Cytokines and Ovulation in the Mouse Ovary

Ovulation has been hypothesized as an inflammatory process. Interleukin(IL)-1$\alpha$, IL-1$\beta$ and tumor necrosis factor(TNF)-$\alpha$ are potent cytokines produced from macrophages and various other cell types, and are pivotal components of inflammation. Although previous studies have investigated cytokine activities in the reproductive system, there is little information on their precise localization and activities during the periovulatory period. To investigate the role of cytokines in ovulation, experiments were designed to determine the immunohistochemical localization and time specific production of cytokines IL-1 and TNF-$\alpha$ using a mouse model at 36h, 12h, 6h, 2h before ovulation, and at 6h and 18h after ovulation in vivo. Isolated individual follicles in vitro were used to determine more precise roles of cytokines on follicular development, ovulation and steroidogenesis. From these studies it was found that (1) granulosa cells were the primary sites of IL-1$\alpha$ and TNF-$\alpha$ production from large antral follicles and preovulatory follicles in vivo, (2) production of IL-1$\alpha$ and TNF-$\alpha$ increased as ovulation neared, first appearing in the cumulus cells and expanding to antral and mural granulosa cells, (3) less intense staining of these cytokines in the theca layer of smaller follicles suggests that theca cells may contribute to the production of these cytokines to some extent, (4) but there was no IL-1$\beta$ production, (5) localized and temporal production of cytokines during the periovulatory period suggests precise regulation, (6) decrease of IL-1$\alpha$ in the ovary after gonadotropin injection determined by enzyme linked immunoadsorbent assay suggests that IL-1$\alpha$ production may be under the control of gonadotropins, (7) in follicle culture without bone marrow derived cells, granulosa cells were confirmed as the main source of cytokine production, (8) addition of IL-1$\alpha$ and TNF-$\alpha$ to follicles in culture tend to decrease estradiol production. In conclusion, immunoreactive cytokine production correlated positively with the periovulatory follicular development suggesting their role as ovulatory mediators. It requires further studies on what are the signals for the initiation and termination of cytokine production, how transcription and translation of these cytokines are regulated during the periovulatory period, and how they contribute to the ovulation

Jamming transition in a highly dense granular system under vertical vibration

The dynamics of the jamming transition in a three-dimensional granular system under vertical vibration is studied using diffusing-wave spectroscopy. When the maximum acceleration of the external vibration is large, the granular system behaves like a fluid, with the dynamic correlation function G(t) relaxing rapidly. As the acceleration of vibration approaches the gravitational acceleration g, the relaxation of G(t) slows down dramatically, and eventually stops. Thus the system undergoes a phase transition and behaves like a solid. Near the transition point, we find that the structural relaxation shows a stretched exponential behavior. This behavior is analogous to the behavior of supercooled liquids close to the glass transition.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev.

Increasing myosin light chain 3f (MLC3f) protects against a decline in contractile velocity

Disuse induces adaptations in skeletal muscle, which lead to muscle deterioration. Hindlimb-unloading (HU) is a well-established model to investigate cellular mechanisms responsible for disuse-induced skeletal muscle dysfunction. In myosin heavy chain (MHC) type IIB fibers HU induces a reduction in contraction speed (Vo) and a reduction in the relative myosin light chain 3f (MLC3f) protein content compared with myosin light chain 1f (MLC1f) protein. This study tested the hypothesis that increasing the relative MLC3f protein content via rAd-MLC3f vector delivery would attenuate the HU-induced decline in Vo in single MHC type IIB fibers. Fischer-344 rats were randomly assigned to one of three groups: control, HU for 7 days, and HU for 7 days plus rAd-MLC3f. The semimembranosus muscles were injected with rAd-MLC3f (3.75 x 1011-5 x 1011 ifu/ml) at four days after the initiation of HU. In single MHC type IIB fibers the relative MLC3f content decreased by 25% (12.00±0.60% to 9.06±0.66%) and Vo was reduced by 29% (3.22±0.14fl/s vs. 2.27±0.08fl/s) with HU compared to the control group. The rAd-MLC3f injection resulted in an increase in the relative MLC3f content (12.26±1.19%) and a concomitant increase in Vo (2.90±0.15fl/s) of MHC type IIB fibers. A positive relationship was observed between the percent of MLC3f content and Vo. Maximal isometric force and specific tension were reduced with HU by 49% (741.45±44.24μN to 379.09±23.77μN) and 33% (97.58±4.25kN/m2 to 65.05±2.71kN/m2), respectively compared to the control group. The rAd-MLC3f injection did not change the HU-induced decline in force or specific tension. Collectively, these results indicate that rAd-MLC3f injection rescues hindlimb unloading-induced decline in Vo in MHC type IIB single muscle fibers.Published versio

Soft Wilson lines in soft-collinear effective theory

The effects of the soft gluon emission in hard scattering processes at the phase boundary are resummed in the soft-collinear effective theory (SCET). In SCET, the soft gluon emission is decoupled from the energetic collinear part, and is obtained by the vacuum expectation value of the soft Wilson-line operator. The form of the soft Wilson lines is universal in deep inelastic scattering, in the Drell-Yan process, in the jet production from e+e- collisions, and in the gamma* gamma* -> pi0 process, but its analytic structure is slightly different in each process. The anomalous dimensions of the soft Wilson-line operators for these processes are computed along the light-like path at leading order in SCET and to first order in alpha_s, and the renormalization group behavior of the soft Wilson lines is discussed.Comment: 36 pages, 10 figures, 3 table

