Publications by authors named "Butcher T"

Many protein bioconjugation strategies focus on the modification of lysine residues owing to the nucleophilicity of their amine side-chain, the generally high abundance of lysine residues on a protein's surface and the ability to form robustly stable amide-based bioconjugates. However, the plethora of solvent accessible lysine residues, which often have similar reactivity, is a key inherent issue when searching for regioselectivity and/or controlled loading of an entity. A relevant example is the modification of antibodies and/or antibody fragments, whose conjugates offer potential for a wide variety of applications.

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  • Cells must change shape and move during development without disrupting tissue structure, requiring strong connections between adherens junctions and the actomyosin cytoskeleton.
  • Drosophila Canoe and mammalian Afadin are critical for this process, and understanding how Ras-family GTPases influence their function is a major focus of research.
  • Through experiments, researchers found that although both RA1 and RA2 domains bind to active Rap1 with similar strengths, they have different roles in Canoe function, with RA1 being essential while RA2 contributes to junction stability in certain developmental stages.
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  • Protein modification has gained importance in chemical biology, especially for creating more uniform bioconjugates, with a focus on modifying antibodies through cysteine targeting.
  • Current methods typically react all accessible cysteines in the same way after reducing disulfide bonds, limiting site-selective modifications.
  • The research introduces innovative dehydroalanine forming reagents capable of selectively modifying different cysteines in antibodies and small peptides, allowing for more precise antibody modifications and the potential to expand chemical biology tools.
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  • - Fluorine-containing molecules are becoming more common in pharmaceuticals and other applications, with the cyanodifluoromethyl group being notable for its size and distinct electronic properties compared to the trifluoromethyl group.
  • - The synthesis of cyanodifluoromethyl compounds is complex, requiring multiple steps and reactive reagents, but this research introduces a copper-mediated method that simplifies the process using TMSCFCN.
  • - This new method is versatile, allowing late-stage modifications of complex molecules, and the reaction mechanism has been studied to confirm the feasibility of the process, yielding important pharmaceutical analogues.
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  • The COVID-19 pandemic led to changes in substance use and recovery involvement among US adults, with specific assessments made to isolate pandemic effects from other sociopolitical factors.
  • The study tested hypotheses suggesting that the pandemic increased substance use among active users and those in early recovery, while also reducing participation in recovery activities.
  • Results showed that, despite an overall decrease in substance use during the pandemic, there was a notable decline in quality of life and recovery activity participation among those in early recovery.
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We report on stable, long-term operation of a diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL) amplifying 15 ns pulses at 1029.5 nm wavelength to 10 J energy at 100 Hz pulse rate, corresponding to 1 kW average power, with 25.4% optical-to-optical efficiency.

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Understanding the magnetic and ferroelectric ordering of magnetoelectric multiferroic materials at the nanoscale necessitates a versatile imaging method with high spatial resolution. Here, soft X-ray ptychography is employed to simultaneously image the ferroelectric and antiferromagnetic domains in an 80 nm thin freestanding film of the room-temperature multiferroic BiFeO (BFO). The antiferromagnetic spin cycloid of period 64 nm is resolved by reconstructing the corresponding resonant elastic X-ray scattering in real space and visualized together with mosaic-like ferroelectric domains in a linear dichroic contrast image at the Fe L edge.

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Antiferromagnets hosting real-space topological textures are promising platforms to model fundamental ultrafast phenomena and explore spintronics. However, they have only been epitaxially fabricated on specific symmetry-matched substrates, thereby preserving their intrinsic magneto-crystalline order. This curtails their integration with dissimilar supports, restricting the scope of fundamental and applied investigations.

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Hybrid pixel detectors have become indispensable at synchrotron and X-ray free-electron laser facilities thanks to their large dynamic range, high frame rate, low noise, and large area. However, at energies below 3 keV, the detector performance is often limited because of the poor quantum efficiency of the sensor and the difficulty in achieving single-photon resolution due to the low signal-to-noise ratio. In this paper, we address the quantum efficiency of silicon sensors by refining the design of the entrance window, mainly by passivating the silicon surface and optimizing the dopant profile of the n region.

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  • The study focuses on the protein Canoe and its role in maintaining strong connections between adherens junctions and the actomyosin cytoskeleton, which is essential for cell shape changes during morphogenesis without damaging tissues.
  • It investigates the functionality of Canoe's largest domain, the Dilute domain, using various scientific methods, including structural predictions and mutant analysis.
  • Findings indicate that while mutants lacking the Dilute domain (CnoΔDIL) can survive and reproduce, they still show defects in eye development, demonstrating the critical role of junction-cytoskeletal connections in cellular movements and the evolutionary preservation of protein structures.
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Objective: To report participants' experiences of trial processes and use of the Neurofenix platform for home-based rehabilitation following stroke. The platform, consisting of the NeuroBall device and Neurofenix app, is a non-immersive virtual reality tool to facilitate upper limb rehabilitation following stroke. The platform has recently been evaluated and demonstrated to be safe and effective through a non-randomised feasibility trial (RHOMBUS).

