Modulating mTOR Signaling as a Promising Therapeutic Strategy for Atherosclerosis

For more than a decade, atherosclerosis has been one of the leading causes of death in developed countries. The issue of treatment and prevention of the disease is especially acute. Despite the huge amount of basic and clinical research, a significant number of gaps remain in our understanding of the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, and only their closure will bring us closer to understanding the causes of the disease at the cellular and molecular levels and, accordingly, to the development of an effective treatment. One of the seemingly well-studied elements of atherogenesis is the mTOR signaling pathway. However, more and more new details are still being clarified. Therapeutic strategies associated with rapamycin have worked well in a number of different diseases, and there is every reason to believe that targeting components of the mTOR pathway may pay off in atherosclerosis as well.     

Positional‐Species Composition of Triacylglycerols from the Arils of Mature Euonymus Fruits

Positional‐species composition (PSC) of 1,2,3‐triacyl‐sn‐glycerols (TAG) from the arils of mature fruits of 13 species of Euonymus L. genus was established. The residues of six major fatty acids (FA), palmitic, stearic, hexadecenoic (H), octadecenoic (O), linoleic (L), and linolenic, were present in the TAG. PSC of TAG was determined by their partial lipase hydrolysis. By using hierarchical cluster and principal component analyses, it was definitely demonstrated that separate taxonomic units forming this genus were significantly distinguished as regards PSC of TAG. In particular, the Euonymus subgenus greatly exceeded the Kalonymus subgenus in both total content of L in TAG and in the rate of its incorporation into their mid‐position, while TAG of Kalonymus were marked by a prevalence of O‐TAG and sn‐2‐O isomers. Thus, these subgenera were significantly distinct in the rate of incorporation of O and L residues in the sn‐2 position of TAG molecules. Meanwhile, the TAG from the Euonymus section species were marked by an enhanced concentration of H and the incorporation of H in UUU TAG was much more active than in other TAG types. As for positional‐type composition of TAG, saturated FA were always virtually absent in the sn‐2 position of Euonymus aril TAG.     

The System HfO2-Y2O3-Er2O3

A mathematical model of the liquidus surface based on a reduced polynomial method was proposed for the system HfO₂-Y₂O₃-Er₂O₃. The results of calculations according to this model agree fairly well with the experimental data. Phase equilibria in the system HfO₂-Y₂O₃-Er₂O₃ were studied on melted (as-cast) and annealed samples using X-ray diffraction (at room and high temperatures) and micro-structural and petrographic analyses. The crystallization paths in the system HfO₂-Y₂O₃-Er₂O₃ were established. The system HfO₂-Y₂O₃-Er₂O₃ is characterized by the formation of extended solid solutions based on the fluorite-type (F) form of HfO₂ and cubic (C) and hexagonal (H) forms of Y₂O₃ and Er₂O₃. The boundary curves of these solid solutions have the minima at 2370°C (15. 5 mol% HfO₂, 49. 5 mol% Y₂O₃) and 2360°C (10. 5 mol% HfO₂, 45. 5 mol% Y₂O₃). No compounds were found to exist in the system investigated.     

Resonant coherent excitation of hydrogen-like ions planar channeled in a crystal; Transition into the first excited state

