An investigation of three-body effects in intermolecular forces III: Far infrared laser vibration—rotation—tunneling spectroscopy of the lowest internal rotor states of Ar2HCl

The c-type intermolecular out-of-plane bend of Ar2HCl has been observed at 45.2 cm-1, completing the high resolution far infrared measurements of the three lowest-lying Ar2HCl bending states which correlate to the j=1 internal rotational state of the HCl monomer. The rotational and nuclear quadrupole hyperfine structures indicate the existence of a Coriolis perturbation. The perturbing state is postulated to be a heavy-atom stretching overtone that is very nearly degenerate with the out-of-plane bend. A partial reassignment of the previously reported [J. Chem. Phys. 95, 3182 (1991)] Ar2HCl in-plane bend is presented and a treatment of Coriolis effects between the in-plane and Sigma bends is discussed. Comparison with dynamically rigorous calculations presented in the accompanying paper [J. Chem. Phys. 98, 5337 (1993)] indicate substantial three-body contributions to the intermolecular potential, which should be determinable from the data presented in this paper

Far-infrared vibration–rotation–tunnelling spectroscopy of the water trimer

Tunable far-infrared laser vibration–rotation–tunnelling spectroscopy (FIRVRTS) has been used to measure several intermolecular vibrations in the water trimer. Together with ab initio and group theoretical results, these data characterize the structure and especially the tunnelling dynamics of this system in considerable detail

Far infrared vibration-rotation-tunneling spectroscopy and internal dynamics of methane—water: A prototypical hydrophobic system

Thirteen vibration-rotation-tunneling (VRT) bands of the CH4—H2O complex have been measured in the range from 18 to 35.5 cm-1 using tunable far infrared laser spectroscopy. The ground state has an average center of mass separation of 3.70 A-ring and a stretching force constant of 1.52 N/m, indicating that this complex is more strongly bound than Ar—H2O. The eigenvalue spectrum has been calculated with a variational procedure using a spherical expansion of a site—site ab initio intermolecular potential energy surface [J. Chem. Phys. 93, 7808 (1991)]. The computed eigenvalues exhibit a similar pattern to the observed spectra but are not in quantitative agreement. These observations suggest that both monomers undergo nearly free internal rotation within the complex

Multidimensional hydrogen tunneling dynamics in the ground vibrational state of the ammonia dimer

We have measured and assigned more than 800 new far-infrared absorption lines and 12 new microwave absorption lines of the ammonia dimer. Our data are analyzed in combination with all previously measured far-infrared and microwave spectra for this cluster. The vibration—rotation—tunneling (VRT) states of the ammonia dimer connected by electric-dipole-allowed transitions are separated into three groups that correspond to different combinations of monomer rotational states: A+A states (states formed from the combination of two ammonia monomers in A states), A+E states, and E+E states. We present complete experimentally determined energy-level diagrams for the Ka=0 and Ka=1 levels of each group in the ground vibrational state of this complex. From these, we deduce that the appropriate molecular symmetry group for the ammonia dimer is G144. This, in turn, implies that three kinds of tunneling motions are feasible for the ammonia dimer: interchange of the ‘‘donor’’ and ‘‘acceptor’’ roles of the monomers, internal rotation of the monomers about their C3 symmetry axes, and quite unexpectedly, ‘‘umbrella’’ inversion tunneling. In the Ka=0 A+E and E+E states, the measured umbrella inversion tunneling splittings range from 1.1 to 3.3 GHz. In Ka=1, these inversion splittings between two sets of E+E states are 48 and 9 MHz, while all others are completely quenched. Another surprise, in light of previous analyses of tunneling in the ammonia dimer, is our discovery that the interchange tunneling splittings are large. In the A+A and E+E states, they are 16.1 and 19.3 cm-1, respectively. In the A+E states, the measured 20.5 cm-1 splitting can result from a difference in ‘‘donor’’ and ‘‘acceptor’’ internal rotation frequencies that is increased by interchange tunneling. We rule out the possibility that the upper state of the observed far-infrared subbands is the very-low-frequency out-of-plane intermolecular vibration predicted in several theoretical studies [C. E. Dykstra and L. Andrews, J. Chem. Phys. 92, 6043 (1990); M. J. Frisch, J. E. Del Bene, J. S. Binkley, and H. F. Schaefer III, ibid. 84, 2279 (1986)]. In their structure determination, Nelson et al. assumed that monomer umbrella inversion tunneling was completely quenched and that ‘‘donor—acceptor’’ interchange tunneling was nearly quenched in the ammonia dimer [D. D. Nelson, G. T. Fraser, and W. Klemperer, J. Chem. Phys. 83, 6201 (1985); D. D. Nelson, W. Klemperer, G. T. Fraser, F. J. Lovas, and R. D. Suenram, ibid. 87, 6364 (1987)]. Our experimental results, considered together with the results of six-dimensional calculations of the VRT dynamics presented by van Bladel et al. in the accompanying paper [J. Chem. Phys. 97, 4750 (1992)], make it unlikely that the structure proposed by Nelson et al. for the ammonia dimer is the equilibrium structure

