Detection of Heparin in the Salivary Gland and Midgut of Aedes togoi

Mosquitoes secrete saliva that contains biological substances, including anticoagulants that counteract a host's hemostatic response and prevent blood clotting during blood feeding. This study aimed to detect heparin, an anticoagulant in Aedes togoi using an immunohistochemical detection method, in the salivary canal, salivary gland, and midgut of male and female mosquitoes. Comparisons showed that female mosquitoes contained higher concentrations of heparin than male mosquitoes. On average, the level of heparin was higher in blood-fed female mosquitoes than in non-blood-fed female mosquitoes. Heparin concentrations were higher in the midgut than in the salivary gland. This indicates presence of heparin in tissues of A. togoi.X111Ysciescopu

Prediction of Inflammatory Breast Cancer Survival Outcomes Using Computed Tomography-Based Texture Analysis

Background: Although inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) has poor overall survival (OS), there is little information about using imaging features for predicting the prognosis. Computed tomography (CT)-based texture analysis, a non-invasive technique to quantify tumor heterogeneity, could be a potentially useful imaging biomarker. The aim of the article was to investigate the usefulness of chest CT-based texture analysis to predict OS in IBC patients. Methods: Of the 3,130 patients with primary breast cancers between 2006 and 2016, 104 patients (3.3%) with IBC were identified. Among them, 98 patients who underwent pre-treatment contrast-enhanced chest CT scans, got treatment in our institution, and had a follow-up period of more than 2 years were finally included for CT-based texture analysis. Texture analysis was performed on CT images of 98 patients, using commercially available software by two breast radiologists. Histogram-based textural features, such as quantification of variation in CT attenuation (mean, standard deviation, mean of positive pixels [MPP], entropy, skewness, and kurtosis), were recorded. To dichotomize textural features for survival analysis, receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to determine cutoff points. Clinicopathologic variables, such as age, node stage, metastasis stage at the time of diagnosis, hormonal receptor positivity, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 positivity, and molecular subtype, were assessed. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to determine the association of textural features and clinicopathologic variables with OS. Results: During a mean follow-up period of 47.9 months, 41 of 98 patients (41.8%) died, with a median OS of 20.0 months. The textural features of lower mean attenuation, standard deviation, MPP, and entropy on CT images were significantly associated with worse OS, as was the M1 stage among clinicopathologic variables (all P-values < 0.05). In multivariate analysis, lower mean attenuation (hazard ratio [HR], 3.26; P = 0.003), lower MPP (HR, 3.03; P = 0.002), and lower entropy (HR, 2.70; P = 0.009) on chest CT images were significant factors independent from the M1 stage for predicting worse OS. Conclusions: Lower mean attenuation, MPP, and entropy on chest CT images predicted worse OS in patients with IBC, suggesting that CT-based texture analysis provides additional predictors for OS

Security Implications of Running Windows Software on a Linux System Using Wine

Linux is considered to be less prone to malware compared to other operating systems, and as a result Linux users rarely run anti-malware. However, many popular software applications released on other platforms cannot run natively on Linux. Wine is a popular compatibility layer for running Windows programs on Linux. The level of security risk that Wine poses to Linux users is largely undocumented. This project was conducted to assess the security implications of using Wine, and to determine if any specific types of malware or malware behavior have a significant effect on the malware being successful in Wine. Dynamic analysis (both automated and manual) was applied to 30 malware samples both in a Windows environment and Linux environment running Wine. Behavior analyzed included file system, registry, and network access, and the spawning of processes, and services. The behavior was compared to determine malware success in Wine. The study results provide evidence that Wine can pose serious security implications when used to run Windows software in a Linux environment. Five samples of Windows malware were run successfully through Wine on a Linux system. No significant relationships were discovered between the success of the malware and its high-level behavior or malware type. However, certain API calls could not be recreated in a Linux environment, and led to failure of malware to execute via Wine. This suggests that particular malware samples that utilize these API calls will never run completely successfully in a Linux environment. As a consequence, the success of some samples can be determined from observing the API calls when run within a Windows environment

The effect of umbilical cord blood derived mesenchymal stem cells in monocrotaline-induced pulmonary artery hypertension rats

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) causes right ventricular failure due to a gradual increase in pulmonary vascular resistance. The purposes of this study were to confirm the engraftment of human umbilical cord blood-mesenchymal stem cells (hUCB-MSCs) placed in the correct place in the lung and research on changes of hemodynamics, pulmonary pathology, immunomodulation and several gene expressions in monocrotaline (MCT)induced PAH rat models after hUCB-MSCs transfusion. The rats were grouped as follows: the control (C) group; the M group (MCT 60 mg/kg); the U group (hUCB-MSCs transfusion). They received transfusions via the external jugular vein a week after MCT injection. The mean right ventricular pressure (RVP) was significantly reduced in the U group after the 2 week. The indicators of RV hypertrophy were significantly reduced in the U group at week 4. Reduced medial wall thickness in the pulmonary arteriole was noted in the U group at week 4. Reduced number of intra-acinar muscular pulmonary arteries was observed in the U group after 2 week. Protein expressions such as endothelin (ET)-1, endothelin receptor A (ERA), endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 significantly decreased at week 4. The decreased levels of ERA, eNOS and MMP-2 immunoreactivity were noted by immnohistochemical staining. After hUCB-MSCs were administered, there were the improvement of RVH and mean RVP. Reductions in several protein expressions and immunomodulation were also detected. It is suggested that hUCB-MSCs may be a promising therapeutic option for PAH.1174Ysciescopu

Ocean temperature and salinity components of the Madden-Julian oscillation observed by Argo floats

