The dual role of ultraspiracle, the Drosophila retinoid X receptor, in the ecdysone response

The Drosophila homolog of the retinoid X receptor, ultraspiracle (USP), heterodimerizes with the ecdysone receptor (EcR) to form a functional complex that mediates the effects of the steroid molting hormone ecdysone by activating and repressing expression of ecdysone response genes. As with other retinoid X receptor heterodimers, EcR/USP affects gene transcription in a ligand-modulated manner. We used in vivo, cell culture, and biochemical approaches to analyze the functions of two usp alleles, usp3 and usp4, which encode stable proteins with defective DNA-binding domains. We observed that USP is able to activate as well as repress the Z1 isoform of the ecdysone-responsive broad complex (BrC-Z1). Activation of BrC-Z1 as well as EcR, itself an ecdysone response gene, can be mediated by both the USP3 and USP4 mutant proteins. USP3 and USP4 also activate an ecdysone-responsive element, hsp27EcRE, in cultured cells. These results differ from the protein null allele, usp2, which is unable to mediate activation [Schubiger, M. & Truman, J. W. (2000) Development 127, 1151–1159]. BrC-Z1 repression is compromised in all three usp alleles, suggesting that repression involves the association of USP with DNA. Our results distinguish two mechanisms by which USP modulates the properties of EcR: one that involves the USP DNA-binding domain and one that can be achieved solely through the ligand-binding domain. These newly revealed properties of USP might implicate similar properties for retinoid X receptor.

Drosophila hormone receptor 38: a second partner for Drosophila USP suggests an unexpected role for nuclear receptors of the nerve growth factor-induced protein B type.

In Drosophila the response to the hormone ecdysone is mediated in part by Ultraspiracle (USP) and ecdysone receptor (EcR), which are members of the nuclear receptor superfamily. Heterodimers of these proteins bind to ecdysone response elements (EcREs) and ecdysone to modulate transcription. Herein we describe Drosophila hormone receptor 38 (DHR38) and Bombyx hormone receptor 38 (BHR38), two insect homologues of rat nerve growth factor-induced protein B (NGFI-B). Although members of the NGFI-B family are thought to function exclusively as monomers, we show that DHR38 and BHR38 in fact interact strongly with USP and that this interaction is evolutionarily conserved. DHR38 can compete in vitro against EcR for dimerization with USP and consequently disrupt EcR-USP binding to an EcRE. Moreover, transfection experiments in Schneider cells show that DHR38 can affect ecdysone-dependent transcription. This suggests that DHR38 plays a role in the ecdysone response and that more generally NGFI-B type receptors may be able to function as heterodimers with retinoid X receptor type receptors in regulating transcription.

Development of a magnetic resonance compatible wrist device for the analysis of movement encoding in the brain

Tese de mestrado integrado em Engenharia Biomédica e Biofísica, apresentada à Universidade de Lisboa, através da Faculdade de Ciências, 2016

Euroscepticism vs. Political Pragmatism: The Finns Party tones down its criticism of the EU. EPIN Commentary No. 19, 26 June 2014

While many Eurosceptic parties in Europe achieved historical successes in this year’s EP elections, Finland’s populist Finns Party was unable to fulfil its own high expectations. With the eurozone crisis at least temporarily subsiding and Finland’s own economy struggling, the party has been unable to find a new electoral trump card. Facing a changed political climate and stiffer competition, the party is currently toning down its criticism of the EU, as indicated by its recent decision to join the British Tories in the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group.

Short structured feedback training is equivalent to a mechanical feedback device in two-rescuer BLS: a randomised simulation study.

