Patient-Specific iPSCs-Based Models of Neurodegenerative Diseases: Focus on Aberrant Calcium Signaling

The development of cell reprogramming technologies became a breakthrough in the creation of new models of human diseases, including neurodegenerative pathologies. The iPSCs-based models allow for the studying of both hereditary and sporadic cases of pathologies and produce deep insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration. The use of the cells most vulnerable to a particular pathology makes it possible to identify specific pathological mechanisms and greatly facilitates the task of selecting the most effective drugs. To date, a large number of studies on patient-specific models of neurodegenerative diseases has been accumulated. In this review, we focused on the alterations of such a ubiquitous and important intracellular regulatory pathway as calcium signaling. Here, we reviewed and analyzed the data obtained from iPSCs-based models of different neurodegenerative disorders that demonstrated aberrant calcium signaling.

The Impact of Social Engineer Attack Phases on Improved Security Countermeasures

The objective of this paper is to examine a model to identify Social Engineer Attack Phases to improve the security countermeasures by Social-Engineer Involvement. A questionnaire was developed and distributed to a sample of 243 respondents who were actively engaged in 3 Jordanian telecommunication companies. All hypotheses were tested using (PLS-SEM). The results of the study indicate that Social Engineer Attack Phases (Identification the potential target, Target Recognition, Decision approach, and Execution) have a partially mediate and significant impact on improving the security countermeasures by Social-Engineer Involvement. On the other hand, the Social Engineer Attack Phases (Information Aggregations, Analysis and Interpretation, Armament, and Influencing) have a fully mediate and significant impact on improving the security countermeasures by Social-Engineer Involvement. The findings of this study help to provide deep insight to help security professionals prepare better and implement the right and appropriate countermeasures, whether technical or soft measures.

Molecular probes for cellular imaging of post-translational proteoforms

Specific post-translational modification (PTM) states of a protein affect its property and function; understanding their dynamics in cells would provide deep insight into diverse signaling pathways and biological processes. However,...

SynCoPa: Visualizing Connectivity Paths and Synapses Over Detailed Morphologies

Brain complexity has traditionally fomented the division of neuroscience into somehow separated compartments; the coexistence of the anatomical, physiological, and connectomics points of view is just a paradigmatic example of this situation. However, there are times when it is important to combine some of these standpoints for getting a global picture, like for fully analyzing the morphological and topological features of a specific neuronal circuit. Within this framework, this article presents SynCoPa, a tool designed for bridging gaps among representations by providing techniques that allow combining detailed morphological neuron representations with the visualization of neuron interconnections at the synapse level. SynCoPa has been conceived for the interactive exploration and analysis of the connectivity elements and paths of simple to medium complexity neuronal circuits at the connectome level. This has been done by providing visual metaphors for synapses and interconnection paths, in combination with the representation of detailed neuron morphologies. SynCoPa could be helpful, for example, for establishing or confirming a hypothesis about the spatial distributions of synapses, or for answering questions about the way neurons establish connections or the relationships between connectivity and morphological features. Last, SynCoPa is easily extendable to include functional data provided, for example, by any of the morphologically-detailed simulators available nowadays, such as Neuron and Arbor, for providing a deep insight into the circuits features prior to simulating it, in particular any analysis where it is important to combine morphology, network topology, and physiology.

Deep insight on the behaviour of short fibres within a composite under uniaxial tensile

This work presents an investigation of the mechanical properties of a composite structure manufactured from polypropylene matrix reinforced with jute waste fibres collected from textile industry with extrusion followed by injection techniques. Mechanical tests under uniaxial strain shows that this lightweight vegetal fibre significantly enhanced the mechanical performances of the whole composite with a very slight quantity of compatibilizer which positively influences the final price of the composite. The fracture surfaces showed highly tethered as well as weakly anchored fibres to the matrix. Moreover, in order to have a deep insight on that anchoring behaviour, uniaxial tensile deformation was applied under Scanning Electron Microscopy and evidenced how the fibre/matrix interface plays a high role to strengthen the whole structure. The fibre and matrix interface is not simply resumed to high or weak anchoring but there is a combination of sticking and slipping of reinforcement on the polymeric walls.

PERFECT MATHS FOR IMPERFECT MINDS: A NEUROSCIENCE INSIGHT. INTERVIEW WITH ANNA SVERDLIK

How emotions are related to abstract thought and why mathematics is incredibly accurate, how the cerebral cortex is arranged, why its possibilities are limited, and how emotions, complementing the cortex activity, allow human brain to make scientific discoveries - these questions discussed in [1] are the subject of our interview with the author, psychiatrist Anna Sverdlik. This book is Intended for anyone who is interested in the nature of abstract thought, especially mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists, psychologists, and psychiatrists. Written in clear pedagogical style, it gives a deep insight into the physiology of abstract thought and offers some new interpretations of recent neuroscientific data.