bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Identification of multiple functional receptors for tyramine on an insect secretory epithelium
Authors: Zhang Haiying , Blumenthal Edward M. 
Published: March 2017

AbstractThe biogenic amine tyramine (TA) regulates many aspects of invertebrate physiology and development. Although three TA receptor subtypes have been identified (TAR1-3), specific receptors have not been linked to physiological responses in native tissue. In the Malpighian (renal) tubule of Drosophila melanogaster, TA activates a transepithelial chloride conductance, resulting in diuresis and depolarization of the transepithelial potential. In the current work, mutation or RNAi-mediated knockdown in the stellate cells of the tubule of TAR2 (tyrR, CG7431) resulted in a dramatic reduction, but not elimination, of the TA-mediated depolarization. Mutation or knockdown of TAR3 (tyrRII, CG16766) had no effect. However, deletion of both genes, or knockdown of TAR3 on a TAR2 mutant background, eliminated the TA responses. Thus while TAR2 is responsible for the majority of the TA sensitivity of the tubule, TAR3 also contributes to the response. Knockdown or mutation of TAR2 also eliminated the response of tubules to the related amine octopamine (OA), indicating that OA can activate TAR2. This finding contrasts to reports that heterologously expressed TAR2 is highly selective for TA over OA. This is the first report of TA receptor function in a native tissue and indicates unexpected complexity in the physiology of the Malpighian tubule.
Contribution of the cyclic nucleotide gated channel subunit, CNG-3, to olfactory plasticity in Caenorhabditis elegans
Authors: O’Halloran Damien M. , Altshuler-Keylin Svetlana , Zhang Xiao-Dong , He Chao , Morales-Phan Christopher , Yu Yawei , Kaye Julia A. , Brueggemann Chantal , Chen Tsung-Yu , L’Etoile Noelle D. 
Published: March 2017

AbstractInCaenorhabditis elegans, the AWC neurons are thought to deploy a cGMP signaling cascade in the detection of and response to AWC sensed odors. Prolonged exposure to an AWC sensed odor in the absence of food leads to reversible decreases in the animal’s attraction to that odor. This adaptation exhibits two stages referred to as short-term and long-term adaptation. Previously, the protein kinase G (PKG), EGL-4/PKG-1, was shown necessary for both stages of adaptation and phosphorylation of its target, the beta-type cyclic nucleotide gated (CNG) channel subunit, TAX-2, was implicated in the short term stage. Here we uncover a novel role for the CNG channel subunit, CNG-3, in short term adaptation. We demonstrate that CNG-3 is required in the AWC for adaptation to short (thirty minute) exposures of odor, and contains a candidate PKG phosphorylation site required to tune odor sensitivity. We also providein vivodata suggesting that CNG-3 forms a complex with both TAX-2 and TAX-4 CNG channel subunits in AWC. Finally, we examine the physiology of different CNG channel subunit combinations.
Correlation of Ultrasound Shear Wave Elastography with Pathological Analysis in a Xenografic Tumour Model
Authors: Elyas Eli , Papaevangelou Efthymia , Alles Erwin J. , Erler Janine T. , Cox Thomas R. , Robinson Simon P. , Bamber Jeffrey C. 
Published: March 2017

AbstractThe objective of this study was to evaluate the potential value of ultrasound (US) shear wave elastography (SWE) in assessing the relative change in elastic modulus in colorectal adenocarcinoma xenograft models in vivo and investigate any correlation with histological analysis. We sought to test whether non-invasive evaluation of tissue stiffness is indicative of pathological tumour changes and can be used to monitor therapeutic efficacy. US-SWE was performed in tumour xenografts in 15 NCr nude immunodeficient mice, which were treated with either the cytotoxic drug, Irinotecan, or saline as control. Ten tumours were imaged 48 hours post-treatment and five tumours were imaged for up to five times after treatment. All tumours were harvested for histological analysis and comparison with elasticity measurements. Elastic (Young's) modulus prior to treatment was correlated with tumour volume (r = 0.37, p = 0.008). Irinotecan administration caused significant delay in the tumour growth (p = 0.02) when compared to control, but no significant difference in elastic modulus was detected. Histological analysis revealed a significant correlation between tumour necrosis and elastic modulus (r = −0.73, p = 0.026). SWE measurement provided complimentary information to other imaging modalities and could indicate potential changes in the mechanical properties of tumours, which in turn could be related to the stages of tumour development.
Network Anatomy Controlling Abrupt-like Percolation Transition
Authors: Kawamoto Hirokazu , Takayasu Hideki , Takayasu Misako 
Published: March 2017

