1,191 research outputs found
The role of Plasmodium falciparum var genes in malaria in pregnancy
No full textSequestration of Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes in the placenta is responsible for many of the harmful effects of malaria during pregnancy. Sequestration occurs as a result of parasite adhesion molecules expressed on the surface of infected erythrocytes binding to host receptors in the placenta such as chondroitin sulphate A (CSA). Identification of the parasite ligand(s) responsible for placental adhesion could lead to the development of a vaccine to induce antibodies to prevent placental sequestration. Such a vaccine would reduce the maternal anaemia and infant deaths that are associated with malaria in pregnancy. Current research indicates that the parasite ligands mediating placental adhesion may be members of the P. falciparum variant surface antigen family PfEMP1, encoded by var genes. Two relatively well-conserved subfamilies of var genes have been implicated in placental adhesion, however, their role remains controversial. This review examines the evidence for and against the involvement of var genes in placental adhesion, and considers whether the most appropriate vaccine candidates have yet been identified
Boulton and Fothergill silver.
No full textPhDThis thesis is about the silver business of Matthew Boulton and John
Fothergill at their Soho Manufactory near Birmingham. Their
partnership lasted from 1762 until 1782.
A rounded discussion of the topic is attempted. Within the contexts
of industry elsewhere and Soho's other activities, successive chapters
cover the early development, marketing, production, design, and later
decline of the partners' silver.
Silver plate was prestigious and, untypically for Boulton, he
concentrated on sales to the public rather than trade customers. To
attract orders he made modest charges. This was viable where mainly
machinery was used to make plate, even though sales were not high,
since the expense of machinery was substantially covered by the larger
sales of non-silver items. However, where Boulton relied to a
greater degree upon hand methods, he lacked technical means to
compensate for low profit-margins. Moreover, inefficiency and the
firm's lack of capital which led to substantial bankers' interest
charges on payment for bullion, particularly when customers paid late,
caused losses. These problems applied particularly to silver plate
and were mainly responsible for the decision to reduce production
drastically; however, the manufacture of a large range of small items
remained relatively consistent.
The thesis includes appendices. Some contain new information about
annual totals for the following aspects of the business: the volume of
assay silver; each type of article; pieces sold on commission; and
sterling silver supplies. Other appendices provide details about the
partners' silversmiths and extracts from a Soho inventory.
This thesis involves a more detailed use of sources than previous
studies of the topic. Apart from the silver itself (which is
selectively illustrated), the Matthew Boulton Papers and statistics
derived from The Birmingham Assay office provide the main sources.
Manuscripts covering silver production elsewhere provide contextual
material for understanding the partners' silver business
Structure-dependent quantum electrodynamics in heavy meson physics
No full textThe presence of electromagnetism in heavy meson systems cannot be neglected in the era of precision physics. While Quantum Electrodynamic (QED) effects are generally smaller than strong force contributions, factorisation properties are lost as photons may couple to light charged leptons. This can lead to mass-regulated collinear logarithms which, if left uncancelled, may lead to percent level corrections to decay rates.
In this thesis we explore QED effects in two settings. The main work of this thesis is a dispersive sum rule calculation of the leptonic B decay B⁻ -> l⁻ν(γ) to O(α_QED) in a new manifestly gauge-invariant framework. Particular attention is paid to the non-cancellation of collinear-type logarithms and structure-dependent effects beyond scalar QED. Virtual structure-dependent corrections are found to be +4.6(6)% and +2.9(2)% in the muon and tau channels respectively. Real structure-dependence lifts the helicity suppression found in the non-radiative decay and dominates in the electron and muon case.
The second setting in which QED effects are important is the mass difference between charged and neutral pseudoscalar mesons. While this is a well-studied problem we attack it for the first time using a double dispersion relation calculating the QED and linear quark mass shifts in a model independent way. This is a leading order ‘proof-of-principle’ calculation which we apply to the B, D and K systems giving good agreement with experiment albeit with large uncertainties
Isospin Mass Differences of the , and
No full textWe compute the electromagnetic mass difference for the B-, D- and K-mesons using QCD sum rules with double dispersion relations. For the B- and D-mesons we also compute the linear quark mass correction, whereas for the K the standard soft theorems prove more powerful. The mass differences, which have not previously been computed via a double dispersion, are fully consistent with experiment, albeit with large uncertainties.We compute the electromagnetic mass difference for the -, - and -mesons using QCD sum rules with double dispersion relations. For the - and -mesons we also compute the linear quark mass correction, whereas for the the standard soft theorems prove more powerful. The mass differences, which have not previously been computed via a double dispersion, are fully consistent with experiment, albeit with large uncertainties
Behaviour of buried pipelines subjected to external loading.
No full textThe research presented in this Thesis was carried out at the University of Sheffield under
the supervision of Dr I. C. Pyrah and Dr W. F. Anderson, and Mr G. Leach at British Gas
Engineering Research Station (ERS). The research was financially supported by a British
Gas Research Scholarship and by the Overseas Research Students Awards Scheme.
The Author would like to express his sincere gratitude to his supervisors for their invaluable
help, guidance and encouragement during the development of the research.
The Author is also grateful to Dr S. R. Mi for his interest and assistance throughout the
research. Special thanks also go to Dr S. J. Wheeler for his supervision during the first year
of the research and sound advice in the initial stage of the work.
The Author would like to express his gratitude to all members of the geotechnics group at
the University of Sheffield for the useful discussions and comments. Special thanks and
appreciation are extended to the staff at the ERS, particularly Mr E. Middleton for
providing the data of the field tests and constructive comments.
