Abstract This tutorial is aimed to non-engineers using, or planning to use, surface electromyography (sEMG) as an assessment tool in the prevention, monitoring and rehabilitation fields. Its first purpose is to address the issues related to the origin and nature of the signal and to its detection (electrode size, distance, location) by one-dimensional (bipolar and linear arrays) and two-dimensional (grids) electrode systems while avoiding advanced mathematical, physical or physiological issues. Its second purpose is to outline best practices and provide general guidelines for proper signal detection. Issues related to the electrode-skin interface, signal conditioning and interpretation will be discussed in subsequent tutorials.
This macro-level scientometrics study aimed to analyze the similarities and differences in the scientific communication patterns of the Brazilian postgraduate programs (BPPs) belonging to the Biological Sciences II field (BS2), as defined by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES). Also, it was identified the most researched diseases and it was discussed their relationship with the needs of Brazilian public health considering the burden of disease (Disability-Adjusted Life Year - DALY, Brazil) estimated by the World Health Organization (WHO). Thus, the scientific production of the BS2's sub-areas Biophysics, Biochemistry, Pharmacology, Physiology, and Morphology was evaluated from 2013 to 2016, through considering the citation impact, Impact Factor (Journal Citation Reports), and scientific collaboration. Data collected included formal information provided to CAPES by all BPPs through the Plataforma Sucupira as well as metadata from Web of Science documents. In addition, were employed the standardized Medical Subject Headings (PubMed) for the analysis of researched diseases. We concluded that the patterns of scientific communication in Biophysics, Biochemistry, Pharmacology, Physiology, and Morphology were predominantly different. Thus, there is a need to consider specificities among the five sub-areas in the evaluation process performed by CAPES. Different approaches are revealed by identifying the most frequently researched diseases and explaining the contributions of each sub-area for Brazilian public health.
This text reference examines how photosynthesis evolved on Earth and how phytoplankton evolved through time - ultimately to permit the evolution of complex life, including human beings. The first of its kind, this book provides thorough coverage of key topics, with contributions by leading experts in biophysics, evolutionary biology, micropaleontology, marine ecology, and biogeochemistry.This exciting new book is of interest not only to students and researchers in marine science, but also to evolutionary biologists and ecologists interested in understanding the origins and diversifica
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In the paper a (1 + 1)-dimension equation of motion for the artificial axon is considered. The artificial axon is a dynamical structure like a neuron. They are widely used in biophysics, for example, in studying the physiological processes. A topological non-trivial solution of one-kink type for this equation is constructed in an analytical form. The modified direct Hirota method for solving the nonlinear partial derivatives equations is applied. The special cases are considered for different voltages on the contacts of axon.
CCAFS and IRRI jointly organized a workshop on potential uses of integrated modelling of Agricultural Productivity and Socio-Economic status on 3-5 September 2013 at IRRI campus, Los Banos, Philippines. The workshop was attended by participants from global, regional, and national institutions, including: three (3) CGIAR Research Centers (CIAT, CIMMYT, and IRRI); the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS); the FAO; and the government of the Republic of the Philippines (PAGASA, BAS, and NSO). Workshop presentations and discussions accomplished the following objectives: (1) present the concepts and components of Integrated Food Security Modeling and shared descriptions, methodologies, and progress of work for modeling activities currently underway in the Philippines, regionally, and globally, including climate models, bio-physical crop models, and econometric models; (2) identify challenges and uncertainties that constrain the accuracy of model outputs, including lack of access to data in formats suitable for model input, data quality issues, methods of interpolation and extrapolation used to create gridded data, and measures of uncertainty when models are combined; and (3) identify common interests and potential synergies between modeling activities along with follow-up actions in the Philippines to faciliatate use of integrated models to simulate impacts of policy options for food security and climate risk management. Institutions participating in IMCASE agree to work towards two major outcomes. First, PAGASA receives technical support needed to produce historical climate datasets and seasonal forecasts in formats compatible with model input requirements. Second, development partners, research institutions, and government agencies, mainstream the use of climate services and modelling tools for crop yield forecasting, crop monitoring, food commodity price forecasting, and food security planning and policy formulation, at national, sub-national, and local levels.
