The infection biology of pig-associated Salmonella

Through the use of an establishe dline of porcine intestinal epithelial cells, known as IPEC-1, this in vitro work examines the initial adhesion, invasion and persistence abilities of different Salmonella serovars and phage types, including multiresistant and monophasic S. typhimurium DT193 isolates. The resultant innate immune response of the porcine cells to the isolates is assessed through determination of interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8 concentrations present in cell culture supernatants

Different tumours induced by benzo(a)pyrene and its 7,8-dihydrodiol injected into adult mouse salivary gland.

A comparison has been made between the carcinogenic activities of benzo(a)pyrene and the proposed proximate carcinogen, benzo(a)pyrene 7,8-dihydrodiol, in the adult C57BL mouse submandibular salivary gland. In preliminary studies using a range of doses, the dihydrodiol was slightly less active than the parent hydrocarbon in this system. There was a difference in the type of tumour induced by the 2 compounds. Benzo(a)pyrene induced tumours of the salivary glands at the site of injection, whereas the dihydrodiol induced malignant lymphosarcomas, particularly of the thymus, which were often metastatic to other orgnas. Possible reasons for the different sites of action of the 2 compounds are discussed

Quantum tunneling dynamics of an interacting Bose-Einstein condensate through a Gaussian barrier

The transmission of an interacting Bose-Einstein condensate incident on a repulsive Gaussian barrier is investigated through numerical simulation. The dynamics associated with interatomic interactions are studied across a broad parameter range not previously explored. Effective 1D Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE) simulations are compared to classical Boltzmann-Vlasov equation (BVE) simulations in order to isolate purely coherent matterwave effects. Quantum tunneling is then defined as the portion of the GPE transmission not described by the classical BVE. An exponential dependence of transmission on barrier height is observed in the purely classical simulation, suggesting that observing such exponential dependence is not a sufficient condition for quantum tunneling. Furthermore, the transmission is found to be predominately described by classical effects, although interatomic interactions are shown to modify the magnitude of the quantum tunneling. Interactions are also seen to affect the amount of classical transmission, producing transmission in regions where the non-interacting equivalent has none. This theoretical investigation clarifies the contribution quantum tunneling makes to overall transmission in many-particle interacting systems, potentially informing future tunneling experiments with ultracold atoms.Comment: Close to the published versio

Localization of Quaternary slip rates in an active rift in 10(5) years: an example from central Greece constrained by U-234-Th-230 coral dates from uplifted paleoshorelines

Mapping, dating, and modeling of paleoshorelines uplifted in the footwall of the 1981 Gulf of Corinth earthquake fault, Greece (Ms 6.9–6.7), are used to assess its slip rate history relative to other normal faults in the area and study strain localization. The 234U-230Th coral ages from Cladocora caespitosa date uplifted shoreface sediments, and paleoshorelines from glacioeustatic sea level highstands at 76, (possibly) 100, 125, 175, 200, 216, 240, and 340 ka. Uplifted Quaternary and Holocene paleoshorelines decrease in elevation toward the western tip of the fault, exhibiting larger tilt angles with age, showing that uplift is due to progressive fault slip. Since 125 ka, uplift rates varied from 0.25 to 0.52 mm/yr over a distance of 5 km away from the fault tip. Tilting was also occurring prior to 125 ka, but uplift rates were lower because the 125 ka paleoshoreline is at 77% of the elevation of the 240 ka paleoshoreline despite being nearly half its age. Comparison of paleoshoreline elevations and sedimentology with the Quaternary sea level curve shows that slip rates increased by a factor of 3.2 ± 0.2 at 175 ± 75 ka, synchronous with cessation of activity on a neighboring normal fault at 382–112 ka. We suggest that the rapid localization of up to 10–15 mm/yr of extension into the narrow gulf (∼30 km wide) resulted from synchronous fault activity on neighboring faults followed by localization rather than sequential faulting, with consequences for the mechanism controlling localization of extension

Hsp90 inhibition: A promising therapeutic approach for arsacs

Autosomal recessive spastic ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay (ARSACS) is a neurodegenera-tive disease caused by mutations in the SACS gene, encoding the 520 kDa modular protein sacsin, which comprises multiple functional sequence domains that suggest a role either as a scaffold in protein folding or in proteostasis. Cells from patients with ARSACS display a distinct phenotype including altered organisation of the intermediate filament cytoskeleton and a hyperfused mitochon-drial network where mitochondrial respiration is compromised. Here, we used vimentin bundling as a biomarker of sacsin function to test the therapeutic potential of Hsp90 inhibition with the C-terminal-domain-targeted compound KU-32, which has demonstrated mitochondrial activity. This study shows that ARSACS patient cells have significantly increased vimentin bundling compared to control, and this was also present in ARSACS carriers despite them being asymptomatic. We found that KU-32 treatment significantly reduced vimentin bundling in carrier and patient cells. We also found that cells from patients with ARSACS were unable to maintain mitochondrial membrane potential upon challenge with mitotoxins, and that the electron transport chain function was restored upon KU-32 treatment. Our preliminary findings presented here suggest that targeting the heat-shock response by Hsp90 inhibition alleviates vimentin bundling and may represent a promising area for the development of therapeutics for ARSACS

Restoration Of Dual-Frequency Signals With Nonlinear Propagation In Fibers With Positive Group-Velocity Dispersion

It is shown experimentally and theoretically that a sinusoidally modulated pulse evolves with time into a train of dark soliton-like pulses and then returns to its initial sinusoidal shape on propagation through a nonlinear single-mode fiber with positive group velocity dispersion. The experimental results are in agreement with predictions from the nonlinear Schrodinger equation

Observation of a Modulational Instability in Bose-Einstein condensates

We observe the breakup dynamics of an elongated cloud of condensed $^{85}$Rb atoms placed in an optical waveguide. The number of localized spatial components observed in the breakup is compared with the number of solitons predicted by a plane-wave stability analysis of the nonpolynomial nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation, an effective one-dimensional approximation of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation for cigar-shaped condensates. It is shown that the numbers predicted from the fastest growing sidebands are consistent with the experimental data, suggesting that modulational instability is the key underlying physical mechanism driving the breakup.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure