Rad-mediated inhibition of Ca1.2 channel activity contributes to uterine artery haemodynamic adaptation to pregnancy.

The striking increase of uterine blood flow during pregnancy is essential for normal fetal development as well as for cardiovascular well-being of the mother. Yet, the underlying mechanisms of pregnancy-mediated vasodilatation of the uterine artery are not fully understood. In this study, we test the hypothesis that Rad, a monomeric G protein, is a novel regulatory mechanism in inhibiting Ca1.

Thermodynamics of multicolored loop models in three dimensions.

We study order-disorder transitions in three-dimensional multicolored loop models using Monte Carlo simulations. We show that the nature of the transition is intimately related to the nature of the loops. The symmetric loops undergo a first-order phase transition, while the nonsymmetric loops show a second-order transition.

Percolation in a three-dimensional nonsymmetric multicolor loop model.

We conduct Monte Carlo simulations to analyze the percolation transition of a nonsymmetric loop model on a regular three-dimensional lattice. We calculate the critical exponents for the percolation transition of this model. The percolation transition occurs at a temperature that is close to, but not exactly, the thermal critical temperature.

Bronchial carcinoid: a neuroendocrine manifestation-presented as bronchospasm and hypertension during resection.

Bronchopulmonary carcinoid tumors are rare, slow-growing malignant neuroendocrine tumors. Early diagnosis is pivotal as surgical resection is the main stay of treatment. A 40-year-old female with typical bronchial carcinoid presented with complaints of breathlessness on mild to moderate exertion, intermittent productive cough, low-grade fever, and loss of appetite since 1 year.

Motility driven glassy dynamics in confluent epithelial monolayers.

As wounds heal, embryos develop, cancer spreads, or asthma progresses, the cellular monolayer undergoes a glass transition between solid-like jammed and fluid-like flowing states. During some of these processes, the cells undergo an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT): they acquire in-plane polarity and become motile. Thus, how motility drives the glassy dynamics in epithelial systems is critical for the EMT process.

Effect of disorder on phases across two-dimensional thermal melting.

We study melting in a two-dimensional system of classical particles with Gaussian-core interactions in disordered environments. The pure system validates the conventional two-step melting with a hexatic phase intervening between the solid and the liquid. This picture is modified in the presence of pinning impurities.

Different glassy characteristics are related to either caging or dynamical heterogeneity.

Despite the enormous theoretical and application interests, a fundamental understanding of the glassy dynamics remains elusive. The static properties of glassy and ordinary liquids are similar, but their dynamics are dramatically different. What leads to this difference is the central puzzle of the field.

Effect of intravenous levosimendan or milrinone on left atrial pressure in patients undergoing off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting-A prospective double-blind, randomized controlled trial.

Background: Maintaining a low left atrial pressure (LAP) in off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (OPCAB) is desirable. This study was done to compare the effects of intravenous levosimendan or milrinone on LAP at different stages of OPCAB.

Materials And Methods: After institutional ethics committee clearance, this two-arm double-blind randomized control trial was done in 44 adult patients with triple vessel coronary artery disease undergoing OPCAB at cardiac OT of IPGME&R, Kolkata.

Endobronchial hydatid cyst causing variable intrathoracic airflow limitation selectively during expiration acting as a ball valve.

Unlabelled: Lung hydatid cyst is a frequently encountered site of echinococcus infection after the liver. Rupture of endobronchial hydatid cyst may lead to hydatemesis or may spread to the normal lung or can cause anaphylactic reactions. Performing bronchoscopy in cases with bronchial hydatid is controversial.

Two-temperature activity induces liquid-crystal phases inaccessible in equilibrium.

In equilibrium hard-rod fluids, and in effective hard-rod descriptions of anisotropic soft-particle systems, the transition from the isotropic (I) phase to the nematic phase (N) is observed above the rod aspect ratio L/D=3.70 as predicted by Onsager. We examine the fate of this criterion in a molecular dynamics study of a system of soft repulsive spherocylinders rendered active by coupling half the particles to a heat bath at a higher temperature than that imposed on the other half.

Fetal hypoxia results in sex- and cell type-specific alterations in neonatal transcription in rat oligodendrocyte precursor cells, microglia, neurons, and oligodendrocytes.

Background: Fetal hypoxia causes vital, systemic, developmental malformations in the fetus, particularly in the brain, and increases the risk of diseases in later life. We previously demonstrated that fetal hypoxia exposure increases the susceptibility of the neonatal brain to hypoxic-ischemic insult. Herein, we investigate the effect of fetal hypoxia on programming of cell-specific transcriptomes in the brain of neonatal rats.

TET2 confers a mechanistic link of microRNA-210 and mtROS in hypoxia-suppressed spontaneous transient outward currents in uterine arteries of pregnant sheep.

Hypoxia during pregnancy impairs uterine vascular adaptation via microRNA-210 (miR-210)-mediated mitochondrial dysfunction and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mtROS) generation. TET methylcytosine dioxygenase 2 (TET2) participates in regulating inflammation and oxidative stress and its deficiency contributes to the pathogenesis of multiple cardiovascular diseases. Thus, we hypothesize a role of TET2 in hypoxia/miR-210-mediated mtROS suppressing spontaneous transient outward currents (STOCs) in uterine arteries.

