miR-155, a Modulator of FOXO3a Protein Expression, Is Underexpressed and Cannot Be Upregulated by Stimulation of HOZOT, a Line of Multifunctional Treg

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in regulating post-transcriptional gene repression in a variety of immunological processes. In particular, much attention has been focused on their roles in regulatory T (Treg) cells which are crucial for maintaining peripheral tolerance and controlling T cell responses. Recently, we established a novel type of human Treg cell line, termed HOZOT, multifunctional cells exhibiting a CD4+CD8+ phenotype. In this study, we performed miRNA profiling to identify signature miRNAs of HOZOT, and therein identified miR-155. Although miR-155 has also been characterized as a signature miRNA for FOXP3+ natural Treg (nTreg) cells, it was expressed quite differently in HOZOT cells. Under both stimulatory and non-stimulatory conditions, miR-155 expression remained at low levels in HOZOT, while its expression in nTreg and conventional T cells remarkably increased after stimulation. We next searched candidate target genes of miR-155 through bioinformatics, and identified FOXO3a, a negative regulator of Akt signaling, as a miR-155 target gene. Further studies by gain- and loss-of-function experiments supported a role for miR-155 in the regulation of FOXO3a protein expression in conventional T and HOZOT cells

Voice and expressivity in free indirect thought representations : imitation and representation

This paper addresses issues in the philosophy of fiction from the perspective of a relevance theoretic approach to communication. Its departure point is the assumption found in both pretence approaches to irony (e.g. Currie 2002, 2006, 2010, Recanati 2000, 2004, 2007, Walton 1990) and Sperber & Wilson’s (1995, 2006, 2011) echoic approach that free indirect discourse and irony should be treated in parallel. Drawing on examples (mainly) from Mansfield’s short stories, It then addresses the question of how we should account for the role of so-called ‘expressives’ in free indirect style and argues that while authors may use them in the imitation of a character’s style or ‘voice’ (especially for the purpose of parody), they may also use them as a means of encouraging readers to construct their own meta-representations of a character’s state of mind. Finally, it addresses the question of what the narrator’s/author’s role is in creating these effects, and argues that the function of a ‘speaking’ narrator must be de-coupled from that of an organizing, selecting narrator (the communicator). Although this distinction can be explained in relevance theoretic terms, it implies that free indirect thought representations must be distinguished from irony and parody, where the relevance of the utterance lies in the audience’s interpretation of the communicator’s thoughts. Key terms expressive irony free indirect discourse/thought imitation (meta-)representation narrative/narrator parody pretence principle of relevance voic

From humor recognition to Irony detection: The figurative language of social media

[EN] The research described in this paper is focused on analyzing two playful domains of language: humor and irony, in order to identify key values components for their automatic processing. In particular, we are focused on describing a model for recognizing these phenomena in social media, such as "tweets". Our experiments are centered on five data sets retrieved from Twitter taking advantage of user-generated tags, such as "#humor" and "#irony". The model, which is based on textual features, is assessed on two dimensions: representativeness and relevance. The results, apart from providing some valuable insights into the creative and figurative usages of language, are positive regarding humor, and encouraging regarding irony. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This work has been done in the framework of the VLC/CAMPUS Microcluster on Multimodal Interaction in Intelligent Systems and it has been partially funded by the European Commission as part of the WIQEI IRSES project (grant no. 269180) within the FP 7 Marie Curie People Framework, and by MICINN as part of the Text-Enterprise 2.0 project (TIN2009-13391-C04-03) within the Plan I + D + I. The National Council for Science and Technology (CONACyT - Mexico) has funded the research work of Antonio Reyes.Reyes Pérez, A.; Rosso, P.; Buscaldi, D. (2012). From humor recognition to Irony detection: The figurative language of social media. Data and Knowledge Engineering. 74:1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.datak.2012.02.005S1127

Directly mounted sol-gel composite piezoelectric devices by spray coating technique for high temperature ultrasonic transducers

In this paper, we propose a fabrication method of a high temperature-resistant ultrasonic transducer for non-destructive tests. In typical pipe non-destructive wall thickness measurements, couplant material and backing material which do not have heat resistance are necessary. Therefore, there are restrictions for the practical online pipe thickness monitoring in chemical and power plants. To avoid a limitation of these non-heat-resistant material, we propose a couplant-less transducer fabrication method by attaching a piezoelectric film directly on the tested object with the spray coating method. Our method is based on the sol-gel spray technique to fabricate a piezoelectric ceramic film. With the sensor fabricated with this method, we measured the wall thickness under high temperature (100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600°C) conditions. From the results of the high-temperature experiment, it was found that the sensitivity decrease due to temperature rise was limited to 3dB and the difference of frequency response was also limited to 2 MHz at the second peak frequency at the maximum. According to the results, the performance deterioration due to high temperature was within an acceptable range. Additionally, the wall thickness could be calculated from reflected pulse waves. We concluded that sufficient availability of the piezoelectric film under high temperature were confirmed. This paper describes the effectiveness of piezoelectric film attached directly on the tested object

Intramucosal Signet Ring Cell Gastric Cancer Diagnosed 15 Months after the Initial Endoscopic Examination

The size and shape of intramucosal signet ring gastric cancer in this case remained endoscopically unchanged for 15 months. Laparoscopy-assisted distal gastrectomy was performed, and immunohistochemical analysis revealed Ki-67 and p53 mutations to be negative in this case. Signet ring gastric cancer has long been thought to confer a worse prognosis than other forms of gastric cancer; however, our case did not progress to advanced gastric cancer for 15 months