Optical rotation, a form of optical activity, is a phenomenon employed in various metrological applications and industries including chemical, food, and pharmaceutical. In naturally-occurring, as ...well as structured media, the integrated effect is, however, typically small. Here, we demonstrate that, by exploiting the inherent and stable spin-orbit interaction of orbital angular momentum fiber modes, giant, scalable optical activity can be obtained, and that we can use this effect to realize a new type of wavemeter by exploiting its optical rotary dispersion. The device we construct provides for an instantaneous wavelength-measurement technique with high resolving power R = 3.4 × 10
(i.e., resolution < 0.3 pm at 1-μm wavelengths) and can also detect spectral bandwidths of known lineshapes with high sensitivity.
Improving the efficacy of influenza vaccination in older adults is a challenge. In this randomized clinical trial, a high-dose influenza vaccine was shown to be more effective than a standard-dose ...vaccine in the prevention of laboratory-confirmed influenza.
Between 1990 and 1999, seasonal influenza caused an average of 36,000 deaths and 226,000 hospitalizations per year in the United States.
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Adults 65 years of age or older are particularly vulnerable to complications associated with influenza and account for most seasonal influenza–related hospitalizations and deaths.
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Although vaccination currently represents the most effective intervention against influenza and associated complications,
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antibody response and protection elicited by the vaccine are lower among persons 65 years of age or older than among younger adults.
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Strategies to improve antibody responses to influenza vaccine in the older population, such as increasing the . . .
Retinal degenerative diseases cause photoreceptor loss and often result in remodeling and deafferentation of the inner retina. Fortunately, ganglion cell morphology appears to remain intact long ...after photoreceptors and distal retinal circuitry have degenerated. We have introduced the optical neuromodulators channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) and halorhodopsin (NpHR) differentially into the soma and dendrites of ganglion cells to recreate antagonistic center-surround receptive field interactions. We then reestablished the physiological receptive field dimensions of primate parafoveal ganglion cells by convolving Gaussian-blurred versions of the visual scene at the appropriate wavelength for each neuromodulator with the Gaussians inherent in the soma and dendrites. These Gaussian-modified ganglion cells responded with physiologically relevant antagonistic receptive field components and encoded edges with parafoveal resolution. This approach bypasses the degenerated areas of the distal retina and could provide a first step in restoring sight to individuals suffering from retinal disease.
► Restoration of center-surround antagonism in blind retinae using microbial opsins ► Subcellular targeting of opsins enables spatially discrete antagonistic responses ► Image preprocessing expands the receptive field beyond spatially restricted domains ► Edge extraction is achieved in the absence of photoreceptor input
Understanding mechanisms of late/acquired cancer immunotherapy resistance is critical to improve outcomes; cellular immunotherapy trials offer a means to probe complex tumor-immune interfaces through ...defined T cell/antigen interactions. We treated two patients with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma with autologous Merkel cell polyomavirus specific CD8+ T cells and immune-checkpoint inhibitors. In both cases, dramatic remissions were associated with dense infiltration of activated CD8+s into the regressing tumors. However, late relapses developed at 22 and 18 months, respectively. Here we report single cell RNA sequencing identified dynamic transcriptional suppression of the specific HLA genes presenting the targeted viral epitope in the resistant tumor as a consequence of intense CD8-mediated immunologic pressure; this is distinguished from genetic HLA-loss by its reversibility with drugs. Transcriptional suppression of Class I loci may underlie resistance to other immunotherapies, including checkpoint inhibitors, and have implications for the design of improved immunotherapy treatments.
