Threshold neutral pion photoproduction off the tri-nucleon to O(q^4)

We calculate electromagnetic neutral pion production off tri-nucleon bound states (3H, 3He) at threshold in chiral nuclear effective field theory to fourth order in the standard heavy baryon counting. We show that the fourth order two-nucleon corrections to the S-wave multipoles at threshold are very small. This implies that a precise measurement of the S-wave cross section for neutral pion production off 3He allows for a stringent test of the chiral perturbation theory prediction for the S-wave electric multipole E_{0+}^{pi0 n}.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, title changed, final version to appear in EPJA. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1103.340

Molecular and functional heterogeneity of IL-10-producing CD4 + T cells

IL-10 is a prototypical anti-inflammatory cytokine, which is fundamental to the maintenance of immune homeostasis, especially in the intestine. There is an assumption that cells producing IL-10 have an immunoregulatory function. However, here we report that IL-10-producing CD4 + T cells are phenotypically and functionally heterogeneous. By combining single cell transcriptome and functional analyses, we identified a subpopulation of IL-10-producing Foxp3 neg CD4 + T cells that displays regulatory activity unlike other IL-10-producing CD4 + T cells, which are unexpectedly pro-inflammatory. The combinatorial expression of co-inhibitory receptors is sufficient to discriminate IL-10-producing CD4 + T cells with regulatory function from others and to identify them across different tissues and disease models in mice and humans. These regulatory IL-10-producing Foxp3 neg CD4 + T cells have a unique transcriptional program, which goes beyond the regulation of IL-10 expression. Finally, we found that patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease demonstrate a deficiency in this specific regulatory T-cell subpopulation

Stanniocalcin 1 effects on the renal gluconeogenesis pathway in rat and fish

The mammalian kidney contributes significantly to glucose homeostasis through gluconeogenesis. Considering that stanniocalcin 1 (STC1) regulates ATP production, is synthesized and acts in different cell types of the nephron, the present study hypothesized that STC1 may be implicated in the regulation of gluconeogenesis in the vertebrate kidney. Human STC1 strongly reduced gluconeogenesis from C-14-glutamine in rat renal medulla (MD) slices but not in renal cortex (CX), nor from C-14-lactic acid. Total PEPCK activity was markedly reduced by hSTC1 in MD but not in CX. Pck2 (mitochondrial PEPCK isoform) was down-regulated by hSTC1 in MD but not in CX. In fish (Dicentrarchus labrax) kidney slices, both STC1-A and -B isoforms decreased gluconeogenesis from C-14-acid lactic, while STC1-A increased gluconeogenesis from C-14-glutamine. Overall, our results demonstrate a role for STC1 in the control of glucose synthesis via renal gluconeogenesis in mammals and suggest that it may have a similar role in teleost fishes. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq) Brazil; Foundation for Science and Technology of Portugal [PTDC/MAR/121279/2010]; bilateral programme CAPES (Brazil)/GRICES (Portugal) CAPES/GRICES [215/08]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Regulation of phosphorylase kinase by low concentrations of Ca ions upon muscle contraction: the connection between metabolism and muscle contraction and the connection between muscle physiology and Ca-dependent signal transduction

It had long been one of the crucial questions in muscle physiology how glycogenolysis is regulated in connection with muscle contraction, when we found the answer to this question in the last half of the 1960s. By that time, the two principal currents of muscle physiology, namely, the metabolic flow starting from glycogen and the mechanisms of muscle contraction, had already been clarified at the molecular level thanks to our senior researchers. Thus, the final question we had to answer was how to connect these two currents. We found that low concentrations of Ca ions (10−7–10−4 M) released from the sarcoplasmic reticulum for the regulation of muscle contraction simultaneously reversibly activate phosphorylase kinase, the enzyme regulating glycogenolysis. Moreover, we found that adenosine 3′,5′-monophosphate (cyclic AMP), which is already known to activate muscle phosphorylase kinase, is not effective in the absence of such concentrations of Ca ions. Thus, cyclic AMP is not effective by itself alone and only modifies the activation process in the presence of Ca ions (at that time, cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase had not yet been identified). After a while, it turned out that our works have not only provided the solution to the above problem on muscle physiology, but have also been considered as the first report of Ca-dependent protein phosphorylation, which is one of the central problems in current cell biology. Phosphorylase kinase is the first protein kinase to phosphorylate a protein resulting in the change in the function of the phosphorylated protein, as shown by Krebs and Fischer. Our works further showed that this protein kinase is regulated in a Ca-dependent manner. Accordingly, our works introduced the concept of low concentrations of Ca ions, which were first identified as the regulatory substance of muscle contraction, to the vast field of Ca biology including signal transduction

