12,917 research outputs found
Angiotensin II induces soluble fms-Like tyrosine kinase-1 release via calcineurin signaling pathway in pregnancy
No full textMaternal endothelial dysfunction in preeclampsia is associated with increased soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1), a circulating antagonist of vascular endothelial growth factor and placental growth factor. Angiotensin II (Ang II) is a potent vasoconstrictor that increases concomitant with sFlt-1 during pregnancy. Therefore, we speculated that Ang II may promote the expression of sFlt-1 in pregnancy. Here we report that infusion of Ang II significantly increases circulating levels of sFlt-1 in pregnant mice, thereby demonstrating that Ang II is a regulator of sFlt-1 secretion in vivo. Furthermore, Ang II stimulated sFlt-1 production in a dose- and time-dependent manner from human villous explants and cultured trophoblasts but not from endothelial cells, suggesting that trophoblasts are the primary source of sFlt-1 during pregnancy. As expected, Ang II-induced sFlt-1 secretion resulted in the inhibition of endothelial cell migration and in vitro tube formation. In vitro and in vivo studies with losartan, small interfering RNA specific for calcineurin and FK506 demonstrated that Ang II-mediated sFlt-1 release was via Ang II type 1 receptor activation and calcineurin signaling, respectively. These findings reveal a previously unrecognized regulatory role for Ang II on sFlt-1 expression in murine and human pregnancy and suggest that elevated sFlt-1 levels in preeclampsia may be caused by a dysregulation of the local renin/angiotensin system
In-situ monitoring of the thermal desorption of alkanethiols with Surface Plasmon Resonance Spectroscopy (SPRS)
No full textThermal desorption investigations on self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) had previously been carried out using techniques such as thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy (XPS). In this paper, the thermal dissociation of alkanethiols (C(n)H(2n+1)SH) at various chain lengths (n = 6, 12, 18) on sputtered gold layers was monitored in-situ using the Kretschmann surface plasmon resonance configuration on a spectroscopic ellipsometer. We found that the longest alkanethiol (C(18)) exhibits the greatest thermal stability, manifested by the least amount of angular shift, during heating, in the resonant spectral features. Predictions of desorption temperatures from SPAS for the longer chain thiols are in good agreement with XPS measurements
High-order volterra model predictive control and its application to a nonlinear polymerisation process
No full textModel Predictive Control (MPC) has recently found wide acceptance in the process industry, but the existing design and implementation methods are restricted to linear process models. A chemical process involves, however, severe nonlinearity which cannot be ignored in practice. This paper aims to solve this nonlinear control problem by extending MPC to nonlinear models. It develops an analytical framework for nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC), and also offers a third-order Volterra series based nonparametric nonlinear modelling technique for NMPC design which relieves practising engineers from the need for first deriving a physical-principles based model. An on-line realisation technique for implementing the NMPC is also developed. The NMPC is then applied to a Mitsubishi Chemicals polymerisation reaction process. The results show that this nonlinear MPC technique is feasible and very effective. It considerably outperforms linear and low-order Volterra model based methods. The advantages of the approach developed lie not only in control performance superior to existing NMPC methods, but also in relieving practising engineers from the need for deriving an analytical model and then converting it to a Volterra model through which the model can only be obtained up to the second order
VCC-LF dataset
No full textThis is readme for VCC-LF dataset.
This dataset provides light field mat files that capture by Lytro I.
The light field resolusion is [h,w,u,v,d].
If you use these data or our toolkit code, please cite our paper properly
@inproceedings{ lirsiggraphasia2019,
title={Hierarchical and View-invariant Light Field Segmentation by Maximizing Entropy Rate on 4D Ray Graphs},
author={Li, Rui and Heidrich, Wolfgang},
booktitle={ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proc. SIGGRAPH Asia)},
year={2019},
publisher={ACM}
Ang II induces Tlr4 expression in dose- and time-dependent manner that is blocked by ARB.
