bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Soybean Peptide Vglycin Preserves the Diabetic β-cells through Improvement of Proliferation and Inhibition of Apoptosis
Authors: Jiang Hua , Tong Yuxing , Yan Dongjing , Jia Shaohui , Ostenson Claes-Goran , Chen Zhengwang 
Published: October 2015

AbstractReplenishment of insulin-producing pancreatic β-cells would be beneficial in diabetes. The number of β-cells is maintained primarily by self-neogenesis to compensate for β-cell failure, loss or dedifferentiation. We present here a polypeptide vglycin, which was isolated and purified from germinating pea seeds. Vglycin exhibited positive effects in our diabetic models by promoting the proliferation and suppressing the apoptosis and dedifferentiation of β-cells. Vglycin promoted the restoration of β-cells in both young streptozotocin (STZ)-induced type 1 diabetic SD rats and in aged high-fat diet with (or without) STZ-induced type 2 diabetic C57BL/6 mice. We demonstrated that vglycin triggers this positive signaling by activating the insulin receptor and corresponding transcription factors. Impaired insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance in aged T2DM mice were dramatically improved after long-term vglycin treatment, consistent with the altered level of inflammatory factor IL-1β/6. In addition, energy expenditure and body weights were significantly decreased in the mouse models after vglycin therapy. These results provide insight into the protective effects of vglycin on ameliorating β-cell function in standing glucolipotoxicity. Thus, vglycin may represent a new therapeutic agent for preventing and treating diabetes by replenishing endogenous insulin-positive cells.
TGF-β2 induces Grb2 to recruit PI3-K to TGF-RII that activates JNK/AP-1-signaling and augments invasiveness of Theileria-transformed macrophages
Authors: Haidar Malak , Whitworth Jessie , Noé Gaelle , Liu Wang Qing , Vidal Michel , Langsley Gordon 
Published: October 2015

AbstractTheileria-infected macrophages display many features of cancer cells such as heightened invasive capacity; however, the tumor-like phenotype is reversible by killing the parasite. Moreover, virulent macrophages can be attenuated by multiple in vitro passages and so provide a powerful model to elucidate mechanisms related to transformed macrophage virulence. Here, we demonstrate that in two independent Theileria-transformed macrophage cell lines Grb2 expression is down-regulated concomitant with loss of tumor virulence. Using peptidimer-c to ablate SH2 and SH3 interactions of Grb2 we identify TGF-receptor II and the p85 subunit of PI3-K, as Grb2 partners in virulent macrophages. Ablation of Grb2 interactions reduces PI3-K recruitment to TGF-RII and decreases PIP3 production and dampens JNK phosphorylation and AP-1-driven transcriptional activity down to levels characteristic of attenuated macrophages. Loss of TGF-R>PI3-K>JNK>AP-1 signaling negatively impacts on virulence traits such as reduced JAM-L/ITG4A and Fos-B/MMP9 expression that contribute to virulent macrophage adhesion and invasiveness.
Fluidic Active Transducer for Electricity Generation
Authors: Yang YoungJun , Park Junwoo , Kwon Soon-Hyung , Kim Youn Sang 
Published: October 2015

AbstractFlows in small size channels have been studied for a long time over multidisciplinary field such as chemistry, biology and medical through the various topics. Recently, the attempts of electricity generation from the small flows as a new area for energy harvesting in microfluidics have been reported. Here, we propose for the first time a new fluidic electricity generator (FEG) by modulating the electric double layer (EDL) with two phase flows of water and air without external power sources. We find that an electric current flowed by the forming/deforming of the EDL with a simple separated phase flow of water and air at the surface of the FEG. Electric signals between two electrodes of the FEG are checked from various water/air passing conditions. Moreover, we verify the possibility of a self-powered air slug sensor by applying the FEG in the detection of an air slug.
Superadiabatic Controlled Evolutions and Universal Quantum Computation
Authors: Santos Alan C. , Sarandy Marcelo S. 
Published: October 2015

