Generation of the Transient Electrical and Spontaneous Magnetic Fields by Solid State Combustion

Experiments revealed that transient electric field intensities up to 2.5 V/cm were generated during the initial period of combustion synthesis of the ferromagnetic products before the maximum temperature was reached. This occurred when the iron particles were partially oxidized and the reaction product was mainly magnetite sFe3O4d. The electromagnetic field caused spontaneous magnetization of the product in the postcombustion zone. Magnetic field values up to 4 µT formed after the sample temperature fell below the Curie temperature and the initial reactants were completely converted to the ferromagnetic phase PbFe12O19. Increasing the volume of the samples increases the absolute residual magnetic field magnitude after cooling. We present possible mechanisms of the electromagnetic field generation during the combustion

Spontaneous magnetization generated by spin, pulsating, and planar combustion synthesis

The motion of the high temperature front during combustion synthesis of ferrite materials generates residual magnetization in cylindrical product samples. The combustion wave created a current density of up to 10 A/cm2, which influenced the magnetization distribution. The measured peak magnetic field intensity was up to 8 mT. Qualitatively different magnetic field maps were generated in ferrite samples synthesized by different combustion modes. The average magnetization vector generated by either planar or pulsating combustion was oriented at a smaller angle with respect to the pellet axis ~f\u3c45°! than those generated by spin combustion ~60

Achieving favourable customer outcomes through employee deviance

This study advances current knowledge by examining how employee deviance and customer participation during a single employee-customer exchange generate favourable customer responses. This work bridges the employee deviance stream with the service encounter literature and illustrates the importance of equity theory in deviant service exchanges between customers and employees. Moreover, results add to the ongoing debate on service nepotism by canvassing the consequences from the customer’s active participation in deviant exchanges which appears to enhance customer perceptions of the exchange. A 3x2 between-subjects experimental design was adopted which manipulates three types of pro-customer deviance along with customer’s participation (or not) to the exchange. The dependent variables capture three types of perceived customer justice (cognitive outcomes) and customer’s affective state (affective outcome). Findings illustrate that customers approve employees’ deviance for their own benefit while also indicate favourable outcomes from deviant exchanges with employees such as higher perceived justice and a more positive affective state. The article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications, limitations and research directions that emerge from this study

The Helicase Aquarius/EMB-4 Is Required to Overcome Intronic Barriers to Allow Nuclear RNAi Pathways to Heritably Silence Transcription

Small RNAs play a crucial role in genome defense against transposable elements and guide Argonaute proteins to nascent RNA transcripts to induce co-transcriptional gene silencing. However, the molecular basis of this process remains unknown. Here, we identify the conserved RNA helicase Aquarius/EMB-4 as a direct and essential link between small RNA pathways and the transcriptional machinery in $\textit{Caenorhabditis elegans}$. Aquarius physically interacts with the germline Argonaute HRDE-1. Aquarius is required to initiate small-RNA-induced heritable gene silencing. HRDE-1 and Aquarius silence overlapping sets of genes and transposable elements. Surprisingly, removal of introns from a target gene abolishes the requirement for Aquarius, but not HRDE-1, for small RNA-dependent gene silencing. We conclude that Aquarius allows small RNA pathways to compete for access to nascent transcripts undergoing co-transcriptional splicing in order to detect and silence transposable elements. Thus, Aquarius and HRDE-1 act as gatekeepers coordinating gene expression and genome defense.A.C.B. was supported by an HFSP grant to E.A.M. (RPG0014/2015). This work was supported by Cancer Research UK (C13474/A18583, C6946/A14492), the Wellcome Trust (104640/Z/14/Z, 092096/Z/10/Z), and The European Research Council (ERC, grant 260688). The work of P.M. and X.Z. is supported by NIH grant R01GM113242 and NIH grant R01GM122080. R.M. was a Commonwealth Scholar, funded by the UK Government. J.M.C., A.N., and C.J.W. were supported by the CIHR (MOP-274660) and the Canada Research Chairs Program. A.I.L. was supported by a Wellcome Trust Programme Grant (108058/Z/15/Z) and M.L was supported by 2013/RSE/SCOTGOV/ MARIECURIE

