The Minor League Baseball Crisis

A look inside the current conditions Minor League Baseball Players face on their journey.Purchase College SUNYJournalismBachelor of ArtsOzbek, Anna O

Clean incineration of solid waste : a cost-benefit analysis for Manila

This report provides information on the potential health impacts of two methods of waste incineration in Manila, the Philippines. To do this, it models the performance of a hypothetical incineration facility, using two different technologies. Using a combination of pollution dispersion and health impact modelling, the study investigates how dioxin pollution from the incinerator would increase the occurrence of cancer in the surrounding population. This health impact is economically valued and added to the direct costs of running the incinerator. The report finds that incineration technology is available that meets the Philippines’s national pollution guidelines on dioxin emissions – namely modular starved-air incineration should therefore be re-examined

Installing hydrolytic activity into a completely <i>de novo </i>protein framework

The design of enzyme-like catalysts tests our understanding of sequence-to-structure/function relationships in proteins. Here we install hydrolytic activity predictably into a completely de novo and thermostable α-helical barrel, which comprises seven helices arranged around an accessible channel. We show that the lumen of the barrel accepts 21 mutations to functional polar residues. The resulting variant, which has cysteine–histidine–glutamic acid triads on each helix, hydrolyses p-nitrophenyl acetate with catalytic efficiencies that match the most-efficient redesigned hydrolases based on natural protein scaffolds. This is the first report of a functional catalytic triad engineered into a de novo protein framework. The flexibility of our system also allows the facile incorporation of unnatural side chains to improve activity and probe the catalytic mechanism. Such a predictable and robust construction of truly de novo biocatalysts holds promise for applications in chemical and biochemical synthesis

Childhood asthma and land-use characteristics in school and residential neighborhoods: A decision tree learning approach

Authors gratefully acknowledge the Project EXALAR 21 funded by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), through the Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Programme, and by national funding from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the project info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/9471 - RIDTI/PTDC/GES-AMB/30193/2017/PT (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030193, 02/SAICT/2017—Project nº 30193). This study was also funded by FEDER through the Operational Programme Competitiveness and Internationalization and national funding from the Foundation for Science and Technology—FCT (Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education) under the Unidade de Investigação em Epidemiologia—Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (EPIUnit) (info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/6817 - DCRRNI ID/UIDB/04750/2020/PT). G21 was funded by Programa Operacional de Saúde—Saúde XXI, Quadro Comunitário de Apoio III and Administração Regional de Saúde Norte (Regional Department of Ministry of Health). Ana Isabel Ribeiro was supported by National Funds through FCT, under the program of “Stimulus of Scientific Employment—Individual Support” within the contract info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/CEEC IND 2018/CEECIND/02386/2018/CP1538/CT0001/PT. João Cavaleiro Rufo was supported by National Funds through FCT, under the program of “Stimulus of Scientific Employment—Individual Support” within the contract 2020.01350.CEECIND

Air quality impacts of increased use of indigenous fuels for power generation in the Philippines

This report assesses the environmental and health impacts of the development of indigenous and renewable energy sources in the Philippines. It finds that, over the period 2001-2011, such developments would result in less air pollution than a scenario in which only current energy sources are developed. The report also finds that, whatever energy sources are used, the planned increase in generating capacity in the country will result in increases in overall levels of air pollution. Local coal is singled out as a particularly polluting energy source. Overall the report recommends a number of pollution reduction initiatives including improved pollution monitoring and the promotion of energy efficiency

Anterograde trafficking of KCa3.1 in polarized epithelia is Rab1- And Rab8-Dependent and recycling endosome-independent

The intermediate conductance, Ca2+-activated K+ channel (KCa3.1) targets to the basolateral (BL) membrane in polarized epithelia where it plays a key role in transepithelial ion transport. However, there are no studies defining the anterograde and retrograde trafficking of KCa3.1 in polarized epithelia. Herein, we utilize Biotin Ligase Acceptor Peptide (BLAP)-tagged KCa3.1 to address these trafficking steps in polarized epithelia, using MDCK, Caco-2 and FRT cells. We demonstrate that KCa3.1 is exclusively targeted to the BL membrane in these cells when grown on filter supports. Following endocytosis, KCa3.1 degradation is prevented by inhibition of lysosomal/proteosomal pathways. Further, the ubiquitylation of KCa3.1 is increased following endocytosis from the BL membrane and PR-619, a deubiquitylase inhibitor, prevents degradation, indicating KCa3.1 is targeted for degradation by ubiquitylation. We demonstrate that KCa3.1 is targeted to the BL membrane in polarized LLC-PK1 cells which lack the m1B subunit of the AP-1 complex, indicating BL targeting of KCa3.1 is independent of μ1B. As Rabs 1, 2, 6 and 8 play roles in ER/Golgi exit and trafficking of proteins to the BL membrane, we evaluated the role of these Rabs in the trafficking of KCa3.1. In the presence of dominant negative Rab1 or Rab8, KCa3.1 cell surface expression was significantly reduced, whereas Rabs 2 and 6 had no effect. We also co-immunoprecipitated KCa3.1 with both Rab1 and Rab8. These results suggest these Rabs are necessary for the anterograde trafficking of KCa3.1. Finally, we determined whether KCa3.1 traffics directly to the BL membrane or through recycling endosomes in MDCK cells. For these studies, we used either recycling endosome ablation or dominant negative RME-1 constructs and determined that KCa3.1 is trafficked directly to the BL membrane rather than via recycling endosomes. These results are the first to describe the anterograde and retrograde trafficking of KCa3.1 in polarized epithelia cells. © 2014 Bertuccio et al

Cost-effectiveness analysis of grass pollen specific immunotherapy in children with allergic rhinitis compared to the standard of care symptomatic treatment in Portugal

Background. Cost-effectiveness studies evaluating allergen immunothera-py (AIT) in children are scarce. We aim to compare the cost-effectiveness of subcutaneous (SCIT) and sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) against stan-dard-of-care (SOC) treatment in children with grass pollen allergic rhinitis. Methods. We created a Markov model to compare the three strategies over a 10-year horizon. SOC was the reference to calculate the incremental cost-ef-fectiveness ratio (ICER). Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analysis were used to assess models’ uncertainty. Results. We obtained an ICER of 12,605€ and 6,318€ for SLIT and SCIT, respectively. In sensitivity analysis, SCIT was more cost-effective than SLIT. Conclusions. AIT is cost-effective in children with grass pollen allergic rhinitis, especially for the subcutaneous route. © 2023 Associazione Allergologi Immunologi Italiani Territoriali e Ospedalieri-AAIITO. Published by EDRA SpA. All rights reserved.MF is funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) through the PhD Grant number SFRH/BD/145168/2019, cofinanced by Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (NORTE2020) through Fundo Social Europeu (FSE). JCR is funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia through the Stimulus for Scientific Employment Individual Support (2020.01350.CEECIND)