AbstractAdiabatic state engineering is a powerful technique in quantum information and quantum control. However, its performance is limited by the adiabatic theorem of quantum mechanics. In this scenario, shortcuts to adiabaticity, such as provided by the superadiabatic theory, constitute a valuable tool to speed up the adiabatic quantum behavior. Here, we propose a superadiabatic route to implement universal quantum computation. Our method is based on the realization of piecewise controlled superadiabatic evolutions. Remarkably, they can be obtained by simple time-independent counter-diabatic Hamiltonians. In particular, we discuss the implementation of fast rotation gates and arbitrary n-qubit controlled gates, which can be used to design different sets of universal quantum gates. Concerning the energy cost of the superadiabatic implementation, we show that it is dictated by the quantum speed limit, providing an upper bound for the corresponding adiabatic counterparts.
Toward industrial scale synthesis of ultrapure singlet nanoparticles with controllable sizes in a continuous gas-phase process
Authors: Feng Jicheng , Biskos George , Schmidt-Ott Andreas 
Published: October 2015

AbstractContinuous gas-phase synthesis of nanoparticles is associated with rapid agglomeration, which can be a limiting factor for numerous applications. In this report, we challenge this paradigm by providing experimental evidence to support that gas-phase methods can be used to produce ultrapure non-agglomerated “singlet” nanoparticles having tunable sizes at room temperature. By controlling the temperature in the particle growth zone to guarantee complete coalescence of colliding entities, the size of singlets in principle can be regulated from that of single atoms to any desired value. We assess our results in the context of a simple analytical model to explore the dependence of singlet size on the operating conditions. Agreement of the model with experimental measurements shows that these methods can be effectively used for producing singlets that can be processed further by many alternative approaches. Combined with the capabilities of up-scaling and unlimited mixing that spark ablation enables, this study provides an easy-to-use concept for producing the key building blocks for low-cost industrial-scale nanofabrication of advanced materials.
Bending light via adiabatic optical transition in longitudinally modulated photonic lattices
Authors: Han Bin , Xu Lei , Dou Yiling , Xu Jingjun , Zhang Guoquan 
Published: October 2015

AbstractBending light in a controllable way is desired in various applications such as beam steering, navigating and cloaking. Different from the conventional way to bend light by refractive index gradient, transformation optics or special beams through wavefront design such as Airy beams and surface plasmons, we proposed a mechanism to bend light via resonant adiabatic optical transition between Floquet-Bloch (FB) modes from different FB bands in longitudinally modulated photonic lattices. The band structure of longitudinally modulated photonic lattices was calculated by employing the concept of quasi-energy based on the Floquet-Bloch theory, showing the existence of band discontinuities at specific resonant points which cannot be revealed by the coupled-mode theory. Interestingly, different FB bands can be seamlessly connected at these resonant points in longitudinally modulated photonic lattices driven by adiabatically varying the longitudinal modulation period along the propagation direction, which stimulates the adiabatic FB mode transition between different FB bands.
Structural evidence for the role of polar core residue Arg175 in arrestin activation
Authors: Granzin Joachim , Stadler Andreas , Cousin Anneliese , Schlesinger Ramona , Batra-Safferling Renu 
Published: October 2015

AbstractBinding mechanism of arrestin requires photoactivation and phosphorylation of the receptor protein rhodopsin, where the receptor bound phosphate groups cause displacement of the long C-tail ‘activating’ arrestin. Mutation of arginine 175 to glutamic acid (R175E), a central residue in the polar core and previously predicted as the ‘phosphosensor’ leads to a pre-active arrestin that is able to terminate phototransduction by binding to non-phosphorylated, light-activated rhodopsin. Here, we report the first crystal structure of a R175E mutant arrestin at 2.7 Å resolution that reveals significant differences compared to the basal state reported in full-length arrestin structures. These differences comprise disruption of hydrogen bond network in the polar core and three-element interaction including disordering of several residues in the receptor-binding finger loop and the C-terminus (residues 361–404). Additionally, R175E structure shows a 7.5° rotation of the amino and carboxy-terminal domains relative to each other. Consistent to the biochemical data, our structure suggests an important role of R29 in the initial activation step of C-tail release. Comparison of the crystal structures of basal arrestin and R175E mutant provide insights into the mechanism of arrestin activation, where binding of the receptor likely induces structural changes mimicked as in R175E.
Gradual edge enhancement in spiral phase contrast imaging with fractional vortex filters
Authors: Wang Jikang , Zhang Wuhong , Qi Qianqian , Zheng Shasha , Chen Lixiang 
Published: October 2015

