Science in neo-Victorian poetry

This article considers the work of three contemporary poets and their engagement, in verse, with Victorian science. Beginning with the outlandish ‘theories’ of Mick Imlah’s ‘The Zoologist’s Bath’ (1983), it moves on to two works of biografiction – Anthony Thwaite’s poem ‘At Marychurch’ (1980), which outlines Philip Henry Gosse’s doomed attempts to unite evolution and Christianity, and Ruth Padel’s Darwin: A Life in Poems (2009). Starting off with John Glendening’s idea that science in neo-Victorian fiction, if fully embraced, provides an opportunity for self-revelation to characters, this article explores the rather less happy resolutions of each of these poems, while in addition discussing the ways in which these poems perform the formal changes and mutability discussed within them

Message-Efficient Dissemination for Loop-Free Centralized Routing

With steady improvement in the reliability and performance of communication devices, routing instabilities now contribute to many of the remaining service degradations and interruptions in modern networks. This has led to a renewed interest in centralized routing systems that, compared to distributed routing, can provide greater control over routing decisions and better visibility of the results. One benefit of centralized control is the opportunity to readily eliminate transient routing loops, which arise frequently after network changes because of inconsistent routing states across devices. Translating this conceptual simplicity into a solution with tolerable message complexity is non-trivial. Addressing this issue is the focus of this paper. We identify when and why avoiding transient loops might require a significant number of messages in a centralized routing system, and demonstrate that this is the case under many common failure scenarios. We also establish that minimizing the number of required messages is NP-hard, and propose a greedy heuristic that we show to perform well under many conditions. The paper\u27s results can facilitate the deployment and evaluation of centralized architectures by leveraging their strengths without incurring unacceptable overhead

Silver-zinc redox-coupled electroceutical wound dressing disrupts bacterial biofilm.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm is commonly associated with chronic wound infection. A FDA approved wireless electroceutical dressing (WED), which in the presence of conductive wound exudate gets activated to generate electric field (0.3-0.9V), was investigated for its anti-biofilm properties. Growth of pathogenic P. aeruginosa strain PAO1 in LB media was markedly arrested in the presence of the WED. Scanning electron microscopy demonstrated that WED markedly disrupted biofilm integrity in a setting where silver dressing was ineffective. Biofilm thickness and number of live bacterial cells were decreased in the presence of WED. Quorum sensing genes lasR and rhlR and activity of electric field sensitive enzyme, glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase was also repressed by WED. This work provides first electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy evidence demonstrating that WED serves as a spontaneous source of reactive oxygen species. Redox-sensitive multidrug efflux systems mexAB and mexEF were repressed by WED. Taken together, these observations provide first evidence supporting the anti-biofilm properties of WED

Suppression of Induced microRNA-15b Prevents Rapid Loss of Cardiac Function in a Dicer Depleted Model of Cardiac Dysfunction

<div><p>Background</p><p>Dicer endonuclease, critical for maturation of miRNAs, is depleted in certain forms of cardiomyopathy which results in differential expression of certain microRNAs. We sought to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the rapid loss of cardiac function following cardiac-specific Dicer depletion in adult mice.</p><p>Results</p><p>Conditional Dicer deletion in the adult murine myocardium demonstrated compromised heart function, mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidant stress. Elevated miR-15b was observed as an early response to Dicer depletion and was found to silence Pim-1 kinase, a protein responsible for maintaining mitochondrial integrity and function. Anti-miRNA based suppression of induced miRNA-15b rescued the function of Dicer-depleted adult heart and attenuated hypertrophy.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>Anti-miRNA based suppression of inducible miRNA-15b can prevent rapid loss of cardiac function in a Dicer-depleted adult heart and can be a key approach worthy of therapeutic consideration.</p></div

Improvement of human keratinocyte migration by a redox active bioelectric dressing.

Exogenous application of an electric field can direct cell migration and improve wound healing; however clinical application of the therapy remains elusive due to lack of a suitable device and hence, limitations in understanding the molecular mechanisms. Here we report on a novel FDA approved redox-active Ag/Zn bioelectric dressing (BED) which generates electric fields. To develop a mechanistic understanding of how the BED may potentially influence wound re-epithelialization, we direct emphasis on understanding the influence of BED on human keratinocyte cell migration. Mapping of the electrical field generated by BED led to the observation that BED increases keratinocyte migration by three mechanisms: (i) generating hydrogen peroxide, known to be a potent driver of redox signaling, (ii) phosphorylation of redox-sensitive IGF1R directly implicated in cell migration, and (iii) reduction of protein thiols and increase in integrinαv expression, both of which are known to be drivers of cell migration. BED also increased keratinocyte mitochondrial membrane potential consistent with its ability to fuel an energy demanding migration process. Electric fields generated by a Ag/Zn BED can cross-talk with keratinocytes via redox-dependent processes improving keratinocyte migration, a critical event in wound re-epithelialization

Suppression of induced miRNA-15b attenuates loss of Pim-1 and improves mitochondrial integrity.

<p>Immunohistochemical comparison of (<b>A</b>) Dicer (<b>B</b>) ANF, (<b>C</b>) Pim-1(<b>D</b>) ANT-1 (<b>E</b>) Comparison of cardiac histopathology sections stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) (<b>F</b>) Bar graph showing quantification of IHC images. Image analysis software (Axiovision 4.3, Zeiss, Germany) was used to quantify fluorescence intensity (fluorescent pixels) and analyzed as a percent change in relative fluorescence unit (RFU). (n = 3) (<b>G</b>) Comparison between % of total mitochondria belonging to Class I/II or Class III/IV. (<b>H</b>) Representative TEM images of mitochondria from Dicer depleted heart tissue treated with anti-miR-15b. <i>Bar graphs represent equal SD on both sides of the mean.</i></p

Suppression of induced miRNA-15b prevents impairment of cardiac function.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Reduced expression of miRNA-15b upon anti-miRNA-15b delivery. (<b>B)</b> Representative M-mode images of Dicer^−/− and anti-miRNA-15b injected Dicer^−/− mice. (<b>C</b>) 11.7T MRI images of long axis at diastole (i & ii) and systole (iii & iv) (<b>D</b>) 11.7T images of short axis at diastole and systole of 1.0 mm slices stacked along columns from base to apex of the left ventricle as explained in Fig. 1. (<b>E</b>) (i) Fractional shortening, (ii) ejection fraction (EF) and (iii) LV mass. (<b>F</b>) (i) Fractional shortening, (ii) ejection fraction and (iii) LV mass in saline or anti-miR-15b injected Dicer+/+ (wild type).</p

Cardiac specific Dicer deletion leads to cardiac hypertrophy and impaired cardiac function.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Generation of Myh6-cre/Esr1-Dicer^fl/fl mice. (<b>B</b>) Western Blot showing reduced Dicer expression following tamoxifen injection. (<b>C</b>) 11.7T images of short axis at diastole and systole of 1.0 mm slices stacked along columns from base to apex of the left ventricle of both Dicer^+/+ and Dicer^−/− mice. Blue contour lines indicate LV volume. (<b>D</b>) Representative M-mode images of Dicer^+/+ and Dicer^−/− mice. The data indicates decreased contractility and increased left ventricular (LV) internal dimensions in Dicer^−/− mice. 11.7T MRI images of long axis at diastole (i & iii), systole (ii & iv) cardiac 11.7T MRI images in Dicer^+/+ and Dicer^−/− mice. The diastole of Dicer^−/− mice was enlarged due to insufficient contraction of the heart (shown by arrows). (<b>E</b>) Quantification of LV fractional shortening, LV myocardial mass, and LV ejection fraction (EF) by MRI and ECHO. Solid bars represent Dicer^+/+ and open bars represent Dicer^−/−. (<b>F</b>) (i) Ejection fraction, (ii) fractional shortening and (iii) LV mass in wild type corn oil or tamoxifen injected mice.</p