Drosophila Model in the Study Role of UCH-L1

UCH-L1 (ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase L1) is a protein, which plays an important role in ubiquitin-proteasome system. Many previous reports showed the relation between UCH-L1 and neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, as well as cancer. However, the mechanism still remains unclear. In the aim to investigate the functions and regulatory mechanism of UCH-L1 in living organism, Drosophila melanogaster model was utilized to examine the role of UCH-L1. This chapter provides a summary on recent findings related to the roles of UCH-L1 based on the model. First, abnormal expression of Drosophila ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase (dUCH) leads to the defects on fly tissue development and function. Gain function of dUCH in the eye imaginal discs induced a rough eye phenotype in the adult, partly resulting from induction of caspase-dependent apoptosis, upset of photoreceptor cell distribution and ommatidium apical mispatterning. Interestingly, the dUCH overexpression of induced rough eye phenotype was completely recused by co-expression either Sevenless or Draf of the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. Besides, knockdown dUCH in dopaminergic neurons resulted in some Parkinson’s disease—like phenotypes in fly. Taken together, those findings in Drosophila model contributed a significant dUCH in tissue development and function

Ubiquitin Carboxyl-Terminal Hydrolase L1 in Parkinson’s Disease

Ubiquitin plays the crucial roles to maintain the ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) functions, which were suggested that involved in Parkinson’s diease (PD). Ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCHL1), which was detected in Lewy bodies of nerve cells in PD brains, plays an important role for maintaining ubiquitin pool in UPS. The first UCHL1 mutation (UCHL1I93M) was found in two siblings of a PD family. By contrast, UCHL1S18Y mutation was recognized to reduce the risk of developing PD by its specific antioxidant protective function. The studies of UCHL1 in mouse models showed that lack of UCHL1 resulted in motor ataxia, degeneration of axons, and instability of free ubiquitin level. Transgenic mice expressing UCHL1I93M mutant exhibited dopaminergic neuron (DA) degeneration in MPTP-treated conditions. In this chapter, we provide a summary on recent findings related to roles of UCH-L1 in PD. Knockdown dUCH, a homolog of human UCHL1, in fly dopaminergic neuron resulted as some Parkinson’s disease—like phenotype such as: (1) the underdevelopment and/or degeneration of DA neurons; (2) the shortage of dopamine in the brain; and (3) the locomotor dysfunctions. Those finding indicated that dUCH (ortholog of human UCH-L1 in Drosophila) plays an important role in Parkinson’s disease

Effects of Fertilizers on Biomass, Sugar Content and Ethanol Production of Sweet Sorghum

Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is a promising alternative crop for bioethanol production in developing countries. However, to extend the cultivative area of this crop, it needs to develop an appropriate growing protocol for farmers. This chapter describes the examination of different doses of fertilizers combined with manure and micronutrients, in various applied times, on biomass, sugar content and ethanol production of sweet sorghum. It was observed that the application of 90 N + 90 P2O5 + 60 K2O provided maximum stem yield and optimum contents of sugar and ethanol yield, however nontreatment of any among P, P2O5 and K2O caused significant reduction of biomass and ethanol production. Higher fertilization >90 N may provide greater productivity of this crop but it may cause lodging and economic deficit for farmers in developing countries. It was also found that the applied times of fertilization should be at 3–4 to 7–8 leaf stage. In contrast, when the fertilization was as close to the flowering stage caused remarkable reduction of stem yield and ethanol production. The supplementation of (NH4)2MO7O2.4H2O at 5 kg/ha provided an increase of 10–12 tons/ha of stem yield and a remarkable enrichment of ethanol production. Findings of this study are useful for farmers and agricultural extensionists to promote biomass and ethanol productivity of this crop for bioethanol production. This research also highlights a greater possibility of exploiting sweet sorghum cultivation in infertile and hilly, abandoned areas for ethanol production

Frequency and Complexity of Relative Clauses in Vietnamese Learners’ Essays

Relative clauses are considered as complex structures and employed in academic writing to a high extent. The frequency and complexity of these structures is expected to make non-native learners’ writing more academic. Therefore, the paper aims to investigate how Vietnamese learners of English use relative clauses in their essays. Particularly, 100 argumentative essays written by intermediate students are examined to explore the frequency and complexity of these structures. The findings show that the presence of relative clauses is found in nearly all essays. However, the investigated students tend to use many more restrictive relative clauses than non- restrictive ones. Regarding syntactic complexity, they have a preference order of SU>DO>OBL>GEN>IO=OCOMP. It is suggested that non-native learners should acquire the use of all types of relative clauses for them to be appropriately employed in their academic writing. Keywords: relative clauses, academic essays, non-native users, the NPA

THE TREATMENT OF COLLOCATIONS IN ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS FOR VIETNAMESE STUDENTS

The present study investigates collocational profiles that appear in the English textbook series for Vietnamese students from elementary to high school grades by identifying how the series covers collocations in terms of frequency and how the mode of collocation presentation aligns with recommendations in the existing literature. A total of 30,005 collocations of both verb-noun and adjective-noun patterns were identified, of which 1,078 are targeted collocations. The study found that the frequencies of occurrences of collocation tokens increase steadily alongside the three grade levels, while the frequencies of collocation types are not distributed proportionately. As for the mode of collocation presentation, targeted collocations and collocation exercises follow the best practices recommended in the literature to a certain extent and in some criteria; inconsistency, however, was found to be one of the shortcomings across those evaluation criteria. Pedagogical implications for teachers and textbook authors are discussed

Enzyme-Assisted Aqueous Extraction Of Cashew Nut (Anacardium occidentale L.) Oil

Enzyme-assisted aqueous extraction method was applied to extract oil from cashew nut (Anacardium occidentale L.). The commercial enzyme (Viscozyme cassava C) was tested for effectiveness in releasing oil during the aqueous extraction. The effect of several parameters such as material/water ratio, enzyme concentration and duration for enzyme incubation on the oil yield was investigated. The conditions for maximum oil release were found with the material/water ratio of 1:9, enzyme concentration of 1% (v/w E/S), and in 3 h of enzyme incubation at 50oC with constant shaking. The maximum oil yield obtained at those conditions (38.88 % raw material) was significantly (p <0.05) higher than that of the control (without enzyme) (35.92 %), and it represented 86.28 % recovery of the total oil in seed. No hexane and other organic solvents were needed for this process. The cashew nut oil by enzyme-assisted aqueous extraction was relatively stable. Both peroxide value and free fatty acid value were lower than those in the oil obtained by Soxhlet method. Total un-saturated fatty acid in the cashew nut oil was about 84.43 %, in which the most abundant was oleic acid (65.0 %), followed by linoleic acid (18.53%). Cashew nut oil is a good dietary source of un-saturated fatty acids