Regulation of metabolism by miR-378

The present invention provides a method of regulating fatty acid metabolism in a cell by contacting the cell with a modulator of miR-378 and/or miR-378* activity or expression. The present invention also provides a method of treating or preventing a metabolic disorder, such as obesity, diabetes, or metabolic syndrome, in a subject by administering to the subject an inhibitor of miR-378 and/or miR-378* expression or activity. Methods of treating or preventing pathologic cardiac hypertrophy, cardiac remodeling, myocardial infarction, or heart failure in a subject by inhibiting the expression or activity of miR-378 and/or miR-378* in a subject are also disclosed.Board of Regents, University of Texas Syste

Charm and beauty production at LHC

This note will be part of Chapter 6.5 of the ALICE Physics Performance Report (PPR), "ALICE Physics: Charm and Beauty", where the capabilities of ALICE for the detection of open heavy flavour particles will be described. We define here the present ALICE baseline for what concerns the heavy flavour production cross sections at LHC and the kinematical distributions of the heavy quark pairs. We start by qualitatively assessing the Bjorken x regimes accessible with charm and beauty measurements at LHC with ALICE (Section 1). In Section 2 we report the most recent results (and the uncertainties) of the next-to-leading order (NLO) pQCD calculations for the cross sections in pp collisions at LHC energies. These results are extrapolated to Pb-Pb collisions in Section 3.1 and to p-Pb collisions in Section 3.2, taking into account nuclear shadowing and parton intrinsic transverse momentum broadening.Heavy quark kinematics as given by the NLO pQCD calculation are reported in Section 4. We tuned the PYTHIA event generator in order to reproduce such results for what concerns the c and b quarks transverse momentum distributions (Section 5). Finally, we report the yields and transverse momentum distributions for D and B mesons (Section 6).Comment: ALICE Collaboration Note, 24 pages, 18 figure

Las tareas de cuidados : prácticas y significaciones diversas, de mujeres diversas

Desde hace décadas, el equipo de investigación conducido por la Mg. Burgardt, desarrolla los conceptos de trabajo y mujer, en sus múltiples aristas y articulaciones. Actualmente se trabaja para identificar, caracterizar y medir las tareas de cuidado y mantenimiento del hogar, cuidado de niños, ancianos, personas enfermas y dependientes que se realizan al interior de los hogares, quienes las desempeñan y cuánto tiempo insume su cumplimiento. Se toma como caso al Departamento de Maipú, donde se trabajó con entrevistas en profundidad realizadas a dos grupos de mujeres, en la búsqueda de un panorama extenso y profundo de las prácticas y significaciones que las tareas no remuneradas, y su articulación con las remuneradas, implican a estos diversos colectivos femeninos, desde el cruce de la clase social de pertenencia. A fin de analizar en profundidad los relatos obtenidos, se presentan los mismos agrupados de acuerdo a ciertas variables de base que caracterizan a las informantes y dan acertadas referencias para la correcta contextualización de sus perspectivas.Fil: Böhm Carrer, Fabiana . Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Institutos Multidisciplinario

An allometry-based approach for understanding forest structure, predicting tree-size distribution and assessing the degree of disturbance

Tree-size distribution is one of the most investigated subjects in plant population biology. The forestry literature reports that tree-size distribution trajectories vary across different stands and/or species, while the metabolic scaling theory suggests that the tree number scales universally as -2 power of diameter. Here, we propose a simple functional scaling model in which these two opposing results are reconciled. Basic principles related to crown shape, energy optimization and the finite size scaling approach were used to define a set of relationships based on a single parameter, which allows us to predict the slope of the tree-size distributions in a steady state condition. We tested the model predictions on four temperate mountain forests. Plots (4 ha each, fully mapped) were selected with different degrees of human disturbance (semi-natural stands vs. formerly managed). Results showed that the size distribution range successfully fitted by the model is related to the degree of forest disturbance: in semi-natural forests the range is wide, while in formerly managed forests, the agreement with the model is confined to a very restricted range. We argue that simple allometric relationships, at individual level, shape the structure of the whole forest community.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figure

Analisi delle caratteristiche aerodinamiche di un veicolo ad alte prestazioni in presenza di un radiatore con sfogo sul fondo

