Transcriptional Heterogeneity and the Microbiome of Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma

Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphomas (CTCL) presents with substantial clinical variability and transcriptional heterogeneity. In the recent years, several studies paved the way to elucidate aetiology and pathogenesis of CTCL using sequencing methods. Several T-cell subtypes were suggested as the source of disease thereby explaining clinical and transcriptional heterogeneity of CTCL entities. Several differentially expressed pathways could explain disease progression. However, exogenous triggers in the skin microenvironment also seem to affect CTCL status. Especially Staphylococcus aureus was shown to contribute to disease progression. Only little is known about the complex microbiome patterns involved in CTCL and how microbial shifts might impact this malignancy. Nevertheless, first hints indicate that the microbiome might at least in part explain transcriptional heterogeneity and that microbial approaches could serve in diagnosis and prognosis. Shaping the microbiome could be a treatment option to maintain stable disease. Here, we review current knowledge of transcriptional heterogeneity of and microbial influences on CTCL. We discuss potential benefits of microbial applications and microbial directed therapies to aid patients with CTCL burden

The AdS/CFT/Unparticle Correspondence

We examine the correspondence between the anti-de Sitter (AdS) description of conformal field theories (CFTs) and the unparticle description of CFTs. We show how unparticle actions are equivalent to holographic boundary actions for fields in AdS, and how massive unparticles provide a new type of infrared cutoff that can be simply implemented in AdS by a soft breaking of conformal symmetry. We also show that processes involving scalar unparticles with dimensions d_s<2 or fermion unparticles with dimensions d_f<5/2 are insensitive to ultraviolet cutoff effects. Finally we show that gauge interactions for unparticles can be described by bulk gauge interactions in AdS and that they correspond to minimal gauging of the non-local effective action, and we compute the fermion unparticle production cross-section.Comment: 26 pages, 1 figur

Search for plant biomagnetism with a sensitive atomic magnetometer

We report what we believe is the first experimental limit placed on plant biomagnetism. Measurements with a sensitive atomic magnetometer were performed on the Titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) inflorescence, known for its fast bio-chemical processes while blooming. We find that the surface magnetic field from these processes, projected along the Earth's magnetic field, and measured at the surface of the plant, is less then ~0.6uG.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, to be published - modified one sentence in abstract + reformatted fi

On the mechanism of diminished urinary carbon dioxide tension caused by amiloride

On the mechanism of diminished urinary carbon dioxide tension caused by amiloride. We investigated under both in vivo and in vitro conditions the mechanism whereby amiloride administration, a model of distal renal tubular acidosis in dogs, decreases the urine-to-blood PCO2 gradient (U-B PCO2) in alkaline urine. The results demonstrate that U-B PCO2 is reduced in amiloride-treated dogs as previously reported in rats. The reduction in U-B PCO2 could not be attributed to amiloride-induced reductions in urinary HCO-3 concentration since the reduction in U-B PCO2 was observed over the same range of urinary HCO-3 concentrations (150 to 250 mEq per liter) as that achieved prior to amiloride administration. U-B PCO2 correlated positively and linearly with urinary HCO-3 concentration both prior to (P < 0.001) and during amiloride infusion (P < 0.001). Amiloride administration significantly decreased the slope (Δ[U-B PCO2]/Δ[HCO-3]u) of the regression line (P < 0.005). The possibility that amiloride might lower urine PCO2 by catalyzing intraluminal dehydration of H2CO3 was excluded by demonstrating that amiloride does not possess carbonic anhydrase activity. The additional possibility that amiloride might facilitate dissipation of carbon dioxide gradients through diffusion (as reported for carbonic anhydrase) was excluded by in vitro studies of the effect of amiloride on carbon dioxide diffusion. These findings suggest that the U-B PCO2 lowering effect of amiloride is not caused by alterations in urinary [HCO-3, CO2 diffusibility, or alterations in the dehydration rate of H2CO3 thereby providing strong support for the interpretation that reductions in U-B PCO2 during amiloride administration represent an impairment in distal nephron hydrogen ion secretion.Sur le méchanisme de la diminution de la pression partielle de carbonique dans l'urine déterminée par l'amiloride. Nous avons examiné in vivo et in vitro le mécanisme par lequel l'administration d'amiloride, un modèle d'acidose tubulaire distale chez le chien, diminue le gradient urinesang de PCO2 (U-B PCO2) en urine alcaline. Les résultats démontrent que U-B PCO2 est réduit chez le chien traité par l'amiloride comme cela a été antérieurement montré chez le rat. Le diminution de U-B PCO2 ne peut pas être attribuée à la diminution de la concentration urinaire de HCO-3 déterminée par l'amiloride puisque la diminution de U-B PCO2 a été observée pour le même éventail de concentrations urinaires de HCO-3 (150 à 250 mEq par litre) que celui réalisé avant l'administration d'amiloride. U-B PCO2 est corrélé linéairement et positivement à la concentration urinaire de HCO-3 aussi bien avant (P < 0,001) que pendant la perfusion d'amiloride (P < 0,001). L'administration d'amiloride diminue régulièrement la pente (Δ[U-B PCO2]/Δ[HCO-3]u) de la droite de régression (P < 0,005). La possibilité que l'amiloride puisse diminuer la PCO2 urinaire en catalysant la déshydratation intraluminal de H2CO3 a été exclue par la démonstration de l'absence d'activité de type anhydrase carbonique de l'amiloride. La possibilité que l'amiloride puisse faciliter la dissipation par diffusion des gradients de carbonique a été exclue par des études in vitro. Ces constatations suggèrent que l'effet de l'amiloride de diminution de U-B PCO2 n'est pas lié à des modifications de [HCO-3] de l'urine, de la diffusibilité du carbonique, ou du débit de déshydratation de H2CO3, et par conséquent constituent un argument fort en faveur d'une altération de la sécrétion distale d'ion hydrogène

