The immunology of cellular stress proteins

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910136401003321
• Autore: Cristina Bonorino
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Frontiers Media SA, 2014
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (89 p.)
• Collana: Frontiers Research Topics
• Soggetti: Medicine
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Sommario/riassunto: Stress proteins or heat-shock proteins (HSP) are evolutionary conserved proteins present in every prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell. Their main function is to protect cells and proteins from damage under stressful circumstances. The latter circumstances do include the cell and protein damaging effects of inflammation. The discovery of mycobacterial HSP60 being a critical antigen in the model of adjuvant arthritis, has led to studies that showed the immuno-dominance of microbial HSP60 and the potential of the microbial HSP induced repertoire of antibodies and T cells to cross-recognize the self-HSP homologues of stressed cells. Since then, the research in the immunology of stress proteins started to comprise a widening spectrum of topics with potential medical relevance. Interestingly, since stress proteins have their activities in both innate and adaptive immunity, they are key elements in the cross-roads between both arms of the immune system. Stress proteins or HSP can be considered as functional 'biomarkers' of inflammation. They are up-regulated locally during inflammation and interestingly, they seem to function as targets for anti-inflammatory regulatory T cells. In experimental models of autoimmunity, mainly arthritis, administration of HSP peptides have been shown to suppress disease. First clinical trials have shown the anti-inflammatory nature of T cell responses to Hsp. In type I diabetes and in rheumatoid arthritis, parenteral and oral administration of Hsp peptides were shown to induce a bias in pro-inflammatory T cells, switching them in the direction of regulatory ; cytokine production (IL4, IL5 and IL10). In addition a raised level of a marker of natural T regulatory cells, the transcription factor FoxP3, was noted in the RA trial. Other inflammatory diseases or diseases with inflammatory components which feature the immune imprint of the up-regulated Hsp are atherosclerosis, inflammatory bowel diseases, multiple sclerosis and atopic diseases such atopic dermatitis and allergic asthma.

Competitive Markov Decision Processes / / by Jerzy Filar, Koos Vrieze

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910957364603321
• Autore: Filar Jerzy
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: New York, NY : , : Springer New York : , : Imprint : Springer, , 1997
• ISBN: 1-4612-4054-9
• Edizione: [1st ed. 1997.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (XII, 394 p.)
• Disciplina: 519.5/42
• Soggetti: Operations research; Engineering mathematics; Engineering - Data processing; Automatic control; Robotics; Automation; Operations Research and Decision Theory; Mathematical and Computational Engineering Applications; Control, Robotics, Automation
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: "With 57 illustrations."
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: 1 Introduction -- 1.0 Background -- 1.1 Raison d’Etre and Limitations -- 1.2 A Menu of Courses and Prerequisites -- 1.3 For the Cognoscenti -- 1.4 Style and Nomenclature -- I Mathematical Programming Perspective -- 2 Markov Decision Processes: The Noncompetitive Case -- 3 Stochastic Games via Mathematical Programming -- II Existence, Structure and Applications -- 4 Summable Stochastic Games -- 5 Average Reward Stochastic Games -- 6 Applications and Special ; Classes of Stochastic Games -- Appendix G Matrix and Bimatrix Games and Mathematical Programming -- G.1 Introduction -- G.2 Matrix Game -- G.3 Linear Programming -- G.4 Bimatrix Games -- G.5 Mangasarian-Stone Algorithm for Bimatrix Games -- G.6 Bibliographic Notes -- Appendix H A Theorem of Hardy and Littlewood -- H.1 Introduction -- H.2 Preliminaries, Results and Examples -- H.3 Proof of the Hardy-Littlewood Theorem -- Appendix M Markov Chains -- M.1 Introduction -- M.2 Stochastic Matrix -- M.3 Invariant Distribution -- M.4 Limit Discounting -- M.5 The Fundamental Matrix -- M.6 Bibliographic Notes -- Appendix P Complex Varieties and the Limit Discount Equation -- P.1 Background -- P.2 Limit Discount Equation as a Set of Simultaneous Polynomials -- P.3 Algebraic and Analytic Varieties -- P.4 Solution of the Limit Discount Equation via Analytic Varieties -- References.
• Sommario/riassunto: This book is intended as a text covering the central concepts and techniques of Competitive Markov Decision Processes. It is an attempt to present a rig­ orous treatment that combines two significant research topics: Stochastic Games and Markov Decision Processes, which have been studied exten­ sively, and at times quite independently, by mathematicians, operations researchers, engineers, and economists. Since Markov decision processes can be viewed as a special noncompeti­ tive case of stochastic games, we introduce the new terminology Competi­ tive Markov Decision Processes that emphasizes the importance of the link between these two topics and of the properties of the underlying Markov processes. The book is designed to be used either in a classroom or for self-study by a mathematically mature reader. In the Introduction (Chapter 1) we outline a number of advanced undergraduate and graduate courses for which this book could usefully serve as a text. A characteristic feature of competitive Markov decision processes - and one that inspired our long-standing interest - is that they can serve as an "orchestra" containing the "instruments" of much of modern applied (and at times even pure) mathematics. They constitute a topic where the instruments of linear algebra, applied probability, mathematical program­ ming, analysis, and even algebraic geometry can be "played" sometimes solo and sometimes in harmony to produce either beautifully simple or equally beautiful, but baroque, melodies, that is, theorems.