6,172 research outputs found
Expansion of anti-AFP Th1 and Tc1 responses in hepatocellular carcinoma occur in different stages of disease
No full textCopyright @ 2010 Cancer Research UK. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/.Background: α-Fetoprotein (AFP) is a tumour-associated antigen in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and is a target for immunotherapy. However, there is little information on the pattern of CD4 (Th1) and CD8 (Tc1) T-cell response to AFP in patients with HCC and their association with the clinical characteristics of patients.
Methods: We therefore analysed CD4 and CD8 T-cell responses to a panel of AFP-derived peptides in a total of 31 HCC patients and 14 controls, using an intracellular cytokine assay for IFN-γ.
Results: Anti-AFP Tc1 responses were detected in 28.5% of controls, as well as in 25% of HCC patients with Okuda I (early tumour stage) and in 31.6% of HCC patients with stage II or III (late tumour stages). An anti-AFP Th1 response was detected only in HCC patients (58.3% with Okuda stage I tumours and 15.8% with Okuda stage II or III tumours). Anti-AFP Th1 response was mainly detected in HCC patients who had normal or mildly elevated serum AFP concentrations (P=0.00188), whereas there was no significant difference between serum AFP concentrations in these patients and the presence of an anti-AFP Tc1 response. A Th1 response was detected in 44% of HCC patients with a Child–Pugh A score (early stage of cirrhosis), whereas this was detected in only 15% with a B or C score (late-stage cirrhosis). In contrast, a Tc1 response was detected in 17% of HCC patients with a Child–Pugh A score and in 46% with a B or C score.
Conclusion: These results suggest that anti-AFP Th1 responses are more likely to be present in patients who are in an early stage of disease (for both tumour stage and liver cirrhosis), whereas anti-AFP Tc1 responses are more likely to be present in patients with late-stage liver cirrhosis. Therefore, these data provide valuable information for the design of vaccination strategies against HCC.Association for International Cancer Research and Polkemmet Fund, London
Clinic
Identification of major factors influencing ELISpot-based monitoring of cellular responses to antigens from mycobacterium tuberculosis
No full textA number of different interferon-c ELISpot protocols are in use in laboratories studying antigen-specific immune responses. It is therefore unclear how results from different assays compare, and what factors most significantly influence assay outcome. One such difference is that some laboratories use a short in vitro stimulation period of cells before they are
transferred to the ELISpot plate; this is commonly done in the case of frozen cells, in order to enhance assay sensitivity.
Other differences that may be significant include antibody coating of plates, the use of media with or without serum, the serum source and the number of cells added to the wells. The aim of this paper was to identify which components of the different ELISpot protocols influenced assay sensitivity and inter-laboratory variation. Four laboratories provided protocols for quantifying numbers of interferon-c spot forming cells in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells stimulated with Mycobacterium tuberculosis derived antigens. The differences in the protocols were compared directly. We found that several sources of variation in assay protocols can be eliminated, for example by avoiding serum supplementation and using AIM-V serum free medium. In addition, the number of cells added to ELISpot wells should also be standardised. Importantly, delays in peripheral blood mononuclear cell processing before stimulation had a marked effect on the number of detectable spot forming cells; processing delay thus should be minimised as well as standardised. Finally, a pre-stimulation culture period improved the sensitivity of the assay, however this effect may be both antigen and donor dependent. In conclusion, small differences in ELISpot protocols in routine use can affect the results obtained and care should be given to conditions selected for use in a given study. A pre-stimulation step may improve the sensitivity of the assay, particularly when cells have been previously frozen
COMMERCIAL 584\AA PHOTOELECTRON SPECTROMETER
No full textAuthor Institution: Perkin-Elmer LimitedThe design of a commercial 584\AA Photcelectron Spectrometer will be discussed together with some recent research problems investigated by this technique
Open Access to Peer-Reviewed Research through Author/Institution Self-Archiving: Maximizing Research Impact by Maximizing Online Access
No full textAll refereed journals will soon be available online; most of them already are. This means that anyone will be able to access them from any networked desk-top. The literature will all be interconnected by citation, author, and keyword/subject links, allowing for unheard-of power and ease of access and navigability. Successive drafts of pre-refereeing preprints will be linked to the official refereed draft, as well as to any subsequent corrections, revisions, updates, comments, responses, and underlying empirical databases, all enhancing the self-correctiveness, interactivity and productivity of scholarly and scientific research and communication in remarkable new ways. New scientometric indicators of digital impact are also emerging <http://opcit.eprints.org> to chart the online course of knowledge. But there is still one last frontier to cross before science reaches the optimal and the inevitable: Just as there is no longer any need for research or researchers to be constrained by the access-blocking restrictions of paper distribution, there is no longer any need to be constrained by the impact-blocking financial fire-walls of Subscription/Site-License/Pay-Per-View (S/L/P) tolls for this give-away literature. Its author/researchers have always donated their research reports for free (and its referee/researchers have refereed for free), with the sole goal of maximizing their impact on subsequent research (by accessing the eyes and minds of fellow-researchers, present and future) and hence on society. Generic (OAi-compliant) software is now available free so that institutions can immediately create Eprint Archives in which their authors can self-archive all their refereed papers for free for all forever <http://www.eprints.org/>. These interoperable Open Archives <http://www.openarchives.org> will then be harvested into global, jointly searchable "virtual archives" (e.g., <http://arc.cs.odu.edu/>). "Scholarly Skywriting" in this PostGutenberg Galaxy will be dramatically (and measurably) more interactive and productive, spawning its own new digital metrics of productivity and impact, allowing for an online "embryology of knowledge.
