828 research outputs found
Badania szkodliwego wpływu czynników antropogenicznych na karpia za pomocą pomiarów niektórych parametrów biochemicznych
Zadanie pt. „Digitalizacja i udostępnienie w Cyfrowym Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego kolekcji czasopism naukowych wydawanych przez Uniwersytet Łódzki” nr 885/P-DUN/2014 dofinansowane zostało ze środków MNiSW w ramach działalności upowszechniającej naukę
Current Understanding of West Nile Virus Clinical Manifestations, Immune Responses, Neuroinvasion, and Immunotherapeutic Implications
West Nile virus (WNV) is the most common mosquito-borne virus in North America. WNV-associated neuroinvasive disease affects all ages, although elderly and immunocompromised individuals are particularly at risk. WNV neuroinvasive disease has killed over 2300 Americans since WNV entered into the United States in the New York City outbreak of 1999. Despite 20 years of intensive laboratory and clinical research, there are still no approved vaccines or antivirals available for human use. However, rapid progress has been made in both understanding the pathogenesis of WNV and treatment in clinical practices. This review summarizes our current understanding of WNV infection in terms of human clinical manifestations, host immune responses, neuroinvasion, and therapeutic interventions
A necklace of dense cores in the high-mass star forming region G35.20-0.74N: ALMA observations
The present study aims at characterizing the massive star forming region
G35.20N, which is found associated with at least one massive outflow and
contains multiple dense cores, one of them recently found associated with a
Keplerian rotating disk. We used ALMA to observe the G35.20N region in the
continuum and line emission at 350 GHz. The observed frequency range covers
tracers of dense gas (e.g. H13CO+, C17O), molecular outflows (e.g. SiO), and
hot cores (e.g. CH3CN, CH3OH). The ALMA 870 um continuum emission map reveals
an elongated dust structure (0.15 pc long and 0.013 pc wide) perpendicular to
the large-scale molecular outflow detected in the region, and fragmented into a
number of cores with masses 1-10 Msun and sizes 1600 AU. The cores appear
regularly spaced with a separation of 0.023 pc. The emission of dense gas
tracers such as H13CO+ or C17O is extended and coincident with the dust
elongated structure. The three strongest dust cores show emission of complex
organic molecules characteristic of hot cores, with temperatures around 200 K,
and relative abundances 0.2-2x10^(-8) for CH3CN and 0.6-5x10^(-6) for CH3OH.
The two cores with highest mass (cores A and B) show coherent velocity fields,
with gradients almost aligned with the dust elongated structure. Those velocity
gradients are consistent with Keplerian disks rotating about central masses of
4-18 Msun. Perpendicular to the velocity gradients we have identified a
large-scale precessing jet/outflow associated with core B, and hints of an
east-west jet/outflow associated with core A. The elongated dust structure in
G35.20N is fragmented into a number of dense cores that may form massive stars.
Based on the velocity field of the dense gas, the orientation of the magnetic
field, and the regularly spaced fragmentation, we interpret this elongated
structure as the densest part of a 1D filament fragmenting and forming massive
stars.Comment: 24 pages, 26 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysics (abstract modified to fit arXiv restrictions
ABCC1: a gateway for pharmacological compounds to the ischaemic brain
By preventing access of drugs to the CNS, the blood-brain barrier hampers developments in brain pharmacotherapy. Strong efforts are currently being made to identify drugs that accumulate more efficaciously in ischaemic brain tissue. We identified an ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter, ABCC1, which is expressed on the abluminal surface of the brain capillary endothelium and mildly downregulated in response to focal cerebral ischaemia, induced by intraluminal middle cerebral artery occlusion. In biodistribution studies we show that ABCC1 promotes the accumulation of known neuroprotective and neurotoxic compounds in the ischaemic and non-ischaemic brain, ABCC1 deactivation reducing tissue concentrations by up to two orders of magnitude. As such, ABCC1's expression and functionality in the brain differs from the liver, spleen and testis, where ABCC1 is strongly expressed on parenchymal cells, resulting -- in case of liver and testis -- in directed transport from the tissue into the blood. After focal cerebral ischaemia, ABCC1 deactivation abolished the efficacy of both neuroprotective and neurotoxic compounds. Our data indicate that ABCC1 acts as gateway for pharmacological compounds to the stroke brain. We suggest that the tailoring of compounds binding to abluminal but not luminal ABC transporters may facilitate stroke pharmacotherap
Love as a Regulative Ideal in Surrogate Decision Making
This discussion aims to give a normative theoretical basis for a “best judgment” model of surrogate decision making rooted in a regulative ideal of love. Currently, there are two basic models of surrogate decision making for incompetent patients: the “substituted judgment” model and the “best interests” model. The former draws on the value of autonomy and responds with respect; the latter draws on the value of welfare and responds with beneficence. It can be difficult to determine which of these two models is more appropriate for a given patient, and both approaches may seem inadequate for a surrogate who loves the patient. The proposed “best judgment” model effectively draws on the values incorporated in each of the traditional standards, but does so because these values are important to someone who loves a patient, since love responds to the patient as the specific person she is
Precautionary Regulation in Europe and the United States: A Quantitative Comparison
Much attention has been addressed to the question of whether Europe or the United States adopts a more precautionary stance to the regulation of potential environmental, health, and safety risks. Some commentators suggest that Europe is more risk-averse and precautionary, whereas the US is seen as more risk-taking and optimistic about the prospects for new technology. Others suggest that the US is more precautionary because its regulatory process is more legalistic and adversarial, while Europe is more lax and corporatist in its regulations. The flip-flop hypothesis claims that the US was more precautionary than Europe in the 1970s and early 1980s, and that Europe has become more precautionary since then. We examine the levels and trends in regulation of environmental, health, and safety risks since 1970. Unlike previous research, which has studied only a small set of prominent cases selected non-randomly, we develop a comprehensive list of almost 3,000 risks and code the relative stringency of regulation in Europe and the US for each of 100 risks randomly selected from that list for each year from 1970 through 2004. Our results suggest that: (a) averaging over risks, there is no significant difference in relative precaution over the period, (b) weakly consistent with the flip-flop hypothesis, there is some evidence of a modest shift toward greater relative precaution of European regulation since about 1990, although (c) there is a diversity of trends across risks, of which the most common is no change in relative precaution (including cases where Europe and the US are equally precautionary and where Europe or the US has been consistently more precautionary). The overall finding is of a mixed and diverse pattern of relative transatlantic precaution over the period
Feasibility of free space quantum key distribution with coherent polarization states
We demonstrate for the first time the feasibility of free space quantum key
distribution with continuous variables under real atmospheric conditions. More
specifically, we transmit coherent polarization states over a 100m free space
channel on the roof of our institute's building. In our scheme, signal and
local oscillator are combined in a single spatial mode which auto-compensates
atmospheric fluctuations and results in an excellent interference. Furthermore,
the local oscillator acts as spatial and spectral filter thus allowing
unrestrained daylight operation.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, extensions in sections 2, 3.1, 3.2 and 4. This
is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for
publication in New Journal of Physics (Special Issue on Quantum Cryptography:
Theory and Practice). IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or
omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from i
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