Effects of exercise training on atrophy gene expression in skeletal muscle of mice with chronic allergic lung inflammation

We evaluated the effects of chronic allergic airway inflammation and of treadmill training (12 weeks) of low and moderate intensity on muscle fiber cross-sectional area and mRNA levels of atrogin-1 and MuRF1 in the mouse tibialis anterior muscle. Six 4-month-old male BALB/c mice (28.5 ± 0.8 g) per group were examined: 1) control, non-sensitized and non-trained (C); 2) ovalbumin sensitized (OA, 20 µg per mouse); 3) non-sensitized and trained at 50% maximum speed _ low intensity (PT50%); 4) non-sensitized and trained at 75% maximum speed _ moderate intensity (PT75%); 5) OA-sensitized and trained at 50% (OA+PT50%), 6) OA-sensitized and trained at 75% (OA+PT75%). There was no difference in muscle fiber cross-sectional area among groups and no difference in atrogin-1 and MuRF1 expression between C and OA groups. All exercised groups showed significantly decreased expression of atrogin-1 compared to C (1.01 ± 0.2-fold): PT50% = 0.71 ± 0.12-fold; OA+PT50% = 0.74 ± 0.03-fold; PT75% = 0.71 ± 0.09-fold; OA+PT75% = 0.74 ± 0.09-fold. Similarly significant results were obtained regarding MuRF1 gene expression compared to C (1.01 ± 0.23-fold): PT50% = 0.53 ± 0.20-fold; OA+PT50% = 0.55 ± 0.11-fold; PT75% = 0.35 ± 0.15-fold; OA+PT75% = 0.37 ± 0.08-fold. A short period of OA did not induce skeletal muscle atrophy in the mouse tibialis anterior muscle and aerobic training at low and moderate intensity negatively regulates the atrophy pathway in skeletal muscle of healthy mice or mice with allergic lung inflammation.FAPESPCNP

Domain walls between gauge theories

Noncommutative U(N) gauge theories at different N may be often thought of as different sectors of a single theory: the U(1) theory possesses a sequence of vacua labeled by an integer parameter N, and the theory in the vicinity of the N-th vacuum coincides with the U(N) noncommutative gauge theory. We construct noncommutative domain walls on fuzzy cylinder, separating vacua with different gauge theories. These domain walls are solutions of BPS equations in gauge theory with an extra term stabilizing the radius of the cylinder. We study properties of the domain walls using adjoint scalar and fundamental fermion fields as probes. We show that the regions on different sides of the wall are not disjoint even in the low energy regime -- there are modes penetrating from one region to the other. We find that the wall supports a chiral fermion zero mode. Also, we study non-BPS solution representing a wall and an antiwall, and show that this solution is unstable. We suggest that the domain walls emerge as solutions of matrix model in large class of pp-wave backgrounds with inhomogeneous field strength. In the M-theory language, the domain walls have an interpretation of a stack of branes of fingerstall shape inserted into a stack of cylindrical branes.Comment: Final version; minor corrections; to appear in Nucl.Phys.

Dual Doping of MoP with M Mn,Fe and S to Achieve High Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Activity in Both Acidic and Alkaline Media

Rational design of cost effective, high performance and stable hydrogen evolution reaction HER electrocatalysts in both acidic and alkaline media holds the key to the future hydrogen based economy. Herein, we introduce an effective approach of simultaneous non metal S and metal Fe or Mn doping of MoP to achieve excellent HER performance at different pH. The catalysts show remarkable overpotentials at 10 mA cm 2 of only 65 and 68 mV in 0.5 M H2SO4, and 50 and 51 mV in 1.0 M KOH, respectively, as well as much higher turnover frequencies compared to undoped MoP. Furthermore, the catalysts exhibit outstanding long term stability at a fixed current of 10 mA cm 2 for 40 h. The effects of both dopants, such as electronic structure modification and enhancement of the intrinsic activity, increase of the electrochemically active surface area, and formation of coordinatively unsaturated edge sites, act cooperatively to accelerate the HER at both pH media. Additionally, the presence of oxophilic Mn and Fe at the surface results in Mn or Fe oxide hydroxide species that promote the dissociation of water molecules in alkaline electrolyte. This work introduces a facile and effective design principle that could pave the way towards engineering highly active HER catalysts for a wide pH range

Metal carboxyphosphonates-based electrocatalysts

Co1-xFex-HPAA metal phosphonates were prepared and pyrolyzed under N2 and H2/Ar flows. The resulting powders were structural and electrochemically characterized by XRD and CV, respectively. The obtained materials possess different structures depending on the temperature and pyrolysis atmosphere. Samples pyrolized in N2 at 1000 ºC are monophasic diphosphates, while phosphides form in H2/Ar at 850 ºC.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

Single and solid solutions metal carboxyphosphonates as precursors for phosphorous-containing electrocatalysts

Co1-xFex-HPAA metal phosphonates were prepared and pyrolyzed under N2 and H2/Ar flows. The result-ing powders were structural and electrochemically characterised by XRD and CV, respectively. The ob-tained materials possess different structures depending on the temperature and pyrolysis atmosphere. Samples pyrolized in N2 at 1000 ºC are monophasic diphosphates, while phosphides form in H2/Ar at 850 ºC. Cyclic voltammetry studies indicate that the Co0.5Fe0.5HPAA sample, pyrolized in H2/Ar, exhibits the best behaviour, but further studies are needed to fully understand the role of graphene oxide and pyrazine.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

