Background: Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are synthesized and secreted by immune and epithelial cells that are constantly exposed to environmental microbes. AMPs are essential for barrier defense and deficiencies lead to increased susceptibility to infection. In addition to their ability to disrupt the integrity of bacterial, viral and fungal membranes, AMPs...
The vitamin D receptor (VDR) mediates the pleiotropic biologic effects of 1alpha,25
dihydroxy-vitamin D3. Recent in vitro studies suggested that curcumin and poly-unsaturated fatty
acids (PUFAs) also bind to VDR with low affinity. As potential ligands for the VDR, we hypothesized
that curcumin and PUFAs would induce expression of known...
Using microRNA array analyses of in vitro HIV-1-infected CD4(+) cells, we find that several host microRNAs are significantly up- or downregulated around the time HIV-1 infection peaks in vitro. While microRNA-223 levels were significantly enriched in HIV-1-infected CD4(superscript+)CD8(superscript-) PBMCs, microRNA-29a/b, microRNA-155 and microRNA-21 levels were significantly reduced. Based on the...
The CCAAT/enhancer binding proteins (C/EBPs) are transcription factors involved in hematopoietic cell development and
induction of several inflammatory mediators. C/EBPε is expressed only in myeloid cells including monocytes/macrophages.
Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disorder of the vascular wall and circulating immune cells such as monocytes/macrophages. Mice deficient in the low density...
The myeloid-specific transcription factor, CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein epsilon (C/EBPε) is a critical mediator of myelopoiesis. Mutation of this gene is responsible for neutrophil-specific granule deficiency in humans, a condition that confers susceptibility to Staphylococcus aureus infection. We found that C/EBPε-deficient mice are severely affected by infection with S. aureus, and C/EBPε...
Intelligent air traffic flow management is one of the fundamental challenges facing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today. FAA estimates put weather, routing decisions and airport condition induced delays at 1,682,700 h in 2007 (FAA OPSNET Data, US Department of Transportation website, http://www.faa.gov/data_statistics/), resulting in a staggering economic loss of...
Providing intelligent algorithms to manage the ever-increasing flow of air traffic is critical to the efficiency and economic viability of air transportation systems. Yet, current automated solutions leave existing human controllers “out of the loop" rendering the potential solutions both technically dangerous (e.g., inability to react to suddenly developing conditions)...
We report here on recent developments and advances in pore-scale x-ray tomographic imaging of subsurface porous media. Our particular focus is on immiscible multi-phase fluid flow, i.e., the displacement of one immiscible fluid by another inside a porous material, which is of central importance to many natural and engineered processes....
Snags and hardwoods contribute to biological, structural, and functional diversity in old-growth forests. In the US Pacific Northwest, only general knowledge about regional patterns is available to determine target density of snags and hardwood trees. To investigate their variability at relevant scales for silviculture, we examined snag and hardwood densities...
Teams of artificially intelligent planetary rovers have tremendous potential for space exploration, allowing for reduced cost, increased flexibility, and increased reliability. However, having these multiple autonomous devices acting simultaneously leads to a problem of coordination: to achieve the best results, they should work together. This is not a simple task....