742 results on '"J Lew"'
Search Results
2. Occipital neural dynamics in cannabis and alcohol use: independent effects of addiction
- Author
-
Brandon J. Lew, Anabel Salimian, and Tony W. Wilson
- Subjects
Medicine ,Science - Abstract
Abstract Alcohol and cannabis use disorder (AUD/CUD) are two of the most common addictive disorders. While studies are beginning to understand the neural changes related to acute and chronic use, few studies have examined the independent effects of AUD and CUD on neural oscillatory activity. We examined 45 adults who reported current use of both cannabis and alcohol. Participants underwent the SCID-V to determine whether they met criteria for AUD and/or CUD. Participants also completed a visual-spatial processing task while undergoing magnetoencephalography (MEG). ANCOVA with a 2 × 2 design was then used to identify the main effects of AUD and CUD on source-level oscillatory activity. Of the 45 adults, 17 met criteria for AUD, and 26 met criteria for CUD. All participants, including comparison groups, reported use of both cannabis and alcohol. Statistical analyses showed a main effect of AUD, such that participants with AUD displayed a blunted occipital alpha (8–16 Hz) response. Post-hoc testing showed this decreased alpha response was related to increased AUD symptoms, above and beyond amount of use. No effects of AUD or CUD were identified in visual theta or gamma activity. In conclusion, AUD was associated with reduced alpha responses and scaled with increasing severity, independent of CUD. These findings indicate that alpha oscillatory activity may play an integral part in networks affected by alcohol addiction.
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
3. A critical look at the prediction of the temperature field around a laser-induced melt pool on metallic substrates
- Author
-
Yi Shu, Daniel Galles, Ottman A. Tertuliano, Brandon A. McWilliams, Nancy Yang, Wei Cai, and Adrian J. Lew
- Subjects
Medicine ,Science - Abstract
Abstract The study of microstructure evolution in additive manufacturing of metals would be aided by knowing the thermal history. Since temperature measurements beneath the surface are difficult, estimates are obtained from computational thermo-mechanical models calibrated against traces left in the sample revealed after etching, such as the trace of the melt pool boundary. Here we examine the question of how reliable thermal histories computed from a model that reproduces the melt pool trace are. To this end, we perform experiments in which one of two different laser beams moves with constant velocity and power over a substrate of 17-4PH SS or Ti-6Al-4V, with low enough power to avoid generating a keyhole. We find that thermal histories appear to be reliably computed provided that (a) the power density distribution of the laser beam over the substrate is well characterized, and (b) convective heat transport effects are accounted for. Poor control of the laser beam leads to potentially multiple three-dimensional melt pool shapes compatible with the melt pool trace, and therefore to multiple potential thermal histories. Ignoring convective effects leads to results that are inconsistent with experiments, even for the mild melt pools here.
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
4. Deep learning model to predict fracture mechanisms of graphene
- Author
-
Andrew J. Lew, Chi-Hua Yu, Yu-Chuan Hsu, and Markus J. Buehler
- Subjects
Materials of engineering and construction. Mechanics of materials ,TA401-492 ,Chemistry ,QD1-999 - Abstract
Abstract Understanding fracture is critical to the design of resilient nanomaterials. Molecular dynamics offers a way to study fracture at an atomistic level, but is computationally expensive with limitations of scalability. In this work, we build upon machine-learning approaches for predicting nanoscopic fracture mechanisms including crack instabilities and branching as a function of crystal orientation. We focus on a particular technologically relevant material system, graphene, and apply a deep learning method to the study of such nanomaterials and explore the parameter space necessary for calibrating machine-learning predictions to meaningful results. Our results validate the ability of deep learning methods to quantitatively capture graphene fracture behavior, including its fractal dimension as a function of crystal orientation, and provide promise toward the wider application of deep learning to materials design, opening the potential for other 2D materials.
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
5. Site-Specific Bioconjugation through Enzyme-Catalyzed Tyrosine–Cysteine Bond Formation
- Author
-
Marco J. Lobba, Christof Fellmann, Alan M. Marmelstein, Johnathan C. Maza, Elijah N. Kissman, Stephanie A. Robinson, Brett T. Staahl, Cole Urnes, Rachel J. Lew, Casey S. Mogilevsky, Jennifer A. Doudna, and Matthew B. Francis
- Subjects
Chemistry ,QD1-999 - Published
- 2020
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
6. Spontaneous cortical MEG activity undergoes unique age- and sex-related changes during the transition to adolescence
- Author
-
Lauren R. Ott, Samantha H. Penhale, Brittany K. Taylor, Brandon J. Lew, Yu-Ping Wang, Vince D. Calhoun, Julia M. Stephen, and Tony W. Wilson
- Subjects
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) ,Resting state ,Frequency ,Power ,Development ,Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry ,RC321-571 - Abstract
Background: While numerous studies have examined the developmental trajectory of task-based neural oscillations during childhood and adolescence, far less is known about the evolution of spontaneous cortical activity during this time period. Likewise, many studies have shown robust sex differences in task-based oscillations during this developmental period, but whether such sex differences extend to spontaneous activity is not understood. Methods: Herein, we examined spontaneous cortical activity in 111 typically-developing youth (ages 9–15 years; 55 male). Participants completed a resting state magnetoencephalographic (MEG) recording and a structural MRI. MEG data were source imaged and the power within five canonical frequency bands (delta, theta, alpha, beta, gamma) was computed. The resulting power spectral density maps were analyzed via vertex-wise ANCOVAs to identify spatially-specific effects of age, sex, and their interaction. Results: We found robust increases in power with age in all frequencies except delta, which decreased over time, with findings largely confined to frontal cortices. Sex effects were distributed across frontal and temporal regions; females tended to have greater delta and beta power, whereas males had greater alpha. Importantly, there was a significant age-by-sex interaction in theta power, such that males exhibited decreasing power with age while females showed increasing power with age in the bilateral superior temporal cortices. Discussion: These data suggest that the strength of spontaneous activity undergoes robust change during the transition from childhood to adolescence (i.e., puberty onset), with intriguing sex differences in some cortical areas. Future developmental studies should probe task-related oscillations and spontaneous activity in parallel.
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
7. Three-year reliability of MEG resting-state oscillatory power
- Author
-
Brandon J. Lew, Emily E. Fitzgerald, Lauren R. Ott, Samantha H. Penhale, and Tony W. Wilson
- Subjects
Magnetoencephalography ,Resting-State ,ICC ,Oscillations ,Stability ,Test-retest ,Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry ,RC321-571 - Abstract
Introduction: Resting-state oscillatory activity has been extensively studied across a wide array of disorders. Establishing which spectrally- and spatially-specific oscillatory components exhibit test-retest reliability is essential to move the field forward. While studies have shown short-term reliability of MEG resting-state activity, no studies have examined test-retest reliability across an extended period of time to establish the stability of these signals, which is critical for reproducibility. Methods: We examined 18 healthy adults age 23 - 61 who completed three visits across three years. For each visit, participants completed both a resting state MEG and structural MRI scan. MEG data were source imaged, and the cortical power in canonical frequency bands (delta, theta, alpha, beta, low gamma, high gamma) was computed. Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) were then calculated across the cortex for each frequency band. Results: Over three years, power in the alpha and beta bands displayed the highest reliability estimates, while gamma showed the lowest estimates of three-year reliability. Spatially, delta, alpha, and beta all showed the highest degrees of reliability in the parietal cortex. Interestingly, the peak signal for each of these frequency bands was located outside of the parietal cortex, suggesting that reliability estimates were not solely dependent on the signal-to-noise ratio. Conclusion: Oscillatory resting-state power in parietal delta, posterior beta, and alpha across most of the cortex are reliable across three years and future MEEG studies may focus on these measures for the development of specific markers.