Reanalysis of two eclipsing binaries: EE Aqr and Z Vul

We study the radial-velocity and light curves of the two eclipsing binaries EE Aqr and Z Vul. Using the latest version of the Wilson & Van Hamme (2003) model, absolute parameters for the systems are determined. We find that EE Aqr and Z Vul are near-contact and semi-detached systems, respectively. The primary component of EE Aqr fills about 96% of its 'Roche lobe', while its secondary one appears close to completely filling this limiting volume. In a similar way, we find fill-out proportions of about 72 and 100% of these volumes for the primary and secondary components of Z Vul respectively. We compare our results with those of previous authors.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 10 table

Prelamin A mediates myocardial inflammation in dilated and HIV-associated cardiomyopathies

Cardiomyopathies are complex heart muscle diseases that can be inherited or acquired. Dilated cardiomyopathy can result from mutations in LMNA, encoding the nuclear intermediate filament proteins lamin A/C. Some LMNA mutations lead to accumulation of the lamin A precursor, prelamin A, which is disease causing in a number of tissues, yet its impact upon the heart is unknown. Here, we discovered myocardial prelamin A accumulation occurred in a case of dilated cardiomyopathy, and we show that a potentially novel mouse model of cardiac-specific prelamin A accumulation exhibited a phenotype consistent with inflammatory cardiomyopathy, which we observed to be similar to HIV-associated cardiomyopathy, an acquired disease state. Numerous HIV protease therapies are known to inhibit ZMPSTE24, the enzyme responsible for prelamin A processing, and we confirmed that accumulation of prelamin A occurred in HIV+ patient cardiac biopsies. These findings (a) confirm a unifying pathological role for prelamin A common to genetic and acquired cardiomyopathies; (b) have implications for the management of HIV patients with cardiac disease, suggesting protease inhibitors should be replaced with alternative therapies (i.e., nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors); and (c) suggest that targeting inflammation may be a useful treatment strategy for certain forms of inherited cardiomyopathy

Rotating Strings with Two Unequal Spins in Lunin-Maldacena Background

We study a string motion in the Lunin-Maldacena background, that is, the \beta-deformed AdS_5 \times \tilde{S}^5 background dual to a \beta-deformation of \mathcal{N} = 4 super Yang-Mills theory. For real \beta we construct a rotating and wound string solution which has two unequal spins in \tilde{S}^5. The string energy is expressed in terms of the spins, the winding numbers and the deformation parameter. In the expansion of \lambda/J^2 with the total spin J and the string tension \sqrt{\lambda} we present ``one-loop" and ``two-loop" energy corrections. The ``one-loop" one agrees with the one-loop anomalous dimension of the corresponding gauge-theory scalar operators obtained in hep-th/0503192 from the \beta-deformed Bethe equation as well as the anisotropic Landau-Lifshitz equation.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX, no figure

Seed oil content, fatty acids composition and antioxidant properties as affected by genotype in Allium cepa L. and perennial onion species

The antioxidant content in plant seeds is deemed to affect seed oil protection against auto-oxidation to a large extent, whereas the relationship between a strong antioxidant element such as selenium (Se) and either seed oil accumulation or fatty acids composition has not been investigated so far. The aim of the present work was to assess Se concentrations in seeds and their relationships with oil content and fatty acids composition in: a) ten Allium cepa cultivars, i. e. eight Russian and two Italian; and b) six perennial onion species (A. schoenoprasum, A. obliquum, A. altaicum, A. fistulosum, A. nutans, A. ramnósum). Fatty acids composition of Allium seed oil was determined by gas chromatography method, whereas total and water soluble Se concentration was assessed by microfluorimetric method. The oil content of Allium cepa seeds was 1.7 fold higher (10.7-16.5%) than that recorded in perennial onions (4.0-10.8%) and it was positively correlatedwith the total Se concentration. Within A. cepa, the seeds of the two Italian cultivars Ramata di Montoro and Rossa di Tropea were characterized by the highest oil content (16.5-16.6%) and oleic acid (25-27%). Linoleic (C18:2) acid was the main fatty acid, followed by oleic (C18:1) and palmitic acids (C16:0) in all cultivars. Among the perennial onion seeds, the highest oil percentage was detected in A. schoenoprasum (10.8%) and the lowest in A. ramnósum (4.0%). Compared to A.cepa cultivars, the perennial onion species showed a similar oil fatty acid composition, with the main acids being C18:2,C18:1 and C16:0 in decreasing order, a lower level of C16:0, and enhanced levels of minor SFA, such as C20:0, C22:0 and C24:0. Further differences also included decreased levels of C16:1, 11-trance C18:1 and a higher concentration of C22:1. The concentration of water soluble forms of Se in seeds was positively correlated with linoleic acid and with total phenolics. Conversely, oleic acid was negatively correlated with water soluble forms of Se

Kinetic Monte Carlo Simulation of Strained Heteroepitaxial Growth with Intermixing

An efficient method for the simulation of strained heteroepitaxial growth with intermixing using kinetic Monte Carlo is presented. The model used is based on a solid-on-solid bond counting formulation in which elastic effects are incorporated using a ball and spring model. While idealized, this model nevertheless captures many aspects of heteroepitaxial growth, including nucleation, surface diffusion, and long range effects due elastic interaction. The algorithm combines a fast evaluation of the elastic displacement field with an efficient implementation of a rejection-reduced kinetic Monte Carlo based on using upper bounds for the rates. The former is achieved by using a multigrid method for global updates of the displacement field and an expanding box method for local updates. The simulations show the importance of intermixing on the growth of a strained film. Further the method is used to simulate the growth of self-assembled stacked quantum dots