The bacterium
(FP), which is found in human feces, has been reported to participate in catechin metabolism in the gut, but this bacterium's effects on immune function are unclear. We assessed the ...effect of oral administration of FP on the immune response in ovalbumin (OVA) -sensitized mice. We demonstrated that the FP treatment suppressed interleukin (IL)-4 in splenocytes and OVA-specific IgE production in serum from OVA-sensitized mice. Moreover, oral administration of FP augmented CD4
CD25
T cells and CD103
CD11c
DCs. In animals of the FP group, the proportion of FP was increased in the mesenteric lymph nodes (MLNs), as was the proportion of Deferribacteres in the cecum. Oral administration of FP may inhibit the Th2 immune response by incorporation into the MLNs and/or by inducing changes in the gut microbiota. Thus, FP may be useful in alleviating antigen-induced Th2 immune responses.
The constitutive active/androstane receptor (CAR) is a nuclear receptor that functions as a xenobiotic sensor, which regulates the expression of enzymes involved in drug metabolism and of efflux ...transporters. Evaluation of the binding properties between CAR and a drug was assumed to facilitate the prediction of drug–drug interaction, thereby contributing to drug discovery. The purpose of this study is to construct a system for the rapid evaluation of interactions between CAR and drugs. We prepared recombinant CAR protein using the Escherichia coli expression system. Since isolated CAR protein is known to be unstable, we designed a fusion protein with the CAR binding sequence of the nuclear receptor coactivator 1 (NCOA1), which was expressed as a fusion protein with maltose binding protein (MBP), and purified it by several chromatography steps. The thus-obtained CAR/NCOA1 tethered protein (CAR-NCOA1) was used to evaluate the interactions of CAR with agonists and inverse agonists by a thermal denaturation experiment using differential scanning fluorometry (DSF) in the presence and absence of drugs. An increase in the melting temperature was observed with the addition of the drugs, confirming the direct interaction between them and CAR. DSF is easy to set up and compatible with multiwell plate devices (such as 96-well plates). The use of DSF and the CAR-NCOA1 fusion protein together allows for the rapid evaluation of the interaction between a drug and CAR, and is thereby considered to be useful in drug discovery.
Goal-directed behavior often involves temporal separation and flexible context-dependent association between sensory input and motor output. The control of goal-directed behavior is proposed to lie ...in the frontoparietal network, but the computational architecture of this network remains elusive. Based on recent rodent studies that measured and manipulated projection neurons in the frontoparietal network together with findings from earlier primate studies, we propose a canonical scheme of information flows in this network. The parietofrontal pathway transmits the spatial information of a sensory stimulus or internal motor bias to drive motor programs in the frontal areas. This pathway might consist of multiple parallel connections, each controlling distinct motor effectors. The frontoparietal pathway sends the spatial information of cognitively processed motor plans through multiple parallel connections. Each of these connections could support distinct spatial functions that use the motor target information, including attention allocation, multi-body part coordination, and forward estimation of movement state (i.e., forward models). The parallel pathways in the frontoparietal network enable dynamic interactions between regions that are tuned for specific goal-directed behaviors. This scheme offers a promising framework within which the computational architecture of the frontoparietal network and the underlying circuit mechanisms can be delineated in a systematic way, providing a holistic understanding of information processing in this network. Clarifying this network may also improve the diagnosis and treatment of behavioral deficits associated with dysfunctional frontoparietal connectivity in various neurological disorders including Alzheimer's disease.
The Hansen solubility parameters (HSPs) of asphaltenes extracted from oil sand bitumen samples produced at Athabasca in Canada and also from a vacuum residue fraction (VR) produced in the Middle East ...were determined by the Hansen solubility sphere method. For calculation of HSPs, the solubilities of asphaltenes were determined using a dynamic light scattering (DLS) method by dissolving or dispersing the asphaltenes in various solvents and measuring the particle size distributions thereof. The particle diameters of asphaltenes in good solvents were lower than its detection limit (<1 nm). It was demonstrated in the present study that asphaltenes differing in elemental composition had different HSP values corresponding to dispersion, dipole interaction, and hydrogen-bonding forces (δd, δp, and δh, respectively). Experimental results suggested that the differences in HSP values of the asphaltenes were influenced by the H/C ratio, oxygen content, and average asphaltene molecular weight.
The influential "premotor theory of attention" proposes that developing oculomotor commands mediate covert visual spatial attention. A likely source of this attentional bias is the frontal eye field ...(FEF), an area of the frontal cortex involved in converting visual information into saccade commands. We investigated the link between FEF activity and covert spatial attention by recording from FEF visual and saccade-related neurons in monkeys performing covert visual search tasks without eye movements. Here we show that the source of attention signals in the FEF is enhanced activity of visually responsive neurons. At the time attention is allocated to the visual search target, nonvisually responsive saccade-related movement neurons are inhibited. Therefore, in the FEF, spatial attention signals are independent of explicit saccade command signals. We propose that spatially selective activity in FEF visually responsive neurons corresponds to the mental spotlight of attention via modulation of ongoing visual processing.
