Uric Acid-Induced Adipocyte Dysfunction Is Attenuated by HO-1 Upregulation: Potential Role of Antioxidant Therapy to Target Obesity

Increased uric acid levels have been implicated in the pathogenesis of metabolic syndrome. To examine the mechanisms by which this occurs, we hypothesized that an increase in heme oxygenase 1, a potent antioxidant gene, will decrease uric acid levels and adipocyte dysfunction via suppression of ROS and xanthine oxidase (XO) levels. We examined the effect of uric acid on adipogenesis in human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in the presence and absence of cobalt protoporphyrin (CoPP), an HO-1 inducer, and tin mesoporphyrin (SnMP), an HO activity inhibitor. Uric acid increased adipogenesis by increasing NADPH oxidase expression and elevation in the adipogenesis markers C/EBPα, PPARγ, and Mest, while decreasing small lipid droplets and Wnt10b levels. We treated MSCs with fructose, a fuel source that increases uric acid levels. Our results showed that fructose increased XO expression as compared to the control and concomitant treatment with CoPP significantly decreased XO expression and uric acid levels. These beneficial effects of CoPP were reversed by SnMP, supporting a role for HO activity in mediating these effects. These findings demonstrate that increased levels of HO-1 appear crucial in modulating the phenotype of adipocytes exposed to uric acid and in downregulating XO and NADPH oxidase levels

Challenging assumptions of the enlargement literature : the impact of the EU on human and minority rights in Macedonia

This article argues that from the very start of the transition process in Macedonia, a fusion of concerns about security and democratisation locked local nationalist elites and international organisations intoa political dynamic that prioritised security over democratisation. This dynamic resulted in little progress in the implementation of human and minority rights until 2009, despite heavy EU involvement in Macedonia after the internal warfare of 2001. The effects of this informally institutionalised relationship have been overlooked by scholarship on EU enlargement towards Eastern Europe, which has made generalisations based on assumptions relevant to the democratisation of countries in Eastern Europe, but not the Western Balkans

Random repeated quantum interactions and random invariant states

We consider a generalized model of repeated quantum interactions, where a system $\mathcal{H}$ is interacting in a random way with a sequence of independent quantum systems $\mathcal{K}_n, n \geq 1$. Two types of randomness are studied in detail. One is provided by considering Haar-distributed unitaries to describe each interaction between $\mathcal{H}$ and $\mathcal{K}_n$. The other involves random quantum states describing each copy $\mathcal{K}_n$. In the limit of a large number of interactions, we present convergence results for the asymptotic state of $\mathcal{H}$. This is achieved by studying spectral properties of (random) quantum channels which guarantee the existence of unique invariant states. Finally this allows to introduce a new physically motivated ensemble of random density matrices called the \emph{asymptotic induced ensemble}

New Particles Working Group Report of the Snowmass 2013 Community Summer Study

This report summarizes the work of the Energy Frontier New Physics working group of the 2013 Community Summer Study (Snowmass)

Organizational factors associated with readiness to implement and translate a primary care based telemedicine behavioral program to improve blood pressure control: the HTN-IMPROVE study

Abstract Background Hypertension is prevalent and often sub-optimally controlled; however, interventions to improve blood pressure control have had limited success. Objectives Through implementation of an evidence-based nurse-delivered self-management phone intervention to facilitate hypertension management within large complex health systems, we sought to answer the following questions: What is the level of organizational readiness to implement the intervention? What are the specific facilitators, barriers, and contextual factors that may affect organizational readiness to change? Study design Each intervention site from three separate Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISNs), which represent 21 geographic regions across the US, agreed to enroll 500 participants over a year with at least 0.5 full time equivalent employees of nursing time. Our mixed methods approach used a priori semi-structured interviews conducted with stakeholders (n = 27) including nurses, physicians, administrators, and information technology (IT) professionals between 2010 and 2011. Researchers iteratively identified facilitators and barriers of organizational readiness to change (ORC) and implementation. Additionally, an ORC survey was conducted with the stakeholders who were (n = 102) preparing for program implementation. Results Key ORC facilitators included stakeholder buy-in and improving hypertension. Positive organizational characteristics likely to impact ORC included: other similar programs that support buy-in, adequate staff, and alignment with the existing site environment; improved patient outcomes; is positive for the professional nurse role, and is evidence-based; understanding of the intervention; IT infrastructure and support, and utilization of existing equipment and space. The primary ORC barrier was unclear long-term commitment of nursing. Negative organizational characteristics likely to impact ORC included: added workload, competition with existing programs, implementation length, and limited available nurse staff time; buy-in is temporary until evidence shows improved outcomes; contacting patients and the logistics of integration into existing workflow is a challenge; and inadequate staffing is problematic. Findings were complementary across quantitative and qualitative analyses. Conclusions The model of organizational change identified key facilitators and barriers of organizational readiness to change and successful implementation. This study allows us to understand the needs and challenges of intervention implementation. Furthermore, examination of organizational facilitators and barriers to implementation of evidence-based interventions may inform dissemination in other chronic diseases.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112820/1/13012_2013_Article_683.pd