Quorum sensing is a term used to describe cell-to-cell communication that allows cell-density-dependent gene expression. Many bacteria use acyl-homoserine lactone (acyl-HSL) synthases to generate ...fatty acyl-HSL quorum-sensing signals, which function with signal receptors to control expression of specific genes. The fatty acyl group is derived from fatty acid biosynthesis and provides signal specificity, but the variety of signals is limited. Here we show that the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris uses an acyl-HSL synthase to produce p-coumaroyl-HSL by using environmental p-coumaric acid rather than fatty acids from cellular pools. The bacterium has a signal receptor with homology to fatty acyl-HSL receptors that responds to p-coumaroyl-HSL to regulate global gene expression. We also found that p-coumaroyl-HSL is made by other bacteria including Bradyrhizobium sp. and Silicibacter pomeroyi. This discovery extends the range of possibilities for acyl-HSL quorum sensing and raises fundamental questions about quorum sensing within the context of environmental signalling.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), both nonselective and cyclooxygenase-2–specific inhibitors, are commonly used medications for the relief of acute and chronic pain associated with a ...wide range of medical conditions. Because of the extensive use of these agents, adverse events that occur infrequently may still affect the overall risk/benefit ratio of this class of medications. Serious adverse cardiovascular (CV) events have been reported with NSAID use, but unfortunately, definitive evidence regarding the precise CV risk associated with these drugs, as a class and individually, is lacking. Therefore, it is an issue of public health importance that physicians be guided by careful assessment of the existing evidence to make reasonable choices in prescribing these medications. The investigators review the key clinical trials, meta-analyses of clinical trials, and epidemiologic studies on the subject of the CV safety of NSAIDs and identify key variables that define the CV risk of the NSAIDs. In conclusion, it is important that cardiologists, who are not among those physicians frequently prescribing NSAIDs, have a particular responsibility to have up-to-date, thoughtfully synthesized information about the CV risks of these drugs, especially when administered to patients receiving low-dose aspirin for cardioprotection.
Influenza is responsible for a significant disease burden annually, especially in older adults. This study reviews the relative vaccine efficacy or effectiveness (rVE) of high-dose inactivated ...trivalent influenza vaccine (HD-IIV3) compared to standard-dose influenza vaccines (SD-IIV3) in adults ≥65 against influenza-associated outcomes to inform evidence-based decision-making to shift clinical practice and standard of care in this population.
A systematic review was conducted for studies assessing the rVE of HD-IIV3 against probable/laboratory-confirmed influenza-like illness (ILI), hospital admissions, and death in adults ≥65. Results from individual seasons were meta-analyzed and a random-effects model was used to estimate pooled rVEs.
After screening 992 studies, seven studies were meta-analyzed. HD-IIV3 demonstrated better protection against ILI compared to SD-IIV3 (rVE = 19.5%; 95% CI: 8.6-29.0%). HD-IIV3 was also more effective at preventing hospital admissions from all-causes (rVE = 9.1%; 95% CI: 2.4-15.3%), as well as from influenza (rVE = 17.8%; 95% CI: 8.1-26.5%), pneumonia (rVE = 24.3%, 95% CI: 13.9-33.4%), and cardiorespiratory events (rVE = 18.2%; 95% CI: 6.8-28.1%). rVE against post-influenza mortality was 22.2% (95% CI: -18.2-48.8%) and 2.5% (95% CI: -5.2-9.5%) against all-cause mortality.
Available evidence suggests HD-IIV3 is more effective than SD-IIV3 at reducing the clinical outcomes associated with influenza infection in older adults and should be considered for routine use in the 65+ population.
The visual appearance of many materials is created by micro-scale details of their surface geometry. In this article, we investigate a new approach to capturing the appearance of metal surfaces ...without reflectance measurements, by deriving microfacet distributions directly from measured surface topography. Modern profilometers are capable of measuring surfaces with subwavelength resolution at increasingly rapid rates. We consider both wave- and geometric-optics methods for predicting BRDFs of measured surfaces and compare the results to optical measurements from a gonioreflectometer for five rough metal samples. Surface measurements are also used to predict spatial variation, or texture, which is especially important for the appearance of our anisotropic brushed metal samples.
Profilometer-based BRDF acquisition offers many potential advantages over traditional techniques, including speed and easy handling of anisotropic, highly directional materials. We also introduce a new generalized normal distribution function, the ellipsoidal NDF, to compactly represent nonsymmetric features in our measured data and texture synthesis.
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