4,403 research outputs found
Thyroid hormone affects both endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells in rat arteries
Hypothyroidism impairs endothelium-dependent dilatations, while hyperthyroidism augments the production of endothelial nitric oxide. Thus, experiments were designed to determine if thyroid hormone causes endothelium-dependent responses, or alleviates diabetic endothelial dysfunction. Isometric tension was measured in rings with or without endothelium of arteries from normal and diabetic Sprague-Dawley rats. Release of 6-keto prostaglandin F1α and thromboxane B2 were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay and protein levels [endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), cyclooxygenases (COX)] by immunoblotting. Triiodothyronine (T3) caused concentration-dependent (3×10−6–3×10−5 M) relaxations in mesenteric (pEC50, 4.96±0.19) and femoral (pEC50, 4.57±0.35) arteries without endothelium. In femoral arteries of rats with diabetes, 5-methylamino-2-[[(2S,3R,5R,8S,9S)-3,5,9-trimethyl-2-(1-oxo-(1H-pyrrol-2- -yl)propan-2-yl)-1,7-dioxaspiro-(5,5)undecan-8-yl]methyl]benzooxazole-4-carboxylic acid (A23187, 3×10−7 to 10−6 M) caused partly endothelium-dependent contractions. After chronic T3-treatment with (10 μg/kg/day; four weeks), the contractions to A23187 of preparations with and without endothelium were comparable, the thromboxane B2-release was reduced (by 38.1±9.2%). The pEC50 of 9, 11-dideoxy-11α, 9α-epoxymethanoprostaglandin F2α (U46619, TP-receptor agonist) was increased in T3-treated diabetic rats compared with controls (8.53±0.06 vs 7.94±0.09). The protein expression of eNOS increased (by 228%) but that of COX-1 decreased (by 35%) after chronic T3 treatment. In human umbilical vein endothelial cells incubated for one week with T3 (10−10–10−7 M) in the presence but not in the absence of interleukin-1β (1 ng/ml), the expression of eNOS was increased compared to control. In conclusion, thyroid hormone acutely relaxes mesenteric and femoral vascular smooth muscle, but given chronically reduces the release of endothelium-derived vasoconstrictor prostanoids while enhancing the responsiveness of TP receptors of vascular smooth muscle.postprin
Immunosuppressive mechanisms of human bone marrow derived mesenchymal stromal cells in BALB/c host graft versus host disease murine models
published_or_final_versio
Analytic study of properties of holographic p-wave superconductors
In this paper, we analytically investigate the properties of p-wave
holographic superconductors in -Schwarzschild background by two
approaches, one based on the Sturm-Liouville eigenvalue problem and the other
based on the matching of the solutions to the field equations near the horizon
and near the asymptotic region. The relation between the critical
temperature and the charge density has been obtained and the dependence of the
expectation value of the condensation operator on the temperature has been
found. Our results are in very good agreement with the existing numerical
results. The critical exponent of the condensation also comes out to be 1/2
which is the universal value in the mean field theory.Comment: Latex, To appear in JHE
Application of amino acid occurrence for discriminating different folding types of globular proteins
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Predicting the three-dimensional structure of a protein from its amino acid sequence is a long-standing goal in computational/molecular biology. The discrimination of different structural classes and folding types are intermediate steps in protein structure prediction.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this work, we have proposed a method based on linear discriminant analysis (LDA) for discriminating 30 different folding types of globular proteins using amino acid occurrence. Our method was tested with a non-redundant set of 1612 proteins and it discriminated them with the accuracy of 38%, which is comparable to or better than other methods in the literature. A web server has been developed for discriminating the folding type of a query protein from its amino acid sequence and it is available at http://granular.com/PROLDA/.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Amino acid occurrence has been successfully used to discriminate different folding types of globular proteins. The discrimination accuracy obtained with amino acid occurrence is better than that obtained with amino acid composition and/or amino acid properties. In addition, the method is very fast to obtain the results.</p
Thermodynamics of phase transition in higher dimensional AdS black holes
We investigate the thermodynamics of phase transition for
dimensional Reissner Nordstrom (RN)-AdS black holes using a grand canonical
ensemble. This phase transition is characterized by a discontinuity in specific
heat. The phase transition occurs from a lower mass black hole with negative
specific heat to a higher mass black hole with positive specific heat. By
exploring Ehrenfest's scheme we show that this is a second order phase
transition. Explicit expressions for the critical temperature and critical mass
are derived. In appropriate limits the results for dimensional
Schwarzschild AdS black holes are obtained.Comment: LaTex, 11 pages, 5 figures, To appear in JHE
Holographic Superconductors from Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton Gravity
We construct holographic superconductors from Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton
gravity in 3+1 dimensions with two adjustable couplings and the charge
carried by the scalar field. For the values of and we
consider, there is always a critical temperature at which a second order phase
transition occurs between a hairy black hole and the AdS RN black hole in the
canonical ensemble, which can be identified with the superconducting phase
transition of the dual field theory. We calculate the electric conductivity of
the dual superconductor and find that for the values of and where
is small the dual superconductor has similar properties to the
minimal model, while for the values of and where is
large enough, the electric conductivity of the dual superconductor exhibits
novel properties at low frequencies where it shows a "Drude Peak" in the real
part of the conductivity.Comment: 25 pages, 13 figures; v2, typos corrected; v3, refs added, to appear
in JHE
Thermodynamic Geometry and Phase Transitions in Kerr-Newman-AdS Black Holes
We investigate phase transitions and critical phenomena in Kerr-Newman-Anti
de Sitter black holes in the framework of the geometry of their equilibrium
thermodynamic state space. The scalar curvature of these state space Riemannian
geometries is computed in various ensembles. The scalar curvature diverges at
the critical point of second order phase transitions for these systems.
