Major Component Research Articles

Against the Odds: Explaining Mainstream Montenegrin Parties Domination of Bosniak and Albanian Minority Representation in Postcommunist Montenegro

Abstract The Bosniak and Albanian minorities in postcommunist Montenegro have supported and been represented by mainstream Montenegrin parties more than by their ethnic parties. This stands in striking contrast to the situation in neighboring Serbia and North Macedonia where the Bosniak and Albanian minorities vote almost exclusively for their ethnic parties. The Montenegrin case stands out as deviant also when one considers a number of extant explanations, all of which would predict a different outcome. Montenegrin Bosniaks and Albanians constitute two native, sizeable and geographically concentrated minority groups inhabiting a country with an institutional framework and several special electoral arrangements favoring minority parties. Drawing on original data on Bosniak and Albanian legislators elected across 12 parliamentary elections in Montenegro (1990–2023), municipality and country-level parliamentary election results and 12 semi-structured elite interviews, I argue that what explains the deviance in the Montenegrin case is the peculiar nature of Montenegrin identity, specifically the fact that it does not pit the majority against minority, but rather it pits the Montenegrin and Serbian components of the Orthodox majority against each other and in such a context the non-Orthodox minorities become critical political allies of the Montenegrin bloc against the Serbian one.

Posttraumatic stress symptoms and posttraumatic growth in Chinese adolescents after tornado: Cross-lagged panel network analysis.

Existing literature has yielded mixed results regarding the relationships between posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and posttraumatic growth (PTG). The recent network analysis provided opportunities to investigate the associations between PTSS and PTG on a more fine-grained level. Previous cross-sectional network analyses were unable to address the directionality of the temporal relationships between components of PTSS and PTG. Therefore, the current study aimed to model cross-lagged network of components of PTSS and PTG with longitudinal data to unveil the direction of their relationships. A sample of 202 adolescents (Mage = 14.36, 38% boys) who survived the Yancheng tornado were assessed with the Child PTSD Symptom Scale (CPSS) and Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) at 9, 12, and 18 months following the tornado. Two cross-lagged panel networks were examined to model the temporal associations between components of PTSS and PTG. The T1-T2 Network was much denser than the T2-T3 Network. The majority of cross-cluster edges were directed from PTSS to PTG. Interestingly, two major components of PTSS, Avoidance and Intrusion shared vastly different relationships with PTG. While Intrusion positively predicted components of PTG, Avoidance exhibited negative predictive value on PTG. The study highlighted the differential relationships that Intrusion and Avoidance shared with the PTG components, suggesting that interventions could benefit from mitigating avoidance and incorporating intrusion into positive change. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Longitudinal associations of cardiovascular health and vascular events with incident dementia

IntroductionEvidence supporting cardiovascular diseases could increase the risk of dementia remains fragmented. A comprehensive study to illuminate the distinctive associations across different dementia types is still lacking. This study is...

Pharmacological Potential of Bioactive Peptides for the Treatment of Diseases Associated with Alzheimer's and Brain Disorders.

Bioactive peptides are a promising class of therapeutics for the treatment of diseases associated with Alzheimer's and brain disorders. These peptides are derived from naturally occurring proteins and have been shown to possess a variety of beneficial properties. They may modulate neurotransmitter systems, reduce inflammation, and improve cognitive performance. In addition, bioactive peptides have the potential to target specific molecular pathways involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's and brain disorders. For example, peptides have been shown to interact with amyloid-beta, a major component of amyloid plaques found in Alzheimer's disease, and have been shown to reduce its accumulation in the brain. Furthermore, peptides have been found to modulate the activity of glutamate receptors, which are important for memory and learning, as well as to inhibit the activity of enzymes involved in the formation of toxic amyloid-beta aggregates. Finally, bioactive peptides have the potential to reduce oxidative stress and inflammation, two major components of many neurological disorders. These peptides could be used alone or in combination with traditional pharmacological treatments to improve the management of diseases associated with Alzheimer's and brain disorders.

RELand: Risk Estimation of Landmines via Interpretable Invariant Risk Minimization

Landmines remain a threat to war-affected communities for years after conflicts have ended, partly due to the laborious nature of demining tasks. Humanitarian demining operations begin by collecting relevant information from the sites to be cleared, which is then analyzed by human experts to determine the potential risk of remaining landmines. In this article, we propose RELand system to support these tasks, which consists of three major components. We (1) provide general feature engineering and label assigning guidelines to enhance datasets for landmine risk modeling, which are widely applicable to global demining routines, (2) formulate landmine presence as a classification problem and design a novel interpretable model based on sparse feature masking and invariant risk minimization, and run extensive evaluation under proper protocols that resemble real-world demining operations to show a significant improvement over the state-of-the-art, and (3) build an interactive web interface to suggest priority areas for demining organizations. We are currently collaborating with a humanitarian demining NGO in Colombia that is using our system as part of their field operations in two areas recently prioritized for demining. The resulting dataset and developed code can be found here .

Allicin Overcomes Doxorubicin Resistance of Breast Cancer Cells by Targeting the Nrf2 Pathway.

Breast cancer (BC) is a lethal disorder that threatens the life safety of the majority of females globally, with rising morbidity and mortality year by year. Doxorubicin is a cytotoxic anthracycline antibiotic that is widely used as one of the first-line chemotherapy agents for patients with BC. However, the efficacy of doxorubicin in the clinic is largely limited by its serious side effects and acquired drug resistance. Allicin (diallyl thiosulfinate), as the major component and key active compound present in freshly crushed garlic, has shown potential effects in suppressing chemotherapy resistance in various cancers. Our research aimed to explore the relationship between allicin and doxorubicin resistance in BC. To generate doxorubicin-resistant BC cell lines (MCF-7/DOX and MDA-MB-231/DOX), doxorubicin-sensitive parental cell lines MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 were continuously exposed to stepwise increased concentrations of doxorubicin over a period of 6 months. CCK-8, colony formation, flow cytometry, RT-qPCR, and western blotting assays were performed to investigate the effects of allicin and/or doxorubicin treatment on the viability, proliferation and apoptosis and the expression of Nrf2, HO-1, phosphate AKT and AKT in doxorubicin-resistant BC cells. Our results showed that combined treatment of allicin with doxorubicin exhibited better effects on inhibiting the proliferation and enhancing the apoptosis of doxorubicin-resistant BC cells than treatment with allicin or doxorubicin alone. Mechanistically, allicin suppressed the levels of Nrf2, HO-1, and phosphate AKT in doxorubicin-resistant BC cells. Collectively, allicin improves the doxorubicin sensitivity of BC cells by inactivating the Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway.

Experience from a single-center study on multimodal medication therapy for patients with complex regional pain syndrome.

Despite the application of various therapeutic methods, pain caused by complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is not sufficiently managed and often progresses to a chronic stage. For the systematic and effective treatment of CRPS, we developed an algorithm for multimodal medication therapy based on the established pathophysiology of CRPS to control CRPS-related pain. In this study, we present the outcomes of our novel algorithm for multimodal medication therapy for patients with CRPS, consisting of three major components: multimodal oral medication, intravenous ketamine, and intravenous lidocaine therapy. We retrospectively investigated patients with CRPS who received multimodal therapy. Pain severity scores were evaluated using a numerical rating scale at four time points (P1, pain at initial consultation; P2, pain after oral medication; P3, pain after ketamine treatment; and P4, pain after lidocaine treatment). The effect of the multimodal medication therapy algorithm on pain management was evaluated at each time point. In patients with CRPS, multimodal oral medication, intravenous ketamine, and intravenous lidocaine therapies led to significantly improved pain control (p< 0.05). Additionally, the combination of these three therapies (through the multimodal medication therapy algorithm) resulted in significant pain relief in patients with CRPS (p< 0.05). Our multimodal medication therapy algorithm effectively controlled pain in patients with CRPS. However, further prospective studies with large sample sizes and randomized controlled trials are needed for more accurate generalization.

