1,473 research outputs found
Sonic hedgehog carried by microparticles prevents angiotensin II-induced hypertension and endothelial dysfunction in mice
Microparticles (MPs) are small fragments generated from the plasma membrane after cell stimulation. Among the candidate proteins harbored by MPs, we recently showed that morphogen Sonic hedgehog is present in MPs generated from activated/apoptotic human T lymphocytes and corrects endothelial injury through nitric oxide (NO) release (Agouni et al. FASEB J 2007). The present study further investigates whether MPs bearing Shh prevent angiotensin II (Ang II)-induced hypertension and endothelial dysfunction in mice. Male Swiss mice (6–8 week old) were subcutaneously implanted with osmotic minipumps delivering Ang II (0.5 mg/kg per day) or NaCl (0.9%, control group). Systolic blood pressure and heart rate were measured daily during 21 consecutive days using tail cuff plethysmography connected to a computerized system (LE 5002 # , BIOSEB). Mice were tained for 7 days. After 7 day of minipump implantation, mice received i.v. injections of MPs (10 μg/mL) or i.p. Sonic Hedgehog receptor antagonist cyclopamine (10 mg/kg per 2 days) during 1 week prior sacrifice. Thoracic aorta was removed, cleaned of connective tissue and cut in rings (3 mm length) and mounted in a myograph to study vascular reactivity. Ang II induced a significant rise in systolic blood pressure without affecting heart rate when compared to control mice. Interestingly, MPs alone did not modify both parameters but reversed Ang II-induced hypertension. Moreover, cyclopamine prevented the effects of MPs on Ang II-induced hypertension, suggesting the involvement of a Sonic Hedgehog-dependent mechanism. In the aorta, MPs alone slightly increased the sensitivity of endothelium-dependent relaxation to acetylcholine and completely reversed the impairment of acetylcholine-induced relaxation in aorta from Ang II-infused mice. The improvement of endothelial function induced by MPs was completely prevented by cyclopamine treatment. Moreover, measurement of NO production showed that MPs alone did not modify NO production in aorta, but significantly restored its decrease in Ang II-treated mice. Altogether, these results show that MPs bearing Sonic hedgehog prevent Ang II-induced hypertension and endothelial dysfunction in aorta through a mechanism associated with Sonic hedgehog-induced NO production. These MPs may represent a new therapeutic approach in cardiovascular diseases associated with decreased NO production
Do the visual conditions at the point of escape affect European sea bass escape behavior?
European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax), an important species for the Mediterranean aquaculture industry, has been reported to escape from sea cage installations. Fish escapes are caused mainly by operational and technical failures that eventually result into a creation of a tear. Escapees may interact with wild stocks through interbreeding, transfer of pathogens and competition for food. The aim of this study was to examine at which extent the presence of a visible obstacle close to a tear on the net have an influence on sea bass propensity to escape. Fish were initially confined into small sea cages, with a tear at one side. The escape behavior was tested under experimental conditions. It is clearly demonstrated that sea bass was able to locate a tear on the net pen, immediately after its appearance. Crossings occurred in all cages, in singles or in a series of up to seven individuals. The presence of an obstacle close to the net tear altered the escape behavior of D. labrax resulting in a delay that eventually reduced the escape rate. Concluding, it is highly recommended that sea bass cages should be kept internally the culture array. Furthermore, the placement of artificial obstacles close to the sea cages could be an efficient practice that mitigates the escape risk after severe environmental conditions
Approximate Solution of the effective mass Klein-Gordon Equation for the Hulthen Potential with any Angular Momentum
The radial part of the effective mass Klein-Gordon equation for the Hulthen
potential is solved by making an approximation to the centrifugal potential.
The Nikiforov-Uvarov method is used in the calculations. Energy spectra and the
corresponding eigenfunctions are computed. Results are also given for the case
of constant mass.Comment: 12 page
A Performance Analysis Framework for WiFi/WiMAX Heterogeneous Metropolitan Networks Based on Cross-Layer Design
The communication between network nodes within different protocol domains is often regarded simply as a black box with unknown configuration conditions in the path. We address network heterogeneity using a white box approach and focus on its interconnection processes. To achieve this purpose, a Performance Analysis Framework (PAF) is proposed which is composed of the formalization of the latter using process algebra (PA) and the corresponding teletraffic performance models. In this contribution, we target the IEEE 802.16 and IEEE 802.11 protocols. For the teletraffic models, we extend previous models for such scenario with the inclusion of the following protocol operational parameters (metrics): bit error rate (BER), packet error ratio (PER), and packet length (pl). From the framework teletraffic models, the optimal packet length (OPL), end to end throughput, delay, and packet loss are obtained. The PAF outperforms previous modeling solutions in terms of delay and throughput relative to NS3 simulation results. </jats:p
Chandra Smells a RRAT: X-ray Detection of a Rotating Radio Transient
"Rotating RAdio Transients" (RRATs) are a newly discovered astronomical
phenomenon, characterised by occasional brief radio bursts, with average
intervals between bursts ranging from minutes to hours. The burst spacings
allow identification of periodicities, which fall in the range 0.4 to 7
seconds. The RRATs thus seem to be rotating neutron stars, albeit with
properties very different from the rest of the population. We here present the
serendipitous detection with the Chandra X-ray Observatory of a bright
point-like X-ray source coincident with one of the RRATs. We discuss the
temporal and spectral properties of this X-ray emission, consider counterparts
