Chemically stabilized subtilisins in peptide synthesis

We have stabilized alcalaseTM and subtilisin Carlsberg (SC) against heat by chemical modification with ethylene glycol bis-succinimidyl succinate (EGNHS), a procedure not previously reported for subtilisins. The increases in thermal stability at 65oC were 1.8-fold and 4.7-fold respectively. Caseinolytic activity of alcalase in aqueous buffer was unchanged following modification but apparent Km of SC decreased 2.5-fold. Native and modified forms of both enzymes synthesized the tripeptide Z-Tyr-Gly-Gly-NH2 under kinetic control in mixtures based on 0.2M barbitone buffer, pH 9.0 and 50% v/v dimethyl formamide/ barbitone buffer. Native enzymes gave faster rates of product formation than their modified counterparts in buffer but differences were much less pronounced in the mixed solvent. We also compared native alcalase and SC in terms of thermal stability, tolerance of organic solvents and autolysis. Alcalase was approx. 4.6-fold more stable than SC at 65oC and was more tolerant of acetone, acetonitrile and 1,4-dioxane. Alcalase underwent autolysis at approx. half the rate of SC. Against succinyl- Ala-Ala-Pro-Phe substrates, alcalase showed a much higher esterase/ amidase ratio (567) than SC (29) in aqueous buffer but this was reversed in 50% v/v dimethylformamide, where the esterase/ amidase ratios were 43 and 113 respectively

Sexual and Reproductive Health Education for Boys in Kapchorwa, Uganda

This study examines the systems by which adolescent boys receive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education in Kapchorwa, Uganda. Teenage pregnancy and early marriage are epidemics that hinder Uganda’s development. As girls have consistently been the targets of interventions, this study considers how boys are included in these strategies. The objectives of the study are three-­‐fold: to research the ways that boys receive SRH education, to identify the successes and shortcomings of these education systems, and to seek ways for these systems to be improved. The study was carried out over a six-­‐week period in the spring of 2015. The researcher held qualitative interviews with two teachers and two student focus groups at each of three secondary schools within Kapchorwa District. The researcher then taught a brief lecture on SRH at each school in which students were given the opportunity to ask anonymous questions about sex. Three focus groups were also held with adult community members. Additionally, interviews were conducted with the a representative from the Ministry of Education, the Kapchorwa District Education Officer and three NGOs that operate in the Kapchorwa area: Kapchorwa Child Development Center, the Women’s Protection Center, and Reproductive Health Uganda. SRH education was found to be inconsistent and spread thinly among many sources. The majority of education emphasized abstinence, and gave boys specific messages that may not be entirely effective in teaching them to respect females’ sexual autonomy, nor in how to protect themselves from unplanned pregnancy. Recommendations are made on how these systems may be improved to better benefit boys, girls, and the community as a whole

Dear Old Missouri

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/4959/thumbnail.jp

Breaking up is hard to do: Identity Work in the HR Department

The purpose of this paper is to explore overarching themes regarding identity and the HR department. Our aim is to address some of the more recent developments in HR identity issues, such as dis-identification and how it relates to the changes that have occurred of late within the HR department

Beyond the closet: LGBT and queer archiving in the United States

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. December 2014. Major: Theatre Arts. Advisor: Dr. Margaret Werry. 1 computer file (PDF); v, 189 pages.This dissertation explores the ways sexual identity and culture are produced, imagined, performed, shaped, re-shaped, and deconstructed in LGBT archives in the United States. While a great deal of research has been conducted within the past two decades on LGBT historiography, there has been a dearth of studies examining the archival sites from which histories of LGBT identity are being written. This dissertation reveals that the construction of non-heterosexual sexual identities has been a conscious, careful process - borrowing from established historiographic, feminist, and colonial and postcolonial theories to establish archives of LGBT history and culture counter and in relation to dominant heteronormative narratives. There are times, however, when every archive fails to capture the complexity and diversity of LGBT experience. Rather than see these moments as failures, I "read" them as queer opportunities to rethink and reposition identities which may have become politically and socially stagnant. In each chapter, I focus on a particular archive and a specific individual (an archivist or a collector) who helped make it. The first chapter explores W. Dorr Legg's efforts in the 1950s to establish the discipline of homophile studies through the ONE Institute in Los Angeles as a way of creating a historical and archivable past for a collective homosexual minority that was just beginning to take shape. Chapter Two focuses on the Lesbian Herstory Archives in Brooklyn and Joan Nestle's radical reimagining of what an archive could be through the lens of 1970s lesbian separatist feminism. Chapter Three looks at the acquisition and organization methods of Jean Tretter of the Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies at the University of Minnesota as a way of describing the queer possibilities of encountering the unexpected in an archive. The fourth and final chapter theorizes what a queer archive might look like, grounding this theorization in the collection of 1960s performance artist Jack Smith, which has recently been acquired by the Gladstone Gallery in New York

Bird Integumentary Melanins: Biosynthesis, Forms, Function and Evolution

Melanins are the ubiquitous pigments distributed in nature. They are one of the main pigments responsible for colors in living cells. Birds are among the most diverse animals regarding melanin-based coloration, especially in the plumage, although they also pigment bare parts of the integument. This review is devoted to the main characteristics of bird melanins, including updated views of the formation and nature of melanin granules, whose interest has been raised in the last years for inferring the color of extinct birds and non-avian theropod dinosaurs using resistant fossil feathers. The molecular structure of the two main types of melanin, eumelanin and pheomelanin, and the environmental and genetic factors that regulate avian melanogenesis are also presented, establishing the main relationship between them. Finally, the special functions of melanin in bird feathers are also discussed, emphasizing the aspects more closely related to these animals, such as honest signaling, and the factors that may drive the evolution of pheomelanin and pheomelanin-based color traits, an issue for which birds have been pioneer study models.We acknowledge support by the CSIC Open Access Publication Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI).Ismael Galván was supported by a Ramón y Cajal Fellowship (ref. RYC-2012-10237) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Francisco Solano belongs to the research group supported with the grant 19875/GERM/15 from Seneca Foundation, CARM, Spain.Peer reviewe