Spliceosomal GTPase Eftud2 regulates microglial activation and polarization

Elongation factor Tu GTP binding domain protein 2(Eftud2)is a spliceosomal GTPase that serves as an innate immune modulator restricting virus infection.Microglia are the resident innate immune cells and the key players of immune response in the central nervous system.However,the role of Eftud2 in microglia has not been reported.In this study,we performed immunofluorescent staining and western blot assay and found that Eftud2 was upregulated in microglia of a 5xFAD transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease.Next,we generated an inducible microglia-specific Eftud2 conditional knockout mouse line(CX3CR1-CreER;Eftud2^(f/f) cKO)via Cre/loxP recombination and found that Eftud2 deficiency resulted in abnormal proliferation and promoted anti-inflammatory phenotype activation of microglia.Furthermore,we knocked down Eftud2 in BV2 microglia with siRNA specifically targeting Eftud2 and found that Eftud2-mediated regulation of microglial proinflammatory/anti-inflammatory phenotype activation in response to inflammation might be dependent on the NF-κB signaling pathway.Our findings suggest that Eftud2 plays a key role in regulating microglial polarization and homeostasis possibly through the NF-κB signaling pathway.

Study of the puzzling abundance pattern of the neutron-capture elements in LMC star J053253.51–695915.1

Object J053253.51–695915.1(J053253)in the Large Magellanic Cloud(LMC)is reported as a young stellar object(YSO).Its chemical abundances reflect the initial composition of the gas cloud in which the star formed.However,the discovery that this star shows the enhancement of the neutron(n)-capture elements and the higher ratio of the heavier n-capture elements relative to the lighter n-capture elements is puzzling.Using an abundance decomposed method,we explore the astrophysical origins of the n-capture elements in this star.We find that the abundance characteristic of the higher ratio of the heavier n-capture elements to the lighter n-capture elements can be explained by the pollution of the r-process event and the contamination of the s-process material.

Multiwavelength study of nearly face-on low surface brightness disk galaxies

We study the ages of a large sample （1802） of nearly face-on disk low surface brightness galaxies （LSBGs） using the evolutionary population synthesis （EPS） model PEGASE with an exponentially decreasing star formation rate to fit their mul- tiwavelength spectral energy distributions （SEDs） from far-ultraviolet （FUV） to nearinfrared （NIR）. The derived ages of LSBGs are 1-5 Gyr for most of the sample no matter if constant or varying dust extinction is adopted, which are similar to most of the previous studies on smaller samples. This means that these LSBGs formed the majority of their stars quite recently. However, a small part of the sample （~2%-3%） has larger ages of 5-8 Gyr, meaning their major star forming process may have occurred earlier. At the same time, a large sample （5886） of high surface brightness galaxies （HSBGs） are selected and studied using the same method for comparisons. The de- rived ages are 1-5 Gyr for most of the sample （97%） as well. These results probably mean that these LSBGs have not much different star formation histories from their HSBGs counterparts. However, we should notice that the HSBGs are generally about 0.2 Gyr younger, which could mean that the HSBGs may have undergone more recent star forming activities than the LSBGs.

Pollution tracks of r-process material in[Sr/Ba]vs.[Ba/Fe]space for the early Galaxy

In the early Galaxy,elemental abundances of the extremely metal-poor(EMP)stars contain abundant information about the neutron-capture nucleosynthesis and the chemical enrichment history.In this work,we study the abundance characteristics of Sr and Ba for the EMP stars in the[Sr/Ba]vs.[Ba/Fe]space.We find that there are three boundaries for the distribution region of the EMP stars.The weak rprocess star CS 22897-008 lies on the upper end and the main r-process stars lie on the right end of the region.Near the right boundary of the distribution region,there is an Fe-normal belt.For the EMP stars in the belt,element Fe dominantly originates from the normal massive stars.The low-Sr stars([Sr/Fe]6−0.3)distribute in the region of the lower left of the Fe-normal belt and their Fe should originate partly from the prompt inventory.We find that the formation of the lower boundary of the distribution region is due to the pollution of the main r-process material and the formation of the right boundary could be explained by the combination of the weak r-and main r-process material.Furthermore,the formation of the left boundary is due to the pollution of the weak r-process material.Although the[Sr/Ba]ratios are related to the relative importance of the weak r-process material,the scatter of[Sr/Ba]ratios for the EMP stars mainly depends on the abundance ratio of the weak r-process.

Chemical abundance analysis of 19 barium stars

We aim at deriving accurate atmospheric parameters and chemical abundances of 19 barium（Ba） stars, including both strong and mild Ba stars, based on the high signal-to-noise ratio and high resolution Echelle spectra obtained from the 2.16 m telescope at Xinglong station of National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The chemical abundances of the sample stars were obtained from an LTE, plane-parallel and line-blanketed atmospheric model by inputting the atmospheric parameters（effective temperatures Teff, surface gravities log g, metallicity [Fe/H] and microturbulence velocity ξt） and equivalent widths of stellar absorption lines. These samples of Ba stars are giants as indicated by atmospheric parameters, metallicities and kinematic analysis about UVW velocity. Chemical abundances of 17 elements were obtained for these Ba stars. Their Na, Al, α- and iron-peak elements（O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca,Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Ni） are similar to the solar abundances. Our samples of Ba stars show obvious overabundances of neutron-capture（n-capture） process elements relative to the Sun. Their median abundances of[Ba/Fe], [La/Fe] and [Eu/Fe] are 0.54, 0.65 and 0.40, respectively. The Y I and Zr I abundances are lower than Ba, La and Eu, but higher than the α- and iron-peak elements for the strong Ba stars and similar to the iron-peak elements for the mild stars. There exists a positive correlation between Ba intensity and [Ba/Fe].For the n-capture elements（Y, Zr, Ba, La）, there is an anti-correlation between their [X/Fe] and [Fe/H]. We identify nine of our sample stars as strong Ba stars with [Ba/Fe]〉0.6 where seven of them have Ba intensity Ba=2-5, one has Ba=1.5 and another one has Ba=1.0. The remaining ten stars are classified as mild Ba stars with 0.17〈[Ba/Fe]〈0.54.