367 research outputs found
TXNIP is a Mediator of ER Stress-Induced β-Cell Inflammation and Apoptosis: A Dissertation
Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by hyperglycemia. The pathogenesis of these diseases involves β-cell dysfunction and death. The primary function of β-cells is to tightly regulate the secretion, production, and storage of insulin in response to blood glucose levels. In order to manage insulin biosynthesis, β-cells have an elaborate endoplasmic reticulum (ER).
The ER is an essential organelle for the proper processing and folding of proteins such as proinsulin. Proteins fold properly when the ER protein load balances with the ER folding capacity that handles this load. Disruption of this ER homeostasis by genetic and environmental stimuli leads to an accumulation of misfolded and unfolded proteins, a condition known as ER stress. Upon ER stress, the unfolded protein response (UPR) is activated. The UPR is a signaling network that aims to alleviate ER stress and restore ER homeostasis promoting cell survival. Hence, the UPR allows β-cells to handle the physiological fluctuations of insulin demand.
However upon severe unresolvable ER stress conditions such as during diabetes progression, the UPR switches to pathological outputs leading to β-cell dysfunction and apoptosis. Severe ER stress may also trigger inflammation and accumulating evidence suggests that inflammation also contributes to β-cell failure, but the mechanisms remain elusive.
In this dissertation, we demonstrate that thioredoxin interacting protein (TXNIP) mediates ER stress induced β-cell inflammation and apoptosis. During a DNA microarray analysis to identify novel survival and death components of the UPR, we identified TXNIP as an interesting proapoptotic candidate as it has been linked to glucotoxicity in β-cells. During our detailed investigation, we discovered that TXNIP is selectively expressed in β-cells of the pancreas and is strongly induced by ER stress through the IRE1α and PERK-eIF2α arms of the UPR and specifically its transcription is regulated by activating transcription factor 5 (ATF5) and carbohydrate response element binding protein (ChREBP) transcription factors.
As TXNIP has been shown to activate the Nod-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome leading to the production of the inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β (IL- 1β), we hypothesized that perhaps TXNIP has a role in IL-1β production under ER stress. We show that ER stress can induce IL-1β production and that IL-1β is capable of binding to IL-1 type 1 receptor (IL-1R1) on the surface of β-cells stimulating its own expression. More importantly, we demonstrate that TXNIP does indeed play a role in ER stress mediated IL-1β production through the NLRP3 inflammasome. Furthermore, we also confirmed that TXNIP is a mediator of β-cell apoptosis under ER stress partially through IL-1β signaling.
Collectively, we provide significant novel findings that TXNIP is a component of the UPR, mediates IL-1β production and autostimulation, and induces cell death under ER stress in β-cells. It is becoming clear that TXNIP has a role in the pathogenesis of diabetes and is a link between ER stress, oxidative stress and inflammation. Understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in TXNIP expression, activity, and function as we do here will shed light on potential therapeutic strategies to tackle diabetes
Limits on the Mass, Velocity and Orbit of PSR J19336211
We present a high-precision timing analysis of PSR J19336211, a
millisecond pulsar (MSP) with a 3.5-ms spin period and a white dwarf (WD)
companion, using data from the Parkes radio telescope. Since we have accurately
measured the polarization properties of this pulsar we have applied the matrix
template matching approach in which the times of arrival are measured using
full polarimetric information. We achieved a weighted root-mean-square timing
residuals (rms) of the timing residuals of 1.23 , 15.5
improvement compared to the total intensity timing analysis. After studying the
scintillation properties of this pulsar we put constraints on the inclination
angle of the system. Based on these measurements and on mapping we put
a 2- upper limit on the companion mass (0.44 M). Since this
mass limit cannot reveal the nature of the companion we further investigate the
possibility of the companion to be a He WD. Applying the orbital period-mass
relation for such WDs, we conclude that the mass of a He WD companion would be
about 0.260.01 M which, combined with the measured mass function
and orbital inclination limits, would lead to a light pulsar mass
1.0 M. This result seems unlikely based on current neutron star
formation models and we therefore conclude that PSR J19336211 most likely
has a CO WD companion, which allows for a solution with a more massive pulsar
A deep campaign to characterize the synchronous radio/X-ray mode switching of PSR B0943+10
We report on simultaneous X-ray and radio observations of the mode-switching
