Sample records for opin struct biol

  1. Functional Organic Monolayers

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2005-10-31

    Weierstall, K. Downing** and R. M. Glaeser*. J. Struct. Biol. 144, p209. 2003. 292 "A new thin-film phase of pentacene ". J. Wu and J. Spence. J...electron diffraction methods, we have discovered a new phase of pentacene , a material important for attempts to develop organic semiconductors

  2. Structural Studies on Intact Clostridium botulinum Neurotoxins Complexed with Inhibitors Leading to Drug Design

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2007-02-01

    699. 5. Hanson, M. A., and Stevens, R. C. (2000) Cocrystal structure of synaptobrevin-ll bound to botulinum neurotoxin type B at 2.0 A resolution...R. C. (2000). Cocrystal structure of synaptobrevin-II bound to botulinum neurotoxin type B at 2.0 A resolution. Nature Struct. Biol. 7, 687–692. 23

  3. Watching proteins function with time-resolved x-ray crystallography

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Šrajer, Vukica; Schmidt, Marius

    2017-09-01

    Macromolecular crystallography was immensely successful in the last two decades. To a large degree this success resulted from use of powerful third generation synchrotron x-ray sources. An expansive database of more than 100 000 protein structures, of which many were determined at resolution better than 2 Å, is available today. With this achievement, the spotlight in structural biology is shifting from determination of static structures to elucidating dynamic aspects of protein function. A powerful tool for addressing these aspects is time-resolved crystallography, where a genuine biological function is triggered in the crystal with a goal of capturing molecules in action and determining protein kinetics and structures of intermediates (Schmidt et al 2005a Methods Mol. Biol. 305 115-54, Schmidt 2008 Ultrashort Laser Pulses in Biology and Medicine (Berlin: Springer) pp 201-41, Neutze and Moffat 2012 Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. 22 651-9, Šrajer 2014 The Future of Dynamic Structural Science (Berlin: Springer) pp 237-51). In this approach, short and intense x-ray pulses are used to probe intermediates in real time and at room temperature, in an ongoing reaction that is initiated synchronously and rapidly in the crystal. Time-resolved macromolecular crystallography with 100 ps time resolution at synchrotron x-ray sources is in its mature phase today, particularly for studies of reversible, light-initiated reactions. The advent of the new free electron lasers for hard x-rays (XFELs; 5-20 keV), which provide exceptionally intense, femtosecond x-ray pulses, marks a new frontier for time-resolved crystallography. The exploration of ultra-fast events becomes possible in high-resolution structural detail, on sub-picosecond time scales (Tenboer et al 2014 Science 346 1242-6, Barends et al 2015 Science 350 445-50, Pande et al 2016 Science 352 725-9). We review here state-of-the-art time-resolved crystallographic experiments both at synchrotrons and XFELs. We also outline challenges and further developments necessary to broaden the application of these methods to many important proteins and enzymes of biomedical relevance.

  4. Watching proteins function with time-resolved x-ray crystallography

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Šrajer, Vukica; Schmidt, Marius

    Macromolecular crystallography was immensely successful in the last two decades. To a large degree this success resulted from use of powerful third generation synchrotron x-ray sources. An expansive database of more than 100 000 protein structures, of which many were determined at resolution better than 2 Å, is available today. With this achievement, the spotlight in structural biology is shifting from determination of static structures to elucidating dynamic aspects of protein function. A powerful tool for addressing these aspects is time-resolved crystallography, where a genuine biological function is triggered in the crystal with a goal of capturing molecules in actionmore » and determining protein kinetics and structures of intermediates (Schmidt et al 2005a Methods Mol. Biol. 305 115–54, Schmidt 2008 Ultrashort Laser Pulses in Biology and Medicine (Berlin: Springer) pp 201–41, Neutze and Moffat 2012 Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. 22 651–9, Šrajer 2014 The Future of Dynamic Structural Science (Berlin: Springer) pp 237–51). In this approach, short and intense x-ray pulses are used to probe intermediates in real time and at room temperature, in an ongoing reaction that is initiated synchronously and rapidly in the crystal. Time-resolved macromolecular crystallography with 100 ps time resolution at synchrotron x-ray sources is in its mature phase today, particularly for studies of reversible, light-initiated reactions. The advent of the new free electron lasers for hard x-rays (XFELs; 5–20 keV), which provide exceptionally intense, femtosecond x-ray pulses, marks a new frontier for time-resolved crystallography. The exploration of ultra-fast events becomes possible in high-resolution structural detail, on sub-picosecond time scales (Tenboer et al 2014 Science 346 1242–6, Barends et al 2015 Science 350 445–50, Pande et al 2016 Science 352 725–9). We review here state-of-the-art time-resolved crystallographic experiments both at synchrotrons and XFELs. We also outline challenges and further developments necessary to broaden the application of these methods to many important proteins and enzymes of biomedical relevance.« less

  5. Single-molecule dataset (SMD): a generalized storage format for raw and processed single-molecule data.

    PubMed

    Greenfeld, Max; van de Meent, Jan-Willem; Pavlichin, Dmitri S; Mabuchi, Hideo; Wiggins, Chris H; Gonzalez, Ruben L; Herschlag, Daniel

    2015-01-16

    Single-molecule techniques have emerged as incisive approaches for addressing a wide range of questions arising in contemporary biological research [Trends Biochem Sci 38:30-37, 2013; Nat Rev Genet 14:9-22, 2013; Curr Opin Struct Biol 2014, 28C:112-121; Annu Rev Biophys 43:19-39, 2014]. The analysis and interpretation of raw single-molecule data benefits greatly from the ongoing development of sophisticated statistical analysis tools that enable accurate inference at the low signal-to-noise ratios frequently associated with these measurements. While a number of groups have released analysis toolkits as open source software [J Phys Chem B 114:5386-5403, 2010; Biophys J 79:1915-1927, 2000; Biophys J 91:1941-1951, 2006; Biophys J 79:1928-1944, 2000; Biophys J 86:4015-4029, 2004; Biophys J 97:3196-3205, 2009; PLoS One 7:e30024, 2012; BMC Bioinformatics 288 11(8):S2, 2010; Biophys J 106:1327-1337, 2014; Proc Int Conf Mach Learn 28:361-369, 2013], it remains difficult to compare analysis for experiments performed in different labs due to a lack of standardization. Here we propose a standardized single-molecule dataset (SMD) file format. SMD is designed to accommodate a wide variety of computer programming languages, single-molecule techniques, and analysis strategies. To facilitate adoption of this format we have made two existing data analysis packages that are used for single-molecule analysis compatible with this format. Adoption of a common, standard data file format for sharing raw single-molecule data and analysis outcomes is a critical step for the emerging and powerful single-molecule field, which will benefit both sophisticated users and non-specialists by allowing standardized, transparent, and reproducible analysis practices.

  6. The yeasts phosphorelay systems: a comparative view.

    PubMed

    Salas-Delgado, Griselda; Ongay-Larios, Laura; Kawasaki-Watanabe, Laura; López-Villaseñor, Imelda; Coria, Roberto

    2017-06-01

    Cells contain signal transduction pathways that mediate communication between the extracellular environment and the cell interior. These pathways control transcriptional programs and posttranscriptional processes that modify cell metabolism in order to maintain homeostasis. One type of these signal transduction systems are the so-called Two Component Systems (TCS), which conduct the transfer of phosphate groups between specific and conserved histidine and aspartate residues present in at least two proteins; the first protein is a sensor kinase which autophosphorylates a histidine residue in response to a stimulus, this phosphate is then transferred to an aspartic residue located in a response regulator protein. There are classical and hybrid TCS, whose difference consists in the number of proteins and functional domains involved in the phosphorelay. The TCS are widespread in bacteria where the sensor and its response regulator are mostly specific for a given stimulus. In eukaryotic organisms such as fungi, slime molds, and plants, TCS are present as hybrid multistep phosphorelays, with a variety of arrangements (Stock et al. in Annu Rev Biochem 69:183-215, 2000; Wuichet et al. in Curr Opin Microbiol 292:1039-1050, 2010). In these multistep phosphorelay systems, several phosphotransfer events take place between different histidine and aspartate residues localized in specific domains present in more than two proteins (Thomason and Kay, in J Cell Sci 113:3141-3150, 2000; Robinson et al. in Nat Struct Biol 7:626-633, 2000). This review presents a brief and succinct description of the Two-component systems of model yeasts, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans and Kluyveromyces lactis. We have focused on the comparison of domain organization and functions of each component present in these phosphorelay systems.

  7. Identification and Optimization of Short Helical Peptides with Novel Reactive Functionality as Catalysts for Acyl Transfer by Reactive Tagging

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-01-21

    269–278. 4 M. H. Fonseca and B. List, Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol., 2004, 8, 319–326. 5 P. Krattiger, C. McCarthy, A. Pfaltz and H. Wennemers, Angew. Chem...Benedetti, Trends Biochem. Sci., 1991, 16, 350–353. 33 C. Toniolo, A. Polese, F. Formaggio, M. Crisma and J. Kamphuis, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1996 , 118, 2744

  8. Tropomyosin-1, A Putative Tumor-Suppressor and a Biomarker of Human Breast Cancer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2004-10-01

    al., 1990; Cooper cells, is significantly increased in TMI-expressing cells, et al., 1985, 1987; Hendricks and Weintraub, 1981; without detectable...are very potently transformed, and penicillin and streptomycin. Cell lines derived from DT were supplemented with appropriate drugs, depending on the...3112. Ben-Ze’ev A. (1997). Curr. Opin. Cell Biol., 9, 99- 108. Hendricks M and Weintraub H. (1981). Proc. Natl. Acad. Bhattacharya B, Prasad GL

  9. Identification of Molecular Receptors for Therapeutic Targeting in Prostate Cancer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2006-12-01

    prostate cancer: potential role of androgen and ErbB receptor signal transduction crosstalk. Neoplasia. 5, 99-109 (2003). 10. Kolonin, M., Pasqualini , R...and Arap, W. Molecular addresses in blood vessels as targets for therapy. Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 5, 308-313 (2001). 11. Pasqualini , R., and...Ruoslahti, E. Organ targeting in vivo using phage display peptide libraries. Nature 380, 364-366 (1996). 12. Arap, W., Pasqualini , R., and Ruoslahti, E

  10. Structural Studies on Intact Clostridium Botulinum Neurotoxins Complexed with Inhibitors Leading to Drug Design

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2006-02-01

    6. Hanson, M. A., and Stevens, R. C. (2000) Cocrystal structure of synaptobrevin-ll bound to botulinum neurotoxin type B at 2.0 A resolution, Nature...Hanson, R.C. Stevens, Cocrystal structure of synaptobre- vin-ll bound to botulinum neurotoxin type B at 2.0 Å resolution, Nat. Struct. Biol. 7 (2000...of the Glu212 carboxylate in the catalytic pathway, Biochemistry 43, 6637-6644. 4. Hanson, M. A., and Stevens, R. C. (2000) Cocrystal structure of

  11. Genome-Wide Analysis of Translational Control in Tuberous Sclerosis Complex

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-07-01

    particular non-AUG codons in the 5’UTR. However, these data was “noisy” and required a machine-learning algorithm to identify TIS codons. We develop...To investigate how nutrient signaling affects the folding of nascent chains, we used firefly luciferase (Luc) as a reporter because of its high...folding as the structural basis for the rapid de novo folding of firefly luciferase. Nat Struct Biol 6(7):697-705. 12. Gupta R, Kasturi P, Bracher A

  12. The Opposing Roles of Nucleophosmin and the ARF Tumor Suppressor in Breast Cancer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2005-04-01

    3. Bertwistle, D ., M. Sugimoto, and C . J. Sherr. 2004. Physical and functional interactions of the Arf tumor suppressor protein with nucleophosmin...Kindbeiter, J. C . Sanchez, A. Greco, D . Hochstrasser, and J. J. Diaz. 2002. Functional proteomic analysis of human nucleolus. Mol Biol Cell 13:4100-9...21. Sherr, C . J., and J. D . Weber. 2000. The ARF/p53 pathway. Curr Opin Genet Dev 10:94-9. 22. Spector, D . L., R. L. Ochs, and H. Busch. 1984

  13. Microvesicles as mediators of intercellular communication in cancer.

    PubMed

    Antonyak, Marc A; Cerione, Richard A

    2014-01-01

    The discovery that cancer cells generate large membrane-enclosed packets of epigenetic information, known as microvesicles (MVs), that can be transferred to other cells and influence their behavior (Antonyak et al., Small GTPases 3:219-224, 2012; Cocucci et al., Trends Cell Biol 19:43-51, 2009; Rak, Semin Thromb Hemost 36:888-906, 2010; Skog et al., Nat Cell Biol 10:1470-1476, 2008) has added a unique perspective to the classical paracrine signaling paradigm. This is largely because, in addition to growth factors and cytokines, MVs contain a variety of components that are not usually thought to be released into the extracellular environment by viable cells including plasma membrane-associated proteins, cytosolic- and nuclear-localized proteins, as well as nucleic acids, particularly RNA transcripts and micro-RNAs (Skog et al., Nat Cell Biol 10:1470-1476, 2008; Al-Nedawi et al., Nat Cell Biol 10:619-624, 2008; Antonyak et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 108:4852-4857, 2011; Balaj et al., Nat Commun 2:180, 2011; Choi et al., J Proteome Res 6:4646-4655, 2007; Del Conde et al., Blood 106:1604-1611, 2005; Gallo et al., PLoS One 7:e30679, 2012; Graner et al., FASEB J 23:1541-1557, 2009; Grange et al., Cancer Res 71:5346-5356, 2011; Hosseini-Beheshti et al., Mol Cell Proteomics 11:863-885, 2012; Martins et al., Curr Opin Oncol 25:66-75, 2013; Noerholm et al., BMC Cancer 12:22, 2012; Zhuang et al., EMBO J 31:3513-3523, 2012). When transferred between cancer cells, MVs have been shown to stimulate signaling events that promote cell growth and survival (Al-Nedawi et al., Nat Cell Biol 10:619-624, 2008). Cancer cell-derived MVs can also be taken up by normal cell types that surround the tumor, an outcome that helps shape the tumor microenvironment, trigger tumor vascularization, and even confer upon normal recipient cells the transformed characteristics of a cancer cell (Antonyak et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 108:4852-4857, 2011; Martins et al., Curr Opin Oncol 25:66-75, 2013; Al-Nedawi et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106:3794-3799, 2009; Ge et al., Cancer Microenviron 5:323-332, 2012). Thus, the production of MVs by cancer cells plays crucial roles in driving the expansion of the primary tumor. However, it is now becoming increasingly clear that MVs are also stable in the circulation of cancer patients, where they can mediate long-range effects and contribute to the formation of the pre-metastatic niche, an essential step in metastasis (Skog et al., Nat Cell Biol 10:1470-1476, 2008; Noerholm et al., BMC Cancer 12:22, 2012; Peinado et al., Nat Med 18:883-891, 2012; Piccin et al., Blood Rev 21:157-171, 2007; van der Vos et al., Cell Mol Neurobiol 31:949-959, 2011). These findings, when taken together with the fact that MVs are being aggressively pursued as diagnostic markers, as well as being considered as potential targets for intervention against cancer (Antonyak et al., Small GTPases 3:219-224, 2012; Hosseini-Beheshti et al., Mol Cell Proteomics 11:863-885, 2012; Martins et al., Curr Opin Oncol 25:66-75, 2013; Ge et al., Cancer Microenviron 5:323-332, 2012; Peinado et al., Nat Med 18:883-891, 2012; Piccin et al., Blood Rev 21:157-171, 2007; Al-Nedawi et al., Cell Cycle 8:2014-2018, 2009; Cocucci and Meldolesi, Curr Biol 21:R940-R941, 2011; D'Souza-Schorey and Clancy, Genes Dev 26:1287-1299, 2012; Shao et al., Nat Med 18:1835-1840, 2012), point to critically important roles for MVs in human cancer progression that can potentially be exploited to develop new targeted approaches for treating this disease.

  14. New Insights into the Hendra Virus Attachment and Entry Process from Structures of the Virus G Glycoprotein and Its Complex with Ephrin-B2

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-11-05

    organization of measles virus fusion complexes. J Virol 83: 10480–10493. 24. Bishop KA, Hickey AC, Khetawat D, Patch JR, Bossart KN, et al. (2008...its receptor, sialyllactose. Structure 13: 803–815. 38. Colf LA, Juo ZS, Garcia KC (2007) Structure of the measles virus hemagglutinin. Nat Struct Mol...Biol 14: 1227–1228. 39. Hashiguchi T, Kajikawa M, Maita N, Takeda M, Kuroki K, et al. (2007) Crystal structure of measles virus hemagglutinin provides

  15. Interactions of Human Nucleotide Excision Repair Protein XPA with DNA and RPA70 Delta c327: Chemical Shift Mapping and N-15 NMR Relaxation Studies

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Buchko, Garry W.; Daughdrill, Gary W.; De Lorimier, Robert

    1999-12-28

    Human XPA is an essential component in the multienzyme nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathway. The solution structure of the minimal DNA binding domain of XPA (XPA-MBD: M98-F219) was recently determined [Buchko et al. (1998) Nucleic Acids Res. 26, 2779-2788, Ikegami et al (1998) Nat. Struct. Biol. 5, 701-706] and shown to consist of a compact zinc-binding core and a loop-rich C-terminal subdomain connected by a linker sequence.

  16. 3-Substituted Indole Inhibitors Against Francisella tularensis FabI Identified by Structure-Based Virtual Screening

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-07-01

    FabI, but share low sequence identity and are poorly inhibited by triclosan.25,26 S. pneumoniae and P. aeruginosa contain FabK,24 and Vibrio cholerae,27...with 0.2 mM IPTG. The cells were harvested after an overnight induction period at 17 °C. The cells were lysed and sonicated and loaded onto a nickel...of enoyl- (acyl-carrier protein) reductase, FabV, from Vibrio fischeri. Acta Crystallogr., Sect. F: Struct. Biol. Cryst. Commun. 2012, 68, 78−80. (27

  17. Cross-language Babel structs—making scientific interfaces more efficient

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Prantl, Adrian; Ebner, Dietmar; Epperly, Thomas G. W.

    2013-01-01

    Babel is an open-source language interoperability framework tailored to the needs of high-performance scientific computing. As an integral element of the Common Component Architecture, it is employed in a wide range of scientific applications where it is used to connect components written in different programming languages. In this paper we describe how we extended Babel to support interoperable tuple data types (structs). Structs are a common idiom in (mono-lingual) scientific application programming interfaces (APIs); they are an efficient way to pass tuples of nonuniform data between functions, and are supported natively by most programming languages. Using our extended version of Babel, developers of scientific codes can now pass structs as arguments between functions implemented in any of the supported languages. In C, C++, Fortran 2003/2008 and Chapel, structs can be passed without the overhead of data marshaling or copying, providing language interoperability at minimal cost. Other supported languages are Fortran 77, Fortran 90/95, Java and Python. We will show how we designed a struct implementation that is interoperable with all of the supported languages and present benchmark data to compare the performance of all language bindings, highlighting the differences between languages that offer native struct support and an object-oriented interface with getter/setter methods. A case study shows how structs can help simplify the interfaces of scientific codes significantly.

  18. Agrobacterium tumefaciens can obtain sulphur from an opine that is synthesized by octopine synthase using S-methylmethionine as a substrate.

    PubMed

    Flores-Mireles, Ana Lidia; Eberhard, Anatol; Winans, Stephen C

    2012-06-01

    Agrobacterium tumefaciens incites plant tumours that produce nutrients called opines, which are utilized by the bacteria during host colonization. Various opines provide sources of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous, but virtually nothing was previously known about how A. tumefaciens acquires sulphur during colonization. Some strains encode an operon required for the catabolism of the opine octopine. This operon contains a gene, msh, that is predicted to direct the conversion of S-methylmethionine (SMM) and homocysteine (HCys) to two equivalents of methionine. Purified Msh carried out this reaction, suggesting that SMM could be an intermediate in opine catabolism. Purified octopine synthase (Ocs, normally expressed in plant tumours) utilized SMM and pyruvate to produce a novel opine, designated sulfonopine, whose catabolism by the bacteria would regenerate SMM. Sulfonopine was produced by tobacco and Arabidopsis when colonized by A. tumefaciens and was utilized as sole source of sulphur by A. tumefaciens. Purified Ocs also used 13 other proteogenic and non-proteogenic amino acids as substrates, including three that contain sulphur. Sulfonopine and 11 other opines were tested for induction of octopine catabolic operon and all were able to do so. This is the first study of the acquisition of sulphur, an essential element, by this pathogen. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  19. Modification of Cys-418 of pyruvate formate-lyase by methacrylic acid, based on its radical mechanism.

    PubMed

    Plaga, W; Vielhaber, G; Wallach, J; Knappe, J

    2000-01-21

    The recently determined crystal structure of pyruvate formate-lyase (PFL) suggested a new view of the mechanism of this glycyl radical enzyme, namely that intermediary thiyl radicals of Cys-418 and Cys-419 participate in different ways [Becker, A. et al. (1999) Nat. Struct. Biol. 6, 969-975]. We report here a suicide reaction of PFL that occurs with the substrate-analog methacrylate with retention of the protein radical (K(I)=0.42 mM, k(i)=0.14 min(-1)). Using [1-(14)C]methacrylate (synthesized via acetone cyanhydrin), the reaction end-product was identified by peptide mapping and cocrystallization experiments as S-(2-carboxy-(2S)-propyl) substituted Cys-418. The stereoselectivity of the observed Michael addition reaction is compatible with a radical mechanism that involves Cys-418 thiyl as nucleophile and Cys-419 as H-atom donor, thus supporting the functional assignments of these catalytic amino acid residues derived from the protein structure.

  20. Engineering Ascorbate Peroxidase Activity Into Cytochrome C Peroxidase

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Meharenna, Y.T.; Oertel, P.; Bhaskar, B.

    2009-05-26

    Cytochrome c peroxidase (CCP) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) have very similar structures, and yet neither CCP nor APX exhibits each others activities with respect to reducing substrates. APX has a unique substrate binding site near the heme propionates where ascorbate H-bonds with a surface Arg and one heme propionate (Sharp et al. (2003) Nat. Struct. Biol. 10, 303--307). The corresponding region in CCP has a much longer surface loop, and the critical Arg residue that is required for ascorbate binding in APX is Asn in CCP. In order to convert CCP into an APX, the ascorbate-binding loop and critical argininemore » were engineered into CCP to give the CCP2APX mutant. The mutant crystal structure shows that the engineered site is nearly identical to that found in APX. While wild-type CCP shows no APX activity, CCP2APX catalyzes the peroxidation of ascorbate at a rate of {approx}12 min{sup -1}, indicating that the engineered ascorbate-binding loop can bind ascorbate.« less

  1. Distributed Password Cracking

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-12-01

    other services for early UNIX systems at Bell labs. In many UNIX based systems, the field added to ‘etc/ passwd ’ file to carry GCOS ID information was...charset, and external. struct options_main { /* Option flags */ opt_flags flags; /* Password files */ struct list_main * passwd ; /* Password file...object PASSWD . It is part of several other data structures. struct PASSWD { int id; char *login; char *passwd_hash; int UID

  2. Mitotic chromosome condensation in vertebrates

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Vagnarelli, Paola, E-mail: P.Vagnarelli@ed.ac.uk

    2012-07-15

    Work from several laboratories over the past 10-15 years has revealed that, within the interphase nucleus, chromosomes are organized into spatially distinct territories [T. Cremer, C. Cremer, Chromosome territories, nuclear architecture and gene regulation in mammalian cells, Nat. Rev. Genet. 2 (2001) 292-301 and T. Cremer, M. Cremer, S. Dietzel, S. Muller, I. Solovei, S. Fakan, Chromosome territories-a functional nuclear landscape, Curr. Opin. Cell Biol. 18 (2006) 307-316]. The overall compaction level and intranuclear location varies as a function of gene density for both entire chromosomes [J.A. Croft, J.M. Bridger, S. Boyle, P. Perry, P. Teague,W.A. Bickmore, Differences in themore » localization and morphology of chromosomes in the human nucleus, J. Cell Biol. 145 (1999) 1119-1131] and specific chromosomal regions [N.L. Mahy, P.E. Perry, S. Gilchrist, R.A. Baldock, W.A. Bickmore, Spatial organization of active and inactive genes and noncoding DNA within chromosome territories, J. Cell Biol. 157 (2002) 579-589] (Fig. 1A, A'). In prophase, when cyclin B activity reaches a high threshold, chromosome condensation occurs followed by Nuclear Envelope Breakdown (NEB) [1]. At this point vertebrate chromosomes appear as compact structures harboring an attachment point for the spindle microtubules physically recognizable as a primary constriction where the two sister chromatids are held together. The transition from an unshaped interphase chromosome to the highly structured mitotic chromosome (compare Figs. 1A and B) has fascinated researchers for several decades now; however a definite picture of how this process is achieved and regulated is not yet in our hands and it will require more investigation to comprehend the complete process. From a biochemical point of view a vertebrate mitotic chromosomes is composed of DNA, histone proteins (60%) and non-histone proteins (40%) [6]. I will discuss below what is known to date on the contribution of these two different classes of proteins and their co-operation in establishing the final mitotic chromosome structure.« less

  3. Structural Basis for High Specificity of Amadori Compound and Mannopine Opine Binding in Bacterial Pathogens*

    PubMed Central

    Marty, Loïc; Vigouroux, Armelle; Aumont-Nicaise, Magali; Dessaux, Yves; Faure, Denis; Moréra, Solange

    2016-01-01

    Agrobacterium tumefaciens pathogens genetically modify their host plants to drive the synthesis of opines in plant tumors. Opines are either sugar phosphodiesters or the products of condensed amino acids with ketoacids or sugars. They are Agrobacterium nutrients and imported into the bacterial cell via periplasmic-binding proteins (PBPs) and ABC-transporters. Mannopine, an opine from the mannityl-opine family, is synthesized from an intermediate named deoxy-fructosyl-glutamine (DFG), which is also an opine and abundant Amadori compound (a name used for any derivative of aminodeoxysugars) present in decaying plant materials. The PBP MotA is responsible for mannopine import in mannopine-assimilating agrobacteria. In the nopaline-opine type agrobacteria strain, SocA protein was proposed as a putative mannopine binding PBP, and AttC protein was annotated as a mannopine binding-like PBP. Structural data on mannityl-opine-PBP complexes is currently lacking. By combining affinity data with analysis of seven x-ray structures at high resolution, we investigated the molecular basis of MotA, SocA, and AttC interactions with mannopine and its DFG precursor. Our work demonstrates that AttC is not a mannopine-binding protein and reveals a specific binding pocket for DFG in SocA with an affinity in nanomolar range. Hence, mannopine would not be imported into nopaline-type agrobacteria strains. In contrast, MotA binds both mannopine and DFG. We thus defined one mannopine and two DFG binding signatures. Unlike mannopine-PBPs, selective DFG-PBPs are present in a wide diversity of bacteria, including Actinobacteria, α-,β-, and γ-proteobacteria, revealing a common role of this Amadori compound in pathogenic, symbiotic, and opportunistic bacteria. PMID:27609514

  4. From untargeted LC-QTOF analysis to characterisation of opines in abalone adductor muscle: Theory meets practice.

    PubMed

    Venter, Leonie; Jansen van Rensburg, Peet J; Loots, Du Toit; Vosloo, Andre; Lindeque, Jeremie Zander

    2017-12-15

    Abalone have a unique ability to use pyruvate, various amino acids and dehydrogenases, to produce opines as means to prevent the accumulation of NADH during anaerobic conditions. In this study, the theoretical masses, formulae and fragment patterns of butylated opines were used to predict which of these compounds could be found in the abalone adductor muscle using untargeted liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of flight-mass spectrometry. These findings were validated using synthesised opine standards. In essence alanopine, lysopine, strombine and tauropine produced in abalone adductor muscle could be characterised using the highest identification confidence levels. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  5. The worldwide Protein Data Bank (wwPDB): ensuring a single, uniform archive of PDB data

    PubMed Central

    Berman, Helen; Henrick, Kim; Nakamura, Haruki; Markley, John L.

    2007-01-01

    The worldwide Protein Data Bank (wwPDB) is the international collaboration that manages the deposition, processing and distribution of the PDB archive. The online PDB archive is a repository for the coordinates and related information for more than 38 000 structures, including proteins, nucleic acids and large macromolecular complexes that have been determined using X-ray crystallography, NMR and electron microscopy techniques. The founding members of the wwPDB are RCSB PDB (USA), MSD-EBI (Europe) and PDBj (Japan) [H.M. Berman, K. Henrick and H. Nakamura (2003) Nature Struct. Biol., 10, 980]. The BMRB group (USA) joined the wwPDB in 2006. The mission of the wwPDB is to maintain a single archive of macromolecular structural data that are freely and publicly available to the global community. Additionally, the wwPDB provides a variety of services to a broad community of users. The wwPDB website at provides information about services provided by the individual member organizations and about projects undertaken by the wwPDB. PMID:17142228

  6. Prediction of protein subcellular locations by GO-FunD-PseAA predictor.

    PubMed

    Chou, Kuo-Chen; Cai, Yu-Dong

    2004-08-06

    The localization of a protein in a cell is closely correlated with its biological function. With the explosion of protein sequences entering into DataBanks, it is highly desired to develop an automated method that can fast identify their subcellular location. This will expedite the annotation process, providing timely useful information for both basic research and industrial application. In view of this, a powerful predictor has been developed by hybridizing the gene ontology approach [Nat. Genet. 25 (2000) 25], functional domain composition approach [J. Biol. Chem. 277 (2002) 45765], and the pseudo-amino acid composition approach [Proteins Struct. Funct. Genet. 43 (2001) 246; Erratum: ibid. 44 (2001) 60]. As a showcase, the recently constructed dataset [Bioinformatics 19 (2003) 1656] was used for demonstration. The dataset contains 7589 proteins classified into 12 subcellular locations: chloroplast, cytoplasmic, cytoskeleton, endoplasmic reticulum, extracellular, Golgi apparatus, lysosomal, mitochondrial, nuclear, peroxisomal, plasma membrane, and vacuolar. The overall success rate of prediction obtained by the jackknife cross-validation was 92%. This is so far the highest success rate performed on this dataset by following an objective and rigorous cross-validation procedure.

  7. The protein folding network

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rao, Francesco; Caflisch, Amedeo

    2004-03-01

    Networks are everywhere. The conformation space of a 20-residue antiparallel beta-sheet peptide [1], sampled by molecular dynamics simulations, is mapped to a network. Conformations are nodes of the network, and the transitions between them are links. As previously found for the World-Wide Web as well as for social and biological networks , the conformation space contains highly connected hubs like the native state which is the most populated free energy basin. Furthermore, the network shows a hierarchical modularity [2] which is consistent with the funnel mechanism of folding [3] and is not observed for a random heteropolymer lacking a native state. Here we show that the conformation space network describes the free energy landscape without requiring projections into arbitrarily chosen reaction coordinates. The network analysis provides a basis for understanding the heterogeneity of the folding transition state and the existence of multiple pathways. [1] P. Ferrara and A. Caflisch, Folding simulations of a three-stranded antiparallel beta-sheet peptide, PNAS 97, 10780-10785 (2000). [2] Ravasz, E. and Barabási, A. L. Hierarchical organization in complex networks. Phys. Rev. E 67, 026112 (2003). [3] Dill, K. and Chan, H From Levinthal to pathways to funnels. Nature Struct. Biol. 4, 10-19 (1997)

  8. Microtubule release from the centrosome in migrating cells

    PubMed Central

    Abal, Miguel; Piel, Matthieu; Bouckson-Castaing, Veronique; Mogensen, Mette; Sibarita, Jean-Baptiste; Bornens, Michel

    2002-01-01

    In migrating cells, force production relies essentially on a polarized actomyosin system, whereas the spatial regulation of actomyosin contraction and substrate contact turnover involves a complex cooperation between the microtubule (MT) and the actin filament networks (Goode, B.L., D.G. Drubin, and G. Barnes. 2000. Curr. Opin. Cell Biol., 12:63–71). Targeting and capture of MT plus ends at the cell periphery has been described, but whether or not the minus ends of these MTs are anchored at the centrosome is not known. Here, we show that release of short MTs from the centrosome is frequent in migrating cells and that their transport toward the cell periphery is blocked when dynein activity is impaired. We further show that MT release, but not MT nucleation or polymerization dynamics, is abolished by overexpression of the centrosomal MT-anchoring protein ninein. In addition, a dramatic inhibition of cell migration was observed; but, contrary to cells treated by drugs inhibiting MT dynamics, polarized membrane ruffling activity was not affected in ninein overexpressing cells. We thus propose that the balance between MT minus-end capture and release from the centrosome is critical for efficient cell migration. PMID:12473683

  9. Agrobacterium uses a unique ligand-binding mode for trapping opines and acquiring a competitive advantage in the niche construction on plant host.

    PubMed

    Lang, Julien; Vigouroux, Armelle; Planamente, Sara; El Sahili, Abbas; Blin, Pauline; Aumont-Nicaise, Magali; Dessaux, Yves; Moréra, Solange; Faure, Denis

    2014-10-01

    By modifying the nuclear genome of its host, the plant pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens induces the development of plant tumours in which it proliferates. The transformed plant tissues accumulate uncommon low molecular weight compounds called opines that are growth substrates for A. tumefaciens. In the pathogen-induced niche (the plant tumour), a selective advantage conferred by opine assimilation has been hypothesized, but not experimentally demonstrated. Here, using genetics and structural biology, we deciphered how the pathogen is able to bind opines and use them to efficiently compete in the plant tumour. We report high resolution X-ray structures of the periplasmic binding protein (PBP) NocT unliganded and liganded with the opine nopaline (a condensation product of arginine and α-ketoglurate) and its lactam derivative pyronopaline. NocT exhibited an affinity for pyronopaline (K(D) of 0.6 µM) greater than that for nopaline (KD of 3.7 µM). Although the binding-mode of the arginine part of nopaline/pyronopaline in NocT resembled that of arginine in other PBPs, affinity measurement by two different techniques showed that NocT did not bind arginine. In contrast, NocT presented specific residues such as M117 to stabilize the bound opines. NocT relatives that exhibit the nopaline/pyronopaline-binding mode were only found in genomes of the genus Agrobacterium. Transcriptomics and reverse genetics revealed that A. tumefaciens uses the same pathway for assimilating nopaline and pyronopaline. Fitness measurements showed that NocT is required for a competitive colonization of the plant tumour by A. tumefaciens. Moreover, even though the Ti-plasmid conjugal transfer was not regulated by nopaline, the competitive advantage gained by the nopaline-assimilating Ti-plasmid donors led to a preferential horizontal propagation of this Ti-plasmid amongst the agrobacteria colonizing the plant-tumour niche. This work provided structural and genetic evidences to support the niche construction paradigm in bacterial pathogens.

  10. Agrobacterium Uses a Unique Ligand-Binding Mode for Trapping Opines and Acquiring A Competitive Advantage in the Niche Construction on Plant Host

    PubMed Central

    Planamente, Sara; El Sahili, Abbas; Blin, Pauline; Aumont-Nicaise, Magali; Dessaux, Yves; Moréra, Solange; Faure, Denis

    2014-01-01

    By modifying the nuclear genome of its host, the plant pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens induces the development of plant tumours in which it proliferates. The transformed plant tissues accumulate uncommon low molecular weight compounds called opines that are growth substrates for A. tumefaciens. In the pathogen-induced niche (the plant tumour), a selective advantage conferred by opine assimilation has been hypothesized, but not experimentally demonstrated. Here, using genetics and structural biology, we deciphered how the pathogen is able to bind opines and use them to efficiently compete in the plant tumour. We report high resolution X-ray structures of the periplasmic binding protein (PBP) NocT unliganded and liganded with the opine nopaline (a condensation product of arginine and α-ketoglurate) and its lactam derivative pyronopaline. NocT exhibited an affinity for pyronopaline (KD of 0.6 µM) greater than that for nopaline (KD of 3.7 µM). Although the binding-mode of the arginine part of nopaline/pyronopaline in NocT resembled that of arginine in other PBPs, affinity measurement by two different techniques showed that NocT did not bind arginine. In contrast, NocT presented specific residues such as M117 to stabilize the bound opines. NocT relatives that exhibit the nopaline/pyronopaline-binding mode were only found in genomes of the genus Agrobacterium. Transcriptomics and reverse genetics revealed that A. tumefaciens uses the same pathway for assimilating nopaline and pyronopaline. Fitness measurements showed that NocT is required for a competitive colonization of the plant tumour by A. tumefaciens. Moreover, even though the Ti-plasmid conjugal transfer was not regulated by nopaline, the competitive advantage gained by the nopaline-assimilating Ti-plasmid donors led to a preferential horizontal propagation of this Ti-plasmid amongst the agrobacteria colonizing the plant-tumour niche. This work provided structural and genetic evidences to support the niche construction paradigm in bacterial pathogens. PMID:25299655

  11. Interactive Visual Simulation of Communication Systems. Volume 2

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1988-04-29

    struct( int non; ) ARM *PARAMPTR; Itypedef struct float x[8], y [8]; FILE *fp; mnt time; ) STATE, *STATEPTR; *psk8_dem (pparam, size,pstate,pstar) I...i*THETA); pstate-> y ~i]=sin(i*THETA) ; pstate->fp=fopen ( "graf .dat"l,"w"); pstate->time=0; Iif (length output_fifo(o)==maxlength-output_fifo(0...time򒾐) fprintf(pstate->fp,"\

  12. Struct2Net: a web service to predict protein–protein interactions using a structure-based approach

    PubMed Central

    Singh, Rohit; Park, Daniel; Xu, Jinbo; Hosur, Raghavendra; Berger, Bonnie

    2010-01-01

    Struct2Net is a web server for predicting interactions between arbitrary protein pairs using a structure-based approach. Prediction of protein–protein interactions (PPIs) is a central area of interest and successful prediction would provide leads for experiments and drug design; however, the experimental coverage of the PPI interactome remains inadequate. We believe that Struct2Net is the first community-wide resource to provide structure-based PPI predictions that go beyond homology modeling. Also, most web-resources for predicting PPIs currently rely on functional genomic data (e.g. GO annotation, gene expression, cellular localization, etc.). Our structure-based approach is independent of such methods and only requires the sequence information of the proteins being queried. The web service allows multiple querying options, aimed at maximizing flexibility. For the most commonly studied organisms (fly, human and yeast), predictions have been pre-computed and can be retrieved almost instantaneously. For proteins from other species, users have the option of getting a quick-but-approximate result (using orthology over pre-computed results) or having a full-blown computation performed. The web service is freely available at http://struct2net.csail.mit.edu. PMID:20513650

  13. Resource and competitive dynamics shape the benefits of public goods cooperation in a plant pathogen

    PubMed Central

    Platt, Thomas G.; Fuqua, Clay; Bever, James D.

    2012-01-01

    Cooperative benefits depend on a variety of ecological factors. Many cooperative bacteria increase the population size of their groups by making a public good available. Increased local population size can alleviate the constraints of kin competition on the evolution of cooperation by enhancing the between-group fitness of cooperators. The cooperative pathogenesis of Agrobacterium tumefaciens causes infected plants to exude opines—resources that provide a nearly exclusive source of nutrient for the pathogen. We experimentally demonstrate that opines provide cooperative A. tumefaciens cells a within-group fitness advantage over saprophytic agrobacteria. Our results are congruent with a resource-consumer competition model, which predicts that cooperative, virulent agrobacteria are at a competitive disadvantage when opines are unavailable, but have an advantage when opines are available at sufficient levels. This model also predicts that freeloading agrobacteria that catabolize opines but cannot infect plants competitively displace the cooperative pathogen from all environments. However, we show that these cooperative public goods also promote increased local population size. A model built from the Price Equation shows that this effect on group size can contribute to the persistence of cooperative pathogenesis despite inherent kin competition for the benefits of pathogenesis. PMID:22671559

  14. Trench-shaped binding sites promote multiple classes of interactions between collagen and the adherence receptors, alpha(1)beta(1) integrin and Staphylococcus aureus cna MSCRAMM.

    PubMed

    Rich, R L; Deivanayagam, C C; Owens, R T; Carson, M; Höök, A; Moore, D; Symersky, J; Yang, V W; Narayana, S V; Höök, M

    1999-08-27

    Most mammalian cells and some pathogenic bacteria are capable of adhering to collagenous substrates in processes mediated by specific cell surface adherence molecules. Crystal structures of collagen-binding regions of the human integrin alpha(2)beta(1) and a Staphylococcus aureus adhesin reveal a "trench" on the surface of both of these proteins. This trench can accommodate a collagen triple-helical structure and presumably represents the ligand-binding site (Emsley, J., King, S. L., Bergelson, J. M., and Liddington, R. C. (1997) J. Biol. Chem. 272, 28512-28517; Symersky, J., Patti, J. M., Carson, M., House-Pompeo, K., Teale, M., Moore, D., Jin, L., Schneider, A., DeLucas, L. J., Höök, M., and Narayana, S. V. L. (1997) Nat. Struct. Biol. 4, 833-838). We report here the crystal structure of the alpha subunit I domain from the alpha(1)beta(1) integrin. This collagen-binding protein also contains a trench on one face in which the collagen triple helix may be docked. Furthermore, we compare the collagen-binding mechanisms of the human alpha(1) integrin I domain and the A domain from the S. aureus collagen adhesin, Cna. Although the S. aureus and human proteins have unrelated amino acid sequences, secondary structure composition, and cation requirements for effective ligand binding, both proteins bind at multiple sites within one collagen molecule, with the sites in collagen varying in their affinity for the adherence molecule. We propose that (i) these evolutionarily dissimilar adherence proteins recognize collagen via similar mechanisms, (ii) the multisite, multiclass protein/ligand interactions observed in these two systems result from a binding-site trench, and (iii) this unusual binding mechanism may be thematic for proteins binding extended, rigid ligands that contain repeating structural motifs.

  15. Structural Basis of Low-Affinity Nickel Binding to the Nickel-Responsive Transcription Factor NikR from Escherichia coli†‡

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    Escherichia coli NikR regulates cellular nickel uptake by binding to the nik operon in the presence of nickel and blocking transcription of genes encoding the nickel uptake transporter. NikR has two binding affinities for the nik operon: a nanomolar dissociation constant with stoichiometric nickel and a picomolar dissociation constant with excess nickel [Bloom, S. L., and Zamble, D. B. (2004) Biochemistry 43, 10029−10038; Chivers, P. T., and Sauer, R. T. (2002) Chem. Biol. 9, 1141−1148]. While it is known that the stoichiometric nickel ions bind at the NikR tetrameric interface [Schreiter, E. R., et al. (2003) Nat. Struct. Biol. 10, 794−799; Schreiter, E. R., et al. (2006) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 103, 13676−13681], the binding sites for excess nickel ions have not been fully described. Here we have determined the crystal structure of NikR in the presence of excess nickel to 2.6 Å resolution and have obtained nickel anomalous data (1.4845 Å) in the presence of excess nickel for both NikR alone and NikR cocrystallized with a 30-nucleotide piece of double-stranded DNA containing the nik operon. These anomalous data show that excess nickel ions do not bind to a single location on NikR but instead reveal a total of 22 possible low-affinity nickel sites on the NikR tetramer. These sites, for which there are six different types, are all on the surface of NikR, and most are found in both the NikR alone and NikR−DNA structures. Using a combination of crystallographic data and molecular dynamics simulations, the nickel sites can be described as preferring octahedral geometry, utilizing one to three protein ligands (typically histidine) and at least two water molecules. PMID:20704276

  16. Solid-State NMR Studies of Amyloid Materials: A Protocol to Define an Atomic Model of Aβ(1-42) in Amyloid Fibrils.

    PubMed

    Xiao, Yiling; McElheny, Dan; Hoshi, Minako; Ishii, Yoshitaka

    2018-01-01

    Intense efforts have been made to understand the molecular structures of misfolded amyloid β (Aβ) in order to gain insight into the pathological mechanism of Alzheimer's disease. Solid-state NMR spectroscopy (SSNMR) is considered a primary tool for elucidating the structures of insoluble and noncrystalline amyloid fibrils and other amyloid assemblies. In this chapter, we describe a detailed protocol to obtain the first atomic model of the 42-residue human Aβ peptide Aβ(1-42) in structurally homogeneous amyloid fibrils from our recent SSNMR study (Nat Struct Mol Biol 22:499-505, 2015). Despite great biological and clinical interest in Aβ(1-42) fibrils, their structural details have been long-elusive until this study. The protocol is divided into four sections. First, the solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) and purification of monomeric Aβ(1-42) is described. We illustrate a controlled incubation method to prompt misfolding of Aβ(1-42) into homogeneous amyloid fibrils in an aqueous solution with fragmented Aβ(1-42) fibrils as seeds. Next, we detail analysis of Aβ(1-42) fibrils by SSNMR to obtain structural restraints. Finally, we describe methods to construct atomic models of Aβ(1-42) fibrils based on SSNMR results through two-stage molecular dynamics calculations.

  17. Forensic Memory Analysis for Apple OS X

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-06-14

    x86. Table 5. Template interface fields. Variable Python Type Description template dict template implementing the C stuct interface MBR_NAME str ...dictionary key, variable name for a struct member template[MBR_NAME] tuple dictionary value, a struct member description MBR_TYPE str C type of the...named member OFFSET int offset in bytes for the member SIZE int size in bytes for the member type FIELD str lsof field represented by member

  18. Biomineralisation in Mollusc shells

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dauphin, Y.; Cuif, J. P.; Salomé, M.; Williams, C. T.

    2009-04-01

    The main components of Mollusc shells are carbonate minerals: calcite and aragonite. ACC is present in larval stages. Calcite and aragonite can be secreted simultaneously by the mantle. Despite the small number of varieties, the arrangement of the mineral components is diverse, and dependant upon the taxonomy. They are also associated with organic components much more diverse, the diversity of which reflects the large taxonomic diversity. From TGA analyses, the organic content (water included) is high (>5% in some layers). The biomineralisation process is not a passive precipitation process, but is strongly controlled by the organism. The biological-genetic control is shown by the constancy of the arrangement of the layers, the mineralogy and the microstructure in a given species. Microstructural units (i.e. tablets, prisms etc.) have shapes that do not occur in non-biogenic counterparts. Nacreous tablets, for example, are flattened on their crystallographic c axis, which is normally the axis of maximum growth rate for non-biogenic aragonite. Morever, their inner structure is species-specific: the arrangements of nacreous tablets in Gastropoda - Cephalopoda, and in Bivalvia differ, and the inner arrangement of the nacreous tablets is different in ectocochlear and endocochlear Cephalopoda. The organic-mineral ratios also differ in the various layers of a shell. Differences in chemical composition also demonstrates the biological-genetic control: for example, aragonite has a low Sr content unknown in non-biogenic samples; two aragonitic layers in a shell have different Sr and Mg contents, S is higher in calcitic layers. Decalcification releases soluble (SOM) and insoluble (IOM) organic components. Insoluble components form the main part of the intercrystalline membranes, and contain proteins, polysaccharides and lipids. Soluble phases are present within the crystals and the intercrystalline membranes. These phases are composed of more or less glycosylated proteins and polysaccharides, with a large range of molecular weights. Proteins are rich in acidic aminoacids (aspartic and glutamic acids). Sugars are usually sulphated, and very acidic. Several hundreds of proteins and sugars are present in the SOM. The compositions of IOM and SOM are characteristic for each layer present in a shell. Topographical relationships of mineral and organic components are visible at different scales of observation. SEM images of etched surfaces display the growth line rhythmicity and concordance between adjacent microstructural units. EPMA maps show similar chemical growth lines in various structures. Whatever the taxa, the average thickness of growth lines is about 2-3 µm, indicating an inner biological rhythm, not dependant on the environmental conditions. Such growth lines are observed in deep sea molluscs at depth where diurnal changes in light and temperature are absent. However, the role of the environment is shown by larger periodicities. Sulphur deserves a special interest, because it is associated with the organic matrices. Electrophoretic data have shown that acidic sulphated sugars are abundant in some layers. XANES analyses confirm these results. New microscopic techniques allow us to obtain images at a submicrometer scale. AFM images show that all the microstructural units (i.e. tablets, prisms etc.), calcite or aragonite, are composed of small sub-spherical granules with a diameter typically of about 50 nm. These granules are surrounded by a thin cortex (about 8 nm) of organic and/or amorphous material, and are organo-composite material as shown by phase images. They do not have crystalline shapes, despite the fact that the units they build are often monocrystalline. Molecular biology and genetic studies confirm that the control of the biomineralisation process is exerted at the scale of the whole organism: the expression of genes encoding major shell matrix proteins clearly indicates a regular separation of calcite and aragonite secretory activity. The main control on the structural and compositional features of mollusc shells is genetic. However, environmental influences do exist. Due to the complex structures and composition of these shells, localized analyses must be preferred. The role of the composition and distribution of the organic matrix in fossilisation processes, and any potentially induced alterations is not yet known. Mutvei 1970, Biomineralisation 2, 48. Mutvei 1977, Calc. Tiss. Res. 24, 1. Cuif et al.1980, C. R. Acad. Sc. Paris 290, ser. D: 759. Dauphin & Cuif 1999, Ann. Sci. Nat. 2:73. Dauphin & Denis 2000, Comp. Biochem. Physiol. A126: 367. Dauphin 2001, N. Jb. Geol. Palaont. Mh. 2 : 103. Dauphin 2001, Palaont. Zeit. 75, 1: 113. Levi-Kalisman et al. 2001, J. Struct. Biol. 135:8. Dauphin 2002, Comp. Biochem. Physiol. A132, 3: 577. Dauphin et al. 2003, J. Struct. Biol., 142: 272. Gotliv et al. 2003, Chem. Biochem. 4: 522. Gotliv et al. 2004, ChemBioChem. 6:304. Dauphin et al. 2005, Amer. Mineral. 90: 1748. Nudelman et al. 2006, J. Struct. Biol. 153:176. Takeushi & Endo 2006, mar. Biotech. 8: 52. Dauphin 2008, Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 309: 1659. Cuif et al. 2008, Mineral. Mag. 72, 1: 233. This work has been made possible thanks to the support from ANR-06-BLANC-0233-01 project (BIOCRISTAL).

  19. Complementary DNA cloning and molecular evolution of opine dehydrogenases in some marine invertebrates.

    PubMed

    Kimura, Tomohiro; Nakano, Toshiki; Yamaguchi, Toshiyasu; Sato, Minoru; Ogawa, Tomohisa; Muramoto, Koji; Yokoyama, Takehiko; Kan-No, Nobuhiro; Nagahisa, Eizou; Janssen, Frank; Grieshaber, Manfred K

    2004-01-01

    The complete complementary DNA sequences of genes presumably coding for opine dehydrogenases from Arabella iricolor (sandworm), Haliotis discus hannai (abalone), and Patinopecten yessoensis (scallop) were determined, and partial cDNA sequences were derived for Meretrix lusoria (Japanese hard clam) and Spisula sachalinensis (Sakhalin surf clam). The primers ODH-9F and ODH-11R proved useful for amplifying the sequences for opine dehydrogenases from the 4 mollusk species investigated in this study. The sequence of the sandworm was obtained using primers constructed from the amino acid sequence of tauropine dehydrogenase, the main opine dehydrogenase in A. iricolor. The complete cDNA sequence of A. iricolor, H. discus hannai, and P. yessoensis encode 397, 400, and 405 amino acids, respectively. All sequences were aligned and compared with published databank sequences of Loligo opalescens, Loligo vulgaris (squid), Sepia officinalis (cuttlefish), and Pecten maximus (scallop). As expected, a high level of homology was observed for the cDNA from closely related species, such as for cephalopods or scallops, whereas cDNA from the other species showed lower-level homologies. A similar trend was observed when the deduced amino acid sequences were compared. Furthermore, alignment of these sequences revealed some structural motifs that are possibly related to the binding sites of the substrates. The phylogenetic trees derived from the nucleotide and amino acid sequences were consistent with the classification of species resulting from classical taxonomic analyses.

  20. Plakins in development and disease.

    PubMed

    Sonnenberg, Arnoud; Liem, Ronald K H

    2007-06-10

    Plakins are large multi-domain molecules that have various functions to link cytoskeletal elements together and to connect them to junctional complexes. Plakins were first identified in epithelial cells where they were found to connect the intermediate filaments to desmosomes and hemidesmosomes [Ruhrberg, C., and Watt, F.M. (1997). The plakin family: versatile organizers of cytoskeletal architecture. Curr Opin Genet Dev 7, 392-397.]. They were subsequently found to be important for the integrity of muscle cells. Most recently, they have been found in the nervous system, where their functions appear to be more complex, including cross-linking of microtubules (MTs) and actin filaments [Leung, C.L., Zheng, M., Prater, S.M., and Liem, R.K. (2001). The BPAG1 locus: Alternative splicing produces multiple isoforms with distinct cytoskeletal linker domains, including predominant isoforms in neurons and muscles. J Cell Biol 154, 691-697., Leung, C.L., Sun, D., Zheng, M., Knowles, D.R., and Liem, R.K. (1999). Microtubule actin cross-linking factor (MACF): a hybrid of dystonin and dystrophin that can interact with the actin and microtubule cytoskeletons. J Cell Biol 147, 1275-1286.]. These plakins have also indicated their relationship to the spectrin superfamily of proteins and the plakins appear to be evolutionarily related to the spectrins, but have diverged to perform different specialized functions. In invertebrates, a single plakin is present in both Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans, which resemble the more complex plakins found in mammals [Roper, K., Gregory, S.L., and Brown, N.H. (2002). The 'spectraplakins': cytoskeletal giants with characteristics of both spectrin and plakin families. J Cell Sci 115, 4215-4225.]. In contrast, there are seven plakins found in mammals and most of them have alternatively spliced forms leading to a very complex group of proteins with potential tissue specific functions [Jefferson, J.J., Leung, C.L., and Liem, R.K. (2004). Plakins: goliaths that link cell junctions and the cytoskeleton. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 5, 542-553.]. In this review, we will first describe the plakins, desmoplakin, plectin, envoplakin and periplakin and then describe two other mammalian plakins, Bullous pemphigoid antigen 1 (BPAG1) and microtubule actin cross-linking factor 1 (MACF1), that are expressed in multiple isoforms in different tissues. We will also describe the relationship of these two proteins to the invertebrate plakins, shortstop (shot) in Drosophila and VAB-10 in C. elegans. Finally, we will describe an unusual mammalian plakin, called epiplakin.

  1. StructRNAfinder: an automated pipeline and web server for RNA families prediction.

    PubMed

    Arias-Carrasco, Raúl; Vásquez-Morán, Yessenia; Nakaya, Helder I; Maracaja-Coutinho, Vinicius

    2018-02-17

    The function of many noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) depend upon their secondary structures. Over the last decades, several methodologies have been developed to predict such structures or to use them to functionally annotate RNAs into RNA families. However, to fully perform this analysis, researchers should utilize multiple tools, which require the constant parsing and processing of several intermediate files. This makes the large-scale prediction and annotation of RNAs a daunting task even to researchers with good computational or bioinformatics skills. We present an automated pipeline named StructRNAfinder that predicts and annotates RNA families in transcript or genome sequences. This single tool not only displays the sequence/structural consensus alignments for each RNA family, according to Rfam database but also provides a taxonomic overview for each assigned functional RNA. Moreover, we implemented a user-friendly web service that allows researchers to upload their own nucleotide sequences in order to perform the whole analysis. Finally, we provided a stand-alone version of StructRNAfinder to be used in large-scale projects. The tool was developed under GNU General Public License (GPLv3) and is freely available at http://structrnafinder.integrativebioinformatics.me . The main advantage of StructRNAfinder relies on the large-scale processing and integrating the data obtained by each tool and database employed along the workflow, of which several files are generated and displayed in user-friendly reports, useful for downstream analyses and data exploration.

  2. Indentation: A Simple, Nondestructive Method for Characterizing the Mechanical and Transport Properties of pH-Sensitive Hydrogels

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2011-01-01

    364 (1996). 10. B. Jeong, Y. H. Bae, D. S. Lee, and S. W. Kim, Biodegradable block copolymers as injectable drug-delivery systems . Nature 388, 860-862...1250-1253 (1995). 26. F. C. MacKintosh, and C. F. Schmidt, Microrheology, Curr. Opin. Colloid Interface Sci. 4, 300-307 (1999). 27. A...Mukhopadhyay, and S. Granick, Micro- and nanorheology, Curr. Opin. Colloid Interface Sci. 6, 423-429 (2001). 28. Y. Li, and T. Tanaka, Kinetics of swelling

  3. New treatment options for inflammatory bowel diseases.

    PubMed

    Verstockt, Bram; Ferrante, Marc; Vermeire, Séverine; Van Assche, Gert

    2018-05-01

    The advent of anti-TNF agents has dramatically changed the treatment algorithms for IBD in the last 15 years, but primarily and more importantly secondary loss of response is often observed. Fortunately , new treatment options have been actively explored and some have already entered our clinical practice. In the class of anti-cytokine agents, the anti-IL12/IL23 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have entered clinical practice with the anti-p40 mAb ustekinumab in Crohn's disease (CD). Also, more selective anti-IL23 agents (anti-p19) have shown efficacy and are being further developed, in contrast to agents inhibiting IL-17 downstream which have failed in clinical trials despite their clear efficacy in psoriasis (Verstockt et al. in Expert Opin Biol Ther 17(1):31-47, 2017; Verstockt et al. in Expert Opin Drug Saf 16(7):809-821, 2017). Following up on the efficacy of the anti-adhesion molecule vedolizumab, etrolizumab (anti-beta-7 integrin) and PF-00547659, an anti-MadCam mAb, are being developed (Lobaton et al. in Aliment Pharmacol Ther 39(6):579-594, 2014). Oral anti-trafficking agents, such as ozanimod, targeting the S1P receptor responsible for the efflux of T-cells from the lymph nodes, have also shown efficacy in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) (Sandborn et al. in N Engl J Med 374(18):1754-1762, 2016). Oral agents inhibiting cell signaling have been explored successfully in IBD. Tofacitinib, a non-selective oral Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor, is effective in patients with UC and several other more or less selective Jak1, 2 and 3 inhibitors are being developed for the treatment of CD and UC (Sandborn et al. in N Engl J Med 376(18):1723-1736, 2017; Vermeire et al. in Lancet 389(10066):266-275, 2017; De Vries et al. in J Crohns Colitis 11(7):885-93, 2017). Finally, despite initial disappointing results with systemic administration of mesenchymal stem cells, Alofisel, adipose tissue derived, allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells, locally injected in perianal fistula tracts, induce long-lasting beneficial effects and the drug has been approved in Europe (Panes et al. in Gastroenterology, 2017). In summary, the quest for new treatment options in IBD is very active and justified by the high medical need and unresolved problems patients are facing.

