[en] The majority of in vitro studies characterizing the impact of engineered nanoparticles (NPs) on cells that line the respiratory tract were conducted in cells exposed to NPs in suspension. This approach introduces processes that are unlikely to occur during inhaled NP exposures in vivo, such as the shedding of toxic doses of dissolved ions. ZnO NPs are used extensively and pose significant sources for human exposure. Exposures to airborne ZnO NPs can induce adverse effects, but the relevance of the dissolved Zn2+ to the observed effects in vivo is still unclear. Our goal was to mimic in vivo exposures to airborne NPs and decipher the contribution of the intact NP from the contribution of the dissolved ions to airborne ZnO NP toxicity. We established the exposure of alveolar type II epithelial cells to aerosolized NPs at the air-liquid interface (ALI), and compared the impact of aerosolized ZnO NPs and NPs in suspension at the same cellular doses, measured as the number of particles per cell. By evaluating membrane integrity and cell viability 6 and 24 hours post exposure we found that aerosolized NPs induced toxicity at the ALI at doses that were in the same order of magnitude as doses required to induce toxicity in submersed cultures. In addition, distinct patterns of oxidative stress were observed in the two exposure systems. These observations unravel the ability of airborne ZnO NPs to induce toxicity without the contribution of dissolved Zn2+ and suggest distinct mechanisms at the ALI and in submersed cultures.

[en] Acute liver injury (ALI) is characteristic of abrupt hepatic dysfunction and inflammatory response. Activaion of Kupffer cells (KCs) plays a central role in the pathogenesis of ALI. Since the High Mobility Group A protein2 (HMGA2) occurs as a driver at critical stage of hepatocellular carcinoma, herein, we investigated the role of HMGA2 in macrophage activation during ALI. Our study found that the expression of HMGA2 decreased dramatically both in KCs isolated from the liver in mice with ALI and in LPS-induced RAW264.7 cell lines. Moreover, loss- and gain-of-function studies suggested that HMGA2 could enhance the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines including TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β. These results indicated that HMGA2 may play an essential role in macrophage activation during ALI. Additionally, our results showed the expression of HMGA2 was up-regulated when LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells were treated with 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine. Furthermore, silencing of DNMT1, DNMT3a, DNMT3b could respectively prevent the down-expression of HMGA2 in LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells. In conclusion, HMGA2 promotes the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines through NF-κB pathway, and the dysregulation of HMGA2 may involve with hypermethylation. - Highlights: • HMGA2 was screened through RRBS by our research group. • Our study provides the first evidence to demonstrated the function of HMGA2 in acute liver injury. • HMGA2 mediated inflammation is associated with hypermethylation was illustrated for the first time.

[en] Publication of ICRP 60 and 61 has rendered previous radiotoxicity classification lists obsolete. Past classifications have been examined and possible bases for such classifications have been considered. A revised radiotoxicity hazard classification list, based on data in ICRP Publication 61 has been produced for use by Australian regulatory authorities and is described in this paper. The authors propose that the appropriate basis for this new list is a combination of the most restrictive inhalation ALI and the specific activity. (author)

[en] Evaluer la justification de l'irradiation médicale liée aux examens tomodensitométriques réalisés chez les enfants à Lomé.

No abstract available

[en] The new respiratory model of ICRP, developed to be adapted to particular situations is rather complicated, but it does not present difficulties to be solved analytically. A mathematical simplification is proposed and the obtained retention and transfer functions are compared with those resulting from the previous model

[en] In this article ICRP-30 for internal contamination has been treated. Basic norms and the annual limit of intake are discussed. Several models as stomach intestine models or bone models are given. An example for cobalt is described. (R.B.). 8 refs.; 4 figs.; 3 tabs

No abstract available

[en] We develop a geometric approach to quantify the capability of creating entanglement for a general physical interaction acting on two qubits. We use the entanglement measure proposed by us for N-qubit pure states [Ali Saif M. Hassan and Pramod S. Joag, Phys. Rev. A 77, 062334 (2008)]. This geometric method has the distinct advantage that it gives the experimentally implementable criteria to ensure the optimal entanglement production rate without requiring a detailed knowledge of the state of the two qubit system. For the production of entanglement in practice, we need criteria for optimal entanglement production, which can be checked in situ without any need to know the state, as experimentally finding out the state of a quantum system is generally a formidable task. Further, we use our method to quantify the entanglement capacity in higher level and multipartite systems. We quantify the entanglement capacity for two qutrits and find the maximal entanglement generation rate and the corresponding state for the general isotropic interaction between qutrits, using the entanglement measure of N-qudit pure states proposed by us [Ali Saif M. Hassan and Pramod S. Joag, Phys. Rev. A 80, 042302 (2009)]. Next we quantify the genuine three qubit entanglement capacity for a general interaction between qubits. We obtain the maximum entanglement generation rate and the corresponding three qubit state for a general isotropic interaction between qubits. The state maximizing the entanglement generation rate is of the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger class. To the best of our knowledge, the entanglement capacities for two qutrit and three qubit systems have not been reported earlier.

[en] This paper reports the annual dose levels of 3124 radiation workers in Shanxi province measured by thermoluminescense dosimetry. the minimum annual level is 0.2 mGy and the maximum is 70 mGy, with an average of 1.79 mGy. The annual dose levels for persons engaged in different occupations such as medical radiodiagnostic workers, nuclear medicine, and radiotherapy personnel, industrial radiographers, geological survey workers, teaching and research workers and others are 1.95 mGy, 1.15 mGy, 0.91 mGy, 2.11 mGy, 1.76 mGy, 0.65 mGy, and 1.14 mGy, respectively. Of the 3124 investigated radiation workers 95.9 per cent received an annual dose below three tenths of the annual dose limit of 50 mGy and 89.8% had a dose below one tenth of that limit