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
8. Sexually dimorphic development in the cortical oscillatory dynamics serving early visual processing
- Author
-
Madison H. Fung, Brittany K. Taylor, Brandon J. Lew, Michaela R. Frenzel, Jacob A. Eastman, Yu-Ping Wang, Vince D. Calhoun, Julia M. Stephen, and Tony W. Wilson
- Subjects
Gamma ,Alpha ,Magnetoencephalography ,Development ,Vision ,Neurophysiology and neuropsychology ,QP351-495 - Abstract
Successful interaction with one’s visual environment is paramount to developing and performing many basic and complex mental functions. Although major aspects of visual development are completed at an early age, other structural and functional components of visual processing appear to be dynamically changing across a much more protracted period extending into late childhood and adolescence. However, the underlying neurophysiological changes and cortical oscillatory dynamics that support maturation of the visual system during this developmental period remain poorly understood. The present study utilized magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate maturational changes in the neural dynamics serving basic visual processing during childhood and adolescence (ages 9–15, n = 69). Our key results included robust sex differences in alpha oscillatory activity within the left posterior parietal cortex, and sex-by-age interactions in gamma activity in the right lingual gyrus and superior parietal lobule. Hierarchical regression revealed that the peak frequency of both the alpha and gamma responses predicted response power in parietal regions above and beyond the noted effects of age and sex. These findings affirm the view that neural oscillations supporting visual processing develop over a much more protracted period, and illustrate that these maturational trajectories are influenced by numerous elements, including age, sex, and individual variation.
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
9. A novel stochastic simulation approach enables exploration of mechanisms for regulating polarity site movement.
- Author
-
Samuel A. Ramirez, Michael Pablo, Sean Burk, Daniel J. Lew, and Timothy C. Elston
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
10. Analysis of a method to compute mixed-mode stress intensity factors for non-planar cracks in three-dimensions
- Author
-
Benjamin E. Grossman-Ponemon, Matteo Negri, and Adrian J. Lew
- Abstract
In this work, we present and prove results underlying a method which uses functionals derived from the interaction integral to approximate the stress intensity factors along a three-dimensional crack front. We first prove that the functionals possess a pair of important properties. The functionals are well-defined and continuous for square-integrable tensor fields, such as the gradient of a finite element solution. Furthermore, the stress intensity factors are representatives of such functionals in a space of functions over the crack front. Our second result is an error estimate for the numerical stress intensity factors computed via our method. The latter property of the functionals provides a recipe for numerical stress intensity factors; we apply the functionals to the gradient of a finite element approximation for a specific set of crack front variations, and we calculate the stress intensity factors by inverting the mass matrix for those variations.
- Published
- 2023
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
11. Single-shot forward and inverse hierarchical architected materials design for nonlinear mechanical properties using an Attention-Diffusion model
- Author
-
Andrew J. Lew and Markus J. Buehler
- Subjects
Mechanics of Materials ,Mechanical Engineering ,General Materials Science ,Condensed Matter Physics - Published
- 2023
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
12. The age-related trajectory of visual attention neural function is altered in adults living with HIV: A cross-sectional MEG study
- Author
-
Yasra Arif, Alex I. Wiesman, Jennifer O'Neill, Christine Embury, Pamela E. May, Brandon J. Lew, Mikki D. Schantell, Howard S. Fox, Susan Swindells, and Tony W. Wilson
- Subjects
HIV ,Attentional reorientation ,Magnetoencephalography ,Validity effect ,Ageing ,Medicine ,Medicine (General) ,R5-920 - Abstract
Background: Despite living a normal lifespan, at least 35% of persons with HIV (PWH) in resource-rich countries develop HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND). This high prevalence of cognitive decline may reflect accelerated ageing in PWH, but the evidence supporting an altered ageing phenotype in PWH has been mixed. Methods: We examined the impact of ageing on the orienting of visual attention in PWH using dynamic functional mapping with magnetoencephalography (MEG) in 173 participants age 22–72 years-old (94 uninfected controls, 51 cognitively-unimpaired PWH, and 28 with HAND). All MEG data were imaged using a state-of-the-art beamforming approach and neural oscillatory responses during attentional orienting were examined for ageing, HIV, and cognitive status effects. Findings: All participants responded slower during trials that required attentional reorienting. Our functional mapping results revealed HIV-by-age interactions in left prefrontal theta activity, alpha oscillations in the left parietal, right cuneus, and right frontal eye-fields, and left dorsolateral prefrontal beta activity (p
- Published
- 2020
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
13. Spontaneous sensorimotor beta power and cortical thickness uniquely predict motor function in healthy aging.
- Author
-
Maggie P. Rempe, Brandon J. Lew, Christine M. Embury, Nicholas J. Christopher-Hayes, Mikki D. Schantell, and Tony W. Wilson
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
14. Ratiometric GPCR signaling enables directional sensing in yeast.
- Author
-
Nicholas T Henderson, Michael Pablo, Debraj Ghose, Manuella R Clark-Cotton, Trevin R Zyla, James Nolen, Timothy C Elston, and Daniel J Lew
- Subjects
Biology (General) ,QH301-705.5 - Abstract
Accurate detection of extracellular chemical gradients is essential for many cellular behaviors. Gradient sensing is challenging for small cells, which can experience little difference in ligand concentrations on the up-gradient and down-gradient sides of the cell. Nevertheless, the tiny cells of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae reliably decode gradients of extracellular pheromones to find their mates. By imaging the behavior of polarity factors and pheromone receptors, we quantified the accuracy of initial polarization during mating encounters. We found that cells bias the orientation of initial polarity up-gradient, even though they have unevenly distributed receptors. Uneven receptor density means that the gradient of ligand-bound receptors does not accurately reflect the external pheromone gradient. Nevertheless, yeast cells appear to avoid being misled by responding to the fraction of occupied receptors rather than simply the concentration of ligand-bound receptors. Such ratiometric sensing also serves to amplify the gradient of active G protein. However, this process is quite error-prone, and initial errors are corrected during a subsequent indecisive phase in which polarity clusters exhibit erratic mobile behavior.
- Published
- 2019
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
15. Logarithmic Growth of Dikes From a Depressurizing Magma Chamber
- Author
-
Benjamin E. Grossman‐Ponemon, Elías R. Heimisson, Adrian J. Lew, and Paul Segall
- Published
- 2020
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
16. Designing architected materials for mechanical compression via simulation, deep learning, and experimentation
- Author
-
Andrew J. Lew, Kai Jin, and Markus J. Buehler
- Subjects
Mechanics of Materials ,Modeling and Simulation ,General Materials Science ,Computer Science Applications - Abstract
Architected materials can achieve enhanced properties compared to their plain counterparts. Specific architecting serves as a powerful design lever to achieve targeted behavior without changing the base material. Thus, the connection between architected structure and resultant properties remains an open field of great interest to many fields, from aerospace to civil to automotive applications. Here, we focus on properties related to mechanical compression, and design hierarchical honeycomb structures to meet specific values of stiffness and compressive stress. To do so, we employ a combination of techniques in a singular workflow, starting with molecular dynamics simulation of the forward design problem, augmenting with data-driven artificial intelligence models to address the inverse design problem, and verifying the behavior of de novo structures with experimentation of additively manufactured samples. We thereby demonstrate an approach for architected design that is generalizable to multiple material properties and agnostic to the identity of the base material.
