Cyclooxygenase 2 promotes cell survival by stimulation of dynein light chain expression and inhibition of neuronal nitric oxide synthase activity

Cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) inhibits nerve growth factor (NGF) withdrawal apoptosis in differentiated PC12 cells. The inhibition of apoptosis by COX-2 was concomitant with prevention of caspase 3 activation. To understand how COX-2 prevents apoptosis, we used cDNA expression arrays to determine whether COX-2 regulates differential expression of apoptosis-related genes. The expression of dynein light chain (DLC) (also known as protein inhibitor of neuronal nitric oxide synthase [PIN]) was significantly stimulated in PC12 cells overexpressing COX-2. The COX-2-dependent stimulation of DLC expression was, at least in part, mediated by prostaglandin E(2). Overexpression of DLC also inhibited NGF withdrawal apoptosis in differentiated PC12 cells. Stimulation of DLC expression resulted in an increased association of DLC/PIN with neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), thereby reducing nNOS activity. Furthermore, nNOS expression and activity were significantly increased in differentiated PC12 cells after NGF withdrawal. This increased nNOS activity as well as increased nNOS dimer after NGF withdrawal were inhibited by COX-2 or DLC/PIN overexpression. An nNOS inhibitor or a membrane-permeable superoxide dismutase (SOD) mimetic protected differentiated PC12 cells from NGF withdrawal apoptosis. In contrast, NO donors induced apoptosis in differentiated PC12 cells and potentiated apoptosis induced by NGF withdrawal. The protective effects of COX-2 on apoptosis induced by NGF withdrawal were also overcome by NO donors. These findings suggest that COX-2 promotes cell survival by a mechanism linking increased expression of prosurvival genes coupled to inhibition of NO- and superoxide-mediated apoptosis

Adjustment of the electric current in pulsar magnetospheres and origin of subpulse modulation

The subpulse modulation of pulsar radio emission goes to prove that the plasma flow in the open field line tube breaks into isolated narrow streams. I propose a model which attributes formation of streams to the process of the electric current adjustment in the magnetosphere. A mismatch between the magnetospheric current distribution and the current injected by the polar cap accelerator gives rise to reverse plasma flows in the magnetosphere. The reverse flow shields the electric field in the polar gap and thus shuts up the plasma production process. I assume that a circulating system of streams is formed such that the upward streams are produced in narrow gaps separated by downward streams. The electric drift is small in this model because the potential drop in narrow gaps is small. The gaps have to drift because by the time a downward stream reaches the star surface and shields the electric field, the corresponding gap has to shift. The transverse size of the streams is determined by the condition that the potential drop in the gaps is sufficient for the pair production. This yields the radius of the stream roughly 10% of the polar cap radius, which makes it possible to fit in the observed morphological features such as the "carousel" with 10-20 subbeams and the system of the core - two nested cone beams.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur

Photoluminescence and Electron Spin Resonance of ilicon Dioxide Crystal with Rutile Structure (Stishovite)

This work was supported by ERANET MYND. Also, financial support provided by Scientific Research Project for Students and Young Researchers Nr. SJZ/2017/2 realized at the Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia is greatly acknowledged. The authors express our gratitude to R.I. Mashkovtsev for help in ESR signal interpretation. The authors are appreciative to T.I. Dyuzheva, L.M. Lityagina, N.A. Bendeliani for stishovite single crystals and to K. Hubner and H.-J. Fitting for stishovite powder of Barringer Meteor Crater.An electron spin resonance (ESR) and photoluminescence signal is observed in the as grown single crystal of stishovite indicating the presence of defects in the non‐irradiated sample. The photoluminescence of the as received stishovite single crystals exhibits two main bands – a blue at 3 eV and an UV at 4.75 eV. Luminescence is excited in the range of optical transparency of stishovite (below 8.75 eV) and, therefore, is ascribed to defects. A wide range of decay kinetics under a pulsed excitation is observed. For the blue band besides the exponential decay with a time constant of about 18 μs an additional ms component is revealed. For the UV band besides the fast component with a time constant of 1–3 ns a component with a decay in tens μs is obtained. The main components (18 μs and 1–3 ns) possess a typical intra‐center transition intensity thermal quenching. The effect of the additional slow component is related to the presence of OH groups and/or carbon molecular defects modifying the luminescence center. The additional slow components exhibit wave‐like thermal dependences. Photo‐thermally stimulated creation–destruction of the complex comprising host defect and interstitial modifiers explains the slow luminescence wave‐like thermal dependences.ERANET MYND; ISSP UL Nr. SJZ/2017/2 ; Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART

Dynamical properties of the unitary Fermi gas: collective modes and shock waves

We discuss the unitary Fermi gas made of dilute and ultracold atoms with an infinite s-wave inter-atomic scattering length. First we introduce an efficient Thomas-Fermi-von Weizsacker density functional which describes accurately various static properties of the unitary Fermi gas trapped by an external potential. Then, the sound velocity and the collective frequencies of oscillations in a harmonic trap are derived from extended superfluid hydrodynamic equations which are the Euler-Lagrange equations of a Thomas-Fermi-von Weizsacker action functional. Finally, we show that this amazing Fermi gas supports supersonic and subsonic shock waves.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, invited talk at the International Workshop "Critical Stability 2011" (Erice, October 2011), to be published in the journal Few Body System

