4,403 research outputs found
The role of sterol carrier protein 2 in the regulation of Leydig cell steroidogenesis
The aim of the studies described in this thesis was to
clarify the rele of SCP2 in the regulation of steroid production
in rat Leydig cells.
The ra te of steroid production in the adrenal, the ovary,
the placenta and the testis is determined by the rate of
conversion of cholesterol to pregnenolone. The complex of
reactions and the localization of the enzymes involved in this so
called cholesterol side chain cleavage are well known. The P-
450scc enzyme complex catalyzing the production of pregnenolone
from cholesterol is located in the inner mitochondria! membrane
of steroidogenic cells (Fig.l.l). Several substances that regulate steroidogenesis, regulate the
rate of pregnenolone formation via an intracellular transducing
mechanism after binding to the plasma membrane of the cell.
Different "second messengers" are involved in the transduetion of
the signal from the plasma membrane to other processesjmessengers
in the cell which are involved in regulation of steroid production.
It is also known that protein synthesis and the transfer of
cholesterol to the inner mitochondria! membrane are important in
regulation of steroidogenesis. It is not known, however, if, and
in which way the induction of secend messenger systems in
steroidogenic cells is linked with protein synthesis, cholesterol
transfer and activatien of the cholesterol side chain cleavage
reaction inside the mitochondria. In this respect, sterol carrier
protein 2 (SCP2) is one of the possible proteins that could be
involved in transduetion of the signal from the secend messengers
to the cscc enzyme complex
COVID-Related Chronic Allograft Dysfunction in Lung Transplant Recipients: Long-Term Follow-up Results from Infections Occurring in the Pre-vaccination Era
Introduction: We report on characteristics and lung function outcomes among lung transplant recipients (LTRs) after COVID-19 with infections occurring in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic prior to introduction of the vaccines. Methods: This was a retrospective study of 18 LTRs who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 between 1 February 2020 and 1 March 2021. The mean age was 49.9 (22–68) years; 12 patients (67%) were male. Two patients died due to severe COVID-19. Results: During the study period, there were 18 lung transplant recipients with a community-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this cohort, seven had mild, nine had moderate, and two had severe COVID-19. All patients with mild and moderate COVID-19 survived, but the two patients with severe COVID-19 died in the intensive care unit while intubated and on mechanical ventilation. Most patients with moderate COVID-19 showed a permanent lung function decrease that did not improve after 12 months. Conclusion: A majority of LTRs in the current cohort did not experience an alteration in the trajectory of FEV1 evolution after developing SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, in the patients with moderate COVID-19, most patients had a decline in the FEV1 that was present after 1 month after recovery and did not improve or even deteriorated further after 12 months. In LTRs, COVID-19 can have long-lasting effects on pulmonary function. Treatment strategies that influence this trajectory are needed
COVID-19-Associated Lung Fibrosis: Two Pathways and Two Phenotypes, Lung Transplantation, and Antifibrotics
COVID-19 can be associated with lung fibrosis. Although lung fibrosis after COVID-19 is a relatively rare finding, the mere fact that globally a very large number of patients have had COVID-19 leads to a significant burden of disease. However, patients with COVID-19-associated lung fibrosis have different clinical and radiological features. The aim of this review is to define the different phenotypes of COVID-19-associated lung fibrosis, based on the medical literature. We found that two phenotypes have emerged. One phenotype is COVID-19-related acute respiratory distress syndrome (CARDS); the other phenotype is post-COVID-19 pulmonary fibrosis (PCPF). Both phenotypes have different risk factors, clinical, and radiological features, and differ in their pathophysiological mechanisms and prognoses. A long-term follow-up of patients with pulmonary complications after COVID-19 is warranted, even in patients with only discrete fibrosis. Further studies are needed to determine the optimal treatment because currently the literature is scarce, and evidence is only based on small case series or case reports
Mitigating the Goldilocks effect: the effects of different substrate models on track formation potential
In ichnology, the Goldilocks effect describes a scenario in which a substrate must be ‘just right’ in order for tracks to form—too soft, the animal will be unable to traverse the area, and too firm, the substrate will not deform. Any given substrate can therefore only preserve a range of tracks from those animals which exert an underfoot pressure at approximately the yield strength of the sediment. However, rarely are substrates vertically homogeneous for any great depth, varying either due to heterogeneity across sediment layers, or from mechanical behaviour such as strain hardening. Here, we explore the specificity of the Goldilocks effect in a number of virtual substrates simulated using finite- element analysis. We find that the inclusion of strain hardening into the model increases the potential range of trackmaker sizes somewhat, compared with a simple elastic–perfectly plastic model. The simulation of a vertically heterogeneous, strain hardening substrate showed a much larger range of potential trackmakers than strain hardening alone. We therefore show that the Goldilocks effect is lessened to varying degrees by the inclusion of more realistic soil parameters, though there still remains an upper and lower limit to the size of trackmaker able to traverse the area while leaving footprints
RNases H1 and H2:Guardians of the stability of the nuclear genome when supply of dNTPs is limiting for DNA synthesis
Experimental characterization of Gaussian quantum communication channels
We present a full experimental characterization of continuous variable
quantum communication channels established by shared entanglement together with
local operations and classical communication. The resulting teleportation
channel was fully characterized by measuring all elements of the covariance
matrix of the shared two-mode squeezed Gaussian state. From the experimental
data we determined the lower bound to the quantum channel capacity, the
teleportation fidelity of coherent states and the logarithmic negativity and
the purity of the shared state. Additionally, a positive secret key rate was
obtained for two of the established channels.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review
Photometry of supernovae in an image series : methods and application to the Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS)
We present a technique to measure lightcurves of time-variable point sources
on a spatially structured background from imaging data. The technique was
developed to measure light curves of SNLS supernovae in order to infer their
distances. This photometry technique performs simultaneous PSF photometry at
the same sky position on an image series. We describe two implementations of
the method: one that resamples images before measuring fluxes, and one which
does not. In both instances, we sketch the key algorithms involved and present
the validation using semi-artificial sources introduced in real images in order
to assess the accuracy of the supernova flux measurements relative to that of
surrounding stars. We describe the methods required to anchor these PSF fluxes
to calibrated aperture catalogs, in order to derive SN magnitudes. We find a
marginally significant bias of 2 mmag of the after-resampling method, and no
bias at the mmag accuracy for the non-resampling method. Given surrounding star
magnitudes, we determine the systematic uncertainty of SN magnitudes to be less
than 1.5 mmag, which represents about one third of the current photometric
calibration uncertainty affecting SN measurements. The SN photometry delivers
several by-products: bright star PSF flux mea- surements which have a
repeatability of about 0.6%, as for aperture measurements; we measure relative
astrometric positions with a noise floor of 2.4 mas for a single-image bright
star measurement; we show that in all bands of the MegaCam instrument, stars
exhibit a profile linearly broadening with flux by about 0.5% over the whole
brightness range.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 20 page
Photon number discrimination without a photon counter and its application to reconstructing non-Gaussian states
The non-linearity of a conditional photon-counting measurement can be used to
`de-Gaussify' a Gaussian state of light. Here we present and experimentally
demonstrate a technique for photon number resolution using only homodyne
detection. We then apply this technique to inform a conditional measurement;
unambiguously reconstructing the statistics of the non-Gaussian one and two
photon subtracted squeezed vacuum states. Although our photon number
measurement relies on ensemble averages and cannot be used to prepare
non-Gaussian states of light, its high efficiency, photon number resolving
capabilities, and compatibility with the telecommunications band make it
suitable for quantum information tasks relying on the outcomes of mean values.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Theory section expanded in response to referee
comment
- …