- Published
- 2023
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
17. Psychopharmacological treatment of disruptive behavior in youths: systematic review and network meta-analysis
- Author
-
Ji-Woo Seok, Brigette Soltis-Vaughan, Brandon J. Lew, Aatiya Ahmad, R. J. R. Blair, and Soonjo Hwang
- Subjects
Multidisciplinary - Abstract
To conduct a systematic review of the comparative efficacy of various psychotropic medications for the treatment of disruptive behavior (DBs) in youths. To this aim, we systematically reviewed randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of various psychotropic medications targeting symptoms of DBs and applied network meta-analysis to investigate their relative efficacy. Fifty-five RCTs meeting the inclusion criteria were selected. To predict and interpret relative treatment efficacy, we compared the efficacy of various psychotropic medications prescribed for DB symptoms based on their mechanism of action. Network meta-analysis revealed that for reducing DBs, second-generation antipsychotics, stimulants, and non-stimulant ADHD medications were more efficacious than placebo, and second-generation antipsychotics were the most efficacious. The dopaminergic modulation of top-down inhibitory process by these medications is discussed in this review. This study offers information on the relative efficacy of various psychotropic medications for the treatment of DB, and insight into a potential neurobiological underpinning for those symptoms. It also illustrates the potential utility of these neurobiological mechanisms as a target for future treatment studies.
- Published
- 2023
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
18. A Molecular‐Scale Understanding of Misorientation Toughening in Corals and Seashells
- Author
-
Andrew J. Lew, Cayla A. Stifler, Alexandra Tits, Connor A. Schmidt, Andreas Scholl, Astrid Cantamessa, Laura Müller, Yann Delaunois, Philippe Compère, Davide Ruffoni, Markus J. Buehler, and Pupa U. P. A. Gilbert
- Subjects
Mechanics of Materials ,Mechanical Engineering ,General Materials Science - Published
- 2023
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
19. Deep learning virtual indenter maps nanoscale hardness rapidly and non-destructively, revealing mechanism and enhancing bioinspired design
- Author
-
Andrew J. Lew, Cayla A. Stifler, Astrid Cantamessa, Alexandra Tits, Davide Ruffoni, Pupa U.P.A. Gilbert, and Markus J. Buehler
- Subjects
General Materials Science - Published
- 2023
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
20. Principles that govern competition or co-existence in Rho-GTPase driven polarization.
- Author
-
Jian-Geng Chiou, Samuel A Ramirez, Timothy C Elston, Thomas P Witelski, David G Schaeffer, and Daniel J Lew
- Subjects
Biology (General) ,QH301-705.5 - Abstract
Rho-GTPases are master regulators of polarity establishment and cell morphology. Positive feedback enables concentration of Rho-GTPases into clusters at the cell cortex, from where they regulate the cytoskeleton. Different cell types reproducibly generate either one (e.g. the front of a migrating cell) or several clusters (e.g. the multiple dendrites of a neuron), but the mechanistic basis for unipolar or multipolar outcomes is unclear. The design principles of Rho-GTPase circuits are captured by two-component reaction-diffusion models based on conserved aspects of Rho-GTPase biochemistry. Some such models display rapid winner-takes-all competition between clusters, yielding a unipolar outcome. Other models allow prolonged co-existence of clusters. We investigate the behavior of a simple class of models and show that while the timescale of competition varies enormously depending on model parameters, a single factor explains a large majority of this variation. The dominant factor concerns the degree to which the maximal active GTPase concentration in a cluster approaches a "saturation point" determined by model parameters. We suggest that both saturation and the effect of saturation on competition reflect fundamental properties of the Rho-GTPase polarity machinery, regardless of the specific feedback mechanism, which predict whether the system will generate unipolar or multipolar outcomes.
- Published
- 2018
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
21. Bladder wall adhesion causing a vesicular septum in a dog following surgical cystotomy
- Author
-
Lauren J, Lew, Allyson C, Berent, Meghan S, Kirsch, and Chick W, Weisse
- Subjects
Urinary Bladder Calculi ,Dogs ,General Veterinary ,Dysuria ,Urinary Bladder ,Animals ,Female ,Cystotomy ,Dog Diseases ,Hematuria - Abstract
CASE DESCRIPTION An 8-year-old spayed female Yorkshire Terrier–Poodle dog was evaluated for persistent pollakiuria and stranguria following routine cystotomy for calcium oxalate cystoliths. CLINICAL FINDINGS The dog presented for a cystotomy with intermittent hematuria. Postoperative radiographs revealed no remaining cystoliths. Urine, cystolith, and bladder mucosal aerobic cultures were negative. Pollakiuria, stranguria, and hematuria developed immediately after surgery and persisted despite antibiotics. Ultrasound revealed suspected fibrous adhesions within the urinary bladder lumen connecting the dorsal and ventral bladder wall creating a septum. This was confirmed cystoscopically 4 weeks after surgery. TREATMENT AND OUTCOME Cystoscopic-guided laser ablation was performed to incise abnormal tissue connecting the ventral and dorsal bladder wall using a holmium:yttrium-aluminum-garnet laser. Three weeks later, ultrasound revealed adhesion resolution though mild pollakiuria and stranguria persisted. Oxybutynin was prescribed and clinical signs resolved. At 27 months after ablation, hematuria occurred with recurrent cystoliths. These cystoliths were removed by percutaneous cystolithotomy, documenting a cystoscopically normal bladder wall. The patient had normal urination for 55.5 months after ablation, with normal bladder wall thickness on ultrasound repeated at 27 and 36 months after ablation. CLINICAL RELEVANCE To the authors’ knowledge, an adhesion creating a septum between the dorsal and ventral bladder wall has not been previously reported as a complication after cystotomy in any species and should be considered as a cause of persistent lower urinary signs after surgery. Ultrasound identified the lesion in this dog. Because bladder abnormalities can develop quickly after surgery, ultrasound might be considered if urine testing is not supportive of infection. Cystoscopic-guided laser ablation was a successful minimally invasive treatment in this case.
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
22. Spontaneous cortical dynamics from the first years to the golden years
- Author
-
Maggie P. Rempe, Lauren R. Ott, Giorgia Picci, Samantha H. Penhale, Nicholas J. Christopher-Hayes, Brandon J. Lew, Nathan M. Petro, Christine M. Embury, Mikki Schantell, Hallie J. Johnson, Hannah J. Okelberry, Kathryn L. Losh, Madelyn P. Willett, Rebecca A. Losh, Yu-Ping Wang, Vince D. Calhoun, Julia M. Stephen, Elizabeth Heinrichs-Graham, Max J. Kurz, and Tony W. Wilson
- Subjects
Multidisciplinary - Abstract
In the largest and most expansive lifespan magnetoencephalography (MEG) study to date (n = 434, 6 to 84 y), we provide critical data on the normative trajectory of resting-state spontaneous activity and its temporal dynamics. We perform cutting-edge analyses to examine age and sex effects on whole-brain, spatially-resolved relative and absolute power maps, and find significant age effects in all spectral bands in both types of maps. Specifically, lower frequencies showed a negative correlation with age, while higher frequencies positively correlated with age. These correlations were further probed with hierarchical regressions, which revealed significant nonlinear trajectories in key brain regions. Sex effects were found in absolute but not relative power maps, highlighting key differences between outcome indices that are generally used interchangeably. Our rigorous and innovative approach provides multispectral maps indicating the unique trajectory of spontaneous neural activity across the lifespan, and illuminates key methodological considerations with the widely used relative/absolute power maps of spontaneous cortical dynamics.