Imperfect Imitation Can Enhance Cooperation

The promotion of cooperation on spatial lattices is an important issue in evolutionary game theory. This effect clearly depends on the update rule: it diminishes with stochastic imitative rules whereas it increases with unconditional imitation. To study the transition between both regimes, we propose a new evolutionary rule, which stochastically combines unconditional imitation with another imitative rule. We find that, surprinsingly, in many social dilemmas this rule yields higher cooperative levels than any of the two original ones. This nontrivial effect occurs because the basic rules induce a separation of timescales in the microscopic processes at cluster interfaces. The result is robust in the space of 2x2 symmetric games, on regular lattices and on scale-free networks.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Rapid shifts in Atta cephalotes fungus-garden enzyme activity after a change in fungal substrate (Attini, Formicidae)

Fungus gardens of the basidiomycete Leucocoprinus gongylophorus sustain large colonies of leaf-cutting ants by degrading the plant material collected by the ants. Recent studies have shown that enzyme activity in these gardens is primarily targeted toward starch, proteins and the pectin matrix associated with cell walls, rather than toward structural cell wall components such as cellulose and hemicelluloses. Substrate constituents are also known to be sequentially degraded in different sections of the fungus garden. To test the plasticity in the extracellular expression of fungus-garden enzymes, we measured the changes in enzyme activity after a controlled shift in fungal substrate offered to six laboratory colonies of Atta cephalotes. An ant diet consisting exclusively of grains of parboiled rice rapidly increased the activity of endo-proteinases and some of the pectinases attacking the backbone structure of pectin molecules, relative to a pure diet of bramble leaves, and this happened predominantly in the most recently established top sections of fungus gardens. However, fungus-garden amylase activity did not significantly increase despite the substantial increase in starch availability from the rice diet, relative to the leaf diet controls. Enzyme activity in the older, bottom sections of fungus gardens decreased, indicating a faster processing of the rice substrate compared to the leaf diet. These results suggest that leaf-cutting ant fungus gardens can rapidly adjust enzyme activity to provide a better match with substrate availability and that excess starch that is not protected by cell walls may be digested by the ants rather than by the fungus-garden symbiont

Effect of gluon-exchange pair-currents on the ratio G(E(P))/G(M(P))

The effect of one-gluon-exchange (OGE) pair-currents on the ratio $\mu_p G_E^p/G_M^p$ for the proton is investigated within a nonrelativistic constituent quark model (CQM) starting from $SU(6) \times O(3)$ nucleon wave functions, but with relativistic corrections. We found that the OGE pair-currents are important to reproduce well the ratio $\mu_p G_E^p/G_M^p$. With the assumption that the OGE pair-currents are the driving mechanism for the violation of the scaling law we give a prediction for the ratio $\mu_n G_E^n/G_M^n$ of the neutron.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure