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The clinical application of complex molecular classifiers as diagnostic or prognostic tools has been limited by the time and cost needed to apply them to patients. Using an existing 50-gene expression signature known to separate two molecular subtypes of the pediatric cancer rhabdomyosarcoma, we show that an exhaustive iterative search algorithm can distill this complex classifier down to two or three features with equal discrimination. We validated the two-gene signatures using three separate and distinct datasets, including one that uses degraded RNA extracted from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded material. Finally, to show the generalizability of our algorithm, we applied it to a lung cancer dataset to find minimal gene signatures that can distinguish survival. Our approach can easily be generalized and coupled to existing technical platforms to facilitate the discovery of simplified signatures that are ready for routine clinical use. Cancer Res; 73(18); 5625–32. ©2013 AACR.

Cortical sensory representations can be reorganized by sensory exposure in an epoch of early development. The adaptive role of this type of plasticity for natural sounds in sensory development is, however, unclear. We have reared rats in a naturalistic, complex acoustic environment and examined their auditory representations. We found that cortical neurons became more selective to spectrotemporal features in the experienced sounds. At the neuronal population level, more neurons were involved in representing the whole set of complex sounds, but fewer neurons actually responded to each individual sound, but with greater magnitudes. A comparison of population-temporal responses to the experienced complex sounds revealed that cortical responses to different renderings of the same song motif were more similar, indicating that the cortical neurons became less sensitive to natural acoustic variations associated with stimulus context and sound renderings. By contrast, cortical responses to sounds of different motifs became more distinctive, suggesting that cortical neurons were tuned to the defining features of the experienced sounds. These effects lead to emergent “categorical” representations of the experienced sounds, which presumably facilitate their recognition.

A conventional CPW-fed loop-slot antenna, incorporating a PBG structure in the feeding network, is presented. Experimental results show that the PBG structure with cross-shaped lattices exhibits a well behaved band-stop characteristic; furthermore, the impedance bandwidth of the proposed antennas also becomes wider than that of the conventional CPW-fed slot antenna. In this design, the impedance bandwidth can reach 1320 MHz, which is about 60% with respect to the central frequency of 2200 MHz. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 41: 154–156, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.20077

A novel low-profile ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna suitable for mobile-phone applications as an internal antenna is presented. The proposed antenna mainly comprises a planar metal-plate monopole folded into a low-profile structure and a matching tuning portion for achieving a very wide operating bandwidth (about 1.89–10.14 GHz in this study). With the very wide bandwidth obtained, the proposed antenna can easily cover the UMTS (1920–2170 MHz) band for mobile communications and the 2.4-GHz (2400–2484 MHz) and 5.2/5.8-GHz (5150–5350/5725–5875 MHz) bands for WLAN communications. Characteristics of the proposed UWB antenna applied to a UMTS/WLAN mobile phone are presented. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 43: 7–9, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.20358

In this paper, a broadband coplanar waveguide (CPW)-fed inductive slot antenna is presented. It consists of a conventional CPW inductive slot antenna and a CPW inductively coupled slot antenna in the feeding network. The experimental results provide the characteristic of excellent enhancement of impedance bandwidth (VSWR < 2). The impedance bandwidth of this broadband antenna can reach about 4.5 GHz (2.35–6.85 GHz). Details of the antenna design and experimental results are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 41: 12–14, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.20030

