In the eye of the storm: T cell behavior in the inflammatory microenvironment.

Coordinated unfolding of innate and adaptive immunity is key to the development of protective immune responses. This functional integration occurs within the inflamed tissue, a microenvironment enriched with factors released by innate and subsequently adaptive immune cells and the injured tissue itself. T lymphocytes are key players in the ensuing adaptive immunity and their proper function is instrumental to a successful outcome of immune protection. The site of inflammation is a "harsh" environment in which T cells are exposed to numerous factors that might influence their behavior. Low pH and oxygen concentration, high lactate and organic acid content as well as free fatty acids and reactive oxygen species are found in the inflammatory microenvironment. All these components affect T cells as well as other immune cells during the immune response and impact on the development of chronic inflammation. We here overview the effects of a number of factors present in the inflammatory microenvironment on T cell function and migration and discuss the potential relevance of these components as targets for therapeutic intervention in autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases

Polyunsaturated fatty acid-derived lipid mediators and T cell function

Copyright © 2014 Nicolaou, Mauro, Urquhart and Marelli-Berg . This is an open- access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms

Polyunsaturated fatty acid-derived lipid mediators and T cell function

Copyright © 2014 Nicolaou, Mauro, Urquhart and Marelli-Berg . This is an open- access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms

Metabolic syndrome and the immunological affair with the blood-brain barrier

Copyright © 2015 Mauro, De Rosa, Marelli-Berg and Solito. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms

Experimental evaluation of isentropic efficiency in turbocharger twin-entry turbines

Turbocharging plays a fundamental role not only in improving the performance of automotive engines, but also in reducing the fuel consumption and exhaust emissions of spark-ignited biofuel, diesel, liquid, and gaseous engines. Dedicated experimental investigations on turbochargers are therefore needed to evaluate a better understanding of its performance. The availability of experimental information on the steady flow performance of the turbocharger is an essential requirement to optimize the matching calculation. It is interesting to know the isentropic efficiency of the turbine in order to improve the coupling with the engine, in particular it is difficult to identify the definition of the turbine efficiency through a direct evaluation. In a radial turbine, the isentropic efficiency, evaluated directly starting from the measurement of the thermodynamic quantities at the inlet and outlet sections, can be affected by significant errors. This inaccuracy is mainly related to the incorrect evaluation of the turbine outlet temperature, due to the non-uniform distribution of the flow field in the measurement section. For this purpose, a flow conditioner was installed downstream the turbine. Tests were performed at different values of the rotational speed, and in quasi-adiabatic conditions. The flow field downstream the de-coupler was analysed through a hand-made three-hole probe with an exposed junction thermocouple inserted in the pipe with different protrusions. Thanks to this experimental campaign, it was possible to measure pressure, velocity, mass flow and temperature profiles necessary to examine the homogeneity of the flow field. As the turbocharger is fitted with a twin entry turbine, the thermodynamic quantities have been properly taken into account referring to each sector

Multi-wavelength observations of 3FGL J2039.6-5618: a candidate redback millisecond pulsar

We present multi-wavelength observations of the unassociated gamma-ray source 3FGL J2039.6-5618 detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope. The source gamma-ray properties suggest that it is a pulsar, most likely a millisecond pulsar, for which neither radio nor $\gamma$-ray pulsations have been detected yet. We observed 3FGL J2039.6-5618 with XMM-Newton and discovered several candidate X-ray counterparts within/close to the gamma-ray error box. The brightest of these X-ray sources is variable with a period of 0.2245$\pm$0.0081 d. Its X-ray spectrum can be described by a power law with photon index $\Gamma_X =1.36\pm0.09$, and hydrogen column density $N_{\rm H} < 4 \times 10^{20}$ cm$^{-2}$, which gives an unabsorbed 0.3--10 keV X-ray flux of $1.02 \times 10^{-13}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$. Observations with the Gamma-Ray Burst Optical/Near-Infrared Detector (GROND) discovered an optical counterpart to this X-ray source, with a time-average magnitude $g'\sim 19.5$. The counterpart features a flux modulation with a period of 0.22748$\pm$0.00043 d that coincides, within the errors, with that of the X-ray source, confirming the association based on the positional coincidence. We interpret the observed X-ray/optical periodicity as the orbital period of a close binary system where one of the two members is a neutron star. The light curve profile of the companion star, with two asymmetric peaks, suggests that the optical emission comes from two regions at different temperatures on its tidally-distorted surface. Based upon its X-ray and optical properties, we consider this source as the most likely X-ray counterpart to 3FGL J2039.6-5618, which we propose to be a new redback system.Comment: 35 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication on Astrophysical Journa

Analysis of airplane boarding via space-time geometry and random matrix theory

We show that airplane boarding can be asymptotically modeled by 2-dimensional Lorentzian geometry. Boarding time is given by the maximal proper time among curves in the model. Discrepancies between the model and simulation results are closely related to random matrix theory. We then show how such models can be used to explain why some commonly practiced airline boarding policies are ineffective and even detrimental.Comment: 4 page

Effects of reading proficiency and of base and whole-word frequency on reading noun- and verb-derived words: an eye-tracking study in Italian primary school children

The aim of this study is to assess the role of readers' proficiency and of the base-word distributional properties on eye-movement behavior. Sixty-two typically developing children, attending 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade, were asked to read derived words in a sentence context. Target words were nouns derived from noun bases (e.g., umorista, 'humorist'), which in Italian are shared by few derived words, and nouns derived from verb bases (e.g., punizione, 'punishment'), which are shared by about 50 different inflected forms and several derived words. Data shows that base and word frequency affected first-fixation duration for nouns derived from noun bases, but in an opposite way: base frequency had a facilitative effect on first fixation, whereas word frequency exerted an inhibitory effect. These results were interpreted as a competition between early accessed base words (e.g., camino, chimney) and target words (e.g., caminetto, fireplace). For nouns derived from verb bases, an inhibitory base frequency effect but no word frequency effect was observed. These results suggest that syntactic context, calling for a noun in the target position, lead to an inhibitory effect when a verb base was detected, and made it difficult for readers to access the corresponding base+suffix combination (whole word) in the very early processing phases. Gaze duration was mainly affected by word frequency and length: for nouns derived from noun bases, this interaction was modulated by proficiency, as length effect was stronger for less proficient readers, while they were processing low-frequency words. For nouns derived from verb bases, though, all children, irrespective of their reading ability, showed sensitivity to the interaction within frequency of base+suffix combination (word frequency) and target length. Results of this study are consistent with those of other Italian studies that contrasted noun and verb processing, and confirm that distributional properties of morphemic constituents have a significant impact on the strategies used for processing morphologically complex words