A novel superfamily containing the β-grasp fold involved in binding diverse soluble ligands

BACKGROUND: Domains containing the β-grasp fold are utilized in a great diversity of physiological functions but their role, if any, in soluble or small molecule ligand recognition is poorly studied. RESULTS: Using sensitive sequence and structure similarity searches we identify a novel superfamily containing the β-grasp fold. They are found in a diverse set of proteins that include the animal vitamin B12 uptake proteins transcobalamin and intrinsic factor, the bacterial polysaccharide export proteins, the competence DNA receptor ComEA, the cob(I)alamin generating enzyme PduS and the Nqo1 subunit of the respiratory electron transport chain. We present evidence that members of this superfamily are likely to bind a range of soluble ligands, including B12. There are two major clades within this superfamily, namely the transcobalamin-like clade and the Nqo1-like clade. The former clade is typified by an insert of a β-hairpin after the helix of the β-grasp fold, whereas the latter clade is characterized by an insert between strands 4 and 5 of the core fold. CONCLUSION: Members of both clades within this superfamily are predicted to interact with ligands in a similar spatial location, with their specific inserts playing a role in the process. Both clades are widely represented in bacteria suggesting that this superfamily was derived early in bacterial evolution. The animal lineage appears to have acquired the transcobalamin-like proteins from low GC Gram-positive bacteria, and this might be correlated with the emergence of the ability to utilize B12 produced by gut bacteria. REVIEWERS: This article was reviewed by Andrei Osterman, Igor Zhulin, and Arcady Mushegian

Hybrid and Interactive Domain-Specific Translation for Multilingual Access to Digital Libraries

Accurate high-coverage translation is a vital component of reliable cross language information retrieval (CLIR) systems. This is particularly true for retrieval from archives such as Digital Libraries which are often specific to certain domains. While general machine translation (MT) has been shown to be effective for CLIR tasks in laboratory information retrieval evaluation tasks, it is generally not well suited to specialized situations where domain-specific translations are required. We demonstrate that effective query translation in the domain of cultural heritage (CH) can be achieved using a hybrid translation method which augments a standard MT system with domain-specific phrase dictionaries automatically mined from Wikipedia. We further describe the use of these components in a domain-specific interactive query translation service. The interactive system selects the hybrid translation by default, with other possible translations being offered to the user interactively to enable them to select alternative or additional translation(s). The objective of this interactive service is to provide user control of translation while maximising translation accuracy and minimizing the translation effort of the user. Experiments using our hybrid translation system with sample query logs from users of CH websites demonstrate a large improvement in the accuracy of domain-specific phrase detection and translation

Fly's time

The struggle between public and private efforts to sequence the fly genome is the subject of Michael Ashburner's new book, Won for All: How the Drosophila Genome Was Sequence

The global burden of cancer attributable to risk factors, 2010–19: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

BACKGROUND: Understanding the magnitude of cancer burden attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors is crucial for development of effective prevention and mitigation strategies. We analysed results from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 to inform cancer control planning efforts globally. METHODS: The GBD 2019 comparative risk assessment framework was used to estimate cancer burden attributable to behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risk factors. A total of 82 risk–outcome pairs were included on the basis of the World Cancer Research Fund criteria. Estimated cancer deaths and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) in 2019 and change in these measures between 2010 and 2019 are presented. FINDINGS: Globally, in 2019, the risk factors included in this analysis accounted for 4·45 million (95% uncertainty interval 4·01–4·94) deaths and 105 million (95·0–116) DALYs for both sexes combined, representing 44·4% (41·3–48·4) of all cancer deaths and 42·0% (39·1–45·6) of all DALYs. There were 2·88 million (2·60–3·18) risk-attributable cancer deaths in males (50·6% [47·8–54·1] of all male cancer deaths) and 1·58 million (1·36–1·84) risk-attributable cancer deaths in females (36·3% [32·5–41·3] of all female cancer deaths). The leading risk factors at the most detailed level globally for risk-attributable cancer deaths and DALYs in 2019 for both sexes combined were smoking, followed by alcohol use and high BMI. Risk-attributable cancer burden varied by world region and Socio-demographic Index (SDI), with smoking, unsafe sex, and alcohol use being the three leading risk factors for risk-attributable cancer DALYs in low SDI locations in 2019, whereas DALYs in high SDI locations mirrored the top three global risk factor rankings. From 2010 to 2019, global risk-attributable cancer deaths increased by 20·4% (12·6–28·4) and DALYs by 16·8% (8·8–25·0), with the greatest percentage increase in metabolic risks (34·7% [27·9–42·8] and 33·3% [25·8–42·0]). INTERPRETATION: The leading risk factors contributing to global cancer burden in 2019 were behavioural, whereas metabolic risk factors saw the largest increases between 2010 and 2019. Reducing exposure to these modifiable risk factors would decrease cancer mortality and DALY rates worldwide, and policies should be tailored appropriately to local cancer risk factor burden

