Solute carriers involved in energy transfer of mitochondria form a homologous protein family

AbstractThe sequences of three mitochondrial carriers involved in energy transfer, the ADP/ATP carrier, phosphate carrier and uncoupling carrier, are analyzed. Similarly to what has been previously reported for the ADP/ATP carrier and the uncoupling protein, now also the phosphate carrier is found to have a tripartite structure comprising three similar repeats of approx. 100 residues each. The three sequences show a fair overall homology with each other. More significant homologies are found by comparing the repeats within and between the carriers in a scheme where the sequences are spliced into repeats, which are arranged for maximum homology by allowing possible insertions or deletions. A striking conservation of critical residues, glycine, proline, of charged and of aromatic residues is found throughout all nine repeats. This is indicative of a similar structural principle in the repeats. Hydropathy profiles of the three proteins and a search for amphipathic α-spans reveal six membrane-spanning segments for each carrier, providing further support for the basic structural identity of the repeats. The proposed folding pattern of the carriers in the membrane is exemplified with the phosphate carrier. A possible tertiary arrangement of the repeats and the membranespanning helices is shown. The emergence of a mitochondrial carrier family by triplication and by divergent evolution from a common gene of about 100 residues is discussed

Sensitivity of volcanic aerosol dispersion to meteorological conditions: A Pinatubo case study

This is the final version of the article. Available from American Geophysical Union via the DOI in this record.Using a global climate model (Hadley Centre Global Environment Model version 2-Carbon Cycle Stratosphere ) with a well-resolved stratosphere, we test the sensitivity of volcanic aerosol plume dispersion to meteorological conditions by simulating 1 day Mount Pinatubo-like eruptions on 10 consecutive days. The dispersion of the volcanic aerosol is found to be highly sensitive to the ambient meteorology for low-altitude eruptions (16–18 km), with this variability related to anomalous anticyclonic activity along the subtropical jet, which affects the permeability of the tropical pipe and controls the amount of aerosol that is retained by the tropical reservoir. Conversely, a high-altitude eruption scenario (19–29 km) exhibits low meteorological variability. Overcoming day-to-day meteorological variability by spreading the emission over 10 days is shown to produce insufficient radiative heating to loft the aerosol into the stratospheric tropical aerosol reservoir for the low eruption scenario. This results in limited penetration of aerosol into the southern hemisphere (SH) in contrast to the SH transport observed after the Pinatubo eruption. Our results have direct implications for the accurate simulation of past/future volcanic eruptions and volcanically forced climate changes, such as Intertropical Convergence Zone displacement.A.C.J. was funded by a NERC/CASE PhD studentship (ref. 580 009 138, with CASE partner being the Met Office); J.M.H. and A.J. were supported by the Joint UK DECC/Defra Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme (GA01101). The authors would like to thank Larry Thomason for supplying the SAGE II data. Data are freely available by contacting A.C.J

Impacts of the Mount Pinatubo eruption on ENSO in the GEOS seasonal-to-subseasonal forecasting system

The eruption of Mount Pinatubo in June 1991 introduced a perturbation of the Earth's global energy budget by increasing the stratospheric aerosol loading by an order of magnitude, with effects on the global climate. In this presentation we analyze the effects of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption on the seasonal forecast performed with Goddard Earth Observing System Seasonal-to Subseasonal (GEOS-S2S) system, an Earth System Model that includes an interactive ocean and a bulk aerosol model coupled to radiation. We performed 10-member ensembles for the year after the eruption (June 1991-May 1992) at ~0.5 horizontal resolution, with and without the inclusion of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption. In GEOS-S2S, the eruption leads to ta strengthening of El Nino peaking in January 1992. The strengthening is mainly due to the weakening of the trade winds, which is caused by a attening of the temperature gradient across the Pacic due to a differential response to the volcanic forcing between the central and eastern Pacic (ocean-dynamical thermostat). This response largely depends on the assumed size for the volcanic aerosols. Indeed, we performed simulations assuming a volcanic aerosol effective radius of 0.35 m (similar to tropospheric aerosol, and the default in GEOS) and 0.6 m (closer to observations of volcanic aerosol from Pinatubo-sized eruptions). We nd that in the latter case the tropical radiative forcing is lower, since smaller aerosols scatter shortwave radiation more eciently than larger ones. Accordingly, the impact on ENSO is not statistically signicant when a larger and more realistic particle radius is assumed

Micromechanics-Based Structural Analysis (FEAMAC) and Multiscale Visualization within Abaqus/CAE Environment

A unified framework is presented that enables coupled multiscale analysis of composite structures and associated graphical pre- and postprocessing within the Abaqus/CAE environment. The recently developed, free, Finite Element Analysis--Micromechanics Analysis Code (FEAMAC) software couples NASA's Micromechanics Analysis Code with Generalized Method of Cells (MAC/GMC) with Abaqus/Standard and Abaqus/Explicit to perform micromechanics based FEA such that the nonlinear composite material response at each integration point is modeled at each increment by MAC/GMC. The Graphical User Interfaces (FEAMAC-Pre and FEAMAC-Post), developed through collaboration between SIMULIA Erie and the NASA Glenn Research Center, enable users to employ a new FEAMAC module within Abaqus/CAE that provides access to the composite microscale. FEA IAC-Pre is used to define and store constituent material properties, set-up and store composite repeating unit cells, and assign composite materials as sections with all data being stored within the CAE database. Likewise FEAMAC-Post enables multiscale field quantity visualization (contour plots, X-Y plots), with point and click access to the microscale i.e., fiber and matrix fields)

