Separate Domains Research Articles

Interaction of Squalamine with Lipid Membranes.

Squalamine is an aminosterol from dogfish shark which has drawn attention, besides its antimicrobial activity, as a drug candidate in the treatment of Parkinson's disease due to its ability to prevent binding of α-synuclein to lipid membranes. To get insight into the mode of action of this steroid, we studied the influence of squalamine on lipid bilayers and whether it could inhibit the binding of a model peptide. Solid-state 19F NMR of labeled [KIGAKI]3 indicated that, indeed, this peptide no longer binds as a flexible chain to the bilayer in the presence of squalamine. When the cationic squalamine was added to lipid vesicles containing phosphatidylglycerol lipids, the aminosterol was found in differential scanning calorimetry and solid-state 31P NMR experiments to lower the gel-to-fluid phase transition and cause the phase separation of domains enriched in anionic lipids. Squalamine had only a little influence on 2H NMR relaxation and on the order parameters of the chains. These findings indicate that the aminosterol does not affect the molecular mobility of the hydrophobic core of the bilayer; hence, it does not insert into the membrane, nor causes thinning as found for molecules inserting in the headgroup region. On the other hand, squalamine was found to interact with lipid headgroups through electrostatic interactions, as seen by solid-state 2H NMR on headgroup-labeled lipids. Furthermore, 31P NMR showed that squalamine shifted the lamellar-to-hexagonal phase transition of phosphatidylethanolamine lipids to higher temperatures, indicating a preference for positively curved membranes. Altogether, our experiments indicate a strong interaction of the cationic squalamine with lipid headgroups, in particular with anionic lipids. This affinity for membranes is strong enough to efficiently displace cationic polypeptides, confirming the proposed action mechanism in Parkinson treatment. Notably, supported by 1H-1H NOESY experiments, it was found that squalamine does not insert into the bilayer, but rather acts as facial amphiphile binding to the membrane surface. The binding to membranes may be envisaged in the form of oligomeric or micellar assemblies, which can disrupt the membrane at high concentrations, thereby explaining the antimicrobial and antifungal activities of squalamine.

Impact of Cross-Linking-Monomer Characteristics on Pore-Filling-Membrane Performance and Durability in Anion-Exchange Water Electrolysis

This study investigates the development of pore-filling anion-exchange membranes (PFAEMs) for water-electrolysis applications. Ionomers using two different cross-linking monomers, namely hydrophilic C10 and hydrophobic C11, along with a common electrolyte monomer, E3, were compared in terms of through-plane ion conductivity, hydrogen permeability, mechanical and chemical stability, I-V polarization, and water-electrolysis durability. The results revealed that the E3-C10 PFAEM exhibited 40% higher OH− conductivity (98.7 ± 7.0 mS cm−1) than the E3-C11 PFAEM with a similar ion-exchange capacity. This improvement was attributed to improved separation of hydrophobic and hydrophilic domains, creating well-connected ion channels by the hydrophilic C10. Alkaline stability tests demonstrated that the E3-C10 retained higher ion conductivity compared to E3-C11, due to the absence of ether linkages and increased resistance to nucleophilic attack. During water-electrolysis operations, the E3-C10 PFAEMs showed 10% better durability and 87% lower hydrogen permeability, confirming their suitability for anion-exchange-membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE). Despite the higher ion conductivity of the E3-C10 PFAEM, performance was limited by interfacial resistance. It is suggested that ionomer-coated electrodes could further enhance AEMWE performance by leveraging the higher ion conductivity of the E3-C10. Overall, this study provides valuable guidance on strategies for utilizing pore-filling membranes in water electrolysis.

A method for remaining useful life prediction of milling cutter using multi-scale spatial data feature visualization and domain separation prediction network

A method for remaining useful life prediction of milling cutter using multi-scale spatial data feature visualization and domain separation prediction network

Cross-patient seizure prediction via continuous domain adaptation and similar sample replay.

