bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Liver X Receptor Regulates Arachidonic Acid Distribution and Eicosanoid Release in Human Macrophages
Authors: Ishibashi Minako , Varin Alexis , Filomenko Rodolphe , Lopez Tatiana , Athias Anne , Gambert Philippe , Blache Denis , Thomas Charles , Gautier Thomas , Lagrost Laurent , Masson David 
Published: April 2013

Objective—
Liver X receptors (LXRs) are oxysterol-activated nuclear receptors that are highly expressed in macrophages and regulate lipid homeostasis and inflammation. Among putative LXR target genes, lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase 3 (LPCAT3) involved in the Lands cycle controls the fatty acid composition at the sn-2 position of glycerophospholipids and, therefore, the availability of fatty acids, such as arachidonic acid (AA), used for eicosanoid synthesis. The aim of our study was to determine whether LXRs could regulate the Lands cycle in human macrophages, to assess the consequences in terms of lipid composition and inflammatory response, and to work out the relative contribution of LPCAT3 to the observed changes.

Approach and Results—

Transcriptomic analysis revealed that LPCAT3 was upregulated by LXR agonists in human macrophages. Accordingly, LXR stimulation significantly increased lysophospholipid acyltransferase activity catalyzed by LPCAT3. Lipidomic analysis demonstrated that LXR activation increased the AA content in the polar lipid fraction, specifically in phosphatidylcholines. The LXR-mediated effects on AA distribution were abolished by LPCAT3 silencing, and a redistribution of AA toward the neutral lipid fraction was observed in this context. Finally, we observed that preconditioning of human macrophages by LXR agonist treatment increased the release of arachidonate-derived eicosanoids, such as prostaglandin E
2
and thromboxane after lipopolysaccharide stimulation, with a significant attenuation by LPCAT3 silencing.

Conclusions—
Altogether, our data demonstrate that the LXR-mediated induction of LPCAT3 primes human macrophages for subsequent eicosanoid secretion by increasing the pool of AA, which can be mobilized from phospholipids.
Cross-Talk of Receptor Activator of Nuclear Factor-κB Ligand Signaling With Renin–Angiotensin System in Vascular Calcification
Authors: Osako Mariana Kiomy , Nakagami Hironori , Shimamura Munehisa , Koriyama Hiroshi , Nakagami Futoshi , Shimizu Hideo , Miyake Takashi , Yoshizumi Masao , Rakugi Hiromi , Morishita Ryuichi 
Published: April 2013

Objective—
Vascular calcification is accelerated by hypertension and also contributes to hypertension; however, it is an enigma why hypertension and vascular calcification are a vicious spiral. The present study elucidates the cross-talk between renin–angiotensin II system and receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL) system in vascular calcification.

Approach and Results—

Angiotensin (Ang) II (10
−7
mol/L) significantly increased calcium deposition as assessed by Alizarin Red staining, associated with a significant increase in the expression of RANKL, RANK, and bone-related genes, such as cbfa1 and msx2, in human aortic vascular smooth muscle cells. Infusion of Ang II (100 ng/kg per minute) in ovariectomized ApoE
−/−
mice under high-fat diet significantly increased the expression of RANKL system and calcification in vivo, whereas administration of Ang II receptor blocker (olmesartan, 3 mg/kg per day) decreased the calcification and bone markers’ expression. In addition, male OPG
−/−
mice showed a significant increase in vascular calcification followed by Ang II infusion as compared with wild type. Conversely, RANKL significantly increased Ang II type 1 receptor and angiotensin II–converting enzyme expression in vascular smooth muscle cells via extracellular signal–regulated protein kinase phosphorylation.

