Muscular diacylglycerol metabolism and insulin resistance

Failure of insulin to elicit an increase in glucose uptake and metabolism in target tissues such as skeletal muscle is a major characteristic of non-insulin dependent type 2 diabetes mellitus. A strong correlation between intramyocellular triacylglycerol concentrations and the severity of insulin resistance has been found and led to the assumption that lipid oversupply to skeletal muscle contributes to reduced insulin action. However, the molecular mechanism that links intramyocellular lipid content with the generation of muscle insulin resistance is still unclear. It appears unlikely that the neutral lipid metabolite triacylglycerol directly impairs insulin action. Hence it is believed that intermediates in fatty acid metabolism, such as fatty acyl-CoA, ceramides or diacylglycerol (DAG) link fat deposition in the muscle to compromised insulin signaling. DAG is identified as a potential mediator of lipid-induced insulin resistance, as increased DAG levels are associated with protein kinase C activation and a reduction in both insulin-stimulated IRS-1 tyrosine phosphorylation and PI3 kinase activity. As DAG is an intermediate in the synthesis of triacylglycerol from fatty acids and glycerol, its level can be lowered by either improving the oxidation of cellular fatty acids or by accelerating the incorporation of fatty acids into triacylglycerol. This review discusses the evidence that implicates DAG being central in the development of muscular insulin resistance. Furthermore, we will discuss if and how modulation of skeletal muscle DAG levels could function as a possible therapeutic target for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus

Quantum mechanical counterpart of nonlinear optics

Raman-type laser excitation of a trapped atom allows one to realize the quantum mechanical counterpart of phenomena of nonlinear optics, such as Kerr-type nonlinearities, parametric amplification, and multi-mode mixing. Additionally, huge nonlinearities emerge from the interference of the atomic wave function with the laser waves. They lead to a partitioning of the phase space accompanied by a significantly different action of the time evolution in neighboring phase-space zones. For example, a nonlinearly modified coherent "displacement" of the motional quantum state may induce strong amplitude squeezing and quantum interferences.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. A 55 (June

Faddeev approach to the octet and decuplet baryons

A relativistic Faddeev model for the baryon octet is extended to treat the baryon decuplet. We find that after determining the model parameters in the mesonic sector the masses of both nucleon and delta deviate by less than 5\% from the experimental data and show only a very weak dependence on the constituent quark mass.Comment: 9 page

KamLAND, terrestrial heat sources and neutrino oscillations

We comment on the first indication of geo-neutrino events from KamLAND and on the prospects for understanding Earth energetics. Practically all models of terrestrial heat production are consistent with data within the presently limited statistics, the fully radiogenic model being closer to the observed value ($\approx 9$ geo-events). In a few years KamLAND should collect sufficient data for a clear evidence of geo-neutrinos, however discrimination among models requires a detector with the class and size of KamLAND far away from nuclear reactors. We also remark that the event ratio from Thorium and Uranium decay chains is well fixed $N(Th)/N(U) \simeq 0.25$, a constraint that can be useful for determining neutrino oscillation parameters. We show that a full spectral analysis, including this constraint, further reduces the oscillation parameter space compared to an analysis with an energy threshold $E_{vis}>2.6 MeV$.Comment: 12 pages, RevTeX file, 3 ps figures included in the correct order, corrected some typos and added references. Accepted for publication on Phys. Lett.

Relation between positional specific heat and static relaxation length: Application to supercooled liquids

A general identification of the {\em positional specific heat} as the thermodynamic response function associated with the {\em static relaxation length} is proposed, and a phenomenological description for the thermal dependence of the static relaxation length in supercooled liquids is presented. Accordingly, through a phenomenological determination of positional specific heat of supercooled liquids, we arrive at the thermal variation of the static relaxation length $\xi$, which is found to vary in accordance with $\xi \sim (T-T_0)^{-\nu}$ in the quasi-equilibrium supercooled temperature regime, where $T_0$ is the Vogel-Fulcher temperature and exponent $\nu$ equals unity. This result to a certain degree agrees with that obtained from mean field theory of random-first-order transition, which suggests a power law temperature variation for $\xi$ with an apparent divergence at $T_0$. However, the phenomenological exponent $\nu = 1$, is higher than the corresponding mean field estimate (becoming exact in infinite dimensions), and in perfect agreement with the relaxation length exponent as obtained from the numerical simulations of the same models of structural glass in three spatial dimensions.Comment: Revised version, 7 pages, no figures, submitted to IOP Publishin

Mild Staphylococcus aureus skin infection improves the course of subsequent endogenous S. aureus bacteremia in mice

Staphylococcus aureus carriers with S. aureus bacteremia may have a reduced mortality risk compared to non-carriers. A role for the immune system is suggested. Here, we study in mice the effect of mild S. aureus skin infection prior to endogenous or exogenous S. aureus bacteremia, and evaluate protection in relation to anti-staphylococcal antibody levels. Skin infections once or twice by a clinical S. aureus isolate (isolate P) or S. aureus strain 8325-4 were induced in mice free of S. aureus and anti-staphylococcal antibodies. Five weeks later, immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels in blood against 25 S. aureus antigens were determined, and LD50 or LD100 bacteremia caused by S. aureus isolate P was induced. S. aureus skin infections led to elevated levels of anti-staphylococcal IgG in blood. One skin infection improved the course of subsequent severe endogenous bacteremia only. A second skin infection further improved animal survival rate, which was associated with increased pre-bacteremia IgG levels against Efb, IsaA, LukD, LukE, Nuc, PrsA and WTA. In conclusion, S. aureus isolate P skin infection in mice reduces the severity of subsequent endogenous S. aureus bacteremia only. Although cellular immune effects cannot be rules out, anti-staphylococcal IgG against specified antigens may contribute to this effect

What’s so bad about scientism?

In their attempt to defend philosophy from accusations of uselessness made by prominent scientists, such as Stephen Hawking, some philosophers respond with the charge of ‘scientism.’ This charge makes endorsing a scientistic stance, a mistake by definition. For this reason, it begs the question against these critics of philosophy, or anyone who is inclined to endorse a scientistic stance, and turns the scientism debate into a verbal dispute. In this paper, I propose a different definition of scientism, and thus a new way of looking at the scientism debate. Those philosophers who seek to defend philosophy against accusations of uselessness would do philosophy a much better service, I submit, if they were to engage with the definition of scientism put forth in this paper, rather than simply make it analytic that scientism is a mistake