Toll-like receptor 4 mediates tubular inflammation in diabetic nephropathy

published_or_final_versionThe 15th Medical Research Conference, Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, 16 January 2010. In Hong Kong Medical Journal, 2010, v. 16 n. 1, suppl. 1, p. 39, abstract no. 6

The cost of proactive interference is constant across presentation conditions

Proactive interference (PI) severely constrains how many items people can remember. For example, Endress and Potter (2014a) presented participants with sequences of everyday objects at 250 ms/picture, followed by a yes/no recognition test. They manipulated PI by either using new images on every trial in the unique condition (thus minimizing PI among items), or by re-using images from a limited pool for all trials in the repeated condition (thus maximizing PI among items). In the low-PI unique condition, the probability of remembering an item was essentially independent of the number of memory items, showing no clear memory limitations; more traditional working memory-like memory limitations appeared only in the high-PI repeated condition. Here, we ask whether the effects of PI are modulated by the availability of long-term memory (LTM) and verbal resources. Participants viewed sequences of 21 images, followed by a yes/no recognition test. Items were presented either quickly (250 ms/image) or sufficiently slowly (1500 ms/image) to produce LTM representations, either with or without verbal suppression. Across conditions, participants performed better in the unique than in the repeated condition, and better for slow than for fast presentations. In contrast, verbal suppression impaired performance only with slow presentations. The relative cost of PI was remarkably constant across conditions: relative to the unique condition, performance in the repeated condition was about 15% lower in all conditions. The cost of PI thus seems to be a function of the relative strength or recency of target items and interfering items, but relatively insensitive to other experimental manipulations

Motivated cognition: effects of reward, emotion, and other motivational factors across a variety of cognitive domains

A growing body of literature has demonstrated that motivation influences cognitive processing. The breadth of these effects is extensive and span influences of reward, emotion, and other motivational processes across all cognitive domains. As examples, this scope includes studies of emotional memory, value-based attentional capture, emotion effects on semantic processing, reward-related biases in decision making, and the role of approach/avoidance motivation on cognitive scope. Additionally, other less common forms of motivation–cognition interactions, such as self-referential and motoric processing can also be considered instances of motivated cognition. Here I outline some of the evidence indicating the generality and pervasiveness of these motivation influences on cognition, and introduce the associated ‘research nexus’ at Collabra: Psychology

Non-invasive single-cell biomechanical analysis using live-imaging datasets

The physiological state of a cell is governed by a multitude of processes and can be described by a combination of mechanical, spatial and temporal properties. Quantifying cell dynamics at multiple scales is essential for comprehensive studies of cellular function, and remains a challenge for traditional end-point assays. We introduce an efficient, non-invasive computational tool that takes time-lapse images as input to automatically detect, segment and analyze unlabeled live cells; the program then outputs kinematic cellular shape and migration parameters, while simultaneously measuring cellular stiffness and viscosity. We demonstrate the capabilities of the program by testing it on human mesenchymal stem cells (huMSCs) induced to differentiate towards the osteoblastic (huOB) lineage, and T-lymphocyte cells (T cells) of naïve and stimulated phenotypes. The program detected relative cellular stiffness differences in huMSCs and huOBs that were comparable to those obtained with studies that utilize atomic force microscopy; it further distinguished naïve from stimulated T cells, based on characteristics necessary to invoke an immune response. In summary, we introduce an integrated tool to decipher spatiotemporal and intracellular dynamics of cells, providing a new and alternative approach for cell characterization

Enhanced Memory for Scenes Presented at Behaviorally Relevant Points in Time

What determines whether a scene is remembered or forgotten? Our results show how visual scenes are encoded into memory at behaviorally relevant points in time

Application of U-Net with global convolution network module in computer-aided tongue diagnosis

202208 bcwwVersion of RecordOthers“Research on Teaching Reform and Practice Based on First-Class Curriculum Construction” of the China Society of Higher Education (2020JXD01); a Special Project in the Key Field of “Artificial Intelligence” in Colleges and Universities in Guangdong Province (2019KZDZX1027); Provincial Key platforms and major scientific research projects of Guangdong Universities (major scientific research projects-Characteristic Innovation) (2017KTSCX048); Scientific research project of Guangdong Bureau of Traditional Chinese Medicine (20191411); Construction Project of Guangdong University Industrial College (AI Robot Education Industrial College).Publishe

Through-space transfer of chiral information mediated by a plasmonic nanomaterial

The ability to detect chirality gives stereochemically attuned nanosensors the potential to revolutionise the study of biomolecular processes. Such devices may structurally characterise the mechanisms of protein-ligand binding, the intermediates of amyloidogenic diseases and the effects of phosphorylation and glycosylation. We demonstrate that single nanoparticle plasmonic reporters, or nanotags, can enable a stereochemical response to be transmitted from a chiral analyte to an achiral benzotriazole dye molecule in the vicinity of a plasmon resonance from an achiral metallic nanostructure. The transfer of chirality was verified by the measurement of mirror image surface enhanced resonance Raman optical activity spectra for the two enantiomers of each of ribose and tryptophan. Computational modelling confirms these observations and reveals the novel chirality transfer mechanism responsible. This is the first report of colloidal metal nanoparticles in the form of single plasmonic substrates displaying an intrinsic chiral sensitivity once attached to a chiral molecule