Structural and functional analysis of the human Cone-rod homeobox transcription factor

The cone-rod homeobox (CRX) protein is a critical K50 homeodomain transcription factor responsible for the differentiation and maintenance of photoreceptor neurons in the vertebrate retina. Mutant alleles in the human gene encoding CRX result in a variety of distinct blinding retinopathies, including retinitis pigmentosa, cone-rod dystrophy, and Leber congenital amaurosis. Despite the success of using in vitro biochemistry, animal models, and genomics approaches to study this clinically relevant transcription factor over the past 24 years since its initial characterization, there are no high-resolution structures in the published literature for the CRX protein. In this study, we use bioinformatic approaches and small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) structural analysis to further understand the biochemical complexity of the human CRX homeodomain (CRX-HD). We find that the CRX-HD is a compact, globular monomer in solution that can specifically bind functional cis-regulatory elements encoded upstream of retina specific genes. This study presents the first structural analysis of CRX, paving the way for a new approach to studying the biochemistry of this protein and its disease-causing mutant protein variants.

Entrepreneurs’ Networking Styles and Normative Underpinnings during Institutional Transition

Existing network research has mainly adopted functional and/or structural approaches to study the instrumental goals behind entrepreneurs’ networking as well as the influence of personal position on access to resources and eventual performance. The variety of entrepreneurs’ networking styles and their normative underpinnings have not been adequately explored. Contextualized in China, this study asks: How do entrepreneurs’ understandings of social norms shape their networking styles? Through an inductive comparison of two entrepreneur generations in China, we identify three networking styles: guanxi-oriented networking, market-based networking, and mixed networking. We theorize that three types of norms shape these styles: market-inferred norms, dyadically formed norms, and identity-induced norms. This study provides new insights into the understanding of Chinese entrepreneurs’ distinctive networking styles and their normative underpinnings. Further, it suggests implications both for the wider study of entrepreneurs’ networking behaviors in transition economies, and for practitioners wishing to enhance their network building in China.

Heterogeneity of mesenchymal stem cells: characterization and application in cell therapy

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have shown great potentials in regenerative medicine for their low immunogenicity, multilineage differentiation potential, and extensive sources. However, the heterogeneity of MSCs limits their clinical application and industrial prospects. In this review, we introduced the heterogeneity of MSCs in terms of their applications, sources, functions, and surface markers; discussed the major factors leading to the heterogeneity in MSCs; summarized the main approaches to study the MSC heterogeneity, and addressed the clinical challenges resulting from heterogeneity. Finally, we proposed the strategies that might be used to purify the MSCs and to eliminate the heterogeneity of MSCs for their standardized production and reliable clinical application.

Image and pattern reconstruction using differentiable plasticity

The brain is a substantial boon to humankind that adapts nature accordingly. The brain can learn and unlearn based on the situation. This singularity of human learning led to the research creating models using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to incorporate the brain’s behavior. The investigation opened up many new approaches to study AI with neural networks by adding new techniques to imitate the human brain’s functionalities. Many models can learn from experience like Recurrent Neural Network(RNN’s), Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) with the fixed network size. This paper describes the simple method of creating the model which will behave similar to the biological brain and recreates its differentiable plasticity to adopt the features of neural network connection. It also shows that applying plasticity and the Hebbian plastic connection rule can result in optimization in RNN. This new approach of reconstruction of images based on plastic neural network experiments shows that the above novel approach gives more optimized results than the traditionally used RNN techniques. In this paper, a proposal is made where models can memorize and reconstruct unseen sets of images by solving recurrent networks using plasticity rules.

Salutogenesis Theory and Methods: Developments, Innovations and Next Steps

Part VIII of this book presents ideas for the future development of salutogenesis theory, research methodology, practice, teaching and capacity building. This overview chapter highlights several theoretical issues in further developing the sense of coherence (SOC) construct, followed by how we can use qualitative approaches to study the SOC, including a wide range of examples. Another important future field discussed in this part is how to strengthen the salutogenic capacity of health professionals. The rapid growth of communication digitalization is also taken up in a chapter on the digital lifeworld and salutogenesis. Part VIII concludes with a chapter written by all editors of the Handbook, wrapping it up under the title Salutogenesis for Thriving Societies, which I suggest is a ‘must read’ for all.