- Published
- 2023
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
23. Unified Analysis of Finite Element Methods for Problems with Moving Boundaries.
- Author
-
Evan S. Gawlik and Adrian J. Lew
- Published
- 2015
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
24. DVRlib: A C++ library for geometric mesh improvement using Directional Vertex Relaxation.
- Author
-
Ramsharan Rangarajan and Adrian J. Lew
- Published
- 2020
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
25. Occipital neural dynamics in cannabis and alcohol use: independent effects of addiction
- Author
-
Anabel Salimian, Tony W. Wilson, and Brandon J. Lew
- Subjects
Male ,Marijuana Abuse ,Alcohol ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,0302 clinical medicine ,Statistical analyses ,Medicine ,media_common ,Cannabis use disorder ,0303 health sciences ,Multidisciplinary ,Alcohol addiction ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,biology ,Magnetoencephalography ,Magnetic Resonance Imaging ,Alcoholism ,Female ,Disease Susceptibility ,Occipital Lobe ,Symptom Assessment ,Clinical psychology ,Adult ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Science ,Alpha (ethology) ,Addiction ,Neuroimaging ,Article ,03 medical and health sciences ,Young Adult ,mental disorders ,Humans ,030304 developmental biology ,business.industry ,Cognitive neuroscience ,medicine.disease ,biology.organism_classification ,Behavior, Addictive ,chemistry ,Cannabis ,business ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Biomarkers ,Neuroscience - Abstract
Alcohol and cannabis use disorder (AUD/CUD) are two of the most common addictive disorders. While studies are beginning to understand the neural changes related to acute and chronic use, few studies have examined the independent effects of AUD and CUD on neural oscillatory activity. We examined 45 adults who reported current use of both cannabis and alcohol. Participants underwent the SCID-V to determine whether they met criteria for AUD and/or CUD. Participants also completed a visual-spatial processing task while undergoing magnetoencephalography (MEG). ANCOVA with a 2 × 2 design was then used to identify the main effects of AUD and CUD on source-level oscillatory activity. Of the 45 adults, 17 met criteria for AUD, and 26 met criteria for CUD. All participants, including comparison groups, reported use of both cannabis and alcohol. Statistical analyses showed a main effect of AUD, such that participants with AUD displayed a blunted occipital alpha (8–16 Hz) response. Post-hoc testing showed this decreased alpha response was related to increased AUD symptoms, above and beyond amount of use. No effects of AUD or CUD were identified in visual theta or gamma activity. In conclusion, AUD was associated with reduced alpha responses and scaled with increasing severity, independent of CUD. These findings indicate that alpha oscillatory activity may play an integral part in networks affected by alcohol addiction.
- Published
- 2021
26. Altered amygdala-cortical connectivity in individuals with Cannabis use disorder
- Author
-
Jacob A. Eastman, Marie C. McCusker, Brandon J. Lew, Joseph Aloi, Mikki Schantell, Michaela R. Frenzel, and Tony W. Wilson
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,Marijuana Abuse ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Substance-Related Disorders ,Audiology ,Hippocampal formation ,Gyrus Cinguli ,Hippocampus ,Amygdala ,Article ,Cuneus ,Young Adult ,medicine ,Humans ,Pharmacology (medical) ,Paracentral lobule ,Pharmacology ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,Resting state fMRI ,biology ,Supplementary motor area ,business.industry ,Brain ,Middle Aged ,biology.organism_classification ,Magnetic Resonance Imaging ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Case-Control Studies ,Female ,Cannabis ,Functional magnetic resonance imaging ,business - Abstract
Background: Cannabis is one of the most commonly used substances in the United States. Prior literature using task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has identified that individuals with Cannabis use disorder (CUD) show impairments in emotion processing circuitry. However, whether the functional networks involving these regions are also altered in CUD remains poorly understood. Aims: Investigate changes in resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) in regions related to emotional processing in CUD. Methods: Sixty-two participants completed resting-state fMRI, including 21 with CUD, 20 with histories of illicit substance use but no current CUD diagnosis, and 21 with no history of illicit substance use. Whole-brain seed-based connectivity analyses were performed and one-way analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) were conducted to detect group differences in the bilateral amygdalae, hippocampi, and the anterior and posterior cingulate cortices. Results: The CUD group exhibited significant reductions in rsFC between the amygdala and the cuneus, paracentral lobule, and supplementary motor area, and between the cingulate cortices and the occipital and temporal lobes. There were no significant group differences in hippocampal functional connectivity. In addition, CUD symptom counts based on the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 (SCID) and the Cannabis Use Disorders Identification Test (CUDIT) significantly correlated with multiple connectivity metrics. Conclusion: These data expand on emerging literature indicating that CUD is associated with dysfunction in the neural circuits underlying emotion processing. Dysfunction in emotion processing circuits may play a role in the behavioral impairments seen in emotion processing tasks in individuals with CUD, and the severity of CUD symptoms appears to be directly related to the degree of dysfunction in these circuits.
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
27. A role for Gic1 and Gic2 in Cdc42 polarization at elevated temperature.
- Author
-
Christine N Daniels, Trevin R Zyla, and Daniel J Lew
- Subjects
Medicine ,Science - Abstract
The conserved Rho-family GTPase Cdc42 is a master regulator of polarity establishment in many cell types. Cdc42 becomes activated and concentrated in a region of the cell cortex, and recruits a variety of effector proteins to that site. In turn, many effectors participate in regulation of cytoskeletal elements in order to remodel the cytoskeleton in a polarized manner. The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has served as a tractable model system for studies of cell polarity. In yeast cells, Cdc42 polarization involves a positive feedback loop in which effectors called p21-activated kinases (PAKs) act to recruit a Cdc42-directed guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF), generating more GTP-Cdc42 in areas that already have GTP-Cdc42. The GTPase-interacting components (GICs) Gic1 and Gic2 are also Cdc42 effectors, and have been implicated in regulation of the actin and septin cytoskeleton. However, we report that cells lacking GICs are primarily defective in polarizing Cdc42 itself, suggesting that they act upstream as well as downstream of Cdc42 in yeast. Our findings suggest that feedback pathways involving GTPase effectors may be more prevalent than had been appreciated.
- Published
- 2018
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
28. Towards a Dynamic Data Driven System for Structural and Material Health Monitoring.
- Author
-
Charbel Farhat, John G. Michopoulos, Fu-Kuo Chang, Leonidas J. Guibas, and Adrian J. Lew
- Published
- 2006
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
29. Mechanism of commitment to a mating partner in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
- Author
-
Katherine C. Jacobs, Olivia Gorman, and Daniel J. Lew
- Subjects
Cell Biology ,Molecular Biology - Abstract
Many cells detect and follow gradients of chemical signals to perform their functions. Yeast cells use gradients of extracellular pheromones to locate mating partners, providing a tractable model to understand how cells decode the spatial information in gradients. To mate, yeast cells must orient polarity toward the mating partner. Polarity sites are mobile, exploring the cell cortex until they reach the proper position, where they stop moving and “commit” to the partner. A simple model to explain commitment posits that a high concentration of pheromone is only detected upon alignment of partner cells’ polarity sites, and causes polarity site movement to stop. Here we explore how yeast cells respond to partners that make different amounts of pheromone. Commitment was surprisingly robust to varying pheromone levels, ruling out the simple model. We also tested whether adaptive pathways were responsible for the robustness of commitment, but our results show that cells lacking those pathways were still able to accommodate changes in pheromone. To explain this robustness, we suggest that the steep pheromone gradients near each mating partner’s polarity site trap the polarity site in place. This mechanism has evolutionary implications because it enables sexual selection for cells making more pheromone.
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
30. Comprehensive deletion landscape of CRISPR-Cas9 identifies minimal RNA-guided DNA-binding modules
- Author
-
Rachel J. Lew, Christof Fellmann, Thomas G. Laughlin, Arik Shams, Benjamin L. Oakes, Maria Lukarska, David F. Savage, Jennifer A. Doudna, Brett T. Staahl, Shin Kim, Sean Higgins, and Madeline L. Arnold
- Subjects
CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing ,Genetic enhancement ,Science ,General Physics and Astronomy ,Computational biology ,Biology ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,Article ,03 medical and health sciences ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,0302 clinical medicine ,Genome editing ,CRISPR-Associated Protein 9 ,Cell Line, Tumor ,DNA-binding proteins ,CRISPR ,Humans ,Protein Interaction Domains and Motifs ,030304 developmental biology ,Gene Editing ,0303 health sciences ,Modularity (networks) ,Multidisciplinary ,Effector ,Cas9 ,Cryoelectron Microscopy ,RNA ,General Chemistry ,DNA ,Single Molecule Imaging ,chemistry ,Protein design ,CRISPR-Cas Systems ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,RNA, Guide, Kinetoplastida - Abstract
Proteins evolve through the modular rearrangement of elements known as domains. Extant, multidomain proteins are hypothesized to be the result of domain accretion, but there has been limited experimental validation of this idea. Here, we introduce a technique for genetic minimization by iterative size-exclusion and recombination (MISER) for comprehensively making all possible deletions of a protein. Using MISER, we generate a deletion landscape for the CRISPR protein Cas9. We find that the catalytically-dead Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 can tolerate large single deletions in the REC2, REC3, HNH, and RuvC domains, while still functioning in vitro and in vivo, and that these deletions can be stacked together to engineer minimal, DNA-binding effector proteins. In total, our results demonstrate that extant proteins retain significant modularity from the accretion process and, as genetic size is a major limitation for viral delivery systems, establish a general technique to improve genome editing and gene therapy-based therapeutics., Proteins evolve through the modular rearrangement of domains. Here the authors introduce MISER, a minimization by iterative size-exclusion and recombination method to make all possible deletions of a protein, uncovering functions for Cas9 domains involved in DNA binding.
- Published
- 2021
31. Cannabis use impacts pre‐stimulus neural activity in the visual cortices of people with <scp>HIV</scp>
- Author
-
Susan Swindells, Brandon J. Lew, Mikki Schantell, Tony W. Wilson, Jennifer O'Neill, Pamela E. May, Nicholas J. Christopher-Hayes, and Alex I. Wiesman
- Subjects
magnetoencephalography ,Adult ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,visuospatial processing ,neural oscillations ,neurocognitive decline ,Population ,Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) ,Alpha (ethology) ,HIV Infections ,Medical Marijuana ,Audiology ,Stimulus (physiology) ,medicine.disease_cause ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Neuroimaging ,Cannabinoid Receptor Modulators ,medicine ,Humans ,Cognitive Dysfunction ,Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and imaging ,education ,Research Articles ,Visual Cortex ,030304 developmental biology ,0303 health sciences ,education.field_of_study ,MEG ,Radiological and Ultrasound Technology ,biology ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,business.industry ,Cognition ,Magnetoencephalography ,Middle Aged ,biology.organism_classification ,Brain Waves ,Neurology ,Visual Perception ,gamma ,Female ,Neurology (clinical) ,Cannabis ,Anatomy ,business ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Research Article - Abstract
People with HIV (PWH) use cannabis at a higher rate than the general population, but the influence on neural activity is not well characterized. Cannabis use among PWH may have a beneficial effect, as neuroinflammation is known to be a critical problem in PWH and cannabis use has been associated with a reduction in proinflammatory markers. Thus, it is important to understand the net impact of cannabis use on brain and cognitive function in PWH. In this study, we collected magnetoencephalographic (MEG) brain imaging data on 81 participants split across four demographically matched groups (i.e., PWH using cannabis, controls using cannabis, non‐using PWH, and non‐using controls). Participants completed a visuospatial processing task during MEG. Time–frequency resolved voxel time series were extracted to identify the dynamics of oscillatory and pre‐stimulus baseline neural activity. Our results indicated strong theta (4–8 Hz), alpha (10–16 Hz), and gamma (62–72 Hz) visual oscillations in parietal–occipital brain regions across all participants. PWH exhibited significant behavioral deficits in visuospatial processing, as well as reduced theta oscillations and elevated pre‐stimulus gamma activity in visual cortices, all of which replicate prior work. Strikingly, chronic cannabis use was associated with a significant reduction in pre‐stimulus gamma activity in the visual cortices, such that PWH no longer statistically differed from controls. These results provide initial evidence that cannabis use may normalize some neural aberrations in PWH. This study fills an important gap in understanding the impact of cannabis use on brain and cognitive function in PWH., This work used a visuospatial processing paradigm in combination with magnetoencephalographic (MEG) imaging. Voxel‐level timeseries analyses were applied to study the impact of cannabis use on behavior and neural activity in people with HIV (PWH).
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
32. Altered Somatosensory Cortical Activity Is Associated with Cortical Thickness in Adults with Cerebral Palsy: Multimodal Evidence from MEG/sMRI
- Author
-
Rashelle M. Hoffman, Brandon J. Lew, Max J. Kurz, Michael P. Trevarrow, Tony W. Wilson, and Brittany K. Taylor
- Subjects
Adult ,Cognitive Neuroscience ,Neuroimaging ,Stimulation ,Gating ,Somatosensory system ,Cerebral palsy ,Young Adult ,Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience ,medicine ,Humans ,Child ,Sensory gating ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,business.industry ,Cerebral Palsy ,Magnetoencephalography ,Magnetic resonance imaging ,Somatosensory Cortex ,medicine.disease ,Magnetic Resonance Imaging ,Median nerve ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Original Article ,business ,Neuroscience - Abstract
Somatosensory cortical activity is altered in individuals with cerebral palsy (CP). However, previous studies have focused on the lower extremities in children with CP and have given less attention to structural changes that may contribute to these alterations. We used a multimodal neuroimaging approach to investigate the relationship between somatosensory cortical activity and cortical thickness in 17 adults with CP (age = 32.8 ± 9.3 years) and 18 healthy adult controls (age = 30.7 ± 9.8 years). Participants performed a median nerve paired-pulse stimulation paradigm while undergoing magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate somatosensory cortical activity and sensory gating. Participants also underwent magnetic resonance imaging to evaluate cortical thickness within the area of the somatosensory cortex that generated the MEG response. We found that the somatosensory responses were attenuated in the adults with CP (P = 0.004). The adults with CP also hypergated the second stimulation (P = 0.030) and had decreased cortical thickness in the somatosensory cortex (P = 0.015). Finally, the strength of the somatosensory response was significantly correlated with the cortical thickness (P = 0.023). These findings demonstrate that the aberrant somatosensory cortical activity in adults with CP extends to the upper extremities and appears to be related to cortical thickness.
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
33. Variational integrators for the dynamics of thermo-elastic solids with finite speed thermal waves.
- Author
-
Pablo Mata and Adrian J. Lew
- Published
- 2014
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
34. Provably Robust Directional Vertex Relaxation for Geometric Mesh Optimization.
- Author
-
Ramsharan Rangarajan and Adrian J. Lew
- Published
- 2017
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
35. Exploratory polarization facilitates mating partner selection in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
- Author
-
Daniel J. Lew, Michael Pablo, Nicholas T. Henderson, Debraj Ghose, Manuella R. Clark-Cotton, and Timothy C. Elston
- Subjects
biology ,Polarity (physics) ,Extramural ,Saccharomyces cerevisiae ,Pheromone ,Cell Biology ,Mating ,biology.organism_classification ,Molecular Biology ,Chemotropism ,Cell biology - Abstract
Yeast decode pheromone gradients to locate mating partners, providing a model for chemotropism. How yeast polarize toward a single partner in crowded environments is unclear. Initially, cells often polarize in unproductive directions, but then they relocate the polarity site until two partners' polarity sites align, whereupon the cells "commit" to each other by stabilizing polarity to promote fusion. Here we address the role of the early mobile polarity sites. We found that commitment by either partner failed if just one partner was defective in generating, orienting, or stabilizing its mobile polarity sites. Mobile polarity sites were enriched for pheromone receptors and G proteins, and we suggest that such sites engage in an exploratory search of the local pheromone landscape, stabilizing only when they detect elevated pheromone levels. Mobile polarity sites were also enriched for pheromone secretion factors, and simulations suggest that only focal secretion at polarity sites would produce high pheromone concentrations at the partner's polarity site, triggering commitment.
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
36. Mechanisms that ensure monogamous mating inSaccharomyces cerevisiae
- Author
-
Daniel J. Lew, Corrina Robertson, and Manuella R. Clark-Cotton
- Subjects
Mating type ,Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins ,Zygote ,Genes, Fungal ,Mutant ,Saccharomyces cerevisiae ,Haploidy ,Pheromones ,Mating ,Molecular Biology ,reproductive and urinary physiology ,biology ,Brief Report ,Reproduction ,Cell Biology ,biology.organism_classification ,Diploidy ,Cell biology ,Sex pheromone ,behavior and behavior mechanisms ,Pheromone ,Ploidy ,Mating Factor ,Signal Transduction - Abstract
Haploid cells of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae communicate using secreted pheromones and mate to form diploid zygotes. Mating is monogamous, resulting in the fusion of precisely one cell of each mating type. Monogamous mating in crowded conditions, where cells have access to more than one potential partner, raises the question of how multiple-mating outcomes are prevented. Here we identify mutants capable of mating with multiple partners, revealing the mechanisms that ensure monogamous mating. Before fusion, cells develop polarity foci oriented toward potential partners. Competition between these polarity foci within each cell leads to disassembly of all but one focus, thus favoring a single fusion event. Fusion promotes the formation of heterodimeric complexes between subunits that are uniquely expressed in each mating type. One complex shuts off haploid-specific gene expression, and the other shuts off the ability to respond to pheromone. Zygotes able to form either complex remain monogamous, but zygotes lacking both can re-mate.
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
37. Analysis of a Method to Parameterize Planar Curves Immersed In Triangulations.
- Author
-
Ramsharan Rangarajan and Adrian J. Lew
- Published
- 2013
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
38. Impact of <scp>HIV‐infection</scp> on human somatosensory processing, spontaneous cortical activity, and cortical thickness: A multimodal neuroimaging approach
- Author
-
Pamela E. May, Mikki Schantell, Susan Swindells, Brittany K. Taylor, Jennifer O'Neill, Chloe C. Casagrande, Brandon J. Lew, and Tony W. Wilson
- Subjects
magnetoencephalography ,Adult ,Male ,Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) ,Brain Structure and Function ,HIV Infections ,Neuroimaging ,Stimulation ,Gating ,medicine.disease_cause ,Somatosensory system ,Multimodal Imaging ,050105 experimental psychology ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,medicine ,Humans ,voxel‐based morphometry ,Cognitive Dysfunction ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and imaging ,somatosensory gating ,Research Articles ,Cerebral Cortex ,Sensory gating ,Radiological and Ultrasound Technology ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,business.industry ,05 social sciences ,Voxel-based morphometry ,Magnetoencephalography ,Middle Aged ,Sensory Gating ,Brain Waves ,Magnetic Resonance Imaging ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Neurology ,Female ,Neurology (clinical) ,gamma oscillations ,Anatomy ,business ,Neuroscience ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Research Article ,MRI - Abstract
HIV‐infection has been associated with widespread alterations in brain structure and function, although few studies have examined whether such aberrations are co‐localized and the degree to which clinical and cognitive metrics are related. We examine this question in the somatosensory system using high‐resolution structural MRI (sMRI) and magnetoencephalographic (MEG) imaging of neural oscillatory activity. Forty‐four participants with HIV (PWH) and 55 demographically‐matched uninfected controls completed a paired‐pulse somatosensory stimulation paradigm during MEG and underwent 3T sMRI. MEG data were transformed into the time‐frequency domain; significant sensor level responses were imaged using a beamformer. Virtual sensor time series were derived from the peak responses. These data were used to compute response amplitude, sensory gating metrics, and spontaneous cortical activity power. The T1‐weighted sMRI data were processed using morphological methods to derive cortical thickness values across the brain. From these, the cortical thickness of the tissue coinciding with the peak response was estimated. Our findings indicated both PWH and control exhibit somatosensory gating, and that spontaneous cortical activity was significantly stronger in PWH within the left postcentral gyrus. Interestingly, within the same tissue, PWH also had significantly reduced cortical thickness relative to controls. Follow‐up analyses indicated that the reduction in cortical thickness was significantly correlated with CD4 nadir and mediated the relationship between HIV and spontaneous cortical activity within the left postcentral gyrus. These data indicate that PWH have abnormally strong spontaneous cortical activity in the left postcentral gyrus and such elevated activity is driven by locally reduced cortical gray matter thickness., Forty‐four participants with HIV (PWH) and 55 demographically‐matched uninfected controls completed a paired‐pulse somatosensory stimulation paradigm during MEG and underwent 3T sMRI. These data were used to compute response amplitude, sensory gating metrics, and spontaneous cortical activity power. Our findings indicated both PWH and controls exhibit somatosensory gating, and that spontaneous cortical activity was significantly stronger in PWH within the left postcentral gyrus. Interestingly, within the same tissue, PWH also had significantly reduced cortical thickness relative to controls.
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
39. Cortical oscillations that underlie visual selective attention are abnormal in adolescents with cerebral palsy
- Author
-
Elizabeth Heinrichs-Graham, Christine M. Embury, Max J. Kurz, Tony W. Wilson, Brandon J. Lew, and Rashelle M. Hoffman
- Subjects
Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Adolescent ,Science ,Alpha (ethology) ,Audiology ,Article ,050105 experimental psychology ,Cerebral palsy ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Neuroimaging ,Motor control ,Humans ,Medicine ,Attention ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Selective attention ,Child ,Multidisciplinary ,business.industry ,Cerebral Palsy ,05 social sciences ,Magnetoencephalography ,Cognitive neuroscience ,Cognition ,medicine.disease ,Visual field ,Visual Perception ,Female ,business ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Eriksen flanker task ,Neurotypical - Abstract
Adolescence is a critical period for the development and refinement of several higher-level cognitive functions, including visual selective attention. Clinically, it has been noted that adolescents with cerebral palsy (CP) may have deficits in selectively attending to objects within their visual field. This study aimed to evaluate the neural oscillatory activity in the ventral attention network while adolescents with CP performed a visual selective attention task. Adolescents with CP (N = 14; Age = 15.7 ± 4 years; MACS I–III; GMFCS I–IV) and neurotypical (NT) adolescents (N = 21; Age = 14.3 ± 2 years) performed the Eriksen flanker task while undergoing magnetoencephalographic (MEG) brain imaging. The participants reported the direction of a target arrow that was surrounded by congruent or incongruent flanking arrows. Compared with NT adolescents, adolescents with CP had slower responses and made more errors regarding the direction of the target arrow. The MEG results revealed that adolescents with CP had stronger alpha oscillations in the left insula when the flanking arrows were incongruent. Furthermore, participants that had more errors also tended to have stronger alpha oscillatory activity in this brain region. Altogether these results indicate that the aberrant activity seen in the left insula is associated with diminished visual selective attention function in adolescents with CP.
