Using array technology to understand dynamics of echolocation in bats and toothed whales
Laura N. Kloepper
Opioid receptors in analgesic drug design – the past, present and future
Ajay S. Yekkirala
Vitamin D Therapy and Cardiovascular Diseases
Ui Kyoung Kim and Soochan Bae
Glomerular Filtration Barrier Assembly: An insight
Ehtesham Arif and Deepak Nihalani
A new ‘rotational’ twist in an old tale: mammary epithelial cells ‘weave’ a laminin matrix as they rotate during acinar morphogenesis.
Rajeshwari R. Valiathan
Tunable Hierarchical Metallic-Glass Nanostructures
Yiyi Yang
It’s all in the Prep
Joshua Hill
Publication Bias: Should Scientists Work Harder to Share Negative Results?
Ben Mudrak
CancerDR: An overview of the online database for cancer drug resistance
Ravi R. Pathak
Mechanical Instability of Thin Elastic Rods
Wanliang Shan and Zi Chen
The welfare of invertebrate animals in research: Can science's next generation improve their lot?
Robyn J. Crook
Modulation of autophagy as a therapeutic target for Alzheimer’s disease
John W. Steele, Emily Fan, Yildiz Kelahmetaglu, Yuan Tian, Victor Bustos
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Author(s)
Laura N. Kloepper
Address
Brown University Department of Neuroscience, Providence, RI
UMass Dartmouth Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dartmouth, MA
Abstract: Echolocation, a unique sensory strategy of projecting and receiving ultrasonic signals to perceive the environment, is a dynamic process used by bats and toothed whales that allows the emitter to adapt its sound to environment and echolocation task. This paper reviews the application of
acoustic array sensing to understand echolocation dynamics in Microchiroptera and Odontoceti.
Author(s)
Ajay S. Yekkirala
Address
F. M Kirby Neurobiology Center, Children’s Hospital Boston, 2Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA 02115 USA Abstract: Pain is a common phenomenon that is expressed due to external tissue injury or innate physiological dysfunction. While everyone has experienced pain in some form or the other, over 40% of all Americans visited the clinic due to chronic pain each year according to the American Pain Society. In spite of certain deleterious side effects, such as, respiratory depression, tolerance, and addictive potential, opioids have remained the drugs of choice for the treatment of pain. This review provides a brief snapshot of the past, and ongoing, research in the opioid field, to generate potent analgesics without the debilitating side effects.
Author(s)
Ui Kyoung Kim and Soochan Bae
Address
Cardiovascular Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
Abstract: Vitamin D deficiency affects more than 1 billion people worldwide. Thirty to fifty percent of the U.S population has insufficient levels of vitamin D. Well-known for its major contribution to bone health, vitamin D has attracted the attention of science for its restorative role in cardiovascular diseases and cardiac injury, especially in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. Over the past few decades, research on vitamin D and its role in cardiovascular disease has been rapidly expanding, and now the direct association of vitamin D signaling and cardiovascular dysfunction and disease has been clearly recognized. Although a clear mechanism of how the restoration of vitamin D levels benefits cardiovascular health has yet to be
identified, a number of clinical studies on vitamin D supplementation have shown its promise as a novel cure for cardiovascular diseases.
Author(s)
Ehtesham Arif and Deepak Nihalani
Address
Renal Electrolytes and Hypertension Division, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Abstract: A glomerulus is the network of capillaries that resides in the Bowman’s capsule that functions as a filtration unit of kidney. The glomerular function ensures that essential plasma proteins are retained in blood and the filtrate is passed on as urine. The glomerular filtration assembly is composed of three main cellular barriers that are critical for the ultrafiltration process, the fenestrated endothelium, glomerular basement membrane and highly specialized podocytes. The podocytes along with their specialized junctions “slit diaphragm†form the basic backbone of this filtration assembly. The presence of high amounts of protein in urine a condition commonly referred as proteinuria indicates a defective glomerular filtration barrier. Various glomerular disorders................The present review is an effort to summarize..............
Author(s)
Rajeshwari R. Valiathan
Address
Wayne State University School of Medicine, Department of Pathology, Detroit, MI.
Abstract: That single adult mammary epithelial cells are capable of recapitulating entire mammary gland structure and function when grown in three-dimensional laminin-rich basement membrane (3D lrBM) matrices is a phenomenon that was observed over two decades ago [1]. However, the underlying mechanisms still remain elusive. Moreover, why malignant cells are incapable of this behavior is unknown [2-4]. Clearly, mammary epithelial cells must have a morphogenetic program that is lost during malignant transformation. To understand this better, Wang et al utilized real-time imaging techniques to visualize the behavior of single non-malignant and malignant mammary epithelial cells as they formed spheroids or acini in 3D lrBM matrices. Their unexpected findings.......
Author(s)
Yiyi Yang
Address
School of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912
Abstract: In a recent paper published by a group from Yale University (Sundeep Mukherjee, et al. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.20
1202887/full), the authors pro-posed a new multistep synthesis method, including thermo-plastic forming and electro-chemical processing, for
fabricating a wide range of morphologies and length-scales Ni60Pd20P17B3 metallic glass. Since these nanostructure metallic glasses can (1) provide large surface area and high dispersion of the active metal; (2) enrich the active noble metal on the surface; and (3) eliminate carbon substrate support, they will have a wide range of electro-catalytic applications....................
Author(s)
Joshua Hill
Address
Texas A&M AgriLife Genomics and Bioinformatics Service, 2123 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843, USA
Abstract: Wery’s et al. recent paper “Zincmediated RNA Fragmentation allows robust transcript reassembly upon whole genome transcriptome RNA-Seq†sheds light on a problem that affects many Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) experiments; the ability to accurately represent the RNA present in a given
sample. Bias for RNA-seq can be simply defined as a false increase or decrease of a given RNA transcript. If that definition is expanded over a whole
transcriptome then it is easy to see how false conclusions can be made and why bias must be considered......
Author(s)
Ben Mudrak
Address
Education Division, American Journal Experts
Abstract: Scholarly publishing is the cornerstone of advancing our understanding of the world around us. A staggering amount of research is conducted each day, and this research would effectively serve no purpose without a system for its dissemination. However, academic publishing is slanted toward positive results, with negative results becoming scarcer in the literature (Fanelli, 2012). Countless experiments without splashy results end up in dusty lab notebooks, forever closed off from the rest of the scientific community......
Author(s)
Ravi R. Pathak
Address
College of Medicine, Pathology and Cell Biology, University o South Florida, Tampa, Fl, 33612
Abstract: U.S. President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act of 1971 that galvanized efforts aimed at seeking a cure for the disease and better understand the biological events that lead to it. It has been 40 years since the eventful declaration by the Nixon Administration, however despite significant progress in terms of understanding the mechanisms of the disease and some notable treatment successes at early onset of the
disease; cancer continues to be a major cause of death[1]. Chemotherapy has been the mainstays of treatment for cancer patients, which is fraught with numerous side effects and is associated with poor quality of life for patients. With an increasing understanding of the molecular
mechanisms of cancer,.............................
Author(s)
Wanliang Shan and Zi Chen
Address
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA,
Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
Abstract: Mechanical instability of elastic rods has been subjected to extensive investigations and demonstrated fundamental roles in cytoskeletal mechanics and morphogenesis. Utilizing this instability also has great potential in engineering applications such as stretchable electronics. Here in this review, the fundamental theory underlying twisting and buckling instability of thin elastic rods is described. We then bridge together recent progresses in both theoretical and experimental studies on the topic. The promises and challenges in future studies of large deformation and buckling instability of thin rods are also discussed.
Author(s)
Robyn J. Crook
Address
Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX 77054 Abstract: Invertebrates have a long history of use in scientific research but there has been little concern for their welfare until very recently. Unlike vertebrate research animals, whose uses are closely regulated, invertebrate animals are minimally protected. In some countries regulations extend to a few species, but the vast majority of invertebrate animals can be used in research with no oversight, protections or legal regulation. Whether this is cause for concern depends on the ability of invertebrate animals to experience pain, suffering or distress as a result of husbandry and experimental procedures. To date there is minimal evidence that invertebrate animals are capable of experiencing such affective states, but this is largely due to very little experimental effort devoted to testing such hypotheses. In this article I review....
 Author(s) John W. Steele, Emily Fan, Yildiz Kelahmetaglu, Yuan Tian, Victor Bustos
Address Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience. Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065 Abstract:
Macroautophagy(autophagy) is a conserved cellular pathway that regulates the degradation oflong-lived proteins, protein aggregates, and cellular organelles. Autophagy isessential for maintaining neuronal homeostasis; however, neuronal autophagicefficiency decreases with age. Therefore, aging is one of the greatest riskfactors for development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a slowly progressing formof neurodegeneration that develops over the course of 10-20 years prior to theonset of overt clinical symptoms. AD is defined neuropathologically by the presenceof extracellular aggregates of the amyloidogenic protein amyloid-b (Ab) and intracellularaccumulation of the microtubule-asssuggesting that an intimate association mayexist between neuronal autophagy stasis and Alzheimer’s-relatedpathology. Here,we highlight recent evidence that the autophagic pathway plays a role in boththe generation and clearance of the pathogenic Ab protein and its precursors.The primary focus of this review......
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