MxA Gene Expression after Live Virus Vaccination: A Sensitive Marker for Endogenous Type I Interferon

MxA gene expression is known to be regulated tightly and exclusively by type I interferons (IFNs). The kinetics of MxA gene expression was analyzed in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 11 healthy volunteers vaccinated with the 17-D strain of yellow fever virus. A reliable induction of MxA RNA and MxA protein was found in the absence of easily detectable serum IFN activity. Thus, steady-state MxA RNA levels were elevated 8- to 30-fold above prevaccination levels on day 5 after vaccination. The average increase of MxA protein was ∼50-fold. In contrast, no induction of MxA RNA or MxA protein was detectable in 3 similarly vaccinated controls who were immune because of previous vaccinations. The IFN marker 2′-5′-oligoadenylate (2-5A) synthetase known to react to both type I and type II IFNs showed a similar response but did not differentiate equally well between nonimmune and immune vaccinees. β2-microglobulin and neopterin reacted poorly, remaining at low levels within the normal range. These results demonstrate that MxA gene expression is a good marker for detecting minute quantities of biologically active type I IFN during viral infection

Slow decay of concentration variance due to no-slip walls in chaotic mixing

Chaotic mixing in a closed vessel is studied experimentally and numerically in different 2-D flow configurations. For a purely hyperbolic phase space, it is well-known that concentration fluctuations converge to an eigenmode of the advection-diffusion operator and decay exponentially with time. We illustrate how the unstable manifold of hyperbolic periodic points dominates the resulting persistent pattern. We show for different physical viscous flows that, in the case of a fully chaotic Poincare section, parabolic periodic points at the walls lead to slower (algebraic) decay. A persistent pattern, the backbone of which is the unstable manifold of parabolic points, can be observed. However, slow stretching at the wall forbids the rapid propagation of stretched filaments throughout the whole domain, and hence delays the formation of an eigenmode until it is no longer experimentally observable. Inspired by the baker's map, we introduce a 1-D model with a parabolic point that gives a good account of the slow decay observed in experiments. We derive a universal decay law for such systems parametrized by the rate at which a particle approaches the no-slip wall.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figure

Tick-borne Thogoto virus infection in mice is inhibited by the orthomyxovirus resistance gene product Mx1

We show that tick-transmitted Thogoto virus is sensitive to interferon- induced nuclear Mx1 protein, which is known for its specific antiviral action against orthomyxoviruses. Influenza virus-susceptible BALB/c mice (lacking a functional Mx1 gene) developed severe disease symptoms and died within days after intracerebral or intraperitoneal infection with a lethal challenge dose of Thogoto virus. In contrast, Mx1-positive congenic, influenza virus- resistant BALB·A2G-Mx1 mice remained healthy and survived. Likewise, A2G, congenic B6·A2G-Mx1 and CBA·T9-Mx1 mice (derived from influenza virus- resistant wild mice) as well as Mx1-transgenic 979 mice proved to be resistant. Peritoneal macrophages and interferon-treated embryo cells from resistant mice exhibited the same resistance phenotype in vitro. Moreover, stable lines of transfected mouse 3T3 cells that constitutively express Mx1 protein showed increased resistance to Thogoto virus infection. We conclude that an Mx1-sensitive step has been conserved during evolution of orthomyxoviruses and suggest that the Mx1 gene in rodents may serve to combat infections by influenza virus-like arboviruses.</p

Opportunities and Challenges in Export Horticulture as an Agro-industrial Food System: Case Study of Northwest Mount Kenya Region

Export horticulture in Kenya viewed as an agro-industrial food system is currently the fastest growing agricultural sub-sector in terms of foreign exchange earnings. Increased demand for horticulture products led to production spreading beyond the traditional mountainous high yielding areas into arid and semi-arid zones as in Northwest Mount Kenya. This food system competes with other food systems for common pool resources needed for the production of food. We argue that local actors, especially poorer households lack the power to influence the institutions (‘rules of the game’) of production and resource ownership by which the dominant agro-industrial system impacts their livelihoods.This paper is structured to include the following sections: the introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion and conclusions on the challenges and opportunities in export horticulture as an agro-industrial food system: case study of Northwest Mount Kenya region