We consider optical camera communication (OCC) between a camera receiver with optical lenses and distributed transmitters. This article investigates the features of an OCC system when the periods of ...reception and transmission are slightly different from each other. We describe a received light signal model for the OCC system with on-off keying and regard the received signals generated from a probability distribution of a Gaussian mixture model. We obtain the parameters of the probability distributions by applying a variational Bayesian inference method and utilize them for channel estimation. In addition, we define cost functions and minimize them to demodulate the transmitted bit sequences. The demodulation procedure uses a maximum-likelihood sequence detection method, which can be implemented by the Viterbi algorithm and estimates a synchronization parameter by minimizing the cost functions. Our new demodulation method requires neither synchronization devices nor training sequences for estimating the parameters. Moreover, the receiver does not need the precise transmission period, which is difficult to know in advance in practical situations because of the frequency tolerance of the clock generator in the transmitter. To validate our developed method, we conducted numerical simulations and compared the results with those from an oracle estimator that knows the parameters other than the bit sequence in advance. We also experimented in a real setup situation, and the results show the efficiency of our developed method.
Antibody titers against SARS-CoV-2 slowly wane over time. Here, we examined how time affects antibody potency. To assess the impact of antibody maturation on durable neutralizing activity against ...original SARS-CoV-2 and emerging variants of concern (VOCs), we analyzed receptor binding domain (RBD)-specific IgG antibodies in convalescent plasma taken 1–10 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Longitudinal evaluation of total RBD IgG and neutralizing antibody revealed declining total antibody titers but improved neutralization potency per antibody to original SARS-CoV-2, indicative of antibody response maturation. Neutralization assays with authentic viruses revealed that early antibodies capable of neutralizing original SARS-CoV-2 had limited reactivity toward B.1.351 (501Y.V2) and P.1 (501Y.V3) variants. Antibodies from late convalescents exhibited increased neutralization potency to VOCs, suggesting persistence of cross-neutralizing antibodies in plasma. Thus, maturation of the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 potentiates cross-neutralizing ability to circulating variants, suggesting that declining antibody titers may not be indicative of declining protection.
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•Qualitative changes in plasma neutralizing antibody are longitudinally analyzed•Affinity-matured antibodies with resistance to variants are durably maintained•Neutralizing potency and breadth to SARS-CoV-2 variants increase with time•Serological immunity evolves with time to counter SARS-CoV-2 variants
Antigenic drifts in SARS-CoV-2 variants permit escape from neutralizing antibody in COVID-19 convalescent plasma. Moriyama et al. reveal the evolution of serological immunity with time that counters SARS-CoV-2 variants via affinity maturation and durable elicitation of IgG antibodies that are resistant to viral escape.
Transistor models have been playing a key role in designing efficient power converters. As the operating frequency of the converters becomes higher, transistor models need to represent physical ...device behavior accurately. This paper proposes a comprehensive surface-potential-based model of silicon carbide (SiC) power MOSFETs that realizes accurate circuit simulations. Whereas conventional simulation models are based on empirical formulas, the proposed model is constructed in a surface-potential-based framework by considering the physical structure and behavior of vertical power SiC MOSFETs. The proposed model represents both I-V and C-V characteristics from weak inversion to the high-power region. In addition, the proposed model calculates the channel mobility degradation due to SiC/SiO<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">_2</tex-math></inline-formula> interface traps, which significantly affects the circuit performance. Through experiments using a commercial SiC power MOSFET, excellent agreements are obtained between measurement and simulation in I-V and C-V characteristics at various temperatures for wide power ranges up to 1 kW. The transient behavior of a double-pulse tester is also well reproduced within a timing error of 12.6 ns even under the high temperature.
In order to assess the contribution of a central clock in the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) to circadian behavior and the organization of peripheral clocks, we generated ...forebrain/SCN-specific Bmal1 knockout mice by using floxed Bmal1 and pan-neuronal Cre lines. The forebrain knockout mice showed >90% deletion of BMAL1 in the SCN and exhibited an immediate and complete loss of circadian behavior in constant conditions. Circadian rhythms in peripheral tissues persisted but became desynchronized and damped in constant darkness. The loss of synchrony was rescued by light/dark cycles and partially by restricted feeding (only in the liver and kidney but not in the other tissues) in a distinct manner. These results suggest that the forebrain/SCN is essential for internal temporal order of robust circadian programs in peripheral clocks, and that individual peripheral clocks are affected differently by light and feeding in the absence of a functional oscillator in the forebrain.
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