Membrane-associated proteins in giardia lamblia

The manner in which membrane-associated proteins interact with the membrane defines their subcellular fate and function. This interaction relies on the characteristics of the proteins, their journey after synthesis, and their interaction with other proteins or enzymes. Understanding these properties may help to define the function of a protein and also the role of an organelle. In the case of microorganisms like protozoa parasites, it may help to understand singular features that will eventually lead to the design of parasite-specific drugs. The protozoa parasite Giardia lamblia is an example of a widespread parasite that has been infecting humans and animals from ancestral times, adjusting itself to the changes of the environment inside and outside the host. Several membrane-associated proteins have been posted in the genome database GiardiaDB, although only a few of them have been characterized. This review discusses the data regarding membrane-associated proteins in relationship with lipids and specific organelles and their implication in the discovery of anti-giardial therapies.Fil: Touz, Maria Carolina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra; ArgentinaFil: Feliziani, Constanza. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra; ArgentinaFil: Ropolo, Andrea Silvana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra; Argentin

An investigation of parental influence on the speech development of the child

Relatively little material has been written about teaching a child to speak. That a child does learn to talk seems well supported by most authorities; and this is based upon experimental evidence. Just how a child can be taught to speak is not so widely discussed. Many writers have ignored this aspect of speech development, and the author is inclined to believe that many parents are completely unaware of it. The number of speech defectives in the country today indicates widespread ignorance of this problem. It is the purpose of this study (1) to show how parents can aid the speech development of their children; (2) to determine the ways in which parents often hinder their children’s speech development

THE APPEARANCE OF THE GENUS DESHAYESITES (KAZANSKY, 1914, AMMONOIDEA) IN THE LOWERMOST APTIAN (LOWER CRETACEOUS) OF LA BÉDOULE (SE FRANCE)

New palaeontological and biostratigraphic investigations were carried out at La Bédoule (SE France), which is the stratotype-area of the Bedoulian (Lower Aptian). The levels that directly overlie the last Barremian Pseudocrioceras-bearing bed revealed the occurrence of a fauna characterized by previously undescribed macroconchs of the genus Deshayesites, that we included in Deshayesites bedouliensis n. sp. and in D. aff. consobrinus (d’Orbigny). These forms are associated with the species Deshayesites antiquus Bogdanova, D. oglanlensis Bogdanova, D. cf. weissiformis Bogdanova, D. aff. weissiformis Bogdanova in Delanoy, D. cf. planicostatus Bogdanova, and D. aff. normani Casey. These ammonites characterize the basal Aptian Deshayesites tuarkyricus Zone. This Zone was defined in Turkmenistan but its recognition in the Mediterranean Tethys is confirmed by the present study. Contrary to previous assertions, the genus Prodeshayesites (which pre-dates Deshayesites in northern Germany and southern England), whose FAD was taken to mark the base of the Aptian, is absent at La Bédoule. Prodeshayesites is absent also in Turkmenistan and in all other Mediterranean localities. The FAD of the genus Deshayesites is taken to mark the base of the Aptian in the Mediterranean area.&nbsp

About the stratigraphic position of the Lower Aptian Roloboceras hambrovi (Ammonoidea) level

International audienceIn the stratotype of the Lower Aptian substage the position of the assemblage that includes Roloboceras spp. and Megatyloceras spp. has been clearly established as being in the middle part of the upper Bedoulian. Some authors have erected this horizon as a subzone, or even a zone, with R. hambrovi as species-index. In other areas (southern England, eastern Spain, the Ardèche in southeastern France), where taphonomic conditions are not always as favourable as they are in the stratotype, the level at which this assemblage occurs seems to be confined to the upper part of the lower Bedoulian. Various hypotheses are considered in an attempt to explain this divergence

Autophagy in Cell Fate and Diseases

Autophagy pathway has been one of the hot topics during the last decade. From a general notion about its cellular role, autophagy becomes a more sophisticated phenomenon with significant implications in cellular homeostasis. Consequently, autophagy represents an emerging new factor in human diseases. Despite its general task, the bulk degradation of cellular constituents during starvation settings, autophagy possesses important cross talk and interrelationships with several cellular processes such as apoptosis and senescence, among others. This entire panorama gives us a complex but exciting scenario. Consequently, with the aim of encompassing the whole spectrum, in this chapter, we review three main topics: autophagy as a cellular process; autophagy in cell fate; and autophagy in disease. We discuss the emerging role of selective type of autophagy to avoid apoptosis or necrosis and the novel relationship between autophagy and senescence to understand the real extent that autophagy pathway has over cell fate. Finally, we briefly describe the current trends on autophagy in human pancreatic diseases and its role in cancer cell metabolism

The Deshayesitidae Stoyanov, 1949 (Ammonoidea) of the Aptian historical stratotype region at Cassis-La Bédoule (SE France)