In English

The aim of presented work was to synthesize geopolymers based on the metakaolin and to determine their adsorption capability in the process of cesium and strontium ions removal from the aqueous solutions. New approaches were proposed for obtaining the two samples of geopolymers in techologically suitable forms. Morphology of materials was investigated by means of X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF), low-temperature nitrogen adsorption/desorption and scanning electron microscopic studies (SEM). As it follow from the data of XRF analysis, SiO2 and Al2O3 oxides found to be the major components in all samples investigated (~ 54–84 wt. %). As was determined by SEM studies, geopolymers consisted from nanosized particles, amorphous geopolymers binder and unreacted kaolin. It has been found that all samples involve the mesopores with approx. 1–40 nm radii. The greatest specific surface area calculated by the Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET) method had the sample obtained in the forms of spherical rods (SBET = 88 m2/g) that about 10 times greater than for initial kaolin taken for synthesis. The ion exchange capacities of materials in the process of Cu2+, Cs+ and Sr2+ removal from water solution were determined and it was found that these properties depends on the method of materials obtaining. Data showed that the geopolymers were more effective for removal the desired ions than initial kaolin. The greatest adsorption capacity towards cesium ions was received on the samples obtained in forms of pyramids and was reached 1.75 mmol/g. Experimental data were fitted into the Langmuir models and the main Langmuir constants were calculated. When analysing the data of investigation with comparing the literature data it was noted that geopolymers obtained can be used in adsorption technology for purification of water from radionuclides as technologically suitable sorbents.

Climate policies for carbon neutrality should not rely on the uncertain increase of carbon stocks in existing forests

The international community, through treaties such as the Paris agreement, aims to limit climate change to well below 2 °C, which implies reaching carbon neutrality around the second half of the century. In the current calculations underpinning the various roadmaps toward carbon neutrality, a major component is a steady or even expanding terrestrial carbon sink, supported by an increase of global forest biomass. However, recent research has challenged this view. Here we developed a framework that assesses the potential global equilibrium of forest biomass under different climate change scenarios. Results show that under global warming carbon storage potential in forest aboveground biomass gradually shifts to higher latitudes and the intensity of the disturbance regimes increases significantly almost everywhere. CO2 fertilization stands out as the most uncertain process, with different methods of estimation leading to diverging results by almost 155 PgC of above ground biomass at equilibrium. Overall, assuming that the sum of human pressures (e.g. wood extraction) does not change over time, that total forest cover does not change significantly and that the trend in CO2 fertilisation as it is currently estimated from satellite proxy observations remains, results show that we have reached (or are very close to reaching) the peak of global forest carbon storage. In the short term, where increased disturbance regimes are assumed to act quicker than increased forest growth potential, global forests might instead act as a carbon source, that will require even more effort in decarbonization than previously estimated. Therefore, the potential of forests as a nature-based solution to mitigate climate change brings higher uncertainties and risks than previously thought.

Determination of α-Dicarbonyl compounds in traditional Chinese herbal medicines

α-DCs (α-dicarbonyls) have been proven to be closely related to aging and the onset and development of many chronic diseases. The wide presence of this kind of components in various foods and beverages has been unambiguously determined, but their occurrence in various phytomedicines remains in obscurity. In this study, we established and evaluated an HPLC-UV method and used it to measure the contents of four α-DCs including 3-deoxyglucosone (3-DG), glyoxal (GO), methylglyoxal (MGO), and diacetyl (DA) in 35 Chinese herbs after they have been derivatized with 4-nitro-1,2-phenylenediamine. The results uncover that 3-DG is the major component among the α-DCs, being detectable in all the selected herbs in concentrations ranging from 22.80 μg/g in the seeds of Alpinia katsumadai to 7032.75 μg/g in the fruit of Siraitia grosuenorii. The contents of the other three compounds are much lower than those of 3-DG, with GO being up to 22.65 μg/g, MGO being up to 55.50 μg/g, and DA to 18.75 μg/g, respectively. The data show as well the contents of the total four α-DCs in the herbs are generally in a comparable level to those in various foods, implying that herb medicines may have potential risks on human heath in view of the α-DCs.

