34 research outputs found
The road safety experiences and perspectives among technology sector employees of a US multinational corporation in urban India
A Unique Cellular Organization of Human Distal Airways and Its Disarray in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Rationale: Remodeling and loss of distal conducting airways, including preterminal and terminal bronchioles (pre-TBs/TBs), underlie progressive airflow limitation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The cellular basis of these structural changes remains unknown. Objectives: To identify biological changes in pre-TBs/TBs in COPD at single-cell resolution and determine their cellular origin. Methods: We established a novel method of distal airway dissection and performed single-cell transcriptomic profiling of 111,412 cells isolated from different airway regions of 12 healthy lung donors and pre-TBs of 5 patients with COPD. Imaging CyTOF and immunofluorescence analysis of pre-TBs/TBs from 24 healthy lung donors and 11 subjects with COPD were performed to characterize cellular phenotypes at a tissue level. Region-specific differentiation of basal cells isolated from proximal and distal airways was studied using an air-liquid interface model. Measurements and Main Results: The atlas of cellular heterogeneity along the proximal-distal axis of the human lung was assembled and identified region-specific cellular states, including SCGB3A2+ SFTPB+ terminal airway-enriched secretory cells (TASCs) unique to distal airways. TASCs were lost in COPD pre-TBs/TBs, paralleled by loss of region-specific endothelial capillary cells, increased frequency of CD8+ T cells normally enriched in proximal airways, and augmented IFN-Îł signaling. Basal cells residing in pre-TBs/TBs were identified as a cellular origin of TASCs. Regeneration of TASCs by these progenitors was suppressed by IFN-Îł. Conclusions: Altered maintenance of the unique cellular organization of pre-TBs/TBs, including loss of the region-specific epithelial differentiation in these bronchioles, represents the cellular manifestation and likely the cellular basis of distal airway remodeling in COPD
Optical Light Curves of Supernovae
Photometry is the most easily acquired information about supernovae. The
light curves constructed from regular imaging provide signatures not only for
the energy input, the radiation escape, the local environment and the
progenitor stars, but also for the intervening dust. They are the main tool for
the use of supernovae as distance indicators through the determination of the
luminosity. The light curve of SN 1987A still is the richest and longest
observed example for a core-collapse supernova. Despite the peculiar nature of
this object, as explosion of a blue supergiant, it displayed all the
characteristics of Type II supernovae. The light curves of Type Ib/c supernovae
are more homogeneous, but still display the signatures of explosions in massive
stars, among them early interaction with their circumstellar material. Wrinkles
in the near-uniform appearance of thermonuclear (Type Ia) supernovae have
emerged during the past decade. Subtle differences have been observed
especially at near-infrared wavelengths. Interestingly, the light curve shapes
appear to correlate with a variety of other characteristics of these
supernovae. The construction of bolometric light curves provides the most
direct link to theoretical predictions and can yield sorely needed constraints
for the models. First steps in this direction have been already made.Comment: To be published in:"Supernovae and Gamma Ray Bursters", Lecture Notes
in Physics (http://link.springer.de/series/lnpp
Variants associated withHHIP expression have sex-differential effects on lung function
Background: Lung function is highly heritable and differs between the sexes throughout life. However, little is known about sex-differential genetic effects on lung function. We aimed to conduct the first genome-wide genotype-by-sex interaction study on lung function to identify genetic effects that differ between males and females. Methods: We tested for interactions between 7,745,864 variants and sex on spirometry-based measures of lung function in UK Biobank (N=303,612), and sought replication in 75,696 independent individuals from the SpiroMeta consortium. Results: Five independent single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) showed genome-wide significant (P</p