  4. National Program for Inspection of Non-Federal Dams. Congamond Lakes North Dike (MA 00072), Connecticut River Basin, Southwick, Massachusetts. Phase I Inspection Report.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1980-08-01

    erosion resistant surface should be designed and con - structed on the downstream face after trees and trash have been removed. The owner should also...made by the Division of Waterways to con - struct a drop inlet spillway at North Dike in order to provide a more constant iake level. Plans (12 sheets...provide a more constant lake level. Plans (12 sheets) for this pro - * posal were prepared for the Division of Waterways by Robert G. Brown & Associ

  5. Structure of the Fusarium oxysporum endoglucanase I with a nonhydrolyzable substrate analogue: substrate distortion gives rise to the preferred axial orientation for the leaving group.

    PubMed

    Sulzenbacher, G; Driguez, H; Henrissat, B; Schülein, M; Davies, G J

    1996-12-03

    Endoglucanase I (EG I) is a cellulase, from glycosyl hydrolase family 7, which cleaves the beta-1,4 linkages of cellulose with overall retention of configuration. The structure of the EG I from Fusarium oxysproum, complexed to a nonhydrolyzable thiooligosaccharide substrate analogue, has been determined by X-ray crystallography at a resolution of 2.7 A utilizing the 4-fold noncrystallographic symmetry present in the asymmetric unit. The electron density map clearly reveals the presence of three glucosyl units of the inhibitor, consistent with the known number of sugar-binding subsites, located at the active site of the enzyme in the -2, -1, and +1 subsites, i.e., actually spanning the point of enzymatic cleavage. The pyranose ring at the point of potential enzymatic cleavage is clearly distorted from the standard 4C1 chair as was originally suggested for beta-retaining enzymes by Phillips [Ford, L.O., Johnson, L.N., Machin, P. A., Phillips, D.C., & Tijan, T. (1974) J. Mol. Biol, 88, 349-371]. The distortion observed goes beyond the "sofa" conformation observed in previous studies and results in a conformation whose salient feature is the resulting quasi-axial orientation for the glycosidic bond and leaving group, as predicted by stereoelectronic theory. An almost identical conformation has recently been observed in a complex of chitobiase with its unhydrolyzed substrate [Tews, I., Perrakis, A., Oppenheim, A., Dauter, Z., Wilson, K. S., & Vorgias, C. E. (1996) Nat. Struct. Biol. 3, 638-648]. The striking similarity between these two complexes extends beyond the almost identical pyranose ring distortion. The overlap of the two respective sugars places the enzymatic nucleophile of endoglucanase I in coincidence with the C2 acetamido oxygen of N-acetylglucosamine in the catalytic site of the chitobiase, substantiating the involvement of this group in the catalytic mechanism of chitobiase and related chitinolytic enzymes. The endoglucanase I complex with the thiosaccharide substrate analogue clearly illustrates the potential of nonhydrolyzable sulfur-linked oligosaccharides in the elucidation of substrate binding and catalysis by glycosyl hydrolases.

  6. Ti plasmid-encoded genes responsible for catabolism of the crown gall opine mannopine by Agrobacterium tumefaciens are homologs of the T-region genes responsible for synthesis of this opine by the plant tumor.

    PubMed

    Kim, K S; Farrand, S K

    1996-06-01

    Agrobacterium tumefaciens NT1 harboring pSaB4, which contains the 14-kb BamHI fragment 4 from the octopine/mannityl opine-type Ti plasmid pTi15955, grew well with agropine (AGR) but slowly with mannopine (MOP) as the sole carbon source. When a second plasmid encoding a dedicated transport system for MOP was introduced, these cells grew well with both AGR and MOP. Transposon insertion mutagenesis and subcloning identified a 5.7-kb region of BamHI fragment 4 that encodes functions required for the degradation of MOP. DNA sequence analysis revealed seven putative genes in this region: mocD (moc for mannityl opine catabolism) and mocE, oriented from right to left, and mocRCBAS, oriented from left to right. Significant identities exist at the nucleotide and derived amino acid sequence levels between these moc genes and the mas genes that are responsible for opine biosynthesis in crown gall tumors. MocD is a homolog of Mas2, the anabolic conjugase encoded by mas2'. MocE and MocC are related to the amino half and the carboxyl half, respectively, of Mas1 (MOP reductase), the second enzyme for MOP biosynthesis. These results indicate that the moc and mas genes evolved from a common origin. MocR and MocS are related to each other and to a putative repressor for the AGR degradation system encoded by the rhizogenic plasmid pRiA4. MocB and MocA are homologs of 6-phosphogluconate dehydratase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, respectively. Mutations in mocD and mocE, but not mocC, are suppressed by functions encoded by the chromosome or the 450-kb megaplasmid present in many Agrobacterium isolates. We propose that moc genes derived from genes located elsewhere in the bacterial genome and that the tumor-expressed mas genes evolved from the bacterial moc genes.

  7. Ti plasmid-encoded genes responsible for catabolism of the crown gall opine mannopine by Agrobacterium tumefaciens are homologs of the T-region genes responsible for synthesis of this opine by the plant tumor.

    PubMed Central

    Kim, K S; Farrand, S K

    1996-01-01

    Agrobacterium tumefaciens NT1 harboring pSaB4, which contains the 14-kb BamHI fragment 4 from the octopine/mannityl opine-type Ti plasmid pTi15955, grew well with agropine (AGR) but slowly with mannopine (MOP) as the sole carbon source. When a second plasmid encoding a dedicated transport system for MOP was introduced, these cells grew well with both AGR and MOP. Transposon insertion mutagenesis and subcloning identified a 5.7-kb region of BamHI fragment 4 that encodes functions required for the degradation of MOP. DNA sequence analysis revealed seven putative genes in this region: mocD (moc for mannityl opine catabolism) and mocE, oriented from right to left, and mocRCBAS, oriented from left to right. Significant identities exist at the nucleotide and derived amino acid sequence levels between these moc genes and the mas genes that are responsible for opine biosynthesis in crown gall tumors. MocD is a homolog of Mas2, the anabolic conjugase encoded by mas2'. MocE and MocC are related to the amino half and the carboxyl half, respectively, of Mas1 (MOP reductase), the second enzyme for MOP biosynthesis. These results indicate that the moc and mas genes evolved from a common origin. MocR and MocS are related to each other and to a putative repressor for the AGR degradation system encoded by the rhizogenic plasmid pRiA4. MocB and MocA are homologs of 6-phosphogluconate dehydratase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, respectively. Mutations in mocD and mocE, but not mocC, are suppressed by functions encoded by the chromosome or the 450-kb megaplasmid present in many Agrobacterium isolates. We propose that moc genes derived from genes located elsewhere in the bacterial genome and that the tumor-expressed mas genes evolved from the bacterial moc genes. PMID:8655509

  8. StructAlign, a Program for Alignment of Structures of DNA-Protein Complexes.

    PubMed

    Popov, Ya V; Galitsyna, A A; Alexeevski, A V; Karyagina, A S; Spirin, S A

    2015-11-01

    Comparative analysis of structures of complexes of homologous proteins with DNA is important in the analysis of DNA-protein recognition. Alignment is a necessary stage of the analysis. An alignment is a matching of amino acid residues and nucleotides of one complex to residues and nucleotides of the other. Currently, there are no programs available for aligning structures of DNA-protein complexes. We present the program StructAlign, which should fill this gap. The program inputs a pair of complexes of DNA double helix with proteins and outputs an alignment of DNA chains corresponding to the best spatial fit of the protein chains.

  9. Characterization of the stability and folding of H2A.Z chromatin particles: implications for transcriptional activation.

    PubMed

    Abbott, D W; Ivanova, V S; Wang, X; Bonner, W M; Ausió, J

    2001-11-09

    H2A.Z and H2A.1 nucleosome core particles and oligonucleosome arrays were obtained using recombinant versions of these histones and a native histone H2B/H3/H4 complement reconstituted onto appropriate DNA templates. Analysis of the reconstituted nucleosome core particles using native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and DNase I footprinting showed that H2A.Z nucleosome core particles were almost structurally indistinguishable from its H2A.1 or native chicken erythrocyte counterparts. While this result is in good agreement with the recently published crystallographic structure of the H2A.Z nucleosome core particle (Suto, R. K., Clarkson, M J., Tremethick, D. J., and Luger, K. (2000) Nat. Struct. Biol. 7, 1121-1124), the ionic strength dependence of the sedimentation coefficient of these particles exhibits a substantial destabilization, which is most likely the result of the histone H2A.Z-H2B dimer binding less tightly to the nucleosome. Analytical ultracentrifuge analysis of the H2A.Z 208-12, a DNA template consisting of 12 tandem repeats of a 208-base pair sequence derived from the sea urchin Lytechinus variegatus 5 S rRNA gene, reconstituted oligonucleosome complexes in the absence of histone H1 shows that their NaCl-dependent folding ability is significantly reduced. These results support the notion that the histone H2A.Z variant may play a chromatin-destabilizing role, which may be important for transcriptional activation.

  10. The plastoquinol-plastoquinone exchange mechanism in photosystem II: insight from molecular dynamics simulations.

    PubMed

    Zobnina, Veranika; Lambreva, Maya D; Rea, Giuseppina; Campi, Gaetano; Antonacci, Amina; Scognamiglio, Viviana; Giardi, Maria Teresa; Polticelli, Fabio

    2017-01-01

    In the photosystem II (PSII) of oxygenic photosynthetic organisms, the reaction center (RC) core mediates the light-induced electron transfer leading to water splitting and production of reduced plastoquinone molecules. The reduction of plastoquinone to plastoquinol lowers PSII affinity for the latter and leads to its release. However, little is known about the role of protein dynamics in this process. Here, molecular dynamics simulations of the complete PSII complex embedded in a lipid bilayer have been used to investigate the plastoquinol release mechanism. A distinct dynamic behavior of PSII in the presence of plastoquinol is observed which, coupled to changes in charge distribution and electrostatic interactions, causes disruption of the interactions seen in the PSII-plastoquinone complex and leads to the "squeezing out" of plastoquinol from the binding pocket. Displacement of plastoquinol closes the second water channel, recently described in a 2.9 Å resolution PSII structure (Guskov et al. in Nat Struct Mol Biol 16:334-342, 2009), allowing to rule out the proposed "alternating" mechanism of plastoquinol-plastoquinone exchange, while giving support to the "single-channel" one. The performed simulations indicated a pivotal role of D 1 -Ser264 in modulating the dynamics of the plastoquinone binding pocket and plastoquinol-plastoquinone exchange via its interaction with D 1 -His252 residue. The effects of the disruption of this hydrogen bond network on the PSII redox reactions were experimentally assessed in the D 1 site-directed mutant Ser264Lys.

  11. E-MSD: improving data deposition and structure quality.

    PubMed

    Tagari, M; Tate, J; Swaminathan, G J; Newman, R; Naim, A; Vranken, W; Kapopoulou, A; Hussain, A; Fillon, J; Henrick, K; Velankar, S

    2006-01-01

    The Macromolecular Structure Database (MSD) (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/msd/) [H. Boutselakis, D. Dimitropoulos, J. Fillon, A. Golovin, K. Henrick, A. Hussain, J. Ionides, M. John, P. A. Keller, E. Krissinel et al. (2003) E-MSD: the European Bioinformatics Institute Macromolecular Structure Database. Nucleic Acids Res., 31, 458-462.] group is one of the three partners in the worldwide Protein DataBank (wwPDB), the consortium entrusted with the collation, maintenance and distribution of the global repository of macromolecular structure data [H. Berman, K. Henrick and H. Nakamura (2003) Announcing the worldwide Protein Data Bank. Nature Struct. Biol., 10, 980.]. Since its inception, the MSD group has worked with partners around the world to improve the quality of PDB data, through a clean up programme that addresses inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the legacy archive. The improvements in data quality in the legacy archive have been achieved largely through the creation of a unified data archive, in the form of a relational database that stores all of the data in the wwPDB. The three partners are working towards improving the tools and methods for the deposition of new data by the community at large. The implementation of the MSD database, together with the parallel development of improved tools and methodologies for data harvesting, validation and archival, has lead to significant improvements in the quality of data that enters the archive. Through this and related projects in the NMR and EM realms the MSD continues to improve the quality of publicly available structural data.

  12. Conformational flexibility of domain III of annexin V: the effect of pH and binding to membrane-water interfaces

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sopkova, Jana; Vincent, Michel; Takahashi, Maza; Lewit-Bentley, Anita; Gallay, Jacques

    1999-05-01

    Steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence of the single tryptophan residue (W187) of annexin V show that the conformation and the dynamics of domain III are strongly modified upon binding of the protein to negatively charged phospholipid vesicles in the presence of calcium, or upon incorporation into reverse micelles of water/sodium bis(2- ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate (AOT) in iso-octane. In the protein at neutral pH, W187 is slightly mobile and buried in a hydrophobic pocket. It becomes more mobile and is moved in a more polar environment when the protein interacts with the model membranes. In each condition, the heterogeneity of the fluorescence intensity decay of W187 is likely due to the co- existence of local conformers with different dynamics. A similar change of conformation and dynamics can be provoked by mild acidic pH. This suggests that electrostatic interactions are important for the folding of domain III. An interplay of salt bridges implying charged amino-acid side-chains at the protein surface in domain III can be observed in the crystal structure. Local pH modifications at the membrane surface can therefore be responsible for the observed conformational change. The high flexibility of domain III in the membrane- bound protein suggests moreover that this domain may not be crucial for the interaction of the protein with the membrane, in agreement with recent atomic force microscope results (Reviakine et al., 1998, J. Struct. Biol. 121, 356-362).

  13. Thermodynamic and kinetic characterization of a beta-hairpin peptide in solution: an extended phase space sampling by molecular dynamics simulations in explicit water.

    PubMed

    Daidone, Isabella; Amadei, Andrea; Di Nola, Alfredo

    2005-05-15

    The folding of the amyloidogenic H1 peptide MKHMAGAAAAGAVV taken from the syrian hamster prion protein is explored in explicit aqueous solution at 300 K using long time scale all-atom molecular dynamics simulations for a total simulation time of 1.1 mus. The system, initially modeled as an alpha-helix, preferentially adopts a beta-hairpin structure and several unfolding/refolding events are observed, yielding a very short average beta-hairpin folding time of approximately 200 ns. The long time scale accessed by our simulations and the reversibility of the folding allow to properly explore the configurational space of the peptide in solution. The free energy profile, as a function of the principal components (essential eigenvectors) of motion, describing the main conformational transitions, shows the characteristic features of a funneled landscape, with a downhill surface toward the beta-hairpin folded basin. However, the analysis of the peptide thermodynamic stability, reveals that the beta-hairpin in solution is rather unstable. These results are in good agreement with several experimental evidences, according to which the isolated H1 peptide adopts very rapidly in water beta-sheet structure, leading to amyloid fibril precipitates [Nguyen et al., Biochemistry 1995;34:4186-4192; Inouye et al., J Struct Biol 1998;122:247-255]. Moreover, in this article we also characterize the diffusion behavior in conformational space, investigating its relations with folding/unfolding conditions. Copyright 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

  14. Evolutionary transition from biological to social systems via generation of reflexive models of externality.

    PubMed

    Igamberdiev, Abir U

    2017-12-01

    Evolutionary transition from biological to social systems corresponds to the emergence of the structure of subject that incorporates the internal image of the external world. This structure, established on the basis of referral of the subject (self) to its symbolic image, acquires a potential to rationally describe the external world through the semiotic structure of human language. It has been modelled in reflexive psychology using the algebra of simple relations (Lefebvre, V.A., J. Soc. Biol. Struct. 10, 129-175, 1987). The model introduces a substantial opposition of the two basic complementary types of reflexion defined as Western (W) and Eastern (E). These types generate opposite models of behavior and opposite organizations of societies. Development of human societies involves the interactions of W and E types not only between the societies but also within one society underlying its homeostasis and dynamics. Invention of new ideas and implementation of new technologies shift the probability pattern of reflexive choices, appearing as internal assessments of the individual agents within a society, and direct changes in the preference of reflexive types. The dynamics of societies and of interactions between societies is based on the interference of opposite reflexive structures and on the establishment of different patterns during such interference. At different times in the history of human civilization these changing patterns resulted in the formation and splitting of large empires, the development and spreading of new technologies, the consecutive periods of wellness and decline. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Crystallographic studies of the binding of ligands to the dicarboxylate site of Complex II, and the identity of the ligand in the "oxaloacetate-inhibited" state.

    PubMed

    Huang, Li-Shar; Shen, John T; Wang, Andy C; Berry, Edward A

    2006-01-01

    Mitochondrial Complex II (succinate:ubiquinone oxidoreductase) is purified in a partially inactivated state, which can be activated by removal of tightly bound oxaloacetate (E.B. Kearney, et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 49 1115-1121). We crystallized Complex II in the presence of oxaloacetate or with the endogenous inhibitor bound. The structure showed a ligand essentially identical to the "malate-like intermediate" found in Shewanella Flavocytochrome c crystallized with fumarate (P. Taylor, et al., Nat. Struct. Biol. 6 1108-1112) Crystallization of Complex II in the presence of excess fumarate also gave the malate-like intermediate or a mixture of that and fumarate at the active site. In order to more conveniently monitor the occupation state of the dicarboxylate site, we are developing a library of UV/Vis spectral effects induced by binding different ligands to the site. Treatment with fumarate results in rapid development of the fumarate difference spectrum and then a very slow conversion into a species spectrally similar to the OAA-liganded complex. Complex II is known to be capable of oxidizing malate to the enol form of oxaloacetate (Y.O. Belikova, et al., Biochim. Biophys. Acta 936 1-9). The observations above suggest it may also be capable of interconverting fumarate and malate. It may be useful for understanding the mechanism and regulation of the enzyme to identify the malate-like intermediate and its pathway of formation from oxaloacetate or fumarate.

  16. Crystallographic Studies of the Binding of Ligands to theDicarboxylate Site of Complex II, and the Identity of the Ligand in the'Oxaloacetate-Inhibited' State

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Huang, Li-Shar; Shen, John T.; Wang, Andy C.

    2006-07-01

    Mitochondrial Complex II (succinate:ubiquinoneoxidoreductase) is purified in a partially innactivated state, which canbe activated by removal of tightly bound oxaloacetate (Kearney, E.B. etal. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 49, 1115-1121). We crystallized Complex IIin the presence of oxaloacetate or with the endogenous inhibitor bound.The structure showed a ligand essentially identical to the "malate-likeintermediate" found in Shewanella Flavocytochrome c crystallized withfumarate (Taylor, P., et al. Nat Struct Biol 6, 1108-1112.)Crystallization of Complex II in the presence of excess fumarate alsogave the malate-like intermediate or a mixture of that and fumarate atthe active site. In order to more conveniently monitor the occupationstate ofmore » the dicarboxylate site, we are developing a library of UV/Visspectral effects induced by binding different ligands to the site.Treatment with fumarate results in rapid development of the fumaratedifference spectrum and then a very slow conversion into a speciesspectrally similar to the OAA liganded complex. Complex II is known to becapable of oxidizing malate to the enol form of oxaloacetate (Belikova,Y.O., et al. Biochim Biophys Acta 936, 1-9). The observations abovesuggest it may also be capable of interconverting fumarate and malate. Itmay be useful for understanding the mechanism and regulation of theenzyme to identify the malate-like intermediate and its pathway offormation from oxaloacetate or fumarate.« less

  17. Combined evaluations of competency to stand trial and mental state at the time of the offense: An overlooked methodological consideration?

    PubMed

    Kois, Lauren; Wellbeloved-Stone, James M; Chauhan, Preeti; Warren, Janet I

    2017-06-01

    Combined evaluations of competency to stand trial (CST; competency) and mental state at the time of the offense (MSO; sanity) frequently co-occur. However, most research examines the 2 as discrete constructs without considering 4 potential combined evaluation outcomes: competent-sane, incompetent-sane, competent-insane, and incompetent-insane. External validity can be improved if research more closely mirrored practice. It may be incorrect to assume incompetent defendants are similar across CST-only and combined evaluations, and insane defendants are similar across MSO-only and combined evaluations. Using a sample of 2,751 combined evaluations, we examined demographic, clinical, offense, evaluation, and psycholegal characteristics associated with evaluators' combined evaluation opinions. Multinomial regression analyses revealed older defendants were more likely to be opined incompetent-insane. Defendants with psychotic disorders were more often opined insane, regardless of competency status. Affective diagnoses predicted competent-insane opinions. Developmental disorders were closely related to incompetence, regardless of sanity status. Defendants with organic disorders tended to have global psycholegal impairment, in that they were more often opined incompetent-insane, incompetent-sane, or competent-insane, relative to competent-sane. Prior hospitalization predicted competent-insane relative to competent-sane opinions. Defendants not under the influence of a substance during the offense or with no prior convictions were more likely to be opined insane, regardless of competency status. We interpret these findings in light of psycholegal theory and provide recommendations for research and practice. Collectively, results suggest incorporation of combined evaluations into CST and MSO research is an important methodological consideration not to be overlooked. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  18. Migraines Are Correlated with Higher Levels of Nitrate-, Nitrite-, and Nitric Oxide-Reducing Oral Microbes in the American Gut Project Cohort

    PubMed Central

    Gonzalez, Antonio; Hyde, Embriette; Sangwan, Naseer; Gilbert, Jack A.; Viirre, Erik

    2016-01-01

    ABSTRACT Nitrates, such as cardiac therapeutics and food additives, are common headache triggers, with nitric oxide playing an important role. Facultative anaerobic bacteria in the oral cavity may contribute migraine-triggering levels of nitric oxide through the salivary nitrate-nitrite-nitric oxide pathway. Using high-throughput sequencing technologies, we detected observable and significantly higher abundances of nitrate, nitrite, and nitric oxide reductase genes in migraineurs versus nonmigraineurs in samples collected from the oral cavity and a slight but significant difference in fecal samples. IMPORTANCE Recent work has demonstrated a potentially symbiotic relationship between oral commensal bacteria and humans through the salivary nitrate-nitrite-nitric oxide pathway (C. Duncan et al., Nat Med 1:546–551, 1995, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nm0695-546). Oral nitrate-reducing bacteria contribute physiologically relevant levels of nitrite and nitric oxide to the human host that may have positive downstream effects on cardiovascular health (V. Kapil et al., Free Radic Biol Med 55:93–100, 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2012.11.013). In the work presented here, we used 16S rRNA Illumina sequencing to determine whether a connection exists between oral nitrate-reducing bacteria, nitrates for cardiovascular disease, and migraines, which are a common side effect of nitrate medications (U. Thadani and T. Rodgers, Expert Opin Drug Saf 5:667–674, 2006, http://dx.doi.org/10.1517/14740338.5.5.667). PMID:27822557

  19. Intracellular accumulation of mannopine, an opine produced by crown gall tumors, transiently inhibits growth of Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

    PubMed

    Kim, K S; Baek, C H; Lee, J K; Yang, J M; Farrand, S K

    2001-06-01

    pYDH208, a cosmid clone from the octopine-mannityl opine-type tumor-inducing (Ti) plasmid pTi15955 confers utilization of mannopine (MOP) and agropine (AGR) on Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain NT1. NT1 harboring pYDH208 with an insertion mutation in mocC, which codes for MOP oxidoreductase, not only fails to utilize MOP as a sole carbon source, but also was inhibited in its growth by MOP and AGR. In contrast, the growth of mutants with insertions in other tested moc genes was not inhibited by either opine. Growth of strains NT1 or UIA5, a derivative of C58 that lacks pAtC58, was not inhibited by MOP, but growth of NT1 or UIA5 harboring pRE10, which codes for the MOP transport system, was inhibited by the opine. When a clone expressing mocC was introduced, the growth of strain NT1(pRE10) was not inhibited by MOP, although UIA5(pRE10) was still weakly inhibited. In strain NT1(pRE10, mocC), santhopine (SOP), produced by the oxidation of MOP by MocC, was further degraded by functions encoded by pAtC58. These results suggest that MOP and, to a lesser extent, SOP are inhibitory when accumulated intracellularly. The growth of NT1(pRE10), as measured by turbidity and viable cell counts, ceased upon the addition of MOP but restarted in a few hours. Regrowth was partly the result of the outgrowth of spontaneous MOP-resistant mutants and partly the adaptation of cells to MOP in the medium. Chrysopine, isochrysopine, and analogs of MOP in which the glutamine residue is substituted with other amino acids were barely taken up by NT1(pRE10) and were not inhibitory to growth of the strain. Sugar analogs of MOP were inhibitory, and those containing sugars in the D form were more inhibitory than those containing sugars in the L form. MOP analogs containing hexose sugars were more inhibitory than those containing sugars with three, four, or five carbon atoms. Mutants of NT1(pRE10) that are resistant to MOP arose in the zone of growth inhibition. Genetic and physiological analyses indicate that the mutations are located on pRE10 and abolish uptake of the opine.

  20. Constraints on voltage sensor movement in the shaker K+ channel.

    PubMed

    Darman, Rachel B; Ivy, Allison A; Ketty, Vina; Blaustein, Robert O

    2006-12-01

    In nerve and muscle cells, the voltage-gated opening and closing of cation-selective ion channels is accompanied by the translocation of 12-14 elementary charges across the membrane's electric field. Although most of these charges are carried by residues in the S4 helix of the gating module of these channels, the precise nature of their physical movement is currently the topic of spirited debate. Broadly speaking, two classes of models have emerged: those that suggest that small-scale motions can account for the extensive charge displacement, and those that invoke a much larger physical movement. In the most recent incarnation of the latter type of model, which is based on structural and functional data from the archaebacterial K(+) channel KvAP, a "voltage-sensor paddle" comprising a helix-turn-helix of S3-S4 translocates approximately 20 A through the bilayer during the gating cycle (Jiang, Y., A. Lee, J. Chen, V. Ruta, M. Cadene, B.T. Chait, and R. MacKinnon. 2003. Nature. 423:33-41; Jiang, Y., V. Ruta, J. Chen, A. Lee, and R. MacKinnon. 2003. Nature. 423:42-48.; Ruta, V., J. Chen, and R. MacKinnon. 2005. Cell. 123:463-475). We used two methods to test for analogous motions in the Shaker K(+) channel, each examining the aqueous exposure of residues near S3. In the first, we employed a pore-blocking maleimide reagent (Blaustein, R.O., P.A. Cole, C. Williams, and C. Miller. 2000. Nat. Struct. Biol. 7:309-311) to probe for state-dependent changes in the chemical reactivity of substituted cysteines; in the second, we tested the state-dependent accessibility of a tethered biotin to external streptavidin (Qiu, X.Q., K.S. Jakes, A. Finkelstein, and S.L. Slatin. 1994. J. Biol. Chem. 269:7483-7488; Slatin, S.L., X.Q. Qiu, K.S. Jakes, and A. Finkelstein. 1994. Nature. 371:158-161). In both types of experiments, residues predicted to lie near the top of S3 did not exhibit any change in aqueous exposure during the gating cycle. This lack of state dependence argues against large-scale movements, either axially or radially, of Shaker's S3-S4 voltage-sensor paddle.

  1. Constraints on Voltage Sensor Movement in the Shaker K+ Channel

    PubMed Central

    Darman, Rachel B.; Ivy, Allison A.; Ketty, Vina; Blaustein, Robert O.

    2006-01-01

    In nerve and muscle cells, the voltage-gated opening and closing of cation-selective ion channels is accompanied by the translocation of 12–14 elementary charges across the membrane's electric field. Although most of these charges are carried by residues in the S4 helix of the gating module of these channels, the precise nature of their physical movement is currently the topic of spirited debate. Broadly speaking, two classes of models have emerged: those that suggest that small-scale motions can account for the extensive charge displacement, and those that invoke a much larger physical movement. In the most recent incarnation of the latter type of model, which is based on structural and functional data from the archaebacterial K+ channel KvAP, a “voltage-sensor paddle” comprising a helix-turn-helix of S3–S4 translocates ∼20 Å through the bilayer during the gating cycle (Jiang, Y., A. Lee, J. Chen, V. Ruta, M. Cadene, B.T. Chait, and R. MacKinnon. 2003. Nature. 423:33–41; Jiang, Y., V. Ruta, J. Chen, A. Lee, and R. MacKinnon. 2003. Nature. 423:42–48.; Ruta, V., J. Chen, and R. MacKinnon. 2005. Cell. 123:463–475). We used two methods to test for analogous motions in the Shaker K+ channel, each examining the aqueous exposure of residues near S3. In the first, we employed a pore-blocking maleimide reagent (Blaustein, R.O., P.A. Cole, C. Williams, and C. Miller. 2000. Nat. Struct. Biol. 7:309–311) to probe for state-dependent changes in the chemical reactivity of substituted cysteines; in the second, we tested the state-dependent accessibility of a tethered biotin to external streptavidin (Qiu, X.Q., K.S. Jakes, A. Finkelstein, and S.L. Slatin. 1994. J. Biol. Chem. 269:7483–7488; Slatin, S.L., X.Q. Qiu, K.S. Jakes, and A. Finkelstein. 1994. Nature. 371:158–161). In both types of experiments, residues predicted to lie near the top of S3 did not exhibit any change in aqueous exposure during the gating cycle. This lack of state dependence argues against large-scale movements, either axially or radially, of Shaker's S3–S4 voltage-sensor paddle. PMID:17101817

  2. Cold rescue of the thermolabile tailspike intermediate at the junction between productive folding and off-pathway aggregation.

    PubMed Central

    Betts, S. D.; King, J.

    1998-01-01

    Off-pathway intermolecular interactions between partially folded polypeptide chains often compete with correct intramolecular interactions, resulting in self-association of folding intermediates into the inclusion body state. Intermediates for both productive folding and off-pathway aggregation of the parallel beta-coil tailspike trimer of phage P22 have been identified in vivo and in vitro using native gel electrophoresis in the cold. Aggregation of folding intermediates was suppressed when refolding was initiated and allowed to proceed for a short period at 0 degrees C prior to warming to 20 degrees C. Yields of refolded tailspike trimers exceeding 80% were obtained using this temperature-shift procedure, first described by Xie and Wetlaufer (1996, Protein Sci 5:517-523). We interpret this as due to stabilization of the thermolabile monomeric intermediate at the junction between productive folding and off-pathway aggregation. Partially folded monomers, a newly identified dimer, and the protrimer folding intermediates were populated in the cold. These species were electrophoretically distinguished from the multimeric intermediates populated on the aggregation pathway. The productive protrimer intermediate is disulfide bonded (Robinson AS, King J, 1997, Nat Struct Biol 4:450-455), while the multimeric aggregation intermediates are not disulfide bonded. The partially folded dimer appears to be a precursor to the disulfide-bonded protrimer. The results support a model in which the junctional partially folded monomeric intermediate acquires resistance to aggregation in the cold by folding further to a conformation that is activated for correct recognition and subunit assembly. PMID:9684883

  3. Three acidic residues are at the active site of a beta-propeller architecture in glycoside hydrolase families 32, 43, 62, and 68.

    PubMed

    Pons, Tirso; Naumoff, Daniil G; Martínez-Fleites, Carlos; Hernández, Lázaro

    2004-02-15

    Multiple-sequence alignment of glycoside hydrolase (GH) families 32, 43, 62, and 68 revealed three conserved blocks, each containing an acidic residue at an equivalent position in all the enzymes. A detailed analysis of the site-directed mutations so far performed on invertases (GH32), arabinanases (GH43), and bacterial fructosyltransferases (GH68) indicated a direct implication of the conserved residues Asp/Glu (block I), Asp (block II), and Glu (block III) in substrate binding and hydrolysis. These residues are close in space in the 5-bladed beta-propeller fold determined for Cellvibrio japonicus alpha-L-arabinanase Arb43A [Nurizzo et al., Nat Struct Biol 2002;9:665-668] and Bacillus subtilis endo-1,5-alpha-L-arabinanase. A sequence-structure compatibility search using 3D-PSSM, mGenTHREADER, INBGU, and SAM-T02 programs predicted indistinctly the 5-bladed beta-propeller fold of Arb43A and the 6-bladed beta-propeller fold of sialidase/neuraminidase (GH33, GH34, and GH83) as the most reliable topologies for GH families 32, 62, and 68. We conclude that the identified acidic residues are located at the active site of a beta-propeller architecture in GH32, GH43, GH62, and GH68, operating with a canonical reaction mechanism of either inversion (GH43 and likely GH62) or retention (GH32 and GH68) of the anomeric configuration. Also, we propose that the beta-propeller architecture accommodates distinct binding sites for the acceptor saccharide in glycosyl transfer reaction. Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

  4. Chimeric β-Lactamases: Global Conservation of Parental Function and Fast Time-Scale Dynamics with Increased Slow Motions

    PubMed Central

    Clouthier, Christopher M.; Morin, Sébastien; Gobeil, Sophie M. C.; Doucet, Nicolas; Blanchet, Jonathan; Nguyen, Elisabeth; Gagné, Stéphane M.; Pelletier, Joelle N.

    2012-01-01

    Enzyme engineering has been facilitated by recombination of close homologues, followed by functional screening. In one such effort, chimeras of two class-A β-lactamases – TEM-1 and PSE-4 – were created according to structure-guided protein recombination and selected for their capacity to promote bacterial proliferation in the presence of ampicillin (Voigt et al., Nat. Struct. Biol. 2002 9:553). To provide a more detailed assessment of the effects of protein recombination on the structure and function of the resulting chimeric enzymes, we characterized a series of functional TEM-1/PSE-4 chimeras possessing between 17 and 92 substitutions relative to TEM-1 β-lactamase. Circular dichroism and thermal scanning fluorimetry revealed that the chimeras were generally well folded. Despite harbouring important sequence variation relative to either of the two ‘parental’ β-lactamases, the chimeric β-lactamases displayed substrate recognition spectra and reactivity similar to their most closely-related parent. To gain further insight into the changes induced by chimerization, the chimera with 17 substitutions was investigated by NMR spin relaxation. While high order was conserved on the ps-ns timescale, a hallmark of class A β-lactamases, evidence of additional slow motions on the µs-ms timescale was extracted from model-free calculations. This is consistent with the greater number of resonances that could not be assigned in this chimera relative to the parental β-lactamases, and is consistent with this well-folded and functional chimeric β-lactamase displaying increased slow time-scale motions. PMID:23284969

  5. Contextual modulation of primary visual cortex by auditory signals.

    PubMed

    Petro, L S; Paton, A T; Muckli, L

    2017-02-19

    Early visual cortex receives non-feedforward input from lateral and top-down connections (Muckli & Petro 2013 Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 23, 195-201. (doi:10.1016/j.conb.2013.01.020)), including long-range projections from auditory areas. Early visual cortex can code for high-level auditory information, with neural patterns representing natural sound stimulation (Vetter et al. 2014 Curr. Biol. 24, 1256-1262. (doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.04.020)). We discuss a number of questions arising from these findings. What is the adaptive function of bimodal representations in visual cortex? What type of information projects from auditory to visual cortex? What are the anatomical constraints of auditory information in V1, for example, periphery versus fovea, superficial versus deep cortical layers? Is there a putative neural mechanism we can infer from human neuroimaging data and recent theoretical accounts of cortex? We also present data showing we can read out high-level auditory information from the activation patterns of early visual cortex even when visual cortex receives simple visual stimulation, suggesting independent channels for visual and auditory signals in V1. We speculate which cellular mechanisms allow V1 to be contextually modulated by auditory input to facilitate perception, cognition and behaviour. Beyond cortical feedback that facilitates perception, we argue that there is also feedback serving counterfactual processing during imagery, dreaming and mind wandering, which is not relevant for immediate perception but for behaviour and cognition over a longer time frame.This article is part of the themed issue 'Auditory and visual scene analysis'. © 2017 The Authors.

  6. Contextual modulation of primary visual cortex by auditory signals

    PubMed Central

    Paton, A. T.

    2017-01-01

    Early visual cortex receives non-feedforward input from lateral and top-down connections (Muckli & Petro 2013 Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 23, 195–201. (doi:10.1016/j.conb.2013.01.020)), including long-range projections from auditory areas. Early visual cortex can code for high-level auditory information, with neural patterns representing natural sound stimulation (Vetter et al. 2014 Curr. Biol. 24, 1256–1262. (doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.04.020)). We discuss a number of questions arising from these findings. What is the adaptive function of bimodal representations in visual cortex? What type of information projects from auditory to visual cortex? What are the anatomical constraints of auditory information in V1, for example, periphery versus fovea, superficial versus deep cortical layers? Is there a putative neural mechanism we can infer from human neuroimaging data and recent theoretical accounts of cortex? We also present data showing we can read out high-level auditory information from the activation patterns of early visual cortex even when visual cortex receives simple visual stimulation, suggesting independent channels for visual and auditory signals in V1. We speculate which cellular mechanisms allow V1 to be contextually modulated by auditory input to facilitate perception, cognition and behaviour. Beyond cortical feedback that facilitates perception, we argue that there is also feedback serving counterfactual processing during imagery, dreaming and mind wandering, which is not relevant for immediate perception but for behaviour and cognition over a longer time frame. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Auditory and visual scene analysis’. PMID:28044015

  7. Beyond detection: biological physics informing progression and treatment of cancer Beyond detection: biological physics informing progression and treatment of cancer

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Newman, T. J.; Thompson, A. M.

    2012-12-01

    The full text of the Preface is given in the PDF file. References [1] Kaur P et al 2012 Phys. Biol. 9 065001 [2] Lobikin M et al 2012 Phys. Biol. 9 065002 [3] Tanner K 2012 Phys. Biol. 9 065003 [4] Liu S V et al 2012 Phys. Biol. 9 065004 [5] Liao D et al 2012 Phys. Biol. 9 065005 [6] Liao D et al 2012 Phys. Biol. 9 065006 [7] Orlando P A et al 2012 Phys. Biol. 9 065007

  8. How To Produce and Characterize Transgenic Plants.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Savka, Michael A.; Wang, Shu-Yi; Wilson, Mark

    2002-01-01

    Explains the process of establishing transgenic plants which is a very important tool in plant biology and modern agriculture. Produces transgenic plants with the ability to synthesize opines. (Contains 17 references.) (YDS)

  9. Modeling Conformational Transitions and Energetics of Ligand Binding with the Glutamate Receptor Ligand Binding Domain

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kurnikova, Maria

    2009-03-01

    Understanding of protein motion and energetics of conformational transitions is crucial to understanding protein function. The glutamate receptor ligand binding domain (GluR2 S1S2) is a two lobe protein, which binds ligand at the interface of two lobes and undergoes conformational transition. The cleft closure conformational transition of S1S2 has been implicated in gating of the ion channel formed by the transmembrane domain of the receptor. In this study we present a composite multi-faceted theoretical analysis of the detailed mechanism of this conformational transition based on rigid cluster decomposition of the protein structure [1] and identifying hydrogen bonds that are responsible for stabilizing the closed conformation [2]. Free energy of the protein reorganization upon ligand binding was calculated using combined Thermodynamic Integration (TI) and Umbrella Sampling (US) simulations [3]. Ligand -- protein interactions in the binding cleft were analyzed using Molecular Dynamics, continuum electrostatics and QM/MM models [4]. All model calculations compare well with corresponding experimental measurements. [4pt] [1] Protein Flexibility using Constraints from Molecular Dynamics Simulations T. Mamonova, B. Hespenheide, R. Straub, M. F. Thorpe, M. G. Kurnikova , Phys. Biol., 2, S137 (2005)[0pt] [2] Theoretical Study of the Glutamate Receptor Ligand Binding Domain Flexibility and Conformational Reorganization T. Mamonova, K. Speranskiy, and M. Kurnikova , Prot.: Struct., Func., Bioinf., 73,656 (2008)[0pt] [3] Energetics of the cleft closing transition and glutamate binding in the Glutamate Receptor ligand Binding Domain T. Mamonova, M. Yonkunas, and M. Kurnikova Biochemistry 47, 11077 (2008)[0pt] [4] On the Binding Determinants of the Glutamate Agonist with the Glutamate Receptor Ligand Binding Domain K. Speranskiy and M. Kurnikova Biochemistry 44, 11208 (2005)

  10. Structures of the Procapsid and Mature Virion of Enterovirus 71 Strain 1095

    PubMed Central

    Cifuente, Javier O.; Lee, Hyunwook; Yoder, Joshua D.; Shingler, Kristin L.; Carnegie, Michael S.; Yoder, Jennifer L.; Ashley, Robert E.; Makhov, Alexander M.; Conway, James F.

    2013-01-01

    Enterovirus 71 (EV71) is an important emerging human pathogen with a global distribution and presents a disease pattern resembling poliomyelitis with seasonal epidemics that include cases of severe neurological complications, such as acute flaccid paralysis. EV71 is a member of the Picornaviridae family, which consists of icosahedral, nonenveloped, single-stranded RNA viruses. Here we report structures derived from X-ray crystallography and cryoelectron microscopy (cryo-EM) for the 1095 strain of EV71, including a putative precursor in virus assembly, the procapsid, and the mature virus capsid. The cryo-EM map of the procapsid provides new structural information on portions of the capsid proteins VP0 and VP1 that are disordered in the higher-resolution crystal structures. Our structures solved from virus particles in solution are largely in agreement with those from prior X-ray crystallographic studies; however, we observe small but significant structural differences for the 1095 procapsid compared to a structure solved in a previous study (X. Wang, W. Peng, J. Ren, Z. Hu, J. Xu, Z. Lou, X. Li, W. Yin, X. Shen, C. Porta, T. S. Walter, G. Evans, D. Axford, R. Owen, D. J. Rowlands, J. Wang, D. I. Stuart, E. E. Fry, and Z. Rao, Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 19:424–429, 2012) for a different strain of EV71. For both EV71 strains, the procapsid is significantly larger in diameter than the mature capsid, unlike in any other picornavirus. Nonetheless, our results demonstrate that picornavirus capsid expansion is possible without RNA encapsidation and that picornavirus assembly may involve an inward radial collapse of the procapsid to yield the native virion. PMID:23637404

  11. Sweetness determinant sites of brazzein, a small, heat-stable, sweet-tasting protein.

    PubMed

    Assadi-Porter, F M; Aceti, D J; Markley, J L

    2000-04-15

    Brazzein, originally isolated from the fruit of the African plant Pentadiplandra brazzeana Baillon, is the smallest, most heat-stable and pH-stable member of the set of proteins known to have intrinsic sweetness. These properties make brazzein an ideal system for investigating the chemical and structural requirements of a sweet-tasting protein. We have used the three-dimensional structure of the protein (J. E. Caldwell et al. (1998) Nat. Struct. Biol. 5, 427-431) as a guide in designing 15 synthetic genes in expression constructs aimed at delineating the sweetness determinants of brazzein. Protein was produced heterologously in Escherichia coli, isolated, and purified as described in the companion paper (Assadi-Porter, F. M., Aceti, D., Cheng, H., and Markley, J. L., this issue). Analysis by one-dimensional (1)H NMR spectroscopy indicated that all but one of these variants had folded properly under the conditions used. A taste panel compared the gustatory properties of solutions of these proteins to those of sucrose and brazzein isolated from fruit. Of the 14 mutations in the des-pGlu1-brazzein background, four exhibited almost no sweetness, six had significantly reduced sweetness, two had taste properties equivalent to des-pGlu1-brazzein (two times as sweet as the major form of brazzein isolated from fruit which contains pGlu1), and two were about twice as sweet as des-pGlu1-brazzein. Overall, the results suggest that two regions of the protein are critical for the sweetness of brazzein: a region that includes the N- and C-termini of the protein, which are located close to one another, and a region that includes the flexible loop around Arg43. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

  12. DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Montemayor, Eric J.; Didychuk, Allison L.; Liao, Honghong

    U6 small nuclear RNA (snRNA) is a key component of the active site of the spliceosome, a large ribonucleoprotein complex that catalyzes the splicing of precursor messenger RNA. Prior to its incorporation into the spliceosome, U6 is bound by the protein Prp24, which facilitates unwinding of the U6 internal stem-loop (ISL) so that it can pair with U4 snRNA. A previously reported crystal structure of the `core' of the U6 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (snRNP) contained an ISL-stabilized A62G mutant of U6 bound to all four RNA-recognition motif (RRM) domains of Prp24 [Montemayoret al.(2014),Nature Struct. Mol. Biol.21, 544–551]. The structure revealedmore » a novel topology containing interlocked rings of protein and RNA that was not predicted by prior biochemical and genetic data. Here, the crystal structure of the U6 snRNP core with a wild-type ISL is reported. This complex crystallized in a new space group, apparently owing in part to the presence of an intramolecular cross-link in RRM1 that was not observed in the previously reported U6-A62G structure. The structure exhibits the same protein–RNA interface and maintains the unique interlocked topology. However, the orientation of the wild-type ISL is altered relative to the A62G mutant structure, suggesting inherent structural dynamics that may facilitate its pairing with U4. Consistent with their similar architectures in the crystalline state, the wild-type and A62G variants of U6 exhibit similar Prp24-binding affinities and electrophoretic mobilities when analyzed by gel-shift assay.« less

  13. TECHNICAL REPORT

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    DR. ROBERT SINGER

    2007-10-11

    Because this DOE grant was abruptly terminated without warning, this group was not able to accomplish the insertion of the biosensor genes into the mouse lines. They have been able to generate some of the mouse lines but have not been able to complete the ones that would give them the model systems that would allow them to investigate metastasis real-time in living tumors at the cellular level. Nonetheless, until the loss of funding, they have made progress in applications of the equipment to biological problems involving RNA and protein movement in living cells. The following products were delivered: (1)more » Imaging of gene expression in living cells and tissues, Singer RH, Lawrence DS, Ovryn B, Condeelis J, J Biomed Optics 10:0514061-0514069, 2005. This paper describes the method for activating single genes within cells and tissues. (2) Single Cell Gene Expression Profiling: Multiplexed Expression Fluorescence in situ Hybridization (FISH): Application to the Analysis of Cultured Cells. Levsky JM, Braut SA, Singer RH, Cell Biology: A Laboratory Handbook Volume 4, eds Celis JE, et al, 121-130. Academic Press, 2005. This paper describes the methodology for single cell expression profiling in tissues. (3) Spatial regulation of beta-actin translation by Src-dependent phosphorylation of ZBP1, Huttelmaier S, Zenklusen D, Lederer M, Dictenberg J, Lorenz M, Meng X, Bassell GJ, Condeelis J, Singer RH, Nature 438:512-515, 2005. This paper describes the mechanism by which the translational repressor of actin mRNA ZBP1 can effect regulation of cell motility and metastasis. (4) Visualization of mRNA translation in living cells, Rodriguez AJ, Shenoy SM, Singer RH, Condeelis J, J Cell Biol 175:67-76, 2006. This work describes a method to visualize mRNA translation in single cells. (5) Imaging mRNA movement from transcription sites to translation sites, Rodriguez AJ, Condeelis J, Singer RH, Dictenberg JB, Semin Cell Dev Biol 18:202-208, 2007. This review describes current technology for visualizing mRNA from birth to death. (6) In vivo dynamics of RNA polymerase II transcription, Darzacq X, Shav-Tal Y, de Turris V, Brody Y, Shenoy SM, Phair RD, Singer RH, Nat Struct Mol Biol 14:796-806, 2007. This paper describes methods for visualizing gene transcription in real time and provides a systems modeling approach to understanding polymerase dynamics. (See News & Views 14:788) (7) Nuclear microenvironment in cancer diagnosis and treatment, Pezo RC, Singer RH, J Cell Biochem in press (2007). This work describes the environmental factors acting on the genes directly. (8) The spatial order of transcription in mammalian cells, Levsky JM, Shenoy SM, Chubb JR, Hall CB, Capodieci P, Singer RH, J Cell Biochem in press (2007). This work describes how active genes are spatially distributed throughout the nucleus. (9) ZBP1 Enhances Cell Polarity and Reduces Metastasis, Lapidus K, Wyckoff J, Mouneimne G, Lorenz M, Soon L, Condeelis J and Singer RH, JCS in press (2007). This work describes the role of the RNA binding protein in cell polarity and metastasis.« less

  14. Project Level Performance Database for Rigid Pavements in Texas, II

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2011-08-01

    Over the years, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has built a number of CRCP (continuously reinforced : concrete pavement) experimental sections to investigate the effects of design, materials, and construction variables on CRCP : struct...

  15. Links between nucleolar activity, rDNA stability, aneuploidy and chronological aging in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

    PubMed

    Lewinska, Anna; Miedziak, Beata; Kulak, Klaudia; Molon, Mateusz; Wnuk, Maciej

    2014-06-01

    The nucleolus is speculated to be a regulator of cellular senescence in numerous biological systems (Guarente, Genes Dev 11(19):2449-2455, 1997; Johnson et al., Curr Opin Cell Biol 10(3):332-338, 1998). In the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, alterations in nucleolar architecture, the redistribution of nucleolar protein and the accumulation of extrachromosomal ribosomal DNA circles (ERCs) during replicative aging have been reported. However, little is known regarding rDNA stability and changes in nucleolar activity during chronological aging (CA), which is another yeast aging model used. In the present study, the impact of aberrant cell cycle checkpoint control (knock-out of BUB1, BUB2, MAD1 and TEL1 genes in haploid and diploid hemizygous states) on CA-mediated changes in the nucleolus was studied. Nucleolus fragmentation, changes in the nucleolus size and the nucleolus/nucleus ratio, ERC accumulation, expression pattern changes and the relocation of protein involved in transcriptional silencing during CA were revealed. All strains examined were affected by oxidative stress, aneuploidy (numerical rather than structural aberrations) and DNA damage. However, the bub1 cells were the most prone to aneuploidy events, which may contribute to observed decrease in chronological lifespan. We postulate that chronological aging may be affected by redox imbalance-mediated chromosome XII instability leading to both rDNA instability and whole chromosome aneuploidy. CA-mediated nucleolus fragmentation may be a consequence of nucleolus enlargement and/or Nop2p upregulation. Moreover, the rDNA content of chronologically aging cells may be a factor determining the subsequent replicative lifespan. Taken together, we demonstrated that the nucleolus state is also affected during CA in yeast.

  16. Evaluation of hybrid slurry resulting from the introduction of additives to mineral slurry.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2011-09-01

    Drilled shaft construction often requires the use of drill slurry to maintain borehole stability during excavation : and concreting. Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) specifications require the use of mineral slurry : for all primary struct...

  17. Assessment of limestone blended cements for transportation applications : final report.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2017-09-01

    This research assessed the applicability of Type IL cements satisfying AASHTO M 240 specifications for use in transportation applications in place of Type I/II cements which satisfy AASHTO M 85 specifications for construction of transportation struct...

  18. Large-scale laboratory observations of wave forces on a highway bridge superstructure.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2011-10-01

    The experimental setup and data are presented for a laboratory experiment conducted to examine realistic wave forcing on a highway bridge : superstructure. The experiments measure wave conditions along with the resulting forces, pressures, and struct...

  19. FAA computer security : concerns remain due to personnel and other continuing weaknesses

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2000-08-01

    FAA has a history of computer security weaknesses in a number of areas, including its physical security management at facilities that house air traffic control (ATC) systems, systems security for both operational and future systems, management struct...

  20. Quorum-dependent transfer of the opine-catabolic plasmid pAoF64/95 is regulated by a novel mechanism involving inhibition of the TraR antiactivator TraM.

    PubMed

    Wetzel, Margaret E; Asenstorfer, Robert E; Tate, Max E; Farrand, Stephen K

    2018-04-10

    We previously described a plasmid of Agrobacterium spp., pAoF64/95, in which the quorum-sensing system that controls conjugative transfer is induced by the opine mannopine. We also showed that the quorum-sensing regulators TraR, TraM, and TraI function similarly to their counterparts in other repABC plasmids. However, traR, unlike its counterpart on Ti plasmids, is monocistronic and not located in an operon that is inducible by the conjugative opine. Here, we report that both traR and traM are expressed constitutively and not regulated by growth with mannopine. We report two additional regulatory genes, mrtR and tmsP, that are involved in a novel mechanism of control of TraR activity. Both genes are located in the distantly linked region of pAoF64/95 encoding mannopine utilization. MrtR, in the absence of mannopine, represses the four-gene mocC operon as well as tmsP, which is the distal gene of the eight-gene motA operon. As judged by a bacterial two-hybrid analysis, TmsP, which shows amino acid sequence relatedness with the TraM-binding domain of TraR, interacts with the antiactivator. We propose a model in which mannopine, acting through the repressor MrtR, induces expression of TmsP which then titrates the levels of TraM thereby freeing TraR to activate the tra regulon. © 2018 The Authors. MicrobiologyOpen published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  1. Anaerobic metabolism and thermal tolerance: The importance of opine pathways on survival of a gastropod after cardiac dysfunction.

    PubMed

    Han, Guodong; Zhang, Shu; Dong, Yunwei

    2017-09-01

    Organisms on rocky shores are frequently exposed to high temperatures, which cause impairment of cardiac function and retard cellular oxygen delivery. However, some gastropods can survive at several degrees Celsius higher than their Arrhenius break temperature of cardiac function (ABT), indicating the importance of anaerobic metabolism for their thermal tolerance. We measured the global molecular responses to heat stress in limpet Cellana toreuma using 454 GS-FLX to investigate the variations of genes involved in anaerobic metabolism at high temperatures. Next, the gene expression levels of 4 anaerobic enzymes and activity of alanopine dehydrogenase (AlDH), which is involved in opine pathway, were measured in response to elevated temperature. A total of 19 heat shock proteins (HSPs) were determined using real-time PCR at different temperatures. At high temperatures, the extensive upregulation of HSP genes was an effective but energetically expensive form of protection to prevent thermal damage. The upregulation of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha mRNA indicated the condition of cellular hypoxia and the high gene expression and enzyme activity of AlDH suggested that opine pathway was the main anaerobic pathway. These results implied that anaerobic metabolism was enhanced to provide energy in the face of thermal stress. Our findings highlight the ecological significance of the anaerobic metabolism of gastropods to thermal adaptation. For predicting the ecological impact of global warming on the distribution of gastropods, the role of anaerobic pathways should be evaluated. © 2016 International Society of Zoological Sciences, Institute of Zoology/Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

  2. Genetics Home Reference: cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukemia

    MedlinePlus

    ... on PubMed Marcucci G, Haferlach T, Döhner H. Molecular genetics of adult acute myeloid leukemia: prognostic and therapeutic ... on PubMed Sanders MA, Valk PJ. The evolving molecular genetic landscape in acute myeloid leukaemia. Curr Opin Hematol. ...

  3. Effective Sealing and Monitoring of Small Movement Expansion Joints in Connecticut Bridges

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2017-03-01

    One in nine bridges in the United States is rated as structurally deficient by the 2013 Infrastructure Report Card published by the American Society of Civil Engineers. One of the primary degradation factors that contribute to compromising the struct...

  4. A review of federal and Minnesota laws on pedestrian, bicycle, and non-motorized transportation.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2013-10-01

    Minnesotas transportation system supports the movement and travel of people, vehicles, and freight : through a wide range of land-, water-, and air-based modes of transportation.21 This multimodal transportation system exists within a legal struct...

  5. Ion Implantation in Polymers.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1983-08-01

    cases, the crystalline regions are often lamellar in struct- rg and the lamellae fre- quently occur in some form of spherulitic morphology. Since, in a...12181 Dr. D. H. Whitmore Department of Materials Science Dr. A. P. B. Lever Northwestern University Chemistry Department Evanston, Illinois 60201 1 York

  6. Assessing diversity and phytoremediation potential of seagrass in tropical region

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Seagrass ecosystem is one of the most important resources in the coastal areas. Seagrasses support and provide habitats for many coastal organisms in tropical region. Seagrasses are specialized marine flowering plants that have adapted to the nearshore environment with heterogeneous landscape struct...

  7. DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHLY-EFFICIENT AQUAPORIN-BASED WATER TREATMENTMEMBRANES FOR DESALINATION AND CONTAMINANT REMOVAL

    EPA Science Inventory

    As an outcome of this project data on the applicability of protein polymer membranes for application to water desalination will be obtained. This will provide information on the stability and permeability of these membranes under simulated desalination conditions. The struct...

