142 research outputs found
Stability of latitudinal differential rotation in stars
The question is addressed whether stellar differentially rotating radiative
zones (like the solar tachocline) excite nonaxisymmetric r-modes which can be
observed. To this end the hydrodynamical stability of latitudinal differential
rotation is studied. The amount of rotational shear required for the
instability is estimated in dependence of the character of radial
stratification and the flow patterns excited by the instability are found. The
eigenvalue equations for the nonaxisymmetric disturbances are formulated in 3D
and then solved numerically. Radial displacements and entropy disturbances are
included. The equations contain the 2D approximation of strictly horizontal
displacements as a special limit. The critical magnitude of the latitudinal
differential rotation for onset of the instability is considerably reduced in
the 3D theory compared to the 2D approximation. The instability requires a
subadiabatic stratification. It does not exist in the bulk of convection zone
with almost adiabatic stratification but may switch on near its base in the
region of penetrative convection. Growth rates and symmetry types of the modes
are computed in dependence on the rotation law parameters. The S1 mode with its
transequatorial toroidal vortices is predicted as the dominating instability
mode. The vortices show longitudinal drift rates retrograde to the basic
rotation which are close to that of the observed weak r-mode signatures at the
solar surface.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure
Modification of HDL by reactive aldehydes alters select cardioprotective functions of HDL in macrophages
Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154382/1/febs15034_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154382/2/febs15034.pd
Search for Short-Term Periodicities in the Sun's Surface Rotation: A Revisit
The power spectral analyses of the Sun's surface equatorial rotation rate
determined from the Mt. Wilson daily Doppler velocity measurements during the
period 3 December 1985 to 5 March 2007 suggests the existence of 7.6 year, 2.8
year, 1.47 year, 245 day, 182 day and 158 day periodicities in the surface
equatorial rotation rate during the period before 1996.
However, there is no variation of any kind in the more accurately measured
data during the period after 1995. That is, the aforementioned periodicities in
the data during the period before the year 1996 may be artifacts of the
uncertainties of those data due to the frequent changes in the instrumentation
of the Mt. Wilson spectrograph. On the other hand, the temporal behavior of
most of the activity phenomena during cycles 22 (1986-1996) and 23 (after 1997)
is considerably different. Therefore, the presence of the aforementioned
short-term periodicities during the last cycle and absence of them in the
current cycle may, in principle, be real temporal behavior of the solar
rotation during these cycles.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Solar Physic
Measurement of the Rate of Muon Capture in Hydrogen Gas and Determination of the Proton's Pseudoscalar Coupling
The rate of nuclear muon capture by the proton has been measured using a new
experimental technique based on a time projection chamber operating in
ultra-clean, deuterium-depleted hydrogen gas at 1 MPa pressure. The capture
rate was obtained from the difference between the measured
disappearance rate in hydrogen and the world average for the decay
rate. The target's low gas density of 1% compared to liquid hydrogen is key to
avoiding uncertainties that arise from the formation of muonic molecules. The
capture rate from the hyperfine singlet ground state of the atom is
measured to be , from which the induced
pseudoscalar coupling of the nucleon, , is
extracted. This result is consistent with theoretical predictions for
that are based on the approximate chiral symmetry of QCD.Comment: submitted to Phys.Rev.Let
Predicting the Amplitude of a Solar Cycle Using the North-South Asymmetry in the Previous Cycle: II. An Improved Prediction for Solar Cycle~24
Recently, using Greenwich and Solar Optical Observing Network sunspot group
data during the period 1874-2006, (Javaraiah, MNRAS, 377, L34, 2007: Paper I),
has found that: (1) the sum of the areas of the sunspot groups in 0-10 deg
latitude interval of the Sun's northern hemisphere and in the time-interval of
-1.35 year to +2.15 year from the time of the preceding minimum of a solar
cycle n correlates well (corr. coeff. r=0.947) with the amplitude (maximum of
the smoothed monthly sunspot number) of the next cycle n+1. (2) The sum of the
areas of the spot groups in 0-10 deg latitude interval of the southern
hemisphere and in the time-interval of 1.0 year to 1.75 year just after the
time of the maximum of the cycle n correlates very well (r=0.966) with the
amplitude of cycle n+1. Using these relations, (1) and (2), the values 112 + or
- 13 and 74 + or -10, respectively, were predicted in Paper I for the amplitude
of the upcoming cycle 24. Here we found that in case of (1), the north-south
asymmetry in the area sum of a cycle n also has a relationship, say (3), with
the amplitude of cycle n+1, which is similar to (1) but more statistically
significant (r=0.968) like (2). By using (3) it is possible to predict the
amplitude of a cycle with a better accuracy by about 13 years in advance, and
we get 103 + or -10 for the amplitude of the upcoming cycle 24. However, we
