(Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod 2010;110:e1-e6)”
“We have calculated the inelastic mean free path, stopping power, and energy-loss PF-04929113 straggling of swift electron, proton, and alpha-particle beams

in a broad incident energy range in four organic polymers: poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), Kapton, polyacetylene (PA), and poly(2-vinylpyridine) (P2VP). These calculations have been done through a suitable description of their optical properties and its extension into the whole momentum and energy transfer excitation spectrum. For electrons, we take into account the exchange effect between the projectile and the target electrons, while the charge-state fractions have been considered for ions. Our results are compared with other models and with the available experimental data. An excellent agreement with experimental data is obtained in the case of proton and alpha-particle beams in Kapton and a reasonably good agreement has been achieved for electron beams in PMMA, Kapton, and PA. We have parameterized by means of simple analytical expressions our results for electron beams interacting with these four polymers, which can be easily implemented in Monte Carlo calculations. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3581120]“
“. Dendritic cells (DCs) are likely to

play a key role in the compromised T-cell function associated with hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection. However, studies of DC function in HCV-infected patients to date have yielded conflicting findings check details possibly because of patient and virus heterogeneity. Here, we report the characterization of monocyte-derived DCs obtained from a homogenous cohort of women who were infected with HCV genotype 1b following exposure Epigenetic inhibitor concentration to contaminated anti-D immunoglobulin from a single donor source. Patients included in the study had not received anti-viral therapy

and all had mild liver disease. We show that phenotypically normal monocyte-derived dendritic cells (MDDCs) (CD11c+HLA-DR+CD1a+CD14lo) can be obtained from these patients. These cells respond to both Poly(I:C) and LPS, by up-regulating expression of CD86. They secrete high levels of IL-8 and CCL5 in response to LPS, an indication that the MyD88-dependent and MyD88-independent signalling pathways downstream of TLR4 ligation are functioning normally. However, these cells are poor stimulators of T-cell proliferation in allogeneic mixed lymphocyte reactions. Furthermore, patient MDDCs fail to secrete IFN-a in response to poly(I:C) or IFN-beta stimulation. Altered DC function may contribute to impaired cellular immune responses and chronicity of disease following HCV infection in this cohort.