Influence of the Carotenoid Composition on the Conformational Dynamics of Photosynthetic Light-Harvesting Complexes

Nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) is the major self-regulatory mechanism of green plants, performed on a molecular level to protect them from an overexcitation during the direct sunlight. It is believed that NPQ becomes available due to conformational dynamics of the light-harvesting photosynthetic complexes and involves a direct participation of carotenoids. In this work, we perform a single-molecule microscopy on major light-harvesting complexes (LHCII) from different Arabidopsis thaliana mutants exhibiting various carotenoid composition. We show how the distinct carotenoids affect the dynamics of the conformational switching between multiple coexisting light-emitting states of LHCII and demonstrate that properties of the quenched conformation are not influenced by the particular carotenoids available in LHCII. We also discuss the possible origin of different conformational states and relate them to the fluorescence decay kinetics observed during the bulk measurements

The development mechanism of financial resources of the housing mortgage lending in Russia

The urgency of the analyzed issue is due to the priority of state issues of providing the population with affordable and comfortable housing. The purpose of research is to develop the main provisions of the development mechanism of financial resources of the housing mortgage lending and to develop practical recommendations for its implementation. The leading approach to research this issue is a systematic approach, which used such scientific methods as analysis and synthesis, economic and mathematical and statistical methods, logic, and dialectic methods. Key findings of research are to develop the functional model of the development mechanism of financial resources of the housing mortgage lending; to clarify the understanding of mortgage and housing mortgage lending. The article also shows the scheme of public-private partnerships in order to enhance the formation of financial resources for the construction of affordable housing for the population. The contents of the article may be used in the practice of commercial banks in attracting financial resources and regional authorities in order to improve the housing supply. © 2016 Savinova et al

Early anterior knee pain in male adolescent basketball players is related to body height and abnormal knee morphology.

To compare knee torque, range of motion, quality of movement, and morphology in dominant and nondominant legs of male adolescent basketball players with and without anterior knee pain and untrained peers.Cross-sectional.Sports performance laboratory.Male basketball players aged 14-15 years with and without anterior knee pain and healthy untrained subjects (n = 88).Basketball players were allocated to a symptomatic or asymptomatic group based on self-reported anterior knee pain. Associations between pain and body mass, height, passive range of motion, muscle peak torque, coactivation, neuromuscular control, proprioception, and ultrasound observations were investigated.The prevalence of pain did not differ significantly between sides. Of 176 knees inspected, 44 were painful, and 26 of these exhibited abnormalities in ultrasonography. Symptomatic players were 5.0 and 6.9 cm taller than asymptomatic players and controls, respectively (P < 0.05). In athletes with knee pain, the odds ratios of morphological abnormalities and greater height were increased by 8.6 and 5.0 times (P < 0.001).Knee pain prevalence in adolescent basketball players was not related to differences between sides but was higher in tall players. Knee pain was accompanied by morphological abnormalities detected with ultrasound

Two different charge-separation pathways in photosystem II

Charge separation is an essential step in the conversion of solar energy into chemical energy in photosynthesis. To investigate this process, we performed transient absorption experiments at 77 K with various excitation conditions on the isolated Photosystem II reaction center preparations from spinach. The results have been analyzed by global and target analysis and demonstrate that at least two different excited states, (Ch

Reflecting the past, imag(in)ing the past: macro-reflection imaging of painting materials by fast MIR hyperspectral analysis

Imaging spectroscopy has been developed in the last two decades in the visible and infrared spectral range for detecting pigments and binders on paintings. The near-infrared (NIR) region has been proved effective for the discrimination of lipids and proteinaceous binders. More recently, the mid-infrared (MIR) range has also been tested on paintings. Reflection imaging prototypes already developed could be further optimized for cultural heritage analysis, for example by: enhancing the instrument configuration and performance; adopting compressive strategies to increase data processing speeds; using data validation to confirm that the processed image reflects the composition of a painted surface; and lowering price to enable more cost-effective analysis of large surface areas. Here, we demonstrate a novel hyperspectral Fourier transform spectrometer (HS FTS), which enables an imaging strategy that provides a significant improvement in acquisition rate compared to other state-of-the-art techniques. We demonstrate hyperspectral imaging across the 1400–700 cm−1 region in reflection mode with test samples and the painting ‘Uplands in Lorne’ (Acc. No.: GLAHA43427) by D.Y. Cameron (1865–1945). A post-processing analysis of the resulting hyperspectral images, after validation of reference samples by conventional Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, shows the potential of the method for efficient non-destructive classification of different materials found on painted cultural heritage. This research demonstrates that the HS FTS is a convenient and compact tool for non-invasive analysis of painted cultural heritage objects at spatio-spectral acquisition rates potentially higher than current FTS imaging techniques. Ultimately, when combined with fast graphics processing unit-based reconstruction, the HS FTS may enable fast, large area imaging

