Pyrroloquinoline quinone increases the expression and activity of Sirt1 and -3 genes in HepG2 cells.

Sirtuin (Sirt) 1 and Sirt 3 are nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide ((+))-dependent protein deacetylases that are important to a number of mitochondrial-related functions; thus, identification of sirtuin activators is important. Herein, we hypothesize that pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) can act as a Sirt1/Sirt3 activator. In HepG2 cell cultures, PQQ increased the expression of Sirt1 and Sirt3 gene, protein, and activity levels (P < .05). We also observed a significant increase in nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase gene expression (as early as 18 hours) and increased NAD(+) activity at 24 hours. In addition, targets of Sirt1 and Sirt3 (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator 1α, nuclear respiratory factor 1 and 2, and mitochondrial transcription factor A) were increased at 48 hours. This is the first report that demonstrates PQQ as an activator of Sirt1 and Sirt3 expression and activity, making it an attractive therapeutic agent for the treatment of metabolic diseases and for healthy aging. Based on our study and the available data in vivo, PQQ has the potential to serve as a therapeutic nutraceutical, when enhancing mitochondrial function

CP violation and the CKM angle γ\gamma from angular distributions of untagged BsB_s decays governed by bˉ→cˉusˉ\bar b\to\bar c u\bar s

We demonstrate that time-dependent studies of angular distributions for $B_s$ decays caused by $\bar b\to\bar cu\bar s$ quark-level transitions extract cleanly and model-independently the CKM angle $\gamma$. This CKM angle could be cleanly determined from untagged $B_s$ decays alone, if the lifetime difference between the $B_s$ mass eigenstates $B_s^L$ and $B_s^H$ is sizable. The time-dependences for the relevant tagged and untagged observables are given both in a general notation and in terms of linear polarization states and should exhibit large CP-violating effects. These observables may furthermore provide insights into the hadronization dynamics of the corresponding exclusive $B_s$ decays thereby allowing tests of the factorization hypothesis.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX, no figure

Critical Failure Factors in ERP Implementation

Conference Theme: I.T. and Value CreationThis study firstly examines the current literature concerning ERP implementation problems during implementation phases and causes of ERP implementation failure. A multiple case study research methodology was adopted to understand "why" and "how" these ERP systems could not be implemented successfully. Different stakeholders (including top management, project manager, project team members and ERP consultants) from these case studies were interviewed, and ERP implementation documents were reviewed for triangulation. An ERP life cycle framework was applied to study the ERP implementation process and the associated problems in each phase of ERP implementation. Fourteen critical failure factors were identified and analyzed, and three common critical failure factors (poor consultant effectiveness, project management effectiveness and poo555îr quality of business process re-engineering) were examined and discussed. Future research on ERP implementation and critical failure factors is discussed. It is hoped that this research will help to bridge the current literature gap and provide practical advice for both academics and practitioners.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

The Use of Gene Expression Analysis and Proteomic Databases in The Development of a Screening System To Determine The Value of Natural Medicinal Products

A rapid throughput screening system involving gene expression analysis was developed in order to investigate the potential of bioactive chemicals contained in natural health products as effective drug therapy, in particular the ability of these chemicals to alleviate the inflammatory response in human airway epithelial cells. A number of databases were searched to retrieve the information needed to properly analyze the gene expression profiles obtained. The gene expression of human bronchial epithelial cells infected with rhinovirus and/or exposed to platelet activating factor was analyzed. Following analysis of the gene expression data the total number of expressed proteins that may potentially act as a marker for monitoring the modulation of airway inflammation was narrowed to 19. Further studies will involve selecting antibodies for these proteins, culturing airway epithelial cells in the presence of extracts of natural health products, extracting the proteins and identifying them by western blot analysis

Mixing-Induced CP Violation in the Decay Bd→K0Kˉ0B_d\to K^0 \bar K^0 within the Standard Model

Recently, flavour $SU(3)$ symmetry of strong interactions has been combined with certain dynamical assumptions to derive triangle relations among $B$-meson decay-amplitudes. We show that these relations allow a prediction of the mixing-induced CP asymmetry \acpmi(B_d\to K^0\bar K^0). Contrary to statements made in several previous papers, this asymmetry should be non-vanishing in the Standard Model due to QCD-penguins with internal up- and charm-quark exchanges and could be as large as \order(30\%). The branching ratio BR$(B_d\to K^0\bar K^0)$ is expected to be of \order(10^{-6}). In the future, the results presented in this letter should allow interesting tests of the $SU(3)$ triangle relations and of the Standard Model description of CP violation.Comment: 13 pages (LaTeX) + 4 figures included, Munich Technical University preprint TUM-T31-76/9