High Resolution Ozone Mapper (HROM)

Using the backscatter ultraviolet instrument (BUV) aboard NIMBUS 4 as a baseline, point scanner mechanisms and spatial multiplex scanning systems were compared on the basis of sensitivity, field of view and simplicity. This comparison included both spectral and spatial scanning and multiplexing techniques. The selected system which optimally met the performance requirements for a shuttle based instrument was a pushbroom spatial scanner using a 15 element photomultiplier tube array and a Hadamard multiplex spectral scan. The selected system was conceptually designed. This design includes ray traces of the monochromator, mechanical layouts and the electronic block diagram

Real-time quasi-3D tomographic reconstruction

Developments in acquisition technology and a growing need for time-resolved experiments pose great computational challenges in tomography. In addition, access to reconstructions in real time is a highly demanded feature but has so far been out of reach. We show that by exploiting the mathematical properties of filtered backprojection-type methods, having access to real-time reconstructions of arbitrarily oriented slices becomes feasible. Furthermore, we present RECAST3D, software for visualization and on-demand reconstruction of slices. A user of RECAST3D can interactively shift and rotate slices in a GUI, while the software updates the slice in real time. For certain use cases, the possibility to study arbitrarily oriented slices in real time directly from the measured data provides sufficient visual and quantitative insight. Two such applications are discussed in this article

Intracoronary glucagon-like peptide 1 preferentially augments glucose uptake in ischemic myocardium independent of changes in coronary flow

We examined the acute dose-dependent effects of intracoronary glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1 (7-36) on coronary vascular tone, cardiac contractile function and metabolism in normal and ischemic myocardium. Experiments were conducted in open chest, anesthetized dogs at coronary perfusion pressures (CPP) of 100 and 40 mmHg before and during intracoronary GLP-1 (7-36) infusion (10 pmol/L to 1 nmol/L). Isometric tension studies were also conducted in isolated coronary arteries. Cardiac and coronary expression of GLP-1 receptors (GLP-1R) was assessed by Western blot and immunohistochemical analysis. GLP-1R was present in the myocardium and the coronary vasculature. The tension of intact and endothelium-denuded coronary artery rings was unaffected by GLP-1. At normal perfusion pressure (100 mmHg), intracoronary GLP-1 (7-36) (targeting plasma concentration 10 pmol/L to 1 nmol/L) did not affect blood pressure, coronary blood flow or myocardial oxygen consumption (MVO(2)); however, there were modest reductions in cardiac output and stroke volume. In untreated control hearts, reducing CPP to 40 mmHg produced marked reductions in coronary blood flow (0.50 ± 0.10 to 0.17 ± 0.03 mL/min/g; P < 0.001) and MVO(2) (27 ± 2.3 to 15 ± 2.7 μL O(2)/min/g; P < 0.001). At CPP = 40 mmHg, GLP-1 had no effect on coronary blood flow, MVO(2) or regional shortening, but dose-dependently increased myocardial glucose uptake from 0.11 ± 0.02 μmol/min/g at baseline to 0.17 ± 0.04 μmol/min/g at 1 nmol/L GLP-1 (P < 0.001). These data indicate that acute, intracoronary administration of GLP-1 (7-36) preferentially augments glucose metabolism in ischemic myocardium, independent of effects on cardiac contractile function or coronary blood flow

Perivascular adipose tissue and coronary vascular disease

Coronary perivascular adipose tissue is a naturally occurring adipose tissue depot that normally surrounds the major coronary arteries on the surface of the heart. Although originally thought to promote vascular health and integrity, there is a growing body of evidence to support that coronary perivascular adipose tissue displays a distinct phenotype relative to other adipose depots and is capable of producing local factors with the potential to augment coronary vascular tone, inflammation, and the initiation and progression of coronary artery disease. The purpose of the present review is to outline previous findings about the cardiovascular effects of coronary perivascular adipose tissue and the potential mechanisms by which adipose-derived factors may influence coronary vascular function and the progression of atherogenesis