Physics of Solar Prominences: I - Spectral Diagnostics and Non-LTE Modelling

This review paper outlines background information and covers recent advances made via the analysis of spectra and images of prominence plasma and the increased sophistication of non-LTE (ie when there is a departure from Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium) radiative transfer models. We first describe the spectral inversion techniques that have been used to infer the plasma parameters important for the general properties of the prominence plasma in both its cool core and the hotter prominence-corona transition region. We also review studies devoted to the observation of bulk motions of the prominence plasma and to the determination of prominence mass. However, a simple inversion of spectroscopic data usually fails when the lines become optically thick at certain wavelengths. Therefore, complex non-LTE models become necessary. We thus present the basics of non-LTE radiative transfer theory and the associated multi-level radiative transfer problems. The main results of one- and two-dimensional models of the prominences and their fine-structures are presented. We then discuss the energy balance in various prominence models. Finally, we outline the outstanding observational and theoretical questions, and the directions for future progress in our understanding of solar prominences.Comment: 96 pages, 37 figures, Space Science Reviews. Some figures may have a better resolution in the published version. New version reflects minor changes brought after proof editin

Generic Combination of Heap and Value Analyses in Abstract Interpretation

Abstract. Abstract interpretation has been widely applied to approx-imate data structures and (usually numerical) value information. One needs to combine them to effectively apply static analysis to real software. Nevertheless, they have been studied mainly as orthogonal problems so far. In this context, we introduce a generic framework that, given a heap and a value analysis, combines them, and we formally prove its soundness. The heap analysis approximates concrete locations with heap identifiers, that can be materialized or merged. Meanwhile, the value analysis tracks information both on variable and heap identifiers, taking into account when heap identifiers are merged or materialized. We show how existing pointer and shape analyses, as well as numerical domains, can be plugged in our framework. As far as we know, this is the first sound generic automatic framework combining heap and value analyses that allows to freely manage heap identifiers.

AutoKnow: Self-driving knowledge collection for products of thousands of types

Applied Data Science Track PaperCan one build a knowledge graph (KG) for all products in the world? Knowledge graphs have firmly established themselves as valuable sources of information for search and question answering, and it is natural to wonder if a KG can contain information about products offered at online retail sites. There have been several successful examples of generic KGs, but organizing information about products poses many additional challenges, including sparsity and noise of structured data for products, complexity of the domain with millions of product types and thousands of attributes, heterogeneity across large number of categories, as well as large and constantly growing number of products. We describe AutoKnow, our automatic (self-driving) system that addresses these challenges. The system includes a suite of novel techniques for taxonomy construction, product property identification, knowledge extraction, anomaly detection, and synonym discovery. AutoKnow is (a) automatic, requiring little human intervention, (b) multi-scalable, scalable in multiple dimensions (many domains, many products, and many attributes), and (c) integrative, exploiting rich customer behavior logs. AutoKnow has been operational in collecting product knowledge for over 11K product types.Xin Luna Dong, Xiang He, Andrey Kan, Xian Li, Yan Liang, Jun Ma, Yifan Ethan Xu, Chenwei Zhang, Tong Zhao, Gabriel Blanco Saldana, Saurabh Deshpande, Alexandre Michetti Manduca, Jay Ren, Surender Pal Singh, Fan Xiao, Haw-Shiuan Chang, Giannis Karamanolakis, Yuning Mao, Yaqing Wang, Christos Faloutsos, Andrew McCallum, Jiawei Ha

Differential progression of coronary atherosclerosis according to plaque composition: a cluster analysis of PARADIGM registry data

Patient-specific phenotyping of coronary atherosclerosis would facilitate personalized risk assessment and preventive treatment. We explored whether unsupervised cluster analysis can categorize patients with coronary atherosclerosis according to their plaque composition, and determined how these differing plaque composition profiles impact plaque progression. Patients with coronary atherosclerotic plaque (n = 947; median age, 62 years; 59% male) were enrolled from a prospective multi-national registry of consecutive patients who underwent serial coronary computed tomography angiography (median inter-scan duration, 3.3 years). K-means clustering applied to the percent volume of each plaque component and identified 4 clusters of patients with distinct plaque composition. Cluster 1 (n = 52), which comprised mainly fibro-fatty plaque with a significant necrotic core (median, 55.7% and 16.0% of the total plaque volume, respectively), showed the least total plaque volume (PV) progression (+ 23.3 mm(3)), with necrotic core and fibro-fatty PV regression (- 5.7 mm(3) and - 5.6 mm(3), respectively). Cluster 2 (n = 219), which contained largely fibro-fatty (39.2%) and fibrous plaque (46.8%), showed fibro-fatty PV regression (- 2.4 mm(3)). Cluster 3 (n = 376), which comprised mostly fibrous (62.7%) and calcified plaque (23.6%), showed increasingly prominent calcified PV progression (+ 21.4 mm(3)). Cluster 4 (n = 300), which comprised mostly calcified plaque (58.7%), demonstrated the greatest total PV increase (+ 50.7mm(3)), predominantly increasing in calcified PV (+ 35.9 mm(3)). Multivariable analysis showed higher risk for plaque progression in Clusters 3 and 4, and higher risk for adverse cardiac events in Clusters 2, 3, and 4 compared to that in Cluster 1. Unsupervised clustering algorithms may uniquely characterize patient phenotypes with varied atherosclerotic plaque profiles, yielding distinct patterns of progressive disease and outcome.Cardiolog