Reducing Automobile Emissions in Southern California: The Dance of Public Policies and Technological Fixes

For many years I have taught at a small liberal arts college in Southern California. When first-year students arrived at the college in the early 1970s, they settled into the usual things that occupy freshmen. A few weeks would go by, and then they would make a remarkable discovery: tall mountains would appear to the north as autumn weather dissipated the heavy blanket of smog that had obscured them. Today, the air is not perfectly clear in September, but students are aware of the mountains from the day they move into the dormitories. The region\u27s partial victory over smog illustrates the successful use of technological fixes for a problem that was itself caused by technology. But it also shows that technological fixes have to be complemented by appropriate policies if they are to be successful

Cephalosporin-induced Hemolytic Anemia in a Sicilian Child.

A 27-month-old child developed acute hemolysis on two occasions after the administration of cephalosporin. On the first occasion, hemolysis was intravascular and was due to the formation of complexes between antibodies and the drug, which bound to red blood cells and caused severe hemolysis. On the second occasion, hemolysis was extravascular and was probably due to antibody-dependent cell mediated cytotoxicity. Marked increases in levels of CD19(+), and CD57(+) CD8(+) cells were detected among the subpopulations of the patient's lymphocytes but only in the level of CD19(+) cells from the patient's father, after incubation of a sample of whole blood with a solution of cephalosporins. These results might explain the differences between the immune response of the patient and those of other members of his family and of an unrelated control

Spatialisation signifiante dans les églises byzantines : la place des icônes et de l’iconostase

Étant donné que le pouvoir impérial, fondamental pour la structuration et le fonctionnement de l’état byzantin, était d’ordre théocratique, dans l’art byzantin, le rôle du portrait – imago - de l’empereur, héritage des traditions antiques, fut transféré à celui du Christ. Plus qu’une évocation, l’image de l’empereur actualisait – sans que lui-même soit physiquement présent – son pouvoir, pour l’accomplissement d’actes relevant de ses fonctions. Les représentations impériales étaient présences..

The Chaperonopathies - Diseases with Defective Molecular Chaperones

In the mid 1950's the Nobel Prize Laureate Christian B. Anfinsen from his research on the folding of ribonuclease A, began to concentrate on the problem of the relationship between structure and function in enzymes. On the basis of studies on ribonuclease, he proposed that the information determining the tertiary structure of a protein resides in the chemistry of its amino acid sequence...

Loss of histone macroH2A1 in hepatocellular carcinoma cells promotes paracrine-mediated chemoresistance and CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ regulatory T cells activation

Rationale: Loss of histone macroH2A1 induces appearance of cancer stem cells (CSCs)-like cells in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). How CSCs interact with the tumor microenvironment and the adaptive immune system is unclear. Methods: We screened aggressive human HCC for macroH2A1 and CD44 CSC marker expression. We also knocked down (KD) macroH2A1 in HCC cells, and performed integrated transcriptomic and secretomic analyses. Results: Human HCC showed low macroH2A1 and high CD44 expression compared to control tissues. MacroH2A1 KD CSC-like cells transferred paracrinally their chemoresistant properties to parental HCC cells. MacroH2A1 KD conditioned media transcriptionally reprogrammed parental HCC cells activated regulatory CD4+/CD25+/FoxP3+ T cells (Tregs). Conclusions: Loss of macroH2A1 in HCC cells drives cancer stem-cell propagation and evasion from immune surveillance

La configuration architecturale de la ville et de sa périphérie au Moyen Âge : la dynamique des limites

Dans l’historiographie traditionnelle du Moyen Âge, la dichotomie dominante entre ville et campagne occulte souvent les rapports effectifs entre ces pôles, à la fois territoriaux et humains. Cette représentation, binaire, de l’espace habité repose sur une vision surtout rationnelle et ordonnée de la société, que la présence de composantes fonctionnelles, structurantes ou architecturales, considérées comme « typantes », reflèterait. Le passage d’un univers à l’autre s’effectuerait par un espac..

Silibinin modulates lipid homeostasis and inhibits nuclear factor kappa B activation in experimental nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is associated with increased liver-related mortality. Disturbances in hepatic lipid homeostasis trigger oxidative stress and inflammation (ie, lipotoxicity), leading to the progression of NASH. This study aimed at identifying whether silibinin may influence the molecular events of lipotoxicity in a mouse model of NASH. Eight-week-old db/db mice were fed a methionine-choline deficient (MCD) diet for 4 weeks and treated daily with silibinin (20 mg/kg intraperitoneally) or vehicle. Liver expression and enzyme activity of stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 and acyl-CoA oxidase, and expression of liver fatty acid-binding protein were assessed. Hepatic levels of reactive oxygen species, thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS), 3-nitrotyrosine (3-NT), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and nuclear factor kappa B (NFkB) activities were also determined. Silibinin administration decreased serum alanine aminotransferase and improved liver steatosis, hepatocyte ballooning, and lobular inflammation in db/db mice fed an MCD diet. Gene expression and activity of stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 were reduced in db/db mice fed an MCD diet compared with lean controls and were increased by silibinin; moreover, silibinin treatment induced the expression and activity of acyl-CoA oxidase and the expression of liver fatty acid-binding protein. Vehicle-treated animals displayed increased hepatic levels of reactive oxygen species and TBARS, 3-NT staining, and iNOS expression; silibinin treatment markedly decreased reactive oxygen species and TBARS and restored 3-NT and iNOS to the levels of control mice. db/db mice fed an MCD diet consistently had increased NFkB p65 and p50 binding activity; silibinin administration significantly decreased the activity of both subunits. Silibinin treatment counteracts the progression of liver injury by modulating lipid homeostasis and suppressing oxidative stress-mediated lipotoxicity and NFkB activation in experimental NASH