Conclusions—
The present study demonstrated that Ang II significantly induced vascular calcification in vitro and in vivo through RANKL activation. In addition, RANKL activated renin–angiotensin II system, especially angiotensin II–converting enzyme and Ang II type 1 receptor. Cross-talk between renin–angiotensin II system and RANKL system might work as a vicious cycle to promote vascular calcification in atherosclerosis. Further studies to inhibit renin–angiotensin II system and RANKL may provide new therapeutic options to prevent and regress vascular calcification.
Religion, Privacy and the Rise of the Modern State
Authors: Führding Steffen 
Published: April 2013

Abstract
This article discusses the role of the category Religion in the modern state formation. The liberal private/public religion/state rhetoric plays a central part in the “rise” of the modern state. The binary oppositions of this rhetoric are crucial to the creation of a very unique type of society, which serves as the basis for the formation of the modern state. With reference to Russell McCutcheon, this essay examines this process, drawing on examples from early modern political philosophy (e.g., Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau), before explicitly tackling the question of the role of religion by addressing two German (Fischer and Böckenförde) authors in particular.
Total Heating Characteristics of the ISCCP Tropical and Subtropical Cloud Regimes
Authors: Stachnik Justin P. , Schumacher Courtney , Ciesielski Paul E. 
Published: April 2013

AbstractComposite profiles of the apparent heat source Q1 and moisture sink Q2 are calculated for the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) cloud regimes (or “weather states”) using sounding observations from 10 field campaigns comprising both tropical and subtropical domains. Distinct heating profiles were determined for each ISCCP cloud regime, ranging from strong, upper-tropospheric heating for mesoscale convective systems (WS1) to integrated cooling for populations typically associated with marine stratus and stratocumulus clouds (WS5, WS6, and WS7). Despite being primarily associated with thin cirrus, the corresponding regime (WS4) has heating maxima in the lower and midtroposphere due to the presence of underlying clouds. Regime-averaged Q2 profiles showed similar transitions with strong drying observed for deep convection and low-level moistening for marine boundary layer clouds. The derived profiles were generally similar over land and ocean with the notable exception of the fair-weather cumulus regime (WS8). Additional midlevel moistening was identified for several weather states over land, suggesting enhanced detrainment and more frequent congestus clouds compared to oceanic domains.A control simulation using the Community Atmosphere Model, version 4 (CAM4), was similar to the large-scale patterns of diabatic heating at low levels produced by the ISCCP composites. Differences were more pronounced at middle and upper levels and are largely attributed to the uncertainty in the heating profiles for the cumulus regime (WS8). Low-level heating anomalies were calculated for each phase of the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) and they precede upper-tropospheric heating from deep convection by 3–4 phases. Implications for future research using ISCCP heating reconstructions are also discussed.
Limits to Flood Forecasting in the Colorado Front Range for Two Summer Convection Periods Using Radar Nowcasting and a Distributed Hydrologic Model
Authors: Moreno Hernan A. , Vivoni Enrique R. , Gochis David J. 
Published: April 2013

Abstract
Flood forecasting in mountain basins remains a challenge given the difficulty in accurately predicting rainfall and in representing hydrologic processes in complex terrain. This study identifies flood predictability patterns in mountain areas using quantitative precipitation forecasts for two summer events from radar nowcasting and a distributed hydrologic model. The authors focus on 11 mountain watersheds in the Colorado Front Range for two warm-season convective periods in 2004 and 2006. The effects of rainfall distribution, forecast lead time, and basin area on flood forecasting skill are quantified by means of regional verification of precipitation fields and analyses of the integrated and distributed basin responses. The authors postulate that rainfall and watershed characteristics are responsible for patterns that determine flood predictability at different catchment scales. Coupled simulations reveal that the largest decrease in precipitation forecast skill occurs between 15- and 45-min lead times that coincide with rapid development and movements of convective systems. Consistent with this, flood forecasting skill decreases with nowcasting lead time, but the functional relation depends on the interactions between watershed properties and rainfall characteristics. Across the majority of the basins, flood forecasting skill is reduced noticeably for nowcasting lead times greater than 30 min. The authors identified that intermediate basin areas [~(2–20) km2] exhibit the largest flood forecast errors with the largest differences across nowcasting ensemble members. The typical size of summer convective storms is found to coincide well with these maximum errors, while basin properties dictate the shape of the scale dependency of flood predictability for different lead times.
Connecting Antarctic Cross-Slope Exchange with Southern Ocean Overturning
Authors: Stewart Andrew L. , Thompson Andrew F. 
Published: April 2013

