Transient increases in intracellular calcium and reactive oxygen species levels in TCam-2 cells exposed to microgravity

The effects of microgravity on functions of the human body are well described, including alterations in the male and female reproductive systems. In the present study, TCam-2 cells, which are considered a good model of mitotically active male germ cells, were used to investigate intracellular signalling and cell metabolism during exposure to simulated microgravity, a condition that affects cell shape and cytoskeletal architecture. After a 24 hour exposure to simulated microgravity, TCam-2 cells showed 1) a decreased proliferation rate and a delay in cell cycle progression, 2) increased anaerobic metabolism accompanied by increased levels of intracellular Ca(2+), reactive oxygen species and superoxide anion and modifications in mitochondrial morphology. Interestingly, all these events were transient and were no longer evident after 48 hours of exposure. The presence of antioxidants prevented not only the effects described above but also the modifications in cytoskeletal architecture and the activation of the autophagy process induced by simulated microgravity. In conclusion, in the TCam-2 cell model, simulated microgravity activated the oxidative machinery, triggering transient macroscopic cell events, such as a reduction in the proliferation rate, changes in cytoskeleton-driven shape and autophagy activation

Altered Kv2.1 functioning promotes increased excitability in hippocampal neurons of an Alzheimer's disease mouse model.

Altered neuronal excitability is emerging as an important feature in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Kv2.1 potassium channels are important modulators of neuronal excitability and synaptic activity. We investigated Kv2.1 currents and its relation to the intrinsic synaptic activity of hippocampal neurons from 3xTg-AD (triple transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer's disease) mice, a widely employed preclinical AD model. Synaptic activity was also investigated by analyzing spontaneous [Ca(2+)]i spikes. Compared with wild-type (Non-Tg (non-transgenic mouse model)) cultures, 3xTg-AD neurons showed enhanced spike frequency and decreased intensity. Compared with Non-Tg cultures, 3xTg-AD hippocampal neurons revealed reduced Kv2.1-dependent Ik current densities as well as normalized conductances. 3xTg-AD cultures also exhibited an overall decrease in the number of functional Kv2.1 channels. Immunofluorescence assay revealed an increase in Kv2.1 channel oligomerization, a condition associated with blockade of channel function. In Non-Tg neurons, pharmacological blockade of Kv2.1 channels reproduced the altered pattern found in the 3xTg-AD cultures. Moreover, compared with untreated sister cultures, pharmacological inhibition of Kv2.1 in 3xTg-AD neurons did not produce any significant modification in Ik current densities. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) promote Kv2.1 oligomerization, thereby acting as negative modulator of the channel activity. Glutamate receptor activation produced higher ROS levels in hippocampal 3xTg-AD cultures compared with Non-Tg neurons. Antioxidant treatment with N-Acetyl-Cysteine was found to rescue Kv2.1-dependent currents and decreased spontaneous hyperexcitability in 3xTg-AD neurons. Analogous results regarding spontaneous synaptic activity were observed in neuronal cultures treated with the antioxidant 6-hydroxy-2,5,7,8-tetramethylchroman-2-carboxylic acid (Trolox). Our study indicates that AD-related mutations may promote enhanced ROS generation, oxidative-dependent oligomerization, and loss of function of Kv2.1 channels. These processes can be part on the increased neuronal excitability of these neurons. These steps may set a deleterious vicious circle that eventually helps to promote excitotoxic damage found in the AD brain

GRBs with optical afterglow and known redshift: a statistical study

We present a correlation between two intrinsic parameters of GRB optical afterglows. These are the isotropic luminosity at the maximum of the light curve (Lpeak) and the time-integrated isotropic energy (Eiso) radiated after the observed maximum. We test the correlation between the logarithms of (Eiso) and (Lpeak) and finally we value the effect of the different samples of GRBs in according with the first optical observation reduced to proper time.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of the conference "SWIFT and GRBs: Unveiling the Relativistic Universe", Venice, June 5-9, 200

Learning activation functions from data using cubic spline interpolation

Neural networks require a careful design in order to perform properly on a given task. In particular, selecting a good activation function (possibly in a data-dependent fashion) is a crucial step, which remains an open problem in the research community. Despite a large amount of investigations, most current implementations simply select one fixed function from a small set of candidates, which is not adapted during training, and is shared among all neurons throughout the different layers. However, neither two of these assumptions can be supposed optimal in practice. In this paper, we present a principled way to have data-dependent adaptation of the activation functions, which is performed independently for each neuron. This is achieved by leveraging over past and present advances on cubic spline interpolation, allowing for local adaptation of the functions around their regions of use. The resulting algorithm is relatively cheap to implement, and overfitting is counterbalanced by the inclusion of a novel damping criterion, which penalizes unwanted oscillations from a predefined shape. Experimental results validate the proposal over two well-known benchmarks.Comment: Submitted to the 27th Italian Workshop on Neural Networks (WIRN 2017

Joint multi-baseline SAR interferometry

We propose a technique to provide interferometry by combining multiple images of the same area. This technique differs from the multi-baseline approach in literature as (a) it exploits all the images simultaneously, (b) it performs a spectral shift preprocessing to remove most of the decorrelation, and (c) it exploits distributed targets. The technique is mainly intended for DEM generation at centimetric accuracy, as well as for differential interferometry. The problem is framed in the contest of single-input multiple-output (SIMO) channel estimation via the cross-relations (CR) technique and the resulting algorithm provides significant improvements with respect to conventional approaches based either on independent analysis of single interferograms or multi-baselines phase analysis of single pixels of current literature, for those targets that are correlated in all the images, like for long-term coherent areas, or for acquisitions taken with a short revisit time (as those gathered with future satellite constellations)

ASCA and BeppoSAX observations of the peculiar X-ray source 4U1700+24/HD154791

The X-ray source 4U1700+24/HD154791 is one of the few galactic sources whose counterpart is an evolved M star. In X-rays the source shows extreme erratic variability and a complex and variable spectrum. While this strongly suggests accretion onto a compact object, no clear diagnosis of binarity was done up to now. We report on ASCA and BeppoSAX X-ray broad band observations of this source and on ground optical observations from the Loiano 1.5 m telescope.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, uses aipproc.sty, to appear in Proceedings of the Fifth Compton Symposiu

A new dataset and empirical relationships between magnitude/intensity and epicentral distance for liquefaction in central-eastern Sicily

Strong earthquakes can trigger several phenomena inducing soil deformation, such as liquefaction, ground fracturing and landslides, which can often cause more damage than the seismic shaking itself. A research performed on numerous historical accounts reporting descriptions of seismogeological effects in central-eastern Sicily, allowed the authors to update the previous liquefaction datasets. 75 liquefaction-induced phenomena observed in 26 sites, triggered by 14 earthquakes, have been used to define relationships between intensity/magnitude values and epicentral distance from the liquefied sites. The proposed upper bound-curves, at regional scale for central- eastern Sicily, are realized by using the updating liquefaction dataset and also the new CPTI04 Italian earthquake parametric catalogue. These relationships can be useful in hazard assessment to evaluate the minimum energy of an earthquake inducing liquefactions