Age-dependent sensitization to the 7S-vicilin-like protein Cor a 11 from hazelnut (Corylus avellana) in a birch-endemic region

Background: Hazelnut (Corylus avellana) allergy exhibits age and geographically distinct sensitization patterns that have not yet been fully resolved. Objective: To study sensitization to Cor a 11 in different age groups of hazelnut-allergic patients and infants with atopic dermatitis (AD) sensitized to hazelnut in a birch-endemic region. Methods: Sera from 80 hazelnut-allergic patients, 33 infants under 1 year of age with AD (24 sensitized and 9 not sensitized to hazelnut), 32 healthy control individuals, and 29 birch pollen–allergic but hazelnut-tolerant individuals were tested for immunoglobulin (Ig) E reactivity to Cor a 11 by ImmunoCAP. IgE reactivity to Cor a 1.01, Cor a 1.04, Cor a 8, and Cor a 9 was studied by ISAC microarray. Results: Forty patients (22 preschool children, 10 schoolchildren, and 8 adults) with systemic reactions on consumption of hazelnut were sensitized to Cor a 11 (respective rates of 36%, 40%, and 12.5%). Forty patients (6 preschool children, 10 schoolchildren, and 24 adults) reported oral allergy syndrome but only 2 of them (of preschool age) were sensitized to Cor a 11. Two (8%) of the AD infants sensitized to hazelnut showed IgE reactivity to Cor a 11. This reactivity was not observed in any of the AD infants without sensitization to hazelnut, in any of the birch-pollen allergic patients without hazelnut allergy, or in any of the healthy control individuals. Conclusion: Sensitization to Cor a 11 in a birch-endemic region is predominantly found in children with severe hazelnut allergy, a finding that is consistent with observations concerning sensitization to Cor a 9

Cor triatriatum sinister with situs inversus totalis in an infant.

Cor triatriatum sinister is a rare congenital cardiac malformation characterized by a membrane in the left atrium which separates the left atrium into the proximal and distal chambers.Association of cor triatriatum is extremely rare with situs inversus totalis. This article reports a rare case of cor triatriatum sinister with situs inversus totalis in a 5 month old female infantpeer-reviewe

Coronatine Facilitates Pseudomonas syringae Infection of Arabidopsis Leaves at Night.

In many land plants, the stomatal pore opens during the day and closes during the night. Thus, periods of darkness could be effective in decreasing pathogen penetration into leaves through stomata, the primary sites for infection by many pathogens. Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst) DC3000 produces coronatine (COR) and opens stomata, raising an intriguing question as to whether this is a virulence strategy to facilitate bacterial infection at night. In fact, we found that (a) biological concentration of COR is effective in opening dark-closed stomata of Arabidopsis thaliana leaves, (b) the COR defective mutant Pst DC3118 is less effective in infecting Arabidopsis in the dark than under light and this difference in infection is reduced with the wild type bacterium Pst DC3000, and (c) cma, a COR biosynthesis gene, is induced only when the bacterium is in contact with the leaf surface independent of the light conditions. These findings suggest that Pst DC3000 activates virulence factors at the pre-invasive phase of its life cycle to infect plants even when environmental conditions (such as darkness) favor stomatal immunity. This functional attribute of COR may provide epidemiological advantages for COR-producing bacteria on the leaf surface

Metrical theory for α\alpha-Rosen fractions

The Rosen fractions form an infinite family which generalizes the nearest-integer continued fractions. In this paper we introduce a new class of continued fractions related to the Rosen fractions, the $\alpha$-Rosen fractions. The metrical properties of these $\alpha$-Rosen fractions are studied. We find planar natural extensions for the associated interval maps, and show that these regions are closely related to similar region for the 'classical' Rosen fraction. This allows us to unify and generalize results of diophantine approximation from the literature

The Simulation of the Inelastic Impact

The coefficient of normal restitution (COR) in an oblique impact is theoretically studied. Using a two-dimensional lattice models for an elastic disk and an elastic wall, we investigate the dependency of COR on an incident angle and demonstrate that COR can exceed one and have a peak against an incident angle in our simulation. Finally, we explain these phenomena based upon the phenomenological theory of elasticity.Comment: 2 pages, 3 figures, submitted as the proceedings of the international conference on slow dynamics in complex systems(Sendai, Nov.3-8, 2003

Entropy quotients and correct digits in number-theoretic expansions

Expansions that furnish increasingly good approximations to real numbers are usually related to dynamical systems. Although comparing dynamical systems seems difficult in general, Lochs was able in 1964 to relate the relative speed of approximation of decimal and regular continued fraction expansions (almost everywhere) to the quotient of the entropies of their dynamical systems. He used detailed knowledge of the continued fraction operator. In 2001, a generalization of Lochs' result was given by Dajani and Fieldsteel in \citeDajF, describing the rate at which the digits of one number-theoretic expansion determine those of another. Their proofs are based on covering arguments and not on the dynamics of specific maps. In this paper we give a dynamical proof for certain classes of transformations, and we describe explicitly the distribution of the number of digits determined when comparing two expansions in integer bases. Finally, using this generalization of Lochs' result, we estimate the unknown entropy of certain number theoretic expansions by comparing the speed of convergence with that of an expansion with known entropy.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/074921706000000202 in the IMS Lecture Notes--Monograph Series (http://www.imstat.org/publications/lecnotes.htm) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

An algebra of deformation quantization for star-exponentials on complex symplectic manifolds

The cotangent bundle $T^*X$ to a complex manifold $X$ is classically endowed with the sheaf of \cor-algebras \W[T^*X] of deformation quantization, where \cor\eqdot \W[\rmptt] is a subfield of \C[[\hbar,\opb{\hbar}]. Here, we construct a new sheaf of \cor-algebras \TW[T^*X] which contains \W[T^*X] as a subalgebra and an extra central parameter $t$. We give the symbol calculus for this algebra and prove that quantized symplectic transformations operate on it. If $P$ is any section of order zero of \W[T^*X], we show that \exp(t\opb{\hbar} P) is well defined in \TW[T^*X].Comment: Latex file, 24 page