Scissors modes in triaxial metal clusters

We study the scissors mode (orbital M1 excitations) in small Na clusters, triaxial metal clusters ${\rm Na}_{12}$ and ${\rm Na}_{16}$ and the close-to-spherical ${{\rm Na}_9}^+$, all described in DFT with detailed ionic background. The scissors modes built on spin-saturated ground and spin-polarized isomeric states are analyzed in virtue of both macroscopic collective and microscopic shell-model treatments. It is shown that the mutual destruction of Coulomb and the exchange-correlation parts of the residual interaction makes the collective shift small and the net effect can depend on details of the actual excited state. The crosstalk with dipole and spin-dipole modes is studied in detail. In particular, a strong crosstalk with spin-dipole negative-parity mode is found in the case of spin-polarized states. Triaxiality and ionic structure considerably complicate the scissors response, mainly at expense of stronger fragmentation of the strength. Nevertheless, even in these complicated cases the scissors mode is mainly determined by the global deformation. The detailed ionic structure destroys the spherical symmetry and can cause finite M1 response (transverse optical mode) even in clusters with zero global deformation. But its strength turns out to be much smaller than for the genuine scissors modes in deformed systems.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure

Arginine Metabolism in Bacterial Pathogenesis and Cancer Therapy

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Human papillomavirus status in southern Chinese women

1. The overall and type-specific human papillomavirus (HPV) prevalence differed between Hong Kong and Guangzhou healthy women. The prevalence of HPV was significantly higher in Guangzhou than Hong Kong women. Younger women had significantly higher risk of HPV infection. 2. HPV16 remained the most common type detected in both regions; the frequency increased with increasing disease severity. The prevalence of HPV58 and HPV52 was relatively high in women with normal cervix and precancerous lesions.published_or_final_versio

Switching of pyruvate kinase isoform L to M2 promotes metabolic reprogramming in hepatocarcinogenesis

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an aggressive tumor, with a high mortality rate due to late symptom presentation and frequent tumor recurrences and metastasis. It is also a rapidly growing tumor supported by different metabolic mechanisms; nevertheless, the biological and molecular mechanisms involved in the metabolic reprogramming in HCC are unclear. In this study, we found that pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) was frequently over-expressed in human HCCs and its over-expression was associated with aggressive clinicopathological features and poor prognosis of HCC patients. Furthermore, knockdown of PKM2 suppressed aerobic glycolysis and cell proliferation in HCC cell lines in vitro. Importantly, knockdown of PKM2 hampered HCC growth in both subcutaneous injection and orthotopic liver implantation models, and reduced lung metastasis in vivo. Of significance, PKM2 over-expression in human HCCs was associated with a down-regulation of a liver-specific microRNA, miR-122. We further showed that miR-122 interacted with the 3UTR of the PKM2 gene. Re-expression of miR-122 in HCC cell lines reduced PKM2 expression, decreased glucose uptake in vitro, and suppressed HCC tumor growth in vivo. Our clinical data and functional studies have revealed a novel biological mechanism involved in HCC metabolic reprogramming.published_or_final_versio

Twist Mode in Spherical Alkali Metal Clusters

A remarkable orbital quadrupole magnetic resonance, so-called twist mode, is predicted in alkali metal clusters where it is represented by $I^{\pi}=2^-$ low-energy excitations of valence electrons with strong M2 transitions to the ground state. We treat the twist by both macroscopic and microscopic ways. In the latter case, the shell structure of clusters is fully exploited, which is crucial for the considered size region ($8\le N_e\le 1314$). The energy-weighted sum rule is derived for the pseudo-Hamiltonian. In medium and heavy spherical clusters the twist dominates over its spin-dipole counterpart and becomes the most strong multipole magnetic mode.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. Lett., v.85, n.15, 200

Elizabethkingia anophelis bacteremia is associated with clinically significant infections and high mortality

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Susceptibility to tuberculosis is associated with variants in the ASAP1 gene encoding a regulator of dendritic cell migration

Human genetic factors predispose to tuberculosis (TB). We studied 7.6 million genetic variants in 5,530 people with pulmonary TB and in 5,607 healthy controls. In the combined analysis of these subjects and the follow-up cohort (15,087 TB patients and controls altogether), we found an association between TB and variants located in introns of the ASAP1 gene on chromosome 8q24 (P = 2.6 × 10−11 for rs4733781; P = 1.0 × 10−10 for rs10956514). Dendritic cells (DCs) showed high ASAP1 expression that was reduced after Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, and rs10956514 was associated with the level of reduction of ASAP1 expression. The ASAP1 protein is involved in actin and membrane remodeling and has been associated with podosomes. The ASAP1-depleted DCs showed impaired matrix degradation and migration. Therefore, genetically determined excessive reduction of ASAP1 expression in M. tuberculosis–infected DCs may lead to their impaired migration, suggesting a potential mechanism of predisposition to TB

Anesthesia of Epinephelus marginatus with essential oil of Aloysia polystachya: an approach on blood parameters

This study investigated the anesthetic potential of the essential oil (EO) of Aloysia polystachya in juveniles of dusky grouper (Epinephelus marginatus). Fish were exposed to different concentrations of EO of A. polystachya to evaluate time of induction and recovery from anesthesia. In the second experiment, fish were divided into four groups: control, ethanol and 50 or 300 mu L L-1 EO of A. polystachya, and each group was submitted to induction for 3.5 min and recovery for 5 or 10 min. The blood gases and glucose levels showed alterations as a function of the recovery times, but Na+ and K+ levels did not show any alteration. In conclusion, the EO from leaves of A. polystachya is an effective anesthetic for dusky grouper, because anesthesia was reached within the recommended time at EO concentrations of 300 and 400 mu L L-1. However, most evaluated blood parameters showed compensatory responses due to EO exposure.Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul/Programa de Apoio a Nucleos de Excelencia (FAPERGS/PRONEX) [10/0016-8]; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq) [470964/2009-0]; Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior, Brazil (CAPES)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Small but crucial : the novel small heat shock protein Hsp21 mediates stress adaptation and virulence in Candida albicans

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