AbstractWe virtually dissect complex networks in order to understand their internal structure, just as doctors do with the bodies of animals. Our novel method classifies network links into four categories: bone, fat, cartilage, and muscle, based on network connectivity. We derive an efficient percolation strategy from this new viewpoint of network anatomy, which enables abrupt-like percolation transition through removal of a small amount of cartilage links, which play a crucial role in network connectivity. Furthermore, we find nontrivial scaling laws in the relationships between four types of links in each cluster and evaluate power exponents, which characterize network structures as seen in the real large-scale network of trading business firms and in the Erdős-Rényi network. Finally, we observe changes in the transition point for random bond percolation process, demonstrating that the addition of muscle links enhances network robustness, while fat links are irrelevant. These findings aid in controlling the percolation transition for an arbitrary network.
Unsuppressible Repetition Suppression and exemplar-specific Expectation Suppression in the Fusiform Face Area
Authors: Pajani Auréliane , Kouider Sid , Roux Paul , de Gardelle Vincent 
Published: March 2017

AbstractRecent work casts Repetition Suppression (RS), i.e. the reduced neural response to repeated stimuli, as the consequence of reduced surprise for repeated inputs. This research, along with other studies documenting Expectation Suppression, i.e. reduced responses to expected stimuli, emphasizes the role of expectations and predictive codes in perception. Here, we use fMRI to further characterize the nature of predictive signals in the human brain. Prior to scanning, participants were implicitly exposed to associations within face pairs. Critically, we found that this resulted in exemplar-specific Expectation Suppression in the fusiform face-sensitive area (FFA): individual faces that could be predicted from the associations elicited reduced FFA responses, as compared to unpredictable faces. Thus, predictive signals in the FFA are specific to face exemplars, and not only generic to the category of face stimuli. In addition, we show that under such circumstances, the occurrence of surprising repetitions did not trigger enhanced brain responses, as had been recently hypothesized, but still suppressed responses, suggesting that repetition suppression might be partly ‘unsuppressible’. Repetition effects cannot be fully modulated by expectations, which supports the recent view that expectation and repetition effects rest on partially independent mechanisms. Altogether, our study sheds light on the nature of expectation signals along the perceptual system.
Surface Current in “Hotspot” Serves as a New and Effective Precursor for El Niño Prediction
Authors: Wang Jianing , Lu Youyu , Wang Fan , Zhang Rong-Hua 
Published: March 2017

AbstractThe El Niño and Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the most prominent sources of inter-annual climate variability. Related to the seasonal phase-locking, ENSO’s prediction across the low-persistence barrier in the boreal spring remains a challenge. Here we identify regions where surface current variability influences the short-lead time predictions of the July Niño 3.4 index by applying a regression analysis. A highly influential region, related to the distribution of wind-stress curl and sea surface temperature, is located near the dateline and the southern edge of the South Equatorial Current. During El Niño years, a westward current anomaly in the identified high-influence region favours the accumulation of warm water in the western Pacific. The opposite occurs during La Niña years. This process is seen to serve as the “goal shot” for ENSO development, which provides an effective precursor for the prediction of the July Niño 3.4 index with a lead time of 2–4 months. The prediction skill based on surface current precursor beats that based on the warm water volume and persistence in the subsequent months after July. In particular, prediction based on surface current precursor shows skill in all years, while predictions based on other precursors show reduced skill after 2002.
Anisotropy in the thermal hysteresis of resistivity and charge density wave nature of single crystal SrFeO3-δ: X-ray absorption and photoemission studies
Authors: Hsieh S. H. , Solanki R. S. , Wang Y. F. , Shao Y. C. , Lee S. H. , Yao C. H. , Du C. H. , Wang H. T. , Chiou J. W. , Chin Y. Y. , Tsai H. M. , Chen J.-L. , Pao C. W. , Cheng C.-M. , Chen W.-C. , Lin H. J. , Lee J. F. , Chou F. C. , Pong W. F. 
Published: March 2017