pulsar PSR B0943+10 obtained with the XMM-Newton satellite and the LOFAR, LWA
and Arecibo radio telescopes in November 2014. We confirm the synchronous
X-ray/radio switching between a radio-bright (B) and a radio-quiet (Q) mode, in
which the X-ray flux is a factor ~2.4 higher than in the B-mode. We discovered
X-ray pulsations, with pulsed fraction of 38+/-5% (0.5-2 keV), during the
B-mode, and confirm their presence in Q-mode, where the pulsed fraction
increases with energy from ~20% up to ~65% at 2 keV. We found marginal evidence
for an increase in the X-ray pulsed fraction during B-mode on a timescale of
hours. The Q-mode X-ray spectrum requires a fit with a two-component model
(either a power-law plus blackbody or the sum of two blackbodies), while the
B-mode spectrum is well fit by a single blackbody (a single power-law is
rejected). With a maximum likelihood analysis, we found that in Q-mode the
pulsed emission has a thermal blackbody spectrum with temperature ~3.4x10^6 K
and the unpulsed emission is a power-law with photon index ~2.5, while during
B-mode both the pulsed and unpulsed emission can be fit by either a blackbody
or a power law with similar values of temperature and photon index. A Chandra
image shows no evidence for diffuse X-ray emission. These results support a
scenario in which both unpulsed non-thermal emission, likely of magnetospheric
origin, and pulsed thermal emission from a small polar cap (~1500 m^2) with a
strong non-dipolar magnetic field (~10^{14} G), are present during both radio
modes and vary in intensity in a correlated way. This is broadly consistent
with the predictions of the partially screened gap model and does not
necessarily imply global magnetospheric rearrangements to explain the mode
switching.Comment: To be published on The Astrophysical Journa
The PULSE@Parkes project: A new observing technique for long-term pulsar monitoring
The PULSE@Parkes project has been designed to monitor the rotation of radio
pulsars over time spans of days to years. The observations are obtained using
the Parkes 64-m and 12-m radio telescopes by Australian and international high
school students. These students learn the basis of radio astronomy and
undertake small projects with their observations. The data are fully calibrated
and obtained with the state-of-the-art pulsar hardware available at Parkes. The
final data sets are archived and are currently being used to carry out studies
of 1) pulsar glitches, 2) timing noise, 3) pulse profile stability over long
time scales and 4) the extreme nulling phenomenon. The data are also included
in other projects such as gamma-ray observatory support and for the Parkes
Pulsar Timing Array project. In this paper we describe the current status of
the project and present the first scientific results from the Parkes 12-m radio
telescope. We emphasise that this project offers a straightforward means to
enthuse high school students and the general public about radio astronomy while
obtaining scientifically valuable data sets.Comment: accepted for publication by PAS
The UTMOST pulsar timing programme I: overview and first results
We present an overview and the first results from a large-scale pulsar timing
programme that is part of the UTMOST project at the refurbished Molonglo
Observatory Synthesis Radio Telescope (MOST) near Canberra, Australia. We
currently observe more than 400 mainly bright southern radio pulsars with up to
daily cadences. For 205 (8 in binaries, 4 millisecond pulsars) we publish
updated timing models, together with their flux densities, flux density
variability, and pulse widths at 843 MHz, derived from observations spanning
between 1.4 and 3 yr. In comparison with the ATNF pulsar catalogue, we improve
the precision of the rotational and astrometric parameters for 123 pulsars, for
47 by at least an order of magnitude. The time spans between our measurements
and those in the literature are up to 48 yr, which allows us to investigate
their long-term spin-down history and to estimate proper motions for 60
pulsars, of which 24 are newly determined and most are major improvements. The
results are consistent with interferometric measurements from the literature. A
model with two Gaussian components centred at 139 and fits the transverse velocity distribution best. The pulse duty
cycle distributions at 50 and 10 per cent maximum are best described by
log-normal distributions with medians of 2.3 and 4.4 per cent, respectively. We
discuss two pulsars that exhibit spin-down rate changes and drifting subpulses.
Finally, we describe the autonomous observing system and the dynamic scheduler
that has increased the observing efficiency by a factor of 2-3 in comparison
with static scheduling.Comment: 31 pages, 14 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA
The Performance and Calibration of the CRAFT Fly's Eye Fast Radio Burst Survey
Since January 2017, the Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transients survey
(CRAFT) has been utilising commissioning antennas of the Australian SKA
Pathfinder (ASKAP) to survey for fast radio bursts (FRBs) in fly's eye mode.