New diagnostics of the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) cycle in ocean temperature and, for the first time, salinity are presented. The MJO composites are based on 4 years of gridded Argo float data from 2003 to 2006, and extend from the surface to 1,400 m depth in the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans. The MJO surface salinity anomalies are consistent with precipitation minus evaporation fluxes in the Indian Ocean, and with anomalous zonal advection in the Pacific. The Argo sea surface temperature and thermocline depth anomalies are consistent with previous studies using other data sets. The near-surface density changes due to salinity are comparable to, and partially offset, those due to temperature, emphasising the importance of including salinity as well as temperature changes in mixed-layer modelling of tropical intraseasonal processes. The MJO-forced equatorial Kelvin wave that propagates along the thermocline in the Pacific extends down into the deep ocean, to at least 1,400 m. Coherent, statistically significant, MJO temperature and salinity anomalies are also present in the deep Indian Ocean

Measurement of the cosmic-ray antiproton spectrum in the range 0.12 to 0.4 GeV with BESS-Polar II

The energy spectra of cosmic-ray antiprotons and protons near solar minimum were precisely measured with BESS-Polar II (Balloon-borne Experiment with a Superconducting Spectrometer) during a long-duration flight over Antarctica in December 2007 and January 2008. The upper-TOF (UTOF) and lower-TOF (LTOF) scintillator hodoscopes measure the charge and velocity of incident particles. A thin plastic scintillator middle-TOF (MTOF) hodoscope is installed on the lower surface of the magnet bore to measure low-energy particles that cannot reach the LTOF. The MTOF further lowers the threshold energy to about 120 MeV for antiproton or proton measurements. We report absolute spectra of the cosmic-ray antiproton in the range 0.12 to 0.4 GeV and the antiproton/proton ratio calculated with UTOF-MTOF trigger events. These new results are independent of the UTOF-LTOF triggered antiproton spectrum published in 2012 and proton spectrum published in 2016

Sphingosine 1-phosphate modulates antigen capture by murine langerhans cells via the S1P2 receptor subtype

Dendritic cells (DCs) play a pivotal role in the development of cutaneous contact hypersensitivity (CHS) and atopic dermatitis as they capture and process antigen and present it to T lymphocytes in the lymphoid organs. Recently, it has been indicated that a topical application of the sphingolipid sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) prevents the inflammatory response in CHS, but the molecular mechanism is not fully elucidated. Here we indicate that treatment of mice with S1P is connected with an impaired antigen uptake by Langerhans cells (LCs), the initial step of CHS. Most of the known actions of S1P are mediated by a family of five specific G protein-coupled receptors. Our results indicate that S1P inhibits macropinocytosis of the murine LC line XS52 via S1P2 receptor stimulation followed by a reduced phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) activity. As down-regulation of S1P2 not only diminished S1P-mediated action but also enhanced the basal activity of LCs on antigen capture, an autocrine action of S1P has been assumed. Actually, S1P is continuously produced by LCs and secreted via the ATP binding cassette transporter ABCC1 to the extracellular environment. Consequently, inhibition of ABCC1, which decreased extracellular S1P levels, markedly increased the antigen uptake by LCs. Moreover, stimulation of sphingosine kinase activity, the crucial enzyme for S1P formation, is connected not only with enhanced S1P levels but also with diminished antigen capture. These results indicate that S1P is essential in LC homeostasis and influences skin immunity. This is of importance as previous reports suggested an alteration of S1P levels in atopic skin lesions

CMB Telescopes and Optical Systems

The cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) is now firmly established as a fundamental and essential probe of the geometry, constituents, and birth of the Universe. The CMB is a potent observable because it can be measured with precision and accuracy. Just as importantly, theoretical models of the Universe can predict the characteristics of the CMB to high accuracy, and those predictions can be directly compared to observations. There are multiple aspects associated with making a precise measurement. In this review, we focus on optical components for the instrumentation used to measure the CMB polarization and temperature anisotropy. We begin with an overview of general considerations for CMB observations and discuss common concepts used in the community. We next consider a variety of alternatives available for a designer of a CMB telescope. Our discussion is guided by the ground and balloon-based instruments that have been implemented over the years. In the same vein, we compare the arc-minute resolution Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and the South Pole Telescope (SPT). CMB interferometers are presented briefly. We conclude with a comparison of the four CMB satellites, Relikt, COBE, WMAP, and Planck, to demonstrate a remarkable evolution in design, sensitivity, resolution, and complexity over the past thirty years.Comment: To appear in: Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems (PSSS), Volume 1: Telescopes and Instrumentatio

IL23 and TGF-ß diminish macrophage associated metastasis in pancreatic carcinoma

Abstract The precise role of tumor associated macrophages remains unclear in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) while TGF-ß has an unclear role in metastases formation. In order to understand the role of IL23, an interleukin associated with macrophage polarization, we investigated IL23 in the context of TGF-ß expression in PDAC. We hypothesized that IL23 expression is associated with metastatic development and survival in PDAC. We investigated IL23 and TGF-ß protein expression on resected PDAC patient tumor sections who were divided into short-term (30 months) survivors. Panc-1 cells treated with IL23, TGF-ß, macrophages, or combinations thereof, were orthotopically implanted into NSG mice. Patients in the long-term survivor group had higher IL23 protein expression (P = 0.01). IL23 expression was linearly correlated with TGF-ß expression in patients in the short-term survivor group (P = 0.038). Macrophages induce a higher rate of PDAC metastasis in the mouse model (P = 0.02), which is abrogated by IL23 and TGF-ß treatment (P < 0.001). Macrophages serve a critical role in PDAC tumor growth and metastasis. TGF-ß contributes to a less tumorigenic TME through regulation of macrophages. Macrophages increases PDAC primary tumor growth and metastases formation while combined IL23 and TGF-ß pre-treatment diminishes these processes