Gestational hypothyroxinemia affects its offspring with a reduced suppressive capacity impairing the outcome of the experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

Indexación: Scopus.Hypothyroxinemia (Hpx) is a thyroid hormone deficiency (THD) condition highly frequent during pregnancy, which although asymptomatic for the mother, it can impair the cognitive function of the offspring. Previous studies have shown that maternal hypothyroidism increases the severity of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an autoimmune disease model for multiple sclerosis (MS). Here, we analyzed the immune response after EAE induction in the adult offspring gestated in Hpx. Mice gestated in Hpx showed an early appearance of EAE symptoms and the increase of all parameters of the disease such as: the pathological score, spinal cord demyelination, and immune cell infiltration in comparison to the adult offspring gestated in euthyroidism. Isolated CD4+CD25+ T cells from spleen of the offspring gestated in Hpx that suffer EAE showed reduced capacity to suppress proliferation of effector T cells (TEff) after being stimulated with anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 antibodies. Moreover, adoptive transfer experiments of CD4+CD25+ T cells from the offspring gestated in Hpx suffering EAE to mice that were induced with EAE showed that the receptor mice suffer more intense EAE pathological score. Even though, no significant differences were detected in the frequency of Treg cells and IL-10 content in the blood, spleen, and brain between mice gestated in Hpx or euthyroidism, T cells CD4+CD25+ from spleen have reduced capacity to differentiate in vitro to Treg and to produce IL-10. Thus, our data support the notion that maternal Hpx can imprint the immune response of the offspring suffering EAE probably due to a reduced capacity to trigger suppression. Such "imprints" on the immune system could contribute to explaining as to why adult offspring gestated in Hpx suffer earlier and more intense EAE. © 2018 Haensgen, Albornoz, Opazo, Bugueño, Jara Fernández, Binzberger, Rivero-Castillo, Venegas Salas, Simon, Cabello-Verrugio, Elorza, Kalergis, Bueno and Riedel.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2018.01257/ful

Professionalism, golf coaching and a master of science degree

A distinction can be made between 'professionalisation', which is concerned with occupational status and standing, and 'professionalism,' which refers to matters of quality and standards of practice (especially specialized knowledge, ethics and altruism). The purpose of this stimulus article is to present key features of contemporary medical professionalism as a basis for critically reflecting on discourse associated with Tiger Woods' current coach, Sean Foley. It is suggested that that provision of a Master of Science degree in golf teaching/coaching would facilitate the development of 'professionalism' in golf coaches

Morphology, ecology and biogeography of Stauroneis pachycephala P.T. Cleve (Bacillariophyta) and its transfer to the genusEnvekadea

Stauroneis pachycephala was described in 1881 from the Baakens River, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Recently, it was found during surveys of the MacKenzie River (Victoria, Australia), the Florida Everglades (USA) and coastal marshes of Louisiana (USA). The morphology, ecology and geographic distribution of this species are described in this article. This naviculoid species is characterised by lanceolate valves with a gibbous centre, a sigmoid raphe, an axial area narrowing toward the valve ends, and capitate valve apices. The central area is a distinct stauros that is slightly widened near the valve margin. The raphe is straight and filiform, and the terminal raphe fissures are strongly deflected in opposite directions. Striae are fine and radiate in the middle of the valve, becoming parallel and eventually convergent toward the valve ends. The external surface of the valves and copulae is smooth and lacks ornamentation. We also examined the type material of S. pachycephala. Our observations show this species has morphological characteristics that fit within the genus Envekadea. Therefore, the transfer of S. pachycephala to Envekadea is proposed and a lectotype is designated

Effect of tensor couplings in a relativistic Hartree approach for finite nuclei

The relativistic Hartree approach describing the bound states of both nucleons and anti-nucleons in finite nuclei has been extended to include tensor couplings for the $\omega$- and $\rho$-meson. After readjusting the parameters of the model to the properties of spherical nuclei, the effect of tensor-coupling terms rises the spin-orbit force by a factor of 2, while a large effective nucleon mass $m^{*}/M_{N} \approx 0.8$ sustains. The overall nucleon spectra of shell-model states are improved evidently. The predicted anti-nucleon spectra in the vacuum are deepened about 20 -- 30 MeV.Comment: 31 pages, 4 postscript figures include

Observational Constraints on the Modified Gravity Model (MOG) Proposed by Moffat: Using the Magellanic System

A simple model for the dynamics of the Magellanic Stream (MS), in the framework of modified gravity models is investigated. We assume that the galaxy is made up of baryonic matter out of context of dark matter scenario. The model we used here is named Modified Gravity (MOG) proposed by Moffat (2005). In order to examine the compatibility of the overall properties of the MS under the MOG theory, the observational radial velocity profile of the MS is compared with the numerical results using the $\chi^2$ fit method. In order to obtain the best model parameters, a maximum likelihood analysis is performed. We also compare the results of this model with the Cold Dark Matter (CDM) halo model and the other alternative gravity model that proposed by Bekenstein (2004), so called TeVeS. We show that by selecting the appropriate values for the free parameters, the MOG theory seems to be plausible to explain the dynamics of the MS as well as the CDM and the TeVeS models.Comment: 14 pages, 3 Figures, accepted in Int. J. Theor. Phy

