Search results for "Conduct"
showing 10 items of 4412 documents
Out-of-plane orientation of luminescent excitons in two-dimensional indium selenide.
2019
Van der Waals materials offer a wide range of atomic layers with unique properties that can be easily combined to engineer novel electronic and photonic devices. A missing ingredient of the van der Waals platform is a two-dimensional crystal with naturally occurring out-of-plane luminescent dipole orientation. Here we measure the far-field photoluminescence intensity distribution of bulk InSe and two-dimensional InSe, WSe2 and MoSe2. We demonstrate, with the support of ab-initio calculations, that layered InSe flakes sustain luminescent excitons with an intrinsic out-of-plane orientation, in contrast with the in-plane orientation of dipoles we find in two-dimensional WSe2 and MoSe2 at room-…
Sample Preservation, DNA or RNA Extraction and Data Analysis for High-Throughput Phytoplankton Community Sequencing
2017
Phytoplankton is the basis for aquatic food webs and mirrors the water quality. Conventionally, phytoplankton analysis has been done using time consuming and partly subjective microscopic observations, but next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies provide promising potential for rapid automated examination of environmental samples. Because many phytoplankton species have tough cell walls, methods for cell lysis and DNA or RNA isolation need to be efficient to allow unbiased nucleic acid retrieval. Here, we analyzed how two phytoplankton preservation methods, three commercial DNA extraction kits and their improvements, three RNA extraction methods, and two data analysis procedures affect…
Rescuing the CFTR protein function: Introducing 1,3,4-oxadiazoles as translational readthrough inducing drugs.
2018
Nonsense mutations in the CFTR gene prematurely terminate translation of the CFTR mRNA leading to the production of a truncated protein that lacks normal function causing a more severe form of the cystic fibrosis (CF) disease. About 10% of patients affected by CF show a nonsense mutation. A potential treatment of this alteration is to promote translational readthrough of premature termination codons (PTCs) by Translational Readthrough Inducing Drugs (TRIDs) such as PTC124. In this context we aimed to compare the activity of PTC124 with analogues differing in the heteroatoms position in the central heterocyclic core. By a validated protocol consisting of computational screening, synthesis an…
Septin/anillin filaments scaffold central nervous system myelin to accelerate nerve conduction
2016
Myelination of axons facilitates rapid impulse propagation in the nervous system. The axon/myelin-unit becomes impaired in myelin-related disorders and upon normal aging. However, the molecular cause of many pathological features, including the frequently observed myelin outfoldings, remained unknown. Using label-free quantitative proteomics, we find that the presence of myelin outfoldings correlates with a loss of cytoskeletal septins in myelin. Regulated by phosphatidylinositol-(4,5)-bisphosphate (PI(4,5)P2)-levels, myelin septins (SEPT2/SEPT4/SEPT7/SEPT8) and the PI(4,5)P2-adaptor anillin form previously unrecognized filaments that extend longitudinally along myelinated axons. By confoca…
Exploring the readthrough of nonsense mutations by non-acidic Ataluren analogues selected by ligand-based virtual screening
2016
Abstract Ataluren, also known as PTC124, is a 5-(fluorophenyl)-1,2,4-oxadiazolyl-benzoic acid suggested to suppress nonsense mutations by readthrough of premature stop codons in the mRNA. Potential interaction of PTC124 with mRNA has been recently studied by molecular dynamics simulations highlighting the importance of H-bonding and stacking π−π interactions. A series of non-acidic analogues of PTC124 were selected from a large database via a ligand-based virtual screening approach. Eight of them were synthesized and tested for their readthrough activity using the Fluc reporter harboring the UGA premature stop codon. The most active compound was further tested for suppression of the UGA non…
Sympathetic, metabolic adaptations, and oxidative stress in autism spectrum disorders: How far from physiology?
2018
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a complex and multifaceted neurobehavioral syndrome with no specific cause still identified, despite the worldwide increasing (prevalence for 1,000 children from 6.7 to 14.6, between 2000 and 2012). Many biological and instrumental markers have been suggested as potential predictive factors for the precocious diagnosis during infancy and/or pediatric age. Many studies reported structural and functional abnormalities in the autonomic system in subjects with ASD. Sleep problems in ASD are a prominent feature, having an impact on the social interaction of the patient. Considering the role of orexins (A and B) in wake-sleep circadian rhythm, we could speculate…
Intercellular Connectivity and Multicellular Bioelectric Oscillations in Nonexcitable Cells: A Biophysical Model
2018
Bioelectricity is emerging as a crucial mechanism for signal transmission and processing from the single-cell level to multicellular domains. We explore theoretically the oscillatory dynamics that result from the coupling between the genetic and bioelectric descriptions of nonexcitable cells in multicellular ensembles, connecting the genetic prepatterns defined over the ensemble with the resulting spatio-temporal map of cell potentials. These prepatterns assume the existence of a small patch in the ensemble with locally low values of the genetic rate constants that produce a specific ion channel protein whose conductance promotes the cell-polarized state (inward-rectifying channel). In this…
Modelos animales de adicción a las drogas
2017
El desarrollo de modelos animales de refuerzo y adicción a las drogas es imprescindible para el avance en el conocimiento de las bases biológicas de este trastorno y la identificación de nuevas dianas terapéuticas. En función del componente del refuerzo que deseemos estudiar podemos servirnos de un tipo de modelos animales u otros. Podemos utilizar modelos de refuerzo basados en el efecto hedónico primario que produce el consumo de la sustancia adictiva, como los modelos de autoadministración (AA) y autoestimulación eléctrica intracraneal (AEIC), o modelos basados en el componente relacionado con el aprendizaje asociativo y la capacidad cognitiva de realizar predicciones sobre la obtención …
Hábitos saludables en universitarios de ciencias de la salud y de otras ramas de conocimiento: un estudio comparativo
2019
Introducción: Durante la vida universitaria, los estudiantes deberían consolidar sus hábitos saludables, que se verán reflejados posteriormente en su vida adulta. Esto es de especial importancia en el caso de los estudiantes que lleguen a ser profesionales del ámbito de la salud. Sin embargo, gran parte de la literatura concluye que los estudiantes reportan malos hábitos durante el periodo universitario. Objetivos: El presente estudio pretende determinar si estudiantes de ciencias de la salud (ECS) y estudiantes de otras ciencias (EOC) presentan hábitos saludables relacionados con la práctica de actividad física (AF) y adherencia a la Dieta Mediterránea (DM). Asimismo, saber si los ECS tien…
Estudio de los hábitos alimentarios, actividad física, nivel socioeconómico y sedentarismo en adolescentes de la ciudad de Valencia
2020
Introducción: Unos adecuados hábitos alimenticios, junto a la práctica regular de actividad física son importantes para adoptar un estilo de vida saludable. En la actualidad, existe un abandono generalizado de la actividad física y la adopción de comportamientos sedentarios durante la adolescencia, así como la pérdida de unos óptimos patrones alimenticios. Material y métodos: El presente estudio tiene como objetivo conocer los hábitos alimenticios de 170 adolescentes de la ciudad de Valencia y saber si este comportamiento nutricional guarda relación con variables como la actividad física, el nivel socioeconómico, el tiempo de actividad sedentaria o el perfil de peso. Resultados: El análisis…