Post-Mortem Immunohistochemical Evidence of β2-Adrenergic Receptor Expression in the Adrenal Gland

The evidence from post-mortem biochemical studies conducted on cortisol and catecholamines suggest that analysis of the adrenal gland could provide useful information about its role in human pathophysiology and the stress response. Authors designed an immunohistochemical study on the expression of the adrenal β2-adrenergic receptor (β2-AR), a receptor with high-affinity for catecholamines, with the aim to show which zones it is expressed in and how its expression differs in relation to the cause of death. The immunohistochemical study was performed on adrenal glands obtained from 48 forensic autopsies of subjects that died as a result of different pathogenic mechanisms using a mouse monoclonal β2-AR antibody. The results show that immunoreactivity for β2-AR was observed in all adrenal zones. Furthermore, immunoreactivity for β2-AR has shown variation in the localization and intensity of different patterns in relation to the original cause of death. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that demonstrates β2-AR expression in the human cortex and provides suggestions on the possible involvement of β2-AR in human cortex hormonal stimulation. In conclusion, the authors provide a possible explanation for the observed differences in expression in relation to the cause of death

Forensic tools for the diagnosis of electrocution death: Case study and literature review

Diagnosis of death by electrocution may be difficult when electric marking is not visible or unclear. Accordingly, the body of a man who appeared to have died from accidental electrocution was carefully forensically analysed. Macroscopic and microscopic analysis of the current mark was carried out using a variable-pressure scanning electron microscope equipped with energy dispersive X-ray microanalyser to highlight skin metallisation, indicating the presence of iron and zinc. The histological findings of electrocution myocardial damage were supported by the results of biochemical analysis which demonstrated the creatine kinase-MB and cardiac troponin I elevation. The effects of electric current flow were also highlighted by perforations of endothelial surface of a pulmonary artery using scanning electron microscope, and all the results were analysed by the main tools suggested in the literature

Phase Ordering Dynamics of the O(n) Model - Exact Predictions and Numerical Results

We consider the pair correlation functions of both the order parameter field and its square for phase ordering in the $O(n)$ model with nonconserved order parameter, in spatial dimension $2\le d\le 3$ and spin dimension $1\le n\le d$. We calculate, in the scaling limit, the exact short-distance singularities of these correlation functions and compare these predictions to numerical simulations. Our results suggest that the scaling hypothesis does not hold for the $d=2$ $O(2)$ model. Figures (23) are available on request - email [email protected]: 23 pages, Plain LaTeX, M/C.TH.93/2

Dual inhibition of histone deacetylases and phosphoinositide 3-kinase enhances therapeutic activity against B cell lymphoma

Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) and Myc are known to cooperate in promoting the survival and growth of a variety of B-cell lymphomas. While currently there are no small molecule inhibitors of Myc protein, histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors have been shown to reduce levels of Myc protein by suppressing its transcription. We assessed the efficacy of CUDC-907, a new rationally designed dual inhibitor of PI3K and HDACs, in a panel of lymphoma cell lines. CUDC-907 treatment resulted in a dose- and time-dependent growth inhibition and cell death of DLBCL cell lines, irrespective of the cell of origin. CUDC-907 treatment down-regulated the phosphorylation of PI3K downstream targets, including AKT, PRAS40, S6, and 4EBP1, increased histone 3 acetylation, and decreased Myc protein levels. SILAC-based quantitative mass spectrometry demonstrated that CUDC-907 treatment decreased the protein levels of several components of the B cell receptor (BCR) and Toll like receptor (TLR) pathways, including BTK, SYK, and MyD88 proteins. These cellular changes were associated with an inhibition of NF-kB activation. CUDC-907 demonstrated in vivo efficacy with no significant toxicity in a human DLBCL xenograft mouse model. Collectively, these data provide a mechanistic rationale for evaluating CUDC-907 for the treatment of patients with Myc and PI3K-dependent lymphomas

