Highly Improved Electrospray Ionization-Mass Spectrometry Detection of G-Quadruplex-Folded Oligonucleotides and Their Complexes with Small Molecules

G-quadruplexes are nucleic acids structures stabilized by physiological concentration of potassium ions. Because low stability G-quadruplexes are hardly detectable by mass spectrometry, we optimized solvent conditions: isopropanol in a triethylamine/hexafluoroisopropanol mixture highly increased G-quadruplex sensitivity with no modification of the physiological G-quadruplex conformation. G-quadruplexes/G-quadruplex-ligand complexes were also correctly detected at concentration as low as 40 nM. Detection of the physiological conformation of G4s and their complexes opens up the possibility to perform high-throughput screening of G-quadruplex ligands for the development of drug molecules effective against critical human diseases

Flat-tax and minimum income experiment in an OLG model of Italy

In the light of the recent political events in Italy this paper aims to quantitatively analyze the impact of a Flat-Tax and minimum income based fiscal reform for different cohort ages in an Overlapping Generation (OLG) model with permanent labour productivity across agents and a stochastic labour income component. Two Computational Experiments are conducted: the former is a Flat-Tax only for the personal labour income, the latter involves the same marginal rate for personal labour and capital income. It results that to finance a minimum income measure in support of every citizen below the absolute poverty threshold, it is required a marginal rate of respectively 20% and 23%. The amount granted would be equal to the difference of the absolute poverty threshold (€780 in Italy) and the total income of the targeted citizen. The results of this study seem to reflect the forecasts of overall growth in the aggregate output and consumption of the economy: a deeper analysis show that actually the labour supplied and aggregate welfare decrease while the inequality considerably increases.À luz dos recentes eventos políticos em Itália, este artigo visa analisar quantitativamente o impacto de uma reforma fiscal baseada na renda fixa e no imposto mínimo para diferentes idades de coorte num modelo de Overlapping Generation (OLG) com produtividade permanente do trabalho entre agentes e um componente estocástico do rendimento trabalho. Duas Experiências Computacionais são conduzidas: a primeira é um imposto fixo somente para a renda de trabalho pessoal, a segunda envolve a mesma taxa marginal para trabalho pessoal e capital. Resulta que, para financiar uma medida de rendimento mínimo, de forma a apoiar todos os cidadãos abaixo da limiar de pobreza absoluta, é necessária uma taxa marginal de respectivamente 20% e 23%. A quantia admitida seria igual à diferença do limiar de pobreza absoluta (€780 na Itália) e a renda total do cidadão visado. O resultado deste estudo parece refletir as previsões de crescimento da produção e consumo agregados à economia: uma análise mais profunda mostra que, na verdade, a mão-de-obra fornecida e o bem-estar agregado diminuem enquanto a desigualdade aumenta consideravelmente

A simple model for DNA denaturation

Following Poland and Scheraga, we consider a simplified model for the denaturation transition of DNA. The two strands are modeled as interacting polymer chains. The attractive interactions, which mimic the pairing between the four bases, are reduced to a single short range binding term. Furthermore, base-pair misalignments are forbidden, implying that this binding term exists only for corresponding (same curvilinear abscissae) monomers of the two chains. We take into account the excluded volume repulsion between monomers of the two chains, but neglect intra-chain repulsion. We find that the excluded volume term generates an effective repulsive interaction between the chains, which decays as $1/r^{d-2}$. Due to this long-range repulsion between the chains, the denaturation transition is first order in any dimension, in agreement with previous studies.Comment: 10 page

The role of physical activity in counteracting age-related sarcopenia and cancer cachexia: A brief literature review

Muscle tissue plays several important health functions . In addition to the important mechanical functions, it represents the biggest reserve of body proteins and it is also able to produce several myokines that are able to induce important beneficial effects, through the interaction with different organs. The loss of muscle mass has a tremendous impact on health and it is not surprising that a great interest has raised on two degenerative, irreversible and unstoppable conditions known as sarcopenia and cachexia. Sarcopenia, the age-related loss of muscle mass, is not a disease or a syndrome, it is not even a medical sign sometimes. Indeed, a general consensus among scientists does not exist regarding the definition and the identification criteria of this condition. On the other hand, cachexia is a wasting syndrome characterized by an uncontrolled and unstoppable loss of muscle mass, associated with fatigue and weakness. It is often associated with a disease like cancer, AIDS, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), multiple sclerosis, tuberculosis etc. Given the complexity of these muscle conditions and considering that during aging and cancer there is an increased risk of comorbidities, regular physical activity might be a crucial point to be carefully evaluated on a single patient basis. The aim of this review is to highlight the impact on society and the etiology of sarcopenia and cancer cachexia, with particular regard to the role played by physical activity in preventing and counteracting these muscle-wasting conditions, focusing attention also on the limitation factors that must be considered during the prescription of physical activity to sarcopenic and cachectic patients

Numerical Simulation of Weakly Ionized Hypersonic Flow for Reentry Configurations

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76521/1/AIAA-2006-3773-970.pd

Development of an Unstructured Navier-Stokes Solver for Hypersonic Nonequilibrium Aerothermodynamics

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76685/1/AIAA-2005-5203-455.pd

Numerical Simulations of the FIRE-II Convective and Radiative Heating Rates

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76673/1/AIAA-2007-4044-617.pd

A entrada antecipada de crianças com menos d e 6 anos no ensino fundamental: Implicações para a constituição da infância

A alteração na definição da idade de ingresso no ensino fundamental de 7 para 6 anos pela Lei nº 11.114 de 2006 no Brasil tem suscitado debates nos campos da educação e do sistema de justiça sobre a data limite de ingresso. Este artigo tem como objetivo apresentar o cenário da implantação do corte etário para o ingresso no ensino fundamental, bem como problematizar a entrada precoce da criança nesta etapa da educação básica, buscando analisar as implicaçõesdo ingresso das crianças pequenas no ensino fundamental na limitação do seu direito educacional e para a constituição da infância. O acesso a cada uma das etapas da educação básica pressupõe uma faixa etária adequada e seu ingresso deve ocorrer tendo com referência a idade estabelecida e não laudos psicológicos e/ou pedagógicos que atestem a capacidade de cada criança, o que revela certa concepção de criança, infância e processos educativos.Abstract The change on the definition of the enrollment age in elementary school from 7 to 6 years old by Law No. 11,114, 2006 has sparked debates in the fields of education and justice system around the limit date of enrollment. This article aims to present the implementation scenario of the age limit for enrollment into elementary school, as well as discuss the early entry of the child at this stage of basic education, trying to analyze the implication of small children entry into elementary school on the limitation of their educational rights and for childhood constitution. The access to each stage of basic education assumes appropriate age-groups and the children enrollment has to be done in reference to the established age and not psychological and/or pedagogical reports that attest small child’s capacities, which reveals a certain concept of child, childhood and educational processes