Seizure prediction based on electroencephalogram (EEG) for people with epilepsy, a common brain disorder worldwide, has great potential for life quality improvement. To alleviate the high degree of heterogeneity among patients, several works have attempted to learn common seizure feature distributions based on the idea of domain adaptation to enhance the generalization ability of the model. However, existing methods ignore the inherent inter-patient discrepancy within the source patients, resulting in disjointed distributions that impede effective domain alignment. To eliminate this effect, we introduce the concept of multi-source domain adaptation (MSDA), considering each source patient as a separate domain. To avoid additional model complexity from MSDA, we propose a continuous domain adaptation approach for seizure prediction based on the convolutional neural network (CNN), which performs sequential training on multiple source domains. To relieve the model catastrophic forgetting during sequential training, we replay similar samples from each source domain, while learning common feature representations based on subdomain alignment. Evaluated on a publicly available epilepsy dataset, our proposed method attains a sensitivity of 85.0% and a false alarm rate (FPR) of 0.224/h. Compared to the prevailing domain adaptation paradigm and existing domain adaptation works in the field, the proposed method can efficiently capture the knowledge of different patients, extract better common seizure representations, and achieve state-of-the-art performance.

GEMIN5 and neurodevelopmental diseases: from functional insights to disease perception.

GEMIN5 is a predominantly cytoplasmic multifunctional protein, known to be involved in recognizing snRNAs through its WD40 repeats domain placed at the N-terminus. A dimerization domain in the middle region acts as a hub for protein-protein interaction, while a non-canonical RNA-binding site is placed towards the C-terminus. The singular organization of structural domains present in GEMIN5 enables this protein to perform multiple functions through its ability to interact with distinct partners, both RNAs and proteins. This protein exerts a different role in translation regulation depending on its physiological state, such that while GEMIN5 down-regulates global RNA translation, the C-terminal half of the protein promotes translation of its mRNA. Additionally, GEMIN5 is responsible for the preferential partitioning of mRNAs into polysomes. Besides selective translation, GEMIN5 forms part of distinct ribonucleoprotein complexes, reflecting the dynamic organization of macromolecular complexes in response to internal and external signals. In accordance with its contribution to fundamental cellular processes, recent reports described clinical loss of function mutants suggesting that GEMIN5 deficiency is detrimental to cell growth and survival. Remarkably, patients carrying GEMIN5 biallelic variants suffer from neurodevelopmental delay, hypotonia, and cerebellar ataxia. Molecular analyses of individual variants, which are defective in protein dimerization, display decreased levels of ribosome association, reinforcing the involvement of the protein in translation regulation. Importantly, the number of clinical variants and the phenotypic spectrum associated with GEMIN5 disorders is increasing as the knowledge of the protein functions and the pathways linked to its activity augments. Here we discuss relevant advances concerning the functional and structural features of GEMIN5 and its separate domains in RNA-binding, protein interactome, and translation regulation, and how these data can help to understand the involvement of protein malfunction in clinical variants found in patients developing neurodevelopmental disorders.

Advancement of the Dragon Heart 7-Series for Pediatric Patients With Heart Failure.

Safe and effective pediatric blood pumps continue to lag far behind those developed for adults. To address this growing unmet clinical need, we are developing a hybrid, continuous-flow, magnetically levitated, pediatric total artificial heart (TAH). Our hybrid TAH design, the Dragon Heart (DH), integrates both an axial flow and centrifugal flow blood pump within a single, compact housing. The axial pump is embedded in the central hub region of the centrifugal pump, and both pumps rotate around a common central axis, while maintaining separate fluid domains. In this work, we concentrated our design and development effort on the centrifugal blood pump by performing computational modeling. An iterative process was employed to improve the DH design. The pressure generation, scalar stress levels, and fluid forces exerted on the magnetically levitated impellers were computationally estimated. A shaft driven centrifugal prototype was also manufactured and tested using a hydraulic flow loop circulating a water-glycerol blood analog. Pressure and flow performance of the pump prototype was measured for a given rotational speed for comparison to computational predictions. Our design achieved the target pump pressures of 60-140 mm Hg for flow rates of 1-5 L/min, and strong agreement in pressure rise was demonstrated between the experimental data and simulation results (less than 10% deviation on average). Fluid stress levels were, however, found to exceed thresholds in the outflow region of the pump, and fluid residence times were less than 600 ms. The findings of this work demonstrate that the more compact, next-gen DH's centrifugal pump design is able to achieve pressure-capacity requirements. Next steps will require a focused strategy to reduce hemolytic potential and to integrate magnetic suspension components for full rotor levitation.

