BLyS levels in sera of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: clinical and serological correlation.

Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease characterized by disturbance of the innate and adaptive immune systems with the production of autoantibodies by stimulated B lymphocytes. The BLyS protein (B lymphocyte stimulator) is secreted mainly by monocytes and activated T cells and is responsible for the proliferation, maturation and survival of B cells.

Objectives: To study sera BLyS level and its clinical significance in Israeli lupus patients overtime.

Acute Q fever in Israel: clinical and laboratory study of 100 hospitalized patients.

Background: Q fever is endemic in Israel, yet a large series describing the clinical spectrum of inpatients with acute Q fever in Israel is lacking.

Objectives: To report on the clinical characteristics and outcome of hospitalized patients with acute Q fever in Israel.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of 100 patients hospitalized in six medical centers, in whom acute Q fever was diagnosed by the presence of immunoglobulin G and M antibodies to phase II Coxiella burnetti antigens.

Zero-magnetic-field hall effect in broken-mirror-symmetry conductors under illumination.

A novel effect is predicted for conductors with a broken mirror symmetry [e.g., polar metals and asymmetrical quantum well (QW) structures]: if such a conductor is under the direct current J approximately E(d), the circular polarized infrared radiation should induce an additional transverse current JH approximately E(d)xc, where E(d) is the driving electric field and c is a vector directed either along the polar axis or perpendicular to a QW.