The Establishment of a Primary Culture System of Proximal Tubule Segments Using Specific Markers from Normal Mouse Kidneys

The proximal tubule contains the highest expression of angiotensinogen mRNA and protein within the kidney and plays a vital role in the renal renin-angiotensin system. To study the regulation of angiotensinogen expression in the kidney in more detail, the proximal tubule needs to be accurately isolated from the rest of the nephron and separated into its three segments. The purpose of this study was to design a novel protocol using specific markers for the separation of proximal tubule cells into the three proximal tubule segments and to determine angiotensinogen expression in each segment. Kidneys were removed from C57BL/6J mice. The proximal tubules were aspirated from region of a Percoll gradient solution of the appropriate density. The proximal tubule was then separated into its three segments using segment-specific membrane proteins, after which each segment was characterized by a different specific marker (sodium-glucose transporter 2 for Segment 1; carbonic anhydrase IV for Segment 2; ecto-adenosine triphosphatase for Segment 3). The isolation of proximal tubules into three segments was successful, and angiotensinogen mRNA in Segment 2 and 3 and angiotensinogen protein in all three segments were confirmed. This protocol will be helpful for future studies of the detailed mechanisms of the intrarenal renin-angiotensin system

Point defect dynamics in bcc metals

We present an analysis of the time evolution of self-interstitial atom and vacancy (point defect) populations in pure bcc metals under constant irradiation flux conditions. Mean-field rate equations are developed in parallel to a kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) model. When only considering the elementary processes of defect production, defect migration, recombination and absorption at sinks, the kMC model and rate equations are shown to be equivalent and the time evolution of the point defect populations is analyzed using simple scaling arguments. We show that the typically large mismatch of the rates of interstitial and vacancy migration in bcc metals can lead to a vacancy population that grows as the square root of time. The vacancy cluster size distribution under both irreversible and reversible attachment can be described by a simple exponential function. We also consider the effect of highly mobile interstitial clusters and apply the model with parameters appropriate for vanadium and $\alpha-$iron.Comment: to appear in Phys. Rev.

Group Strategyproof Pareto-Stable Marriage with Indifferences via the Generalized Assignment Game

We study the variant of the stable marriage problem in which the preferences of the agents are allowed to include indifferences. We present a mechanism for producing Pareto-stable matchings in stable marriage markets with indifferences that is group strategyproof for one side of the market. Our key technique involves modeling the stable marriage market as a generalized assignment game. We also show that our mechanism can be implemented efficiently. These results can be extended to the college admissions problem with indifferences

Synthesis, Structural and Magnetic Properties of La0.5Ba0.5CoO2.75+x

Hole doping to the Co3+ ion in cobaltite perovskites can significantly modify the electromagnetic properties. We prepared the hole-doped cobaltite perovskites La0.5Ba0.5CoO2.75+x (x = 0.06 and x = 0.15). Neutron powder diffraction and dc-magnetization experiments were performed to investigate the crystal structure and magnetic properties. We found that both of the samples have the cubic crystal structure with space group Pmm in all the measured temperatures. Ferromagnetic transition occurs at 160K in x = 0.15 sample. For x = 0.06, we found the short-range ordered ferromagnetic state and a long-range ordered antiferromagnetic state coexist in low temperature

Conductivity and Structure of Superionic Composite (AgI)0.6(NaPO3)0.4

Superionic conductors are of considerable interest from both application and fundamental points of view. Superionic solid electrolytes can be used for batteries, fuel cells and sensors. We have used melt quenching to make a new superionic composite (AgI)0.6(NaPO3)0.4 which exhibits an ionic conductivity of about 2 x 10-4 S/cm at ambient temperature. The conductivity of crystalline AgI and NaPO3 glass are lower of orders of magnitude. (AgI)0.6(NaPO3)0.4 is a composite material containing both crystalline and glass phases. The paper presents the conductivity as a function of temperature measured by impedance spectroscopy and the crystal structure performed by a high resolution powder diffractometer, VEGA at the Neutron Science Laboratory (KENS), KEK, Japan

Covering problems in edge- and node-weighted graphs

This paper discusses the graph covering problem in which a set of edges in an edge- and node-weighted graph is chosen to satisfy some covering constraints while minimizing the sum of the weights. In this problem, because of the large integrality gap of a natural linear programming (LP) relaxation, LP rounding algorithms based on the relaxation yield poor performance. Here we propose a stronger LP relaxation for the graph covering problem. The proposed relaxation is applied to designing primal-dual algorithms for two fundamental graph covering problems: the prize-collecting edge dominating set problem and the multicut problem in trees. Our algorithms are an exact polynomial-time algorithm for the former problem, and a 2-approximation algorithm for the latter problem, respectively. These results match the currently known best results for purely edge-weighted graphs.Comment: To appear in SWAT 201