Many mucosal pathogens invade the host by initially infecting the organized mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (o-MALT) such as Peyer's patches or nasal cavity-associated lymphoid tissue (NALT) before spreading systemically. There is no clear demonstration that serum antibodies can prevent infections in o-MALT. We have tested this possibility by using the mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) as a mo...

Brain sag is a rare but serious postoperative complication after craniotomy. It is a clinical entity that refers to severe cerebrospinal fluid hypovolemia causing acute neurologic decompensation and obtundation. The established treatment is trendelenberg positioning. We present 3 cases of severe brain sag in which patients developed acute neurologic deterioration unresponsive to conventional tr...

Acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after allogeneic stem cell transplantation is associated with impaired deletion and anergy of host-reactive T cells. To elucidate the immunoregulatory events that may contribute to such dysregulated T-cell responses in GVHD, we studied superantigen (SAg) responses after adoptive T-cell transfer into severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice. SAg response...

OBJECTIVES Nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus constitutes a risk factor for disease exacerbation in Wegener's granulomatosis (WG). We hypothesized that staphylococcal superantigens (SAg) are a determinant of S. aureus-related risk for disease relapse in WG. METHODS In a retrospective longitudinal cohort study in 62 WG patients, we investigated the presence of the staphylococcal SAg genes...

In this paper we exhibit a one-parameter family of new Taub-NUT instantons via connecting the two previously known SU(2) Yang–Mills instantons of unit charge on TaubNUT space by a half-line. The endpoint of the half-line will be the reducible Yang–Mills instanton corresponding to the Eguchi–Hanson–Gibbons L2 harmonic 2-form, while at an inner point we recover the Pope–Yuille instanton construct...

In this paper we exhibit a one-parameter family of new Taub-NUT instantons parameterized by a half-line. The endpoint of the half-line will be the reducible Yang–Mills instanton corresponding to the Eguchi–Hanson–Gibbons L2 harmonic 2-form, while at an inner point we recover the Pope–Yuille instanton constructed as a projection of the Levi– Civitá connection onto the positive su(2)+ ⊂ so(4) sub...

AbstractThe dynamic voltage restorer (DVR) is a series connected device for mitigating voltage sag/This paper presents with feed forward pre-sag/swell voltage control method to regulate the output voltage of pulse width modulated (PWM) voltage source converter (VSC). The proposed controller maintains a constant load voltage under the multiple balanced/unbalanced dynamic PQ disturbances. The pro...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Effector T cell activation is particularly important in the initiation of autoimmune uveitis. This pilot study seeks to demonstrate activation of human peripheral effector T cells in response to the uveitis candidate autoantigen, retinal S antigen (SAg), using cytokine flow cytometry (CFC). METHODS Peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) suspensions from uveitis patients and ...

This paper concentrates on the control of hybrid fuelcell (FC)/energystorage distributed generation (DG) systems under voltage sag in distribution systems. The proposed control strategy makes hybrid DG system work properly when a voltage disturbance occurs in distribution system, and it stays connected to the main grid. This controller determines the supercapacitor power that should be generate...

Microbial superantigens (SAGs) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of human autoimmune diseases. Preferential expansion of the Vveta7 T cell receptor positive T cell subset in patients suffering from acute-onset type I diabetes has indicated the presence of a surface membrane-bound SAG. Here, we have isolated a novel mouse mammary tumor virus-related human endogenous retrovirus. We further...