in other wavebands, and interpret these results in the context of possible
explanations for the RRAT population.Comment: 5 pages, 2 b/w figures, 1 color figure. To appear in the proceedings
of "Isolated Neutron Stars", Astrophysics & Space Science, in pres
PSR J1119-6127 and the X-ray Emission from High Magnetic Field Radio Pulsars
The existence of radio pulsars having inferred magnetic elds in the magnetar regime suggests that possible transition objects could be found in the radio pulsar population. The discovery of such an object would contribute greatly to our understanding of neutron star physics. Here we report on unusual X-ray emission detected from the radio pulsar PSR J1119-6127 using XMM-Newton. The pulsar has a characteristic age of 1,700 yrs and inferred surface dipole magnetic eld strength of 4.1x10^13 G. In the 0.5-2.0 keV range, the emission shows a single, narrow pulse with an unusually high pulsed fraction of ~70%. No pulsations are detected in the 2.0-10.0 keV range, where we derive an upper limit at the 99% level for the pulsed fraction of 28%. The pulsed emission is well described by a thermal blackbody model with a high temperature of 2.4x10^6 K. While no unambiguous signature of magnetar-like emission has been found in high-magnetic-eld radio pulsars, the X-ray characteristics of PSR J1119-6127 require alternate models from those of conventional thermal emission from neutron stars. In addition, PSR J1119-6127 is now the radio pulsar with the smallest characteristic age from which thermal X-ray emission has been detected
Quasi-energy-independent solar neutrino transitions
Current solar, atmospheric, and reactor neutrino data still allow oscillation
scenarios where the squared mass differences are all close to 10^-3 eV^2,
rather than being hierarchically separated. For solar neutrinos, this situation
(realized in the upper part of the so-called large-mixing angle solution)
implies adiabatic transitions which depend weakly on the neutrino energy and on
the matter density, as well as on the ``atmospheric'' squared mass difference.
In such a regime of ``quasi-energy-independent'' (QEI) transitions,
intermediate between the more familiar ``Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein'' (MSW)
and energy-independent (EI) regimes, we first perform analytical calculations
of the solar nu_e survival probability at first order in the matter density,
beyond the usual hierarchical approximations. We then provide accurate,
generalized expressions for the solar neutrino mixing angles in matter, which
reduce to those valid in the MSW, QEI and EI regimes in appropriate limits.
Finally, a representative QEI scenario is discussed in some detail.Comment: Title changed; text and acronyms revised; results unchanged. To
appear in PR
Lepton flavor violating signals of a little Higgs model at the high energy linear colliders
Littlest Higgs model predicts the existence of the doubly charged
scalars , which generally have large flavor changing couplings
to leptons. We calculate the contributions of to the lepton
flavor violating processes and , and compare our numerical results with the current
experimental upper limits on these processes. We find that some of these
processes can give severe constraints on the coupling constant and the
mass parameter . Taking into account the constraints on these free
parameters, we further discuss the possible lepton flavor violating signals of
at the high energy linear collider
experiments. Our numerical results show that the possible signals of
might be detected via the subprocesses in the future experiments.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures. Discussions and references added, typos
correcte
What can we learn from neutrinoless double beta decay experiments?
We assess how well next generation neutrinoless double beta decay and normal
neutrino beta decay experiments can answer four fundamental questions. 1) If
neutrinoless double beta decay searches do not detect a signal, and if the
spectrum is known to be inverted hierarchy, can we conclude that neutrinos are
Dirac particles? 2) If neutrinoless double beta decay searches are negative and
a next generation ordinary beta decay experiment detects the neutrino mass
scale, can we conclude that neutrinos are Dirac particles? 3) If neutrinoless
double beta decay is observed with a large neutrino mass element, what is the
total mass in neutrinos? 4) If neutrinoless double beta decay is observed but
next generation beta decay searches for a neutrino mass only set a mass upper
limit, can we establish whether the mass hierarchy is normal or inverted? We
base our answers on the expected performance of next generation neutrinoless
double beta decay experiments and on simulations of the accuracy of
calculations of nuclear matrix elements.Comment: Added reference
Adaptive step ODE algorithms for the 3D simulation of electric heart activity with graphics processing units
In this paper we studied the implementation and performance of adaptive step methods for large
systems of ordinary differential equations systems in graphics processing units, focusing on the
simulation of three-dimensional electric cardiac activity. The Rush-Larsen method was applied in all
the implemented solvers to improve efficiency. We compared the adaptive methods with the fixed step
methods, and we found that the fixed step methods can be faster while the adaptive step methods are
better in terms of accuracy and robustness.
(c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.This work has been partially funded by Universitat Politecnica de Valencia through Programa de Apoyo a la InvestigaciOn y Desarrollo (PAID-06-11) and (PAID-05-12), by Generalitat Valenciana through projects PROMETEO/2009/013 and Ayudas para la realizacion de proyectos de I+D para grupos de investigacion emergentes GV/2012/039, and by Ministerio Espafiol de Economia y Competitividad through project TEC2012-38142-004.García Mollá, VM.; Liberos Mascarell, A.; Vidal Maciá, AM.; Guillem Sánchez, MS.; Millet Roig, J.; González Salvador, A.; Martínez Zaldívar, FJ.... (2014). Adaptive step ODE algorithms for the 3D simulation of electric heart activity with graphics processing units. Computers in Biology and Medicine. 44:15-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2013.10.023S15264
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