Purpose: In the light of tumor regression and normal tissue changes, dose distributions can deviate undesirably from what was planned. As a consequence, replanning is sometimes necessary during treatment to ensure continued tumor coverage or to avoid overdosing organs at risk (OARs). Proton plans are generally thought to be less robust than photon plans because of the proton beam's higher sensitivity to changes in tissue composition, suggesting also a higher likely replanning rate due to tumor regression. The purpose of this study is to compare dosimetric deviations between forward-calculated double scattering (DS) proton plans with IMRT plans upon tumor regression, and assesses their impact on clinical replanning decisions. Methods: Ten consecutive locally advanced NSCLC patients whose tumors shrank > 50% in volume and who received four or more CT scans during radiotherapy were analyzed. All the patients received proton radiotherapy (6660 cGy, 180 cGy/fx). Dosimetric robustness during therapy was characterized by changes in the planning objective metrics as well as by point-by-point root-mean-squared differences for the entire PTV, ITV, and OARs (heart, cord, esophagus, brachial plexus and lungs) DVHs. Results: Sixty-four pairs of DVHs were reviewed by three clinicians, who requested a replanning rate of 16.7% and 18.6% for DS and IMRT plans, respectively, with a high agreement between providers. Robustness of clinical indicators was found to depend on the beam orientation and dose level on the DVH curve. Proton dose increased most in OARs distal to the PTV along the beam path, but these changes were primarily in the mid to low dose levels. In contrast, the variation in IMRT plans occurred primarily in the high dose region. Conclusion: Robustness of clinical indicators depends where on the DVH curves comparisons are made. Similar replanning rates were observed for DS and IMRT plans upon large tumor regression.

This paper presents a novel planar monopole, printed on both sides of a dielectric substrate, which can be concealed within the housing of a folder-type mobile phone as an internal antenna. The proposed internal planar monopole antenna occupies a small area of 10 × 40 mm2, and is capable of operating in the GSM/DCS/PCS bands. Good radiation characteristics for frequencies across the operating bands are also obtained. Details of the proposed antenna design and the obtained experimental results are presented. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 39: 106–108, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.11140

An innovative dual-frequency planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) mounted at the bottom end of the ground plane of a folder-type mobile handset is presented. The proposed PIFA has a bent meandered radiating arm and is first printed on a flexible printed circuit board (FPCB), which is then bent by 90° and attached to and supported by a foam base of size 40 × 8 × 7 mm3. The proposed PIFA is capable of GSM/DCS operation, and the experimental results of a constructed prototype are presented and discussed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 38: 73–75, 2003

Photonic bandgap (PBG) structures with cross-shaped or square-shaped lattices have been incorporated into the antenna feed network for harmonic suppression. Experimental results show that PBG structures not only exhibit well-behaved bandstop characteristics, but also enhance the bandwidth of the proposed antennas. For the proposed antenna with square-shaped lattices, the 10 dB return loss bandwidth could reach 1541 MHz (1525-3066 MHz), which is about 70% with respect to the center frequency of 2200 MHz; for the antenna with cross-shaped lattices, the bandwidth could reach 1320 MHz (1560-2880 MHz), which is about 60% with respect to the center frequency of 2200 MHz.

To prospectively evaluate the utility of detecting bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) Aspergillus galactomannan antigen (GM) in the diagnosis of pulmonary aspergillosis.From August 2008 to April 2012, 121 patients suspected of pulmonary aspergillosis were recruited and classified into pulmonary aspergillosis group (n = 57) and non-pulmonary disease group (n = 64) according to the 2008 diagnostic criteria and classification of European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer/National Institute of Mycoses Study Group(EORTC/MSG). The absorbency (A) and I value of GM in the patients' serum and BALF were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). And their values were compared and analyzed.Twenty cases were confirmed by pathological examinations and 37 cases by clinical diagnosis in the pulmonary aspergillosis group. The mean rank of GM's I value in the serum and BALF samples was 88.21 and 86.49. And they significantly increased compared with the non-pulmonary aspergillosis group (36.77, 38.30) (P0.01). At a different serum GM threshold I = 0.5, 0.8, 1.0, the sensitivities were 0.842, 0.649 and 0.228; the specificities 0.906, 0.938, 0.929; the positive predictive values 0.889, 0.902, 0.984 and the negative predictive values 0.866, 0.750, 0.589 respectively. And at a different BALF GM threshold I = 0.5, 0.8, 1.0, the sensitivities were 0.930, 0.657, 0.561; the specificities 0.766, 0.922, 0.969; the positive predictive values 0.779, 0.884, 0.941 and the negative predictive values 0.925, 0.756, 0.713 respectively.The detection of GM in BALF may be employed for the clinical diagnosis of pulmonary aspergillosis.

