9,146 research outputs found
Intimate interfaces in action: assessing the usability and subtlety of emg-based motionless gestures
Mobile communication devices, such as mobile phones and networked personal digital assistants (PDAs), allow users to be constantly connected and communicate anywhere and at any time, often resulting in personal and private communication taking place in public spaces. This private -- public contrast can be problematic. As a remedy, we promote intimate interfaces: interfaces that allow subtle and minimal mobile interaction, without disruption of the surrounding environment. In particular, motionless gestures sensed through the electromyographic (EMG) signal have been proposed as a solution to allow subtle input in a mobile context. In this paper we present an expansion of the work on EMG-based motionless gestures including (1) a novel study of their usability in a mobile context for controlling a realistic, multimodal interface and (2) a formal assessment of how noticeable they are to informed observers. Experimental results confirm that subtle gestures can be profitably used within a multimodal interface and that it is difficult for observers to guess when someone is performing a gesture, confirming the hypothesis of subtlety
Cholesterol impairment contributes to neuroserpin aggregation
Intraneural accumulation of misfolded proteins is a common feature of several
neurodegenerative pathologies including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases,
and Familial Encephalopathy with Neuroserpin Inclusion Bodies (FENIB). FENIB is
a rare disease due to a point mutation in neuroserpin which accelerates protein
aggregation in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Here we show that cholesterol
depletion induced either by prolonged exposure to statins or by inhibiting the
sterol regulatory binding-element protein (SREBP) pathway also enhances
aggregation of neuroserpin proteins. These findings can be explained
considering a computational model of protein aggregation under non-equilibrium
conditions, where a decrease in the rate of protein clearance improves
aggregation. Decreasing cholesterol in cell membranes affects their biophysical
properties, including their ability to form the vesicles needed for protein
clearance, as we illustrate by a simple mathematical model. Taken together,
these results suggest that cholesterol reduction induces neuroserpin
aggregation, even in absence of specific neuroserpin mutations. The new
mechanism we uncover could be relevant also for other neurodegenerative
diseases associated with protein aggregation.Comment: 7 figure
Data Acquisition, Management and Tracking
As part of the mini-symposium entitled Data Acquisition, Data Management, and Subject Tracking in Clinical and Translational Research: Seeking Solutions to Persistent Challenges, Drs. Barton and Costanza introduce the symposium with a presentation explaining the importance of data acquisition, management, and tracking of clinical research data
Gestational age at birth and body size from infancy through adolescence: An individual participant data meta-analysis on 253,810 singletons in 16 birth cohort studies
Oligodendroglioma cells lack glutamine synthetase and are auxotrophic for glutamine, but do not depend on glutamine anaplerosis for growth
In cells derived from several types of cancer, a transcriptional program drives high consumption of glutamine (Gln), which is used for anaplerosis, leading to a metabolic addiction for the amino acid. Low or absent expression of Glutamine Synthetase (GS), the only enzyme that catalyzes de novo Gln synthesis, has been considered a marker of Gln-addicted cancers. In this study, two human cell lines derived from brain tumors with oligodendroglioma features, HOG and Hs683, have been shown to be GS-negative. Viability of both lines depends from extracellular Gln with EC of 0.175 ± 0.056 mM (Hs683) and 0.086 ± 0.043 mM (HOG), thus suggesting that small amounts of extracellular Gln are sufficient for OD cell growth. Gln starvation does not significantly affect the cell content of anaplerotic substrates, which, consistently, are not able to rescue cell growth, but causes hindrance of the Wnt/ÎČ-catenin pathway and protein synthesis attenuation, which is mitigated by transient GS expression. Gln transport inhibitors cause partial depletion of intracellular Gln and cell growth inhibition, but do not lower cell viability. Therefore, GS-negative human oligodendroglioma cells are Gln-auxotrophic but do not use the amino acid for anaplerosis and, hence, are not Gln addicted, exhibiting only limited Gln requirements for survival and growth
Priming Effects on Commitment to Help and on Real Helping Behavior
Years of research on bystander apathy have demonstrated that the physical presence of
others can reduce the tendency to help individuals needing assistance. Recent research
on the implicit bystander effect has suggested that simply imagining the presence of
others can lead to less helping behavior on a subsequent unrelated task. The present
study was designed to contribute to previous findings on the implicit bystander effect
by demonstrating these effects on commitment to help and on real helping behavior,
rather than simply on intentions to help. Studies 1a and 1b demonstrate that merely
priming participants with the construct of being in a group at Time 1 created significantly
less commitment to future helping on a subsequent task at Time 2. Study 2 aimed
to extend this effect to behavioral measures and verified that participants exposed to a
group prime helped less than those who were exposed to a single-person prime. The
implications of these findings for the literature on the bystander effect are discussed
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