Lymphocyte transformation assay for C neoformans antigen is not reliable for detecting cellular impairment in patients with Neurocryptococcosis

Background: Cryptococcus neoformans causes meningitis and disseminated infection in healthy individuals, but more commonly in hosts with defective immune responses. Cell-mediated immunity is an important component of the immune response to a great variety of infections, including yeast infections. We aimed to evaluate a specific lymphocyte transformation assay to Cryptococcus neoformans in order to identify immunodeficiency associated to neurocryptococcosis (NCC) as primary cause of the mycosis.Methods: Healthy volunteers, poultry growers, and HIV-seronegative patients with neurocryptococcosis were tested for cellular immune response. Cryptococcal meningitis was diagnosed by India ink staining of cerebrospinal fluid and cryptococcal antigen test (Immunomycol-Inc, SP, Brazil). Isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells were stimulated with C. neoformans antigen, C. albicans antigen, and pokeweed mitogen. The amount of H-3-thymidine incorporated was assessed, and the results were expressed as stimulation index (SI) and log SI, sensitivity, specificity, and cut-off value (receiver operating characteristics curve). We applied unpaired Student t tests to compare data and considered significant differences for p<0.05.Results: The lymphotoxin alpha showed a low capacity with all the stimuli for classifying patients as responders and non-responders. Lymphotoxin alpha stimulated by heated-killed antigen from patients with neurocryptococcosis was not affected by TCD4+ cell count, and the intensity of response did not correlate with the clinical evolution of neurocryptococcosis.Conclusion: Response to lymphocyte transformation assay should be analyzed based on a normal range and using more than one stimulator. The use of a cut-off value to classify patients with neurocryptococcosis is inadequate. Statistical analysis should be based on the log transformation of SI. A more purified antigen for evaluating specific response to C. neoformans is needed.

B lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia transformation in a child with juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia, type 1 neurofibromatosis and monosomy of chromosome 7 - Possible implications in the leukemogenesis

This report describes the case of an 8-month-old infant with a diagnosis of juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) and type I neurofibromatosis that presented progression to B lineage acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL). The same rearrangement of gene T-cell receptor gamma (TCRgamma) was detected upon diagnosis of JMML and ALL, suggesting that both neoplasias may have evolved from the same clone. Our results support the theory that JMML may derive from pluripotential cells and that the occurrence of monosomy of chromosome 7 within a clone of cells having an aberrant neurofibromatosis type 1 (NFI) gene may be the cause of JMML and acute leukemia. (C) 2002 Elsevier B.V. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Exact Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation for real spin-0 particle in curved space

Up to now, the only known exact Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation (FWT) in curved space is that concerning Dirac particles coupled to static spacetime metrics. Here we construct the exact FWT related to a real spin-0 particle for the aforementioned spacetimes. This exact transformation exists independently of the value of the coupling between the scalar field and gravity. Moreover, the gravitational Darwin term written for the conformal coupling is one-third of the corresponding term in the fermionic case. There are some arguments in the literature that seem to favor the choice lambda=1/6. We rehearse a number of claims of these works.

One-loop n-point equivalence among negative-dimensional, Mellin-Barnes and Feynman parametrization approaches to Feynman integrals

We show that at one-loop order, negative-dimensional, Mellin-Barnes (MB) and Feynman parametrization (FP) approaches to Feynman loop integral calculations are equivalent. Starting with a generating functional, for two and then for n-point scalar integrals, we show how to reobtain MB results, using negative-dimensional and FP techniques. The n-point result is valid for different masses, arbitrary exponents of propagators and dimension.

Camassa-Holm equation: transformation to deformed sinh-Gordon equations, cuspon and soliton solutions

In this paper a relation between the Camassa-Holm equation and the non-local deformations of the sinh-Gordon equation is used to study some properties of the former equation. We will show that cuspon and soliton solutions can be obtained from soliton solutions of the deformed sinh-Gordon equation.

Conformal coupling and Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation

The propagation of a free scalar field phi with mass m in a curved background is generally described by the equation (g(munu) delmudelnu + m(2) + xiR)phi = 0. There exist some arguments in the literature that seem to favor the conformal coupling to the detriment of the minimal one. However, the majority of these claims axe inconclusive. Here we show that the exact Foldy Wouthuysen transformation for spin-0 particle coupled to a wide class of static spacetime metrics exists independently of the value of. Nevertheless, if the coupling is of the conformal type, the gravitational Darwin-like term has an uncomplicated structure and it is proportional to the corresponding term in the fermionic case. In addition, an independent computation of this term, which has its origin in the zitterbewegung fluctuation of the boson's position with the mean square <(deltar)(2)> approximate to 1/m(2), gives a result that coincides with that obtained using the aforementioned exact transformation with xi = 1/6.

