The gastrointestinal (GI) tract represents a unique challenge to the mammalian immune system. It must tolerate the presence of the luminal microbiota and thus not respond to their products, but still ...protect the intestinal mucosa from potentially harmful dietary antigens and invading pathogens. The intestinal epithelium, composed of a single layer of cells, is crucial for preserving gut homeostasis and acts both as a physical barrier and as a coordinating hub for immune defense and crosstalk between bacteria and immune cells. We highlight here recent findings regarding communication between microbes and intestinal epithelial cells (IECs), as well as the immune mechanisms employed by distinct IEC subsets to promote homeostasis, emphasizing the central and active role that these cells play in host enteric defense.
The intestinal epithelium is an integral component of innate immunity, defending the host by actively responding through various mechanisms that protect the mucosal barrier.
IECs provide the first line of defense against noxious luminal stimuli, and professional immune cells are only activated once these defenses are overcome.
The epithelium primes and signals professional immune cells to promote an effective inflammatory/immune response.
The makeup of the intestinal epithelium is diverse and consists of multiple cell types (i.e., enterocytes, goblet cells, neuroendocrine cells, tuft cells, Paneth cells, and M cells), and these can develop further into specialized subsets.
Through their diverse functions, these different epithelial cell types work in concert to maintain intestinal homeostasis and promote host defense.
Redox chemistry provides the fundamental basis for numerous energy-related electrochemical devices, among which are electrolysers,fuel cells and batteries. Throughout its history, Li-ion battery ...technology (LIB)has relied on cationic redox reactionsas the primary source of energy storage capacity. This is no longer true with the recent discovery of Li-driven reversible formation of (O2)n species in new layered oxides that have led to staggering increases in energy storage capacity. Such ndings could oer a transformative approach to creating advanced energy materials, not only for lithium storage but also for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), as both involve (OO) bond formation. The exploration of these new opportunities calls for a better understanding and rationalization of the science underpinning anionic redox activity.In this Commentary, we aim to raise the energy communitys awareness of the benets that this new vision could bringto materials design for energy storage and conversion applications.
Background
Dexmedetomidine has been shown to reduce pro‐inflammatory cytokine levels in rats with sepsis and in severely ill patients. The aim of this study was to document the effects of ...dexmedetomidine on inflammatory responses during and after surgery.
Materials and Methods
Patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy were enrolled. After induction of anaesthesia, patients in the dexmedetomidine group (n = 24, group D) received a loading dose of dexmedetomidine (1.0 μg/kg), followed by infusion of dexmedetomidine at 0.5 μg/kg/h. A saline‐treated group (n = 23, group S) served as a control. Intraoperative mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), and amount of rescue analgesic administered as post‐anaesthetic care were compared between the groups. The pro‐inflammatory cytokines tumour necrosis factor (TNF)‐α, interleukin (IL)‐1β, and IL‐6, and anti‐inflammatory cytokines IL‐4 and IL‐10 were quantified by sandwich enzyme‐linked immunoassay at three times: after anaesthesia induction (T0), at the end of peritoneal closure (T1), and 60 min after surgery (T2). The C‐reactive protein (CRP) level and leukocyte count were measured on post‐operative day 1.
Results
At time points T1 and T2, the IL‐1β, TNF‐α, and IL‐10 levels were lower in group D than in group S (P < 0.05). The CRP level and leukocyte count on post‐operative day 1 were also lower in group D (P < 0.05), as were intraoperative MAP, HR, and amount of rescue analgesic administered after surgery.
Conclusions
Dexmedetomidine administration during surgery reduced intraoperative and post‐operative secretion of cytokines, as well as post‐operative leukocyte count and CRP level.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between transformational leadership and employees’ work engagement based on fit theory. The paper reports an investigation into the ...way in which employees’ perceptions of transformational leadership and person-job fit affect their work engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the authors’ hypotheses, the authors performed structure equation modeling with maximum likelihood estimation on Mplus with bootstrapping proposed by Hayes (2009) with data from 691 full-time employees in China.
Findings
The results indicate that transformational leadership has as significant influence on employees’ work engagement as person-job fit in China. Moreover, employees’ perception of person-job fit is found to partially mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and employees’ work engagement.
Research limitations/implications
There is a possible bias arising from the use of cross-sectional data. However, certain methods were implemented to minimize it, including survey design and data analysis.
Practical implications
The paper proposes a number of practical implications for policy makers, HR managers and transformational leaders relating to issues associated with improving levels of employee engagement.
Originality/value
The study contributes to developing leadership and engagement theory by examining a previously unexplored mediator – person-job fit – in a neglected cultural setting. This study promises to open new research avenues in this area.
