Hybrid Teams in Virtual Environments: Samurai Joins the Training Team

This paper demonstrates a virtual environment where mixed human-agent teams are used for team-skills training. © Springer-Verlag 2009

Comparative interactomics analysis of different ALS-associated proteins identifies converging molecular pathways

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurological disease with no effective treatment available. An increasing number of genetic causes of ALS are being identified, but how these genetic defects lead to motor neuron degeneration and to which extent they affect common cellular pathways remains incompletely understood. To address these questions, we performed an interactomic analysis to identify binding partners of wild-type (WT) and ALS-associated mutant versions of ATXN2, C9orf72, FUS, OPTN, TDP-43 and UBQLN2 in neuronal cells. This analysis identified several known but also many novel binding partners of these proteins

Applications of a new fluorimetric enzyme assay for the diagnosis of aspartylglucosaminuria

L-Aspartic acid-β-7-amido-4-methylcoumarin is a sensitive and specific fluorogenic substrate for lysosomal glycoasparaginase (aspartylgluco-saminidase). Fibroblasts and leukocytes from 8 patients with aspartylglucosaminuria, showed 1-7% of the mean normal glycoasparaginase activity. Heterozygotes showed intermediate activities. Glycoasparaginase activity in chorionic villi, cultured trophoblasts, cultured amniotic fluid cells and amniotic fluid was readily detectable, indicating that prenatal analysis of aspartylglucosaminuria should be possible with this assay. β-Aspartyl-4-methylumbelliferone was synthesized but this potential substrate can not be used to assay glycoasparaginase since it hydrolyses spontaneously

Should we teach linear algebra through geometry?

AbstractCan geometry help students learn linear algebra? I study this question and demonstrate that there is no obvious clear answer: geometry can be an obstacle to learning linear algebra; or it can be helpful. Geometry is helpful only under certain conditions and with a specific use of drawings. These special requirements for using geometry are apparently not much recognized in our teaching of linear algebra courses, at least in France, where my educational studies have taken place