Recent studies have shown that host-reactive interleukin2 (IL-2)-secreting donor T lymphocytes (TI) are critically involved in the development of acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after allogeneic HLA-identical sibling bone marrow transplantation (BMT). To further characterize the responding TI, we determined the frequency of pretransplant IL-2-secreting TI-precursors (TI-p) between eight ...

The oxidation state of titanium in titanium dioxide is commonly assumed to be +4. This assignment is based on the ionic approximation and is used ubiquitously to rationalize phenomena observed with TiO2. It implies a charge state +4 and that no further oxidation of the metal center is possible. We present a comprehensive electronic structure investigation of Ti ions, TiO2 molecules, and TiO2 bu...

In this paper, the surface modification of titanium alloys Ti-15Mo, Ti-13Nb-13Zr, and Ti-6Al-7Nb is presented as a material for dental implants. The conditions of the plasma electrolytic oxidation process and alkali treatment were designed in this way to enhance the biological properties of the surface of promising Ti alloys. The differences in their surface morphology and, consequently, in the...

OBJECTIVES The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of thermal oxidation on the corrosion behavior of Ti-5Ag alloy. METHODS The microstructure of Ti-5Ag alloy without and with thermal oxidization treatment were characterized, with commercial pure (CP) Ti as control, by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (...

Event structures are a promi nent noni nterl eavi ng model for con-currency. Real-ti me event structures associ ate a set of ti me i nstants to events, model l i ng absol ute ti me constrai nts, and to causal dependenci es,model l i ng rel a-ti ve del ays betweencausal l y dependentevents. We i ntroduce thi s novel temporal model and show how i t can be used to provi de a denotati onal semanti ...

Asubstantial body of research in management and related public policy fields concludes that recent decades saw greater dynamic competition throughout technology-intensive (TI) industries, with widespread steady increase in TI industry and business performance instability as key implications. We set this conclusion within a broader framework of purportedly increasing dynamic competition among TI...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the safety of treatment interruption (TI) guided by CD4+ count in HIV-infected patients followed-up prospectively. METHODS Patients on HAART with a CD4+ cell count >500 cells/mm3 discontinued therapy with instructions to start therapy again before their CD4+ count dropped below 200 cells/mm3. RESULTS We report data on 112 HIV-infected patients. The median follow-up af...

The aim of this study is to evaluate the utility of UGFNA (ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration biopsy) after evaluating solid thyroid nodules with the risk stratification diagnostic tool, the Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (TI-RADS) classification system. Real time elastography results will be used as one of the six criteria as suspicion for malignancy. The study group comprised...

Al, Au, Ti/Al and Ti/Au contacts were prepared on n-GaN and annealed up to 900 8C. The structure, phase and morphology were studied by cross-sectional transmission and scanning electron microscopy as well as by X-ray diffraction (XRD), the electrical behaviour by current–voltage measurements. It was obtained that annealing resulted in interdiffusion, lateral diffusion along the surface, alloyin...

Ti-based alloys are finding ever-increasing applications in biomaterials due to their excellent mechanical, physical and biological performance. Nowdays, low modulus β-type Ti-based alloys are still being developed. Meanwhile, porous Ti-based alloys are being developed as an alternative orthopedic implant material, as they can provide good biological fixation through bone tissue ingrowth into t...