Ensenada Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education

About: Ensenada Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education is a facility organization based out in Ensenada, Mexico. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Nonlinear system. The organization has 1934 authors who have published 3733 publications receiving 63115 citations.

The vitamin D receptor is involved in the regulation of human breast cancer cell growth via a ligand-independent function in cytoplasm

Abstract: // Trupti Trivedi 1, 2 , Yu Zheng 1 , Pierrick G.J. Fournier 2, 5 , Sreemala Murthy 2 , Sutha John 2 , Suzanne Schillo 1 , Colin R. Dunstan 3 , Khalid S. Mohammad 2 , Hong Zhou 1 , Markus J. Seibel 1, 4 , Theresa A. Guise 2 1 Bone Research Program, ANZAC Research Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia 2 Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA 3 Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia 4 Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Concord Hospital, Concord, Sydney, Australia 5 Biomedical Innovation Department, Scientific Research and High Education Center from Ensenada (CICESE), Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico Correspondence to: Theresa A. Guise, email: tguise@iu.edu Markus J. Seibel, email: markus.seibel@sydney.edu.au Keywords: breast cancer, vitamin D, vitamin D receptor, ligand independent, bone metastasis Received: November 04, 2016 Accepted: February 15, 2017 Published: March 01, 2017 ABSTRACT Vitamin D has pleiotropic effects on multiple tissues, including malignant tumors. Vitamin D inhibits breast cancer growth through activation of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) and via classical nuclear signaling pathways. Here, we demonstrate that the VDR can also function in the absence of its ligand to control behaviour of human breast cancer cells both outside and within the bone microenvironment. Stable shRNA expression was used to knock down VDR expression in MCF-7 cells, generating two VDR knockdown clonal lines. In ligand-free culture, knockdown of VDR in MCF-7 cells significantly reduced proliferation and increased apoptosis, suggesting that the VDR plays a ligand-independent role in cancer cell growth. Implantation of these VDR knockdown cells into the mammary fat pad of nude mice resulted in reduced tumor growth in vivo compared with controls. In the intra-tibial xenograft model, VDR knockdown greatly reduced the ability of the cells to form tumors in the bone microenvironment. The in vitro growth of VDR knockdown cells was rescued by the expression of a mutant form of VDR which is unable to translocate to the nucleus and hence accumulates in the cytoplasm. Thus, our data indicate that in the absence of ligand, the VDR promotes breast cancer growth both in vitro and in vivo and that cytoplasmic accumulation of VDR is sufficient to produce this effect in vitro . This new mechanism of VDR action in breast cancer cells contrasts the known anti-proliferative nuclear actions of the VDR-vitamin D ligand complex.

Motion planning and control of a simplified helicopter model based on virtual holonomic constraints

Abstract: In this paper we consider the motion planning and control problem of an underactuated 3DOF rigid body. The dynamics of a particular experimental setup as abstraction of the rotational degrees of freedom of a helicopter is studied. The virtual holonomic constraints approach serves as analytical tool to plan various periodic motions of the system, where a synchronization pattern among the generalized coordinates can be specified and a trajectory is obtained from reduced order dynamics. The controller design is based on a transverse linearization along a desired trajectory and ensures exponential orbital stability. Convergence to a desired motion is confirmed via numerical simulations.

Soil properties and nutrient relations in burned and unburned Mediterranean-climate shrublands of Baja California, Mexico

Abstract: We compared soil chemical properties and total N and P in ecosystem compartments (soil, litter, root, stem, and leaf) of adjacent burned and unburned shrublands in northwestern Baja California during the first annual cycle after burning. We sampled one stand of coastal sage scrub growing on soil derived from basalt, and two stands of mixed chaparral growing on soils developed from granitic rocks. In the coastal sage scrub site, total soil N (1350–2140 mg/kg) and P (360–540 mg/kg) were similar to concentrations reported for Mediterranean-climate shrublands growing in fertile soils of Alta California (USA), Chile and the Mediterranean Basin. But at the chaparral sites, total soil N (750–1180 mg/kg) and P (90–150 mg/kg) were as low as those of the relatively infertile Australian heath. There was no significant reduction in organic C, nor increase in pH or salinity, in the burned areas. Only inorganic N was slightly, but significantly, higher in the soil of all three burned areas. No significant differences were found in total N or P between burned and unburned ecosystem compartments across the three sites when the entire annual cycle was considered. But N was significantly higher in leaves and stems of burned areas, although only briefly during the middle of the first growing season after fire. Nutrient enrichment following wildland fire was thus less pronounced and more transitory than is typically reported for burned shrublands in Alta California. Fire suppression has not been effective in Baja California, and fuel loads and fire intensities tend to be lower than in Alta California. Lower fuel loads and fire intensities, and consequently lower ash deposition, may partly explain the lack of marked differences in soil properties found between burned and unburned areas.

Hybrid laser pointer detection algorithm based on template matching and fuzzy rule-based systems for domotic control in real home environments

Abstract: A fundamental problem for disabled or elderly people is to manage their homes while carrying out an almost normal life, which implies using and interacting with a number of home devices. Recent studies in smart homes have proposed methods to use a laser pointer for interacting with home devices, which represents a more user-friendly and less expensive home device control environment. However, detecting the laser spot on the original non-filtered images, using standard and non-expensive cameras, and considering real home environments with varying conditions, is currently an open problem. This paper proposes a hybrid technique, where a classic technique used in image detection processes, such as Template Matching, has been combined with a Fuzzy Rule Based System for detecting a laser spot in real home environments. The idea is to use this new approach to improve the success rate of the previous algorithms used for detecting the laser spot, decreasing as much as possible the false offs of the system, because, the detection of a false laser spot could lead to dangerous situations. Using this new hybrid technique a better success rate has been obtained, eliminating almost completely the possibility of dangerous situations that may occur due to incorrect detection of the laser spot in real home environments.