124 research outputs found
Book Reviews
Book Reviews
The Oppenheimer Case: The Trial of a Security System
By Charles P. Curtis
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1955. Pp. xi, 281. 6.65
reviewer: J. Raymond Denney
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Military Law under the Uniform Code of Military Justice
By William B. Aycock and Seymour W. Wurfel
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1955. Pp. xviii, 430.
reviewer: James B. Earle
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Why Johnny Can\u27t Read
By Rudolf Flesch
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1955. Pp. ix, 222.
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Plain Words: Their ABC
By Sir Ernest Gowers
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955. Pp. viii, 298.
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Effective Legal Writing
By Frank E. Cooper
Indianapolis, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1953. Pp. x, 313.
reviewer: J. Allen Smith
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The Moral Decision: Right and Wrong in the Light of American law
By Edmond Cahn
Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, Pp. ix, 315. $5.00
reviewer: Samuel Enoch Stump
β-arrestin 2 attenuates cardiac dysfunction in polymicrobial sepsis through gp130 and p38
AbstractSepsis is an exaggerated systemic inflammatory response to persistent bacteria infection with high morbidity and mortality rate clinically. β-arrestin 2 modulates cell survival and cell death in different systems. However, the effect of β-arrestin 2 on sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction is not yet known. Here, we show that β-arrestin 2 overexpression significantly enhances animal survival following cecal ligation and puncture (CLP)-induced sepsis. Importantly, overexpression of β-arrestin 2 in mice prevents CLP-induced cardiac dysfunction. Also, β-arrestin 2 overexpression dramatically attenuates CLP-induced myocardial gp130 and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) phosphorylation levels following CLP. Therefore, β-arrestin 2 prevents CLP-induced cardiac dysfunction through gp130 and p38. These results suggest that modulation of β-arrestin 2 might provide a novel therapeutic approach to prevent cardiac dysfunction in patients with sepsis
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Pulmonary environmental cues drive group 2 innate lymphoid cell dynamics in mice and humans
Group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) are enriched in mucosal tissues (e.g., lung) and respond to epithelial cell–derived cytokines initiating type 2 inflammation. During inflammation, ILC2 numbers are increased in the lung. However, the mechanisms controlling ILC2 trafficking and motility within inflamed lungs remain unclear and are crucial for understanding ILC2 function in pulmonary immunity. Using several approaches, including lung intravital microscopy, we demonstrate that pulmonary ILC2s are highly dynamic, exhibit amoeboid-like movement, and aggregate in the lung peribronchial and perivascular spaces. They express distinct chemokine receptors, including CCR8, and actively home to CCL8 deposits located around the airway epithelium. Within lung tissue, ILC2s were particularly motile in extracellular matrix–enriched regions. We show that collagen-I drives ILC2 to markedly change their morphology by remodeling their actin cytoskeleton to promote environmental exploration critical for regulating eosinophilic inflammation. Our study provides previously unappreciated insights into ILC2 migratory patterns during inflammation and highlights the importance of environmental guidance cues in the lung in controlling ILC2 dynamics
The Lyman α forest power spectrum from the XQ-100 legacy survey
We present the Lyman α flux power spectrum measurements of the XQ-100 sample of quasar spectra obtained in the context of the European Southern Observatory Large Programme ‘Quasars and their absorption lines: a legacy survey of the high redshift universe with VLT/XSHOOTER’. Using 100 quasar spectra with medium resolution and signal-to-noise ratio, we measure the power spectrum over a range of redshifts z = 3–4.2 and over a range of scales k = 0.003–0.06 km−1 s. The results agree well with the measurements of the one-dimensional power spectrum found in the literature. The data analysis used in this paper is based on the Fourier transform and has been tested on synthetic data. Systematic and statistical uncertainties of our measurements are estimated, with a total error (statistical and systematic) comparable to the one of the BOSS data in the overlapping range of scales, and smaller by more than 50 per cent for higher redshift bins (z > 3.6) and small scales (k > 0.01 km−1 s). The XQ-100 data set has the unique feature of having signal-to-noise ratios and resolution intermediate between the two data sets that are typically used to perform cosmological studies, i.e. BOSS and high-resolution spectra (e.g. UVES/VLT or HIRES). More importantly, the measured flux power spectra span the high-redshift regime that is usually more constraining for structure formation models
Precise Black Hole Masses From Megamaser Disks: Black Hole-Bulge Relations at Low Mass
The black hole (BH)-bulge correlations have greatly influenced the last
decade of effort to understand galaxy evolution. Current knowledge of these
correlations is limited predominantly to high BH masses (M_BH> 10^8 M_sun) that
can be measured using direct stellar, gas, and maser kinematics. These objects,
however, do not represent the demographics of more typical L< L* galaxies. This
study transcends prior limitations to probe BHs that are an order of magnitude
lower in mass, using BH mass measurements derived from the dynamics of H_2O
megamasers in circumnuclear disks. The masers trace the Keplerian rotation of
circumnuclear molecular disks starting at radii of a few tenths of a pc from
the central BH. Modeling of the rotation curves, presented by Kuo et al.