We present an interpretable implementation of the autoencoding algorithm, used as an anomaly detector, built with a forest of deep decision trees on FPGA, field programmable gate arrays. Scenarios at ...the Large Hadron Collider at CERN are considered, for which the autoencoder is trained using known physical processes of the Standard Model. The design is then deployed in real-time trigger systems for anomaly detection of unknown physical processes, such as the detection of rare exotic decays of the Higgs boson. The inference is made with a latency value of 30 ns at percent-level resource usage using the Xilinx Virtex UltraScale+ VU9P FPGA. Our method offers anomaly detection at low latency values for edge AI users with resource constraints.
Top Management Team Diversity Homberg, Fabian; Bui, Hong T. M.
Group & organization management,
08/2013, Letnik:
38, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Empirical research investigating the impact of top management team (TMT) diversity on executives’ decision making has produced inconclusive results. To synthesize and aggregate the results on the ...diversity-performance link, a meta-regression analysis (MRA) is conducted. It integrates more than 200 estimates from 53 empirical studies investigating TMT diversity and its impact on the quality of executives’ decision making as reflected in corporate performance. The analysis contributes to the literature by theoretically discussing and empirically examining the effects of TMT diversity on corporate performance. Our results do not show a link between TMT diversity and performance but provide evidence for publication bias. Thus, the findings raise doubts on the impact of TMT diversity on performance.
The interaction between the transition metal 3d and the oxygen 2p states via hybridization underpins many of the phenomena in transition metal oxide materials. We report the empirical trend of this ...interaction using the pre-edge feature of the O K-edge X-ray absorption spectrum. Our assessment method is built on the dipole approximation and the configuration interaction between the transition metal 3d and the oxygen 2p states. We found that hybridization increases with the number of 3d electrons, consistent with the expected electronegativity trend. We support this analysis with density functional calculations, which reveal a systematic increase in the transition metal 3d and the oxygen 2p state mixing with increasing 3d-electron number. Oxidation of the transition metal was also found to increase hybridization, which we believe reflects the reduced transition metal 3d and oxygen 2p energy difference, causing increased covalency. We compare the analysis from the surface-sensitive electron-yield and the bulk-sensitive fluorescence-yield spectra, revealing that either method can be used to study the hybridization trend. We finally compare and discuss the influence of the lanthanide ions and the influence of the covalency on oxygen electrocatalysis. Our study describes an efficient and simple approach to understand the hybridization trend in transition metal oxides, which has considerable implications for electrochemical energy conversion processes.
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is among the most common and costly disorders worldwide. The goal of current medical management for T2D is to transiently ameliorate hyperglycemia through daily dosing of one or ...more antidiabetic drugs. Hypoglycemia and weight gain are common side effects of therapy, and sustained disease remission is not obtainable with nonsurgical approaches. On the basis of the potent glucose-lowering response elicited by activation of brain fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptors, we explored the antidiabetic efficacy of centrally administered FGF1, which, unlike other FGF peptides, activates all FGF receptor subtypes. We report that a single intracerebroventricular injection of FGF1 at a dose one-tenth of that needed for antidiabetic efficacy following peripheral injection induces sustained diabetes remission in both mouse and rat models of T2D. This antidiabetic effect is not secondary to weight loss, does not increase the risk of hypoglycemia, and involves a novel and incompletely understood mechanism for increasing glucose clearance from the bloodstream. We conclude that the brain has an inherent potential to induce diabetes remission and that brain FGF receptors are potential pharmacological targets for achieving this goal.
Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a complex disease which is incompletely accounted for. Basement membrane (BM) Collagen IV (COL4A1/A2) is abundant in the artery wall, and several lines of evidence ...indicate a protective role of baseline COL4A1/A2 in AAA development. Using Col4a1/a2 hemizygous knockout mice (Col4a1/a2
, 129Svj background) we show that partial Col4a1/a2 deficiency augmented AAA formation. Although unchallenged aortas were morphometrically and biomechanically unaffected by genotype, explorative proteomic analyses of aortas revealed a clear reduction in BM components and contractile vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) proteins, suggesting a central effect of the BM in maintaining VSMCs in the contractile phenotype. These findings were translated to human arteries by showing that COL4A1/A2 correlated to BM proteins and VSMC markers in non-lesioned internal mammary arteries obtained from coronary artery bypass procedures. Moreover, in human AAA tissue, MYH11 (VSMC marker) was depleted in areas of reduced COL4 as assessed by immunohistochemistry. Finally, circulating COL4A1 degradation fragments correlated with AAA progression in the largest Danish AAA cohort, suggesting COL4A1/A2 proteolysis to be an important feature of AAA formation. In sum, we identify COL4A1/A2 as a critical regulator of VSMC phenotype and a protective factor in AAA formation.
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