1. |
- Kobayashi, S., et al.
(author)
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Luminosity and variability of collimated gamma-ray bursts
- 2002
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In: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 577:1, s. 302-310
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Within the framework of the internal shock model, we study the luminosity and variability in gamma-ray bursts from collimated fireballs. In particular, we pay attention to the role of the e(+/-) pair photosphere produced by the internal shock synchrotron photons. It is shown that the observed Cepheid-like relationship between the luminosity and variability can be interpreted as a correlation between the opening angle of the fireball jet and the mass included at the explosion with a standard energy output. We also show that such a correlation can be a natural consequence of the collapsar model. Narrow jets, in which the typical Lorentz factors are higher than in wide jets, can produce more variable temporal profiles because of smaller angular spreading timescales at the photosphere radius. Using a multiple-shell model, we numerically calculate the temporal profiles of gamma-ray bursts and show that our simulations reproduce the observed correlation.
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2. |
- Larsson, S., et al.
(author)
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The Background of the INTEGRAL SPI Anticoincidence Shield and the Observations of GRBs
- 2004
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In: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 5TH INTEGRAL WORKSHOP ON THE INTEGRAL UNIVERSE. - : European Space Agency. - 9290928638 ; , s. 649-652
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The anti-coincidence shield, ACS, of the spectrometer, SPI (Vedrenne et al., 2003), on INTEGRAL provides the possibility to study temporal properties of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with high resolution (Rau et al. 2004). To correctly interpret the results of the analysis, a good understanding of the back,ground and noise levels of the instrument is required. The back-round noise of the ACS, oil timescales up to the length of a GRB, has a Gaussian distribution and its power is independent of frequency, that is, it is white noise. However, it does not follow a Poisson statistic since on average the variance is similar to 1.6 times larger than the mean, and varies significantly. We find a systematic relation between the mean count rate and its variance. The ratio, variance/mean, decreases as the mean count rate increases. As well as helping to understand the cause of this effect, this characterisation is useful when modelling the time variability of GRBs. To illustrate the discussion we present some GRB light curves detected by the SPI/ACS and shortly discuss the analysis that has been made of them.
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3. |
- Mertens, Fredrik, et al.
(author)
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Radiation-associated sarcomas are characterized by complex karyotypes with frequent rearrangements of chromosome arm 3p
- 2000
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In: Cancer Genetics and Cytogenetics. - 0165-4608. ; 116:2, s. 89-96
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Ionizing radiation is a well-known risk factor for sarcoma development. To investigate whether radiation-associated sarcomas are characterized by chromosome aberrations that distinguish them from de novo sarcomas, we identified those patients in our series of more than 500 cytogenetically abnormal sarcomas that fulfilled the following criteria: (1) each patient should have been irradiated for another malignancy at least 3 years prior to the sarcoma diagnosis, and (2) the sarcoma should have developed within the field of radiation. Ten patients fulfilling these criteria could be retrieved (median age at sarcoma diagnosis was 55 years, range 17-79; median latency period between primary tumor and radiation-associated sarcoma was 9 years, range 4-30). The diagnoses were typical for radiation-associated sarcomas: 2 each of malignant fibrous histiocytoma, leiomyosarcoma, and pleomorphic sarcoma, and 1 each of osteosarcoma, fibrosarcoma, myxofibrosarcoma, and spindle cell sarcoma. All 10 cases had relatively complex karyotypes with multiple, mostly unbalanced, structural rearrangements, similar to what has been reported in de novo sarcomas of the corresponding histologic subtypes. The only cytogenetic features that were unusually frequent among the radiation-associated sarcomas were the finding of unrelated clones in 3 cases, and loss of material from chromosome arm 3p, in particular 3p21-3pter, in 8 cases. Loss of the same chromosome segment has been described in 4 of the 8 previously published cases of radiation-associated sarcomas that have been analyzed after short-term culturing, which makes this imbalance significantly (P < 0.001) more frequent among radiation-associated sarcomas (12 of 18 cases) than among unselected cases of the corresponding histologic subtypes (74 of 282 cases). In contrast to the cytogenetic results, no 3p deletions were detected among the 6 cases of the present series that could be analyzed by comparative genomic hybridization (CGH). The most frequent imbalance detected by CGH was gain of 15cen-q15 (3 cases), followed by loss of chromosome 13 and gain of 5p, and 7cen-q22, each detected in 2 cases.