The presented program is designed to simulate the characteristics of resonant coherent excitation of hydrogen-like ions planar-channeled in a crystal. The program realizes the numerical algorithm to solve the Schrödinger equation for the ion-bound electron at a special resonance excitation condition. The calculated wave function of the bound electron defines probabilities for the ion to be in the either ground or first excited state, or to be ionized. Finally, in the outgoing beam the fractions of ions in the ground state, in the first excited state, and ionized by collisions with target electrons, are defined. The program code is written on C++ and is designed for multiprocessing systems (clusters). The output data are presented in the table.Program summaryProgram title: RCE_H-like_1Catalogue identifier: AEKX_v1_0Program summary URL: http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEKX_v1_0.htmlProgram obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen?s University, Belfast, N. IrelandLicensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.htmlNo. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 2813No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 34 667Distribution format: tar.gzProgramming language: C++ (g++, icc compilers)Computer: Multiprocessor systems (clusters)Operating system: Any OS based on LINUX; program was tested under Novell SLES 10Has the code been vectorized or parallelized?: Yes. Contains MPI directivesRAM: <1 MB per processorClassification: 2.1, 2.6, 7.10External routines: MPI library for GNU C++, Intel C++ compilersNature of problem: When relativistic hydrogen-like ion moves in the crystal in the planar channeling regime, in the ion rest frame the time-periodic electric field acts on the bound electron. If the frequency of this field matches the transition frequency between electronic energy levels, the resonant coherent excitation can take place. Therefore, ions in the different states may be observed in the outgoing beam behind the crystal. To get the probabilities for the ion to be in the ground state or in the first excited state, or to be ionized, the Schrödinger equation is solved for the electron of ion. The numerical solving of the Schrödinger equation is carried out taking into account the fine structure of electronic energy levels, the Stark effect due to the influence of the crystal electric field on electronic energy levels and the ionization of ion due to the collisions with crystal electrons.Solution method: The wave function of the electron of ion is the superposition of the wave functions of stationary states with time-dependent coefficients. These stationary wave functions and corresponding energies are defined from the stationary Schrödinger equation. The equation is reduced to the problem of the eigen values and vectors of Hermitian matrix. The corresponding matrix equation is considered as the linear equation system. Then the time-dependent coefficients of the electron wave function are defined from the Schrödinger equation, with a time-periodic crystal field. The time-periodic field is responsible for the transitions between the stationary states. The final time-dependent Schrödinger equation represents the matrix equation which has been solved by means of the QR-algorithm.Restrictions: As expected the program gives the correct results for relativistic hydrogen-like ions with the kinetic energies up to 1 GeV/u and at the crystal thicknesses of 1–100 μm. The restrictions are: first, the program might give inadequate results, when the ion kinetic energy is too large (>10 GeV/u); second, the unaccounted physical factors may be significant at specific conditions. For example, the spontaneous emission by exited highly charged ions, as well as both energy and angular spread of the incident beam, could lead to additional broadening of the resonance. The medium polarization by the electric field of ion can influence the electronic energy levels of the ion in the non-relativistic case. The role of these factors was discussed in the references. Also, the large crystal thickness may require large computational time.Running time: In general, the running time depends on the number of processors. In our tests we used the crystal thickness up to 100 μm and the number of 2.66 GHz processors was up to 100. The running time was about 1 hour in these conditions.     

Reflective light modulator based on epsilon-GaSe crystal

We report the results of investigating a low-voltage, polarization-insensitive, reflective-type modulator based on an epsilon-GaSe crystal and operated at the 1.960-eV line of a He-Ne laser. We demonstrate that the modulation in an Al-epsilon-GaSe-Cu device results mainly from the Franz-Keldysh effect. Relatively high speed and low operating voltage could make these modulators with Schottky-barrier contacts attractive devices in the red range of the spectrum.     

Inflatable Models

A physically-based model is presented for the simulation of a new type of deformable objects-inflatable objects, such as shaped balloons, which consist of pressurized air enclosed by an elastic surface. These objects have properties inherent in both 3D and 2D elastic bodies, as they demonstrate the behaviour of 3D shapes using 2D formulations. As there is no internal structure in them, their behaviour is substantially different from the behaviour of deformable solid objects. We use one of the few available models for deformable surfaces, and enhance it to include the forces of internal and external pressure. These pressure forces may also incorporate buoyancy forces, to allow objects filled with a low density gas to float in denser media. The obtained models demonstrate rich dynamic behaviour, such as bouncing, floating, deflation and inflation.     

Dynamic transitions from smooth to rough to twinning in dislocation motion

The motion of dislocations in response to stress dictates the mechanical behaviour of materials. However, it is not yet possible to directly observe dislocation motion experimentally at the atomic level. Here, we present the first observations of the long-hypothesized kink-pair mechanism in action using atomistic simulations of dislocation motion in iron. In a striking deviation from the classical picture, dislocation motion at high strain rates becomes rough, resulting in spontaneous self-pinning and production of large quantities of debris. Then, at still higher strain rates, the dislocation stops abruptly and emits a twin plate that immediately takes over as the dominant mode of plastic deformation. These observations challenge the applicability of the Peierls threshold concept to the three-dimensional motion of screw dislocations at high strain rates, and suggest a new interpretation of plastic strength and microstructure of shocked metals.