Caldolysin, a highly active protease from an extremely Thermophilic Bacterium

Proteases comprise a significant proportion of those proteins which have been subject to detailed characterisation (amino acid sequence and high resolution crystallographic analysis). The extent of research interest in proteolytic enzymes reflects both their historical status, and the practical advantages of proteases as research subjects (available in quantity, extracellular etc.) widely occurring

An Experimental Analysis of the Ultimatum Game: The Role of Competing Motivations

This paper forwards a new way of accounting for the experimental evidence related to the Ultimatum Game. We argue that players in this game have reasons to be both fair and self-interested, but the balance between these two considerations cannot be expressed in terms of a tradeoff. We test our thesis by perturbing the Ultimatum Game in a way that emphasizes the force of self-interest considerations; the evidence we collected provides support for our thesis.

Aliciklusos β-aminosavak szelektív funkcionalizálása = Stereoselective functionalization of alicyclic β-amino acids

Az aliciklusos ß-aminosavak szelektív funkcionalizálását az aminosavak ciklopentén- illetve ciklohexén vázán levő olefinkötés átalakításával végeztük. Az egyik megközelítés szerint a gyűrű kettős kötésének sztereoszelektív epoxidálási reakcióját követő szelektív oxirán nyitással és egyéb transzformációkkal építettük ki az új funkciókat, melynek során ortogonálisan védett ciklusos diaminokarbonsav származékokat, azido-aminociklopentanolok sztereoizomerjeit, triazol-szubsztituált ciszpentacin származékokat, regio- és sztereoszelektíven hidroxilált ciklusos aminosavakat állítottunk elő. A második funkcionalizálási stratégia az olefinkötésre történő 1,3-dipoláris cikloaddíción alapult, amelynek eredményeként izoxazolin gyűrűvel kondenzált ciszpentacin származékok regio- és sztereoizomerjeihez jutottunk. A harmadik funkcionalizálás kulcseleme az aliciklusos ß-aminosavak oxidatív gyűrűnyitását követő reduktív gyűrűzárása volt, amely általánosan alkalmazható módszerrel új piperidin- és azepánvázas ß-aminosav származékokat állítottunk elő. Mindhárom funkcionalizálási technika alkalmasnak bizonyult a fenti vegyületek előállítására enantiomer tiszta formában is. | The functionalization of alicyclic ß-amino acids has been accomplished by transformation of their ring carbon-carbon double bond. An approach toward functionalization consisted in the stereoselective epoxidation reaction of the ring olefinic bond, followed by selective oxirane opening and other type of transformations, which resulted in orthogonally protected cyclic diaminocarboxylates, azidoaminocyclopentanol stereoisomers, triazole-substituted cispentacin derivatives, regio- and stereoselectively hydroxylated cyclic amino acids. The second functionalization strategy involved 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition to the ring carbon-carbon double bond, affording isoxazoline-fused cispentacin regio- and stereoisomers. The key step of the third functionalization strategy was the oxidative ring opening followed by reductive ring closure reactions of the alicyclic ß-amino acids, which generally applicable method led to novel ß-amino acids with a piperidine or azepane skeleton. All three functionalization techniques were suitable for the synthesis of the above compounds in enantiomerically pure form

Strength and Failure of Fibrin Fiber Branch Points

Blood clots form rapidly in the event of vascular injury, to prevent blood loss. They may also form in undesired places, causing heart attacks, strokes, and other diseases. Blood clots can rupture, and fragments of the clotmay lodge in distal blood vessels, causing, for example, ischemic strokes or embolisms. Thus, there has been great interest in understanding the mechanical behavior and failure mechanisms of blood clots and their constituents. To develop a mechanically realistic model of a blood clot, knowledge of the mechanical properties of its constituents is required. The major structural component providing mechanical strength to the clot is a mesh of fibrin fibers. Principally, three pieces of information are needed to develop realistic (fibrin fiber) network models: (i) the architecture of the network; (ii) the properties of the single fibers; and (iii) the properties of the fiber branchpoints

Dilemmas of Corpus Construction beyond Folklore Collections

During the corpus-building operation of the Digital Database of Hungarian Verbal Charms we tried to augment the available material by the inclusion of witness statements of witch trials conducted in early modern Bihar County and the town of Debrecen. My paper explores the kinds of dilemmas and issues we were faced with concentrating especially on generic questions of verbal charms. As regards the exploration of early modern written sources of vernacular language use the most relevant recent approaches came from historical speech act research. Therefore, in the context of the corpus building project I shall also discuss to which extends the results of historical pragmatics, historical speech act research can offer any help (and if so, what kind of help) in solving the generic problems and questions of verbal magic

J Cell Biol

Unconventional myosins interact with the dense cortical actin network during processes such as membrane trafficking, cell migration, and mechanotransduction. Our understanding of unconventional myosin function is derived largely from assays that examine the interaction of a single myosin with a single actin filament. In this study, we have developed a model system to study the interaction between multiple tethered unconventional myosins and a model F-actin cortex, namely the lamellipodium of a migrating fish epidermal keratocyte. Using myosin VI, which moves toward the pointed end of actin filaments, we directly determine the polarity of the extracted keratocyte lamellipodium from the cell periphery to the cell nucleus. We use a combination of experimentation and simulation to demonstrate that multiple myosin VI molecules can coordinate to efficiently transport vesicle-size cargo over 10 microm of the dense interlaced actin network. Furthermore, several molecules of monomeric myosin VI, which are nonprocessive in single molecule assays, can coordinate to transport cargo with similar speeds as dimers.HM33289/HM/NCHM CDC HHS/United StatesR01 GM033289/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United State

Renaissance humanism in the age of the Jagiellonian kings in Hungary (1490–1526)

The present study offers a re-evaluation of literary production in Hungary under the Jagiellonian kings Wladislas II and Louis II. Traditionally, the literary works produced in this period have been contrasted to the blossoming of humanist literature under King Matthias, and disregarded in many respects. The aim of this study is to make a survey of the main authors and other agents of the literary culture of this period and to stress that this age experienced an unseen growth and expansion in late medieval and humanist scholarly and lay culture. While János Horváth called the authors of this period “humanists with party allegiances”, I argue that their stronger “party allegiance” is, in fact, the direct result of the steady growth in the number of intellectuals with a modern, humanistic educational outlook, and of a less centralized state

Factor XIII deficiency in Pakistan

Patients with undiagnosed haemostatic defects seen at The Aga Khan Hospital and Fatimid Blood Transfusion Centre during the period of 7 years (1 985-1 992) were screened with routine tests including bleeding time (BT), whole blood clotting time (CT), platelet count, activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), prothrombin time (PT) and 5 molar urea test. Nine patients had a positive 5 molar urea test indicating factor XIII deficiency. Rest of the screening tests were normal in these patients. High incidence of consanguinity was observed in affected families. Clinical features included excessive bleeding from umbilical stump, bruising, post-traumatic bleeding, epistaxis, melaena and intracerebral bleeding. All the patients were treated with fresh frozen plasma and cryoprecipitat