2,426 research outputs found
CXCL12 Chemokine Expression and Secretion Regulates Colorectal Carcinoma Cell Anoikis through Bim-Mediated Intrinsic Apoptosis
BACKGROUND: Resistance to anoikis, apoptosis triggered by a loss of cellular adhesion to the underlying extracellular matrix, is a hallmark of metastatic cancer. Previously we have shown re-establishment of CXCL12 expression in colorectal carcinoma cells inhibits metastasis by enhancing anoikis sensitivity. The objective of these studies was to define the signaling mechanisms regulating CXCL12-mediated anoikis. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Adhesion, examined by crystal violet staining, immunofluorescence microscopy, and immunoblot analysis indicated decreased focal adhesion signaling corresponding with loss of adhesion in cells constitutively simulated by CXCL12. Loss of adhesion was inhibited by pertussis toxin treatment, indicating CXCL12 regulating anoikis through G(αi)-protein coupled receptors. Non-adherent HCT116 and HT29 colorectal carcinoma cells expressing CXCL12 exhibited enhanced anoikis sensitivity by propidium iodide staining, caspase activity assays, and immunoblot compared to GFP control cells. CXCL12 producing carcinomas cultured on poly-HEMA displayed heightened Bim and loss of Mcl-1 and Bcl-2 preceding cytochrome c release, and caspase-9 activation. RNAi knockdown of Bim reversed anoikis sensitivity of CXCL12-expressing cells and fostered increased soft-agar foci formation and hepatic tumors in an orthotopic mouse model of metastasis. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These data indicate CXCL12 provides a barrier to metastasis by increasing anoikis via activation of a Bim-mediated intrinsic apoptotic pathway. These results underscore the importance of retaining CXCL12 expression to sensitize colorectal carcinomas to anoikis and minimize tumor progression
In which shell-type SNRs should we look for gamma-rays and neutrinos from p-p collisions?
We present a simple analytic model for the various contributions to the
non-thermal emission from shell type SNRs, and show that this model's results
reproduce well the results of previous detailed calculations. We show that the
\geq 1 TeV gamma ray emission from the shell type SNRs RX J1713.7-3946 and RX
J0852.0-4622 is dominated by inverse-Compton scattering of CMB photons (and
possibly infra-red ambient photons) by accelerated electrons. Pion decay (due
to proton-proton collisions) is shown to account for only a small fraction,
\lesssim10^-2, of the observed flux, as assuming a larger fractional
contribution would imply nonthermal radio and X-ray synchrotron emission and
thermal X-ray Bremsstrahlung emission that far exceed the observed radio and
X-ray fluxes. Models where pion decay dominates the \geq 1 TeV flux avoid the
implied excessive synchrotron emission (but not the implied excessive thermal
X-ray Bremsstrahlung emission) by assuming an extremely low efficiency of
electron acceleration, K_ep \lesssim 10^-4 (K_ep is the ratio of the number of
accelerated electrons and the number of accelerated protons at a given energy).
We argue that observations of SNRs in nearby galaxies imply a lower limit of
K_ep \gtrsim 10^-3, and thus rule out K_ep values \lesssim 10^-4 (assuming that
SNRs share a common typical value of K_ep). It is suggested that SNRs with
strong thermal X-ray emission, rather than strong non-thermal X-ray emission,
are more suitable candidates for searches of gamma rays and neutrinos resulting
from proton-proton collisions. In particular, it is shown that the neutrino
flux from the SNRs above is probably too low to be detected by current and
planned neutrino observatories (Abridged).Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in JCAP, minor revision
Evidence of a Curved Synchrotron Spectrum in the Supernova Remnant SN 1006
A joint spectral analysis of some Chandra ACIS X-ray data and Molonglo
Observatory Synthesis Telescope radio data was performed for 13 small regions
along the bright northeastern rim of the supernova remnant SN 1006. These data
were fitted with a synchrotron radiation model. The nonthermal electron
spectrum used to compute the photon emission spectra is the traditional
exponentially cut off power law, with one notable difference: The power-law
index is not a constant. It is a linear function of the logarithm of the
momentum. This functional form enables us to show, for the first time, that the
synchrotron spectrum of SN 1006 seems to flatten with increasing energy. The
effective power-law index of the electron spectrum is 2.2 at 1 GeV (i.e., radio
synchrotron-emitting momenta) and 2.0 at about 10 TeV (i.e., X-ray
synchrotron-emitting momenta). This amount of change in the index is
qualitatively consistent with theoretical models of the amount of curvature in
the proton spectrum of the remnant. The evidence of spectral curvature implies
that cosmic rays are dynamically important instead of being "test" particles.
