Individual User Behavior Leading Factor in Comfort Control

With global warming effects and exploding energy prices it is necessary to further optimize the energy performance of buildings. Intelligent Agents technology for individual climate control for each user of a building in combination with feedback on the energy consumption (costs) leads to better acceptance of the individual comfort and a reduction of the energy consumption. Agents at room level with knowledge of the actual preferences of the occupants are used to improve the distribution of the available HVAC resources of the building and lead to better performance with less energy consumption and at lower costs. At building level an agent is used to optimize the settings of HVAC-controls and lead to peak reduction. The technology was tested in field tests in different office buildings in the Netherlands

Integral Design to Enhance Climate Equipment Performance: Flexergy

Effects of Global Warming, caused largely by energy consumption, became a major concern during the last decade. Sustainable buildings became the major guiding principle for building and spatial planning practice. Improving building performance by enhanced building operation starts with an efficient design. Sustainable buildings need an approach within the design process to reach a maximum level of integration between occupants, building, Heating Ventilation and Air-conditioning (HVAC)-systems and sustainable energy. Design tools for implementing sustainable energy into the energy infrastructure of a building or buildings are presently lacking. In the conceptual phase of design this makes it impossible to balance and tune the demand for and the supply of renewable energy in the built environment in a dynamic way. New solutions are needed for more effective renewable energy solutions on the combined level of building and infrastructure. A design methodology for structuring and combining different energy flows, within a building and between buildings, is presented. This enables the design of new renewable energy concepts aimed on combining and exchanging different energy flows for HVAC, lighting and power demand. This methodology leads to more flexibility of the energy infrastructure; Flex(ible) (en)ergy

SYNZIP Protein Interaction Toolbox: in Vitro and in Vivo Specifications of Heterospecific Coiled-Coil Interaction Domains

The synthetic biology toolkit contains a growing number of parts for regulating transcription and translation, but very few that can be used to control protein association. Here we report characterization of 22 previously published heterospecific synthetic coiled-coil peptides called SYNZIPs. We present biophysical analysis of the oligomerization states, helix orientations, and affinities of 27 SYNZIP pairs. SYNZIP pairs were also tested for interaction in two cell-based assays. In a yeast two-hybrid screen, >85% of 253 comparable interactions were consistent with prior in vitro measurements made using coiled-coil microarrays. In a yeast-signaling assay controlled by coiled-coil mediated scaffolding, 12 SYNZIP pairs were successfully used to down-regulate the expression of a reporter gene following treatment with α-factor. Characterization of these interaction modules dramatically increases the number of available protein interaction parts for synthetic biology and should facilitate a wide range of molecular engineering applications. Summary characteristics of 27 SYNZIP peptide pairs are reported in specification sheets available in the Supporting Information and at the SYNZIP Web site [http://keatingweb.mit.edu/SYNZIP/].National Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF award MCB 0950233)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (grant RO1 GM55040)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (grant PN2 EY016546)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (grant P50 GMO81879)National Science Foundation (U.S.). Synthetic Biology Engineering Research CenterHoward Hughes Medical Institut

C. elegans Nucleostemin Is Required for Larval Growth and Germline Stem Cell Division

The nucleolus has shown to be integral for many processes related to cell growth and proliferation. Stem cells in particular are likely to depend upon nucleolus-based processes to remain in a proliferative state. A highly conserved nucleolar factor named nucleostemin is proposed to be a critical link between nucleolar function and stem-cell–specific processes. Currently, it is unclear whether nucleostemin modulates proliferation by affecting ribosome biogenesis or by another nucleolus-based activity that is specific to stem cells and/or highly proliferating cells. Here, we investigate nucleostemin (nst-1) in the nematode C. elegans, which enables us to examine nst-1 function during both proliferation and differentiation in vivo. Like mammalian nucleostemin, the NST-1 protein is localized to the nucleolus and the nucleoplasm; however, its expression is found in both differentiated and proliferating cells. Global loss of C. elegans nucleostemin (nst-1) leads to a larval arrest phenotype due to a growth defect in the soma, while loss of nst-1 specifically in the germ line causes germline stem cells to undergo a cell cycle arrest. nst-1 mutants exhibit reduced levels of rRNAs, suggesting defects in ribosome biogenesis. However, NST-1 is generally not present in regions of the nucleolus where rRNA transcription and processing occurs, so this reduction is likely secondary to a different defect in ribosome biogenesis. Transgenic studies indicate that NST-1 requires its N-terminal domain for stable expression and both its G1 GTPase and intermediate domains for proper germ line function. Our data support a role for C. elegans nucleostemin in cell growth and proliferation by promoting ribosome biogenesis

