely suppressed for x = 1.5 %. The magnetic volume fraction continuously decreases with increasing x. The combination of magnetic and superconducting volumes implies that a spatially-overlapping coexistence of magnetism and superconductivity spans a large region of the T-x phase diagram for NaFe_1-xNi_xAs . A strong reduction of both the ordered moment size and the volume fraction is observed below the superconducting T_C for x = 0.6, 1.0, and 1.3 %, in contrast to other iron pnictides in which one of these two parameters exhibits a reduction below TC, but not both. The suppression of magnetic order is further enhanced with increased Ni doping, leading to a reentrant non-magnetic state below T_C for x = 1.3 %. The reentrant behavior indicates an interplay between antiferromagnetism and superconductivity involving competition for the same electrons. These observations are consistent with the sign-changing s-wave superconducting state, which is expected to appear on the verge of microscopic coexistence and phase separation with magnetism. We also present a universal linear relationship between the local ordered moment size and the antiferromagnetic ordering temperature TN across a variety of iron-based superconductors. We argue that this linear relationship is consistent with an itinerant-electron approach, in which Fermi surface nesting drives antiferromagnetic ordering.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures, Correspondence should be addressed to Prof. Yasutomo Uemura: [email protected]