Towards Comparison of Ultrasound Dose Measurements - Current Capabilities and Open Challenges

open7sìThe aim of this work is to evaluate measurement methods for dosimetry and exposimetry quantities that were developed in the EMRP project “Dosimetry for Ultrasound Therapy -DUTy” by comparing the measurement results for three common quantities from three national laboratories. It further aims to investigate the general feasibility of possible future (key) comparisons for dosimetry and exposimetry quantities and to identify possible open challenges towards this goal. The general format is similar to a metrological comparison, with which the National Metrological Institutes, NMIs, are already familiar. The first step involved the agreement of the protocol that was to specify the set of transducers to be circulated and the measurement conditions. Two transducers were circulated and different drive voltage levels and pulsing regimes were defined and tissue mimicking materials (TMMs) characteristics were specified. Each lab was asked to prepare the TMMs for their own measurements with the inclusion of formulations and preparation instructions specified in the protocol. Uncertainties of the input data were to be declared by the participating laboratories.openDurando, G.; Guglielmone, C.; Haller, J.; Georg, O.; Shaw, A.; Martin, E.; Karaböce, B.Durando, Giovanni; Guglielmone, CLAUDIO LUIGI DOME; Haller, J.; Georg, O.; Shaw, A.; Martin, E.; Karaböce, B

Friction Drag on a Particle Moving in a Nematic Liquid Crystal

The flow of a liquid crystal around a particle does not only depend on its shape and the viscosity coefficients but also on the direction of the molecules. We studied the resulting drag force on a sphere moving in a nematic liquid crystal (MBBA) in a low Reynold's number approach for a fixed director field (low Ericksen number regime) using the computational artificial compressibility method. Taking the necessary disclination loop around the sphere into account, the value of the drag force anisotropy (F_\perp/F_\parallel=1.50) for an exactly computed field is in good agreement with experiments (~1.5) done by conductivity diffusion measurements. We also present data for weak anchoring of the molecules on the particle surface and of trial fields, which show to be sufficiently good for most applications. Furthermore, the behaviour of the friction close to the transition point nematic isotropic and for a rod-like and a disc-like liquid crystal will be given.Comment: 23 pages RevTeX, including 3 PS figures, 1 PS table and 1 PS-LaTeX figure; Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Influence of a Feshbach resonance on the photoassociation of LiCs

We analyse the formation of ultracold 7Li133Cs molecules in the rovibrational ground state through photoassociation into the B1Pi state, which has recently been reported [J. Deiglmayr et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 133004 (2008)]. Absolute rate constants for photoassociation at large detunings from the atomic asymptote are determined and are found to be surprisingly large. The photoassociation process is modeled using a full coupled-channel calculation for the continuum state, taking all relevant hyperfine states into account. The enhancement of the photoassociation rate is found to be caused by an `echo' of the triplet component in the singlet component of the scattering wave function at the inner turning point of the lowest triplet a3Sigma+ potential. This perturbation can be ascribed to the existence of a broad Feshbach resonance at low scattering energies. Our results elucidate the important role of couplings in the scattering wave function for the formation of deeply bound ground state molecules via photoassociation.Comment: Added Erratum, 20 pages, 9 figure

Combined DNA methylation and gene expression profiling in gastrointestinal stromal tumors reveals hypomethylation of SPP1 as an independent prognostic factor

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) have distinct gene expression patterns according to localization, genotype and aggressiveness. DNA methylation at CpG dinucleotides is an important mechanism for regulation of gene expression. We performed targeted DNA methylation analysis of 1.505 CpG loci in 807 cancer-related genes in a cohort of 76 GISTs, combined with genome-wide mRNA expression analysis in 22 GISTs, to identify signatures associated with clinicopathological parameters and prognosis. Principal component analysis revealed distinct DNA methylation patterns associated with anatomical localization, genotype, mitotic counts and clinical follow-up. Methylation of a single CpG dinucleotide in the non-CpG island promoter of SPP1 was significantly correlated with shorter disease-free survival. Hypomethylation of this CpG was an independent prognostic parameter in a multivariate analysis compared to anatomical localization, genotype, tumor size and mitotic counts in a cohort of 141 GISTs with clinical follow-up. The epigenetic regulation of SPP1 was confirmed in vitro, and the functional impact of SPP1 protein on tumorigenesis-related signaling pathways was demonstrated. In summary, SPP1 promoter methylation is a novel and independent prognostic parameter in GISTs, and might be helpful in estimating the aggressiveness of GISTs from the intermediate-risk category. © 2014 UICC

Giant negative magnetoresistance in semiconductors doped by multiply charged deep impurities

A giant negative magnetoresistance has been observed in bulk germanium doped with multiply charged deep impurities. Applying a magnetic field the resistance may decrease exponentially at any orientation of the field. A drop of the resistance as much as about 10000% has been measured at 6 T. The effect is attributed to the spin splitting of impurity ground state with a very large g-factor in the order of several tens depending on impurity.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Hardy's inequality for functions vanishing on a part of the boundary

We develop a geometric framework for Hardy's inequality on a bounded domain when the functions do vanish only on a closed portion of the boundary.Comment: 26 pages, 2 figures, includes several improvements in Sections 6-8 allowing to relax the assumptions in the main results. Final version published at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11118-015-9463-