Dynamic domain adaptive EEG emotion recognition based on multi-source selection.

Emotion recognition based on electroencephalogram (EEG) has always been a research hotspot. However, due to significant individual variations in EEG signals, cross-subject emotion recognition based on EEG remains a challenging issue to address. In this article, we propose a dynamic domain-adaptive EEG emotion recognition method based on multi-source selection. The method considers each subject as a separate domain, filters suitable source domains from multiple subjects by assessing their resemblance, then further extracts the common and domain-specific features of the source and target domains, and then employs dynamic domain adaptation to mitigate inter-domain discrepancies. Global domain differences and local subdomain differences are also considered, and a dynamic factor is added so that the model training process first focuses on global distribution differences and gradually switches to local subdomain distributions. We conducted cross-subject and cross-session experiments on the SEED and SEED-IV datasets, respectively, and the cross-subject accuracies were 89.76% and 65.28%; the cross-session experiments were 91.63% and 67.83%. The experimental outcomes affirm the efficacy of the EEG emotion recognition approach put forward in this paper.

Histopathological domain adaptation with generative adversarial networks: Bridging the domain gap between thyroid cancer histopathology datasets.

Deep learning techniques are increasingly being used to classify medical imaging data with high accuracy. Despite this, due to often limited training data, these models can lack sufficient generalizability to predict unseen test data, produced in different domains, with comparable performance. This study focuses on thyroid histopathology image classification and investigates whether a Generative Adversarial Network [GAN], trained with just 156 patient samples, can produce high quality synthetic images to sufficiently augment training data and improve overall model generalizability. Utilizing a StyleGAN2 approach, the generative network produced images with an Fréchet Inception Distance (FID) score of 5.05, matching state-of-the-art GAN results in non-medical domains with comparable dataset sizes. Augmenting the training data with these GAN-generated images increased model generalizability when tested on external data sourced from three separate domains, improving overall precision and AUC by 7.45% and 7.20% respectively compared with a baseline model. Most importantly, this performance improvement was observed on minority class images, tumour subtypes which are known to suffer from high levels of inter-observer variability when classified by trained pathologists.

Alzheimer's disease prediction and prevention in a public health perspective: Ethical considerations and collaborations beyond the biomedical paradigm

The prevention of dementia is increasingly a task for public health promotion and aims at the general public. This likewise holds for potentially modifiable lifestyle risk factors and biomarkers indicating susceptibility. This commentary argues that from a public health ethical perspective, there is a significant overlap between the implications and requirements of the biomedical domain and lifestyle approaches. What's more, once public awareness of Alzheimer's disease prevention or risk reduction is further established, the public will likely intermix options and advice. Public health ethical recommendations should pro-actively reflect on upcoming questions, concerns, and remedies, combine but not separate both domains and anticipate their conceivable interactions.

Translation and the climate emergency: A new sociological imagination

This article puts translation at the centre of an understanding of science, culture and politics and their interrelations in the face of anthropogenic climate change. It argues for an integrated approach to these traditionally separate knowledge domains in the form of a translational sociology that is centred on the politics of translation across languages, disciplines and knowledges, as well as practices of political advocacy and deliberation and policy implementation. A first section introduces the concept of metamorphosis to capture the transformations of the present and delineates its connections to a materialist notion of translation. Then the contours of a translational sociology built around analytically distinct processes of linguistic translation, political translation, policy translation and knowledge translation are specified. After that, these interrelated practices are examined with reference to relevant transnational instances through which the politics, science and culture in relation to the climate emergency are articulated and renewed: the Conference of the Parties (COP), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Covering Climate Now (CCNow). A concluding section argues for the more general significance of a translational approach beyond established academic disciplines in terms of a new sociological imagination.