The Glycyrrhiza glabra L. crude extract alleviates lipid accumulation in NAFLD by activating Nrf2 and promoting autophagy

Glycyrrhiza glabra L. is a common heritage herbal medicine rich in antioxidant compounds such as flavonoids and triterpenoids. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease has been the global prevalent chronic liver disorder. To investigate the curative role and mechanism of the Glycyrrhiza glabra L. crude extract on NAFLD, in vitro, we used oleic acid, palmitic acid, ML-385 and 3-MA to stimulate HepG2 cells. In vivo, we used Tyloxapol to inject mice intraperitoneally to establish an acute model, and high-fat diet to feed wild-type, Nrf2-/- and ATG5flox/flox mice to establish a chronic model. We used high performance liquid chromatography to analyse the content of major bioactive components in the Glycyrrhiza glabra L. crude extract. Our study found the Glycyrrhiza glabra L. crude extract could effectively alleviate lipid accumulation in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, activate Nrf2 and promote autophagy. However, this alleviating effect disappeared when the Nrf2 and autophagy were inhibited separately. Our study demonstrates that crude extraction of active ingredients from traditional herbal medicines may be a potentially inexpensive, rapid and safe approach to alleviate lipid accumulation in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Abstract 183: A novel bispecific antibody macrophage engager (BiME) designed for the treatment of solid tumors

Abstract Background: Anti-CD3-based bispecific T cell engagers (BiTE) showed limited clinical efficacy in solid tumors and caused significant cytokine storm. Similar to BiTE where T cells are activated by CD3 antibody, we constructed a novel bi-specific macrophage engager (BiME) platform where macrophage is activated by anti-SIRPa that is directed to a particular tumor via the targeting of the tumor-associated antigen (TAA), resulting in phagocytosis of the tumor cells. This BiME does not lead to cytokine storm and is particularly applicable for the treatment of solid tumors whose microenvironment contains plenty of macrophages. Tumor-associated macrophages are major component of immune cells in the tumor micro-environment (TME) that express an array of effector molecules leading to the inhibition of anti-tumor immune responses. Signal regulatory protein α (SIRPα) is a myeloid-lineage inhibitory receptor that restricts phagocytosis through engagement of its ligand CD47 expressed on tumors and normal tissues. Compared to anti-CD47 therapeutics, targeting myeloid-restricted SIRPα provides a differential pharmacokinetic, safety, and efficacy profile. Here, we report the construction of a SIRPα antagonist-based bispecific macrophage engager (BiME) platform, a potent tumor-killing bi-specific antibody platform. Methods: We have generated a panel of single domain antibody (sdAb), scFv or Fab antibodies targeting different TAAs and SIRPa. We constructed BiME antibodies using different orientations, ratios, and IgG isotypes of anti-TAA arm and anti-SIRPα arm. These bispecific antibodies were evaluated for homologue binding, and CD47-SIRPα blocking properties by ELISA and FACS. In vitro function activity was determined by phagocytosis assay using human monocyte derived macrophage and mouse bone marrow derived macrophage. In vivo anti-tumor efficacy was tested in a syngeneic tumor model with hSIRPα knock-in mice. The pharmacokinetic (PK) and safety profile were assessed in hSIRPα knock-in mice or cynomolgus monkeys. Results: Through Elpiscience proprietary BiME platform, we have generated a panel of TAA/SIRPα bispecific antibodies with TAA being Claudin18.2, EGFR, PDL1 and DLL-3. The BiME treatment demonstrated strong anti-tumor efficacy in multiple mouse syngeneic tumor models. Mechanistically, both myeloid and T cells were activated and contributed to antitumor activity of BiME bispecific antibody. the BiME bispecific antibodies were well tolerated in non-human primates (NHPs) and there is no hematotoxicity or cytokine release syndrome (CRS) observed after treatment of BiME antibodies. Conclusions: These findings provide novel mechanistic insights into how myeloid and T cells can be uniquely modulated by the bispecific macrophage engagers (BiMEs) and demonstrate the potential and advantage of BiME in future clinical development for solid tumor treatment as compared to BiTE approach. Citation Format: Dawei Sun, Haixia Jiang, Yanan Geng, Yue Wu, Rui Gao, Yefeng Lu, Quan Qiu, Yanfen Hu, Yingchao Liu, Xiaoli Guo, Xiaofeng Niu, Hongtao Lu. A novel bispecific antibody macrophage engager (BiME) designed for the treatment of solid tumors [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 183.

