Predominant mucosal expression of 5-HT4(+h) receptor splice variants in pig stomach and colon

AIM: To investigate cellular 5-HT(4(-h/+h)) receptor distribution, particularly in the epithelial layer, by laser microdissection and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in porcine gastrointestinal (GI) tissues. METHODS: A stepwise approach was used to evaluate RNA quality and to study cell-specific 5-HT(4) receptor mRNA expression in the porcine gastric fundus and colon descendens. After freezing, staining and laser microdissection and pressure catapulting (LMPC), RNA quality was evaluated by the Experion automated electrophoresis system. 5-HT(4) receptor and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) expressions were examined by endpoint reverse transcription (RT)-PCR in mucosal and muscle-myenteric plexus (MMP) tissue fractions, in mucosal and MMP parts of hematoxylin and eosin (HE) stained tissue sections and in microdissected patches of the epithelial and circular smooth muscle cell layer in these sections. Pig gastric fundus tissue sections were also stained immunohistochemically (IHC) for enterochromaffin cells (EC cells; MAB352); these cells were isolated by LMPC and examined by endpoint RT-PCR. RESULTS: After HE staining, the epithelial and circular smooth muscle cell layer of pig colon descendens and the epithelial cell layer of gastric fundus were identified morphologically and isolated by LMPC. EC cells of pig gastric fundus were successfully stained by IHC and isolated by LMPC. Freezing, HE and IHC staining, and LMPC had no influence on RNA quality. 5-HT(4) receptor and GAPDH mRNA expressions were detected in mucosa and MMP tissue fractions, and in mucosal and MMP parts of HE stained tissue sections of pig colon descendens and gastric fundus. In the mucosa tissue fractions of both GI regions, the expression of h-exon containing receptor [5-HT(4(+h)) receptor] mRNA was significantly higher (P < 0.01) compared to 5-HT(4(-h)) receptor expression, and a similar trend was obtained in the mucosal part of HE stained tissue sections. Large microdissected patches of the epithelial and circular smooth muscle cell layer of pig colon descendens and of the epithelial cell layer of pig gastric fundus, also showed 5-HT(4) receptor and GAPDH mRNA expression. No 5-HT(4) receptor mRNA expression was detected in gastric LMPC-isolated EC cells from IHC stained tissues, which cells were positive for GAPDH. CONCLUSION: Porcine GI mucosa predominantly expresses 5-HT(4(+h)) receptor splice variants, suggesting their contribution to the 5-HT(4) receptor-mediated mucosal effects of 5-HT

Orthogonal perfect DFT Golay codes

Deciding about which coding sequences should be used is an important issue in many communication systems, such as those employing Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). In this paper, we propose a cascading electronic codec based on a recursive algorithm for the generation of perfect sequences, derived from an Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform (IDFT) of Golay codes. The sequences generated have a low Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR), around 3 dB, which is the PAPR of a sine wave. The proposal is compared to the original Golay codes, verifying that our codec provides better crosscorrelation and autocorrelation results, crucial to gain immunity to multi-path interference.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Co-creating a program for teams to maintain and reflect on their flexibility

To prevent rigidity within teams in health care and to support teams in detecting early warning signs of decreasing flexibility, a program has been co-created in collaboration with mental healthcare teams. This program is intended to systematically monitor team behavior, and by doing so to facilitate team intervention. We aim to lay foundations for the further development of methods that can help teams to recognize and respond to processes going on under the surface. This paper introduces the program to the reader; and describes its premises and the co-creation process, leading to a program of nine steps. Then, it describes the application of the program within a team, what a team needs to use the program, and whether the nine steps are sufficient. This pilot shows that the program is a helpful framework within which teams can talk about rigidity, define indicators of their flexibility, and think about appropriate actions and interventions for maintaining or restoring their flexibility. Team ownership and the customizability of the program are important attributes. The program appears to provide a useful framework that helps a team to observe and discuss processes. Team members become aware of the indicators of their team and make their goals explicit