  8. Indian Psychiatric Society-World Psychiatric Association - World Health Organization survey on usefulness of International Classification of Diseases-10

    PubMed Central

    Avasthi, Ajit; Grover, Sandeep; Maj, Mario; Reed, Geoffrey; Thirunavukarasu, M.; Garg, Uttam Chand

    2014-01-01

    Background: World Health Organization (WHO) is in the process of revising the International Classification of Diseases 10 (ICD-10). For increasing the acceptability of the ICD-11, WHO along with World Psychiatric Association (WPA), conducted a survey of psychiatrists around the world, in which 386 psychiatrists from India participated. Aim: To present the findings of “WPA-WHO Global Survey of Psychiatrists’ Attitudes toward Mental Disorders Classification” for Indian psychiatrists who participated in the survey as members of Indian Psychiatric Society. Methodology: The online survey was sent to qualified psychiatrists who are members of Indian Psychiatric Society and are residing in India. Results: Of the 1702 members who were urged to participate in the survey, 386 (22.7%) participated. Most(79%) of the psychiatrists opined that they use formal classificatory systems in their day-to-day clinical practice. ICD-10 was the most commonly (71%) followed classificatory system. Nearly half (48%) felt the need for only 10–30 categories for use in clinical settings and another 44% opined that 31-100 categories are required for use. Most of the participants (85%) suggested that a modified/simpler classificatory system should be designed for primary care practitioners. Similarly, the same number of participants (89%) argued that for maximum utility of a nosological system diagnostic criteria should provide flexible guidance that allows cultural variation and clinical judgement. About 75% opined that the diagnostic system they were using was difficult to apply across cultures. Conclusion: Findings of the survey suggest that classificatory systems are routinely used in day-to-day practice by most of the participating psychiatrists in India and most expect that future classificatory system should provide flexible guidance that allows cultural variation and clinical judgement. PMID:25568475

  9. The BiolAD-DB system : an informatics system for clinical and genetic data.

    PubMed

    Nielsen, David A; Leidner, Marty; Haynes, Chad; Krauthammer, Michael; Kreek, Mary Jeanne

    2007-01-01

    The Biology of Addictive Diseases-Database (BiolAD-DB) system is a research bioinformatics system for archiving, analyzing, and processing of complex clinical and genetic data. The database schema employs design principles for handling complex clinical information, such as response items in genetic questionnaires. Data access and validation is provided by the BiolAD-DB client application, which features a data validation engine tightly coupled to a graphical user interface. Data integrity is provided by the password-protected BiolAD-DB SQL compliant server and database. BiolAD-DB tools further provide functionalities for generating customized reports and views. The BiolAD-DB system schema, client, and installation instructions are freely available at http://www.rockefeller.edu/biolad-db/.

  10. Poly(alkylene oxide) Copolymers for Nucleic Acid Delivery

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-07-17

    biofilm infection treatments, pain control and cancer chemotherapy. Charles M. Roth is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical and...technology and engineering approaches to cancer . REFERENCES 1. Aigner A. Nonviral in vivo delivery of therapeutic small interfering RNAs. Curr Opin Mol Ther

  11. 12 CFR 715.2 - Definitions used in this part.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... generally accepted auditing standards (GAAS) by an independent public accountant for the purpose of opining... approved and adopted by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants which apply when an “independent, licensed certified public accountant” audits financial statements. Auditing standards differ from...

  12. Mental illness and legal fitness (competence) to stand trial in New York State: expert opinion and criminal defendants' psychiatric symptoms.

    PubMed

    Lee, Eugene; Rosner, Richard; Harmon, Ronnie

    2014-07-01

    Fitness to Stand Trial is a critical concept in the adjudication of justice-involved persons. A retrospective study was conducted to examine criminal defendants' specific psychiatric symptoms and those symptoms' associations with expert opinions on Competence to Stand Trial. One hundred charts were reviewed: 50 Cases (opined as Not Fit) were compared against 50 Controls (opined as Fit) with respect to ratings on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS). A significance level of 0.001 was selected a priori. Statistically significant differences were found in seven of the eighteen BPRS symptom constructs (with the highest differences in Conceptual Disorganization and Unusual Thought Content) and two of the four BPRS higher-order syndrome factors (Thinking Disorder and Hostile-Suspiciousness). Consistent with previous reports, psychotic symptoms are found in this study to be inversely associated with Fitness. Validity, reliability, and limitations of this study, as well as directions for future research, are discussed herein. © 2014 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

  13. Characterization of a putative periplasmic transport system for octopine accumulation encoded by Agrobacterium tumefaciens Ti plasmid pTiA6.

    PubMed Central

    Valdivia, R H; Wang, L; Winans, S C

    1991-01-01

    Neoplastic crown gall tumors incited by Agrobacterium tumefaciens release novel amino acid or sugar derivatives known as opines, whose synthesis is directed by genes transferred to plant cells. Agrobacterium cells can transport and catabolize these compounds as sources of carbon and nitrogen. This article describes a region of the pTiA6 plasmid which is required for catabolism of the opine octopine and whose transcription is induced by octopine. This region of the plasmid contains four open reading frames, occQ, occM, occP, and occJ, which show homology to the family of so-called shock-sensitive permeases. TnphoA mutagenesis demonstrated that the OccJ and OccM proteins lie fully or partly in the periplasmic space. The OccJ protein was identified by electrophoresis and found to be fully localized in the periplasmic space. When these proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli, radiolabeled octopine became cell-associated. Images FIG. 6 PMID:1655707

  14. Fundamental Studies on Crashworthiness Design with Uncertainties in the System

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2005-01-01

    studied; examples include using the Response Surface Methods (RSM) and Design of Experiment (DOE) [2-4]. Space Mapping (SM) is another practical...Exposed to Impact Load Using a Space Mapping Technique,” Struct. Multidisc. Optim., Vol. 27, pp. 411-420 (2004). 6. Mayer, R. R., Kikuchi, N. and Scott

  15. Fundamental Studies on Crashworthiness Design with Uncertainties in the System

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2005-01-01

    studied; examples include using the Response Surface Methods (RSM) and Design of Experiment (DOE) [2-4]. Space Mapping (SM) is another practical...to Impact Load Using a Space Mapping Technique," Struct. Multidisc. Optim., Vol. 27, pp. 411-420 (2004). 6. Mayer, R. R., Kikuchi, N. and Scott, R

  16. Scaling Concolic Execution of Binary Programs for Security Applications

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-08-01

    Byte Array “<><><>” “<>” (89 times) 4/5 672 1 Sendmail 2 struct passwd (Linux) (“”,“root”,0,0,“root”,“”,“”) (“”,“root”,0,0,“rootroo”,“”,“”) 1/1 526

  17. PKSOI Bulletin. Volume 2, Issue 4, July 2010

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2010-07-01

    are a “ blogger ” and would like to check out our blogs related to Peace and Stability Operations please visit our website and make comments. You may...leaders and officials. In several instances, the USG had con- structed beautiful facilities-a school and a clinic-without engaging sufficiently with

  18. Listeria monocytogenes DNA glycosylase AdiP affects flagellar motility, biofilm formation, virulence, and stress responses

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The temperature-dependent alteration of flagellar motility gene expression is critical for the foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes to respond to a changing environment. In this study, a genetic determinant, L. monocytogenes f2365_0220 (lmof2365_0220), encoding a putative protein that is struct...

  19. Corrigendum to ;Monoalkylated barbiturate derivatives: X-ray crystal structure, theoretical studies, and biological activities; [J. Mol. Struct. 1141 (2017) 624-633

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Barakat, Assem; Al-Majid, Abdullah Mohammed; Soliman, Saied M.; Islam, Mohammad Shahidul; Ghawas, Hussain Mansur; Yousuf, Sammer; Choudhary, M. Iqbal; Wadood, Abdul

    2017-09-01

    ;The correct CCDC reference for the compound 3k is 1546475 instead of 1024287 as mentioned in the text on page 625. The authors regret this error and would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused to anyone.;

  20. Genetics Home Reference: congenital sucrase-isomaltase deficiency

    MedlinePlus

    ... Leeb T, Naim HY. Novel mutations in the human sucrase-isomaltase gene (SI) that cause congenital carbohydrate malabsorption. Hum Mutat. 2006 Jan;27(1):119. Citation on PubMed Sibley E. Carbohydrate intolerance. Curr Opin Gastroenterol. 2004 Mar;20(2):162-7. Citation on PubMed More ...

  1. No Blue Ribbon

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wilsey, Matthew; Kloser, Matthew

    2015-01-01

    Imagine middle and high school science classes without a science fair. Participation in science fairs is declining (Harmon 2011), a trend that some teachers, parents, and students find disturbing. The authors opine that the decline in science fairs calls for critically reviewing the potential disconnect between the aims and outcomes of science…

  2. 76 FR 10498 - Exchange Visitor Program-Fees and Charges

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-02-25

    .... Another comment was from an academic institution and opined that a 54% increase in fees was such a financial burden on academic institutions that the redesignation period should also be increased. As no other academic institutions presented this view, we find that this comment does not represent the views...

  3. Immunological Prevention of Spontaneous Mammary Carcinoma in Transgenic Mice

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2001-08-01

    respectively, and a sera Mouse Typer Iso- TUBO cell inhibition was found in BALB/c mice injected with typing kit (Bio-Rad, Richmond , CA) as previously described...Curr. Opin. Immunol., 6: 41. Lapp6, M. A., and Prehn . R. T. Immunologic surveillance at the macroscopic level: 414-419. 1994. nonselective

  4. Suicide Terrorism: Deadly Tactic or Operational Art at Work?

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-05-04

    clerical leader, opined in a 1996 interview printed in an Egyptian newspaper that “suicide puts an end to his life out of selfish considerations...attacks in support of their strategic objectives. Following the February 1994 massacre in the Tomb of the Patriarchs-Khalili Mosque perpetrated by

  5. School Libraries and the Educational Ecosystem

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rettig, Jim

    2009-01-01

    Like the other industries the United States once dominated, higher education is facing increasing global competition. Any strengthening of K-12 education will strengthen higher education in turn. In this article, the author opines that higher education advocates should also urge Congress to include school libraries and librarians in NCLB when they…

  6. Strategic Studies Quarterly. Volume 7, Number 2, Summer 2013

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-01-01

    Handbook of Asian Regionalism Edited by: Mark Beeson and Richard Stubbs Reviewed by: Yves Laberge Maritime Challenges and Priorities in Asia...and Steven E. Miller (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993), 200-2. Van Evera in particular has opined that Europe has become "primed for peace" because

  7. Situating Student Errors: Linguistic-to-Algebra Translation Errors

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Adu-Gyamfi, Kwaku; Bossé, Michael J.; Chandler, Kayla

    2015-01-01

    While it is well recognized that students are prone to difficulties when performing linguistic-to-algebra translations, the nature of students' difficulties remain an issue of contention. Moreover, the literature indicates that these difficulties are not easily remediated by domain-specific instruction. Some have opined that this is the case…

  8. Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex": A Deconstructive Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Akhter, Javed; Muhammad, Khair; Naz, Naila

    2015-01-01

    Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) is the most prominent figure in contemporary philosophical and literary debate. He originates a trend-breaking theory of deconstruction. He opines the persistence in west European philosophical tradition of what he labels is logocentric metaphysics of presence. He argues that the different theories of philosophy, from…

  9. Pessimism vs. Existentialism

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Solomon, Robert C.

    2007-01-01

    So opined Adam Cohen recently in the "International Herald Tribune", and so, too, according to a recent book by Joshua Foa Dienstag, a political scientist at the University of California at Los Angeles, "Pessimism: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit "(Princeton University Press, 2006). In his defense of pessimism as an appropriate and realistic philosophy,…

  10. Elucidation of a Novel Cell Death Mechanism in Prostate Epithelial Cells

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2004-12-01

    Biochemistry 2001, 40:3009-3015. Conclusions 4. Demetriou M, Granovsky M, Quaggin S, Dennis JW: Negative64 regulation of T-cell activation and...Dennis JW, Warren CE, Granovsky M, Demetriou M: Genetic defectsin N-glycosylation and cellular diversity in mammals. Curr Opin although the forces

  11. The Importance of Being Earnest

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    O'Brien, Tom

    2007-01-01

    In this article, the author opines that modernist and especially postmodernist irony has gone beyond its traditional satirical function of deflating falsehood and exposing pretense. Because of certain historical complexities, irony has evolved in such a way that it has become the enemy of genuine open-mindedness. Among some American intellectuals,…

  12. Electromagnetic Scattering from Two Dielectric Spheres: Comparison between Theory and Experiment,

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1982-08-30

    struct, a very complex computer program to perform the calculations. It should be noted that several errors (probably typographical) were disco - vered in...their equations and virtually all of them had to be rederived. In a future publication we will present a corrected set of equations along with several

  13. Development of laboratory testing facility for evaluation of base-soil behavior under repeated loading : phase 1 : feasibility study.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2005-02-01

    Accelerated load testing of paved and unpaved roads is the application of a large number of load repetitions in a short period of time. This type of testing is an economic way to determine the behavior of roads and compare different materials, struct...

  14. Synthesis and Characterization of Selected 4,4'-Diaminoalkoxyazobenzenes

    EPA Science Inventory

    The role of the -N(CH2CH20H)2 group in producing a mutagenic response from 4-«3-(2h) Uroxyethoxy)4-amino)phenylazo)-N,N-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)-aniline has been investigated. To accomplish this goal, a group ofsubstituted 4,4'-diaminoazobenzene dyes was synthesized, and their struct...

  15. Soyasaponin Bh, a Triterpene Saponin Containing a Unique Hemiacetal-Functional Five-Membered Ring from Glycine max (Soybeans)

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Soybeans (Glycine max L. Merill) and soy-based food products are major dietary sources of saponins. An oleanane triterpenoid saponin, soyasaponin Bh (1) containing a unique five-membered ring with a hemiacetal functionality together with seven known saponins were isolated from soybeans. Their struct...

  16. Corrigendum to "Electronic structure and photoelectron spectra of nickel (II) acetylacetonate and its thio- and amino-substituted analogues" [J. Mol. Struct. 1099 (2015) 579-587

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vovna, Vitaliy I.; Korochentsev, Vladimir V.; Komissarov, Alexander A.; L'vov, Igor B.; Myshakina, Nataliya S.

    2016-01-01

    The authors regret to inform that it was given erroneous spelling of Vitaliy I. Vovna author name in the published version of the article. It was written "Vitaliy V. Vovna" instead of "Vitaliy I. Vovna".

  17. An Integrated Procedure for the Structural Design of a Composite Rotor-Hydrofoil of a Water Current Turbine (WCT)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Oller Aramayo, S. A.; Nallim, L. G.; Oller, S.

    2013-12-01

    This paper shows an integrated structural design optimization of a composite rotor-hydrofoil of a water current turbine by means the finite elements method (FEM), using a Serial/Parallel mixing theory (Rastellini et al. Comput. Struct. 86:879-896, 2008, Martinez et al., 2007, Martinez and Oller Arch. Comput. Methods. 16(4):357-397, 2009, Martinez et al. Compos. Part B Eng. 42(2011):134-144, 2010) coupled with a fluid-dynamic formulation and multi-objective optimization algorithm (Gen and Cheng 1997, Lee et al. Compos. Struct. 99:181-192, 2013, Lee et al. Compos. Struct. 94(3):1087-1096, 2012). The composite hydrofoil of the turbine rotor has been design using a reinforced laminate composites, taking into account the optimization of the carbon fiber orientation to obtain the maximum strength and lower rotational-inertia. Also, these results have been compared with a steel hydrofoil remarking the different performance on both structures. The mechanical and geometrical parameters involved in the design of this fiber-reinforced composite material are the fiber orientation, number of layers, stacking sequence and laminate thickness. Water pressure in the rotor of the turbine is obtained from a coupled fluid-dynamic simulation (CFD), whose detail can be found in the reference Oller et al. (2012). The main purpose of this paper is to achieve a very low inertia rotor minimizing the start-stop effect, because it is applied in axial water flow turbine currently in design by the authors, in which is important to take the maximum advantage of the kinetic energy. The FEM simulation codes are engineered by CIMNE (International Center for Numerical Method in Engineering, Barcelona, Spain), COMPack for the solids problem application, KRATOS for fluid dynamic application and RMOP for the structural optimization. To validate the procedure here presented, many turbine rotors made of composite materials are analyzed and three of them are compared with the steel one.

  18. Unusual Water-mediated Antigenic Recognition of the Proinflammatory Cytokine Interleukin-18

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Argiriadi, Maria A.; Xiang, Tao; Wu, Chengbin

    2009-10-21

    The unique cytokine interleukin-18 (IL-18) acts synergistically with IL-12 to regulate T-helper 1 and 2 lymphocytes and, as such, seems to underlie the pathogenesis of various autoimmune and allergic diseases. Several anti-IL-18 agents are in clinical development, including the recombinant human antibody ABT-325, which is entering trials for autoimmune diseases. Given competing cytokine/receptor and cytokine/receptor decoy interactions, understanding the structural basis for recognition is critical for effective development of anti-cytokine therapies. Here we report three crystal structures: the murine antibody 125-2H Fab fragment bound to human IL-18, at 1.5 {angstrom} resolution; the 125-2H Fab (2.3 {angstrom}); and the ABT-325 Fabmore » (1.5 {angstrom}). These structures, along with human/mouse IL-18 chimera binding data, allow us to make three key observations relevant to the biology and antigenic recognition of IL-18 and related cytokines. First, several IL-18 residues shift dramatically (>10 {angstrom}) upon binding 125-2H, compared with unbound IL-18 (Kato, Z., Jee, J., Shikano, H., Mishima, M., Ohki, I., Ohnishi, H., Li, A., Hashimoto, K., Matsukuma, E., Omoya, K., Yamamoto, Y., Yoneda, T., Hara, T., Kondo, N., and Shirakawa, M. (2003) Nat. Struct. Biol. 10, 966-971). IL-18 thus exhibits plasticity that may be common to its interactions with other receptors. Related cytokines may exhibit similar plasticity. Second, ABT-325 and 125-2H differ significantly in combining site character and architecture, thus explaining their ability to bind IL-18 simultaneously at distinct epitopes. These data allow us to define the likely ABT-325 epitope and thereby explain the distinct neutralizing mechanisms of both antibodies. Third, given the high 125-2H potency, 10 well ordered water molecules are trapped upon complex formation in a cavity between two IL-18 loops and all six 125-2H complementarity-determining regions. Thus, counterintuitively, tight and specific antibody binding may in some cases be water-mediated.« less

  19. Structure of the beta 2 homodimer of bacterial luciferase from Vibrio harveyi: X-ray analysis of a kinetic protein folding trap.

    PubMed Central

    Thoden, J. B.; Holden, H. M.; Fisher, A. J.; Sinclair, J. F.; Wesenberg, G.; Baldwin, T. O.; Rayment, I.

    1997-01-01

    Luciferase, as isolated from Vibrio harveyi, is an alpha beta heterodimer. When allowed to fold in the absence of the alpha subunit, either in vitro or in vivo, the beta subunit of enzyme will form a kinetically stable homodimer that does not unfold even after prolonged incubation in 5 M urea at pH 7.0 and 18 degrees C. This form of the beta subunit, arising via kinetic partitioning on the folding pathway, appears to constitute a kinetically trapped alternative to the heterodimeric enzyme (Sinclair JF, Ziegler MM, Baldwin TO. 1994. Kinetic partitioning during protein folding yields multiple native states. Nature Struct Biol 1: 320-326). Here we describe the X-ray crystal structure of the beta 2 homodimer of luciferase from V. harveyi determined and refined at 1.95 A resolution. Crystals employed in the investigational belonged to the orthorhombic space group P2(1)2(1)2(1) with unit cell dimensions of a = 58.8 A, b = 62.0 A, and c = 218.2 A and contained one dimer per asymmetric unit. Like that observed in the functional luciferase alpha beta heterodimer, the major tertiary structural motif of each beta subunit consists of an (alpha/beta)8 barrel (Fisher AJ, Raushel FM, Baldwin TO, Rayment I. 1995. Three-dimensional structure of bacterial luciferase from Vibrio harveyi at 2.4 A resolution. Biochemistry 34: 6581-6586). The root-mean-square deviation of the alpha-carbon coordinates between the beta subunits of the hetero- and homodimers is 0.7 A. This high resolution X-ray analysis demonstrated that "domain" or "loop" swapping has not occurred upon formation of the beta 2 homodimer and thus the stability of the beta 2 species to denaturation cannot be explained in such simple terms. In fact, the subunit:subunit interfaces observed in both the beta 2 homodimer and alpha beta heterodimer are remarkably similar in hydrogen-bonding patterns and buried surface areas. PMID:9007973

  20. Locomotor Stability in a Model Swimmer: Coupling Fluid Dynamics, Neurophysiology and Muscle Mechanics

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2017-07-05

    springs which resist deformation. (C) Inset that shows the position of the muscle segments. Cohen, Holmes, Rand, J. Math Biol. 1982 A representative...numbers are the segment number, labeled from head to tail. Cohen, Holmes, Rand, J. Math Biol. 1982 The signals are periodic. Cohen, Holmes, Rand, J... Math Biol. 1982 From head to tail there is a phase lag on each side. Cohen, Holmes, Rand, J. Math Biol. 1982 On a given segment, the signals are in

  1. Read, Talk, Play, Watch: How HRD Practitioners Like to Learn

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tyler, Jo A.

    2008-01-01

    While an aim of research is to inform practice, there exists a tension between scholars who undertake research and practitioners whom it might benefit. Scholars work diligently inside a system that values print for dissemination, but practitioners opine that the practicalities are embedded within ponderous articles rife with academic language and…

  2. 75 FR 21638 - Government-Owned Inventions; Availability for Licensing

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-04-26

    ... metabolism. Curr Opin Endocrinol Diabetes Obesity. 2010 Apr;17(2):150-155; DOI 10.1097/ MED.0b013e32833727a1... nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae have significantly increased. At some point during early childhood, otitis... influenzae have significantly increased. At some point during early childhood, otitis media affects more than...

  3. Use of Angle Model to Understand Addition and Subtraction of Fractions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mukwambo, Muzwangowenyu; Ngcoza, Kenneth; Ramasike, Lineo Florence

    2018-01-01

    Learners in lower primary and even some in upper primary grades grapple to perform mathematical operations which involve fractions. Failure to solve these mathematical operations creates a gap in the teaching and learning processes of mathematics. We opine that this is attributed to use of traditional mathematical approaches of teaching and…

  4. Making History Inevitable

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rothstein, Arnold M.

    2009-01-01

    History teaching is fraught with the pitfall and danger of subtly instilling into the young the notion that the way history happened was inevitable. This demands the corollary that the way it happened is the "right way." In this article, the author opines that teachers should be prepared to analyze the grounds on which their judgments are made. He…

  5. Applying Social Justice Principles through School-Based Restorative Justice

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    von der Embse, Nathan; von der Embse, Daniel; von der Embse Meghan; Levine, Ian

    2009-01-01

    Social justice has recently received attention within the school psychology community. Yet, social justice is a nebulous term, as opined by Connelly (2009), who cautioned against searching for what is wrong and instead striving for the highest standards and recognizing needs of every unique child. Shriberg and colleagues (2008) have sought to…

  6. Winter Wonderlands

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Coy, Mary

    2011-01-01

    Listening to people complain about the hardships of winter and the dreariness of the nearly constant gray sky prompted the author to help her sixth graders recognize and appreciate the beauty that surrounds them for nearly five months of the year in western New York. The author opines that if students could see things more artistically, the winter…

  7. Affirmative Action on the Docket. Commentary

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chambers, Crystal

    2012-01-01

    In signing off the majority opinion in "Grutter v. Bollinger," Justice Sandra Day O'Connor opined, "That 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today" (2003, p. 342). The Supreme Court's acceptance of "Fisher v. University of Texas," however, may signal an end to affirmative…

  8. Media Analysis as Critical Reflexology in Exploring Adult Learning Theories

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hutchins, Holly M.; Bierema, Laura

    2013-01-01

    Examining media artifacts as a learning method has received little attention in human resource development (HRD) despite it being a predominate form of information and influence in popular culture. As Giroux (2002) opines, media functions as a form of public pedagogy by offering situations and contexts through which viewers can vicariously…

  9. School Choice Marches forward

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Butcher, Jonathan

    2013-01-01

    One year ago, the "Wall Street Journal" dubbed 2011 "the year of school choice," opining that "this year is shaping up as the best for reformers in a very long time." School-choice laws took great strides in 2011, both in the number of programs that succeeded across states and also in the size and scope of the adopted…

  10. Black Spaces: Examining the Writing Major at an Urban HBCU

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Taylor, Hill

    2007-01-01

    In "The Mis-Education of the Negro," Carter Woodson issues a mandate for a different and original program of education for African-Americans, specific to their own conditions. If educators, the author opines, are to take this mandate into consideration when designing and implementing appropriate curricula and pedagogy, then they must start paying…

  11. What College Instructors Can Do about Student Cyber-Slacking

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Flanigan, Abraham E.; Kiewra, Kenneth A.

    2018-01-01

    Today's traditional-aged college students are avid users of mobile technology. Commonly referred to as the Net Generation, today's college students spend several hours each day using their smart phones, iPads, and laptops. Although some scholars initially opined that the Net Generation would grow into technologically savvy digital natives who…

  12. Bound Flavin-Cytochrome Model of Extracellular Electron Transfer in Shewanella oneidensis: Analysis by Free Energy Molecular (Postprint)

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-06-06

    toxic chemicals,4 protection of steel from corrosion,5 or in bioremediation .6 Of special interest is the potential use of the exoelectrogens in... Bioremediation of Uranium-Contaminated Groundwater: A Systems Approach to Subsurface Biogeochemistry. Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 2013, 24, 489−497. (7

  13. Clean Energy for the Commonwealth Powered by UMass

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-04-15

    Nanomagnetics Zeolite membranes Polymer-inorganic nanocomposites MEMS Nanostructured catalysts Plant Biotechnology Biochem., Cell wall struct., Agronomy Crambe...power management Low-power device networks Energy scavenging Flame Modeling Combustion chemistry Molecular-beam mass spectrometry Building Design...Thayumanavan, PhD. UMass Amherst Professor of Chemistry and Director, Fueling the Future Center for Chemical Innovation – Paul Osenar, PhD. Chief

  14. Targeting Dysregulated Epigenetic Enzymes for Prostate Cancer Treatment

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-10-01

    decreased protein levels of SIRT2 leads to the inability to down-regulate the hyper -acetylated form of p300. SIRT2-dependent deacetylation of p300...nature06546. 32. Thompson PR, Wang D, Wang L, Fulco M, Pediconi N, Zhang D, et al. Regulation of the p300 HAT domain via a novel activation loop . Nat Struct

  15. A Circuit Extraction System and Graphical Display for VLSI (Very Large Scale Integrated) Design.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1989-12-01

    understandable as a net-list. The file contains information on the different physical layers of a polysilicon chip, not how these layers combine to form...yperc; struct vwsurf vsurf =DEFAULT_VWSURF(pixwt-ndd); stt-uct vwsurf vsurf2 DEFAULT-VWSURF(pixwfLndd); ma in) another[ Ol =IV while (anothler[0O = ’y

  16. Development of a non invasion real-time PCR assay for the quantitation of chicken parvovirus in fecal swabs

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The present study describes the development of a real time Taqman polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay using a fluorescent labeled probe for the detection and quantitation of chicken parvovirus (ChPV) in feces. The primers and probes were designed based on the nucleotide sequence of the non struct...

  17. Characterisation of DEFB107 by mass spectrometry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McCullough, Bryan J.; Eastwood, Hayden; Clark, Dave J.; Polfer, Nick C.; Campopiano, Dominic J.; Dorin, Julia A.; Maxwell, Alison; Langley, Ross J.; Govan, John R. W.; Bernstein, Summer L.; Bowers, Michael T.; Barran, Perdita E.

    2006-05-01

    Mammalian defensins are small endogenous cationic proteins which form a class of antimicrobial peptides that is part of the innate immune response of all mammalian species [R. Lehrer, Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 2 (9) (2004) 727; T. Ganz, R.I. Lehrer, Curr. Opin. Immunol. 6 (4) (1994) 584] [1] and [2]. We have developed mass spectrometry based strategies for characterising the structure-activity relationship of defensins [D.J. Campopiano, D.J. Clarke, N.C. Polfer, P.E. Barran, R.J. Langley, J.R.W. Govan, A. Maxwell, J.R. Dorin, J. Biol. Chem. 279 (47) (2004) 48671; P.E. Barran, N.C. Polfer, D.J. Campopiano, D.J. Clarke, P.R.R. Langridge-Smith, R.J. Langley, J.R.W. Govan, A. Maxwell, J.R. Dorin, R.P. Millar, M.T. Bowers, Int. J. Mass Spectrom. 240 (2005) 273] [3] and [4], and here we present data obtained from a five cysteine containing [beta]-defensin, DEFB107. The synthetic product of this human defensin exists with a glutathione capping group, its oxidation state and disulphide connectivity have been determined via accurate mass measurements and peptide mass mapping respectively, and despite possessing three disulphide bridges, it does not fit the [beta]-defensin canonical motif. With the use of molecular modelling, we have generated candidate geometries to discern the influence of disulphide bridging on the overall tertiary structure of DEFB107. These are compared with experimental results from ion mobility measurements. Defensins display activity against a wide variety of pathogens including both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. Their mechanism of mode of action is unknown, but is believed to involve defensin aggregation at cell surfaces, followed by cell permeabilisation and hence deathE To probe this mechanism, the localisation of DEFB107 in synthetic vesicles was studied using H/D exchange and mass spectrometry. The results obtained are used to analyse the antimicrobial activity of DEFB107.

  18. A T-DNA gene required for agropine biosynthesis by transformed plants is functionally and evolutionarily related to a Ti plasmid gene required for catabolism of agropine by Agrobacterium strains.

    PubMed Central

    Hong, S B; Hwang, I; Dessaux, Y; Guyon, P; Kim, K S; Farrand, S K

    1997-01-01

    The mechanisms that ensure that Ti plasmid T-DNA genes encoding proteins involved in the biosynthesis of opines in crown gall tumors are always matched by Ti plasmid genes conferring the ability to catabolize that set of opines on the inducing Agrobacterium strains are unknown. The pathway for the biosynthesis of the opine agropine is thought to require an enzyme, mannopine cyclase, coded for by the ags gene located in the T(R) region of octopine-type Ti plasmids. Extracts prepared from agropine-type tumors contained an activity that cyclized mannopine to agropine. Tumor cells containing a T region in which ags was mutated lacked this activity and did not contain agropine. Expression of ags from the lac promoter conferred mannopine-lactonizing activity on Escherichia coli. Agrobacterium tumefaciens strains harboring an octopine-type Ti plasmid exhibit a similar activity which is not coded for by ags. Analysis of the DNA sequence of the gene encoding this activity, called agcA, showed it to be about 60% identical to T-DNA ags genes. Relatedness decreased abruptly in the 5' and 3' untranslated regions of the genes. ags is preceded by a promoter that functions only in the plant. Expression analysis showed that agcA also is preceded by its own promoter, which is active in the bacterium. Translation of agcA yielded a protein of about 45 kDa, consistent with the size predicted from the DNA sequence. Antibodies raised against the agcA product cross-reacted with the anabolic enzyme. These results indicate that the agropine system arose by a duplication of a progenitor gene, one copy of which became associated with the T-DNA and the other copy of which remained associated with the bacterium. PMID:9244272

  19. EDITORIAL: Annual prizes for best papers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    2006-09-01

    2005 Roberts Prize The publishers of Physics in Medicine and Biology (PMB) in association with the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) jointly award an annual prize for an article published in PMB during the previous year. The following 14 articles, listed below in chronological order, were rated the best of 2005 based on the (two or three) referees' assessments: P Kundrát et al 2005 Probabilistic two-stage model of cell inactivation by ionizing particles Phys. Med. Biol. 50 1433-47 D Arora et al 2005 Direct thermal dose control of constrained focused ultrasound treatments: phantom and in vivo evaluation Phys. Med. Biol. 50 1919-35 J S Dysart et al 2005 Characterization of Photofrin photobleaching for singlet oxygen dose estimation during photodynamic therapy of MLL cells in vitro Phys. Med. Biol. 50 2597-616 M Defrise et al 2005 Fourier rebinning of time-of-flight PET data Phys. Med. Biol. 50 2749-63 Z Su et al 2005 Systematic investigation of the signal properties of polycrystalline HgI2 detectors under mammographic, radiographic, fluoroscopic and radiotherapy irradiation conditions Phys. Med. Biol. 50 2907-28 E Bräuer-Krisch et al 2005 New irradiation geometry for microbeam radiation therapy Phys. Med. Biol. 50 3103-11 H C Pyo et al 2005 Identification of current density distribution in electrically conducting subject with anisotropic conductivity distribution Phys. Med. Biol. 50 3183-96 R P Findlay et al 2005 Effects of posture on FDTD calculations of specific absorption rate in a voxel model of the human body Phys. Med. Biol. 50 3825-35 G Alexandrakis et al 2005 Tomographic bioluminescence imaging by use of a combined optical-PET (OPET) system: a computer simulation feasibility study Phys. Med. Biol. 50 4225-41 J Keshvari et al 2005 Comparison of radio frequency energy absorption in ear and eye region of children and adults at 900, 1800 and 2450 MHz Phys. Med. Biol. 50 4355-69 J Laufer et al 2005 In vitro measurements of absolute blood oxygen saturation using pulsed near-infrared photoacoustic spectroscopy: accuracy and resolution Phys. Med. Biol. 50 4409-28 Z Cao et al 2005 Optimal number of pinholes in multi-pinhole SPECT for mouse brain imaging---a simulation study Phys. Med. Biol. 50 4609-24 R Dharmakumar et al 2005 A novel microbubble construct for intracardiac or intravascular MR manometry: a theoretical study Phys. Med. Biol. 50 4745-62 R Chopra et al 2005 Method for MRI-guided conformal thermal therapy of prostate with planar transurethral ultrasound heating applicators Phys. Med. Biol. 50 4957-75 The IPEM Publications Committee then assessed and rated these papers in order to choose a winner. We have much pleasure in advising readers that the 2005 Roberts Prize is awarded to: J S Dysart and M S Patterson 2005 Characterization of Photofrin photobleaching for singlet oxygen dose estimation during photodynamic therapy of MLL cells in vitro Phys. Med. Biol. 50 2597-616 2006 Prize for the Highest Cited Paper The annual prize for the most highly cited paper is awarded by the journal publishers to the article published in PMB that has received the most citations1 in the previous 5 years (in this case for the period 2001 to 2005 inclusive). We have much pleasure in advising readers that the 2006 prize is awarded to: P J Keall, V R Kini, S S Vedam and R Mohan 2001 Motion adaptive x-ray therapy: a feasibility study Phys. Med. Biol. 46 1-10 Simon Harris, Publisher Steve Webb, Editor-in-Chief 1 Figures taken from Thomson/ISI

  20. Combination of Didactic Lectures with Problem-Based Learning Sessions in Physiology Teaching in a Developing Medical College in Nepal.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ghosh, Sarmishtha; Dawka, Violet

    2000-01-01

    Introduces the SPICES curriculum of the Manipal College of Medical Sciences in Nepal, which is student centered, problem based, integrated, community-based, elective oriented, and systematic. Reports that the majority of students opined that the combination of didactic lectures and problem-based learning sessions were definitely beneficial.…

  1. Musings by a Non-"Born Teacher"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Oswald, Lynda J.

    2011-01-01

    In this article, the author reflects on her continual journal in regard to improving her teaching skills. She opines that this journey is a story that could resonate with other colleagues to whom teaching is also critically important but to whom it does not come naturally. She describes lessons she learned in her early years of teaching, and she…

  2. Out of the Woods: The Making of the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kotlowski, Dean J.

    2006-01-01

    "Maine appears out of the woods," the editor of the "Lewiston Evening Journal" opined, after President Jimmy Carter signed the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act in 1980. That sigh of relief was heartfelt. During the 1970s, two Native American tribes, the Passamaquoddies and Penobscots, had sparked a long, statewide nightmare…

  3. The Application of Writing across the Curriculum (WAC) Techniques in a Systems Analysis & Design Flipped Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Saulnier, Bruce

    2016-01-01

    To more effectively meet the expectations of industry for entry-level IT employees, a case is made for the inclusion of writing throughout the Computer Information Systems (CIS) curriculum. "Writing Across the Curriculum" ("WAC") principles are explained, and it is opined that both Writing to Learn (WTL) and Writing in the…

  4. Cultivating Effective Pedagogical Skills in In-Service Teachers: The Role of Some Teacher Variables

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Amusan, Mosunmola A.

    2016-01-01

    Researchers have opined that pedagogical skill of the teacher is a powerful force. This study investigated variables that are required to cultivate effective pedagogical skills for teaching basic science and technology (BST) in Ogun State Primary Schools in Nigeria. A survey research design was adopted. A total of 148 teachers across the state…

  5. A Critique of "The Common Core Is a Change for the Better"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wolfe, Adam

    2015-01-01

    In their article, "The Common Core is a Change for the Better," Gardner and Powell (2013) make an argument in support of implementing the Common Core to improve teaching and student learning. They opine the Common Core will enable students to become more college and career ready and state the Common Core standards will provide…

  6. Theology and Pedagogy: A Response to Sean Whittle

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cooling, Trevor; Smith, David I.

    2014-01-01

    In this rebuttal to Sean Whittle), Cooling and Smith opine that: 1) Whittle's key concern is with discerning the appropriate relationship between theology and education in the context of a Christian school, 2) Whittle's criticism of our work, is that it fails to achieve a proper relationship between theology and education, and 3) Whittle…

  7. Poetic Praxis: Engaging Body, Mind, and Soul in the Social Foundations Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    MacKenzie, Sarah K.,

    2013-01-01

    Across the space of this paper I seek to share a particular attempt to holistically engage students enrolled in a Social Foundations of Education course, in the process of de(con)structing knowledge, through the work of collectively creating found poetry. I do not seek to show right pedagogical practice; rather, it is my hope that this paper may…

  8. Dollar Summary of Federal Supply Classification and Service Category by Company, FY83, Part 6 (W061-Z299).

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1983-01-01

    RENT OF FAC /FUEL SUPPLY 29 X299 AUTO TECHNIQUE BELGIQUE S A BELGIUM ARMY LEASE-RENT OF FAC /OTHER NON-BLDG STRUCT 31 HOFFMAN CO VIRGINIA ARMY LEASE...HARRISON & PALMI RIDGE ELECTRICAL E INC MISSOURI ARMY CONSTR: CONSTRUCTION/PARFING FACILITIES $ 123 SUSSEX ELECTRICO C MARYLAND ARMY CONSTR: CONSTRUCTION

  9. Evaluation of Androgen Receptor Function in Prostate Cancer Prognosis and Therapeutic Stratification

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-10-01

    Martin DN, Starks AM, Ambs S. Biological deter- minants of health disparities in prostate cancer. Curr Opin Oncol 2013; 25:235-41; PMID:23399519 34...2011.077.1) to SP, by the RO1 DK065977 to SS and by the DoD, CDMRP, PC073614 to SS and AD. We thank Thuy Nguyen and Petra Hirschmann for excellent

  10. Reflecting on Progress in K-12 Dance Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Callahan-Russell, Colleen

    2004-01-01

    Dance as an art form is transformational to body, mind, and spirit. The author opines that public education would do just fine if dance was the "only" subject taught. This article presents the author's reflection on progress of dance in K-12 education. The author contends that progress in dance in K-12 education can perhaps be judged by the fact…

  11. An Interesting Cause of Mechanical Small Bowel Obstruction.

    PubMed

    Anantha Sathyanarayana, Sandeep; Deutsch, Gary B; Friedman, Barak

    2015-12-01

    Foreign body ingestion is a known cause of abdominal pain in pediatric population occurring between 6 months and 3 years of age (Wyllie Curr Opin Pediatr 18:563, 2006, Uyemura Am Fam Physician 72:287, 2005, Banerjee Indian J Pediatr 72:173, 2005). Most of the ingested foreign bodies pass spontaneously with 10-20 % requiring endoscopic retrieval, and <1 % of cases require a surgical intervention (Wyllie Curr Opin Pediatr 18:563, 2006, Uyemura Am Fam Physician 72:287, 2005, Shivakumar Indian J Pediatr 71:689, 2004). Presence of intestinal obstruction necessitates surgical intervention to extract the ingested foreign body. Initial abdominal plain radiograph should be obtained when foreign body ingestion is suspected, which differentiates a radiopaque from radiolucent foreign bodies. A computed tomography with 3D reconstruction (3D-CT) is recommended with radiolucent foreign bodies (Uyemura Am Fam Physician 72:287, 2005, Kazam Am J Emerg Med 23:897, 2005). After 24 h of expectant management, failure of spontaneous passage requires further intervention. Timely intervention to relieve the obstruction is pivotal to prevent undue complications. We present an interesting case of a boy who ingested a radiolucent foreign body diagnosed on 3D-CT, successfully treated with surgical extraction.

  12. Subsurface Assessment at McMurdo Station, Antarctica

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2017-02-01

    collected at the T-site for design and construction of a foundation for a wind turbine (after Oswell et al. 2010...foundation for a wind turbine (after Oswell et al. 2010). 5.3 Surface snowmelt and frost susceptibility The gravelly sand with silts found in this...maximum unfrozen density with low moisture content. Compaction of fill materials for con- structing wind turbine foundations at the T-site commenced

  13. Visual Motion Perception

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1991-08-15

    Conversely, displays Atr con- past experience to the experimental stimuli. structed %xith normal density- controlled KDE cues but %ith 5. Excluding...frame. This 3Ndisplays, gray background is displayed’ on ail introduces 50% -scintillation (density control lion even frames (labelled 1:0). Other non ...video tapes were prepared, each of whsich contained all the experimental ASL signs but distributed 1 2 3 4 into dliffereint. filter groups . Eight

  14. Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus strain Deutsch, 5 BAC clone sequencing, including two encoding Cytochrome P450s and one encoding CzEst9 carboxylesterase

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The cattle tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus, has a genome over 2.4 times the size of the human genome, and with over 70% of repetitive DNA, this genome would prove very costly to sequence at today's prices and difficult to assemble and analyze. BAC clones give insight into the genome struct...

  15. Corrigendum to "Stereochemical analysis of menthol and menthylamine isomers using calculated and experimental optical rotation data" [J. Mol. Struct. 1103 (2016) 166-176

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reinscheid, F.; Reinscheid, U. M.

    2016-04-01

    The authors regret to inform that a typographical error occurred in the published version of the article. In the last sentence of the abstract and of the conclusion the correct expression with the specific optical rotation should read "-10 < [α] < +10". We would like to apologize for the inconvenience caused.

  16. EDITORIAL: Annual prizes for best papers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    2007-07-01

    2006 Roberts Prize The publishers of Physics in Medicine and Biology (PMB) in association with the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) jointly award an annual prize for an article published in PMB during the previous year. The following ten articles, listed below in chronological order, were rated the best of 2006 based on the (two or three) referees' assessments: D W Mundy et al 2006 Radiation binary targeted therapy for HER-2 positive breast cancers: assumptions, theoretical assessment and future directions Phys. Med. Biol. 51 1377-91 Y Yang et al 2006 Investigation of optical coherence tomography as an imaging modality in tissue engineering Phys. Med. Biol. 51 1649-59 M Krämer and M Scholz 2006 Rapid calculation of biological effects in ion radiotherapy Phys. Med. Biol. 51 1959-70 P Crespo et al 2006 On the detector arrangement for in-beam PET for hadron therapy monitoring Phys. Med. Biol. 51 2143-63 R J Senden et al 2006 Polymer gel dosimeters with reduced toxicity: a preliminary investigation of the NMR and optical dose-response using different monomers Phys. Med. Biol. 51 3301-14 J Wang et al 2006 FDTD calculation of whole-body average SAR in adult and child models for frequencies from 30 MHz to 3 GHz Phys. Med. Biol. 51 4119-27 C A T Van den Berg et al 2006 The use of MR B+1 imaging for validation of FDTD electromagnetic simulations of human anatomies Phys. Med. Biol. 51 4735-46 S Qin and K W Ferrara 2006 Acoustic response of compliable microvessels containing ultrasound contrast agents Phys. Med. Biol. 51 5065-88 R Kramer et al 2006 Skeletal dosimetry in the MAX06 and the FAX06 phantoms for external exposure to photons based on vertebral 3D-microCT images Phys. Med. Biol. 51 6265-89 R Leiderman et al 2006 Coupling between elastic strain and interstitial fluid flow: ramifications for poroelastic imaging Phys. Med. Biol. 51 6291-313 An IPEM college of jurors then assessed and rated these papers in order to choose a winner. We have much pleasure in advising readers that the 2006 Roberts Prize is awarded to: M Krämer and M Scholz 2006 Rapid calculation of biological effects in ion radiotherapy Phys. Med. Biol. 51 1959-70 2007 Prize for the Highest Cited Paper The annual prize for the most highly cited paper is awarded by the journal publishers (IOP Publishing) to the article published in PMB that has received the most citations1 in the previous 5 years (in this case for the period 2002 to 2006 inclusive). We have much pleasure in advising readers that the 2007 prize is awarded to: S S Vedam, P J Keall, V R Kini, H Mostafavi, H P Shukla and R Mohan 2003 Acquiring a four-dimensional computed tomography dataset using an external respiratory signal Phys. Med. Biol. 48 45-62 Simon Harris, Publisher Steve Webb, Editor-in-Chief 1 Figures taken from Thomson/ISI

  17. The feckless later reign of King David: a case of major depressive disorder?

    PubMed

    Ruthven, P; Ruthven, J

    2001-01-01

    Offers a psychodiagnostic interpretation of King David's later Jerusalem reign which indicates criteria exceedingly those required for a Major Depressive Disorder as listed in the DSM-IV. Opines that whatever other political, polemical, or sociological constructs may be applied to these biblical passages, this interpretative axis supports a scientifically credible account of Yahweh's covenant faithfulness despite David's incapacitating depression.

  18. USAAA Conference in Park City Utah: The Autism Epidemic a Mystery? Only if One Ignores All the Science

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stoller, K. Paul

    2006-01-01

    This article is a synopsis of a presentation offered by the author at the recent United States Autism and Asperger Association Conference in Park City, Utah. During the USAAA conference, the author voices his concerns over the current autism epidemic. He opines that the failure of the medical profession and many governmental and other public…

  19. God-talk as apocalyptic.

    PubMed

    Allen, J T

    2000-01-01

    Notes that God-talk encountered in pastoral ministry resembles the genre of apocalyptic literature and that the language and imagery is often confrontational and non-rational. Opines that caregivers need to be aware of the dynamic dimension of apocalyptic in order to understand the use of apocalyptic imagery in the pastoral encounter. Explores the background and theology of apocalyptic perspectives and suggests how it might be utilized in pastoral ministry.

  20. The Guardian. Volume 9, Number 3, Winter 2007

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2007-01-01

    message correctly. Muslims will ultimately determine whether the ideology of al Qaeda, its affiliates, franchisees , and fellow travelers represents...opined that the effort would not work or would not pass the cost– benefit comparison. Others wanted to develop comprehensive NATO doctrine to guide...full BAT capability, the access-control benefits of BAT/HIIDE are a significant improvement to overall ISAF force protection, even in stand-alone mode

  1. Hypermetabolism as a Risk Factor for ALS

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-09-01

    hIBM) and sporadic Inclusion Body Myositis (sIBM). These disorders are characterized clinically by progressive muscle degeneration and weakness that...1186–1189 (2008). 3. Lloyd, T. E. Novel therapeutic approaches for inclusion body myositis . Current Opinion in Rheumatology 22, 658–664 (2010). 4...46, 424–430 (2008). 8. Weihl, C. C. & Pestronk, A. Sporadic inclusion body myositis : possible pathogenesis inferred from biomarkers. Curr Opin

  2. West Europe Report

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1987-01-14

    Yet men are the same everywhere, intelli- gence functions in every individual according to the same principles. French philosopher Descartes , in...with Sunday work. Some 100, perhaps 200 would be affected by this, says Mega boss Friedrich. IG Metall works councilman Rene Kaufmann opines however...position of the industrial code: Sunday work only because of technical constraints or for service to the customer. 69 IG Metall works councilman Rene

  3. A Modified Moore Approach to Teaching Mathematical Statistics: An Inquiry Based Learning Technique to Teaching Mathematical Statistics

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McLoughlin, M. Padraig M. M.

    2008-01-01

    The author of this paper submits the thesis that learning requires doing; only through inquiry is learning achieved, and hence this paper proposes a programme of use of a modified Moore method in a Probability and Mathematical Statistics (PAMS) course sequence to teach students PAMS. Furthermore, the author of this paper opines that set theory…

  4. Mammary Tumor Development: Stromal-Epithelial Interactions in Oncogenesis.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1996-09-01

    differentiation, prolif- erative preneoplastic lesions, or invasive adenocarcinomas , depending on the promoter con- struct used and the animal’s age when...Zn). Virgin RSV-SGF transgenic mice showed marked preneoplastic MG ductal proliferation by 6 mo. By 8 mo., 1/3 had developed adenocarcinoma . Virgin...fat pRSGF Constitutively expressed Highly abnormal. None Normal Observed at 8 1/3 of mice show months of age invasive secretory adenocarcinoma SGF

  5. First Spectroscopic Identification of Pyrocarbonate for High CO2 Flux Membranes Containing Highly Interconnected Three Dimensional Ionic Channels

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-01-01

    Koura, S. Kohara , K. Takeuchi, S. Takahashi, L. A. Curtiss, M. Grimsditch and M.-L. Saboungi, J. Mol. Struct., 1996, 382, 163–169. 49 L.-J. Chen, X...Cheng, C.-J. Lin and C.-M. Huang, Electrochim. Acta, 2002, 47, 1475–1480. 50 S. Kohara , N. Koura, Y. Idemoto, S. Takahashi, M.-L. Saboungi and L. A

  6. Gender and Racial Equity in the U.S. Military Occupational Distribution

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1988-09-30

    suggested here could be operating. Discussion of those cited follows. Structural Discrimination The terms racism , sexism , institutional racism , and struct...a statistically significant level. Specifically, they were consistently underrepresented in the core technical occupations while White males...with Black enlisted men who number 198,000, or 30% of enlisted Army men, and 396,000, or 22% of enlisted men in the DoD Services (Quarterly Statistics

  7. A Toolkit for Designing User Interfaces

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1990-03-01

    as the NPS IB can provide prototyping capability. Interface generators are available commercially for nearly every computing machine on the market ...structure which holds attributes of the message buffer window is shown in Figure 4.2. The variables nlines and nchars hold the number of lines in the...window its appearance of scrolling 46 /* define a type and structure for the message buffer */ struct messbuf( long nlines ; /* number of lines in the

  8. Beam Research Program

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1984-04-01

    wavelengths. A direct application of such a laser is isotope separation. 2. For a brief status report of the Laboratory’s high- explosive flash...operation in the fall of 1982. in a 50-MeV Advanced Test Accelerator Facility (the ATA)1 that we are con- structing at our high- explosives test loca...chemical explosives in target-damage studies. Potential hazards associated with the ATA experiments were considered in choosing our site. LLNL’s

  9. Convergent evolution of Amadori opine catabolic systems in plasmids of Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

    PubMed

    Baek, Chang-Ho; Farrand, Stephen K; Lee, Ko-Eun; Park, Dae-Kyun; Lee, Jeong Kug; Kim, Kun-Soo

    2003-01-01

    Deoxyfructosyl glutamine (DFG, referred to elsewhere as dfg) is a naturally occurring Amadori compound found in rotting fruits and vegetables. DFG also is an opine and is found in tumors induced by chrysopine-type strains of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Such strains catabolize this opine via a pathway coded for by their plasmids. NT1, a derivative of the nopaline-type A. tumefaciens strain C58 lacking pTiC58, can utilize DFG as the sole carbon source. Genes for utilization of DFG were mapped to the 543-kb accessory plasmid pAtC58. Two cosmid clones of pAtC58 allowed UIA5, a plasmid-free derivative of C58, harboring pSa-C that expresses MocC (mannopine [MOP] oxidoreductase that oxidizes MOP to DFG), to grow by using MOP as the sole carbon source. Genetic analysis of subclones indicated that the genes for utilization of DFG are located in a 6.2-kb BglII (Bg2) region adjacent to repABC-type genes probably responsible for the replication of pAtC58. This region contains five open reading frames organized into at least two transcriptional soc (santhopine catabolism) groups: socR and socABCD. Nucleotide sequence analysis and analyses of transposon-insertion mutations in the region showed that SocR negatively regulates the expression of socR itself and socABCD. SocA and SocB are responsible for transport of DFG and MOP. SocA is a homolog of known periplasmic amino acid binding proteins. The N-terminal half of SocB is a homolog of the transmembrane transporter proteins for several amino acids, and the C-terminal half is a homolog of the transporter-associated ATP-binding proteins. SocC and SocD could be responsible for the enzymatic degradation of DFG, being homologs of sugar oxidoreductases and an amadoriase from Corynebacterium sp., respectively. The protein products of socABCD are not related at the amino acid sequence level to those of the moc and mot genes of Ti plasmids responsible for utilization of DFG and MOP, indicating that these two sets of genes and their catabolic pathways have evolved convergently from independent origins.

  10. Studies of a Ras Antagonist in Breast Cancer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2005-05-01

    growth by Farensylthiosalicylic acid. J Biol Chem 1995; 270: 22268- 22270 . [19] Egozi Y, Weisz B, Gana-Weisz M, Ben-Baruch G, and Kloog Y, Growth...growth by Farensylthiosalisylic acid. J Biol Chem 270(35) (1995) 22268- 22270 . [71] Y. Egozi, B. Weisz, M. Gana-Weisz, G. Ben-Baruch, and Y. Kloog, Growth...G, Marciano D, Egozi Y, Kloog Y 1995 Selective inhibition of Ras- dependent cell growth by farnesylthiosalisylic acid. J Biol Chem 270:22263- 22270 40

  11. Intrasystem Analysis Program (IAP) Structural Design Study.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1981-06-01

    accuracy constraints, and user competence . This report is designed to serve as a guide in con- structing procedures and identifying those aspects of the...parameters. 3.3.3 Userability The term "Userability" refers here to the level of competence assumed for an IAP analyst in need of a procedure. There...media the wires pass through is homogeneous along the length of the wires. Under these assumptions the wave propagation is predominantly tranverse

  12. Simulation-Based Military Regional Anesthesia Training System

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-12-01

    and Zhang, X.Z., 2006 : Development of an MR-brake-based haptic device, Smart Mater. Struct., 15, 1960-66. Meislin, H., Criss, E. A. et al ., 1997...operations were superficial wounds or wounds to the extremities (Trunkey, 1983; Rush et al ., 2007). This was partly due to the advent of body... et al ., 1997). Report Documentation Page Form ApprovedOMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to

  13. Dynamic Multiaxial Response of a Hot-Pressed Aluminum Nitride

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-01-05

    Hutchinson, Adv. Appl . Mech. 29 (1992). [34] H. Ming-Yuan, J.W. Hutchinson, Int. J. Solids Struct. 25 (1989) 1053. [35] J. Salem , L. Ghosn, Int. J...Dynamic Multiaxial Response of a Hot- Pressed Aluminum Nitride by Guangli Hu, C. Q. Chen, K. T. Ramesh, and J. W. McCauley ARL-RP-0487...Laboratory Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005-5066 ARL-RP-0487 June 2014 Dynamic Multiaxial Response of a Hot- Pressed Aluminum Nitride

  14. Is There a Future for Teacher Ed Curriculum? An Answer from History and Moral Philosophy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Null, J. Wesley

    2008-01-01

    Is there a future for teacher ed "curriculum"? The author contends that he is not sure if there is a future for teacher ed curriculum, but if such a future is to exist, the answer will come only from history and moral philosophy. In this article, the author opines that individuals cannot make good decisions about the future of teacher ed…

  15. Root-specific expression of opine genes and opine accumulation in some cultivars of the naturally occurring genetically modified organism Nicotiana tabacum.

    PubMed

    Chen, Ke; de Borne, François Dorlhac; Julio, Emilie; Obszynski, Julie; Pale, Patrick; Otten, Léon

    2016-08-01

    Previous studies have shown that Nicotiana tabacum contains three Agrobacterium-derived T-DNA sequences inherited from its paternal ancestor Nicotiana tomentosiformis. Among these, the TB locus carries an intact mannopine synthase 2' gene (TB-mas2'). This gene is similar to the Agrobacterium rhizogenes A4-mas2' gene that encodes the synthesis of the Amadori compound deoxyfructosyl-glutamine (DFG or santhopine). In this study we show that TB-mas2' is expressed at very low levels in N. tomentosiformis and in most N. tabacum cultivars; however, some cultivars show high TB-mas2' expression levels. The TB-mas2' promoter sequences of low- and high-expressing cultivars are identical. The low/high level of expression segregates as a single Mendelian factor in a cross between a low- and a high-expression cultivar. pTB-mas2'-GUS and pA4-mas2'-GUS reporter genes were stably introduced in N. benthamiana. Both were mainly expressed in the root expansion zone and leaf vasculature. Roots of tobacco cultivars with high TB-mas2' expression contain detectable levels of DFG. © 2016 The Authors The Plant Journal © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  16. EDITORIAL: Special section on signal transduction Special section on signal transduction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shvartsman, Stanislav

    2012-08-01

    This special section of Physical Biology focuses on multiple aspects of signal transduction, broadly defined as the study of the mechanisms by which cells communicate with their environment. Mechanisms of cell communication involve detection of incoming signals, which can be chemical, mechanical or electromagnetic, relaying these signals to intracellular processes, such as cytoskeletal networks or gene expression systems, and, ultimately, converting these signals to responses such as cell differentiation or death. Given the multiscale nature of signal transduction systems, they must be studied at multiple levels, from the identities and structures of molecules comprising signal detection and interpretation networks, to the systems-level properties of these networks. The 11 papers in this special section illustrate some of the most exciting aspects of signal transduction research. The first two papers, by Marie-Anne Félix [1] and by Efrat Oron and Natalia Ivanova [2], focus on cell-cell interactions in developing tissues, using vulval patterning in worm and cell fate specification in mammalian embryos as prime examples of emergent cell behaviors. Next come two papers from the groups of Julio Saez-Rodriguez [3] and Kevin Janes [4]. These papers discuss how the causal relationships between multiple components of signaling systems can be inferred using multivariable statistical analysis of empirical data. An authoritative review by Zarnitsyna and Zhu [5] presents a detailed discussion of the sequence of signaling events involved in T-cell triggering. Once the structure and components of the signaling systems are determined, they can be modeled using approaches that have been successful in other physical sciences. As two examples of such approaches, reviews by Rubinstein [6] and Kholodenko [7], present reaction-diffusion models of cell polarization and thermodynamics-based models of gene regulation. An important class of models takes the form of enzymatic networks, where a single molecule can participate in multiple types of interactions. Mathematical analysis of these models is discussed in the papers by Del Vecchio [8], Seaton and Krishnan [9], and Hatzimanikatis and colleagues [10]. Finally, all signaling systems are information processing devices. While this point is broadly accepted, there have been only a few attempts to apply information theory to experimental signaling systems. A review by Andre Levchenko and colleagues [11] provides a very clear introduction to information theory and its potential applications to signal transduction in cellular systems. References [1] Félix M-A 2012 Phys. Biol. 9 045001 [2] Oron E and Ivanova N 2012 Phys. Biol. 9 045002 [3] MacNamara A et al 2012 Phys. Biol. 9 045003 [4] Jensen K J and Janes K A 2012 Phys. Biol. 9 045004 [5] Zarnitsyna V and Zhu C 2012 Phys. Biol. 9 045005 [6] Rubinstein B et al 2012 Phys. Biol. 9 045006 [7] Frank T D et al 2012 Phys. Biol. 9 045007 [8] Del Vecchio D et al 2012 Phys. Biol. 9 045008 [9] Seaton D D and Krishnan J 2012 Phys. Biol. 9 045009 [10] Radivojevic A et al 2012 Phys. Biol. 9 045010 [11] Rhee A et al 2012 Phys. Biol. 9 045011

  17. Requirements, Technology and Configuration Evaluation for Crash Survivable Flight Data Recording (CSFDR) System

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1981-03-23

    25% Rotational angle - 350 degrees Temperature range - -65°C to + 125°C Vibration - 15 g Shock - 50 g Rotational load life - 25,000,000...structed of multi-layered metal foils, vacuum deposited on thin films of Mylar, Kapton, or similar plastics) slowly outgas and contaminate their own...armor. Intumescent coating is a paint derivative, which swells 5 to 50 times its original thickness when exposed to high temperatures ( 350 ° to 500

  18. Recent Developments in Assessing Microstructure-Sensitive Early Stage Fatigue of Polycrystals (Postprint)

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-04-01

    can strongly affect formation of fatigue cracks. El Bartali et al. [7] quantified plastic strain at the grain scale in a duplex stainless steel and mea... Fatigue Fract Eng Mater Struct 2013. [7] El Bartali A, Aubin V, Degallaix S. Fatigue damage analysis in a duplex stainless steel by digital image...S. Surface observation and measurement techniques to study the fatigue damage micromechanisms in a duplex stainless steel . Int J Fatigue 2009;31:2049

  19. WebStruct and VisualStruct: Web interfaces and visualization for Structure software implemented in a cluster environment.