BACKGROUND Resuscitation guidelines encourage the use of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) feedback devices implying better outcomes after sudden cardiac arrest. Whether effective continuous feedback could also be given verbally by a second rescuer ("human feedback") has not been investigated yet. We, therefore, compared the effect of human feedback to a CPR feedback device. METHODS In an open, prospective, randomised, controlled trial, we compared CPR performance of three groups of medical students in a two-rescuer scenario. Group "sCPR" was taught standard BLS without continuous feedback, serving as control. Group "mfCPR" was taught BLS with mechanical audio-visual feedback (HeartStart MRx with Q-CPR-Technology™). Group "hfCPR" was taught standard BLS with human feedback. Afterwards, 326 medical students performed two-rescuer BLS on a manikin for 8 min. CPR quality parameters, such as "effective compression ratio" (ECR: compressions with correct hand position, depth and complete decompression multiplied by flow-time fraction), and other compression, ventilation and time-related parameters were assessed for all groups. RESULTS ECR was comparable between the hfCPR and the mfCPR group (0.33 vs. 0.35, p = 0.435). The hfCPR group needed less time until starting chest compressions (2 vs. 8 s, p < 0.001) and showed fewer incorrect decompressions (26 vs. 33 %, p = 0.044). On the other hand, absolute hands-off time was higher in the hfCPR group (67 vs. 60 s, p = 0.021). CONCLUSIONS The quality of CPR with human feedback or by using a mechanical audio-visual feedback device was similar. Further studies should investigate whether extended human feedback training could further increase CPR quality at comparable costs for training.

Visual feedback alters the variations in corticospinal excitability that arise from rhythmic movements of the opposite limb

Augmented visual feedback can have a profound bearing on the stability of bimanual coordination. Indeed, this has been used to render tractable the study of patterns of coordination that cannot otherwise be produced in a stable fashion. In previous investigations (Carson et al. 1999), we have shown that rhythmic movements, brought about by the contraction of muscles on one side of the body, lead to phase-locked changes in the excitability of homologous motor pathways of the opposite limb. The present study was conducted to assess whether these changes are influenced by the presence of visual feedback of the moving limb. Eight participants performed rhythmic flexion-extension movements of the left wrist to the beat of a metronome (1.5 Hz). In 50% of trials, visual feedback of wrist displacement was provided in relation to a target amplitude, defined by the mean movement amplitude generated during the immediately preceding no feedback trial. Motor potentials (MEPs) were evoked in the quiescent muscles of the right limb by magnetic stimulation of the left motor cortex. Consistent with our previous observations, MEP amplitudes were modulated during the movement cycle of the opposite limb. The extent of this modulation was, however, smaller in the presence of visual feedback of the moving limb (FCR omega(2) =0.41; ECR omega(2)=0.29) than in trials in which there was no visual feedback (FCR omega(2)=0.51; ECR omega(2)=0.48). In addition, the relationship between the level of FCR activation and the excitability of the homologous corticospinal pathway of the opposite limb was sensitive to the vision condition; the degree of correlation between the two variables was larger when there was no visual feedback of the moving limb. The results of the present study support the view that increases in the stability of bimanual coordination brought about by augmented feedback may be mediated by changes in the crossed modulation of excitability in homologous motor pathways.

Sistema de Apoio à Geração e Automatização de Tarefas

As tecnologias para automatização de tarefas são ferramentas valiosas para garantir a correta execução de processos bem como a obtenção dos resultados esperados. Este projeto visa desenvolver uma solução para a automatização de tarefas recorrendo à captura de imagens do ecrã, à elaboração de uma sequência de ações/tarefas definidas pelo utilizador de modo a detetar falhas e garantir a obtenção dos resultados esperados no fim da execução da tarefa. Este projeto pretende apoiar a realização de testes de software, servindo de apoio à análise do nível de qualidade e fiabilidade de software, permitindo a redução do tempo despendido por parte dos utilizadores/programadores na realização dos testes ou mesmo em tarefas que se pretendam fazer.