AbstractIn the spiral phase contrast imaging, the integer spiral phase plate (SPP) are generally employed to perform the radial Hilbert transform on the object. Here we introduce fractional SPP filters, instead of the integer ones, to investigate the gradual formation of edge enhancement for pure phase objects. Two spatial light modulators are used in our experimental configuration. One is addressed to display the pure phase object of a five-pointed star, while the other serves as a dynamic filter of fractional topological charge Q. Of interest is the observation of the complete reversal of the edge and background brightness by gradually changing the fractional vortices from Q = 0 to 1. The experimental results were well interpreted based on the OAM spectra of fractional SPP, which indicates that the filtered output image can be considered as a coherent superposition of all possible images that are individually resulted from the integer OAM filtering. Besides, we show that the spiral phase contrast effect can still be observed in real time for a rotating three-leaf clover. Our results may find potential applications in the optical microscopic imaging.
Contrast-dependent orientation discrimination in the mouse
Authors: Long Minghai , Jiang Weiqian , Liu Dechen , Yao Haishan 
Published: October 2015

AbstractAs an important animal model to study the relationship between behaviour and neural activity, the mouse is able to perform a variety of visual tasks, such as orientation discrimination and contrast detection. However, it is not clear how stimulus contrast influences the performance of orientation discrimination in mice. In this study, we used two task designs, two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) and go/no-go, to examine the performance of mice to discriminate two orthogonal orientations at different contrasts. We found that the performance tended to increase with contrast and the performance at high contrast was better when the stimulus set contained a single contrast than multiple contrasts. Physiological experiments in V1 showed that neural discriminability of two orthogonal orientations increased with contrast. Furthermore, orientation discriminability of V1 neurons at high contrast was higher in the single than in the multiple contrast condition, largely due to smaller response variance in the single contrast condition. Thus, the performance of mice to discriminate orientations at high contrast is adapted to the contrast range in the stimuli, partly attributed to the contrast-range dependent capacity of V1 neurons to discriminate orientations.
The Chemokine MIP-1α/CCL3 impairs mouse hippocampal synaptic transmission, plasticity and memory
Authors: Marciniak Elodie , Faivre Emilie , Dutar Patrick , Alves Pires Claire , Demeyer Dominique , Caillierez Raphaëlle , Laloux Charlotte , Buée Luc , Blum David , Humez Sandrine 
Published: October 2015

AbstractChemokines are signaling molecules playing an important role in immune regulations. They are also thought to regulate brain development, neurogenesis and neuroendocrine functions. While chemokine upsurge has been associated with conditions characterized with cognitive impairments, their ability to modulate synaptic plasticity remains ill-defined. In the present study, we specifically evaluated the effects of MIP1-α/CCL3 towards hippocampal synaptic transmission, plasticity and spatial memory. We found that CCL3 (50 ng/ml) significantly reduced basal synaptic transmission at the Schaffer collateral-CA1 synapse without affecting NMDAR-mediated field potentials. This effect was ascribed to post-synaptic regulations, as CCL3 did not impact paired-pulse facilitation. While CCL3 did not modulate long-term depression (LTD), it significantly impaired long-term potentiation (LTP), an effect abolished by Maraviroc, a CCR5 specific antagonist. In addition, sub-chronic intracerebroventricular (icv) injections of CCL3 also impair LTP. In accordance with these electrophysiological findings, we demonstrated that the icv injection of CCL3 in mouse significantly impaired spatial memory abilities and long-term memory measured using the two-step Y-maze and passive avoidance tasks. These effects of CCL3 on memory were inhibited by Maraviroc. Altogether, these data suggest that the chemokine CCL3 is an hippocampal neuromodulator able to regulate synaptic plasticity mechanisms involved in learning and memory functions.
Electrospun Fibrous Membranes with Super-large-strain Electric Superhydrophobicity
Authors: Zhou Hua , Wang Hongxia , Niu Haitao , Lin Tong 
Published: October 2015

