Is Low Alveolar Type II Cell SOD3 in the Lungs of Elderly Linked to the Observed Severity of COVID-19?

Human lungs single cell RNA sequencing data from healthy donors (elderly and young; GEO accession number GSE122960) were analyzed to isolate and specifically study gene expression in alveolar type II cells. Co-localization of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 enables SARS-CoV 2 to enter the cells. Expression of these genes in the alveolar type II cells of elderly and young patients were comparable and therefore do not seem to be responsible for worse outcomes observed in COVID-19 affected elderly. In cells from the elderly, 263 genes were downregulated and 95 upregulated. SOD3 was identified as the top-ranked gene that was most down-regulated in the elderly. Other redox-active genes that were also downregulated in cells from the elderly included ATF4 and M2TA. ATF4, an ER stress sensor that defends lungs via induction of heme oxygenase 1. The study of downstream factors known to be induced by ATF4, according to Ingenuity Pathway AnalysisTM, identified 24 candidates. Twenty-one of these were significantly downregulated in the cells from the elderly. These downregulated candidates were subjected to enrichment using the Reactome Database identifying that in the elderly, the ability to respond to heme deficiency and the ATF4-dependent ability to respond to endoplasmic reticulum stress is significantly compromised. SOD3-based therapeutic strategies have provided beneficial results in treating lung disorders including fibrosis. The findings of this work propose the hypotheses that lung-specific delivery of SOD3/ATF4 related antioxidants may work in synergy with promising anti-viral drugs such as remdesivir to further improve COVID-19 outcomes in the elderly

Purification of genuine multipartite entanglement

In tasks, where multipartite entanglement plays a central role, state purification is, due to inevitable noise, a crucial part of the procedure. We consider a scenario exploiting the multipartite entanglement in a straightforward multipartite purification algorithm and compare it to bipartite purification procedures combined with state teleportation. While complete purification requires an infinite amount of input states in both cases, we show that for an imperfect output fidelity the multipartite procedure exhibits a major advantage in terms of input states used.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Ruthenium and osmium carbonyl clusters incorporating stannylene and stannyl ligands

The reaction of [Ru₃ (CO)₁₂] with Ph₃SnSPh in refluxing benzene furnished the bimetallic Ru-Sn compound [Ru₃(CO)₈(μ-SPh)₂(μ3-SnPh₂)(SnPh₃)₂] 1 which consists of a SnPh₂ stannylene bonded to three Ru atoms to give a planar tetra-metal core, with two peripheral SnPh₃ ligands. The stannylene ligand forms a very short bond to one Ru atom [Sn-Ru 2.538(1) Å] and very long bonds to the other two [Sn-Ru 3.074(1) Å]. The germanium compound [Ru₃(CO)₈(μ-SPh)₂(μ₃-GePh₂)(GePh₃)₂] 2 was obtained from the reaction of [Ru₃ (CO)₁₂] with Ph₃GeSPh and has a similar structure to that of 1 as evidenced by spectroscopic data. Treatment of [Os₃(CO)₁₀(MeCN)₂] with Ph₃SnSPh in refluxing benzene yielded the bimetallic Os-Sn compound [Os₃(CO)₉(μ-SPh)(μ₃-SnPh₂)(MeCN)(ƞ¹-C₆H₅)] 3. Cluster 3 has a superficially similar planar metal core, but with a different bonding mode with respect to that of 1. The Ph₂Sn group is bonded most closely to Os(2) and Os(3) [2.7862(3) and 2.7476(3) Å respectively] with a significantly longer bond to Os(1), 2.9981(3) Å indicating a weak back-donation to the Sn. The reaction of the bridging dppm compound [Ru₃(CO)₁₀(μ-dppm)] with Ph₃SnSPh afforded [Ru₃(CO)₆(μ-dppm)(μ₃-S)(μ₃-SPh)(SnPh₃)] 5. Compound 5 contains an open triangle of Ru atoms simultaneously capped by a sulfido and a PhS ligand on opposite sides of the cluster with a dppm ligand bridging one of the Ru-Ru edges and a Ph₃Sn group occupying an axial position on the Ru atom not bridged by the dppm ligand

An electron-deficient triosmium cluster containing the thianthrene ligand: Synthesis, structure and reactivity of [Os₃(CO)₉(μ3-η2-C₁₂H₇S₂)(μ-H)]

