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The data suggest that Taiwan Chinese carriers of the IL-8 +781 T allele, independent of the CFH Y402H polymorphism, are at increased risk of developing wet AMD.

Galectin-12 is a member of an animal lectin family with affinity for β-galactosides and containing consensus amino acid sequences. Here, we found that galectin-12 was expressed in macrophages and thus aimed to determine how galectin-12 affects inflammation and macrophage polarization and activation. The ablation of galectin-12 did not affect bone marrow cells to differentiate into macrophages, but reduced phagocytic activity against Escherichia coli and lowered the secretion of nitric oxide. The ablation of galectin-12 also resulted in the polarization of macrophages into the M2 direction, as indicated by increases in the levels of M2 markers, namely, resistin-like β (FIZZ1) and chitinase 3-like 3 (Ym1), as well as a reduction in the expression levels of a number of M1 pro-inflammatory cytokines. We found that the diminished expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in macrophages resulting from galectin-12 deletion was due to reduced activation of IKKα/β, Akt and ERK, which in turn caused decreased activation of NF-κB and activator protein 1. The activation of STAT3 was much higher in Gal12(-/-) macrophages activated by lipopolysaccharide, which was correlated with higher levels of IL-10. Adipocytes showed higher insulin sensitivity when treated with Gal12(-/-) macrophage-conditioned media than those treated with Gal12(+/+) macrophages. We conclude galectin-12 negatively regulates macrophage polarization into the M2 population, resulting in enhanced inflammatory responses and also in turn causing decreased insulin sensitivity in adipocytes. This has implications in the treatment of a wide spectrum of metabolic disorders.

Ultrafine 5.5 mol% CeO 2 -2 mol% YO 1.5 -ZrO 2 powders II. Experimental Procedure with controllable crystallite size were synthesized by twoTo investigate the effect of synthesis conditions on powder kinds of coprecipitation methods and subsequent crystalliproperties, two kinds of coprecipitation methods were investization treatment. The amorphous gel produced by ammonia gated including ammonia coprecipitation and urea-hydrolysis coprecipitation and hydrothermal treatment at 200؇C for coprecipitation. Two treatments for crystallization of coprecipi-3.5 h results in an ultrafine powder with a surface area of tates were also performed: i.e., calcination and hydrothermal 206 m 2 /g and a crystallite size of 4.8 nm. The powder procrystallization. The overall experimental flowchart is shown duced by urea hydrolysis and calcination exhibits a purely in Fig. 1. tetragonal phase. In addition, the powders crystallized by Raw materials with a nominal composition of 92.5 mol% hydrothermal treatment exhibit high packing density and ZrO 2 , 5.5 mol% CeO 2 , and 2 mol% YO 1.5 (Merck and Co. Inc., can be sintered at lower temperature (,1400؇C) with nearly Darmstadt, Germany) were used to prepare three distinct stock 100% tetragonal phase achieved.solutions with cation concentrations of 0.25M, 0.5M, and 1M, respectively. The concentrated ammonia water (ϳ25%) and I. Introduction stock solution were added together dropwise to a solution of pH ϳ11 and vigorously stirred NH 4 OH solution, which produced a T ETRAGONAL zirconia polycrystal (TZP) based ceramics have yellow, gelatinous precipitate. The pH value was maintained attracted special attention because of their excellent above 10.8 at all times to ensure complete precipitation. mechanical properties by means of tetragonal-to-monoclinic For urea-hydrolysis preparation, the raw materials were idenphase transformation. Sinterability of TZP powder depends on tical with those in the ammonia coprecipitation except that the crystallite size, lattice strain (microstrain), degree of excess urea was introduced to improve the hydrolysis reaction. agglomeration, and surface area. It has been proposed thatThe stock solution was prepared by dissolving a corresponding hydrothermal treatment of precipitated powders is useful to mole ratio of raw materials into DI water. The solutions were produce highly crystalline powder with a narrow particle size boiled continuously for 2 to 12 h in a flask and then transformed distribution and soft agglomeration. 1-5 Cyprês et al. 6 and Tani's 2 into a white colloidal solution after about 50 min. group attributed the stabilization of tetragonal ZrO 2 to OH Ϫ , A Teflon cup (220 cm 3 ) filled with a gel and its mother liquor SO 4 2Ϫ , and other anionic impurities, whereas Garvie 7 and (pH ϳ10.8) was placed in a stainless-steel vessel, which was Mitsuhash 1 explained it in terms of a particle size effect in then heated in an oven for 2.5-12 h at 200ЊC and finally which the surface energy of tetragonal ZrO 2 was lower than that quenched to room temperature. ...

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BackgroundDespite increased identification of spotted fever group rickettsioses (SFGR) in animals and arthropods, human SFGR are poorly characterized in Taiwan.MethodsPatients with suspected Q fever, scrub typhus, murine typhus, leptospirosis, and dengue fever from April 2004 to December 2009 were retrospectively investigated for SFGR antibodies (Abs). Sera were screened for Rickettsia rickettsii Abs by indirect immunofluorescence antibody assay (IFA), and those with positive results were further examined for Abs against R. rickettsii, R. typhi, R. felis, R. conorii, and R. japonica using micro-immunofluorescence (MIF) tests. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for detection of SFGR DNA was applied in those indicated acute infections. Case geographic distribution was made by the geographic information system software.ResultsA total of 413 cases with paired serum, including 90 cases of Q fever, 47 cases of scrub typhus, 12 cases of murine typhus, 6 cases of leptospirosis, 3 cases of dengue fever, and 255 cases of unknown febrile diseases were investigated. Using IFA tests, a total of 49 cases with 47 (11.4%) and 4 (1.0%) cases had sera potentially positive for R. rickettsii IgG and IgM, respectively. In the 49 cases screened from IFA, MIF tests revealed that there were 5 cases of acute infections (3 possible R. felis and 2 undetermined SFGR) and 13 cases of past infections (3 possible R. felis and 10 undetermined SFGR). None of the 5 cases of acute infection had detectable SFGR DNA in the blood specimen by PCR. Possible acute infection of R. felis was identified in both one case of Q fever and scrub typhus. The geographic distribution of SFGR cases is similar with that of scrub typhus.ConclusionsHuman SFGR exist and are neglected diseases in southern Taiwan, particularly for the species closely-related to R. felis.

Researchers often encounter difficulties in obtaining timely and detailed information on urban growth. Modern remote-sensing techniques can address such difficulties. With desirable spectral resolution and temporal resolution, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) products have significant advantages in tackling land-use and land-cover change issues at regional and global scales. However, simply based on spectral information, traditional methods of remote-sensing image classification are barely satisfactory. For example, it is quite difficult to distinguish urban and bare lands. Moreover, training samples of all land-cover types are needed, which means that traditional classification methods are inefficient in one-class classification. Even support vector machine, a current state-of-the-art method, still has several drawbacks. To address the aforementioned problems, this study proposes extracting urban land by combining MODIS surface reflectance, MODIS normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System data based on the maximum entropy model (MAXENT). This model has been proved successful in solving one-class problems in many other fields. But the application of MAXENT in remote sensing remains rare. A combination of NDVI and Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System data can provide more information to facilitate the one-class classification of MODIS images. A multi-temporal case study of China in 2000China in , 2005China in , and 2010 shows that this novel method performs effectively. Several validations demonstrate that the urban land extraction results are comparable to classified Landsat TM (Thematic Mapper) images. These results are also more reliable than those of MODIS land-cover type product (MCD12Q1). Thus, this study presents an innovative and practical method to extract urban land at large scale using multiple source data, which can be further applied to other periods and regions.