A multiobjective model for passive portfolio management: an application on the S&P 100 index

This is an author's accepted manuscript of an article published in: “Journal of Business Economics and Management"; Volume 14, Issue 4, 2013; copyright Taylor & Francis; available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.3846/16111699.2012.668859Index tracking seeks to minimize the unsystematic risk component by imitating the movements of a reference index. Partial index tracking only considers a subset of the stocks in the index, enabling a substantial cost reduction in comparison with full tracking. Nevertheless, when heterogeneous investment profiles are to be satisfied, traditional index tracking techniques may need different stocks to build the different portfolios. The aim of this paper is to propose a methodology that enables a fund s manager to satisfy different clients investment profiles but using in all cases the same subset of stocks, and considering not only one particular criterion but a compromise between several criteria. For this purpose we use a mathematical programming model that considers the tracking error variance, the excess return and the variance of the portfolio plus the curvature of the tracking frontier. The curvature is not defined for a particular portfolio, but for all the portfolios in the tracking frontier. This way funds managers can offer their clients a wide range of risk-return combinations just picking the appropriate portfolio in the frontier, all of these portfolios sharing the same shares but with different weights. An example of our proposal is applied on the S&P 100.García García, F.; Guijarro Martínez, F.; Moya Clemente, I. (2013). A multiobjective model for passive portfolio management: an application on the S&P 100 index. Journal of Business Economics and Management. 14(4):758-775. doi:10.3846/16111699.2012.668859S758775144Aktan, B., Korsakienė, R., & Smaliukienė, R. (2010). TIME‐VARYING VOLATILITY MODELLING OF BALTIC STOCK MARKETS. Journal of Business Economics and Management, 11(3), 511-532. doi:10.3846/jbem.2010.25Ballestero, E., & Romero, C. (1991). A theorem connecting utility function optimization and compromise programming. Operations Research Letters, 10(7), 421-427. doi:10.1016/0167-6377(91)90045-qBeasley, J. E. (1990). OR-Library: Distributing Test Problems by Electronic Mail. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 41(11), 1069-1072. doi:10.1057/jors.1990.166Beasley, J. E., Meade, N., & Chang, T.-J. (2003). An evolutionary heuristic for the index tracking problem. European Journal of Operational Research, 148(3), 621-643. doi:10.1016/s0377-2217(02)00425-3Canakgoz, N. A., & Beasley, J. E. (2009). Mixed-integer programming approaches for index tracking and enhanced indexation. European Journal of Operational Research, 196(1), 384-399. doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2008.03.015Connor, G., & Leland, H. (1995). Cash Management for Index Tracking. Financial Analysts Journal, 51(6), 75-80. doi:10.2469/faj.v51.n6.1952Corielli, F., & Marcellino, M. (2006). Factor based index tracking. Journal of Banking & Finance, 30(8), 2215-2233. doi:10.1016/j.jbankfin.2005.07.012Derigs, U., & Nickel, N.-H. (2004). On a Local-Search Heuristic for a Class of Tracking Error Minimization Problems in Portfolio Management. Annals of Operations Research, 131(1-4), 45-77. doi:10.1023/b:anor.0000039512.98833.5aDose, C., & Cincotti, S. (2005). Clustering of financial time series with application to index and enhanced index tracking portfolio. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 355(1), 145-151. doi:10.1016/j.physa.2005.02.078Focardi, S. M., & Fabozzi 3, F. J. (2004). A methodology for index tracking based on time-series clustering. Quantitative Finance, 4(4), 417-425. doi:10.1080/14697680400008668Gaivoronski, A. A., Krylov, S., & van der Wijst, N. (2005). Optimal portfolio selection and dynamic benchmark tracking. European Journal of Operational Research, 163(1), 115-131. doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2003.12.001Hallerbach, W. G., & Spronk, J. (2002). The relevance of MCDM for financial decisions. Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, 11(4-5), 187-195. doi:10.1002/mcda.328Jarrett, J. E., & Schilling, J. (2008). DAILY VARIATION AND PREDICTING STOCK MARKET RETURNS FOR THE FRANKFURTER BÖRSE (STOCK MARKET). Journal of Business Economics and Management, 9(3), 189-198. doi:10.3846/1611-1699.2008.9.189-198Roll, R. (1992). A Mean/Variance Analysis of Tracking Error. The Journal of Portfolio Management, 18(4), 13-22. doi:10.3905/jpm.1992.701922Rudolf, M., Wolter, H.-J., & Zimmermann, H. (1999). A linear model for tracking error minimization. Journal of Banking & Finance, 23(1), 85-103. doi:10.1016/s0378-4266(98)00076-4Ruiz-Torrubiano, R., & Suárez, A. (2008). A hybrid optimization approach to index tracking. Annals of Operations Research, 166(1), 57-71. doi:10.1007/s10479-008-0404-4Rutkauskas, A. V., & Stasytyte, V. (s. f.). Decision Making Strategies in Global Exchange and Capital Markets. Advances and Innovations in Systems, Computing Sciences and Software Engineering, 17-22. doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-6264-3_4Tabata, Y., & Takeda, E. (1995). Bicriteria Optimization Problem of Designing an Index Fund. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 46(8), 1023-1032. doi:10.1057/jors.1995.139Teresienė, D. (2009). LITHUANIAN STOCK MARKET ANALYSIS USING A SET OF GARCH MODELS. Journal of Business Economics and Management, 10(4), 349-360. doi:10.3846/1611-1699.2009.10.349-36

