62 research outputs found
Pathogenic Mouse Hepatitis Virus or Poly(I:C) Induce IL-33 in Hepatocytes in Murine Models of Hepatitis.
International audienceThe IL-33/ST2 axis is known to be involved in liver pathologies. Although, the IL-33 levels increased in sera of viral hepatitis patients in human, the cellular sources of IL-33 in viral hepatitis remained obscure. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the expression of IL-33 in murine fulminant hepatitis induced by a Toll like receptor (TLR3) viral mimetic, poly(I:C) or by pathogenic mouse hepatitis virus (L2-MHV3). The administration of poly(I:C) plus D-galactosamine (D-GalN) in mice led to acute liver injury associated with the induction of IL-33 expression in liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSEC) and vascular endothelial cells (VEC), while the administration of poly(I:C) alone led to hepatocyte specific IL-33 expression in addition to vascular IL-33 expression. The hepatocyte-specific IL-33 expression was down-regulated in NK-depleted poly(I:C) treated mice suggesting a partial regulation of IL-33 by NK cells. The CD1d KO (NKT deficient) mice showed hepatoprotection against poly(I:C)-induced hepatitis in association with increased number of IL-33 expressing hepatocytes in CD1d KO mice than WT controls. These results suggest that hepatocyte-specific IL-33 expression in poly(I:C) induced liver injury was partially dependent of NK cells and with limited role of NKT cells. In parallel, the L2-MHV3 infection in mice induced fulminant hepatitis associated with up-regulated IL-33 expression as well as pro-inflammatory cytokine microenvironment in liver. The LSEC and VEC expressed inducible expression of IL-33 following L2-MHV3 infection but the hepatocyte-specific IL-33 expression was only evident between 24 to 32h of post infection. In conclusion, the alarmin cytokine IL-33 was over-expressed during fulminant hepatitis in mice with LSEC, VEC and hepatocytes as potential sources of IL-33
Association of Health Literacy with Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use: A Cross-Sectional Study in Adult Primary Care Patients
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In the United States, it is estimated that 40% of adults utilize complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies. Recently, national surveys report that over 90 million adults have inadequate health literacy. To date, no study has assessed health literacy and its effect on CAM use. The primary objective of this study was to assess the relationship between health literacy and CAM use independent of educational attainment. Second objective was to evaluate the differential effect of health literacy on CAM use by race.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>351 patients were recruited from an outpatient primary care clinic. Validated surveys assessed CAM use (I-CAM-Q), health literacy (REALM-R), and demographic information. We compared demographics by health literacy (adequate vs. inadequate) and overall and individual CAM categories by health literacy using chi square statistics. We found a race by health literacy interaction and ran sequential logistic regression models stratified by race to test the association between health literacy and overall CAM use (Model 1), Model 1 + education (Model 2), and Model 2 + other demographic characteristics (Model 3). We reported the adjusted effect of health literacy on CAM use for both whites and African Americans separately.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>75% of the participants had adequate literacy and 80% used CAM. CAM use differed by CAM category. Among whites, adequate health literacy was significantly associated with increased CAM use in both unadjusted (Model 1, OR 7.68; p = 0.001) and models adjusted for education (Model 2, OR 7.70; p = 0.002) and other sociodemographics (Model 3, OR 9.42; p = 0.01). Among African Americans, adequate health literacy was not associated with CAM use in any of the models.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We found a race by literacy interaction suggesting that the relationship between health literacy and CAM use differed significantly by race. Adequate health literacy among whites is associated with increased CAM use, but not associated with CAM use in African Americans.</p
Measurement of the Forward-Backward Asymmetry in the B -> K(*) mu+ mu- Decay and First Observation of the Bs -> phi mu+ mu- Decay
We reconstruct the rare decays , , and in a data sample
corresponding to collected in collisions at
by the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron
Collider. Using and decays we report the branching ratios. In addition, we report
the measurement of the differential branching ratio and the muon
forward-backward asymmetry in the and decay modes, and the
longitudinal polarization in the decay mode with respect to the squared
dimuon mass. These are consistent with the theoretical prediction from the
standard model, and most recent determinations from other experiments and of
comparable accuracy. We also report the first observation of the {\mathcal{B}}(B^0_s \to
\phi\mu^+\mu^-) = [1.44 \pm 0.33 \pm 0.46] \times 10^{-6}27 \pm 6B^0_s$ decay observed.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Search for a New Heavy Gauge Boson Wprime with Electron + missing ET Event Signature in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV
We present a search for a new heavy charged vector boson decaying
to an electron-neutrino pair in collisions at a center-of-mass
energy of 1.96\unit{TeV}. The data were collected with the CDF II detector
and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 5.3\unit{fb}^{-1}. No
