550 research outputs found
Detection of Osmotic Shock-Induced Extracellular Nucleotide Release with a Genetically Encoded Fluorescent Sensor of ADP and ATP
Purinergic signals, such as extracellular adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and adenosine diphosphate (ADP), mediate intercellular communication and stress responses throughout mammalian tissues, but the dynamics of their release and clearance are still not well understood. Although physiochemical methods provide important insight into physiology, genetically encoded optical sensors have proven particularly powerful in the quantification of signaling in live specimens. Indeed, genetically encoded luminescent and fluorescent sensors provide new insights into ATP-mediated purinergic signaling. However, new tools to detect extracellular ADP are still required. To this end, in this study, we use protein engineering to generate a new genetically encoded sensor that employs a high-affinity bacterial ADP-binding protein and reports a change in occupancy with a change in the Förster-type resonance energy transfer (FRET) between cyan and yellow fluorescent proteins. We characterize the sensor in both protein solution studies, as well as live-cell microscopy. This new sensor responds to nanomolar and micromolar concentrations of ADP and ATP in solution, respectively, and in principle it is the first fully-genetically encoded sensor with sufficiently high affinity for ADP to detect low levels of extracellular ADP. Furthermore, we demonstrate that tethering the sensor to the cell surface enables the detection of physiologically relevant nucleotide release induced by hypoosmotic shock as a model of tissue edema. Thus, we provide a new tool to study purinergic signaling that can be used across genetically tractable model systems
Simulated responses of soil carbon to climate change in CMIP6 Earth system models: the role of false priming
Reliable estimates of soil carbon change are required to determine the carbon budgets consistent with the Paris Agreement climate targets. This
study evaluates projections of soil carbon during the 21st century in Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) Earth system models (ESMs) under a range of atmospheric composition
scenarios. In general, we find a reduced spread of changes in global soil carbon (ΔCs) in CMIP6 compared to the previous CMIP5
model generation. However, similar reductions were not seen in the derived contributions to ΔCs due to both increases in plant net primary productivity (NPP, named ΔCs,NPP) and reductions in the effective soil carbon turnover time (τs, named
ΔCs,τ). Instead, we find a strong relationship across the CMIP6 models between these NPP and τs components of
ΔCs, with more positive values of ΔCs,NPP being correlated with more negative values of
ΔCs,τ. We show that the concept of “false priming” is likely to be contributing to this emergent relationship, which leads
to a decrease in the effective soil carbon turnover time as a direct result of NPP increase and occurs when the rate of increase in NPP is
relatively fast compared to the slower timescales of a multi-pool soil carbon model. This finding suggests that the structure of soil carbon models
within ESMs in CMIP6 has likely contributed towards the reduction in the overall model spread in future soil carbon projections since CMIP5.</p
Feasibility of Electrified Propulsion for Ultra-Efficient Commercial Aircraft Final Report
MIT, Aurora Flight Sciences, and USC have collaborated to assess the feasibility of electric, hybridelectric, and turbo-electric propulsion for ultra-efficient commercial transportation. The work has drawn on the team expertise in disciplines related to aircraft design, propulsion-airframe integration, electric machines and systems, engineering system design, and optimization. A parametric trade space analysis has been carried out to assess vehicle performance across a range of transport missions and propulsion architectures to establish how electrified propulsion systems scale. An optimization approach to vehicle conceptual design modeling was taken to enable rapid multidisciplinary design space exploration and sensitivity analysis. The results of the analysis indicate vehicle aero-propulsive integration benefits enabled by electrification are required to offset the increased weight and loss associated with the electric system and achieve enhanced performance; the report describes the conceptual configurations than can offer such enhancements. The main contribution of the present work is the definition of electric vehicle design attributes for potential efficiency improvements at different scales. Based on these results, key areas for future research are identified, and extensions to the trade space analysis suitable for higher fidelity electrified commercial aircraft design and analysis have been developed
Comment on the sign of the Casimir force
I show that reflection positivity implies that the force between any mirror
pair of charge-conjugate probes of the quantum vacuum is attractive. This
generalizes a recent theorem of Kenneth and Klich to interacting quantum
fields, to arbitrary semiclassical bodies, and to quantized probes with
non-overlapping wavefunctions. I also prove that the torques on
charge-conjugate probes tend always to rotate them into a mirror-symmetric
position.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, Latex file. Several points clarified and
expanded, two references added
Topological semimetal in a fermionic optical lattice
Optical lattices play a versatile role in advancing our understanding of
correlated quantum matter. The recent implementation of orbital degrees of
freedom in chequerboard and hexagonal optical lattices opens up a new thrust
towards discovering novel quantum states of matter, which have no prior analogs
in solid state electronic materials. Here, we demonstrate that an exotic
