Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of large and middle-sized blood vessels, and the leading cause of death among adults in the Western world. Recent evidence suggests that several molecular and cellular mechanisms play an important role in atherosclerosis and plaque progression. One of these mechanisms includes autophagy, a subcellular process for elimination of damaged organelles and protein aggregates via lysosomes. According to in vitro observations, the autophagic machinery is stimulated by several stress-related stimuli inside plaques, such as oxidized lipids, endoplasmic reticulum stress, hypoxia, nutrient deprivation, and inflammation. Although its role in atherosclerosis has not yet been fully established, a growing body of evidence indicates that autophagy has a protective function in atherosclerosis. It stimulates cholesterol efflux and reduces foam cell formation. Moreover, it prevents apoptosis by removing oxidatively damaged hyperpolarized mitochondria before reactive oxygen species production and cytochrome c release. Another important recent finding is that macrophage autophagy plays an essential role in delaying lesion progression by suppressing inflammasome activation. Interestingly, excessive everolimus-induced autophagy leads to selective macrophage death, and is a promising plaque-stabilizing strategy. Overall, autophagy seems to be a major player in atherosclerosis, but further research has to be performed to fully clarify its role in this disease.
This book collects the state of the art of the antioxidants from the clinical and experimental approaches in order to bring a better understanding of the mechanisms and useful therapies for these diseases. We hope that it can indicate new "current trends" for identifying new aspects regarding this scientific problem involving not only anatomical and functional, but also clinical questions.
Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of large and middle-sized blood vessels, and the leading cause of death among adults in the Western world. Recent evidence suggests that several molecular and cellular mechanisms play an important role in atherosclerosis and plaque progression. One of these mechanisms includes autophagy, a subcellular process for elimination of damaged organelles and protein aggregates via lysosomes. According to in vitro observations, the autophagic machinery is stimulated by several stress-related stimuli inside plaques, such as oxidized lipids, endoplasmic reticulum stress, hypoxia, nutrient deprivation, and inflammation. Although its role in atherosclerosis has not yet been fully established, a growing body of evidence indicates that autophagy has a protective function in atherosclerosis. It stimulates cholesterol efflux and reduces foam cell formation. Moreover, it prevents apoptosis by removing oxidatively damaged hyperpolarized mitochondria before reactive oxygen species production and cytochrome c release. Another important recent finding is that macrophage autophagy plays an essential role in delaying lesion progression by suppressing inflammasome activation. Interestingly, excessive everolimus-induced autophagy leads to selective macrophage death, and is a promising plaque-stabilizing strategy. Overall, autophagy seems to be a major player in atherosclerosis, but further research has to be performed to fully clarify its role in this disease.
Soft matter science is an interdisciplinary field at the interface of physics, biology, chemistry, engineering, and materials science. It encompasses colloids, polymers, and liquid crystals as well as rapidly emerging topics such as metamaterials, memory formation and learning in matter, bioactive systems, and artificial life. This textbook introduces key phenomena and concepts in soft matter from a modern perspective, marrying established knowledge with the latest developments and applications. The presentation integrates statistical mechanics, dynamical systems, and hydrodynamic approaches, emphasizing conservation laws and broken symmetries as guiding principles while paying attention to computational and machine learning advances. The book features introductory chapters on fluid mechanics, elasticity, and stochastic phenomena and also covers advanced topics such as pattern formation and active matter. it discusses technological applications as well as relevant phenomena in the life sciences and offers perspectives on emerging research directions"--
The fourteen papers in this volume Studies in Dutch Phonology were collected by the editors in the course of 1977 and 1978, at the request of the editorial board of Dutch Studies. In their opinion the collection represents a fair cross-section of current research done in the field of phonology both inside and outside the Netherlands, and therefore con stitutes a very suitable starting point for the new series Dutch Studies of the Intemationale Vereniging voor Neerlandistiek. In the various contributions one will find treated several issues of current phonological interest, such as phonotactic constraints (by Brink), abstractness (by Goyvaerts, Robinson, Tiersma, Trommelen and Zonneveld), stress-assign ment and vowel-reduction (by Van MarIe and Predota), the interaction between phonology and morphology (by Kooij, De Rooij-Bronkhorst, and Schultink), rule ordering (Taeldeman), and lexical diffusion (Gerritsen and Jansen, and Zonneveld). These issues are discussed in relation to a number of well-known traditional topics of Dutch phonology, such as: affIxal stress-attraction; constraints on consonant-clusters; separable and inseparable verb-forms; stress and vowel reduction in derived vs. non derived, and 'native' vs. 'foreign' Dutch words; Auslautverhartung and assimilation of voice in obstruent-clusters; regularity and irregularity in open syllable lengthening, diminutive formation, plural formation, and the weakening of intervocalic d; and the properties and phonological represen tation of diphthongs. (Frans van Coetsem's paper "Loan Phonology: the Example of Dutch", originally intended as a contribution to this volume, but not completed as it went to the press, will appear elsewhere.
With Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912) the soci0logist ?mile Durkheim formulated the most influential social-science theory of religion to date. Pivotal are the paired concepts ?sacred / profane?, the notion of ?collective representations?, and the hypothesis that through such religious symbols, society compels its members to venerate herself i.e. to submit to the social as an irreducible instance in its own right. Having grappled with this Durkheimian inheritance for half a century, the anthropologist of religion and intercultural philosopher Wim van Binsbergen in this book traces his own steps in confront_ing Durkheim's sacred, through theoretical criticism, through ethnographic application (to popular Islam in the segmentary social organisation of the highlands of Northwestern Tunisia), and by state-of-the-art long-range methods of linguistic and comparative mythological analysis. Thus, much to his surprise, he demonstrates the continued validity of Durkheim's insights in religion.
The aim of this book is to give a unified and critical account of the fundamental aspects of liquid crystals. Preference is given to discussing the assumptions made in developing theories and analyzing experimental data rather than to attempting to compile all the latest results. The book has four parts. Part I is quite descriptive in character and gives a general overview of the various liquid crystalline phases. Part II deals with the macroscopic continuum theory of liquid crystals and gives a systematic development of the theory from a tensorial point of view thus emphasizing the relevant symmetries. Part III concentrates on experiments that provide microscopic information on the orientational behaviour of the molecules. Finally Part IV discusses the theory of the various phases and their attendant phase transitions from both a Landau and a molecular-statistical point of view. Simplifying the various models as far as possible, it critically examines the merits of a molecular-statistical approach.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.