AbstractThe local electronic and atomic structures of the high-quality single crystal of SrFeO3-δ (δ~0.19) were studied using temperature-dependent x-ray absorption and valence-band photoemission spectroscopy (VB-PES) to investigate the origin of anisotropic resistivity in the ab-plane and along the c-axis close to the region of thermal hysteresis (near temperature for susceptibility maximum, Tm~78 K). All experiments herein were conducted during warming and cooling processes. The Fe L3,2-edge X-ray linear dichroism results show that during cooling from room temperature to below the transition temperature, the unoccupied Fe 3d eg states remain in persistently out-of-plane 3d3z2-r2 orbitals. In contrast, in the warming process below the transition temperature, they change from 3d3z2-r2 to in-plane 3dx2-y2 orbitals. The nearest-neighbor (NN) Fe-O bond lengths also exhibit anisotropic behavior in the ab-plane and along the c-axis below Tm. The anisotropic NN Fe-O bond lengths and Debye-Waller factors stabilize the in-plane Fe 3dx2-y2 and out-of-plane 3d3z2-r2 orbitals during warming and cooling, respectively. Additionally, a VB-PES study further confirms that a relative band gap opens at low temperature in both the ab-plane and along the c-axis, providing the clear evidence of the charge-density-wave nature of SrFeO3-δ (δ~0.19) single crystal.
High Performance Solution Processed Organic Field Effect Transistors with Novel Diketopyrrolopyrrole-Containing Small Molecules
Authors: Lim Bogyu , Sun Huabin , Lee Jaechol , Noh Yong-Young 
Published: March 2017

AbstractThe donor-acceptor (D-A)-type diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-based small molecules (LGC-D117 and LGC-D118) were synthesized and used as the active layer of solution-processable organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). Both LGC-D117 and LGC-D118 contain silaindacenodithiophene as electron-donor units with DPP as an electron-accepting linker, and octylrhodanine as the electron-accepting end group. The molecules were functionalized with different side chains to study their effects on OFET characteristics. LGC-D117 has a simple branched alkyl side chain, whereas LGC-D118 features a bulky siloxane-terminated hybrid alkyl chain. The siloxane side chains of LGC-D118 account for its better crystallinity, leading to significantly high field-effect mobility (max 3.04 cm2 V−1 s−1). In particular, LGC-D118 is well soluble and sustains the high mobility in the environmentally friendly 2-methyltetrahydrofuran solvent with low temperature annealing at 100 °C due to the bulky siloxane-terminated alkyl side chain.
Arsenic Methylation and its Relationship to Abundance and Diversity of arsM Genes in Composting Manure
Authors: Zhai Weiwei , Wong Mabel T. , Luo Fei , Hashmi Muhammad Z. , Liu Xingmei , Edwards Elizabeth A. , Tang Xianjin , Xu Jianming 
Published: March 2017

AbstractAlthough methylation is regarded as one of the main detoxification pathways for arsenic (As), current knowledge about this process during manure composting remains limited. In this study, two pilot-scale compost piles were established to treat manure contaminated with As. An overall accumulation of methylated As occurred during 60 day-composting time. The concentration of monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) increased from 6 to 190 μg kg−1 within 15 days and decreased to 35 μg kg−1 at the end of the maturing phase; while the concentration of dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) continuously increased from 33 to 595 μg kg−1 over the composting time. The arsM gene copies increased gradually from 0.08 × 109 to 6.82 × 109 copies g−1 dry mass over time and correlated positively to the concentrations of methylated As. 16S rRNA gene sequencing and arsM clone library analysis confirmed the high abundance and diversity of arsM genes. Many of these genes were related to those from known As-methylating microbes, including Streptomyces sp., Amycolatopsis mediterranei and Sphaerobacter thermophiles. These results demonstrated that As methylation during manure composting is significant and, for the first time, established a linkage between As biomethylation and the abundance and diversity of the arsM functional genes in composting manure.
Absence of PD-L1 on tumor cells is associated with reduced MHC I expression and PD-L1 expression increases in recurrent serous ovarian cancer
Authors: Aust Stefanie , Felix Sophie , Auer Katharina , Bachmayr-Heyda Anna , Kenner Lukas , Dekan Sabine , Meier Samuel M. , Gerner Christopher , Grimm Christoph , Pils Dietmar 
Published: March 2017