Dynamic feature separation domain generalization for bearing fault diagnosis

Abstract Domain adaptation is a research hotspot in the field of bearing fault diagnosis; however, extremely scarce bearing fault sample information limits the development of domain adaptation techniques. Thus, improving the generalization ability of fault diagnosis models is an urgent problem to be solved. Thus, this study proposed a dynamic feature separation domain generalization method for bearing fault diagnosis. The proposed method facilitated the dynamic adjustment of the influence of internal and mutual invariant features on the domain generalization process by learning the relationship between internal invariant features within the domain and mutual invariant features between the domains. This ensured the maximum utilization of invariant information in the features and obtainment of a domain-invariant bearing fault diagnostic model. Consequently, the fault diagnosis capability of the model was improved and the shortcomings of the poor generalization capability of existing models were alleviated. Finally, the effectiveness of the method was verified by comparing several bearing-fault datasets.

Nucleo-cytoplasmic environment modulates spatiotemporal p53 phase separation.

Liquid-liquid phase separation of various transcription factors into biomolecular condensates plays an essential role in gene regulation. Here, using cellular models and in vitro studies, we show the spatiotemporal formation and material properties of p53 condensates that might dictate its function. In particular, p53 forms liquid-like condensates in the nucleus of cells, which can bind to DNA and perform transcriptional activity. However, cancer-associated mutations promote misfolding and partially rigidify the p53 condensates with impaired DNA binding ability. Irrespective of wild-type and mutant forms, the partitioning of p53 into cytoplasm leads to the condensate formation, which subsequently undergoes rapid solidification. In vitro studies show that abundant nuclear components such as RNA and nonspecific DNA promote multicomponent phase separation of the p53 core domain and maintain their liquid-like property, whereas specific DNA promotes its dissolution into tetrameric functional p53. This work provides mechanistic insights into how the life cycle and DNA binding properties of p53 might be regulated by phase separation.

Superresolution Imaging Reveals the Spatial Organization of CD81 Microdomains in Regulating Membrane Signaling on Jurkat T Cell Microvilli.

Tetraspanin proteins are closely associated with high-curvature membrane structures and play key roles in organizing membrane domains and regulating membrane signaling in immune cells. However, their specific roles in regulating T cell membrane signaling, particularly within the microvilli often characteristic of these cells, remain poorly understood. Here, we used Jurkat T cells as a model system and investigated CD81 as a membrane of the tetraspanin family. Using total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy and structured illumination microscopy (SIM), we identified an enrichment of the tetraspanin CD81 microdomains along the actin-rich membrane microvilli. At the tip of the microvilli, SIM images revealed the spatial colocalization of CD81 with T cell receptors (TCR) and CD63, implying a potential role for CD81 in regulating TCR signaling in conjunction with CD63. Spatial analysis of CD81 and CD63 microdomains from the dual-color SIM data revealed their preference for associating with each other. Cluster analysis of direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (dSTORM) data revealed that in vitro T cell activation results in reduced domain sizes and increased domain separation of CD81. These findings provide visual evidence of the spatial organization and rearrangement of CD81 on the T cell microvilli, highlighting its potential role in signal regulation on specialized membrane protrusions.

Mixing small proteins with lipids and cholesterol.