High Availability for Carrier-Grade SIP Infrastructure on Cloud Platforms

SIP infrastructure on cloud platforms has the potential to be both scalable and highly available. In our previous project, we focused on the scalability aspect of SIP services on cloud platforms; the focus of this project is on the high availability aspect. We investigated the effects of component fault on service availability with the goal of understanding how high availability can be guaranteed even in the face of component faults. The experiments were conducted empirically on a real system that runs on Amazon EC2. Our analysis shows that most component faults are masked with a simple automatic failover technique. However, we have also identified fundamental problems that cannot be addressed by simple failover techniques; a problem involving DNS cache in resolvers and a problem involving static failover configurations. Recommendations on how to solve these problems are included in the report

C57BL/6 life span study: age-related declines in muscle power production and contractile velocity

Quantification of key outcome measures in animal models of aging is an important step preceding intervention testing. One such measurement, skeletal muscle power generation (force * velocity), is critical for dynamic movement. Prior research focused on maximum power (P max), which occurs around 30-40 % of maximum load. However, movement occurs over the entire load range. Thus, the primary purpose of this study was to determine the effect of age on power generation during concentric contractions in the extensor digitorum longus (EDL) and soleus muscles over the load range from 10 to 90 % of peak isometric tetanic force (P 0). Adult, old, and elderly male C57BL/6 mice were examined for contractile function (6-7 months old, 100 % survival; ~24 months, 75 %; and ~28 months, 50 % P 0). The shape of the force-velocity curve also changed with age (a/P 0 increased). In addition, there were prolonged contraction times to maximum force and shifts in the distribution of the myosin light and heavy chain isoforms in the EDL. The results demonstrate that age-associated difficulty in movement during challenging tasks is likely due, in addition to overall reduced force output, to an accelerated deterioration of power production and contractile velocity under heavily loaded conditions.R01 AG017768 - NIA NIH HHS; F31 AG044108 - NIA NIH HHS; T32 AG029796 - NIA NIH HHS; R01 EY15313 - NEI NIH HHS; R01 EY015313 - NEI NIH HH

Dynamic transition and Shapiro-step melting in a frustrated Josephson-junction array

We consider a two-dimensional fully frustrated Josephson-junction array driven by combined direct and alternating currents. Interplay between the mode locking phenomenon, manifested by giant Shapiro steps in the current-voltage characteristics, and the dynamic phase transition is investigated at finite temperatures. Melting of Shapiro steps due to thermal fluctuations is shown to be accompanied by the dynamic phase transition, the universality class of which is also discussed

Complementarity of Resonant Scalar, Vector-Like Quark and Superpartner Searches in Elucidating New Phenomena

The elucidation of the nature of new phenomena requires a multi-pronged approach to understand the essential physics that underlies it. As an example, we study the simplified model containing a new scalar singlet accompanied by vector-like quarks, as motivated by the recent diphoton excess at the LHC. To be specific, we investigate three models with $SU(2)_L$-doublet, vector-like quarks with Yukawa couplings to a new scalar singlet and which also couple off-diagonally to corresponding Standard Model fermions of the first or third generation through the usual Higgs boson. We demonstrate that three classes of searches can play important and complementary roles in constraining this model. In particular, we find that missing energy searches designed for superparticle production, supply superior sensitivity for vector-like quarks than the dedicated new quark searches themselves.Comment: References added; small bug found in model and analysis implementation, numerical results slightly modified, conclusions unchange

Molecular Cloning and Endometrial Expression of Porcine Amphiregulin

The porcine amphiregulin gene was previously reported to be within the quantitative trait locus (QTL) for uterine capacity on chromosome 8. Because amphiregulin stimulates cell proliferation, the amphiregulin gene might be responsible for this QTL. The objectives of this study were to clone amphiregulin cDNA and compare endometrial expression of its mRNA in pregnant Meishan (M) and White composite (WC) pigs. We obtained two amphiregulin cDNAs, one with 1,221 bp and another with 1,109 bp. The 112 bp difference corresponded to exon 5 of the human amphiregulin gene, which codes for the cytoplasmic domain. Endometrial mRNA expression of amphiregulin was significantly lower in M pigs than in WC pigs during early pregnancy (day 15–40 of gestation). Amphiregulin mRNA expression in the endometrium of both M and WC pigs increased (P \u3c 0.01) from days 15 to 20, decreased (P \u3c 0.01) from days 20 to 30, and did not change between days 30 and 40. This may result in reduced amphiregulin protein production leading to the slower development of M conceptuses, contributing to greater uterine capacity and litter size in prolific Chinese M pigs. Porcine genomic sequences isolated from a bacterial artificial chromosome genomic library contained exon 5, suggesting that the deletion of exon 5 in the mRNA may be due to differential splicing. The amphiregulin gene consisted of six exons and five introns spanning 10.3 kb