Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopic Studies on the Oviducts of Pekin Ducks Fed Methyl Mercury Containing Diets

This study was undertaken to examine the effects of varying levels of methyl mercury (MeHg) on the ultrastructure of the surface epithelium of the oviduct of ducks. Accordingly, Pekin ducks were maintained on feed containing varying doses of (0.0; 0.5; 5.0; 15.0 ppm) of MeHg (Group I - control to IV) for 12 weeks and sacrificed. Tissue from the magnum and the shell gland regions of the oviduct was processed for scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It was found that the primary and secondary folds of these regions of the oviducts of the control and 0.5 ppm treatment group were densely populated with ciliated cells and that the cilia tend to cover the apical surfaces of the non-ciliated secretory cells. This unchanged ultrastructural morphology of the surface epithelium of 0.5 ppm treatment group was verified with TEM. The ciliated and nonciliated cells in surface epithelium appeared to be equal in frequency. The nuclei of ciliated cells were superficial in location compared to nonciliated secretory cells which had nuclei in the basal part of the cytoplasm. In the oviducal tissues from ducks fed 5.0 ppm MeHg isolated areas of ciliary loss, but minimal disruption of the apical plasma membrane were observed by SEM. In a few birds plasma membrane lesions, condensation of nuclear chromatin and very dilated rough endoplasmic reticulum were seen with TEM. In the oviducal tissues from ducks fed 15.0 ppm MeHg it could be seen that ciliary loss was much more extensive than hitherto observed, and disruption of the apex of cells could be seen. TEM showed degeneration of cytoplasmic organelles, more or less severely damaged ciliated cells, loss of ciliary extensions and formation of compound cilia. These observations indicate that methyl mercury at 5.0 and 15.0 ppm dose levels causes toxic injury to oviducal surface epithelium of Pekin duck that may cause reduced reproductive capability

Copycats among underdogs - echoing the sharing economy business model

The sharing economy has gained traction in several industry sectors by establishing ever-new platforms, with digital intermediation and peer-to-peer exchanges at the heart of the business model. Most research on the sharing economy concerns the phenomenon level or focuses on the operations of single platforms. This paper connects various sharing economy platforms by asking: How has the sharing economy spread to new platforms? The purpose of the paper is to explain the pattern of spread of the sharing economy business model. Findings point out a seamless, unobtrusive pattern echoing characteristics of the sharing economy business model across distant sectors to avoid competition while reproducing activities in ever-new resource settings. The paper continues the exploration of the sharing economy related to industrial marketing through moving from the individual platforms to the way they lead to new ones while acknowledging how the innovative model for new platforms is highly based on mandates created through acknowledging oneself as a role model successor. Such a spread mechanism redefines innovation newness, adaptation and diffusion, and raises new insights to understand how current business landscapes would be under the possible transition into a new logic of operations

Combinatorial Hopf algebras and Towers of Algebras

Bergeron and Li have introduced a set of axioms which guarantee that the Grothendieck groups of a tower of algebras $\bigoplus_{n\ge0}A_n$ can be endowed with the structure of graded dual Hopf algebras. Hivert and Nzeutzhap, and independently Lam and Shimozono constructed dual graded graphs from primitive elements in Hopf algebras. In this paper we apply the composition of these constructions to towers of algebras. We show that if a tower $\bigoplus_{n\ge0}A_n$ gives rise to graded dual Hopf algebras then we must have $\dim(A_n)=r^nn!$ where $r = \dim(A_1)$.Comment: 7 page

Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Tumors Colonized with Bacterial Ferritin-Expressing Escherichia coli

Background: Recent studies have shown that human ferritin can be used as a reporter of gene expression for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Bacteria also encode three classes of ferritin-type molecules with iron accumulation properties. Methods and Findings: Here, we investigated whether these bacterial ferritins can also be used as MRI reporter genes and which of the bacterial ferritins is the most suitable reporter. Bacterial ferritins were overexpressed in probiotic E. coli Nissle 1917. Cultures of these bacteria were analyzed and those generating highest MRI contrast were further investigated in tumor bearing mice. Among members of three classes of bacterial ferritin tested, bacterioferritin showed the most promise as a reporter gene. Although all three proteins accumulated similar amounts of iron when overexpressed individually, bacterioferritin showed the highest contrast change. By site-directed mutagenesis we also show that the heme iron, a unique part of the bacterioferritin molecule, is not critical for MRI contrast change. Tumor-specific induction of bacterioferritin-expression in colonized tumors resulted in contrast changes within the bacteria-colonized tumors. Conclusions: Our data suggest that colonization and gene expression by live vectors expressing bacterioferritin can be monitored by MRI due to contrast change

Linear extension sums as valuations on cones

33 pagesInternational audienceThe geometric and algebraic theory of valuations on cones is applied to understand identities involving summing certain rational functions over the set of linear extensions of a poset

Hopf algebras and Markov chains: Two examples and a theory

The operation of squaring (coproduct followed by product) in a combinatorial Hopf algebra is shown to induce a Markov chain in natural bases. Chains constructed in this way include widely studied methods of card shuffling, a natural "rock-breaking" process, and Markov chains on simplicial complexes. Many of these chains can be explictly diagonalized using the primitive elements of the algebra and the combinatorics of the free Lie algebra. For card shuffling, this gives an explicit description of the eigenvectors. For rock-breaking, an explicit description of the quasi-stationary distribution and sharp rates to absorption follow.Comment: 51 pages, 17 figures. (Typographical errors corrected. Further fixes will only appear on the version on Amy Pang's website, the arXiv version will not be updated.

Analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms in the FAS and CTLA-4 genes of peripheral T-cell lymphomas

Angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AILT) represents a subset of T-cell lymphomas but resembles an autoimmune disease in many of its clinical aspects. Despite the phenotype of effector T-cells and high expression of FAS and CTLA-4 receptor molecules, tumor cells fail to undergo apoptosis. We investigated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the FAS and CTLA-4 genes in 94 peripheral T-cell lymphomas. Although allelic frequencies of some FAS SNPs were enriched in AILT cases, none of these occurred at a different frequency compared to healthy individuals. Therefore, SNPs in these genes are not associated with the apoptotic defect and autoimmune phenomena in AILT

Apoptosis resistance downstream of eIF4E: posttranscriptional activation of an anti-apoptotic transcript carrying a consensus hairpin structure

Aberrant activation of the translation initiation machinery is a common property of malignant cells, and is essential for breast carcinoma cells to manifest a malignant phenotype. How does sustained activation of the rate limiting step in protein synthesis so fundamentally alter a cell? In this report, we test the post transcriptional operon theory as a possible mechanism, employing a model system in which apoptosis resistance is conferred on NIH 3T3 cells by ectopic expression of eIF4E. We show (i) there is a set of 255 transcripts that manifest an increase in translational efficiency during eIF4E-mediated escape from apoptosis; (ii) there is a novel prototype 55 nt RNA consensus hairpin structure that is overrepresented in the 5′-untranslated region of translationally activated transcripts; (iii) the identified consensus hairpin structure is sufficient to target a reporter mRNA for translational activation under pro-apoptotic stress, but only when eIF4E is deregulated; and (iv) that osteopontin, one of the translationally activated transcripts harboring the identified consensus hairpin structure functions as one mediator of the apoptosis resistance seen in our model. Our findings offer genome-wide insights into the mechanism of eIF4E-mediated apoptosis resistance and provide a paradigm for the systematic study of posttranscriptional control in normal biology and disease

A Typology of Digital Sharing Business Models: A Design Science Research Approach

The digitally enabled sharing economy, also called the “digital sharing economy” (DSE), has changed patterns of consumption by introducing new choices and channels for provision and receipt of services. The DSE encompasses sharing systems whose business models may vary distinctly from platform to platform. Although business models in the context of the sharing economy have been studied so far, we have observed that the current literature does not provide an approach that covers all the possible business models (in the broadest sense of the term) that (potentially) exist within the scope of the DSE. The present paper, therefore, aims to propose a typology of business models in the DSE that covers a wide space of models – even those which may not involve “business” in the commercial sense. This is achieved through an iterative inductive process based on a design science research approach. The typology can assist in positioning the current and future sharing systems in the DSE by systematically classifying their business models. It is intended to serve as a guiding tool for the sustainability assessment of platforms from both resource and socio-economic perspectives. The present study can also enable researchers and practitioners to capture and systematically analyse digital sharing business models based on a structured, actionable approach

Gene expression analysis after receptor tyrosine kinase activation reveals new potential melanoma proteins

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Melanoma is an aggressive tumor with increasing incidence. To develop accurate prognostic markers and targeted therapies, changes leading to malignant transformation of melanocytes need to be understood. In the <it>Xiphophorus </it>melanoma model system, a mutated version of the EGF receptor Xmrk (<it>Xiphophorus </it>melanoma receptor kinase) triggers melanomagenesis. Cellular events downstream of Xmrk, such as the activation of Akt, Ras, B-Raf or Stat5, were also shown to play a role in human melanomagenesis. This makes the elucidation of Xmrk downstream targets a useful method for identifying processes involved in melanoma formation.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Here, we analyzed Xmrk-induced gene expression using a microarray approach. Several highly expressed genes were confirmed by realtime PCR, and pathways responsible for their induction were revealed using small molecule inhibitors. The expression of these genes was also monitored in human melanoma cell lines, and the target gene <it>FOSL1 </it>was knocked down by siRNA. Proliferation and migration of siRNA-treated melanoma cell lines were then investigated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Genes with the strongest upregulation after receptor activation were FOS-like antigen 1 (<it>Fosl1</it>), early growth response 1 (<it>Egr1</it>), osteopontin (<it>Opn</it>), insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 (<it>Igfbp3</it>), dual-specificity phosphatase 4 (<it>Dusp4</it>), and tumor-associated antigen L6 (<it>Taal6</it>). Interestingly, most genes were blocked in presence of a SRC kinase inhibitor. Importantly, we found that <it>FOSL1</it>, <it>OPN</it>, <it>IGFBP3</it>, <it>DUSP4</it>, and <it>TAAL6 </it>also exhibited increased expression levels in human melanoma cell lines compared to human melanocytes. Knockdown of <it>FOSL1 </it>in human melanoma cell lines reduced their proliferation and migration.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Altogether, the data show that the receptor tyrosine kinase Xmrk is a useful tool in the identification of target genes that are commonly expressed in Xmrk-transgenic melanocytes and melanoma cell lines. The identified molecules constitute new possible molecular players in melanoma development. Specifically, a role of FOSL1 in melanomagenic processes is demonstrated. These data are the basis for future detailed analyses of the investigated target genes.</p