TLR1-induced chemokine production is critical for mucosal immunity against Yersinia enterocolitica.

Our gastrointestinal tract is a portal of entry for a number of bacteria and viruses. Thus, this tissue must develop ways to induce antigen-specific T cell and antibody responses quickly. Intestinal epithelial cells are a central player in barrier function and also in communicating signals from invading pathogens to the underlying immune tissue. Here we demonstrate that activation of Toll-like receptor 1 (TLR1) in the epithelium leads to the upregulation of the chemokine CCL20 during oral infection with Yersinia enterocolitica. Further, both neutralization of CCL20 using polyclonal antibody treatment and deletion of TLR1 resulted in a defect in CCR6+ dendritic cells (DCs), which produce innate cytokines that help to induce anti-Yersinia-specific T helper 17 (TH17) cells and IgA production. These data demonstrate a novel role for TLR1 signaling in the intestinal epithelium and demonstrate that together TLR1 and CCL20 are critical mediators of TH17 immunity through the activation and recruitment of DCs

Do Not Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor! Determinants of Legislator Voting on Immigration Issues

This paper examines the determinants of the U.S. House of Representatives 1996 vote on the "The Immigration in the National Interest Act." Public choice theory suggests that the voting behavior of legislators is affected by the interests of their constituencies, special interest politics, and by their ideology. The paper uses probit analysis to test the significance of the above factors. The results suggest that Representatives responded to the socioeconomic interests of their constituents as expected. However, in a surprising finding, pro-business legislators appear to have voted to restrict immigration.Immigration; Politics; Representatives; Votes; Voting

Stars that Move Together Were Born Together

It is challenging to reliably identify stars that were born together outside of actively star-forming regions and bound stellar systems. However, co-natal stars should be present throughout the Galaxy, and their demographics can shed light on the clustered nature of star formation and the dynamical state of the disk. In previous work we presented a set of simulations of the Galactic disk that followed the clustered formation and dynamical evolution of 4 billion individual stars over the last 5 Gyr. The simulations predict that a high fraction of co-moving stars with physical and 3D velocity separation of $\Delta r < 20$ pc and $\Delta v < 1.5$ km s$^{-1}$ are co-natal. In this \textit{Letter}, we use \textit{Gaia} DR2 and LAMOST DR4 data to identify and study co-moving pairs. We find that the distribution of relative velocities and separations of pairs in the data is in good agreement with the predictions from the simulation. We identify 111 co-moving pairs in the Solar neighborhood with reliable astrometric and spectroscopic measurements. These pairs show a strong preference for having similar metallicities when compared to random field pairs. We therefore conclude that these pairs were very likely born together. The simulations predict that co-natal pairs originate preferentially from high-mass and relatively young ($< 1$ Gyr) star clusters. \textit{Gaia} will eventually deliver well-determined metallicities for the brightest stars, enabling the identification of thousands of co-natal pairs due to disrupting star clusters in the solar neighborhood.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Submitted to ApJL. Catalog here: http://harshilkamdar.github.io/2019/04/03/pairs.htm

Perceptions of the road transport management system (RTMS) : promoting voluntary certification

Abstract: This paper uses a structured survey to provide insight into how the Road Transport Management System (RTMS), SABS standard SANS 1395:2014, has developed and is viewed within the road transport industry in South Africa. The RTMS is an industry-led, government-supported, voluntary, self-regulation scheme that encourages consignees, consignors and road transport operators to implement a management system that demonstrates compliance with road traffic regulations and contributes to preserving road infrastructure, improving road safety and increasing productivity. The surveyed views of the road traffic authorities, banks, insurance companies, the RTMS steering committee, and road transport operators provide insights into the perceptions and experiences with respect to the RTMS from diverse stakeholders. Respondents indicate that improved safety, operational efficiency and reduced road crashes are seen as attractive benefits to implementing the RTMS. The main obstacles to certification are a lack of awareness of the RTMS and a poor understanding of the requirements for becoming RTMS certified. The clients of road transporters play a significant role in the transporter’s decision to become RTMS certified

Performance Analysis of Software Implementation of Reproducing Music from Musical Notes (Mozart)

In this research take a picture of Mozart of any music or instrument than the process on the captured image and all information pass to the MATLAB for image processing. The Algorithm separates the one line of Mozart and then separate another line in this way separate line by line of the whole Mozart. After separating line another step is to separate beat one by one from the separated line from the picture of Mozart. In this way, all the line and beats of Mozart are separated using the MATLAB software. When all the beats and lines are individual then find the meaning according to their symbol and combined the entire tune related to whole music or instrument. Then whole the music which is combining from the image of Mozart (musical notes) is played through the MATLAB software

