Pluripotency without Max

Myc/Max complexes are thought to be essential for maintaining pluripotency and self-renewal of embryonic stem cells (ESCs). In this issue of Cell Stem Cell, Hishida et al. (2011) provide genetic evidence that this requirement can be bypassed in well-defined culture conditions

Real-time Avionics Optimization

We report on the solution of a difficult optimization problem which arises in avionics industry. When constructing the on-board controlling-network of an airplane, the engineers need to solve a computationally highly complex problem. The goal is to assign periodic tasks to the processors on the plane and define a schedule for each processor. Current state-of-the-art approaches to tackle the problem are by far not powerful enough to solve instances of real-world size. With the help of the powerful algorithm engineering paradigm we analyzed the mathematical properties of the scheduling problem and designed sophisticated software based on the structural insights. We were able to design a model that outperformed current state-of-the-art approaches by several orders of magnitude. In particular, we could solve industrial size real-world instances to optimality. Our methods lead, for the first time, to an industrial strength tool to schedule aircraft sized instance

IFRS for SMEs: Eine Alternative für den Einzelabschluss aus Sicht des deutschen Mittelstandes?

-- The objective of the IFRS for SMEs is to provide SMEs an attractive accounting alternative according to international standards. The paper analyses the differences compared to the German-GAAP and highlights the consequences for medium-sized entities in Germany.Accounting,full IFRS,IFRS,IFRS for SMEs,non-listed companies,small and medium-sized entities (SMEs)

LmxMPK4, a mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase homologue essential for promastigotes and amastigotes of Leishmania mexicana

BACKGROUND: Leishmania parasites undergo profound morphological and biochemical changes while passing through their life cycle. Protein kinases have been shown to be involved in the differentiation from the extracellular flagellated promastigotes to the intracellular "non-flagellated" amastigotes and vice versa. Moreover, these enzymes are likely involved in the regulation of the proliferation of the different life stages. RESULTS: Here, we characterize LmxMPK4, a mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase homologue from Leishmania mexicana. The kinase reveals all sequence motifs for classification as a MAP kinase. LmxMPK4 proved to be active as a recombinant protein. The kinase is expressed in promastigotes and amastigotes. It was impossible to generate homozygous gene deletion mutants for LmxMPK4 in promastigotes. Moreover, amastigotes bearing only an episomal copy of the gene stably retained LmxMPK4 over a prolonged period without antibiotic pressure in infected mice. CONCLUSION: LmxMPK4 is essential for promastigotes and amastigotes of Leishmania. It shows significant amino acid sequence divergence to mammalian MAP kinases. Thus, LmxMPK4 is a promising new drug target

Experimental investigation of tire performance on slush

An investigation of tires behaviour on winter roads was always a high importance in the context of road safety. This paper presents the experimental investigation of tire performance on slush that is identified as two mixtures: a mixture of snow and water, and a mixture of crushed ice and water. The measurements of longitudinal and lateral performance including tire traction, braking and cornering were performed. Tire traction tests were performed for both mixtures with different amount of material. A decreasing in the tire friction was observed when amount of the mixture of snow and water was increased twice. For the mixture of crushed ice and water, an opposite trend was observed. The standard deviation values for the peak force coefficient showed a good reproducibility and reliability of performed tire tests

Well-based, Geochemical Leakage Monitoring of an Aquifer Immediately Above a CO2 Storage Reservoir by Stable Carbon Isotopes at the Ketzin Pilot Site, Germany

AbstractWe measured dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) stable isotopes (813CDIC in ‰) of brine from an observation well within the first aquifer above the CO2 reservoir at the Ketzin pilot site, to test weather these can detect potential CO2 leakage. The monitoring revealed that DIC concentrations and 813CDIC values were masked by the used high alkaline drilling mud, even eight months after well development. However, subsequent changes in 813CDIC and DIC from of -27 ‰ and 165mg L−1 to -23.5 ‰ and 116mg L−1 reflect most likely a shift towards pristine values of the aquifer

CrossLink: visualization and exploration of sequence relationships between (micro) RNAs

CrossLink is a versatile tool for the exploration of relationships between RNA sequences. After a parametrization phase, CrossLink delegates the determination of sequence relationships to established tools (BLAST, Vmatch and RNAhybrid) and then constructs a network. Each node in this network represents a sequence and each link represents a match or a set of matches. Match attributes are reflected by graphical attributes of the links and corresponding alignments are displayed on a mouse-click. The distributions of match attributes such as E-value, match length and proportion of identical nucleotides are displayed as histograms. Sequence sets can be highlighted and visibility of designated matches can be suppressed by real-time adjustable thresholds for attribute combinations. Powerful network layout operations (such as spring-embedding algorithms) and navigation capabilities complete the exploration features of this tool. CrossLink can be especially useful in a microRNA context since Vmatch and RNAhybrid are suitable tools for determining the antisense and hybridization relationships, which are decisive for the interaction between microRNAs and their targets. CrossLink is available both online and as a standalone version at

Transition probabilities for several infrared lines of Tl I and Ar I

Relative transition probabilities for 18 infrared (i.r.) lines arising from excited doublets levels of Tl I and 68 lines belonging to the Ar (4p-34, (4p-5s) and (4&p) transition array, and coming from the upper levels 3d[3/2],, 3d7/213, 3d[5/2]*, 3d’[3/2]*, 3d’[5/2]*, 3d’[3/2], 5s’[1/2]0, 5s[3/2]1, 5s[3/2]2, 4p[1/2]1, 4p[5/2]2, 4p[3/2]1, 4p’[3/2]2 have been determined from emission line-intensity measurements of an optically-thin light source. Transition probabilities were placed on an absolute scale by using line-strength sum rules. Our experimental results are compared with experimental and theoretical data, where possible, given by other author