found a similar but a more statistically significant (r=0.983) relationship,
say (4), by using the sum of the area sum used in (2) and the north-south
difference used in (3). By using (4) it is possible to predict the amplitude of
a cycle by about 9 years in advance with a high accuracy and we get 87 + or - 7
for the amplitude of cycle 24.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, Published in Solar Physics 252, 419-439 (2008
Two new species of Corydoras LacépÚde, 1803 (Siluriformes: Callichthyidae) from the rio Madeira basin, Brazil
Revisionary study of the armored catfish Corydoras paleatus (Jenyns, 1842) (Siluriformes: Callichthyidae) over 180 years after its discovery by Darwin, with description of a new species
Contribution of adipocyte Na/K-ATPase α1/CD36 signaling induced exosome secretion in response to oxidized LDL
IntroductionAdipose tissue constantly secretes adipokines and extracellular vesicles including exosomes to crosstalk with distinct tissues and organs for whole-body homeostasis. However, dysfunctional adipose tissue under chronic inflammatory conditions such as obesity, atherosclerosis, and diabetes shows pro-inflammatory phenotypes accompanied by oxidative stress and abnormal secretion. Nevertheless, molecular mechanisms of how adipocytes are stimulated to secrete exosomes under those conditions remain poorly understood.MethodsMouse and human in vitro cell culture models were used for performing various cellular and molecular studies on adipocytes and macrophages. Statistical analysis was performed using Student's t-test (two-tailed, unpaired, and equal variance) for comparisons between two groups or ANOVA followed by Bonferroni's multiple comparison test for comparison among more than two groups.Results and discussionIn this work, we report that CD36, a scavenger receptor for oxidized LDL, formed a signaling complex with another membrane signal transducer Na/K-ATPase in adipocytes. The atherogenic oxidized LDL induced a pro-inflammatory response in in vitro differentiated mouse and human adipocytes and also stimulated the cells to secrete more exosomes. This was largely blocked by either CD36 knockdown using siRNA or pNaKtide, a peptide inhibitor of Na/K-ATPase signaling. These results showed a critical role of the CD36/Na/K-ATPase signaling complex in oxidized LDL-induced adipocyte exosome secretion. Moreover, by co-incubation of adipocyte-derived exosomes with macrophages, we demonstrated that oxidized LDL-induced adipocyte-derived exosomes promoted pro-atherogenic phenotypes in macrophages, including CD36 upregulation, IL-6 secretion, metabolic switch to glycolysis, and mitochondrial ROS production. Altogether, we show here a novel mechanism through which adipocytes increase exosome secretion in response to oxidized LDL and that the secreted exosomes can crosstalk with macrophages, which may contribute to atherogenesis
Fluorescent Discrimination between Traces of Chemical Warfare Agents and Their Mimics
An array of fluorogenic probes is able to
discriminate between nerve agents, sarin, soman, tabun,
VX and their mimics, in water or organic solvent, by
qualitative fluorescence patterns and quantitative multivariate
analysis, thus making the system suitable for the inthe-
field detection of traces of chemical warfare agents as
well as to differentiate between the real nerve agents and
other related compounds.Ministerio
de EconomiÌa
y Competitividad, Spain (Project CTQ2012-
31611), Junta de Castilla y LeoÌn, ConsejeriÌa
de EducacioÌn y
Cultura y Fondo Social Europeo (Project BU246A12-1), the
European Commission, Seventh Framework Programme
(Project SNIFFER FP7-SEC-2012-312411) and the Swedish
Ministry of Defence (no. A403913
A New Strategy to Generate Functional Insulin-Producing Cell Lines by Somatic Gene Transfer into Pancreatic Progenitors
BACKGROUND: There is increasing interest in developing human cell lines to be used to better understand cell biology, but also for drug screening, toxicology analysis and future cell therapy. In the endocrine pancreatic field, functional human beta cell lines are extremely scarce. On the other hand, rodent insulin producing beta cells have been generated during the past years with great success. Many of such cell lines were produced by using transgenic mice expressing SV40T antigen under the control of the insulin promoter, an approach clearly inadequate in human. Our objective was to develop and validate in rodent an alternative transgenic-like approach, applicable to human tissue, by performing somatic gene transfer into pancreatic progenitors that will develop into beta cells. METHODS AND FINDINGS: In this study, rat embryonic pancreases were transduced with recombinant lentiviral vector expressing the SV40T antigen under the control of the insulin promoter. Transduced tissues were next transplanted under the kidney capsule of immuno-incompetent mice allowing insulinoma development from which beta cell lines were established. Gene expression profile, insulin content and glucose dependent secretion, normalization of glycemia upon transplantation into diabetic mice validated the approach to generate beta cell lines. CONCLUSIONS: Somatic gene transfer into pancreatic progenitors represents an alternative strategy to generate functional beta cell lines in rodent. Moreover, this approach can be generalized to derive cells lines from various tissues and most importantly from tissues of human origin
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