EST analysis on pig mitochondria reveal novel expression differences between developmental and adult tissues

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.Abstract Background The mitochondria are involved in many basic functions in cells of vertebrates, and can be considered the power generator of the cell. Though the mitochondria have been extensively studied there appear to be only few expression studies of mitochondrial genes involving a large number of tissues and developmental stages. Here, we conduct an analysis using the PigEST resource 1 which contains expression information from 35 tissues distributed on one normalized and 97 non-normalized cDNA libraries of which 24 are from developmental stages. The mitochondrial PigEST resource contains 41,499 mitochondrial sequences. Results The mitochondrial EST (Expressed Sequence Tag) sequences were assembled into contigs which covers more than 94 percent of the porcine mitochondrial genome, with an average of 976 EST sequences per nucleotide. This data was converted into expression values for the individual genes in each cDNA library revealing differential expression between genes expressed in cDNA libraries from developmental and adult stages. For the 13 protein coding genes (and several RNA genes), we find one set of six genes, containing all cytochrome oxidases, that are upregulated in developmental tissues, whereas the remaining set of seven genes, containing all ATPases, that are upregulated in adult muscle and brain tissues. Further, the COX I (Cytochrome oxidase subunit one) expression profile differs from that of the remaining genes, which could be explained by a tissue specific cleavage event or degradation pattern, and is especially pronounced in developmental tissues. Finally, as expected cDNA libraries from muscle tissues contain by far the largest amount (up to 20%) of expressed mitochondrial genes. Conclusion Our results present novel insight into differences in mitochondrial gene expression, emphasizing differences between adult and developmental tissues. Our work indicates that there are presently unknown mechanisms which work to customize mitochondrial processes to the specific needs of the cell, illustrated by the different patterns between adult and developmental tissues. Furthermore, our results also provide novel insight into how in-depth sequencing can provide significant information about expression patterns.Published versio

Ein einfaches Verfahren zur Herstellung anellierter Thiophene

A simple method for the synthesis of fused thiophenes by reaction of agr-carboxymethyl substituted cyclic ketones withLawesson-reagent is described. Considerations concerning the reaction mechanism are given

A Contribution to Strategic Cost Management

This PhD Thesis researches into Strategic Cost Management with a general research interest in, how top management makes sense about the organization’s cost structure in strategic decisions about the configuration of the value chain. The empirical setting is among other confined by organizations’ outsourcing and relocation ventures, where ‘cost reduction’ is a prominent argument behind the decisions. The overall research purpose is to develop explanatory propositions about, how Strategic Cost Management practices might be ‘enacted and given meaning’ (Baxter and Chua, 2003, p. 112) by top management. Such understanding is suggestable of scholarly interest. It is well-known to academia that extant contributions from the literary realms of Supply Chain Management and Management Accounting irradiate that decisions to reconfigure the organizations’ value chains can encompass substantial investments and embed pivotal organizational tradeoffs. Thus, it is of centrality in relation to the organizations’ competitive positions. Secondly, contemporary contributions within Supply Chain Management or in close juxtaposition hereto increasingly question decision making schemes based on ‘pure cost efficiency considerations’ (e.g. Kinkel, 2012, p. 696). These contributions progressively advocate for a broader view upon organizations’ approaches to value chain configuration. This perspective on cost management within the realm of the value chain is shared by Management Accounting researchers (e.g. Anderson, 2007; Anderson and Dekker, 2009ab). These Management Accounting situated researchers, thirdly, direct attention to a disproportionate research emphasis on cost management issues with a focal point of that of improving cost performance given a certain strategy and cost structure, i.e. executional cost management, opposed to research into the cost structural choices associated with the design of the value chain, i.e. structural cost management (e.g. Anderson and Dekker, 2009ab). This is perhaps surprising, when the centrality of the cost structural choices in relation to the competitive position is considered. These scholars do, fourthly, stress the amble opportunity to understand the more ‘complex economic and social forces’ (Anderson, 2007, p. 483) that govern the management of the structural costs

