Signal transduction and epigenetic mechanisms in the control of microglia activation during neuroinflammation

Activation of microglia is a common denominator and a pathophysiological hallmark of the central nervous system (CNS) disorders. Damage or CNS disorders can trigger inflammatory responses in resident microglia and initiate a systemic immune system response. Although a repertoire of inflammatory responses differs in those diseases, there is a spectrum of transcriptionally activated genes that encode various mediators such as growth factors, inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, matrix metalloproteinases, enzymes producing lipid mediators, toxic molocules, all of which contribute to neuroinflammation. The initiation, progression and termination of inflammation requires global activation of gene expression, postranscriptional regulation, epigenetic modifications, changes in chromatin structure and these processes are tightly regulated by specific signaling pathways. This review focuses on the function of "master regulators" and epigenetic mechanisms in microglia activation during neuroinflammation. We review studies showing impact of epigenetic enzyme inhibitors on microglia activation in vitro and in vivo, and critically discuss potential of such molecules to prevent/moderate pathological events mediated by microglia under brain pathologies.(1)

Faults Affecting Energy-Harvesting Circuits of Self-Powered Wireless Sensors and Their Possible Concurrent Detection

We analyze the effects of faults on an energy-harvesting circuit (EHC) providing power to a wireless biomedical multisensor node. We show that such faults may prevent the EHC from producing the power supply voltage level required by the multisensor node. Then, we propose a low-cost (in terms of power consumption and area overhead) additional circuit monitoring the voltage level produced by the EHC continuously, and concurrently with the normal operation of the device. Such a monitor gives an error indication if the generated voltage falls below the minimum value required by the sensor node to operate correctly, thus allowing the activation of proper recovery actions to guarantee system fault tolerance. The proposed monitor is self-checking with regard to the internal faults that can occur during its in-field operation, thus providing an error signal when affected by faults itself

Scientific Research In The Health Tourism Market: A Systematic Literature Review

The authors pay attention to bibliographic analysis in the field of health tourism. The primary purpose of the study is to find out which countries’ works predominate in scientific circles, and which nationalities have the most significant influence in the scientific community in terms of the number and content of their research. In particular, they do an in-depth analysis of researches in health tourism marketing. The authors put forward hypotheses about the growing popularity of marketing research in this category, which they confirmed during their investigation. Besides, the study concluded that most articles in health tourism marketing are analytical, systematizing data from secondary sources

Search for dark Higgsstrahlung in e+ e- -> mu+ mu- and missing energy events with the KLOE experiment

We searched for evidence of a Higgsstrahlung process in a secluded sector, leading to a final state with a dark photon U and a dark Higgs boson h', with the KLOE detector at DAFNE. We investigated the case of h' lighter than U, with U decaying into a muon pair and h' producing a missing energy signature. We found no evidence of the process and set upper limits to its parameters in the range 2m_mu<m_U<1000 MeV, m_h'<m_U.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Physics Letters

First-principles study of As interstitials in GaAs: Convergence, relaxation, and formation energy

Convergence of density-functional supercell calculations for defect formation energies, charge transition levels, localized defect state properties, and defect atomic structure and relaxation is investigated using the arsenic split interstitial in GaAs as an example. Supercells containing up to 217 atoms and a variety of {\bf k}-space sampling schemes are considered. It is shown that a good description of the localized defect state dispersion and charge state transition levels requires at least a 217-atom supercell, although the defect structure and atomic relaxations can be well converged in a 65-atom cell. Formation energies are calculated for the As split interstitial, Ga vacancy, and As antisite defects in GaAs, taking into account the dependence upon chemical potential and Fermi energy. It is found that equilibrium concentrations of As interstitials will be much lower than equilibrium concentrations of As antisites in As-rich, $n$-type or semi-insulating GaAs.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Precision measurement of the η→π+π−π0\eta\to\pi^+\pi^-\pi^0 Dalitz plot distribution with the KLOE detector

Using $1.6$ fb$^{-1}$ of $e^+ e^-\to\phi\to\eta\gamma$ data collected with the KLOE detector at DA$\Phi$NE, the Dalitz plot distribution for the $\eta \to \pi^+ \pi^- \pi^0$ decay is studied with the world's largest sample of $\sim 4.7 \cdot 10^6$ events. The Dalitz plot density is parametrized as a polynomial expansion up to cubic terms in the normalized dimensionless variables $X$ and $Y$. The experiment is sensitive to all charge conjugation conserving terms of the expansion, including a $gX^2Y$ term. The statistical uncertainty of all parameters is improved by a factor two with respect to earlier measurements.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, supplement: an ascii tabl

Spatio-temporal Models of Lymphangiogenesis in Wound Healing

Several studies suggest that one possible cause of impaired wound healing is failed or insufficient lymphangiogenesis, that is the formation of new lymphatic capillaries. Although many mathematical models have been developed to describe the formation of blood capillaries (angiogenesis), very few have been proposed for the regeneration of the lymphatic network. Lymphangiogenesis is a markedly different process from angiogenesis, occurring at different times and in response to different chemical stimuli. Two main hypotheses have been proposed: 1) lymphatic capillaries sprout from existing interrupted ones at the edge of the wound in analogy to the blood angiogenesis case; 2) lymphatic endothelial cells first pool in the wound region following the lymph flow and then, once sufficiently populated, start to form a network. Here we present two PDE models describing lymphangiogenesis according to these two different hypotheses. Further, we include the effect of advection due to interstitial flow and lymph flow coming from open capillaries. The variables represent different cell densities and growth factor concentrations, and where possible the parameters are estimated from biological data. The models are then solved numerically and the results are compared with the available biological literature.Comment: 29 pages, 9 Figures, 6 Tables (39 figure files in total