Cas3 is a limiting factor for CRISPR-Cas immunity in Escherichia coli cells lacking H-NS

Background: CRISPR-Cas systems provide adaptive immunity to mobile genetic elements in prokaryotes. In many bacteria, including E. coli, a specialized ribonucleoprotein complex called Cascade enacts immunity by “an interference reaction" between CRISPR encoded RNA (crRNA) and invader DNA sequences called “protospacers”. Cascade recognizes invader DNA via short “protospacer adjacent motif” (PAM) sequences and crRNA-DNA complementarity. This triggers degradation of invader DNA by Cas3 protein and in some circumstances stimulates capture of new invader DNA protospacers for incorporation into CRISPR as “spacers” by Cas1 and Cas2 proteins, thus enhancing immunity. Co-expression of Cascade, Cas3 and crRNA is effective at giving E. coli cells resistance to phage lysis, if a transcriptional repressor of Cascade and CRISPR, H-NS, is inactivated (Δhns). We present further genetic analyses of the regulation of CRISPR-Cas mediated phage resistance in Δhns E. coli cells. Results: We observed that E. coli Type I-E CRISPR-Cas mediated resistance to phage λ was strongly temperature dependent, when repeating previously published experimental procedures. Further genetic analyses highlighted the importance of culture conditions for controlling the extent of CRISPR immunity in E. coli. These data identified that expression levels of cas3 is an important limiting factor for successful resistance to phage. Significantly, we describe the new identification that cas3 is also under transcriptional control by H-NS but that this is exerted only in stationary phase cells. Conclusions: Regulation of cas3 is responsive to phase of growth, and to growth temperature in E. coli, impacting on the efficacy of CRISPR-Cas immunity in these experimental systems

Spectral hole burning: examples from photosynthesis

The optical spectra of photosynthetic pigment–protein complexes usually show broad absorption bands, often consisting of a number of overlapping, ‘hidden’ bands belonging to different species. Spectral hole burning is an ideal technique to unravel the optical and dynamic properties of such hidden species. Here, the principles of spectral hole burning (HB) and the experimental set-up used in its continuous wave (CW) and time-resolved versions are described. Examples from photosynthesis studied with hole burning, obtained in our laboratory, are then presented. These examples have been classified into three groups according to the parameters that were measured: (1) hole widths as a function of temperature, (2) hole widths as a function of delay time and (3) hole depths as a function of wavelength. Two examples from light-harvesting (LH) 2 complexes of purple bacteria are given within the first group: (a) the determination of energy-transfer times from the chromophores in the B800 ring to the B850 ring, and (b) optical dephasing in the B850 absorption band. One example from photosystem II (PSII) sub-core complexes of higher plants is given within the second group: it shows that the size of the complex determines the amount of spectral diffusion measured. Within the third group, two examples from (green) plants and purple bacteria have been chosen for: (a) the identification of ‘traps’ for energy transfer in PSII sub-core complexes of green plants, and (b) the uncovering of the lowest k = 0 exciton-state distribution within the B850 band of LH2 complexes of purple bacteria. The results prove the potential of spectral hole burning measurements for getting quantitative insight into dynamic processes in photosynthetic systems at low temperature, in particular, when individual bands are hidden within broad absorption bands. Because of its high-resolution wavelength selectivity, HB is a technique that is complementary to ultrafast pump–probe methods. In this review, we have provided an extensive bibliography for the benefit of scientists who plan to make use of this valuable technique in their future research