The Essential Oil Compositions of Ambrosia acanthicarpa Hook., Artemisia ludoviciana Nutt., and Gutierrezia sarothrae (Pursh) Britton & Rusby (Asteraceae) from the Owyhee Mountains of Idaho.

As part of our interest in the volatile phytoconstituents of aromatic plants of the Great Basin, we have obtained essential oils of Ambrosia acanthicarpa (three samples), Artemisia ludoviciana (12 samples), and Gutierrezia sarothrae (six samples) from the Owyhee Mountains of southwestern Idaho. Gas chromatographic analyses (GC-MS, GC-FID, and chiral GC-MS) were carried out on each essential oil sample. The essential oils of A. acanthicarpa were dominated by monoterpene hydrocarbons, including α-pinene (36.7-45.1%), myrcene (21.6-25.5%), and β-phellandrene (4.9-7.0%). Monoterpene hydrocarbons also dominated the essential oils of G. sarothrae, with β-pinene (0.5-18.4%), α-phellandrene (2.2-11.8%), limonene (1.4-25.4%), and (Z)-β-ocimene (18.8-39.4%) as major components. The essential oils of A. ludoviciana showed wide variation in composition, but the relatively abundant compounds were camphor (0.1-61.9%, average 14.1%), 1,8-cineole (0.1-50.8%, average 11.1%), (E)-nerolidol (0.0-41.0%, average 6.8%), and artemisia ketone (0.0-46.1%, average 5.1%). This is the first report on the essential oil composition of A. acanthicarpa and the first report on the enantiomeric distribution in an Ambrosia species. The essential oil compositions of A. ludoviciana and G. sarothrae showed wide variation in composition in this study and compared with previous studies, likely due to subspecies variation.

Policies, projections, and the social cost of carbon: Results from the DICE-2023 model

The present study examines the assumptions, modeling structure, and results of DICE-2023, the revised Dynamic Integrated Model of Climate and the Economy (DICE), updated to 2023. The revision contains major changes in the treatment of risk, the carbon and climate modules, the treatment of nonindustrial greenhouse gases, discount rates, as well as updates on all the major components. Noteworthy changes are a significant reduction in the target for the optimal (cost-beneficial) temperature path, a lower cost of reaching the 2 °C target, an analysis of the impact of the Paris Accord, and a major increase in the estimated social cost of carbon.

Investigating the Role of Amino Acids in Short Peptides for Hydroxyapatite Binding and Osteogenic Differentiation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells to Aid Bone Regeneration.

Bone defects show a slow rate of osteoconduction and imperfect reconstruction, and the current treatment strategies to treat bone defects suffer from limitations like immunogenicity, lack of cell adhesion, and the absence of osteogenic activity. In this context, bioactive supramolecular peptides and peptide gels offer unique opportunities to develop biomaterials that can play a dominant role in the biomineralization of bone tissues and promote bone formation. In this article, we have demonstrated the potential of six tetrapeptides for specific binding to hydroxyapatite (HAp), a major inorganic component of the bone, and their effect on the growth and osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). We adopted a simplistic approach of rationally designing amphiphilic peptides by incorporating amino acids, Ser, pSer, Pro, Hyp, Asp, and Glu, which are present in either collagenous or noncollagenous proteins and render properties like antioxidant, calcification, and mineralization. A total of six tetrapeptides, Trp-Trp-His-Ser (WWHS), Trp-Trp-His-pSer (WWHJ), Trp-Trp-His-Pro (WWHP), Trp-Trp-His-Hyp (WWHO), Trp-Trp-His-Asp (WWHD), and Trp-Trp-His-Glu (WWHE), were synthesized. Four peptides were found to self-assemble into nanofibrillar gels resembling the extracellular matrix (ECM), and the remaining two peptides (WWHJ, WWHP) self-assembled into nanorods. The peptides showed excellent cell adhesion, encapsulation, proliferation, and migration and induced the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), as evident from the enhanced mineralization, resulting from the upregulation of osteogenic markers, RUNX 2, COL I, OPN, and OCN, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) production, and calcium deposition. The peptides also induced the downregulation of inflammatory markers, TNF-α and iNOS, and the upregulation of the anti-inflammatory marker, IL-10, resulting in M2 macrophage polarization. RANKL and TRAP genes were downregulated in a coculture system of MC3T3-E1 and RAW 264.7 cells, implying that peptides promote osteogenesis and inhibit osteoclastogenesis. The peptide-based biomaterials developed in this work can enhance bone regeneration capacity and show strong potential as scaffolds for bone tissue engineering.

