Comparative transcriptome analysis of inner blood-retinal barrier and blood-brain barrier in rats.

Although retinal microvessels (RMVs) and brain microvessels (BMVs) are closely related in their developmental and share similar blood-neural barriers, studies have reported markedly different responses to stressors such as diabetes. Therefore, we hypothesized that RMVs and BMVs will display substantial differences in gene expression levels even though they are of the same embryological origin. In this study, both RMVs and BMVs were mechanically isolated from rats. Full retinal and brain tissue samples (RT, BT) were collected for comparisons. Total RNA extracted from these four groups were processed on Affymetrix rat 2.0 microarray Chips. The transcriptional profiles of these tissues were then analyzed. In the present paper we looked at differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in RMVs (against RT) and BMVs (against BT) using a rather conservative threshold value of ≥  ± twofold change and a false discovery rate corrected for multiple comparisons (p < 0.05). In RMVs a total of 1559 DEGs were found, of which 1004 genes were higher expressed in RMVs than in RT. Moreover, 4244 DEGs between BMVs and BT were identified, of which 1956 genes were ≥ twofold enriched in BMVs. Using these DEGs, we comprehensively analyzed the actual expression levels and highlighted their involvement in critical functional structures in RMVs and BMVs, such as junctional complex, transporters and signaling pathways. Our work provides for the first time the transcriptional profiles of rat RMVs and BMVs. These results may help to understand why retina and brain microvasculature show different susceptibilities to stressors, and they might even provide new insight for pharmacological interventions

1H, 13C, and 15N resonance assignments for the tandem PHD finger motifs of human CHD4

The plant homeodomain (PHD) zinc finger is a structural motif of about 40–60 amino acid residues found in many eukaryotic proteins that are involved in chromatin-mediated gene regulation. The human chromodomain helicase DNA binding protein 4 (CHD4) is a multi-domain protein that harbours, at its N-terminal end, a pair of PHD finger motifs (dPHD) connected by a ~30 amino acid linker. This tandem PHD motif is thought to be involved in targeting CHD4 to chromatin via its interaction with histone tails. Here we report the 1H, 13C and 15N backbone and side-chain resonance assignment of the entire dPHD by heteronuclear multidimensional NMR spectroscopy. These assignments provide the starting point for the determination of the structure, dynamics and histone-binding properties of this tandem domain pair

Acoustic Intensity Causes Perceived Changes in Arousal Levels in Music: An Experimental Investigation

Listener perceptions of changes in the arousal expressed by classical music have been found to correlate with changes in sound intensity/loudness over time. This study manipulated the intensity profiles of different pieces of music in order to test the causal nature of this relationship. Listeners (N = 38) continuously rated their perceptions of the arousal expressed by each piece. An extract from Dvorak's Slavonic Dance Opus 46 No 1 was used to create a variant in which the direction of change in intensity was inverted, while other features were retained. Even though it was only intensity that was inverted, perceived arousal was also inverted. The original intensity profile was also superimposed on three new pieces of music. The time variation in the perceived arousal of all pieces was similar to their intensity profile. Time series analyses revealed that intensity variation was a major influence on the arousal perception in all pieces, in spite of their stylistic diversity

Seasonal cycle of precipitation variability in South America on intraseasonal timescales

The seasonal cycle of the intraseasonal (IS) variability of precipitation in South America is described through the analysis of bandpass filtered outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) anomalies. The analysis is discriminated between short (10--30 days) and long (30--90 days) intraseasonal timescales. The seasonal cycle of the 30--90-day IS variability can be well described by the activity of first leading pattern (EOF1) computed separately for the wet season (October--April) and the dry season (May--September). In agreement with previous works, the EOF1 spatial distribution during the wet season is that of a dipole with centers of actions in the South Atlantic Convergence Zone (SACZ) and southeastern South America (SESA), while during the dry season, only the last center is discernible. In both seasons, the pattern is highly influenced by the activity of the Madden--Julian Oscillation (MJO). Moreover, EOF1 is related with a tropical zonal-wavenumber-1 structure superposed with coherent wave trains extended along the South Pacific during the wet season, while during the dry season the wavenumber-1 structure is not observed. The 10--30-day IS variability of OLR in South America can be well represented by the activity of the EOF1 computed through considering all seasons together, a dipole but with the stronger center located over SESA. While the convection activity at the tropical band does not seem to influence its activity, there are evidences that the atmospheric variability at subtropical-extratropical regions might have a role. Subpolar wavetrains are observed in the Pacific throughout the year and less intense during DJF, while a path of wave energy dispersion along a subtropical wavetrain also characterizes the other seasons. Further work is needed to identify the sources of the 10--30-day-IS variability in South America

Lattice worldline representation of correlators in a background field

We use a discrete worldline representation in order to study the continuum limit of the one-loop expectation value of dimension two and four local operators in a background field. We illustrate this technique in the case of a scalar field coupled to a non-Abelian background gauge field. The first two coefficients of the expansion in powers of the lattice spacing can be expressed as sums over random walks on a d-dimensional cubic lattice. Using combinatorial identities for the distribution of the areas of closed random walks on a lattice, these coefficients can be turned into simple integrals. Our results are valid for an anisotropic lattice, with arbitrary lattice spacings in each direction.Comment: 54 pages, 14 figure