    PubMed

    Jayashree, B; Rajgopal, S; Hoisington, D; Prasanth, V P; Chandra, S

    2008-09-24

    Structure, is a widely used software tool to investigate population genetic structure with multi-locus genotyping data. The software uses an iterative algorithm to group individuals into "K" clusters, representing possibly K genetically distinct subpopulations. The serial implementation of this programme is processor-intensive even with small datasets. We describe an implementation of the program within a parallel framework. Speedup was achieved by running different replicates and values of K on each node of the cluster. A web-based user-oriented GUI has been implemented in PHP, through which the user can specify input parameters for the programme. The number of processors to be used can be specified in the background command. A web-based visualization tool "Visualstruct", written in PHP (HTML and Java script embedded), allows for the graphical display of population clusters output from Structure, where each individual may be visualized as a line segment with K colors defining its possible genomic composition with respect to the K genetic sub-populations. The advantage over available programs is in the increased number of individuals that can be visualized. The analyses of real datasets indicate a speedup of up to four, when comparing the speed of execution on clusters of eight processors with the speed of execution on one desktop. The software package is freely available to interested users upon request.

  20. Histone Methylation and Epigenetic Silencing in Breast Cancer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-07-01

    Curr Opin Genet Dev 14(2): 155-164. Caretti, G ., Di Padova, M., Micales, B., Lyons, G.E., and Sartorelli, V. 2004. The Polycomb Ezh2...tissues. Cancer Res 66(8): 4095-4099. Egger, G ., Liang, G ., Aparicio, A., and Jones, P.A. 2004. Epigenetics in human disease and prospects for...Widschwendter, M., Fiegl, H., Egle, D., Mueller-Holzner, E., Spizzo, G ., Marth, C., Weisenberger, D.J., Campan, M., Young, J., Jacobs, I., and Laird

  1. Comparing Risk- and Non-Risk-Groups Is a Favored Approach in Developmental Psychopathology. Commentary on: "Variations in Early Attachment Mechanisms Contribute to Attachment Quality: Case Studies Including Babies Born Preterm"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Suess, Gerhard J.

    2016-01-01

    In this commentary, Suess opines that comparing risk- and non-risk-groups, as is done in the study by Witting, Ruiz, and Ahnert (2016), is a favored approach in developmental psychopathology in order to learn more about underlying mechanisms of normal development, as well as developmental deviations. Witting and colleagues followed up this…

  2. University of Glasgow at TREC 2008: Experiments in Blog, Enterprise, and Relevance Feedback Tracks with Terrier

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-11-01

    improves our TREC 2007 dictionary -based approach by automatically building an internal opinion dictionary from the collection itself. We measure the opin...detecting opinionated documents. The first approach improves our TREC 2007 dictionary -based approach by automat- ically building an internal opinion... dictionary from the collection itself. The second approach is based on the OpinionFinder tool, which identifies subjective sentences in text. In particular

  3. Genetics Home Reference: dyserythropoietic anemia and thrombocytopenia

    MedlinePlus

    ... PubMed Crispino JD. GATA1 in normal and malignant hematopoiesis. Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2005 Feb;16(1): ... GATA1 function, a paradigm for transcription factors in hematopoiesis. Mol Cell Biol. 2005 Feb;25(4):1215- ...

  4. Convergent Evolution of Amadori Opine Catabolic Systems in Plasmids of Agrobacterium tumefaciens

    PubMed Central

    Baek, Chang-Ho; Farrand, Stephen K.; Lee, Ko-Eun; Park, Dae-Kyun; Lee, Jeong Kug; Kim, Kun-Soo

    2003-01-01

    Deoxyfructosyl glutamine (DFG, referred to elsewhere as dfg) is a naturally occurring Amadori compound found in rotting fruits and vegetables. DFG also is an opine and is found in tumors induced by chrysopine-type strains of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Such strains catabolize this opine via a pathway coded for by their plasmids. NT1, a derivative of the nopaline-type A. tumefaciens strain C58 lacking pTiC58, can utilize DFG as the sole carbon source. Genes for utilization of DFG were mapped to the 543-kb accessory plasmid pAtC58. Two cosmid clones of pAtC58 allowed UIA5, a plasmid-free derivative of C58, harboring pSa-C that expresses MocC (mannopine [MOP] oxidoreductase that oxidizes MOP to DFG), to grow by using MOP as the sole carbon source. Genetic analysis of subclones indicated that the genes for utilization of DFG are located in a 6.2-kb BglII (Bg2) region adjacent to repABC-type genes probably responsible for the replication of pAtC58. This region contains five open reading frames organized into at least two transcriptional soc (santhopine catabolism) groups: socR and socABCD. Nucleotide sequence analysis and analyses of transposon-insertion mutations in the region showed that SocR negatively regulates the expression of socR itself and socABCD. SocA and SocB are responsible for transport of DFG and MOP. SocA is a homolog of known periplasmic amino acid binding proteins. The N-terminal half of SocB is a homolog of the transmembrane transporter proteins for several amino acids, and the C-terminal half is a homolog of the transporter-associated ATP-binding proteins. SocC and SocD could be responsible for the enzymatic degradation of DFG, being homologs of sugar oxidoreductases and an amadoriase from Corynebacterium sp., respectively. The protein products of socABCD are not related at the amino acid sequence level to those of the moc and mot genes of Ti plasmids responsible for utilization of DFG and MOP, indicating that these two sets of genes and their catabolic pathways have evolved convergently from independent origins. PMID:12511498

  5. Autocrine and Paracrine Hh Signaling Regulate Prostate Development

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2010-09-01

    Rev. Mol. Cell. Biol. 6, 306–317 7. Wang, B. E., Shou, J., Ross, S., Koeppen, H., De Sauvage, F. J., and Gao, W. Q. (2003) J. Biol. Chem. 278, 18506...and Placzek, M. (2006) Nat. Rev. Genet. 7, 841–850 13. Callahan, C. A., Ofstad, T., Horng, L.,Wang, J. K., Zhen, H. H., Coulombe , P. A., and Oro, A. E...Albig, A. R., and Schiemann, W. P. (2005)Mol. Biol. Cell 16, 609–625 45. Olsen, M. W., Ley , C. D., Junker, N., Hansen, A. J., Lund, E. L., and Krist

  6. On the distribution of the amplitudes of natural ELF emissions from measurements on the Kola peninsula.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pchelkin, Vladimir; Beloglazov, Mikhail

    The distributions of the amplitudes of natural emissions of electromagnetic field in the Shu-mann resonance frequency range are investigated. From the data of Lovozero observatory daily variations of the number of overshoots of signal amplitude above given thresholds were con-structed. A possibility is discussed of applicability for the considered frequency range a known from the literature formula, which describes analytically the peak distribution of the spherics. We note the influence of magnetic disturbances on amplitude distribution function.

  7. Impacts of Lake Level Regulation on Beaches and Boating Facilities--Lakes Erie and Ontario and Connecting Waterways. Recreation Beaches Inventory.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1979-12-18

    feet, the crews were in- structed to take additional measurements. At very long beaches, such as at Presque Isle State Park, in Pennsylvania , the...REGULATION ON BEACHES AND BOATING FACILITIES- LAKES ERIE AND) ONTARIO AND CONNECTING WATERWAYS -I RECREATION BEACHES INVENTORY 3 December 18, 1979 Contract...CATALOG NUMBER 4. TITLE (and Subtitle) S. TYPE OF REPORT & PERIOD COVERED Impacts of Lake Level Regulation on Beaches and Boating Facilities--Lake Erie and

  8. An Essential Protein Repair Enzyme: Investigation of the Molecular Recognition Mechanism of Methionine Sulfoxide Reductase A

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-05-01

    4 ). The three-dimensional spatial orientation of the atoms for these resolved solution structures (Protein Data Bank accession codes: 2gt3...Crystal structure of the Escherichia coli peptide methionine sulphoxide reductase at 1.9 Å resolution . Struct. Fold. Des. 8: 1167 – 1178. 2 . Brot...sources (8). There is a 67% sequence identity between the E.coli and human MsrA ( 2 ). N-terminus C-terminus Figure 2 . Three-dimensional structure

  9. History of the AFRL/USC DARPA Program on Polynitrogen Chemistry. Volume 2

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2004-10-01

    published by Pyykkoe and Runeberg in 1991 as part of a systematic study of the isoelectronic dicyanamide series, but little emphasis was given to N5+ as...2003, 244, 93. [3] K. O. Christe, R. D. Wilson, W. W. Wilson, R. Bau, S. Sukumar, D. A. Dixon, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1991 , 113, 1991 . [4] P...Pyykkoe, N. Runeberg, J. Mol. Struct. (Theochem.) 1991 , 234, 279. [5] R. Rawls, Chem. & Eng. News, Jan. 25 issue, 1999, pg. 7. [6] P. Zurer, Chem

  10. OSA Proceedings of the Topical Meeting on Soft-X-Ray Projection Lithography Held in Monterey, California on 10-12 April 1991. Volume 12

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1992-05-22

    Carbide because of its high thermal the mirror on its backside or edge. Shott Zerodur conductivity. Edge cooling causes a larger exceeded the limit by about...Characterization Angstrom-level noncontact profiling of mirrors for soft x-ray lithography............ 134 Paul Glenn Nonspecular Scattering from X-Ray...structed by patterning a Mo/Si Tropel Division of GCA Corporation. multilayer coated silicon wafer. The mirrors were coated at AT&T Bell The multilayer

  11. Annual Report on Electronics Research at The University of Texas at Austin.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1982-05-15

    Professor, Physics, 471-5747 L. Frommhold, Professor, Physics, 471-5100 J. Keto , Associate Professor, Physics, 471-4151 H.J. Kimble, Assistant Professor...Scattering Cross Section of Argon Diatom," Canad. J. Physics, 59, 1418 (1981). *Michael H. Proffitt, J.W. Keto and Lothar Frommhold, "Col- lision Induced...Elec- tron Diffraction Study of the Structure of Anthraquinone and Anthracene," J. Mol. Struct. 77, 127-138 (1981). J.W. Keto , T.D. Raymond and Chien-Yu

  12. Effect of Riblets on Pressure Recovery in a Straight-Walled Diffuser

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1990-12-01

    in the boundary layer velocity pro - file. As the flow continues to oppose the adverse pressure gradient, the fluid near the wall begins to flow in the...and was 37 inches long. The floor and ceiling of the test section were con - 3 structed of wood and the side panels were made of plexiglass. Both side...the diffuser remained fairly con - stant at 52 percent. The riblet results seem to follow the same trend, providing an approximate 35 percent increase in

  13. Lamb Wave Propagation in a Restricted Geometry Composite PI-Joint Specimen (Preprint)

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2011-11-01

    adhesive, and were located along the length and height of the specimen as depicted in Figure 3. The sensors were 6.35 mm round disks of PZT , with a...in both cases for R1, R2, and R3. 3D Finite Element Model Geometry 200mm length 50mm width 140mm height x z y PZT Actuation Sensor...health monitoring using scanning laser vibrometry: III. Lamb waves for fatigue crack detection”, Smart Mater. Struct., Vol. 14, No. 6, 2005. 16

  14. Avalanche Characteristics of Silicide Schottky Barrier Diodes

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1988-01-01

    respectively. Detectors should be con- structed of materials where a and 0 differ greatly, and then the multiplication should be initiated by the...8217 MASTER OF SCIENCE OSLD r In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 1 9 8 7 ale L. STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in...the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgement the proposed use of the material is in the interests

  15. Efficient Estimation of Mutual Information for Strongly Dependent Variables

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2015-05-11

    the two possibilities: for a fixed dimension d and near- est neighbor parameter k, we find a constant ↵ k,d , such that if V̄ (i)/V (i) < ↵ k,d , then...also compare the results to several baseline estima- tors: KSG (Kraskov et al., 2004), generalized near- est neighbor graph (GNN) (Pál et al., 2010...Amaury Lendasse, and Francesco Corona. A boundary corrected expansion of the moments of near- est neighbor distributions. Random Struct. Algorithms

  16. The Influences of Glycosylation on the Antigenicity, Immunogenicity, and Protective Efficacy of Ebola Virus GP DNA Vaccines

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2006-11-22

    multiple muta- tions were not studied, (iii) a vaccinia virus (VACV)- T7 system was used for transient expression, (iv) pseudotyped retrovi- ruses were used...those studies produced little to no detectable GP1 or GP2 in the transient VACV- T7 expression assays, whereas in our studies with the DNA con- structs...type GP2 was detected in pseudotyped retroviruses, a result seemingly in conflict with these authors’ findings with the VACV- T7 expression. Although

  17. On the Robustness of Herlihy’s Hierarchy

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1993-03-01

    s op ’. 5 Thus, the order...includes all complete operations in H. 2. if two operations op and op’ are in S , op < s op ’ if and only if response of op precedes the response of op...in S different from (eý’, eje), op < S op ’ if and only if the response of op precedes the response of op’ in H. It is easy to verify that (i) S is

  18. Joint Force Quarterly. Issue 56, 1st Quarter, January 2010

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2010-01-01

    He opines that “building a rudi- mentary state, even a flawed one that is able to provide a modicum of security and gover - nance to its people, is...as its ethos to balance tribal elites and powerbrokers that often remain wedded to benefiting their peers. Third, the concept of official gover ...American approach. A renewed U.S. commitment to funding grassroots development and gover - nance must accompany the influx of troops. The Afghan

  19. Case-based learning in endocrine physiology: an approach toward self-directed learning and the development of soft skills in medical students.

    PubMed

    Gade, Shubhada; Chari, Suresh

    2013-12-01

    The Medical Council of India, in the recent Vision 2015 document, recommended curricular reforms for undergraduates. Case-based learning (CBL) is one method where students are motivated toward self-directed learning and to develop analytic and problem-solving skills. An overview of thyroid physiology was given in a didactic lecture. A paper-based case scenario of multinodular goiter was given to phase I Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery students in two sessions. An attitude survey of the students and teachers was done using a Likert scale ranging from strongly disagrees to strongly agree. A pretest and posttest were conducted. The students opined that CBL helped them to better their understanding of a particular topic, gave them better retention of knowledge, helped them to relate clinical conditions to basic sciences, improved soft skills such as communication skills and group dynamics, and promoted a better teacher-student relationship. There was significant improvement in student's performance when pre- and posttest scores were compared (P = 0.018). Furthermore, faculty members opined that CBL promoted self-study and problem-solving abilities of the students. In conclusion, CBL motivates students toward self-directed learning and to develop analytic and problem-solving skills; thus, CBL could be beneficial for students' entry into clinical departments and, finally, in managing patients.

  20. Populations of Radial Glial Cells Respond Differently to Reelin and Neuregulin1 in a Ferret Model of Cortical Dysplasia

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2010-10-28

    which underlies many syndromes including mental retardation, epilepsy, schizophrenia, and autism [7,8,9]. In rodents, neurogenesis and neuronal...Jossin Y, Goffinet AM (2007) Reelin signals through phosphatidylinositol 3- kinase and Akt to control cortical development and through mTor to regulate...the PI3K-AKT- mTOR pathway: progress, pitfalls, and promises. Curr Opin Pharmacol 8(4): 393–412. 60. Nadarajah B, Alifragis P, Wong RO, Parnavelas JG

  1. ESKIMO II. Magazine Separation Test

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1974-09-01

    were supported against blast loading at the hinges and at the top and bottom. Further door support was provided by bearings on stops welded to the...head of the door and by a round steel rod projecting rnwad and bearing on the steel beam. During the test the doors were dislodged and thrown to the...cOAcnlt projection abova door opining to It if fan haaowali. C 133 3180 • 75 153 Stoaf dowat to nmtt door movmint at top; »aas affactwa than door

  2. Identification and Characterization of Genomic Amplifications in Ovarian Serous Carcinoma

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2006-01-01

    Wang (2005) Exploring cancer genome using innovative technologies. Curr Opin Oncol, 17:33-38. • G Singer, R Stohr, L Cope, R Dehari, A Hartmann, D -F...tions/plate × 6 plates/ d ). This high-throughput platform permits a systemic scan of cancer genome at the nucleo- tide level in a short time [35]. This...Carter D , Foellmer HG, et al.: Neu proto-oncogene amplification and expression in ovarian adenocarcinoma cell lines. Am J Pathol 1992, 140:23–31. 12

  3. The Effect of Armed Forces Qualification Test Score on Mental Health Outcome Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-04-04

    Brain reserve and dementia: a systematic review . Psychol Med 2006;36:441–54. 39. Valenzuela MJ: Brain reserve and the prevention of dementia. Curr Opin...Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) score. A retrospective review was conducted to identify those with postinjury mental health disorders (ICD-9-CM codes...studies suggest the relationship between intelligence and mental health outcome may be more robust in those with MTBI, because the injury itself may

  4. Wounds due to a modified shot gun (home-made): a case report.

    PubMed

    Palimar, Vikram; Nayak, Vinod C; Arun, M; Kumar, Pradeep G; Bhagavath, Prashantha

    2010-05-01

    In a case of firearm fatality, the autopsy surgeon is required to opine as to the range of fire in addition to the cause of death which will help in reconstruction of the events. Problems may arise in estimating the range of fire based on wound ballistics when there is an alteration or modification in the internal ballistics. We encountered such a case in the department of Forensic Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, which is discussed. Copyright (c) 2010. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  5. Humanized in vivo Model for Autoimmune Diabetes

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2010-02-01

    DD-MM-YYYY) 01-02-2010 2. REPORT TYPE Annual 3. DATES COVERED (From - To) 8 JAN 2009 - 7 JAN 2010 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Humanized in vivo...possibility has already been raised by others (15). W81XWH-07-1-0121 7 KEY RESEARCH ACCOMPLISHMENTS Published peer -reviewed...4399–4405. 33. Rudolph , M. G., and I. A. Wilson. 2002. The specificity of TCR/pMHC inter- action. Curr. Opin. Immunol. 14: 52–65. 34. Riberdy, J. M., E

  6. The Impact of Sweat Calcium Loss on Bone Health in Soldiers: A Pilot Study

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-02-06

    correlated to total calories, carbohydrate, fat , and protein intake. For Group 1 (Medical) overall diet did not have an impact on bone density. For Group...baseline heel bone density for this group we do not know if the diet , high in calories, protein, and carbohydrates, with adequate amounts of calcium...FH. (2010). Acid diet ( high -meat protein) effects on calcium metabolism and bone health. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care, 13(6):698-702. Cizza, G

  7. Societal Interactions in Ovarian Cancer Metastases: A Quorum Sensing Hypothesis

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2007-11-01

    subsequent studies we found that the density of the cells in culture at the time of harvest for injection did have a significant effect on their...VJ (2003) From motility to virulence: sensing and responding to environmental signals in Vibrio chol- erae. Curr Opin Microbiol 6:186–190. doi:10.1016...of luminescence in Vibrio har- veyi: sequence and function of genes encoding a second sensory pathway. Mol Microbiol 13:273–286. doi:10.1111/j.1365

  8. Advances in the Visualization and Analysis of Boundary Layer Flow in Swimming Fish

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2005-02-01

    caudal-fin amputation on the kinematics and metabolic rate of underyearling sockeye salmon ( Oncorhynchus nerka ) at steady swimming speeds. J. Exp. Biol...caudal-fin amputation on the kinematics and metabolic rate of underyearling sockeye salmon ( Oncorhynchus nerka ) at steady swimming speeds. J. Exp. Biol

  9. EDITORIAL: Roberts Prize for the best paper published in 2010 Roberts Prize for the best paper published in 2010

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Webb, Steve; Harris, Simon

    2011-08-01

    The publishers of Physics in Medicine and Biology (PMB), IOP Publishing, in association with the journal owners, the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM), jointly award an annual prize for the best paper published in PMB during the previous year. The procedure for deciding the winner has been made as thorough as possible, to try to ensure that an outstanding paper wins the prize. We started off with a shortlist of the 10 research papers published in 2010 which were rated the best based on the referees' quality assessments. Following the submission of a short 'case for winning' document by each of the shortlisted authors, an IPEM college of jurors of the status of FIPEM assessed and rated these 10 papers in order to choose a winner, which was then endorsed by the Editorial Board. We have much pleasure in advising readers that the Roberts Prize for the best paper published in 2010 is awarded to M M Paulides et al from Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, for their paper on hyperthermia treatment: The clinical feasibility of deep hyperthermia treatment in the head and neck: new challenges for positioning and temperature measurement M M Paulides, J F Bakker, M Linthorst, J van der Zee, Z Rijnen, E Neufeld, P M T Pattynama, P P Jansen, P C Levendag and G C van Rhoon 2010 Phys. Med. Biol. 55 2465 Our congratulations go to these authors. Of course all of the shortlisted papers were of great merit, and the full top-10 is listed below (in alphabetical order). Steve Webb Editor-in-Chief Simon Harris Publisher References Alonzo-Proulx O, Packard N, Boone J M, Al-Mayah A, Brock K K, Shen S Z and Yaffe M J 2010 Validation of a method for measuring the volumetric breast density from digital mammograms Phys. Med. Biol. 55 3027 Bian J, Siewerdsen J H, Han X, Sidky E Y, Prince J L, Pelizzari C A and Pan X 2010 Evaluation of sparse-view reconstruction from flat-panel-detector cone-beam CT Phys. Med. Biol. 55 6575 Brun M-A, Formanek F, Yasuda A, Sekine M, Ando N and Eishii Y 2010 Terahertz imaging applied to cancer diagnosis Phys. Med. Biol. 55 4615 Eklund K and Ahnesjö A 2010 Modeling silicon diode dose response factors for small photon fields Phys. Med. Biol. 55 7411 Kolb A, Lorenz E, Judenhofer M S, Renker D, Lankes K and Pichler B J 2010 Evaluation of Geiger-mode APDs for PET block detector designs Phys. Med. Biol. 55 1815 Lobo J and Popescu I A 2010 Two new DOSXYZnrc sources for 4D Monte Carlo simulations of continuously variable beam configurations, with applications to RapidArc, VMAT, TomoTherapy and CyberKnife Phys. Med. Biol. 55 4431 Paulides M M, Bakker J F, Linthorst M, van der Zee J, Rijnen Z, Neufeld E, Pattynama P M T, Jansen P P, Levendag P C and van Rhoon G C 2010 The clinical feasibility of deep hyperthermia treatment in the head and neck: new challenges for positioning and temperature measurement Phys. Med. Biol. 55 2465 Rockne R, Rockhill J K, Mrugala M, Spence A M, Kalet I, Hendrickson K, Lai A, Cloughesy T, Alvord E C Jr and Swanson K R 2010 Predicting the efficacy of radiotherapy in individual glioblastoma patients in vivo: a mathematical modeling approach Phys. Med. Biol. 55 3271 Wertz H et al 2010 Fast kilovoltage/megavoltage (kVMV) breathhold cone-beam CT for image-guided radiotherapy of lung cancer Phys. Med. Biol. 55 4203 Zhang B, MacFadden D, Damyanovich A Z, Rieker M, Stainsby J, Bernstein M, Jaffray D A, Mikulis D and Ménard C 2010 Development of a geometrically accurate imaging protocol at 3 Tesla MRI for stereotactic radiosurgery treatment planning Phys. Med. Biol. 55 6601

  10. EDITORIAL: Roberts Prize for the best paper published in 2009 Roberts Prize for the best paper published in 2009

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Webb, Steve; Harris, Simon

    2010-07-01

    The publishers of Physics in Medicine and Biology (PMB), IOP Publishing, in association with the journal owners, the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM), jointly award an annual prize for the best paper published in PMB during the previous year. The procedure for deciding the winner has been made as thorough as possible, to try to ensure that an outstanding paper wins the prize. We started off with a shortlist of the 10 research papers published in 2009 which were rated the best based on the referees' quality assessments. Following the submission of a short 'case for winning' document by each of the shortlisted authors, an IPEM college of jurors of the status of FIPEM assessed and rated these 10 papers in order to choose a winner, which was then endorsed by the Editorial Board. We have a clear, and very worthy, winner this year. We have much pleasure in advising readers that the 2009 Roberts Prize is awarded to E Z Zhang et al from University College London for their paper on photoacoustic tomography. In vivo high resolution 3D photoacoustic imaging of superficial vascular anatomy E Z Zhang, J G Laufer, R B Pedley and P C Beard 2009 Phys. Med. Biol. 54 1035-46 Our congratulations go to these authors. Of course all of the shortlisted papers were of great merit, and the full top-10 is listed below (in alphabetical order). Steve Webb Editor-in-Chief Simon Harris Publisher References Cheng Y-C N , Neelavalli J and Haacke E M 2009 Limitations of calculating field distributions and magnetic susceptibilities in MRI using a Fourier based method Phys. Med. Biol. 54 1169-89 Cho S, Ahn S, Li Q and Leahy R M 2009 Exact and approximate Fourier rebinning of PET data from time-of-flight to non time-of-flight 2009 Phys. Med. Biol. 54 467-84 Davidson S R H, Weersink R A, Haider M A, Gertner M R, Bogaards A, Giewercer D, Scherz A, Sherar M D, Elhilali M, Chin J L, Trachtenberg J and Wilson B C 2009 Treatment planning and dose analysis for interstitial photodynamic therapy of prostate cancer Phys. Med. Biol. 54 2293-313 Hand J W, Shaw A, Sadhoo N, Rajagopal S, Dickinson R J and Gavrilov L R 2009 A random phased array device for delivery of high intensity focused ultrasound Phys. Med. Biol. 54 5675-93 Johnson P, Lee C, Johnson K, Siragusa D and Bolch W E 2009 The influence of patient size on dose conversion coefficients: a hybrid phantom study for adult cardiac catheterization Phys. Med. Biol. 54 3613-29 Paganetti H 2009 Dose to water versus dose to medium in proton beam therapy Phys. Med. Biol. 54 4399-421 Pramanik M, Song K H, Swierczewska M, Green D, Sitharaman B and Wang L V 2009 In vivo carbon nanotube-enhanced non-invasive photoacoustic mapping of the sentinel lymph node Phys. Med. Biol. 54 3291-301 Schöndube H, Stierstorfer K and Noo F 2009 Accurate helical cone-beam CT reconstruction with redundant data 2009 Phys. Med. Biol. 54 4625-44 Tang G, Earl M A and Yu C X 2009 Variable dose rate single-arc IMAT delivered with a constant dose rate and variable angular spacing Phys. Med. Biol. 54 6439-56 Zhang E Z, Laufer J G, Pedley R B and Beard P C 2009 In vivo high resolution 3D photoacoustic imaging of superficial vascular anatomy Phys. Med. Biol. 54 1035-46 For more information on this article see medicalphysicsweb.org

  11. Taxonomic revision of true morels (Morchella) in Canada and the United States

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Recent molecular phylogenetic studies by Taskin et al. (Fungal Genet. Biol. 47:672-682. 2010; Mycologia [in press]) and O'Donnell et al. (Fungal Genet. Biol. 48:252-265. 2011) revealed the existence of at least 50 species of Morchella worldwide and demonstrated a high degree of continental endemism ...

  12. Isolation and structures of glycoprotein-derived free oligosaccharides from the unfertilized eggs of Scyliorhinus caniculus. Characterization of the sequences galactose(alpha 1-4)galactose(beta 1-3)-N-acetylglucosamine and N-acetylneuraminic acid(alpha 2-6)galactose(beta 1-3)-N-acetylglucosamine.

    PubMed

    Plancke, Y; Delplace, F; Wieruszeski, J M; Maes, E; Strecker, G

    1996-01-15

    As previously reported [Ishii, K., Iwasaki, M., Inoue, S., Kenny, P. T. M., Komura, H. & Inoue, Y. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 1623-1630; Inoue, S., Iwasaki, M., Ishii, K., Kitajima, K. & Inoue, Y. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 18520-185261, the unfertilized eggs of two different species of fresh-water fish, Plecoglossus altivelis and Tribodolon hakonensis, contain relatively large amounts of free sialooligosaccharides. These oligosaccharides were found to derive from glycophosphoproteins, owing to the activity of a peptide - N4-(N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminyl)asparagine amidase [Iwasaki, M., Seko, A., Kitajima, K., Inoue, Y. & Inoue, S. (1992) J. Biol. Chem. 267, 24287-24296; Seko, A., Kitajima, K., Inoue, Y. & Inoue, S. (1991) J. Biol. Chem. 266, 22110-22114]. Here we describe a new type of free oligosaccharides, isolated from unfertilized eggs of Scyliorhinus caniculus. From the structural analysis, based upon 1H-NMR spectroscopy, the following glycan units are proposed.[Formula: see text

  13. Symposium on Turbulent Shear Flows (4th) Held at Karlsruhe University (Germany, F.R.), 12-14 September 1983.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1983-09-01

    fluctuat- structed for the present purpose and a small amount of ing velocity components. The present experimental data milk was introduced into the...water flow. Finely dis- will also be compared with the nuerical results and the parsed milk droplets serve as the scattering particles._ experimental...correlation coefficient for the radial In the photoultipIler, I.e., f’ a 0.01. The mean mass transport Is 0.3 < Rvf < 0.4 though the momentum concentration

  14. Characterization of Ignition and Combustion Properties of Nanowire-based Energetics

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-07-23

    Sannia, A. Cincotti, G. Cao, Chem. Eng. Sci. 54 (15–16) (1999) 3053–3061. [4] C. Rossi, K. Zhang, D. Esteve, P. Alphonse , P. Tailhades, C. Vahlas, J...94 (5) (2003) 2923–2929. [30] K. Zhang, C. Rossi, G.A.A. Rodriguez, C. Tenail- leau, P. Alphonse , Appl. Phys. Lett. 91 (11) (2007) 113117/1–113117/3...Pister, Smart Mater. Struct. 10(6), 1145 (2001). 8C. Rossi, K. Zhang, D. Esteve, P. Alphonse , P. Tailhades, and C. Vahlas, J. Microelectromech. Syst. 16

  15. Corrigendum to ;Dipole moment and solvatochromism of benzoic acid liquid crystals: Tuning the dipole moment and molecular orbital energies by substituted Au under external electric field; [J. Mol. Struct. 1137 (2017) 440-452

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sıdır, Yadigar Gülseven; Sıdır, İsa; Demiray, Ferhat

    2017-08-01

    The authors regret to inform that three references in the article titled ;Dipole moment and solvatochromism of benzoic acid liquid crystals: Tuning the dipole moment and molecular orbital energies by substituted Au under external electric field; are not given in the manuscript. This is purely an oversight mistake. The references are as shown in this correction. The authors would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused.

  16. Corrigendum to "Synthesis, structural features, and methyl methacrylate polymerisation of binuclear zinc(II) complexes with tetradentate pyrazolyl ligands" [J. Mol. Struct. 1063 (2014) 70-76

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, Sunghoon; Kim, Dongil; Lee, Ha-Jin; Lee, Hyosun

    2015-05-01

    The authors regret to inform that 4,4‧-bis-(N,N-di(1H-pyrazolyl-1-methyl)phenyl)methane (L2) and its binuclear 4,4‧-bis-(N,N-di-(1H-pyrazolyl-1-methyl)phenyl)methane(dichloro)Zn(II) complex, namely, [L2Zn2Cl4] in the paper were published as the thesis for the degree of master in the Department of Chemistry at Kyungpook National University in 2003.

  17. Advanced Numerical Methods for Simulating Nonlinear Multirate Lumped Parameter Models

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1991-05-01

    defining a Waveform: typedef struct Waveform char *name; /* character string of the name of the variable */ double tn; /* time of the beginning of the...A State-Space Approach, Reprinted from Proc. Third Ann. Allerton Conf. Circuits and Systems Thoery , 659-668, in Computer-Aided Circuit Design...kg/n 3) 1025.9 kg/m3 @ 15* C. v Kinematic Viscosity of Water (m2/sec) 1.19x10-6 m2/sec @ 15* C. G Acceleration of Gravity (m/sec2) 9.80665 m/sec 2 L

  18. Investigation of Metastatic Breast Tumor Heterogeneity and Progression Using Dual Optical/SPECT Imaging. Addendum

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-05-01

    2(b) is again 1.0 mm but has been reduced by an order of magnitude to 0.5 mm. It can be seen that the geometric resolution is now the limiting term...activity) of the system. The on-axis geometric efficiency for a pinhole is given by: (2) and represents the fraction of emitted photons that pass through...0.96 mm. The slight increase in the recon- structed diameter is due to the total resolution of the setup being limited by the geometric resolution which

  19. The Role of Microstructural Variability on the Very High-Cycle Fatigue Behavior of Discontinuously-Reinforced Aluminum Metal Matrix Composites using Ultrasonic Fatigue (Preprint)

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-05-01

    controlled processing. Bhanu-Prasad et al .37 conducted a systematic study of PM-processed 2124/SiC/30p aluminum composites 4 5 in which matrix alloy...Mater., 27, 173-178. [5] Wang A, Rack HJ (1991). Transition wear behavior of SiC-particulate- and SiC- whisker-reinforced 7091 Al metal matrix...modeling of particle distribution effects on fatigue in Al -SiCp composites. Mater. Sci. Eng. A, Struct. Mater. Prop. Microstruct. Process., 300, 113-124

  20. Removal of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) under nitrifying and denitrifying conditions.

    PubMed

    Suarez, Sonia; Lema, Juan M; Omil, Francisco

    2010-05-01

    The contribution of volatilization, sorption and transformation to the removal of 16 Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) in two lab-scale conventional activated sludge reactors, working under nitrifying (aerobic) and denitrifying (anoxic) conditions for more than 1.5 years, have been assessed. Pseudo-first order biological degradation rate constants (k(biol)) were calculated for the selected compounds in both reactors. Faster degradation kinetics were measured in the nitrifying reactor compared to the denitrifying system for the majority of PPCPs. Compounds could be classified according to their k(biol) into very highly (k(biol)>5Lg(SS)(-1)d(-1)), highly (175%) and anoxic (>65%) conditions, whereas naproxen (NPX), ethinylestradiol (EE2), roxithromycin (ROX) and erythromycin (ERY) were only significantly transformed in the aerobic reactor (>80%). The anti-depressant citalopram (CTL) was moderately biotransformed under both, aerobic and anoxic conditions (>60% and >40%, respectively). Some compounds, as carbamazepine (CBZ), diazepam (DZP), sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and trimethoprim (TMP), manifested high resistance to biological transformation. Solids Retention Time (SRT(aerobic) >50d and <50d; SRT(anoxic) >20d and <20d) had a slightly positive effect on the removal of FLX, NPX, CTL, EE2 and natural estrogens (increase in removal efficiencies <10%). Removal of diclofenac (DCF) in the aerobic reactor was positively affected by the development of nitrifying biomass and increased from 0% up to 74%. Similarly, efficient anoxic transformation of ibuprofen (75%) was observed after an adaptation period of 340d. Temperature (16-26 degrees C) only had a slight effect on the removal of CTL which increased in 4%.

  1. Studies to Control Endemic Typhoid Fever in Chile

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1984-07-14

    Malmaceda PGP, Acosta JJV, Arrasco VG. La fiebre tifoidea en el nino senor de dos anos. Biol. Ned. Hosp. Inf. Rex. 38:473, 1981. 11. Kumate J...Penaloza JL, Llausas’A. La fiebre tifoidea en el primer ano de la vida. Biol. Red. Bosp. Inf. 31:925, 1974. 12. Herrera P, Cuellar A. Samanellosis tifica en

  2. Production Methods for a Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapeutic as a Medical Defense Countermeasure

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-02-01

    differentiation of murine embryonic stem cells into vascular progenitors. BMC Cell Biol. 2008;9:2. 56. Johnson EA, Dao TL, Kan RK. Status epilepticus ...their undifferentiated and multipotent status . BMC Cell Biol. 2011;12:12. 52. Sun Y, Chen L, Hou XG, Hou WK, Dong JJ, Sun L, et al. Differentiation of

  3. Structural Perturbations in the Ala → Val Polymorphism of Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase: How Binding of Folates May Protect against Inactivation†‡

    PubMed Central

    Pejchal, Robert; Campbell, Elizabeth; Guenther, Brian D.; Lennon, Brett W.; Matthews, Rowena G.; Ludwig, Martha L.

    2006-01-01

    In human methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) the Ala222Val (677C → T) polymorphism encodes a heat-labile gene product that is associated with elevated levels of homocysteine and possibly with risk for cardiovascular disease. Generation of the equivalent Ala to Val mutation in Escherichia coli MTHFR, which is 30% identical to the catalytic domain of the human enzyme, creates a protein with enhanced thermolability. In both human and E. coli MTHFR, the A → V mutation increases the rate of dissociation of FAD, and in both enzymes, loss of FAD is linked to changes in quaternary structure [Yamada, K., Chen, Z., Rozen, R., and Matthews, R. G. (2001) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 98, 14853–14858; Guenther, B. D., Sheppard, C. A., Tran, P., Rozen, R., Matthews, R. G., and Ludwig, M. L. (1999) Nat. Struct. Biol. 6, 359–365]. Folates have been shown to protect both human and bacterial enzymes from loss of FAD. Despite its effect on affinity for FAD, the A → V mutation is located at the bottom of the (βα)8 barrel of the catalytic domain in a position that does not contact the bound FAD prosthetic group. Here we report the structures of the Ala177Val mutant of E. coli MTHFR and of its complex with the 5,10-dideazafolate analogue, LY309887, and suggest mechanisms by which the mutation may perturb FAD binding. Helix α5, which immediately precedes the loop bearing the mutation, carries several residues that interact with FAD, including Asn168, Arg171, and Lys172. In the structures of the mutant enzyme this helix is displaced, perturbing protein–FAD interactions. In the complex with LY309887, the pterin-like ring of the analogue stacks against the si face of the flavin and is secured by hydrogen bonds to residues Gln183 and Asp120 that adjoin this face. The direct interactions of bound folate with the cofactor provide one mechanism for linkage between binding of FAD and folate binding that could account in part for the protective action of folates. Conformation changes induced by folate binding may also suppress dissociation of FAD. PMID:16605249

  4. Elucidation of neurophysin/bioligand interactions from molecular modeling.

    PubMed

    Kaźmierkiewicz, R; Czaplewski, C; Ciarkowski, J

    1997-01-01

    This is a review of our recent modeling work aimed at: (i) development and assessment of techniques for reliable refinement of low-resolution protein structures and (ii) using these techniques, at solving specific problems pertinent to neurophysin-bioligand interactions. Neurophysins I and II (NPI and NPII) serve in the neurosecretory granules of the posterior pituitary as carrier proteins for the neurophyseal hormones oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (VP), respectively, until the latter are released into blood. NPs are homologous two-domain, sulphur rich small proteins (93-95 residues, 7 disulphide bridges per monomer), capable of being aggregated. The C2 symmetrical NPI2 and NPII2 homodimers, and the (NPI/OT)2 and (NPII/VP)2 heterotetramers, all believed to be the smallest functional units, were modeled using low-resolution structure information, i.e. the C alpha-carbon coordinates of the homologous NPII/dipeptide complex as a template. The all-atom representations of the models were obtained using the SYBYL suite of programs (by Tripos, Inc.). Subsequently, they were relaxed, using a constrained simulated annealing (CSA) protocol, and submitted to about 100 ps molecular dynamics (MD) in water, using the AMBER 4.1 force field. The (NPI/OT)2 and (NPII/VP)2 structures, averaged after the last 20 ps of MD, were remarkably similar to those recently reported either for NPII/dipeptide or NPII/oxytocin complex in the solid state (Chen et al., 1991, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., U.S.A. 88, 4240-4244; Rose et al., 1996, Nature Struct. Biol. 3, 163-169). The results indicate that the 3(10) helices (terminating the amino domains) and the carboxyl domains are more mobile than the remainder of the NP monomers. The hormones become anchored by residues 1-3 and 6 to the host, leaving residues 4-5 and 7-9 exposed on the surface and free to move. A cluster of attractive interactions, extending from the ligand binding site, Tyr-24-Ile-26 of unit 1(2), to the inter-monomer interface Val-36 of unit 1(2), Cys-79 and Ile-72 of unit 2(1), is clearly seen. We suggest that both these interactions as well as the increased mobility of the 3(10) helix and the carboxyl domain may contribute to the allosteric communication between the ligand and the unit1-unit2 interface.

  5. Probing the dynamic interface between trimethylamine dehydrogenase (TMADH) and electron transferring flavoprotein (ETF) in the TMADH-2ETF complex: role of the Arg-alpha237 (ETF) and Tyr-442 (TMADH) residue pair.

    PubMed

    Burgess, Selena G; Messiha, Hanan Latif; Katona, Gergely; Rigby, Stephen E J; Leys, David; Scrutton, Nigel S

    2008-05-06

    We have used multiple solution state techniques and crystallographic analysis to investigate the importance of a putative transient interaction formed between Arg-alpha237 in electron transferring flavoprotein (ETF) and Tyr-442 in trimethylamine dehydrogenase (TMADH) in complex assembly, electron transfer, and structural imprinting of ETF by TMADH. We have isolated four mutant forms of ETF altered in the identity of the residue at position 237 (alphaR237A, alphaR237K, alphaR237C, and alphaR237E) and with each form studied electron transfer from TMADH to ETF, investigated the reduction potentials of the bound ETF cofactor, and analyzed complex formation. We show that mutation of Arg-alpha237 substantially destabilizes the semiquinone couple of the bound FAD and impedes electron transfer from TMADH to ETF. Crystallographic structures of the mutant ETF proteins indicate that mutation does not perturb the overall structure of ETF, but leads to disruption of an electrostatic network at an ETF domain boundary that likely affects the dynamic properties of ETF in the crystal and in solution. We show that Arg-alpha237 is required for TMADH to structurally imprint the as-purified semiquinone form of wild-type ETF and that the ability of TMADH to facilitate this structural reorganization is lost following (i) redox cycling of ETF, or simple conversion to the oxidized form, and (ii) mutagenesis of Arg-alpha237. We discuss this result in light of recent apparent conflict in the literature relating to the structural imprinting of wild-type ETF. Our studies support a mechanism of electron transfer by conformational sampling as advanced from our previous analysis of the crystal structure of the TMADH-2ETF complex [Leys, D. , Basran, J. , Sutcliffe, M. J., and Scrutton, N. S. (2003) Nature Struct. Biol. 10, 219-225] and point to a key role for the Tyr-442 (TMADH) and Arg-alpha237 (ETF) residue pair in transiently stabilizing productive electron transfer configurations. Our work also points to the importance of Arg-alpha237 in controlling the thermodynamics of electron transfer, the dynamics of ETF, and the protection of reducing equivalents following disassembly of the TMADH-2ETF complex.

  6. Multiphoton microscopy based cryo-imaging of inflated frozen human lung sections at -60°C in healthy and COPD lungs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abraham, Thomas; Kayra, Damian; Zhang, Angela; Suzuki, Masaru; McDonough, John; Elliott, W. M.; Cooper, Joel D.; Hogg, James C.

    2013-02-01

    Lung is a complex gas exchanger with interfacial area (where the gas exchange takes place) is about the size of a tennis court. Respiratory function is linked to the biomechanical stability of the gas exchange or alveolar regions which directly depends on the spatial distributions of the extracellular matrix fibers such fibrillar collagens and elastin fibers. It is very important to visualize and quantify these fibers at their native and inflated conditions to have correct morphometric information on differences between control and diseased states. This can be only achieved in the ex vivo states by imaging directly frozen lung specimens inflated to total lung capacity. Multiphoton microscopy, which uses ultra-short infrared laser pulses as the excitation source, produces multiphoton excitation fluorescence (MPEF) signals from endogenously fluorescent proteins (e.g. elastin) and induces specific second harmonic generation (SHG) signals from non-centrosymmetric proteins such as fibrillar collagens in fresh human lung tissues [J. Struct. Biol. (2010)171,189-196]. Here we report for the first time 3D image data obtained directly from thick frozen inflated lung specimens (~0.7- 1.0 millimeter thick) visualized at -60°C without prior fixation or staining in healthy and diseased states. Lung specimens donated for transplantation and released for research when no appropriate recipient was identified served as controls, and diseased lung specimens donated for research by patients receiving lung transplantation for very severe COPD (n=4) were prepared as previously described [N. Engl. J. Med. (2011) 201, 1567]. Lung slices evenly spaced between apex and base were examined using multiphoton microscopy while maintained at -60°C using a temperature controlled cold stage with a temperature resolution of 0.1°C. Infrared femto-second laser pulses tuned to 880nm, dry microscopic objectives, and non-de-scanned detectors/spectrophotometer located in the reflection geometry were used for generating the 3D images/spectral information. We found that this novel imaging approach can provide spatially resolved 3D images with spectral specificities from frozen inflated lungs that are sensitive enough to identity the micro-structural details of fibrillar collagens and elastin fibers in alveolar walls in both healthy and diseased tissues.

  7. Continuous description of a grain boundary in olivine from atomic scale simulations: the role of disclinations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cordier, P.; Sun, X.; Fressengeas, C.; Taupin, V.

    2015-12-01

    A crossover between atomistic description and continuous representation of grain boundaries in polycrystals is set-up to model the periodic arrays of structural units by using dislocation and disclination dipole arrays along grain boundaries. Continuous modeling of the boundary is built by bottom-up processing, meaning that the strain, rotation, curvature, disclination and dislocation density fields are calculated by using the discrete atomic positions generated by molecular dynamics simulations. Continuous modeling of a 18.9° symmetric tilt boundary in copper [1] is conducted as a benchmark case. Its accuracy is validated by comparison with a similar recent technique [2]. Then, results on the 60.8° Mg2SiO4 tilt boundary [3-4] are presented. By linking the atomistic description with continuum mechanics representations, they provide new insights into the structure of the grain boundary. [1] Fressengeas, C., Taupin, V., Capolungo, L., 2014. Continuous modelling of the structure of symmetric tilt boundaries. Int. J. Solids Struct. 51, 1434-1441. [2] Zimmerman, J.A., Bammann, D.J., Gao, H., 2009. Deformation gradients for continuum mechanical analysis of atomistic simulations. Int. J. Solids Struct. 46, 238-253. [3] Cordier, P., Demouchy, S., Beausir, B., Taupin, V., Barou, F., Fressengeas, C., 2014. Disclinations provide the missing mechanism for deforming olivine-rich rocks in the mantle. Nature 507, 51-56. [4] Adjaoud, O., Marquardt, K., Jahn, S., 2012. Atomic structures and energies of grain boundaries in Mg2SiO4 forsterite from atomistic modeling. Phys. Chem. Miner. 39, 749-760.

  8. A Framework for Classifying and Resolving Semantic Conflicts Using the Enhanced Entity-Relationship Model

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1992-09-01

    rank, social security number, and date of birth, sex , race, etc. It also keeps data on marital status, number of dependents, and whether a member’s...specification as listed in the appendix. OPINS stores similar common personnel information to that in the ADMI database, such as name, rank, sex , etc.. The...34+ NAME (comp) "+ DATE..OF-.BIRTH (comp) "+ SEX "+ BACE-MIHNIC "+ ETHNIC..GROUP "+ PAYýENTRY-.BASE..DATE (comp) "+ SERVICE "+ MOS (comp) "+ DATE-OF

  9. Air Weather Service Support to the United States Army Tet and the Decade After

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1979-08-01

    than traditional air interdiction methods, and, more important, it was more humane because it saved lives. 6 1 The very nature of the project led it to...every four hours, 24 hours a day.04 Taylor stressed that he functioned primarily as a weather briefer, that the weather forecasts the 1st Cavalry... stressed to them in peacetime. "I think the Army began there," Carmell opined, "to appreciate the worth of weather in its planning," "We got our foot in

  10. More on Darwin's illness: comment on the final diagnosis of Charles Darwin.

    PubMed

    Sheehan, William; Meller, William H; Thurber, Steven

    2008-06-20

    Without the possibility of confirmatory exhumation, diagnostic inferences about Darwin's illness must remain speculative. A diagnosis of Darwin's aggregate symptoms must account for not only gastrointestinal distress but also his predominant and excessive retching and the conglomerate of other heterogeneous symptoms. We opine that Crohn's disease, posited as the 'final diagnosis', is not sufficient for subsuming his pleiomorphic symptomatology. An additional proposal is outlined that may help to explain his presentation with heterogeneous symptoms. It incorporates constitutional vulnerabilities, psychosomatic influences and Pavlovian conditioning as explanatory variables.

  11. Response to the Colloquium "The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development's International Early Learning Study: Opening for Debate and Contestation", by Peter Moss, Gunilla Dahlberg, Susan Grieshaber, Susanna Mantovani, Helen May, Alan Pence, Sylvie Rayna, Beth Blue Swadener and Michel Vandenbroeck, "Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood" 17(3)

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mackey, Glynne; Hill, Diti; De Vocht, Lia

    2016-01-01

    In this article, the authors opine that the introduction of an international assessment of children's early learning, such as proposed by the OECD with its planned International Early Learning Study, will shift the emphasis away from pedagogies which focus on that which is meaningful and relevant in children's lives and their learning, to an…

  12. Fundamental Studies in the Molecular Basis of Laser Induced Retinal Damage.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1984-09-01

    C. Hannemann , H. and Sochtig, E. (1979) Nature 277, 143-145. 25. Richards, J. M. and Swislocki, N. 1. (1979) J. Biol. Chem. 254, 6857-6860. 26...and Yamada, E. (1981) Biomedical Res. 2, 177-193. 51. Roof, D. J. and Heuser, J. E. (1982) J. Cell Biol. 95, 487-500. 52. Hagins, W. A. and Jennings , W

  13. Evaluation of Genomic Instability as an Early Event in the Progression of Breast Cancer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2007-04-01

    theory of marginotomy. J. Theor. Biol. 41:181-90. 8. Watson, J. D. 1972. The origin of concatemeric T7 DNA. Nat. New Biol. 239:197-201. 9. Karlseder...concentrations were measured 6 using the Picogreen® dsDNA quantitation assay (Molecular Probes, Eugene, OR) using a λ phage DNA as the standard as

  14. Breast Cancer Resistance to Cyclophosphamide and Other Oxazaphosphorines

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1998-10-01

    Zr-75 and T-47D cells, colon carcinoma C cells, and salivary gland Warthin tumors and mucoepidermoid carcinomas), although otherwise seemingly...cytosolic class-3 aldehyde dehydrogenase by Warthin tumors and mucoepidermoid carcinomas of the parotid gland. Arch. Oral Biol., 41:597-605, 1996...specific cytosolic class-3 aldehyde dehydrogenase by Warthin tumours and mucoepidermoid carcinomas of the parotid gland. Archiv. Oral Biol., 41:597-605

  15. Laser Hazards Bibliography, January 1991

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1991-01-31

    retinitis pigmentosa , Adv Exp Med Biol, 77: 233-247 (1977). 3. Agarwal, L. P., and Malik, S. R. K., Solar retinitis , Br J Ophth, 43: 366-370 (1959). 4. Al... Retinitis pigmentosa : clinical management based on current concepts, Adv Exp Med Biol, 77: 181-195 (1977). 557. Wolbarsht, M. L., Safe Ocular Levels for IR...270 C. Optical Radiation Hazards - General Reviews ............ 271 D. Retinal Burns from Lasers

  16. Functional Analysis of the Beclin-1 Tumor Suppressor Interaction with hVps34 (Type-III P13’-kinase) in Breast Cancer Cells

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-06-01

    Methods for monitoring autophagy. Int.J Biochem.Cell Biol., 36: 2491-2502, 2004. 13. Scarlatti , F., Bauvy, C., Ventruti, A., Sala, G., Cluzeaud, F...J.Biol.Chem., 279: 18384-18391, 2004. 14. Scarlatti , F., Maffei, R., Beau, I., Codogno, P., and Ghidoni, R. Role of non-canonical Beclin 1- independent

  17. Neurovascular and Autonomic Dysfunction Associated with Gulf War Illness Pain

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-10-01

    pyridostigmine and organophosphorus pesticides with human cholinesterases." Chem Biol Interact 190(2-3): 79-83. Wilson, B. W., F. J. Rusli, M. K. Yan Tam...vitro kinetic interactions of DEET, pyridostigmine and organophosphorus pesticides with human cholinesterases." Chem Biol Interact 190(2-3): 79-83...that can accompany pain symptoms in veterans with GWI. 2. Keywords: pain, autonomic, nociceptor, blood flow, pesticides , pyridostigmine bromide

  18. The Big Bang of tissue growth: Apical cell constriction turns into tissue expansion.

    PubMed

    Janody, Florence

    2018-03-05

    How tissue growth is regulated during development and cancer is a fundamental question in biology. In this issue, Tsoumpekos et al. (2018. J. Cell Biol. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201705104) and Forest et al. (2018. J. Cell Biol. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201705107) identify Big bang (Bbg) as an important growth regulator of the Drosophila melanogaster wing imaginal disc. © 2018 Janody.

  19. Simulaid: a simulation facilitator and analysis program.

    PubMed

    Mezei, Mihaly

    2010-11-15

    Simulaid performs a large number of simulation-related tasks: interconversion and modification of structure and trajectory files, optimization of orientation, and a large variety of analysis functions. The program can handle structures in PDB (Berman et al., Nucleic Acids Res 2000, 28, 235), Charmm (Brooks et al., J Comput Chem 4, 187) CRD, Amber (Case et al.), Macromodel (Mohamadi et al., J Comput Chem 1990, 11, 440), Gromos/Gromacs (Hess et al.), InsightII (InsightII. Accelrys Inc.: San Diego, 2005), Grasp (Nicholls et al., Proteins: Struct Funct Genet 1991, 11, 281) .crg, Tripos (Tripos International, S. H. R., St. Louis, MO) .mol2 (input only), and in the MMC (Mezei, M.; MMC: Monte Carlo program for molecular assemblies. Available at: http://inka.mssm.edu/~mezei/mmc) formats; and trajectories in the formats of Charmm, Amber, Macromodel, and MMC. Analysis features include (but are not limited to): (1) simple distance calculations and hydrogen-bond analysis, (2) calculation of 2-D RMSD maps (produced both as text file with the data and as a color-coded matrix) and cross RMSD maps between trajectories, (3) clustering based on RMSD maps, (4) analysis of torsion angles, Ramachandran (Ramachandran and Sasiskharan, Adv Protein Chem 1968, 23, 283) angles, proline kink (Visiers et al., Protein Eng 2000, 13, 603) angles, pseudorotational (Altona and Sundaralingam, J Am Chem Soc 1972, 94, 8205; Cremer and Pople, J Am Chem Soc 1975, 97, 1354) angles, and (5) analysis based on circular variance (Mezei, J Mol Graphics Model 2003, 21, 463). Torsion angle evolutions are presented in dial plots (Ravishanker et al., J Biomol Struct Dyn 1989, 6, 669). Several of these features are unique to Simulaid. 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  20. Global warming and the possible globalization of vector-borne diseases: a call for increased awareness and action.

    PubMed

    Balogun, Emmanuel O; Nok, Andrew J; Kita, Kiyoshi

    2016-01-01

    Human activities such as burning of fossil fuels play a role in upsetting a previously more balanced and harmonious ecosystem. Climate change-a significant variation in the usual pattern of Earth's average weather conditions is a product of this ecosystem imbalance, and the rise in the Earth's average temperature (global warming) is a prominent evidence. There is a correlation between global warming and the ease of transmission of infectious diseases. Therefore, with global health in focus, we herein opine a stepping-up of research activities regarding global warming and infectious diseases globally.

