Positive feedback regulation of Akt‐FMRP pathway protects neurons from cell death

Jeon, Se Jin,Han, Seol‐,Heui,Yang, Sung‐,Il,Choi, Ji woong,Kwon, Kyoung Ja,Park, Seung Hwa,Kim, Hahn Young,Cheong, Jae Hoon,Ryu, Jong Hoon,Ko, Kwang Ho,Wells, David G,Shin, Chan Young Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2012 Journal of Neurochemistry Vol.123 No.2

<P><I>J. Neurochem.</I> (2012) <B>123</B>, 226–238.</P><P><B>Abstract</B></P><P>Fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common single genetic cause of mental retardation and autistic spectrum disease, occurs when <I>FMR1</I> gene is mutated. <I>FMR1</I> encodes fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) which regulates translation of mRNAs playing important roles in the development of neurons as well as formation and maintenance of synapses. To examine whether FMRP regulates cell viability, we induced apoptosis in rat primary cortical neurons with glutamate <I>in vitro</I> and with middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in striatal neurons <I>in vivo</I>. Both conditions elicited a rapid, but transient FMRP expression in neurons. This up‐regulated FMRP expression was abolished by pre‐treatment with PI3K and Protein Kinase B (Akt) inhibitors: LY294002, Akt inhibitor IV, and VIII. Reduced FMRP expression <I>in vitro</I> or <I>in vivo</I> using small hairpin <I>Fmr1</I> virus exacerbated cell death by glutamate or MCAO, presumably <I>via</I> hypophosphorylation of Akt and reduced expression of B‐cell lymphoma‐extra large (Bcl‐xL). However, over‐expression of FMRP using enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP)‐FMRP constructs alleviated cell death, increased Akt activity, and enhanced Bcl‐xL production. The pro‐survival role of Akt‐dependent up‐regulation of FMRP in glutamate‐stimulated cultured neuron as well as in ischemic brain may have a clinical importance in FXS as well as in neurodegenerative disorders and traumatic brain injury.</P>

DRINKING SPACES AND CONSUMER CHOICE: A TEST OF FORAGING THEORY APPLIED TO UK PUBLIC HOUSES

Victoria Wells,Nadine Waehning,Kathryn Arnold,Ignazio Cabras 글로벌지식마케팅경영학회 2023 Global Marketing Conference Vol.2023 No.07

Drinking spaces such as bars, taverns, inns, cantinas, bierkellers, offer important social community spaces. Within the UK, a Pub, short for Public House is “a place, especially in Great Britain or Ireland, where alcoholic drinks can be bought and drunk and where food is often available” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2022) and is one of the most common and traditional drinking spaces. Sadly we are losing pubs at an alarming rate, due, over the last 20 years to many factors including government interventions (changes in the structure of the industry), increased competition from other leisure activities and high levels of beer duty/tax (BBPA, 2018) and more recent factors such as struggles to fill vacancies, Brexit and covid (Wells and Waehning, 2022). Now, more than ever, we need to understand consumer behaviour related to pubs and to understand how consumers choose pubs and what features of pubs are important to them.

Role of the Arabidopsis calcineurin B-like protein-interacting protein kinase CIPK21 in plant cold stress tolerance

Wei Tang,Wells A. Thompson 한국식물생명공학회 2020 Plant biotechnology reports Vol.14 No.3

The Arabidopsis calcineurin B-like protein-interacting protein kinase CIPK21 gene (AtCIPK21) plays important roles in cell metabolism, plant development, and abiotic stress responses. However, the function of the AtCIPK21 gene in cold stress tolerance in plant cells is not fully understood. In this study, we use cell cultures of three plant species including rice (Oryza sativa L.), cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.), and white pine (Pinus strobus L.), as well as Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain GV3101 harboring pBI-AtCIPK21 to generate transgenic cell lines. After confirmation of integration of the AtCIPK21 gene into the genome by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), southern blotting, and northern blotting analyses, the rice, cotton, and pine AtCIPK21 transgenic cell lines were used to examine cold stress tolerance. The experimental results demonstrated that overexpression of the AtCIPK21 gene enhanced cold stress tolerance of transgenic cells by increasing cell viability and cell growth rate, decreasing lipid peroxidation and ion leakage, increasing the content of polyamines, as well as elevating the activity of antioxidative enzymes. In rice cells, AtCIPK21 increases expression of Ca2+- dependent protein kinase (CPK) genes and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) genes under cold stress. These results indicated that overexpression of the AtCIPK21 gene in plant cells improved cold stress tolerance by elevating polyamines content, antioxidative enzyme activity, and expression of CPK genes and MAPK genes. Overexpression of the AtCIPK21 gene may be a valuable approach for engineering plant cold stress tolerance.