Background and Purpose— Horizontal gaze palsy with progressive scoliosis (HGPPS) is a rare congenital disorder caused by mutation in the ROBO3 gene. It is characterized by absent horizontal eye movements with progressive scoliosis developing in childhood and adolescence. To our knowledge, both diffusion tensor imaging evaluation in HGPPS patients who present with stroke and truncating stop codon mutation in the ROBO3 gene have yet to be reported. Summary of Case— We present a man with HGPPS who experienced a left pure motor stroke as a result of a left corona radiata infarct on diffusion-weighted imaging. Diffusion tensor imaging tractography confirmed the presence of uncrossed corticospinal tracts, accounting for the ipsilateral deficit. He was also found to possess a novel ROBO3 stop codon mutation on genetic testing. Conclusions— Patients with HGPPS may present with stroke symptoms on the ipsilateral side of the infarct in view of uncrossed corticospinal tracts. Truncating mutation in ROBO3 may provide additional pathophysiologic insights.

To discuss the diagnosis and minimally invasive surgical treatment on severe acromioclavicular dislocation combined with coracoid process fracture.Using 2 incisions of shoulder to expose and fix coracoid process and acromioclaricular joint and to repair damaged acromioclavicular ligament in 7 cases from March 1998 to March 2009. There was 2 males and 5 females in the patients. The age was from 23 to 57 years with an average of 44 yeas. The time from injury to operation was 3-7 d with an average of 4 days. According to Eyres typing, 2 cases were type 11 B, 5 cases were type III B.Seven patients were followed up from 6 months to 2 years with an average of 1 year. According to Karlsson criteria, 7 cases got grade A.Using 2 incisions of shoulder to expose and fix acromioclaricular joint and coracoid process with strong pertinence, reliable fixation and small tissue injury, which is a minimally invasive and effective method for severe acromioclavicular dislocation combined with coracoid process fracture.

We examined to what extent physical disabilities (PD) affect self-perceived quality of life (QOL) among adolescents.A survey was conducted on 157 adolescents (aged 15.6 +/- 1.6 years) with PD, who were attending high schools in Taiwan; 855 students (15.3 +/- 1.6 years) from the same geographic regions and without a disability were recruited as controls. The Student Version of the Comprehensive Quality of Life Scale (COMQOL-S) was used to assess their subjective and objective well-being.No significant differences in overall objective QOL score were found between the two groups but the PD group was poorer in health and material well-being. Adolescents with PD scored significantly higher in overall subjective QOL and all the seven domains examined. Stratified analysis showed that older students and female students with PD had lower life satisfaction in some domains. There were no significant differences in overall objective (62.1 +/- 8.3 vs. 60.9 +/- 6.4; p = 0.55) or subjective (72.3 +/- 12.6 vs. 74.4 +/- 13.6; p = 0.15) QOL between students in mainstream and special schools.With national health care and educational coverage, the QOL of adolescents with PD in Taiwan do not seem to be affected by the disabilities, regardless of whether they are in mainstream or special schools. However, the negative effect of PD on QOL becomes a concern with increasing age; females with PD also appear to have a lower subjective QOL in health and emotion.

The nuclear spin relaxation induced by a freely diffusing paramagnetic center provides a direct measure of intermolecular accessibility. A number of factors are involved in a quantitative interpretation of relaxation data including excluded volume effects, solvation differences, and the details of the electron spin relaxation in the paramagnetic center. In the case where the electron relaxation time is short compared with correlation times describing the electron-nuclear coupling, the nuclear spin relaxation rates may be related to the effective local concentration of the paramagnetic center at different locations about the solute of interest. The local concentrations may in turn be related to differences in the local free energies of interaction between the diffusing paramagnet and the cosolute. We demonstrate this approach for the case of ribonuclease A and deduce surface free energy differences for a large number of protein proton sites. We find that the oxygen accessibility is poorly represented by hard-sphere models such as computed solvent or steric accessibility. There is a distribution of local intermolecular interactions with a width of the order of RT that dominates the report of the intermolecular exploration of the protein by this simple solute.

