225,139 research outputs found
Early growth response gene-2 (Egr-2) regulates the development of B and T cells
No full textThe study was supported by Arthritis Research UK.
Copyright @ 2011 Li et al.BACKGROUND: Understanding of how transcription factors are involved in lymphocyte development still remains a challenge. It has been shown that Egr-2 deficiency results in impaired NKT cell development and defective positive selection of T cells. Here we investigated the development of T, B and NKT cells in Egr-2 transgenic mice and the roles in the regulation of distinct stages of B and T cell development. METHODS AND FINDINGS: The expression of Egr1, 2 and 3 were analysed at different stages of T and B cell development by RT-PCT and results showed that the expression was strictly regulated at different stages. Forced expression of Egr-2 in CD2+ lymphocytes resulted in a severe reduction of CD4+CD8+ (DP) cells in thymus and pro-B cells in bone marrow, which was associated with reduced expression of Notch1 in ISP thymocytes and Pax5 in pro-B cells, suggesting that retraction of Egr-2 at the ISP and pro-B cell stages is important for the activation of lineage differentiation programs. In contrast to reduction of DP and pro-B cells, Egr-2 enhanced the maturation of DP cells into single positive (SP) T and NKT cells in thymus, and immature B cells into mature B cells in bone marrow. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that Egr-2 expressed in restricted stages of lymphocyte development plays a dynamic, but similar role for the development of T, NKT and B cells.This article is provided by the Brunel Open Access publishing fund
A Novel 4x4 Optical Switch Using An Anisotropically-etched Micro-mirror Array and A Bi-stable Mini-actuator Array
No full textGoing Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Effect of thermally aged oil on space charge dynamics in oil/paper insulation system
No full textThe formation of space charge in oil/paper insulation system can lead to material degradation in the high electrical field region and affect system reliability. Therefore, it is important to understand factors that affect space charge formation in oil/paper insulation system. In the present study the effect of thermally aged oil on space charge dynamics in oil/paper insulation system has been investigated using the pulsed electroacoustic (PEA) technique under different dc electrical fields at room temperature. The condition of oil was characterised. The ultraviolet/visible (UV/Vis) spectrum of oil shifts to visible wavelength and the oil acidity increased as the ageing time increased. It has been found that oil property has a significant effect on the space charge distribution of oil/paper insulation system. The more the deterioration of the oil and the higher the applied voltage, the larger the amount of negative charge injected into the paper near to the cathode and the positive charge accumulated at the paperpaper interface near to the cathode. The maximum electric field strength for oil/paper sample with seriously aged oil under 4kV and 6kV is more than 20% higher than its average electric field strength
Measurement of the ratio of branching fractions B(B0→K∗0γ )/B(B0s→φγ ) and the directCP asymmetry inB 0→K∗0γ
Get PDFThe ratio of branching fractions of the radiative B decays B0→K⁎0γ and B0s→ϕγ has been measured using an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1 of pp collision data collected by the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of s√=7TeV. The value obtained is
B(B0→K⁎0γ)B(B0s→ϕγ)=1.23±0.06(stat.)±0.04(syst.)±0.10(fs/fd),
where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is the experimental systematic uncertainty and the third is associated with the ratio of fragmentation fractions fs/fd. Using the world average value for B(B0→K⁎0γ), the branching fraction B(B0s→ϕγ) is measured to be (3.5±0.4)×10−5.
The direct CP asymmetry in B0→K⁎0γ decays has also been measured with the same data and found to be
ACP(B0→K⁎0γ)=(0.8±1.7(stat.)±0.9(syst.))%.
Both measurements are the most precise to date and are in agreement with the previous experimental results and theoretical expectations
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Measurement of the CKM angle gamma from a combination of B->Dh analyses
Get PDFA combination of three LHCb measurements of the CKM angle gamma is presented. The decays B->DK and B->Dpi are used, where D denotes an admixture of D0 and D0-bar mesons, decaying into K+K-, pi+pi-, K+-pi-+, K+-pi-+pi+-pi-+, KSpi+pi-, or KSK+K- final states. All measurements use a dataset corresponding to 1.0 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. Combining results from B->DK decays alone a best-fit value of gamma = 72.0 deg is found, and confidence intervals are set gamma in [56.4,86.7] deg at 68% CL, gamma in [42.6,99.6] deg at 95% CL. The best-fit value of gamma found from a combination of results from B->Dpi decays alone, is gamma = 18.9 deg, and the confidence intervals gamma in [7.4,99.2] deg or [167.9,176.4] deg at 68% CL, are set, without constraint at 95% CL. The combination of results from B->DK and B->Dpi decays gives a best-fit value of gamma = 72.6 deg and the confidence intervals gamma in [55.4,82.3] deg at 68% CL, gamma in [40.2,92.7] deg at 95% CL are set. All values are expressed modulo 180 deg, and are obtained taking into account the effect of D0-D0bar mixing
Measurements of t(t)over-bar cross sections in association with b jets and inclusive jets and their ratio using dilepton final states in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV
No full textThe cross sections for the production of t (t) over bar b (b) over bar and t (t) over bar jj events and their ratio sigma(t (t) over bar b (b) over bar)/sigma(t (t) over bar jj) are measured using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.3 fb(-1) collected in pp collisions at root s = 13 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. Events with two leptons (e or mu) and at least four reconstructed jets, including at least two identified as b quark jets, in the final state are selected. In the full phase space, the measured ratio is 0.022 +/- 0.003 (stat) +/- 0.006 (syst), the cross section sigma(t (t) over bar b (b) over bar) bis 4.0 +/- 0.6 (stat)+/- 1.3 (syst) pb and sigma(t (t) over bar jj) is 184 +/- 6 (stat)+/- 33 (syst) pb. The measurements are compared with the standard model expectations obtained from a POWHEG simulation at next-to-leading-order interfaced with PYTHIA. (c) 2017 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V
Engineering T cells to overcome the hostile tumour microenvironment
No full textAdoptive immunotherapy with autologous T lymphocytes transduced with anti-tumour antigen-specific T cell receptors (TCRs) has emerged as a promising anti-cancer therapy. In vitro studies have suggested that T cell function may be limited by tumour associated macrophages (TAMs) and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs). This study aims to determine the influence of TAMs and MDSCs on the antigen-specific function of TCR-transduced T cells in vitro and in vivo. Two murine tumour models, the EL4 lymphoma and ID8 ovarian carcinoma were modified to ensure that CD8+ T cells transduced with the F5-TCR recognised tumour cells expressing a model target antigen, Influenza A Nucleoprotein (NP) in the presence of tumour-infiltrating TAMs and MDSCs. It was demonstrated that Gr-1+ MDSCs isolated from tumour-bearing mice failed to suppress F5-TCR CD8+ T cells in vitro. Moreover, in vivo depletion of Gr-1+ MDSCs following the administration of an anti-Gr-1 antibody did not affect the anti-tumour function of adoptively transferred F5-TCR CD8+ T cells. Interestingly, bone marrow-derived CD115+ monocytes potently suppressed T cell proliferation in vitro, although these cells failed to impair the anti-tumour function of F5-TCR CD8+ T cells in vivo when adoptively transferred to EL4-NP tumour-bearing mice. This suggested that Gr-1+ MDSCs and/or CD115+ monocytes may not significantly impair the anti-tumour efficacy of CD8+ T cells expressing high avidity TCR in the tumour models examined. Further experiments are warranted to explore their impact on tumour antigen-specific T cells at lower frequencies and/or with lower avidity
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