Appearance and Maturation of T-Cell Subsets During Rat Thymus Ontogeny

In previous papers, we have described the ontogenetical development of thymic stromal-cell components (epithelium, macrophages, dendritic cells) of Wistar rats. Here, we correlate those results with the maturation of rat T-cell precursors along the fetal and postnatal life. First T-cell precursors, which colonize the thymus anlage around days 13-14 of gestation, largely express CD45, CD43, CD53, and Thy 1 cell markers, and in a lesser proportion the OX22 antigen. Rat CD3-CD4-CD8- thymocytes present in the earliest stages of gestation could be subdivided in three major cell subpopulations according to the CD44 and CD25 expression: CD44-/+CD25- → CD44+CD25+ → CD44+CD25- On fetal days 17-18, a certain proportion of CD4-CD8-cells weakly,express the TcRβ chain, in correlation with the appearance of the first immature CD4-CD8+ thymocytes. This cell subpopulation, in progress to the CD4+CD8+ stage, upregulates CD8α before the CD8β chain, expresses the CD53 antigen, and exhibits a high proliferative rate. First mature thymocytes arising from the DP (CD4+CD8+) cells appear on fetal days 20-21. Then, the CD4+:CD8+ cell ratio is ≤1 changing to adult values (2-3) just after birth. Also, the percentage of VβTcR repertoire covered in adult thymus is reached during the postnatal period, being lower during the fetal life. Finally, in correlation with the beginning of thymocyte emigration to the periphery a new wave of T-cell maturation apparently occurs in the perinatal rat thymus

Environmentally Tuning Asphalt Pavements Using Phase Change Materials

Environmental conditions are considered an important factor influencing asphalt pavement performance. The addition of modifiers, both to the asphalt binder and the asphalt mixture, has attracted considerable attention in potentially alleviating environmentally induced pavement performance issues. Although many solutions have been developed, and some deployed, many asphalt pavements continue to prematurely fail due to environmental loading. The research reported herein investigates the synthetization and characterization of biobased Phase Change Materials (PCMs) and inclusion of Microencapsulated PCM (μPCM) in asphalt binders and mixtures to help reduce environmental damage to asphalt pavements. In general, PCM substances are formulated to absorb and release thermal energy as the material liquify and solidify, depending on pavement temperature. As a result, PCMs can provide asphalt pavements with thermal energy storage capacities to reduce the impacts of drastic ambient temperature scenarios and minimize the appearance of critical temperatures within the pavement structure. By modifying asphalt pavement materials with PCMs, it may be possible to tune the pavement to the environment

The probability of detecting erroneously assigned parentage using co-dominant loci

La grande variété de formules proposées pour le calcul des probabilités d’exclusion de filiation erronée est vraiment déconcertante. Le présent travail essaie de donner une formule générale en considérant tous les cas possibles. Le génotype du parent non contesté peut ne pas être connu. En effet, dans certaines études d’exclusion du père, aucune information n’est disponible en ce qui concerne le génotype de la mère. Dans ces cas, l’augmentation du nombre de marqueurs utilisés peut compenser ce manque d’information. Cependant, pour que la connaissance du génotype de la mère soit utile, il faut que l’individu dont la filiation est contestée soit hétérozygote et que son génotype soit différent de celui de sa mère. Par ailleurs, l’absence d’équilibre de Hardy-Weinberg ou de liaison, pour les marqueurs utilisés pour la vérification de la filiation, ne semble pas avoir une solution simple et claire

The Effect of Exercise Intensity on Postprandial Blood Lipids in Physically-Inactive Men

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Association Between Urinary Markers of Nucleic Acid Oxidation and Mortality in Type 2 Diabetes:A population-based cohort study