L’obiettivo della presente tesi è quello di analizzare, in un’autovettura ad elevate prestazioni, gli effetti aerodinamici prodotti da differenti geometrie di sbocco sul fondo dell’auto del condotto anteriore per il raffreddamento del radiatore dell’acqua del motore. Lo studio viene svolto numericamente, mediante l’utilizzo del codice di calcolo Fluent, sulla base della vettura Ferrari 612 Scaglietti. Alla configurazione di riferimento con vettura completamente “chiusa” e priva di condotti vengono affiancate diverse soluzioni possibili di sfogo sul fondo, di cui si analizzano le caratteristiche e si valuta la bontà

Retrospective Analysis of Wood Anatomical Traits Reveals a Recent Extension in Tree Cambial Activity in Two High-Elevation Conifers

The study of xylogenesis or wood formation is a powerful, yet labor intensive monitoring approach to investigate intra-annual tree growth responses to environmental factors. However, it seldom covers more than a few growing seasons, so is in contrast to the much longer lifespan of woody plants and the time scale of many environmental processes. Here we applied a novel retrospective approach to test the long-term (1926–2012) consistency in the timing of onset and ending of cambial activity, and in the maximum cambial cell division rate in two conifer species, European larch and Norway spruce at high-elevation in the Alps. We correlated daily temperature with time series of cell number and lumen area partitioned into intra-annual sectors. For both species, we found a good correspondence (1–10 days offset) between the periods when anatomical traits had significant correlations with temperature in recent decades (1969–2012) and available xylogenesis data (1996–2005), previously collected at the same site. Yet, results for the 1926–1968 period indicate a later onset and earlier ending of the cambial activity by 6–30 days. Conversely, the peak in the correlation between annual cell number and temperature, which should correspond to the peak in secondary growth rate, was quite stable over time, with just a minor advance of 4–5 days in the recent decades. Our analyses on time series of wood anatomical traits proved useful to infer on past long-term changes in xylogenetic phases. Combined with intensive continuous monitoring, our approach will improve the understanding of tree responses to climate variability in both the short- and long-term context

Quel gestion de carrière pour quels seniors ?

Ce document pose un des aspects de l'objet de la recherche.Document LEST. Séminaire de thèsePlus de 30 années de dispositifs divers pour favoriser le départ des plus anciens auront eu des conséquences importantes sur la façon dont les dirigeants d'entreprises considèrent leurs salariés les plus âgés. Les divers recours aux préretraites ont non seulement constitué une catégorie de jeunes retraités actifs, mais ils ont aussi contribué à créer une image du travailleur vieillissant bien spécifique. Ainsi, la référence à l'âge n'a plus de lien direct avec l'instant de départ à la retraite. Cette notion recouvre une période plus ou moins étendue concernant les prétendants au départ, et génère vis-à-vis de ces derniers, l'apparition d'une notion d'incompétence généralisée à la réalisation de nombreuses tâches. Quels mécanismes font que l'on aboutit à une gestion différenciée des individus passés un certain âge

Charm quenching in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC

D-meson suppression in Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC due to charm quark in-medium energy loss is estimated within a model that describes the available quenching measurements at RHIC. The result is compared to that previously published by the author. The expected sensitivity of the ALICE experiment for studying charm energy loss via fully-reconstructed D^0-meson decays is also presented.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. To appear in the proceedings of Hot Quarks 2004: Workshop for Young Scientists on the Physics of Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions, Taos Valley, New Mexico, 18-24 July 2004. Submitted to J. Phys.

Charm and beauty of the Large Hadron Collider

With the acceleration of lead nuclei in the LHC, heavy-ion physics will enter a new energy domain. One of the main novelties introduced by the 30-fold energy-jump from RHIC to the LHC is the abundant heavy-quark production. After discussing a few examples of physics issues that can be addressed using heavy quarks, we present a selection of results on the expected experimental capability of ALICE, the dedicated heavy-ion experiment at the LHC, in the open-heavy-flavour sector.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. Invited talk at Strangeness in Quark Matter (SQM) 2004, Cape Town, South Africa, 15-20 September 2004. Submitted to J. Phys.