HL-1 cells express an inwardly rectifying K+ current activated via muscarinic receptors comparable to that in mouse atrial myocytes

An inwardly rectifying K^+ current is present in atrial cardiac myocytes that is activated by acetylcholine (I_{KACh}). Physiologically, activation of the current in the SA node is important in slowing the heart rate with increased parasympathetic tone. It is a paradigm for the direct regulation of signaling effectors by the Gβγ G-protein subunit. Many questions have been addressed in heterologous expression systems with less focus on the behaviour in native myocytes partly because of the technical difficulties in undertaking comparable studies in native cells. In this study, we characterise a potassium current in the atrial-derived cell line HL-1. Using an electrophysiological approach, we compare the characteristics of the potassium current with those in native atrial cells and in a HEK cell line expressing the cloned Kir3.1/3.4 channel. The potassium current recorded in HL-1 is inwardly rectifying and activated by the muscarinic agonist carbachol. Carbachol-activated currents were inhibited by pertussis toxin and tertiapin-Q. The basal current was time-dependently increased when GTP was substituted in the patch-clamp pipette by the non-hydrolysable analogue GTPγS. We compared the kinetics of current modulation in HL-1 with those of freshly isolated atrial mouse cardiomyocytes. The current activation and deactivation kinetics in HL-1 cells are comparable to those measured in atrial cardiomyocytes. Using immunofluorescence, we found GIRK4 at the membrane in HL-1 cells. Real-time RT-PCR confirms the presence of mRNA for the main G-protein subunits, as well as for M2 muscarinic and A1 adenosine receptors. The data suggest HL-1 cells are a good model to study IKAch

Growth factor stimulation of cardiomyocytes induces changes in the transcriptional contents of secreted exosomes

Exosomes are nano-sized extracellular vesicles, released from various cells, which can stimulate or repress responses in targets cells. We recently reported that cultured cardiomyocytes are able to release exosomes and that they, in turn, are involved in facilitating events in target cells by alteration of gene expression. We investigated whether external stimuli of the cardiomyocyte might influence the transcriptional content of the released exosomes.Exosomes were isolated from media collected from cultured cardiomyocytes (HL-1) with or without growth factor treatment (TGF-β2 and PDGF-BB), with a series of differential centrifugations, including preparative ultracentrifugation and separation with a sucrose gradient. The exosomes were characterized with dynamic light scattering (DLS), electron microscopy (EM) and Western blot and analyzed with Illumina whole genome microarray gene expression.The exosomes were rounded in shape and had an average size of 50–90 nm in diameter with no difference between treatment groups. Analysis of the mRNA content in repeated experiments conclusively revealed 505 transcripts in the control group, 562 in the TGF-β2-treated group and 300 in the PDGF-BB-treated group. Common transcripts (217) were found in all 3 groups.We show that the mode of stimulation of parental cells affects the characteristics of exosomes released. Hence, there is a difference in mRNA content between exosomes derived from cultured cardiomyocytes stimulated, or not stimulated, with growth factors. We also conclude that all exosomes contain a basic package consisting of ribosomal transcripts and mRNAs coding for proteins with functions within the energy supply system. To access the supplementary material to this article, please see Supplementary files under Article Tools online

The synthetic antimicrobial peptide 19-2.5 attenuates septic cardiomyopathy and prevents down-regulation of SERCA2 in polymicrobial sepsis

LM has received grants by the Faculty of Medicine at the RWTH Aachen University (START 15/14 and START 46/16) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, MA 7082/1–1). This work was supported by the Immunohistochemistry and Confocal Microscopy Unit, a core facility of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Clinical Research (IZKF) Aachen, within the Faculty of Medicine at the RWTH Aachen University and the RWTH centralized Biomaterial Database (RWTH cBMB) of the University Hospital RWTH Aachen. We are very grateful to Antons Martincuks M.Sc. and Professor Gerhard Müller-Newen for live-cell imaging. This work was supported, in part, by the University of Turin (ex-60% 2015A and B) and by the William Harvey Research Foundation and forms part of the research themes contributing to the translational research portfolio of Barts and the London Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit that is supported and funded by the National Institute for Health Research. This work also contributes to the Organ Protection research theme of the Barts Centre for Trauma Sciences supported by the Barts and The London Charity (Award 753/1722)