We utilize the paramagnetic contribution to proton spin–lattice relaxation rate constants induced by freely diffusing charged paramagnetic centers to investigate the effect of charge on the intermolecular exploration of a protein by the small molecule. The proton NMR spectrum provided 255 resolved resonances that report how the explorer molecule local concentration varies with position on the surface. The measurements integrate over local dielectric constant variations, and, in principle, provide an experimental characterization of the surface free energy sampling biases introduced by the charge distribution on the protein. The experimental results for ribonuclease A obtained using positive, neutral, and negatively charged small nitroxide radicals are qualitatively similar to those expected from electrostatic calculations. However, while systematic electrostatic trends are apparent, the three different combinations of the data sets do not yield internally consistent values for the electrostatic contribution to the intermolecular free energy. We attribute this failure to the weakness of the electrostatic sampling bias for charged nitroxides in water and local variations in effective translational diffusion constant at the water–protein interface, which enters the nuclear spin relaxation equations for the nitroxide–proton dipolar coupling.

To observe the effects of sinomenine on the immune functions and apoptosis of murine lymphocyte as well as on human synovial fibroblast proliferation.Both in vivo and in vitro tests were adopted. The lymphocyte proliferation induced by mitogens was assayed by MTT method. Spleen T lymphocyte subtypes were tested with flow cytometry. Spleen lymphocyte apoptosis was analyzed by flow cytometry and DNA ladder methods. In vitro test was adopted to observe the effects of sinomenine on the proliferation of human fibroblast of rheumatoid arthritis.Sinomenine can inhibit the proliferation of mouse lymphocytes induced by ConA, LPS and anti-CD3 mAb but not PMA in vitro, and inhibit the proliferation induced by LPS and PMA in vivo. Sinomenine can reduce up-regulated CD4+/CD8+ ratio of T lymphocyte subtype in adjuvant arthritis rat. At the same concentration increased apoptosis ratio. As to human synovial fibroblast, sinomenine can significantly inhibit proliferation of human fibroblast.Sinomenine can inhibit the immunological function and correct imbalance of CD4+/CD8+ ratio of T lymphocyte subtype. It can also increase apoptosis ratio of spleen lymphocyte. This may be the mechanism of its immunological inhibitory effect.

Paramagnetic contributions to nuclear magnetic spin-lattice relaxation rate constant induced by freely diffusing molecular oxygen measured at hundreds of different protein proton sites provide a direct means for characterizing the exploration of the protein by oxygen. This report focuses on regions of ribonuclease A where the rate constant enhancements are either quite large or quite small. We find that there are several regions of enhanced oxygen affinity for the protein both on the surface and in interior pockets where sufficient free volume permits. Oxygen has weak associative interactions with a number of surface crevices that are generally between secondary structural elements of the protein fold. Several regions near the surface have higher than expected accessibility to oxygen indicating that structural fluctuations in the protein provide intermolecular access. Oxygen penetrates part of the hydrophobic interior, but affinity does not correlate simply with hydrophobicity indices. Oxygen is excluded from regions of high interior packing density and a few surface sites where x-ray diffraction data have indicated the presence of specific hydration with high occupancy.

A wideband CPW-fed patch antenna is presented. It consists of the traditional CPW-fed patch antenna and a defective ground plane. The defective ground plane consists of 49 cross-shaped elements (7/spl times/7). The inductive CPW-fed structure (no patch element) with defective ground plane generates a first resonant frequency and the traditional CPW-fed patch antenna exhibits a second resonant frequency. Wideband operation is obtained by incorporating two resonant frequencies. The 10 dB return loss bandwidth of the proposed antenna could reach about 240 MHz (1.6-1.84 GHz), which is about 13% with respect to the central frequency of 1.8 GHz. Details of the proposed antenna configuration and experimental results are discussed.