12 p.-8 fig. ; The interaction of MinC with FtsZ and its effects on FtsZ polymerization were studied under close to physiological conditions by a combination of biophysical methods. The Min system is a widely conserved mechanism in bacteria that ensures the correct placement of the division machinery at midcell. MinC is the component of this system that effectively interacts with FtsZ and inhibits the formation of the Z-ring. Here we report that MinC produces a concentration-dependent reduction in the size of GTP-induced FtsZ protofilaments (FtsZ-GTP) as demonstrated by analytical ultracentrifugation, dynamic light scattering, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, and electron microscopy. Our experiments show that, despite being shorter, FtsZ protofilaments maintain their narrow distribution in size in the presence of MinC. The protein had the same effect regardless of its addition prior to or after FtsZ polymerization. Fluorescence anisotropy measurements indicated that MinC bound to FtsZ-GDP with a moderate affinity (apparent KD ∼10 μM at 100 mm KCl and pH 7.5) very close to the MinC concentration corresponding to the midpoint of the inhibition of FtsZ assembly. Only marginal binding of MinC to FtsZ-GTP protofilaments was observed by analytical ultracentrifugation and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. Remarkably, MinC effects on FtsZ-GTP protofilaments and binding affinity to FtsZ-GDP were strongly dependent on ionic strength, being severely reduced at 500 mM KCl compared with 100 mM KCl. Our results support a mechanism in which MinC interacts with FtsZ-GDP, resulting in smaller protofilaments of defined size and having the same effect on both preassembled and growing FtsZ protofilaments. ; This work was supported in part by Human Frontier Science Program Grant RGP0050/2010 (to G. R. and W. M.), European Commission Contract HEALTH-F3-2009-223431 (to G. R.), and Spanish Government Grants BIO2008-04478-C03 (to G. R.), CSICPIE-201020I001 (to C. A.), BFU2010- 14910 (to S. Z.), and BIO2011-28941-C03 (to G. R. and S. Z ; Peer reviewed
Expone las principales características biofisicas, socioeconómicas y culturales, así como los antecedentes de la Cuenca del río Térraba. A partir de esto presenta escenarios en las tres áreas mencionadas tomando en cuenta planteamientos de continuidad, desarrollo rápido, política y eventuales crisis. ; It exposes the main biophysical, socioeconomic and cultural characteristics, as well as the antecedents of the Térraba River Basin. Based on this, it presents scenarios in the three mentioned areas, taking into account continuity, rapid development, politics and eventual crises. ; Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica ; Escuela de Relaciones Internacionales
In 1918 an influenza pandemic killed over 50 million people world wide including 675,000 in the United States alone. This Capstone Thesis asks the question: what caused the 1918 pandemic to become so fatal? In order to understand how the influenza outbreak of 1918 turned into one of the world's deadliest pandemics, I took a unique approach to tackling the mystery of the "Spanish Influenza," by interpreting the high fatality rate from both a social and natural scientific approach. This project is broken into two parts. The first part of this paper gives a historical analysis of the 1918 influenza pandemic. The first four chapters answer the questions: (1) what caused the 1918 pandemic to become so fatal? (2)What was the social response to the disease and how did the United States cope with the crisis of the war and outbreak of influenza simultaneously? (3) What were the non-pharmaceutical interventions that were implemented and how effective were these measures in thwarting the spread of the pandemic? (4) Finally, within the last century how have virologists and medical historians remembered and portrayed the 1918 pandemic? The historical analysis focused on the significance of the United States Public Health Service and the communication between different levels of public health agencies. To do this I drew from a number of primary sources found in The Journal of American Public Health as well as local newspaper archives. A case study of non-pharmaceutical interventions in Syracuse, NY, Princeton, NJ, and New York, NY was also conducted using newspaper archives and local pamphlets. This study found that early implementation of specific interventions held throughout the duration of the second wave of the pandemic was successful in reducing the number of fatalities from influenza. The second section of this paper is a study on the translational control mechanisms of influenza virus infected cells. Specifically through microarray and Taqman validation studies I compared the gene expression of the type I interferon response pathway between a low pathogenic human influenza virus (A/Texas/36/91 [H1N1]) and the low pathogenic human influenza virus with the NS1 protein from the 1918 influenza virus. These studies found that the greatest differences in these proteins occur early (2 and 6 hours post-infection), and although no dominant pattern was seen in overall gene expression, genes related to inflammation, immune response, and stress did show different patterns of expression for the two NS1 species. In addition, I also conduction translational control experiments with the cellular protein P58IPK, which is known to aid in viral mRNA translation of influenza infected cells. My objective was to indentify additional protein-protein interactions independent of eIF2-α phosphorylation. Using transient-transfection techniques to over express P58IPK in mammalian cells, we confirmed that proteins involved with protein synthesis and RNA post-transcriptional modifications are overly expressed in the presence of over expressed P58IPK.
Genetic coding: Roots of genetic readout in nucleic acid structural duality Charles W. Carter, Jr, from the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill explores the roots of genetic readout in the inherent structural duality of DNA and how genetic coding expanded its potential, enabling life to emerge. One of Nature's most ingenious inventions, the genetic code unlocked a vast molecular machinery enabling independently living cells to emerge from the complex chemistry that preceded the origin of life.
