FUNGSI DEWAN PERWAKILAN RAKYAT DALAM PENYELENGGARAAN PEMERINTAHAN SETELAH AMANDEMEN UUD 1945

Tujuan dilakukannya penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui bagaimanakah kedudukan dan fungsi badan legislatif (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat) dalam sistem pemerintahan negara Republik Indonesia menurut Undang-undang Dasar 1945 Setelah Amandemen dan bagaimana upaya meningkatkan kinerja Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat terutama dalam melakukan fungsi legislasi, yang dengan metode penelitian hukum nomatif disimpulkan bahwa 1.  Adanya amandemen terhadap UUD 1945, terjadilah perubahan yang signifikan terhadap kedudukan, tugas dan wewenang DPR/DPRD. Kalau sebelum amandemen UUD 1945 kekuasaan membentuk undang-undang berada di tangan Presiden, maka sesudah amandemen UUD 1945 kekuasaan membentuk undang-undang berada di tangan DPR. Amandemen Undang-undang Dasar 1945 menempatkan kekuasaan membentuk undang-undang kepada Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat, sedangkan Presiden hanya mengesahkan rancangan undang-undang yang telah dibahas bersama dengan Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat. 2. Dengan diberikannya kekuasaan membentuk undang-undang kepada Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat, maka kedudukan Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat baik dari aspek politik maupun yuridis menjadi semakin kuat untuk menjaga sistem check and balances dalam penyelenggaraan pemerintahan. Kata kunci: dewan perwakilan rakyat, amandeme

The Impact of Celebrity Endorsement to Youth Consumer Purchase Decision on Adidas Apparel Product

Celebrity endorsements are commonly used strategies for promoting various types of products, services or brands. The main purpose of using celebrity endorser is to influence consumer behaviour, especially purchase intention that will lead to consumer purchase decision, which is directly linked to the revenue of the company. This research is conduct in Manado, North Sulawesi. The objectives of this research are to know the influence of celebrity endorsement to consumers purchase decision of Adidas product in Manado partially and simultaneously. This research is the causal type of research where it will investigate the influence of celebritys credibility on consumer purchase decision. The population in this study is the youth consumers of Adidas apparel products, whereas samples taken are 100 respondents. The conclusion of this research, there is a significant influence of attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise of celebrity endorser, simultaneously, on youth consumer purchase decision. There are also significant influences of attractiveness and expertise of celebrity endorser, partially, on youth consumer purchase decision. This study reveals that attractiveness is the most significant credibility source to influence youth consumer purchase decision. This means youth consumers significantly influenced by the physical appearance of celebrity endorsement in making purchase decision. Keywords: consumer purchase decision, celebrity endorsement, attractivenes

Definition of a high-affinity Gag recognition structure mediating packaging of a retroviral RNA genome

All retroviral genomic RNAs contain a cis-acting packaging signal by which dimeric genomes are selectively packaged into nascent virions. However, it is not understood how Gag (the viral structural protein) interacts with these signals to package the genome with high selectivity. We probed the structure of murine leukemia virus RNA inside virus particles using SHAPE, a high-throughput RNA structure analysis technology. These experiments showed that NC (the nucleic acid binding domain derived from Gag) binds within the virus to the sequence UCUG-UR-UCUG. Recombinant Gag and NC proteins bound to this same RNA sequence in dimeric RNA in vitro; in all cases, interactions were strongest with the first U and final G in each UCUG element. The RNA structural context is critical: High-affinity binding requires base-paired regions flanking this motif, and two UCUG-UR-UCUG motifs are specifically exposed in the viral RNA dimer. Mutating the guanosine residues in these two motifs—only four nucleotides per genomic RNA—reduced packaging 100-fold, comparable to the level of nonspecific packaging. These results thus explain the selective packaging of dimeric RNA. This paradigm has implications for RNA recognition in general, illustrating how local context and RNA structure can create information-rich recognition signals from simple single-stranded sequence elements in large RNAs

Identification of Sare0718 As an Alanine-Activating Adenylation Domain in Marine Actinomycete Salinispora arenicola CNS-205

BACKGROUND: Amino acid adenylation domains (A domains) are critical enzymes that dictate the identity of the amino acid building blocks to be incorporated during nonribosomal peptide (NRP) biosynthesis. NRPs represent a large group of valuable natural products that are widely applied in medicine, agriculture, and biochemical research. Salinispora arenicola CNS-205 is a representative strain of the first discovered obligate marine actinomycete genus, whose genome harbors a large number of cryptic secondary metabolite gene clusters. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In order to investigate cryptic NRP-related metabolites in S. arenicola CNS-205, we cloned and identified the putative gene sare0718 annotated "amino acid adenylation domain". Firstly, the general features and possible functions of sare0718 were predicted by bioinformatics analysis, which suggested that Sare0718 is a soluble protein with an AMP-binding domain contained in the sequence and its cognate substrate is L-Val. Then, a GST-tagged fusion protein was expressed and purified to further explore the exact adenylation activity of Sare0718 in vitro. By a newly mentioned nonradioactive malachite green colorimetric assay, we found that L-Ala but not L-Val is the actual activated amino acid substrate and the basic kinetic parameters of Sare0718 for it are K(m) = 0.1164±0.0159 (mM), V(max) = 3.1484±0.1278 (µM/min), k(cat) = 12.5936±0.5112 (min(-1)). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: By revealing the biochemical role of sare0718 gene, we identified an alanine-activating adenylation domain in marine actinomycete Salinispora arenicola CNS-205, which would provide useful information for next isolation and function elucidation of the whole cryptic nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS)-related gene cluster covering Sare0718. And meanwhile, this work also enriched the biochemical data of A domain substrate specificity in newly discovered marine actinomycete NRPS system, which bioinformatics prediction will largely depend on

Domestic dog predation on white-tailed small-eared galago (Otolemur garnettii lasiotis) in the Taita Hills, Kenya

Peer reviewe