Nucleon Charge and Magnetization Densities from Sachs Form Factors

Relativistic prescriptions relating Sachs form factors to nucleon charge and magnetization densities are used to fit recent data for both the proton and the neutron. The analysis uses expansions in complete radial bases to minimize model dependence and to estimate the uncertainties in radial densities due to limitation of the range of momentum transfer. We find that the charge distribution for the proton is significantly broad than its magnetization density and that the magnetization density is slightly broader for the neutron than the proton. The neutron charge form factor is consistent with the Galster parametrization over the available range of Q^2, but relativistic inversion produces a softer radial density. Discrete ambiguities in the inversion method are analyzed in detail. The method of Mitra and Kumari ensures compatibility with pQCD and is most useful for extrapolating form factors to large Q^2.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. C. Two new figures and accompanying text have been added and several discussions have been clarified with no significant changes to the conclusions. Now contains 47 pages including 21 figures and 2 table

Non--power law behavior of the radial profile of phase--space density of halos

We study the pseudo phase-space density, $\rho(r)/\sigma^3(r)$, of $\Lambda$CDM dark matter halos with and without baryons (baryons+DM, and pure DM), by using the model introduced in Del Popolo (2009), which takes into account the effect of dynamical friction, ordered and random angular momentum, baryons adiabatic contraction and dark matter baryons interplay. We examine the radial dependence of $\rho(r)/\sigma^3(r)$ over 9 orders of magnitude in radius for structures on galactic and cluster of galaxies scales. We find that $\rho(r)/\sigma^3(r)$ is approximately a power-law only in the range of halo radius resolved by current simulations (down to 0.1% of the virial radius) while it has a non-power law behavior below the quoted scale, with inner profiles changing with mass. The non-power-law behavior is more evident for halos constituted both of dark matter and baryons while halos constituted just of dark matter and with angular momentum chosen to reproduce a Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) density profile, are characterized by an approximately power-law behavior. The results of the present paper lead to conclude that density profiles of the NFW type are compatible with a power-law behavior of $\rho(r)/\sigma^3(r)$, while those flattening to the halo center, like those found in Del Popolo (2009) or the Einasto profile, or the Burkert profile, cannot produce radial profile of the pseudo-phase-space density that are power-laws at all radii. The results argue against universality of the pseudo phase-space density and as a consequence argue against universality of density profiles constituted by dark matter and baryons as also discussed in Del Popolo (2009).Comment: 20 pages; 7 figs. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:0906.4447 and arXiv:1012.432

Asteroid Confusions with Extremely Large Telescopes

Asteroids can be considered as sources of contamination of point sources and also sources of confusion noise, depending whether their presence is detected in the image or their flux is under the detection limit. We estimate that at low ecliptic latitudes, ~10,000--20,000 asteroids/sq. degree will be detected with an E-ELT like telescope, while by the end of Spitzer and Herschel missions, infrared space observatories will provide ~100,000 serendipitous asteroid detections. The detection and identification of asteroids is therefore an important step in survey astronomy.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Earth, Moon and Planets, ELT Conference (Elba, 2009 Sept.) S

Structural basis of the leukocyte integrin Mac-1 I-domain interactions with the platelet glycoprotein Ib

Cell-surface receptor interactions between leukocyte integrin macrophage-1 antigen (Mac-1, also known as CR3, aMb2, CD11b/CD18) and platelet glycoprotein Iba (GPIba) are critical to vascular in?ammation. To de?ne the key residues at the binding interface, we used nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to assign the spectra of the mouse Mac-1 I-domain and mapped the residues contacting the mouse GPIba N-terminal domain (GPIbaN) to the locality of the integrin metal ion-dependant adhesion site (MIDAS) surface. We next determined the crystal structures of the mouse GPIbaN and Mac-1 I-domain to 2 ?A and 2.5 ?A resolution, respectively. The mouse Mac-1 I-domain crystal structure reveals an active conformation that is stabilized by a crystal contact from the a7-helix with a glutamatesidechaincompletingtheoctahedralcoordinationsphereoftheMIDASMg21 ion. The amino acid sequence of the a7-helix and disposition of the glutamic acid matches the C-terminal capping region a-helix of GPIba effectively acting as a ligand mimetic. Using these crystal structures in combination with NMR measurements and docking analysis, we developed a model whereby an acidic residue from the GPIba leucine-rich repeat (LRR) capping a-helix coordinates directly to the Mac-1 MIDAS Mg21 ion. The Mac-1:GPIbaN complex involves additional interactions consolidated by an elongated pocket ?anking the GPIbaN LRR capping a-helix. The GPIbaN a-helix has an HxxxE motif, which is equivalent by homology to RxxxD from the human GPIbaN. Subsequent mutagenesis of residues at this interface, coupled with surface plasmon resonance studies, con?rmed the importance of GPIbaN residues H218, E222, and the Mac-1 MIDAS residue T209 to formation of the complex

A stochastic evolutionary model generating a mixture of exponential distributions

Recent interest in human dynamics has stimulated the investigation of the stochastic processes that explain human behaviour in various contexts, such as mobile phone networks and social media. In this paper, we extend the stochastic urn-based model proposed in \cite{FENN15} so that it can generate mixture models, in particular, a mixture of exponential distributions. The model is designed to capture the dynamics of survival analysis, traditionally employed in clinical trials, reliability analysis in engineering, and more recently in the analysis of large data sets recording human dynamics. The mixture modelling approach, which is relatively simple and well understood, is very effective in capturing heterogeneity in data. We provide empirical evidence for the validity of the model, using a data set of popular search engine queries collected over a period of 114 months. We show that the survival function of these queries is closely matched by the exponential mixture solution for our model