Effects of Chronic Mild Stress on the Development of Atherosclerosis and Expression of Toll-Like Receptor 4 Signaling Pathway in Adolescent Apolipoprotein E Knockout Mice

Here, we investigated the effect of chronic mild stress (CMS) on the development of atherosclerosis as well as the expression of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) signaling pathway in adolescent apolipoprotein E knockout (apoE-/-) mice. Mice were subjected to daily CMS for 0, 4, and 12 weeks, respectively. To identify the expression of Toll-like receptor 4 signaling pathway in adolescent apolipoprotein E knockout mice subjected to CMS, we compared gene expression in aortas of stressed and unstressed mice using TLRs signaling pathway real-time PCR microarrays consisting of 87 genes. We found that atherosclerosis lesions both in aortic tress and sinuses of CMS mice were significantly increased linearly in response to duration of CMS exposure. Among 87 genes analyzed, 15 genes were upregulated in stressed mice, especially TLR4, myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88), and IL-1β, and 28 genes were downregulated compared with nonstressed mice. CMS mice demonstrated markedly increased aortic atherosclerosis that were associated with significant increases in levels of expression of TLR4, MyD88, nuclear factor κB (NF-κB), MCP-1, IL-1β, TNF-α, and sICAM-1. Taken together, our results suggest an important role for TLR4 signaling pathway in atherosclerosis in a CMS mouse model

Immunotherapy for Lung Cancers

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Although treatment methods in surgery, irradiation, and chemotherapy have improved, prognosis remains unsatisfactory and developing new therapeutic strategies is still an urgent demand. Immunotherapy is a novel therapeutic approach wherein activated immune cells can specifically kill tumor cells by recognition of tumor-associated antigens without damage to normal cells. Several lung cancer vaccines have demonstrated prolonged survival time in phase II and phase III trials, and several clinical trials are under investigation. However, many clinical trials involving cancer vaccination with defined tumor antigens work in only a small number of patients. Cancer immunotherapy is not completely effective in eradicating tumor cells because tumor cells escape from host immune scrutiny. Understanding of the mechanism of immune evasion regulated by tumor cells is required for the development of more effective immunotherapeutic approaches against lung cancer. This paper discusses the identification of tumor antigens in lung cancer, tumor immune escape mechanisms, and clinical vaccine trials in lung cancer

Cold-induced ependymin expression in zebrafish and carp brain: implications for cold acclimation

AbstractCold acclimation has been suggested to be mediated by alternations in the gene expression pattern in the cold-adapted fish. To investigate the mechanism of cold acclimation in fish brain at the molecular level, relevant subsets of differentially expressed genes of interest were identified and cloned by the PCR-based subtraction suppression hybridization. Characterization of the selected cold-induced cDNA clones revealed one encoding ependymin. This gene was shown to be brain-specific. The expression of ependymin was induced by a temperature shift from 25°C to 6°C in Cyprinus carpio or 12°C in Danio rerio. Activation of ependymin was detected 2 h after cold exposure and peaked at more than 10-fold at 12 h. This peak level remains unchanged until the temperature returns to 25°C. Although the amount of soluble ependymin protein in brain was not changed by cold treatment, its level in the fibrous insoluble polymers increased 2-fold after exposure to low temperature. These findings indicate that the increase in ependymin expression is an early event that may play an important role in the cold acclimation of fish

Mechanical Stability Mechanism of Konjac Glucomannan Grain State Based on Molecular Stiffness and Flexibility

Konjac glucomannan (KGM) is a water-soluble natural plant polysaccharide from Konjac tubers, a special resource in China. It has good water absorption and thickening properties. Due to the complex structure, large molecular weight, and strong hydrophilicity of the characteristic acetyl group, KGM-based materials have poor moisture barrier properties and poor mechanical properties, further limiting their applications. In the early stage, it was found that the rigidity and flexibility of Konjac glucomannan particle molecular chain may affect the mechanical stability of its grain state. This strange molecular rigidity and flexibility may be due to the dynamic change of molecular chain to form stable KGM particles. It is speculated that the change of molecular rigid and flexible structure can improve the stability of molecular chain of KGM particles and obtain KGM particles with good mechanical properties. This paper will deeply analyze the research process of "KGM particle molecular rigidity and flexible structure → effect of molecular rigidity and flexible structure on KGM particle mechanical stability → molecular dynamics simulation interactive visual analysis → experimental verification and model evaluation → strengthening the mechanical properties of KGM based materials". The mechanical stability mechanism of Konjac glucomannan particle state structure formation and its molecular rigidity and flexible regulation behavior were revealed. The dynamic regulation was carried out by computer simulation to explore the relationship between them. The purpose is to reveal the mechanical stability mechanism of Konjac glucomannan particle state and lay a theoretical foundation for the bottleneck problem faced by Konjac refined powder in the processing process and its molecular stiffness and flexibility regulation

