Intention is central to the concept of voluntary action. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we compared conditions in which participants made self-paced actions and attended either to their intention to move or to the actual movement. When they attended to their intention rather than their movement, there was an enhancement of activity in the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA). We...

Accumulated gene mutations in cancer suggest that multi-targeted suppression of affected signaling networks is a promising strategy for cancer treatment. In the present study, we report that 7-O-succinyl macrolactin A (SMA) suppresses tumor growth by stabilizing the β-catenin destruction complex, which was achieved through inhibition of regulatory components associated with the complex. SMA sig...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Genetic diagnosis of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is complicated by the presence of SMN2 gene as majority of SMA patients show absence or deletion of SMN1 gene. PCR may amplify both the genes non selectively in presence of high amount of DNA. We evaluated whether allele-specific PCR for diagnostic screening of SMA is reliable in the presence of high amount of genomic DN...

Human fibrotic bone marrow (BM) stroma has been shown to contain alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA)-positive cells. These closely resemble myofibroblasts that were described in other fibrotic tissues. We studied the expression of alpha-SMA in a series of murine BM-derived stromal cell lines to investigate the cellular origin and functional significance of myofibroblast-like cells in hematopo...

Monkeys were trained in a serial reaction time task to produce hand movements according to changing locations of visual targets. In most trials, targets followed the same sequence repeatedly, whereas in other trials targets were presented in random locations or switched unpredictably between two alternative sequences. Single-unit activity was recorded from the caudal supplementary motor area (S...

Two motor areas are known to exist in the medial frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex of primates, the supplementary motor area (SMA) and the presupplementary motor area (pre-SMA). We report here on an aspect of cellular activity that characterizes the pre-SMA. Monkeys were trained to perform three different movements sequentially in a temporal order. The correct order was planned on the basis o...

The increasing population and developing science and technology increased human comfort and needs which in turn increased need of burning fuel. Universal resource of this fuel in non-renewable therefore there is a constant search for renewable eco-friendly energy source. Biogas is one such energy which needs greater attention towards effective production of methane under anaerobic decomposition...

To elucidate the correlation between enhanced biogas production and changed physico-chemical properties of methanogenic granules after low strength ultrasonication, in this study, the effects of low strength ultrasonication on the settling velocity, permeability, porosity, and fluid collection efficiency of the methanogenic granules were investigated. In addition, their morphological changes we...

Voluntary action is one of the core functions of the human brain, and is accompanied by the well known readiness potential or Bereitschaftspotential. A network of cortical areas is responsible for the motor preparation process, including the anterior mid-cingulate cortex (aMCC) and the SMA. However, the relationship between activity in these regions during movement preparation and the readiness...

Pro-fibrotic microenvironments of scars and tumors characterized by increased stiffness stimulate mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) to express α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA). We investigated whether incorporation of α-SMA into contractile stress fibers regulates human MSC fate. Sorted α-SMA-positive MSCs exhibited high contractile activity, low clonogenicity, and differentiation potential limited...