Interferon Lambda Regulates Cellular and Humoral Immunity in Pristane-Induced Lupus

A pivotal role of type I interferons in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is widely accepted. Type III interferons (IFN-λ) however, the most recently discovered cytokines grouped within the interferon family, have not been extensively studied in lupus disease models yet. Growing evidence suggests a role for IFN-λ in regulating both innate and adaptive immune responses, and increased serum concentrations have been described in multiple autoimmune diseases including SLE. Using the pristane-induced lupus model, we found that mice with defective IFN-λ receptors (Ifnlr1^−/−) showed increased survival rates, decreased lipogranuloma formation and reduced anti-dsDNA autoantibody titers in the early phase of autoimmunity development compared to pristane-treated wild-type mice. Moreover, Ifnlr1^−/− mice treated with pristane had reduced numbers of inflammatory mononuclear phagocytes and cNK cells in their kidneys, resembling untreated control mice. Systemically, circulating B cells and monocytes (CD115⁺Ly6C⁺) were reduced in pristane-treated Ifnlr1^−/− mice. The present study supports a significant role for type III interferons in the pathogenesis of pristane-induced murine autoimmunity as well as in systemic and renal inflammation. Although the absence of type III interferon receptors does not completely prevent the development of autoantibodies, type III interferon signaling accelerates the development of autoimmunity and promotes a pro-inflammatory environment in autoimmune-prone hosts.     

State-of-the-Art in the Measurement of Volatile Organic Compounds Emitted from Building Products: Results of European Interlaboratory Comparison

Abstract Eighteen laboratories from 10 European countries participated in a comparison organized as part of the VOCEM project, a 2.5-year research collaboration among 4 research institutes and 4 industrial companies. The scope of the project was to improve the procedure used to measure volatile organic compounds (VOC) emitted from building materials and products in small test chambers. The interlaboratory comparison included the GC-MS determination of 5 target compounds from carpet, 8 from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) cushion vinyl and 2 from paint; for the first time, chamber recovery (sinks), homogeneity of solid materials and possible contamination during transport were tested. The results show that the intralaboratory variance (random errors) is much smaller than the interlaboratory variance (systematic errors). Causes of the largest interlaboratory discrepancies were: (i) analytical errors; (ii) losses of the heaviest compounds due to sorption on the chamber walls; and (iii) non homogeneity of the materials. The output of this work concerns both the objective of labelling materials with regard to their VOC emissions and the pre-standard drafted by the European Commitee for Standardization (CEN) for this type of determination.     

The promoting effect of Fe on Ni/GDC for the Solid Oxide H2O electrolysis

The study deals with the modification of commercial Ni/GDC powder with iron and its use as fuel functional electrode for Solid Oxide H₂O electrolysis. The Fe-NiO/GDC samples were prepared with the Deposition-Precipitation method and characterized, in their oxidized and reduced form, by using BET, HR-TEM, SAED, XRD, XPS and TG analysis in the presence of H₂O. The electrochemical investigation deals with the comparison of single SOECs at 900°C, under various pH₂O/pH₂ ratios. In the oxidized powders iron was detected, both in the bulk and on the surface, in the form of crystallized Fe₂O₃ species, which during H₂-reduction interacted with NiO towards the formation of a Ni-Fe alloy. The latter promoted the electrochemical performance of the Fe-Ni/GDC electrodes, where there are indications of strong dependence on the Fe wt% content. Specifically, the performance of the cell with 0.5 wt% Fe-Ni/GDC was threefold higher than that with Ni/GDC. On the other hand, the cell with 2 wt% Fe-Ni/GDC was worse, implying that the promoting effect of Fe lies on quite low wt% content. Finally, the examined Fe-doped electrodes exhibited increase of polarization in high pH₂O. This is primarily ascribed to the fact that Fe-Ni/GDC electrodes seem more susceptible to H₂O oxidation. Overall, Fe is considered as a promising Ni/GDC dopant, capable to substitute noble metals like Au, but further investigation is required for the elucidation of key preparation and performance parameters.     

