5 research outputs found
Impact of Single Hemodialysis Treatment on immune Cell Subpopulations
No full textHemodialysis (HD) is known to trigger a chronic inflammatory status, affecting the innate and acquired immune response. This study was aimed at a comparative analysis of immune cell subsets, proliferation, and apoptosis in subjects receiving chronic HD treatment with respect to a healthy control. Regardless of the dialysis filter used, we observed a reshaping of the acquired immune component both with respect to healthy patients and between the various sessions of dialysis treatment, with an impairment of CD3 cells, along with an increase in CD4 and CD8 cell populations producing pro-inflammatory factors such as IL-17 and IFN-gamma. The population of B cells, monocytes and NK cells were not impaired by the dialysis procedure. These results confirmed the high impact of the HD treatment on the patient’s immune system, underlying the imbalance of T cell counterparts
Vested Interests in Queuing and the Loss of the WTO's Club Good: The Long-run Costs of US Bilateralism
No full textIn recent years the United States has actively begun to engage in the negotiation of bilateral and regional trade agreements, a significant change from its long-standing commitment to the exclusive use of multilateral institutions for trade liberalization. While the "unequal economic power" effects of the strategic use of trade policy are well understood, the long-run implications of the creation of a queue for bilateral negotiations have been less fully explored. It is argued here that queuing creates vested interests that are antipathetic to multilateralism and threaten to erode the value of the WTO's "club good." As a result, the new two-track approach of the United States to trade negotiations may not be a sustainable policy.bilateralism, club good, queuing, International Relations/Trade,
A systematic review of evidence on malignant spinal metastases : natural history and technologies for identifying patients at high risk of vertebral fracture and spinal cord compression
No full textBackground: Spinal metastases can lead to significant morbidity and reduction in quality of life due to spinal cord compression (SCC). Between 5% and 20% of patients with spinal metastases develop metastatic spinal cord compression during the course of their disease. An early study estimated average survival for patients with SCC to be between 3 and 7 months, with a 36% probability of survival to 12 months. An understanding of the natural history and early diagnosis of spinal metastases and prediction of collapse of the metastatic vertebrae are important.
Objective: To undertake a systematic review to examine the natural history of metastatic spinal lesions and to identify patients at high risk of vertebral fracture and SCC.
Data sources: The search strategy covered the concepts of metastasis, the spine and adults. Searches were undertaken from inception to June 2011 in 13 electronic databases [MEDLINE; MEDLINE In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations; EMBASE; Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews; Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL); Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE), NHS Economic Evaluation Database (NHS EED), HTA databases (NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination); Science Citation Index and Conference Proceedings (Web of Science); UK Clinical Research Network (UKCRN) Portfolio Database; Current Controlled Trials; ClinicalTrials.gov].
Review methods: Titles and abstracts of retrieved studies were assessed by two reviewers independently. Disagreement was resolved by consensus agreement. Full data were extracted independently by one reviewer. All included studies were reviewed by a second researcher with disagreements resolved by discussion. A quality assessment instrument was used to assess bias in six domains: study population, attrition, prognostic factor measurement, outcome measurement, confounding measurement and account, and analysis. Data were tabulated and discussed in a narrative review. Each tumour type was looked at separately.