significant excess above the standard model expectation is observed and we set
upper limits on . Assuming standard
model couplings to fermions and the neutrino from the boson decay to
be light, we exclude a boson with mass less than
1.12\unit{TeV/}c^2 at the 95\unit{%} confidence level.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures Submitted to PR
Measurements of the properties of Lambda_c(2595), Lambda_c(2625), Sigma_c(2455), and Sigma_c(2520) baryons
We report measurements of the resonance properties of Lambda_c(2595)+ and
Lambda_c(2625)+ baryons in their decays to Lambda_c+ pi+ pi- as well as
Sigma_c(2455)++,0 and Sigma_c(2520)++,0 baryons in their decays to Lambda_c+
pi+/- final states. These measurements are performed using data corresponding
to 5.2/fb of integrated luminosity from ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV,
collected with the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. Exploiting the
largest available charmed baryon sample, we measure masses and decay widths
with uncertainties comparable to the world averages for Sigma_c states, and
significantly smaller uncertainties than the world averages for excited
Lambda_c+ states.Comment: added one reference and one table, changed order of figures, 17
pages, 15 figure
The methanol dehydrogenase gene, mxaF, as a functional and phylogenetic marker for proteobacterial methanotrophs in natural environments
© The Author(s), 2013. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in PLoS ONE 8 (2013): e56993, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0056993.The mxaF gene, coding for the large (α) subunit of methanol dehydrogenase, is highly conserved among distantly related methylotrophic species in the Alpha-, Beta- and Gammaproteobacteria. It is ubiquitous in methanotrophs, in contrast to other methanotroph-specific genes such as the pmoA and mmoX genes, which are absent in some methanotrophic proteobacterial genera. This study examined the potential for using the mxaF gene as a functional and phylogenetic marker for methanotrophs. mxaF and 16S rRNA gene phylogenies were constructed based on over 100 database sequences of known proteobacterial methanotrophs and other methylotrophs to assess their evolutionary histories. Topology tests revealed that mxaF and 16S rDNA genes of methanotrophs do not show congruent evolutionary histories, with incongruencies in methanotrophic taxa in the Methylococcaceae, Methylocystaceae, and Beijerinckiacea. However, known methanotrophs generally formed coherent clades based on mxaF gene sequences, allowing for phylogenetic discrimination of major taxa. This feature highlights the mxaF geneâs usefulness as a biomarker in studying the molecular diversity of proteobacterial methanotrophs in nature. To verify this, PCR-directed assays targeting this gene were used to detect novel methanotrophs from diverse environments including soil, peatland, hydrothermal vent mussel tissues, and methanotroph isolates. The placement of the majority of environmental mxaF gene sequences in distinct methanotroph-specific clades (Methylocystaceae and Methylococcaceae) detected in this study supports the use of mxaF as a biomarker for methanotrophic proteobacteria.This work was supported in part by grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation Ecosystems Studies program (awards # DEB9708092 and DEB0089738)
The Hunt for New Physics at the Large Hadron Collider
The Large Hadron Collider presents an unprecedented opportunity to probe the
realm of new physics in the TeV region and shed light on some of the core
unresolved issues of particle physics. These include the nature of electroweak
symmetry breaking, the origin of mass, the possible constituent of cold dark
matter, new sources of CP violation needed to explain the baryon excess in the
universe, the possible existence of extra gauge groups and extra matter, and
importantly the path Nature chooses to resolve the hierarchy problem - is it
supersymmetry or extra dimensions. Many models of new physics beyond the
standard model contain a hidden sector which can be probed at the LHC.
Additionally, the LHC will be a top factory and accurate measurements of the
properties of the top and its rare decays will provide a window to new physics.
Further, the LHC could shed light on the origin of neutralino masses if the new
physics associated with their generation lies in the TeV region. Finally, the
LHC is also a laboratory to test the hypothesis of TeV scale strings and
D-brane models. An overview of these possibilities is presented in the spirit
that it will serve as a companion to the Technical Design Reports (TDRs) by the
particle detector groups ATLAS and CMS to facilitate the test of the new
theoretical ideas at the LHC. Which of these ideas stands the test of the LHC
data will govern the course of particle physics in the subsequent decades
Search for heavy bottom-like quarks decaying to an electron or muon and jets in collisions at TeV
We report the most sensitive direct search for pair production of
fourth-generation bottom-like chiral quarks () each decaying promptly to
. We search for an excess of events with an electron or muon, at least five
jets (one indentified as due to a or quark) and an imbalance of
transverse momentum using data from collisions collected by the CDF
II detector at Fermilab with an integrated luminosity of 4.8 fb. We
observe events consistent with background expectation and calculate upper
limits on the pair production cross section ( fb for 375 GeV/) and exclude \gevcc at 95%
confidence level.Comment: For submission to PR
Search for Higgs Boson Pair Production in the Four b Quark Final State in Proton-Proton Collisions at root s=13 TeV
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