Perceptions of the road transport management system (RTMS) : promoting voluntary certification

This paper uses a structured survey to provide insight into how the Road Transport Management System (RTMS), SABS standard SANS 1395:2014, has developed and is viewed within the road transport industry in South Africa. The RTMS is an industry-led, government-supported, voluntary, self-regulation scheme that encourages consignees, consignors and road transport operators to implement a management system that demonstrates compliance with road traffic regulations and contributes to preserving road infrastructure, improving road safety and increasing productivity. The surveyed views of the road traffic authorities, banks, insurance companies, the RTMS steering committee, and road transport operators provide insights into the perceptions and experiences with respect to the RTMS from diverse stakeholders. Respondents indicate that improved safety, operational efficiency and reduced road crashes are seen as attractive benefits to implementing the RTMS. The main obstacles to certification are a lack of awareness of the RTMS and a poor understanding of the requirements for becoming RTMS certified. The clients of road transporters play a significant role in the transporter’s decision to become RTMS certified.Papers presented at the 36th Southern African Transport Conference, CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa on 10-13 July 2017.Transportation research board of the national academie

Structural and chemical embrittlement of grain boundaries by impurities: a general theory and first principles calculations for copper

First principles calculations of the Sigma 5 (310)[001] symmetric tilt grain boundary in Cu with Bi, Na, and Ag substitutional impurities provide evidence that in the phenomenon of Bi embrittlement of Cu grain boundaries electronic effects do not play a major role; on the contrary, the embrittlement is mostly a structural or "size" effect. Na is predicted to be nearly as good an embrittler as Bi, whereas Ag does not embrittle the boundary in agreement with experiment. While we reject the prevailing view that "electronic" effects (i.e., charge transfer) are responsible for embrittlement, we do not exclude the role of chemistry. However numerical results show a striking equivalence between the alkali metal Na and the semi metal Bi, small differences being accounted for by their contrasting "size" and "softness" (defined here). In order to separate structural and chemical effects unambiguously if not uniquely, we model the embrittlement process by taking the system of grain boundary and free surfaces through a sequence of precisely defined gedanken processes; each of these representing a putative mechanism. We thereby identify three mechanisms of embrittlement by substitutional impurities, two of which survive in the case of embrittlement or cohesion enhancement by interstitials. Two of the three are purely structural and the third contains both structural and chemical elements that by their very nature cannot be further unravelled. We are able to take the systems we study through each of these stages by explicit computer simulations and assess the contribution of each to the nett reduction in intergranular cohesion. The conclusion we reach is that embrittlement by both Bi and Na is almost exclusively structural in origin; that is, the embrittlement is a size effect.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures; Accepted in Phys. Rev.

A multicenter prospective randomized controlled trial of cardiac resynchronization therapy guided by invasive dP/dt

Background: No periprocedural metric has demonstrated improved cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) outcomes in a multicenter setting. Objective: We sought to determine if left ventricular (LV) lead placement targeted to the coronary sinus (CS) branch generating the best acute hemodynamic response (AHR) results in improved outcomes at 6 months. Methods: In this multicenter randomized controlled trial, patients were randomized to guided CRT or conventional CRT. Patients in the guided arm had LV dP/dtmax measured during biventricular (BIV) pacing. Target CS branches were identified and the final LV lead position was the branch with the best AHR and acceptable threshold values. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients with a reduction in LV end-systolic volume (LVESV) of ≥15% at 6 months. Results: A total of 281 patients were recruited across 12 centers. Mean age was 70.8 ± 10.9 years and 54% had ischemic etiology. Seventy-three percent of patients in the guided arm demonstrated a reduction in LVESV of ≥15% at 6 months vs 60% in the conventional arm (P = .02). Patients with AHR ≥ 10% were more likely to demonstrate a reduction of ESV ≥ 15% (84% of patients with an AHR ≥10% vs 28% with an AHR <10%; P < 0.001). Procedure duration and fluoroscopy times were longer in the pressure wire-guided arm (104 ± 39 minutes vs 142 ± 39 minutes; P < .001 and 20 ±16 minutes vs 28 ± 15 minutes; P = .002). Conclusions: AHR determined by invasively measuring LV dP/dtmax during BIV pacing predicts reverse remodeling 6 months after CRT. Patients in whom LV dP/dtmax was used to guide LV lead placement demonstrated better rates of reverse remodeling