AbstractImmune-evasion and immune checkpoints are promising new therapeutic targets for several cancer entities. In ovarian cancer, the clinical role of programmed cell death receptor ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression as mechanism to escape immune recognition has not been clarified yet. We analyzed PD-L1 expression of primary ovarian and peritoneal tumor tissues together with several other parameters (whole transcriptomes of isolated tumor cells, local and systemic immune cells, systemic cytokines and metabolites) and compared PD-L1 expression between primary tumor and tumor recurrences. All expressed major histocompatibility complex (MHC) I genes were negatively correlated to PD-L1 abundances on tumor tissues, indicating two mutually exclusive immune-evasion mechanisms in ovarian cancer: either down-regulation of T-cell mediated immunity by PD-L1 expression or silencing of self-antigen presentation by down-regulation of the MHC I complex. In our cohort and in most of published evidences in ovarian cancer, low PD-L1 expression is associated with unfavorable outcome. Differences in immune cell populations, cytokines, and metabolites strengthen this picture and suggest the existence of concurrent pathways for progression of this disease. Furthermore, recurrences showed significantly increased PD-L1 expression compared to the primary tumors, supporting trials of checkpoint inhibition in the recurrent setting.
3D characterization of morphological changes in the intervertebral disc and endplate during aging: A propagation phase contrast synchrotron micro-tomography study
Authors: Cao Yong , Liao Shenghui , Zeng Hao , Ni Shuangfei , Tintani Francis , Hao Yongqiang , Wang Lei , Wu Tianding , Lu Hongbin , Duan Chunyue , Hu Jianzhong 
Published: March 2017

AbstractA better understanding of functional changes in the intervertebral disc (IVD) and interaction with endplate is essential to elucidate the pathogenesis of IVD degeneration disease (IDDD). To date, the simultaneous depiction of 3D micro-architectural changes of endplate with aging and interaction with IVD remains a technical challenge. We aim to characterize the 3D morphology changes of endplate and IVD during aging using PPCST. The lumbar vertebral level 4/5 IVDs harvested from 15-day-, 4- and 24-month-old mice were initially evaluated by PPCST with histological sections subsequently analyzed to confirm the imaging efficiency. Quantitative assessments of age-related trends after aging, including mean diameter, volume fraction and connectivity of the canals, and endplate porosity and thickness, reached a peak at 4 months and significantly decreased at 24 months. The IVD volume consistently exhibited same trend of variation with the endplate after aging. In this study, PPCST simultaneously provided comprehensive details of 3D morphological changes of the IVD and canal network in the endplate and the interaction after aging. The results suggest that PPCST has the potential to provide a new platform for attaining a deeper insight into the pathogenesis of IDDD, providing potential therapeutic targets.
Two dimensional electrophysiological characterization of human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte system
Authors: Zhu Huanqi , Scharnhorst Kelsey S. , Stieg Adam Z. , Gimzewski James K. , Minami Itsunari , Nakatsuji Norio , Nakano Haruko , Nakano Atsushi 
Published: March 2017

AbstractStem cell-derived cardiomyocytes provide a promising tool for human developmental biology, regenerative therapies, disease modeling, and drug discovery. As human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes remain functionally fetal-type, close monitoring of electrophysiological maturation is critical for their further application to biology and translation. However, to date, electrophysiological analyses of stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes has largely been limited by biologically undefined factors including 3D nature of embryoid body, sera from animals, and the feeder cells isolated from mouse. Large variability in the aforementioned systems leads to uncontrollable and irreproducible results, making conclusive studies difficult. In this report, a chemically-defined differentiation regimen and a monolayer cell culture technique was combined with multielectrode arrays for accurate, real-time, and flexible measurement of electrophysiological parameters in translation-ready human cardiomyocytes. Consistent with their natural counterpart, amplitude and dV/dtmax of field potential progressively increased during the course of maturation. Monolayer culture allowed for the identification of pacemaking cells using the multielectrode array platform and thereby the estimation of conduction velocity, which gradually increased during the differentiation of cardiomyocytes. Thus, the electrophysiological maturation of the human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes in our system recapitulates in vivo development. This system provides a versatile biological tool to analyze human heart development, disease mechanisms, and the efficacy/toxicity of chemicals.
Plasmon-Modulated Excitation-Dependent Fluorescence from Activated CTAB Molecules Strongly Coupled to Gold Nanoparticles
Authors: Ding Si-Jing , Nan Fan , Liu Xiao-Li , Hao Zhong-Hua , Zhou Li , Zeng Jie , Xu Hong-Xing , Zhang Wei , Wang Qu-Quan 
Published: March 2017

