BACKGROUND The use of core outcome sets (COS) ensures that researchers measure and report those outcomes that are most likely to be relevant to users of their research. Several hundred COS projects have been systematically identified to date, but there has been no formal quality assessment of these studies. The Core Outcome Set-STAndards for Development (COS-STAD) project aimed to identify mini...

AIM To explore the role of complement system in the T cell activation. METHODS OVA(257-264) CTL epitope and C3b(AN42) encoding genes were synthesized and cloned into expression vector pEGFP-N1. COS-7 cells were transfected with the recombinant plasmid pEGFP-N1. The expression of the fusion protein was determined by FACS. Twenty-four hours after transfection, cultural supernatants of the trans...

Alternation trading proofs are motivated by the goal of separating NP from complexity classes such as Logspace or NL; they have been used to give super-linear runtime bounds for deterministic and conondeterministic sublinear space algorithms which solve the Satisfiability problem. For algorithms which use n space, alternation trading proofs can show that deterministic algorithms for Satisfiabil...

We present improved upper bounds on the spanning ratio of a large family of θ-graphs. A θ-graph partitions the plane around each vertex into m disjoint cones, each having aperture θ = 2π/m. We show that for any integer k ≥ 1, θ-graphs with 4k + 4 cones have spanning ratio at most 1 + 2 sin(θ/2)/(cos(θ/2) − sin(θ/2)). We also show that θ-graphs with 4k + 3 and 4k + 5 cones have spanning ratio at...

In this article a group-theoretical aspect of the method of dimensional reduction is presented. Then, on the base of symmetry analysis of an anisotropic space geometrical description of dimensional reduction of equations for vector massless field is given. Formula for calculating components of the energymomentum tensor from the variables of the field factor-equations is derived. The covariant e...

OBJECTIVES The basic HLH transcription factor Olig is a key regulator for differentiating the oligodendrocyte lineage cells during development. Oligodendrocyte transcription factor 2 (Olig2) plays a crucial role in differentiating the oligodendrocytes in the spinal cord. We aimed to construct and investigate the eukaryotic expression recombinant plasmid in the rat Olig2. DESIGN, TIME AND SETT...

To analyze the structure of the murine erythropoietin receptor (EpoR), wild-type or mutant EpoR cDNAs were expressed in cell lines, and the proteins that cross-linked with 125I-labeled erythropoietin (Epo) were analyzed by immunoprecipitation using an antibody against the intracellular region of the cloned EpoR. COS-7 cell transfectants expressing the wild-type EpoR showed two major cross-linke...

Tissue fibrosis that complicates chronic inflammation can be a cause of serious morbidity. The molecular links between inflammation and fibrosis appear to be a variety of proteins produced by activated chronic inflammatory cells. Collectively, these fibrogenic cytokines promote the growth of fibroblasts and the production of extracellular matrix that are the characteristic features of fibrotic ...

In this study, we have investigated the ability of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) to inhibit HIV long terminal repeat (LTR)-driven gene expression. Using COS 7 cells cotransfected with tat and an HIV LTR linked to a chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) reporter, we observed that physiological levels of IGF-I (10(-9) M) significantly inhibited CAT expression in a concentration- and time...