(2010), yields BH masses with exquisite precision. We present stellar velocity
dispersion measurements for a sample of nine megamaser disk galaxies based on
long-slit observations using the B&C spectrograph on the Dupont telescope and
the DIS spectrograph on the 3.5m telescope at Apache Point. We also perform
bulge-to-disk decomposition of a subset of five of these galaxies with SDSS
imaging. The maser galaxies as a group fall below the M_BH-sigma* relation
defined by elliptical galaxies. We show, now with very precise BH mass
measurements, that the low-scatter power-law relation between M_BH and sigma*
seen in elliptical galaxies is not universal. The elliptical galaxy M_BH-sigma*
relation cannot be used to derive the BH mass function at low mass or the
zeropoint for active BH masses. The processes (perhaps BH self-regulation or
minor merging) that operate at higher mass have not effectively established an
M_BH-sigma* relation in this low-mass regime.Comment: 21 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
Central Regions of Barred Galaxies: Two-Dimensional Non-self-gravitating Hydrodynamic Simulations
The inner regions of barred galaxies contain substructures such as off-axis
shocks, nuclear rings, and nuclear spirals. These substructure may affect star
formation, and control the activity of a central black hole (BH) by determining
the mass inflow rate. We investigate the formation and properties of such
substructures using high-resolution, grid-based hydrodynamic simulations. The
gaseous medium is assumed to be infinitesimally-thin, isothermal, and
non-self-gravitating. The stars and dark matter are represented by a static
gravitational potential with four components: a stellar disk, the bulge, a
central BH, and the bar. To investigate various galactic environments, we vary
the gas sound speed c_s as well as the mass of the central BH M_BH. Once the
flow has reached a quasi-steady state, off-axis shocks tend to move closer to
the bar major axis as c_s increases. Nuclear rings shrink in size with
increasing c_s, but are independent of M_BH, suggesting that ring position is
not determined by the Lindblad resonances. Rings in low-c_s models are narrow
since they are occupied largely by gas on x2-orbits and well decoupled from
nuclear spirals, while they become broad because of large thermal perturbations
in high-c_s models. Nuclear spirals persist only when either c_s is small or
M_BH is large; they would otherwise be destroyed completely by the ring
material on eccentric orbits. The shape and strength of nuclear spirals depend
sensitively on c_s and M_BH such that they are leading if both c_s and M_BH are
small, weak trailing if c_s is small and M_BH is large, and strong trailing if
both c_s and M_BH are large. While the mass inflow rate toward the nucleus is
quite small in low-c_s models because of the presence of a narrow nuclear ring,
it becomes larger than 0.01 Msun/yr when c_s is large, providing a potential
explanation of nuclear activity in Seyfert galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in the ApJ; Version with full-resolution
figures available at http://mirzam.snu.ac.kr/~wkim/Bar/bar.pd
Pulmonary Epithelial Cell-Derived Cytokine TGF-β1 Is a Critical Cofactor for Enhanced Innate Lymphoid Cell Function.
Epithelial cells orchestrate pulmonary homeostasis and pathogen defense and play a crucial role in the initiation of allergic immune responses. Maintaining the balance between homeostasis and inappropriate immune activation and associated pathology is particularly complex at mucosal sites that are exposed to billions of potentially antigenic particles daily. We demonstrated that epithelial cell-derived cytokine TGF-β had a central role in the generation of the pulmonary immune response. Mice that specifically lacked epithelial cell-derived TGF-β1 displayed a reduction in type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), resulting in suppression of interleukin-13 and hallmark features of the allergic response including airway hyperreactivity. ILCs in the airway lumen were primed to respond to TGF-β by expressing the receptor TGF-βRII and ILC chemoactivity was enhanced by TGF-β. These data demonstrate that resident epithelial cells instruct immune cells, highlighting the central role of the local environmental niche in defining the nature and magnitude of immune reactions
Pulmonary epithelial cell-derived cytokine TGF-β1 Is a critical cofactor for enhanced innate lymphoid cell function
SummaryEpithelial cells orchestrate pulmonary homeostasis and pathogen defense and play a crucial role in the initiation of allergic immune responses. Maintaining the balance between homeostasis and inappropriate immune activation and associated pathology is particularly complex at mucosal sites that are exposed to billions of potentially antigenic particles daily. We demonstrated that epithelial cell-derived cytokine TGF-β had a central role in the generation of the pulmonary immune response. Mice that specifically lacked epithelial cell-derived TGF-β1 displayed a reduction in type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), resulting in suppression of interleukin-13 and hallmark features of the allergic response including airway hyperreactivity. ILCs in the airway lumen were primed to respond to TGF-β by expressing the receptor TGF-βRII and ILC chemoactivity was enhanced by TGF-β. These data demonstrate that resident epithelial cells instruct immune cells, highlighting the central role of the local environmental niche in defining the nature and magnitude of immune reactions
The Translational Medicine Ontology and Knowledge Base: driving personalized medicine by bridging the gap between bench and bedside
Background: Translational medicine requires the integration of knowledge using heterogeneous data from health care to the life sciences. Here, we describe a collaborative effort to produce a prototype Translational Medicine Knowledge Base (TMKB) capable of answering questions relating to clinical practice and pharmaceutical drug discovery. Results: We developed the Translational Medicine Ontology (TMO) as a unifying ontology to integrate chemical, genomic and proteomic data with disease, treatment, and electronic health records. We demonstrate the use of Semantic Web technologies in the integration of patient and biomedical data, and reveal how such a knowledge base can aid physicians in providing tailored patient care and facilitate the recruitment of patients into active clinical trials. Thus, patients, physicians and researchers may explore the knowledge base to better understand therapeutic options, efficacy, and mechanisms of action. Conclusions: This work takes an important step in using Semantic Web technologies to facilitate integration of relevant, distributed, external sources and progress towards a computational platform to support personalized medicine. Availability: TMO can be downloaded from http://code.google.com/p/translationalmedicineontology and TMKB can be accessed at http://tm.semanticscience.org/sparql
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