2,005 research outputs found
Propagation of sound from aircraft ground operations
Atmospheric absorption effects on sound propagation losses during aircraft ground operation
The propagation of sound from airport ground operations
Noise measurements of sound propagation related to jet aircraft takeoff
Mechanism of acetaldehyde-induced deactivation of microbial lipases
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Microbial lipases represent the most important class of biocatalysts used for a wealth of applications in organic synthesis. An often applied reaction is the lipase-catalyzed transesterification of vinyl esters and alcohols resulting in the formation of acetaldehyde which is known to deactivate microbial lipases, presumably by structural changes caused by initial Schiff-base formation at solvent accessible lysine residues. Previous studies showed that several lipases were sensitive toward acetaldehyde deactivation whereas others were insensitive; however, a general explanation of the acetaldehyde-induced inactivation mechanism is missing.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Based on five microbial lipases from <it>Candida rugosa</it>, <it>Rhizopus oryzae</it>, <it>Pseudomonas fluorescens </it>and <it>Bacillus subtilis </it>we demonstrate that the protonation state of lysine <it>ε</it>-amino groups is decisive for their sensitivity toward acetaldehyde. Analysis of the diverse modification products of <it>Bacillus subtilis </it>lipases in the presence of acetaldehyde revealed several stable products such as <it>α,β</it>-unsaturated polyenals, which result from base and/or amino acid catalyzed aldol condensation of acetaldehyde. Our studies indicate that these products induce the formation of stable Michael-adducts at solvent-accessible amino acids and thus lead to enzyme deactivation. Further, our results indicate Schiff-base formation with acetaldehyde to be involved in crosslinking of lipase molecules.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Differences in stability observed with various commercially available microbial lipases most probably result from different purification procedures carried out by the respective manufacturers. We observed that the pH of the buffer used prior to lyophilization of the enzyme sample is of utmost importance. The mechanism of acetaldehyde-induced deactivation of microbial lipases involves the generation of <it>α,β</it>-unsaturated polyenals from acetaldehyde which subsequently form stable Michael-adducts with the enzymes. Lyophilization of the enzymes from buffer at pH 6.0 can provide an easy and effective way to stabilize lipases toward inactivation by acetaldehyde.</p
Market Integration: Case Studies of Structural Change
The grain/oilseed industry is undergoing considerable structural change through mergers and new value-added businesses, which raises price-related questions. We analyze the level of price integration prior to and following a merger between two grain firms and the start-up of a producer-owned ethanol facility. This research utilizes error correction vector autoregression analysis to compute market integration structural change effects. We find evidence that market integration initially increases with the merger, but deteriorates with time following the merger. We find no significant localized change in the level of price integration for the case of a new value-added business.consolidation, structural change, price integration, Agribusiness, Industrial Organization,
Sub-Riemannian Fast Marching in SE(2)
We propose a Fast Marching based implementation for computing sub-Riemanninan
(SR) geodesics in the roto-translation group SE(2), with a metric depending on
a cost induced by the image data. The key ingredient is a Riemannian
approximation of the SR-metric. Then, a state of the art Fast Marching solver
that is able to deal with extreme anisotropies is used to compute a SR-distance
map as the solution of a corresponding eikonal equation. Subsequent
backtracking on the distance map gives the geodesics. To validate the method,
we consider the uniform cost case in which exact formulas for SR-geodesics are
known and we show remarkable accuracy of the numerically computed SR-spheres.
We also show a dramatic decrease in computational time with respect to a
previous PDE-based iterative approach. Regarding image analysis applications,
we show the potential of considering these data adaptive geodesics for a fully
automated retinal vessel tree segmentation.Comment: CIARP 201
Cytogenetic findings in mouse multiple myeloma and Waldenström's macroglobulinemia
Multiple myeloma (MM) and Waldenström's macroglobulinemia-like lymphoma (MW) appear spontaneously in C57BL/KaLwRij mice at a frequency of 0.5% and 0.2%, respectively. They can readily be propagated by intravenous transfer of mainly bone marrow or spleen cells into syngeneic recipients. Previous studies demonstrated that these mouse malignant monoclonal gammopathies (MMG) show clinical and biologic features that closely resemble those of the corresponding human diseases and thus could be used as experimental models. We report on cytogenetic analysis of two mouse MW and five MM in vivo cell lines of the 5TMM series propagated in syngeneic mice. These studies demonstrated clonal abnormalities in all cell lines, hyperdiploid karyotype in both MW and one MM lines, and hypotriploidy, hypertriploidy, or hypotetraploidy in the other lines. Structural abnormalities of chromosome 15 were observed in all MM lines. In the five MM lines, frequent rearrangements were also found for chromosome numbers 1, 2, 5, and 12. A single chromosomal abnormality, as found in induced mouse plasmacytomas and resembling Burkitt lymphoma, was not found in mouse MM and MW. It was concluded that spontaneously originating C57BL MM of the 5T series is a better model for human MM than pristane-induced BALB/c or NZB plasmacytoma
Complexome profiling reveals association of PPR proteins with ribosomes in the mitochondria of plants
Mitochondrial transcripts are subject to a wealth of processing mechanisms including cis- and trans-splicing events, as well as base modifications (RNA editing). HUndreds of proteins are required for these processes in plant mitochondria, many of which belong to the pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) protein superfamily. The structure, localization, and function of these proteins is only poorly Understood. Here we present evidence that several PPR proteins are boUnd to mitoribosomes in plants. A novel complexome profiling strategy in combination with chemical crosslinking has been employed to systematically define the protein constituents of the large and the small ribosomal subunits in the mitochondria of plants. We identified more than 80 ribosomal proteins, which include several PPR proteins and other non-conventional ribosomal proteins. These findings reveal a potential coupling of transcriptional and translational events in the mitochondria of plants. Furthermore, the data indicate an extremely high molecular mass of the “small” subunit, even exceeding that of the “large” subunit
Asymmetric Pt/Co/Pt-stack induced sign-control of current-induced magnetic domain-wall creep
We report experimentally obtained magnetic domain wall (DW) velocities of current-assisted field-driven DW creep in perpendicularly magnetized Pt/Co/Pt. We have intentionally introduced an asymmetry in the stacks by using different thicknesses of the two Pt layers sandwiching the Co layer. Thereby, it is tested whether conflicting current-induced domain wall motion (CI-DWM) results may be intrinsically related to the basic layout and growth. We sketch a scenario which could be at the basis of contradicting reports in literature where the direction of CI-DWM conflicts with spin-torque-transfer theory, allowing the sign of the current-induced effect on DW motion to be tuned
Potential of Mycobacterium tuberculosis resuscitation-promoting factors as antigens in novel tuberculosis sub-unit vaccines
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Structure of a robust bacterial protein cage and its application as a versatile biocatalytic platform through enzyme encapsulation
Using a newly discovered encapsulin from Mycolicibacterium hassiacum, several biocatalysts were packaged in this robust protein cage. The encapsulin was found to be easy to produce as recombinant protein. Elucidation of its crystal structure revealed that it is a spherical protein cage of 60 protomers (diameter of 23 nm) with narrow pores. By developing an effective coexpression and isolation procedure, the effect of packaging a variety of biocatalysts could be evaluated. It was shown that encapsulation results in a significantly higher stability of the biocatalysts. Most of the targeted cofactor-containing biocatalysts remained active in the encapsulin. Due to the restricted diameters of the encapsulin pores (5–9 Å), the protein cage protects the encapsulated enzymes from bulky compounds. The work shows that encapsulins may be valuable tools to tune the properties of biocatalysts such as stability and substrate specificity
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