166 research outputs found
Are tropical cirrus brighter than mid-latitude cirrus?
Recent measurements during FIRE II, in the tropics and elsewhere, support an emerging hypothesis about the role of stratospheric mixing in determining the microphysical and radiative properties of cirrus clouds. This is only a working hypothesis, and may change as new measurements become available. This report reviews the conditions under which certain types of ice crystals form
A Design Engineering Approach for Quantitatively Exploring Context-Aware Sentence Retrieval for Nonspeaking Individuals with Motor Disabilities
Nonspeaking individuals with motor disabilities typically have
very low communication rates. This paper proposes a design
engineering approach for quantitatively exploring contextaware
sentence retrieval as a promising complementary input
interface, working in tandem with a word-prediction keyboard.
We motivate the need for complementary design engineering
methodology in the design of augmentative and alternative
communication and explain how such methods can be used to
gain additional design insights. We then study the theoretical
performance envelopes of a context-aware sentence retrieval
system, identifying potential keystroke savings as a function of
the parameters of the subsystems, such as the accuracy of the
underlying auto-complete word prediction algorithm and the
accuracy of sensed context information under varying assumptions.
We find that context-aware sentence retrieval has the
potential to provide users with considerable improvements in
keystroke savings under reasonable parameter assumptions of
the underlying subsystems. This highlights how complementary
design engineering methods can reveal additional insights
into design for augmentative and alternative communication
A Comparison of Neuroelectrophysiology Databases
As data sharing has become more prevalent, three pillars - archives,
standards, and analysis tools - have emerged as critical components in
facilitating effective data sharing and collaboration. This paper compares four
freely available intracranial neuroelectrophysiology data repositories: Data
Archive for the BRAIN Initiative (DABI), Distributed Archives for
Neurophysiology Data Integration (DANDI), OpenNeuro, and Brain-CODE. These
archives provide researchers with tools to store, share, and reanalyze
neurophysiology data though the means of accomplishing these objectives differ.
The Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) and Neurodata Without Borders (NWB) are
utilized by these archives to make data more accessible to researchers by
implementing a common standard. While many tools are available to reanalyze
data on and off the archives' platforms, this article features Reproducible
Analysis and Visualization of Intracranial EEG (RAVE) toolkit, developed
specifically for the analysis of intracranial signal data and integrated with
the discussed standards and archives. Neuroelectrophysiology data archives
improve how researchers can aggregate, analyze, distribute, and parse these
data, which can lead to more significant findings in neuroscience research.Comment: 25 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl
Ets-1 Is Essential for Connective Tissue Growth Factor (CTGF/CCN2) Induction by TGF-β1 in Osteoblasts
Ets-1 controls osteoblast differentiation and bone development; however, its downstream mechanism of action in osteoblasts remains largely undetermined. CCN2 acts as an anabolic growth factor to regulate osteoblast differentiation and function. CCN2 is induced by TGF-β1 and acts as a mediator of TGF-β1 induced matrix production in osteoblasts; however, the molecular mechanisms that control CCN2 induction are poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the role of Ets-1 for CCN2 induction by TGF-β1 in primary osteoblasts.We demonstrated that Ets-1 is expressed and induced by TGF-β1 treatment in osteoblasts, and that Ets-1 over-expression induces CCN2 protein expression and promoter activity at a level similar to TGF-β1 treatment alone. Additionally, we found that simultaneous Ets-1 over-expression and TGF-β1 treatment synergize to enhance CCN2 induction, and that CCN2 induction by TGF-β1 treatment was impaired using Ets-1 siRNA, demonstrating the requirement of Ets-1 for CCN2 induction by TGF-β1. Site-directed mutagenesis of eight putative Ets-1 motifs (EBE) in the CCN2 promoter demonstrated that specific EBE sites are required for CCN2 induction, and that mutation of EBE sites in closer proximity to TRE or SBE (two sites previously shown to regulate CCN2 induction by TGF-β1) had a greater effect on CCN2 induction, suggesting potential synergetic interaction among these sites for CCN2 induction. In addition, mutation of EBE sites prevented protein complex binding, and this protein complex formation was also inhibited by addition of Ets-1 antibody or Smad 3 antibody, demonstrating that protein binding to EBE motifs as a result of TGF-β1 treatment require synergy between Ets-1 and Smad 3.This study demonstrates that Ets-1 is an essential downstream signaling component for CCN2 induction by TGF-β1 in osteoblasts, and that specific EBE sites in the CCN2 promoter are required for CCN2 promoter transactivation in osteoblasts
Analysis of Germline GLI1 Variation Implicates Hedgehog Signalling in the Regulation of Intestinal Inflammatory Pathways
Charlie Lees and colleagues identify a reduced-function variant of the hedgehog signaling pathway protein GLI1 that associates with inflammatory bowel disease, and investigate its role in a mouse model of colitis
- …