The analysis of literature data on one of the actual problem of modern cell biophysics and biotechnology dealing with mesenchimal stem cells and cordial progenitor cells taking part in reparation of myocardium after its injury and first of all after myocardial infarction was done. Biological properties and potential ability of these cells in reparation processes of myocardium are considered. The recent data on experiments using experimental animals and patients are given. The approaches to increase the efficacy of сell technologies in treatment of injured cardiomyocytes are discussed.
The primary cilium is a specialized plasma membrane protrusion with important receptors for signalling pathways. In polarized epithelial cells, the primary cilium assembles after the midbody remnant (MBR) encounters the centrosome at the apical surface. The membrane surrounding the MBR, namely remnant-associated membrane patch (RAMP), once situated next to the centrosome, releases some of its lipid components to form a centrosome-associated membrane patch (CAMP) from which the ciliary membrane stems. The RAMP undergoes a spatiotemporal membrane refinement during the formation of the CAMP, which becomes highly enriched in condensed membranes with low lateral mobility. To better understand this process, we have developed a correlative imaging approach that yields quantitative information about the lipid lateral packing, its mobility and collective assembly at the plasma membrane at different spatial scales over time. Our work paves the way towards a quantitative understanding of the spatiotemporal lipid collective assembly at the plasma membrane as a functional determinant in cell biology and its direct correlation with the membrane physicochemical state. These findings allowed us to gain a deeper insight into the mechanisms behind the biogenesis of the ciliary membrane of polarized epithelial cells. ; Marie Curie Career Integration Grant (NanodynacTCELLvation; PCIG13-GA-2013-618914) to JBS and a grant (PGC2018-095643-B-I00) to MAA from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Agencia Estatal de Investigación, y Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional, European Union (MICINN/AEI/ FEDER, EU) and by the financial support of the Central Laser Facility (Science and Technology Facilities Council, Harwell, UK)
In a previous paper (Syrjänen et al., 2014), we reported the first structural characterisation of a synaptonemal complex (SC) protein, SYCP3, which led us to propose a model for its role in chromosome compaction during meiosis. As a component of the SC lateral element, SYCP3 has a critical role in defining the specific chromosome architecture required for correct meiotic progression. In the model, the reported compaction of chromosomal DNA caused by SYCP3 would result from its ability to bridge distant sites on a DNA molecule with the DNA-binding domains located at each end of its strut-like structure. Here, we describe a single-molecule assay based on optical tweezers, fluorescence microscopy and microfluidics that, in combination with bulk biochemical data, provides direct visual evidence for our proposed mechanism of SYCP3-mediated chromosome organisation. ; This work was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 654148 Laserlab-Europe, by VICI grants (GJLW and EJGP), a European Research Council starting grant (GJLW) and a H2020 FETopen grant (GJLW and EJGP), by Medical Research Council project grant MR/N000161/1 and Wellcome Trust investigator award 104641/Z/14/Z (LP), and a BBSRC DTP studentship (JLS). ORD is a Sir Henry Dale Fellow jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust and Royal Society (award number 104158/Z/14/Z).
A sensor device based on a single polymer cantilever and optical readout has been developed for detection of molecular recognition reactions without the need of a reference cantilever for subtraction of unspecific signals. Microcantilevers have been fabricated in the photoresist SU-8 with one surface passivated with a thin fluorocarbon layer. The SU-8 surface is sensitized with biological receptors by applying silanization methods, whereas the fluorocarbon surface remains inert to these processes. The thermal and mechanical properties of the chosen materials allow overcoming the main limitations of gold-coated silicon cantilevers: the temperature, pH, and ionic strength cross sensitivities. This is demonstrated by comparing the response of SU-8 cantilevers and that of gold-coated silicon nitride cantilevers to variations in temperature and pH. The sensitivity of the developed polymeric nanomechanical sensor is demonstrated by real-time detection of the human growth hormone with sensitivity in differential surface stress of about 1 mN/m. ; The authors acknowledge J. M. Rodríguez-Prado and M. Mellado for providing reagents for the molecular recognition experiments and J. Treviño, E. Mauriz, and D. Haefliger for fruitful discussion. J.T. and M.C. acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science (MERG-CT-2004- 510638) and the European Union (GEN2001-4856-C13-11). ; Peer reviewed
In the same shrewd diplomatic spirit displayed by the Pentagon in its recent purchase of a squadron of MIG-29 fighter jets from Moldova in order to preempt the sale of the planes to Iran, the U.S. should offer to buy Iraq's entire biochemical weapons arsenal and then destroy it in place. Let's call this emerging instrument of U.S. foreign policy "preemptive economic diplomacy."