Telepresence and the Role of the Senses

The telepresence experience can be evoked in a number of ways. A well-known example is a player of videogames who reports about a telepresence experience, a subjective experience of being in one place or environment, even when physically situated in another place. In this paper we set the phenomenon of telepresence into a theoretical framework. As people react subjectively to stimuli from telepresence, empirical studies can give more evidence about the phenomenon. Thus, our contribution is to bridge the theoretical with the empirical. We discuss theories of perception with an emphasis on Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and Gibson, the role of the senses and the Spinozian belief procedure. The aim is to contribute to our understanding of this phenomenon. A telepresence-study that included the affordance concept is used to empirically study how players report sense-reactions to virtual sightseeing in two cities. We investigate and explore the interplay of the philosophical and the empirical. The findings indicate that it is not only the visual sense that plays a role in this experience, but all senses

Dynamic Emotional and Neural Responses to Music Depend on Performance Expression and Listener Experience

Apart from its natural relevance to cognition, music provides a window into the intimate relationships between production, perception, experience, and emotion. Here, emotional responses and neural activity were observed as they evolved together with stimulus parameters over several minutes. Participants listened to a skilled music performance that included the natural fluctuations in timing and sound intensity that musicians use to evoke emotional responses. A mechanical performance of the same piece served as a control. Before and after fMRI scanning, participants reported real-time emotional responses on a 2-dimensional rating scale (arousal and valence) as they listened to each performance. During fMRI scanning, participants listened without reporting emotional responses. Limbic and paralimbic brain areas responded to the expressive dynamics of human music performance, and both emotion and reward related activations during music listening were dependent upon musical training. Moreover, dynamic changes in timing predicted ratings of emotional arousal, as well as real-time changes in neural activity. BOLD signal changes correlated with expressive timing fluctuations in cortical and subcortical motor areas consistent with pulse perception, and in a network consistent with the human mirror neuron system. These findings show that expressive music performance evokes emotion and reward related neural activations, and that music's affective impact on the brains of listeners is altered by musical training. Our observations are consistent with the idea that music performance evokes an emotional response through a form of empathy that is based, at least in part, on the perception of movement and on violations of pulse-based temporal expectancies

Fast optoelectric printing of plasmonic nanoparticles into tailored circuits

Plasmonic nanoparticles are able to control light at nanometre-scale by coupling electromagnetic fields to the oscillations of free electrons in metals. Deposition of such nanoparticles onto substrates with tailored patterns is essential, for example, in fabricating plasmonic structures for enhanced sensing. This work presents an innovative micro-patterning technique, based on optoelectic printing, for fast and straightforward fabrication of curve-shaped circuits of plasmonic nanoparticles deposited onto a transparent electrode often used in optoelectronics, liquid crystal displays, touch screens, etc. We experimentally demonstrate that this kind of plasmonic structure, printed by using silver nanoparticles of 40 nm, works as a plasmonic enhanced optical device allowing for polarized-color-tunable light scattering in the visible. These findings have potential applications in biosensing and fabrication of future optoelectronic devices combining the benefits of plasmonic sensing and the functionality of transparent electrodes

The MCM-Binding Protein ETG1 Aids Sister Chromatid Cohesion Required for Postreplicative Homologous Recombination Repair

The DNA replication process represents a source of DNA stress that causes potentially spontaneous genome damage. This effect might be strengthened by mutations in crucial replication factors, requiring the activation of DNA damage checkpoints to enable DNA repair before anaphase onset. Here, we demonstrate that depletion of the evolutionarily conserved minichromosome maintenance helicase-binding protein ETG1 of Arabidopsis thaliana resulted in a stringent late G2 cell cycle arrest. This arrest correlated with a partial loss of sister chromatid cohesion. The lack-of-cohesion phenotype was intensified in plants without functional CTF18, a replication fork factor needed for cohesion establishment. The synergistic effect of the etg1 and ctf18 mutants on sister chromatid cohesion strengthened the impact on plant growth of the replication stress caused by ETG1 deficiency because of inefficient DNA repair. We conclude that the ETG1 replication factor is required for efficient cohesion and that cohesion establishment is essential for proper development of plants suffering from endogenous DNA stress. Cohesion defects observed upon knockdown of its human counterpart suggest an equally important developmental role for the orthologous mammalian ETG1 protein

Biosilicate (R)-gelatine bone scaffolds by the foam replica technique: development and characterization

The development of bioactive glass-ceramic materials has been a topic of great interest aiming at enhancing the mechanical strength of traditional bioactive scaffolds. In the present study, we test and demonstrate the use of Biosilicate® glass-ceramic powder to fabricate bone scaffolds by the foam replica method. Scaffolds possessing the main requirements for use in bone tissue engineering (95% porosity, 200–500 μm pore size) were successfully produced. Gelatine coating was investigated as a simple approach to increase the mechanical competence of the scaffolds. The gelatine coating did not affect the interconnectivity of the pores and did not significantly affect the bioactivity of the Biosilicate® scaffold. The gelatine coating significantly improved the compressive strength (i.e. 0.80 ± 0.05 MPa of coated versus 0.06 ± 0.01 MPa of uncoated scaffolds) of the Biosilicate® scaffold. The combination of Biosilicate® glass-ceramic and gelatine is attractive for producing novel scaffolds for bone tissue engineering