Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and Lewy body dementia (LBD) are categorized under the umbrella term “Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias,” and can all exhibit alpha-synuclein (αSyn) pathology. Subjects with AD specifically display increases in soluble αSyn brain abundance compared to individuals who are not cognitively impaired.
Seed size regulation in Arabidopsis plants is controlled by a number of signaling pathways that each have their own unique mechanisms of interaction. The IKU2-MINI3-SHB1 signaling pathway is one such method that is critical to embryonic growth and development within seeds of angiosperms in terms of endosperm tissue proliferation. Increased proliferation of endosperm early in the Arabidopsis life cycle leads to larger seed cavities which are able to facilitate future embryonic growth within larger seeds.
One of the most essential cellular DNA repair pathways, nucleotide excision repair (NER), is crucial to the prevention of cancer and early onset aging, in particular neurodegeneration. Mutation-induced reductions in NER capacity may cause debilitating conditions such as Xeroderma Pigmentosum and are a matter of great concern. Consequently, assays of cellular NER in response to UV-induced DNA damage have been optimized to further understand NER capacity and to identify NER-deficient individuals.
A substrate does not need to have a precise shape to fit the active site of the enzyme in many cases (1). Enzymes will not only act on their canonical substrates, but also compounds that are structurally similar. When this “promiscuous” activity occurs, substrates can be erroneously metabolized to damaged products with toxic effects on the cell (2).
Absolute pitch (AP), colloquially known as “perfect pitch”, refers to the rare ability to identify the note name of a given tone without external reference. It is known that AP is not an all-or-none ability, and different levels of AP have been previously proposed. However, no clear method to quantify the different levels of AP ability has yet been established. Another open question is the relationship between relative pitch (the comparison of one pitch with another) and AP in people who possess both abilities.
Entropy calculations are essential for determining the level of randomness of a system. Numerical methods for entropy estimation of equilibrium systems is a developing field.
The unprecedented surge in the global population is a concern with many unexplored consequences, and it is crucial to determine the related ecological implications. This project explores whether human population density is associated with diversity in diurnal raptors via the application of both phylogenetic and functional measures of diversity. These methods take a different approach at quantifying biodiversity by integrating evolutionary history as a way to explain patterns of species assembly.
Overconsumption leads to many negative health effects, including increased risk of type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease. This consumption behavior is reinforced by reward and addiction pathways in the brain, including an area of the basal forebrain called the ventral pallidum (VP). Activation of the VP leads to increased consumption, which makes the VP a target for research on overconsumption. Several cell types are present in the VP, with inhibitory GABAergic neurons being the most common cell type.
Motor activity in a normal brain is associated with beta-band oscillations, in which changes have been observed with Parkinson’s disease (PD). More specifically, there is enhanced activity in the basal ganglia thalamocortical (BGTC) loop, which also holds a prominent role in the neurological changes in PD. These changes in beta-band oscillations can be observed in parkinsonian animal models in conjunction with patient studies to provide parallel analysis. However, the specific changes within the BGTC network as the disease progresses remain unclear.
Depression is a debilitating psychological disorder that affects millions of adolescents and remains difficult to treat. One group that is particularly prone to treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is those who suffered a history of abuse. Abuse increases an individual’s risk for depression by altering their social cognition. Researchers hypothesize that these cognitive changes are influenced by alterations in the way an individual’s brain processes faces and emotions, making social interactions more difficult.