Occupancy‐based decision support system for building management: From automation to end‐user persuasion

In this paper, an intelligent occupancy‐based, automated building control system is initially introduced, which has the capability of reducing energy consumption while respecting the occupants' comfort and actions inside building areas. Data stemming from a multisensorial network is combined with implicitly extracted information, since no direct feedback is expected by the users, towards unsupervised monitoring and control of building operation. However, due to significantly higher costs of actuating equipment and the reluctance that some end users show in accepting fully automated solutions, a new hybrid approach is conceptualized and presented; the automated decision support system is supplemented with a persuasion mechanism aimed at increasing energy savings, through raising user awareness. The persuasive methodology employs a continuous feedback mechanism in order to select the optimal incentive strategy by taking into account user success rates, in terms of requested actions, as well as available mechanisms, and daily harassment.     

The assessment of the hematopoietic reservoir after immunosuppressive therapy or bone marrow transplantation in severe aplastic anemia

We investigated the hematopoietic reservoir in 43 severe aplastic anemia (SAA) patients following immunosuppression (IS) (n = 15) or bone marrow transplantation (BMT) (n = 28), at a median interval of 5 years (range, 2-20) from treatment. All patients had normal blood counts, good marrow cellularity, and normal numbers of colony forming unit-granulocyte macrophages (CFU-GM). Burst forming unit-erythroid (BFU-E) and colony forming unit-granulocyte erythroid megakaryocyte macrophages (CFU-GEMM) numbers were reduced when compared with normal controls. However, the most pronounced defect was observed at the level of long-term culture-initiating cells (LTC-IC), which significantly differed from controls (P < .00001) both for IS and BMT patients. Their number did not improve with time and was not affected by transplant or treatment-related variables. When IS patients were compared with BMT we found comparable numbers of CFU-GEMM (P = .8) and LTC-IC (P = .9), but lower numbers of BFU-E and CFU-GM (P = .05 and P = .004, respectively), suggestive of a persistent suppressive mechanism. These data indicate that LTC-IC numbers are severely reduced in BMT and IS patients, contradicting the common belief that the former are fully reconstituted as compared with the latter. In addition, the number of mature cells and committed progenitors does not seem to reflect the real size of the hematopoietic reservoir and few stem cells may be sufficient to guarantee normal hematopoiesis long term.     

Relations between feeding and sleep patterns in the rat.

A concomitant analysis of sleep and feeding patterns in 11 male Wistar rats was carried out over 8 days, using continuous EEG recording. The proportion of slow-wave sleep and paradoxical sleep within an intermeal interval was constant and varied only in relation to the time of the day. During the dark period only, there were significant correlations between meal size and amount of time spent in both stages of sleep in the following intermeal interval. These correlations were even stronger between meal size and sleep duration in the intermeal interval that followed the next meal. Circadian variations in satiety ratios (i.e., units of subsequent intermeal interval and sleep per units of food ingested) and in deprivation ratios (i.e., units of feeding per units of prior intermeal interval and sleep) suggest that division of 24-hr data into 3 8-hr periods rather than 2 12-hr periods reveals distinct correlations between meal size and pre- and postmeal sleep and might reflect more accurately the underlying metabolic events. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recovery of copper(II) from aqueous solutions by means of supported liquid membranes

Relatively stable liquid membranes were easily and reproducibly prepared by impregnating commercial porous polytetrafluoroethylene or polypropylene membranes with solutions of commercial chelating extractants. When such membranes were placed between aqueous solutions of copper(II) sulfate at pH 1–4 and of sulfuric acid at pH 0.5, transfer of copper(II) ion from the less acidic to the more acidic solution took place simultaneously with an equivalent proton transfer in the opposite direction. The copper(II) ion moved selectively with respect to iron(III) ion and against a twenty-fold concentration gradient. The mechanistic and practical implications of these results are discussed.     

Combined electromechanical dynamic fracture behavior of lead zirconate titanate (PZT)

Coupon specimens of poled and depoled lead zirconate titanate (PZT) are examined under combined stress wave and electric loading conditions. Mode-I crack initiation and fracture behavior is examined using ultrahigh-speed imaging and two-dimensional digital image correlation. The dynamic critical stress intensity factor () is extracted using measured displacement fields ahead of the impulsively loaded crack tip, and compared between poled and depoled plates that were either under no electric field, positive 0.46 kV/mm electric field, or negative 0.46 kV/mm electric field. Poled specimens had a poling direction and applied electric field direction normal to the crack front. The addition of an electric field resulted in a crack-enhancing effect, where the dynamic fracture toughness of poled specimens under 0.46 kV/mm was almost half that of samples with no electric field. Depoled samples experienced almost no change in dynamic fracture toughness with the addition of an electric field.