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4. |
- Nilsson, Therese, et al.
(author)
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Cytogenetic features of multiple myeloma: impact of gender, age, disease phase, culture time, and cytokine stimulation
- 2002
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In: European Journal of Haematology. - : Wiley. - 1600-0609 .- 0902-4441. ; 68:6, s. 345-353
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Relatively little is known about the cytogenetic features of multiple myeloma (MM) when compared to other hematologic malignancies. The reasons for this are most likely manifold, and include a low mitotic index of the malignant cells and the presence of cytogenetically cryptic abnormalities as well as of complex karyotypes with poor chromosome morphology. In the present study, we have investigated whether various culture conditions may influence the yield of abnormal metaphases in MM and, in the related plasma cell dyscrasias, monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) and plasmacytomas (PC). In addition, the possible impact of age, gender, and disease phase on the cytogenetic features has been analyzed. A total of 95 samples from 74 cases (68 MM, three PC, and three MGUS patients) were obtained for cytogenetic analysis. The samples were cultured either in conventional medium or in medium containing IL-6 and GM-CSF, and the culture times varied from 24 to 120 h. In total, 186 cultures were analyzed. Metaphase fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis using probes specific for 14q32, i.e. IGH rearrangements, could be performed in 57 of the 74 cases, and revealed 14q32 aberrations in 10 cases not seen by conventional G-banding. Abnormal karyotypes were detected in 77 (41%) of the 186 cultures, 46 (48%) of the 95 samples, and in 41 (55%) of the 74 patients, revealing a total of 20 chromosomal aberrations previously not reported in plasma cell dyscrasias. We found no evidence that gender, age, disease phase, culture time, or cytokine stimulation significantly influences the karyotypic features of MM.
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5. |
- Panagopoulos, Ioannis, et al.
(author)
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RT-PCR analysis of the MOZ-CBP and CBP-MOZ chimeric transcripts in acute myeloid leukemias with t(8;16)(p11;p13)
- 2000
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In: Genes, Chromosomes and Cancer. - 1045-2257. ; 28:4, s. 415-424
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The translocation t(8;16)(p11;p13) is associated with a subtype of acute monocytic leukemia (AML M5) characterized morphologically by erythrophagocytosis and clinically by a poor prognosis. The t(8;16) fuses the MOZ gene from 8p11 with the CBP (also named CREBBP) gene from 16p13. Previously published studies of MOZ and CBP rearrangements in t(8;16)-positive AML have used fluorescence in situ hybridization and Southern blot methodologies, whereas attempts to amplify and to analyze further the chimeric MOZ-CBP and CBP-MOZ transcripts by means of reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) have largely been unsuccessful. In the only t(8;16) that has been described at the sequence level using RT-PCR, the CBP-MOZ fusion was found to be out-of-frame, suggesting that the reciprocal MOZ-CBP transcript is the essential one for leukemogenesis. We have developed an RT-PCR strategy that enables us to detect the MOZ-CBP as well as the CBP-MOZ fusions in the two AML M5 with t(8;16)(p11;p13) analyzed. In both leukemias, the combination of a MOZ forward and a CBP reverse primer amplified a strongly expressed 1,128 bp fragment (type I transcript) and a weakly expressed 415 bp fragment (type II transcript). In the type I transcript, nucleotide (nt) 3,745 of MOZ was fused in-frame with nt 284 of CBP, whereas in the type II transcript, nt 3,745 of MOZ was fused out-of-frame with nt 997 of CBP. Nested PCR with a combination of two forward CBP and two reverse MOZ primers amplified CBP-MOZ chimeric transcripts in both cases. Direct sequence analysis showed that nt 283 of CBP was fused in-frame with nt 3,746 of MOZ, that the initiation ATG codon of the CBP gene remained intact, and that there was no mutation or deletion in the part of the CBP gene included in the CBP-MOZ transcript. Thus, the data we present are not informative with regard to the question whether it is the MOZ-CBP or the CBP-MOZ transcript that is leukemogenic. The present RT-PCR method may be of value for rapid identification of the t(8;16) and also for further molecular genetic studies of the two fusion transcripts and their roles in leukemogenesis.