Author attribution using profile classifiers
No full textA atribuição autoral (AA) busca identificar um autor de texto a partir de um conjunto de autores conhecidos. Autores deixam rastros em seus textos e é possível identificar características sociolinguísticas baseadas no estilos de escrita refletidos no texto destes autores. A atribuição autoral está cada vez mais demonstrando importância para diversas atividades sociais, em especial para a análise forense. Os trabalhos envolvendo AA demonstram resultados modestos e motivam a exploração de diferentes técnicas para melhorar a acurácia dos modelos atuais. A partir desses pontos, o presente trabalho apresenta uma proposta de pesquisa em nível de mestrado no campo de processamento de língua natural (PLN), com ênfase em AA, com o objetivo geral de melhorar o desempenho de classificadores de atribuição autoral utilizando técnicas de caracterização autoral (CA)Author attribution (AA) seeks to identify a text author from a set of known authors. Authors leave traces in their texts and it is possible to identify sociolinguistic characteristics based on the writing styles reflected in the text of these authors. Author attribution is increasingly showing importance for various social activities, especially forensic analysis. Studies involving AA show modest results and motivate the exploration of different techniques to improve the accuracy of current models. From these perspective, this project presents a master\'s level research proposal in the field of natural language processing (NLP), with an emphasis in AA, with the general objective of improving the performance of AA classifiers using author profiling technique
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Observations of the 57Fe+23 hyperfine transition in clusters of galaxies
No full textWe present a search for the hyperfine transition of the 57Fe+23 ion at 3.071 mm in clusters of galaxies with the ATNF Mopra telescope. The results are compared with a realistic estimate of the peak brightness temperature of the line in a cooling flow cluster A85, using the available X-ray data
THE ANALYSIS OF FIVE ELECTRONIC EMISSION SYSTEMS OF NIOBIUM NITRIDE (NbN) IN THE REGION 5000{\AA} – 6200{\AA}
No full textK. H. Rao and T. M. Dunn, Nature 222, 266 (1969). J. L. Femenias, C. Athenour, and T. M. Dunn, J. Chem. Phys. 63, 2861 (1975).Author Institution:Niobium nitride emission systems have been found at 5l37{\AA}, 5582{\AA}, 5740{\AA}, 5840{\AA}, 5860{\AA}, in addition to the already systems with subbands at 5930{\AA}, 6043{\AA}, and 6192{\AA}. Most of These systems show marked nuclear hyperfine structure of the rotational lines add this has been of assistance in the analysis of all of the systems. Systems of triplet-triplet, singlet-singlet and singlet-triplet are all present and the hyperfine structure also allows assignment of the ground and excited state electron configuration to be made with some confidence
THE 4550 {\AA} BAND SYSTEM OF GLYOXAL
No full textAuthor Institution: Division of Pure Physics, National Research Council“Approximately 45 bands of glyoxal in the region 4000-4660 {\AA} have been photographed in absorption using a 30 ft. Ebert spectrograph with a resolving power of and a dispersion of 1.3 {\AA}/cm. The (0-0) baud near 4550 {\AA}, which WAS studied at a temperature of C, shows fairly well-resolved J- and K- structure characteristic of a perpendicular hand of a near symmetric top molecule. The rotational and vibrational analysis of the speetrum will be discussed.
THE ABSORPTION SPECTRUM OF SODIUM VAPOR FROM 1040{\AA} TO 3500 {\AA}
No full textR. W. Ditchburn and R. D. Hudson, Proc, Roy. SOC. A256, 53 (1960). R. W. Ditchburn, P. J. Jutsum and G. V. Marr, Proc. Roy. Soc. A219, 89 (1953).Author Institution: Space Physics Laboratory, Aerospace Corporation“The absorption of ultraviolet radiation by sodium vapor, and the associated ionization, has been investigated from 1040{\AA} to 3500{\AA} using a two-metre McPherson normal incidence spectrometer and an absorption chamfer of the type described by Ditchburn and The atomic cross section at the series limit (2412 {\AA}) was found to be , in good agreement with the previous result obtained by Ditchburn, Jutsum and The atomic cross section decreases to a minimum at 1900{\AA} and then increases again towards shorter wavelengths. Continuous molecular absorption was observed from 3500{\AA} to 1700{\AA} and ion chamber measurement indicate that this absorption is due to an ionization continuum. Ion current peaks were also seen between 2413{\AA} and 3500{\AA} at wavelengths corresponding to the series absorption lines of the sodium atom. Curves will be presented showing the variation with wavelength of both the atomic cross section and the relative molecular cross section.
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