A compact, broadband microstrip antenna with a defective ground plane has been successfully implemented. The impedance bandwidth of the proposed antenna could reach almost 256 MHz, which is about 4.3 times that (59 MHz) of the conventional microstrip antenna. With the presence of slots in parallel to non-radiating edges and a normal ground plane, the proposed antenna exhibits a dual-band operation while, with the presence of a defective ground plane and a normal patch, the impedance bandwidth of the fundamental mode is augmented and the resonant frequency is lowered simultaneously. A novel broadband technique exploiting a defective ground plane composed of 25 cross-shaped elements has been investigated experimentally, offering a new idea for bandwidth enhancement. Details of the antenna design and experimental results are presented and discussed.

This paper presents a broadband CPW-fed loop slot antenna incorporated with a photonic bandgap (PBG) structure in the feeding network. An asymmetric PBG structure, utilized to eliminate unwanted higher order modes, has been implemented experimentally. The experimental results show that a good characteristic of the suppression of higher order modes is observed; furthermore, the impedance bandwidth of the proposed antenna can reach 1541 MHz, which is about 70% with respect to the central frequency of 2200 MHz.

This paper presents a novel design of a broadband probe-fed planar patch antenna. The proposed antenna has a thick air-layer substrate, and bandwidth enhancement is achieved by cutting a small portion of the ground plane and adding an inverted U-shaped ground plane to be close to the radiating patch, and then feeding the antenna at the inverted U-shaped ground-plane portion using a 50-/spl Omega/ coax feed with a short probe pin. Prototypes have been successfully implemented, and experimental results show that an impedance bandwidth (1:1.5 VSWR) greater than 20% can be achieved for the proposed antenna. Radiation characteristics of a prototype suitable for application in a DCS cellular system (1710-1880 MHz) base station are also presented.

To investigate the effects of leflunomide (LEF) on modulating interleukin-1 (IL-1), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor- alpha (TNF-alpha) production induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in peritoneal macrophages (PMphi) in adjuvant arthritis rats and elucidate the possible mechanisms of antiinflammatory and antirheumatoid effects of LEF.Freund's complete adjuvant was injected in the hind footpad of rats to induce adjuvant arthritis (AA) rat model. The PMphi samples were taken at different time after medication. IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-alpha activities released from PMphi were measured by ELISA method or bioassay method.Production of IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-alpha was increased in the culture supernatant of PMphi in AA model rat. LEF could inhibit LPS-induced release of IL-1 and TNF-alpha from PMphi of the AA rats and the inhibitory effects were extremely rapid. LEF (10, 25 mg/kg) administrated for 21d could inhibit IL-6 release from PMphi in AA rats.The antiinflammatory mechanisms of LEF in AA rats might be related to inhibitory level of IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-alpha from PMphi in vivo.

AIM: To study the effects of aminoguanidine (AG) and two L-arginine analogues Nω-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) and Nω-nitro-L-arginine (L-NNA) on nitric oxide (NO) production induced by cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β, and IFN-γ) and bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) mixture (CM) in the cultured rat hepatocytes, and examine their mechanisms action. METHODS: Rat hepatocytes were incubated with AG, L-NAME, L-NNA, Actinomycin D (ActD) and dexamethasone in a medium containing CM (LPS plus TNF-α, IL-1β, and IFN-γ) for 24 h. NO production in the cultured supernatant was measured with the Griess reaction. Intracellular cGMP level was detected with radioimmunoassy. RESULTS: NO production was markedly blocked by AG and L-NAME in a dose-dependent manner under inflammatory stimuli condition triggered by CM in vitro. The rate of the maximum inhibitory effects of L-NAME (38.9%) was less potent than that obtained with AG (53.7%, P < 0.05). There was no significant difference between the inhibitory effects of AG and two L-arginine analogues on intracellular cGMP accumulation in rat cultured hepatocytes. Non-specific NOS expression inhibitor dexamethasone(DEX) and iNOS mRNA transcriptional inhibitor ActD also significantly inhibited CM-induced NO production. AG (0.1 mmol·L-1) and ActD (0.2 ng·L-1) were equipotent in decreasing NO production induced by inflammatory stimuli in vitro, and both effects were more potent than that induced by non-selectivity NOS activity inhibitor L-NAME (0.1 mmol·L-1) under similar stimuli conditions (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: AG is a potent selective inhibitor of inducible isoform of NOS, and the mechanism of action may be not only competitive inhibition in the substrate level, but also the gene expression level in rat hepatocytes.