Reaction of [Os₃(CO)₁₀(CH₃CN)₂] with thianthrene at 80 °C leads to the nonacarbonyl dihydride compound [Os₃(CO)₉(μ-3,4-η²-C₁₂H₆S₂)(μ-H)₂] (1) and the 46-electron monohydride compound [Os₃(CO)₉(μ₃-η²-C₁₂H₇S₂)(μ-H)] (2). Compound 2 reacts reversibly with CO to give the CO adduct [Os₃(CO)₁₀(μ-η²-C₁₂H₇S₂)(μ-H)] (3) whereas with PPh₃ it gives the addition product [Os₃(CO)₉)(PPh₃)(μ-η²-C₁₂H₇S₂)(μ-H)] (4) as well as the substitution product 1,2-[Os₃(CO)₁₀ ((PPh₃)₂] (5) Compound 2 represents a unique example of an electron-deficient triosmium cluster in which the thianthrene ring is bound to cluster by coordination of the sulfur lone pair and a three-center-two-electron bond with the C(2) carbon which bridges the same edge of the triangle as the hydride. Electrochemical and DFT studies which elucidate the electronic properties of 2 are reported

Hadron Production in Neutrino-Nucleon Interactions at High Energies

The multi-particle production at high energy neutrino- nucleon collisions are investigated through the analysis of the data of the experiment CERN-WA-025 at neutrino energy less than 260GeV and the experiments FNAL-616 and FNAL-701 at energy range 120-250 GeV. The general features of these experiments are used as base to build a hypothetical model that views the reaction by a Feynman diagram of two vertices. The first of which concerns the weak interaction between the neutrino and the quark constituents of the nucleon. At the second vertex, a strong color field is assumed to play the role of particle production, which depend on the momentum transferred from the first vertex. The wave function of the nucleon quarks are determined using the variation method and relevant boundary conditions are applied to calculate the deep inelastic cross sections of the virtual diagram.Comment: 6 pages PDF forma

Determination of Volatile Organic Compounds by a Novel Polymer Spin-Coated Thin Film and Surface Plasmon Resonance

Here is reported the synthesis, characterization, and volatile organic compound (VOCs) sensing of a 1, 3-dimethyl polyphenylene vinylene polymer. The synthesis was performed by a Witting condensation through the reaction of 1, 4-terphthaldehyde with the phosphonium chloride of meta-xylene. The material was characterized by infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and thermogravimetric analyses. Thin films of the polymer were prepared by spin coating at speeds from 1000 to 5000 rpm. Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy and surface plasmon resonance were used to characterize the spin coated films. The thicknesses of the films were estimated by fitting the curves and were between 4.5 to 24.5 nm depending on the speed. The refractive index of the new polymer was 1.72. The polymer spin coated films were exposed to volatile organic vapors in order to characterize their sensing properties by surface plasmon resonance as a function of time. The results showed that the new material responded rapidly, sensitively, and reversibly to volatile organic compounds

Interacting spin-2 fields in three dimensions

Using the frame formulation of multi-gravity in three dimensions, we show that demanding the presence of secondary constraints which remove the Boulware-Deser ghosts restricts the possible interaction terms of the theory and identifies invertible frame field combinations whose effective metric may consistently couple to matter. The resulting ghost-free theories can be represented by theory graphs which are trees. In the case of three frame fields, we explicitly show that the requirement of positive masses and energies for the bulk spin-2 modes in AdS$_3$ is consistent with a positive central charge for the putative dual CFT$_2$.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figures, v2: minor changes, matches published versio

Maximum Loadability Enhancement with a Hybrid Optimization Method

Nowadays, a power system is operating in a stressed condition due to the increase in demand in addition to constraint in building new power plants. The economics and environmental constraints to build new power plants and transmission lines have led the system to operate very close to its stability limits. Hence, more researches are required to study the important requirements to maintain stable voltage condition and hence develop new techniques in order to address the voltage stability problem. As an action, most Reactive Power Planning (RPP) objective is to minimize the cost of new reactive resources while satisfying the voltage stability constraints and labeled as Secured Reactive Power Planning (SCRPP). The new alternative optimization technique called Adaptive Tumbling Bacterial Foraging (ATBFO) was introduced to solve the RPP problems in the IEEE 57 bus system. The comparison common optimization Meta-Heuristic Evolutionary Programming and original Bacterial Foraging techniques were chosen to verify the performance using the proposed ATBFO method. As a result, the ATBFO method is confirmed as the best suitable solution in solving the identified RPP objective functions

Theory of Insulator Metal Transition and Colossal Magnetoresistance in Doped Manganites

The persistent proximity of insulating and metallic phases, a puzzling characterestic of manganites, is argued to arise from the self organization of the twofold degenerate e_g orbitals of Mn into localized Jahn-Teller(JT) polaronic levels and broad band states due to the large electron - JT phonon coupling present in them. We describe a new two band model with strong correlations and a dynamical mean-field theory calculation of equilibrium and transport properties. These explain the insulator metal transition and colossal magnetoresistance quantitatively, as well as other consequences of two state coexistence