A Judicial Postscript to the Church-State Debates of 1989: How Porous the Wall, How Civil the State?

This work is a continuation of the debate regarding the Establishment Clause. The focus lies with Justice O’Connor’s concurrence in County of Allegheny v. ACLU and how this opinion harkens back to a concept shared by Jefferson and Madison, that the establishment clause is designed to prevent government favoritism

Is the quasi-steady state a real behaviour: a micromechanical perspective

Discussion (MM Rahman and SR Lo) and authors' reply (J Yang and BB Dai)Whether the so-called quasi-steady state is a real material response is a fundamental yet controversial question in the study of undrained shear behaviour of sand. An attempt is made here to clarify the question from a micromechanical viewpoint by means of a grain-scale modelling technique combined with statistical analyses. The study shows that the quasi-steady state is a real behaviour rather than a test-induced phenomenon; it is a transition state, and can be regarded as the result of spatial rearrangement of discrete particles sheared under the constant-volume condition. The quasi-steady state has distinct features that make it different from the steady state at both the macro scale and micro scale. During the loading process, the average number of contacts per particle decreases with strain until the quasi-steady state emerges, and after that it increases gradually to an approximately constant value at large deformations associated with the steady state. This result suggests that the loss of contacts is most pronounced at the quasi-steady state. The study also shows that the contact normal forces and particle rotations play a major role in the deformation process, whereas the contributions of contact tangential forces and particle sliding appear to be minor.published_or_final_versio

Effects of ceftiofur sodium liposomes on free radical formation in mice

To examine the effects of ceftiofur sodium liposomes on the free radical formation in liver of mice, 24 mice were assigned randomly into three groups, i.e., 1) ceftiofur sodium; 2) ceftiofur sodium liposomes and 3) physiological saline. Treatments were applied via intraperitoneal injections for 7 days. At the end of the treatment period, animals were euthanized and liver collected for analysis of superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents and the ability of liver tissue to suppress hydroxyl radical formation. Ceftiofur sodium liposomes-treated mice had higher activity of SOD than ceftiofur sodium- and saline-treated mice; however, MDA content and the ability of liver tissue to suppress hydroxyl radical formation did not reach statistical significance among groups. It was concluded that ceftiofur sodium liposomes can improve the SOD activity compared to ceftiofur alone in mice

Melatonin reduced volume of cerebral infarct induced by photothrombosis in wild-type mice, not in Cyclooxygenase-1 gene knockout mice

Cyclooxygenase (COX) is crucial in inflammation and plays important role in cerebral ischemia. Anti-inflammatory effects of melatonin have been verified in previous studies. In this study, cerebral blood flow (CBF) was monitored during operation, infarct volume (IFV) was determined with 5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining and MR image, and neurological functions were evaluated with turn in an alley and fall pole test in both COX-1-gene knockout and wide-type mice with or without melatonin administration 3 days after photothrombosis. CBF reduction, IFV and neurological deficits were not significantly different in COX-1 wild-type and COX-1 knockout mice. Melatonin (15 mg/kg) intraperitoneal injection decreased the CBF reduction, IFV and the latency to turn in an alley in COX-1 wide-type mice, whereas the neuroprotective effect of melatonin was attenuated in COX-1 knockout mice. We concluded that melatonin reduced susceptibility to photothrombotic stroke. COX-1 gene knockout does not alter the susceptibility to cerebral ischemia caused by photothrombosis. COX-1 plays an important role in the pathway of the protection of melatonin.published_or_final_versio

TEMPRANILLO is a regulator of juvenility in plants

Many plants are incapable of flowering in inductive daylengths during the early juvenile vegetative phase (JVP). Arabidopsis mutants with reduced expression of TEMPRANILLO (TEM), a repressor of FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) had a shorter JVP than wild-type plants. Reciprocal changes in mRNA expression of TEM and FT were observed in both Arabidopsis and antirrhinum, which correlated with the length of the JVP. FT expression was induced just prior to the end of the JVP and levels of TEM1 mRNA declined rapidly at the time when FT mRNA levels were shown to increase. TEM orthologs were isolated from antirrhinum (AmTEM) and olive (OeTEM) and were expressed most highly during their juvenile phase. AmTEM functionally complemented AtTEM1 in the tem1 mutant and over-expression of AmTEM prolonged the JVP through repression of FT and CONSTANS (CO). We propose that TEM may have a general role in regulating JVP in herbaceous and woody species

T-Helper Cell Cytokine Expression Profiling in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients by Flow Cytometric Bead Array Analysis

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common chronic autoimmune disease affecting multiple joints. A chronic imbalance in cytokine production by T-helper (Th) cells is likely a key factor in RA development. Our objective was to profile the serum cytokine expression from three key Th cell types (Th1, Th2, and Th17) in RA patients in order to correlate the resulting cytokine expression profiles with RA activity. Material and Methods: From a population of RA patients (n = 71) and healthy controls (n = 18), the serum concentrations of seven cytokines (IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-17A, IFN-γ, and TNF-α) were analyzed by flow cytometric bead array (CBA). Results: The serum concentrations of all seven cytokines were significantly higher in RA patients than in healthy controls. Interestingly, the serum concentration profiles varied with the 28-joint Disease Activity Score (DAS28), a measure of RA activity derived from joint indices (tender joints and swollen joints count) and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate. In the high RA activity group (DAS28 > 5.1), all seven cytokines were significantly elevated. In the moderate RA activity group (DAS28 between 3.2 and 5.1), only IL-2, IL-6, IL-10, and IL-17A were significantly increased. In the low RA activity group (DAS28 ≤ 3.2), only IL-2, IL-4, and TNF-α were significantly elevated. Conclusions: The Th cell-derived cytokine expression profile significantly changes across varying levels of RA activity. Th1/Th17 cell-derived TNF-α and Th2 cell-derived IL-4 appear to play more important roles in the early stages of RA, while all seven cytokines derived from Th1, Th2, and Th17 cells (IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-17A, IFN-γ, and TNF-α) are overtly involved in the advanced stages of RA

Towards Emotion Recognition: A Persistent Entropy Application

Emotion recognition and classification is a very active area of research. In this paper, we present a first approach to emotion classification using persistent entropy and support vector machines. A topology-based model is applied to obtain a single real number from each raw signal. These data are used as input of a support vector machine to classify signals into 8 different emotions (calm, happy, sad, angry, fearful, disgust and surprised)

Use of functional MRI to evaluate correlation between acupoints and the somatic sensory cortex activities

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The "Ram Effect": A "Non-Classical" Mechanism for Inducing LH Surges in Sheep

During spring sheep do not normally ovulate but exposure to a ram can induce ovulation. In some ewes an LH surge is induced immediately after exposure to a ram thus raising questions about the control of this precocious LH surge. Our first aim was to determine the plasma concentrations of oestradiol (E2) E2 in anoestrous ewes before and after the "ram effect" in ewes that had a "precocious" LH surge (starting within 6 hours), a "normal" surge (between 6 and 28h) and "late» surge (not detected by 56h). In another experiment we tested if a small increase in circulating E2 could induce an LH surge in anoestrus ewes. The concentration of E2 significantly was not different at the time of ram introduction among ewes with the three types of LH surge. "Precocious" LH surges were not preceded by a large increase in E2 unlike "normal" surges and small elevations of circulating E2 alone were unable to induce LH surges. These results show that the "precocious" LH surge was not the result of E2 positive feedback. Our second aim was to test if noradrenaline (NA) is involved in the LH response to the "ram effect". Using double labelling for Fos and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) we showed that exposure of anoestrous ewes to a ram induced a higher density of cells positive for both in the A1 nucleus and the Locus Coeruleus complex compared to unstimulated controls. Finally, the administration by retrodialysis into the preoptic area, of NA increased the proportion of ewes with an LH response to ram odor whereas treatment with the α1 antagonist Prazosin decreased the LH pulse frequency and amplitude induced by a sexually active ram. Collectively these results suggest that in anoestrous ewes NA is involved in ram-induced LH secretion as observed in other induced ovulators