Results: In all, 2425 potentially relevant articles were identified, of which 31 met the inclusion criteria. No study examined natural history alone. Seventeen studies reported retrospective data, 10 were prospective studies, and three were other study designs. There was one systematic review. There were no randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Approximately 5782 participants were included. Sample sizes ranged from 41 to 859. The age of participants ranged between 7 and 92 years. Types of cancers reported on were lung alone (n= 3), prostate alone (n= 6), breast alone (n= 7), mixed cancers (n= 13) and unclear (n= 1). A total of 93 prognostic factors were identified as potentially significant in predicting risk of SCC or collapse. Overall findings indicated that the more spinal metastases present and the longer a patient was at risk, the greater the reported likelihood of development of SCC and collapse. There was an increased risk of developing SCC if a cancer had already spread to the bones. In the prostate cancer studies, tumour grade, metastatic load and time on hormone therapy were associated with increased risk of SCC. In one study, risk of SCC before death was 24%, and 2.37 times greater with a Gleason score 7 than with a score of < 7 (p= 0.003). Other research found that patients with six or more bone lesions were at greater risk of SCC than those with fewer than six lesions [odds ratio (OR) 2.9, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.012 to 8.35, p= 0.047]. For breast cancer patients who received a computerised tomography (CT) scan for suspected SCC, multiple logistic regression in one study identified four independent variables predictive of a positive test: bone metastases 2 years (OR 3.0 95% CI 1.2 to 7.6; p= 0.02); metastatic disease at initial diagnosis (OR 3.4, 95% CI 1.0 to 11.4; p= 0.05); objective weakness (OR 3.8, 95% CI 1.5 to 9.5; p= 0.005); and vertebral compression fracture on spine radiograph (OR 2.6, 95% CI 1.0 to 6.5; p= 0.05). A further study on mixed cancers, among patients who received surgery for SCC, reported that vertebral body compression fractures were associated with presurgery chemotherapy (OR 2.283, 95% CI 1.064 to 4.898; p= 0.03), cancer type [primary breast cancer (OR 4.179, 95% CI 1.457 to 11.983; p= 0.008)], thoracic involvement (OR 3.505, 95% CI 1.343 to 9.143; p= 0.01) and anterior cord compression (OR 3.213, 95% CI 1.416 to 7.293; p= 0.005).
Limitations: Many of the included studies provided limited information about patient populations and selection criteria and they varied in methodological quality, rigour and transparency. Several studies identified type of cancer (e.g. breast, lung or prostate cancer) as a significant factor in predicting SCC, but it remains difficult to determine the risk differential partly because of residual bias. Consideration of quantitative results from the studies does not easily allow generation of a coherent numerical summary, studies were heterogeneous especially with regard to population, results were not consistent between studies, and study results almost universally lacked corroboration from other independent studies.
Conclusion: No studies were found which examined natural history. Overall burden of metastatic disease, confirmed metastatic bone involvement and immediate symptomatology suggestive of spinal column involvement are already well known as factors for metastatic SCC, vertebral collapse or progression of vertebral collapse. Although we identified a large number of additional possible prognostic factors, those which currently offer the most potential are unclear. Current clinical consensus favours magnetic resonance imaging and CT imaging modalities for the investigation of SCC and vertebral fracture. Future research should concentrate on: (1) prospective randomised designs to establish clinical and quality-of-life outcomes and cost-effectiveness of identification and treatment of patients at high risk of vertebral collapse and SCC; (2) Service Delivery and Organisation research on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and scanning (in tandem with research studies on use of MRI to monitor progression) in order to understand best methods for maximising use of MRI scanners; and (3) investigation of prognostic algorithms to calculate probability of a specified event using high-quality prospective studies, involving defined populations, randomly selected and clearly identified samples, and with blinding of investigators
Generalized lock-in detection for interferometry: Application to phase sensitive spectroscopy and near-field nanoscopy
