MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are members of a non-coding RNA family. They act as negative regulators of protein translation by affecting messenger RNA (mRNA) stability; they modulate numerous signaling pathways and cellular processes, and are involved in cell-to-cell communication. Thus, studies on miRNAs offer an opportunity to improve our understanding of complex biological mechanisms. In the cardiovascular system, miRNAs control functions of various cells, such as cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells and fibroblasts. The pivotal role of miRNAs in the cardiovascular system provides a new perspective on the pathophysiology of disorders like myocardial infarction, hypertrophy, fibrosis, heart failure, arrhythmia, inflammation and atherosclerosis. MiRNAs are differentially expressed in diseased tissue and can be released into circulation. Manipulation of miRNA activity may influence the course of a disease. Therefore, miRNAs have become an active field of research for developing new diagnostic and therapeutic tools. This review discusses emerging functions of miRNAs in cardiogenesis, heart regeneration and the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases.

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The KorB protein of the broad-host-range conjugative plasmid RA3 from the IncU group belongs to the ParB family of plasmid and chromosomal segregation proteins. As a partitioning DNA-binding factor, KorB specifically recognizes a 16-bp palindrome which is an essential motif in the centromere-like sequence parS RA3 , forms a segrosome, and together with its partner IncC (ParA family) participates in active DNA segregation ensuring stable plasmid maintenance. Here we show that by binding to this palindromic sequence, KorB also acts as a repressor for the adjacent mobC promoter driving expression of the mobC-nic operon, which is involved in DNA processing during conjugation. Three other promoters, one buried in the conjugative transfer module and two divergent promoters located at the border between the replication and stability regions, are regulated by KorB binding Large, low-copy-number plasmids displaying a broad host range (BHR) carry an extended backbone of operons involved in replication, copy number control, maintenance, and in the case of self-transmissible plasmids, also conjugative transfer. Expression of these genetic units is driven by high-activity promoters and therefore imposes a substantial metabolic cost on the bacterial cell. To minimize the metabolic burden to the host, regulatory networks have evolved to diminish the backbone gene expression to a low basal level while still allowing for rapid upregulation of the transcription when needed. The regulation is achieved by autogenous repressors that produce negative-feedback loops, mediumrange repressors that control particular modules, and globally acting regulators that bind operators scattered along the plasmid molecule to coordinate expression of all modules. Fine-tuning of gene expression is postulated to be achieved by the action of corepressors and their cooperative binding in the promoter regions, which makes the plasmid highly responsive and facilitates its adaptation (1-4).BHR plasmids from the incompatibility group IncU are widespread and ubiquitous in various aquatic environments, freshwater, fish farms, and clinical isolates (5-8). The modular-mosaic backbone of the IncU plasmids is extremely well conserved not only in its overall genetic organization but also at the nucleotide sequence level (8-10). The mosaic character of genomes from this group is demonstrated by homology of the functional blocks involved in replication, stable maintenance, and conjugative transfer to the respective functional modules of plasmids from different incompatibility groups. Thus, the stability region of RA3 encodes seven homologs of IncP-1 proteins (11), whereas the RA3 conjugative transfer region clusters with similarly organized modules from the PromA group of plasmids (12-16). The RA3 plasmid (Fig. 1), the group archetype isolated from the aquatic bacterium Aeromonas hydrophila (17), is the best-studied IncU representative. Its DNA sequence has been established (GenBank accession no. DQ401103) (10), and individual functional modules have been analyzed ...

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The last few years have seen a revolution in aerial robotics where personal drones are becoming pervasive to our environments and can be bought by anyone anywhere, including at local supermarkets. As they become ubiquitous to our lives, it is crucial to understand how they are perceived and understood by people. The robotics community has extensively theorized and quantified how robotic agents are perceived as social creatures and how this affects users and passersby. However, drones present different form factors that are yet to be systematically explored. This work aims to fill this gap by understanding people's perceptions of drones and how drones physical features correlate to a series of dimensions. We explored the quadcopters available on the 2018 market and built a dataset of 63 images that were evaluated in a user study (N=307). Using the study results, we present a model of how people understand drones based on their design and which physical features are better suited for people wanting to interact with drones. Our findings highlight that safety features have a negative effect on several dimensions including trust. Our work contributes a set of design guidelines for future personal drones and concludes on the implications for ubiquitous computing.