This is the first extensive astronomical survey using phased array feeds
(PAFs), and a total of 20 FRBs have been reported. Here we present a
calculation of the sensitivity and total exposure of this survey, using the
pulsars B1641-45 (J1644-4559) and B0833-45 (J0835-4510, i.e.\ Vela) as
calibrators. The design of the survey allows us to benchmark effects due to PAF
beamshape, antenna-dependent system noise, radio-frequency interference, and
fluctuations during commissioning on timescales from one hour to a year.
Observation time, solid-angle, and search efficiency are calculated as a
function of FRB fluence threshold. Using this metric, effective survey
exposures and sensitivities are calculated as a function of the source counts
distribution. The implied FRB rate is significantly lower than the
\,sky\,day calculated using nominal exposures and
sensitivities for this same sample by \citet{craft_nature}. At the Euclidean
power-law index of , the rate is \,sky\,day above a threshold of \,Jy\,ms, while for the best-fit index for this sample of , it is
\,sky\,day above a threshold of \,Jy\,ms. This strongly suggests that these calculations be performed
for other FRB-hunting experiments, allowing meaningful comparisons to be made
between them.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in PAS
The UTMOST: A hybrid digital signal processor transforms the MOST
The Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope (MOST) is an 18,000 square meter
radio telescope situated some 40 km from the city of Canberra, Australia. Its
operating band (820-850 MHz) is now partly allocated to mobile phone
communications, making radio astronomy challenging. We describe how the
deployment of new digital receivers (RX boxes), Field Programmable Gate Array
(FPGA) based filterbanks and server-class computers equipped with 43 GPUs
(Graphics Processing Units) has transformed MOST into a versatile new
instrument (the UTMOST) for studying the dynamic radio sky on millisecond
timescales, ideal for work on pulsars and Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). The
filterbanks, servers and their high-speed, low-latency network form part of a
hybrid solution to the observatory's signal processing requirements. The
emphasis on software and commodity off-the-shelf hardware has enabled rapid
deployment through the re-use of proven 'software backends' for its signal
processing. The new receivers have ten times the bandwidth of the original MOST
and double the sampling of the line feed, which doubles the field of view. The
UTMOST can simultaneously excise interference, make maps, coherently dedisperse
pulsars, and perform real-time searches of coherent fan beams for dispersed
single pulses. Although system performance is still sub-optimal, a pulsar
timing and FRB search programme has commenced and the first UTMOST maps have
been made. The telescope operates as a robotic facility, deciding how to
efficiently target pulsars and how long to stay on source, via feedback from
real-time pulsar folding. The regular timing of over 300 pulsars has resulted
in the discovery of 7 pulsar glitches and 3 FRBs. The UTMOST demonstrates that
if sufficient signal processing can be applied to the voltage streams it is
possible to perform innovative radio science in hostile radio frequency
environments.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure
MeerTime - the MeerKAT Key Science Program on Pulsar Timing
The MeerKAT telescope represents an outstanding opportunity for radio pulsar
timing science with its unique combination of a large collecting area and
aperture efficiency (effective area 7500 m), system temperature
(K), high slew speeds (1-2 deg/s), large bandwidths (770 MHz at 20cm
wavelengths), southern hemisphere location (latitude ) and
ability to form up to four sub-arrays. The MeerTime project is a five-year
program on the MeerKAT array by an international consortium that will regularly
time over 1000 radio pulsars to perform tests of relativistic gravity, search
for the gravitational wave signature induced by supermassive black hole
binaries in the timing residuals of millisecond pulsars, explore the interiors
of neutron stars through a pulsar glitch monitoring programme, explore the
origin and evolution of binary pulsars, monitor the swarms of pulsars that
inhabit globular clusters and monitor radio magnetars. In addition to these
primary programmes, over 1000 pulsars will have their arrival times monitored
and the data made immediately public. The MeerTime pulsar backend comprises two
server-class machines each of which possess four Graphics Processing Units. Up
to four pulsars can be coherently dedispersed simultaneously up to dispersion
measures of over 1000 pc cm. All data will be provided in psrfits
format. The MeerTime backend will be capable of producing coherently
dedispersed filterbank data for timing multiple pulsars in the cores of
globular clusters that is useful for pulsar searches of tied array beams. All
MeerTime data will ultimately be made available for public use, and any
published results will include the arrival times and profiles used in the
results.Comment: 15 pages, MeerKAT Science: On the Pathway to the SKA, 25-27 May,
2016, Stellenbosch, South Africa, available at:
https://pos.sissa.it/277/011/pd
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