AbstractLarge-strain elastic superhydrophobicity is highly desirable for its enhanced use performance and functional reliability in mechanically dynamic environments, but remains challenging to develop. Here we have, for the first time, proven that an elastic fibrous membrane after surface hydrophobization can maintain superhydrophobicity during one-directional (uniaxial) stretching to a strain as high as 1500% and two-direction (biaxial) stretching to a strain up to 700%. The fibrous membrane can withstand at least 1,000 cycles of repeated stretching without losing the superhydrophobicity. Stretching slightly increases the membrane air permeability and reduces water breakthrough pressure. It is highly stable in acid and base environments. Such a permeable, highly-elastic superhydrophobic membrane may open up novel applications in membrane separation, healthcare, functional textile and energy fields.
Magnetic-charge ordering and phase transitions in monopole-conserved square spin ice
Authors: Xie Y.-L. , Du Z.-Z. , Yan Z.-B. , Liu J.-M. 
Published: October 2015

AbstractMagnetic-charge ordering and corresponding magnetic/monopole phase transitions in spin ices are the emergent topics of condensed matter physics. In this work, we investigate a series of magnetic-charge (monopole) phase transitions in artificial square spin ice model using the conserved monopole density algorithm. It is revealed that the dynamics of low monopole density lattices is controlled by the effective Coulomb interaction and the Dirac string tension, leading to the monopole dimerization which is quite different from the dynamics of three-dimensional pyrochlore spin ice. The condensation of the monopole dimers into monopole crystals with staggered magnetic-charge order can be predicted clearly. For the high monopole density cases, the lattice undergoes two consecutive phase transitions from high-temperature paramagnetic/charge-disordered phase into staggered charge-ordered phase before eventually toward the long-range magnetically-ordered phase as the ground state which is of staggered charge order too. A phase diagram over the whole temperature-monopole density space, which exhibits a series of emergent spin and monopole ordered states, is presented.
Gut microbe-derived extracellular vesicles induce insulin resistance, thereby impairing glucose metabolism in skeletal muscle
Authors: Choi Youngwoo , Kwon Yonghoon , Kim Dae-Kyum , Jeon Jinseong , Jang Su Chul , Wang Taejun , Ban Minjee , Kim Min-Hye , Jeon Seong Gyu , Kim Min-Sun , Choi Cheol Soo , Jee Young-Koo , Gho Yong Song , Ryu Sung Ho , Kim Yoon-Keun 
Published: October 2015

AbstractGut microbes might influence host metabolic homeostasis and contribute to the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes (T2D), which is characterized by insulin resistance. Bacteria-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been suggested to be important in the pathogenesis of diseases once believed to be non-infectious. Here, we hypothesize that gut microbe-derived EVs are important in the pathogenesis of T2D. In vivo administration of stool EVs from high fat diet (HFD)-fed mice induced insulin resistance and glucose intolerance compared to regular diet (RD)-fed mice. Metagenomic profiling of stool EVs by 16S ribosomal DNA sequencing revealed an increased amount of EVs derived from Pseudomonas panacis (phylum Proteobacteria) in HFD mice compared to RD mice. Interestingly, P. panacis EVs blocked the insulin signaling pathway in both skeletal muscle and adipose tissue. Moreover, isolated P. panacis EVs induced typical diabetic phenotypes, such as glucose intolerance after glucose administration or systemic insulin injection. Thus, gut microbe-derived EVs might be key players in the development of insulin resistance and impairment of glucose metabolism promoted by HFD.
A Gaze Independent Brain-Computer Interface Based on Visual Stimulation through Closed Eyelids
Authors: Hwang Han-Jeong , Ferreria Valeria Y. , Ulrich Daniel , Kilic Tayfun , Chatziliadis Xenofon , Blankertz Benjamin , Treder Matthias 
Published: October 2015

AbstractA classical brain-computer interface (BCI) based on visual event-related potentials (ERPs) is of limited application value for paralyzed patients with severe oculomotor impairments. In this study, we introduce a novel gaze independent BCI paradigm that can be potentially used for such end-users because visual stimuli are administered on closed eyelids. The paradigm involved verbally presented questions with 3 possible answers. Online BCI experiments were conducted with twelve healthy subjects, where they selected one option by attending to one of three different visual stimuli. It was confirmed that typical cognitive ERPs can be evidently modulated by the attention of a target stimulus in eyes-closed and gaze independent condition and further classified with high accuracy during online operation (74.58% ± 17.85 s.d.; chance level 33.33%), demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed novel visual ERP paradigm. Also, stimulus-specific eye movements observed during stimulation were verified as reflex responses to light stimuli and they did not contribute to classification. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to show the possibility of using a gaze independent visual ERP paradigm in an eyes-closed condition, thereby providing another communication option for severely locked-in patients suffering from complex ocular dysfunctions.
Interrogating the activities of conformational deformed enzyme by single-molecule fluorescence-magnetic tweezers microscopy
Authors: Guo Qing , He Yufan , Lu H. Peter 
Published: October 2015