A simple stimulus evokes responses from a large population of neurons in many cortical areas. However, although many neurons are active, not all contribute equally to perception or motor planning. Studies of motion discrimination show that an animal's perceptual decisions are well correlated with responses from a relatively small fraction of MT neurons. There are similar findings in other systems. Such a subset of neurons is labeled "most informative", and arguably is the basis of a perceptual decision [1,2]. In this study, we use a simple model of two (or two pools of) competing neurons to find the location of the "most informative" neurons in the context of error-minimization for a broad range of discrimination tasks. Although the peak and the maximum slope of a tuning curve are typically emphasized in sensory coding theories, the quantitative interaction described here requires one to consider the entire tuning curve. We start the analysis with a fine discrimination task, but the theory is general enough for a continuum of discrimination tasks, from fine to coarse. The results point out that (1) nearly any place on a tuning curve (between the peak and 1.4 tuning widths from the peak) can be an optimal position for a particular discrimination problem; (2) multiplicative noise does not alter the location of the most informative neuron, while additive noise slightly alters the location; (3) the maximum slope of a neuron's tuning curve is generally suboptimal for a fine discrimination task. In fact, the optimal stimulus location for fine discrimination is farther into the tail of a tuning curve under most conditions; (4) even as the optimal stimulus position on a tuning curve is shifting with the task, the most informative neuron remains unchanged over a broad range of discrimination. Finally, we show practically how use the theory to bring order to what appears as discouragingly noisy data (see Figure ​Figure11). Figure 1 Reinterpreting experimental observations. (A) A single neuron's performance (expressed as discriminability, di′) to a discrimination task (± 3° motion discrimination) is typically expressed as a function of a neuron's tuned position ...

The aims of this study were (1) to document the recognition performance of environmental sounds (ESs) in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants (CIs) and to analyze the possible associated factors with the ESs recognition; (2) to examine the relationship between perception of ESs and receptive vocabulary level; and (3) to explore the acoustic factors relevant to perceptual outcomes of daily ESs in pediatric CI users. Forty-seven prelingually deafened children between ages 4 to 10 years participated in this study. They were divided into pre-school (group A: age 4-6) and school-age (group B: age 7 to 10) groups. Sound Effects Recognition Test (SERT) and the Chinese version of the revised Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-R) were used to assess the auditory perception ability. The average correct percentage of SERT was 61.2% in the preschool group and 72.3% in the older group. There was no significant difference between the two groups. The ESs recognition performance of children with CIs was poorer than that of their hearing peers (90% in average). No correlation existed between ESs recognition and receptive vocabulary comprehension. Two predictive factors: pre-implantation residual hearing and duration of CI usage were found to be associated with recognition performance of daily-encountered ESs. Acoustically, sounds with distinct temporal patterning were easier to identify for children with CIs. In conclusion, we have demonstrated that ESs recognition is not easy for children with CIs and a low correlation existed between linguistic sounds and ESs recognition in these subjects. Recognition ability of ESs in children with CIs can only be achieved by natural exposure to daily-encountered auditory stimuli if sounds other than speech stimuli were less emphasized in routine verbal/oral habilitation program. Therefore, task-specific measures other than speech materials can be helpful to capture the full profile of auditory perceptual progress after implantation.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common lethal autosomal recessive disease in the Caucasian population. It is due to mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene. To date, over 1910 mutations have been identified in the CFTR gene. Among these mutations, the CF-causing missense mutation G551D-CFTR (approx. 5% of cases) encodes for a CFTR chloride channel with normal expression on the cell surface. Nevertheless, it is associated with severe disease due to its altered channel activation. The aim of the present study was to identify specific interacting proteins of G551D-CFTR. Co-immunoprecipitated proteins with G551D-CFTR were resolved by 2D-gel electrophoresis (2-DE). Mass Spectrometry revealed that calumenin was present in the protein complex linked to G551D-CFTR. Despite its basal expression was not modified in G551D-CFTR expressing cells when compared to Wt-CFTR expressing cells, it was more abundant in the G551D-CFTR complex detected by immunoprecipitation. The calumenin-CFTR interaction was also shown by Surface Plasmon Resonance and further confirmed by computational analysis of the predicted calumenin's partners. Because in our cellular model calumenin was found in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) by immunofluorescence experiments, we suggest that calumenin is likely involved in the mutated CFTR's maturation. In conclusion, we showed for the first time that calumenin binds to CFTR and that it is increased in the G551D-CFTR complex. We suggest that it may be involved in the physiopathology of G551D-CFTR and that G551D-CFTR may follow a specific maturation and trafficking pathway. We also hypothesize that UPR may be triggered independently of the retention of G551D-CFTR in the ER because Grp78/Bip expression is increased in the cells. Finally, we propose here that Calumenin is a new CFTR chaperone.

