Exposure to Candida albicans Polarizes a T-Cell Driven Arthritis Model towards Th17 Responses, Resulting in a More Destructive Arthritis

BACKGROUND: Fungal components have been shown very effective in generating Th17 responses. We investigated whether exposure to a minute amount of C. albicans in the arthritic joint altered the local cytokine environment, leading to enhanced Th17 expansion and resulting in a more destructive arthritis. METHODOLOGY: Chronic SCW arthritis was induced by repeated injection with Streptococcus pyogenes (SCW) cell wall fragments into the knee joint of C57Bl/6 mice, alone or in combination with the yeast of C. albicans or Zymosan A. During the chronic phase of the arthritis, the cytokine levels, mRNA expression and histopathological analysis of the joints were performed. To investigate the phenotype of the IL-17 producing T-cells, synovial cells were isolated and analyzed by flowcytometry. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Intra-articular injection of either Zymosan A or C. albicans on top of the SCW injection both resulted in enhanced joint swelling and inflammation compared to the normal SCW group. However, only the addition of C. albicans during SCW arthritis resulted in severe chondrocyte death and enhanced destruction of cartilage and bone. Additionally, exposure to C. albicans led to increased IL-17 in the arthritic joint, which was accompanied by an increased synovial mRNA expression of T-bet and RORgammaT. Moreover, the C. albicans-injected mice had significantly more Th17 cells in the synovium, of which a large population also produced IFN-gamma. CONCLUSION: This study clearly shows that minute amounts of fungal components, like C. albicans, are very potent in interfering with the local cytokine environment in an arthritic joint, thereby polarizing arthritis towards a more destructive phenotype

Existencia y unicidad de solución y comportamiento asintótico para la ecuación de onda con condición de frontera del tipo Neumann y disipación localmente distribuido

En este trabajo se estudia la existencia y unicidad de solución de la ecuación de la onda con condiciones de frontera del tipo Neumann, con disipación localmente distribuida usando el método de Faedo Galerkin. Además analiza el decaimiento no exponencial de la energía asociado al sistema planteado. Se hacen las estimativas correspondientes basándose en propiedades del espacio donde se encuentra la solución de la ecuación, así como los teoremas correspondientes al sistema estudiado.Tesi

Strategies for Controlled Placement of Nanoscale Building Blocks

The capability of placing individual nanoscale building blocks on exact substrate locations in a controlled manner is one of the key requirements to realize future electronic, optical, and magnetic devices and sensors that are composed of such blocks. This article reviews some important advances in the strategies for controlled placement of nanoscale building blocks. In particular, we will overview template assisted placement that utilizes physical, molecular, or electrostatic templates, DNA-programmed assembly, placement using dielectrophoresis, approaches for non-close-packed assembly of spherical particles, and recent development of focused placement schemes including electrostatic funneling, focused placement via molecular gradient patterns, electrodynamic focusing of charged aerosols, and others

Corrigendum: Bacillus Calmette–Guérin-Induced Trained Immunity Is Not Protective for Experimental Influenza A/Anhui/1/2013 (H7N9) Infection in Mice

Avian influenza A of the subtype H7N9 has been responsible for almost 1,600 confirmed human infections and more than 600 deaths since its first outbreak in 2013. Although sustained human-to-human transmission has not been reported yet, further adaptations to humans in the viral genome could potentially lead to an influenza pandemic, which may have severe consequences due to the absence of pre-existent immunity to this strain at population level. Currently there is no influenza A (H7N9) vaccine available. Therefore, in case of a pandemic outbreak, alternative preventive approaches are needed, ideally even independent of the type of influenza virus outbreak. Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) is known to induce strong heterologous immunological effects, and it has been shown that BCG protects against non-related infection challenges in several mouse models. BCG immunization of mice as well as human induces trained innate immune responses, resulting in increased cytokine responses upon subsequent ex vivo peripheral blood mononuclear cell restimulation. We investigated whether BCG (Statens Serum Institut-Denmark)-induced trained immunity may protect against a lethal avian influenza A/Anhui/1/2013 (H7N9) challenge. Here, we show that isolated splenocytes as well as peritoneal macrophages of BCG-immunized BALB/c mice displayed a trained immunity phenotype resulting in increased innate cytokine responses upon ex vivo restimulation. However, after H7N9 infection, no significant differences were found between the BCG immunized and the vehicle control group at the level of survival, weight loss, pulmonary influenza A nucleoprotein staining, or histopathology. In conclusion, BCG-induced trained immunity did not result in protection in an oseltamivir-sensitive influenza A/Anhui/1/2013 (H7N9) challenge mouse model

