Spatially resolved transcriptomic profiling of degraded and challenging fresh frozen samples.

Spatially resolved transcriptomics has enabled precise genome-wide mRNA expression profiling within tissue sections. The performance of methods targeting the polyA tails of mRNA relies on the availability of specimens with high RNA quality. Moreover, the high cost of currently available spatial resolved transcriptomics assays requires a careful sample screening process to increase the chance of obtaining high-quality data.

Super-resolved spatial transcriptomics by deep data fusion.

Current methods for spatial transcriptomics are limited by low spatial resolution. Here we introduce a method that integrates spatial gene expression data with histological image data from the same tissue section to infer higher-resolution expression maps. Using a deep generative model, our method characterizes the transcriptome of micrometer-scale anatomical features and can predict spatial gene expression from histology images alone.

Improving community mental health services for people affected by political violence in Ayacucho, Perú.

This study describes a model to intervene in communities affected by the political violence impacting the Ayacucho region of Peru since 1980s. Many community members still experience psychosocial consequences to this day due primarily to grief. Thirty-eight professionals from different sectors in the area received specialized training and implemented five community projects that were accompanied and monitored in the field by a team of community psychologists.

The processing of three-dimensional shape from disparity in the human brain.

Three-dimensional (3D) shape is important for the visual control of grasping and manipulation and for object recognition. Although there has been some progress in our understanding of how 3D shape is extracted from motion and other monocular cues, little is known of how the human brain extracts 3D shape from disparity, commonly regarded as the strongest depth cue. Previous fMRI studies in the awake monkey have established that the interaction between stereo (present or absent) and the order of disparity (zero or second order) constitutes the MR signature of regions housing second-order disparity-selective neurons (Janssen et al.

Extended study on the influence of z-value(s) of single and multicomponent time-temperature integrators on the accuracy of quantitative thermal process assessment.

The possibilities and limitations of single- and multicomponent time-temperature integrators (TTIs) for evaluating the impact of thermal processes on a target food attribute with a Ztarget value different from the zTTI value(s) of the TTI is far from sufficiently documented. In this study, several thousand time-temperature profiles were generated by heat transfer simulations based on a wide range of product and process thermal parameters and considering a Ztarget value of 10 degrees C and a reference temperature of 121.1 degrees C, both currently used to assess the safety of food sterilization processes.

Combined use of two single-component enzymatic time-temperature integrators: application to industrial continuous rotary processing of canned ravioli.

Two original, highly dehydrated, small single-component enzymatic time-temperature integrator (TTI) systems, TTIL and TTIs, were prepared. Their z-values were 13.9 and 16.

Development characterization and use of a high-performance enzymatic time-temperature integrator for the control of sterilization process' impacts.

A small sized single-component enzymatic time temperature integrator (TTI) was developed. It consisted of glass beads coated with Bacillus licheniformis alpha-amylase (BLA) and stabilizing additives in a dehydrated form. Post heating residual enzymatic activity was used as a response property of the TTI.

Pulmonary neuroendocrine cells (PNEC) and neuroepithelial bodies (NEB): chemoreceptors and regulators of lung development.

The airway and alveolar epithelia contain pulmonary neuroendocrine cells whose structure indicates an endocrine function. They are also in contact with sensory nerve fibres. These cells often aggregate into distinct corpuscles-neuroepithelial bodies-and carry membrane receptors sensitive to a number of stimuli, including hypoxia and nicotine.

Validation and use of an enzymic time-temperature integrator to monitor thermal impacts inside a solid/liquid model food.

Heat denaturation kinetics of Bacillus licheniformis alpha-amylase, equilibrated at 81% equilibrium relative humidity at 4 degrees C (BLA81), was studied with help of isothermal and nonisothermal conditions by monitoring the decrease in enthalpy associated with the heat denaturation of the enzyme. Due to its low water content, BLA81 denaturation could be studied in the range of 118-124 degrees C. Two batches of BLA81 were successfully validated under nonisothermal conditions allowing the determinations of process values (reference temperature of 121.

[Syndromes 12. Turner syndrome].

Turner syndrome is one of the most common chromosomal disorders. The incidence is about 1 on 2,500 till 1 on 10,000 living female young births. Short stature is the most common finding in patients with Turner syndrome.

Soybean lipoxygenase inactivation by pressure at subzero and elevated temperatures.

Soybean lipoxygenase (LOX) inactivation [0.4 mg/mL in Tris-HCl buffer (0.01 M, pH 9)] was studied quantitatively under constant pressure (up to 650 MPa) and temperature (-15 to 68 degrees C) conditions and kinetically characterized by rate constants, activation energies, and activation volumes.

Kinetics of pressure inactivation at subzero and elevated temperature of lipoxygenase in crude green bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) extract.

Lipoxygenase (LOX) in crude green bean extract was irreversibly inactivated by pressure treatments combined with subzero or elevated temperature. LOX inactivation was described accurately assuming a first-order reaction. In the entire pressure-temperature domain studied (200 to 700 MPa and -10 to 60 degrees C), an increase in pressure at constant temperature enhanced the LOX inactivation rate, whereas at constant pressure, an increase in reaction rate was obtained by either increasing or decreasing temperature at 20 degrees C.