PENGENDALIAN LAMPU BERBASIS MIKROKONTROLER ARDUINO MENGGUNAKAN SMARTPHONE ANDROID

ABSTRAKPersediaan listrik yang terbatas menuntut untuk berhemat dalampenggunaannya. Salah satu hal yang bisa dilakukan untuk menghemat listrik yaitudengan penggunaan lampu rumah seperlunya saja. Sistem operasi open source padaponsel android dapat dimanfaatkan untuk membuat aplikasi pengendali lampu rumahdengan menggunakan Arduino UNO (Mikrokontroler ATmega328) dan relay sebagaipengganti saklar. Aplikasi android digunakan sebagai input perintah kepadarangkaian arduino UNO (Mikrokontroler ATmega328) melalui media penghubungmodul Bluetooth. Arduino UNO akan merespon input dengan output berupa logikalow (0V) dan logika high (5V) melalui pin- pin yang telah ditentukan, pin-pin inidihubungkan ke Relay modul. Relay modul digunakan sebagai pengganti saklar yangdihubungkan ke lampu rumah. Ketika mendapat input logika low (0V) relay akanaktif dan akan mengalirkan listrik ke lampu sehingga lampu menyala, dan ketikamendapat input logika high (5V) relay akan tidak aktif sehingga aliran listrik kelampu terputus dan lampu akan mati.Kata kunci: Aplikasi Android, Arduino UNO (mikrokontroler ATmega328), Relay,Lampu rumah.ABSTRACKLimited power supply requires to conserve its use. One of the things that can bedone to save electricity is to use the house lights as needed. Open source operating system onandroid phones can be used to make the house light controller applications using theArduino UNO (Microcontroller ATmega328) and relay instead of a switch. Androidapplication is used as input commands to the circuit arduino UNO (microcontrollerATmega328) through media liaison Bluetooth module. Arduino UNO will respond to inputwith the output of a logic low (0V) and logic high (5V) via pins that have been determined,the pins are connected to the Relay module. Relay module is used instead of a switch that isconnected to the lamp house. When it gets input logic low (0V) the relay will be active andwill supply power to the light so that the light is on, and when it gets a high logic input (5V)relay will not be activated so that the flow of electricity to the lights and the lights will cut offthe dead.Keywords : Android Applications, Arduino UNO (microcontroller ATmega328), Relay,Lamp house.Banda Ace

Vive la radiorésistance!: converging research in radiobiology and biogerontology to enhance human radioresistance for deep space exploration and colonization.

While many efforts have been made to pave the way toward human space colonization, little consideration has been given to the methods of protecting spacefarers against harsh cosmic and local radioactive environments and the high costs associated with protection from the deleterious physiological effects of exposure to high-Linear energy transfer (high-LET) radiation. Herein, we lay the foundations of a roadmap toward enhancing human radioresistance for the purposes of deep space colonization and exploration. We outline future research directions toward the goal of enhancing human radioresistance, including upregulation of endogenous repair and radioprotective mechanisms, possible leeways into gene therapy in order to enhance radioresistance via the translation of exogenous and engineered DNA repair and radioprotective mechanisms, the substitution of organic molecules with fortified isoforms, and methods of slowing metabolic activity while preserving cognitive function. We conclude by presenting the known associations between radioresistance and longevity, and articulating the position that enhancing human radioresistance is likely to extend the healthspan of human spacefarers as well

Metformin improves healthspan and lifespan in mice

Metformin is a drug commonly prescribed to treat patients with type 2 diabetes. Here we show that long-term treatment with metformin (0.1% w/w in diet) starting at middle age extends healthspan and lifespan in male mice, while a higher dose (1% w/w) was toxic. Treatment with metformin mimics some of the benefits of calorie restriction, such as improved physical performance, increased insulin sensitivity, and reduced LDL and cholesterol levels without a decrease in caloric intake. At a molecular level, metformin increases AMP-activated protein kinase activity and increases antioxidant protection, resulting in reductions in both oxidative damage accumulation and chronic inflammation. Our results indicate that these actions may contribute to the beneficial effects of metformin on healthspan and lifespan. These findings are in agreement with current epidemiological data and raise the possibility of metformin-based interventions to promote healthy aging

Porcine transcriptome analysis based on 97 non-normalized cDNA libraries and assembly of 1,021,891 expressed sequence tags.

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.BACKGROUND: Knowledge of the structure of gene expression is essential for mammalian transcriptomics research. We analyzed a collection of more than one million porcine expressed sequence tags (ESTs), of which two-thirds were generated in the Sino-Danish Pig Genome Project and one-third are from public databases. The Sino-Danish ESTs were generated from one normalized and 97 non-normalized cDNA libraries representing 35 different tissues and three developmental stages. RESULTS: Using the Distiller package, the ESTs were assembled to roughly 48,000 contigs and 73,000 singletons, of which approximately 25% have a high confidence match to UniProt. Approximately 6,000 new porcine gene clusters were identified. Expression analysis based on the non-normalized libraries resulted in the following findings. The distribution of cluster sizes is scaling invariant. Brain and testes are among the tissues with the greatest number of different expressed genes, whereas tissues with more specialized function, such as developing liver, have fewer expressed genes. There are at least 65 high confidence housekeeping gene candidates and 876 cDNA library-specific gene candidates. We identified differential expression of genes between different tissues, in particular brain/spinal cord, and found patterns of correlation between genes that share expression in pairs of libraries. Finally, there was remarkable agreement in expression between specialized tissues according to Gene Ontology categories. CONCLUSION: This EST collection, the largest to date in pig, represents an essential resource for annotation, comparative genomics, assembly of the pig genome sequence, and further porcine transcription studies.Published versio