In cystic fibrosis (CF), the most frequent mutant variant of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), F508del-CFTR protein, is misfolded and retained in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). We previously showed that the unfolded protein response (UPR) may be triggered in CF. Since prolonged UPR activation leads to apoptosis via the calcium-calpain-caspase-12-caspase-3 cascade and because apoptosis is altered in CF, our aim was to compare the ER stress-induced apoptosis pathway between wild type (Wt) and F508del-CFTR expressing cells. Here we show that the calcium-calpain-caspase-12-caspase-3 cascade is altered in F508del-CFTR expressing cells. We propose that this alteration is involved in the altered apoptosis triggering observed in CF.

This paper discussed dialect effects on L2 learning. Data from advanced English‐learning students were separated into groups according to geographic regions: Northern, Middle, and Southern parts of Taiwan. Subjects were asked to read out loud eight English words, namely, “heed,” “hid,” “head,” “had,” “hod,” “hawed,” “hood,” and “who’d.” Acoustic information, such as F1 and F2, were measured; also, since Taiwanese English learners tend to use temporal cues to distinguish tense and lax vowels, duration of each word were also measured. Comparing the vowels read by the subjects with native speakers, we found that the Northern group had very similar patterns with native speakers in both spectral and temporal cues. As for the Middle group, the vowel shape was going upper right in the vowel chart and the duration pattern was quite distinctive from native speakers. Furthermore, all the subjects from the Southern part of Taiwan speak both Mandarin and Taiwan Min and their vowel spaces were the most deviated from native speakers, from which we assumed that PAM model (Best, 1993, 1995) could give a reasonable explanation: they have two vowel systems that could be referenced from, thus they might easily get confused. However, several problems still need further examination.

This paper discussed perception of three contrastive Mandarin tones: high tone (Tone1), rising tone (Tone2), and falling tone (Tone4). Based on the previous study by Halle (2004), in which tone (Mandarin) and non‐tone (French) speakers joined, our perceptional experiment employed both identification and discrimination paradigm, and categorical result of tones was expected. We recorded two Mandarin words “tu” and “wa” in those three contrastive tones, and these six words were manipulated into same duration. We then synthesized the F0 of Tone1 to Tone2, Tone1 to Tone4, and Tone2 to Tone4 in seven steps. Subjects were separated in accordance to their mother tongues, namely Mandarin, Spanish, and Cantonese. Categorical perception is obvious in Mandarin group. Cantonese speakers revealed a similar categorical pattern to Mandarin speakers, while Spanish speakers showed no categorical pattern. On the whole, Mandarin speakers had an earlier dropdown on second or third step over each pair of tone stimuli.

A novel shorted, folded planar monopole antenna for application in GSM/DCS dual-band mobile phones is proposed. The antenna is easily fabricated from stamping a single metal plate, which is then folded onto a foam base of compact size 5×10×40 mm3. In addition, the proposed antenna shows a very low profile of 5 mm protruded from the top edge of the system ground plane, making it very promising to be employed within the casing of a mobile phone as an internal antenna.