Abstract
Previous idealized investigations of Southern Ocean overturning have omitted its connection with the Antarctic continental shelves, leaving the influence of shelf processes on Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) export unconsidered. In particular, the contribution of mesoscale eddies to setting the stratification and overturning circulation in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is well established, yet their role in cross-shelf exchange of water masses remains unclear. This study proposes a residual-mean theory that elucidates the connection between Antarctic cross-shelf exchange and overturning in the ACC, and the contribution of mesoscale eddies to the export of AABW. The authors motivate and verify this theory using an eddy-resolving process model of a sector of the Southern Ocean. The strength and pattern of the simulated overturning circulation strongly resemble those of the real ocean and are closely captured by the residual-mean theory. Over the continental slope baroclinic instability is suppressed, and so transport by mesoscale eddies is reduced. This suppression of the eddy fluxes also gives rise to the steep “V”-shaped isopycnals that characterize the Antarctic Slope Front in AABW-forming regions of the continental shelf. Furthermore, to produce water on the continental shelf that is dense enough to sink to the deep ocean, the deep overturning cell must be at least comparable in strength to wind-driven mean overturning on the continental slope. This results in a strong sensitivity of the deep overturning strength to changes in the polar easterly winds.
Being Time: Zen, Modernity, the Contemporary
Authors: Redfield James Adam 
Published: April 2013

AbstractThis paper integrates concepts from philosophy and Zen Buddhism in order to define the implications of an American Zen Master’s sermon about the 2009 financial crisis. It interprets three aspects of his sermon: his critique of modernity, his reflection on the experience of Zen meditation (shikan-taza), and his version of Buddhist ontology (tathāgata-garbha). The paper shows that his sermon is an innovative problematization of what it is to be a modern subject or, still more generally, what it is to exist historically. Each of its three aspects indicates a different, perhaps even opposed, response to this problem. Yet they all suggest new configurations of temporality, historicity, and Being. The paper argues that it is precisely this mobile adjacency to the dominant modernist perspective which makes the Zen Master’s sermon both ethically and intellectually effective. Recruiting him into a Nietzschean lineage, it concludes with a programmatic statement of how work in the human sciences could develop his insights.
The Philosophy of History
Authors: Habib Irfan 
Published: April 2013

AbstractWritten in memory of the Indian historian Papiya Ghosh, this article tries to establish a dialogue between two different fields, Philosophy and History, and to see how the History of the past can be reassessed in the light of the modern developments of philosophy. The author analyses the raison d’être of History, which is to Humanity what the personal memory is to the individual. Facts are selected and interpreted as they mirror the historian’s biases and choices (that are never neutral), i.e. his/her personal philosophy, external pressures but also the evolution of the society. All meet a mainstream ideology that must be overcome or, at least, taken into account. Marxism and gender studies for instance re-examined whole parts of History and shed new light on wide aspects for-merly neglected by scholars. Inversely certain trends of Indian historiography such as subaltern studies provide a distorted vision of colonial society and tend to promote cultural nationalism while putting aside universal values that bring human beings together. The historical narrative changes and must change, however, not only according to newly discovered facts but also accord-ing to the evolution of ideas and human values.
A note on G-preinvex functions
Authors: Liu Xiaoling , Yuan Dehui , Xu Chuanqing 
Published: April 2013

Abstract
With the equivalent relationships between the G-generalized invexities and general invexities on the hand, we present two characterizations for G-preinvexity; we also discuss the relationships between different G-generalized invexities such as G-preinvexity, strict G-preinvexity and semistrict G-preinvexity. Note that our results are proved by applying the results from general invexities introduced in the literatures.
Conserved expression of natural antisense transcripts in mammals
Authors: Ling Maurice HT , Ban Yuguang , Wen Hongxiu , Wang San Ming , Ge Steven X 
Published: April 2013

Abstract

Background
Recent studies had found thousands of natural antisense transcripts originating from the same genomic loci of protein coding genes but from the opposite strand. It is unclear whether the majority of antisense transcripts are functional or merely transcriptional noise.