Modified Korteweg-de Vries hierarchy with hodograph transformation: Camassa-Holm and Harry-Dym hierarchies

In this paper, we present relations between Camassa-Holm (CH), Harry-Dym (HD) and modified Korteweg-de Vries (mKdV) hierarchies, which are given by the hodograph type transformation. (C) 2001 IMACS. Published by Elsevier B.V. B.V. All rights reserved.

The impossibility of a universal relativistic temperature transformation

The non-existence of a relativistic temperature transformation is due to the fact that an observer moving in a heat reservoir cannot detect a blackbody spectrum. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Permutability of Backlund transformation for N=1 supersymmetric sinh-Gordon

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Effect of Ag additions on the reverse martensitic transformation in the Cu-10 mass% Al alloy

The effect of Ag additions on the reverse martensitic transformation in the Cu-10 mass% Al alloy was studied using differential thermal analysis (DTA), optical (OM) and scanning electron microscopies (SEM) and X-ray diffractometry. The results indicated that Ag additions to the Cu-10 mass% Al alloy shift the equilibrium concentration to higher Al contents, allow to obtain both beta(1)' and beta' martensitic phases in equilibrium and that Ag precipitation is a process associated with the perlitic phase formation.

Thermal stability of the martensitic transformation of Cu-Al-Ni-Mn-Ti

The development of new shape memory alloys with high martensitic transformation temperature increases the potential for applications. The development and use of these new alloys depends on the stability of the structure during cycling at high temperatures. If it is possible to guarantee that on alloys keeps the structure during cycling, then the alloy can be used because of the shape memory properties. The aim of this work is to obtain a kinetic model of the forward and backward martensitic transformation of two Cu-Al-Ni-Mn-Ti alloys. Differential scanning calorimetry has been performed in order to establish the kinetic stability of the martensite and the beta transformation. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Reverse martensitic transformation in the Cu-10 wt% Al-6 wt%Ag alloy

The reverse martensitic transformation in the Cu-10 wt%Al-6 wt%Ag alloy was studied by classical differential thermal analysis (IDTA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). The results indicated that the presence of Ag in the Cu-10%Al alloy is responsible for the separation of the competitive reactions that occur during the reverse martensitic transformation and is also associated to an increase in the disordering degree at high temperatures, when compared with alloys without Ag addition. (c) 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.

Order-disorder transformation in the Ni-4.49 at.% Al alloy

The order-disorder transformation in the Ni-4.49 at.% Al alloy was studied using electrical resistivity measurements, microhardness measurements, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results confirmed the ordering behavior expected for Ni-Al dilute alloys and the suggested relation between resistivity changes and microhardness changes with antiferromagnetic spin ordering. The higher value obtained for the activation energy of vacancy migration was associated with a decrease in the Al concentration gradient near solute-depleted regions. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Oxygen mobility and structural phase transformation in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta measured by anelastic spectroscopy

One of the most studied ceramic superconductors for application has been, undoubtedly, Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta. Although being a multiphasic material, it has proved to have great advantages compared to other ceramic systems. Measurements of the elastic energy loss and modulus (anelastic spectroscopy) as a function of temperature call distinguish among different atomic jumps that occur inside the various phases or at different local ordering. In this paper, mechanical loss spectra of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta bar shaped samples, made by a conventional method, have been measured between 80 and 600 K, using a torsion pendulum operating in frequencies below 50 Hz, for samples annealed in vacuum up to 600 K. Possible relaxation mechanisms are proposed to explain the origin of the mechanical-loss peaks observed 300 and 500 K. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Topotatic-like phase transformation of amorphous lead titanate to cubic lead titanate

The crystallization process of lead titanate (PT) prepared using the polymeric precursor method was investigated using X-ray diffractometry, Raman spectroscopy, electron microscopy, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy techniques. The results showed that amorphous PT was formed by an O-Ti-O structure composed of fivefold and sixfold oxygen-coordinated titanium. The local structure of the amorphous PT phase was similar to that of the cubic PT phase, i.e., similar coordination number and similar bond lengths, leading to a topotactic-like transformation during the phase transformation from amorphous to cubic perovskite PT. Because of the low crystallization temperature, every transformation observed during the crystallization process was associated with a short-range rearrangement process.