N-Arachidonoyl Dopamine Modulates Acute Systemic Inflammation via Nonhematopoietic TRPV1.

N-Arachidonoyl dopamine (NADA) is an endogenous lipid that potently activates the transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1), which mediates pain and thermosensation. NADA is also an agonist of cannabinoid receptors 1 and 2. We have reported that NADA reduces the activation of cultured human endothelial cells by LPS and TNF-α. Thus far, in vivo studies using NADA have focused on its neurologic and behavioral roles. In this article, we show that NADA potently decreases in vivo systemic inflammatory responses and levels of the coagulation intermediary plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 in three mouse models of inflammation: LPS, bacterial lipopeptide, and polymicrobial intra-abdominal sepsis. We also found that the administration of NADA increases survival in endotoxemic mice. Additionally, NADA reduces blood levels of the neuropeptide calcitonin gene-related peptide but increases the neuropeptide substance P in LPS-treated mice. We demonstrate that the anti-inflammatory effects of NADA are mediated by TRPV1 expressed by nonhematopoietic cells and provide data suggesting that neuronal TRPV1 may mediate NADA's anti-inflammatory effects. These results indicate that NADA has novel TRPV1-dependent anti-inflammatory properties and suggest that the endovanilloid system might be targeted therapeutically in acute inflammation

Neuroendocrine bronchial and thymic tumors: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up

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The Dark Side of Performance Appraisals: A Study of University Librarians Across the U.S.

Performance appraisals are conducted regularly in professional organizations as a means to evaluate employee performance and overall company effectiveness. Employees and employers alike dread appraisal time; appraisals are often time consuming, tedious, and yield minimal positive results. Previous research has shown that employee perceptions of performance appraisals are important to consider when determining their overall effectiveness. In order to build new systems that could be viewed more positively by managers and employees, a deeper examination into the issues of performance appraisals, especially from the manager’s perspective, is needed. Our study looks at data gathered from a survey given to academic library directors, prompting them to evaluate the purposefulness of their current performance appraisal systems. Embedded in this survey is an open-ended response question, asking directors their perceptions of the PA system in their library. Our study seeks to determine if we can use text analytics create a better understanding of manager’s reactions and perceptions of PA systems and formats. We believe that the data gathered from the textual analysis will provide incremental validity into manager perceptions of performance appraisals and further insight into how organizations can improve their own processes

Best-Fit Ellipsoids of Atom-Probe Tomographic Data to Study Coalescence of Gamma Prime (L1_2) Precipitates in Ni-Al-Cr

An algorithm is presented to fit precipitates in atom probe tomographic data sets as equivalent ellipsoids. Unlike previous techniques, which measure only the radius of gyration, these ellipsoids retain the moments of inertia and principle axes of the original precipitate, preserving crystallographic orientational information. The algorithm is applied to study interconnected gamma prime precipitates (L1_2) in the Gamma-matrix (FCC) of a Ni-Al-Cr alloy. The precipitates are found to coagulate along -type directions.Comment: Accepted for publication in Scripta Materialia, added information about local magnification effect

Thermal conductivity in PbTe from first principles

We investigate the harmonic and anharmonic contributions to the phonon spectrum of lead telluride and perform a complete characterization of how thermal properties of PbTe evolve as temperature increases. We analyze the thermal resistivity's variation with temperature and clarify misconceptions about existing experimental literature. The resistivity initially increases sublinearly because of phase space effects and ultra strong anharmonic renormalizations of specific bands. This effect is the strongest factor in the favorable thermoelectric properties of PbTe, and it explains its limitations at higher T . This quantitative prediction opens the prospect of phonon phase space engineering to tailor the lifetimes of crucial heat carrying phonons by considering different structure or nanostructure geometries. We analyze the available scattering volume between TO and LA phonons as a function of temperature and correlate its changes to features in the thermal conductivity

Processing and Transmission of Information

Contains reports on five research projects.National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NGL 22-009-013)National Science Foundation (Grant GK-5800

Including lateral interactions into microkinetic models of catalytic reactions

In many catalytic reactions lateral interactions between adsorbates are believed to have a strong influence on the reaction rates. We apply a microkinetic model to explore the effect of lateral interactions and how to efficiently take them into account in a simple catalytic reaction. Three different approximations are investigated: site, mean-field, and quasichemical approximations. The obtained results are compared to accurate Monte Carlo numbers. In the end, we apply the approximations to a real catalytic reaction, namely, ammonia synthesis. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics