PI3kinases in diabetes mellitus and its related complications

Recent studies have shown that phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3Ks) have become the target of many pharmacological treatments, both in clinical trials and in clinical practice. PI3Ks play an important role in glucose regulation, and this suggests their possible involvement in the onset of diabetes mellitus. In this review, we gather our knowledge regarding the effects of PI3K isoforms on glucose regulation in several organs and on the most clinically-relevant complications of diabetes mellitus, such as cardiomyopathy, vasculopathy, nephropathy, and neurological disease. For instance, PI3K α has been proven to be protective against diabetes-induced heart failure, while PI3K γ inhibition is protective against the disease onset. In vessels, PI3K γ can generate oxidative stress, while PI3K β inhibition is anti-thrombotic. Finally, we describe the role of PI3Ks in Alzheimer’s disease and ADHD, discussing the relevance for diabetic patients. Given the high prevalence of diabetes mellitus, the multiple effects here described should be taken into account for the development and validation of drugs acting on PI3Ks

Flow over the Mid Adriatic Pit

The influence of the Mid Adriatic Pit (MAP) on the general circulation of the Adriatic is explored through numerical simulations. The numerical code used is the DieCAST model specifically modified for application to the Adriatic Sea. A ten-year simulation is performed and the ability of the model to capture important features of the Adriatic circulation is demonstrated. A series of numerical experiments on the importance of the MAP on the general circulation is performed. It is demonstrated that the current over the northern flank of the MAP, which flows from the Croatian toward the Italian coast, is primarily a topographic current and that such a current would reverse direction if the gradient of the bathymetry were reversed

Flow over the Mid Adriatic Pit

The influence of the Mid Adriatic Pit (MAP) on the general circulation of the Adriatic is explored through numerical simulations. The numerical code used is the DieCAST model specifically modified for application to the Adriatic Sea. A ten-year simulation is performed and the ability of the model to capture important features of the Adriatic circulation is demonstrated. A series of numerical experiments on the importance of the MAP on the general circulation is performed. It is demonstrated that the current over the northern flank of the MAP, which flows from the Croatian toward the Italian coast, is primarily a topographic current and that such a current would reverse direction if the gradient of the bathymetry were reversed

Celiac vagus nerve stimulation recapitulates angiotensin II-induced splenic noradrenergic activation, driving egress of CD8 effector cells

Angiotensin II (AngII) is a peptide hormone that affects the cardiovascular system, not only through typical effects on the vasculature, kidneys, and heart, but also through less understood roles mediated by the brain and the immune system. Here, we address the hard-wired neural connections within the autonomic nervous system that modulate splenic immunity. Chronic AngII infusion triggers burst firing of the vagus nerve celiac efferent, an effect correlated with noradrenergic activation in the spleen and T cell egress. Bioelectronic stimulation of the celiac vagus nerve, in the absence of other challenges and independently from afferent signals to the brain, evokes the noradrenergic splenic pathway to promote release of a growth factor mediating neuroimmune crosstalk, placental growth factor (PlGF), and egress of CD8 effector T cells. Our findings also indicate that the neuroimmune interface mediated by PlGF and necessary for transducing the neural signal into an effective immune response is dependent on α-adrenergic receptor signaling

Production of Gaseous Carriers Via Biomass Gasification for Energy Purposes

AbstractIt is under development a biomass gasification plant based on a 1 MWth bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) reactor with internal recirculation. Compared to conventional BFB design, the mechanism of internal circulation of solids can give beneficial effect to the process in terms of biomass conversion efficiency into gaseous product and gas quality. A model describing the process of biomass gasification in the two reaction chambers was developed. Expected results were preliminarily validated by experimental results obtained at a bench scale facility working on the same gasification concept

The Management of Type 2 Diabetic Patients with Hypoglycemic Agents

Aims and Scope. Aims of the paper are to suggest the best treatment to improve the glycemic control in patients with Type 2 diabetes using hypoglycemic agents, in particularly, we think that every patient is different from another one in terms of BMI, family history, duration of the disease and so on. We propose for every clinical aspect the best hypoglycemic agents to use, considering the scientific evidence and physiopathology

Generation of non-synchronous accelerograms for evaluate the seismic bridge response, including local site amplification.

Non-synchronous seismic actions particularly affect the behaviour of infrastructures with significant longitudinal extension, as bridges, interacting with the soil at surface or below ground level. Some authors state that non synchronism may increase by a large amount the structural response. Several acceleration records relative to different points of the ground with different soil profiles at distances meaningful for bridge analyses, are not available in data banks. The objective of this work is the generation of arrays of asynchronous signals at different points in space, starting from natural accelerograms related to a given seismic event, to increase the number of the available data. The computer code GAS has been modified to use natural accelerograms. The procedure has been applied to a real case, L’Aquila main-shock, for which records in different points of the free field are known

Nontrivial Polydispersity Exponents in Aggregation Models

We consider the scaling solutions of Smoluchowski's equation of irreversible aggregation, for a non gelling collision kernel. The scaling mass distribution f(s) diverges as s^{-tau} when s->0. tau is non trivial and could, until now, only be computed by numerical simulations. We develop here new general methods to obtain exact bounds and good approximations of $\tau$. For the specific kernel KdD(x,y)=(x^{1/D}+y^{1/D})^d, describing a mean-field model of particles moving in d dimensions and aggregating with conservation of ``mass'' s=R^D (R is the particle radius), perturbative and nonperturbative expansions are derived. For a general kernel, we find exact inequalities for tau and develop a variational approximation which is used to carry out the first systematic study of tau(d,D) for KdD. The agreement is excellent both with the expansions we derived and with existing numerical values. Finally, we discuss a possible application to 2d decaying turbulence.Comment: 16 pages (multicol.sty), 6 eps figures (uses epsfig), Minor corrections. Notations improved, as published in Phys. Rev. E 55, 546