In vivo blockade of Ca(+2)-dependent nitric oxide synthases impairs expressions of L-selectin and PECAM-1

Interactions of leukocytes with endothelium play a role for the immune system modulated by endogenous agents, such as glucocorticoids and nitric oxide (NO). Glucocorticoids inhibit leukocyte-endothelial interactions whereas the role of NO is still controversial. In this study, the activity of Ca(+2)-dependent nitric oxide synthases was in vivo blocked in male Wistar rats by given L-NAME, 20 mg kg(-1) for 14 days dissolved in drinking water and expression of adhesion molecules involved in leukocyte-endothelial interactions was investigated. Expressions of L-selectin and PECAM-I in peripheral leukocytes and PECAM-1 in endothelial cells were reduced by L-NAME treatment. Only L-selectin expression was controlled at transcriptional levels. These effects were not dependent on endogenous glucocorticoids, as corticosterone levels were not altered in NAME-treated rats. Our results show that NO, produced at physiological levels, controls expression of constitutive adhesion molecules expressions in cell membranes by different mechanisms of action. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Effects of lipid-lowering drugs on reverse cholesterol transport gene expressions in peripheral blood mononuclear and HepG2 cells

Aims: The ATP-binding cassette transporters, ABCA1 and ABCG1, are LXR-target genes that play an important role in reverse cholesterol transport. We examined the effects of inhibitors of the cholesterol absorption (ezetimibe) and synthesis (statins) on expression of these transporters in HepG2 cells and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of individuals with primary (and nonfamilial) hypercholesterolemia (HC). Materials & methods: A total of 48 HC individuals were treated with atorvastatin (10 mg/day/4 weeks) and 23 were treated with ezetimibe (10 mg/day/4 weeks), followed by simvastatin (10 mg/day/8 weeks) and simvastatin plus ezetimibe (10 mg of each/day/4 weeks). Gene expression was examined in statin- or ezetimibe-treated and control HepG2 cells as well as PBMCs using real-time PCR. Results: In PBMCs, statins and ezetimibe downregulated ABCA1 and ABCG1 mRNA expression but did not modulate NR1H2 (LxR-beta) and NR1H3 (LXR-alpha) levels. Positive correlations of ABCA1 with ABCG1 and of NR1H2 with NR1H3 expressions were found in all phases of the treatments. In HepG2 cells, ABCA1 mRNA levels remained unaltered while ABCG1 expression was increased by statin (1.0-10.0 mu M) or ezetimibe (5.0 mu M) treatments. Atorvastatin upregulated NR1H2 and NR1H3 only at 10.0 mu M, meanwhile ezetimibe (1.0-5.0 mu M) downregulated NR1H2 but did not change NR1H3 expression. Conclusion: Our findings reveal that lipid-lowering drugs downregulate ABCA1 and ABCG1 mRNA expression in PBMCs of HC individuals and exhibit differential effects on HepG2 cells. Moreover, they indicate that the ABCA1 and ABCG1 transcript levels were not correlated directly to LXR mRNA expression in both cell models treated with lipid-lowering drugs.

Alignment-based extraction of multiword expressions

Due to idiosyncrasies in their syntax, semantics or frequency, Multiword Expressions (MWEs) have received special attention from the NLP community, as the methods and techniques developed for the treatment of simplex words are not necessarily suitable for them. This is certainly the case for the automatic acquisition of MWEs from corpora. A lot of effort has been directed to the task of automatically identifying them, with considerable success. In this paper, we propose an approach for the identification of MWEs in a multilingual context, as a by-product of a word alignment process, that not only deals with the identification of possible MWE candidates, but also associates some multiword expressions with semantics. The results obtained indicate the feasibility and low costs in terms of tools and resources demanded by this approach, which could, for example, facilitate and speed up lexicographic work.

The analytic torsion of a cone over an odd dimensional manifold

We study the analytic torsion of a cone over an orientable odd dimensional compact connected Riemannian manifold W. We prove that the logarithm of the analytic torsion of the cone decomposes as the sum of the logarithm of the root of the analytic torsion of the boundary of the cone, plus a topological term, plus a further term that is a rational linear combination of local Riemannian invariants of the boundary. We show that this last term coincides with the anomaly boundary term appearing in the Cheeger Muller theorem [3, 2] for a manifold with boundary, according to Bruning and Ma (2006) [5]. We also prove Poincare duality for the analytic torsion of a cone. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The analytic torsion of a cone over a sphere

We compute the analytic torsion of a cone over a sphere of dimensions 1, 2, and 3, and we conjecture a general formula for the cone over an odd dimensional sphere. (C) 2009 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

REIDEMEISTER TORSION AND ANALYTIC TORSION OF SPHERES

We provide a simple topological derivation of a formula for the Reidemeister and the analytic torsion of spheres.

Global analytic regularity for structures of co-rank one

We consider real analytic involutive structures V, of co-rank one, defined on a real analytic paracompact orientable manifold M. To each such structure we associate certain connected subsets of M which we call the level sets of V. We prove that analytic regularity propagates along them. With a further assumption on the level sets of V we characterize the global analytic hypoellipticity of a differential operator naturally associated to V. As an application we study a case of tube structures.

Analytic Methods for the Logic of Proofs

The logic of proofs (lp) was proposed as Gdels missed link between Intuitionistic and S4-proofs, but so far the tableau-based methods proposed for lp have not explored this closeness with S4 and contain rules whose analycity is not immediately evident. We study possible formulations of analytic tableau proof methods for lp that preserve the subformula property. Two sound and complete tableau decision methods of increasing degree of analycity are proposed, KELP and preKELP. The latter is particularly inspired on S4-proofs. The crucial role of proof constants in the structure of lp-proofs methods is analysed. In particular, a method for the abduction of proof constant specifications in strongly analytic preKELP proofs is presented; abduction heuristics and the complexity of the method are discussed.

Hyperfunctions and (analytic) hypoellipticity

In this work we discuss the problem of smooth and analytic regularity for hyperfunction solutions to linear partial differential equations with analytic coefficients. In particular we show that some well known ""sum of squares"" operators, which satisfy Hormander`s condition and consequently are hypoelliptic, admit hyperfunction solutions that are not smooth (in particular they are not distributions).