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This article looks at the Health CASCADE project, a European-funded Innovative Training Network project that aims to advance co-creation into a rigorous scientific methodology with evidence-based methods, practices and supportive technologies.

Context: Osteopontin (OPN) has been proposed to predict adverse cardiac events in patients with adult type 2 diabetes. Objective: We investigated potential associations of circulating OPN and OPN expression in adipose tissue (AT) with obesity and early metabolic and cardiovascular dysfunction in children. Furthermore, we assessed the functional relevance of OPN on primary human endothelial cells. Design: Serum OPN was determined in healthy lean (n = 65) and obese (n = 100) children by ELISA. Expression levels were assessed in sc AT samples from healthy lean (n = 33) and overweight and obese (n = 31) children by qRT-PCR. Direct effects of recombinant (rh) OPN on adhesion molecule and ENOS expression were assessed in human coronary arterial endothelial cells. Results: OPN serum concentrations decreased with pubertal development in lean children. The degree of obesity was negatively associated with OPN serum levels. Multiple regression analysis revealed that body mass index (BMI) standard deviation score (SDS), next to pubertal status, was the strongest independent predictor for OPN serum concentrations. Metabolically, the homeostasis model assessment index and circulating plasma insulin were negatively correlated with OPN serum levels secondary to obesity. In contrast, independent from BMI, OPN was positively related to VCAM-1 levels, intima media thickening, and negatively associated with endothelial function. Functionally, full-length rhOPN did not affect adhesion molecule and ENOS mRNA expression in primary human coronary arterial endothelial cells. In addition, OPN expression levels in AT positively correlated with BMI SDS, AT inflammation, and markers of metabolic dysfunction but were not related to OPN serum levels. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that OPN levels are BMI-independently related to markers of early endothelial dysfunction in children. Here, we addressed associations of circulating osteopontin serum levels and osteopontin expression in adipose tiss

We report the observation of current-induced spin torque resonance in yttrium iron garnet/platinum bilayers. An alternating charge current at GHz frequencies in the platinum gives rise to dc spin pumping and spin Hall magnetoresistance rectification voltages, induced by the Oersted fields of the ac current and the spin Hall effect-mediated spin transfer torque. In ultrathin yttrium iron garnet films, we observe spin transfer torque actuated magnetization dynamics which are significantly larger than those generated by the ac Oersted field. Spin transfer torques thus efficiently couple charge currents and magnetization dynamics also in magnetic insulators, enabling charge current-based interfacing of magnetic insulators with microwave devices., QN/Quantum Nanoscience, Applied Sciences

The spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance (ST-FMR) in a bilayer system consisting of a magnetic insulator such as Y3Fe5O12 and a normal metal with spin-orbit interaction such as Pt is addressed theoretically. We model the ST-FMR for all magnetization directions and in the presence of fieldlike spin-orbit torques based on the drift-diffusion spin model and quantum mechanical boundary conditions. ST-FMR experiments may expose crucial information about the spin-orbit coupling between currents and magnetization in the bilayers., QN/Quantum Nanoscience, Applied Sciences

Cloud occurrence, microphysical and optical properties, and atmospheric profiles within a subtropical cloud regime transition in the northeastern Pacific Ocean are obtained from a synergistic combination of the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The observed cloud parameters and atmospheric thermodynamic profile retrievals are binned by cloud type and analyzed based on their probability density functions (PDFs). Comparison of the PDFs to data from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting reanalysis (ERA-Interim) shows a strong difference in the occurrence of the different cloud types compared to clear sky. An increasing non-Gaussian behavior is observed in cloud optical thickness (tau(c)), effective radius (r(e)) and cloud-top temperature (T-c) distributions from stratocumulus to trade cumulus, while decreasing values of lowertropospheric stability are seen. However, variations in the mean, width and shape of the distributions are found. The AIRS potential temperature (theta) and water vapor (q) profiles in the presence of varying marine boundary layer (MBL) cloud types show overall similarities to the ERA-Interim in the mean profiles, but differences arise in the higher moments at some altitudes. The differences between the PDFs from AIRS+MODIS and ERA-Interim make it possible to pinpoint systematic errors in both systems and help to understand joint PDFs of cloud properties and coincident thermodynamic profiles from satellite observations., AuthorCount:7

We present a generic theoretical model for torque differential magnetometry (TDM)—an experimental method for determining the magnetic properties of a magnetic specimen by recording the resonance frequency of a mechanical oscillator, on which the magnetic specimen has been mounted, as a function of the applied magnetic field. The effective stiffness change, and hence the resonance frequency shift, of the oscillator due to the magnetic torque on the specimen is calculated, treating the magnetic specimen as a single magnetic domain. Our model can deal with an arbitrary magnetic free-energy density characterizing the specimen, as well as any relative orientation of the applied magnetic field, the specimen, and the oscillator. Our calculations agree well with published experimental data. The theoretical model presented here allows one to take full advantage of TDM as an efficient magnetometry method., QN/Quantum Nanoscience, Applied Sciences