Assessing photocatalytic activity using methylene blue without dye sensitisation

Lee, Soo-Keun,Mills, Andrew,Wells, Nathan Elsevier 2018 CATALYSIS TODAY - Vol.313 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>The anaerobic photocatalysed reduction of methylene blue, MB, by glycerol to leuco methylene blue, LMB, is studied using UV-absorbing, P25 TiO<SUB>2</SUB>, and visible-absorbing, CdS, semiconductor powder particles as the photosensitizer. In both cases, the photo-reductive bleaching of the dye to LMB, is very rapid, typically <2min. The photobleaching of the MB is readily and simply reversed in the dark by allowing air into the system, so as to let the ambient oxygen to oxidise the photogenerated LMB back to its original blue, oxidized form, MB. Action spectra are recorded for both systems and reveal no evidence of dye-sensitisation, nor dye photolysis over the time scale of the reaction (i.e. ca. 2min). Instead, the action spectra exhibit spectral profiles that match very well that of the diffuse reflectance spectra of the respective semiconductor photocatalysts. The MB/glycerol system appears to offer a simple, quick, unambiguous way to assess the photocatalytic activity of both visible and UV absorbing photocatalyst powders using a dye, such as MB.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> Methylene blue is used in reductive photocatalytic reaction to probe activities of powdered semiconductors. </LI> <LI> UV and visible photocatalysts, TiO<SUB>2</SUB> and CdS, are used as examples. </LI> <LI> The action spectra show no signs of photosensitisation. </LI> <LI> The action spectra match very well the diffuse reflectance spectra of the semiconductors. </LI> <LI> Reductive photocatalysis offers a new approach to assessing photocatalytic activity. </LI> </UL> </P> <P><B>Graphical abstract</B></P> <P>[DISPLAY OMISSION]</P>

Noise Mitigation for Target Tracking in Wireless Acoustic Sensor Networks

( Youngwon Kim An ),( Seong-moo Yoo ),( Changhyuk An ),( Earl Wells ) 한국인터넷정보학회 2013 KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Syst Vol.7 No.5

In wireless sensor network (WSN) environments, environmental noises are generated by, for example, small passing animals, crickets chirping or foliage blowing and will interfere target detection if the noises are higher than the sensor threshold value. For accurate tracking by acoustic WSNs, these environmental noises should be filtered out before initiating track. This paper presents the effect of environmental noises on target tracking and proposes a new algorithm for the noise mitigation in acoustic WSNs. We find that our noise mitigation algorithm works well even for targets with sensing range shorter than the sensor separation as well as with longer sensing ranges. It is also found that noise duration at each sensor affects the performance of the algorithm. A detection algorithm is also presented to account for the Doppler effect which is an important consideration for tracking higher-speed ground targets. For tracking, we use the weighted sensor position centroid to represent the target position measurement and use the Kalman filter (KF) for tracking.

CHARACTERIZATION OF A NEW ORGANOSILICON PHOTORESIST

Wells C. Cunningham Jr.,Chan Eon Park 한국고분자학회 1988 한국고분자학회 학술대회 연구논문 초록집 Vol.1988 No.10

DNA Structure , Triplet Repeats , and Hereditary Neurological Diseases

Wells, Robert D . 생화학분자생물학회 1999 BMB Reports Vol.31 No.1

DNA Structure , Triplet Repeats , and Hereditary Neurological Diseases

Wells, Robert D 생화학분자생물학회 1999 BMB Reports Vol.31 No.1

존 웰즈 교수의 초청 강연 초록

Wells, John The Korean Society Of Phonetic Sciences And Speech 1989 말소리 Vol.15 No.-

다음은 창립 10주년을 맞은 대한음성학회의 초청으로 내한한 런던대학의 음성학. 언어학과 교수인 존 웰스 교수가 1987년 9월 22일에 한글학회 강당에서 열린 창립 기념식장에서 "현대 세계의 음성학"이라는 제목으로 행한 특별강연의 초록이다. 전반부는 생략하고 후반부만을 원문과 우리말로 옮겨 싣는다. It is an honour to be speaking on phonetics at the invitation of the Phonetic Society of Korea. Through the Korean Hangout script, invented in the fifteenth century at the instigation of the great King Sejong, and the work Hunminjeongeum which describes it, this country has an important place in the world history of phonetics. Phonetics is the description and analysis of pronunciation. Spoken language can be investigated at three points: in the speaker (articulatory phonetics), in the hearer (auditory phonetics), and in the physical speech signal (acoustic phonetics)... Beginners in English who are Korean mother tongue have to learn to make the sound 'f' as in "coffee", which is a voiceless labio-dental fricative, lip on upper teeth. They also have to learn to make [\theta]sound in "think", a voiceless dental fricative.

DNA Structure, Triplet Repeats, and Hereditary Neurological Diseases

Wells, Robert D. The Korea Science and Technology Center 1998 BMB Reports Vol.31 No.1