Microstructural analysis of surface and interface zones in concrete

Several of OPC paste and concrete specimens, with different mix proportions, were cast against CPF and impermeable formwork (IF) and the profiles of pore structure, microhardness and scratch hardness of the cover zone were established. The chloride ingress and the depth of carbonation of the surface zone of concrete cast against CPF and IF were investigated. The main mechanisms controlling the ECR processes and the factors affecting such treatment were critically reviewed. Subsequently, as a means of restoring passivation of steel embedded in carbonated concrete, such HCP specimens were subjected to ECR. The influence of ECR on the chemistry of the pore solution and the microstructure of the surface and the steel/cement past interface zones were also studied. The main findings of this investigation were as follows: (a) The thickness of the microstructure gradient of cover concrete is significantly decreased with increasing period of water curing but is relatively unaffected by curing temperature, w/e ratio and the use of cement replacement materials. (b) The scratch hardness technique was shown to be potentially useful for characterising the microstructure and microhardness gradients of the surface zone. (c) A relationship between the microstructure gradient and mass transport properties of the surface zone was established. (d) The use of CPF resulted in a significant reduction in porosity of both the cement paste matrix and the aggregate/cement paste transition zone, and a marked improvement in the resistance of the surface zone to carbonation and the ingress of chloride ions. (e) The ECR treatment resulted in a marked densification of the pore structure and in changes to the pore solution chemistry and the cement phases of near-surface and steel/cement paste transition zones. This effect was more pronounced with current density, period of treatment and particularly with the use of sodium phosphate as an electrolyte.

Effect of the base station antenna beam tilting on energy consumption in cellular networks

The objective of this paper is to combine the antenna downtilt selection with the cell size selection in order to reduce the overall radio frequency (RF) transmission power in the homogeneous High-Speed Packet Downlink (HSDPA) cellular radio access network (RAN). The analysis is based on the concept of small cells deployment. The energy consumption ratio (ECR) and the energy reduction gain (ERG) of the cellular RAN are calculated for different antenna tilts when the cell size is being reduced for a given user density and service area. The results have shown that a suitable antenna tilt and the RF power setting can achieve an overall energy reduction of up to 82.56%. Equally, our results demonstrate that a small cell deployment can considerably reduce the overall energy consumption of a cellular network.

Energy efficient radio access architectures for green radio:large versus small cell size deployment

In this paper new architectural approaches that improve the energy efficiency of a cellular radio access network (RAN) are investigated. The aim of the paper is to characterize both the energy consumption ratio (ECR) and the energy consumption gain (ECG) of a cellular RAN when the cell size is reduced for a given user density and service area. The paper affirms that reducing the cell size reduces the cell ECR as desired while increasing the capacity density but the overall RAN energy consumption remains unchanged. In order to trade the increase in capacity density with RAN energy consumption, without degrading the cell capacity provision, a sleep mode is introduced. In sleep mode, cells without active users are powered-off, thereby saving energy. By combining a sleep mode with a small-cell deployment architecture, the paper shows that the ECG can be increased by the factor n = (R/R) while the cell ECR continues to decrease with decreasing cell size.

SFBC MIMO energy efficiency improvements of common packet schedulers for the long term evolution downlink

It is desirable that energy performance improvement is not realized at the expense of other network performance parameters. This paper investigates the trade off between energy efficiency, spectral efficiency and user QoS performance for a multi-cell multi-user radio access network. Specifically, the energy consumption ratio (ECR) and the spectral efficiency of several common frequency domain packet schedulers in a cellular E-UTRAN downlink are compared for both the SISO transmission mode and the 2x2 Alamouti Space Frequency Block Code (SFBC) MIMO transmission mode. It is well known that the 2x2 SFBC MIMO transmission mode is more spectrally efficient compared to the SISO transmission mode, however, the relationship between energy efficiency and spectral efficiency is undecided. It is shown that, for the E-UTRAN downlink with fixed transmission power, spectral efficiency improvement results into energy efficiency improvement. The effect of SFBC MIMO versus SISO on the user QoS performance is also studied. © 2011 IEEE.

Observação da ação na reabilitação do membro superior de pacientes com acidente vascular cerebral: uma revisão sistemática com metanálise