AbstractExcitation-dependent fluorophores (EDFs) have been attracted increasing attention owing to their high tunability of emissions and prospective applications ranging from multicolor patterning to bio-imaging. Here, we report tunable fluorescence with quenching dip induced by strong coupling of exciton and plasmon in the hybrid nanostructure of CTAB* EDFs and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The quenching dip in the fluorescence spectrum is tuned by adjusting excitation wavelength as well as plasmon resonance and concentration of AuNPs. The observed excitation-dependent emission spectra with quenching dip are theoretically reproduced and revealed to be induced by resonant energy transfer from multilevel EDFs with wider width channels to plasmonic AuNPs. These findings provide a new approach to prepare EDF molecules and a strategy to modulate fluorescence spectrum via exciton-to-plasmon energy transfer.
ACCORD: an assessment tool to determine the orientation of homodimeric coiled-coils
Authors: Kim Byeong-Won , Jung Yang Ouk , Kim Min Kyung , Kwon Do Hoon , Park Si Hoon , Kim Jun Hoe , Kuk Yong-Boo , Oh Sun-Joo , Kim Leehyeon , Kim Bong Heon , Yang Woo Seok , Song Hyun Kyu 
Published: March 2017

AbstractThe coiled-coil (CC) domain is a very important structural unit of proteins that plays critical roles in various biological functions. The major oligomeric state of CCs is a dimer, which can be either parallel or antiparallel. The orientation of each α-helix in a CC domain is critical for the molecular function of CC-containing proteins, but cannot be determined easily by sequence-based prediction. We developed a biochemical method for assessing differences between parallel and antiparallel CC homodimers and named it ACCORD (Assessment tool for homodimeric Coiled-Coil ORientation Decision). To validate this technique, we applied it to 15 different CC proteins with known structures, and the ACCORD results identified these proteins well, especially with long CCs. Furthermore, ACCORD was able to accurately determine the orientation of a CC domain of unknown directionality that was subsequently confirmed by X-ray crystallography and small angle X-ray scattering. Thus, ACCORD can be used as a tool to determine CC directionality to supplement the results of in silico prediction.
A rapid and visual turn-off sensor for detecting copper (II) ion based on DNAzyme coupled with HCR-based HRP concatemers
Authors: Xu Wentao , Tian Jingjing , Luo Yunbo , Zhu Longjiao , Huang Kunlun 
Published: March 2017

AbstractTo solve the requirement of on-site, rapid, and visual detection of copper (II) (Cu2+) in aqueous solution, a turn-off sensor for detecting copper (II) ion was developed based on Cu2+-dependent DNAzyme as the recognition element and hybridization chain reaction (HCR)-based horseradish peroxidase (HRP) concatemers as the signal amplifier and the signal report element. The detection unit, which was composed of the immobilized Cu2+-dependent DNAzyme coupled with HCR-based HRP concatemers via Waston-Crick base pairing, could catalyze hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) via TMB, generating obvious green color and turning yellow after sulfuric acid termination with optical absorption at 450 nm. Upon Cu2+ addition, the substrate strand of the Cu2+-dependent DNAzyme concatenated with the HCR-based HRP complex was irreversibly cleaved, efficiently causing dramatic reduction of the detection signal. Under optimal conditions, the detection signal decreased with the concentration of Cu2+ in 5 min, exhibiting a linear calibration from 0.05 to 3 μM with a detection limit of 8 nM. The sensor also displayed a high selectivity for Cu2+ given the specificity and anti-interference of the detection unit, and this system was applicable for monitoring Cu2+ in real water samples. Generally speaking, the proposed sensor exhibits good potential in environment surveys.