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We report on efficient and stable, type-I phase-matched second harmonic conversion of a nanosecond high-energy, diode-pumped, Yb:YAG laser. With a frequency-doubling crystal in an enclosed, temperature controller with optical windows, 0.5% energy stability was achieved for approximately half an hour.

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Thiol-reactive Michael acceptors are commonly used for the formation of chemically cross-linked hydrogels. In this paper, we address the drawbacks of many Michael acceptors by introducing pyridazinediones as new cross-linking agents. Through the use of pyridazinediones and their mono- or dibrominated analogues, we show that the mechanical strength, swelling ratio, and rate of gelation can all be controlled in a pH-sensitive manner.

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One central question for cell and developmental biologists is defining how epithelial cells can change shape and move during embryonic development without tearing tissues apart. This requires robust yet dynamic connections of cells to one another, via the cell-cell adherens junction, and of junctions to the actin and myosin cytoskeleton, which generates force. The last decade revealed that these connections involve a multivalent network of proteins, rather than a simple linear pathway.

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A new approach to generation of a burst of high-energy green pulses by placing a high-energy multi-slab Yb:YAG DPSSL amplifier and SHG crystal inside a regenerative cavity is presented. In a proof-of-concept test, stable generation of a burst of six green (515 nm) pulses, each 10 ns in duration and separated by 29.4 ns (34 MHz), with 2.

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One central question for cell and developmental biologists is defining how epithelial cells can change shape and move during embryonic development without tearing tissues apart. This requires robust yet dynamic connections of cells to one another, via the cell-cell adherens junction, and of junctions to the actin and myosin cytoskeleton, which generates force. The last decade revealed that these connections involve a multivalent network of proteins, rather than a simple linear pathway.

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An overview of the effect of a magnetic field gradient on fluids with linear magnetic susceptibilities is given. It is shown that two commonly encountered expressions, the magnetic field gradient force and the concentration gradient force for paramagnetic species in solution are equivalent for incompressible fluids. The magnetic field gradient and concentration gradient forces are approximations of the Kelvin force and Korteweg-Helmholtz force densities, respectively.

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Residential biomass combustion is a source of carbonaceous aerosol. Inefficient combustion, particularly of solid fuels produces large quantities of black and brown carbon (BC and BrC). These particle types are important as they have noted effects on climate forcing and human health.

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In the current work, we provide measurements of size-resolved particle number concentration (PNC), particle mass concentration (PMC), lung-deposited surface area (LDSA), and black carbon (BC) concentration for three biomass fired hydronic heaters during operation in four different combustion conditions. The appliances include one woodchip-fueled hydronic heater and two outdoor cordwood-fueled hydronic heaters. The operating conditions included startup, low output, high output, and burnout.

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This study investigated how heat demand and fuel loading affect the emissions from outdoor wood-fired hydronic heaters by testing two such appliances using an integrated-duty cycle test method. This test included transient operating conditions, such as cold and hot-starts and modulation between 15 and 100% of maximum rated output. Emission values indicate transient operating conditions produce higher emissions than steady state operation.

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The use of wood as a fuel for home heating is a concern from an environmental health and safety perspective as biomass combustion appliances emit high concentrations of particulate matter. Wood burning significantly contributes to wintertime particulate matter concentrations in many states in the northern United States. Of particular concern are outdoor wood-fired hydronic heaters.

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  • The anterior insular cortex (AIC) plays a crucial role in integrating feelings and bodily states to influence decision-making, particularly in heavy drinkers facing delay discounting (DD), which is the tendency to favor immediate rewards over delayed ones.
  • A study with 29 heavy drinkers using functional MRI found that certain brain regions, including the right dorsal AIC, were activated during DD tasks and showed a negative correlation with impulsive choices and alcohol consumption.
  • The research suggests that better engagement of the right dAIC in intertemporal choices leads to lower impulsivity and drinking behavior, indicating that the AIC may be important in making decisions about future rewards.
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Introduction: Upper limb (UL) rehabilitation is most effective early after stroke, with higher doses leading to improved outcomes. For the stroke survivor, the repetition may be monotonous. For clinicians, providing a clinically meaningful level of input can be challenging.

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Objectives: To investigate the safety, feasibility and acceptability of the Neurofenix platform for home-based rehabilitation of the upper limb (UL).

Design: A non-randomised intervention design with a parallel process evaluation.

Setting: Participants' homes, South-East England.

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We report a dehydroboration process that can be coupled with chain-walking hydroboration to create a one-pot, contra-thermodynamic, short- or long-range isomerization of internal olefins to terminal olefins. This dehydroboration occurs by a sequence comprising activation with a nucleophile, iodination, and base-promoted elimination. The isomerization proceeds at room temperature without the need for a fluoride base, and the substrate scope of this isomerization is expanded over those of previous isomerizations we have reported with silanes.

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