Molecular modeling and mutational mapping of the GPR119 binding site

GPR119 receptor’s biological role in regulating glucose homeostasis has been studied extensively. Results in the scientific literature indicate that, when activated, GPR119 releases insulin in a glucose dependent manner. Currently the 3D structure of GPR119 has not been resolved. The goal of this research is to use a combination of homology modeling and ligand docking studies to predict the binding mode of GPR119 ligands. Amino acids implicated to have direct interactions with docked ligands will further be assessed experimentally for their roll in binding and activation of GPR119. Our results indicate that residues W2656.48 and R813.28 are likely to be directly involved in ligand binding and activation of the GPR119 receptor. In addition, the R2627.36 mutant did not show any involvement in receptor binding or activation. Understanding how GPR119 interacts with its ligands can lead to the development of more effective and selective drugs that are used to treat T2D

Patterns of Using Masks in Prevention of Covid-19 Transmission in Makassar, Indonesia

The case of Covid-19 infection rate in Makassar, Indonesia is still high. Recently, the government is still implementing community activity restriction to reduce the rate of the pandemic. However, this is not enough, the policy needs to be accompanied by increasing the effectiveness of other intervention measures, including masks. This study aims to provide an overview of the behavioral pattern of using masks in the public area in Makassar. The results of this study are expected to be used as basic data in taking appropriate steps in increasing efforts to prevent the transmission of Covid-19 in Makassar. The results of the study showed that public awareness in using masks is quite high, the motivation to use masks mostly comes from intrinsic motivation, and dominantly of the subject has been able to adapt to the behavior of wearing masks. However, some behaviors of wearing masks still need to be improved with health education, including frequently put on and take off behavior when using masks, the length of time using masks replacing with new or clean ones, management of masks that have been used so those masks are disposed of in a closed container as much as possible. To maintain the behavior of wearing masks in the public, it is necessary to conduct further research on the proper technique of wearing masks to reduce the feeling of shortness of breath and discomfort that mask users complain about and the prevention of condensation on glasses users when wearing masks.

Agricultural Transformation, Economic Growth, and Poverty in Indonesia

This paper explores the link between agricultural transformation, economic growth and poverty in Indonesia. Based on descriptive analysis, it shows that the Indonesia's economic growth and poverty reduction performance are more influenced by the service sector than the agriculture sector. The two major challenges to implement agricultural transformation in Indonesia are the limited availability of land and agricultural contract issue. To address these challenges, a gradual change is the best solution. The fixed rent scheme should be introduced properly to the society so as to increase the agricultural production, while support from the government is needed to help the smallholder's farmers to avoid povert

Solutions to a system of Yang-Baxter matrix equations

In this article, we take a system, $XAX=BXB$, $XBX=AXA$, of Yang-Baxter type matrix equations that ``generalizes" the matrix Yang-Baxter equation. We completely characterize the case when $A,B$ are orthogonal idempotents

Two-dimensional tellurium-based diodes for RF applications

The research of two-dimensional (2D) Tellurium (Te) or tellurene is thriving to address current challenges in emerging thin-film electronic and optoelectronic devices. However, the study of 2D-Te-based devices for high-frequency applications is still lacking in the literature. This work presents a comprehensive study of two types of radio frequency (RF) diodes based on 2D-Te flakes and exploits their distinct properties in two RF applications. First, a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structure is employed as a nonlinear device in a passive RF mixer, where the achieved conversion loss at 2.5 GHz and 5 GHz is as low as 24 dB and 29 dB, respectively. Then, a metal-semiconductor (MS) diode is tested as a zero-bias millimeter-wave power detector and reaches an outstanding linear-in-dB dynamic range over 40 dB, while having voltage responsivities as high as 257 V ⋅ W−1 at 1 GHz (up to 1 V detected output voltage) and 47 V ⋅ W−1 at 2.5 GHz (up to 0.26 V detected output voltage). These results show superior performance compared to other 2D material-based devices in a much more mature technological phase. Thus, the authors believe that this work demonstrates the potential of 2D-Te as a promising material for devices in emerging high-frequency electronics.MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTRGerman Research Foundation (DFG) under the projects GLECS2 (No. 653408)MOSTFLEX (653414),The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) (RGPIN-2017-05810 and ALLRP 577611-22)The European Commission under the Horizon 2020 projects Graphene Flagship (No. 785219 and 881603)PAIDI 2020 and European Social Fund Operational Programme 2014-2020 no. 20804Ministerio de UniversidadesGrant no. CAS21/ 00483Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund (BCKDF)Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD)Simon Fraser Universit