No full textA generalized lock-in detection method is proposed to extract amplitude and phase from optical interferometerswhen an arbitrary periodic phase or frequency modulation is used. The actual modulation function is used to create the reference signals providing an optimal extraction of the useful information, notably for sinusoidal phase modulation. This simple and efficient approach has been tested and applied to phase sensitive spectroscopy and near-field optical measurements. We analyze the case where the signal amplitude is modulated and we show how to suppress the contribution of unmodulated background field.Amarie S, 2011, PHYS REV B, V83, DOI 10.1103-PhysRevB.83.045404; Apuzzo A, 2013, NANO LETT, V13, P1000, DOI 10.1021-nl304164y; Bruyant A., 2004, THESIS U TECHNOLOGY; Carney PS, 2012, ACS NANO, V6, P8, DOI 10.1021-nn205008y; CONFORTI G, 1989, APPL OPTICS, V28, P5158, DOI 10.1364-AO.28.005158; Dandridge A., 1982, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, VMTT-30, DOI 10.1109-TMTT.1982.1131302; Debdulal R., 2005, J KOREAN PHYS SOC, V47, P140; Deutsch B, 2008, OPT EXPRESS, V16, P494, DOI 10.1364-OE.16.000494; Elliott C., 2007, JALA-J ASSOC LAB AUT, V12, P17, DOI 10.1016-j.jala.2006.07.012; Hillenbrand R, 2000, PHYS REV LETT, V85, P3029, DOI 10.1103-PhysRevLett.85.3029; JACKSON DA, 1982, ELECTRON LETT, V18, P1081, DOI 10.1049-el:19820740; Kazan M, 2011, PHYS STATUS SOLIDI C, V8, DOI 10.1002-pssc.201000377; KERSEY AD, 1984, ELECTRON LETT, V20, P368, DOI 10.1049-el:19840254; Knoll B, 2000, OPT COMMUN, V182, P321, DOI 10.1016-S0030-4018(00)00826-9; Kulawik M, 2003, REV SCI INSTRUM, V74, P1027, DOI 10.1063-1.1532833; Lee B., 2008, FIBER OPTICS SENSORS; Ocelic N, 2006, APPL PHYS LETT, V89, DOI 10.1063-1.2348781; Pilevar S, 1995, ULTRAMICROSCOPY, V61, P233, DOI 10.1016-0304-3991(95)00115-8; Salas-Montiel R., 2012, APPL PHYS LETT, V100; Sasaki Y, 2000, JPN J APPL PHYS 2, V39, pL321, DOI 10.1143-JJAP.39.L321; Sedaghat Z., 2012, THESIS U TECHNOLOGY; Sedaghat Z, 2011, PROC SPIE, V7946, DOI 10.1117-12.874932; Shizhuo Y., 1998, FIBER OPTIC SENSORS; Stern L, 2011, OPT EXPRESS, V19, P12014, DOI 10.1364-OE.19.012014; VAEZIRAVANI M, 1993, APPL PHYS LETT, V62, P1044, DOI 10.1063-1.108789; Weber H. J., 2000, MATH METHODS PHYS; Yao Y, 2012, NAT PHOTONICS, V6, P432, DOI 10.1038-NPHOTON.2012.1430
The high-resolution map of Oxia Planum, Mars; the landing site of the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover mission
No full textThis 1:30,000 scale geological map describes Oxia Planum, Mars, the landing site for the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover mission. The map represents our current understanding of bedrock units and their relationships prior to Rosalind Franklin’s exploration of this location. The map details 15 bedrock units organised into 6 groups and 7 textural and surficial units. The bedrock units were identified using visible and near-infrared remote sensing datasets. The objectives of this map are (i) to identify where the most astrobiologically relevant rocks are likely to be found, (ii) to show where hypotheses about their geological context (within Oxia Planum and in the wider geological history of Mars) can be tested, (iii) to inform both the long-term (hundreds of metres to ~1 km) and the short-term (tens of metres) activity planning for rover exploration, and (iv) to allow the samples analysed by the rover to be interpreted within their regional geological context.This data set contains:1/ A geodatabase of feature classes for the high resolution geological mapFile name: (DATA_MapGeodatabase_v1.gbd).zipUnzip with: winzip, File explorer, ExpressZipOpens with: ESRI ArcPro, ESRI ArcMap, QGIS.2/ The Map sheet (A0) as published in Fawdon et al., 2024 "The high-resolution map of Oxia Planum, Mars; the landing site of the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover mission"File name: ExoMars_Landingsitemap_v1.pdfOpens with: Adobe acrobat reader3/ Shapefiles for the high resolution geological map - [not yet complete, available from the author on request]Filenames:(TBD.shp).zipUnzip with: winzip, File explorer, ExpressZipOpens with: ESRI ArcPro, ESRI ArcMap, QGIS.4/ AcrPro layer files and symbolization information for the shapefiles - [not yet complete, available from the author on request]Filenames: TBD.lyrxOpens with: ESRI ArcPro, ESRI ArcMap, QGIS and other standard gis applications5/ Raters images (geofit) of the major geological units - [not yet complete, available from the author on request]Filenames: TBD.tifOpens with: ESRI ArcPro, ESRI ArcMap, QGIS and other standard gis applications, image processing softwereAdditionally a browsable web-map of the the data is available at https://arcg.is/0y4bSa</p