The Effect of Chemical Information on the Spatial Distribution of Fruit Flies: I Model Results

Animal aggregation is a general phenomenon in ecological systems. Aggregations are generally considered as an evolutionary advantageous state in which members derive the benefits of protection and mate choice, balanced by the costs of limiting resources and competition. In insects, chemical information conveyance plays an important role in finding conspecifics and forming aggregations. In this study, we describe a spatio-temporal simulation model designed to explore and quantify the effects of these infochemicals, i.e., food odors and an aggregation pheromone, on the spatial distribution of a fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) population, where the lower and upper limit of local population size are controlled by an Allee effect and competition. We found that during the spatial expansion and strong growth of the population, the use of infochemicals had a positive effect on population size. The positive effects of reduced mortality at low population numbers outweighed the negative effects of increased mortality due to competition. At low resource densities, attraction toward infochemicals also had a positive effect on population size during recolonization of an area after a local population crash, by decreasing the mortality due to the Allee effect. However, when the whole area was colonized and the population was large, the negative effects of competition on population size were larger than the positive effects of the reduction in mortality due to the Allee effect. The use of infochemicals thus has mainly positive effects on population size and population persistence when the population is small and during the colonization of an area

Analyzing and Modeling Real-World Phenomena with Complex Networks: A Survey of Applications

The success of new scientific areas can be assessed by their potential for contributing to new theoretical approaches and in applications to real-world problems. Complex networks have fared extremely well in both of these aspects, with their sound theoretical basis developed over the years and with a variety of applications. In this survey, we analyze the applications of complex networks to real-world problems and data, with emphasis in representation, analysis and modeling, after an introduction to the main concepts and models. A diversity of phenomena are surveyed, which may be classified into no less than 22 areas, providing a clear indication of the impact of the field of complex networks.Comment: 103 pages, 3 figures and 7 tables. A working manuscript, suggestions are welcome

Study of doubly strange systems using stored antiprotons

Bound nuclear systems with two units of strangeness are still poorly known despite their importance for many strong interaction phenomena. Stored antiprotons beams in the GeV range represent an unparalleled factory for various hyperon-antihyperon pairs. Their outstanding large production probability in antiproton collisions will open the floodgates for a series of new studies of systems which contain two or even more units of strangeness at the P‾ANDA experiment at FAIR. For the first time, high resolution γ-spectroscopy of doubly strange ΛΛ-hypernuclei will be performed, thus complementing measurements of ground state decays of ΛΛ-hypernuclei at J-PARC or possible decays of particle unstable hypernuclei in heavy ion reactions. High resolution spectroscopy of multistrange Ξ−-atoms will be feasible and even the production of Ω−-atoms will be within reach. The latter might open the door to the |S|=3 world in strangeness nuclear physics, by the study of the hadronic Ω−-nucleus interaction. For the first time it will be possible to study the behavior of Ξ‾+ in nuclear systems under well controlled conditions

Geographical and temporal distribution of SARS-CoV-2 clades in the WHO European Region, January to June 2020

We show the distribution of SARS-CoV-2 genetic clades over time and between countries and outline potential genomic surveillance objectives. We applied three available genomic nomenclature systems for SARS-CoV-2 to all sequence data from the WHO European Region available during the COVID-19 pandemic until 10 July 2020. We highlight the importance of real-time sequencing and data dissemination in a pandemic situation. We provide a comparison of the nomenclatures and lay a foundation for future European genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2.Peer reviewe