Receptor signaling at the plasma membrane often releases calcium from intracellular stores. For example, inositol triphosphate (IP3) produced by receptor-coupled phospholipase C activates an intracellular store calcium channel, the IP(3)R. Conversely, stores can induce extracellular calcium to enter the cell through plasma membrane channels, too. How this "reverse" coupling works was unclear, but store IP(3)Rs were proposed to bind and regulate plasma membrane TRP cation channels. Here, we demonstrate that the adaptor protein, termed Homer, facilitates a physical association between TRPC1 and the IP(3)R that is required for the TRP channel to respond to signals. The TRPC1-Homer-IP(3)R complex is dynamic and its disassembly parallels TRPC1 channel activation. Homer's action depends on its ability to crosslink and is blocked by the dominant-negative immediate early gene form, H1a. Since H1a is transcriptionally regulated by cellular activity, this mechanism can affect both short and long-term regulation of TRPC1 function.

Crowdsensing offers an efficient approach to meet the demand in large scale sensing applications. In crowdsensing, it is of great interest to find the optimal task allocation, which is challenging since sensing tasks with different requirements of quality of sensing are typically associated with specific locations and mobile users are constrained by time budgets. We show that the allocation problem is NP hard. We then focus on approximation algorithms, and devise an efficient local ratio based algorithm (LRBA). Our analysis shows that the approximation ratio of the aggregate rewards obtained by the optimal allocation to those by LRBA is 5. This reveals that LRBA is efficient, since a lower (but not tight) bound on the approximation ratio is 4. We also discuss about how to decide the fair prices of sensing tasks to provide incentives since mobile users tend to decline the tasks with low incentives. We design a pricing mechanism based on bargaining theory, in which the price of each task is determined by the performing cost and market demand (i.e., the number of mobile users who intend to perform the task). Extensive simulation results are provided to demonstrate the advantages of our proposed scheme.

The ability to render objects invisible with a cloak that fits all objects and sizes is a longstanding goal for optical devices. Invisibility devices demonstrated so far typically comprise a rigid structure wrapped around an object to which it is fitted. Here we demonstrate smart metamaterial cloaking, wherein the metamaterial device not only transforms electromagnetic fields to make an object invisible, but also acquires its properties automatically from its own elastic deformation. The demonstrated device is a ground-plane microwave cloak composed of an elastic metamaterial with a broad operational band (10-12 GHz) and nearly lossless electromagnetic properties. The metamaterial is uniform, or perfectly periodic, in its undeformed state and acquires the necessary gradient-index profile, mimicking a quasi-conformal transformation, naturally from a boundary load. This easy-to-fabricate hybrid elastoelectromagnetic metamaterial opens the door to implementations of a variety of transformation optics devices based on quasi-conformal maps.

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The major histocompatibility complex region has been suggested to play an important role in the development of autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD). In this study, we investigated the associations of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles and amino acid variants of HLA with early-onset AITD. HLA class I and class II genes were analyzed in 116 Korean children with AITDs (Graves’ disease [GD]: 71, Hashimoto’s disease [HD]: 45) and 142 healthy controls. HLA-B*46:01 (OR = 3.96, Pc = 0.008), -C*01:02 (OR = 2.51 Pc = 0.04), -DPB1*02:02 (OR = 3.99, Pc = 0.04), and -DPB1*05:01 (OR = 4.6, Pc = 0.003) were significantly associated with GD, and HLA-A*02:07 (OR = 4.68, Pc = 0.045) and -DPB1*02:02 (OR = 6.57, Pc = 0.0001) with HD. The frequency of HLA-DPB1*05:01 was significantly higher in GD patients than in HD patients ( Pc = 0.0005). Furthermore, differences were found between patients with Thyroid associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) and those without TAO in the distribution of HLA-B*54:01 (8.6% vs. 30.6%, P = 0.04) and -C*03:03 (37.1% vs. 11.1%, P = 0.02). In the analysis of amino acid variants of HLA molecules, both Leu35 (OR = 23.38, P = 0.0002) and Glu55 (OR = 23.38, P = 0.0002) of HLA-DPB1 were strongly associated with GD and showed different distributions between GD and HD ( P = 0.001). Our results suggest that HLA alleles, especially amino-acid signatures of the HLA-DP β chain, might contribute to the molecular pathogenesis of early-onset AITD.