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6. |
- Ryde, Felix, et al.
(author)
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Gamma-ray bursts observed by the INTEGRAL-SPI anticoincidence shield : A study of individual pulses and temporal variability
- 2003
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 411:1, s. L331-L342
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We study a set of 28 GRB light-curves detected between 15 December 2002 and 9 June 2003 by the anti-coincidence shield of the spectrometer (SPI) of INTEGRAL. During this period it has detected 50 bursts, that have been confirmed by other instruments, with a time resolution of 50 ms. First, we derive the basic characteristics of the bursts: various duration measures, the count peak flux and the count fluence. Second, a sub-sample of 11 bursts with 12 individual, well-separated pulses is studied. We fit the pulse shape with a model by Kocevski et al. (2003) and find that the pulses are quite self-similar in shape. There is also a weak tendency for the pulses with steep power-law decays to be more asymmetric. Third, the variability of the complex light-curves is studied by analyzing their power-density-spectra (PDS) and their RMS variability. The averaged PDS, of the whole sample, is a power-law with index of 1.60+/-0.05 and a break between 1-2 Hz. Fourth, we also discuss the background and noise levels. We found that the background noise has a Gaussian distribution and its power is independent of frequency, i.e., it is white noise. However, it does not follow a Poisson statistic since on average the variance is similar to1.6 larger than the mean. We discuss our results in context of the current theoretical picture in which GRBs are created in an anisotropic, highly relativistic outflow from collapsing massive stars. Finally, we note that the exact behaviour of the instrument is not yet known and therefore the above results should be treated as preliminary.
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7. |
- Staudt, A, et al.
(author)
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beta(1)-Adrenoceptor antibodies induce positive inotropic response in isolated cardiomyocytes.
- 2001
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In: European journal of pharmacology. - 0014-2999. ; 423:2-3, s. 115-9
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- beta(1)-Adrenoceptor autoantibodies are present in approximately 30% of patients suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy. The inotropic effects mediated by these antibodies remain to be studied. Monoclonal antibodies were raised against a peptide corresponding to the second extracellular loop of the human beta(1)-adrenoceptor in balb/C mouse (n=6), and were characterized by enzyme immunoassay after purification by protein A. Purified immunoglobulin G from non-immunized animals (controls) did not influence Ca(2+) transient and cell shortening of rat cardiomyocytes measured by confocal-laser-scanning-microscopy. beta(1)-adrenoceptor antibodies caused a dose-related increase in Ca(2+) transient (dilution 1:2: +35.3+/-5.1%), and in cell shortening (dilution 1:2: +40.5+/-6.3%) (P<0.01 vs. controls). The effect of the beta(1)-adrenoceptor antibodies was blocked by the antigenic peptide and by the antagonist metoprolol. In addition, beta(1)-adrenoceptor antibodies induced a dose-dependent increase of the cyclic adenosine monophosphate. The inotropic response induced by isoproterenol was attenuated by the beta(1)-adrenoceptor antibody. beta(1)-adrenoceptor antibodies as partial agonists induce a specific positive inotropic effect via the protein-kinase-A-cascade.
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