topological semimetal emerges as a parity-protected gapless state in the
orbital bands of a two-dimensional fermionic optical lattice. The new quantum
state is characterized by a parabolic band-degeneracy point with Berry flux
, in sharp contrast to the flux of Dirac points as in graphene. We
prove that the appearance of this topological liquid is universal for all
lattices with D point group symmetry as long as orbitals with opposite
parities hybridize strongly with each other and the band degeneracy is
protected by odd parity. Turning on inter-particle repulsive interactions, the
system undergoes a phase transition to a topological insulator whose
experimental signature includes chiral gapless domain-wall modes, reminiscent
of quantum Hall edge states.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures and Supplementary Informatio
Textural variations in Neogene pelagic carbonate ooze at DSDP Site 593, southern Tasman Sea, and their paleoceanographic implications
Changes in Neogene sediment texture in pelagic carbonate-rich oozes on the Challenger Plateau, southern Tasman Sea, are used to infer changes in depositional paleocurrent velocities. The most obvious record of textural change is in the mud:sand ratio. Increases in the sand content are inferred to indicate a general up-core trend towards increasing winnowing of sediments resulting from increasing flow velocity of Southern Component Intermediate Water (SCIW), the forerunner of Antarctic Intermediate Water. In particular, the intervals c. 19-14.5 Ma, c. 9.5-8 Ma, and after 5 Ma are suggested to be times of increased SCIW velocity and strong sediment winnowing. Within the mud fraction, the fine silt to coarse clay sizes from 15.6 to 2 µm make the greatest contribution to the sediments and are composed of nannofossil plates. During extreme winnowing events it is the fine silt to very coarse clay material (13-3 µm) within this range that is preferentially removed, suggesting the 10 µm cohesive silt boundary reported for siliciclastic sediments does not apply to calcitic skeletal grains. The winnowed sediment comprises coccolithophore placoliths and spheres, represented by a mode at 4-7 µm.
Further support for seafloor winnowing is gained from the presence in Hole 593 of a condensed sedimentary section from c. 18 to 14 Ma where the sand content increases to c. 20% of the bulk sample. Associated with the condensed section is a 6 m thick orange unit representing sediments subjected to particularly oxygen-rich, late early to early middle Miocene SCIW. Together these are inferred to indicate increased SCIW velocity resulting in winnowed sediment associated with faster arrival of oxygen-rich surface water subducted to form SCIW. Glacial development of Antarctica has been recorded from many deep-sea sites, with extreme glacials providing the mechanism to increase watermass flow. Miocene glacial zones Mi1b-Mi6 are identified in an associated oxygen isotope record from Hole 593, and correspond with times of particularly invigorated paleocirculation, bottom winnowing, and sediment textural changes
Secreted semaphorin 5A suppressed pancreatic tumour burden but increased metastasis and endothelial cell proliferation.
BACKGROUND: Our earlier reports demonstrated that membrane-bound semaphorin 5A (SEMA5A) is expressed in aggressive pancreatic cancer cells and tumours, and promotes tumour growth and metastasis. In this study, we examine whether (1) pancreatic cancer cells secrete SEMA5A and (2) that secreted SEMA5A modulates certain phenotypes associated with tumour progression, angiogenesis and metastasis through various other molecular factors and signalling proteins.
METHODS AND RESULTS: In this study, we show that human pancreatic cancer cell lines secrete the extracellular domain (ECD) of SEMA5A (SEMA5A-ECD) and overexpression of mouse Sema5A-ECD in Panc1 cells (not expressing SEMA5A; Panc1-Sema5A-ECD; control cells - Panc1-control) significantly increases their invasion in vitro via enhanced ERK phosphorylation. Interestingly, orthotopic injection of Panc1-Sema5A-ECD cells into athymic nude mice results in a lower primary tumour burden, but enhances the micrometastases to the liver as compared with Panc1-control cells. Furthermore, there is a significant increase in proliferation of endothelial cells treated with conditioned media (CM) from Panc1-Sema5A-ECD cells and a significant increase in microvessel density in Panc1-Sema5A-ECD orthotopic tumours compared with those from Panc1-control cells, suggesting that the increase in liver micrometastases is probably due to increased tumour angiogenesis. In addition, our data demonstrate that this increase in endothelial cell proliferation by Sema5A-ECD is mediated through the angiogenic molecules - interleukin-8 and vascular endothelial growth factor.
CONCLUSION: Taken together, these results suggest that a bioactive, secreted form of Sema5A-ECD has an intriguing and potentially important role in its ability to enhance pancreatic tumour invasiveness, angiogenesis and micrometastases
New Experimental Limits on Macroscopic Forces Below 100 Microns
Results of an experimental search for new macroscopic forces with Yukawa
range between 5 and 500 microns are presented. The experiment uses 1 kHz
mechanical oscillators as test masses with a stiff conducting shield between
them to suppress backgrounds. No signal is observed above the instrumental
thermal noise after 22 hours of integration time. These results provide the
strongest limits to date between 10 and 100 microns, improve on previous limits
by as much as three orders of magnitude, and rule out half of the remaining
parameter space for predictions of string-inspired models with low-energy
supersymmetry breaking. New forces of four times gravitational strength or
greater are excluded at the 95% confidence level for interaction ranges between
200 and 500 microns.Comment: 25 Pages, 7 Figures: Minor Correction
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