Photovoltaic water pumping applications: Assessment of the near-term market

Water pumping applications represent a potential market for photovoltaics. The price of energy for photovoltaic systems was compared to that of utility line extensions and diesel generators. The potential domestic demand was defined in the government, commercial/institutional and public sectors. The foreign demand and sources of funding for water pumping systems in the developing countries were also discussed briefly. It was concluded that a near term domestic market of at least 240 megawatts and a foreign market of about 6 gigawatts exist

New insights into protein-protein interaction data lead to increased estimates of the S. cerevisiae interactome size

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>As protein interactions mediate most cellular mechanisms, protein-protein interaction networks are essential in the study of cellular processes. Consequently, several large-scale interactome mapping projects have been undertaken, and protein-protein interactions are being distilled into databases through literature curation; yet protein-protein interaction data are still far from comprehensive, even in the model organism <it>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</it>. Estimating the interactome size is important for evaluating the completeness of current datasets, in order to measure the remaining efforts that are required.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We examined the yeast interactome from a new perspective, by taking into account how thoroughly proteins have been studied. We discovered that the set of literature-curated protein-protein interactions is qualitatively different when restricted to proteins that have received extensive attention from the scientific community. In particular, these interactions are less often supported by yeast two-hybrid, and more often by more complex experiments such as biochemical activity assays. Our analysis showed that high-throughput and literature-curated interactome datasets are more correlated than commonly assumed, but that this bias can be corrected for by focusing on well-studied proteins. We thus propose a simple and reliable method to estimate the size of an interactome, combining literature-curated data involving well-studied proteins with high-throughput data. It yields an estimate of at least 37, 600 direct physical protein-protein interactions in <it>S. cerevisiae</it>.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our method leads to higher and more accurate estimates of the interactome size, as it accounts for interactions that are genuine yet difficult to detect with commonly-used experimental assays. This shows that we are even further from completing the yeast interactome map than previously expected.</p

Protein–Protein Interactions Essentials: Key Concepts to Building and Analyzing Interactome Networks

8 páginas, 3 figuras, 1 tabla.-- This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.This work has been supported by funds provided by the Local Government Junta de Castilla y León (JCyL, ref. project: CSI07A09), by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN - ISCiii, ref. projects: PI061153 and PS09/00843) and by the European Commission Research Grant PSIMEx (ref. FP7-HEALTH-2007-223411).Peer Reviewe

Reuse of structural domain–domain interactions in protein networks

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Protein interactions are thought to be largely mediated by interactions between structural domains. Databases such as <it>i</it>Pfam relate interactions in protein structures to known domain families. Here, we investigate how the domain interactions from the <it>i</it>Pfam database are distributed in protein interactions taken from the HPRD, MPact, BioGRID, DIP and IntAct databases.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We find that known structural domain interactions can only explain a subset of 4–19% of the available protein interactions, nevertheless this fraction is still significantly bigger than expected by chance. There is a correlation between the frequency of a domain interaction and the connectivity of the proteins it occurs in. Furthermore, a large proportion of protein interactions can be attributed to a small number of domain interactions. We conclude that many, but not all, domain interactions constitute reusable modules of molecular recognition. A substantial proportion of domain interactions are conserved between <it>E. coli</it>, <it>S. cerevisiae </it>and <it>H. sapiens</it>. These domains are related to essential cellular functions, suggesting that many domain interactions were already present in the last universal common ancestor.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results support the concept of domain interactions as reusable, conserved building blocks of protein interactions, but also highlight the limitations currently imposed by the small number of available protein structures.</p

From silence to primary definer: The rise of the Intelligence lobby in the public sphere

Until the end of the Cold War the UK intelligence services were not officially acknowledged, and their personnel were banned from entering the public sphere. From 1989 the UK government began to put the intelligence services on a legal footing and to release the identity of the heads of the intelligence agencies. Since then, public engagement by the intelligence agencies has gathered pace. What this article hypothesises is that there is now, in the UK, an effective intelligence lobby of former insiders who engage in the public sphere – using on the record briefings – to counter criticism of the intelligence community and to promote a narrative and vision of what UK intelligence should do, how it is supported and how oversight is conducted. Content analysis and framing models of non-broadcast coverage of intelligence debates, focusing on the 36 months after the Snowden revelations, confirm an active and rolling lobby of current and former intelligence officials. The paper concludes that the extent of the lobby’s interventions in the public sphere is a matter for debate and possible concern

Identification of FAM111A as an SV40 Host Range Restriction and Adenovirus Helper Factor

The small genome of polyomaviruses encodes a limited number of proteins that are highly dependent on interactions with host cell proteins for efficient viral replication. The SV40 large T antigen (LT) contains several discrete functional domains including the LXCXE or RB-binding motif, the DNA binding and helicase domains that contribute to the viral life cycle. In addition, the LT C-terminal region contains the host range and adenovirus helper functions required for lytic infection in certain restrictive cell types. To understand how LT affects the host cell to facilitate viral replication, we expressed full-length or functional domains of LT in cells, identified interacting host proteins and carried out expression profiling. LT perturbed the expression of p53 target genes and subsets of cell-cycle dependent genes regulated by the DREAM and the B-Myb-MuvB complexes. Affinity purification of LT followed by mass spectrometry revealed a specific interaction between the LT C-terminal region and FAM111A, a previously uncharacterized protein. Depletion of FAM111A recapitulated the effects of heterologous expression of the LT C-terminal region, including increased viral gene expression and lytic infection of SV40 host range mutants and adenovirus replication in restrictive cells. FAM111A functions as a host range restriction factor that is specifically targeted by SV40 LT

The diminished effect of index rebalances

The author revisits the strategy of trading S&P 500 index re-compositions under the pre- and post-crisis financial environments, proving that the return structure has significantly changed. The results show for the first time, that there are currently no tradable abnormal returns between announcement and event dates in the post-crisis sample period, indicating smoother rebalancing mechanisms by bank’s client facing desks and better services for passive end-investors. The newly added firms inflate the S&P 500 index by less than 10 basis points per year. The results could be attributed to improved execution algorithms used by the banks, and potentially to the new regulatory reforms in the sector, which prevents financial institutions from taking large trading positions with their balance sheets

Urine disinfection and in situ pathogen killing using a Microbial Fuel Cell cascade system

© 2017 Ieropoulos et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) are emerging as an effective means of treating different types of waste including urine and wastewater. However, the fate of pathogens in an MFC-based system remains unknown, and in this study we investigated the effect of introducing the enteric pathogen Salmonella enterica serovar enteritidis in an MFC cascade system. The MFCs continuously fed with urine showed high disinfecting potential. As part of two independent trials, during which the bioluminescent S. enteritidis strain was introduced into the MFC cascade, the number of viable counts and the level of bioluminescence were reduced by up to 4.43-0.04 and 4.21-0.01 log-fold, respectively. The killing efficacy observed for the MFCs operating under closed-circuit conditions, were higher by 1.69 and 1.72 log-fold reduction than for the open circuit MFCs, in both independent trials. The results indicated that the bactericidal properties of a well performing anode were dependent on power performance and the oxidation-reduction potential recorded for the MFCs. This is the first time that the fate of pathogenic bacteria has been investigated in continuously operating MFC systems