Annual cycle of aerosol backscatter coefficient and aerosol mixed layer height above Neuchâtel (Switzerland, 47.00°N, 6.95°E)

Due to the complexity of the direct and indirect effects of the atmospheric aerosols on the air quality and atmospheric radiation balance, complementary methods are necessary to assess the aerosol optical properties. In this sense the backscatter lidar methods are critical in aerosol vertical distribution study. This work presents the annual cycle of aerosol backscatter coefficient (ABC) and aerosol mixed layer (AML) height over Neuchâtel, Switzerland (47.00 N; 6.950 E, 485 m asl). The study is performed by a ground based backscatter lidar operating at 532 nm wavelength as part of EARLINET program of EU. Atmospheric layering for this study is based on a classification of lower atmosphere from 1 km to 2 km above sea level (asl) and from 2 km to 5 km asl, respectively

Conception et développement d'un CMS ferroélectrique accordable

International audienceNous avons développé un condensateur CMS (Composant Monté en Surface) accordable pour des applications en hyperfréquences. Réalisé sur la base d'un film mince ferroélectrique de BaSrTiO 3 , il a été conçu en présentant un découplage entre le signal RF et la tension de polarisation DC, ce qui permet d'ajuster la permittivité du ferroélectrique. La conception et le développement du composant sont présentés. La caractérisation du composant montre une accordabilité de 42,9 % tandis que les pertes sont de l'ordre de 810-3 à 10 MHz. Le dispositif a été intégré dans une antenne planaire inversée-F afin d'en évaluer les performances. L'agilité de l'antenne est de 31,8 % et sa performance d'agilité de 0,045

Determination of the evolution of the surface potential of a charging insulator by measuring the intensity of its X-ray characteristic peaks

The charge developed in an insulator by an electron beam has often been studied by following the evolution of the secondary electron emission of the target. However this latter proves to be insufficient when one attempts to correlate it with physical properties of the sample such as its density of traps and their spatial distribution. An important step would be to have access to the time evolution of the surface potential Vs(t). However, this latter quantity is not easy to measure. In this paper, we propose a new method to measure the evolution of the surface potential by relating it to the X-ray emission induced by the electronic bombardment. More exactly, we show that there is a relation between the intensity of the characteristic peaks and the potential existing under the beam impact at a given instant of the charge. After having explained the method, we check its validity both experimentally and also by comparison with Monte Carlo simulations. We then present initial results obtained for amorphous SiO2 targets

Conception et développement d'un CMS ferroélectrique accordable

International audienceNous avons développé un condensateur CMS (Composant Monté en Surface) accordable pour des applications en hyperfréquences. Réalisé sur la base d'un film mince ferroélectrique de BaSrTiO 3 , il a été conçu en présentant un découplage entre le signal RF et la tension de polarisation DC, ce qui permet d'ajuster la permittivité du ferroélectrique. La conception et le développement du composant sont présentés. La caractérisation du composant montre une accordabilité de 42,9 % tandis que les pertes sont de l'ordre de 810-3 à 10 MHz. Le dispositif a été intégré dans une antenne planaire inversée-F afin d'en évaluer les performances. L'agilité de l'antenne est de 31,8 % et sa performance d'agilité de 0,045