Dynamical Symmetry and Quantum Information Processing with Electromagnetically Induced Transparency

We study in detail the interesting dynamical symmetry and its applications in various atomic systems with electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in this paper. By discovering the symmetrical Lie group of various atomic systems, such as single-atomic-ensemble composed of complex $m$-level $(m>3)$ atoms, and $two$-atomic-ensemble and even multi-atomic-ensemble system composed of of $three$-level atoms etc., one can obtain the general definition of dark-state polaritons (DSPs), and then the dark-states of these different systems. The symmetrical properties of the multi-level system and multi-atomic-ensemble system are shown to be dependent on some characteristic parameters of the EIT system. Furthermore, a controllable scheme to generate quantum entanglement between lights or atoms via quantized DSPs theory is discussed and the robustness of this scheme is analyzed by confirming the validity of adiabatic passage conditions in this paper.Comment: 14pages, 2figures, Phys. Lett. A, In prin

Serum anti-Mullerian hormone predicts ovarian response in (Macaca fascicularis) monkeys

AMH as a promising predictor of ovarian response has been studied extensively in women undergoing assisted reproductive technology treatment, but little is known about its prediction value in monkeys undergoing ovarian stimulation. In the current study, a total of 380 cynomolgus monkeys ranging from 5 to 12 years received 699 ovarian stimulation cycles. Serum samples were collected for AMH measure with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. It was found that serum AMH levels were positive correlated with the number of retrieved oocytes (P < 0.01) in the first, second and third stimulation cycles. In the first cycles, area under the curve (ROCAUC) of AMH is 0.688 for low response and 0.612 for high response respectively, indicating the significant prediction values (P = 0.000 and P = 0.005). The optimal AMH cutoff value was 9.68 ng/mL for low ovarian response and 15.88 ng/mL for high ovarian response prediction. In the second stimulation cycles, the significance of ROCAUC of AMH for high response rather than the low response was observed (P = 0.001 and P = 0.468). The optimal AMH cutoff value for high ovarian response was 15.61 ng/mL. In the third stimulation cycles, AMH lost the prediction value with no significant ROCAUC. Our data demonstrated that AMH, not age, is a cycle-dependent predictor for ovarian response in form of oocyte yields, which would promote the application of AMH in assisted reproductive treatment (ART) of female cynomolgus monkeys. AMH evaluation would optimize candidate selection for ART and individualize the ovarian stimulation strategies, and consequentially improve the efficiency in monkeys

An improved imaging algorithm for spaceborne MAPs sliding spotlight SAR with high-resolution wide-swath capability

Conventional synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems cannot achieve both high-resolution and wide-swath imaging simultaneously. This problem can be mitigated by employing multiple-azimuth-phases (MAPs) technology for spaceborne sliding spotlight SAR systems. However, traditional imaging algorithms have met challenges to process the data accurately, due to range model error, MAPs data reconstruction problem, high-order cross-coupling phase error and variation of Doppler parameters along the azimuth direction. Therefore, an improved imaging algorithm is proposed for solving the above problems. Firstly, a modified hyperbolic range equation (MHRE) is proposed by introducing a cubic term into the traditional hyperbolic range equation (THRE). And two curved orbit correction methods are derived based on the proposed range model. Then, a MAPs sliding spotlight data reconstruction method is introduced, which solves the spectral aliasing problem by a de-rotation operation. Finally, high-order cross-coupling phases and variation of Doppler parameters are analyzed and the corresponding compensation methods are proposed. Simulation results for point-target scene are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm

Revealing microstructure and dislocation behavior in BAlN/AlGaN heterostructures

We reveal the microstructure and dislocation behavior in 20-pair B0.14Al0.86N/Al0.70Ga0.30N multiple-stack heterostructures (MSHs) exhibiting an increasing dislocation density along the c-axis, which is attributed to the continuous generation of dislocations (edge and mixed-type) within the individual B0.14Al0.86N layers. At the MSH interfaces, the threading dislocations were accompanied by a string of V-shape pits extending to the surface, leading to interface roughening and the formation of surface columnar features. Strain maps indicated an approximately 1.5% tensile strain and 1% compressive strain in the B0.14Al0.86N and Al0.70Ga0.30N layers, respectively. Twin structures were observed, and the MSH eventually changed from monocrystalline to polycrystalline.Acknowledgments The KAUST authors acknowledge the support of the GCC Research Program REP=1=3189-01-01, Baseline BAS=1=1664-01-01, and Equipment BAS=1=1664-01-07. The work at QU was supported by the GCC Research Program GCC-2017-007. The work at the Georgia Institute of Technology was supported in part by DARPA under Grant No. W911NF-15-1-0026 and NSF under Grant No. DMR-1410874. R.D.D. acknowledges the additional support of the Steve W. Chaddick Endowed Chair in Electro-Optics and Georgia Research Alliance