A Novel TGFβ Modulator that Uncouples R-Smad/I-Smad-Mediated Negative Feedback from R-Smad/Ligand-Driven Positive Feedback

As some of the most widely utilised intercellular signalling molecules, transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) superfamily members play critical roles in normal development and become disrupted in human disease. Establishing appropriate levels of TGFβ signalling involves positive and negative feedback, which are coupled and driven by the same signal transduction components (R-Smad transcription factor complexes), but whether and how the regulation of the two can be distinguished are unknown. Genome-wide comparison of published ChIP-seq datasets suggests that LIM dom

Inibition of return: a “depth-blind” mechanism”?

Four experiments investigated the Inhibition Of Return (IOR), in the three-dimensional and in the two-dimensional space. The first two experiments compared detection and discrimination tasks in eliciting IOR effects in a three-dimensional empty space. Two other experiments assessed the IOR effects in a scene that included two sets of objects (parallelepipeds extending in depth and parallelepipeds located at different depths, extending in the horizontal plane). In each experiment we compared the IOR effects in 2D (both with and without depth clues) and stereoscopic 3D conditions. Results showed IOR in 3D space, confirming that it is not a depth-blind mechanism

Automatic and voluntary orienting of attention in visual search: two independent processes?

Eighteen subjects performed two visual searchtasks, characterized by different cognitive load,which required to identify a vertical segmentbetween other segments, all with the same orientation,and a distractor that could be presented ornot. By varying the orientation of both targets anddistractors, it was manipulated the salience and thesimilarity between them, deemed considerable forbottom-up and top-down components respectively.Results showed a salience by similarity interaction,suggesting that, while in high cognitive loadconditions endogenous and exogenous components can act independently, when the task requires mildattentional resources, the two processes give rise toan interaction

Differential Outcomes Procedure: un metodo per ridurre gli effetti della deprivazione di sonno.

Introduzione. La deprivazione di sonno riduce il livello generale di arousal producendo un peggioramento in diverse funzioni cognitive, come apprendimento e memoria. In questo studio abbiamo valutato se un procedimento di apprendimento discriminativo, conosciuto come differential outcomes procedure (DOP), possa migliorare la prestazione mnestica di soggetti sottoposti a un periodo di deprivazione di sonno. Metodo. Hanno partecipato all’esperimento ventisei studenti deprivati di sonno e ventisei studenti di controllo che hanno realizzato un compito di riconoscimento facciale che prevedeva un intervallo temporale breve e uno lungo. Metà dei soggetti ha svolto la versione differential outcomes (DO) del compito, in cui ogni faccia correttamente riconosciuta era seguita dallo stesso rinforzo. L’altra metà ha svolto la versione non-differential outcomes (NDO) in cui i rinforzi erano associati casualmente alle risposte corrette. I soggetti sottoposti a deprivazione di sonno hanno svolto il compito alle 4.00 del mattino, mentre il gruppo di controllo alle 20.00 di sera. Risultati. Nel gruppo di controllo è stato osservato un beneficio della DOP in termini di una maggiore percentuale di risposte corrette nella condizione differential outcomes rispetto alla condizione non-differential outcomes, nell’intervallo lungo ma non in quello breve; la DOP, quindi, é risultata efficace quando lo sforzo mnestico richiesto era maggiore. Al contrario, nei soggetti sonno deprivati la DOP ha migliorato la prestazione solo nell’intervallo breve. Conclusioni. Questo risultato conferma che la DOP puó limitare gli effetti della deprivazione di sonno sulla prestazione mnestica, ma solo quando la memoria di lavoro non è eccessivamente sovraccarica

Nonlinear circular dichroism in self-organized metal nanowires arrays2011 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe and 12th European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO EUROPE/EQEC)

Metal nanostructures supported on dielectric substrates have attracted great interest as building blocks of nanoscale optical devices such nano-plasmonic devices or planar metamaterials. In this framework artificial circular dichroism [1] is investigated for developing novel devices for active polarization controllers, like rotators and modulators and high efficient molecular sensors. Here we report the experimental observation of nonlinear extrinsic chirality [2] (circular dichroism) of the second harmonic (SH) field generated by self-organized gold nanowire arrays with sub-wavelength periodicity [3]. In this material the chirality arises from the curvature of the self-assembled wires, producing a lack of symmetry at oblique incidence [2]. Such circular dichroism in the SH field is the evident signature of the sample morphology and can be used in order to develop more efficient molecular sensors, based on metal enhanced fluorescence or surface enhanced Raman scattering

Fine analysis of the short arm of chromosome 1 in sporadic and familial pheochromocytoma.

OBJECTIVE: Despite the very recent discovery that about 25% of apparently sporadic forms of pheochromocytoma are actually due to germline mutations of RET, VHL, SDHB or SDHD genes, the genetic bases of the tumourigenesis of this type of cancer are still incompletely understood. Recent studies provided evidence that a new tumour suppressor gene, mapping on the short arm of chromosome 1, could be involved in early tumourigenesis of pheochromocytoma. DESIGN: We have performed a fine analysis of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of this region. In particular, we have analysed 31 highly polymorphic microsatellites distributed at 3.8 Mege base (Mb) mean intervals along the short arm of the chromosome 1 in paired samples of DNA extracted from peripheral blood lymphocytes and tumour tissues. PATIENTS: The study was carried out on 38 patients with pheochromocytoma that had been grouped, by careful clinical and molecular investigation, in the following classes: 21 sporadic, five multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2 (MEN2), two type 1 neurofibromatosis (NF1), five von Hippel-Lindau (VHL), one somatic VHL mutated and four nonsyndromic familial cases. RESULTS: In 12/21 sporadic cases (57.1%), in 4/5 MEN2 (80%), 2/4 non-syndromic familial cases (50%), and in 2/2 NF1 (100%), the entire short arm was deleted, while in 6/21 sporadic (28.6%) and 1/5 MEN2 (20%) cases a partial deletion was detected. On the other hand, none of the five cases due to VHL mutation (either germline or somatic) had LOH at chromosome 1. In total, complete or partial deletion of 1p was detected in 27/38 (71%) of the cases. The most frequently deleted marker was D1S2890, which maps at 1p32.1. This region, which spans from 50 to 62 Mb from telomere, was therefore further investigated with markers located at a mean interval of 1.3 Mb in the subset of cases that showed a partial deletion of 1p. This analysis showed that a small region between 55.1 and 59.0 Mb was most frequently missing, which could therefore contain a novel pheochromocytoma locus. CONCLUSIONS: The results presented here confirm that the short arm of chromosome 1 harbours one or more genes responsible for the development of pheochromocytoma and suggest that one of them could map in a 3.9-Mb fragment between 1p32.3 and 1p32.1