Adventitial Tertiary Lymphoid Organs as Potential Source of MicroRNA Biomarkers for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is an inflammatory disease associated with marked changes in the cellular composition of the aortic wall. This study aims to identify microRNA (miRNA) expression in aneurysmal inflammatory cells isolated by laser microdissection from human tissue samples. The distribution of inflammatory cells (neutrophils, B and T lymphocytes, mast cells) was evaluated in human AAA biopsies. We observed in half of the samples that adventitial tertiary lymphoid organs (ATLOs) with a thickness from 0.5 to 2 mm were located exclusively in the adventitia. Out of the 850 miRNA that were screened by microarray in isolated ATLOs (n = 2), 164 miRNAs were detected in ATLOs. The three miRNAs (miR-15a-3p, miR-30a-5p and miR-489-3p) with the highest expression levels were chosen and their expression quantified by RT-PCR in isolated ATLOs (n = 4), M1 (n = 2) and M2 macrophages (n = 2) and entire aneurysmal biopsies (n = 3). Except for the miR-30a-5p, a similar modulation was found in ATLOs and the two subtypes of macrophages. The modulated miRNAs were then evaluated in the plasma of AAA patients for their potential as AAA biomarkers. Our data emphasize the potential of miR-15a-3p and miR-30a-5p as biomarkers of AAA but also as triggers of ATLO evolution. Further investigations will be required to evaluate their targets in order to better understand AAA pathophysiology.     

Performance of PKI-based security mechanisms in mobile ad hoc networks

Security for ad hoc network environments has received a lot of attention as of today. Previous work has mainly been focussing on secure routing, fairness issues, and malicious node detection. However, the issue of introducing and conserving trust relationships has received considerably less attention. In this article, we present a scalable method for the use of public key certificates and their revocation in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). With the LKN-ad hoc security framework (LKN-ASF) a certificate management protocol has been introduced, bringing PKI technology to MANETs. In addition a performance analysis of two different revocation approaches for MANETs will be presented.     

Does {charm} need depth? Similarity and levels-of-processing effects in cued recall.

Eich (1985) recently presented a distributed memory model in which the pattern of results used to support the levels-of-processing view of Craik and Lockhart (1972) was modeled by different degrees of similarity between the encoding context and the to-be-recalled item. We report two experiments in which both phonemic and semantic similarity were varied between pairs of words and incidental acquisition (rhyme vs. category judgments) was varied across the same pairs of items. In both experiments the manipulation of the acquisition task produced a difference in cued-recall performance for positive and negative rhyme and category judgments. Recall was better following a category encoding decision than following a rhyme decision. This difference was independent of the effects of similarity, which demonstrated that Eich's (1985) assumptions regarding the effects of similarity are not sufficient to account for the differences resulting from the manner in which subjects encode information. An alternative method of modeling the levels-of-processing effect within the framework of distributed memory models is proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Context-gated knowledge partitioning in categorization.

According to the knowledge partitioning framework, people sometimes master complex tasks by creating multiple independent parcels of partial knowledge. Research has shown that knowledge parcels may contain mutually contradictory information, and that each parcel may be used without regard to knowledge that is demonstrably present in other parcels. This article reports 4 experiments that investigated knowledge partitioning in categorization. When component boundaries of a complex categorization were identified by a context cue, a significant proportion of participants learned partial and independent categorization strategies that were chosen on the basis of context. For those participants, a strategy used in one context was unaffected by knowledge demonstrably present in other contexts, suggesting that knowledge partitioning in categorization can be complete. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Polarization control in a vertical cavity surface emitting laser submitted to optical feedback

We study experimentally and theoretically two polarization effects in a vertical cavity surface emitting laser submitted to optical feedback. In a first experiment, we obtain flips between two linearly polarized laser modes up to a frequency of 50 MHz using an external cavity with a polarizer. In a second experiment, polarization self modulation is demonstrated up to a frequency of 2.6 GHz, using a quarter wave plate instead. Numerical calculations, based on a four levels model for the active medium, show a good agreement with the experiments.     

Transport properties of 1,1-difluoroethane (R152a)

Based on reliable. carefully selected data sets. equations for the thermal conductivity and the viscosity of the refrigerant R 112a are presented. They are valid at temperatures from 240 to 440 K, pressures up to 20 MPa. and densities up to 1050 kg · m^–3. including the critical region.     

Application Level Fault Tolerance in Heterogeneous Networks of Workstations

We have explored methods for checkpointing and restarting processes within the distributed object migration environment (Dome), a C++ library of data parallel objects that are automatically distributed over heterogeneous networks of workstations (NOWs). System level checkpointing methods, although transparent to the user, were rejected because they lack support for heterogeneity. We have implemented application level checkpointing which places the checkpoint and restart mechanisms within Dome's C++ objects. Application level checkpointing has been implemented with a library-based technique for the programmer and a more transparent preprocessor-based technique. Dome's implementation of checkpointing successfully checkpoints and restarts processes on different numbers of machines and different architectures. Results from executing Dome programs across a NOW with realistic failure rates have been experimentally determined and are compared with theoretical results. The overhead of checkpointing is found to be low, while providing substantial decreases in expected runtime on realistic systems.     

Ionization of counting gases and ionizable gaseous additives in proportional chambers by UV lasers

The ionization induced in argon-methane proportional counters by lasers emitting at 337 nm and 266 nm has been investigated. The ionization is due to impurities in the gas which can be removed by appropriate filters. Observations are consistent with a two-photon absorption mechanism. Two gaseous additives (trimethylamine and tetramethylphenylenediamine) are studied which are easily ionized at λ = 266 nm by a two-photon process. They can be used with concentrations at the ppm level to simulate minimum ionizing charged particle tracks. The ionization density is proportional to the concentration of the additive trimethylamine and to the square of the energy density of the laser beam.