Significance
It is highly informative to actively manipulate the conformations of an enzyme molecule by an external force and simultaneously observing the responses of the enzymatic activity changes. However, one of the challenges for a conventional approach is that an enzyme cannot be denatured under an enzymatic reaction condition, which prevents a simultaneous conformational manipulation and activity measurements. Using our single-molecule total internal reflection (TIRF)-magnetic tweezers microscopic approach to manipulate the conformations of enzymes and simultaneously probing the enzymatic reactivity changes under enzymatic reaction conditions, we identified that enzymatic activity can be manipulated by external pulling force and that enzyme molecules with deformed conformation are still capable of showing significant activities, involving the enzymatic active site conformational fluctuations and substrate binding-induced folding-binding conformational changes.
Crohn's disease-derived monocytes fail to induce Paneth cell defensins
Authors: Courth Lioba F. , Ostaff Maureen J. , Mailänder-Sánchez Daniela , Malek Nisar P. , Stange Eduard F. , Wehkamp Jan 
Published: October 2015

Significance
Paneth cell defensins (human α-defensins 5 and 6) are central players in the regulation of the human microbiome in the small intestine, but their regulation remains unclear. Here, we show that healthy monocytes can induce the expression of these defensins via Wnt ligands, especially in patients with Crohn’s disease (CD), who normally display reduced levels of human α-defensin 5 (HD5) and HD6, resulting in impaired host defense and, consequently, mucosal inflammation. However, monocytes from these patients are lacking this defensin-inducing capability, which seems to be based on compromised expression of Wnt ligands. This translational human study demonstrates defective cross-talk between monocytes and Paneth cells in CD with implications for gastrointestinal infections and bone marrow transplantation.
Dynamic membrane protein topological switching upon changes in phospholipid environment
Authors: Vitrac Heidi , MacLean David M. , Jayaraman Vasanthi , Bogdanov Mikhail , Dowhan William 
Published: October 2015

Significance
Understanding how a protein sequence folds and orients in a lipid bilayer is central to establishing the molecular basis for membrane protein organization. How lipid environment affects membrane protein organization is understudied. We established that membrane protein orientation is dynamic during and after assembly, dependent on membrane lipid composition, and independent of other cellular factors. We developed a proteoliposome system in which lipid composition can be controlled before and after membrane protein reconstitution and used it to assess the kinetics of changes in transmembrane domain (TMD) orientation and phospholipid flipping within the lipid bilayer triggered by a change in lipid composition. We demonstrate that membrane proteins can undergo rapid postassembly TMD flipping in response to changes in the lipid environment.
LSD1/KDM1A promotes hematopoietic commitment of hemangioblasts through downregulation of Etv2
Authors: Takeuchi Miki , Fuse Yuji , Watanabe Mana , Andrea Christina-Sylvia , Takeuchi Miho , Nakajima Hitomi , Ohashi Ken , Kaneko Hiroshi , Kobayashi-Osaki Maki , Yamamoto Masayuki , Kobayashi Makoto 
Published: October 2015

Significance
Epigenetic regulation of cell fate determination is one of the hottest topics today. In this study, we isolated and characterized a zebrafish mutant in histone Lys-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1/KDM1A), and found that LSD1 plays a role in the initiation of hematopoietic differentiation in the hemangioblast, a bipotent cell that can give rise to hematopoietic or endothelial progenitors. In addition, we identified the major function of LSD1 in hemangioblasts to be the down-regulation of Ets variant 2 (Etv2), a critical regulator of hemangioblast development. Our results suggest that the LSD1-dependent shutdown of the Etv2 gene is the significant event required for hemangioblasts to initiate hematopoietic differentiation.