Nanoscale Effects on Heterojunction Electron Gases in GaN/AlGaN Core/Shell Nanowires

The electronic properties of heterojunction electron gases formed in GaN/AlGaN core/shell nanowires with hexagonal and triangular cross-sections are studied theoretically. We show that at nanoscale dimensions, the non-polar hexagonal system exhibits degenerate quasi-one-dimensional electron gases at the hexagon corners, which transition to a core-centered electron gas at lower doping. In contrast, polar triangular core/shell nanowires show either a non-degenerate electron gas on the polar face or a single quasi-one-dimensional electron gas at the corner opposite the polar face, depending on the termination of the polar face. More generally, our results indicate that electron gases in closed nanoscale systems are qualitatively different from their bulk counterparts.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures. To appear in Nano Letters. Corrected some typo

Chronic non-specific low back pain - sub-groups or a single mechanism?

Copyright 2008 Wand and O'Connell; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background: Low back pain is a substantial health problem and has subsequently attracted a considerable amount of research. Clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of a variety of interventions for chronic non-specific low back pain indicate limited effectiveness for most commonly applied interventions and approaches. Discussion: Many clinicians challenge the results of clinical trials as they feel that this lack of effectiveness is at odds with their clinical experience of managing patients with back pain. A common explanation for this discrepancy is the perceived heterogeneity of patients with chronic non-specific low back pain. It is felt that the effects of treatment may be diluted by the application of a single intervention to a complex, heterogeneous group with diverse treatment needs. This argument presupposes that current treatment is effective when applied to the correct patient. An alternative perspective is that the clinical trials are correct and current treatments have limited efficacy. Preoccupation with sub-grouping may stifle engagement with this view and it is important that the sub-grouping paradigm is closely examined. This paper argues that there are numerous problems with the sub-grouping approach and that it may not be an important reason for the disappointing results of clinical trials. We propose instead that current treatment may be ineffective because it has been misdirected. Recent evidence that demonstrates changes within the brain in chronic low back pain sufferers raises the possibility that persistent back pain may be a problem of cortical reorganisation and degeneration. This perspective offers interesting insights into the chronic low back pain experience and suggests alternative models of intervention. Summary: The disappointing results of clinical research are commonly explained by the failure of researchers to adequately attend to sub-grouping of the chronic non-specific low back pain population. Alternatively, current approaches may be ineffective and clinicians and researchers may need to radically rethink the nature of the problem and how it should best be managed

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Single hadron response measurement and calorimeter jet energy scale uncertainty with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The uncertainty on the calorimeter energy response to jets of particles is derived for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First, the calorimeter response to single isolated charged hadrons is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo simulation using proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) = 900 GeV and 7 TeV collected during 2009 and 2010. Then, using the decay of K_s and Lambda particles, the calorimeter response to specific types of particles (positively and negatively charged pions, protons, and anti-protons) is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo predictions. Finally, the jet energy scale uncertainty is determined by propagating the response uncertainty for single charged and neutral particles to jets. The response uncertainty is 2-5% for central isolated hadrons and 1-3% for the final calorimeter jet energy scale.Comment: 24 pages plus author list (36 pages total), 23 figures, 1 table, submitted to European Physical Journal