The spectral analysis also provides a means of determining the critical
frequency of the synchrotron spectrum associated with the highest-energy
electrons. The critical frequency seems to vary along the northeastern rim,
with a maximum value of 1.1e17 (0.6e17 - 2.1e17) Hz. This value implies that
the electron diffusion coefficient can be no larger than a factor of ~4.5-21
times the Bohm diffusion coefficient if the velocity of the forward shock is in
the range 2300-5000 km/s. Since the coefficient is close to the Bohm limit,
electrons are accelerated nearly as fast as possible in the regions where the
critical frequency is about 1.0e17 Hz.Comment: 41 pages, 8 figures, accepted by Ap
Nonthermal Emission from a Supernova Remnant in a Molecular Cloud
In evolved supernova remnants (SNRs) interacting with molecular clouds, such
as IC 443, W44, and 3C391, a highly inhomogeneous structure consisting of a
forward shock of moderate Mach number, a cooling layer, a dense radiative shell
and an interior region filled with hot tenuous plasma is expected. We present a
kinetic model of nonthermal electron injection, acceleration and propagation in
that environment and find that these SNRs are efficient electron accelerators
and sources of hard X- and gamma-ray emission. The energy spectrum of the
nonthermal electrons is shaped by the joint action of first and second order
Fermi acceleration in a turbulent plasma with substantial Coulomb losses.
Bremsstrahlung, synchrotron, and inverse Compton radiation of the nonthermal
electrons produce multiwavelength photon spectra in quantitative agreement with
the radio and the hard emission observed by ASCA and EGRET from IC 443. We
distinguish interclump shock wave emission from molecular clump shock wave
emission accounting for a complex structure of molecular cloud. Spatially
resolved X- and gamma- ray spectra from the supernova remnants IC 443, W44, and
3C391 as might be observed with BeppoSAX, Chandra XRO, XMM, INTEGRAL and GLAST
would distinguish the contribution of the energetic lepton component to the
gamma-rays observed by EGRET.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure, Astrophysical Journal, v.538, 2000 (in press
Self-Similar Collisionless Shocks
Observations of gamma-ray burst afterglows suggest that the correlation
length of magnetic field fluctuations downstream of relativistic non-magnetized
collisionless shocks grows with distance from the shock to scales much larger
than the plasma skin depth. We argue that this indicates that the plasma
properties are described by a self-similar solution, and derive constraints on
the scaling properties of the solution. For example, we find that the scaling
of the characteristic magnetic field amplitude with distance from the shock is
B \propto D^{s_B} with -1<s_B<=0, that the spectrum of accelerated particles is
dn/dE \propto E^{-2/(s_B+1)}, and that the scaling of the magnetic correlation
function is \propto x^{2s_B} (for x>>D). We show that the
plasma may be approximated as a combination of two self-similar components: a
kinetic component of energetic particles and an MHD-like component representing
"thermal" particles. We argue that the latter may be considered as infinitely
conducting, in which case s_B=0 and the scalings are completely determined
(e.g. dn/dE \propto E^{-2} and B \propto D^0). Similar claims apply to non-
relativistic shocks such as in supernova remnants, if the upstream magnetic
field can be neglected. Self-similarity has important implications for any
model of particle acceleration and/or field generation. For example, we show
that the diffusion function in the angle \mu of momentum p in diffusive shock
acceleration models must satisfy D_{\mu\mu}(p,D) = D^{-1}D'_{\mu\mu}(p/D), and
that a previously suggested model for the generation of large scale magnetic
fields through a hierarchical merger of current-filaments should be
generalized. A numerical experiment testing our analysis is outlined
(Abridged).Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in Ap
The X-ray Emissions from the M87 Jet: Diagnostics and Physical Interpretation
We reanalyze the deep Chandra observations of the M87 jet, first examined by
Wilson & Yang (2002). By employing an analysis chain that includes image
deconvolution, knots HST-1 and I are fully separated from adjacent emission. We
find slight but significant variations in the spectral shape, with values of
ranging from . We use VLA radio observations, as well
as HST imaging and polarimetry data, to examine the jet's broad-band spectrum
