Actin polymerization controls the activation of multidrug efflux at fertilization by translocation and fine-scale positioning of ABCB1 on microvilli.

© The Author(s), 2012. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Molecular Biology of the Cell 23 (2012): 3663-3672, doi:10.1091/mbc.E12-06-0438.Fertilization changes the structure and function of the cell surface. In sea urchins, these changes include polymerization of cortical actin and a coincident, switch-like increase in the activity of the multidrug efflux transporter ABCB1a. However, it is not clear how cortical reorganization leads to changes in membrane transport physiology. In this study, we used three-dimensional superresolution fluorescence microscopy to resolve the fine-scale movements of the transporter along polymerizing actin filaments, and we show that efflux activity is established after ABCB1a translocates to the tips of the microvilli. Inhibition of actin poly­merization or bundle formation prevents tip localization, resulting in the patching of ABCB1a at the cell surface and decreased efflux activity. In contrast, enhanced actin polymerization promotes tip localization. Finally, interference with Rab11, a regulator of apical recycling, inhibits activation of efflux activity in embryos. Together our results show that actin-mediated, short-range traffic and positioning of transporters at the cell surface regulates multidrug efflux activity and highlight the multifaceted roles of microvilli in the spatial distribution of membrane proteins.Funding was provided by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (058070), the National Center for Research Resources (P30-NS047101), the Krinsk Research Advancement Initiative to A.H., a Scripps Postdoctoral Scholar Fellowship to K.W., and NICHD award 062178 to A.M.R

Pattern of thyroid diseases in central Sudan: Nuclear medicine perspective

Thyroid scintigraphy using Tc-99m pertechnetate is a frequently performed procedure in routine nuclear medicine practice in addition to thyroid hormonal assay by radioimmunoassay (RIA). There is no clear description of thyroid diseases pattern in Sudan using nuclear medicine as a diagnostic tool. The aim of this retrospective study is to determine the pattern of thyroid diseases using the nuclear medicine facilities in our institute during a period (2001-2003). Methods: All patients referred to the department of nuclear medicine for thyroid scan from January 2001 to December 2003 were included in this study and the thyroid function test when available. Data were analyzed by SPSS software. Results: A total of 2070 patients were referred to the department and only 1605 (77.5%) have thyroid function test results available for scan reporting. Female to male ratio is 9:1. The mean age is 34 ±13.36 (1-86 years old). The most common pattern is simple multinodular goiter 784 (37.8%) and the second is solitary thyroid nodule 506 (24.4%), followed by simple diffuse goiter 415 (20%). From a total of 1605 thyroid function test results, 1377 patients (85.8%) were euthyroid, 168 (10.5%) were having hyperthyroidism while only 60 (3.7%) were having hypothyroidism. Conclusion: The vast majority of patients in this study were young females with simple goiter and normal radionuclide uptake. No more information gained particularly when the patient is known clinically and biochemically to have a simple goiter. A solitary cold nodule is also common.Keywords: Thyroid scan, goiter, cold nodule, iodine deficiency, thyroid disease

Activation of multidrug efflux transporter activity at fertilization in sea urchin embryos (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus)

AbstractThis study presents functional and molecular evidence for acquisition of multidrug transporter-mediated efflux activity as a consequence of fertilization in the sea urchin. Sea urchin eggs and embryos express low levels of efflux transporter genes with homology to the multidrug resistance associated protein (mrp) and permeability glycoprotein (p-gp) families of ABC transporters. The corresponding efflux activity is low in unfertilized eggs but is dramatically upregulated within 25 min of fertilization; the expression of this activity does not involve de novo gene expression and is insensitive to inhibitors of transcription and translation indicating activation of pre-existing transporter protein. Our study, using specific inhibitors of efflux transporters, indicates that the major activity is from one or more mrp-like transporters. The expression of activity at fertilization requires microfilaments, suggesting that the transporters are in vesicles and moved to the surface after fertilization. Pharmacological inhibition of mrp-mediated efflux activity with MK571 sensitizes embryos to the toxic compound vinblastine, confirming that one role for the efflux transport activity is embryo protection from xenobiotics. In addition, inhibition of mrp activity with MK571 alone retards mitosis indicating that mrp-like activity may also be required for early cell divisions

Magnetization study of Ni/Ag multilayers

The magnetic properties of Ni/Ag multilayers, prepared by evaporation in ultrahigh vacuum under controlled conditions, have been systematically studied by magnetic measurements. A spin-wave theory has been used to explain the temperature dependence of the magnetization and the approximate values for the bulk exchange interaction Jb and surface exchange interaction JS for various Ni layer thicknesses have been obtained.The magnetic properties of Ni/Ag multilayers, prepared by evaporation in ultrahigh vacuum under controlled conditions, have been systematically studied by magnetic measurements. A spin-wave theory has been used to explain the temperature dependence of the magnetization and the approximate values for the bulk exchange interaction Jb and surface exchange interaction JS for various Ni layer thicknesses have been obtained