MicroRNA-210-mediated mtROS confer hypoxia-induced suppression of STOCs in ovine uterine arteries.

Background And Purpose: Hypoxia during pregnancy is associated with increased uterine vascular resistance and elevated blood pressure both in women and female sheep. A previous study demonstrated a causal role of microRNA-210 (miR-210) in gestational hypoxia-induced suppression of Ca sparks/spontaneous transient outward currents (STOCs) in ovine uterine arteries, but the underlying mechanisms remain undetermined. We tested the hypothesis that miR-210 perturbs mitochondrial metabolism and increases mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mtROS) that confer hypoxia-induced suppression of STOCs in uterine arteries.

Diameter Dependent Melting and Softening of dsDNA Under Cylindrical Confinement.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are considered promising candidates for biomolecular confinement, including DNA encapsulation for gene delivery. Threshold values of diameters have been reported for double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) encapsulation inside CNTs. We have performed all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of dsDNAs confined inside single-walled CNTs (SWCNTs) at the physiologically relevant temperature of 300 K.

MicroRNA-210 Controls Mitochondrial Metabolism and Protects Heart Function in Myocardial Infarction.

Background: Ischemic heart disease remains a leading cause of death worldwide. In this study, we test the hypothesis that microRNA-210 protects the heart from myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury by controlling mitochondrial bioenergetics and reactive oxygen species (ROS) flux.

Methods: Myocardial infarction in an acute setting of IR was examined through comparing loss- versus gain-of-function experiments in microRNA-210-deficient and wild-type mice.

Thermodynamics and its correlation with dynamics in a mean-field model and pinned systems: A comparative study using two different methods of entropy calculation.

A recent study introduced a novel mean-field model system where each particle over and above the interaction with its regular neighbors interacts with k extra pseudo-neighbors. Here, we present an extensive study of thermodynamics and its correlation with the dynamics of this system. We surprisingly find that the well-known thermodynamic integration (TI) method of calculating the entropy provides unphysical results.

Heating leads to liquid-crystal and crystalline order in a two-temperature active fluid of rods.

We report phase separation and liquid-crystal ordering induced by scalar activity in a system of soft repulsive spherocylinders (SRSs) of shape anisotropy L/D=5 using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Activity is introduced by increasing the temperature of half of the SRSs (labeled hot) while maintaining the temperature of the other half constant at a lower value (labeled cold). The difference between the two temperatures scaled by the lower temperature provides a measure of the activity.

Current Regulatory Requirements for Biosimilars in Six Member Countries of BRICS-TM: Challenges and Opportunities.

The aim of the study was to identify, interpret, and compare the current perspectives of regulatory agencies in six member countries of BRICS-TM (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Turkey, and Mexico) on the different criteria used for biosimilar development and marketing authorisation process. A semi-quantitative questionnaire was developed covering the organisation of agency, biosimilar development criteria and marketing authorisation process and sent to seven regulatory agencies covering the BRICS-TM countries. All data was kept anonymous and confidential.

Dielectric Profile and Electromelting of a Monolayer of Water Confined in Graphene Slit Pore.

A monolayer of water confined between two parallel graphene sheets exists in many different phases and exhibits fascinating dielectric properties that have been studied in experiments. In this work, we use molecular dynamics simulations to study how the dielectric properties of a confined monolayer of water is affected by its structure. We consider six of the popular nonpolarizable water models-SPC/E, SPC/Fw, TIP3P, TIP3P_M (modified), TIP4P-2005, and TIP4P-2005f-and find that the in-plane structure of the water molecules at ambient temperature and pressure is strongly dependent on the water model: all the 3-point water models considered here show square ice formation, whereas no such structural ordering is observed for the 4-point water models.

Dimensionality dependence of the Kauzmann temperature: A case study using bulk and confined water.

The Kauzmann temperature (T) of a supercooled liquid is defined as the temperature at which the liquid entropy becomes equal to that of the crystal. The excess entropy, the difference between liquid and crystal entropies, is routinely used as a measure of the configurational entropy, whose vanishing signals the thermodynamic glass transition. The existence of the thermodynamic glass transition is a widely studied subject, and of particular recent interest is the role of dimensionality in determining the presence of a glass transition at a finite temperature.

MicroRNA-210 Mediates Hypoxia-Induced Repression of Spontaneous Transient Outward Currents in Sheep Uterine Arteries During Gestation.

[Figure: see text].

MicroRNA-210 downregulates TET2 and contributes to inflammatory response in neonatal hypoxic-ischemic brain injury.

Background: Neonatal hypoxic-ischemic (HI) brain injury is a leading cause of acute mortality and chronic disability in newborns. Our previous studies demonstrated that HI insult significantly increased microRNA-210 (miR-210) in the brain of rat pups and inhibition of brain endogenous miR-210 by its inhibitor (LNA) provided neuroprotective effect in HI-induced brain injury. However, the molecular mechanisms underpinning this neuroprotection remain unclear.

Nonequilibrium phase transition in an Ising model without detailed balance.

We study a two-dimensional ferromagnetic Ising model in which spins are updated using modified versions of the Metropolis and Glauber algorithms. These update rules do not obey the detailed balance condition. The steady-state behavior of the model is studied using molecular field theory and Monte Carlo simulations.