CRIF1 deficiency induces FOXP3 inflammatory non-suppressive regulatory T cells, thereby promoting antitumor immunity.

Recently identified human FOXP3CD45RA inflammatory non-suppressive (INS) cells produce proinflammatory cytokines, exhibit reduced suppressiveness, and promote antitumor immunity unlike conventional regulatory T cells (T). In spite of their implication in tumors, the mechanism for generation of FOXP3CD45RA INS cells in vivo is unclear. We showed that the FOXP3CD45RA cells in human tumors demonstrate attenuated expression of CRIF1, a vital mitochondrial regulator.

Highly Sensitive Soft Pressure Sensors for Wearable Applications Based on Composite Films with Curved 3D Carbon Nanotube Structures.

Soft pressure sensors based on 3D microstructures exhibit high sensitivity in the low-pressure range, which is crucial for various wearable and soft touch applications. However, it is still a challenge to manufacture soft pressure sensors with sufficient sensitivity under small mechanical stimuli for wearable applications. This work presents a novel strategy for extremely sensitive pressure sensors based on the composite film with local changes in curved 3D carbon nanotube (CNT) structure via expandable microspheres.

Spherical Micro/Nano Hierarchical Structures for Energy and Water Harvesting Devices.

Three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical structures have been explored for various applications owing to the synergistic effects of micro- and nanostructures. However, the development of spherical micro/nano hierarchical structures (S-HSs), which can be used as energy/water harvesting systems and sensing devices, remains challenging owing to the trade-off between structural complexity and fabrication difficulty. This paper presents a new strategy for facile, scalable S-HS fabrication using a thermal expansion of microspheres and nanopatterned structures.

Soluble Fas ligand drives autoantibody-induced arthritis by binding to DR5/TRAIL-R2.

To date, no study has demonstrated that soluble Fas ligand (sFasL)-mediated inflammation is regulated via interaction with Fas in vivo. We found that FasL interacts specifically with tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily (TNFRSF)10B, also known as death receptor (DR)5. Autoantibody-induced arthritis (AIA) was attenuated in FasL ()- and soluble FasL ()-deficient mice, but not in Fas ( and )- or membrane FasL ()-deficient mice, suggesting sFasL promotes inflammation by binding to a Fas-independent receptor.

Enhanced impact-resistance of aeronautical quasi-isotropic composite plates through diffused water molecules in epoxy.

In order to elucidate the hygroscopic effects on impact-resistance of carbon fiber/epoxy quasi-isotropic composite plates, low-velocity impact tests are conducted on dry and hygroscopically conditioned plates, respectively, under identical configurations. For the impact tests, plates were immersed in the hot water at 80 °C to absorb a different amount of moisture content (MC). Experimental results reveal that the presence of the MC plays a pivotal role by improving the impact-resistance of composite plates.

Synergistic Activation of Amides and Hydrocarbons for Direct C(sp )-H Acylation Enabled by Metallaphotoredox Catalysis.

The utilizations of omnipresent, thermodynamically stable amides and aliphatic C(sp )-H bonds for various functionalizations are ongoing challenges in catalysis. In particular, the direct coupling between the two functional groups has not been realized. Here, we report the synergistic activation of the two challenging bonds, the amide C-N and unactivated aliphatic C(sp )-H, via metallaphotoredox catalysis to directly acylate aliphatic C-H bonds utilizing amides as stable and readily accessible acyl surrogates.

GM-CSF and IL-4 produced by NKT cells inversely regulate IL-1β production by macrophages.

Natural Killer T (NKT) cells are distinct T cell subset that link innate and adaptive immune responses. IL-1β, produced by various immune cells, plays a key role in the regulation of innate immunity in vivo. However, it is unclear whether NKT cells regulate IL-1β production by macrophages.

Neural Activations of Guided Imagery and Music in Negative Emotional Processing: A Functional MRI Study.

Background: The Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music uses music and imagery to access and explore personal emotions associated with episodic memories. Understanding the neural mechanism of guided imagery and music (GIM) as combined stimuli for emotional processing informs clinical application.

Objective: We performed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to demonstrate neural mechanisms of GIM for negative emotional processing when personal episodic memory is recalled and re-experienced through GIM processes.

Context-based presets for lighting setup in residential space.

This study aims to derive context-based lighting setup presets in residential space by exploring the multilateral relationships among household activities, affects, and lighting setups. Three procedures were involved: First, sixty affective words were evaluated through which seven affect factors were extracted to facilitate the evaluation of colored illumination in the subsequent experiment. Second, in the user study, seven affect factors and thirty household activities were used to evaluate 147 lighting setups extracted from combinations of twelve hues, six illuminance levels, and three purity levels.