A HIERARCHICAL REGISTER OPTIMIZATION APPROACH

Abstract A hierarchical register allocation approach in high-level synthesis is presented. First, we accomplish the trivial register allocation and then we attempt to optimize the number of required registers. In this work, we extend conventional register allocation algorithms to handle behavioral descriptions containing conditional branches and loops. However, in our approach the register optimization will carried out with explicit consideration of interconnection cost. Results show that our approach is more efficient for data flow graphs that contain nested conditional blocks and loops

Polyorchidism: case report and literature review

Polyorchidism is a rare congenital anomaly frequently associated with maldescent testis, hernia, and torsion. Reports in the literature show an increased risk of testicular malignancy in the presence of polyorchidism. This entity has characteristic sonographic features and the diagnosis is often made on the basis of sonography. A conservative approach is the treatment of choice in uncomplicated cases. We report a male of 26-years old with 2 testicles in right side diagnosed by ultrasound. A brief history and review of the literature is also presente

Who is who at different cameras: people re-identification using depth cameras

This study proposes the concept of bodyprints to perform re-identification of people in surveillance videos. Bodyprints are obtained using calibrated depth-colour cameras such as kinect. The author's results on a database of 40 people show that bodyprints are very robust to changes of pose, point of view and illumination. Potential applications include tracking people with networks of non-overlapping cameras. © 2012 The Institution of Engineering and Technology.The work presented in this paper has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology under the CICYT contract TEVISMART, TEC2009-09146.Albiol Colomer, AJ.; Albiol Colomer, A.; Oliver Moll, J.; Mossi García, JM. (2012). Who is who at different cameras: people re-identification using depth cameras. IET Computer Vision. 6(5):378-387. https://doi.org/10.1049/iet-cvi.2011.0140S37838765Dee, H. M., & Velastin, S. A. (2007). How close are we to solving the problem of automated visual surveillance? Machine Vision and Applications, 19(5-6), 329-343. doi:10.1007/s00138-007-0077-zhttp://www.pointclouds.org/Zhang, Z., & Troje, N. F. (2005). View-independent person identification from human gait. Neurocomputing, 69(1-3), 250-256. doi:10.1016/j.neucom.2005.06.002Bazzani, L., Cristani, M., Perina, A., Farenzena, M., & Murino, V. (2010). Multiple-Shot Person Re-identification by HPE Signature. 2010 20th International Conference on Pattern Recognition. doi:10.1109/icpr.2010.349Doretto, G., Sebastian, T., Tu, P., & Rittscher, J. (2011). Appearance-based person reidentification in camera networks: problem overview and current approaches. Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing, 2(2), 127-151. doi:10.1007/s12652-010-0034-yBk, S., Corvee, E., Bremond, F., & Thonnat, M. (2010). Person Re-identification Using Spatial Covariance Regions of Human Body Parts. 2010 7th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Video and Signal Based Surveillance. doi:10.1109/avss.2010.34Da-Jinn Wang, Chao-Ho Chen, Tsong-Yi Chen, & Chien-Tsung Lee. (2009). People Recognition for Entering & Leaving a Video Surveillance Area. 2009 Fourth International Conference on Innovative Computing, Information and Control (ICICIC). doi:10.1109/icicic.2009.293Bird, N. D., Masoud, O., Papanikolopoulos, N. P., & Isaacs, A. (2005). Detection of Loitering Individuals in Public Transportation Areas. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 6(2), 167-177. doi:10.1109/tits.2005.848370Oliveira, I. O. de, & Pio, J. L. de S. (2009). People Reidentification in a Camera Network. 2009 Eighth IEEE International Conference on Dependable, Autonomic and Secure Computing. doi:10.1109/dasc.2009.33Hamdoun, O., Moutarde, F., Stanciulescu, B., & Steux, B. (2008). Person re-identification in multi-camera system by signature based on interest point descriptors collected on short video sequences. 2008 Second ACM/IEEE International Conference on Distributed Smart Cameras. doi:10.1109/icdsc.2008.4635689Office, U.H.: ‘i-LIDS multiple camera tracking scenario definition’, 2008)http://www.gpiv.upv.es/kinect_data/http://www.primesense.com/http://www.openni.org/http://opencv.willowgarage.com/http://www.ros.org/http://kinectforwindows.org/Grimaud, M. (1992). New measure of contrast: the dynamics. Image Algebra and Morphological Image Processing III. doi:10.1117/12.60650Beucher, S., and Meyer, F.: ‘The morphological approach to segmentation: the watershed transformation’, (Marcel-Dekker 1992), p. 433–4