Geography, Climate, and Habitat Shape the Microbiome of the Endangered Rock Gnome Lichen (Cetradonia linearis)

Geography, Climate, and Habitat Shape the Microbiome of the Endangered Rock Gnome Lichen (Cetradonia linearis)

Mechanisms and durations of metamorphic garnet crystallization in the lower nappes of the Caledonian Kalak Nappe Complex, Arctic Norway

AbstractThe 3D microstructure and compositional zoning of garnet populations in micaschists from the Kolvik and Bekkarfjord nappes indicate the quasi‐equilibration of their major components across the rock matrices during interface‐controlled, size‐independent garnet growth. There is microstructural evidence for foliation‐parallel, small‐scale resorption of garnet rims in the Kolvik Nappe, influencing the metamorphic peak conditions obtained from thermodynamic modelling. The local chemical compositions of rims less affected by resorption indicate a peak temperature of ~630°C, which is ~40°C higher than the temperature obtained from resorbed rims of the largest garnet crystal. Using a diffusion geospeedometry approach that considers the geometry of the compositional zoning of the garnet population, as well as the higher, more realistic peak temperature, a duration of 1 to 4.9 Myr is obtained for garnet growth in the Kolvik Nappe. This is approximately 1 order of magnitude faster than duration estimates obtained when using the apparent, lower temperature estimated from the resorbed garnet rims. Concomitantly to garnet growth in the Kolvik Nappe, garnet overgrowths formed in the Bekkarfjord Nappe for circa 2.5 Myr at metamorphic peak temperatures of ~560°C. The garnet growth durations obtained here are comparable with the uncertainty on the Lu–Hf garnet–whole rock isochron ages of 419.9 ± 2.4 Ma and 423.0 ± 1.9 Ma, previously obtained for these rocks. These results provide new insight into the timescales of repeated Barrovian‐type metamorphic events experienced by the lower nappes of the Kalak Nappe Complex during the Caledonian Orogeny in Arctic Norway. This study emphasizes the importance of microstructural and chemical characterization of garnet populations in assessing metamorphic crystallization mechanisms and the extent of equilibration of garnet‐forming components during prograde metamorphism. Moreover, our results provide means for reducing the uncertainty on metamorphic durations obtained via diffusion geospeedometry and, so, contributing to our understanding of geological timescales and processes.

Transient and Dynamic Simulation of the Fluid Flow through Five-Way Electric Coolant Control Valve of a 100 kW Fuel Cell Vehicle by CFD with Moving Grid Technique