Human cortical regions involved in extracting depth from motion.

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate brain regions involved in extracting three-dimensional structure from motion. A factorial design included two-dimensional and three-dimensional structures undergoing rigid and nonrigid motions. As predicted from monkey data, the human homolog of MT/V5 was significantly more active when subjects viewed three-dimensional (as opposed to two-dimensional) displays, irrespective of their rigidity.

The pulmonary neuroendocrine system: the past decade.

The pulmonary neuroendocrine system consists of specialized airway endocrine epithelial cells, associated with nerve fibres. The epithelial cells, the pulmonary neuroendocrine cells (PNEC), can be solitary or clustered to form neuroepithelial bodies (NEB). During the last thirty years, the pulmonary neuroendocrine system has been intensively investigated and much knowledge of its function has been obtained.

Effects of cell concentration on viability and metabolic activity during cryopreservation.

Increasing the cell concentration during the cryopreservation of red blood cells (RBC) increased hemolysis. Similarly, increasing the cell concentration during the cryopreservation of hepatocytes reduced both the viability of the cells as assessed by trypan blue exclusion and the metabolic activity of the trypan blue-excluding cells. In both cell types, significant damage appeared at cell concentration levels exceeding 60%.

General features of the recognition by tubulin of colchicine and related compounds.

The kinetic mechanisms of the binding to tubulin of colchicine and eight different analogues have been studied to elucidate details of the recognition mechanism. All of the analogues follow a two step binding mechanism i.e.

The neuronal machinery involved in successive orientation discrimination.

Following our strategy of using simple discrimination tasks to investigate the primate visual system, we trained both human and monkey subjects for two orientation discrimination tasks: an identification and a successive discrimination. Contrasting these two tasks allowed us to isolate the temporal comparison component and to relate this component to activity in right fusiform gyrus using Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and to infero-temporal cortex using a lesion approach in monkeys. Single-cell recordings in infero-temporal cortex demonstrated that neurons in this region can contribute to the three processes underlying temporal comparison: (1) sensorial representation of visual stimuli, (2) maintaining a trace of the preceding stimulus, and (3) comparison of the incoming stimulus with that trace.

Attentional disruption is enhanced by the threat of pain.

Using a primary task paradigm this study investigated whether attentional disruption to a low-intensity electrocutaneous pain stimulus is enhanced by the threat of intense pain. Healthy volunteers (n = 38) performed a tone discrimination task in the presence of two types of distractors (a low-intensity electrocutaneous stimulus and a control stimulus) which they were instructed to ignore. In some trials, tone probes were presented immediately (250 ms) after distractor onset, further on (750 ms) during the distractor, and immediately (250 ms) after distractor offset.

When somatic information threatens, catastrophic thinking enhances attentional interference.

Styles of catastrophic thinking about pain have been related to an inability to divert attention away from pain. We investigated whether pain catastrophizers displayed high attentional interference during a threatening low-intensity electrocutaneous stimulus (ES). In Experiment 1, 44 undergraduates performed a tone discrimination task whilst experiencing several times an ES on the left or right arms.

Avoidance and confrontation of painful, back-straining movements in chronic back pain patients.

Avoidance of painful activities has been proposed to be an important risk factor for the initiation and maintenance of chronic low back suffering, whereas exposure to these activities has been suggested to be beneficial for recovery. In a cross-sectional study, the differences between chronic patients with avoidant and confrontational styles were investigated using self-report measures and a behavioral test. Participants were first classified as avoiders or confronters.

Effects of postnatal age and of thymectomy on hamster pulmonary neuroendocrine system and aspects of programmed cell death.

Effects of postnatal age and neonatal thymectomy on the numbers and characteristics of pulmonary neuroepithelial bodies (NEB) were investigated in 14-day- compared with 2.5-month-old hamsters. Left lung sections were stained for the marker PGP 9.

The Sch9 protein kinase in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae controls cAPK activity and is required for nitrogen activation of the fermentable-growth-medium-induced (FGM) pathway.

In cells of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, trehalase activation, repression of CTT1 (catalase), SSA3 (Hsp70) and other STRE-controlled genes, feedback inhibition of cAMP synthesis and to some extent induction of ribosomal protein genes is controlled by the Ras-adenylate cyclase pathway and by the fermentable-growth-medium-induced pathway (FGM pathway). When derepressed cells are shifted from a non-fermentable carbon source to glucose, the Ras-adenylate cyclase pathway is transiently activated while the FGM pathway triggers a more lasting activation of the same targets when the cells become glucose-repressed. Activation of the FGM pathway is not mediated by cAMP but requires catalytic activity of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (cAPK; Tpk1, 2 or 3).

A metabolic mapping study of orientation discrimination and detection tasks in the cat.

Increasing evidence suggests that a large number of distinct cortical areas and associated subcortical structures participate in the processing of visual information and that different aspects of visual scenes are evaluated in different areas. This necessitates identification of cortical and subcortical regions cooperating in particular visual tasks. Using the 2-deoxyglucose technique, we monitored the differential activation of areas in the cat visual cortex participating in an orientation discrimination and a detection task.