Expression of the Selected Proteins of JAK/STAT Signaling Pathway in Diseases with Oral Mucosa Involvement

The JAK/STAT signal pathway is a system of intracellular proteins used by many cytokines and growth factors to express genes responsible for the process of cell activation, proliferation and differentiation. There has been numerous inflammatory and autoimmune diseases identified where the JAK/STAT signaling is disrupted; however, there are only a few papers concerning autoimmune bullous diseases published. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of proteins: JAK3, STAT2, STAT4 and STAT6 in epithelium lesions in patients with pemphigus vulgaris (PV), bullous pemphigoid (BP), oral lichen planus (LP) and chronic ulcerative stomatitis (CUS), as well as in the control group. Immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting were used to evaluate expression of selected proteins. We found significantly higher expression of selected JAK/STAT proteins in oral mucosa lesions in study groups in comparison to the control group, which indicates participation of JAK/STAT pathway in pathogenesis of these diseases. In BP and PV there were no increased STAT2 expression, whereas in CUS and LP no increased STAT4 expression occurred. The differences in expression of JAK/STAT proteins in selected disorders have been observed. These results create new potential therapeutic targets for the treatment.     

A necessary and sufficient criterion for the stability of a convexset of matrices

A Hurwitz stability criterion for the convex hull of two matrices, due to C.R. Johnson (1976), is generalized to the case of any compact convex set of matrices. It is shown that the same criterion is not available in the case of Schur stability     

Influence of hemispheric specialization in sensory processing on reaching in infants: Age and gender related effects.

Music or speech were presented separately to the right or left ears of 48 6- and 8-mo-old infants as they reached for an object. Examination of the latency to contact the object revealed a complex relationship between type of auditory input and locus of presentation as a function of age and gender. In younger males, presentation of speech to the left ear resulted in longer contact latencies than did presentation of music. Younger females showed no asymmetries. Older males took significantly longer to contact when music was presented to their right than to their left ear; older females exhibited a tendency toward the typical adult pattern of specialization in that there was a greater effect of speech at their right than at their left ear, and vice versa for music. Data are discussed in terms of possible sequences in the development of hemispheric specialization. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sensory dominance in infants: II. Ten-month-old infants' response to auditory-visual compounds.

A series of studies was conducted with 10-month-old infants in which their response to temporally modulated auditory-visual compounds was examined. The general procedure consisted of first habituating the infants to a compound stimulus (consisting of a flashing checkerboard and a pulsing sound) and then testing their response to it by presenting a series of trials where either one or two temporal attributes of the visual, the auditory, or of both components were changed. When the auditory and visual components were temporally identical, during the habituation phase, the infants only encoded the temporal attributes of the auditory component. When the two components were temporally distinct, or when they were identical but when multiple discriminative cues were available, the infants encoded the temporal aspects of both the auditory and the visual components. When the information context was made more complex, the infants' performance deteriorated, but when the salience of the visual component was increased the infants' performance improved. In sum, although the auditory modality can dominate the visual modality at 10 months of age, the visual modality can process temporal information when the temporal relationship of the information in the two modalities is distinct. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The surface roughness effects in computation of the turbulent boundary layer on slender ship-hull

An improved version of an integral method for computing turbulent boundary layers on a slender ship-hull with auxiliary shape parameter and lag-entrainment concept is suggested to account more effectively for the surface roughness contribution to the friction resistance coefficient. Comparisons with wind-tunnel model test results show some significant improvements. The improved version is then employed to test the consequences of zonal hull roughening along with streamline verifying and modifying an approximate technique of scaling model-to-ship roughness effects upon the hull friction coefficient.     

Dynamical approach to ballistic transport in graphene

The process of the coherent creation of particle–hole excitations by an electric field in graphene is quantitatively described beyond linear response. We calculate the evolution of the current density and the number of pairs in the ballistic regime using the tight binding model. While for small electric fields the I–V curve is linear characterized by the universal minimal resistivity σ=π/2(e²/h), for larger fields, after a certain time interval, the linear regime crosses over to a quadratic one and finally at larger times Bloch oscillations set in.     

The positive real lemma and construction of all realizations of generalized positive rational functions

We here extend the well known positive real lemma (also known as the Kalman-Yakubovich-Popov lemma) to a complex matrix-valued generalized positive rational function, when non-minimal realizations are considered. All state space realizations are partitioned into subsets, each is identified with a set of matrices satisfying the same Lyapunov inclusion. Thus, each subset forms a convex invertible cone, and is in fact is replica of all realizations of positive functions of the same dimensions. We then exploit this result to provide an easy construction procedure of all (not necessarily minimal) state space realizations of generalized positive functions. As a by-product, this approach enables us to characterize systems which can be brought, through a static output feedback, to be generalized positive.     

Anonymity interacting with participation on a Q&A site

This article presents a study that investigates how anonymity influences user participation in an online question-and-answer platform [Quora (https://www.quora.com/)]. The study is one step in identifying hypotheses that can be used to address a research and design issue concerning the role of anonymity in online participation, particularly in sensitive situations where people are seeking social support. Based on the literature, we present a model that describes the factors that influence participation. These factors were used when analyzing the answers to questions in the health category on Quora. The results of this study were completed by a survey asking Quora users about their use of the anonymity feature. The main result is that the only significant difference between anonymous and non-anonymous answers is that: with anonymous answers, social appreciation correlated with the answer’s length.     

Effect of pore size on bitumen hydrocracking over Al2O3-AlPO4 supported Ni-Mo catalysts

A study of co-precipitated aluminum oxide-aluminum phosphate (AAP) materials as supports of Ni-Mo heavy oil upgrading catalysts has been completed. Results of both short duration (8 h) and longer duration (up to 200 h) experiments at conditions relevant to the commercial H-Oil process are reported and compared with a commercial NiMo/Al₂O₃ catalyst. The initial activity of the Ni-Mo/AAP catalysts correlates with the catalyst average pore diameter which is determined by the P content of the AAP support. An optimum pore diameter of about 20 run exists for HDM whereas for HDS a pore diameter < 10 nm is desirable. After 100 h operation the HDM conversion of the best Ni-Mo/AAP catalyst was approximately 10 percentage points greater than for the commercial catalyst. The HDS and CCR conversions were comparable over the two catalysts. The difference in performance between the catalysts is attributed primarily to the smaller pore size of the Al₂O₃ support compared to the AAP support. The amount of coke deposited on the Ni-Mo/AAP catalyst was less than that on the commercial catalyst, presumably due to differences in pitch conversion levels.     

Phonemic awareness training: What to teach and how to teach it.

Categorizes the various phonemic awareness training tasks (i.e., tasks that require the ability to perceive a spoken word as composed of a sequence of individual sounds) according to their probable usefulness in the early stages of reading-readiness training. The tasks of blending and oral phonemic segmentation are singled out as most closely associated with reading and, therefore, most clearly deserving of inclusion in a reading-readiness program. The potential of the other phonemic awareness tasks for aiding mastery of blending and segmentation is evaluated with the help of experimental evidence about relative difficulty of tasks; where available evidence is insufficient, appropriate experiments are suggested. Current knowledge about how to teach segmentation and blending is surveyed, and areas needing further research are suggested. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)