Many ternary mixtures composed of saturated and unsaturated lipids with cholesterol (Chol) exhibit a region of coexistence between liquid-disordered (Ld) and liquid-ordered (Lo) domains, bearing some similarities to lipid rafts in biological membranes. However, biological rafts also contain many proteins that interact with the lipids and modify the distribution of lipids. Here, we extend a previously published lattice model of ternary DPPC/DOPC/Chol mixtures by introducing a small amount of small proteins (peptides). We use Monte Carlo simulations to explore the mixing phase behavior of the components as a function of the interaction parameter representing the affinity between the proteins and the saturated DPPC chains and for different mixture compositions. At moderate fractions of DPPC, the system is in a two-phase Ld + Lo coexistence, and the proteins exhibit a simple partition behavior between the phases that depends on the protein-lipid affinity parameter. At low DPPC compositions, the mixture is in Ld phase with local nanoscopic ordered domains. The addition of proteins with sufficiently strong attraction to the saturated lipids can induce the separation of a distinct Lo large domain with tightly packed gel-like clusters of proteins and saturated lipids. Consistent with the theory of phase transitions, we observe that the domain sizes grow when the mixture composition is in the vicinity of the critical point. Our simulations show that the addition of a small amount of proteins to such mixtures can cause their size to grow even further and lead to the formation of metastable dynamic Lo domains with sizes comparable to biological rafts.

Sustainable practices and household resilience: an empirical analysis of behavior change in times of crises

Understanding sustainability behavior is essential in tackling the global challenge of climate change. The importance of studying sustainability practices and their dynamics grows in light of recent global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the energy crisis following the Ukraine war. These events both challenge and shape individual sustainable practices, offering opportunities for fostering individual sustainable practices and enhancing societal resilience. An online survey was conducted in Germany (n = 571, May 2023) to investigate sustainable behavior dynamics (mobility, energy-saving, and shopping habits) and to identify segments reflecting behavioral shifts. We found relative stability in sustainable mobility choices compared to pre-crisis times, with a tendency towards reduction, as well as an overall increase in energy-saving and sustainable shopping habits. Factor analyses revealed that sustainable mobility behavior (SMB) and sustainable consumer practices (SCP) formed two separate domains. Cluster analyses further identified four segments within each domain, each exhibiting unique behavioral patterns compared to pre-crisis practices. Examining individual variables, adopting more sustainable mobility practices was associated with sociodemographic factors (income, education, and area of living), higher levels of environmental awareness, institutional trust, and increased risk perceptions. Sociodemographic variables had less influence on sustainable consumer practices. Here, higher levels of knowledge, climate change awareness, trust, and risk perceptions played a significant role. Our findings highlight the importance of separately considering behavioral domains in understanding crises-induced changes in sustainability practices. Moreover, it is important to consider specific individual factors and to develop tailored interventions and policies to promote sustainable practices during volatile times.

Multi-secret Steganography in QR Codes

This paper presents a steganographic scheme that conceals two independent secrets in a single QR code. The method uses two embedding algorithms which operate in separate domains. The first algorithm embeds the secret information into segments. The resulting code is then passed to the second method which modifies some modules to hide another secret, exploiting the error correction feature of QR codes. In this way, the secret messages do not overlay and are both possible to recover. The secrets may be retrieved separately as their embedding areas are different. The presented approach is an example of multi-secret steganography which may be used for confidential data transfer.

Women entrepreneurs’ negotiation of the work–family balance in patriarchal society

ABSTRACT Through the lens of boundary theory, we explore how women entrepreneurs in patriarchal societies display bounded agency through their boundary management strategies when negotiating their roles as entrepreneurs and as wives/mothers. We selected 75 highly educated, urban women entrepreneurs from both traditionally female-dominated and nontraditional sectors who started their businesses at home to explore possible differences in their boundary management strategies. Contrary to the prominent view that the work–family interface is problematic and the work and family domains are incompatible, we find that any conflict arising from the work–family interface disappears when work and family are not understood as separate domains and entrepreneurial work is instead embedded within family life. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, our findings demonstrate how in a patriarchal society women entrepreneurs’ boundary management strategies, negotiated in a nonconfrontational way in congruence with cultural expectations, ensure that their work boundaries remain permeable while keeping their family role sacrosanct.