Research Blogs and the Discussion of Scholarly Information

The research blog has become a popular mechanism for the quick discussion of scholarly information. However, unlike peer-reviewed journals, the characteristics of this form of scientific discourse are not well understood, for example in terms of the spread of blogger levels of education, gender and institutional affiliations. In this paper we fill this gap by analyzing a sample of blog posts discussing science via an aggregator called ResearchBlogging.org (RB). ResearchBlogging.org aggregates posts based on peer-reviewed research and allows bloggers to cite their sources in a scholarly manner. We studied the bloggers, blog posts and referenced journals of bloggers who posted at least 20 items. We found that RB bloggers show a preference for papers from high-impact journals and blog mostly about research in the life and behavioral sciences. The most frequently referenced journal sources in the sample were: Science, Nature, PNAS and PLoS One. Most of the bloggers in our sample had active Twitter accounts connected with their blogs, and at least 90% of these accounts connect to at least one other RB-related Twitter account. The average RB blogger in our sample is male, either a graduate student or has been awarded a PhD and blogs under his own name

Universal Rights and Wrongs

This paper argues for the important role of customers as a source of competitive advantage and firm growth, an issue which has been largely neglected in the resource-based view of the firm. It conceptualizes Penrose’s (1959) notion of an ‘inside track’ and illustrates how in-depth knowledge about established customers combines with joint problem-solving activities and the rapid assimilation of new and previously unexploited skills and resources. It is suggested that the inside track represents a distinct and perhaps underestimated way of generating rents and securing long-term growth. This also implies that the sources of sustainable competitive advantage in important respects can be sought in idiosyncratic interfirm relationships rather than within the firm itself

Theoretical and technological building blocks for an innovation accelerator

The scientific system that we use today was devised centuries ago and is inadequate for our current ICT-based society: the peer review system encourages conservatism, journal publications are monolithic and slow, data is often not available to other scientists, and the independent validation of results is limited. Building on the Innovation Accelerator paper by Helbing and Balietti (2011) this paper takes the initial global vision and reviews the theoretical and technological building blocks that can be used for implementing an innovation (in first place: science) accelerator platform driven by re-imagining the science system. The envisioned platform would rest on four pillars: (i) Redesign the incentive scheme to reduce behavior such as conservatism, herding and hyping; (ii) Advance scientific publications by breaking up the monolithic paper unit and introducing other building blocks such as data, tools, experiment workflows, resources; (iii) Use machine readable semantics for publications, debate structures, provenance etc. in order to include the computer as a partner in the scientific process, and (iv) Build an online platform for collaboration, including a network of trust and reputation among the different types of stakeholders in the scientific system: scientists, educators, funding agencies, policy makers, students and industrial innovators among others. Any such improvements to the scientific system must support the entire scientific process (unlike current tools that chop up the scientific process into disconnected pieces), must facilitate and encourage collaboration and interdisciplinarity (again unlike current tools), must facilitate the inclusion of intelligent computing in the scientific process, must facilitate not only the core scientific process, but also accommodate other stakeholders such science policy makers, industrial innovators, and the general public

EPR analysis of multiple forms of [4Fe–4S] 3+ clusters in HiPIPs

The electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrum from the [4Fe–4S] 3+ cluster in several high-potential iron–sulfur proteins (HiPIPs) is complex: it is not the pattern of a single, isolated S =1/2 system. Multifrequency EPR from 9 to 130 GHz reveals that the apparent peak positions ( g values) are frequency-independent: the spectrum is dominated by the Zeeman interaction plus g -strain broadening. The spectra taken at frequencies above the X-band are increasingly sensitive to rapid-passage effects; therefore, the X-band data, which are slightly additionally broadened by dipolar interaction, were used for quantitative spectral analysis. For a single geometrical [4Fe–4S] 3+ structure the (Fe–Fe) 5+ mixed-valence dimer can be assigned in six different ways to a pair of iron ions, and this defines six valence isomers. Systematic multicomponent g -strain simulation shows that the [4Fe–4S] 3+ paramagnets in seven HiPIPs from different bacteria each consist of three to four discernible species, and these are assigned to valence isomers of the clusters. This interpretation builds on previous EPR analyzes of [4Fe–4S] 3+ model compounds, and it constitutes a high-resolution extension of the current literature model, proposed from paramagnetic NMR studies.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47867/1/775_2005_Article_656.pd