- Published
- 2021
40. Effects of molecular flexibility and head group repulsion on aramid amphiphile self-assembly
- Author
-
Dae-Yoon Kim, Samuel J. Kaser, Andrew J. Lew, Julia H. Ortony, Ty Christoff-Tempesta, and Yukio Cho
- Subjects
Nanostructure ,Materials science ,Hydrogen bond ,Process Chemistry and Technology ,Intermolecular force ,Biomedical Engineering ,Stacking ,Supramolecular chemistry ,Close-packing of equal spheres ,Energy Engineering and Power Technology ,02 engineering and technology ,010402 general chemistry ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,01 natural sciences ,Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering ,0104 chemical sciences ,Chemistry (miscellaneous) ,Chemical physics ,Amphiphile ,Materials Chemistry ,Chemical Engineering (miscellaneous) ,Self-assembly ,0210 nano-technology - Abstract
The self-assembly of amphiphilic molecules in water has led to a wide variety of nanostructures with diverse applications. Many nanostructures are stabilized by strong interactions between monomer units, such as hydrogen bonding and π–π stacking. However, the morphological implications of these strong, anisotropic interactions can be difficult to predict. In this study, we investigate the relationships between molecular flexibility, head group repulsion, and supramolecular geometry in an aramid amphiphile nanostructure that is known to exhibit extensive hydrogen bonding and π–π stacking – features that give rise to their unusual stability. We find by electron microscopy that increasing backbone flexibility disrupts molecular packing into high aspect-ratio nanoribbons, and at the highest degree of flexibility long-range ordering is lost. Even when backbone rigidity favors tight packing, increasing head group charge through pH-modulation leads to intermolecular electrostatic repulsion that also disrupts close packing. Spectroscopic measurements suggest that these changes are accompanied by disruption of π–π stacking but not hydrogen bonding. Backbone rigidity and head group repulsion are thus important design considerations for controlling internal stability and nanostructure curvature in supramolecular assemblies stabilized by π–π stacking interactions.
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
41. Three-Year Reliability of MEG Visual and Somatosensory Responses
- Author
-
Tony W. Wilson, Brandon J. Lew, and Marie C. McCusker
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Sensory processing ,Intraclass correlation ,Cognitive Neuroscience ,medicine.medical_treatment ,Alpha (ethology) ,Gating ,Audiology ,Somatosensory system ,Young Adult ,Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience ,Spatial Processing ,Neuroimaging ,Physical Stimulation ,Humans ,Medicine ,Reliability (statistics) ,Aged ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,business.industry ,Magnetoencephalography ,Reproducibility of Results ,Middle Aged ,Sensory Gating ,Original Article ,Female ,business ,Photic Stimulation - Abstract
A major goal of many translational neuroimaging studies is the identification of biomarkers of disease. However, a prerequisite for any such biomarker is robust reliability, which for magnetoencephalography (MEG) and many other imaging modalities has not been established. In this study, we examined the reliability of visual (Experiment 1) and somatosensory gating (Experiment 2) responses in 19 healthy adults who repeated these experiments for three visits spaced 18 months apart. Visual oscillatory and somatosensory oscillatory and evoked responses were imaged, and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were computed to examine the long-term reliability of these responses. In Experiment 1, ICCs showed good reliability for visual theta and alpha responses in occipital cortices, but poor reliability for gamma responses. In Experiment 2, the time series of somatosensory gamma and evoked responses in the contralateral somatosensory cortex showed good reliability. Finally, analyses of spontaneous baseline activity indicated excellent reliability for occipital alpha, moderate reliability for occipital theta, and poor reliability for visual/somatosensory gamma activity. Overall, MEG responses to visual and somatosensory stimuli show a high degree of reliability across 3 years and therefore may be stable indicators of sensory processing long term and thereby of potential interest as biomarkers of disease.
- Published
- 2020
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
42. Site-Specific Bioconjugation through Enzyme-Catalyzed Tyrosine–Cysteine Bond Formation
- Author
-
Matthew B. Francis, Alan M. Marmelstein, Brett T. Staahl, Johnathan C. Maza, Stephanie A. Robinson, Elijah N Kissman, Marco J. Lobba, Casey S. Mogilevsky, Rachel J. Lew, Jennifer A. Doudna, Christof Fellmann, and Cole Urnes
- Subjects
chemistry.chemical_classification ,Bioconjugation ,010405 organic chemistry ,Chemistry ,General Chemical Engineering ,Tyrosinase ,Cationic polymerization ,General Chemistry ,010402 general chemistry ,01 natural sciences ,Coupling reaction ,0104 chemical sciences ,Enzyme ,Biochemistry ,Tyrosine ,QD1-999 ,Research Article ,Cysteine ,Conjugate - Abstract
The synthesis of protein–protein and protein–peptide conjugates is an important capability for producing vaccines, immunotherapeutics, and targeted delivery agents. Herein we show that the enzyme tyrosinase is capable of oxidizing exposed tyrosine residues into o-quinones that react rapidly with cysteine residues on target proteins. This coupling reaction occurs under mild aerobic conditions and has the rare ability to join full-size proteins in under 2 h. The utility of the approach is demonstrated for the attachment of cationic peptides to enhance the cellular delivery of CRISPR-Cas9 20-fold and for the coupling of reporter proteins to a cancer-targeting antibody fragment without loss of its cell-specific binding ability. The broad applicability of this technique provides a new building block approach for the synthesis of protein chimeras., Enzymatic oxidation of tyrosine residues followed by reaction with cysteine thiols allows the covalent coupling of proteins and peptides using only native amino acid side chains.
- Published
- 2020
43. A method to compute mixed‐mode stress intensity factors for nonplanar cracks in three dimensions
- Author
-
Leon M. Keer, Benjamin E. Grossman-Ponemon, and Adrian J. Lew
- Subjects
Numerical Analysis ,Materials science ,Applied Mathematics ,General Engineering ,Geometry ,Mixed mode ,Stress intensity factor - Published
- 2020
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
44. Mechanistic insights into actin-driven polarity site movement in yeast
- Author
-
Daniel J. Lew and Debraj Ghose
- Subjects
cdc42 GTP-Binding Protein, Saccharomyces cerevisiae ,biology ,Polarity (physics) ,Systems Biology ,Movement ,Secretory Vesicles ,Cell Membrane ,Saccharomyces cerevisiae ,Cell Polarity ,Articles ,Cell Biology ,CDC42 ,biology.organism_classification ,Models, Biological ,Secretory Vesicle ,Actins ,Exocytosis ,Cdc42 GTP-Binding Protein ,Cell polarity ,Biophysics ,Molecular Biology ,Actin - Abstract
Directed cell growth or migration are critical for the development and function of many eukaryotic cells. These cells develop a dynamic “front” (also called “polarity site”) that can change direction. Polarity establishment involves autocatalytic accumulation of polarity regulators, including the conserved Rho-family GTPase Cdc42, but the mechanisms underlying polarity reorientation remain poorly understood. The tractable model yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, relocates its polarity site when searching for mating partners. Relocation requires polymerized actin, and is thought to involve actin-mediated vesicle traffic to the polarity site. In this study, we provide a quantitative characterization of spontaneous polarity site movement as a search process and use a mechanistic computational model that combines polarity protein biochemical interactions with vesicle trafficking to probe how various processes might affect polarity site movement. Our findings identify two previously documented features of yeast vesicle traffic as being particularly relevant to such movement: tight spatial focusing of exocytosis enhances the directional persistence of movement, and association of Cdc42-directed GTPase-Activating Proteins with secretory vesicles increases the distance moved. Furthermore, we suggest that variation in the rate of exocytosis beyond simple Poisson dynamics may be needed to fully account for the characteristics of polarity site movement in vivo.
