Search results for "INFORMATICS"

Perspectives and Potential Applications of Mitochondria-Targeted Antioxidants in Cardiometabolic Diseases and Type 2 Diabetes

2013

There is abundant evidence to suggest that mitochondrial dysfunction is a main cause of insulin resistance and related cardiometabolic comorbidities. On the other hand, insulin resistance is one of the main characteristics of type 2 diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome. Lipid and glucose metabolism require mitochondria to generate energy, and when O2 consumption is low due to inefficient nutrient oxidation, there is an increase in reactive oxygen species, which can impair different types of molecules, including DNA, lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates, thereby inducing proinflammatory processes. Factors which contribute to mitochondrial dysfunction, such as mitochondrial biogenesis and…

Gene therapy and editing in the treatment of hereditary blood disorders: Medical and ethical aspects

2021

Gene therapy and gene editing are revolutionising the treatment of genetic diseases, most notably haematological disorders. This paper evaluates the use of both techniques in hereditary blood disorders. Many studies have been conducted in this field, especially with gene therapy, with very promising results in diseases such as haemophilia, certain haemoglobinopathies and Fanconi anaemia. The application of these techniques in clinical practice and the foreseeable development of these approaches in the coming years suggest that it might be useful to evaluate the results achieved thus far. It is also essential to reflect on the possible bioethical concerns raised by the use of both technique…

Dephosphorylation of Centrins by Protein Phosphatase 2C α and β.

2009

In the present study, we identified protein phosphatases dephosphorylating centrins previously phosphorylated by protein kinase CK2. The following phosphatases known to be present in the retina were tested: PP1, PP2A, PP2B, PP2C, PP5, and alkaline phosphatase. PP2C 𝛼 and 𝛽 were capable of dephosphorylating P-Thr138-centrin1 most efficiently. PP2C𝛿 was inactive and the other retinal phosphatases also had much less or no effect. Similar results were observed for centrins 2 and 4. Centrin3 was not a substrate for CK2. The results suggest PP2C 𝛼 and 𝛽 to play a significant role in regulating the phosphorylation status of centrins in vivo.

Contribution of Cholesterol and Oxysterols in the Physiopathology of Cataract: Implication for the Development of Pharmacological Treatments

2010

The development of cataract is associated with some lipid changes in human lens fibers, especially with increased accumulation and redistribution of cholesterol inside these cells. Some direct and indirect lines of evidence, also suggest an involvement of cholesterol oxide derivatives (also named oxysterols) in the development of cataract. Oxysterol formation can result either from nonenzymatic or enzymatic processes, and some oxysterols can induce a wide range of cytotoxic effects (overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS); phospholipidosis) which might contribute to the initiation and progression of cataract. Thus, the conception of molecules capable of regulating cholesterol homeos…

Transfer of optical orbital angular momentum to a bound electron

2016

Photons can carry angular momentum, not only due to their spin, but also due to their spatial structure. This extra twist has been used, for example, to drive circular motion of microscopic particles in optical tweezers as well as to create vortices in quantum gases. Here we excite an atomic transition with a vortex laser beam and demonstrate the transfer of optical orbital angular momentum to the valence electron of a single trapped ion. We observe strongly modified selection rules showing that an atom can absorb two quanta of angular momentum from a single photon: one from the spin and another from the spatial structure of the beam. Furthermore, we show that parasitic ac-Stark shifts from…

Parameters for automated star identification

2014

The determination of parameters for identifying stars sensed by charge-coupled device (CCD) is discussed. Numerical experiments are summarized which support the parameter space bound estimation practicality of the proposed star pattern recognition and identification by matching with coordinate list in star catalogue. The parameter analysis performed to apply them for proper identification algorithm which is developed and used at the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformatics. This algorithm is applied for identification of large volume star sets.

2016

The wealth of sensory data coming from different modalities has opened numerous opportunities for data analysis. The data are of increasing volume, complexity and dimensionality, thus calling for new methodological innovations towards multimodal data processing. However, multimodal architectures must rely on models able to adapt to changes in the data distribution. Differences in the density functions can be due to changes in acquisition conditions (pose, illumination), sensors characteristics (number of channels, resolution) or different views (e.g. street level vs. aerial views of a same building). We call these different acquisition modes domains, and refer to the adaptation problem as d…

Monolithic focused reference beam x-ray holography

2013

Fourier transform holography is a highly efficient and robust imaging method, suitable for single-shot imaging at coherent X-ray sources. In its common implementation, the image contrast is limited by the reference signal generated by a small pinhole aperture. Increased pinhole diameters improve the signal, whereas the resolution is diminished. Here we report a new concept to decouple the spatial resolution from the image contrast by employing a Fresnel zone plate to provide the reference beam. Superimposed on-axis images of distinct foci are separated with a novel algorithm. Our method is insensitive to mechanical drift or vibrations and allows for long integration times common at low-flux…

Coupling of a dipolar emitter into one-dimensional surface plasmon.

2013

Quantum plasmonics relies on a new paradigm for light-matter interaction. It benefits from strong confinement of surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) that ensures efficient coupling at a deep subwavelength scale, instead of working with a long lifetime cavity polariton that increases the duration of interaction. The large bandwidth and the strong confinement of one dimensional SPP enable controlled manipulation of a nearby quantum emitter. This paves the way to ultrafast nanooptical devices. However, the large SPP bandwidth originates from strong losses so that a clear understanding of the coupling process is needed. In this report, we investigate in details the coupling between a single emitte…

Crystal structure of meso-tetrakis(4-nitrophenyl)porphyrin nitrobenzene disolvate

2014

The porphyrin core of the title centrosymmetric compound, C44H26N8O8·2C6H5NO2, is approximately planar, the maximum deviation being 0.069 (3) Å. The planes of the benzene rings of the nitrophenyl substituents are almost perpendicular to the porphyrin mean plane, making dihedral angles of 73.89 (9) and 89.24 (9)°. The two pyrrole ring H atoms are equally disordered over the four pyrrole ring N atoms. In the crystal, weak C—H...O and C—H...N hydrogen bonds link the porphyrin molecules into a three-dimensional supramolecular network. The nitrobenzene solvent molecules are linked by weak C—H...O hydrogen bonds into supramolecular chains propagating along thea-axis direction.