Non-neuronal cholinergic system in regulation of immune function with a focus on α7 nAChRs

AbstractIn 1929, Dale and Dudley described the first reported natural occurrence of acetylcholine (ACh) in an animal’s body. They identified this ACh in the spleens of horses and oxen, which we now know suggests possible involvement of ACh in the regulation of lymphocyte activity and immune function. However, the source and function of splenic ACh were left unexplored for several decades. Recent studies on the source of ACh in the blood revealed ACh synthesis catalyzed by choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) in CD4+ T cells. T and B cells, macrophages and dendritic cells (DCs) all express all five muscarinic ACh receptor subtypes (mAChRs) and several subtypes of nicotinic AChRs (nAChRs), including α7 nAChRs. Stimulation of these mAChRs and nAChRs by their respective agonists causes functional and biochemical changes in the cells. Using AChR knockout mice, we found that M1/M5 mAChR signaling up-regulates IgG1 and pro-inflammatory cytokine production, while α7 nAChR signaling has the opposite effect. These findings suggest that ACh synthesized by T cells acts in an autocrine/paracrine fashion at AChRs on various immune cells to modulate immune function. In addition, an endogenous allosteric and/or orthosteric α7 nAChR ligand, SLURP-1, facilitates functional development of T cells and increases ACh synthesis via up-regulation of ChAT mRNA expression. SLURP-1 is expressed in CD205+ DCs residing in the tonsil in close proximity to T cells, macrophages and B cells. Collectively, these findings suggest that ACh released from T cells along with SLURP-1 regulates cytokine production by activating α7 nAChRs on various immune cells, thereby facilitating T cell development and/or differentiation, leading to immune modulation

Guided Wave Focusing Mechanics in Pipe

Guided waves can be used in pipe inspection over long distances. Presented in this paper is a beam focusing technique to improve the S∕N ratio of the reflection from a tiny defect. Focusing is accomplished by using nonaxisymmetric waveforms and subsequent time delayed superposition at a specific point in a pipe. A semianalytical finite element method is used to present wave structure in the pipe. Focusing potential is also studied with various modes and frequencies

Acoustoelastic Axial Stress Measurement of Short Bolts with Longitudinal and Transverse Waves

The bolts used for automobiles are relatively small compared with those used in power plants, steel bridges and frames. The precise control of the fastening force is required for important parts. The force measurement by torque wrenches is, however, unreliable because it does measure the frictional torque caused by the axial force not but axial force itself. Therefore direct measurement of the axial force in those bolts is required. The conventional ultrasonic bolt gages are not applicable for these short bolts because the bolt length uniformly stressed is small compared with the total length. An ultrasonic resonance method [1] is useful for axial stress measurement of these bolts, however, it requires long measurement time because of frequency sweep and both measurements in stressed and unstressed states.</p

タジュウ モード ラムハ カラ ノ タンイツ モード ノ チュウシュツ ト ケッカン ケンシュツ ヘノ オウヨウ

Lamb waves generally consist of many dispersive modes, which makes mode identification difficult. This study discribes the extraction of a single mode from multiple modes. The single mode extraction is based on two dimensional Fast Fourie Transform (2 D FFT) in time and space, signal filtering and 2 D inverse FFT. Air-coupled ultrasonic technique were adopted for non-contact fast measurements. Using this technique, the A 0 and S 0 modes were clearly detected in preliminary tests of intact plates. Furthermore, multiple reflections of the A 0 mode, which were shown only in the computer simulation, were experimentally confirmed in reflection tests of plates with a square notch. In the reflection tests, two reflected waves were extracted in the intervals corresponding to notch widths

EGassembler: online bioinformatics service for large-scale processing, clustering and assembling ESTs and genomic DNA fragments

Expressed sequence tag (EST) sequencing has proven to be an economically feasible alternative for gene discovery in species lacking a draft genome sequence. Ongoing large-scale EST sequencing projects feel the need for bioinformatics tools to facilitate uniform EST handling. This brings about a renewed importance for a universal tool for processing and functional annotation of large sets of ESTs. EGassembler () is a web server, which provides an automated as well as a user-customized analysis tool for cleaning, repeat masking, vector trimming, organelle masking, clustering and assembling of ESTs and genomic fragments. The web server is publicly available and provides the community a unique all-in-one online application web service for large-scale ESTs and genomic DNA clustering and assembling. Running on a Sun Fire 15K supercomputer, a significantly large volume of data can be processed in a short period of time. The results can be used to functionally annotate genes, to facilitate splice alignment analysis, to link the transcripts to genetic and physical maps, design microarray chips, to perform transcriptome analysis and to map to KEGG metabolic pathways. The service provides an excellent bioinformatics tool to research groups in wet-lab as well as an all-in-one-tool for sequence handling to bioinformatics researchers