Atherosusceptible Shear Stress Activates Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress to Promote Endothelial Inflammation.

Atherosclerosis impacts arteries where disturbed blood flow renders the endothelium susceptible to inflammation. Cytokine activation of endothelial cells (EC) upregulates VCAM-1 receptors that target monocyte recruitment to atherosusceptible regions. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress elicits EC dysregulation in metabolic syndrome. We hypothesized that ER plays a central role in mechanosensing of atherosusceptible shear stress (SS) by signaling enhanced inflammation. Aortic EC were stimulated with low-dose TNFα (0.3 ng/ml) in a microfluidic channel that produced a linear SS gradient over a 20mm field ranging from 0-16 dynes/cm2. High-resolution imaging of immunofluorescence along the monolayer provided a continuous spatial metric of EC orientation, markers of ER stress, VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 expression, and monocyte recruitment. VCAM-1 peaked at 2 dynes/cm2 and decreased to below static TNFα-stimulated levels at atheroprotective-SS of 12 dynes/cm2, whereas ICAM-1 rose to a maximum in parallel with SS. ER expansion and activation of the unfolded protein response also peaked at 2 dynes/cm2, where IRF-1-regulated VCAM-1 expression and monocyte recruitment also rose to a maximum. Silencing of PECAM-1 or key ER stress genes abrogated SS regulation of VCAM-1 transcription and monocyte recruitment. We report a novel role for ER stress in mechanoregulation at arterial regions of atherosusceptible-SS inflamed by low-dose TNFα

A dual output polarimeter devoted to the study of the Cosmic Microwave Background

We have developed a correlation radiometer at 33 GHz devoted to the search for residual polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The two instruments`s outputs are linear combination of two Stokes Parameters (Q and U or U and V). The instrument is therefore directly sensitive to the polarized component of the radiation (respectively linear and circular). The radiometer has a beam-width oif 7 or 14 deg, but it can be coupled to a telescope increasing the resolution. The expected CMB polarization is at most a part per milion. The polarimeter has been designed to be sensitive to this faint signal, and it has been optimized to improve its long term stability, observing from the ground. In this contribution the performances of the instrument are presented, together with the preliminary test and observations.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, in print on the Proc. SPIE Conf. - August 200

The Emergence of Aqueous Ammonium-Ion Batteries

Aqueous ammonium-ion (NH4+) batteries (AAIB) are a recently emerging technology that utilize the abundant electrode resources and the fast diffusion kinetics of NH$_{4}$$^{+}$ to deliver an excellent rate performance at a low cost. Although significant progress has been made on AAIBs, the technology is still limited by various challenges. In this Minireview, the most recent advances are comprehensively summarized and discussed, including cathode and anode materials as well as the electrolytes. Finally, a perspective on possible solutions for the current limitations of AAIBs is provided

A note on the integral equation for the Wilson loop in N = 2 D=4 superconformal Yang-Mills theory

We propose an alternative method to study the saddle point equation in the strong coupling limit for the Wilson loop in $\mathcal{N}=2$ D=4 super Yang-Mills with an SU(N) gauge group and 2N hypermultiplets. This method is based on an approximation of the integral equation kernel which allows to solve the simplified problem exactly. To determine the accuracy of this approximation, we compare our results to those obtained recently by Passerini and Zarembo. Although less precise, this simpler approach provides an explicit expression for the density of eigenvalues that is used to derive the planar free energy.Comment: 12 pages, v2: section 2.5 (Free Energy) amended and reference added, to appear in J. Phys.

Developments in anaplastic large-cell lymphoma: targeting the anaplastic lymphoma kinase

Francesca Farina, Alessandra Stasia, Carlo Gambacorti-Passerini Department of Health Sciences, University of Milano Bicocca, Monza, Italy Abstract: Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) is a receptor tyrosine kinase protein implicated in a variety of hematological malignancies and solid tumors. ALK contributes to the development of cancers in different cell lineages through a variety of genetic mechanisms: gene fusions, activating point mutations, and possibly gene amplification. Recent developments led to significant therapeutic advances, including efficient diagnostic tests and ALK-targeting agents. This review addresses some therapeutic considerations with regard to the use of ALK inhibitors in ALK-positive lymphomas where, in spite of the advanced stage of the disease, long-lasting responses could be obtained in a substantial portion of heavily pretreated patients. Data and mechanisms for the development of resistance to ALK inhibitors will also be presented and discussed. Keywords: ALK, lymphoma, tyrosine kinase, targeted therapy, crizotini

J. Scott Ockey v. Christena White : Brief of Appellant

We develop kernels for measuring the similarity between relational instances using background knowledge expressed in first-order logic. The method allows us to bridge the gap between traditional inductive logic programming (ILP) representations and statistical approaches to supervised learning. Logic programs are first used to generate proofs of given visitor programs that use predicates declared in the available background knowledge. A kernel is then defined over pairs of proof trees. The method can be used for supervised learning tasks and is suitable for classification as well as regression. We report positive empirical results on Bongard-like and M-of-N problems that are difficult or impossible to solve with traditional ILP techniques, as well as on real bioinformatics and chemoinformatics data sets.status: publishe