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Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) of unknown etiology that are associated with an aberrant mucosal immune response. Neoangiogenesis and vascular injury are observed in IBD along with increased lymphangiogenesis. While the pathogenic role of angiogenesis in IBD is well characterized, it is not clear how or if increased lymphangiogenesis promotes disease. Here, we determined that enhancing lymphangiogenesis and lymphatic function reduces experimental IBD. Specifically, we demonstrated that adenoviral induction of prolymphangiogenic factor VEGF-C provides marked protection against the development of acute and chronic colitis in 2 different animal models. VEGF-C-dependent protection was observed in combination with increased inflammatory cell mobilization and bacterial antigen clearance from the inflamed colon to the draining lymph nodes. Moreover, we found that the VEGF-C/VEGFR3 pathway regulates macrophage (MΦ) plasticity and activation both in cultured MΦs and in vivo, imparting a hybrid M1-M2 phenotype. The protective function of VEGF-C was meditated by the so-called resolving MΦs during chronic experimental colitis in a STAT6-dependent manner. Together, these findings shed light on the contribution of lymphatics to the pathogenesis of gut inflammation and suggest that correction of defective lymphatic function with VEGF-C has potential as a therapeutic strategy for IBD., Introduction The inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), consisting of ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), are characterized by chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract in genetically susceptible individuals exposed to [...]

This paper presents the well-known symmetrical components transformation (SCT) by means of a different approach from the traditional matrix analysis: a topological lecture provides, in fact, the results obtained by the existing analysis in a more suitable form for network applications. This approach leaves more space to the intuitive analysis, simplifying the application of such a method for teaching purposes, and completing the traditional mathematical view. Moreover, the use of graph concept allows the unified analysis of unbalanced faults leading the matter to the general theory of balanced three-phase systems. Typical for the physical balanced networks, the real convenience of SCT is also confirmed from the topological point of view, even for the fault analysis. Index Terms--Network topology, poly-phase system, symmetrical components transformation (SCT).

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Reflectarray antennas are low-profile high-gain systems widely applied in the aerospace industry. The increase in their application is leading to the problem of getting more advanced performance while keeping the system as simple as possible. In these cases, their design cannot be conducted via analytical methods, thus evolutionary optimization algorithms are often implemented. Indeed, the design is characterized by the presence of many local minima, by high number of design variables, and by the high computational burden required to evaluate the antenna performance. The purpose of this paper is to develop, implement, and test a complete Optimization Environment that can be applied to achieve high scanning capabilities with a reflectarray. The design of the optimization environment has been selected to be flexible enough to be applied also with other different algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]