Kjeldgaardkincaid6308

005) and 12 (P = 0.007). 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were elevated significantly over the course of 12 weeks in both groups; however, the elevation in group 2 was significantly higher than group 1 at week 12 (P = 0.002). Medication score was significantly reduced, with no significant difference between groups. No association was observed between positive autologous serum skin test, angioedema and high level of Anti thyroperoxidase antibody with positive response to vitamin D.

Add-on therapy with vitamin D (28,000 IU/week) can be considered as a safe and potentially beneficial treatment in patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria.

Add-on therapy with vitamin D (28,000 IU/week) can be considered as a safe and potentially beneficial treatment in patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria.

Behçet's disease (BD) is an auto-inflammatory vasculitis characterized by aphthous oro-genital ulcers, inflammatory skin changes and uveitis. Treatment is mainly immunosuppressive. Interestingly, elevated endotheline-1 (ET-1) levels suggest a possible beneficial effect of treatment with an ET-1 receptor antagonist.

The aim of our study was to investigate the possible beneficial effect of the ET-1 inhibitor bosentan.

We performed a prospective double-blind placebo controlled pilot study into the effect and safety of bosentan in BD patients. Disease activity was measured using the Behçet Disease Current Activity Form. The primary objective of the study was to determine whether bosentan is therapeutically effective in patients with BD. Secondary endpoints were safety, tapering of medication and the effect of bosentan on possible disease activity markers such as ET-1, circulating endothelial cells (CECs), soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sIL2R) and cytokine levels.

Ten patients were randomized to either bosentan or placebo. Overall, no effect on disease activity was observed, although one patient responded clinically and continued treatment after the study period. Despite one SAE, bosentan seems safe to use. No effect on tapering of medication, CECs, sIL2R and cytokine levels was found. In the bosentan group, ET-1 levels were elevated during the treatment period, with no correlation with disease activity.

Although this is a small pilot study, bosentan appears to be safe in BD patients. One patient had a durable and significant clinical response. Our observations should be confirmed and extended in a larger patient cohort to be of significant impact in the treatment options for BD.

Although this is a small pilot study, bosentan appears to be safe in BD patients. One patient had a durable and significant clinical response. Our observations should be confirmed and extended in a larger patient cohort to be of significant impact in the treatment options for BD.Controllable synthesis of defect-free graphene is crucial for applications since the properties of graphene are highly sensitive to any deviations from the crystalline lattice. We focus here on the emerging use of liquid Cu catalysts, which have high potential for fast and efficient industrial-scale production of high-quality graphene. The interface between graphene and liquid Cu is studied using force field and ab initio molecular dynamics, revealing a complete or partial embedding of finite-sized flakes. By analyzing flakes of different sizes, we find that the size-dependence of the embedding can be rationalized based on the energy cost of embedding vs bending the graphene flake. The embedding itself is driven by the formation of covalent bonds between the under-coordinated edge C atoms and the liquid Cu surface, which is accompanied by a significant charge transfer. In contrast, the central flake atoms are located around or slightly above 3 Å from the liquid Cu surface and exhibit weak van der Waals-bonding and much lower charge transfer. The structural and electronic properties of the embedded state revealed in our work provide the atomic-scale information needed to develop effective models to explain the special growth observed in experiments where various interesting phenomena such as flake self-assembly and rotational alignment, high growth speeds, and low defect densities in the final graphene product have been observed.Triplet energy transfer (TET) from quantum dots (QDs) to molecular acceptors has received intense research interest because of its promising application as triplet sensitizers in photon up-conversion. Compared to QD band edge excitons, the role and mechanism of trap state mediated TET in QD-acceptor complexes have not been well understood despite the prevalence of trap states in many QDs. Herein, TET from trap states in CdSe QDs to adsorbed 9-anthracene carboxylic acid (ACA) is studied with steady state photoluminescence, transient absorption spectroscopy, and time-resolved photoluminescence. We show that both band edge and trap excitons undergo direct Dexter energy transfer to form the triplet excited state of ACA. Tacrolimus The rate of TET decreases from (0.340 ± 0.002) ns-1 to (0.124 ± 0.004) ns-1 for trap excitons with decreasing energy from 2.25 eV to 1.57 eV, while the TET rate from band edge excitons is 13-37 times faster than trapped excitons. Despite slightly higher TET quantum efficiency from band edge excitons (∼100%) than trapped excitons (∼95%), the overall TET process from CdSe to ACA is dominated by trapped excitons because of their larger relative populations. This result demonstrates the important role of trap state mediated TET in nanocrystal sensitized triplet generation.The approach-to-equilibrium molecular dynamics (AEMD) methodology is applied in combination with first-principles molecular dynamics to investigate the thermal transfer between two silicon blocks connected by a molecular layer. Our configuration consists of alkanes molecules strongly coupled to the silicon surfaces via covalent bonds. In phase 1 of AEMD, the two Si blocks are thermalized at high and low temperatures to form the hot and cold reservoirs. During phase 2 of AEMD, a transfer between reservoirs occurs until thermal equilibrium is reached. The transfer across the interface dominates the transient over heat conduction within the reservoirs. The value of the thermal interface conductance is in agreement with the experimental data obtained for analogous bonding cases between molecules and reservoirs. The dependence on the length of the thermal interface resistance features two contributions. One is constant (the resistance at the silicon/molecule interface), while the other varies linearly with the length of the molecular chains (diffusive transport).