OBJECTIVE: We recently showed that RNA oxidation, estimated by urinary excretion of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanosine (8-oxoGuo), independently predicted mortality in a cohort of 1,381 treatment-naive patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. In the present investigation, we analyzed urine collected 6 years after the diagnosis to assess the association between urinary markers of nucleic acid oxidation and mortality in patients with established and treated diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We used data from the 970 patients who attended the screening for diabetes complications 6 years after the diagnosis. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to examine the relationship between urinary markers of DNA oxidation (8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2′-deoxyguanosine [8-oxodG] [n = 938]) and RNA oxidation (8-oxoGuo [n = 936]) and mortality. RESULTS: During a median of 9.8 years of follow-up, 654 patients died. Urinary 8-oxoGuo assessed 6 years after the diagnosis was significantly associated with mortality. The multivariate-adjusted hazard ratios for all-cause and diabetes-related mortality of patients with 8-oxoGuo levels in the highest quartile compared with those in the lowest quartile were 1.86 (95% CI 1.34–2.58) and 1.72 (1.11–2.66), respectively. Conversely, 8-oxodG was not associated with mortality. In addition, we found an association between changes in 8-oxoGuo from diagnosis to 6-year follow-up and mortality, with increased risk in patients with an increase and decreased risk in patients with a decrease in 8-oxoGuo. CONCLUSIONS: The RNA oxidation marker 8-oxoGuo is an independent predictor of mortality in patients with established and treated type 2 diabetes, and changes in 8-oxoGuo during the first 6 years after diagnosis are associated with mortality

A Census of Star-Forming Galaxies in the z~9-10 Universe based on HST+Spitzer Observations Over 19 CLASH clusters: Three Candidate z~9-10 Galaxies and Improved Constraints on the Star Formation Rate Density at z~9

We utilise a two-color Lyman-Break selection criterion to search for z~9-10 galaxies over the first 19 clusters in the CLASH program. A systematic search yields three z~9-10 candidates. While we have already reported the most robust of these candidates, MACS1149-JD, two additional z~9 candidates are also found and have H_{160}-band magnitudes of ~26.2-26.9. A careful assessment of various sources of contamination suggests <~1 contaminants for our z~9-10 selection. To determine the implications of these search results for the LF and SFR density at z~9, we introduce a new differential approach to deriving these quantities in lensing fields. Our procedure is to derive the evolution by comparing the number of z~9-10 galaxy candidates found in CLASH with the number of galaxies in a slightly lower redshift sample (after correcting for the differences in selection volumes), here taken to be z~8. This procedure takes advantage of the fact that the relative volumes available for the z~8 and z~9-10 selections behind lensing clusters are not greatly dependent on the details of the lensing models. We find that the normalization of the UV LF at z~9 is just 0.28_{-0.20}^{+0.39}\times that at z~8, ~1.4_{-0.8}^{+3.0}x lower than extrapolating z~4-8 LF results. While consistent with the evolution in the UV LF seen at z~4-8, these results marginally favor a more rapid evolution at z>8. Compared to similar evolutionary findings from the HUDF, our result is less insensitive to large-scale structure uncertainties, given our many independent sightlines on the high-redshift universe.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal, updated to include the much deeper Spitzer/IRAC observations over our three z~9-10 candidate

Towards an online-coupled chemistry-climate model: evaluation of trace gases and aerosols in COSMO-ART

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A Guide to Carrying Out a Phylogenomic Target Sequence Capture Project

High-throughput DNA sequencing techniques enable time- and cost-effective sequencing of large portions of the genome. Instead of sequencing and annotating whole genomes, many phylogenetic studies focus sequencing effort on large sets of pre-selected loci, which further reduces costs and bioinformatic challenges while increasing coverage. One common approach that enriches loci before sequencing is often referred to as target sequence capture. This technique has been shown to be applicable to phylogenetic studies of greatly varying evolutionary depth. Moreover, it has proven to produce powerful, large multi-locus DNA sequence datasets suitable for phylogenetic analyses. However, target capture requires careful considerations, which may greatly affect the success of experiments. Here we provide a simple flowchart for designing phylogenomic target capture experiments. We discuss necessary decisions from the identification of target loci to the final bioinformatic processing of sequence data. We outline challenges and solutions related to the taxonomic scope, sample quality, and available genomic resources of target capture projects. We hope this review will serve as a useful roadmap for designing and carrying out successful phylogenetic target capture studies. © Copyright © 2020 Andermann, Torres Jiménez, Matos-Maraví, Batista, Blanco-Pastor, Gustafsson, Kistler, Liberal, Oxelman, Bacon and Antonelli