- Published
- 2020
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
45. Role of the Mineral in the Self-Healing of Cracks in Human Enamel
- Author
-
Andrew J. Lew, Elia Beniash, Pupa U. P. A. Gilbert, and Markus J. Buehler
- Subjects
Durapatite ,General Engineering ,General Physics and Astronomy ,Humans ,General Materials Science ,Dental Enamel ,Tooth ,Calcium Carbonate - Abstract
Human enamel is an incredibly resilient biological material, withstanding repeated daily stresses for decades. The mechanisms behind this resilience remain an open question, with recent studies demonstrating a crack-deflection mechanism contributing to enamel toughness and other studies detailing the roles of the organic matrix and remineralization. Here, we focus on the mineral and hypothesize that self-healing of cracks in enamel nanocrystals may be an additional mechanism acting to prevent catastrophic failure. To test this hypothesis, we used a molecular dynamics (MD) approach to compare the fracture behavior of hydroxyapatite (HAP) and calcite, the main minerals in human enamel and sea urchin teeth, respectively. We find that cracks heal under pressures typical of mastication by fusion of crystals in HAP but not in calcite, which is consistent with the resilience of HAP enamel that calcite teeth lack. Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) images of structurally intact ("sound") human enamel show dashed-line nanocracks that resemble and therefore might be the cracks healed by fusion of crystals produced
- Published
- 2022
46. Cultivating PhD Aspirations during College
- Author
-
Daniela S. Jones, Devyn D. Gillette, Paige E. Cooper, Raquel Y. Salinas, Jennifer L. Hill, Sherilynn J. Black, Daniel J. Lew, and Dorian A. Canelas
- Subjects
Technology ,Engineering ,Universities ,Humans ,Students ,Minority Groups ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,Education - Abstract
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career barriers persist for individuals from marginalized communities due to financial and educational inequality, unconscious bias, and other disadvantaging factors. To evaluate differences in plans and interests between historically underrepresented (UR) and well-represented (WR) groups, we surveyed more than 3000 undergraduates enrolled in chemistry courses. Survey responses showed all groups arrived on campus with similar interests in learning more about science research. Over the 4 years of college, WR students maintained their interest levels, but UR students did not, creating a widening gap between the groups. Without intervention, UR students participated in lab research at lower rates than their WR peers. A case study pilot program, Biosciences Collaborative for Research Engagement (BioCoRE), encouraged STEM research exploration by undergraduates from marginalized communities. BioCoRE provided mentoring and programming that increased community cohesion and cultivated students' intrinsic scientific mindsets. Our data showed that there was no statistical significant difference between BioCoRE WR and UR students when surveyed about plans for a medical profession, graduate school, and laboratory scientific research. In addition, BioCoRE participants reported higher levels of confidence in conducting research than non-BioCoRE Scholars. We now have the highest annual number of UR students moving into PhD programs in our institution's history.
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
47. A novel, microvascular evaluation method and device for early diagnosis of peripheral artery disease and chronic limb-threatening ischemia in individuals with diabetes
- Author
-
Benjamin T. Matheson, Robin B. Osofsky, Debra M. Friedrichsen, Bill J. Brooks, Joseph Giacolone, Mehdy Khotan, Reza Shekarriz, Vernon Shane Pankratz, Eric J. Lew, Ross M. Clark, and Nancy L. Kanagy
- Subjects
Surgery ,Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine - Published
- 2023
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
48. Beyond Covalent Crosslinks: Applications of Supramolecular Gels
- Author
-
Ty Christoff-Tempesta, Andrew J. Lew, and Julia H. Ortony
- Subjects
supramolecular gel ,self-assembly ,gels ,applied soft matter ,Science ,Chemistry ,QD1-999 ,Inorganic chemistry ,QD146-197 ,General. Including alchemy ,QD1-65 - Abstract
Traditionally, gels have been defined by their covalently cross-linked polymer networks. Supramolecular gels challenge this framework by relying on non-covalent interactions for self-organization into hierarchical structures. This class of materials offers a variety of novel and exciting potential applications. This review draws together recent advances in supramolecular gels with an emphasis on their proposed uses as optoelectronic, energy, biomedical, and biological materials. Additional special topics reviewed include environmental remediation, participation in synthesis procedures, and other industrial uses. The examples presented here demonstrate unique benefits of supramolecular gels, including tunability, processability, and self-healing capability, enabling a new approach to solve engineering challenges.
- Published
- 2018
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
49. CRISPR-Cas9-mediated nuclear transport and genomic integration of nanostructured genes in human primary cells
- Author
-
Enrique Lin-Shiao, Wolfgang G Pfeifer, Brian R Shy, Mohammad Saffari Doost, Evelyn Chen, Vivasvan S Vykunta, Jennifer R Hamilton, Elizabeth C Stahl, Diana M Lopez, Cindy R Sandoval Espinoza, Alexander E Deyanov, Rachel J Lew, Michael G Poirer, Alexander Marson, Carlos E Castro, and Jennifer A Doudna
- Subjects
Gene Editing ,Genome ,Genetics ,Active Transport, Cell Nucleus ,Gene Transfer Techniques ,Humans ,DNA ,CRISPR-Cas Systems ,Nanostructures - Abstract
DNA nanostructures are a promising tool to deliver molecular payloads to cells. DNA origami structures, where long single-stranded DNA is folded into a compact nanostructure, present an attractive approach to package genes; however, effective delivery of genetic material into cell nuclei has remained a critical challenge. Here, we describe the use of DNA nanostructures encoding an intact human gene and a fluorescent protein encoding gene as compact templates for gene integration by CRISPR-mediated homology-directed repair (HDR). Our design includes CRISPR–Cas9 ribonucleoprotein binding sites on DNA nanostructures to increase shuttling into the nucleus. We demonstrate efficient shuttling and genomic integration of DNA nanostructures using transfection and electroporation. These nanostructured templates display lower toxicity and higher insertion efficiency compared to unstructured double-stranded DNA templates in human primary cells. Furthermore, our study validates virus-like particles as an efficient method of DNA nanostructure delivery, opening the possibility of delivering nanostructures in vivo to specific cell types. Together, these results provide new approaches to gene delivery with DNA nanostructures and establish their use as HDR templates, exploiting both their design features and their ability to encode genetic information. This work also opens a door to translate other DNA nanodevice functions, such as biosensing, into cell nuclei.
- Published
- 2022
50. Endogenous spacing enables co-processing of microRNAs and efficient combinatorial RNAi
- Author
-
Alexandra M. Amen, Ryan M. Loughran, Chun-Hao Huang, Rachel J. Lew, Archna Ravi, Yuanzhe Guan, Emma M. Schatoff, Lukas E. Dow, Brooke M. Emerling, and Christof Fellmann
- Subjects
microRNA ,viral vectors ,combinatorial target inhibition ,Neurosciences ,Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (miscellaneous) ,Biochemistry ,Computer Science Applications ,RNA interference ,Rare Diseases ,target discovery ,target validation ,RNAi ,Genetics ,Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and imaging ,cancer modeling ,gene regulation ,Cancer ,Biotechnology - Abstract
We present Multi-miR, a microRNA-embedded shRNA system modeled after endogenous microRNA clusters that enables simultaneous expression of up to three or four short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) from a single promoter without loss of activity, enabling robust combinatorial RNA interference (RNAi). We further developed complementary all-in-one vectors that are over one log-scale more sensitive to doxycycline-mediated activation invitro than previous methods and resistant to shRNA inactivation invivo. We demonstrate the utility of this system for intracranial expression of shRNAs in a glioblastoma model. Additionally, we leverage this platform to target the redundant RAF signaling node in a mouse model of KRAS-mutant cancer and show that robust combinatorial synthetic lethality efficiently abolishes tumor growth.
- Published
- 2021
Catalog
Discovery Service for Jio Institute Digital Library
For full access to our library's resources, please sign in.