Remarkably, however, we show that the state space scalar curvature also carries
information about the liquid-gas like first order phase transitions and the
consequent instabilities and phase coexistence for these black holes. This is
encoded in the turning point behavior and the multi-valued branched structure
of the scalar curvature in the neighborhood of these first order phase
transitions. We re-examine this first for the conventional Van der Waals
system, as a preliminary exercise. Subsequently, we study the Kerr-Newman-AdS
black holes for a grand canonical and two "mixed" ensembles and establish novel
phase structures. The state space scalar curvature bears out our assertion for
the first order phase transitions for both the known and the new phase
structures, and closely resembles the Van der Waals system.Comment: 1 + 41 pages, LaTeX, 46 figures. Discussions, clarifications and
references adde
Early detection of neurodegeneration in brain ischemia by manganese-enhanced MRI
This study aims to employ in vivo manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI) to detect neurodegenerative changes in two models of brain ischemia, photothrombotic cortical injury (PCI) and transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in rodents. After systemic Mn 2+ injection to both ischemic models, a close pattern of Tl-weighted hyperintensity was observed throughout different brain regions in comparison to the distribution of GFAP, MnSOD and GS immunoreactivities, whereby conventional MRI could hardly detect such. In addition, the infarct volumes in the posterior parts of the brain had significantly reduced after Mn 2+ injection to the MCAO model. It is suggested that exogenous Mn 2+ injection may provide enhanced MEMRI detection of oxidative stress and gliosis early after brain ischemia. Manganese may also mediate infarctions at remote brain regions in transient focal cerebral ischemia before delayed secondary damage takes place. © 2008 IEEE.published_or_final_versionThe 30th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) 2008, Vancouver, BC., 20-25 August 2008. in Proceedings of the 30th EMBS, 2008, p. 3884-388
Coumarins from the Roots of Angelica archangelica and Antibacterial Activity Against Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus
Angelica archangelica (Fam. Apiaceae) roots were extracted sequentially with n-hexane, dichloromethane (DCM) and methanol (MeOH) using a Soxhlet apparatus. The n-hexane and DCM extracts were fractionated by Vacuum Liquid Chromatography (VLC) over silica gel followed by Preparative Thin Layer Chromatography (PTLC) to yield two coumarins, osthol (1) and osthenol (2). However, the methanol extract was fractionated by solid-phase extraction using C18 cartridge followed by analysis of components by analytical High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and purification by preparative High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) to give two coumarins, bergapten (3) and heraclenol (4) along with sucrose (5). Compounds were identified by a series of 1D (1H and 13C) and 2D (COSY, HSQC and HMBC) NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometric analysis. The crude extracts (n-hexane, DCM, and methanol) and compound 1, were screened for antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacteria (Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA and Micrococcus luteus), Gram-negative bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and a fungus, Candida albicans. The antimicrobial assays showed that the crude DCM and n-hexane extracts, alongside compound 1, largely inhibited the growth of the microorganisms at high concentrations. Compound 1, which was further tested for antibacterial activity against a series of clinical isolates of methicillin resistance Staphylococcus aureus, showed moderate level of activity against only one strain
A sentiment analysis software framework for the support of business information architecture in the tourist sector
In recent years, the increased use of digital tools within the Peruvian tourism industry has created a corresponding increase in revenues. However, both factors have caused increased competition in the sector that in turn puts pressure on small and medium enterprises' (SME) revenues and profitability. This study aims to apply neural network based sentiment analysis on social networks to generate a new information search channel that provides a global understanding of user trends and preferences in the tourism sector. A working data-analysis framework will be developed and integrated with tools from the cloud to allow a visual assessment of high probability outcomes based on historical data, to help SMEs estimate the number of tourists arriving and places they want to visit, so that they can generate desirable travel packages in advance, reduce logistics costs, increase sales, and ultimately improve both quality and precision of customer service
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