•ERα/ERβ ratios are defined in T47D-ERβ cells with tetracycline dependent ERβ.•ERα/ERβ ratios of T47D-ERβ cells can mimic ratios in breast, prostate and uterus.•Conditions at which the T47D-ERb cells ...best mimic in vivo tissues are established.•Estradiol induced cell proliferation varies with the ERα/ERβ ratio.•ERβ levels in MCF-7 and native T47D cell lines do not reflect levels in tissues.
T47D-ERβ breast cancer cells with tetracycline-dependent ERβ expression and constant ERα expression can be used to investigate effects of varying ERα/ERβ ratios on estrogen-induced cellular responses. This study defines conditions at which ERα/ERβ ratios in T47D-ERβ cells best mimic ERα/ERβ ratios in breast and other estrogen-sensitive tissues in vivo in rat as well as in human.
Protein and mRNA levels of ERα and ERβ were analyzed in T47D-ERβ cells exposed to a range of tetracycline concentrations and compared to ERα and ERβ levels found in breast, prostate, and uterus from rat and human origin.
The ERα/ERβ ratio in T47D-ERβ cells exposed to >150ng/ml tetracycline is comparable to the ratio found in rat mammary gland and in human breast tissue. The ERα/ERβ ratio of other estrogen-sensitive rat and human tissues can also be mimicked in T47D-ERβ cells. The ERα/ERβ ratio found in MCF-7 and native T47D breast cancer cell lines did not reflect ratios in analyzed rat and human tissues, which further supports the use of T47D-ERβ cells as model for estrogen-responsive tissues. Using 17β-estradiol and the T47D-ERβ cells under the conditions defined to mimic various tissues it could be demonstrated how these different tissues vary in their proliferative response.
The first direct gravitational‐wave detection was made by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory on September 14, 2015. The GW150914 signal was strong enough to be apparent, ...without using any waveform model, in the filtered detector strain data. Here, features of the signal visible in the data are analyzed using concepts from Newtonian physics and general relativity, accessible to anyone with a general physics background. The simple analysis presented here is consistent with the fully general‐relativistic analyses published elsewhere, in showing that the signal was produced by the inspiral and subsequent merger of two black holes. The black holes were each of approximately 35M⊙, still orbited each other as close as ∼350 km apart and subsequently merged to form a single black hole. Similar reasoning, directly from the data, is used to roughly estimate how far these black holes were from the Earth, and the energy that they radiated in gravitational waves.
Advanced LIGO made the first gravitational‐wave detection on September 14, 2015. The GW150914 signal was strong enough to be apparent in the cleaned detector strain data. Those features of the signal visible in these data are analyzed, using only such concepts from Newton and general relativity as are accessible to anyone with a general physics background. This simple analysis presented here is consistent with the full published analyses, in showing that the signal was produced by the inspiral and merger of two black holes, and in estimating the distance from the Earth and the energy radiated in gravitational waves.
Endocannabinoid signaling and food addiction D'ADDARIO, C; MICIONI DI BONAVENTURA, M. V; PUCCI, M ...
Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews,
11/2014, Letnik:
47
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Overeating, frequently linked to an increasing incidence of overweight and obesity, has become epidemic and one of the leading global health problems. To explain the development of this eating ...behavior, new hypotheses involve the concept that many people might be addicted to food by losing control over their ability to regulate food intake. Among the different neurotransmitter networks that partake in the reward circuitry within the brain, a large body of evidence supports the involvement of the endocannabinoid system. Indeed, its dysfunctions might contribute to food addiction, by regulating appetite and food preference through central and peripheral mechanisms. Here, we review and discuss the role of endocannabinoid signaling in the reward circuitry, and the possible therapeutic exploitation of strategies based on its fine regulation.
This paper presents results of an all-sky search for periodic gravitational waves in the frequency range 50,1 190 Hz and with frequency derivative range of ∼−20,1.1×10−10 Hz s−1 for the fifth LIGO ...science run (S5). The search uses a noncoherent Hough-transform method to combine the information from coherent searches on time scales of about one day. Because these searches are very computationally intensive, they have been carried out with the Einstein@Home volunteer distributed computing project. Postprocessing identifies eight candidate signals; deeper follow-up studies rule them out. Hence, since no gravitational wave signals have been found, we report upper limits on the intrinsic gravitational wave strain amplitude h0. For example, in the 0.5 Hz-wide band at 152.5 Hz, we can exclude the presence of signals with h0 greater than 7.6×10−25 at a 90% confidence level. This search is about a factor 3 more sensitive than the previous Einstein@Home search of early S5 LIGO data.
The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Database is the largest congenital and pediatric cardiac surgical clinical data registry in the world. It is the platform for all activities ...of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons related to the analysis of outcomes and the improvement of quality in this subspecialty. This report summarizes current aggregate national outcomes in congenital and pediatric cardiac surgery and reviews related activities in the areas of quality measurement, performance improvement, and transparency. The reported data about aggregate national outcomes are exemplified by an analysis of 10 benchmark operations performed from January 2012 to December 2015. This analysis documents the overall aggregate operative mortality (interquartile range among all participating programs) for the following procedural groups: off-bypass coarctation repair, 1.3% (0.0% to 1.8%); ventricular septal defect repair, 0.6% (0.0% to 0.9%); tetralogy of Fallot repair, 1.1% (0.0% to 1.4%); complete atrioventricular canal repair, 3.0% (0.0% to 4.7%); arterial switch operation, 2.7% (0.0% to 4.1%); arterial switch operation and ventricular septal defect repair, 5.3% (0.0% to 6.7%); Glenn/hemi-Fontan, 2.5% (0.0% to 4.5%); Fontan operation, 1.2% (0.0% to 1.2%); truncus arteriosus repair, 9.4% (0.0% to 16.7%); and Norwood procedure, 15.7% (8.9% to 25.0%).