Results
Using the Affymetrix Exon array with a modified cDNA synthesis protocol that enables genome-wide detection of antisense transcription, we conducted large-scale expression analysis of antisense transcripts in nine corresponding tissues from human, mouse and rat. We detected thousands of antisense transcripts, some of which show tissue-specific expression that could be subjected to further study for their potential function in the corresponding tissues/organs. The expression patterns of many antisense transcripts are conserved across species, suggesting selective pressure on these transcripts. When compared to protein-coding genes, antisense transcripts show a lesser degree of expression conservation. We also found a positive correlation between the sense and antisense expression across tissues.

Conclusion
Our results suggest that natural antisense transcripts are subjected to selective pressure but to a lesser degree compared to sense transcripts in mammals.
DNA replication arrest leads to enhanced homologous recombination and cell death in meristems of rice OsRecQl4 mutants
Authors: Kwon Yong-Ik , Abe Kiyomi , Endo Masaki , Osakabe Keishi , Ohtsuki Namie , Nishizawa-Yokoi Ayako , Tagiri Akemi , Saika Hiroaki , Toki Seiichi 
Published: April 2013

Abstract

Background
Mammalian BLM helicase is involved in DNA replication, DNA repair and homologous recombination (HR). These DNA transactions are associated tightly with cell division and are important for maintaining genome stability. However, unlike in mammals, cell division in higher plants is restricted mainly to the meristem, thus genome maintenance at the meristem is critical. The counterpart of BLM in Arabidopsis (AtRecQ4A) has been identified and its role in HR and in the response to DNA damage has been confirmed. However, the function of AtRecQ4A in the meristem during replication stress has not yet been well elucidated.

Results
We isolated the BLM counterpart gene OsRecQl4 from rice and analyzed its function using a reverse genetics approach. Osrecql4 mutant plants showed hypersensitivity to DNA damaging agents and enhanced frequency of HR compared to wild-type (WT) plants. We further analyzed the effect of aphidicolin—an inhibitor of S-phase progression via its inhibitory effect on DNA polymerases—on genome stability in the root meristem in osrecql4 mutant plants and corresponding WT plants. The following effects were observed upon aphidicolin treatment: a) comet assay showed induction of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) in mutant plants, b) TUNEL assay showed enhanced DNA breaks at the root meristem in mutant plants, c) a recombination reporter showed enhanced HR frequency in mutant calli, d) propidium iodide (PI) staining of root tips revealed an increased incidence of cell death in the meristem of mutant plants.

Conclusions
These results demonstrate that the aphidicolin-sensitive phenotype of osrecql4 mutants was in part due to induced DSBs and cell death, and that OsRecQl4 plays an important role as a caretaker, maintaining genome stability during DNA replication stress in the rice meristem.
A note on ‘A best proximity point theorem for Geraghty-contractions’
Authors: Zhang Jingling , Su Yongfu , Cheng Qingqing 
Published: April 2013

Abstract
In Caballero et al. (Fixed Point Theory Appl. (2012). doi:10.1186/1687-1812-2012-231), the authors prove a best proximity point theorem for Geraghty nonself contraction. In this note, not only P-property has been weakened, but also an improved best proximity point theorem will be presented by a short and simple proof. An example which satisfies weak P-property but not P-property has been presented to demonstrate our results.