Photosensitive functionalized surface-modified quantum dots for polymeric structures via two-photon-initiated polymerization technique.

In this paper, the surface modification of CdSe- and CdZnS-based quantum dots (QDs) with a functional silica shell is reported. Functionalized silica shells are prepared by two routes: either by ligand exchange and a modified Stöber process or by a miniemulsion process with amphiphilic poly(oxyethylene) nonylphenylether also know as Igepal CO-520 (IG) as oligomeric amphiphile and modified silica precursors. The polymerizable groups on the functionalized silica shell allow covalent bonding to a polymer matrix and prevent demixing during polymerization and crosslinking.

Sliding time of flight: sliding time of flight MR angiography using a dynamic image reconstruction method.

Purpose: To obtain three-dimensional (3D) MR angiography having high contrast between vessel and stationary background tissue, a novel technique called sliding time of flight (TOF) is proposed.

Methods: The proposed method relies on the property that flow-related enhancement (FRE) is maximized at the blood-entering slice in an imaging slab. For the proposed sliding TOF, a sliding stack-of-stars sampling and a dynamic MR image reconstruction algorithm were developed.

A pulse artifact removal method considering artifact variations in the simultaneous recording of EEG and fMRI.

A simultaneous recording of electroencephalogram (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can provide high spatiotemporal information of brain activity. However, a proper analysis of the EEG signals is often hindered by various artifacts. In particular, pulse artifact (PA) induced from the heartbeat of a subject interferes with reliable measurements of the EEG signal.

New phase-based B1 mapping method using two-dimensional spin-echo imaging with hyperbolic secant pulses.

Purpose: To propose a new phase-based B1-mapping method that exploits phase information created by hyperbolic secant (HS) pulses in conventional 2D spin-echo imaging.

Methods: In this B1-mapping method, HS pulses are used to accomplish π/2 excitation and π refocusing in standard multislice spin-echo imaging. When setting the ratio of pulse lengths of the π/2 and π HS pulses to 2:1, the spin-echo phase is independent of offset frequency and varies as a function of B1 strength.

Nitrogen-Doped Pt/C Electrocatalysts with Enhanced Activity and Stability toward the Oxygen Reduction Reaction.

Recently, nitrogen-doped carbon materials have proved to be effective catalytic platforms for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Despite the recent synthetic advances for the preparation of nitrogen-incorporated carbon materials, the low-temperature and water-based synthesis of nitrogen-doped carbon materials has rarely been explored due to the difficulties in nitrogen-doping under such mild conditions. Here, nitrogen-doped Pt/C (Pt/NC) catalysts are prepared using a facile, low-temperature, aqueous-phase method.

An iterative reconstruction method of complex images using expectation maximization for radial parallel MRI.

In MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), signal sampling along a radial k-space trajectory is preferred in certain applications due to its distinct advantages such as robustness to motion, and the radial sampling can be beneficial for reconstruction algorithms such as parallel MRI (pMRI) due to the incoherency. For radial MRI, the image is usually reconstructed from projection data using analytic methods such as filtered back-projection or Fourier reconstruction after gridding. However, the quality of the reconstructed image from these analytic methods can be degraded when the number of acquired projection views is insufficient.

Wearable mental-health monitoring platform with independent component analysis and nonlinear chaotic analysis.

The wearable mental-health monitoring platform is proposed for mobile mental healthcare system. The platform is headband type of 50 g and consumes 1.1 mW.

Highly selective fluorescence detection of Cu2+ in water by chiral dimeric Zn2+ complexes through direct displacement.

Fluorescent dinuclear chiral zinc complexes were synthesized in a "one-pot" method in which the lysine-based Schiff base ligand was generated in situ. This complex acts as a highly sensitive and selective fluorescent ON-OFF probe for Cu(2+) in water at physiological pH. Other metal ions such as Hg(2+), Cd(2+), and Pb(2+) gave little fluorescence change.

High cell-density culture of Escherichia coli.

Escherichia coli is the most widely used prokaryotic system for the synthesis of heterologous proteins. Once an optimal expression system has been constructed, protein production can be enhanced by increasing the production of protein per cell per unit time (specific productivity), or by increasing the cell concentration per unit time (cell productivity). Various high cell-density culture (HCDC) techniques have been developed for growing recombinant and non-recombinant E.