The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Database is the largest congenital and pediatric cardiac surgical clinical data registry in the world. It is the platform for all activities ...of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons related to the analysis of outcomes and the improvement of quality in this subspecialty. This article summarizes current aggregate national outcomes in congenital and pediatric cardiac surgery and reviews related activities in the areas of quality measurement, performance improvement, and transparency. The reported data about aggregate national outcomes are exemplified by an analysis of 10 benchmark operations performed from January 2011 to December 2014 and documenting overall discharge mortality (interquartile range among programs with more than 9 cases): off-bypass coarctation, 1.0% (0.0% to 0.9%); ventricular septal defect repair, 0.7% (0.0% to 1.1%); tetralogy of Fallot repair, 1.0% (0.0% to 1.7%); complete atrioventricular canal repair, 3.2% (0.0% to 6.5%); arterial switch operation, 2.7% (0.0% to 5.6%); arterial switch operation plus ventricular septal defect, 5.3% (0.0% to 6.7%); Glenn/hemiFontan, 2.1% (0.0% to 3.8%); Fontan operation, 1.4% (0.0% to 2.4%); truncus arteriosus repair, 9.6% (0.0 % to 11.8%); and Norwood procedure, 15.6% (10.0% to 21.4%).
We present the intrinsic spectral energy distribution (SED) of the narrow- line Seyfert 1 galaxy (NLS1) Ark 564, constructed with contemporaneous data obtained during a multiwavelength, ...multisatellite observing campaign in 2000 and 2001. We compare this SED with that of the NLS1 Ton S180 and with those obtained for broad-line Seyfert 1 galaxies to infer how the relative accretion rates vary among the Seyfert 1 population. Although the peak of the SED is not well constrained, in our parameterization most of the energy of this object is emitted in the 10-100 eV regime, constituting roughly half of the emitted energy in the optical/X-ray ranges. This is consistent with a primary spectral component peaking in the extreme-UV/soft X-ray band and with disk-corona models, hence high accretion rates. Indeed, we estimate that image ~ 1. We also address the issue of the energy budget in this source by examining the emission lines observed in its spectrum, and we constrain the physical properties of the line-emitting gas through photoionization modeling. The available data suggest that the line-emitting gas is characterized by log n ~ 11 and log U ~ 0 and is stratified around log U ~ 0. Our estimate of the radius of the H beta - emitting region Rimage ~ 10 plus or minus 2 lt-days is consistent with the Rimage-luminosity relationships found for Seyfert 1 galaxies, which indicates that the narrowness of the emission lines in this NLS1 is not due to the broad-line region being relatively farther away from the central mass than in broad-line Seyfert 1 galaxies of comparable luminosity. We also find evidence for supersolar metallicity in this NLS1. We show that the emission lines are not good diagnostics for the underlying SEDs and that the absorption line studies offer a far more powerful tool to determine the ionizing continuum of active galactic nuclei, especially if one is comparing the lower and higher ionization lines.
The aim of this study was to assess the value of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) in predicting late cardiotoxicity in patients treated with not-high-dose chemotherapy (NHDC), and ...to compare the predictive value of NT-proBNP and cardiac troponin I (cTnI).
In 71 patients undergoing NHDC with anthracyclines, NT-proBNP and cTnI levels were measured before and 24 h after each NHDC cycle. Left ventricular (LV) function was assessed by echocardiography at baseline, every two NHDC cycles, at the end of chemotherapy, and at 3-, 6- and 12-month follow-up.
During NHDC, only NT-proBNP showed abnormal values. According to NT-proBNP behaviour, patients were divided into two groups: group A (n=50) with normal (n=23) or transiently elevated NT-proBNP levels (n=27), and group B (n=21) with persistently elevated NT-proBNP levels. At follow-up, LV impairment was significantly worse in group B than in group A. %Δ (baseline-peak) NT-proBNP was predictive of LV impairment at 3-, 6- and 12-month follow-up, with a cutoff of 36%.
Serial measurements of NT-proBNP may be a useful tool for the early detection of patients treated with NHDC at high risk of developing cardiotoxicity.
The gravitational-wave (GW) sky may include nearby pointlike sources as well as stochastic backgrounds. We perform two directional searches for persistent GWs using data from the LIGO S5 science run: ...one optimized for pointlike sources and one for arbitrary extended sources. Finding no evidence to support the detection of GWs, we present 90% confidence level (C.L.) upper-limit maps of GW strain power with typical values between 2-20×10(-50) strain(2) Hz(-1) and 5-35×10(-49) strain(2) Hz(-1) sr(-1) for pointlike and extended sources, respectively. The latter result is the first of its kind. We also set 90% C.L. limits on the narrow-band root-mean-square GW strain from interesting targets including Sco X-1, SN 1987A and the Galactic center as low as ≈7×10(-25) in the most sensitive frequency range near 160 Hz.
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