  1. Exploring the World of Phospholipids and Their Interactions with Proteins: The Work of William Dowhan

    PubMed Central

    2012-01-01

    The Gene Encoding the Phosphatidylinositol Transfer Protein Is Essential for Cell Growth (Aitken, J. F., van Heusden, G. P., Temkin, M., and Dowhan, W. (1990) J. Biol. Chem. 265, 4711–4717) A Phospholipid Acts as a Chaperone in Assembly of a Membrane Transport Protein (Bogdanov, M., Sun, J., Kaback, H. R., and Dowhan, W. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 11615–11618) PMID:22427432

  2. Bibliography of Ticks and Tickborne Diseases from Homer (About 800 B.C.) to 31 December 1981. Volume 7.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1982-05-01

    Oklahoma. Brt. J.". Nu-tr..-f Arch. Pediat., Barcelona Brit. J. Nutr. BRITISH JOURNAL OF NUTRITION . ARCHIVOS DE PEDIATRIA. BARCELONA. London. Arh. Biol...INTERNATIONAL. The CEUTICAL CHEMISTRY. Nw York, Journal of Stock Breeding, Animal London Health, Nutrition and Husbandry. Surrey. J. Neurocyt. Med...INSTITUT. Tiflis. J. Therm. Biol. Nutr. Rep. Internat. JOURNAL OF THERMAL BIOLOGY. NUTRITION REPORTS INTERNATIONAL. Sutton Bonington, England. Los

  3. Regulation of Glucose Transport in Quiescent, Lactating, and Neoplastic Mammary Epithelia

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2000-10-01

    Manuscripts, Abstracts, Presentations Manuscripts 1. Nemeth, BN, Tsang, ST, Geske , RS, Haney, PM. Golgi targeting of the GLUT 1 glucose transporter in...targeting in lactating mouse mammary gland. Mol. Biol. Cell 1997; 8, 307a (ASCB poster presentation). 6. Geske , S, Haney, PM. Developmental regulation...1995. Characterization of a cis-Golgi matrix protein, GM130. JCellBiol 131:1715-1726. NEMETH BA, TSANG SWY, GESKE RS, HANEY PM, 2000. Golgi targeting

  4. A 3-Component System of Competition and Diffusion.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1983-08-01

    assume * that the distribution of the populations are determined by competition of’ Lotka - Volterra - * Gause type and simple diffusion. Suppose ui(t,x...diffusive Lotka - Volterra system with three species can have a stable non-constant equilibrium solutions. J. Math. Biol., (in press). [7] Kishimoto, K., Mimura...M. and Yoshida, K., Stable spatlo-temporal oscillations of diffusive Lotka - Volterra systems with three or more species, to appear in J. Math. Biol

  5. Centrosome Amplification: A Potential Marker of Breast Cancer Agressiveness

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2006-07-01

    centrosome amplification. Introduction of DNA damage in the MCF-7 cell line by treatment with hydroxyurea (HU) or daunorubicin (DR) resulted in the...cycles of DNA synthesis and mitotic division in hydroxyurea - arrested Chinese hamster ovary cells. J Cell Biol, 130: 105-115, 1995. 23. D’Assoro, A. B...from cycles of DNA synthesis and mitotic division in hydroxyurea -arrested Chinese hamster ovary cells. J Cell Biol, 1995. 130(1): p. 105-15. 22

  6. n-Nucleotide circular codes in graph theory.

    PubMed

    Fimmel, Elena; Michel, Christian J; Strüngmann, Lutz

    2016-03-13

    The circular code theory proposes that genes are constituted of two trinucleotide codes: the classical genetic code with 61 trinucleotides for coding the 20 amino acids (except the three stop codons {TAA,TAG,TGA}) and a circular code based on 20 trinucleotides for retrieving, maintaining and synchronizing the reading frame. It relies on two main results: the identification of a maximal C(3) self-complementary trinucleotide circular code X in genes of bacteria, eukaryotes, plasmids and viruses (Michel 2015 J. Theor. Biol. 380, 156-177. (doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2015.04.009); Arquès & Michel 1996 J. Theor. Biol. 182, 45-58. (doi:10.1006/jtbi.1996.0142)) and the finding of X circular code motifs in tRNAs and rRNAs, in particular in the ribosome decoding centre (Michel 2012 Comput. Biol. Chem. 37, 24-37. (doi:10.1016/j.compbiolchem.2011.10.002); El Soufi & Michel 2014 Comput. Biol. Chem. 52, 9-17. (doi:10.1016/j.compbiolchem.2014.08.001)). The univerally conserved nucleotides A1492 and A1493 and the conserved nucleotide G530 are included in X circular code motifs. Recently, dinucleotide circular codes were also investigated (Michel & Pirillo 2013 ISRN Biomath. 2013, 538631. (doi:10.1155/2013/538631); Fimmel et al. 2015 J. Theor. Biol. 386, 159-165. (doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2015.08.034)). As the genetic motifs of different lengths are ubiquitous in genes and genomes, we introduce a new approach based on graph theory to study in full generality n-nucleotide circular codes X, i.e. of length 2 (dinucleotide), 3 (trinucleotide), 4 (tetranucleotide), etc. Indeed, we prove that an n-nucleotide code X is circular if and only if the corresponding graph [Formula: see text] is acyclic. Moreover, the maximal length of a path in [Formula: see text] corresponds to the window of nucleotides in a sequence for detecting the correct reading frame. Finally, the graph theory of tournaments is applied to the study of dinucleotide circular codes. It has full equivalence between the combinatorics theory (Michel & Pirillo 2013 ISRN Biomath. 2013, 538631. (doi:10.1155/2013/538631)) and the group theory (Fimmel et al. 2015 J. Theor. Biol. 386, 159-165. (doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2015.08.034)) of dinucleotide circular codes while its mathematical approach is simpler. © 2016 The Author(s).

  7. Laser Hazards Bibliography

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1989-10-31

    Report LA-3204, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, University of California, Los Alamos, NM (6 October 1964). 95. Craik , K. J. W., On the effects of...surgery (letter), Am J Opt, 97(5): 658-9,8 (May 1984). 437. Scott, Jennifer , "The computation of temperature rises in the human eye induced by infrared...radiation," Phys Med Biol, 33(2): 243-257 (1988). 438. Scott, Jennifer , "A finite modelof heat transport in the human eye," Phsy Med Biol, 33(2): 227-241

  8. Targeting Midbodies in Ovarian Cancer Stem Cells as a Therapeutic Strategy

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-10-01

    functional spindle assembly. Nat. Cell Biol. 13, 1406–1414. Ori-McKenney, K.M., Jan, L.Y., and Jan, Y.-N. (2012). Golgi outposts shape dendrite morphology...1899. Yadav, S., and Linstedt, A.D. (2011). Golgi positioning. Cold Spring Harb. Perspect . Biol. 3, 3. Zhang, H., Squirrell, J.M., and White, J.G. (2008...implications for recy- cling endosome function . This new liaison has additional impli- cations for a variety of biological processes including cilia

  9. Role of p53 in cdk Inhibitor VMY-1-103-induced Apoptosis in Prostate Cancer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-11-01

    DAOY medulloblastoma cells, which have a p53 mutation (6). In order to examine if this holds true in prostate cancer cell lines, I stably transfected...disrupts chromosome organization and delays metaphase progression in medulloblastoma cells. Cancer Biol Ther. 2011 Nov 1;12(9):818-26  Other...1-103 is a novel CDK inhibitor that disrupts chromosome organization and delays metaphase progression in medulloblastoma cells. Cancer Biol Ther

  10. The canonical equation of adaptive dynamics for life histories: from fitness-returns to selection gradients and Pontryagin's maximum principle.

    PubMed

    Metz, Johan A Jacob; Staňková, Kateřina; Johansson, Jacob

    2016-03-01

    This paper should be read as addendum to Dieckmann et al. (J Theor Biol 241:370-389, 2006) and Parvinen et al. (J Math Biol 67: 509-533, 2013). Our goal is, using little more than high-school calculus, to (1) exhibit the form of the canonical equation of adaptive dynamics for classical life history problems, where the examples in Dieckmann et al. (J Theor Biol 241:370-389, 2006) and Parvinen et al. (J Math Biol 67: 509-533, 2013) are chosen such that they avoid a number of the problems that one gets in this most relevant of applications, (2) derive the fitness gradient occurring in the CE from simple fitness return arguments, (3) show explicitly that setting said fitness gradient equal to zero results in the classical marginal value principle from evolutionary ecology, (4) show that the latter in turn is equivalent to Pontryagin's maximum principle, a well known equivalence that however in the literature is given either ex cathedra or is proven with more advanced tools, (5) connect the classical optimisation arguments of life history theory a little better to real biology (Mendelian populations with separate sexes subject to an environmental feedback loop), (6) make a minor improvement to the form of the CE for the examples in Dieckmann et al. and Parvinen et al.

  11. A wireless strain sensor consumes less than 10 mW

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hew, Y.; Deshmukh, S.; Huang, H.

    2011-10-01

    This paper presents a wireless strain sensor that consumes about 9 mW. To achieve such an ultra-low power operation, a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) is utilized to convert the direct-current (DC) strain signal to a high frequency oscillatory signal. This oscillatory signal is then transmitted using an unpowered wireless transponder (Huang et al 2011 Smart Mater. Struct. 20 015017). A photocell-based energy harvester was developed to power the wireless strain sensor. The energy harvested from a flash light placed at 65 cm away is sufficient to power the wireless strain sensor continuously. The implementation of the wireless strain sensor and its characterization are presented.

  12. Innovative intelligent technology of distance learning for visually impaired people

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Samigulina, Galina; Shayakhmetova, Assem; Nuysuppov, Adlet

    2017-12-01

    The aim of the study is to develop innovative intelligent technology and information systems of distance education for people with impaired vision (PIV). To solve this problem a comprehensive approach has been proposed, which consists in the aggregate of the application of artificial intelligence methods and statistical analysis. Creating an accessible learning environment, identifying the intellectual, physiological, psychophysiological characteristics of perception and information awareness by this category of people is based on cognitive approach. On the basis of fuzzy logic the individually-oriented learning path of PIV is con- structed with the aim of obtaining high-quality engineering education with modern equipment in the joint use laboratories.

  13. Effectiveness of modified seminars as a teaching-learning method in pharmacology

    PubMed Central

    Palappallil, Dhanya Sasidharan; Sushama, Jitha; Ramnath, Sai Nathan

    2016-01-01

    Context: Student-led seminars (SLS) are adopted as a teaching-learning (T-L) method in pharmacology. Previous studies assessing the feedback on T-L methods in pharmacology points out that the traditional seminars consistently received poor feedbacks as they were not favorite among the students. Aims: This study aimed to obtain feedback on traditional SLS, introduce modified SLS and compare the modified seminars with the traditional ones. Settings and Design: This was a prospective interventional study done for 2 months in medical undergraduates of fifth semester attending Pharmacology seminars at a Government Medical College in South India. Subjects and Methods: Structured questionnaire was used to elicit feedback from participants. The responses were coded on 5-point Likert scale. Modifications in seminar sessions such as role plays, quiz, tests, group discussion, and patient-oriented problem-solving exercises were introduced along with SLS. Statistical Analysis Used: The data were analyzed using SPSS version 16. The descriptive data were expressed using frequencies and percentages. Wilcoxon signed rank test, and Friedman tests were used to compare traditional with modified seminars. Results: The participants identified interaction as the most important component of a seminar. Majority opined that the teacher should summarize at the end of SLS. Student feedback shows that modified seminars created more interest, enthusiasm, and inspiration to learn the topic when compared to traditional SLS. They also increased peer coordination and group dynamics. Students opined that communication skills and teacher-student interactions were not improved with modified seminars. Conclusions: Interventions in the form of modified SLS may be adopted to break the monotony of traditional seminars through active participation, peer interaction, and teamwork. PMID:27563587

  14. A Qualitative Study on Working Experience of Rural Doctors in Malappuram District of Kerala, India

    PubMed Central

    Vallikunnu, Vinod; Kumar, S. Ganesh; Sarkar, Sonali; Kar, Sitanshu Sekhar; Harichandrakumar, K. T.

    2014-01-01

    Background: Improving the working conditions of rural doctors is an important issue to increase the quality of health services to target groups. Objectives: To assess the working experience of rural doctors at primary health care level. Materials and Methods: This qualitative study was conducted among 30 medical officers from 21 primary health centers in Malappuram district of Kerala, India. In-depth interview was conducted, and content analysis was performed with the identification of themes based on the responses obtained. Results: There were 19 males and 11 females belonged to 25 to 55 years age group. About 70% (21) of them were graduates with MBBS qualification, and the rest were postgraduates. About 2/3rd of them (20) had experience of less than 5 years. They expressed difficulty in managing the work in stipulated time period. However, this had never affected their OP management in anyway. They told that higher authorities were supportive, but they faced some opposition from the public in implementation of national program. Few opined that the training received was grossly insufficient in running the administrative affairs of the health center. Most of them satisfied with physical infrastructure, but manpower including medical officers and supporting staff were not sufficient. Some opined that the age of retirement is too early and should be increased. They participated in Continuing Medical Education, but expressed that it's content should suit to primary health care level. Conclusion: This study highlighted their concern to patient care and time, field work, administrative work, infrastructure, professional development, and future prospects. Further large scale evaluation studies will explore the situational analysis of it. PMID:25161972

  15. EDITORIAL Complexity of advanced radiation therapy necessitates multidisciplinary inquiry into dose reconstruction and risk assessment Complexity of advanced radiation therapy necessitates multidisciplinary inquiry into dose reconstruction and risk assessment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Newhauser, Wayne

    2010-07-01

    The availability of low-cost, high-performance computing is rapidly transforming the landscape of cancer research. Computational techniques are playing an increasingly important role and have become the third major method of scientific inquiry, supplementing traditional methods of observation and theory. This evolution began in the 1940s when high-performance computing techniques were developed for military applications, including radiation transport calculations. These same basic methods are still widely utilized in a broad spectrum of computational problems in medicine, including radiation cancer therapy (Rogers 2006, Spezi 2010) and radiologic diagnostic imaging (Doi 2006, Kalender 2006). Supercomputing is also now being used to study the genetics and genomics of cancer (Geurts van Kessel 2010), with application to gene sequencing (Mardis 2008), genome-wide association studies (Pearson and Manolio 2008), biomolecular dynamics (Sanbonmatsu and Tung 2007) and systems biology (Wolkenhauer et al 2010). The extensive and growing body of literature is evidence of a remarkable expansion of activity and enormous boost to cancer research from the application of high-performance computing. Early successes were facilitated by inexpensive computing resources and advances in modeling algorithms. Many contemporary models require extensive approximations and phenomenological approaches. In fact, many critical problems remain computationally intractable; the underlying physical and biological processes are simply too complex to model with contemporary theory and computing capacity. In the future, a vast stream of new insights will flow from studies that use increasingly exact models and first-principles approaches. Hence, in the war on cancer the present status of computational research could be summarized as the beginning of the beginning. For these reasons, there is a vital need for scientists and clinicians to periodically discuss progress and future plans regarding computational cancer research, particularly research involving supercomputing. In April 2010, a symposium entitled '4th Joint Symposium on Computational Medical Physics: The Nexus of Research on Cancer, Radiation, and Supercomputing: Dawn of a Golden Age?' was convened at Rice University in Houston, Texas. One objective of this symposium was to provide researchers and clinicians with an overview of recent progress in advanced radiation therapy. Another was to review basic concepts and methods from a wide variety of disciplines related to cancer radiation therapy, including supercomputing, physics, informatics, imaging, and epidemiology. The symposium featured current issues and controversies and, in particular, a review of recent advances in research on proton and photon therapies. Sessions included Current Issues in Proton Therapy for Pediatric Cancers; Current Issues in Advanced Radiotherapy for Prostate Cancer; Charged Particles in Space and Military Applications; Recent Advances in Radiation Epidemiology; Advanced Computing Techniques: Perspectives from Cancer Researchers and Computer Scientists; Radiobiologic, Dosimetric, and Outcomes Modeling; Imaging and Informatics, and a Young Investigators' Symposium. The complete program is available at www.regonline.com/joint_symposium. The symposium was attended by more than 100 delegates who delivered 47 oral presentations. The delegates included leading scientists and clinicians from the fields of epidemiology, particle physics, medical physics, mathematics, oncology, and cancer prevention. This issue of Physics in Medicine and Biology contains 13 original research articles based on selected presentations from the symposium. Each article underwent the journal's usual rigorous peer review process; we are grateful to the many individuals who contributed to this issue, including the publishing editor, board members, referees, and of course the authors, all of whom generously shared their time and expertise. The majority of articles from the symposium are interrelated and focus on dose and risk assessments related to radiation exposures from advanced radiation therapies. These research topics have become increasingly complex and require the combined expertise of researchers with highly specialized and diverse investigational skills. Innovative multidisciplinary teams will be needed to achieve breakthroughs and, ultimately, to translate the research into clinical practice (Disis and Slattery 2010). The symposium's scientific goals included fostering and promoting such multidisciplinary teams, which will work to solve these complex problems and thereby improve cancer outcomes. To help clarify how the 13 articles each contribute to the goal of improving cancer outcomes, a brief digression is necessary. The proportion of patients surviving their cancers for five years or more is large and increasing (Jemal et al 2009). Unfortunately, in survivors who received radiation therapy, the prevalence of radiogenic late effects is likewise large and increasing (cf Altekruse et al 2010, Meadows et al 2009, Hudson et al 2009, Friedman et al 2010), with the potential to become a public health issue of considerable scale (Travis 2006). A multitude of late effects are associated with radiation exposure, including the development of second cancers, cardiac toxicity, cognitive deficits, and musculoskeletal growth abnormalities in children. In modern radiation therapy, much effort is devoted to developing personalized treatments that control the tumor while minimizing acute toxicities to surrounding healthy tissues; comparatively less attention has been paid to minimizing late effects (Durante and Loeffler 2010). In recent years, however, there has been an encouraging increase in research activities seeking to quantify radiation exposures (Stovall et al 2006) and the associated risks of late effects from modern external-beam therapies (Xu et al 2008). In this issue, Zhang et al (2010) report on Monte Carlo and analytical models to predict the stray radiation exposure in a patient receiving proton radiotherapy. In this study, the authors focused on stray neutron radiation that emanated from the treatment unit. Despite the complexity of high-energy neutron dosimetry, the authors succeeded in developing a relatively simple analytical model to predict these exposures. This finding is important because, with further development, it could provide a method to predict stray radiation exposures as an enhanced form of routine treatment planning. Fontenot et al (2010) report on methods to evaluate uncertainties in comparative risk assessments; knowledge of uncertainties is vital to determine the limits of applicability in these assessments, which may in turn affect clinical and policy decisions. Howell et al (2010a) report on the accuracy of a widely used radiation treatment planning system. In particular, they investigated the system's dosimetric accuracy outside the treatment beam, e.g. due to scatter and leakage radiation from external-beam photon therapy. This study provides important illustrative evidence of the need to carefully validate dose algorithms in out-of-field regions. In a related study, Howell et al (2010b) developed a methodology to estimate doses to partially in-field and out-of-field organs. Scarboro et al (2010) report on the impact of organ size and position on out-of-field dose estimates. Taddei et al (2010a) report on the targeting accuracy of a novel device that can be used to treat age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the developed world. Taddei et al (2010b) report on the risks of radiogenic second cancers following proton and photon radiation therapies for liver cancer. Taddei et al (2010c) also compare the risks of radiogenic second cancers from secondary neutrons for a boy and a girl after receiving craniospinal irradiation with passively scattered proton beams. Scanned-beam proton therapy is presently considered the technologically most complex beam delivery approach and is used in only a few centers worldwide. Coutrakon et al (2010) reported on an investigation of dosimetric errors associated with the delivery of scanned proton beams. Titt et al (2010) report on a novel method to adjust the size of scanned proton beams. This study is important because our inability to produce very small beam spot sizes has been an obstacle to realizing the full clinical potential of this technique. Yepes et al (2010) report on the speedup and accuracy of a fast proton dose algorithm that uses an array of graphics processing units; this technique represents a nascent low-cost alternative to the traditional approach of high-performance computing using central processing units. Radiation exposures from kilovoltage computed tomography (CT) procedures have increased dramatically, with the fraction of collective effective dose from CT exposures rising from 3% in the early 1980s to 49% in 2006 (NCRP 2009). Proton CT is an emerging technology that may enable reductions in both proton range uncertainties and the imaging dose to the patient relative to comparable kilovoltage CT techniques. Erdelyi (2010) reports on uncertainties in electron densities estimated using proton CT. Finally, Cheung et al (2010) report on the suitability of advanced composite fiducial markers for localization of the prostate in proton therapy. Their analysis is particularly important because approximately 60% of the proton treatment capacity in the United States is used for patients with prostate cancer. The symposium was the fourth of a series entitled 'Symposia on Computational Cancer Research'. The symposia have alternately been hosted by The University of Texas M D Anderson Cancer Center, Rice University, and Northern Illinois University. The fifth joint symposium will be held in Houston, on 5-7 April 2011, and will focus on survivorship issues after childhood cancers (www.regonline.com/5thjointsymposium). On behalf of the symposium organizing committee, I hope to see you there. Wayne Newhauser, The University of Texas M D Anderson Cancer Center, USA Chairman of 4th Joint Symposium Organizing Committee and Guest Editor References Altekruse S F et al (ed) SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975--2007 (Bethesda, MD: National Cancer Institute) (http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2007/) based on November 2009 SEER data submission, posted to the SEER website, 2010 Cheung J, Kudchadker R J, Zhu X R, Lee A K and Newhauser W D 2010 Dose perturbations and image artifacts caused by carbon-coated ceramic and stainless steel fiducials used in proton therapy for prostate cancer Phys. Med. Biol. 55 7135-47 Coutrakon G, Wang N, Miller D W and Yang Y 2010 Dose error analysis for a scanned proton beam delivery system Phys. Med. Biol. 55 7081-96 Disis M L and Slattery J T 2010 The road we must take: multidisciplinary team science Sci. Transl. Med. 2 22cm9 Doi K 2006 Diagnostic imaging over the last 50 years: research and development in medical imaging science and technology Phys. Med. Biol. 51 R5-27 Durante M and Loeffler J S 2010 Charged particles in radiation oncology Nat. Rev. Clin. Oncol. 7 37-43 Erdelyi B 2010 Electron density uncertainties in proton computed tomography Phys. Med. Biol. 55 7121-34 Fontenot J D, Bloch C, Followill D, Titt U, Zhang M and Newhauser W D 2010 Estimate of the uncertainties in the relative risk of secondary malignant neoplasms following proton therapy and intensity-modulated photon therapy Phys. Med. Biol. 55 6987-98 Friedman D L, Whitton J, Leisenring W, Mertens A C, Hammond S, Stovall M, Donaldson S S, Meadows A T, Robison L L and Neglia J P 2010 Subsequent neoplasms in 5-year survivors of childhood cancer: the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study J. Natl Cancer Inst. 102 1083-95 Geurts van Kessel A 2010 The 'omics' of cancer Cancer Genet. Cytogenet. 203 37-42 Howell R M, Scarboro S B, Kry S F and Yaldo D Z 2010a Accuracy of out-of-field dose calculations by a commercial treatment planning system Phys. Med. Biol. 55 6999-7008 Howell R M, Scarboro S B, Taddei P J, Krishnan S, Kry S F and Newhauser W D 2010b Methodology for determining doses to in-field, out-of-field and partially in-field organs for late effects studies in proton radiotherapy Phys. Med. Biol. 55 7009-23 Hudson M M, Mulrooney D A, Bowers D C, Sklar C A, Green D M, Donaldson S S, Oeffinger K C, Neglia J P, Meadows A T and Robison L L 2009 High-risk populations identified in Childhood Cancer Survivor Study investigations: implications for risk-based surveillance J. Clin. Oncol. 27 2405-14 Jemal A, Siegel R, Ward E, Hao Y, Xu J and Thun M J 2009 Cancer statistics, 2009 CA Cancer J. Clin. 59 225-49 Kalender W A 2006 X-ray computed tomography Phys. Med. Biol. 51 R29-43 Mardis E R 2008 Next-generation DNA sequencing methods Annu. Rev. Genomics Hum. Genet. 9 387-402 Meadows A T, Friedman D L, Neglia J P, Mertens A C, Donaldson S S, Stovall M, Hammond S, Yasui Y and Inskip P D 2009 Second neoplasms in survivors of childhood cancer: findings from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study cohort J. Clin. Oncol. 27 2356-62 NCRP (National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements) 2009 Ionizing radiation exposure of the population of the United States {\\it NCRP Report No. 160} (Bethesda, MD: NCRP) Pearson T A and Manolio T A 2008 How to interpret a genome-wide association study JAMA 299 1335-44 Rogers D W 2006 Fifty years of Monte Carlo simulations for medical physics Phys. Med. Biol. 51 R287-301 Sanbonmatsu K Y and Tung C S 2007 High performance computing in biology: multimillion atom simulations of nanoscale systems J. Struct. Biol. 157 470-80 Scarboro S B, Stovall M, White A, Smith S A, Yaldo D, Kry S F and Howell R M 2010 Effect of organ size and position on out-of-field dose distributions during radiation therapy Phys. Med. Biol. 55 7025-36 Spezi E (ed) 2010 Special section: Selected papers from the Second European Workshop on Monte Carlo Treatment Planning (MCTP2009) Phys. Med. Biol. 55 (16) 4431-614 Stovall M, Weathers R, Kasper C, Smith S A, Travis L, Ron E and Kleinerman R 2006 Dose reconstruction for therapeutic and diagnostic radiation exposures: use in epidemiological studies Radiat. Res. 166 141-57 Taddei P J, Chell E, Hansen S, Gertner M and Newhauser W D 2010a Assessment of targeting accuracy of a low-energy stereotactic radiosurgery treatment for age-related macular degeneration Phys. Med. Biol. 55 7037-54 Taddei P J, Howell R M, Krishnan S, Scarboro S B, Mirkovic D and Newhauser W D 2010b Risk of second malignant neoplasm following proton versus intensity-modulated photon radiotherapies for hepatocellular carcinoma Phys. Med. Biol. 55 7055-65 Taddei P J, Mahajan A, Mirkovic D, Zhang R, Giebeler A, Kornguth D, Harvey M, Woo S and Newhauser W D 2010c Predicted risks of second malignant neoplasm incidence and mortality due to secondary neutrons in a girl and boy receiving proton craniospinal irradiation Phys. Med. Biol. 55 7067-80 Titt U, Mirkovic D, Sawakuchi G O, Perles L A, Newhauser W D, Taddei P J and Mohan R 2010 Adjustment of the lateral and longitudinal size of scanned proton beam spots using a pre-absorber to optimize penumbrae and delivery efficiency Phys. Med. Biol. 55 7097-106 Travis L B 2006 The epidemiology of second primary cancers Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev. 15 2020-6 Wolkenhauer O et al 2010 Systems biologists seek fuller integration of systems biology approaches in new cancer research programs Cancer Res. 70 12-3 Xu X G, Bednarz B and Paganetti H 2008 A review of dosimetry studies on external-beam radiation treatment with respect to second cancer induction Phys. Med. Biol. 53 R193-241 Yepes P, Mirkovic D and Taddei P J 2010 A GPU implementation of a track-repeating algorithm for proton radiotherapy dose calculations Phys. Med. Biol. 55 7107-20 Zhang R, P\\'{e}rez-And\\'{u}jar A, Fontenot J D, Taddei P J and Newhauser W D 2010 An analytic model of neutron ambient dose equivalent and equivalent dose for proton radiotherapy Phys. Med. Biol. 55 6975-85

  16. Calpain-Dependent Proteolysis of the Androgen Receptor

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-11-01

    Cancer 1999;84:6–9. 17. Lakshmikuttyamma A, Selvakumar P, Kanthan R , Kanthan SC, Sharma RK. Overexpression of m-calpain in human colorectal...determinants of calpain cleavage. J Biol Chem 2004;279:20775–85. 10. Rios-Doria J, Day KC, Kuefer R , et al. The role of calpain in the proteolytic...prostate carcinoma cell line, 22Rv1. In vitro Cell Dev Biol 1999;35:403–9. 15. Gupta AK, Cerniglia GJ, Mick R , McKenna WG, Muschel RJ. HIV protease

  17. Regulation of ATM-Dependent DNA Damage Responses in Breast Cancer by the RhoGEF Net1

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-04-01

    Science 279: 509-514. 5. Jaffe AB. et al., (2010) RhoGTPases: Biochemistry and Biology. Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 21:247-269. 6. Rossman KL, et al...exchange factor Net1 is regulated by nuclear sequestration. J. Biol. Chem. 277:17, 14581-14588. 17. Harper JW, et al., (2007) The DNA Damage Response: Ten...Research (AACR) Annual Meeting and 2013 Annual Cancer Research Biochemistry Retreat Regulation of ATM-dependent DNA damage signaling in human breast

  18. Estimation of Cell Proliferation Dynamics Using CFSE Data

    PubMed Central

    Banks, H.T.; Sutton, Karyn L.; Thompson, W. Clayton; Bocharov, Gennady; Roose, Dirk; Schenkel, Tim; Meyerhans, Andreas

    2010-01-01

    Advances in fluorescent labeling of cells as measured by flow cytometry have allowed for quantitative studies of proliferating populations of cells. The investigations (Luzyanina et al. in J. Math. Biol. 54:57–89, 2007; J. Math. Biol., 2009; Theor. Biol. Med. Model. 4:1–26, 2007) contain a mathematical model with fluorescence intensity as a structure variable to describe the evolution in time of proliferating cells labeled by carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester (CFSE). Here, this model and several extensions/modifications are discussed. Suggestions for improvements are presented and analyzed with respect to statistical significance for better agreement between model solutions and experimental data. These investigations suggest that the new decay/label loss and time dependent effective proliferation and death rates do indeed provide improved fits of the model to data. Statistical models for the observed variability/noise in the data are discussed with implications for uncertainty quantification. The resulting new cell dynamics model should prove useful in proliferation assay tracking and modeling, with numerous applications in the biomedical sciences. PMID:20195910

  19. Manimekalai: The ancient Buddhist Tamil epic, its relevance to psychiatry

    PubMed Central

    Somasundaram, Ottilingam; Tejus Murthy, A. G.

    2016-01-01

    This article refers to materials of psychiatric interest found in the Manimekalai written by the 2nd Century CE Buddhist poet Sathanar. From the early description of a wandering psychotic in the streets of Pukar, the ancient maritime capital of the Cholas it is opined that this description fits that of present-day schizophrenia. A drunkard making fun of a Jain monk and a cross-dressed individual are also found in the same streets. Manimekalai's request to the Chola king to convert the prison to a place of piety with Buddhist monks is mentioned. Lord Buddha's teachings on the compassionate way of life are presented. PMID:27385862

  20. EDITORIAL: Roberts Prize for the best paper published in 2012 Roberts Prize for the best paper published in 2012

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cherry, Simon; Ruffle, Jon

    2013-08-01

    The publishers of Physics in Medicine and Biology (PMB), IOP Publishing, in association with the journal owners, the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM), jointly award the Roberts prize for the best paper published in PMB during the previous year. The procedure for deciding the winner is a two-stage process. First, a shortlist of contenders is drawn up based on those papers that had the best referees' quality assessments, with a further quality check and endorsement by the Editorial Board. The papers on the shortlist are then reviewed by a specially convened IPEM committee consisting of members with fellow status. This committee reads the shortlisted papers and selects the winner. We have much pleasure in advising readers that the Roberts Prize for the best paper published in 2012 is awarded to Michel Defrise, Ahmadreza Rezaei and Johan Nuyts from the Vrije Universiteit Brussels and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium for their breakthrough paper that describes how the information needed for attenuation correction in PET imaging can be extracted, to within a constant, from time-of-flight emission data: Time-of-flight PET data determine the attenuation sinogram up to a constant 2012 Phys. Med. Biol. 57 885 Michel Defrise1, Ahmadreza Rezaei2 and Johan Nuyts2 1Department of Nuclear Medicine, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, B-1090 Brussels, Belgium 2Department of Nuclear Medicine, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium This paper represents an important and timely contribution to the literature as time-of-flight PET scanners are now offered by several manufacturers. In hybrid PET/CT scanners, the PET attenuation correction, necessary for quantitative reconstruction of the tracer distribution, can be derived directly from the CT data. Sometimes, however, the PET and CT scans may be poorly aligned due to patient motion and other approaches are needed. In addition, hybrid PET/MRI scanners also, have been developed recently, and in these scanners attenuation correction of the PET data is a particularly difficult challenge as there is no direct relationship between MR signal intensity and tissue attenuation for 511 keV photons. This paper offers a possible path forwards for attenuation correction in these circumstances by exploiting consistency conditions in tandem with time-of-flight information and proves under these circumstances that the data for PET attenuation correction can be determined to within a constant. Our congratulations go to these authors. Of course all of the shortlisted papers were of an extremely high standard, and merit recognition by the community. They are listed below in alphabetical order. We also would like to thank the PMB Editorial Board and the IPEM Committee members for their hard work in assessing the papers. Simon R Cherry Editor-in-Chief Jon Ruffle Publisher References Buhr H, Büermann L, Gerlach M, Krumrey M and Rabus H 2012 Measurement of the mass energy-absorption coefficient of air for x-rays in the range from 3 keV to 60 keV Phys. Med. Biol. 57 8231 Chen W, Unkelbach J, Trofimov A, Madden T, Kooy H, Bortfeld T and Craft D 2012 Including robustness in multi-criteria optimization for intensity modulated proton therapy Phys. Med. Biol. 57 591 Clasie B M, Sharp G C, Seco J, Flanz J B and Kooy H M 2012 Numerical solutions of the gamma index in two and three dimensions Phys. Med. Biol. 57 6981 Connell T, Alexander A, Evans M and Seuntjens J 2012 An experimental feasibility study on the use of scattering foil free beams for modulated electron radiotherapy Phys. Med. Biol. 57 3259 Defrise M, Rezaei A and Nuyts J 2012 Time-of-flight PET data determine the attenuation sinogram up to a constant Phys. Med. Biol. 57 885 Dowdell S J, Clasie B, Depauw N, Metcalfe P, Rosenfeld A B, Kooy H M, Flanz J B and Paganetti H 2012 Monte Carlo study of the potential reduction in out-of-field dose using a patient-specific aperture in pencil beam scanning proton therapy Phys. Med. Biol. 57 2829 Scott A J D, Kumar S, Nahum A E and Fenwick J D 2012 Characterizing the influence of detector density on dosimeter response in non-equilibrium small photon fields Phys. Med. Biol. 57 4461 Stam M K, Crijns S P M, Zonnenberg B A, Barendrecht M M, van Vulpen M, Lagendijk J J W and Raaymakers B W 2012 Navigators for motion detection during real-time MRI-guided radiotherapy Phys. Med. Biol. 57 6797 Xia T, Alessio A M, De Man B, Manjeshwar R, Asma E and Kinahan P E 2012 Ultra-low dose CT attenuation correction for PET/CT Phys. Med. Biol. 57 309 Yamaguchi M et al 2012 Beam range estimation by measuring bremsstrahlung Phys. Med. Biol. 57 2843 For more information on this article, see medicalphysicsweb.org

  1. Identification of the Transformational Properties and Transcriptional Targets of the Oncogenic SRY Transcription Factor SOX4

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-01-01

    oncogenic properties of the transcription factor SOX4 and to determine its role in murine prostate development. Our lab has previously shown SOX4...mRNA and protein to be overexpressed in prostate cancer, and this expression is correlated with increasing Gleason score. Other labs have shown SOX4...D. Lieb, Genome Biol 6, R97 (2005). 2. M. van Beest et al., J Biol Chem 275, 27266 (Sep 1, 2000). 3. M. van de Wetering, M. Oosterwegel, K. van

  2. Intramembraneous Particle Cluster and Cytoplasmic Vesicles in Mice with Nephrogenic Defects of Urinary Concentration.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1987-01-01

    DiBona , D.R., M.M. Civan, and A. Leaf. The cellular specificity of the effect of vasopressin on toad urinary bladder. J. Membr. Biol. 1:79-91, 1969. 30...Chem. 240:4524-4526, 1965. 62. Hardy, M.A., and D.R. DiBona . Microfilaments and the hydrosmotic action of vasopressin in toad urinary bladder. Am. J... DiBona , D.R., M.M. Civan, and A. Leaf. The cellular specificity of the effect of vasopressin on toad urinary bladder. J. Membr. Biol. 1:79-91, 1969. 30

  3. Molecular Mechanisms and Treatment Strategies for Obesity-Associated Coronary Artery Disease, an Imminent Military Epidemic

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2006-12-01

    acyltransferase by compound 58-035. J.Biol.Chem. 259:815-819. 5. Li,Y., Gerbod- Giannone ,M.C., Seitz,H., Cui,D., Thorp,E., Tall,A.R., Matsushima,G.K., and...differentiation of human breast cancer through PPAR gamma. Mol.Cell 1:465-470. 9. Li,Y., Schwabe,R.F., DeVries-Seimon,T., Yao,P.M., Gerbod- Giannone ...receptor. J. Cell Biol. 171:61-73. *86. Li, Y., Gerbod- Giannone , M.C., Seitz, H., Cui, D., Thorp, E., Tall, A.R., Matsushima, G.K., and Tabas

  4. Design, Analysis, and Interpretation of Screening Studies for Human Factors Engineering Research. Revision.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1978-06-01

    FNO GlX GJP GMO HIP HJ( 11MN ILO JLN KLb: B ABCD AC? ADO AE1 AHL A J t’ Ar*N AD? CDL CEM CON CiJ ChP CN 0 DEN DFH D1K DJ? DMO EFJ ECK EHI’ EiD FUL FIN...Westlake Village, CA 91361 II.- CoN TIro I ING OFF 1C- NAME., AN C) AP"tOFF 12 R.. POFRT o AT " Air Force Office of Scientific Research September 1977...explains the techniques devel- oped by Box and Hunter (1961) and Daniel (1962) for con - structing Resolution IV screening designs from two Resolution

  5. Enstrophy-based proper orthogonal decomposition of flow past rotating cylinder at super-critical rotating rate

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sengupta, Tapan K.; Gullapalli, Atchyut

    2016-11-01

    Spinning cylinder rotating about its axis experiences a transverse force/lift, an account of this basic aerodynamic phenomenon is known as the Robins-Magnus effect in text books. Prandtl studied this flow by an inviscid irrotational model and postulated an upper limit of the lift experienced by the cylinder for a critical rotation rate. This non-dimensional rate is the ratio of oncoming free stream speed and the surface speed due to rotation. Prandtl predicted a maximum lift coefficient as CLmax = 4π for the critical rotation rate of two. In recent times, evidences show the violation of this upper limit, as in the experiments of Tokumaru and Dimotakis ["The lift of a cylinder executing rotary motions in a uniform flow," J. Fluid Mech. 255, 1-10 (1993)] and in the computed solution in Sengupta et al. ["Temporal flow instability for Magnus-robins effect at high rotation rates," J. Fluids Struct. 17, 941-953 (2003)]. In the latter reference, this was explained as the temporal instability affecting the flow at higher Reynolds number and rotation rates (>2). Here, we analyze the flow past a rotating cylinder at a super-critical rotation rate (=2.5) by the enstrophy-based proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) of direct simulation results. POD identifies the most energetic modes and helps flow field reconstruction by reduced number of modes. One of the motivations for the present study is to explain the shedding of puffs of vortices at low Reynolds number (Re = 60), for the high rotation rate, due to an instability originating in the vicinity of the cylinder, using the computed Navier-Stokes equation (NSE) from t = 0 to t = 300 following an impulsive start. This instability is also explained through the disturbance mechanical energy equation, which has been established earlier in Sengupta et al. ["Temporal flow instability for Magnus-robins effect at high rotation rates," J. Fluids Struct. 17, 941-953 (2003)].

  6. High Resolution Infrared Spectroscopy of Propargyl Alcohol-Water Complex Embedded in Helium Nanodroplets

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mani, Devendra; Pal, Nitish; Kaufmann, Matin; Schwaab, Gerhard; Havenith, Martina

    2016-06-01

    Propargyl alcohol (hereafter abbreviated as PA) is a molecule of astrophysical interest and has been probed extensively using microwave spectroscopy.1,2 It is a multifunctional molecule and offers multiple sites for hydrogen bonding interactions. Therefore, it has also attracted the attention of groups interested in weak intermolecular interactions. Recently, the Ar…PA complex3 and PA-dimer4 have been studied using microwave spectroscopy. More recently, there have been matrix-isolation infrared spectroscopic studies on PA-water5 and PA-acetylene6 complexes. In the present work, clusters of PA and water were formed in the helium nanodroplets and probed using a combination of infrared spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. Using ab-initio quantum mechanical calculations, PA-water clusters were optimised and five minimum structures were found on the potential energy hypersurface, which were used as a guidance to the experiments. We used D2O for the experiments since our laser sources at Bochum do not cover the IR spectral region of H2O. IR spectra of PA-D2O complex were recorded in the region of symmetric and antisymmetric stretches of the bound D2O. Multiple signals were found in these regions which were dependent on the concentration of PA as well as D2O. Using pickup curves most of these signals could be assigned to 1:1 PA:D2O clusters. The ab-initio calculations helped in a definitive assignment of the spectra to the different conformers of PA-D2O complex. The details will be presented in the talk. References: 1. E. Hirota, J. Mol. Spec. 26, 335 (1968). 2. J.C. Pearson and B.J. Drouin, J. Mol. Spectrosc. 234, 149 (2005). 3. D. Mani and E. Arunan, ChemPhysChem 14, 754 (2013). 4. D. Mani and E. Arunan, J. Chem. Phys. 141, 164311 (2014). 5. J. Saini, K.S. Vishwanathan, J. Mol. Struct. 1118, 147 (2016). 6. K. Sundararajan et al., J. Mol. Struct. 1121, 26 (2016).

  7. The mandatory sentence and Section 2.

    PubMed Central

    Dell, S

    1986-01-01

    Sentencing in homicide depends on how psychiatrists view the issues of Section 2. In most killings that do not involve clear-cut mental disorder, strong emotions and stress play a part. Both can be cited in aid of diminished responsibility. If doctors cite them, however tentatively, it becomes feasible for the court to review any mitigating factors and to choose an appropriate penalty. Otherwise, the mandatory penalty is imposed. Thus doctors, by opining not on the medical but on the legal and moral aspects of Section 2, decide who shall automatically get a life sentence and who shall not. Anomaly and injustice are the results. They would be remedied by the abolition of the mandatory sentence for murder. PMID:3959037

  8. Elucidation of the absolute configuration of rhizopine by chiral supercritical fluid chromatography and vibrational circular dichroism.

    PubMed

    Krief, Alain; Dunkle, Melissa; Bahar, Masoud; Bultinck, Patrick; Herrebout, Wouter; Sandra, Pat

    2015-07-01

    The absolute configuration of rhizopine, an opine-like natural product present in nitrogen-fixing nodules of alfalfa infected by rhizobia, is elucidated using a combination of state-of-the-art analytical and semi-preparative supercritical fluid chromatography and vibrational circular dichroism spectroscopy. A synthetic peracetylated racemate was fractionated into its enantiomers and subjected to absolute configuration analysis revealing that natural rhizopine exists as a single enantiomer. The stereochemistry of non-derivatized natural rhizopine corresponds to (1R,2S,3R,4R,5S,6R)-4-amino-6-methoxycyclohexane-1,2,3,5-tetraol. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  9. Reporting on the Holocaust: the view from Jim Crow Alabama.

    PubMed

    Puckett, Dan J

    2011-01-01

    The press in Alabama covered major events taking place in Germany from the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in 1933 through the Nuremberg Trials in 1946. Journalists in the state provided extensive coverage, and editors did not hesitate to opine on the persecution of the Jews in Europe. Yet, Alabama’s white-run press failed in the end to explain the events as a singularly Jewish tragedy. The state’s black-run press, for its part, used the news of the mass killings of the Jews to warn against the dangers of conceptions of racial superiority—a primary concern for black southerners living in the Jim Crow South.

  10. Looking through an adolescent literacy lens at the narrow view of reading.

    PubMed

    Ehren, Barbara J

    2009-04-01

    This commentary is a personal reaction to A. G. Kamhi's (2007) article on the "narrow view" of reading and his suggestion that this view be adopted as a way to address the reading problems of children and adolescents. In this article, I consider the narrow view of reading from an adolescent literacy perspective and discuss the practical implications of adopting this view in the schools. Discussion revolves around the complexities of reading comprehension, comprehension as a teachable set of complex processes, and the speech-language pathologist's role in reading comprehension. Although I acknowledge that the narrow view of reading may have merit, I opine that it may create more problems than it solves.

  11. The Role of a Novel Nucleolar Protein in Regulation of E2F1 in Breast Cancer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-09-01

    publication and successful defense of a PhD. 8 References 1. Paik JC, Wang B, Liu K, Lue J , Lin WC. Regulation of E2F1-induced apoptosis by...the nucleolar protein RRP1B. J Biol Chem. 2009 Dec 29. [E-pub ahead of print] 2. Hsieh SM, Look MP, Sieuwerts AM, Foekens JA, Hunter KW. Distinct...factor. J Biol Chem. 2009 Oct 16;284(42):28660-73. 4. Crawford NP, Walker RC, Lukes L, Officewala JS, Williams RW, Hunter KW. The Diasporin Pathway: a

  12. Development of Pantothenate Analogs That Can Treat Combat-Related Infections

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-01-01

    are as follows (Fig. 6): the MIC for E . faecalis was determined as 156 g/ml for N5-Pan and 29 g/ml for N7-Pan, respectively. In the case of S...Crystallogr.D.Biol.Crystallogr. 60, 2126-2132 (2004). 7. G. N. Murshudov, A. A. Vagin , E . J. Dodson, Acta Crystallogr.D.Biol.Crystallogr. 53, 240-255 (1997). 8. I. W...CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d. PROJECT NUMBER 5e. TASK NUMBER E -Mail: 5f. WORK UNIT

  13. INT6 May Influence Breast Cancer Formation by Regulating the 26S Proteasome

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2007-04-01

    to res- cue the growth defects were discarded. The final cDNA clones were sequenced u s i n g t w o p r i m e r s : 5 ’ - CAATCTCATTCTCACTTTCTGAC-3...polyclonal rab- b i t a n t i b o d y u s i n g CIVKEIQDEKEAEAARKKGR as a pep- tide antigen. The confirmation of this an- tibody (1: 2,000) is shown...J. W. (1997) J. Biol. Chem. 272, 23477- 23480 12. Bandyopadhyay, A., Lakshmanan, V., Matsumoto, T ., Chang, E. C., and Maitra, U. (2002) J. Biol. Chem

  14. Damage-based life prediction model for uniaxial low-cycle stress fatigue of super-elastic NiTi shape memory alloy microtubes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Song, Di; Kang, Guozheng; Kan, Qianhua; Yu, Chao; Zhang, Chuanzeng

    2015-08-01

    Based on the experimental observations for the uniaxial low-cycle stress fatigue failure of super-elastic NiTi shape memory alloy microtubes (Song et al 2015 Smart Mater. Struct. 24 075004) and a new definition of damage variable corresponding to the variation of accumulated dissipation energy, a phenomenological damage model is proposed to describe the damage evolution of the NiTi microtubes during cyclic loading. Then, with a failure criterion of Dc = 1, the fatigue lives of the NiTi microtubes are predicted by the damage-based model, the predicted lives are in good agreement with the experimental ones, and all of the points are located within an error band of 1.5 times.

  15. Long-branch attraction and the phylogeny of true water bugs (Hemiptera: Nepomorpha) as estimated from mitochondrial genomes

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Background Most previous studies of morphological and molecular data have consistently supported the monophyly of the true water bugs (Hemiptera: Nepomorpha). An exception is a recent study by Hua et al. (BMC Evol Biol 9: 134, 2009) based on nine nepomorphan mitochondrial genomes. In the analysis of Hua et al. (BMC Evol Biol 9: 134, 2009), the water bugs in the group Pleoidea formed the sister group to a clade that consisted of Nepomorpha (the remaining true water bugs) + Leptopodomorpha (shore bugs) + Cimicomorpha (assassin bugs and relatives) + Pentatomomorpha (stink bugs and relatives), thereby suggesting that fully aquatic hemipterans evolved independently at least twice. Based on these results, Hua et al. (BMC Evol Biol 9: 134, 2009) elevated the Pleoidea to a new infraorder, the Plemorpha. Results Our reanalysis suggests that the lack of support for the monophyly of the true water bugs (including Pleoidea) by Hua et al. (BMC Evol Biol 9: 134, 2009) likely resulted from inadequate taxon sampling. In particular, long-branch attraction (LBA) between the distant outgroup taxa and Pleoidea, as well as LBA among taxa in the ingroup, made Nepomorpha appear to be polyphyletic. We used three complementary strategies to test and alleviate the effects of LBA: (1) the removal of distant outgroups from the analysis; (2) the addition of closely related outgroups; and (3) the addition of a mitochondrial genome from a second family of Pleoidea. We also performed likelihood-ratio tests to examine the support for monophyly of Nepomorpha with different combinations of taxa included in the analysis. Furthermore, we found that specimens of Helotrephes sp. were misidentified as Paraplea frontalis (Fieber, 1844) by Hua et al. (BMC Evol Biol 9: 134, 2009). Conclusions All analyses that included the addition of more taxa significantly and consistently supported the placement of Pleoidea within the Nepomorpha (i.e., supported the monophyly of the traditional true water bugs). Our analyses further support a close relationship between Notonectoidea and Pleoidea within Nepomorpha, and the superfamilies Nepoidea, Ochteroidea, Naucoroidea, and Pleoidea are resolved as monophyletic in all trees with strong support. Our results also confirmed that monophyly of Nepomorpha clearly is not refuted by the mitochondrial genome data. PMID:24884699

  16. Rigor mortis in an unusual position: Forensic considerations.

    PubMed

    D'Souza, Deepak H; Harish, S; Rajesh, M; Kiran, J

    2011-07-01

    We report a case in which the dead body was found with rigor mortis in an unusual position. The dead body was lying on its back with limbs raised, defying gravity. Direction of the salivary stains on the face was also defying the gravity. We opined that the scene of occurrence of crime is unlikely to be the final place where the dead body was found. The clues were revealing a homicidal offence and an attempt to destroy the evidence. The forensic use of 'rigor mortis in an unusual position' is in furthering the investigations, and the scientific confirmation of two facts - the scene of death (occurrence) is different from the scene of disposal of dead body, and time gap between the two places.

  17. Rigor mortis in an unusual position: Forensic considerations

    PubMed Central

    D’Souza, Deepak H; Harish, S; Rajesh, M.; Kiran, J

    2011-01-01

    We report a case in which the dead body was found with rigor mortis in an unusual position. The dead body was lying on its back with limbs raised, defying gravity. Direction of the salivary stains on the face was also defying the gravity. We opined that the scene of occurrence of crime is unlikely to be the final place where the dead body was found. The clues were revealing a homicidal offence and an attempt to destroy the evidence. The forensic use of ‘rigor mortis in an unusual position’ is in furthering the investigations, and the scientific confirmation of two facts - the scene of death (occurrence) is different from the scene of disposal of dead body, and time gap between the two places. PMID:23776792

  18. Comment on “Mathematical modeling of unicellular microalgae and cyanobacteria metabolism for biofuel production” by Baroukh et al. [Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2015, 33:198–205

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Song, Hyun-Seob; Ramkrishna, Doraiswami

    This letter concerns an article recently published in Current Opinion in Biotechnology by Baroukh et al. entitled "Mathematical modeling of unicellular microalgae and cyanobacteria metabolism for biofuel production" (2015 Mar 26; 33:198-205). The issue we wish to bring to light is the authors’ claim that dynamic metabolic models including Hybrid Cybernetic Model (HCM) (Kim et al., 2008; Song et al., 2009) and Lumped HCM (L-HCM) (Song and Ramkrishna, 2010; 2011) are based on the balanced growth hypothesis so that they are unable to simulate the accumulation of intracellular metabolites. This is a misrepresentation of these models due to the followingmore » reasons.« less

  19. A really useful pathogen, Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

    PubMed

    Yuan, Ze-Chun; Williams, Mary

    2012-10-01

    Bacteria of the genus Agrobacterium are very useful and unusual plant pathogens. Through a rare inter-kingdom DNA transfer, the bacteria move some of their genes into their host's genome, thereby inducing the host cells to proliferate and produce opines, nutrients sources for the pathogen. Agrobacterium's ability to transfer DNA makes can be adapted to introduce other genes, such as those encoding useful traits, into plant genomes. The development of Agrobacterium as a tool to transform plants is a landmark event in modern plant biology. This lecture provides an introduction to Agrobacterium tumefaciens and related species, focusing on their modes of pathogenicity, their usefulness as tools for plant transformation, and their use as a model for the study of plant-pathogen interactions.

  20. EDITORIAL: Roberts Prize for the best paper published in 2011 Roberts Prize for the best paper published in 2011

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cherry, Simon; Ruffle, Jon

    2012-08-01

    The publishers of Physics in Medicine and Biology (PMB), IOP Publishing, in association with the journal owners, the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM), jointly award an annual prize for the best paper published in PMB during the previous year. The procedure for deciding the winner is a two-stage process. First, a shortlist of contenders is drawn up based on those papers that had the best referees' quality assessments, with a further quality check and endorsement by the Editorial Board. The papers on the shortlist are then reviewed by a specially convened IPEM committee consisting of members with fellow status. This committee reads the shortlisted papers and selects the winner. We have much pleasure in advising readers that the Roberts Prize for the best paper published in 2011 is awarded to Matthew Hough et al from the University of Florida, the Francis Marion University and the National Cancer Institute, USA for their paper on a comprehensive electron dosimetry model of skeletal tissues in the adult male: An image-based skeletal dosimetry model for the ICRP reference adult male—internal electron sources 2011 Phys. Med. Biol. 56 2309 Matthew Hough1, Perry Johnson1, Didier Rajon2, Derek Jokisch3, Choonsik Lee4 and Wesley Bolch1,5 1Department of Nuclear and Radiological Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA 2Department of Neurosurgery, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA 3Department of Physics and Astronomy, Francis Marion University, Florence, SC, USA 4Radiation Epidemiology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA 5Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA Bone marrow is one of the more radiosensitive tissues in the human body and is housed within a complex structure of bone. This paper describes a comprehensive model of energy deposition by internal electron or beta particle emitters for the ICRP reference adult male based upon ex vivo CT and microCT images of bone from a male cadaver. This work will be important for both the assessment of skeletal doses in radiation protection and nuclear medicine, and also for following external photon irradiation in medical imaging and radiotherapy. Our congratulations go to these authors. Of course all of the shortlisted papers were of an extremely high standard, and they are listed below in alphabetical order. We also would like to thank the IPEM Committee members for their hard work in reading the papers and making what must have been a difficult decision. Simon R Cherry Editor-in-Chief Jon Ruffle Publisher References Hough M, Johnson P, Rajon D, Jokisch D, Lee C and Bolch W 2011 An image-based skeletal dosimetry model for the ICRP reference adult male—internal electron sources Phys. Med. Biol. 56 2309 Jan S 2011 GATE V6: a major enhancement of the GATE simulation platform enabling modelling of CT and radiotherapy Phys. Med. Biol. 56 881 Jing H, Yang Y, and Nishikawa R M 2011 Detection of clustered microcalcifications using spatial point process modeling Phys. Med. Biol. 56 1 Li T, Thongphiew D, Zhu X, Lee W R, Vujaskovic Z, Yin F-F, Wu Q J A 2011 Adaptive prostate IGRT combining online re-optimization and re-positioning: a feasibility study Phys. Med. Biol. 56 1243 Kitchen M J, Paganin D M, Uesugi K, Allison B J, Lewis R A, Hooper S B, Pavlov K M 2011 Phase contrast image segmentation using a Laue analyser crystal Phys. Med. Biol. 56 515 Yamaya T, Mitsuhashi T, Matsumoto T, Inadama N, Nishikido F, Yoshida E, Murayama H, Kawai H, Suga M and Watanabe M 2011 A SiPM-based isotropic-3D PET detector X'tal cube with a three-dimensional array of 1 mm3 crystals Phys. Med. Biol. 56 6793 Yu Z, Wunderlich A, Dennerlein F, Lauritsch G and Noo F 2011 Line plus arc source trajectories and their R-line coverage for long-object cone-beam imaging with a C-arm system Phys. Med. Biol. 56 3447

  1. Addendum to "Harmony of computational quantum chemistry and experimental chemistry: Comprehensive DFT studies, microsynthesis, and characterization of mustard gas polysulfide analogues" [J. Mol. Struct. (2018) 57-62

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Saeidian, Hamid; Faraz, Sajjad Mousavi; Mirjafary, Zohreh; Babri, Mehran

    2018-07-01

    Recently, Blum from OPCW laboratory investigated HD, HS2, HS3 and higher polysulfides and their corresponding reactive intermediates by using Amsterdam Density Functional (ADF) calculations [22, 23]. In his presentation, he mentioned that analysis of MO energy levels for episulfonium ions of HD, HS2 and HS3 shows that the sulfur centered LUMOs for HS2 and HS3 are LUMO+1 for HD ion; and LUMOs energy levels of HS2 and HS3 are decreased by addition of polarizable sulfur atoms. He also showed that no four-membered sulfonium ion ring structures are formed for HS2, HS3 and higher polysulfides; and episulfonium ion is the only reactive intermediate for them.

  2. [Inventive activity of the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry of Enzymes, and Protein Structure and Function of the Palladin Institute of Biochemistry of NAS of Ukraine. Part III. Diagnostic test-systems for analysis of fibrinolysis blood system and novel approaches to thrombosis treatment].

    PubMed

    Danilova, V M; Vynogradova, R P; Chernysh, I Yu

    2016-01-01

    This article continues analysis of scientific achievements of the Institute of Biochemistry in the study of hemostasis system. Two previous articles were focused on the studies of blood coagulation proteins and development of the immune-enzyme test-systems for evaluation of the risk of thrombosis upon various pathologies. This article highlights the research on the blood fibrinolysis system and new approaches to thrombosis treatment, which were developed (and are under development) in the Palladin Institute of Biochemistry of the NAS of Ukraine, in particular, in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry of Enzymes headed previously by Dr.Sci.(Biol.) S. O. Kudinov and now by Dr.Sci.(Biol.) T .V. Grinenko, and also in the Department of Protein Structure and Function headed by Dr.Biol.Sci. E. M. Makogonenko. The fundamental knowledge of protein molecule functions and mechanisms of regulation of blood coagulation and fibrinolysis opens up new opportunities to diagnose hemostasis disorders and control the effectiveness of the cardiovascular disease treatment and also contributes to development of new techniques for isolation of new proteins – promising therapeutic agents.