and inquire as to the nature of particle acceleration in the jet. As shown in
previous papers, a simple continuous injection model for synchrotron-emitting
knots, in which both the filling factor, , of regions within which
particles are accelerated and the energy spectrum of the injected particles are
constant, cannot account for the X-ray flux or spectrum. Instead, we propose
that is a function of position and energy and find that in the inner
jet, , and
in knots A and B, , where is the emitted photon energy and and is the
emitting electron energy. In this model, the index of the injected electron
energy spectrum () is at all locations in
the jet, as predicted by models of cosmic ray acceleration by ultrarelativistic
shocks. There is a strong correlation between the peaks of X-ray emission and
minima of optical percentage polarization, i.e., regions where the jet magnetic
field is not ordered. We suggest that the X-ray peaks coincide with shock waves
which accelerate the X-ray emitting electrons and cause changes in the
direction of the magnetic field; the polarization is thus small because of beam
averaging.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 21 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables;
abstract shortened for astro-ph; Figures 1, 7 and 8 at reduced resolutio
Factors associated with attendee adherence to COVID-19 guidance during the 2021 DCMS Events Research Programme Phase 1
As part of the DCMS Events Research Programme 2021, we surveyed and interviewed attendees of the FA Cup Semi-Final (18th April), Carabao Cup Final (25th April), the FA Cup Final (15th May), the Snooker World Championship (17th April – 3rd May) and Sefton Park music event (2nd May) to examine attendee experiences of the events, perceptions of the COVID-19 guidance, and factors most associated with self-reported adherence
When non-activists care: group efficacy mediates the effect of social identification and perceived instability on the legitimacy of collective action
In recent years, multiple social movements have emerged around the world. In addition, public surveys indicate the highest recorded levels of support for protest. In this context of acceptance of collective action, we examine the role of non-activists in the legitimacy of social movements, as this ‘passive’ support can contribute to social change. Given that antecedents of legitimacy have been neglected in the literature, we carried out a survey (N = 605) among a general sample of the population in Chile to shed light on this issue. We found that social identification with movements and perceived instability predicted the perceived legitimacy of protests by social movements, and that both variables had only indirect effects, through group efficacy. This suggests that perceiving social movements as able to achieve success can lead non-activists to perceive their actions as legitimate, highlighting the importance to movements of being seen to be effective
Efficiency of Nonlinear Particle Acceleration at Cosmic Structure Shocks
We have calculated the evolution of cosmic ray (CR) modified astrophysical
shocks for a wide range of shock Mach numbers and shock speeds through
numerical simulations of diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) in 1D quasi-
parallel plane shocks. The simulations include thermal leakage injection of
seed CRs, as well as pre-existing, upstream CR populations. Bohm-like diffusion
is assumed. We model shocks similar to those expected around cosmic structure
pancakes as well as other accretion shocks driven by flows with upstream gas
temperatures in the range K and shock Mach numbers spanning
. We show that CR modified shocks evolve to time-asymptotic states
by the time injected particles are accelerated to moderately relativistic
energies (p/mc \gsim 1), and that two shocks with the same Mach number, but
with different shock speeds, evolve qualitatively similarly when the results
are presented in terms of a characteristic diffusion length and diffusion time.
For these models the time asymptotic value for the CR acceleration efficiency
is controlled mainly by shock Mach number. The modeled high Mach number shocks
all evolve towards efficiencies %, regardless of the upstream CR
pressure. On the other hand, the upstream CR pressure increases the overall CR
energy in moderate strength shocks (). (abridged)Comment: 23 pages, 12 ps figures, accepted for Astrophysical Journal (Feb. 10,
2005
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