Evolutionarily Conserved Herpesviral Protein Interaction Networks

Herpesviruses constitute a family of large DNA viruses widely spread in vertebrates and causing a variety of different diseases. They possess dsDNA genomes ranging from 120 to 240 kbp encoding between 70 to 170 open reading frames. We previously reported the protein interaction networks of two herpesviruses, varicella-zoster virus (VZV) and Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV). In this study, we systematically tested three additional herpesvirus species, herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), murine cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus, for protein interactions in order to be able to perform a comparative analysis of all three herpesvirus subfamilies. We identified 735 interactions by genome-wide yeast-two-hybrid screens (Y2H), and, together with the interactomes of VZV and KSHV, included a total of 1,007 intraviral protein interactions in the analysis. Whereas a large number of interactions have not been reported previously, we were able to identify a core set of highly conserved protein interactions, like the interaction between HSV-1 UL33 with the nuclear egress proteins UL31/UL34. Interactions were conserved between orthologous proteins despite generally low sequence similarity, suggesting that function may be more conserved than sequence. By combining interactomes of different species we were able to systematically address the low coverage of the Y2H system and to extract biologically relevant interactions which were not evident from single species

A Yeast Two-Hybrid Screen for SYP-3 Interactors Identifies SYP-4, a Component Required for Synaptonemal Complex Assembly and Chiasma Formation in Caenorhabditis elegans Meiosis

The proper assembly of the synaptonemal complex (SC) between homologs is critical to ensure accurate meiotic chromosome segregation. The SC is a meiotic tripartite structure present from yeast to humans, comprised of proteins assembled along the axes of the chromosomes and central region (CR) proteins that bridge the two chromosome axes. Here we identify SYP-4 as a novel structural component of the SC in Caenorhabditis elegans. SYP-4 interacts in a yeast two-hybrid assay with SYP-3, one of components of the CR of the SC, and is localized at the interface between homologs during meiosis. SYP-4 is essential for the localization of SYP-1, SYP-2, and SYP-3 CR proteins onto chromosomes, thereby playing a crucial role in the stabilization of pairing interactions between homologous chromosomes. In the absence of SYP-4, the levels of recombination intermediates, as indicated by RAD-51 foci, are elevated in mid-prophase nuclei, and crossover recombination events are significantly reduced. The lack of chiasmata observed in syp-4 mutants supports the elevated levels of chromosome nondisjunction manifested in high embryonic lethality. Altogether our findings place SYP-4 as a central player in SC formation and broaden our understanding of the structure of the SC and its assembly

Bayesian Modeling of the Yeast SH3 Domain Interactome Predicts Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Endocytosis Proteins

A genome-scale specificity and interaction map for yeast SH3 domain-containing proteins reveal how family members show selective binding to target proteins and predicts the dynamic localization of new candidate endocytosis proteins

Molecular evolution of cyclin proteins in animals and fungi

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The passage through the cell cycle is controlled by complexes of cyclins, the regulatory units, with cyclin-dependent kinases, the catalytic units. It is also known that cyclins form several families, which differ considerably in primary structure from one eukaryotic organism to another. Despite these lines of evidence, the relationship between the evolution of cyclins and their function is an open issue. Here we present the results of our study on the molecular evolution of A-, B-, D-, E-type cyclin proteins in animals and fungi.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We constructed phylogenetic trees for these proteins, their ancestral sequences and analyzed patterns of amino acid replacements. The analysis of infrequently fixed atypical amino acid replacements in cyclins evidenced that accelerated evolution proceeded predominantly during paralog duplication or after it in animals and fungi and that it was related to aromorphic changes in animals. It was shown also that evolutionary flexibility of cyclin function may be provided by consequential reorganization of regions on protein surface remote from CDK binding sites in animal and fungal cyclins and by functional differentiation of paralogous cyclins formed in animal evolution.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results suggested that changes in the number and/or nature of cyclin-binding proteins may underlie the evolutionary role of the alterations in the molecular structure of cyclins and their involvement in diverse molecular-genetic events.</p

Pulsed radiofrequency treatment in interventional pain management: mechanisms and potential indications—a review

Item does not contain fulltextBACKGROUND: The objective of this review is to evaluate the efficacy of Pulsed Radiofrequency (PRF) treatment in chronic pain management in randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and well-designed observational studies. The physics, mechanisms of action, and biological effects are discussed to provide the scientific basis for this promising modality. METHODS: We systematically searched for clinical studies on PRF. We searched the MEDLINE (PubMed) and EMBASE database, using the free text terms: pulsed radiofrequency, radio frequency, radiation, isothermal radiofrequency, and combination of these. We classified the information in two tables, one focusing only on RCTs, and another, containing prospective studies. Date of last electronic search was 30 May 2010. The methodological quality of the presented reports was scored using the original criteria proposed by Jadad et al. FINDINGS: We found six RCTs that evaluated the efficacy of PRF, one against corticosteroid injection, one against sham intervention, and the rest against conventional RF thermocoagulation. Two trials were conducted in patients with lower back pain due to lumbar zygapophyseal joint pain, one in cervical radicular pain, one in lumbosacral radicular pain, one in trigeminal neuralgia, and another in chronic shoulder pain. CONCLUSION: From the available evidence, the use of PRF to the dorsal root ganglion in cervical radicular pain is compelling. With regards to its lumbosacral counterpart, the use of PRF cannot be similarly advocated in view of the methodological quality of the included study. PRF application to the supracapular nerve was found to be as efficacious as intra-articular corticosteroid in patients with chronic shoulder pain. The use of PRF in lumbar facet arthropathy and trigeminal neuralgia was found to be less effective than conventional RF thermocoagulation techniques

Nutrition in agricultural development: Land settlement in coast province, Kenya

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