Adriana Lassel, Cinco años con Cervantes, Argel, Instituto Cervantes, 2012, 167 pp. [NIPO: 503-12-044-1]. Traducción francesa de Yasmina Madiba, Cinq années avec Cervantès, Argel, Dalimen, 2012, 206 pp. [ISBN: 978-9931-306-62-7]

This year Dublin City University participated in the CLEF 2005 Mulit-8 Two-Years-On multilingual merging task. The objective of our experiments was to test a range of standard techniques for merging ranked lists of retrieved documents to see if consistent trends emerge for lists generated using different information retrieval systems. Our results show that the success of merging techniques can be dependent on the retrieval system used, and in consequence the best merging techniques to adopt cannot be recommended independent of knowing the retrieval system to be used

Consumer trends in tourism: the offer in Paraná (Brazil) for experiences seekers

O turismo, como atividade econômica, está em constante busca de aperfeiçoar a forma como seus produtos e serviços são produzidos e entregues ao consumidor, este por sua vez encontra - se a cada dia mais envolvido em adquirir experiências em suas viagens. Surge desta forma, o direcionamento do marketing sob as premissas da economia da experiência. Visto isso, este trabalho tem como objetivo diagnosticar os atrativos que compõem a dimensão de evasão de Pine e Gilmore (1999) no estado do Paraná, Brasil. Para tanto, é realizado uma pesquisa bibliográfica exploratória, com o aporte teórico-metodológico do Plano Paraná Turístico 2026 - pacto para um destino inteligente – seguido de um levantamento de dados quantitativos e qualitativos do potencial do turismo no estado do Paraná. Conclui - se que a conformação de produtos experienciais está consolidada com aporte da segmentação da demanda, interligada com perfis de consumidores e com apoio dos conceitos da economia da experiência.El turismo, como actividad económica, está en constante búsqueda de perfeccionar la forma como sus productos y servicios son producidos y entregados al consumidor, éste a su vez se encuentra cada día más involucrado en adquirir experiencias en sus viajes. Surge de esta forma, el direccionamiento del marketing bajo las premisas de la economía de la experiencia. En este sentido, este trabajo tiene como objetivo diagnosticar los atractivos que componen la dimensión de evasión de Pine y Gilmore (1999) en el estado de Paraná, Brasil. Para ello, se realiza una investigación bibliográfica exploratoria, con el aporte teórico-metodológico del Plan Paraná Turístico 2026 - pacto para un destino inteligente - seguido de un levantamiento de datos cuantitativos y cualitativos del potencial del turismo en el estado de Paraná. Se concluye que la conformación de productos experienciales está consolidada con aporte de la segmentación de la demanda, interconectada con perfiles de consumidores y con apoyo de los conceptos de la economía de la experiencia.Tourism as an economic activity is constantly seeking to optimize the way its products and services are produced and delivered to the consumers, who, in turn, find themselves increasingly involved in acquiring experiences in their travels. Consequently, the steering of marketing under the premises of experience economy has arisen. This study seeks to diagnose the attractions that make up the escapism dimension of Pine and Gilmore (1999) in the state of Paraná. To do this, an exploratory bibliographic research has been carried out with the theoretical-methodological contribution of the Paraná Plan 2026 - Agreement for an intelligent destination - followed by a survey of quantitative and qualitative data on tourism potential in the state of Paraná. Based on the observations, it may be concluded that the conformation of experiential products is consolidated with the contribution of demand segmentation interconnected with consumer profiles and the support of the concepts of experience economy

Melanotic paraganglioma arising in the temporal horn following Langerhans cell histiocytosis

PubMed ID: 18196230Intracerebral paragangliomas are rare because of the lack of paraganglial cells in the cerebral tissue. We report a rare case of melanotic paraganglioma arising from the temporal horn of the lateral ventricle in a patient with prior Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) treated with chemotherapy and radiation. © 2007 Springer-Verlag