Hydrodynamic coupling and rotational mobilities near planar elastic membranes

We study theoretically and numerically the coupling and rotational hydrodynamic interactions between spherical particles near a planar elastic membrane that exhibits resistance towards shear and bending. Using a combination of the multipole expansion and Faxen's theorems, we express the frequency-dependent hydrodynamic mobility functions as a power series of the ratio of the particle radius to the distance from the membrane for the self mobilities, and as a power series of the ratio of the radius to the interparticle distance for the pair mobilities. In the quasi-steady limit of zero frequency, we find that the shear- and bending-related contributions to the particle mobilities may have additive or suppressive effects depending on the membrane properties in addition to the geometric configuration of the interacting particles relative to the confining membrane. To elucidate the effect and role of the change of sign observed in the particle self and pair mobilities, we consider an example involving a torque-free doublet of counterrotating particles near an elastic membrane. We find that the induced rotation rate of the doublet around its center of mass may differ in magnitude and direction depending on the membrane shear and bending properties. Near a membrane of only energetic resistance toward shear deformation, such as that of a certain type of elastic capsules, the doublet undergoes rotation of the same sense as observed near a no-slip wall. Near a membrane of only energetic resistance toward bending, such as that of a fluid vesicle, we find a reversed sense of rotation. Our analytical predictions are supplemented and compared with fully resolved boundary integral simulations where a very good agreement is obtained over the whole range of applied frequencies.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures. Revised manuscript resubmitted to J. Chem. Phy

Integral potential method for a transmission problem with Lipschitz interface in R^3 for the Stokes and Darcy–Forchheimer–Brinkman PDE systems

The purpose of this paper is to obtain existence and uniqueness results in weighted Sobolev spaces for transmission problems for the non-linear Darcy-Forchheimer-Brinkman system and the linear Stokes system in two complementary Lipschitz domains in R3, one of them is a bounded Lipschitz domain with connected boundary, and the other one is the exterior Lipschitz domain R3 n. We exploit a layer potential method for the Stokes and Brinkman systems combined with a fixed point theorem in order to show the desired existence and uniqueness results, whenever the given data are suitably small in some weighted Sobolev spaces and boundary Sobolev spaces

Actin/alpha-actinin-dependent transport of AMPA receptors in dendritic spines: role of the PDZ-LIM protein RIL

The efficacy of excitatory transmission in the brain depends to a large extent on synaptic AMPA receptors, hence the importance of understanding the delivery and recycling of the receptors at the synaptic sites. Here we report a novel regulation of the AMPA receptor transport by a PDZ (postsynaptic density-95/Drosophila disc large tumor suppressor zona occludens 1) and LIM (Lin11/rat Isl-1/Mec3) domain-containing protein, RIL (reversion-induced LIM protein). We show that RIL binds to the AMPA glutamate receptor subunit GluR-A C-terminal peptide via its LIM domain and to alpha-actinin via its PDZ domain. RIL is enriched in the postsynaptic density fraction isolated from rat forebrain, strongly localizes to dendritic spines in cultured neurons, and coprecipitates, together with alpha-actinin, in a protein complex isolated by immunoprecipitation of AMPA receptors from forebrain synaptosomes. Functionally, in heterologous cells, RIL links AMPA receptors to the alpha-actinin/actin cytoskeleton, an effect that appears to apply selectively to the endosomal surface-internalized population of the receptors. In cultured neurons, an overexpression of recombinant RIL increases the accumulation of AMPA receptors in dendritic spines, both at the total level, as assessed by immunodetection of endogenous GluR-A-containing receptors, and at the synaptic surface, as assessed by recording of miniature EPSCs. Our results thus indicate that RIL directs the transport of GluR-A-containing AMPA receptors to and/or within dendritic spines, in an alpha-actinin/actin-dependent manner, and that such trafficking function promotes the synaptic accumulation of the receptors

Transmission Problems for the Navier–Stokes and Darcy–Forchheimer–Brinkman Systems in Lipschitz Domains on Compact Riemannian Manifolds

M. Kohr acknowledges the support of the Grant PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0994 of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS-UEFISCDI. The research has been also partially supported by the Grant EP/M013545/1: “Mathematical Analysis of Boundary-Domain Integral Equations for Nonlinear PDEs” from the EPSRC, UK

Worker remittances and the global preconditions of ‘smart development’

With the growing environmental crisis affecting our globe, ideas to weigh economic or social progress by the ‘energy input’ necessary to achieve it are increasingly gaining acceptance. This question is intriguing and is being dealt with by a growing number of studies, focusing on the environmental price of human progress. Even more intriguing, however, is the question of which factors of social organization contribute to a responsible use of the resources of our planet to achieve a given social result (‘smart development’). In this essay, we present the first systematic study on how migration – or rather, more concretely, received worker remittances per GDP – helps the nations of our globe to enjoy social and economic progress at a relatively small environmental price. We look at the effects of migration on the balance sheets of societal accounting, based on the ‘ecological price’ of the combined performance of democracy, economic growth, gender equality, human development, research and development, and social cohesion. Feminism in power, economic freedom, population density, the UNDP education index as well as the receipt of worker remittances all significantly contribute towards a ‘smart overall development’, while high military expenditures and a high world economic openness are a bottleneck for ‘smart overall development’