cAMP/Protein Kinase A activates Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator for ATP release from rat skeletal muscle during low pH or contractions

published_or_final_versio

Supercongruences for rigid hypergeometric Calabi-Yau threefolds

We establish the supercongruences for the fourteen rigid hypergeometric Calabi--Yau threefolds over $\mathbb Q$ conjectured by Rodriguez-Villegas in 2003. Our first method is based on Dwork's theory of $p$-adic unit roots and it allows us to establish the supercongruences between the truncated hypergeometric series and the corresponding unit roots for ordinary primes. The other method makes use of the theory of hypergeometric motives, in particular, adapts the techniques from the recent work of Beukers, Cohen and Mellit on finite hypergeometric sums over $\mathbb Q$. Essential ingredients in executing the both approaches are the modularity of the underlying Calabi--Yau threefolds and a $p$-adic perturbation method applied to hypergeometric functions

Tu Weiming, Liberal Education, and the Dialogue of the Humanities

This chapter discusses aspects of the work of Tu Weiming in relation to the idea of a liberal education. It does this in the context of broader questions about the nature, problems, and possibilities of comparative philosophy. Dialogue emerges in Tu’s work both as a substantive topic and as integral to aspects of his approach to philosophy and to his commitment to the dissemination of Confucian thought. In spite of Tu’s obvious success in many respects, some problems with this engagement with and in dialogue are identified, and these in turn are related to his treatment of questions of language and translation – in particular to his somewhat negative attitude to philosophy’s linguistic turn. The comparison of Confucian approaches with the idea of a liberal education enables reconsideration of ideas that are central to education, and in so doing the discussion demonstrates the value of comparative approaches in the study of education

Trypanosoma brucei PRMT1 Is a Nucleic Acid Binding Protein with a Role in Energy Metabolism and the Starvation Stress Response.

In Trypanosoma brucei and related kinetoplastid parasites, transcription of protein coding genes is largely unregulated. Rather, mRNA binding proteins, which impact processes such as transcript stability and translation efficiency, are the predominant regulators of gene expression. Arginine methylation is a posttranslational modification that preferentially targets RNA binding proteins and is, therefore, likely to have a substantial impact on T. brucei biology. The data presented here demonstrate that cells depleted of T. brucei PRMT1 (TbPRMT1), a major type I protein arginine methyltransferase, exhibit decreased virulence in an animal model. To understand the basis of this phenotype, quantitative global proteomics was employed to measure protein steady-state levels in cells lacking TbPRMT1. The approach revealed striking changes in proteins involved in energy metabolism. Most prominent were a decrease in glycolytic enzyme abundance and an increase in proline degradation pathway components, changes that resemble the metabolic remodeling that occurs during T. brucei life cycle progression. The work describes several RNA binding proteins whose association with mRNA was altered in TbPRMT1-depleted cells, and a large number of TbPRMT1-interacting proteins, thereby highlighting potential TbPRMT1 substrates. Many proteins involved in the T. brucei starvation stress response were found to interact with TbPRMT1, prompting analysis of the response of TbPRMT1-depleted cells to nutrient deprivation. Indeed, depletion of TbPRMT1 strongly hinders the ability of T. brucei to form cytoplasmic mRNA granules under starvation conditions. Finally, this work shows that TbPRMT1 itself binds nucleic acids in vitro and in vivo, a feature completely novel to protein arginine methyltransferases.IMPORTANCETrypanosoma brucei infection causes human African trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness, a disease with a nearly 100% fatality rate when untreated. Current drugs are expensive, toxic, and highly impractical to administer, prompting the community to explore various unique aspects of T. brucei biology in search of better treatments. In this study, we identified the protein arginine methyltransferase (PRMT), TbPRMT1, as a factor that modulates numerous aspects of T. brucei biology. These include glycolysis and life cycle progression signaling, both of which are being intensely researched toward identification of potential drug targets. Our data will aid research in those fields. Furthermore, we demonstrate for the first time a direct association of a PRMT with nucleic acids, a finding we believe could translate to other organisms, including humans, thereby impacting research in fields as distant as human cancer biology and immune response modulation. Copyright © 2018 Kafková et al

Specific heats of dilute neon inside long single-walled carbon nanotube and related problems

An elegant formula for coordinates of carbon atoms in a unit cell of a single-walled nanotube (SWNT) is presented and the potential of neon (Ne) inside an infinitely long SWNT is analytically derived out under the condition of the Lennard-Jones potential between Ne and carbon atoms. Specific heats of dilute Ne inside long (20, 20) SWNT are calculated at different temperatures. It is found that Ne exhibits 3-dimensional (3D) gas behavior at high temperature but behaves as 2D gas at low temperature. Especially, at ultra low temperature, Ne inside (20, 20) nanotubes behaves as lattice gas. A coarse method to determine the characteristic temperature $\mathcal{T}_c$ for low density gas in a potential is put forward. If $\mathcal{T}\gg \mathcal{T}_c$, we just need to use the classical statistical mechanics without solving the Shr\"{o}dinger equation to consider the thermal behavior of gas in the potential. But if $\mathcal{T}\sim \mathcal{T}_c$, we must solve the Shr\"{o}dinger equation. For Ne in (20,20) nanotube, we obtain $\mathcal{T}_c\approx 60$ K.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure

USING NONLINEAR FIXED AND MIXED MODELS WITH SWITCHING FUNCTIONS TO ALLOW FOR HORMESIS IN GROWTH OF ESCHERICHIA COLI

Individual Escherichia coli (E. coli) strains can be characterized by measuring growth rate. Strains better adapted to the environment are expected to grow faster. Classic bacterial growth curves display an increase in optical density over time. In this paper, we use the logistic function to model growth in optical density of E. coli over time. We examine 16 curves for 8 E. coli strains originally isolated from cattle and found many curves have a paradoxical dip at the beginning that is indicative of hormesis (an initial contrarian response showing, stimulation or suppression of growth). We examine several switching functions that allow for the effect of hormesis and compare the ability of nonlinear fixed and mixed models to detect the presence of hormesis