  3. Using sea urchin gametes and zygotes to investigate centrosome duplication.

    PubMed

    Sluder, Greenfield

    2016-01-01

    Centriole structure and function in the sea urchin zygote parallel those in mammalian somatic cells. Here, I briefly introduce the properties and attributes of the sea urchin system that make it an attractive platform for the study of centrosome and centriole duplication. These attributes apply to all echinoderms readily available from commercial suppliers: sea urchins, sand dollars, and starfish. I list some of the practical aspects of the system that make it a cost- and time-effective system for experimental work and then list properties that are a "tool kit" that can be used to conduct studies that would not be practical, or in some cases not possible, with mammalian somatic cells. Since centrioles organize and localize the pericentriolar material that nucleates the astral arrays of microtubules (Bobinnec et al. in J Cell Biol 143(6):1575-1589, 1998), the pattern of aster duplication over several cell cycles can be used as a reliable measure for centriole duplication (Sluder and Rieder in J Cell Biol 100(3):887-896, 1985). Descriptions of the methods my laboratory has used to handle and image echinoderm zygotes are reviewed in Sluder et al. (Methods Cell Biol 61:439-472, 1999). Also included is a bibliography of papers that describe additional methods.

  4. Habitability and Life - an Overview

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bredehöft, J. H.

    2008-09-01

    Abstract The search for habitable planets has seen a significant boost, since much effort was invested into development of newer and more powerful techniques of detecting such planetary bodies. This search is fuelled by the interest that is sparked by its help in answering the bigger question of the origin of life on Earth and its abundance in the universe. Traditionally a planetary body has been deemed habitable when it provides conditions under which water is liquid. This led to the formulation of a habitable zone across stars, in which liquid water can exist. [1] Liquid water remains to this day the single most important feature in the search for life. There have been various suggestions of life being present in waterless environments like liquid hydrocarbons or even liquid ammonia, but how exactly a living system under such conditions might work, no one can satisfactorily explain. [2] A very important point in this context that is not often raised is that while water might be a favourable medium in which to live and certainly a major constituent of all living organism we know of, water alone is not alive and it will not spontaneously evolve into life. It would thus seem that apart from the presence of liquid water there a number of other, minor, necessary ingredients to life that determine whether a planet is habitable (meaning capable of sustaining life) or whether it is also capable of providing the starting grounds for the evolution of living systems. These other ingredients are determined by the minimum requirements of life itself. They include the molecular components of the most primitive encasing of an organism, the most primitive molecules needed for something like a metabolism and the most primitive way of storing information. [3] In addition to these molecular components, life must be able to utilise a source of energy to drive chemical reactions. Observations of various extremophiles on Earth utilising all kinds disequilibria suggest that these can be very diverse. The exact nature of these other ingredients, their possible presence and history of formation and their impact for the formation and evolution of life will be discussed for several different types of habitats all across the regime in which liquid water can be found, such as very dry and cold bodies like Mars, hot bodies like Venus, bodies covered completely in water or bodies with subsurface oceans. References [1] Kasting J.F., Whitmire D.P., Reynolds R.T., (1993) Icarus 101(1), 108-128 [2] Benner S.A., Ricardo A., Carrigan M.A. (2004) Curr Opin Chem Biol 8(6), 672-689 [3] Ruiz-Mirazo K., Peretó J., Moreno A., (2004) OLEB 34(3), 323-346 EPSC Abstracts, Vol. 3, EPSC2008-A-00039, 2008 European Planetary Science Congress, Author(s) 2008

  5. DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Paziresh, M.; Kingston, A. M., E-mail: andrew.kingston@anu.edu.au; Latham, S. J.

    Dual-energy computed tomography and the Alvarez and Macovski [Phys. Med. Biol. 21, 733 (1976)] transmitted intensity (AMTI) model were used in this study to estimate the maps of density (ρ) and atomic number (Z) of mineralogical samples. In this method, the attenuation coefficients are represented [Alvarez and Macovski, Phys. Med. Biol. 21, 733 (1976)] in the form of the two most important interactions of X-rays with atoms that is, photoelectric absorption (PE) and Compton scattering (CS). This enables material discrimination as PE and CS are, respectively, dependent on the atomic number (Z) and density (ρ) of materials [Alvarez and Macovski,more » Phys. Med. Biol. 21, 733 (1976)]. Dual-energy imaging is able to identify sample materials even if the materials have similar attenuation coefficients at single-energy spectrum. We use the full model rather than applying one of several applied simplified forms [Alvarez and Macovski, Phys. Med. Biol. 21, 733 (1976); Siddiqui et al., SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (Society of Petroleum Engineers, 2004); Derzhi, U.S. patent application 13/527,660 (2012); Heismann et al., J. Appl. Phys. 94, 2073–2079 (2003); Park and Kim, J. Korean Phys. Soc. 59, 2709 (2011); Abudurexiti et al., Radiol. Phys. Technol. 3, 127–135 (2010); and Kaewkhao et al., J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transfer 109, 1260–1265 (2008)]. This paper describes the tomographic reconstruction of ρ and Z maps of mineralogical samples using the AMTI model. The full model requires precise knowledge of the X-ray energy spectra and calibration of PE and CS constants and exponents of atomic number and energy that were estimated based on fits to simulations and calibration measurements. The estimated ρ and Z images of the samples used in this paper yield average relative errors of 2.62% and 1.19% and maximum relative errors of 2.64% and 7.85%, respectively. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the method accounts for the beam hardening effect in density (ρ) and atomic number (Z) reconstructions to a significant extent.« less

  6. Understanding and Improving Blind Students' Access to Visual Information in Computer Science Education

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baker, Catherine M.

    Teaching people with disabilities tech skills empowers them to create solutions to problems they encounter and prepares them for careers. However, computer science is typically taught in a highly visual manner which can present barriers for people who are blind. The goal of this dissertation is to understand and decrease those barriers. The first projects I present looked at the barriers that blind students face. I first present the results of my survey and interviews with blind students with degrees in computer science or related fields. This work highlighted the many barriers that these blind students faced. I then followed-up on one of the barriers mentioned, access to technology, by doing a preliminary accessibility evaluation of six popular integrated development environments (IDEs) and code editors. I found that half were unusable and all had some inaccessible portions. As access to visual information is a barrier in computer science education, I present three projects I have done to decrease this barrier. The first project is Tactile Graphics with a Voice (TGV). This project investigated an alternative to Braille labels for those who do not know Braille and showed that TGV was a potential alternative. The next project was StructJumper, which created a modified abstract syntax tree that blind programmers could use to navigate through code with their screen reader. The evaluation showed that users could navigate more quickly and easily determine the relationships of lines of code when they were using StructJumper compared to when they were not. Finally, I present a tool for dynamic graphs (the type with nodes and edges) which had two different modes for handling focus changes when moving between graphs. I found that the modes support different approaches for exploring the graphs and therefore preferences are mixed based on the user's preferred approach. However, both modes had similar accuracy in completing the tasks. These projects are a first step towards the goal of making computer science education more accessible to blind students. By identifying the barriers that exist and creating solutions to overcome them, we can support increasing the number of blind students in computer science.

  7. Correlation between vortex structures and unsteady loads for flapping motion in hover

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jardin, Thierry; Chatellier, Ludovic; Farcy, Alain; David, Laurent

    2009-10-01

    During the past decade, efforts were made to develop a new generation of unmanned aircrafts, qualified as Micro-Air Vehicles. The particularity of these systems resides in their maximum dimension limited to 15 cm, which, in terms of aerodynamics, corresponds to low Reynolds number flows ( Re ≈ 102 to 104). At low Reynolds number, the concept of flapping wings seems to be an interesting alternative to the conventional fixed and rotary wings. Despite the fact that this concept may lead to enhanced lift forces and efficiency ratios, it allows hovering coupled with a low-noise generation. Previous studies (Dickinson et al. in Science 284:1954-1960, 1999) revealed that the flow engendered by flapping wings is highly vortical and unsteady, inducing significant temporal variations of the loads experienced by the airfoil. In order to enhance the aerodynamic performance of such flapping wings, it is essential to give further insight into the loads generating mechanisms by correlating the spatial and temporal evolution of the vortical structures together with the time-dependent lift and drag. In this paper, Time Resolved Particle Image Velocimetry is used as a basis to evaluate both unsteady forces and vortical structures generated by an airfoil undergoing complex motion (i.e. asymmetric flapping flight), through the momentum equation approach and a multidimensional wavelet-like vortex parameterization method, respectively. The momentum equation approach relies on the integration of flow variables inside and around a control volume surrounding the airfoil (Noca et al. in J Fluids Struct 11:345-350, 1997; Unal et al. in J Fluids Struct 11:965-971, 1997). Besides the direct link performed between the flow behavior and the force mechanisms, the load characterization is here non-intrusive and specifically convenient for flapping flight studies thanks to its low Reynolds flows’ sensitivity and adaptability to moving bodies. Results are supported by a vortex parameterization which evaluates the circulation of the multiple vortices generated in such complex flows. The temporal evolution of the loads matches the flow behavior and hence reveals the preponderant inertial force component and that due to vortical structures.

  8. Crystal structure and infrared spectra of dicesium trans-tetraaquadichlorochromium(III) chloride

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Neumann, E.; Stefov, V.; Šoptrajanov, B.; Engelen, B.; Lutz, H. D.

    2004-12-01

    The crystal structure of dicesium trans-tetraaquadichlorochromium(III) chloride Cs 2Cr IIICl 5·4H 2O with trans-[M IIIX 2(H 2O) 4] + complex ions (space group C2/c, Z=4, a=1915.3(4) pm, b=614.1(1) pm, c=1392.0(3) pm, and β=118.24(3)°, final R1=0.0246 for 2100 unique reflections) was redetermined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies. It was found to crystallize in a 2c super structure of the structure reported previously (Inorg. Chem. 20 (1981) 1566; Inorg. Chem. 36 (1997) 2248). The obtained structure data now agree with the results of infrared spectroscopic studies, which has been confirmed in this work, namely that there are two different hydrate H 2O molecules in the structure. Phase transitions, static or dynamic disorder of the hydrate H 2O molecules, and space group C2/m proposed in the literature were ruled out. The coordinates of the four hydrogen positions derived from the X-ray data have been improved via the O-H distances derived from the wave numbers of the OD stretching modes of matrix isolated HDO molecules (2426, 2323, and 2306 cm -1, 263 K) by using the νOD versus rO-H correlation curve reported in the literature (J. Mol. Struct. 404 (1997) 63). The νOD versus rH⋯Cl correlation curve reported by Mikenda (J. Mol. Struct. 147 (1986) 1) should be improved, especially for strong hydrogen bonds. The two hydrate H 2O molecules of the title compound are strongly distorted with a weak and a relatively strong O-H⋯Cl hydrogen bond each thus intramolecular coupling of the two OH stretching vibrations to coupled ones is largely reduced and, hence, the wavenumbers of the OH and OD stretching modes of the HDO molecules mainly resemble those of the H 2O and D 2O molecules. The strength of the hydrogen bonds is in accordance with the predictions of the competitive and synergetic effects. Chloro ligands are weaker hydrogen bond acceptor groups than chloride ions.

  9. Fluorescent labeling of SNAP-tagged proteins in cells.

    PubMed

    Lukinavičius, Gražvydas; Reymond, Luc; Johnsson, Kai

    2015-01-01

    One of the most prominent self-labeling tags is SNAP-tag. It is an in vitro evolution product of the human DNA repair protein O (6)-alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase (hAGT) that reacts specifically with benzylguanine (BG) and benzylchloropyrimidine (CP) derivatives, leading to covalent labeling of SNAP-tag with a synthetic probe (Gronemeyer et al., Protein Eng Des Sel 19:309-316, 2006; Curr Opin Biotechnol 16:453-458, 2005; Keppler et al., Nat Biotechnol 21:86-89, 2003; Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 101:9955-9959, 2004). SNAP-tag is well suited for the analysis and quantification of fused target protein using fluorescence microscopy techniques. It provides a simple, robust, and versatile approach to the imaging of fusion proteins under a wide range of experimental conditions.

  10. Editorial Commentary: Evaluating the Epidemiology of Shoulder Stabilization Surgery: An Opinion on Causation.

    PubMed

    Nelson, Bradley

    2018-03-01

    Epidemiology originates from the Greek words "epi" meaning upon and "demos" meaning people. Hence, epidemiology is the study of what is "upon the people" or the analysis of the patterns of disease in a defined population. Epidemiological studies are important in defining "at-risk" patient populations so research can be directed toward these groups. It is important to understand that epidemiology does not determine causation. However, it is reasonable for clinicians (me) to opine on the reasons for these epidemiological trends. I believe that the major factors responsible for the changing incidence in shoulder stabilization are the use of the arthroscope and the surgical management of the first time dislocator. Copyright © 2017 Arthroscopy Association of North America. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Sources and vicissitudes of being in D. W. Winnicott's work.

    PubMed

    Green, André

    2010-01-01

    The author questions the reasons for the appearance of the concept of being in Winnicott's work four years before his death. Winnicott illustrated his concept of being by describing a patient in whom he found a complete dissociation of male and female elements. Insisting on the role of the environment and the part played by the mother, Winnicott considered that the pure female element relates to the breast or the mother, in the sense that the baby is becoming the breast. He opined that instinct or drive has nothing to do with this. The present paper discusses this viewpoint at length, comparing Winnicott's and Freud's positions. It is noted that Winnicott introduced his concept of being at a time when he felt threatened by his own mortality.

  12. Sexual and reproductive health knowledge, behaviour and education needs of in-school adolescents in northern Nigeria.

    PubMed

    Adeokun, L A; Ricketts, O L; Ajuwon, A J; Ladipo, O A

    2009-12-01

    Adolescence is marked by progression from the appearance of secondary sexual characteristics to sexual and reproductive maturity. Curiosity about bodily changes is heightened. However, adolescents' perceived sexuality education needs have been poorly documented. A survey of 989 adolescents from 24 North-Eastern Nigerian secondary schools yielded information on socio-demographic characteristics, reproductive health knowledge, sexual activities and sexuality education needs. Of the interviewed respondents, 72% of females had experienced menstruation. Overall, 9% were sexually active, 3.1% knew when ovulation occurs, 47% knew pregnancy could result from first coitus and 56% knew of contraception. 84% opined that adolescents should be given sexuality education but only 48.3% had received any. Sexuality education should be provided for in-school adolescents through their preferred and reliable sources of information.

  13. Anesthetic management of patient with myasthenia gravis and uncontrolled hyperthyroidism for thymectomy.

    PubMed

    Datt, Vishnu; Tempe, Deepak K; Singh, Baljit; Tomar, Akhlesh S; Banerjee, Amit; Dutta, Devesh; Bhandari, Hricha

    2010-01-01

    The relationship between myasthenia gravis (MG) and other autoimmune disorders like hyperthyroidism is well known. It may manifest earlier, concurrently or after the appearance of MG. The effect of treatment of hyperthyroidism on the control of MG is variable. There may be resolution or conversely, deterioration of the symptoms also. We present a patient who was diagnosed to be hyperthyroid two and half years before the appearance of myasthenic symptoms. Pharmacotherapy for three months neither improved the myasthenic symptoms nor the thyroid function tests. Thymectomy resulted in control of MG as well as hyperthyroidism. In conclusion, effective control of hyperthyroidism in the presence of MG may be difficult. The authors opine that careful peri-operative management of thymectomy is possible in a hyperthyroid state.

  14. Corrigendum to “High-fidelity micro-scale modeling of the thermo-visco-plastic behavior of carbon fiber polymer matrix composites” [Compos Struct 134 (2015) 132–141

    DOE PAGES

    Bai, Xiaoming; Bessa, Miguel A.; Melro, Antonio R.; ...

    2016-10-01

    The authors would like to inform that one of the modifications proposed in the article “High-fidelity micro-scale modeling of the thermo-visco-plastic behavior of carbon fiber polymer matrix composites” [1] was found to be unnecessary: the paraboloid yield criterion is sufficient to describe the shear behavior of the epoxy matrix considered (Epoxy 3501-6). The authors recently noted that the experimental work [2] used to validate the pure matrix response considered engineering shear strain instead of its tensorial counter-part, which caused the apparent inconsistency with the paraboloid yield criterion. A recently proposed temperature dependency law for glassy polymers is evaluated herein, thusmore » better agreement with the experimental results for this epoxy is observed.« less

  15. Corrigendum to “High-fidelity micro-scale modeling of the thermo-visco-plastic behavior of carbon fiber polymer matrix composites” [Compos Struct 134 (2015) 132–141

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Bai, Xiaoming; Bessa, Miguel A.; Melro, Antonio R.

    The authors would like to inform that one of the modifications proposed in the article “High-fidelity micro-scale modeling of the thermo-visco-plastic behavior of carbon fiber polymer matrix composites” [1] was found to be unnecessary: the paraboloid yield criterion is sufficient to describe the shear behavior of the epoxy matrix considered (Epoxy 3501-6). The authors recently noted that the experimental work [2] used to validate the pure matrix response considered engineering shear strain instead of its tensorial counter-part, which caused the apparent inconsistency with the paraboloid yield criterion. A recently proposed temperature dependency law for glassy polymers is evaluated herein, thusmore » better agreement with the experimental results for this epoxy is observed.« less

  16. A Ti plasmid-encoded enzyme required for degradation of mannopine is functionally homologous to the T-region-encoded enzyme required for synthesis of this opine in crown gall tumors.

    PubMed Central

    Kim, K S; Chilton, W S; Farrand, S K

    1996-01-01

    The mocC gene encoded by the octopine/mannityl opine-type Ti plasmid pTi15955 is related at the nucleotide sequence level to mas1' encoded by the T region of this plasmid. While Mas1 is required for the synthesis of mannopine (MOP) by crown gall tumor cells, MocC is essential for the utilization of MOP by Agrobacterium spp. A cosmid clone of pTi15955, pYDH208, encodes mocC and confers the utilization of MOP on strain NT1 and on strain UIA5, a derivative of NT1 lacking the 450-kb cryptic plasmid pAtC58. NT1 or UIA5 harboring pYDH208 with an insertion mutation in mocC failed to utilize MOP as the sole carbon source. Plasmid pSa-C, which encodes only mocC, complemented this mutation in both strains. This plasmid also was sufficient to confer utilization of MOP on NT1 but not on UIA5. Computer analysis showed that MocC is related at the amino acid sequence level to members of the short-chain alcohol dehydrogenase family of oxidoreductases. Lysates prepared from Escherichia coli cells expressing mocC contained an enzymatic activity that oxidizes MOP to deoxyfructosyl glutamine (santhopine [SOP]) in the presence of NAD+. The reaction catalyzed by the MOP oxidoreductase is reversible; in the presence of NADH, the enzyme reduced SOP to MOP. The apparent Km values of the enzyme for MOP and SOP were 6.3 and 1.2 mM, respectively. Among analogs of MOP tested, only N-1-(1-deoxy-D-lyxityl)-L-glutamine and N-1-(1-deoxy-D-mannityl)-L-asparagine served as substrates for MOP oxidoreductase. These results indicate that mocC encodes an oxidoreductase that, as an oxidase, is essential for the catabolism of MOP. The reductase activity of this enzyme is precisely the reaction ascribed to its T-region-encoded homolog, Mas1, which is responsible for biosynthesis of mannopine in crown gall tumors. PMID:8655510

  17. Why nutrition education is inadequate in the medical curriculum: a qualitative study of students' perspectives on barriers and strategies.

    PubMed

    Mogre, Victor; Stevens, Fred C J; Aryee, Paul A; Amalba, Anthony; Scherpbier, Albert J J A

    2018-02-12

    The provision of nutrition care by doctors is important in promoting healthy dietary habits, and such interventions can lead to reductions in disease morbidity, mortality, and medical costs. However, medical students and doctors report inadequate nutrition education and preparedness during their training at school. Previous studies investigating the inadequacy of nutrition education have not sufficiently evaluated the perspectives of students. In this study, students' perspectives on doctors' role in nutrition care, perceived barriers, and strategies to improve nutrition educational experiences are explored. A total of 23 undergraduate clinical level medical students at the 5th to final year in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University for Development Studies in Ghana were purposefully selected to participate in semi-structured individual interviews. Students expressed their opinions and experiences regarding the inadequacy of nutrition education in the curriculum. Each interview was audio-recorded and later transcribed verbatim. Using the constant comparison method, key themes were identified from the data and analysis was done simultaneously with data collection. Students opined that doctors have an important role to play in providing nutrition care to their patients. However, they felt their nutrition education was inadequate due to lack of priority for nutrition education, lack of faculty to provide nutrition education, poor application of nutrition science to clinical practice and poor collaboration with nutrition professionals. Students opined that their nutrition educational experiences will be improved if the following strategies were implemented: adoption of innovative teaching and learning strategies, early and comprehensive incorporation of nutrition as a theme throughout the curriculum, increasing awareness on the importance of nutrition education, reviewing and revision of the curriculum to incorporate nutrition, and involving nutrition/dietician specialists in medical education. Though students considered nutrition care as an important role for doctors they felt incapacitated by non-prioritisation of nutrition education, lack of faculty for teaching of nutrition education, poor application of nutrition science and poor collaboration with nutrition professionals. Incorporation of nutrition as a theme in medical education, improving collaboration, advocacy and creating enabling environments for nutrition education could address some of the barriers to nutrition education.

  18. A Ti plasmid-encoded enzyme required for degradation of mannopine is functionally homologous to the T-region-encoded enzyme required for synthesis of this opine in crown gall tumors.

    PubMed

    Kim, K S; Chilton, W S; Farrand, S K

    1996-06-01

    The mocC gene encoded by the octopine/mannityl opine-type Ti plasmid pTi15955 is related at the nucleotide sequence level to mas1' encoded by the T region of this plasmid. While Mas1 is required for the synthesis of mannopine (MOP) by crown gall tumor cells, MocC is essential for the utilization of MOP by Agrobacterium spp. A cosmid clone of pTi15955, pYDH208, encodes mocC and confers the utilization of MOP on strain NT1 and on strain UIA5, a derivative of NT1 lacking the 450-kb cryptic plasmid pAtC58. NT1 or UIA5 harboring pYDH208 with an insertion mutation in mocC failed to utilize MOP as the sole carbon source. Plasmid pSa-C, which encodes only mocC, complemented this mutation in both strains. This plasmid also was sufficient to confer utilization of MOP on NT1 but not on UIA5. Computer analysis showed that MocC is related at the amino acid sequence level to members of the short-chain alcohol dehydrogenase family of oxidoreductases. Lysates prepared from Escherichia coli cells expressing mocC contained an enzymatic activity that oxidizes MOP to deoxyfructosyl glutamine (santhopine [SOP]) in the presence of NAD+. The reaction catalyzed by the MOP oxidoreductase is reversible; in the presence of NADH, the enzyme reduced SOP to MOP. The apparent Km values of the enzyme for MOP and SOP were 6.3 and 1.2 mM, respectively. Among analogs of MOP tested, only N-1-(1-deoxy-D-lyxityl)-L-glutamine and N-1-(1-deoxy-D-mannityl)-L-asparagine served as substrates for MOP oxidoreductase. These results indicate that mocC encodes an oxidoreductase that, as an oxidase, is essential for the catabolism of MOP. The reductase activity of this enzyme is precisely the reaction ascribed to its T-region-encoded homolog, Mas1, which is responsible for biosynthesis of mannopine in crown gall tumors.

  19. Alkylation of an active-site cysteinyl residue during substrate-dependent inactivation of Escherichia coli S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase.

    PubMed

    Diaz, E; Anton, D L

    1991-04-23

    S-Adenosylmethionine decarboxylase from Escherichia coli is a member of a small class of enzymes that uses a pyruvoyl prosthetic group. The pyruvoyl group is proposed to form a Schiff base with the substrate and then act as an electron sink facilitating decarboxylation. We have previously shown that once every 6000-7000 turnovers the enzyme undergoes an inactivation that results in a transaminated pyruvoyl group and the formation of an acrolein-like species from the methionine moiety. The acrolein then covalently alkylates the enzyme [Anton, D. L., & Kutny, R. (1987) Biochemistry 26, 6444]. After reduction of the alkylated enzyme with NaBH4, a tryptic peptide with the sequence Ala-Asp-Ile-Glu-Val-Ser-Thr-[S-(3-hydroxypropyl)Cys]-Gly-Val-Ile-Ser-Pro - Leu-Lys was isolated. This corresponds to acrolein alkylation of a cysteine residue in the second tryptic peptide from the NH2 terminal of the alpha-subunit [Anton, D. L., & Kutny, R. (1987) J. Biol. Chem. 262, 2817-2822]. The modified residue derived is from Cys-140 of the proenzyme [Tabor, C. W., & Tabor, H. (1987) J. Biol. Chem. 262, 16037-16040] and lies in the only sequence conserved between rat liver and E. coli S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase [Pajunen et al. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263, 17040-17049]. We suggest that the alkylated Cys residue could have a role in the catalytic mechanism.

  20. Lie integrable cases of the simplified multistrain/two-stream model for tuberculosis and dengue fever

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nucci, M. C.; Leach, P. G. L.

    2007-09-01

    We apply the techniques of Lie's symmetry analysis to a caricature of the simplified multistrain model of Castillo-Chavez and Feng [C. Castillo-Chavez, Z. Feng, To treat or not to treat: The case of tuberculosis, J. Math. Biol. 35 (1997) 629-656] for the transmission of tuberculosis and the coupled two-stream vector-based model of Feng and Velasco-Hernandez [Z. Feng, J.X. Velasco-Hernandez, Competitive exclusion in a vector-host model for the dengue fever, J. Math. Biol. 35 (1997) 523-544] to identify the combinations of parameters which lead to the existence of nontrivial symmetries. In particular we identify those combinations which lead to the possibility of the linearization of the system and provide the corresponding solutions. Many instances of additional symmetry are analyzed.

  1. SIMNET: an insider's perspective

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cosby, L. Neale

    1995-04-01

    Simulator Networking (SIMNET) began with a young scientist's idea but has ended up changing an entire industry and the way the military does business. And the story isn't over yet. SIMNET began as an advanced research project aimed at developing a core technology for networking hundreds of affordable simulators worldwide in real time to practice joint collective warfighting skills and to develop better acquisition practices. It was a daring project that proved the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) mission of doing "what cannot be done." It was a serious threat to the existing simulation industry. As it turned out, the government got what it wanted—a low-cost, high-performance virtual simulation capability that could be proliferated like consumer electronics. This paper provides an insider's view of the program history, identifies some possible lessons for future developers, and opines future growth for SIMNET technology.

  2. Urticarial vasculitis.

    PubMed

    Chang, Suyoung; Carr, Warner

    2007-01-01

    A case of urticarial vasculitis (UV) is presented. The pathogenesis, clinical characteristics, diagnosis, and management of this disease are reviewed, followed by clinical pearls and pitfalls for the practicing allergist (Venzor J, et al., Urticarial vasculitis, Clin Rev Allergy Immunol 23:201-216, 2002). The lesions in UV typically lasts > 24 hours in a fixed location, resolves with residual hyperpigmentation, and may or may not be pruritic. In contrast, standard urticaria lesions persist < 24 hours, leave no trace, and is always pruritic (Black AK, Urticarial vasculitis, Clin Dermatol 17:565-569, 1999). Since urticarial vasculitis is characterized by a variety of cutaneous, systemic, and serological features, different names of this disorder exist in the literature (Wisnieski JJ, Urticarial vasculitis, Curr Opin Rheumatol 12:24-31, 2000). A biopsy of an active lesion remains the gold standard for the diagnosis of urticarial vasculitis.

  3. Tomography of atomic number and density of materials using dual-energy imaging and the Alvarez and Macovski attenuation model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Paziresh, M.; Kingston, A. M.; Latham, S. J.; Fullagar, W. K.; Myers, G. M.

    2016-06-01

    Dual-energy computed tomography and the Alvarez and Macovski [Phys. Med. Biol. 21, 733 (1976)] transmitted intensity (AMTI) model were used in this study to estimate the maps of density (ρ) and atomic number (Z) of mineralogical samples. In this method, the attenuation coefficients are represented [Alvarez and Macovski, Phys. Med. Biol. 21, 733 (1976)] in the form of the two most important interactions of X-rays with atoms that is, photoelectric absorption (PE) and Compton scattering (CS). This enables material discrimination as PE and CS are, respectively, dependent on the atomic number (Z) and density (ρ) of materials [Alvarez and Macovski, Phys. Med. Biol. 21, 733 (1976)]. Dual-energy imaging is able to identify sample materials even if the materials have similar attenuation coefficients at single-energy spectrum. We use the full model rather than applying one of several applied simplified forms [Alvarez and Macovski, Phys. Med. Biol. 21, 733 (1976); Siddiqui et al., SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (Society of Petroleum Engineers, 2004); Derzhi, U.S. patent application 13/527,660 (2012); Heismann et al., J. Appl. Phys. 94, 2073-2079 (2003); Park and Kim, J. Korean Phys. Soc. 59, 2709 (2011); Abudurexiti et al., Radiol. Phys. Technol. 3, 127-135 (2010); and Kaewkhao et al., J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transfer 109, 1260-1265 (2008)]. This paper describes the tomographic reconstruction of ρ and Z maps of mineralogical samples using the AMTI model. The full model requires precise knowledge of the X-ray energy spectra and calibration of PE and CS constants and exponents of atomic number and energy that were estimated based on fits to simulations and calibration measurements. The estimated ρ and Z images of the samples used in this paper yield average relative errors of 2.62% and 1.19% and maximum relative errors of 2.64% and 7.85%, respectively. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the method accounts for the beam hardening effect in density (ρ) and atomic number (Z) reconstructions to a significant extent.

  4. BicPAMS: software for biological data analysis with pattern-based biclustering.

    PubMed

    Henriques, Rui; Ferreira, Francisco L; Madeira, Sara C

    2017-02-02

    Biclustering has been largely applied for the unsupervised analysis of biological data, being recognised today as a key technique to discover putative modules in both expression data (subsets of genes correlated in subsets of conditions) and network data (groups of coherently interconnected biological entities). However, given its computational complexity, only recent breakthroughs on pattern-based biclustering enabled efficient searches without the restrictions that state-of-the-art biclustering algorithms place on the structure and homogeneity of biclusters. As a result, pattern-based biclustering provides the unprecedented opportunity to discover non-trivial yet meaningful biological modules with putative functions, whose coherency and tolerance to noise can be tuned and made problem-specific. To enable the effective use of pattern-based biclustering by the scientific community, we developed BicPAMS (Biclustering based on PAttern Mining Software), a software that: 1) makes available state-of-the-art pattern-based biclustering algorithms (BicPAM (Henriques and Madeira, Alg Mol Biol 9:27, 2014), BicNET (Henriques and Madeira, Alg Mol Biol 11:23, 2016), BicSPAM (Henriques and Madeira, BMC Bioinforma 15:130, 2014), BiC2PAM (Henriques and Madeira, Alg Mol Biol 11:1-30, 2016), BiP (Henriques and Madeira, IEEE/ACM Trans Comput Biol Bioinforma, 2015), DeBi (Serin and Vingron, AMB 6:1-12, 2011) and BiModule (Okada et al., IPSJ Trans Bioinf 48(SIG5):39-48, 2007)); 2) consistently integrates their dispersed contributions; 3) further explores additional accuracy and efficiency gains; and 4) makes available graphical and application programming interfaces. Results on both synthetic and real data confirm the relevance of BicPAMS for biological data analysis, highlighting its essential role for the discovery of putative modules with non-trivial yet biologically significant functions from expression and network data. BicPAMS is the first biclustering tool offering the possibility to: 1) parametrically customize the structure, coherency and quality of biclusters; 2) analyze large-scale biological networks; and 3) tackle the restrictive assumptions placed by state-of-the-art biclustering algorithms. These contributions are shown to be key for an adequate, complete and user-assisted unsupervised analysis of biological data. BicPAMS and its tutorial available in http://www.bicpams.com .

  5. Genetics Home Reference: Snyder-Robinson syndrome

    MedlinePlus

    ... syndromic, snyder-robinson type Merck Manual Home Health Handbook for Patients & Caregivers: Osteoporosis Orphanet: X-linked intellectual ... in X-linked intellectual disability (Snyder-Robinson syndrome). Methods Mol Biol. 2011;720:437-45. doi: 10. ...

  6. Genetics Home Reference: Ewing sarcoma

    MedlinePlus

    ... FLI-1, is associated with both TFIID and RNA polymerase II: interactions between two members of the ... EWS and hTAFII68, and subunits of TFIID and RNA polymerase II complexes. Mol Cell Biol. 1998 Mar; ...

  7. Free energy landscape of a biomolecule in dihedral principal component space: sampling convergence and correspondence between structures and minima.

    PubMed

    Maisuradze, Gia G; Leitner, David M

    2007-05-15

    Dihedral principal component analysis (dPCA) has recently been developed and shown to display complex features of the free energy landscape of a biomolecule that may be absent in the free energy landscape plotted in principal component space due to mixing of internal and overall rotational motion that can occur in principal component analysis (PCA) [Mu et al., Proteins: Struct Funct Bioinfo 2005;58:45-52]. Another difficulty in the implementation of PCA is sampling convergence, which we address here for both dPCA and PCA using a tetrapeptide as an example. We find that for both methods the sampling convergence can be reached over a similar time. Minima in the free energy landscape in the space of the two largest dihedral principal components often correspond to unique structures, though we also find some distinct minima to correspond to the same structure. 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

  8. Redetermination of 2-methyl-4-nitro­pyridine N-oxide

    PubMed Central

    Peukert, Max; Seichter, Wilhelm; Weber, Edwin

    2014-01-01

    An improved crystal structure of the title compound, C6H6N2O3, is reported. The structure, previously solved [Li et al. (1987 ▶). Jiegou Huaxue (Chin. J. Struct. Chem.), 6, 20–24] in the ortho­rhom­bic space group Pca21 and refined to R = 0.067, has been solved in the ortho­rhom­bic space group Pbcm with data of enhanced quality, giving an improved structure (R = 0.0485). The mol­ecule adopts a planar conformation with all atoms lying on a mirror plane. The crystal structure is composed of mol­ecular sheets extending parallel to the ab plane and connected via C—H⋯O contacts involving ring H atoms and O atoms of the N-oxide and nitro groups, while van der Waals forces consolidate the stacking of the layers. PMID:24826136

  9. Electronic and crystal structure of NiTi martensite

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Sanati, M.; Albers, R.C.; Pinski, F.J.

    1998-11-01

    All of the first-principles electronic-structure calculations for the martensitic structure of NiTi have used the experimental atomic parameters reported by Michal and Sinclair [Acta Crystallogr., Sect. B: Struct. Crystallogr. Cryst. Chem. {bold B37}, 1803 (1981)]. We have used first-principles, full-potential, linear muffin-tin orbital calculations to examine the total energy of all the experimental martensitic structures reported in the literature. We find that another crystal structure, that of Kudoh {ital et al.} [Acta Metall. Mater. {bold 33}, 2049 (1985)], has the lowest total energy at zero temperature. Ground-state and formation energies were calculated for all of the experimental structures. Total andmore » local densities of states were calculated and compared with each other for the structures of both Kudoh {ital et al.} and Michal and Sinclair thinsp {copyright} {ital 1998} {ital The American Physical Society}« less

  10. Effect of Intramolecular Dispersion Interactions on the Conformational Preferences of Monoterpenoids

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Loru, Donatella; Vigorito, Annalisa; Santos, Andreia; Tang, Jackson; Sanz, M. Eugenia

    2017-06-01

    The rotational spectra of several monoterpenoids have been reinvestigated with a 2-8 GHz chirped pulse FTMW spectrometer. Axial conformers, in addition to previously reported equatorial conformers, have been detected for carvone, perillaldehyde, and limonene. Observation of the ^{13}C isotopologues of these monoterpenoids in their natural abundances allowed the determination of r_s and r_0 structures. Axial conformers are stabilised by dispersion interactions between the six-membered ring of the monoterpenoids and the isopropenyl group. Comparison of experimental data with ab initio and density functional calculations shows that an accurate description of dispersion interactions is still a challenge for theoretical methods. J. R. Avilés Moreno, F. Partal Ureña, J. J. López González and T. R. Huet, Chem. Phys. Lett., 2009, 473, 17-20. J. R. Avilés Moreno, T. R. Huet and J. J. López González, Struct. Chem., 2013, 24, 1163-1170.

  11. Collimation system design for beam loss localization with slipstacking injection in the Fermilab Main Injector

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Drozhdin, A.I.; Brown, B.C.; Johnson, D.E.

    2007-06-01

    Results of modeling with the 3-D STRUCT and MARS15 codes of beam loss localization and related radiation effects are presented for the slipstacking injection to the Fermilab Main Injector. Simulations of proton beam loss are done using multi-turn tracking with realistic accelerator apertures, nonlinear fields in the accelerator magnets and time function of the RF manipulations to explain the results of beam loss measurements. The collimation system consists of one primary and four secondary collimators. It intercepts a beam power of 1.6 kW at a scraping rate of 5% of 5.5E+13 ppp, with a beam loss rate in the ringmore » outside the collimation region of 1 W/m or less. Based on thorough energy deposition and radiation modeling, a corresponding collimator design was developed that satisfies all the radiation and engineering constraints.« less

  12. Calculation of Stress Intensity Factors for Interfacial Cracks in Fiber Metal Laminates

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wang, John T.

    2009-01-01

    Stress intensity factors for interfacial cracks in Fiber Metal Laminates (FML) are computed by using the displacement ratio method recently developed by Sun and Qian (1997, Int. J. Solids. Struct. 34, 2595-2609). Various FML configurations with single and multiple delaminations subjected to different loading conditions are investigated. The displacement ratio method requires the total energy release rate, bimaterial parameters, and relative crack surface displacements as input. Details of generating the energy release rates, defining bimaterial parameters with anisotropic elasticity, and selecting proper crack surface locations for obtaining relative crack surface displacements are discussed in the paper. Even though the individual energy release rates are nonconvergent, mesh-size-independent stress intensity factors can be obtained. This study also finds that the selection of reference length can affect the magnitudes and the mode mixity angles of the stress intensity factors; thus, it is important to report the reference length used with the calculated stress intensity factors.

  13. Comment on "A convenient method for preparation of 2-amino-4,6-diphenylnicotinonitrile using HBF4 as an efficient catalyst via an anomeric based oxidation: A joint experimental and theoretical study" [J. Mol. Struct. 1137 (2017) 674-680

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Salehzadeh, Sadegh; Maleki, Farahnaz

    2018-02-01

    The title paper contains two types of calculations that are in disagreement with some basic concepts of chemistry. The first one is calculating a macroscopic amount of energy difference between one pair of enantiomers that is not correct. The second one is that the different bond orders for R and S stereoisomers and for different pathways of hyperconjugation/electron delocalization have been reported that both are impossible. In addition, the term electron transfer has been wrongly used for donor-acceptor orbital interactions inside one molecule where nothing is oxidized or reduced. Furthermore, the paper has missed some necessary comparisons with a previously published work of authors. There are also some technical problems in the title paper that are discussed in the present comment article.

  14. Ca2+ release triggered by nicotinate adenine dinucleotide phosphate in intact sea urchin eggs.

    PubMed Central

    Perez-Terzic, C M; Chini, E N; Shen, S S; Dousa, T P; Clapham, D E

    1995-01-01

    Nicotinate adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP) was recently identified [Lee and Aarhus (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 2152-2157; Chini, Beers and Dousa (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 3116-3223] as a potent Ca(2+)-releasing agent in sea urchin egg homogenates. NAADP triggered Ca2+ release by a mechanism that was distinct from inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (InsP3)- and cyclic ADP-ribose (cADPR)-induced Ca2+ release. When NAADP was microinjected into intact sea urchin eggs it induced a dose-dependent increase in cytoplasmic free Ca2+ which was independent of the extracellular [Ca2+]. The Ca2+ waves elicited by microinjections of NAADP originated at the site of injection and swept across the cytosol. As previously found in sea urchin egg homogenates, NAADP-induced Ca2+ release in intact eggs was not blocked by heparin or by prior desensitization to InsP3 or cADPR. Thio-NADP, a specific inhibitor of the NAADP-induced Ca2+ release in sea urchin homogenates [Chini, Beers and Dousa (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 3116-3223] blocked NAADP (but not InsP3 or cADPR) injection-induced Ca2+ release in intact sea urchin eggs. Finally, fertilization of sea urchin eggs abrogated subsequent NAADP-induced Ca2+ release, suggesting that the NAADP-sensitive Ca2+ pool may participate in the fertilization response. This study demonstrates that NAADP acts as a selective Ca(2+)-releasing agonist in intact cells. Images Figure 2 PMID:8554544

  15. Erratum to: Circulating tumor markers: a guide to their appropriate clinical use | Comparative summary of recommendations from clinical practice guidelines (PART 1), (PART 2), (PART 3).

    PubMed

    2017-10-31

    Erratum To: Circulating tumor markers: a guide to their appropriate clinical use | Comparative summary of recommendations from clinical practice guidelines (PART 1) Gion M, Trevisiol C, Rutjes AW, Rainato G, Fabricio AS. Int J Biol Markers. 2016 Dec 23;31(4):e332-e367. doi: 10.5301/jbm.5000251. Circulating tumor markers: a guide to their appropriate clinical use | Comparative summary of recommendations from clinical practice guidelines (PART 2).Gion M, Trevisiol C, Rutjes AWS, Rainato G, Fabricio ASC. Int J Biol Markers. 2017 Mar 2;32(1):e1-e52. doi: 10.5301/ijbm.5000259. Circulating tumor markers: a guide to their appropriate clinical use | Comparative summary of recommendations from clinical practice guidelines (PART 3).Gion M, Trevisiol C, Rutjes AWS, Rainato G, Fabricio ASC. Int J Biol Markers. 2017 May 4;32(2):e147-e181. doi: 10.5301/ijbm.5000272. We report an amendment in the Detailed summary tables pages of the three parts of the guidelines above. The correct definition of detailed summary tables is reported below. Definition and target audience Detailed summary tables are tables prepared for every tumor type which report recommendations and supplementary information from different guidance documents with enough details to be useful for health care providers, policy makers (for potential adaptation to specific settings) and staff developing educational material informed by available evidence.

  16. Genetics Home Reference: bare lymphocyte syndrome type I

    MedlinePlus

    ... R. ABC proteins in antigen translocation and viral inhibition. Nat Chem Biol. 2010 Aug;6(8):572- ... Links Data Files & API Site Map Subscribe Customer Support USA.gov Copyright Privacy Accessibility FOIA Viewers & Players ...

  17. Genetics Home Reference: Werner syndrome

    MedlinePlus

    ... a role in natural ageing? Int J Biochem Cell Biol. 2005 May;37(5):947-60. Epub 2004 Dec 15. Review. Citation on ... are genome editing and CRISPR-Cas9? What is precision medicine? What is newborn ...

  18. Why regenerative medicine needs an extracellular matrix.

    PubMed

    Prestwich, Glenn D; Healy, Kevin E

    2015-01-01

    Regenerative medicine is now coming of age. Many attempts at cell therapy have failed to show significant efficacy, and the umbrella term 'stem cell therapy' is perceived in some quarters as hype or just expensive and unnecessary medical tourism. Here we present a short editorial in three parts. First, we examine the importance of using a semisynthetic extracellular matrix (ECM) mimetic, or sECM, to deliver and retain therapeutic cells at the site of administration. Second, we describe one approach in which biophysical and biochemical properties are tailored to each tissue type, which we call "design for optimal functionality." Third, we describe an alternative approach to sECM design and implementation, called "design for simplicity," in which a deconstructed, minimalist sECM is employed and biology is allowed to perform the customization in situ. We opine that an sECM, whether minimal or instructive, is an essential contributor to improve the outcomes of cell-based therapies.

  19. Organic foods for children: health or hype.

    PubMed

    Batra, Prerna; Sharma, Nisha; Gupta, Piyush

    2014-05-01

    Organic foods are promoted as superior and safer options for today's health-conscious consumer. Manufacturers of organic food claim it to be pesticide-free and better in terms of micronutrients. Consumers have to pay heavily for these products--and they are willing to--provided they are assured of the claimed advantages. Scientific data proving the health benefits of organic foods, especially in children, are lacking. Indian Government has developed strict guidelines and certification procedures to keep a check on manufacturers in this financially attractive market. American Academy of Pediatrics, in its recently issued guidelines, did not recommend organic foods over conventional food for children. Indian Academy of Pediatrics has not opined on this issue till date. In this perspective, we present a critical review of production and marketing of organic foods, and scientific evidence pertaining to their merits and demerits, with special reference to pediatric population.

  20. A case of squamous cell carcinoma of lung presenting with paraneoplastic type of acanthosis nigricans

    PubMed Central

    Mukherjee, Subhasis; Pandit, Sudipta; Deb, Jaydip; Dattachaudhuri, Arunabha; Bhuniya, Sourin; Bhanja, Pulakesh

    2011-01-01

    A 70-years-old male presented with blackening of both hands and face for last six months which was progressive and attended dermatology outpatients department. Dermatologist opined the skin lesions as acanthosis nigricans. He was referred to our department to evaluate for any underlying internal malignancy as he was a smoker. His chest X-ray revealed right sided hilar prominence with a mid zone cavity with fluid level. Fibreoptic bronchoscopy was done, there was one ulcerative growth in right middle lobe bronchus. Biopsy from the ulcer revealed probable squamous cell carcinoma. CT scan of thorax was also done and CT guided FNAC of Rt lung lesion yielded non small cell carcinoma. His skin lesions were also biopsied and diagnosis of acanthosis nigricans was confirmed. Here we report a case of acanthosis nigricans associated with non-small cell cancer of lung. PMID:21654990

  1. Progressive Non-familial Adult onset Cerebellar Degeneration: An Unusual Occurrence with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis.

    PubMed

    Rao, Raghavendra S; Sheshadri, Shubha; Bhattacharjee, Dipanjan; Patil, Navin; Rao, Karthik

    2018-03-13

    Progressive non-familial adult onset cerebellar degeneration has been rarely associated with hypothyroidism and is known to be reversible after therapy. We report a case of cerebellar atrophy in a 31 year old female whose detailed evaluation had revealed sub-clinical hypothyroidism secondary to autoimmune thyroiditis with a very high anti-TPO (anti-thyroid peroxidase) antibody levels. MRI (Magnetic Resonanace Imaging) of brain showed diffuse bilateral cerebellar atrophy. She was treated with thyroid hormone supplementation and after one year of follow up, cerebellar signs had disappeared completely with significant reduction in anti-TPO antibody levels. Imaging of the brain post one year of follow-up revealed normal cerebellum. Hence, we opine that thyroid dysfunction should always be kept in mind while evaluating patients presenting with acute onset cerebellar ataxia as it can be easily reversed with thyroid hormone replacement therapy.

  2. Parents' and teachers' attitudes regarding school involvement in education that extends beyond the traditional academic core.

    PubMed

    Aman-Back, Susanna; Björkqvist, Kaj

    2007-06-01

    In a survey conducted with 1,107 parents (590 mothers, M age=38.8 yr., SD=5.8; 517 fathers, M age=41.3 yr., SD=6.0) and 123 teachers (82 women, M age=41.1 yr., SD=9.2; 41 men, M age=41.3 yr., SD=9.1) in coastal rural Southern Ostrobothnia, Finland, an assessment of the relative responsibility of the family in comparison with that of school in the teaching of various skills to children was made. Parents and teachers agreed that the school carries 30-40% of the responsibility for the teaching of socio-emotional skills, such as conflict resolution, norms and values, self-esteem, sense of justice and responsibility, and close human relations. They also agreed that school carries 50% of the responsibility for providing information about sexuality and drugs. Fathers opined that school carried a greater responsibility in teaching skills than mothers did.

  3. Genetics Home Reference: junctional epidermolysis bullosa

    MedlinePlus

    ... PubMed Pulkkinen L, Uitto J. Mutation analysis and molecular genetics of epidermolysis bullosa. Matrix Biol. 1999 Feb;18( ... Sadowski S, Pfendner E, Uitto J. Epidermolysis bullosa. I. Molecular genetics of the junctional and hemidesmosomal variants. J Med ...

  4. Experimental design and multiple response optimization. Using the desirability function in analytical methods development.

    PubMed

    Candioti, Luciana Vera; De Zan, María M; Cámara, María S; Goicoechea, Héctor C

    2014-06-01

    A review about the application of response surface methodology (RSM) when several responses have to be simultaneously optimized in the field of analytical methods development is presented. Several critical issues like response transformation, multiple response optimization and modeling with least squares and artificial neural networks are discussed. Most recent analytical applications are presented in the context of analytLaboratorio de Control de Calidad de Medicamentos (LCCM), Facultad de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, C.C. 242, S3000ZAA Santa Fe, ArgentinaLaboratorio de Control de Calidad de Medicamentos (LCCM), Facultad de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, C.C. 242, S3000ZAA Santa Fe, Argentinaical methods development, especially in multiple response optimization procedures using the desirability function. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  5. Different enzyme kinetic models.

    PubMed

    Seibert, Eleanore; Tracy, Timothy S

    2014-01-01

    As described in Chapter 2 , a large number of enzymatic reactions can be adequately described by Michaelis-Menten kinetics. The Michaelis-Menten equation represents a rectangular hyperbola, with a y-asymptote at the V max value. In many cases, more complex kinetic models are required to explain the observed data. Atypical kinetic profiles are believed to arise from the simultaneous binding of multiple molecules within the active site of the enzyme (Tracy and Hummel, Drug Metab Rev 36:231-242, 2004). Several cytochromes P450 have large active sites that enable binding of multiple molecules (Wester et al. J Biol Chem 279:35630-35637, 2004; Yano et al. J Biol Chem 279:38091-38094, 2004). Thus, atypical kinetics are not uncommon in in vitro drug metabolism studies. This chapter covers enzyme kinetic reactions in which a single enzyme has multiple binding sites for substrates and/or inhibitors as well as reactions catalyzed by multiple enzymes.

  6. Illustrated and online catalog of type specimens of freshwater fishes in the Colección de Peces Dulceacuícolas of Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt (IAvH-P), Colombia.

    PubMed

    Donascimiento, Carlos; Cárdenas-Bautista, Johann-Stephens; Acosta, Kevin Giancarlo Borja; González-Alvarado, Arturo; Medina, Claudia A

    2016-09-29

    The catalog of type specimens of freshwater fishes deposited in the Colección de Peces Dulceacuícolas del Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt (IAvH-P) is presented. This list includes 483 specimens in 65 lots representing 11 holotypes and 472 paratypes of 48 nominal species. Corrections, additions, and updating of information in the original descriptions are included in individual remarks for each catalog number entry and a gallery of pictures of holotypes or paratypes of each nominal species is also presented, which supplements some original descriptions lacking figures of their respective types. An online version of the catalog is available at http://humboldt.org.co/en/servicios/colecciones-biologicas/catalogo-de-tipos.

  7. Ir-192 HDR transit dose and radial dose function determination using alanine/EPR dosimetry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guzmán Calcina, Carmen S.; de Almeida, Adelaide; Oliveira Rocha, José R.; Abrego, Felipe Chen; Baffa, Oswaldo

    2005-03-01

    Source positioning close to the tumour in high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy is not instantaneous. An increment of dose will be delivered during the movement of the source in the trajectory to its static position. This increment is the transit dose, often not taken into account in brachytherapeutic treatment planning. The transit dose depends on the prescribed dose, number of treatment fractions, velocity and activity of the source. Combining all these factors, the transit dose can be 5% higher than the prescribed absorbed dose value (Sang-Hyun and Muller-Runkel, 1994 Phys. Med. Biol. 39 1181 8, Nath et al 1995 Med. Phys. 22 209 34). However, it cannot exceed this percentage (Nath et al 1995). In this work, we use the alanine-EPR (electron paramagnetic resonance) dosimetric system using analysis of the first derivative of the signal. The transit dose was evaluated for an HDR system and is consistent with that already presented for TLD dosimeters (Bastin et al 1993 Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 26 695 702). Also using the same dosimetric system, the radial dose function, used to evaluate the geometric dose degradation around the source, was determined and its behaviour agrees better with those obtained by Monte Carlo simulations (Nath et al 1995, Williamson and Nath 1991 Med. Phys. 18 434 48, Ballester et al 1997 Med. Phys. 24 1221 8, Ballester et al 2001 Phys. Med. Biol. 46 N79 90) than with TLD measurements (Nath et al 1990 Med. Phys. 17 1032 40).

  8. Ir-192 HDR transit dose and radial dose function determination using alanine/EPR dosimetry.

    PubMed

    Calcina, Carmen S Guzmán; de Almeida, Adelaide; Rocha, José R Oliveira; Abrego, Felipe Chen; Baffa, Oswaldo

    2005-03-21

    Source positioning close to the tumour in high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy is not instantaneous. An increment of dose will be delivered during the movement of the source in the trajectory to its static position. This increment is the transit dose, often not taken into account in brachytherapeutic treatment planning. The transit dose depends on the prescribed dose, number of treatment fractions, velocity and activity of the source. Combining all these factors, the transit dose can be 5% higher than the prescribed absorbed dose value (Sang-Hyun and Muller-Runkel, 1994 Phys. Med. Biol. 39 1181-8, Nath et al 1995 Med. Phys. 22 209-34). However, it cannot exceed this percentage (Nath et al 1995). In this work, we use the alanine-EPR (electron paramagnetic resonance) dosimetric system using analysis of the first derivative of the signal. The transit dose was evaluated for an HDR system and is consistent with that already presented for TLD dosimeters (Bastin et al 1993 Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 26 695-702). Also using the same dosimetric system, the radial dose function, used to evaluate the geometric dose degradation around the source, was determined and its behaviour agrees better with those obtained by Monte Carlo simulations (Nath et al 1995, Williamson and Nath 1991 Med. Phys. 18 434-48, Ballester et al 1997 Med. Phys. 24 1221-8, Ballester et al 2001 Phys. Med. Biol. 46 N79-90) than with TLD measurements (Nath et al 1990 Med. Phys. 17 1032-40).

  9. Genetics Home Reference: epidermolysis bullosa with pyloric atresia

    MedlinePlus

    ... PubMed Pulkkinen L, Uitto J. Mutation analysis and molecular genetics of epidermolysis bullosa. Matrix Biol. 1999 Feb;18( ... Sadowski S, Pfendner E, Uitto J. Epidermolysis bullosa. I. Molecular genetics of the junctional and hemidesmosomal variants. J Med ...

  10. 77 FR 76041 - Findings of Research Misconduct

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-12-26

    ... syndrome brains.'' J Biol Chem 285(2):1529-43, 2010 Jan 8. 2. Kuhn, D.E., Nuovo, G.J., Martin, M.M., Malana..., D.S., & Elton, T.S. ``Human chromosome 21-derived miRNAs are overexpressed in Down syndrome brains...

  11. Correction: Phylogenetic placement of the enigmatic parasite, Polypodium hydriforme, within the Phylum Cnidaria.

    PubMed

    Evans, Nathaniel M; Lindner, Alberto; Raikova, Ekaterina V; Collins, Allen G; Cartwright, Paulyn

    2009-07-15

    Correction to Evans, N.M., Lindner, A., Raikova, E.V., Collins, A.G. and Cartwright, P. Phylogenetic placement of the enigmatic parasite, Polypodium hydriforme, within the phylum Cnidaria. BMC Evol Biol, 2008, 8:139.

  12. Exocytosis of vacuolar apical compartment (VAC): a cell-cell contact controlled mechanism for the establishment of the apical plasma membrane domain in epithelial cells

    PubMed Central

    1988-01-01

    The vacuolar apical compartment (VAC) is an organelle found in Madin- Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells with incomplete intercellular contacts by incubation in 5 microM Ca++ and in cells without contacts (single cells in subconfluent culture); characteristically, it displays apical biochemical markers and microvilli and excludes basolateral markers (Vega-Salas, D. E., P. J. I. Salas, and E. Rodriguez-Boulan. 1987. J. Cell Biol. 104:1249-1259). The apical surface of cells kept under these culture conditions is immature, with reduced numbers of microvilli and decreased levels of an apical biochemical marker (184 kD), which is, however, still highly polarized (Vega-Salas, D. E., P. J. I. Salas, D. Gundersen, and E. Rodriguez-Boulan. 1987. J. Cell Biol. 104:905-916). We describe here the morphological stages of VAC exocytosis which ultimately lead to the establishment of a differentiated apical domain. Addition of 1.8 mM Ca++ to monolayers developed in 5 microM Ca++ causes the rapid (20-40 min) fusion of VACs with the plasma membrane and their accessibility to external antibodies, as demonstrated by immunofluorescence, immunoperoxidase EM, and RIA with antibodies against the 184-kD apical plasma membrane marker. Exocytosis occurs towards areas of cell-cell contact in the developing lateral surface where they form intercellular pockets; fusion images are always observed immediately adjacent to the incomplete junctional bands detected by the ZO-1 antibody (Stevenson, B. R., J. D. Siliciano, M. S. Mooseker, and D. A. Goodenough. 1986. J. Cell Biol. 103:755-766). Blocks of newly incorporated VAC microvilli and 184-kD protein progressively move from intercellular ("primitive" lateral) spaces towards the microvilli-poor free cell surface. The definitive lateral domain is sealed behind these blocks by the growing tight junctional fence. These results demonstrate a fundamental role of cell-cell contact-mediated VAC exocytosis in the establishment of epithelial surface polarity. Because isolated stages (intercellular pockets) of the stereotyped sequence of events triggered by the establishment of intercellular contacts in MDCK cells have been reported during normal differentiation of intestine epithelium (Colony, P. C., and M. R. Neutra. 1983. Dev. Biol. 97:349-363), we speculate that the mechanism we describe here plays an important role in the establishment of epithelial cell polarity in vivo. PMID:3053735

  13. Ca2+ signaling and early embryonic patterning during the blastula and gastrula periods of zebrafish and Xenopus development.

