Two prominent issues in non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) are extracting feature points for placing strokes and maintaining frameto-frame coherence and density of these feature points. Most of the existing NPR systems address these two issues by directly operating on objects, which can not only be expensive, but also dependent on representation. We present an interactive non-photorealistic ren...

The mechanistic basis for how genetic variants cause differences in phenotypic traits is often elusive. We identified a quantitative trait locus in Caenorhabditis elegans that affects three seemingly unrelated phenotypic traits: lifetime fecundity, adult body size, and susceptibility to the human pathogen Staphyloccus aureus. We found a QTL for all three traits arises from variation in the neur...

Natriuretic peptides are a family of structurally related but genetically distinct hormones/paracrine factors that regulate blood volume, blood pressure, ventricular hypertrophy, pulmonary hypertension, fat metabolism, and long bone growth. The mammalian members are atrial natriuretic peptide, B-type natriuretic peptide, C-type natriuretic peptide, and possibly osteocrin/musclin. Three single m...

Neuronal pentraxins (NPs) function in the extracellular matrix to bind alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptors. Three NPs have been described, neuronal activity-regulated pentraxin (Narp), which is regulated as an immediate early gene, NP1, and neuronal pentraxin receptor (NPR). Narp and NP1 enhance synaptogenesis and glutamate signaling by clustering AMPA rece...

The natriuretic peptides are considered to be cardioprotective; however, their receptors have not been identified in human myocardium using radiolabeled analogs. Dendroaspis natriuretic peptide (DNP) has been recently identified as a new member of this peptide family and is thought to be less susceptible to enzymatic degradation. Therefore, we have developed the novel radiolabeled analog [125I]...

This study investigated the molecular mechanism by which Bax inhibitor 1 (BI1) abrogates the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Electron uncoupling between NADPH-dependent cytochrome P450 reductase (NPR) and cytochrome P450 2E1 (P450 2E1) is a major source of ROS on the ER membrane. ER stress produced ROS accumulation and lipid peroxidation of the E...

Rose, R. A., A. E. Lomax, and W. R. Giles. Inhibition of L-type Ca2 current by C-type natriuretic peptide in bullfrog atrial myocytes: an NPR-C-mediated effect. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 285: H2454–H2462, 2003. First published July 24, 2003; 10.1152/ajpheart.00388.2003.—Single atrial myocytes were isolated from the bullfrog heart and studied under current and voltage clamp conditions to d...

Mammalian natriuretic peptides (NPs) have been extensively investigated for use as therapeutic agents in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Here, we describe the isolation, sequencing and tridimensional homology modeling of the first C-type natriuretic peptide isolated from scorpion venom. In addition, its effects on the renal function of rats and on the mRNA expression of natriuretic pe...

The microbial polysaccharide HS-142-1 has been documented as an antagonist of natriuretic peptides. It inhibits activation and peptide binding to both guanylate receptors natriuretic peptide receptor (NPR)-A and NPR-B, but has no effect on the non-cyclase receptor NPR-C. At first sight the effect of HS-142-1 on peptide binding appears to be surmountable, suggesting that it might be competitive ...

NPR (Non Photo-Realistic Rendering) is an important issue in Computer Graphics. It presents a totally different style from those using realistic methods. In this paper we take advantage of a 3D NPR system in color presentation, and apply stroke merging and sketch-based modeling to synthesize NPR images with volumetric effects, such as oil painting, bas-relief sculpture, and clay relief. To repr...