MSC:47H05, 47H09, 47H10.
The Absence of ER-β Results in Altered Gene Expression in Ovarian Granulosa Cells Isolated From In Vivo Preovulatory Follicles
Authors: Binder April K. , Rodriguez Karina F. , Hamilton Katherine J. , Stockton Patricia S. , Reed Casey E. , Korach Kenneth S. 
Published: April 2013

Abstract
Determining the spatial and temporal expression of genes involved in the ovulatory pathway is critical for the understanding of the role of each estrogen receptor in the modulation of folliculogenesis and ovulation. Estrogen receptor (ER)-β is highly expressed in ovarian granulosa cells, and mice lacking ER-β are subfertile due to inefficient ovulation. Previous work has focused on isolated granulosa cells or cultured follicles and, although informative, provides confounding results due to the heterogeneous cell types present including granulosa and theca cells and oocytes and exposure to in vitro conditions. Herein we isolated preovulatory granulosa cells from wild-type (WT) and ERβ-null mice using laser capture microdissection to examine the genomic transcriptional response downstream of pregnant mare serum gonadotropin (mimicking FSH) and pregnant mare serum gonadotropin/human chorionic gonadotropin (mimicking LH) stimulation. This allows for a direct comparison of in vivo granulosa cells at the same stage of development from both WT and ERβ-null ovaries. ERβ-null granulosa cells showed altered expression of genes known to be regulated by FSH (Akap12 and Runx2) as well as not previously reported (Arnt2 and Pou5f1) in WT granulosa cells. Our analysis also identified 304 genes not previously associated with ERβ in granulosa cells. LH-responsive genes including Abcb1b and Fam110c show reduced expression in ERβ-null granulosa cells; however, novel genes including Rassf2 and Megf10 were also identified as being downstream of LH signaling in granulosa cells. Collectively, our data suggest that granulosa cells from ERβ-null ovaries may not be appropriately differentiated and are unable to respond properly to gonadotropin stimulation.
A New Strategy for Selective Targeting of Progesterone Receptor With Passive Antagonists
Authors: Khan Junaid A. , Tikad Abdellatif , Fay Michel , Hamze Abdallah , Fagart Jérôme , Chabbert-Buffet Nathalie , Meduri Geri , Amazit Larbi , Brion Jean-Daniel , Alami Mouad , Lombès Marc , Loosfelt Hugues , Rafestin-Oblin Marie-Edith 
Published: April 2013

AbstractCurrently available progesterone (P4) receptor (PR) antagonists, such as mifepristone (RU486), lack specificity and display partial agonist properties, leading to potential drawbacks in their clinical use. Recent x-ray crystallographic studies have identified key contacts involved in the binding of agonists and antagonists with PR opening the way for a new rational strategy for inactivating PR. We report here the synthesis and characterization of a novel class of PR antagonists (APRn) designed from such studies. The lead molecule, the homosteroid APR19, displays in vivo endometrial anti-P4 activity. APR19 inhibits P4-induced PR recruitment and transactivation from synthetic and endogenous gene promoters. Importantly, it exhibits high PR selectivity with respect to other steroid hormone receptors and is devoid of any partial agonist activity on PR target gene transcription. Two-hybrid and immunostaining experiments reveal that APR19-bound PR is unable to interact with either steroid receptor coactivators 1 and 2 (SRC1 and SCR2) or nuclear receptor corepressor (NcoR) and silencing mediator of retinoid acid and thyroid hormone receptor (SMRT), in contrast to RU486-PR complexes. APR19 also inhibits agonist-induced phosphorylation of serine 294 regulating PR transcriptional activity and turnover kinetics. In silico docking studies based on the crystal structure of the PR ligand-binding domain show that, in contrast to P4, APR19 does not establish stabilizing hydrogen bonds with the ligand-binding cavity, resulting in an unstable ligand-receptor complex. Altogether, these properties highly distinguish APR19 from RU486 and likely its derivatives, suggesting that it belongs to a new class of pure antiprogestins that inactivate PR by a passive mechanism. These specific PR antagonists open new perspectives for long-term hormonal therapy.