Paramagnetic behaviour of silver nanoparticles generated by decomposition of silver oxalate

Silver oxalate Ag2C2O4, was already proposed for soldering applications, due to the formation when it is decomposed by a heat treatment, of highly sinterable silver nanoparticles. When slowly decomposed at low temperature (125 °C), the oxalate leads however to silver nanoparticles isolated from each other. As soon as these nanoparticles are formed, the magnetic susceptibility at room temperature increases from -3.14 10-7 emu.Oe-1.g-1 (silver oxalate) up to -1.92 10-7 emu.Oe-1.g-1 (metallic silver). At the end of the oxalate decomposition, the conventional diamagnetic behaviour of bulk silver, is observed from room temperature to 80 K. A diamagnetic-paramagnetic transition is however revealed below 80 K leading at 2 K, to silver nanoparticles with a positive magnetic susceptibility. This original behaviour, compared to the one of bulk silver, can be ascribed to the nanometric size of the metallic particles

Policy feedback and economic risk: the influence of privatization on social policy preferences

<div><p>ABSTRACT</p><p>Through policy feedback mechanisms, public policies can shape individuals’ preferences for those policies. While research has focused on the direct link between policies and preferences, how policies alter individuals’ preferences through indirect means remains less explored. Broadly, we argue that how micro-level factors influence policy preferences is contingent on the policy context, and specifically we contend that how economic risk influences preferences is contingent on the policy institutions that privatize social protection responsibilities. Using healthcare policy as the empirical context, we show that the level of privatization in national healthcare systems will colour how the risk of unemployment affects preferences for government healthcare.</p></div

Nanoscale Departures: Excess Lipid Leaving the Surface during Supported Lipid Bilayer Formation

The behavior of small liposomes on surfaces of inorganic oxides remains enigmatic. Under appropriate conditions it results in the formation of supported lipid bilayers (SLBs). During this process, some lipids leave the surface (desorb). We were able to visualize this by a combination of time-resolved fluorescence microscopy and fluorescence recovery after photobleaching studies. Our observations also allowed us to analyze the kinetics of bilayer patch growth during the late stages of SLB formation. We found that it entails a balance between desorption of excess lipids and further adsorption of liposomes from solution. These studies were performed with liposomes containing zwitterionic phospholipids (dioleoylphosphatidylcholine alone or a mixture of dioleoylphosphatidylcholine, dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine, and cholesterol) on TiO₂ in the presence of Ca²⁺ but in the absence of other salts

Western blot of six of the differentially expressed genes.

<p>Western blot of IL-1α, IL-1β, IFN-α, IL-12B, TNF and TGF-β1 in samples from control and PCMV-infected pig thymuses. (* denotes P<0.05).</p

Interaction networks of the differentially expressed genes.

<p>The STRING database was used to predict the relationships between the differentially expressed immune-related genes. The lines of different colors represent the types of evidence upon which the associations are based: green, neighborhood evidence; red, gene fusion evidence; blue, co-occurrence evidence; black, coexpression evidence; purple, database evidence; cyan, text-mining evidence; yellow, homology evidence.</p

Phylogenetic analysis of <i>Herpesviridae</i> viruses.

<p>Glycoprotein B nucleotide sequences of the alphaherpesviruses, betaherpesviruses, and gammaherpesviruses were obtained from GenBank: PCMV SC strain (accession no. JN701021.1); RhCMV (Rhesus cytomegalovirus; accession no. U76749.1); CyCMV (Cynomolgus macaque cytomegalovirus; accession no. HQ198248.1); MaCMV (Mycobacteriophage Barnyard; accession no. AY129339); PTCMV (Pan troglodytes cytomegalovirus; accession no. FJ538485); HCMV (Human cytomegalovirus; accession no. M6092.1); GgCMV (Gorilla cytomegalovirus; accession no. FJ538490); MuHV-2 (Murine herpesvirus type 2; accession no. AF232689.2); MCMV (Murine cytomegalovirus; M86302.1); HHV-6 (Human herpesvirus; accession no. M97927.1); PRV (Pseudorabies virus; accession no. AF257079.1; HHV-7 (Human herpesvirus; accession no. AF007830.1); AlHV-1 (Alcelaphine herpesvirus 1; accession no. AF005370); BoHV-1 (Bovine herpesvirus type 1; accession no. Z78205); BoHV-2 (Bovine herpesvirus type 2; accession no. Z78205); BoHV-4 (Bovine herpesvirus type 4; accession no. Z15044.1); EBV (Epstein-Barr virus; accession no. V01555.2); EHV-1 (Equine herpesvirus 1 strain Ab4; accession no. AY665713.1); EHV-4 (Equine herpesvirus 4 strain NS80567; accession no. AF030027.1); HHV-8 (Human herpesvirus 8 type M; accession no. U75698.1); VZV (Varicella-Zoster virus; accession no. X04370); PLHV-2 (porcine lymphotropic herpesvirus 2; accession no. AF191043); PLHV-1 (lymphotropic herpesvirus 1; accession no. AF478169.1); MuHV-2 (Murine herpesvirus 2; accession no. GU018179.1); HSV-2 (Herpes simplex virus 2; accession no. Z86099); AHV (Ateles herpesvirus; accession no. AF083424); ILTV (Laryngotracheitis Virus; accession no. X56093.1).Bootstrap values of <b>></b>65% from 1000 pseudo-replicates are indicated at the branch nodes.</p

Pathological section examination.

<p>A–E: Control porcine (A) lung, (B) liver, (C) spleen, (D) kidney, and (E) thymus tissue sections. F–J: PCMV-infected porcine (F) lung, (G) liver, (H) spleen, (I) kidney, and (J) thymus tissue sections.</p

Phylogenetic analysis of 42 global strains of PCMV based on the 2580 bp <i>gB</i> complete nucleotide sequence and the deduced amino acid sequence.

<p>(A) Phylogenetic tree constructed from nucleotide sequences. (B) Phylogenetic tree constructed from amino acid sequences. The reference PCMV <i>gB</i> nucleotide sequences were obtained from GenBank: SC strain (accession no. JN701021.1); ZZ strain (accession no. FJ870562.1); NB strain (accession no. FJ844360.1, FJ870561.1); FJ strain (accession no. FJ870564.1); JH strain (accession no. FJ870563.1); HN isolate (accession no.HQ686081.1, HQ686080.1, FJ595497.1, EF460488.1); Spanish 55b isolate (accession no. AF268040.2); B6 strain (accession no. AF268039.2); Japanese OF-1 strain (accession no. AF268041.2); Japanese Yamaguchi strain (accession no. AB771707.1, AB771708.1, AB771706.1); Swedish isolate P1 (accession no. AF394057.1); Swedish isolate 1469 (accession no. AF394056).Multiple alignment was performed in the Clustal W program, and MEGA 5.0 software was used to construct the neighbor-joining (NJ) and maximum likelihood (ML) trees. Bootstrap values >65% from 1000 pseudo-replicates are indicated at the branch nodes. Numbers in parentheses are the maximum likelihood. Strains are designated by accession number, country/district, and strain name. The 24 strains analyzed in this study are indicated by (♦). The two major groups were identified as A and B.</p

Stem-loop RT-qPCR confirmation for miRNAs.

<p>Four differentially expressed miRNAs and four novel miRNAs were selected from the high-throughput sequencing datasets and confirmed by stem-loop RT-qPCR. The results showed a general consistency between the stem-loop RT-qPCR and the high-throughput sequencing. The fold changes (miRNA copy numbers of TGEV-infected ST cell sample <i>vs</i>. miRNA copy numbers of normal ST cell sample) are shown in the diagram. The fold change cutoffs of the upregulated miRNAs and the downregulated miRNAs were 1.5 and 0.67, respectively. “+” and “–” indicate upregulated and downregulated miRNAs, respectively. qRT-PCR Ct threshold: 0.015.</p><p>Stem-loop RT-qPCR confirmation for miRNAs.</p

Transcriptome Analysis of Porcine Thymus following Porcine Cytomegalovirus Infection

<div><p>Porcine cytomegalovirus (PCMV) is a major immunosuppressive virus that mainly affects the immune function of T lymphocytes and macrophages. Despite being widely distributed around the world, no significantly different PCMV serotypes have been found. Moreover, the molecular immunosuppressive mechanisms of PCMV, along with the host antiviral mechanisms, are still not well characterized. To understand the potential impact of PCMV on the function of immune organs, we examined the transcriptome of PCMV-infected thymuses by microarray analysis. We identified 5,582 genes that were differentially expressed as a result of PCMV infection. Of these, 2,161 were upregulated and 3,421 were downregulated compared with the uninfected group. We confirmed the expression of 13 differentially expressed immune-related genes using quantitative real-time RT-PCR, and further confirmed the expression of six of those cytokines by western blot. Gene ontology, gene interaction networks, and KEGG pathway analysis of our results indicated that PCMV regulates multiple functional pathways, including the immune system, cellular and metabolic processes, networks of cytokine-cytokine receptor interactions, the TGF-β signaling pathway, the lymphocyte receptor signaling pathway, and the TNF-α signaling pathway. Our study is the first comprehensive attempt to explore the host transcriptional response to PCMV infection in the porcine immune system. It provides new insights into the immunosuppressive molecular mechanisms and pathogenesis of PCMV. This previously unrecognized endogenous antiviral mechanism has implications for the development of host-directed strategies for the prevention and treatment of immunosuppressive viral diseases.</p></div