No full text<p>90% confluent T6 cells were treated with Ang II (0, 10<sup>−8</sup>, 10<sup>−7</sup>, 10<sup>−6</sup>, 10<sup>−5</sup> mol/L) for 24 h or Ang II 10<sup>−6</sup> mol/L for 0, 12, 24, 48 h after serum starvation for 24 h. In the ARB blocking experiment, 90% confluent T6 cells were pretreated with Irb (0, 10<sup>−8</sup>, 10<sup>−7</sup>, 10<sup>−6</sup>, 10<sup>−5</sup> mol/L) for 1 h after a 24 h serum starvation period. Then T6 cells were treated with Ang II (10<sup>−6</sup> mol/L) for another 24 h. Cells were then harvested and total protein was collected. Equal protein aliquots of cell lysate were examined by immunoblotting with antibodies against Tlr4 or β-actin. β-actin was used to verify equal gel loading and trans-blot efficiencies. A, C and E: Results of western blots. B, D and F: Bar-graph of the densities of western blots. * <i>p</i><0.05, Ang II significantly up-regulated Tlr4 as compared with the control group. ‡ <i>p</i><0.05, the peak appears. Δ <i>p</i><0.05, the Tlr4 expression levels are lower than that of Ang II 10<sup>−6</sup> mol/L group.</p
Ligusticum gongshanense sp nov (Umbelliferae) from western Yunnan, China
No full textLigusticum gongshanense Pu, R. Li & H. Li, a new species of Umbelliferae from western Yunnan, China, is described and illustrated. It is closely similar to L. franchetii H. de Boissieu, but differs by having unbranched and light yellow stem, white petals, and styles shorter than stylopodium
Increased expression of calreticulin is linked to ANG IV-mediated activation of lung endothelial NOS
No full textThis study demonstrates that ANG IV-induced activation of lung endothelial cell nitric oxide synthase (ecNOS) is mediated through mobilization of Ca2+concentration and by increased expression and release of the Ca2+binding protein calreticulin in pulmonary artery endothelial cells (PAEC). In Ca2+-free medium and in the presence of the ANG II AT1and AT2receptor antagonists losartan and PD-123319 (1 μM each), respectively, ANG IV (5, 50, and 500 nM) significantly increased intracellular Ca2+release in PAEC ( P < 0.05 for all concentrations). In contrast, ANG IV-mediated activation of ecNOS was abolished by the intracellular Ca2+chelator 1,2-bis(2-aminophenoxy)ethane- N, N, N′, N′-tetraacetic acid-AM. ANG IV stimulation resulted in significantly increased expression of calreticulin in cells as well as release of calreticulin into the medium of cells as early as 2 h after ANG IV stimulation ( P < 0.05). Catalytic activity of purified ecNOS in the absence of calmodulin was increased in a concentration-dependent fashion by calreticulin. Immunocoprecipitation studies revealed that ecNOS and calreticulin were coprecipitated in ANG IV-stimulated PAEC. These results demonstrate that ANG IV-mediated activation of ecNOS is regulated by intracellular Ca2+mobilization and by increased expression of calreticulin, which appears to involve interaction of ecNOS and calreticulin proteins in PAEC.</jats:p
Unfractionated heparin attenuated histone-induced pulmonary endothelial glycocalyx injury through Ang/Tie2 pathway
No full textAbstract Purpose This study aimed to investigate the involvement of angiopoietin (Ang)/Tie2 pathway in mediating pulmonary endothelial glycocalyx injury in histone-induced acute lung injury in mice, and the protective mechanism of unfractionated heparin (UFH). Methods Twenty-four male C57BL/6 mice (20–25 g), 8–12 weeks old, were randomly divided into control, histone, and histone + UFH groups. The histone (50 mg/kg) was administered via tail vein. UFH (400 U/kg) was administered 1 h after histone injection. The control group was administered by an equal amount of sterile saline solution. The lungs of all groups were harvested 4 h after the injection of histones or sterile saline. Results UFH attenuated histone-induced lung histopathological changes and edema. UFH alleviated pulmonary endothelial injury and glycocalyx shedding by reducing histone-induced low expression of thrombomodulin (TM) and decreased lung syndecan-1 levels. UFH improved histone-induced low mRNA expression of TM, syndecan-1, Ang-1, Tie2 and high expression of heparinase (HPA), Ang-2. Conclusion UFH may attenuate histone-induced lung injury and pulmonary endothelial glycocalyx degradation via the Ang/Tie2 pathway
Ang II and oxLDL affected Kv1.5 protein expression, intracellular ROS production, and endothelial cell injury.
No full text<p>HUVECs were incubated with AngII at different concentrations for different times. Ang II time (A)- or concentration (B)-dependently enhanced the Kv1.5 protein expression. Pretreatment with MT for 30 min inhibited Ang II (2 µM, 24 h)-induced increase in intracellular ROS levels in HUVECs in a concentration-dependent manner (C), as determined by DCF fluorescence. MT also significantly attenuated Ang II (2 µM, 24 h)-induced HUVEC injury. Incubation of HPAECs with oxLDL at the concentration of 37.5, 75 and 150 µg/ml significantly increased EC injury (D), intracellular ROS production (E) and Kv1.5 protein expression (F) in a concentration-dependent manner. The values were presented as ± SEM of 6 independent experiments for Ang II- or oxLDL-treatment, respectively. * <i>P</i><0.05, ** <i>P</i><0.01 vs. control; $ <i>P</i><0.05, # <i>P</i><0.01 vs. Ang II group.</p
A three-dimensional analytical study of spatial variability of seismic ground motions
No full text"A hybrid deterministic and stochastic method is developed to estimate the spatial variation of seismic ground motions which is necessary for the analysis and design of lifeline systems. An analytical model for wave propagating through a three-dimensional half-space is first proposed to evaluate the ground responses. The incoherent slip over a fault plane is then represented by an autocorrelation function of the dislocation velocity, from which the source motion is modeled as a random process specified by a power spectral density function. To separate the path effect from the source effect, a multi-degree-of-freedom system is chosen as the ""substitute system"" which is characterized by the equivalent transmission effect to the deterministic wave propagation model. The frequency transfer function of the substitute system is obtained through system identification. With the resulting transfer function of the system and the given power spectral density at the source, the power spectral density of absolute and differential ground motions can be estimated."The results obtained through the model are compared with the field data from an actual earthquake recorded at a dense strong motion array. The analytical results should be applicable for the seismic response analysis and design of pipeline systems.Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T13:37:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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