International audienceOne of the significant results of the multidisciplinary investigations carried out during recent years in the Lower Aptian historical stratotype of the Cassis-La Bédoule region (South-Eastern France) was a proposal to update the local Upper Barremian/Lower Aptian ammonite biozonation in order to be more consistent with the standard Mediterranean zonal subdivisions. So the lower and upper boundaries of the Lower Aptian (= Bedoulian substage of most French authors) as well as the boundaries of four biozones (Paradeshayesites tuarkyricus, P. weissi, Deshayesites deshayesi, Dufrenoyia furcata zones) and two subzones (Roloboceras hambrovi and Paradeshayesites grandis subzones) were identified and formally defined in the stratotype. However, to support this zonal scheme additional descriptions and illustrations of the ammonites collected bed by bed in the several sections studied were still required. In this paper we describe the members of the most significant ammonite family found in the Lower Aptian of Cassis-La Bédoule, i.e. the Deshayesitidae, and delimit precisely their stratigraphic positions. As regards zonation, we have replaced the index ammonite of the earliest Bedoulian Zone, i.e. Paradeshayesites tuarkyricus (Bogdanova, 1983), by Paradeshayesites oglanlensis (Bogdanova, 1983), and re-established the Pseudocrioceras waagenoides Zone as a subzone

The Douvilleiceratidae (Ammonoidea) of the Lower Aptian historical stratotype area at Cassis-La Bédoule (SE France)

International audienceRecent biostratigraphic research in the marly limestones of the Cassis-La Bédoule area (SE France) provided a rich macrofauna of Douvilleiceratidae Parona & Bonarelli, 1897. From the uppermost Barremian (Pseudocrioceras waagenoides Subzone) to the middle Aptian (Parahoplites melchioris Zone), specimens of Procheloniceras, Cheloniceras, Roloboceras, Megatyloceras and Epicheloniceras were collected in succession. In this paper we describe the various genera and species from this material and delimit precisely their stratigraphic positions. Our study shows that each genus or subgenus characterizes a discrete stratigraphic interval. In addition, the Cheloniceras meyendorffi (upper Bedoulian), Epicheloniceras debile, Epicheloniceras gracile, and Epicheloniceras buxtorfi (Gargasian = middle Aptian) subzones, originally defined in England by Casey (1961a), are identified for the first time in the Lower Aptian stratotypic area of Cassis-La Bédoule

Beclin 1

Beclin 1/ATG6/Vps30 (UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot Q14457) is a 450 amino-acids length protein, with three domains; BH3 (aminoacid 114 to 123), Coiled Coil domain (CCD; aminoacid 144 to 269) and the Evolutionarily Conserved Domain (ECD; aminoacid 244 to 337). BH3 proteins are part of the Bcl-2 family; they are pro-apoptotic damage sensors that play an important role in protecting against cancer (1). The BH3-only domain of Beclin 1 can interact with Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL (2;3). Both cellular and viral Bcl-2 (vBcl-2), or more specifically ER-targeted Bcl-2, inhibit Beclin 1-dependent autophagy by interfering with the Beclin 1-PtdIns 3-kinase interaction (PI3K) and the Beclin 1-associated PI3K activity (3,4). The interaction between Bcl-2 and Beclin 1 is greatly reduced upon starvation, which suggests that the dissociation of Bcl-2 from Beclin1 is important for activating autophagy. We demonstrated that, VMP1 (Vacuole Membrane Protein 1) displaces Bcl-2 from Beclin 1, partitioning Beclin 1 to the autophagic pathway (Molejon et al., Sci Rep. 2012; In press).Fil: Molejon, Maria Ines. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas. Cátedra de Fisiopatología; ArgentinaFil: Ropolo, Alejandro Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas. Cátedra de Fisiopatología; ArgentinaFil: Vaccaro, Maria Ines. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas. Cátedra de Fisiopatología; Argentin

A GPU Simulation Tool for Training and Optimisation in 2D Digital X-Ray Imaging

Conventional radiology is performed by means of digital detectors, with various types of technology and different performance in terms of efficiency and image quality. Following the arrival of a new digital detector in a radiology department, all the staff involved should adapt the procedure parameters to the properties of the detector, in order to achieve an optimal result in terms of correct diagnostic information and minimum radiation risks for the patient. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a software capable of simulating a digital X-ray imaging system, using graphics processing unit computing. All radiological image components were implemented in this application: an X-ray tube with primary beam, a virtual patient, noise, scatter radiation, a grid and a digital detector. Three different digital detectors (two digital radiography and a computed radiography systems) were implemented. In order to validate the software, we carried out a quantitative comparison of geometrical and anthropomorphic phantom simulated images with those acquired. In terms of average pixel values, the maximum differences were below 15%, while the noise values were in agreement with a maximum difference of 20%. The relative trends of contrast to noise ratio versus beam energy and intensity were well simulated. Total calculation times were below 3 seconds for clinical images with pixel size of actual dimensions less than 0.2 mm. The application proved to be efficient and realistic. Short calculation times and the accuracy of the results obtained make this software a useful tool for training operators and dose optimisation studies