Influence of Cobalt Doping on the Physical Properties of Zn<Subscript>0.9</Subscript>Cd<Subscript>0.1</Subscript>S Nanoparticles

Zn_0.9Cd_0.1S nanoparticles doped with 0.005–0.24 M cobalt have been prepared by co-precipitation technique in ice bath at 280 K. For the cobalt concentration >0.18 M, XRD pattern shows unidentified phases along with Zn_0.9Cd_0.1S sphalerite phase. For low cobalt concentration (≤0.05 M) particle size, d _XRD is ~3.5 nm, while for high cobalt concentration (>0.05 M) particle size decreases abruptly (~2 nm) as detected by XRD. However, TEM analysis shows the similar particle size (~3.5 nm) irrespective of the cobalt concentration. Local strain in the alloyed nanoparticles with cobalt concentration of 0.18 M increases ~46% in comparison to that of 0.05 M. Direct to indirect energy band-gap transition is obtained when cobalt concentration goes beyond 0.05 M. A red shift in energy band gap is also observed for both the cases. Nanoparticles with low cobalt concentrations were found to have paramagnetic nature with no antiferromagnetic coupling. A negative Curie–Weiss temperature of −75 K with antiferromagnetic coupling was obtained for the high cobalt concentration.     

Compensation for decreased expression of B7 molecules on Leishmania infantum-infected canine macrophages results in restoration of parasite-specific T-cell proliferation and gamma interferon production

Infection of humans and dogs by Leishmania infantum may result in visceral leishmaniasis, which is characterized by impaired T-cell-mediated immune responses to parasite antigens. Dogs are natural hosts of Leishmania parasites and play an important role in the transmission of the parasites to humans. In an effort to characterize the immune response in dogs infected with this intracellular pathogen, we examined how infection with L. infantum affects canine macrophages and the consequences for T-cell activation in vitro. We showed that the proliferation of T-cell lines to cognate antigen decreases to background levels when infected autologous monocyte-derived macrophages are used as antigen-presenting cells (APC). The observed reduction of antigen-specific T-cell proliferation was shown to be dependent on the parasite load and to require cell-to-cell interaction of T cells with the infected APC. In addition, we observed a decreased expression of costimulatory B7 molecules on infected monocyte-derived macrophages. The expression of other surface molecules involved in T-cell activation, such as major histocompatibility complex class I and class II, on these cells did not change upon infection, whereas the expression of intracellular adhesion molecule 1 was marginally increased. Compensation for the decreased expression of B7 molecules by the addition of B7-transfected cells resulted in the restoration of cell proliferation and gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) production by a Leishmania-specific T-cell line. These results showed that for the activation of parasite-specific canine T cells producing IFN-gamma, which are most likely involved in protective immunity, sufficient expression of B7 molecules on infected macrophages is required. Provision of costimulatory molecules may be an approach for immunotherapy of leishmaniaisis as well as for vaccine development.     

Propagation of void fraction uncertainty measures in the RETRAN-3D simulation of the Peach Bottom turbine trip

The paper describes the propagation of void fraction uncertainty, as quantified by employing a novel methodology developed at Paul Scherrer Institut, in the RETRAN-3D simulation of the Peach Bottom turbine trip test. Since the transient considered is characterized by a strong coupling between thermal–hydraulics and neutronics, the accuracy in the void fraction model has a very important influence on the prediction of the power history and, in particular, of the maximum power reached. It has been shown that the objective measures used for the void fraction uncertainty, based on the direct comparison between experimental and predicted values extracted from a database of appropriate separate-effect tests, provides power uncertainty bands that are narrower and more realistic than those based, for example, on expert opinion. The applicability of such an approach to best estimate, nuclear power plant transient analysis has thus been demonstrated.     

TRACE qualification via analysis of the EIR gas-loop experiments with smooth rods

Several gas-loop experimental programs were carried out during the 1970–1980s at the Eidgenössisches Institut für Reaktorforschung (EIR, now PSI), Switzerland. In the present work, a wide range of thermal–hydraulics tests for smooth rods, which form part of the experiments conducted at the time, have been reanalyzed with the aim of qualifying the TRACE code. The latter constitutes the thermal–hydraulics module of PSI’s FAST code system, currently being applied to the multi-physics analysis of advanced fast reactor systems, including the Generation IV Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor (GFR). It is shown, from the present analysis, that the built-in TRACE heat transfer and friction correlations are indeed quite suitable for gas cooling under prototypic GFR conditions.     

Conservative surgical therapy for penile and urethral carcinoma

OBJECTIVES: Invasive penile and urethral tumors are traditionally treated with aggressive excision that requires involved organ and adjacent organ sacrifice. An alternative approach seeks to completely excise the tumor with adequate margins while preserving form and function of the organ. We present 6 patients who underwent such organ-sparing surgery. METHODS: Six selected cases (4 penile and 2 urethral) are presented with operative photographs and pertinent data. RESULTS: Three distal tumors of the penis were treated with excision limited to the glans with histopathologic findings of verrucous carcinoma, melanoma, and angiosarcoma. One patient with squamous cell carcinoma of the distal shaft refused partial penectomy and underwent a local wedge resection. A patient with locally advanced bulbourethral transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) refused cystourethrectomy and underwent an anterior urethrectomy and perineal urethrostomy. A 48-year-old woman with an adenocarcinoma contained in a very distal urethral diverticulum underwent simple diverticulectomy and excision of distal urethra. Postoperative voiding and sexual function were well preserved. Follow-up was 12 to 48 months. The patient with angiosarcoma died of lung metastases at 48 months with no local disease, and the patient with bulbourethral TCC developed pelvic disease at 12 months with no local recurrence and died of metastases at 25 months. CONCLUSIONS: Organ-sparing surgery is appropriate in selected patients on the basis of stage and location, high risk of distant failure, and patient disposition. Close follow-up is necessary. Comanagement with reconstructive and oncologic specialists optimizes results and outcomes.     

Time to CARE: a collaborative engine for practical disease prediction

The monumental cost of health care, especially for chronic disease treatment, is quickly becoming unmanageable. This crisis has motivated the drive towards preventative medicine, where the primary concern is recognizing disease risk and taking action at the earliest signs. However, universal testing is neither time nor cost efficient. We propose CARE, a Collaborative Assessment and Recommendation Engine, which relies only on patient’s medical history using ICD-9-CM codes in order to predict future disease risks. CARE uses collaborative filtering methods to predict each patient’s greatest disease risks based on their own medical history and that of similar patients. We also describe an Iterative version, ICARE, which incorporates ensemble concepts for improved performance. Also, we apply time-sensitive modifications which make the CARE framework practical for realistic long-term use. These novel systems require no specialized information and provide predictions for medical conditions of all kinds in a single run. We present experimental results on a large Medicare dataset, demonstrating that CARE and ICARE perform well at capturing future disease risks.     

Significance of lymph node sampling in epithelial carcinoma of the ovary

Dendritic cells (DC) are a subset of leukocytes whose major function is antigen presentation. We investigated the phenotype and function of enriched (95-98.5%) rat DC. We show that both spleen and thymus DC express the natural killer cell receptor protein 1 (NKR-P1) as a disulfide linked homodimer of 60 kD. Freshly isolated DC express a low level of NKR-P1, which is strongly upregulated after overnight culture. Spleen, but not thymus DC, were able to kill the NK-sensitive YAC-1 cell line in vitro, and since this killing was Ca2+ dependent, a Fas ligand-Fas interaction was probably not involved. Besides their potent antigen-presenting function, DC can thus be cytotoxic for some tumor targets.