The Chemical and Dynamical Responses of Ozone and Nitrogen Dioxide to the Eruption of Mt. Pinatubo

Observations have shown that the concentration of nitrogen dioxide decreased in both hemispheres in the years following the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. In contrast, the observed ozone response was largely asymmetrical with respect to the equator, with a decrease in the northern hemisphere and little or no change in the southern hemisphere. Simulations including enhanced heterogeneous chemistry due to the presence of the volcanic aerosol reproduce a decrease of ozone in the northern hemisphere, but also produce a comparable ozone decrease in the southern hemisphere contrary to observations. Our simulations show that the heating due to the volcanic aerosol enhanced both the tropical upwelling and the extratropical downwelling. The enhanced extratropical downwelling, combined with the time of the eruption relative to the seasonal phase of the Brewer-Dobson circulation, increased the ozone in the southern hemisphere and counteracted the ozone depletion due to heterogeneous chemistry on volcanic aerosol

Transitioning to a Master\u27s Degree Granting University: Implications for Librarian Instruction, Outreach, and Collection Development

Athens State University is located in Athens, Alabama in the northern part of Alabama bordering Giles County, Tennessee. It is one of the only upper-level universities serving juniors, seniors, and graduate students in the country. The student body consists primarily of non-traditional and first-generation students. In 2014, Athens State University was approved to offer a graduate program in Global Logistics and Supply Chain Management in the College of Business by the Alabama Commission on Higher Education (ACHE). Since then, Athens State University has expanded its graduate offerings to include five additional fields of study: Strategic Healthcare Management and Administration, Strategic Human Resource Management, Strategic Leadership and Business Analytics, Religious Studies, and Career and Technical Education. Currently, more graduate degrees are in the development stages in all three colleges: Business, Arts and Sciences, and Education. All of the graduate programs are delivered asynchronously online with some classes having additional synchronous components. How have library instruction, outreach, and collection development evolved to meet the needs of the graduate student population? How do librarians best serve graduate students in a strictly online environment? How do librarians promote active learning techniques such as providing micro-lectures, including welcome and orientation videos, planning effective discussions with prompts, and increasing motivation in an online environment? What are some effective and reflective techniques and tools to promote inclusivity such as signaling ally-ship and assessing online learning objects for accessibility and ADA compliance? Athens State University librarians hold faculty status and serve both undergraduate and graduate students as subject liaisons. This presentation will share the librarians’ experiences of transitioning from a library serving exclusively undergraduates to one serving both undergraduate and graduate students. Given that the programs are offered solely online, librarians will also discuss the challenges and successes encountered along the way. Future areas of discussion include quantitative and qualitative assessment plans. Participant takeaways include the following: Adjusting collection assessment for budget allocation Adapting collection development for graduate programs Building working relationships with graduate teaching faculty Providing support to graduate students in an online environment Promoting inclusivity and accessibilit

Roadmap to the Domestic Production of Mobile Phone and Its Market Feasibility in Nigeria

The mobile phone system is one of the instrumental devices that has helped shaped our socio-economic ecosystem in many ways, and it has been an integral part of many societies all over the world due to its versatility. Nigeria currently is facing a great deal of economic hardship owing to successive political failures to balance the import-to-export ratio over the years thus affecting the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross National Income (GNI). Domestic production of mobile phones has been identified as one of the structures if put in place that can help in a national economic revival in terms of a technological revolution that would contribute to the GDP, GNI, and general economic effect. In this paper, we identified some key elements that could help establish the mobile phone production industry in Nigeria which include identifying the existing phone markets and buyers' usage patterns to guide in the kind of phone to be produced that would appeal to Nigerians and their neighbouring countries such that it would scale well and have a competitive advantage over imported phones. With the help of a survey aided by Google Form, an insight into the kind of phones Nigerians uses and preferred was elucidated. Furthermore, a small-scale design of a phone was carried out to test the technical or manpower know-how and feasibility of the venture. Overall, the feasibility of embarking on domestic production shows a green light

The Response of Ozone and Nitrogen Dioxide to the Eruption of Mt. Pinatubo

Observations have shown that the global mass of nitrogen dioxide decreased in both hemispheres in the year following the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. In contrast, the observed ozone response was largely asymmetrical with respect to the equator, with a decrease in the northern hemisphere and little change and even a small increase in the southern hemisphere. Simulations including enhanced heterogeneous chemistry due to the presence of the volcanic aerosol reproduce a decrease of ozone in the northern hemisphere, but also produce a comparable ozone decrease in the southern hemisphere, contrary to observations. Our simulations show that the heating due to the volcanic aerosol enhanced both the tropical upwelling and the extratropical downwelling. The enhanced extratropical downwelling, combined with the time of the eruption relative to the phase of the Brewer-Dobson circulation, increased the ozone in the southern hemisphere and counteracted the ozone depletion due to heterogeneous chemistry on volcanic aerosol