Biochemical properties of Paracoccus denitrificans FnrP:Reactions with molecular oxygen and nitric oxide

In Paracoccus denitrificans, three CRP/FNR family regulatory proteins, NarR, NnrR and FnrP, control the switch between aerobic and anaerobic (denitrification) respiration. FnrP is a [4Fe-4S] cluster containing homologue of the archetypal O2 sensor FNR from E. coli and accordingly regulates genes encoding aerobic and anaerobic respiratory enzymes in response to O2, and also NO, availability. Here we show that FnrP undergoes O2-driven [4Fe-4S] to [2Fe-2S] cluster conversion that involves up to 2 O2 per cluster, with significant oxidation of released cluster sulfide to sulfane observed at higher O2 concentrations. The rate of the cluster reaction was found to be ~6-fold lower than that of E. coli FNR, suggesting that FnrP can remain transcriptionally active under microaerobic conditions. This is consistent with a role for FnrP in activating expression of the high O2 affinity cytochrome c oxidase under microaerobic conditions. Cluster conversion resulted in dissociation of the transcriptionally active FnrP dimer into monomers. Therefore, along with E. coli FNR, FnrP belongs to the subset of FNR proteins in which cluster type is correlated with association state. Interestingly, two key charged residues, Arg140 and Asp154, that have been shown to play key roles in the monomer-dimer equilibrium in E. coli FNR are not conserved in FnrP, indicating that different protomer interactions are important for this equilibrium. Finally, the FnrP [4Fe-4S] cluster is shown to undergo reaction with multiple NO molecules, resulting in iron nitrosyl species and dissociation into monomers

Use of an Atrial Lead with Very Short Tip-To-Ring Spacing Avoids Oversensing of Far-Field R-Wave

The AVOID-FFS (Avoidance of Far-Field R-wave Sensing) study aimed to investigate whether an atrial lead with a very short tip-to-ring spacing without optimization of pacemaker settings shows equally low incidence of far-field R-wave sensing (FFS) when compared to a conventional atrial lead in combination with optimization of the programming.Patients receiving a dual chamber pacemaker were randomly assigned to receive an atrial lead with a tip-to-ring spacing of 1.1 mm or a lead with a conventional tip-to-ring spacing of 10 mm. Postventricular atrial blanking (PVAB) was programmed to the shortest possible value of 60 ms in the study group, and to an individually determined optimized value in the control group. Atrial sensing threshold was programmed to 0.3 mV in both groups. False positive mode switch caused by FFS was evaluated at one and three months post implantation.A total of 204 patients (121 male; age 73±10 years) were included in the study. False positive mode switch caused by FFS was detected in one (1%) patient of the study group and two (2%) patients of the control group (p = 0.62).The use of an atrial electrode with a very short tip-to-ring spacing avoids inappropriate mode switch caused by FFS without the need for individual PVAB optimization.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00512915

Response of ecologically-mediated shallow intertidal shore transitions to extreme hydrodynamic forcing (RESIST)

This paper reports on the preliminary results from a true-to-scale flume experiment carried out to better understand plant and sediment responses, as well as their interactions, under extreme hydrodynamic forcing in shallow coastal salt and brackish water marsh settings. We report here on bed level changes under individual plant seedlings and denser plant arrangements transplanted from seed and field sites on the Scheldt estuary and on the response of vertically extracted sediment cores from two UK field sites with contrasting sediment characteristics and plant species occupying the surface. Due to the relatively recent completion of the experiment in addition to time-consuming, complex data processing and analysis methods more time is required before definitive quantitative results can be reported. Initial insights into the general behaviour of salt marsh sediments under horizontal and vertical wave-driven hydrodynamic forcing, however, confirm marsh surfaces to be highly stable structures, at least during extreme storm surge events

Strategies for an Efficient Official Publicity Campaign

We consider the process of opinion formation, in a society where there is a set of rules B that indicates whether a social instance is acceptable. Public opinion is formed by the integration of the voters’ attitudes which can be either conservative (mostly in agreement with B) or liberal (mostly in disagreement with B and in agreement with peer voters). These attitudes are represented by stable fixed points in the phase space of the system. In this article we study the properties of a perturbative term, mimicking the effects of a publicity campaign, that pushes the system from the basin of attraction of the liberal fixed point into the basin of the conservative point, when both fixed points are equally likely