Elevated cellular cholesterol in Familial Alzheimer’s presenilin 1 mutation is associated with lipid raft localization of β-amyloid precursor protein

Familial Alzheimer’s disease (FAD)-associated presenilin 1 (PS1) serves as a catalytic subunit of γ-secretase complex, which mediates the proteolytic liberation of β-amyloid (Aβ) from β-amyloid precursor protein (APP). In addition to its proteolytic role, PS1 is involved in non-proteolytic functions such as protein trafficking and ion channel regulation. Furthermore, postmortem AD brains as well as AD patients showed dysregulation of cholesterol metabolism. Since cholesterol has been implicated in regulating Aβ production, we investigated whether the FAD PS1-associated cholesterol elevation could influence APP processing. We found that in CHO cells stably expressing FAD-associated PS1 ΔE9, total cholesterol levels are elevated compared to cells expressing wild-type PS1. We also found that localization of APP in cholesterol-enriched lipid rafts is substantially increased in the mutant cells. Reducing the cholesterol levels by either methyl-β-cyclodextrin or an inhibitor of CYP51, an enzyme mediating the elevated cholesterol in PS1 ΔE9-expressing cells, significantly reduced lipid raft-associated APP. In contrast, exogenous cholesterol increased lipid raft-associated APP. These data suggest that in the FAD PS1 ΔE9 cells, the elevated cellular cholesterol level contributes to the altered APP processing by increasing APP localized in lipid rafts

Single crystalline hollow metal-organic frameworks: a metal-organic polyhedron single crystal as a sacrificial template

Single crystalline hollow metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with cavity dimensions on the order of several micrometers and hundreds of micrometers were prepared using a metal-organic polyhedron single crystal as a sacrificial hard template. The hollow nature of the MOF crystal was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy of the crystal sliced using a focused ion beam.open2

Analyses bactériologiques et cellulaires des échantillons de lait chez des chèvres après sélection divergente sur la résistance aux mammites

La concentration des cellules somatiques (CCS) est un critère très utilisé pour évaluer le statut infectieux de la mamelle chez la chèvre. Grace à l’analyse en cytométrie en flux, celle-ci a été décomposée en concentrations de neutrophiles (vivants et morts), lymphocytes, macrophages dans le but d’étudier la réponse inflammatoire locale chez deux lignées de chèvres génétiquement divergentes sur le critère de la CCS. L’objectif de cette étude était de décrire l’évolution au cours de la lactation de la CCS en fonction du statut bactériologique. Les infections mammaires chez les chèvres de la lignée résistante sont moins fréquentes et avec des titres bactériens plus faibles d’après les données acquises par les méthodes conventionnelle et moléculaire. De plus, leurs réponses inflammatoire et immunitaire locales semblent plus efficaces lors d’infection

Assessment of Deceased Donor Kidneys Using a Donor Scoring System

∙The authors have no financial conflicts of interest. Purpose: Marginal grafts should be used more actively in Asian countries where deceased donor transplantation is unpopular. We modified a quantitative donor scoring system proposed by Nyberg and his colleagues and developed a donor scoring system in order to assess the quality of deceased donor grafts and their prognostic value as an initial effort to promote usage of marginal donors. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 337 patients. Results: A scoring system was derived from six donor variables [age, 0-25; renal function, 0-4; history of hypertension

The First Very Long Baseline Interferometry Image of 44 GHz Methanol Maser with the KVN and VERA Array (KaVA)

We have carried out the first very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) imaging of 44 GHz class I methanol maser (7_{0}-6_{1}A^{+}) associated with a millimeter core MM2 in a massive star-forming region IRAS 18151-1208 with KaVA (KVN and VERA Array), which is a newly combined array of KVN (Korean VLBI Network) and VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry). We have succeeded in imaging compact maser features with a synthesized beam size of 2.7 milliarcseconds x 1.5 milliarcseconds (mas). These features are detected at a limited number of baselines within the length of shorter than approximately 650 km corresponding to 100 Mlambda in the uv-coverage. The central velocity and the velocity width of the 44 GHz methanol maser are consistent with those of the quiescent gas rather than the outflow traced by the SiO thermal line. The minimum component size among the maser features is ~ 5 mas x 2 mas, which corresponds to the linear size of ~ 15 AU x 6 AU assuming a distance of 3 kpc. The brightness temperatures of these features range from ~ 3.5 x 10^{8} to 1.0 x 10^{10} K, which are higher than estimated lower limit from a previous Very Large Array observation with the highest spatial resolution of ~ 50 mas. The 44 GHz class I methanol maser in IRAS 18151-1208 is found to be associated with the MM2 core, which is thought to be less evolved than another millimeter core MM1 associated with the 6.7 GHz class II methanol maser.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figure

The Distribution of Fetal Nuchal Translucency Thickness in Normal Korean Fetuses

The aim of present study was to establish normative data for the distribution of nuchal translucency (NT) thickness in normal Korean fetuses. The data were collected from pregnant women with singleton pregnancies in whom fetal ultrasound was performed and the fetal NT thickness was measured between 11 and 14 weeks of gestation. Among them, a total of 2,577 fetuses with a known normal outcome were included in this study. The distribution of multiple of median (MoM) values of the NT thickness with crown-rump length (CRL) in 10-mm intervals and the 95th percentile of MoM were calculated with the linear regression method. The present study showed that NT measurements increase with increasing CRL and a false positive rate increases with increasing gestational age. Therefore, a fixed cut-off point through the first trimester was not appropriate and each NT measurement should be examined according to the gestational age. The present study offers normative data of the fetal NT thickness in a Korean population, which can be used as reference for screening chromosomal aberrations or other congenital abnormalities in the first trimester

Decentralized optimal control for large populations of two-wheeled vehicles

In this paper, we consider decentralized optimal control for large populations of two-wheeled vehicles via mean field game theory. Specifically, the main objective is that each two-wheeled vehicle follows the average behavior (or mean field) of the whole population while achieving the overall optimal control performance without sharing their state information (position and/or velocity) with other vehicles. We first provide a general modeling framework of the two-wheeled vehicle for its position control by using balances of moments and forces that are obtained from the two electric DC motors and the vehicle chassis structure. Next, we design an optimal control for each vehicle, which is decentralized as it is a function of its own state, and the set of designed decentralized optimal controls constitutes an ∊-Nash equilibrium. With these decentralized optimal controls, we characterize an approximated average behavior of the vehicles, and show that it is the best estimate of the actual average behavior when the population size becomes arbitrarily large. Finally, these theoretical results are validated through simulation and experiment results of large populations of two-wheeled vehicles

Highly birefringent and dispersion compensating photonic crystal fiber based on double line defect core

We propose a highly birefringent and dispersion compensating photonic crystal fiber based on a double line defect core. Using a finite element method (FEM) with a perfectly matched layer (PML), it is demonstrated that it is possible to obtain broadband large negative dispersion of about -400 to -427 ps/(nm.km) covering all optical communication bands (from O to U band) and to achieve the dispersion coefficient of -425 ps/(nm.km) at 1.55 µm. In addition, the highest birefringence of the proposed PCF at 1.55 µm is 1.92 x 10-2 and the value of birefringence from the wavelength of 1.26 to 1.8 µm (covering O to U bands) is about 1.8 x 10-2 to 1.92 x 10-2. It is confirmed that from the simulation results, the confinement loss of the proposed PCF is always less than 10-3 dB/km at 1.55 µm with seven fiber rings of air holes in the cladding