Sex-specific prognostic effect of CD66b-positive tumor-infiltrating neutrophils (TANs) in gastric and esophageal adenocarcinoma

Background Tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs) have recently been identified as a relevant component of the tumor microenvironment (TME) in solid tumors. Within the TME TANs mediate either tumor-promoting or tumor-inhibiting activities. So far, their prognostic relevance remains to be determined. This study aims to evaluate the prognostic relevance of TANs in different molecular subtypes of gastric and esophageal adenocarcinoma. Methods We analyzed a total of 1118 Caucasian patients divided into gastric adenocarcinoma (n = 458) and esophageal adenocarcinoma cohort (n = 660) of primarily resected and neoadjuvant-treated individuals. The amount of CD66b + TANs in the tumor stroma was determined using quantitative image analysis and correlated to both molecular, as well as clinical data. Results An accumulation of TANs in the tumor stroma of gastric carcinomas was associated to a significant favorable prognosis (p = 0.026). A subgroup analysis showed that this effect was primarily related to the molecular chromosomal instable subtype (CIN) of gastric carcinomas (p = 0.010). This was only observed in female patients (p = 0.014) but not in male patients (p = 0.315). The same sex-specific effect could be confirmed in adenocarcinomas of the esophagus (p = 0.027), as well as in female individuals after receiving neoadjuvant therapy (p = 0.034). Conclusions Together, we show a sex-specific prognostic effect of TANs in gastric cancer within a Caucasian cohort. For the first time, we showed that this sex-specific prognostic effect of TANs can also be seen in esophageal cancer

Local clearance of senescent cells attenuates the development of post-traumatic osteoarthritis and creates a pro-regenerative environment

Senescent cells (SnCs) accumulate in many vertebrate tissues with age and contribute to age-related pathologies, presumably through their secretion of factors contributing to the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Removal of SnCs delays several pathologies and increases healthy lifespan8. Aging and trauma are risk factors for the development of osteoarthritis (OA), a chronic disease characterized by degeneration of articular cartilage leading to pain and physical disability. Senescent chondrocytes are found in cartilage tissue isolated from patients undergoing joint replacement surgery, yet their role in disease pathogenesis is unknown. To test the idea that SnCs might play a causative role in OA, we used the p16-3MR transgenic mouse, which harbors a p16INK4a (Cdkn2a) promoter driving the expression of a fusion protein containing synthetic Renilla luciferase and monomeric red fluorescent protein domains, as well as a truncated form of herpes simplex virus 1 thymidine kinase (HSV-TK). This mouse strain allowed us to selectively follow and remove SnCs after anterior cruciate ligament transection (ACLT). We found that SnCs accumulated in the articular cartilage and synovium after ACLT, and selective elimination of these cells attenuated the development of post-traumatic OA, reduced pain and increased cartilage development. Intra-articular injection of a senolytic molecule that selectively killed SnCs validated these results in transgenic, non-transgenic and aged mice. Selective removal of the SnCs from in vitro cultures of chondrocytes isolated from patients with OA undergoing total knee replacement decreased expression of senescent and inflammatory markers while also increasing expression of cartilage tissue extracellular matrix proteins. Collectively, these findings support the use of SnCs as a therapeutic target for treating degenerative joint disease.ope