Structural analysis of hubs in human NR-RTK network

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Currently a huge amount of protein-protein interaction data is available therefore extracting meaningful ones are a challenging task. In a protein-protein interaction network, hubs are considered as key proteins maintaining function and stability of the network. Therefore, studying protein-protein complexes from a structural perspective provides valuable information for predicted interactions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, we have predicted by comparative modelling and docking methods protein-protein complexes of hubs of human NR-RTK network inferred from our earlier study. We found that some interactions are mutually excluded while others could occur simultaneously. This study revealed by structural analysis the key role played by Estrogen receptor (ESR1) in mediating the signal transduction between human Receptor Tyrosine kinases (RTKs) and nuclear receptors (NRs).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Although the methods require human intervention and judgment, they can identify the interactions that could occur together or ones that are mutually exclusive. This adds a fourth dimension to interaction network, that of time, and can assist in obtaining concrete predictions consistent with experiments.</p> <p>Open peer review</p> <p>This article was reviewed by Dr. Anthony Almudevar, Prof. James Faeder and Prof. Eugene Koonin. For the full reviews, please go to the Reviewers' comments.</p

Autonomy, Governance and Quality Assurance in Tunisia:‎ Case of Center of Biotechnology of Sfax

The objective of this article is to prove that managerial practice in a ‎research structure can be strengthened through the establishment of ‎a results-oriented management mode (QSE & accreditation) and ‎the adoption of a sustainable system for planning, implementing, ‎and monitoring its strategy, as well as the development of a system ‎for continuously improving its performance.‎Major governance changes associated with recognition through the ‎certification of the QSE system and accreditation of three analytical ‎parameters will strengthen the credibility regarding the socio-‎economic environment and the national, and international partners.

Parallel Execution of ATL Transformation Rules

International audienceIndustrial environments that make use of Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) are starting to see the appearance of very large models, made by millions of elements. Such models are produced automatically (e.g., by reverse engineering complex systems) or manually by a large number of users (e.g., from social networks). The success of MDE in these application scenarios strongly depends on the scalability of model manipulation tools. While parallelization is one of the traditional ways of making computation systems scalable, developing parallel model transformations in a general-purpose language is a complex and error-prone task. In this paper we show that rule-based languages like ATL have strong parallelization properties. Transformations can be developed without taking into account concurrency concerns, and a transformation engine can automatically parallelize execution. We describe the implementation of a parallel transformation engine for the current version of the ATL language and experimentally evaluate the consequent gain in scalability

Experimental and modelling approach to the legume-Rhizobium interaction: test of plant-host sanctions in co-inoculated plants with fixing and non-fixing strains

Ponencia presentada en la II Conferencia Iberoamericana de Interacciones Beneficiosas Microorganismo-Planta-Ambiente (IBEMPA). XIV Reunión Nacional de la Sociedad Española de Fijación de Nitrógeno (SEFIN). XXVI Reunión Latinoamericana de Rizobiología (ALAR). III Congreso Hispano-Portugués de Fijación de Nitrógeno. “Microorganismos para una Agricultura de futuro”. Sevilla, España, 2 al 6 de septiembre de 2013We tested the plant host sanction hypothesis using soybean plants co-inoculated with two rhizobial strains, a normally N2 fixing strain and a mutant derivative that lacks nitrogenase activity but has the same nodulation abilities. We found no evidence of functioning plant host sanctions to cheater rhizobia based on nodular rhizobia viability in co-inoculated plants.Fil: Marco, Diana. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias; Argentina.Fil: Marco, Diana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET); Argentina.Fil: Talbi, Choura. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC). Estación Experimental del Zaidín. Departamento de Microbiología del Suelo y Sistemas Simbióticos; España.Fil: Bedmar, Eulogio J. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC). Estación Experimental del Zaidín. Departamento de Microbiología del Suelo y Sistemas Simbióticos; España

Human disordered charged biased proteins: from the proteome to the druggome

The human disordered charged biased proteins (HDCBPs) are involved in complex diseases. The HDCBP-disease network constructed in our earlier showed that HDCBPs share many diseases. Therefore, they are attractive therapeutic targets for drug discovery. In this study, we explore the associations between (HDCBPs), the related diseases, and the drugs. The results show that 20% and 14% of HDCBPs are listed in DRUGBANK and ChemDB respectively. The elaborated HDCBP-Drug-Disease network revealed that most of the therapeutic area indications included cancer, neoplasm, lymphoma, cardiovascular, respiratory and skin diseases. The constructed HDCBP-Drug-Disease network may improve our understanding of complex diseases and related drugs. Moreover, such a network could suggest opportunities of drug repurposing for which efficacy should be investigated in functional validation studies

A Nelder–Mead algorithm-based inverse transient analysis for leak detection and sizing in a single pipe

Abstract In this paper the results of an experimental validation of a technique for leak detection in polymeric pipes based on the inverse transient analysis (ITA) are presented. In the proposed ITA the Nelder–Mead algorithm is used as a calibration tool. Experimental tests have been carried out in an intact and leaky high-density polyethylene (HDPE) single pipe installed at the Water Engineering Laboratory (WEL) of the University of Perugia, Italy. Transients have been generated by the fast and complete closure of a valve placed at the downstream end section of the pipe. In the first phase of the calibration procedure, the proposed algorithm has been used to estimate both the viscoelastic parameters of a generalized Kelvin–Voigt model and the unsteady-state friction coefficient, by minimizing the difference between the numerical and experimental results. In the second phase of the procedure, the calibrated model allowed the evaluation of leak size and location with an acceptable accuracy. Precisely, in terms of leak location the relative error was smaller than 5%

Disorder and interactions: What can dehydrins in cereals tell us anymore?

Dehydrins (DHNs) are intrinsically disordered proteins that are expressed under conditions of water-related stress. They play a fundamental role in plant response and adaptation to abiotic stresses. The protein architecture of dehydrins can be described by the presence of three types of conserved sequence motifs that have been named the Y-, S-and K- segments. Although, dehydrins are extensively studied, their molecular interactions remain elusive. By combining network analysis with prior knowledge, we provide further insights into the role of some dehydrin disorder in cereals notably in stress tolerance. This work includes a comparative analysis with dehydrins of Arabidopsis thaliana to highlight the disorder conservation of dehydrins across evolution

Environmental impact and management of phosphogypsum

The production of phosphoric acid from natural phosphate rock by the wet process gives rise to an industrial by-product called phosphogypsum (PG). About 5 tons of PG are generated per ton of phosphoric acid production, and worldwide PG generation is estimated to be around 100–280 Mt per year. This by-product is mostly disposed of without any treatment, usually by dumping in large stockpiles. These are generally located in coastal areas close to phosphoric acid plants, where they occupy large land areas and cause serious environmental damage. PG is mainly composed of gypsum but also contains a high level of impurities such as phosphates, fluorides and sulphates, naturally occurring radionuclides, heavy metals, and other trace elements. All of this adds up to a negative environmental impact and many restrictions on PG applications. Up to 15% of world PG production is used to make building materials, as a soil amendment and as a set controller in the manufacture of Portland cement; uses that have been banned in most countries. The USEPAThe authors are grateful to AECI (project N A/5537/06) and to the Spanish National R&D&I Plan (Project CTQ2008-02012/PPQ) for the financial support of this study. Hanan Tayibi is grateful to the CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) for an I3P contract (I3PDR-6-01).Peer reviewe

Dynamic Study of a Capacitive MEMS Switch with Double Clamped-Clamped Microbeams

We study a capacitive MEMS switch composed of two clamped-clamped exible microbeams. We first develop a mathematical model for the MEMS switch where the upper microbeam represents the ground transmission line and the lower one represents the central transmission line. An electrostatic force is applied between the two microbeams to yield the switch to its ON and OFF states. We derive the equations of motion of the system and associated boundary conditions and solve the static and dynamic problems using the differential quadratic method. We show that using only nine grid points gives relatively accurate results when compared to those obtained using FEM. We also examine the transient behavior of the microswitch and obtain results indicating that subsequent reduction in actuation voltage, switching time, and power consumption are expected along with relatively good RF performances. ANSYS HFSS simulator is used in this paper to extract the RF characteristics of the microswitch. HFSS simulation results show that the insertion loss is as low as −0.31 dB and that the return loss is better than −12.41 dB at 10 GHz in the ON state. At the OFF state, the isolation is lower than −23 dB in the range of 10 to 50 GHz

Rapid, regioselective living ring-opening metathesis polymerization of bio-derivable asymmetric tricyclic oxanorbornenes

The synthesis of a range of alkyl esters (methyl, n-butyl, and n-decyl) prepared via Steglich esterification of the thermodynamically controlled exo, exo Diels���Alder adduct of furfuryl alcohol and maleic anhydride is reported. Subsequent ring-opening metathesis polymerization of these bio-derivable tricyclic oxanorbornene analogs delivers polymers with targeted molar mass and low molar mass dispersity. The polymerizations are rapid with complete monomer conversion achieved within 15 min. Significantly, the presence of the cyclic lactone at the bridgehead of these monomers leads to polymers with high regioregularity (>85% head-to-tail) and high stereoregularity (>75% trans). The resultant polymers display both high thermal stability and high glass transition temperatures. This new class of oxanorbornene monomer, accessed from bio-derivable furfuryl alcohol and maleic anhydride, may be further tailored to incorporate a range of functional moieties. Furthermore, the exceptional properties of the derived polymers indicate potential in a range of applications