    PubMed

    Webb, Sarah E; Miller, Andrew L

    2006-11-01

    It has been proposed that Ca(2+) signaling, in the form of pulses, waves and steady gradients, may play a crucial role in key pattern forming events during early vertebrate development [L.F. Jaffe, Organization of early development by calcium patterns, BioEssays 21 (1999) 657-667; M.J. Berridge, P. Lipp, M.D. Bootman, The versatility and universality of calcium signaling, Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 1 (2000) 11-21; S.E. Webb, A.L. Miller, Calcium signalling during embryonic development, Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 4 (2003) 539-551]. With reference to the embryos of zebrafish (Danio rerio) and the frog, Xenopus laevis, we review the Ca(2+) signals reported during the Blastula and Gastrula Periods. This developmental window encompasses the major pattern forming events of epiboly, involution, and convergent extension, which result in the establishment of the basic germ layers and body axes [C.B. Kimmel, W.W. Ballard, S.R. Kimmel, B. Ullmann, T.F. Schilling, Stages of embryonic development of the zebrafish, Dev. Dyn. 203 (1995) 253-310]. Data will be presented to support the suggestion that propagating waves (both long and short range) of Ca(2+) release, followed by sequestration, may play a crucial role in: (1) Coordinating cell movements during these pattern forming events and (2) Contributing to the establishment of the basic embryonic axes, as well as (3) Helping to define the morphological boundaries of specific tissue domains and embryonic structures, including future organ anlagen [E. Gilland, A.L. Miller, E. Karplus, R. Baker, S.E. Webb, Imaging of multicellular large-scale rhythmic calcium waves during zebrafish gastrulation, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96 (1999) 157-161; J.B. Wallingford, A.J. Ewald, R.M. Harland, S.E. Fraser, Calcium signaling during convergent extension in Xenopus, Curr. Biol. 11 (2001) 652-661]. The various potential targets of these Ca(2+) transients will also be discussed, as well as how they might integrate with other known pattern forming pathways known to modulate early developmental events (such as the Wnt/Ca(2+)pathway; [T.A. Westfall, B. Hjertos, D.C. Slusarski, Requirement for intracellular calcium modulation in zebrafish dorsal-ventral patterning, Dev. Biol. 259 (2003) 380-391]).

  14. Vitamin C Status of Submariners

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1980-06-19

    one week of collection using a modification of the 2,4- dinitrophenylhydrazine method of Roe and Kuether (14). Before each sampling period, the...KUETHER. The determination of ascorbic acid in whole blood through the 2,4- dinitrophenylhydrazine derivative of dehydroascorbic acid. J. Biol

  15. Michael E. Himmel | NREL

    Science.gov Websites

    E. Himmel Photo of Michael E. Himmel Michael Himmel Senior Research Fellow I-Molecular Biology ;Towards a molecular-level theory of carbohydrate processivity," Curr. Opinion Biotechnol. (2014 University, Department of Biochem. & Molecular Biol., Distinguished Alumnus (2014) Battelle Memorial

  16. Correction: Phylogenetic placement of the enigmatic parasite, Polypodium hydriforme, within the Phylum Cnidaria

    PubMed Central

    2009-01-01

    Correction to Evans, N.M., Lindner, A., Raikova, E.V., Collins, A.G. and Cartwright, P. Phylogenetic placement of the enigmatic parasite, Polypodium hydriforme, within the phylum Cnidaria. BMC Evol Biol, 2008, 8:139. PMID:19604374

  17. Swine MRSA isolates form robust biofilms

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) colonization of livestock animals is common and prevalence rates for pigs have been reported to be as high as 49%. Measures to prevent, control, or eliminate MRSA in swine is of considerable public health concern. Bacterial colonization of both biol...

  18. Genetics Home Reference: Cohen syndrome

    MedlinePlus

    ... complex and directs neurite outgrowth. J Biol Chem. 2015 Feb 6;290(6):3349-58. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M114.608174. Epub 2014 Dec 9. Citation on PubMed or Free article on PubMed Central Wang H, Falk MJ, Wensel C, Traboulsi EI. Cohen ...

  19. LineageSpecificSeqgen: generating sequence data with lineage-specific variation in the proportion of variable sites

    PubMed Central

    Grievink, Liat Shavit; Penny, David; Hendy, Mike D; Holland, Barbara R

    2009-01-01

    Correction to Shavit Grievink L, Penny D, Hendy MD, Holland BR: LineageSpecificSeqgen: generating sequence data with lineage-specific variation in the proportion of variable sites. BMC Evol Biol 2008, 8(1):317.

  20. Molecular interactions between single-stranded DNA-binding proteins associated with an essential MCAT element in the mouse smooth muscle alpha-actin promoter.

    PubMed

    Kelm, R J; Cogan, J G; Elder, P K; Strauch, A R; Getz, M J

    1999-05-14

    Transcriptional activity of the mouse vascular smooth muscle alpha-actin gene in fibroblasts is regulated, in part, by a 30-base pair asymmetric polypurine-polypyrimidine tract containing an essential MCAT enhancer motif. The double-stranded form of this sequence serves as a binding site for a transcription enhancer factor 1-related protein while the separated single strands interact with two distinct DNA binding activities termed VACssBF1 and 2 (Cogan, J. G., Sun, S., Stoflet, E. S., Schmidt, L. J., Getz, M. J., and Strauch, A. R. (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 11310-11321; Sun, S., Stoflet, E. S., Cogan, J. G., Strauch, A. R., and Getz, M. J. (1995) Mol. Cell. Biol. 15, 2429-2936). VACssBF2 has been recently cloned and shown to consist of two closely related proteins, Puralpha and Purbeta (Kelm, R. J., Elder, P. K., Strauch, A. R., and Getz, M. J. (1997) J. Biol. Chem. 272, 26727-26733). In this study, we demonstrate that Puralpha and Purbeta interact with each other via highly specific protein-protein interactions and bind to the purine-rich strand of the MCAT enhancer in the form of both homo- and heteromeric complexes. Moreover, both Pur proteins interact with MSY1, a VACssBF1-like protein cloned by virtue of its affinity for the pyrimidine-rich strand of the enhancer. Interactions between Puralpha, Purbeta, and MSY1 do not require the participation of DNA. Combinatorial interactions between these three single-stranded DNA-binding proteins may be important in regulating activity of the smooth muscle alpha-actin MCAT enhancer in fibroblasts.

  1. Mechanism of inhibition of HIV-1 integrase by G-tetrad-forming oligonucleotides in Vitro.

    PubMed

    Jing, N; Marchand, C; Liu, J; Mitra, R; Hogan, M E; Pommier, Y

    2000-07-14

    The G-tetrad-forming oligonucleotides and have been identified as potent inhibitors of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 integrase (HIV-1 IN) activity (Rando, R. F., Ojwang, J., Elbaggari, A., Reyes, G. R., Tinder, R., McGrath, M. S., and Hogan, M. E. (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 1754-1760; Mazumder, A., Neamati, N., Ojwang, J. O., Sunder, S., Rando, R. F., and Pommier, Y. (1996) Biochemistry 35, 13762-13771; Jing, N., and Hogan, M. E. (1998) J. Biol. Chem. 273, 34992-34999). To understand the inhibition of HIV-1 IN activity by the G-quartet inhibitors, we have designed the oligonucleotides and, composed of three and four G-quartets with stem lengths of 19 and 24 A, respectively. The fact that increasing the G-quartet stem length from 15 to 24 A kept inhibition of HIV-1 IN activity unchanged suggests that the binding interaction occurs between a GTGT loop domain of the G-quartet inhibitors and a catalytic site of HIV-1 IN, referred to as a face-to-face interaction. Docking the NMR structure of (Jing and Hogan (1998)) into the x-ray structure of the core domain of HIV-1 IN, HIV-1 IN-(51-209) (Maignan, S., Guilloteau, J.-P. , Qing, Z.-L., Clement-Mella, C., and Mikol, V. (1998) J. Mol. Biol. 282, 359-368), was performed using the GRAMM program. The statistical distributions of hydrogen bonding between HIV-1 IN and were obtained from the analyses of 1000 random docking structures. The docking results show a high probability of interaction between the GTGT loop residues of the G-quartet inhibitors and the catalytic site of HIV-1 IN, in agreement with the experimental observation.

  2. Rare Event Simulation for T-cell Activation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lipsmeier, Florian; Baake, Ellen

    2009-02-01

    The problem of statistical recognition is considered, as it arises in immunobiology, namely, the discrimination of foreign antigens against a background of the body's own molecules. The precise mechanism of this foreign-self-distinction, though one of the major tasks of the immune system, continues to be a fundamental puzzle. Recent progress has been made by van den Berg, Rand, and Burroughs (J. Theor. Biol. 209:465-486, 2001), who modelled the probabilistic nature of the interaction between the relevant cell types, namely, T-cells and antigen-presenting cells (APCs). Here, the stochasticity is due to the random sample of antigens present on the surface of every APC, and to the random receptor type that characterises individual T-cells. It has been shown previously (van den Berg et al. in J. Theor. Biol. 209:465-486, 2001; Zint et al. in J. Math. Biol. 57:841-861, 2008) that this model, though highly idealised, is capable of reproducing important aspects of the recognition phenomenon, and of explaining them on the basis of stochastic rare events. These results were obtained with the help of a refined large deviation theorem and were thus asymptotic in nature. Simulations have, so far, been restricted to the straightforward simple sampling approach, which does not allow for sample sizes large enough to address more detailed questions. Building on the available large deviation results, we develop an importance sampling technique that allows for a convenient exploration of the relevant tail events by means of simulation. With its help, we investigate the mechanism of statistical recognition in some depth. In particular, we illustrate how a foreign antigen can stand out against the self background if it is present in sufficiently many copies, although no a priori difference between self and nonself is built into the model.

  3. Expression of the mammalian calcium signaling response to Trypanosoma cruzi in Xenopus laevis oocytes.

    PubMed

    Leite, M F; Moyer, M S; Andrews, N W

    1998-04-01

    Infective stages of the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi contain a soluble factor that induces elevation in the intracellular free Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) of mammalian cells. The process is pertussis toxin (PTx)-sensitive, and involves phospholipase C (PLC) activation, inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) formation and Ca2+ release from intracellular stores (Tardieux I, et al. J Exp Med 1994;179:1017-1022; Rodriguez A, et al. J Cell Biol 1995;129:1263-1273). We now report that a molecule exposed on the surface of the target cells is required to trigger the signaling cascade, and that a response with identical characteristics can be induced in Xenopus laevis oocytes injected with mRNA from normal rat kidney (NRK) fibroblasts. Xenopus oocytes do not show an endogenous response to the trypomastigote Ca2+ signaling factor, but a vigorous response in the form of a propagating Ca2+ wave is expressed after injection of NRK cell mRNA. As previously demonstrated for mammalian cells, the response is inhibited when injected oocytes are pretreated with PTx, implicating Galphai or Galphao trimeric G-proteins, and with thapsigargin, which depletes intracellular Ca2+ stores. Moreover, the [Ca2+]i transients triggered by the T. cruzi soluble factor in mRNA-injected oocytes are blocked by the same inhibitors of the parasite oligopeptidase B that abolish the [Ca2+]i response in NRK cells (Burleigh B, Andrews NW. J Biol Chem 1995;270:5172-5180; Burleigh BA et al. J Cell Biol 1997;136:609-620). The NRK mRNA fraction that induces expression of the [Ca2+]i response to the T. cruzi signaling factor contains messages from 1.5 to 2.0 kb, a size range consistent with the family of seven-transmembrane G-protein-coupled receptors.

  4. Bohman-Frieze-Wormald model on the lattice, yielding a discontinuous percolation transition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schrenk, K. J.; Felder, A.; Deflorin, S.; Araújo, N. A. M.; D'Souza, R. M.; Herrmann, H. J.

    2012-03-01

    The BFW model introduced by Bohman, Frieze, and Wormald [Random Struct. Algorithms1042-983210.1002/rsa.20038, 25, 432 (2004)], and recently investigated in the framework of discontinuous percolation by Chen and D'Souza [Phys. Rev. Lett.PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.106.115701 106, 115701 (2011)], is studied on the square and simple-cubic lattices. In two and three dimensions, we find numerical evidence for a strongly discontinuous transition. In two dimensions, the clusters at the threshold are compact with a fractal surface of fractal dimension df=1.49±0.02. On the simple-cubic lattice, distinct jumps in the size of the largest cluster are observed. We proceed to analyze the tree-like version of the model, where only merging bonds are sampled, for dimension two to seven. The transition is again discontinuous in any considered dimension. Finally, the dependence of the cluster-size distribution at the threshold on the spatial dimension is also investigated.

  5. Development of self-healing polymers via amine-epoxy chemistry: II. Systematic evaluation of self-healing performance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, He; Yang, Jinglei

    2014-06-01

    Part I of this study (H Zhang and J Yang 2014 Smart Mater. Struct. 23 065003) reported the preparation and characterization of epoxy microcapsules (EP-capsules) and amine loaded hollow glass bubbles (AM-HGBs), and the modeling of a two-part self-healing system. In part II, the self-healing performance of this material system is systematically investigated. Various factors including the ratio, the total concentration and the size of the two carriers are studied as well as the healing temperature and the post heat treatment process. The best healing performance is obtained at a ratio of 1:3 of EP-capsules to AM-HGBs. It is observed that a higher concentration of larger carriers, together with a higher healing temperature, enables better healing behavior. Healing efficiency of up to 93% is obtained in these systems. In addition, post heat treatment decreases the healing efficiency due to stoichiometric mismatch of healing agents caused by leakage of amine in the HGBs at elevated temperature.

  6. Endocytosis of lysosomal acid phosphatase; involvement of mannose receptor and effect of lectins.

    PubMed

    Imai, K; Yoshimura, T

    1994-08-01

    Acid phosphatase and beta-glucosidase are unique among lysosomal enzymes in that they have both high mannose and complex type sugasr chains, whereas oligosaccharide chains of lysosomal enzymes in matrix are of high mannose type. We have previously shown that beta-glucosidase was endocytosed into macrophages via an unidentified receptor different from a mannose/fucose receptor (K. Imai, Cell Struct. Funct. 13, 325-332, 1988). Here, we show that uptake of acid phosphatase purified from rat liver lysosomes into rat macrophages was inhibited by ligands for a mannose/fucose receptor and was mediated via an apparently single binding site with Kuptake of 24.7 nM. These results indicate that acid phosphatase and beta-glucosidase recognize different types of receptors even if they have similar sugar chains. Polyvalent concanavalin A which binds both to the enzyme and to macrophages specifically stimulated the uptake in a dose dependent manner, whereas wheat germ agglutinin and phytohaemagglutinin did not.

  7. Mechanism of Action of Presynaptic Neurotoxins

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1986-07-01

    Green, 1981;. (2) There are no consistent effeects of the toxin on neurotransmftter synthesis , storage, degradation, or uptake (Collingrldge et al...Transport by Nitrendipine fit a Clonal Cell Line. ýL Biol. Chem,. 257, 13189-13192. Van Heyningen W.E. (1963) The Fixation of Tetanus Toxin, Strychnine

  8. La importancia de los arrecifes de coral

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Los arrecifes de coral son uno de los ecosistemas más diversos y biológicamente complejos del mundo. Un cuarto de toda la vida marina depende de los arrecifes de coral para obtener alimentos y refugio. Los arrecifes sanos benefician a las comunidades.

  9. Genetics Home Reference: ethylmalonic encephalopathy

    MedlinePlus

    ... Tiranti V, Zeviani M. Altered sulfide (H(2)S) metabolism in ethylmalonic encephalopathy. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 2013 Jan 1;5(1):a011437. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a011437. Review. Citation on PubMed or Free article on PubMed Central More from Genetics Home Reference ...

  10. The Role of Vision and Mechanosensation in Insect Flight Control

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-01-01

    intensity. We used bumblebees (Bombus terrestris), honeybees ( Apis mellifera ), the common wasp (Vespa vulgaris), hornets (Vespa crabro) flies (Mousca...bees ( Apis mellifera L.). J. Exp. Biol. 209, 978-984. Beyeler, A., Zufferey, J.-C. and Floreano, D. (2009). Vision-based control of near- obstacle

  11. Mechanisms of Bunyavirus Virulence: A Genetic Approach.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1984-12-01

    of canine parvovirus Type-2, feline panleukopenia virus and mink enteritis virus. Virology 129,401-414. Partner A., Webster, R. G., and Bean W. J...CM, and Webster RG. Procedures for the characterization of the genetic material of candidate vaccine strains. Develop Biol Standard 39:15-24, 1977

  12. A Syllabus for Biol 242--Human Anatomy.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jacob, Willis H.

    This document is the fall and spring semester course syllabus of Biology 242--Human Anatomy at Southern University (Louisiana). Sections include: (1) Descriptive Information; (2) Specification of Course Goals and Objectives; (3) Readings; (4) Description of Instructional Procedures; (5) Course Requirements; (6) Course Schedule; (7) Evaluation of…

  13. The Influence of Biochar on Soil Processes

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Biochar may be a good soil amendment with the potential to sequester Carbon (C) for long periods of time. In addition, biochar added to soils could increase water infiltration and retention, increase cation exchange capacity and perhaps soil aggregation. However the effects of biochar on soil biol...

  14. Polymerization of Quinone-Crosslinked Marine Bioadhesive Protein

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1988-10-05

    T. (1988) Adhesive protein of ribbed mussels: a natural glue with some features of collagen . To: J. Biol. Chem. Rzepecki, L., Nagafuchi, T. and...protein as inducing agent in the settlement of Mytilus edulis larvae", and "Hemolytic toxins of two marine jellyfish ", respectively. Tatsuhiko

  15. The challenges of numerically simulating analogue brittle thrust wedges

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Buiter, Susanne; Ellis, Susan

    2017-04-01

    Fold-and-thrust belts and accretionary wedges form when sedimentary and crustal rocks are compressed into thrusts and folds in the foreland of an orogen or at a subduction trench. For over a century, analogue models have been used to investigate the deformation characteristics of such brittle wedges. These models predict wedge shapes that agree with analytical critical taper theory and internal deformation structures that well resemble natural observations. In a series of comparison experiments for thrust wedges, called the GeoMod2004 (1,2) and GeoMod2008 (3,4) experiments, it was shown that different numerical solution methods successfully reproduce sandbox thrust wedges. However, the GeoMod2008 benchmark also pointed to the difficulties of representing frictional boundary conditions and sharp velocity discontinuities with continuum numerical methods, in addition to the well-known challenges of numerical plasticity. Here we show how details in the numerical implementation of boundary conditions can substantially impact numerical wedge deformation. We consider experiment 1 of the GeoMod2008 brittle thrust wedge benchmarks. This experiment examines a triangular thrust wedge in the stable field of critical taper theory that should remain stable, that is, without internal deformation, when sliding over a basal frictional surface. The thrust wedge is translated by lateral displacement of a rigid mobile wall. The corner between the mobile wall and the subsurface is a velocity discontinuity. Using our finite-element code SULEC, we show how different approaches to implementing boundary friction (boundary layer or contact elements) and the velocity discontinuity (various smoothing schemes) can cause the wedge to indeed translate in a stable manner or to undergo internal deformation (which is a fail). We recommend that numerical studies of sandbox setups not only report the details of their implementation of boundary conditions, but also document the modelling attempts that failed. References 1. Buiter and the GeoMod2004 Team, 2006. The numerical sandbox: comparison of model results for a shortening and an extension experiment. Geol. Soc. Lond. Spec. Publ. 253, 29-64 2. Schreurs and the GeoMod2004 Team, 2006. Analogue benchmarks of shortening and extension experiments. Geol. Soc. Lond. Spec. Publ. 253, 1-27 3. Buiter, Schreurs and the GeoMod2008 Team, 2016. Benchmarking numerical models of brittle thrust wedges, J. Struct. Geol. 92, 140-177 4. Schreurs, Buiter and the GeoMod2008 Team, 2016. Benchmarking analogue models of brittle thrust wedges, J. Struct. Geol. 92, 116-13

  16. Swift tuning from spherical molybdenum microspheres to hierarchical molybdenum disulfide nanostructures by switching from solvothermal to hydrothermal synthesis route

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Qureshi, Nilam; Arbuj, Sudhir; Shinde, Manish; Rane, Sunit; Kulkarni, Milind; Amalnerkar, Dinesh; Lee, Haiwon

    2017-09-01

    Herein, we report the synthesis of metallic molybdenum microspheres and hierarchical MoS2 nanostructures by facile template-free solvothermal and hydrothermal approach, respectively. The morphological transition of the Mo microspheres to hierarchical MoS2 nanoflower architectures is observed to be accomplished with change in solvent from ethylenediamine to water. The resultant marigold flower-like MoS2 nanostructures are few layers thick with poor crystallinity while spherical ball-like molybdenum microspheres exhibit better crystalline nature. This is the first report pertaining to the synthesis of Mo microspheres and MoS2 nanoflowers without using any surfactant, template or substrate in hydro/solvothermal regime. It is opined that such nanoarchitectures of MoS2 are useful candidates for energy related applications such as hydrogen evolution reaction, Li ion battery and pseudocapacitors. Inquisitively, metallic Mo can potentially act as catalyst as well as fairly economical Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) substrate in biosensor applications.

  17. Crown gall transformation of tobacco callus cells by cocultivation with Agrobacterium tumefaciens

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Muller, A.; Manzara, T.; Lurquin, P.F.

    1984-09-17

    Incubation of cells from squashed tobacco callus tissue with virulent Agrobacterium tumefaciens leads to the production of cells displaying a crown gall phenotype. In vitro crown gall transformation of dicotyledonous plant cells has been demonstrated after cocultivation of cell-wall regenerating mesophyll protoplasts with Agrobacterium tumefaciens cells. In addition, it has been shown that protoplasts freshly isolated from suspension cultures, when treated with A. tumefaciens spheroplasts and a fusogen, also generated cells displaying a typical crown gall phenotype, i.e., phytohormone-independent growth and opine synthesis. Subsequently, both techniques were used to transfer and express foreign genes in plant cells via A. tumefaciensmore » T-DNA integration. For practical purposes, it would be advantageous to be able to perform crown gall transformation of plant cells in tissue culture. The authors report here for the first time the production of Nicotiana tabacum crown gall cells after cocultivation of callus tissue with A. tumefaciens A136 cells. 11 references, 1 figure, 1 table.« less

  18. Clinical characteristics and current therapies for inherited retinal degenerations.

    PubMed

    Sahel, José-Alain; Marazova, Katia; Audo, Isabelle

    2014-10-16

    Inherited retinal degenerations (IRDs) encompass a large group of clinically and genetically heterogeneous diseases that affect approximately 1 in 3000 people (>2 million people worldwide) (Bessant DA, Ali RR, Bhattacharya SS. 2001. Molecular genetics and prospects for therapy of the inherited retinal dystrophies. Curr Opin Genet Dev 11: 307-316.). IRDs may be inherited as Mendelian traits or through mitochondrial DNA, and may affect the entire retina (e.g., rod-cone dystrophy, also known as retinitis pigmentosa, cone dystrophy, cone-rod dystrophy, choroideremia, Usher syndrome, and Bardet-Bidel syndrome) or be restricted to the macula (e.g., Stargardt disease, Best disease, and Sorsby fundus dystrophy), ultimately leading to blindness. IRDs are a major cause of severe vision loss, with profound impact on patients and society. Although IRDs remain untreatable today, significant progress toward therapeutic strategies for IRDs has marked the past two decades. This progress has been based on better understanding of the pathophysiological pathways of these diseases and on technological advances. Copyright © 2015 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; all rights reserved.

  19. Low hanging fruit in infectious disease drug development.

    PubMed

    Kraus, Carl N

    2008-10-01

    Cost estimates for developing new molecular entities (NME) are reaching non-sustainable levels and coupled with increasing regulatory requirements and oversight have led many pharmaceutical sponsors to divest their anti-microbial development portfolios [Projan SJ: Why is big Pharma getting out of anti-bacterial drug discovery?Curr Opin Microbiol 2003, 6:427-430] [Spellberg B, Powers JH, Brass EP, Miller LG, Edwards JE, Jr: Trends in antimicrobial drug development: implications for the future.Clin Infect Dis 2004, 38:1279-1286]. Operational issues such as study planning and execution are significant contributors to the overall cost of drug development that can benefit from the leveraging of pre-randomization data in an evidence-based approach to protocol development, site selection and patient recruitment. For non-NME products there is even greater benefit from available data resources since these data may permit smaller and shorter study programs. There are now many available open source intelligence (OSINT) resources that are being integrated into drug development programs, permitting an evidence-based or 'operational epidemiology' approach to study planning and execution.

  20. On Vaccination & Chiropractic: when ideology, history, perception, politics and jurisprudence collide.

    PubMed

    Gleberzon, Brian; Lameris, Marlee; Schmidt, Catherine; Ogrady, Jillian

    2013-09-01

    The Palmers espoused anti-vaccination opinions in the early part of the 20(th) century, rejecting the germ theory of disease in favor of a worldview that a subluxation-free spine, achieved by spinal adjustments, would result in an unfettered innate intelligence; this, along with other healthful lifestyle choices, would allow a person to thwart disease by marshaling the body's natural recuperative abilities. Some chiropractors continue to staunchly champion the Palmer postulates, while others do not. At the national level, advocacy organizations publish conflicting position statements. We explore how this divisiveness has impacted chiropractic ideology, perceptions among students and practitioners, politics and issues of jurisprudence as reflected by the evolution of a standard of chiropractic practice in at least one Canadian province (Ontario). We opine that the chiropractic profession should champion a health promotion and disease prevention approach to vaccination, which would allow it to align itself with the broader healthcare community while not abandoning its traditional tenets.

  1. Clinical Characteristics and Current Therapies for Inherited Retinal Degenerations

    PubMed Central

    Sahel, José-Alain; Marazova, Katia; Audo, Isabelle

    2015-01-01

    Inherited retinal degenerations (IRDs) encompass a large group of clinically and genetically heterogeneous diseases that affect approximately 1 in 3000 people (>2 million people worldwide) (Bessant DA, Ali RR, Bhattacharya SS. 2001. Molecular genetics and prospects for therapy of the inherited retinal dystrophies. Curr Opin Genet Dev 11: 307–316.). IRDs may be inherited as Mendelian traits or through mitochondrial DNA, and may affect the entire retina (e.g., rod–cone dystrophy, also known as retinitis pigmentosa, cone dystrophy, cone–rod dystrophy, choroideremia, Usher syndrome, and Bardet-Bidel syndrome) or be restricted to the macula (e.g., Stargardt disease, Best disease, and Sorsby fundus dystrophy), ultimately leading to blindness. IRDs are a major cause of severe vision loss, with profound impact on patients and society. Although IRDs remain untreatable today, significant progress toward therapeutic strategies for IRDs has marked the past two decades. This progress has been based on better understanding of the pathophysiological pathways of these diseases and on technological advances. PMID:25324231

  2. Mass mortality events and the role of necrophagous invertebrates.

    PubMed

    Tomberlin, Jeffery K; Barton, Brandon T; Lashley, Marcus A; Jordan, Heather R

    2017-10-01

    Scale is important in understanding and applying concepts in ecology. Historically, the mechanisms regulating necrophagous arthropod community structure have been well explored on a single vertebrate carcass. However, practically nothing is known of whether such findings can be extrapolated to cases where large numbers of carcasses have been introduced into an ecosystem at a single time point. With the increasing incidences of mass mortality events (MMEs), understanding how scale effects community assembly of necrophagous insects and the resulting bottom-up or top-down effects on the impacted ecosystem are of utmost importance. Unfortunately, MMEs are unpredictable, making their study nearly impossible within a robust experimental framework. The objectives of this paper are to provide a brief overview of what is known with regards to ecological responses to carrion, opine on the ramifications of MMEs on local communities, and provide a brief overview of knowledge gaps, avenues for future research, and a potential study systems for rigorous MME experiments. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Biochemical and Medical Information for Marine Hazardous Substances. Volume 3. Marine Hazardous Chemical Worker.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1985-12-01

    and respiratory tract; CNS depression .. at high concentrations. chronic: Dermatitis BIOL. FATE/METABOLITES: N/A . 1 MEDICAL MONITORIG : Medical exam...accidental: N/A chronic: Silicosis, pulmonary fibrosis, normally years of exposure are required, but in very heavy dust clouds disease developes in less time

  4. Evaluation of the Navy Plaque Control Program, at Great Lakes.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1980-02-01

    recruits was between the teeth. The proximal surfaces of posterior teeth are known to be prime sites for harboring the cariogenic Streptococcus mutans ...distribution of Streptococcus mutans on the teeth of two groups of naval recruits. Arch. Oral Biol. 19:199, 1974. 58. Massler, M., Schour, I., and

  5. The Multileveled Regulation of the Human Cholinesterase Genes and Their Protein Products

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1993-09-30

    s that are involved in binding and penetration of ligands. In essence , binding affinity consists of ligand penetration in addition to its binding to...J. Cell Biol. 110, 715-719. Rotundo RL, Jasmin BJ, Lee RK, Rossi SG (1992) Compartmentalization of acetylcholinesterase mENA and protein expression

  6. Toxic Neuronal Death by Glyeraldehyde-3-Phosphate Dehydrogenase and Mitochondria

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2003-08-01

    Neuroreport, 10(5), 1149-1153. Sioud, M., & Jespersen, L. (1996). Enhancement of hammerhead ribozyme catalysis by glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase...1996) Enhancemen t of hammerhead r ibozyme cata lysis by glycera ldehyde-3- phospha te dehydrogenase. J Mol Biol 257:775–789. Sirover MA (1997) Role of

  7. Biological and Catalytic Conversion of Sugars and Lignin Publications |

    Science.gov Websites

    mechanism of free and cellulosomal enzyme synergy, ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. Evaluation of clean Free Energy, J. Amer. Chem. Soc. Process Design and Economics for the Conversion of Lignocellulosic Processive Cellulase with Multiple Absolute Binding Free Energy Methods, J. Biol. Chem. Optimizing Nucleus

  8. Peptide arrays for kinome analysis of livestock species

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The kinases that mediate protein phosphorylation events have taken on a central priority within human medicine. This is evidenced by the number of kinase inhibitors that are currently in use as drugs as well as those advancing through clinical trials. There is also a trend to understand complex biol...

  9. Development of Chronic Mandibular Osteomyelitis in a Miniswine Model

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1993-01-01

    endotracheal intubation was then accomplished and medullary cavity to control bleeding and to produce anesthesia maintained with N,0/O,/Forane (ANA- some...Dis 122:410, 1970 experimental animal in dental research. Arch Oral Biol 7:17, 5. Norden CW, Shinners E, Niederriter K: Clindamycin treatment 1962 of

  10. Accelerating Electronic Tag Development for Tracking Free-Ranging Marine Animals at Sea

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2007-08-01

    for the best in Internet marketing. The IAC Awards are the first and only industry - based advertising award competition dedicated exclusively to...Bioenergetics and diving activity of internesting leatherback turtles Dermochelys coriacea at Parque Nacional Marino Las Baulas, Costa Rica. J. Exp. BioL 208

  11. Properties of the Deep Scattering Layer Analyzed in Terms of Bioluminescent Behavior of Its Components.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1984-02-28

    15:203-221. 1975 Anderson, P. & Case, J.F. Electrical activity associated with luminescence and other colonial behavior in the pennatulid Renilla ...Development of bioluminescence and other effector responses in the pennatulid coelentrate Renilla kollikeri. Biol. Bull. 157:506-523. Satterlie, R.A. & Case

  12. Investigation into the Distribution of Ballast Water Tracers in Coastal Waters

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-11-01

    terrestrial and marine vegetation ( Kalle , 1966; Sieberth, 1969; Stabenau et al., 2004), microbial productivity in the water column (Nelson et al...London. Kalle , K., 1966. The problem of the Gelbstoffe in the sea. Oceanogr. Mar. Biol. Ann. Review, 4: 91-104. Lackowicz, J., 1999. Principles of

  13. The Physiology of Growth Hormone-Releasing Hormone (GHRH) in Breast Cancer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2003-06-01

    production of growth hormone-releasing factor by carcinoid and pancreatic islet tumors associated with acromegaly . Prog Clin Biol Res 1981; 74:259-271. (16...promotion of apop- cause of acromegaly . More recently, expression has been tosis. These results indicate that disruption of enaog- demonstrated in tumors

  14. PROPOSED WATER QUALITY SURVEILLANCE NETWORK USING PHYSICAL, CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS (CBEWS)

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Homeland Protection Act of 2002 specifically calls for the investigation and use of Early Warning Systems (EWS) for water security reasons. The EWS is a screening tool for detecting changes in source water and distribution system water quality. A suite of time-relevant biol...

  15. PROPOSED WATER QUALITY SURVEILLANCE NETWORK USING PHYSICAL, CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS (BEWS)

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Homeland Protection Act of 2002 specifically calls for the investigation and use of Early Warning Systems (EWS) for water security reasons. The EWS is a screening tool for detecting changes in source water and distribution system water quality. A suite of time-relevant biol...

  16. Exercise-Induced Changes in Metabolic Resposes to Infection in Trained Rats.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1981-07-20

    superimposed on fasting reduced it in sedentary rats (24). Swimming amplified fasting ketosis and diminished infection ketonemia and markedly decreased...Ketone body metabolism in the ketosis of starvation and alloxan diabetes. J. Biol. Chem. 245:4382-4390, 1970. 22. MOSES, L. E. Determination of oxygen

  17. EGFR-Dependent Regulation of Matrix-Independent Epithelial Cell Survival

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2006-04-01

    ultraviolet (UV) irradiation ( Mudgil et al., 2003), decreased adhesive interactions between tumor cells and adjacent epithelia Much remains to be...historical perspective on integrin signal transduction. Nat. Cell Biol. 4, E83-E90. Mudgil , A. V., Segal, N., Andriani, F., Wang, Y., Fusenig, N. E. and

  18. Chemical Plume Tracing Experimental Results with a REMUS AUV

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2003-09-01

    in moths at ranges of 100-1000 m [11] and in Antartic pro- cellariiform seabirds over 1000 km [5]. This article presents a algorithm that... Antartic Proellariiform Seabirds: Life at High Reynolds Numbers,” Biol. Bull., 198: 245--253, April 2000. 6. J. Basil, “Lobster orientation in

  19. Wounding-Induced Manifestations of Type 1 Neurofibromatosis

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2001-07-01

    hairless mice induced by topical dimethylbenzanthracene., Exp. Cell Biol. 57: 292-9, 1989. Vogel, K. S., Klesse, L. J., Velasco- Miguel , S., Meyers, K... Santoro IM, Kordich JJ, Gismondi V, Trzepacz C, Badiali M, Giangaspero F, Balko MG, Graham JS, Ratner N, Lowy AM, Varesco L, Groden J. (2001) A

  20. Neurotoxin and Epitope Structural Studies

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1991-01-25

    N., Oguma, K., Yokosawa , N., Kimura, K., and Tsuzuki, K., 1988, AppI. Environ. Microbiol., 54, 69-73. 15. Gimenez, J., Foley, J., and DasGupta, B.R...Wernars, K., and Niemann H., 1990, J. Biol. Chem., 265, 9153-9158. 18. Kimura, K., Fujii, N., Tsuzuki, K., Murakami, T., Indoh, T., Yokosawa , N

  1. PROJECTING POPULATION-LEVEL RESPONSES OF MYSIDS EXPOSED TO AN ENDOCRINE DISRUPTING CHEMICAL

    EPA Science Inventory

    Raimondo, Sandy and Charles L. McKenney, Jr. Submitted. Projecting Population-Level Responses of Mysids Exposed to an Endocrine-Disrupting Chemical. Integr. Comp. Biol. 23 p. (ERL,GB 1203).

    To fully understand the implications of a chemical's effect on the conservation of...

  2. The Cirque du Soleil of Golgi membrane dynamics

    PubMed Central

    2009-01-01

    The role of lipid metabolic enzymes in Golgi membrane remodeling is a subject of intense interest. Now, in this issue, Schmidt and Brown (2009. J. Cell Biol. doi:10.1083/jcb.200904147) report that lysophosphatidic acid–specific acyltransferase, LPAAT3, contributes to Golgi membrane dynamics by suppressing tubule formation. PMID:19635838

  3. The Cirque du Soleil of Golgi membrane dynamics.

    PubMed

    Bankaitis, Vytas A

    2009-07-27

    The role of lipid metabolic enzymes in Golgi membrane remodeling is a subject of intense interest. Now, in this issue, Schmidt and Brown (2009. J. Cell Biol. doi:10.1083/jcb.200904147) report that lysophosphatidic acid-specific acyltransferase, LPAAT3, contributes to Golgi membrane dynamics by suppressing tubule formation.

  4. Man in the Cold Environment. A Bibliography with Informative Abstracts. Updated Version,

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1982-09-01

    vascular thermoreceptors in the mechanism of cold tremor inhibition by oxotremorine , seduxen and phentolamine. Byull. Eksp. Biol. Med. 86(9):314-317...1978. l.v. infusion of oxotremorine , seduxen, and phentolamine to cats not only decreased the cold-induced tremor, but also reduced the subcutaneous

  5. Actions of Tamoxifen and Estrogen on Osteoblast Protein Kinase C Expression.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1996-07-01

    extended period of time over which estrogen deficiency -induced bone loss occurs. Postmenopausal bone loss occurs gradually over several years, and changes...Identification of luteal estrogen-modulated lipid- stimulated kinase as protein kinase C5. J Biol Chem 267:17061-17068. 24. Cutler RE Jr, Maizels ET

  6. Vasopressin Receptor Signaling and Cycling of Water Channels in Renal Epithelia.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1994-08-31

    functional similarities to the renal cortical collecting tubule (Bentley, 1958; DiBona , 1981 and others). Recently, we demonstrated that the apical...changes in the toad urinary bladder epithelial surface. J. Cell Biol., 61, 544-547. 27 DiBona , D. R. 1981. Vasopressin action of the conformational state

  7. Integration of biological control and transgenic insect protection for mitigation of mycotoxins in corn

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Biological control is known to be effective in reducing aflatoxin contamination of corn and some transgenic corn hybrids incur greatly reduced damage from corn earworm (Helicoverpa zea). We conducted seven field trials over two years to test the hypothesis that transgenic insect protection and biol...

  8. Development and Validation of a New Technique for Detection of Stress and Pregnancy

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-09-30

    of stress hormone levels in a female Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) pup undergoing rehabilitation. J. Zoo and Wildl. Med.37 (1): 75-78...Atkinson, S. 2012. Changes during the rehabilitation process elicit endocrine responses in developing harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) pups. Zoo Biol. 32

  9. Cell Growth and Survival in Ovarian Epithelial Cancer Core A

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2003-08-01

    developing sea urchin (Lvtechinus pictus) embryos. 1979 General Scientific Meetings of the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA. Biol Bull 157...Research Institute. $94,170 (P.I.: John Ruckdeschel) 21 1996-2001 "Computer-Assisted Diagnosis for Mammographic Calcifications ". USPHS-NIH-NCI R29-96PO259

  10. Bone Marrow Microenvironmental Control of Prostate Cancer Skeletal Localization

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2011-05-01

    which can account for the correlation between PTHrP 325 expression and metastatic potential of tumor cells ( Hiraki , et al. 2002; Liao and McCauley...related peptide enhances survival of 404 chondrocytes under conditions that promote apoptotic cell death. Mol Cell Biol 15 4064-4075. 405 Hiraki A

  11. Elucidating the Role of Truncated ErB2 Receptor (p95) in Breast Cancer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2011-03-01

    of Medicine, Xiamen, Fujian 361005, China; 3Targeted Molecular Diagnostics, Westmont, IL 60559, USA; 4 Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular...the proteolytic processing of the Aspergillus nidulans zinc finger transcription factor PacC. J Biol Chem. 2007; 282: 34735-47. 32

  12. Learning and Memory Enhancement by Neuropeptides

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1989-06-30

    organic solvents), or arising from disease states. We study learning in an autoshaping task, in which rats learn to touch a lever to obtain food. Dunng...R.B.. Allen. S1.. Aanonsen, L. and Sparber. SB. Naloxone adminimtration impairs autoshaped learning. Behavioral and Neural Biol, y51 (1989) 34-45

  13. Long-Term Outcomes of Alternative Brachytherapy Techniques for Early Prostate Cancer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2007-01-01

    Oncol 2003;21:3979-86. 15. Whitmore WF, Jr., Hilaris B, Grabstald H. Retropubic implantation to iodine 125 in the treatment of prostatic cancer. J...brachytherapy and external beam irradiation for clinically localized, high-risk prostatic carcinoma. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 1996;35:875-9. 29. Stock RG

  14. Long-Term Outcomes of Alternative Brachytherapy Techniques for Early Prostate Cancer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-01-01

    course and predictors of symptoms after primary prostate cancer therapy. J Clin Oncol 2003;21:3979-86. 15. Whitmore WF, Jr., Hilaris B, Grabstald H...clinically localized, high-risk prostatic carcinoma. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 1996;35:875-9. 29. Stock RG , Stone NN, De Wyngaert JK, Lavagnini P

  15. Homeostatic and Circadian Abnormalities in Sleep and Arousal in Gulf War Syndrome

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-10-01

    prefrontal cortex have been reported in patients with clinical sleep disorders, including insomnia and cataplexy.7-9 A recent hdEEG analysis of...and parietal gray matter in chronic insomnia : a voxel-based morphometric study. Biol Psychiatry 2010;67:182-5. 8. Joo EY, Tae WS, Kim ST, Hong SB

  16. Role of Stat3 and ErbB2 in Breast Cancer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2011-10-01

    Cell. Biol. 29 (2009) 1796–1813. [29] M. Kohler, S. Ansieau, S. Prehn , A. Leutz, H. Haller, E. Hartmann, Cloning of two novel human importin-alpha...Christiansen, F.R. Bischoff, S. Prehn ,H.Haller, D. Gorlich, E. Hartmann, Evidence for distinct substrate specificities of importin alpha family members in

  17. Interferon Antagonism as a Common Virulence Factor of Hemorrhagic Fever Viruses

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-02-01

    pathogenesis. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med 223:241-57. 11. Kohler, M., S. Ansieau, S. Prehn , A. Leutz, H. Haller, and E. Hartmann. 1997. Cloning of two novel human...Christiansen, F. R. Bischoff, S. Prehn , H. Haller, D. Gorlich, and E. Hartmann. 1999. Evidence for distinct substrate specificities of importin

  18. A Specific Screening Strategy to Reduce Prostate Cancer Mortality

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-09-01

    liposomal doxorubicin after targeted blood-brain barrier disruption by MRI -guided focused ultrasound in rat glioma. Ultrasound Med Biol 2012;38:1716–1725...portable SONIX Tablet US system (Ultrasonix Medical Corp, Richmond, BC) equipped with a 4DL14-5/38 transducer (5 MHz transmit and 10 MHz receive). At

  19. Host Response to Botulinum Neurotoxins for Developing Diagnostics and Antidotes

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-09-18

    Toxin: Chemistry , Pharmacology, Toxicity, and Immunology. Muscle and Nerve Suppl. (6), S1-S23. Cai, S., Sarkar, H. K., and Singh, B. R., 1999...subsequent refolding by a multichaperone network. J. Biol. Chem. 273, 11032-11037. Vickery, L. E., Silberg , J. J., and Ta, D. T. (1997). Hsc66

  20. Lipoxygenase, Angiogenicity, and Prostate Cancer Radioresistance

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2007-01-01

    radical prosta - tectomy (7).Approximately 38%of the 138prostate cancer patients studied exhibited an elevated expression of 12-LOX at themRNA level in...Biol. Chem. 270, 19761–19766 26. Xie, K., Wei, D., Shi, Q., and Huang, S. (2004) Cytokine Growth Factor Rev. 15, 297– 324 27. Pidgeon, G. P., Tang, K

  1. Research and Teaching: Assessment of Graduate Teaching Assistants Enrolled in a Teaching Techniques Course

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zehnder, Caralyn

    2016-01-01

    At the authors' public liberal arts institution, biology masters students are required to enroll in BIOL 5050: Teaching Techniques. Course topics include designing effective lectures, assessment, classroom management, diversity in the classroom, and active learning strategies. The impact of this type of training on graduate students' attitudes and…

  2. Biopolymers in Light Emitting Devices

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2006-09-01

    from an Alq3 layer are illustrated in Fig. 4. Red emission from the rare earth ion Eu3+ doped into the various emitter layers has also been...structure. 26 • IDRC 3.2 / A. J. Steckl Figure 4. DNA BioLEDs: (a) blue (NPB) and green ( Alq3 ) emitting devices in operation; (b) luminance

  3. Platinum Highlight Abstract - November 2013 | Poster

    Cancer.gov

    Characterization and Favorable In Vivo Properties of Heterodimeric Soluble IL-15?IL-15R? Cytokine Compared to IL-15 Monomer Elena Chertova, Cristina Bergamaschi, Oleg Chertov, Raymond Sowder, Jenifer Bear, James D. Roser, Rachel K. Beach, Jeffrey D. Lifson, Barbara K. Felber, and George N. PavlakisJ Biol Chem 288(25):18093-18103, 2013

  4. Empirical evaluation of sufficient similarity in dose-response for environmental risk assessment of a mixture of 11 pyrethroids.

    EPA Science Inventory

    Chemical mixtures in the environment are often the result of a dynamic process. When dose-response data are available on random samples throughout the process, equivalence testing can be used to determine whether the mixtures are sufficiently similar based on a pre-specified biol...

  5. Biology Intensive Orientation for Students (BIOS): A Biology "Boot Camp"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wischusen, Sheri Maples; Wischusen, E. William

    2007-01-01

    The Biology Intensive Orientation for Students (BIOS) Program was designed to assess the impact of a 5-d intensive prefreshman program on success and retention of biological science majors at Louisiana State University. The 2005 pilot program combined content lectures and examinations for BIOL 1201, Introductory Biology for Science Majors, as well…

  6. Why are breast cancer stem cells resistant to radiation?

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-03-01

    of Human Hsp27 in Rodent Cells: Absence of Compensatory Regulation between Small Heat Shock Proteins. J. Therm. Biol., 21, 365-372, 1996. 69...Corry, P.M., and Lee, Y.J. Comparison of Tumor Growth between Hsp25 and Hsp27 Transfected Murine L929 Cells in Nude Mice. Int. J. Cancer, 72, 871

  7. Targeting of the MUC1-C Oncoprotein in Colitis-Associated Colorectal Cancer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-11-01

    separated by infiltrates of inflammatory cells and the presence of crypt abscess (lower left panel). With progression to dysplasia, the crypts are...Rajabi, H, et al., MUC1-C oncoprotein induces TCF7L2 activation and promotes cyclin D1 expression in human breast cancer cells. J Biol Chem, 2012

  8. Role of Heregulin in the Neovascularization of Breast Carcinoma Cancer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2004-08-01

    as a target for breast cancer therapy. J Mammary Gland Biol Neoplasia 1999, 4: 415-423. 19. Saaristo A, Karpanen T, Alitalo K: Mechanisms of...Her-2/neu (erbB-2) en el c6ncer de mama " MERCACEI (In press, 2005). Review. (Spanish). B. Submitted (Manuscripts under consideration) 1. Javier A

  9. A simple HPLC method for the comprehensive analysis of cis/trans (Z/E) geometrical isomers of carotenoids for nutritional studies

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Geometrical isomers of carotenoids behave differently in aspects like stability towards oxidants, bioavailability, vitamin A activity and specificity for enzymes. The availability of HPLC methods for their detailed profiling is therefore advisable to expand our knowledge on their metabolism and biol...

  10. Infusing Authentic Inquiry into Biotechnology

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hanegan, Nikki L.; Bigler, Amber

    2009-01-01

    Societal benefit depends on the general public's understandings of biotechnology (Betsch in "World J Microbiol Biotechnol" 12:439-443, 1996; Dawson and Cowan in "Int J Sci Educ" 25(1):57-69, 2003; Schiller in "Business Review: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia" (Fourth Quarter), 2002; Smith and Emmeluth in "Am Biol Teach" 64(2):93-99, 2002). A…

  11. Risk of Pore Water Hydrogen Sulfide Toxicity in Dredged Material Bioassays

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1995-11-01

    Prog. Ser. 101, 147-155. Moore, D. W., and Dillon, T. M. (1993). “Chronic sublethal effects of San Francisco Bay sediments on Neris (Neanthes...metabolism of Arctica isfandica L. (Bivalvia),” J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 170, 213-226. Oritz, J. A., Rueda, A., Carbonell, G., Camargo , J. A., Nieto, F

  12. Mismatch Repair Balances Leading and Lagging Strand DNA Replication Fidelity

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-10-11

    mismatched base stacks with a conserved phenylalanine in Msh6, and/or (iii) DNA flexibility, since MutSa-bound mismatched DNA is kinked, and a...AB, Watt DL , Watts BE, et al. (2010) Genome instability due to ribonucleotide incorporation into DNA. Nat Chem Biol 6: 774–781. 24. Poloumienko A

  13. Impact of a Short Pre-Freshman Program on Retention

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wischusen, Sheri M.; Wischusen, E. William; Pomarico, Steven M.

    2011-01-01

    The Biology Intensive Orientation for Students (BIOS) Program at Louisiana State University was designed to increase the success of incoming freshman biology majors in the first course in their major. The program combined content lectures and examinations for BIOL 1201-Introductory Biology for Science Majors, the first course in their major, as…

  14. Pathobiology of HIV in the Human Monocyte-Macrophage

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1993-12-03

    dementia, was obtained from I S Y Chen through sues of tropism and cytopathicity of HIV in megakaryo- the AIDS Researh anid Rekferenc Re~nt Program...Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88:6632-6636. 10. Bielawska, A., Linardic, C. N. and Y. A. Hannun, Y. A. 1992. Ceramide-mediated Biology . J. Biol. Chem. 267:18493

  15. Molecular modeling studies of novel retro-binding tripeptide active-site inhibitors of thrombin.

    PubMed

    Lau, W F; Tabernero, L; Sack, J S; Iwanowicz, E J

    1995-08-01

    A novel series of retro-binding tripeptide thrombin active-site inhibitors was recently developed (Iwanowicz, E. I. et al. J. Med. Chem. 1994, 37, 2111(1)). It was hypothesized that the binding mode for these inhibitors is similar to that of the first three N-terminal residues of hirudin. This binding hypothesis was subsequently verified when the crystal structure of a member of this series, BMS-183,507 (N-[N-[N-[4-(Aminoiminomethyl)amino[-1-oxobutyl]-L- phenylalanyl]-L-allo-threonyl]-L-phenylalanine, methyl ester), was determined (Taberno, L.J. Mol. Biol. 1995, 246, 14). The methodology for developing the binding models of these inhibitors, the structure-activity relationships (SAR) and modeling studies that led to the elucidation of the proposed binding mode is described. The crystal structure of BMS-183,507/human alpha-thrombin is compared with the crystal structure of hirudin/human alpha-thrombin (Rydel, T.J. et al. Science 1990, 249,227; Rydel, T.J. et al. J. Mol Biol. 1991, 221, 583; Grutter, M.G. et al. EMBO J. 1990, 9, 2361) and with the computational binding model of BMS-183,507.

  16. Ion transport mechanisms in cultured bovine corneal endothelial cells.

    PubMed

    Jentsch, T J; Keller, S K; Wiederholt, M

    1985-04-01

    Intracellular potential measurements of confluent monolayers of cultured bovine corneal endothelial cells were used to define passive ion transport processes in these cells. Previous studies (Jentsch et al., J. Membr. Biol. 78:103 (1984); Jentsch et al., J. Membr. Biol. 81:189 (1984] have provided the experimental basis for a cellular model, in which bicarbonate entry across the basolateral membrane is indirectly driven by a Na+/H+-exchanger, which is inhibitable by amiloride (1mM). Bicarbonate and sodium should leave the cell via an electrogenic bicarbonate sodium cotransport, which is inhibitable by the disulfonic stilbene derivates SITS or DIDS. This model is also consistent with results from transendothelial studies. In this paper, we briefly review the evidence we have obtained for this model and demonstrate, that the electrical response to sodium (depolarization upon Na+-removal) is neither due to an inhibition of Na+/K+-ATPase nor explainable in terms of changes in K+-conductance. This is concluded from the observation of these responses in the presence of ouabain (10(-4)M) or barium (1mM).

  17. Extremely high intracellular concentration of glucose-6-phosphate and NAD(H) in Deinococcus radiodurans.

    PubMed

    Yamashiro, Takumi; Murata, Kousaku; Kawai, Shigeyuki

    2017-03-01

    Deinococcus radiodurans is highly resistant to ionizing radiation and UV radiation, and oxidative stress caused by such radiations. NADP(H) seems to be important for this resistance (Slade and Radman, Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 75:133-191; Slade, Radman, Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 75:133-191, 2011), but the mechanism underlying the generation of NADP(H) or NAD(H) in D. radiodurans has not fully been addressed. Intracellular concentrations of NAD + , NADH, NADP + , and NADPH in D. radiodurans are also not determined yet. We found that cell extracts of D. radiodurans catalyzed reduction of NAD(P) + in vitro, indicating that D. radiodurans cells contain both enzymes and a high concentration of substrates for this activity. The enzyme and the substrate were attributed to glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and glucose-6-phosphate of which intracellular concentration was extremely high. Unexpectedly, the intracellular concentration of NAD(H) was also much greater than that of NADP(H), suggesting some significant roles of NADH. These unusual features of this bacterium would shed light on a new aspect of physiology of this bacterium.

  18. The role of leaf height in plant competition for sunlight: analysis of a canopy partitioning model.

    PubMed

    Nevai, Andrew L; Vance, Richard R

    2008-01-01

    A global method of nullcline endpoint analysis is employed to determine the outcome of competition for sunlight between two hypothetical plant species with clonal growth form that differ solely in the height at which they place their leaves above the ground. This difference in vertical leaf placement, or canopy partitioning, produces species differences in sunlight energy capture and stem metabolic maintenance costs. The competitive interaction between these two species is analyzed by considering a special case of a canopy partitioning model (RR Vance and AL Nevai, J. Theor. Biol. 2007, 245:210-219; AL Nevai and RR Vance, J. Math. Biol. 2007, 55:105-145). Nullcline endpoint analysis is used to partition parameter space into regions within which either competitive exclusion or competitive coexistence occurs. The principal conclusion is that two clonal plant species which compete for sunlight and place their leaves at different heights above the ground but differ in no other way can, under suitable parameter values, experience stable coexistence even though they occupy an environment which varies neither over horizontal space nor through time.

  19. The Role of Oxytocin in Social Buffering: What Do Primate Studies Add?

    PubMed

    Crockford, Catherine; Deschner, Tobias; Wittig, Roman M

    2017-09-02

    The ability to maintain close social bonds impacts on reproductive success, longevity, stress and health in social mammals, including humans (Silk et al., Curr Biol 20(15):1359-1361, 2010; Crockford et al., Horm Behav 53(1):254-265, 2008; Wittig et al., Horm Behav 54(1):170-177, 2008; Archie et al., Proc R Soc B 281(1793):20141261, 2014; Cameron et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106:13850-13853, 2009; Schülke et al., Curr Biol 20:2207-2210, 2010; Silk et al., Science 302:1231-1234, 2003; Holt-Lunstad et al., PLoS Med 7(7):e1000316, 2010). Close social bonds provide an important social support system, at least in part by acting as a buffer against the deleterious effects of chronic exposure to stressors (Young et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 51:18195-18200, 2014; Heinrichs et al., Biol Psychiatry 54:1389-1398, 2003). There is accumulating evidence that individuals that provide predictable affiliation or support to others (bond partners) may moderate the perception of the stressor as well as of the physiological stress response. The neuropeptide, oxytocin, may mediate social buffering by down-regulating HPA activity and thus reducing the stress response. However, much within this process remains unclear, such as whether oxytocin is always released when exposed to a stressor, whether more oxytocin is released if there is social support, what aspect of stress or social support triggers oxytocin release and whether social support in the absence of a stressor also impacts oxytocin release and HPA activity, during everyday life. We review the literature that addresses each of these questions in an attempt to clarify where future research effort will be helpful. A better understanding of these dynamics is likely to have implications for enhancing social and health gains from human social relationships.

  20. Description of the immature stages of the planthopper Lacertinella australis (Hemiptera: Delphacidae)

    PubMed Central

    Batiz, M. F. Rossi; Marino de Remes Lenicov, A. M.; Hagedorn, Henry

    2014-01-01

    Abstract The five immature stages of the planthopper Lacertinella australis (Remes Lenicov and Rossi Batiz) (Hemiptera: Delphacidae: Saccharosydnini) are described and illustrated. The main characters that allowed us to distinguish the various stages were body size, number of tarsomeres and metatibial spines, and number of teeth on the spur. New biological data based on laboratory rearing and field observations showed that L. australis can carry out its biological cycle successfully on the graminaceous pampas grass ( Cortaderia spp. Stapf (Poales: Poaceae)). In addition, the efficient rearing in captivity, the high survivorship registered, and overwintering only on this host plant suggests that L. australis is a potential biocontrol agent of this invasive graminaceous weed. This study provides information about the immature stages , including a key for their identification, based on laboratory reared specimens and field observations. Resumen Se describen e ilustran las cinco etapas inmaduras de la especie de Saccharisydnini Lacertinella australis (Remes Lenicov and Rossi Batiz) (Hemiptera: Delphacidae). Los principales caracteres que permitieron distinguir las diferentes etapas fueron: tamaño corporal, número de espinas en los tarsómeros y metatibia y número de dientes en el espolón tibial. Nuevos datos biológicos, basados en la cría de laboratorio y observaciones de campo, mostraron que L. australis puede realizar su ciclo biológico exitosamente en la graminácea cortadera ( Cortaderia spp. Stapf (Poales: Poaceae)). Además, la eficiente crianza en cautive-rio y la alta supervivencia registrada en esta planta hospedera, sugieren que L. australis podría ser usada como un potencial agente de control biológico de esta maleza invasora. Este estudio proporciona informa-ción sobre las etapas inmaduras, incluyendo una clave para su identificación, basada en individuos provenientes de la cría de laboratorio y de campo. PMID:25199992

  1. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic characterisation of heavy metal-induced metabolic changes in the plant-associated soil bacterium Azospirillum brasilense Sp7

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kamnev, A. A.; Antonyuk, L. P.; Tugarova, A. V.; Tarantilis, P. A.; Polissiou, M. G.; Gardiner, P. H. E.