Relaxation and Coarsening Dynamics in Superconducting Arrays

We investigate the nonequilibrium coarsening dynamics in two-dimensional overdamped superconducting arrays under zero external current, where ohmic dissipation occurs on junctions between superconducting islands through uniform resistance. The nonequilibrium relaxation of the unfrustrated array and also of the fully frustrated array, quenched to low temperature ordered states or quasi-ordered ones, is dominated by characteristic features of coarsening processes via decay of point and line defects, respectively. In the case of unfrustrated arrays, it is argued that due to finiteness of the friction constant for a vortex (in the limit of large spatial extent of the vortex), the typical length scale grows as $\ell_s \sim t^{1/2}$ accompanied by the number of point vortices decaying as $N_v \sim 1/t$. This is in contrast with the case that dominant dissipation occurs between each island and the substrate, where the friction constant diverges logarithmically and the length scale exhibits diffusive growth with a logarithmic correction term. We perform extensive numerical simulations, to obtain results in reasonable agreement. In the case of fully frustrated arrays, the domain growth of Ising-like chiral order exhibits the low-temperature behavior $\ell_q \sim t^{1/z_q}$, with the growth exponent $1/z_q$ apparently showing a strong temperature dependence in the low-temperature limit.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Non-equilibrium Condensation Process in a Holographic Superconductor

We study the non-equilibrium condensation process in a holographic superconductor. When the temperature T is smaller than a critical temperature T_c, there are two black hole solutions, the Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS black hole and a black hole with a scalar hair. In the boundary theory, they can be regarded as the supercooled normal phase and the superconducting phase, respectively. We consider perturbations on supercooled Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS black holes and study their non-linear time evolution to know about physical phenomena associated with rapidly-cooled superconductors. We find that, for T<T_c, the initial perturbations grow exponentially and, eventually, spacetimes approach the hairy black holes. We also clarify how the relaxation process from a far-from-equilibrium state proceeds in the boundary theory by observing the time dependence of the superconducting order parameter. Finally, we study the time evolution of event and apparent horizons and discuss their correspondence with the entropy of the boundary theory. Our result gives a first step toward the holographic understanding of the non-equilibrium process in superconductors.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure

Filtered screens and augmented Teichm\"uller space

We study a new bordification of the decorated Teichm\"uller space for a multiply punctured surface F by a space of filtered screens on the surface that arises from a natural elaboration of earlier work of McShane-Penner. We identify necessary and sufficient conditions for paths in this space of filtered screens to yield short curves having vanishing length in the underlying surface F. As a result, an appropriate quotient of this space of filtered screens on F yields a decorated augmented Teichm\"uller space which is shown to admit a CW decomposition that naturally projects to the augmented Teichm\"uller space by forgetting decorations and whose strata are indexed by a new object termed partially oriented stratum graphs.Comment: Final version to appear in Geometriae Dedicat

Health-related quality of life and functional changes in DMD:A 12-month longitudinal cohort study

Family caregivers of people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) live stressful lives in which they spend most of their time caring for their loved ones and managing difficult situations, thereby reducing the time spent in taking care of themselves. This situation may last several years. Previous literature has widely highlighted that this situation reduces caregivers' quality of life and increases their psychological distress and risk of health problems, but there is a lack of studies that focus on psychological interventions for these situations. This qualitative study examined a pilot experience of two mutual support groups for family caregivers of people with ALS. The aim was to identify caregivers' needs, the prominent aspects of their experience, and to understand whether and how this intervention strategy might help them. Six partners (four men and two women) and six adult children (five women and one man) participated in the groups, which were conducted in northern Italy. After the support groups finished, participants underwent semi-structured interviews. The authors conducted a content analysis of the transcripts of the interviews and the 20 group sessions. The thematic areas identified were "caregiving," "being the son/daughter of a person with ALS," "being the partner of a person with ALS," "group experience" and "group evaluation." The caregiving experience was profoundly different depending on whether the caregiver was a son/daughter or a partner of a patient with ALS. Moreover, comparison with peers and mutual support helped participants to better cope with ALS and its consequences, to improve their care for their relatives and to overcome typical caregiver isolation. These results suggest the usefulness of involving communities in caregiver support in order to create new networks and activate personal and social resources for well-being

Renormalization group and perfect operators for stochastic differential equations

We develop renormalization group methods for solving partial and stochastic differential equations on coarse meshes. Renormalization group transformations are used to calculate the precise effect of small scale dynamics on the dynamics at the mesh size. The fixed point of these transformations yields a perfect operator: an exact representation of physical observables on the mesh scale with minimal lattice artifacts. We apply the formalism to simple nonlinear models of critical dynamics, and show how the method leads to an improvement in the computational performance of Monte Carlo methods.Comment: 35 pages, 16 figure