Stationary Distribution Convergence of the Offered Waiting Processes for GI/GI/1+GI Queues in Heavy Traffic

A result of Ward and Glynn (2005) asserts that the sequence of scaled offered waiting time processes of the $GI/GI/1+GI$ queue converges weakly to a reflected Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process (ROU) in the positive real line, as the traffic intensity approaches one. As a consequence, the stationary distribution of a ROU process, which is a truncated normal, should approximate the scaled stationary distribution of the offered waiting time in a $GI/GI/1+GI$ queue; however, no such result has been proved. We prove the aforementioned convergence, and the convergence of the moments, in heavy traffic, thus resolving a question left open in Ward and Glynn (2005). In comparison to Kingman's classical result in Kingman (1961) showing that an exponential distribution approximates the scaled stationary offered waiting time distribution in a $GI/GI/1$ queue in heavy traffic, our result confirms that the addition of customer abandonment has a non-trivial effect on the queue stationary behavior.Comment: 29 page

Estradiol Promotes M1-like Macrophage Activation through Cadherin-11 To Aggravate Temporomandibular Joint Inflammation in Rats

Macrophages play a major role in joint inflammation. Estrogen is involved in rheumatoid arthritis and temporomandibular disorders. However, the underlying mechanism is still unclear. This study was done to verify and test how estrogen affects M1/M2-like macrophage polarization and then contributes to joint inflammation. Female rats were ovariectomized and treated with increasing doses of 17β-estradiol for 10 d and then intra-articularly injected with CFA to induce temporomandibular joint (TMJ) inflammation. The polarization of macrophages and expression of cadherin-11 was evaluated at 24 h after the induction of TMJ inflammation and after blocking cadherin-11 or estrogen receptors. NR8383 macrophages were treated with estradiol and TNF-α, with or without blocking cadherin-11 or estrogen receptors, to evaluate the expression of the M1/M2-like macrophageassociated genes. We found that estradiol increased the infiltration of macrophages with a proinflammatory M1-like predominant profile in the synovium of inflamed TMJ. In addition, estradiol dose-dependently upregulated the expressions of the M1-associated proinflammatory factor inducible NO synthase (iNOS) but repressed the expressions of the M2-associated genes IL-10 and arginase in NR8383 macrophages. Furthermore, estradiol mainly promoted cadherin-11 expression in M1-like macrophages of inflamed TMJ. By contrast, blockage of cadherin-11 concurrently reversed estradiol-potentiated M1-like macrophage activation and TMJ inflammation, as well as reversed TNF-α-induced induction of inducible NO synthase and NO in NR8383 macrophages. The blocking of estrogen receptors reversed estradiol-potentiated M1-like macrophage activation and cadherin-11 expression. These results suggested that estradiol could promote M1-like macrophage activation through cadherin-11 to aggravate the acute inflammation of TMJs. Copyright © 2015 by The American Association of Immunologists, Inc

Anti-osteoporosis mechanism of resistance exercise in ovariectomized rats based on transcriptome analysis: a pilot study

Postmenopausal osteoporosis is the main cause of fractures in women. Resistance exercise has a positive effect on bone mineral density in postmenopausal osteoporosis patients, but its mechanism is unclear. The purpose of this study was to explore the mechanism of resistance exercise in improving ovariectomized osteoporotic rats based on the transcriptome sequencing technique. Eighteen female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into the sham-operated group, the non-exercise group, and the resistance exercise group. The rat model of postmenopausal osteoporosis was established by bilateral ovariectomy. Ten weeks after the operation, the resistance exercise group received 2 weeks of adaptive training, and 12 weeks of resistance exercise began in the 13th week. The rats were trained 5 days per week, in 4 sets of 3 repetitions per day. After the intervention, all rats were sacrificed, and the body weight, bone mineral density, trabecular bone microarchitecture, and bone biomechanics were examined. At the same time, RNA-seq and enrichment analysis of gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes were performed on the left tibias, followed by Elisa and RT-qPCR verification. It had been found that resistance exercise can effectively counteract the weight gain of ovariectomized osteoporotic rats, and has a good effect on bone mineral density and trabecular bone microarchitecture. Enrichment analysis showed that regulation of gene expression and osteoclast differentiation is the most closely related biological process and signaling pathway shared by RE/Ovx and NE/Ovx groups. Our results revealed that resistance exercise can play a role in inhibiting osteoclast activation and preventing the enhancement of osteoclast bone resorption function in ovariectomized osteoporotic rats by inhibiting Fos/Fosb-regulated TRAP activation and relieving Calcr inhibition, which has important application value in preventing bone loss caused by estrogen deficiency

Deciphering neo-sex and B chromosome evolution by the draft genome of Drosophila albomicans

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Drosophila albomicans </it>is a unique model organism for studying both sex chromosome and B chromosome evolution. A pair of its autosomes comprising roughly 40% of the whole genome has fused to the ancient X and Y chromosomes only about 0.12 million years ago, thereby creating the youngest and most gene-rich neo-sex system reported to date. This species also possesses recently derived B chromosomes that show non-Mendelian inheritance and significantly influence fertility.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We sequenced male flies with B chromosomes at 124.5-fold genome coverage using next-generation sequencing. To characterize neo-Y specific changes and B chromosome sequences, we also sequenced inbred female flies derived from the same strain but without B's at 28.5-fold.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We assembled a female genome and placed 53% of the sequence and 85% of the annotated proteins into specific chromosomes, by comparison with the 12 <it>Drosophila genomes</it>. Despite its very recent origin, the non-recombining neo-Y chromosome shows various signs of degeneration, including a significant enrichment of non-functional genes compared to the neo-X, and an excess of tandem duplications relative to other chromosomes. We also characterized a B-chromosome linked scaffold that contains an actively transcribed unit and shows sequence similarity to the subcentromeric regions of both the ancient X and the neo-X chromosome.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results provide novel insights into the very early stages of sex chromosome evolution and B chromosome origination, and suggest an unprecedented connection between the births of these two systems in <it>D. albomicans</it>.</p

An Updated Search of Steady TeV γ−\gamma-Ray Point Sources in Northern Hemisphere Using the Tibet Air Shower Array

Using the data taken from Tibet II High Density (HD) Array (1997 February-1999 September) and Tibet-III array (1999 November-2005 November), our previous northern sky survey for TeV $\gamma-$ray point sources has now been updated by a factor of 2.8 improved statistics. From $0.0^{\circ}$ to $60.0^{\circ}$ in declination (Dec) range, no new TeV $\gamma-$ray point sources with sufficiently high significance were identified while the well-known Crab Nebula and Mrk421 remain to be the brightest TeV $\gamma-$ray sources within the field of view of the Tibet air shower array. Based on the currently available data and at the 90% confidence level (C.L.), the flux upper limits for different power law index assumption are re-derived, which are approximately improved by 1.7 times as compared with our previous reported limits.Comment: This paper has been accepted by hepn