Background
Succinate, in addition to its role as an intermediary of the citric acid cycle, acts as an alarmin, initiating and propagating danger signals resulting from tissue injury or inflammatory ...stimuli. The contribution of this immune sensing pathway to the development of allergic and inflammatory responses is unknown.
Methods
Ear thickness of wild‐type (wt) and Sucnr1‐deficient (Sucnr1−/−) mice, sensitized and challenged with oxazolone, was used as a criterion to assess the relevance of SUCNR1/GPR91 expression mediating allergic contact dermatitis (ACD). Results obtained in this system were contrasted with data generated using passive cutaneous anaphylaxis, ovalbumin‐induced asthma and arthritis models.
Results
We found augmented ACD reactions in Sucnr1−/− mice. This observation correlated with increased mast cell activation in vitro and in vivo. However, exacerbated mast cell activation in Sucnr1−/− mice did not contribute to the enhancement of asthma or arthritis and seemed to be due to alterations during mast cell development as augmented mast cell responses could be recapitulated in wt mast cells differentiated in the absence of succinate.
Conclusions
A deficiency in succinate sensing during mast cell development confers these cells with a hyperactive phenotype. Such a phenomenon does not translate into exacerbation of asthma or mast cell‐dependent arthritis. On the contrary, the fact that Sucnr1−/− mice developed reduced arthritic disease, using two different in vivo models, indicates that GPR91 antagonists may have therapeutic potential for the treatment of allergic and autoimmune diseases.
Abstract The potential of Si and SiGe-based devices for the scaling of quantum circuits is tainted by device variability. Each device needs to be tuned to operation conditions and each device ...realisation requires a different tuning protocol. We demonstrate that it is possible to automate the tuning of a 4-gate Si FinFET, a 5-gate GeSi nanowire and a 7-gate Ge/SiGe heterostructure double quantum dot device from scratch with the same algorithm. We achieve tuning times of 30, 10, and 92 min, respectively. The algorithm also provides insight into the parameter space landscape for each of these devices, allowing for the characterization of the regions where double quantum dot regimes are found. These results show that overarching solutions for the tuning of quantum devices are enabled by machine learning.
A pH-changing clock chemical system, also known to induce changes in viscosity, is shown experimentally to induce a viscous fingering instability during the displacement of reactive solutions in a ...Hele-Shaw cell. Specifically, a low-viscosity solution of formaldehyde is displaced by a more viscous solution of sulfite and of a pH-sensitive poly(acrylic acid) polymer. The pH change triggered by the formaldehyde–sulfite clock reaction in the reactive contact zone between the two solutions affects the polymer and induces a local increase of the viscosity that destabilizes the displacement via a viscous fingering instability. The influence of changes in the chemical parameters on this fingering instability is analyzed using different techniques and the results are compared with numerical simulations.
Sauropods, the giant long-necked dinosaurs, became the dominant group of large herbivores in terrestrial ecosystems after multiple related lineages became extinct towards the end of the Early ...Jurassic (190-174 Ma). The causes and precise timing of this key faunal change, as well as the origin of eusauropods (true sauropods), have remained ambiguous mainly due to the scarce dinosaurian fossil record of this time. The terrestrial sedimentary successions of the Cañadón Asfalto Basin in central Patagonia (Argentina) document this critical interval of dinosaur evolution. Here, we report a new dinosaur with a nearly complete skull that is the oldest eusauropod known to date and provide high-precision U-Pb geochronology that constrains in time the rise of eusauropods in Patagonia. We show that eusauropod dominance was established after a massive magmatic event impacting southern Gondwana (180-184 Ma) and coincided with severe perturbations to the climate and a drastic decrease in the floral diversity characterized by the rise of conifers with small scaly leaves. Floral and faunal records from other regions suggest these were global changes that impacted the terrestrial ecosystems during the Toarcian warming event and formed part of a second-order mass extinction event.
Summary
Background The autoimmune skin disease bullous pemphigoid (BP) is characterized by subepidermal blister formation and a strong dermal infiltrate of mononuclear cells and eosinophils as well ...as a T‐helper (Th) 2‐dominated cytokine milieu. CCL18 is a chemokine, with unknown receptor counterpart, frequently associated with inflammatory Th2‐type responses.
Objectives The study was performed to investigate an association of CCL18 with BP.
Methods CCL18 was determined by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay in serum and blister fluid of patients with BP, pemphigus vulgaris and healthy individuals. In vitro chemotaxis assays were performed to demonstrate migration of peripheral blood mononuclear cells to BP blister fluid. Immunohistology and immunofluorescence staining were used to evaluate CCL18 expression in skin.
Results We have found that the levels of CCL18 in sera from patients with BP are 84% higher than those normally observed in healthy individuals. In addition, blister fluid of patients with BP is extremely rich in CCL18, reaching concentrations which are fivefold and sevenfold higher than those found in the sera of patients with BP and healthy individuals, respectively. Using immunofluorescence techniques we identified Langerhans cells, antigen‐presenting cells of the dermis and eosinophils as producers of CCL18 in BP skin. We studied the possibility of using CCL18 expression as a biomarker linked to BP by monitoring the serum levels of CCL18 and the disease course of nine patients with BP over a maximum period of 54 months. In this study, CCL18 levels correlated with the disease course in most of the patients.
Conclusions Our data implicate CCL18 as a functionally relevant chemokine in BP, mediating recruitment of blood mononuclear cells into the hallmark infiltrated skin lesion. The high correlation of CCL18 expression and BP disease suggests that blood levels of this chemokine can be used as an easy method to monitor disease progression and/or efficacy of therapeutic interventions.
ABSTRACT
We present a super-Earth orbiting close to the inner edge of the habitable zone of the cool dwarf star K2-286 (EPIC 249889081), detected with data from the K2 mission in its 15th campaign. ...The planet has radius of 2.1 ± 0.2 R⊕, near the 1.5–2.0 R⊕ gap in the radii distribution. The equilibrium temperature is $347^{+21}_{-11}$ K, cooler than most of the small planets with well-measured masses, and the orbital period is 27.359 ± 0.005 d. K2-286, located at a distance of 76.3 ± 0.3 pc, is an M0V star with estimated effective temperature of 3926 ± 100 K, less active than other M dwarf stars hosting exoplanets. The expected radial velocity semi-amplitude induced by the planet on the star is $1.9^{+1.3}_{-1.2}$ m s−1, and the amplitude of signals in transit transmission spectroscopy is estimated at 5.0 ± 3.0 ppm. Follow-up observations for mass measurements and transit spectroscopy should be desirable for this relatively bright target (mV = 12.76, mKs = 9.32) hosting a transiting super-Earth within the inner edge of the habitable zone.
The Formaldehyde-Sulfite (FS) and the Formaldehyde-Sulfite-Gluconolactone (FSG) systems are examples of complex chemical reactions accompanied by well-controlled variations in pH. While the FS system ...exhibits a clock behavior, in the FSG reaction, this mechanism is coupled with the hydrolysis of the gluconolactone which gives the possibility to show large temporal oscillations of pH in an open reactor. In this work, we show how these reactive systems, due to their organic nature, can be coupled with pH sensitive polymers, particularly with polyacrylic acid (PAA) to trigger temporal changes of viscosity. We characterize this coupled reactive system showing the effects of changes in the initial concentrations of the polymer and in the chemical reagents on the induction time, the magnitude of the pH variations and the temporal modifications of the viscosity.
Normalized cuts in 3-D for spinal MRI segmentation Carballido-Gamio, J.; Belongie, S.J.; Majumdar, S.
IEEE transactions on medical imaging,
2004-Jan., 2004-Jan, 2004-01-00, 20040101, Letnik:
23, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Odprti dostop
Segmentation of medical images has become an indispensable process to perform quantitative analysis of images of human organs and their functions. Normalized Cuts (NCut) is a spectral graph theoretic ...method that readily admits combinations of different features for image segmentation. The computational demand imposed by NCut has been successfully alleviated with the Nystro/spl uml/m approximation method for applications different than medical imaging. In this paper we discuss the application of NCut with the Nystro/spl uml/m approximation method to segment vertebral bodies from sagittal T1-weighted magnetic resonance images of the spine. The magnetic resonance images were preprocessed by the anisotropic diffusion algorithm, and three-dimensional local histograms of brightness was chosen as the segmentation feature. Results of the segmentation as well as limitations and challenges in this area are presented.
Currently, many systems (machine vision, high resolution remote sensing, global positioning systems, and odometry techniques) have been integrated into agricultural equipment to increase the ...efficiency, productivity, and safety of the individual in all field activities. This study focused upon assessing a satellite-based localization solution used in straight path guidance of an autonomous vehicle developed for agricultural applications. The autonomous agricultural vehicle was designed and constructed under RHEA (Robot fleets for highly effective agriculture and forestry management) project and is part of a three-unit fleet of similar vehicles. Static tests showed that 99% of all positions are placed within a circle with a 2.9 cm radius centered at the geo-position using real-time satellite corrections (RTX). Dynamic tests between rows demonstrated a mean (N=610) of the standard deviation for real-time base station corrections (RTK) of 1.43 cm and for real-time satellite corrections (RTX) of 2.55 cm. These results demonstrate that the tractor was able to track each straight line with high degree of accuracy. The integration of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) with sensors (e.g., inertial sensor, altimeters, odometers, etc.) within the vehicle showed the potential of autonomous tractors for expanding agricultural applications utilizing this technology.
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