4,771 research outputs found
Was ist gesichert in der Therapie der chronischen Nierenerkrankung? [What is confirmed in the treatment of chronic kidney disease?]
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is defined as a relevant excretion of albumin into the urine or a reduction of the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) over a longer time period of ≥ 3 months. The causes of CKD are manifold, whereby the association with diabetes mellitus is the most frequent cause. Early stages of CKD affect approximately 10% of the total population. The frequency of cardiovascular events, the risk of dependency on dialysis and the all-cause mortality increase exponentially with a decrease in the GFR and an increase in albuminuria. The guidelines of the German College of General Practitioners and Family Physicians (DEGAM) and the organization Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) recommend referral to a nephrologist with a GFR of ≤ 30 or ≤ 60 ml/min/1.73 m(2) in the presence of various cofactors. This means that the majority of CKD patients are treated by general internists or general practitioners. This article gives a concise summary of current data on the treatment of CKD and its associated complications in clinical practice. It refers to the current guidelines and also new study results which could perspectively expand the therapeutic repertoire
Controlling fast transport of cold trapped ions
We realize fast transport of ions in a segmented micro-structured Paul trap.
The ion is shuttled over a distance of more than 10^4 times its groundstate
wavefunction size during only 5 motional cycles of the trap (280 micro meter in
3.6 micro seconds). Starting from a ground-state-cooled ion, we find an
optimized transport such that the energy increase is as low as 0.10 0.01
motional quanta. In addition, we demonstrate that quantum information stored in
a spin-motion entangled state is preserved throughout the transport. Shuttling
operations are concatenated, as a proof-of-principle for the shuttling-based
architecture to scalable ion trap quantum computing.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
The rp-process and new measurements of beta-delayed proton decay of light Ag and Cd isotopes
Recent network calculations suggest that a high temperature rp-process could
explain the abundances of light Mo and Ru isotopes, which have long challenged
models of p-process nuclide production. Important ingredients to network
calculations involving unstable nuclei near and at the proton drip line are
-halflives and decay modes, i.e., whether or not -delayed proton
decay takes place. Of particular importance to these network calculation are
the proton-rich isotopes Ag, Ag, Cd and Cd. We
report on recent measurements of -delayed proton branching ratios for
Ag, Ag, and Cd at the on-line mass separator at GSI.Comment: 4 pages, uses espcrc1.sty. Proceedings of the 4th International
Symposium Nuclei in the Cosmos, June 1996, Notre Dame/IN, USA, Ed. M.
Wiescher, to be published in Nucl.Phys.A. Also available at
ftp://ftp.physics.ohio-state.edu/pub/nucex/nic96-gs
Strong Electron-Phonon Coupling in Superconducting MgB: A Specific Heat Study
We report on measurements of the specific heat of the recently discovered
superconductor MgB in the temperature range between 3 and 220 K. Based on a
modified Debye-Einstein model, we have achieved a rather accurate account of
the lattice contribution to the specific heat, which allows us to separate the
electronic contribution from the total measured specific heat. From our result
for the electronic specific heat, we estimate the electron-phonon coupling
constant to be of the order of 2, significantly enhanced compared to
common weak-coupling values . Our data also indicate that the
electronic specific heat in the superconducting state of MgB can be
accounted for by a conventional, s-wave type BCS-model.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
The IgCAM CLMP regulates expression of Connexin43 and Connexin45 in intestinal and ureteral smooth muscle contraction in mice
CAR-like membrane protein (CLMP), an immunoglobulin cell adhesion molecule (IgCAM), has been implicated in congenital short-bowel syndrome in humans, a condition with high mortality for which there is currently no cure. We therefore studied the function of CLMP in a Clmp-deficient mouse model. Although we found that the levels of mRNAs encoding Connexin43 or Connexin45 were not or were only marginally affected, respectively, by Clmp deficiency, the absence of CLMP caused a severe reduction of both proteins in smooth muscle cells of the intestine and of Connexin43 in the ureter. Analysis of calcium signaling revealed a disordered cell-cell communication between smooth muscle cells, which in turn induced an impaired and uncoordinated motility of the intestine and the ureter. Consequently, insufficient transport of chyme and urine caused a fatal delay to thrive, a high rate of mortality, and provoked a severe hydronephrosis in CLMP knockouts. Neurotransmission and the capability of smooth muscle cells to contract in ring preparations of the intestine were not altered. Physical obstructions were not detectable and an overall normal histology in the intestine as well as in the ureter was observed, except for a slight hypertrophy of smooth muscle layers. Deletion of Clmp did not lead to a reduced length of the intestine as shown for the human CLMP gene but resulted in gut malrotations. In sum, the absence of CLMP caused functional obstructions in the intestinal tract and ureter by impaired peristaltic contractions most likely due to a lack of gap-junctional communication between smooth muscle cells
Grainyhead-like 2 (GRHL2) knockout abolishes oral cancer development through reciprocal regulation of the MAP kinase and TGF-β signaling pathways
Grainyhead-Like 2 (GRHL2) is an epithelial-specific transcription factor that regulates epithelial morphogenesis and differentiation. Prior studies suggested inverse regulation between GRHL2 and TGF-β in epithelial plasticity and potential carcinogenesis. Here, we report the role of GRHL2 in oral carcinogenesis in vivo using a novel Grhl2 knockout (KO) mouse model and the underlying mechanism involving its functional interaction with TGF-β signaling. We developed epithelial-specific Grhl2 conditional KO mice by crossing Grhl2 floxed mice with those expressing CreER driven by the K14 promoter. After induction of Grhl2 KO, we confirmed the loss of GRHL2 and its target proteins, while Grhl2 KO strongly induced TGF-β signaling molecules. When exposed to 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide (4-NQO), a strong chemical carcinogen, Grhl2 wild-type (WT) mice developed rampant oral tongue tumors, while Grhl2 KO mice completely abolished tumor development. In cultured oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cell lines, TGF-β signaling was notably induced by GRHL2 knockdown while being suppressed by GRHL2 overexpression. GRHL2 knockdown or KO in vitro and in vivo, respectively, led to loss of active p-Erk1/2 and p-JNK MAP kinase levels; moreover, ectopic overexpression of GRHL2 strongly induced the MAP kinase activation. Furthermore, the suppressive effect of GRHL2 on TGF-β signaling was diminished in cells exposed to Erk and JNK inhibitors. These data indicate that GRHL2 activates the Erk and JNK MAP kinases, which in turn suppresses the TGF -β signaling. This novel signaling represents an alternative pathway by which GRHL2 regulates carcinogenesis, and is distinct from the direct transcriptional regulation by GRHL2 binding at its target gene promoters, e.g., E-cadherin, hTERT, p63, and miR-200 family genes. Taken together, the current study provides the first genetic evidence to support the role of GRHL2 in carcinogenesis and the underlying novel mechanism that involves the functional interaction between GRHL2 and TGF-β signaling through the MAPK pathways
Entanglement, elasticity and viscous relaxation of actin solutions
We have investigated the viscosity and the plateau modulus of actin solutions
with a magnetically driven rotating disc rheometer. For entangled solutions we
observed a scaling of the plateau modulus versus concentration with a power of
7/5. The measured terminal relaxation time increases with a power 3/2 as a
function of polymer length. We interpret the entanglement transition and the
scaling of the plateau modulus in terms of the tube model for semiflexible
polymers.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, published versio
The reddest ISO-2MASS quasar
In the course of the NIR/MIR AGN search combining the 6.7 mu ISOCAM Parallel
Survey and 2MASS we have discovered 24 type-1 quasars about a third of which
are too red to be discriminated by optical/UV search techniques. Here we report
on a detailed case study of the reddest type-1 quasar of our sample (J2341) at
redshift z=0.236 with M_K=-25.8 and J-K=1.95. We performed spectroscopy in the
optical with VLT/FORS1 and in the MIR with Spitzer as well as NIR imaging with
ISPI at CTIO. The optical and NIR observations reveal a star forming
emission-line galaxy at the same redshift as the quasar with a projected linear
separation of 1.8 arcsec (6.7 kpc). The quasar and its companion are embedded
in diffuse extended continuum emission. Compared with its companion the quasar
exhibits redder optical-NIR colours, which we attribute to hot nuclear dust.
The MIR spectrum shows only few emission lines superimposed on a power-law
spectral energy distribution. However, the lack of strong FIR emission suggests
that our potentially interacting object contains much less gas and dust and is
in a stage different from dust reddened ULIRG-AGN like Mrk 231. The optical
spectrum shows signatures for reddening in the emission-lines and no
post-starburst stellar population is detected in the host galaxy of the quasar.
The optical continuum emission of the active nucleus appears absorbed and
diluted. Even the combination of absorption and host dilution is not able to
match J2341 with standard quasar templates. While the BLR shows only a rather
moderate absorption of E_(B-V)=0.3, the continuum shorter than 4500 AA requires
strong obscuration with E_(B-V)=0.7, exceeding the constraints from the low
upper limit on the 9.7 mu silicate absorption. This leads us to conclude that
the continuum of J2341 is intrinsically redder than that of typical quasars.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure
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