DNA vaccine containing the mycobacterial hsp65 gene prevented insulitis in MLD-STZ diabetes

Background  

Our group previously demonstrated that a DNA plasmid encoding the mycobacterial 65-kDa heat shock protein (DNA-HSP65) displayed prophylactic and therapeutic effect in a mice model for tuberculosis. This protection was attributed to induction of a strong cellular immunity against HSP65. As specific immunity to HSP60 family has been detected in arthritis, multiple sclerosis and diabetes, the vaccination procedure with DNA-HSP65 could induce a cross-reactive immune response that could trigger or worsen these autoimmune diseases.     

Wave attenuation model for dephasing and measurement of conditional times

Inelastic scattering induces dephasing in mesoscopic systems. An analysis of previous models to simulate inelastic scattering in such systems is presented and a relatively new model based on wave attenuation is introduced. The problem of Aharonov-Bohm (AB) oscillations in conductance of a mesoscopic ring is studied. We show that the conductance is symmetric under flux reversal and the visibility of AB oscillations decays to zero as a function of the incoherence parameter, signaling dephasing. Further the wave attenuation model is applied to a fundamental problem in quantum mechanics, that of the conditional (reflection/transmission) times spent in a given region of space by a quantum particle before scattering off from that region.     

Oscillator strengths for the 2s2, 2p2, 2s3s(1S)-2s2p(1P) transitions of B(II)

Accurate configuration interaction wavefunctions for the 2s²(¹S), 2p²(¹S), 2s3s(¹S) and 2s2p (¹P) states of B(II) are calculated in a single optimized orbital basis of 7s, 6p and 4d Slater-type orbitals. 95, 84, 57 and 90% of the correlation energies, respectively, are realized by these wavefunctions. Oscillator strengths for the three ¹S-¹P transitions are calculated from these and from less accurate wavefunctions in the same orbital basis. The length values obtained from our most accurate wavefunctions, in order of increasing ¹S energy, are 0.9885, 0.202 and 0.007. The degree of accuracy of these oscillator strengths is estimated by noting the convergence to final values as increasing percentages of correlation energies are included in the wavefunctions together with the increasing agreement between length and velocity formulas. The exact theoretical oscillator strength for the resonant line is projected to be 0.985 with an error almost certainly not greater than ±0.015. The theoretical oscillator strengths for the other lines are considered to be 0.21±0.02 and less than 0.007, respectively.     

Qualitative properties of modified equations

Suppose that a consistent one-step numerical method of orderr is applied to a smooth system of ordinary differential equations.Given any integer m 1, the method may be shown to be of orderr + m as an approximation to a certain modified equation. Ifthe method and the system have a particular qualitative propertythen it is important to determine whether the modified equationsinherit this property. In this article, a technique is introducedfor proving that the modified equations inherit qualitativeproperties from the method and the underlying system. The techniqueuses a straightforward contradiction argument applicable toarbitrary one-step methods and does not rely on the detailedstructure of associated power series expansions. Hence the conclusionsapply, but are not restricted, to the case of Runge-Kutte methods.The new approach unifies and extends results of this type thathave been derived by other means: results are presented forintegral preservation, reversibility, inheritance of fixed points.Hamiltonian problems and volume preservation. The techniquealso applies when the system has an integral that the methodpreserves not exactly, but to order greater than r. Finally,a negative result is obtained by considering a gradient systemand gradient numerical method possessing a global property thatis not shared by the associated modified equations.     

The extended Koopmans' theorem Fock operator

By expanding the wave function of a system of N particles in terms of products of functions of one and (N-1) particles, the one-particle, nonlocal operator F?_EKT (extended Koopmans' theorem) is determined. It is shown that although this operator is nonhermitian, its eigenvalues and eigenfunctions represent the ionization energies and occupied orbitals, respectively. The eigenfunctions of F?_EKT are the one-particle functions that enter into the expansion of the wave function of the system as partners of the (N-1)-particle wave functions. The eingenvalues are also one-particle energies that, multipled by the orbital occupancy probalities, enter the expression for the total N-particle energy of the system.