The laboratory tests were performed at ERS Soils Laboratory for which the Author is
thankful to the laboratory staff. The Author must also thank British Gas for providing the
computer hardware and software for performing the numerical analyses, and the printing
facilities to produce the Thesis. Thanks also go to Mr D. Reay and Mr B. Bellwood at the
Gas Research Centre of British Gas for ensuring continuous financial support throughout
the award period.
Finally, the Author wishes to thank his family and friends for their endless support and
encouragement throughout the period of study in the UK. Without them, this Thesis may
never have been completed
Plasmodium falciparum:Rosettes do not protect merozoites from invasion-inhibitory antibodies
No full textRosetting is a parasite adhesion phenotype associated with severe malaria in African children. Why parasites form rosettes is unknown, although enhanced invasion or immune evasion have been suggested as possible functions. Previous work showed that rosetting does not enhance parasite invasion under standard in vitro conditions. We hypothesised that rosetting might promote invasion in the presence of host invasion-inhibitory antibodies, by allowing merozoites direct entry into the erythrocytes in the rosette and so minimising exposure to plasma antibodies. We therefore investigated whether rosetting influences invasion in the presence of invasion-inhibitory antibodies to MSP-1. We found no difference in invasion rates between isogenic rosetting and non-rosetting lines from two parasite strains, R29 and TM284, in the presence of MSP-1 antibodies (P = 0.62 and P = 0.63, Student's t test, TM284 and R29, respectively). These results do not support the hypothesis that rosettes protect merozoites from inhibitory antibodies during invasion. The biological function of rosetting remains unknown
Erythrocyte complement receptor 1 (CR1) expression level is not associated with polymorphisms in the promoter or 3' untranslated regions of the CR1 gene
No full textComplement receptor 1 (CR1) expression level on erythrocytes is genetically determined and is associated with high (H) and low (L) expression alleles identified by a HindIII restriction fragment-length polymorphism (RFLP) in intron 27 of the CR1 gene. The L allele confers protection against severe malaria in Papua New Guinea, probably because erythrocytes with low CR1 expression, are less able to form pathogenic rosettes with Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes. Despite the biological importance of erythrocyte CR1, the genetic mutation controlling CR1 expression level remains unknown. We investigated the possibility that mutations in the upstream or 3' untranslated regions of the CR1 gene could control erythrocyte CR1 level. We identified several novel polymorphisms; however, the mutations did not segregate with erythrocyte CR1 expression level or the H and L alleles. Therefore, high and low erythrocyte CR1 levels cannot be explained by polymorphisms in transcriptional control elements in the upstream or 3' untranslated regions of the CR1 gene
An unusual cause of ST elevation: Coronary vasospasm complicating acute myocarditis - A case report and review of the literature
No full textCoronary vasospasm and myocarditis are both recognized mimics of ST elevation myocardial infarction with normal coronary arteries. The occurrence of both pathologies in the same patient has rarely been described. We report a case of a 27-year-old man initially presenting with history and electrocardiogram (ECG) findings consistent with acute myocarditis who subsequently developed severe chest pain and new ST elevation, mimicking a myocardial infarction. Subsequent coronary angiography was normal, indicative of coronary vasospasm being the cause of ECG changes and symptoms. Previous case reports with a similar presentation are reviewed and potential mechanisms causing this association discussed
Identification of Plasmodium falciparum var1CSA and var2CSA domains that bind IgM natural antibodies
No full textMalaria in pregnancy is responsible for maternal anaemia, low-birth-weight babies and infant deaths. Plasmodium falciparum infected erythrocytes are thought to cause placental pathology by adhering to host receptors such as chondroitin sulphate A (CSA). CSA binding infected erythrocytes also bind IgM natural antibodies from normal human serum, a process that may facilitate placental adhesion or promote immune evasion. The parasite ligands that mediate placental adhesion are thought to be members of the variant erythrocyte surface antigen family P. falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1), encoded by the var genes. Two var gene sub-families, var1CSA and var2CSA, have been identified as parasite CSA binding ligands and are leading candidates for a vaccine to prevent pregnancy-associated malaria. We investigated whether these two var gene subfamilies implicated in CSA binding are also the molecules responsible for IgM natural antibody binding. By heterologous expression of domains in COS-7 cells, we found that both var1CSA and var2CSA PfEMP1 variants bound IgM, and in both cases the binding region was a DBL epsilon domain occurring proximal to the membrane. None of the domains from a control non-IgM-binding parasite (R29) bound IgM when expressed in COS-7 cells. These results show that PfEMP1 is a parasite ligand for non-immune IgM and are the first demonstration of a specific adhesive function for PfEMP1 epsilon type domains
CR1 Knops blood group alleles are not associated with severe malaria in the Gambia
No full textThe Knops blood group antigen erythrocyte polymorphisms have been associated with reduced falciparum malaria-based in vitro rosette formation (putative malaria virulence factor). Having previously identified single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the human complement receptor 1 (CR1/CD35) gene underlying the Knops antithetical antigens Sl1/Sl2 and McC(a)/McC(b), we have now performed genotype comparisons to test associations between these two molecular variants and severe malaria in West African children living in the Gambia. While SNPs associated with Sl:2 and McC(b+) were equally distributed among malaria-infected children with severe malaria and control children not infected with malaria parasites, high allele frequencies for Sl 2 (0.800, 1,365/1,706) and McC(b) (0.385, 658/1706) were observed. Further, when compared to the Sl 1/McC(a) allele observed in all populations, the African Sl 2/McC(b) allele appears to have evolved as a result of positive selection (modified Nei-Gojobori test Ka-Ks/s.e.=1.77, P-valu
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