University of Southampton

About: University of Southampton is a education organization based out in Southampton, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Laser. The organization has 37184 authors who have published 99400 publications receiving 3462915 citations. The organization is also known as: Southampton University & Soton Uni.

Wallerian degeneration of injured axons and synapses is delayed by a Ube4b/Nmnat chimeric gene.

Abstract: Axons and their synapses distal to an injury undergo rapid Wallerian degeneration, but axons in the C57BL/WldS mouse are protected. The degenerative and protective mechanisms are unknown. We identified the protective gene, which encodes an N-terminal fragment of ubiquitination factor E4B (Ube4b) fused to nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyltransferase (Nmnat), and showed that it confers a dose-dependent block of Wallerian degeneration. Transected distal axons survived for two weeks, and neuromuscular junctions were also protected. Surprisingly, the Wld protein was located predominantly in the nucleus, indicating an indirect protective mechanism. Nmnat enzyme activity, but not NAD+ content, was increased fourfold in WldS tissues. Thus, axon protection is likely to be mediated by altered ubiquitination or pyridine nucleotide metabolism.

A Leadless Intracardiac Transcatheter Pacing System

Abstract: BackgroundA leadless intracardiac transcatheter pacing system has been designed to avoid the need for a pacemaker pocket and transvenous lead. MethodsIn a prospective multicenter study without controls, a transcatheter pacemaker was implanted in patients who had guideline-based indications for ventricular pacing. The analysis of the primary end points began when 300 patients reached 6 months of follow-up. The primary safety end point was freedom from system-related or procedure-related major complications. The primary efficacy end point was the percentage of patients with low and stable pacing capture thresholds at 6 months (≤2.0 V at a pulse width of 0.24 msec and an increase of ≤1.5 V from the time of implantation). The safety and efficacy end points were evaluated against performance goals (based on historical data) of 83% and 80%, respectively. We also performed a post hoc analysis in which the rates of major complications were compared with those in a control cohort of 2667 patients with transvenous ...

Effects of Treatment with Anti-immunoglobulin E Antibody Omalizumab on Airway Inflammation in Allergic Asthma

Abstract: IgE plays an important role in allergic asthma. We hypothesized that reducing IgE in the airway mucosa would reduce airway inflammation. Forty-five patients with mild to moderate persistent asthma with sputum eosinophilia of 2% or more were treated with humanized monoclonal antibody against IgE (omalizumab) (n = 22) or placebo (n = 23) for 16 weeks. Outcomes included inflammatory cells in induced sputum and bronchial biopsies, and methacholine responsiveness. Treatment with omalizumab resulted in marked reduction of serum IgE and a reduction of IgE+ cells in the airway mucosa. The mean percentage sputum eosinophil count decreased significantly (p < 0.001) from 6.6 to 1.7% in the omalizumab group, a reduction significantly (p = 0.05) greater than with placebo (8.5 to 7.0%). This was associated with a significant reduction in tissue eosinophils; cells positive for the high-affinity Fc receptor for IgE; CD3+, CD4+, and CD8+ T lymphocytes; B lymphocytes; and cells staining for interleukin-4, but not with improvement in airway hyperresponsiveness to methacholine. This study shows antiinflammatory effects of omalizumab treatment and provides clues for mechanisms whereby omalizumab reduces asthma exacerbations and other asthma outcomes in more severe asthma. The lack of effect of omalizumab on methacholine responsiveness suggests that IgE or eosinophils may not be causally linked to airway hyperresponsiveness to methacholine in mild to moderate asthma.

Relativistic viscous hydrodynamics, conformal invariance, and holography

Abstract: We consider second-order viscous hydrodynamics in conformal field theories at finite temperature. We show that conformal invariance imposes powerful constraints on the form of the second-order corrections. By matching to the AdS/CFT calculations of correlators, and to recent results for Bjorken flow obtained by Heller and Janik, we find three (out of five) second-order transport coefficients in the strongly coupled N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. We also discuss how these new coefficents can arise within the kinetic theory of weakly coupled conformal plasmas. We point out that the Mueller-Israel-Stewart theory, often used in numerical simulations, does not contain all allowed second-order terms and, frequently, terms required by conformal invariance.