A Morphological Analysis of Polish Complex Nie-Nouns: A Case of a Morphosyntactic Hybrid

The aim of this paper is to explore the thus far unstudied territory of a class of Polish hybrid complex nouns with the initial negative morpheme nie. The study seeks to determine the morphological structure of what seems to be a case of “syntax-inside-morphology” in the domain of Polish word-formation. Among a rich array of morphological structures in which the negative morpheme in question can be found, there is one word-formation type whose derivational base is, as will be argued below, a syntactic phrase. I wish to demonstrate conclusively that what appears to be sheer concatenation of morphological building blocks is, in fact, a complex noun built on a phrasal unit. This atypical combination of seemingly incompatible categories in separate grammatical domains can be referred to as a morphosyntactic hybrid. I believe that the study may have far-reaching consequences for the descriptive adequacy of the Polish word-formation system and point to new directions in the discussion on the morphology-syntax interface.

The Trauma Training Score: A Novel and Objective Method for Performance Evaluation.

Assessing proficiency in the initial management of a traumatically injured patient is challenging. Previously developed scoring tools frequently looked to evaluate single domains of a trauma leader or team's performance. An updated multi-domain scoring tool is needed to evaluate individual and group performance in the initial phases of trauma resuscitation. The modified Delphi technique was used to improve and obtain consensus on a multi-domain trauma training score (TTS). Subject matter experts (SMEs) in trauma across the United States were contacted electronically to consider voluntary participation in this study. Elective participants electronically received and commented on statements related to the 10 separate domains of a proposed TTS. These statements were evaluated using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from "Strongly Agree" to "Strongly Disagree". Feedback from the SMEs was used to modify each domain that did not receive consensus, and repeat iterations were performed until 80% or greater consensus was achieved.Internal consistency was measured usingCronbach's-ɑ, with a goal of greater than 0.8. Twenty-eight SMEs elected to participatein the modified Delphi processrepresenting emergency medicine, trauma surgery, and critical care. Consensus was achieved when 80% or greater of the SMEs responded with a 4 or a 5 to each statement. Four total rounds of review and modification were required to achieve consensus on all statements.Cronbach's-ɑfor each round was greater than 0.85. A unifying standardized outcome for measuring performance in the initial phases of trauma resuscitation is needed.The TTS developed in this study usedexpert consensustoprovide a multi-domain means of evaluating trauma practitioners of all levels in both live and simulated patients.

Decolonizing Ukrainian Art History

Abstract In this article, we analyze the influence of the colonial policy of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union on Ukrainian art-historical writing. As we shall reveal, the mechanisms of knowledge production created during that period continued to operate after the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine in 1991. The limitations that were imposed on the art-historical community, which can be regarded as colonial, shaped the crucial narratives (of the “triune nation”) and dictated the thematic scope of Ukrainian scholarship. The new notion of “mysteztvoznavstvo,” introduced in 1937 instead of the previously established Theory and History of Art, eventually led to a profound rift between Soviet Russian and Ukrainian scholarship and the Western world more generally. “Mysteztvoznavstvo” was supposed to be an umbrella term for art history, theory, and art criticism but ended up doing a disservice to each domain. Art theory in Ukraine was virtually nonexistent, whereas art history was mixed with art criticism, resulting in writing that did not meet widely accepted academic standards. This led to the isolation of Ukrainian scholars, who were confined to the Russian-speaking community and had very limited access to foreign scholarship. We also analyze the decolonization processes in the history of Ukrainian art prompted by the invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine after 2013, such as The Revolution of Dignity and “decommunization.” We argue that horizontal art history and decolonial approaches cannot adequately be applied if colonial tools are still used by the discipline. Epistemic decolonization can only be achieved after challenging the standards of “mysteztvoznavstvo” and, thus, by dividing art studies into three separate domains: art history, art theory, and art criticism, as each discipline has its own goals and methods.