    2002-06-01

    Structural and compositional features of whole cells of the plant-growth-promoting rhizobacterium Azospirillum brasilense Sp7 under standard and heavy metal-stressed conditions are analysed using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and compared with the FT-Raman spectroscopic data obtained previously [J. Mol. Struct. 563-564 (2001) 199]. The structural spectroscopic information is considered together with inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometric (ICP-MS) analytical data on the content of the heavy metal cations (Co2+, Cu2+ and Zn2+) in the bacterial cells. As a bacterial response to heavy metal stress, all the three metals, being taken up by bacterial cells from the culture medium (0.2 mM) in significant amounts (ca. 0.12, 0.48 and 4.2 mg per gram of dry biomass for Co, Cu and Zn, respectively), are shown to induce essential metabolic changes in the bacterium revealed in the spectra, including the accumulation of polyester compounds in bacterial cells and their enhanced hydration affecting certain IR vibrational modes of functional groups involved.

  2. American Society of Composites, 32nd Technical Conference

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Aitharaju, Venkat; Wollschlager, Jeffrey; Plakomytis2, Dimitrios

    This paper will present a general methodology by which weave draping manufacturing simulation results can be utilized to include the effects of weave draping and scissor angle in a structural multiscale simulation. While the methodology developed is general in nature, this paper will specifically demonstrate the methodology applied to a truncated pyramid, utilizing manufacturing simulation weave draping results from ESI PAM-FORM, and multiscale simulation using Altair Multiscale Designer (MDS) and OptiStruct. From a multiscale simulation perspective, the weave draping manufacturing simulation results will be used to develop a series of woven unit cells which cover the range of weave scissormore » angles existing within the part. For each unit cell, a multiscale material model will be developed, and applied to the corresponding spatial locations within the structural simulation mesh. In addition, the principal material orientation will be mapped from the wave draping manufacturing simulation mesh to the structural simulation mesh using Altair HyperMesh mapping technology. Results of the coupled simulation will be compared and verified against experimental data of the same available via General Motors (GM) Department of Energy (DOE) project.« less

  3. StructMap: Elastic Distance Analysis of Electron Microscopy Maps for Studying Conformational Changes.

    PubMed

    Sanchez Sorzano, Carlos Oscar; Alvarez-Cabrera, Ana Lucia; Kazemi, Mohsen; Carazo, Jose María; Jonić, Slavica

    2016-04-26

    Single-particle electron microscopy (EM) has been shown to be very powerful for studying structures and associated conformational changes of macromolecular complexes. In the context of analyzing conformational changes of complexes, distinct EM density maps obtained by image analysis and three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction are usually analyzed in 3D for interpretation of structural differences. However, graphic visualization of these differences based on a quantitative analysis of elastic transformations (deformations) among density maps has not been done yet due to a lack of appropriate methods. Here, we present an approach that allows such visualization. This approach is based on statistical analysis of distances among elastically aligned pairs of EM maps (one map is deformed to fit the other map), and results in visualizing EM maps as points in a lower-dimensional distance space. The distances among points in the new space can be analyzed in terms of clusters or trajectories of points related to potential conformational changes. The results of the method are shown with synthetic and experimental EM maps at different resolutions. Copyright © 2016 Biophysical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Accuracy assessment of the linear Poisson-Boltzmann equation and reparametrization of the OBC generalized Born model for nucleic acids and nucleic acid-protein complexes.

    PubMed

    Fogolari, Federico; Corazza, Alessandra; Esposito, Gennaro

    2015-04-05

    The generalized Born model in the Onufriev, Bashford, and Case (Onufriev et al., Proteins: Struct Funct Genet 2004, 55, 383) implementation has emerged as one of the best compromises between accuracy and speed of computation. For simulations of nucleic acids, however, a number of issues should be addressed: (1) the generalized Born model is based on a linear model and the linearization of the reference Poisson-Boltmann equation may be questioned for highly charged systems as nucleic acids; (2) although much attention has been given to potentials, solvation forces could be much less sensitive to linearization than the potentials; and (3) the accuracy of the Onufriev-Bashford-Case (OBC) model for nucleic acids depends on fine tuning of parameters. Here, we show that the linearization of the Poisson Boltzmann equation has mild effects on computed forces, and that with optimal choice of the OBC model parameters, solvation forces, essential for molecular dynamics simulations, agree well with those computed using the reference Poisson-Boltzmann model. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  5. Thermomechanical Analysis of Shape-Memory Composite Tape Spring

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, H.; Wang, L. Y.

    2013-06-01

    Intelligent materials and structures have been extensively applied for satellite designs in order to minimize the mass and reduce the cost in the launch of the spacecraft. Elastic memory composites (EMCs) have the ability of high-strain packaging and shape-memory effect, but increase the parts and total weight due to the additional heating system. Shape-memory sandwich structures Li and Wang (J. Intell. Mater. Syst. Struct. 22(14), 1605-1612, 2011) can overcome such disadvantage by using the metal skin acting as the heating element. However, the high strain in the micro-buckled metal skin decreases the deployment efficiency. This paper aims to present an insight into the folding and deployment behaviors of shape-memory composite (SMC) tape springs. A thermomechanical process was analyzed, including the packaging deformation at an elevated temperature, shape frozen at the low temperature and shape recovery after reheating. The result shows that SMC tape springs can significantly decrease the strain concentration in the metal skin, as well as exhibiting excellent shape frozen and recovery behaviors. Additionally, possible failure modes of SMC tape springs were also analyzed.

  6. The role of higher-order terms in perturbation approaches to the monomer and\\xA0bonding contributions in a SAFT-type equation of state for square-well chain\\xA0fluids

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Solana, J. R.; Akhouri, B. P.

    2018-07-01

    A perturbation theory for square-well chain fluids is developed within the scheme of the (generalised) Wertheim thermodynamic perturbation theory. The theory is based on the Pavlyukhin parametrisations [Y. T. Pavlyukhin, J. Struct. Chem. 53, 476 (2012)] of their simulation data for the first four perturbation terms in the high temperature expansion of the Helmholtz free energy of square-well monomer fluids combined with a second-order perturbation theory for the contact value of the radial distribution function of the square-well monomer fluid that enters into bonding contribution. To obtain the latter perturbation terms, we have performed computer simulations in the hard-sphere reference system. The importance of the perturbation terms beyond the second-order one for the monomer fluid and of the approximations of different orders in the bonding contribution for the chain fluids in the predicted equation of state, excess energy and liquid-vapour coexistence densities is analysed.

  7. Latent interaction effects in the theory of planned behaviour applied to quitting smoking.

    PubMed

    Hukkelberg, Silje Sommer; Hagtvet, Knut A; Kovac, Velibor Bobo

    2014-02-01

    This study applies three latent interaction models in the theory of planned behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, 1988, Attitudes, personality, and behavior. Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press; Ajzen, 1991, Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process., 50, 179) to quitting smoking: (1) attitude × perceived behavioural control on intention; (2) subjective norms (SN) × attitude on intention; and (3) perceived behavioural control × intention on quitting behaviour. The data derive from a longitudinal Internet survey of 939 smokers aged 15-74 over a period of 4 months. Latent interaction effects were estimated using the double-mean-centred unconstrained approach (Lin et al., 2010, Struct. Equ. Modeling, 17, 374) in LISREL. Attitude × SN and attitude × perceived behavioural control both showed a significant interaction effect on intention. No significant interaction effect was found for perceived behavioural control × intention on quitting. The latent interaction approach is a useful method for investigating specific conditions between TPB components in the context of quitting behaviour. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed. © 2013 The British Psychological Society.

  8. The stress intensity factors for a periodic array of interacting coplanar penny-shaped cracks

    PubMed Central

    Lekesiz, Huseyin; Katsube, Noriko; Rokhlin, Stanislav I.; Seghi, Robert R.

    2013-01-01

    The effect of crack interactions on stress intensity factors is examined for a periodic array of coplanar penny-shaped cracks. Kachanov’s approximate method for crack interactions (Int. J. Solid. Struct. 1987; 23(1):23–43) is employed to analyze both hexagonal and square crack configurations. In approximating crack interactions, the solution converges when the total truncation number of the cracks is 109. As expected, due to high density packing crack interaction in the hexagonal configuration is stronger than that in the square configuration. Based on the numerical results, convenient fitting equations for quick evaluation of the mode I stress intensity factors are obtained as a function of crack density and angle around the crack edge for both crack configurations. Numerical results for the mode II and III stress intensity factors are presented in the form of contour lines for the case of Poisson’s ratio ν =0.3. Possible errors for these problems due to Kachanov’s approximate method are estimated. Good agreement is observed with the limited number of results available in the literature and obtained by different methods. PMID:27175035

  9. Impact of the LHC beam abort kicker prefire on high luminosity insertion and CMS detector performance

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    A.I. Drozhdin, N.V. Mokhov and M. Huhtinen

    1999-04-13

    The effect of possible accidental beam loss in LHC on the IP5 insertion elements and CMS detector is studied via realistic Monte Carlo simulations. Such beam loss could be the consequence of an unsynchronized abort or in worst case an accidental prefire of one of the abort kicker modules. Simulations with the STRUCT code show that this beam losses would take place in the IP5 inner and outer triplets. MARS simulations of the hadronic and electro-magnetic cascades induced in such an event indicate severe heating of the inner triplet quadrupoles. In order to protect the IP5 elements, two methods aremore » proposed: a set of shadow collimators in the outer triplet and a prefired module compensation using a special module charged with an opposite voltage (antikicker). The remnants of the accidental beam loss entering the experimental hall have been used as input for FLUKA simulations in the CMS detector. It is shown that it is vital to take measures to reliably protect the expensive CMS tracker components.« less

  10. Aeroelastic flutter energy harvesters self-polarized by triboelectric effects

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Perez, M.; Boisseau, S.; Geisler, M.; Gasnier, P.; Willemin, J.; Despesse, G.; Reboud, J. L.

    2018-01-01

    This paper presents the performances of several electrostatic flutter energy harvesters tested in a wind tunnel between 0 and 20 m s-1. The main idea is to use the flutter capability of thin flexible films confined between lateral walls to induce simultaneously the capacitance variations and the electrostatic polarization required by the triboelectric/electrostatic conversion. This technology provides thin and flexible devices and solve the electret’s stability issue (Perez et al 2015 Smart Mater. Struct., Perez et al 2015 New Circuits and Systems). Our prototypes (<16 cm2) have a quick startup (from 3 m s-1) and an electrical power-flux density from 0.35 μW cm-2@3 m s-1 (light breeze) to 35 μW cm-2@20 m s-1 (fresh gale). A Maximum Power Point circuit has been developed to efficiently use the power provided by the energy harvesters. The energy harvester combined with its power management circuit has finally been used to supply an 868 MHz wireless sensor node with temperature and acceleration measurements, validating the complete energy harvesting chain.

  11. 1HNMR study of methotrexate serum albumin (MTX SA) binding in rheumatoid arthritis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sułkowska, A.; Maciążek-Jurczyk, M.; Bojko, B.; Równicka, J.; Sułkowski, W. W.

    2008-11-01

    Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an immunologically depended disease. It is characterized by a chronic, progressive inflammatory process. Methotrexate (4-amino-10-methylfolic acid, MTX) is the modifying drug used to treat RA. The aim of the presented studies is to determine the low affinity binding site of MTX in bovine (BSA) and human (HSA) serum albumin with the use of proton nuclear magnetic resonance ( 1HNMR) spectroscopy. The analysis of 1HNMR spectra of MTX in the presence of serum albumin (SA) allows us to observe the interactions between aromatic rings of the drug and the rings of amino acids located in the hydrophobic subdomains of the protein. On the basis of the chemical shifts σ [ppm] and the relaxation times T1 [s] of drug protons the hydrophobic interaction between MTX-SA and the stoichiometric molar ratio of the complex was evaluated. This work is a part of a spectroscopic study on MTX-SA interactions [A. Sułkowska, M. Maciążek, J. Równicka, B. Bojko, D. Pentak, W.W. Sułkowski, J. Mol. Struct. 834-836 (2007) 162-169].

  12. QuartetS-DB: A Large-Scale Orthology Database for Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes Inferred by Evolutionary Evidence

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-01-01

    particular functions and identify species that contain these proteins. For example, if users select two species, Homo sapiens and Mus musculus, and...Kerr AR, McCormack TJ, Riley M: Evolution by leaps: gene duplication in bacteria. Biol Direct 2009, 4:46. 12. Remm M, Storm CE, Sonnhammer EL

  13. Mother centrioles are kicked out so that starfish zygote can grow.

    PubMed

    Verlhac, Marie-Hélène

    2016-03-28

    Most oocytes eliminate their centrioles during meiotic divisions through unclear mechanisms. In this issue, Borrego-Pinto et al. (2016. J Cell. Biol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201510083) show that mother centrioles need to be eliminated from starfish oocytes by extrusion into the polar bodies for successful embryo development. © 2016 Verlhac.

  14. A Foundation for Systems Anthropometry: Lumbar/Pelvic Kinematics

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1983-02-01

    caused by human error in positioning the cursor of the digitizing board and inaccuracy of the digitizer. (Human error is approximately + .02 an and...Milne, J.S. and Lauder, I.J. 1974. "Age Effects in Kyphosis and Lordosis in Adults." Ann. Hum. Biol. 1(3):327-337. Mchr, G.C., Brinkley, J.W., Kazarian

  15. Development of a Novel Therapeutic Paradigm Utilizing a Mammary Gland-Targeted, Bin-1 Knockout Mouse Model

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2007-03-01

    Cell. Biol. 23, 4295 (Jun, 2003). Bin1 Ablation in Mammary Gland Delays Tissue Remodeling and Drives Cancer Progression Mee Young Chang, 1...Basu A, et al. Bin1 functionally interacts with Myc in cells and inhibits cell proliferation by multiple mechanisms. Oncogene 1999;18:3564–73. 5. Pineda

  16. EFFECTS OF DIOXIN-LIKE COMPOUND CONTAMINATION ON AN ESTUARINE FISH SPECIES: ADAPTIVE CHANGES AT SPECIFIC GENETIC LOCI

    EPA Science Inventory

    Fish from a highly PCB-contaminated Superfund site (New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA) that show genetically-based tolerance to DLCs (Nacci, D. et al. 1999. Mar.Biol.134: 9-17) also have altered MHC Class II antigen-binding receptor profiles compared to a population of fish from a ...

  17. Novel Therapeutic Targets to Inhibit Tumor Microenvironment Induced Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2015-10-01

    CLASSIFICATION OF: 17. LIMITATION OF ABSTRACT 18. NUMBER OF PAGES 19a. NAME OF RESPONSIBLE PERSON USAMRMC a. REPORT Unclassified b. ABSTRACT Unclassified c...kinase 5 activity and subcellular localization by the atypical MAPK ERK4/MAPK4. J Biol Chem 281, 35499-510 (2006). 5. Kant , S. et al. Characterization of

  18. A Model for the Detection of Moving Targets in Visual Clutter Inspired by Insect Physiology

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-07-01

    paper: SDW PS DCO. References 1. Wagner H (1986) Flight performance and visual control of flight of the free- flying housefly (Musca domestica L) 3...differences in the chasing behaviour of houseflies (musca). Biol Cybern 32: 239–241. 3. Land MF (1997) Visual acuity in insects. Annu Rev Entomol 42: 147

  19. Signaling Pathways that Mediate Neurotoxin-Induced Death of Dopamine Neurons

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-11-01

    lessons from the analysis of mutant mice. J. Cell Biol. 157, 441–453. Reimertz C., Kogel D., Rami A., Chittenden T. and Prehn J. H. (2003) Gene expression...Bauerbach E, Poppe M, Krieglstein J, Prehn JH (2002) p75 neurotrophin receptor is required for constitutive and NGF-induced survival signalling in PC12

  20. Defining the Role of Autophagy Kinase ULK1 Signaling in Therapeutic Response of Tuberous Sclerosis Complex to mTOR Inhibitors

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-04-01

    Neurofibromatosis type 2 tumor suppressor protein, merlin, by adhesion and growth arrest stimuli. J Biol Chem 273: 7757-64. 25. Shaw, R.J...McClatchey, A.I., and Jacks, T. (1998) Localization and functional domains of the Neurofibromatosis type II tumor suppressor, merlin. Cell Growth Diff 9

  1. Molecular Genetic Studies of Bone Mechanical Strain and of Pedigrees With Very High Bone Density

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-11-01

    J Cell Biol 1993, 62(2):352-361. 19. Petersen W, Rafii M: Immunolocalization of the angiogenetic factor pleiotrophin (PTN) in the growth plate of mice...361. 13. Petersen W, Rafii M: Immunolocalization of the angiogenetic factor pleiotrophin (PTN) in the growth plate of mice. Arch Orthop Trauma Surg

  2. Role of Raf-1 Signaling in Breast Cancer - Progression to Estrogen Independent Growth

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1998-07-01

    activity of the JNK/SAPK signaling pathway. Cell, 81:1137-1146, 1995. 84. Sanchez , I., Hughes, R.T., Mayer, B.J., Yee, K., Woodgett, J.R., Avruch, J...phosphorylation of Bad on Ser136 [In Process Citation]. Curr. Biol. 8: 779-782, 1998. 99. Moscatello, D.K., Holgado -Madruga, M., Emlet, D.R

  3. Photodynamic Molecular Beacons: An Image-Guided Therapeutic Approach to Breast Cancer Vertebral Metastases

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-03-01

    uptake. Prog Clin Biol Res. 1984;; 170: 629-­36. 14. Wilson BC, Firnau G, Jeeves WP, Brown KL, Burns-­McCormick DM . Chromatographic analysis and...Photosensitizer-­conjugated human serum albumin nanoparticles for effective photodynamic therapy. Theranostics. 2011;; 1: 230-­9. 24. Ferreira CL, Yapp DT, Crisp

  4. Nuclear Tubulin: A Novel Target for Breast Cancer Chemotherapy

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2001-05-01

    A. Castillo1, R.F. Luduena 3, and I. Meza 2 ’Departamentos de Biologia Celular and 2 Biomedicina Molecular, CINVESTA V del /PN, M6xico, D. F...resistance. J Biol Chem 270: 31269-31275. Hyams JS, Lloyd CW. 1994.-.The role of multiple tubulin isoforms in celular microtubule function. In: Raff E editor

  5. Taxonomy and Biology of Phlebotomine Vectors of Human Disease

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1987-12-31

    Sobre o encontro de Lutzomyiu longipalpis (Lutz & Neiva, 1912) no Estado de Sao Paulo, Brasil, Rev. Saude Publ. Sac Paulo 4:99-100. 3 Forattini, 0. P...Almeida. /1964. Flebotomos do nordeste. I. Encontro de "Plboou cht, " "P. gmgxi e ’T. 1QnstispinJ. em Pernambuco (Diptera, Psychodidae). Rev. Brasil. Biol

  6. Odor-Evoked Inhibition of Olfactory Sensory Neurons Drives Olfactory Perception in Drosophila

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2017-05-22

    J.L. Highly efficient targeted 859 mutagenesis of Drosophila with the CRISPR /Cas9 system. Cell Rep. 4, 220-228 860 (2013). 861 53. Gratz, S.J...Harrison, M.M., Wildonger, J. & O’Connor-Giles, K.M. Precise 862 Genome Editing of Drosophila with CRISPR RNA-Guided Cas9. Methods Mol. 863 Biol. 1311

  7. Final Report for Oregon University Grant N00014-89-J-1582.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1992-01-01

    depth by judging the state of accommodation of its eyes. To this end, a photoretinoscope ( Schaeffel , et al. 1987) is mounted on the lens of an infra...Payne RS (1971) Acoustic location of prey by barn owls (Tyto alba). J Exp Biol 54:535- 573 Schaeffel F, Farkas L, Howland HC (1987) Infrared

  8. Prostate Cancer Diagnostics and Prognostics Based on Interphase Spatial Genome Positioning

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-03-01

    the Drosophila melanogaster genome at the ...and van Steensel, B. (2006). 1176 Characterization of the Drosophila melanogaster genome at the nuclear lamina. Nat Genet 38, 1177 1005-1014. doi...region according to the gene distribution pattern in primary genomic sequence . J Cell Biol 174:27–38 Therizols P, Illingworth RS, Courilleau C,

  9. Glyptemys insculpta (wood turtle). Longevity in the wild

    Treesearch

    Donald J. Brown; Mike Schrage; Dan Ryan; Ron A. Moen; Mark D. Nelson; Richard R. Buech

    2015-01-01

    The previous published record for oldest male and female G. insculpta in the wild was 42 and 46 years old, respectively. Both individuals were from a population in Pennsylvania (Ernst 2001. Chelonian Conserv. Biol. 4:94-99). Here, we report 3 males and 22 females in Minnesota, USA, that exceed the published longevity records (specific locations...

  10. 78 FR 52934 - Government-Owned Inventions; Availability for Licensing

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-08-27

    ... activity of several species of human IFN-alpha, IFN-beta, and IFN-omega. Detection of heterogeneity of the cellular type I IFN receptor. J Immunol. 1993 Feb 1;150(3):707-16. [PMID 8423335] Intellectual Property... required for, promoter release. J Mol Biol. 2005 Oct 21;353(2):256-70. [PMID 16169559] 3. Mukherjee S, et...

  11. Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy: Quantification of Lymphedema Risk Reduction

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2006-10-01

    dimensional internal mammary lymphoscintigraphy: implications for radiation therapy treatment planning for breast carcinoma. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys...techniques based on conventional photon beams, intensity modulated photon beams and proton beams for therapy of intact breast. Radiother Oncol. Feb...Harris JR. Three-dimensional internal mammary lymphoscintigraphy: implications for radiation therapy treatment planning for breast carcinoma. Int J

  12. Do Deregulated Cas Proteins Induce Genomic Instability in Early-Stage Ovarian Cancer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-12-01

    Klein-Szanto A, Litwin S, Hoelzle MK, Hensley HH, Hamilton TC, Testa JR. RAD001 (Everolimus) delays tumor onset and progression in a transgenic mouse...Mol Biol Cell 2006; 17:1204-17. 10 14. Hensley H, Quinn BA, Wolf RL, Litwin SL, Mabuchi S, Williams SJ, Williams C, Hamilton TC, Connolly DC

  13. Cutting edge science: Laser surgery illuminates viscoelasticity of merotelic kinetochores

    PubMed Central

    Cabello, Simon

    2016-01-01

    Increasing evidence in eukaryotic cells suggests that mechanical forces are essential for building a robust mitotic apparatus and correcting inappropriate chromosome attachments. In this issue, Cojoc et al. (2016. J. Cell Biol., http://dx.doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201506011) use laser microsurgery in vivo to measure and study the viscoelastic properties of kinetochores. PMID:27002164

  14. Cutting edge science: Laser surgery illuminates viscoelasticity of merotelic kinetochores.

    PubMed

    Cabello, Simon; Gachet, Yannick; Tournier, Sylvie

    2016-03-28

    Increasing evidence in eukaryotic cells suggests that mechanical forces are essential for building a robust mitotic apparatus and correcting inappropriate chromosome attachments. In this issue, Cojoc et al. (2016. J. Cell Biol., http://dx.doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201506011) use laser microsurgery in vivo to measure and study the viscoelastic properties of kinetochores. © 2016 Cabello.

  15. Effects of Synthetic Versus Natural Colloid Resuscitation on Inducing Dilutional Coagulopathy and Increasing Hemorrhage in Rabbits

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-05-01

    hemostasis, and plasma expanders: a quarter century enigma. Fed Proc. 1975;34:1429–1440. 23. Bergqvist D. Dextran and haemostasis. a review. Acta Chir ...eds. Blood Substitutes and Plasma Expanders. Prog Clin Biol Res. 1978;19:293–298. 57. Kovalik SG, Ledgewood AM, Lucas CE, Higgins RF. The cardiac

  16. The Role of Neuropeptide Y (NPY) In Uncontrolled Alcohol Drinking and Relapse Behavior Resulting From Exposure to Stressful Events

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-11-01

    modulating neurobio - logical responses to ethanol and drugs of abuse, including the striatum, nucleus accumbens (NAc), ventral tegmental area (VTA...critically required for the regulation of energy homeostasis in mice. Mol Cell Biol 22, 5027–5035. Rasmussen, D.D., Bryant, C.A., Boldt, B.M., Colasurdo

  17. 75 FR 15711 - Government-Owned Inventions; Availability for Licensing

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-03-30

    ... 2010 Mar 24; advance online publication, doi 10.1038/nature08882. 2. G Falco et al. Zscan4: A novel... uptake of Alzheimer disease-associated amyloid beta peptide. J Biol Chem. 2006 Feb 10;281(6):3651-3659... Technology Transfer, National Institutes of Health. [FR Doc. 2010-6966 Filed 3-29-10; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE...

  18. Role of ets Oncogenes in the Progression of Breast Cancer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1998-10-01

    8217 References 167 Arias J, Alberts AS, Brindle P, Claret FX, Smeal T, Karin M, May WA, Lessnick SL, Braun BS, Klemsz M, Lewis BC, Feramisco J and Montminy M...0 and Shaw PE. (1994). Mol. Cell. Oncogene, 8, 3459-3464. Biol., 14, 4815-4824. Bories J, Willerford DM, Grevin D, Davidson L, Camus A, Lopez M

  19. MicroRNAs in Tamoxifen Resistance of Breast Cancer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-08-01

    Giorda, E., Massalini, S., Frajese, G. V., Ciafre, S. A., and Farace , M. G. (2007) J. Biol. Chem. 282, 23716–23724 27. le Sage, C., Nagel, R., Egan...D. A., Schrier, M., Mesman, E., Mangiola, A., Anile, C., Maira, G.,Mercatelli, N., Ciafre, S. A., Farace ,M. G., and Agami, R. (2007) EMBO J. 26, 3699

  20. Applications of Random Differential Equations to Engineering Science. Wave Propagation in Turbulent Media and Random Linear Hyperbolic Systems.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1981-11-10

    1976), 745-754. 4. (with W. C. Tam) Periodic and traveling wave solutions to Volterra - Lotka equation with diffusion. Bull. Math. Biol. 38 (1976), 643...with applications [17,19,20). (5) A general method for reconstructing the mutual coherent function of a static or moving source from the random

  1. Amperometric Enzyme Electrodes

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1989-12-01

    form of carbon (glascy carbon , graphite, reticulated vitreous carbon , carbon paste, fiber or foil). Carbon is favored for enzyme immoblization...the surface for covalent bonding. The most frequently used electrode material, glassy carbon , often displays complex behavior. Although attempts have...Mixed Carbon Paste Electrode with an Immobilized Layer of D-Gluconate Dehydrogenase from Bacteral Membranes," Agric. Biol. Chelm., 51 (1987), 747-754

  2. Embryonic ring closure: Actomyosin rings do the two-step

    PubMed Central

    2016-01-01

    Actomyosin rings drive numerous closure processes, but the mechanisms by which they contract are still poorly understood. In this issue, Xue and Sokac (2016. J. Cell Biol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201608025) show that actomyosin ring closure during Drosophila melanogaster cellularization uses two steps, only one of which involves Myosin-2. PMID:27799371

  3. UNC-84: “LINC-ing” chromosome movement and double strand break repair

    PubMed Central

    Silva, Nicola

    2016-01-01

    Assaults to our DNA take place at a high frequency and are incompatible with life. In this issue, Lawrence et al. (2016. J. Cell Biol. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201604112) demonstrate that a novel complex links the nucleus with cytoplasmic microtubules for the promotion of DNA repair by homologous recombination. PMID:27974481

  4. Breast Cancer and Early Onset Childhood Obesity: Cell Specific Gene Expression in Mammary Epithelia and Adipocytes

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2007-07-01

    resistance on neuroendocrine and reproductive functions in transgenic and knock-out mice. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med. 1999 Nov;222(2):113-23. 11. Thordarson ...libitum overfeeding of Sprague- Dawley rats and its modulation by moderate and marked dietary restriction. Toxicol Pathol 2005;33:650–74. 26. Thordarson

  5. Invasive cancer cells and metastasis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mierke, Claudia Tanja

    2013-12-01

    The physics of cancer is a relatively new emerging field of cancer research. In the last decade it has become a focus of biophysical research as well as becoming a novel focus for classical cancer research. This special section of Physical Biology focusing on invasive cancer cells and metastasis (physical oncology) will give greater insight into the different subfields where physical approaches are being applied to cancer research. This focus on the physical aspects of cancer is necessary because novel approaches in the field of genomics and proteomics have not altered the field of cancer research dramatically, due to the fact that few breakthroughs have been made. It is still not understood why some primary tumors metastasize and thus have a worse outcome compared to others that do not metastasize. As biophysicists, we and others suggest that the mechanical properties of the cancer cells, which possess the ability to transmigrate, are quite different compared to non-metastatic and non-invasive cancer cells. Furthermore, we hypothesize that these cancer cells undergo a selection process within the primary tumor that enables them to weaken their cell-cell adhesions and to alter their cell-matrix adhesions in order to be able to cross the outermost boundary of the primary tumor, as well as the surrounding basement membrane, and to invade the connective tissue. This prerequisite may also help the cancer cells to enter blood or lymph vessels, get transported with the vessel flow and form secondary tumors either within the vessel, directly on the endothelium, or in a different organ after crossing the endothelial lining a second time. This special section begins with a paper by Mark F Coughlin and Jeffrey J Fredberg on the changes in cytoskeletal dynamics and nonlinear rheology due to the metastatic capability of cancer cells from different cancer tissue types such as skin, bladder, prostate and kidney [1]. The hypothesis was that the metastatic outcome is impacted by the biophysical state of the primary tumor cell. To determine the cytoskeletal dynamics they chose magnetic twisting cytometry, where the spontaneous motion of surface bound marker beads was measured, which is a measure for the cytoskeletal remodeling dynamics. The group of Katarina Wolf measured the stiffness of the cell nucleus because it is the largest and stiffest organelle, which may hinder the migration of invasive tumor cells through dense connective tissue [2]. They combined atomic force confocal microscopy for measurement of bulk nuclear stiffness (the inverse of the compressibility) with simultaneous visualization of the cantilever-nucleus contact as well as monitoring of the cell's fate. The dynamics of tissue topology such as the mixing of compartments during cancer invasion and metastasis were theoretically analyzed by Lance L Munn [3]. In particular, he presented a mathematical model of tissue repair and tumor growth based on collective cell migration that simulates a wide range of tumor behaviors using correct tissue compartmentalization and connectivity. In the future, the topological analysis could be helpful for tumor diagnosis or monitoring tumor therapy. The group of Cynthia A Reinhart-King analyzed how the topological guidance of a 3D tumor cell migration at an interface of collagen densities affects cell motility [4]. In particular, they mimicked the heterogeneities in density of the tumor stroma by preparing gels with an interface of high and low density collagen gels and investigated how this affects cell motility. The author's review paper details the effect of focal adhesion proteins such as focal adhesion kinase (FAK) on cell motility and how this effect is driven by mechanical alterations of cells expressing FAK compared to cells with FAK knock-out [5]. In particular, it focused on mechanical properties regulated by FAK in comparison to the mechano-regulating protein vinculin. This article highlights that both focal adhesion proteins, vinculin and FAK synergize their functions to regulate the mechanical properties of cells such as stiffness and contractile forces. Finally, the knowledge of the mechanical properties of invasive and non-invasive cells could provide a source for future drug developments to inhibit formation of metastases. This special section also includes two papers from the group of Martin Herrmann, a research paper and a review paper. The research paper by Janko et al deals with the cooperative binding of Annexin A5 to phosphatidylserines on apoptotic cell membranes [6]. This could not alone serve as an 'eat me' signal for macrophages as healthy cells also express Annexin A5 on their cell surface. The authors suggest that the cooperative binding is altered and subsequently the fluidity of Annexin A5 on the membrane. Together this may serve as a signal for phagocytic cells to eat apoptotic cells and leave healthy ones untouched. The paper by Biermann et al reviews the role of biophysical signals in the clearance of apoptotic cells [7]. In addition to the acto-myosin cytoskeleton, the keratin network seems to play a role in cancer research. The paper from the Beil and the Marti group demonstrates that microrheology is a valuable tool to determine the viscoelastic properties of polymer networks such as the keratin network in cells and an arbitrary in vitro network [8]. They describe how the topology of the keratin network affects the overall mechanical behavior of cells. It seems that the field of physical oncology will continue to grow in the future and more research will address the mechanical properties of cancer cells and whole tissues. Biophysical methods will need to be further improved and adapted to the needs of cancer research. References [1] Coughlin M F and Fredberg J J 2013 Phys. Biol. 10 065001 [2] Krause M, te Riet J and Wolf K 2013 Phys. Biol. 10 065002 [3] Munn L L 2013 Phys. Biol. 10 065003 [4] Bordeleau F, Tang L N and Reinhart-King C A 2013 Phys. Biol. 10 065004 [5] Mierke C T 2013 Phys. Biol. 10 065005 [6] Janko C, Jeremic I, Biermann M, Chaurio R, Schorn C, Muñoz L E and Herrmann M 2013 Phys. Biol. 10 065006 [7] Biermann M, Maueröder C, Brauner J M, Chaurio R, Janko C, Herrmann M and Muñoz L E 2013 Phys. Biol. 10 065007 [8] Paust T, Paschke S, Beil M and Marti O 2013 Phys. Biol. 10 065008

  6. Improving Butanol Fermentation To Enter the Advanced Biofuel Market

    PubMed Central

    Tracy, Bryan P.

    2012-01-01

    ABSTRACT 1-Butanol is a large-volume, intermediate chemical with favorable physical and chemical properties for blending with or directly substituting for gasoline. The per-volume value of butanol, as a chemical, is sufficient for investing into the recommercialization of the classical acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) (E. M. Green, Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 22:337–343, 2011) fermentation process. Furthermore, with modest improvements in three areas of the ABE process, operating costs can be sufficiently decreased to make butanol an economically viable advanced biofuel. The three areas of greatest interest are (i) maximizing yields of butanol on any particular substrate, (ii) expanding substrate utilization capabilities of the host microorganism, and (iii) reducing the energy consumption of the overall production process, in particular the separation and purification operations. In their study in the September/October 2012 issue of mBio, Jang et al. [mBio 3(5):e00314-12, 2012] describe a comprehensive study on driving glucose metabolism in Clostridium acetobutylicum to the production of butanol. Moreover, they execute a metabolic engineering strategy to achieve the highest yet reported yields of butanol on glucose. PMID:23232720

  7. Unusual Case of Suicide With a Modified Trap Gun.

    PubMed

    Vadysinghe, Amal; Dassanayake, Prasanna; Wickramasinghe, Medhani

    2017-06-01

    Trap gun is an illegal, locally manufactured gun with a basic trip system used to hunt wild animals. The body of a 28-year-old man was found in the jungle in supine position with both legs apart. A trap gun was between the legs pointing toward the cranial side of the body. It had 2 free wires that were not connected together. There was no evidence of foul play.The body had a single-entry wound (2.5-cm diameter) in the anterior chest, with blackening, burning, and tattooing. Six metal particles and nylon clothing material were embedded into soft tissue. No exit wound was found. Toxicology analysis reported an alcohol level of 72 mg/dL. The cause of death was multiple shrapnel injury to the chest at close to intermediate range by a single discharge from a trap gun. Circumstance was concluded as suicide.Ballistic and firearm experts opined that an illegal, manually operated, battery-powered ignition device was used to ignite the gun powder. We report the first case of suicide by a modified trap gun in literature.

  8. Analysis of biosurfaces by neutron reflectometry: From simple to complex interfaces

    DOE PAGES

    Junghans, Ann; Watkins, Erik B.; Barker, Robert D.; ...

    2015-03-16

    Because of its high sensitivity for light elements and the scattering contrast manipulation via isotopic substitutions, neutron reflectometry (NR) is an excellent tool for studying the structure of soft-condensed material. These materials include model biophysical systems as well as in situ living tissue at the solid–liquid interface. The penetrability of neutrons makes NR suitable for probing thin films with thicknesses of 5–5000 Å at various buried, for example, solid–liquid, interfaces [J. Daillant and A. Gibaud, Lect. Notes Phys. 770, 133 (2009); G. Fragneto-Cusani, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 13, 4973 (2001); J. Penfold, Curr. Opin. Colloid Interface Sci. 7, 139 (2002)].more » Over the past two decades, NR has evolved to become a key tool in the characterization of biological and biomimetic thin films. Highlighted In the current report are some of the authors' recent accomplishments in utilizing NR to study highly complex systems, including in-situ experiments. Such studies will result in a much better understanding of complex biological problems, have significant medical impact by suggesting innovative treatment, and advance the development of highly functionalized biomimetic materials.« less

  9. Experience in action: Moderating care in web-based patient feedback.

    PubMed

    Ziewitz, Malte

    2017-02-01

    What does it take to mobilise experiences of care and make them useful for improving services? This article draws on ethnographic fieldwork with a UK-based patient feedback website to develop a critical perspective on patient experience as a contingent accomplishment and a focal point for eliciting, provoking, and respecifying relations of accountability. Following a single posting from the moderation room back to the author and into the wards and offices of the hospital, I show how moderators, carers, and clinical staff respond to and act upon a seemingly stable experience. Drawing on recent work in science studies and ethnomethodology, I suggest that the work of 'capturing the patient experience' is not so much a matter of accurate reporting or incontestable opining, but an exercise in testing versions of reality through the ongoing respecification of objects, audiences, and identities. Attending to the mundane practices of moderating accounts of care highlights the work of ordering alongside technologies of evaluation - the largely invisible labour that sustains the possibility of public patient feedback in the first place. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. The "Biased Rhizosphere" Concept: Bacterial Competitiveness and Persistence in the Rhizosphere

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    de Bruijn, Frans J.

    2013-04-01

    The association of plant surfaces with microorganisms has been the subject of intense investigations. Numerous processes have been shown to be important in plant-associative bacteria including attachment, motility, chemotaxis, nutrition, and production of signaling molecules and secondary metabolites. One strategy to favor the competitiveness and persistence of bacteria in the plant environment relies upon manipulation of nutritional compounds secreted into the phytosphere, which comprises the rhizosphere (root surface/zone influenced by secretions) and the phyllosphere (leaf surface/zone influenced by secretions). The pattern of plant host exudate can be bred or engineered to establish "biased phytospheres" with bacteria that can naturally, or by engineering, use metabolic resources produced by the host plant. Over the last two decades, natural biases, generated by opine-like molecules of Agrobacterium-plant interactions and by rhizopine-like molecules of the Rhizobium-legume interactions, have provided tactics based on unique metabolites produced by plants to favor the competitiveness and persistence of bacteria that can catabolize the host-produced novel nutrients. An overview of this field or research will be presented.

  11. Survey of forensic mental health experts on pro se competence after Indiana v. Edwards.

    PubMed

    Kaufman, Andrew R; Knoll, James L; Way, Bruce B; Leonard, Cecilia; Widroff, Jacob

    2011-01-01

    In Indiana v. Edwards (2008) the U.S. Supreme Court held that a higher standard may be required for pro se competence (PSC) than for competence to stand trial (CST), but provided little guidance for the trial court judge. This survey of forensic mental health experts studied potential PSC criteria. Sixty-eight (22.7%) forensic evaluators replied. Three McGarry criteria were reported as requiring a much higher standard for PSC: to appraise the available legal defenses (45.6%), to plan a legal strategy (51.5%), and to question and challenge witnesses (44.1%). Sixty percent agreed that standby counsel should be mandatory. Respondents opined that average abilities were sufficient for intelligence (77.9%), literacy (69.1%), and verbal ability (70.6%) were sufficient. PSC examiners may wish to assess appraisal of available legal defenses, planning a legal strategy, and questioning and challenging witnesses for a higher standard than CST. Evaluators should also assess the defendant's willingness to accept standby counsel (SBC) and the defendant's motivation for attempting a pro se defense.

  12. The flip side of traditional nursing education: A literature review.

    PubMed

    Ward, Maria; Knowlton, Mary C; Laney, Candice W

    2018-03-01

    The flipped classroom (FC) andragogy purports an improvement of critical thinking and problem-solving skills in students. This literature review explores fourteen research studies and discusses outcome measures reported on the effectiveness of using this teaching modality. Students described the learning activities during the classroom meeting times as valuable and indicated the interaction and engagement were beneficial to their learning. Many students opined an increased comprehension of the subject matter. Overall, the FC required more work on the part of the students and the faculty, and the majority of students preferred the traditional classroom (TC) passive method of learning over the FC active learning andragogy as a result of the substantial time commitment required for preparation necessitated by the FC. Five of the fourteen studies evaluated student learning outcome measures; four studies showed an improvement in the FC environment compared to the TC and one reported the FC was at least as effective as the TC. Further studies with quantifiable outcome measures are required to determine the effectiveness of a FC on critical thinking and problem-solving skills of nursing students. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  13. Modern drug design: the implication of using artificial neuronal networks and multiple molecular dynamic simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yakovenko, Oleksandr; Jones, Steven J. M.

    2018-01-01

    We report the implementation of molecular modeling approaches developed as a part of the 2016 Grand Challenge 2, the blinded competition of computer aided drug design technologies held by the D3R Drug Design Data Resource (https://drugdesigndata.org/). The challenge was focused on the ligands of the farnesoid X receptor (FXR), a highly flexible nuclear receptor of the cholesterol derivative chenodeoxycholic acid. FXR is considered an important therapeutic target for metabolic, inflammatory, bowel and obesity related diseases (Expert Opin Drug Metab Toxicol 4:523-532, 2015), but in the context of this competition it is also interesting due to the significant ligand-induced conformational changes displayed by the protein. To deal with these conformational changes we employed multiple simulations of molecular dynamics (MD). Our MD-based protocols were top-ranked in estimating the free energy of binding of the ligands and FXR protein. Our approach was ranked second in the prediction of the binding poses where we also combined MD with molecular docking and artificial neural networks. Our approach showed mediocre results for high-throughput scoring of interactions.

  14. So, You Want to be a Science Communicator?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Radzilowicz, John G.

    2009-03-01

    The late Carl Sagan opined that somehow we have managed to create a global civilization dependant on science and technology in which almost no one understands science and technology. This is an unacceptable recipe for disaster with social, political and financial implications for the future of scientific research. And so, like it or not, popular science communication, more than ever before, is an important and necessary part of the scientific enterprise. Public outreach programs, media interviews, and popular articles have become required parts of the scientist's professional repertoire. But, what does it take to be a good science communicator? What is needed to develop and deliver meaningful public outreach programs? How do you handle non-technical presentations? And, what help is available in developing the necessary skills for good popular science communication? This presentation will look at the essential components of effective science communication aimed at a broad public audience. The components of successful science communication in programs, presentations and articles will be discussed. Specific attention will be given to how university-museum partnerships can expand the reach and enhance the quality of public outreach programs.

  15. Gas Marbles: Much Stronger than Liquid Marbles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Timounay, Yousra; Pitois, Olivier; Rouyer, Florence

    2017-06-01

    Enwrapping liquid droplets with hydrophobic particles allows the manufacture of so-called "liquid marbles" [Aussillous and Quéré Nature (London) 411, 924 (2001); , 10.1038/35082026Mahadevan Nature (London)411, 895 (2001), 10.1038/35082164]. The recent intensive research devoted to liquid marbles is justified by their very unusual physical and chemical properties and by their potential for various applications, from microreactors to water storage, including water pollution sensors [Bormashenko Curr. Opin. Colloid Interface Sci. 16, 266 (2011), 10.1016/j.cocis.2010.12.002]. Here we demonstrate that this concept can be successfully applied for encapsulating and protecting small gas pockets within an air environment. Similarly to their liquid counterparts, those new soft-matter objects, that we call "gas marbles," can sustain external forces. We show that gas marbles are surprisingly tenfold stronger than liquid marbles and, more importantly, they can sustain both positive and negative pressure differences. This magnified strength is shown to originate from the strong cohesive nature of the shell. Those interesting properties could be exploited for imprisoning valuable or polluted gases or for designing new aerated materials.

  16. Gas Marbles: Much Stronger than Liquid Marbles.

    PubMed

    Timounay, Yousra; Pitois, Olivier; Rouyer, Florence

    2017-06-02

    Enwrapping liquid droplets with hydrophobic particles allows the manufacture of so-called "liquid marbles" [Aussillous and Quéré Nature (London) 411, 924 (2001); NATUAS0028-083610.1038/35082026Mahadevan Nature (London)411, 895 (2001)NATUAS0028-083610.1038/35082164]. The recent intensive research devoted to liquid marbles is justified by their very unusual physical and chemical properties and by their potential for various applications, from microreactors to water storage, including water pollution sensors [Bormashenko Curr. Opin. Colloid Interface Sci. 16, 266 (2011)COCSFL1359-029410.1016/j.cocis.2010.12.002]. Here we demonstrate that this concept can be successfully applied for encapsulating and protecting small gas pockets within an air environment. Similarly to their liquid counterparts, those new soft-matter objects, that we call "gas marbles," can sustain external forces. We show that gas marbles are surprisingly tenfold stronger than liquid marbles and, more importantly, they can sustain both positive and negative pressure differences. This magnified strength is shown to originate from the strong cohesive nature of the shell. Those interesting properties could be exploited for imprisoning valuable or polluted gases or for designing new aerated materials.

  17. Different types of degradable vectors from low-molecular-weight polycation-functionalized poly(aspartic acid) for efficient gene delivery.

    PubMed

    Dou, X B; Hu, Y; Zhao, N N; Xu, F J

    2014-03-01

    Poly(aspartic acid) (PAsp) has been employed as the potential backbone for the preparation of efficient gene carriers, due to its low cytotoxicity, good biodegradability and excellent biocompatibility. In this work, the degradable linear or star-shaped PBLA was first prepared via ring-opining polymerization of β-benzyl-L-aspartate N-carboxy anhydride (BLA-NCA) initiated by ethylenediamine (ED) or ED-functionalized cyclodextrin cores. Then, PBLA was functionalized via aminolysis reaction with low-molecular-weight poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) with one terminal primary amine group (PDMAEMA-NH2), followed by addition of excess ED or ethanolamine (EA) to complete the aminolysis process. The obtained different types of cationic PAsp-based vectors including linear or star PAsp-PDM-NH2 and PAsp-PDM-OH exhibited good condensation capability and degradability, benefiting gene delivery process. In comparison with gold standard polyethylenimine (PEI, ∼ 25 kDa), the cationic PAsp-based vectors, particularly star-shaped ones, exhibited much better transfection performances. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Biomimetic Chemosensor: Designing Peptide Recognition Elements for Surface Functionalization of Carbon Nanotube Field Effect Transistors (Postprint)

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-12-01

    Protein from the Honeybee Apis mellifera L. J. Biol. Chem. 2004, 279, 4459– 4464. 12. Mead, J. C. New Scientist 2007, November issue. 13. Inscentinel...of explo- sives and other analytes.12,13 The antennal-specific protein-1 (ASP1), an OBP from honeybee, Apis mel- lifera, contains a C-terminal tail

  19. Automation and Preclinical Evaluation of a Dedicated Emission Mammotomography System for Fully 3-D Molecular Breast Imaging

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-10-01

    concentrated aqueous 99m Tc and taped to the exterior surface of the breast phantom to act as fiducial markers for registration purposes. Two...34 Physica Medica, vol. 21, pp. 48-55, 2006. [16] H. Erdogan and J. A. Fessler, "Ordered subsets algorithms for transmission tomography," Phys Med Biol

  20. The Quality of Pre-Service Science Teachers' Argumentation: Influence of Content Knowledge

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cetin, Pinar Seda; Dogan, Nihal; Kutluca, Ali Yigit

    2014-01-01

    Research exploring the possible link between quality of argumentation and content knowledge is not straightforward. Some studies suggest a positive relationship (e.g. Dawson & Schibeci in "J Biol Educ" 38(1):7-12, 2003) while others do not (e.g. Zohar & Nemet in "J Res Sci Teach" 39:35-62, 2002). This study examined the…

  1. Rational Inhibitors of DNA Base Excision Repair Enzymes: New Tools for Elucidating the Role of BER in Cancer Chemotherapy

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2006-05-01

    2005, 7, 493-500. (30) Nilsen, H.; Rosewell , I.; Robins, P.; Skjelbred, C. F.; Andersen, S.; Slupphaug, G.; Daly, G.; Krokan, H. E.; Lindahl, T.; Barnes...Cell Biol. 2005, 7, 493–500. 31. Nilsen, H.; Rosewell , I.; Robins, P.; Skjelbred, C. F.; Andersen, S.; Slupphaug, G.; Daly, G.; Krokan, H. E

  2. Tumor Suppression and Sensitization to Taxol-Induced Apoptosis of E1A in Breast Cancer Cells

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2003-06-01

    2442. 13. De Zutter, G. S., and R. J. Davis 2001. Pro-apoptotic gene expression mediated by the p38 mitogen-activated protien kinase final transduction...Kummer 1996. Inhibition of p38 mitogen- activated protien kinase by insulin in cultured fetal neurons. J Biol Chem. 271:9891-9894. 30 20. Hsu, S. C

  3. Results of the Second U.S. Manned Suborbital Space Flight, July 21, 1961

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1961-07-21

    Alpha - ketoglutaric ...... Neg. Neg. Neg. Neg . .............................. Isocitric ............... 0 to 10...M.: An Accurate Method for the Determination of Blood Urea Nitrogen by Direct Nesslerization. Jour. Biol. Chem., vol. 143, 1942, pp. 531-544. Calcium ...DIEHL, H., and FI.LINGBOE, J. L.: Indicator for Titration of Calcium in Presence of Magnesium With Disodium. Dihy- drogen Ethylene

  4. Regulation of ATM-Dependent DNA Damage Responses in Breast Cancer by the RhoGEF Net1

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-04-01

    1998) Science 279: 509-514. 12. Harper JW, et al., (2007) The DNA Damage Response: Ten years after. Mol. Cell 28; 739-745. 13. Hill R, et al., (2010...RhoGTPases: Biochemistry and Biology. Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 21:247-269. 17. Khanna KK, et al., (2001) ATM, a central controller of cellular

  5. Condensins under the microscope.

    PubMed

    Maeshima, Kazuhiro; Hibino, Kayo; Hudson, Damien F

    2018-04-30

    Condensins are key players in mitotic chromosome condensation. Using an elegant combination of state-of-the-art imaging techniques, Walther et al. (2018. J. Cell Biol. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201801048) counted the number of Condensins, examined their behaviors on human mitotic chromosomes, and integrated the quantitative data to propose a new mechanistic model for chromosome condensation. © 2018 Maeshima et al.

  6. Identifying microRNAs that Regulate Neuroblastoma Cell Differentiation

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-09-01

    Watters, K. M., Das, S., Bryan, K., Bernas, T., Prehn , J. H., and Stallings, R. L. (2011) MicroRNAs 10a and 10b are potent inducers of neuroblastoma...Cell Biol 2009;29(19):5290-5305. 30. Foley NH, Bray I, Watters KM, Das S, Bryan K, Bernas T, Prehn JH, Stallings RL. MicroRNAs 10a and 10b are potent

  7. Training Program in the Molecular Basis of Breast Cancer Research

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1996-10-01

    1984) Cell 39, 499- 509 18. Gbirlich, D., Prehn , S., Laskey, R. A., and Hartmann, E. (1994) Cell 767-778 19. Gt5rlich, D., Kostka, S., Kraft, R...Dingwall, C., Laskey, R. A., Hartmann, E., and Prehn , S. (1995) Curr. Biol. 5, 383-392 20. Moore, M. S. and Blobel, G. (1993) Nature 365, 661-663 21

  8. Fundamental Studies in the Molecular Basis of Laser Induced Retinal Damage.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1985-04-01

    J. -169. 25, 163-169. 24. Schwabe, U., Puchstein, C. Hannemann , H. and Sochtig, E. (1979) Nature 277, 143-145. 25. Richards, J. M. and Swislocki, N...Roof, D. J. and Heuser, J. E. (1982) J. Cell Biol. 95, 487-500. 52. Hagins, W. A. and Jennings , W. H. (1959) Discussion Faraday Soc. 27, 180-190. 53

  9. Ingestion of a marked bacterial pathogen of cotton conclusively demonstrates feeding by first instar southern green stink bug (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae)

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Long-held dogma dictates that 1st instars of Nezara viridula (L.) do not feed, yet recent observations of stylet activity within a food source suggest otherwise. As a cosmopolitan pest of cotton and other high-value cash crops, confirmation of feeding by 1st instars may ultimately influence the biol...

  10. Modeling of Habitat and Foraging Behavior of Beaked Whales in the Southern California Bight

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-09-30

    signals of a beaked whale at Palmyra Atoll . J Acoust Soc Am 127:3790-3799 Johnson M, Madsen PT, Zimmer WMX, Aguilar de Soto N, Tyack P (2006) Foraging...Biol 208:181-194 McDonald MA, Hildebrand JA, Wiggins SM, Johnston DW, Polovina JJ (2009) An acoustic survey of beaked whales at Cross Seamount near

  11. A Model for Breast Cancer-Induced Angiogenesis

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1997-09-01

    Protein kinase C isozyme expression in phorbol ester- sensitive and -resistant EL4 thymoma cells . J. Biol. Chem. 266:5676-568 1. Jalava A, Akerman K...that exogenous angiogenic factors were unable to stimulate endothelial cell proliferation. Furthermore, under non- stimulated conditions, endothelial... cell proliferation was restricted to the adipose tissue and perilobular connective tissue. The endothelium within the fibrous stroma could almost never

  12. Primary and Secondary Vestibular Connections in the Brain Stem and Cerebellum: An Axoplasmic Transport Study in the Monkey and Cat

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1983-08-25

    Edinger-Westphal nucleus in the cat, Brain Research, 141 (1978) 153-159. Lorente de No, R., Etudes sur le cerveau posterieur. Ill, Sur 1 es connexions...extra-cerebelleuses des fascicules afferents au cerveau , et sur la fontion de cet organe, Trav. Lab. Rech. Biol. Univ. Madrid, 22 (1924) 51-65

  13. Axonal Regeneration in Mammals with Spinal Cord Injury

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1983-09-14

    Cajal, S. 1905. Notas preventivas sobre la degeneracion y regeneracion las vias nerviosos centrales . Trab. Lab. Invest. Biol. Univ. Madrid, 4: 295-301...S. 1914. Degeneracion y Regeneration del Sistema Nervioso , Vol. 1, 2. (Nicolas Moya, Madrid), Ramon y Cajal, S. 1928. Degeneration and Regeneration...field of central nervous system (CNS) regeneration research. These developments have revealed important aspects regarding the histology and

  14. The Role of the Telomere End Protection Complex in Telomere Main

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2003-06-01

    identification of putative substrates of ATM kinase family members. J Biol Chem, 1999. 274(53): p. 37538-43. 9. Lei, M., E.R. Podell , P. Baumann, and T.R. Cech...DNA self-recognition in the structure of Pot1 bound to telomeric single-stranded DNA. Nature, 2003. 426(6963): p. 198-203. 10. Lei, M., E.R. Podell

  15. Biology of Immunomodulators

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1990-05-01

    and Gangemi, J.D. Immunomodulation by Propionibacterium acnes . II. Induction of cells that suppress anti-sheep erythrocyte antibody response. (Submitted...Biol. 42:346 (abstr. 54), 1987. 5. Azmi, F., Gangemi, J.D., Ghaffar, A. and Mayer E.P. Immunosuppression by Propionibacterium acnes : Studies on the...suppressor factor produced by splenic macrophages from mice treated with Propionibacterium acnes . 7th International Congress of Immunology, 1989. 11. Azmi

  16. From DNA binding to transcriptional activation: Is the TALE complete?

    PubMed

    Bobola, Nicoletta

    2017-09-04

    How transcription factors (TFs) control enhancer and promoter functions to effect changes in gene expression is an important question. In this issue, Hau et al. (2017. J. Cell Biol. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201701154) show that the TALE TF MEIS recruits the histone modifier PARP1/ARTD1 at promoters to decompact chromatin and activate transcription. © 2017 Bobola.

  17. Parallel Computing in Protein Structure Topology Determination

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-12-01

    model, B) dynamic model. A B 6. REFERENCES Baker, M. L., W. Jiang, et al. (2006). "Ab initio modeling of the herpesvirus VP26 core...skeletons of secondary structures." J Mol Biol 350(3): 571-86. Zhou, Z. H., M. Dougherty, et al. (2000). "Seeing the herpesvirus capsid at 8.5 Å." Science 288(5467): 877-880.

  18. The Personal Response: A Novel Writing Assignment to Engage First Year Students in Large Human Biology Classes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Moni, Roger W.; Moni, Karen B.; Poronnik, Philip

    2007-01-01

    The teaching of highly valued scientific writing skills in the first year of university is challenging. This report describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a novel written assignment, "The Personal Response" and accompanying Peer Review, in the course, Human Biology (BIOL1015) at The University of Queensland. These assignments were…

  19. A Cladist is a systematist who seeks a natural classification: some comments on Quinn (2017).

    PubMed

    Williams, David M; Ebach, Malte C

    2018-01-01

    In response to Quinn (Biol Philos, 2017. 10.1007/s10539-017-9577-z) we identify cladistics to be about natural classifications and their discovery and thereby propose to add an eighth cladistic definition to Quinn's list, namely the systematist who seeks to discover natural classifications, regardless of their affiliation, theoretical or methodological justifications.

  20. A Chemical Strategy to Trap and Identify Proteins That May Regulate Promoter Hypermethylation in Breast Cancer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2007-07-01

    This research was supported by W. M. Keck Foundation, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation, the...Pegg, Cancer Res. 1990, 50, 6119-6129; b) E. M. Duguid, P. A. Rice , C. He, J. Mol. Biol. 2005, 350, 657-666; c) D. S. Daniels, T. T. Woo, K. X. Luu

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