THE RELATION OF LENGTH OF USE THE INJECTED CONTRACEPTION WITH SEXUALITY ON FERTILE WOMEN IN COVERAGE AREA OF PUSKESMAS CAILE, BULUKUMBA, INDONESIA

Side effects caused by contraception include menstrual cycle disorders, changes in body weight, acne, breast pain, nausea, bleeding, vaginal discharge, liver dysfunction, changes in libido, and others side effect. Some researches of hormonal contraception still difficult to systematically explore how these methods influence sexual functioning. This study aims to evaluate the relation of the length of use the injected contraception with sexuality on fertile women. This study is descriptive-analytic observational using a cross-sectional design. The population of this study was all registered acceptors of family planning program using injected contraception in the coverage area of Puskesmas Caile in District Bulukumba. The population of this study was 72 acceptors. There were 41 subjects of research selected by simple random sampling participated in this study after signing the form of informed consent. Data collected by self-administered questionnaire was developed by the researcher based on the referred theory. Data analyzed using SPSS for Windows. The results showed that 70,7% of subject experienced declining in sexual passion. 48,3% of them had used injected contraception for at least one year and 51,7% of them had used for 2 years and more. This study proved there was no significant relationship between the length of use of injected contraception with sexuality (p=0,497>0,05), but this study found that acceptors using injected contraception tend to experience declines in sexual passion even using it for at least one year. Declining in sexual passion in long-term occurred due to hormonal changes, resulting in drying in the vagina which causes pain during intercourse and ultimately decreases sexual passion. This study suggests exploring more detailed about the effect of injected contraception on sexual passion on fertile women

Monitoring Dynamic Changes In Mitochondrial Calcium Levels During Apoptosis Using A Genetically Encoded Calcium Sensor

Dynamic changes in intracellular calcium concentration in response to various stimuli regulates many cellular processes such as proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis1. During apoptosis, calcium accumulation in mitochondria promotes the release of pro-apoptotic factors from the mitochondria into the cytosol2. It is therefore of interest to directly measure mitochondrial calcium in living cells in situ during apoptosis. High-resolution fluorescent imaging of cells loaded with dual-excitation ratiometric and non-ratiometric synthetic calcium indicator dyes has been proven to be a reliable and versatile tool to study various aspects of intracellular calcium signaling. Measuring cytosolic calcium fluxes using these techniques is relatively straightforward. However, measuring intramitochondrial calcium levels in intact cells using synthetic calcium indicators such as rhod-2 and rhod-FF is more challenging. Synthetic indicators targeted to mitochondria have blunted responses to repetitive increases in mitochondrial calcium, and disrupt mitochondrial morphology3. Additionally, synthetic indicators tend to leak out of mitochondria over several hours which makes them unsuitable for long-term experiments. Thus, genetically encoded calcium indicators based upon green fluorescent protein (GFP)4 or aequorin5 targeted to mitochondria have greatly facilitated measurement of mitochondrial calcium dynamics. Here, we describe a simple method for real-time measurement of mitochondrial calcium fluxes in response to different stimuli. The method is based on fluorescence microscopy of 'ratiometric-pericam' which is selectively targeted to mitochondria. Ratiometric pericam is a calcium indicator based on a fusion of circularly permuted yellow fluorescent protein and calmodulin4. Binding of calcium to ratiometric pericam causes a shift of its excitation peak from 415 nm to 494 nm, while the emission spectrum, which peaks around 515 nm, remains unchanged. Ratiometric pericam binds a single calcium ion with a dissociation constant in vitro of ~1.7 μM4. These properties of ratiometric pericam allow the quantification of rapid and long-term changes in mitochondrial calcium concentration. Furthermore, we describe adaptation of this methodology to a standard wide-field calcium imaging microscope with commonly available filter sets. Using two distinct agonists, the purinergic agonist ATP and apoptosis-inducing drug staurosporine, we demonstrate that this method is appropriate for monitoring changes in mitochondrial calcium concentration with a temporal resolution of seconds to hours. Furthermore, we also demonstrate that ratiometric pericam is also useful for measuring mitochondrial fission/fragmentation during apoptosis. Thus, ratiometric pericam is particularly well suited for continuous long-term measurement of mitochondrial calcium dynamics during apoptosis