In order to maintain the performance of a fuel cell vehicle, it is essential to maintain a constant temperature of the stack. Therefore, it is very important to distribute the optimal coolant flow rate to each major component under very diverse and rapidly changing dynamic operating conditions. The part responsible for this is a five-way electric coolant valve. Therefore, this study aims to investigate transient dynamic flow characteristics of the fluid flow through a five-way electric coolant valve (PCCV: Penta-Control Coolant Valve). To achieve this goal, this paper attempts a three-dimensional dynamic simulation of the fluid flow through the valve using a commercial CFD solver with moving mesh technique to consider flow inertia and dynamic flow in the opening and closing stages of the ball valve rotating motion. The dynamic flow characteristics and the thermal mixing inside the PCCV ball valve during the opening and closing stages are analyzed. It was found that the discrepancies between dynamic and steady-state simulations are remarkable when fluxes with different levels of enthalpy and momentum flow into the PCCV, leading to strong flow interference and flow inertia, while the discrepancies are relatively small at low rotation speed and weak flow interference. Subsequently, the effect of the dynamic flow characteristics of the valve on the dynamic thermal mixing characteristics at two different ball valve rotation speeds and rotation directions are investigated. It was found that the dynamic flow and thermal mixing characteristics inside the PCCV are greatly affected by the rotation speed, rotation direction, and degree of flow interference between fluxes. It also helps design better coolant control strategies and improves the FCEV thermal management system.

Interferon inducible guanylate-binding protein 1 modulates the lipopolysaccharide-induced cytokines/chemokines and mitogen-activated protein kinases in macrophages.

Guanylate-binding proteins (GBPs) are a family of interferon (IFN)-inducible GTPases and play a pivotal role in the host immune response to microbial infections. These are upregulated in immune cells after recognizing the lipopolysaccharides (LPS), the major membrane component of Gram-negative bacteria. In the present study, the expression pattern of GBP1-7 was initially mapped in phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate-differentiated human monocytes THP-1 and mouse macrophages RAW 264.7 cell lines stimulated with LPS. A time-dependent significant expression of GBP1-7 was observed in these cells. Moreover, among the various GBPs, GBP1 has emerged as a central player in regulating innate immunity and inflammation. Therefore, to study the specific role of GBP1 in LPS-induced inflammation, knockdown of the Gbp1 gene was carried out in both cells using small interfering RNA interference. Altered levels of different cytokines (interleukin [IL]-4, IL-10, IL-12β, IFN-γ, tumor necrosis factor-α), inducible nitric oxide synthase, histocompatibility 2, class II antigen A, protein kinase R, and chemokines (chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 9[CXCL9],CXCL10, and CXCL11) in GBP1 knockdown cells were reported compared to control cells. Interestingly, the extracellular-signal-regulated kinase 1/2 mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases and signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) transcription factor levels were considerably induced in knockdown cells compared to the control cells. However, no change in the level of phosphorylated nuclear factor-kB, c-Jun, and p38 transcription factors was observed in GBP1 knockdown cells compared to the control cells. This study concludes that GBP1 may alter the expression of cytokines, chemokines, and effector molecules mediated by MAP kinases and STAT1 transcription factors.

An investigation of gill and blood carbonic anhydrase characteristics in three basal actinopterygian species: alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula), white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) and Senegal bichir (Polypterus senegalus).

Many teleosts possess a unique set of respiratory characteristics allowing enhanced oxygen unloading to the tissues during stress. This system comprises three major components: highly pH sensitive haemoglobins (large Bohr and Root effects), rapid red blood cell (RBC) intracellular pH (pHi) protection, and a heterogeneous distribution of membrane-bound plasma-accessible carbonic anhydrase (paCA; absence in the gills). The first two components have received considerable research effort; however, the evolutionary loss of branchial paCA has received little attention. In the current study, we investigated the availability of branchial membrane-bound CA, along with several other CA-related characteristics in species belonging to three basal actinopterygian groups: the Lepisosteiformes, Acipenseriformes and Polypteriformes to assess the earlier hypothesis that Root effect haemoglobins constrain branchial paCA availability. We present the first evidence suggesting branchial membrane-bound CA presence in a basal actinopterygian species: the Senegal bichir (Polypterus senegalus) and show that like the teleosts, white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) and alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula) do not possess branchial membrane-bound CA. We discuss the varying respiratory strategies for these species and propose that branchial paCA may have been lost much earlier than previously thought, likely in relation to the changes in haemoglobin buffer capacity associated with the increasing magnitude of the Bohr effect. The findings described here represent an important advancement in our understanding of the evolution of the unique system of enhanced oxygen unloading thought to be present in most teleosts, a group that encompasses half of all vertebrates.