Background: stroke causes long-term impairments, limitation of activities and restriction in participation in daily life situations, especially for upper limb impairment (UL). Action Observation (AO) has been used for the rehabilitation of UL in these patients. It's a multisensory therapy which consists in observing a healthy subject performing a motor task, followed by physical practice. Objectives: assess whether the AO improves motor function of UL and dependence for activities of daily living (ADLs) of stroke patients or cause any adverse effects. Search methods: a search strategy was words and terms used for the identification of articles, in the following scientific basis Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials; MEDLINE; PsycINFO; CINAHL and LILACS. In addition to manual search of the references of articles and search for theses and dissertations in Portal Capes and LILACS. The identification of the studies was conducted from October to December 2015, being the last search on December 3. Selection criteria: randomised controlled trials (RCT) involving adults with stroke who had deficits in upper limb function and used AO as an intervention. Data collection and analysis: the data extracted from the studies were used to analyze the risk of bias, the effect of the treatment and the quality of the body of evidence. Main results: 6 studies were included, totaling 270 patients. The primary outcome analyzed was the motor function of MS. Were combined in meta-analyzes studies comparing AO versus placebo or an active control, considering the immediate and long-term effect (n=241). Regarding the motor function of the arm (5 trials), the estimated effect for the therapy was not significant. However, when considering the hand function estimating the effect was favorable to the group that conducted the AO, in short (mean difference = 6.93, 95% CI 1.48 to 12.39; P = 0.01) and long-term (mean difference = 7.57; 95% CI 1.34 the 13.80; p = 0.02). Unable to perform the analysis for functional dependency. The studies showed a low or uncertain risk of bias, but the quality of evidence the body was considered low and very low quality. Authors’ conclusions: AO was effective in improving hand function of stroke patients. Despite the low quality evidence that the use of OA in clinical practice should not be discouraged. RCT new studies should be conducted with greater methodological rigor and larger samples, covering important outcomes such as functional dependence for ADLs.

Electrical characterization of amorphous silicon MIS-based structures for HIT solar cell applications

A complete electrical characterization of hydrogenated amorphous silicon layers (a-Si:H) deposited on crystalline silicon (c-Si) substrates by electron cyclotron resonance chemical vapor deposition (ECR-CVD) was carried out. These structures are of interest for photovoltaic applications. Different growth temperatures between 30 and 200 °C were used. A rapid thermal annealing in forming gas atmosphere at 200 °C during 10 min was applied after the metallization process. The evolution of interfacial state density with the deposition temperature indicates a better interface passivation at higher growth temperatures. However, in these cases, an important contribution of slow states is detected as well. Thus, using intermediate growth temperatures (100–150 °C) might be the best choice.

De Relatie tussen Hechting en Welbevinden bij Ouderen: De mediërende Invloed van Mindfulness en Zingeving

Empirische studies hebben aangetoond dat bij ouderen een veilige hechting positief samenhangt met het niveau van welbevinden. Hechting is een relatief stabiel en moeilijk te beïnvloeden persoonlijk kenmerk en daarom is het belangrijk om mediatoren van het verband tussen hechting en psychologische uitkomstmaten te vinden die met interventies te beïnvloeden zijn. De vraagstelling van de studie luidde: ‘Welk verband bestaat er tussen hechting en welbevinden bij ouderen en wordt dit verband gemedieerd door mindfulness en zingeving?’. De huidige studie was een survey met één meetmoment. De 210 respondenten waren 65 jaar of ouder (M = 71.25, SD = 5.42) en thuiswonend. Daarnaast mochten ze geen ernstige geheugenproblemen of een psychiatrische stoornis hebben. Via de sneeuwbalmethode werden de respondenten mondeling of schriftelijk door de onderzoeker benaderd. De vragenlijst kon anoniem online of op papier worden ingevuld. Hechting werd gemeten met de Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R), mindfulness met de Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), zingeving met de Meaning in Life Questionnaire, subschaal ‘Presence of meaning in life’ (MLQ-P) en welbevinden met de Positive Affect Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) en de Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). Zowel hechtingsgerelateerde angst (‘angst’) als hechtingsgerelateerde vermijding (‘vermijding’) bleek in correlatieanalyses negatief samen te hangen met mindfulness, zingeving en welbevinden. Tussen mindfulness, zingeving en welbevinden werden positieve verbanden gevonden. De (seriële) mediatieanalyse werd uitgevoerd met behulp van de macro PROCESS 2.13. Zowel het verband tussen ‘angst’ en welbevinden als tussen ‘vermijding’ en welbevinden werd volledig (serieel) gemedieerd door mindfulness en zingeving.

Hmx1 Function In Lateral Facial Development

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-08