Loop expansion in Yang-Mills thermodynamics

We argue that a selfconsistent spatial coarse-graining, which involves interacting (anti)calorons of unit topological charge modulus, implies that real-time loop expansions of thermodynamical quantities in the deconfining phase of SU(2) and SU(3) Yang-Mills thermodynamics are, modulo 1PI resummations, determined by a finite number of connected bubble diagrams.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures, v5: discussion of much more severely constrained nonplanar situation included in Sec.

Radiological Markers of the Olfactory Cleft: Relations to Unilateral Orthonasal and Retronasal Olfactory Function

The opacification of the olfactory cleft (OC) has been associated with birhinal orthonasal olfaction in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). The aim of this study was to determine the associations between monorhinal and birhinal orthonasal, and retronasal olfaction with radiological markers of the OC in a cohort of patients with CRS. Results were analyzed in a CRS-cohort including 13 patients with nasal polyposis (CRSwNP) and 12 patients with non-eosinophilic CRS (non-eCRS). Monorhinal and birhinal orthonasal olfactory function, and OC-air volume were higher in non-eCRS compared CRSwNP. OC-opacification was also higher in CRSwNP compared to non-eCRS. In the entire CRS-cohort, those with higher OC-opacification showed significantly lower orthonasal and retronasal olfactory test results compared to those with lower OC-opacification across all three coronal planes. Similarly, higher unilateral OC-opacification was also associated with lower ipsilateral orthonasal olfactory function. Correlation analysis further revealed a positive correlation between monorhinal and birhinal orthonasal olfaction with ipsilateral and overall OC-air volume. Likewise, birhinal and monorhinal orthonasal, and retronasal olfactory test results correlated negatively with the overall and ipsilateral Lund-Mackay scores. Monorhinal and birhinal orthonasal, and retronasal olfactory function were lower in CRS patients with higher ipsilateral and overall OC-opacification compared to those with lower OC-opacification

Overlooked post-translational modifications of proteins in Plasmodium falciparum: N- and O-glycosylation - A Review

Human malignant malaria is caused by Plasmodium falciparum and accounts for almost 900,000 deaths per year, the majority of which are children and pregnant women in developing countries. There has been significant effort to understand the biology of P. falciparum and its interactions with the host. However, these studies are hindered because several aspects of parasite biology remain controversial, such as N- and O-glycosylation. This review describes work that has been done to elucidate protein glycosylation in P. falciparum and it focuses on describing biochemical evidence for N- and O-glycosylation. Although there has been significant work in this field, these aspects of parasite biochemistry need to be explored further

Characterisation of endosomal/lysosomal proteases in subcellular compartments of antigen presenting cells

Ein Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit war die subzelluläre Fraktionierung verschiedener antigenpräsentierender Zellen mit Hilfe von differentieller Zentrifugation, Percolldichtegradienten-Zentrifugation und trägerfreier Elektrophorese. Die Kombination dieser Methoden erlaubt eine Auftrennung in verschiedene endosomal/lysosomale Kompartimente, die mit fluorogenen Substraten, Immunoblot, ELISA und HPLC charakterisiert wurden. In isolierten Zellkompartimenten von Keratinozyten wurden die Aktivitäten der Cathepsine B, L und S bestimmt, wobei beachtliche Aktivitätsunterschiede zwischen HaCaT-und primären Keratinozyten im Vergleich zu syngenen B-Zellen gemessen wurden. Eine Interferon- Stimulation führte bei den Keratinozyten zur Expression von MHC Klasse II-Molekülen, invarianter Kette und einer gesteigerten Cathepsin S-Aktivität. Auf RNA-Ebene ergab sich eine starke Cathepsin S-Induktion im Vergleich zur Kontrolle. Auf Proteinebene konnte dies bestätigt werden. Von mit Interferon- stimulierten HaCaT-Keratinozyten wurden MHC Klasse I- und II- präsentierte Peptide isoliert und mit Hilfe der Massenspektrometrie konnten 15 Peptide identifiziert werden. Als weiterer Schwerpunkt wurde die Asparaginylendopeptidase (AEP) durch Spaltexperimente mit 20 Hexapeptiden, mit jeweils allen 20 natürlichen Aminosäuren in P1`Position, untersucht. Die Analyse mit HPLC und einem Kompetitionsassay ergab die Spaltbarkeit aller Peptide. Mit Ausnahme des langsam umgesetzen Peptides mit Prolin in P1`Position fungierten alle anderen als gute Substrate für AEP. Daraus folgt, das für die hochspezifische Spaltung mit AEP Asparagin an der P1 Position unabdingbar ist, während die P1`Position mit allen 20 Aminosäuren besetzt sein kann. Aus Verdauexperimenten mit Myoglobin und dem Myelin-basischen-Protein, die jeweils zwei potentielle AEP-Spaltstellen enthalten, konnten keine weiteren Erkenntnise über die Spaltmotive gewonnen werden.A major topic of this work was the subcellular fractionation of different antigen presenting cells using differential centrifugation, percoll density gradient centrifugation and free flow electrophoresis. The combination of these methods allows the separation of different endosomal/lysosomal compartments, which were characterized by fluorogenic substrates, immunoblot, ELISA and HPLC. Cathepsin B, L and S activities were measured in isolated cell compartments of keratinocytes, with considerable differences between HaCaT-keratinocytes, keratinocytes in primary culture and syngenic B cells. Stimulation with interferon- resulted in the expression of MHC class II molecules and invariant chain, as well as in increased cathepsin S activity. On the mRNA level, cathepsin S was strongly induced in comparison to the control. This also was confirmed on the protein level. MHC class I and II presented peptides were isolated from interferon- stimulated HaCaT-keratinocytes, and 15 peptides have been identified by mass spectrometry. A further focus was the investigation of asparaginyl endopeptidase (AEP) by cleavage experiments of 20 hexapeptides, designed in such a way that all natural 20 amino acids occur at the P1`position of one of the different peptides. The analysis by HPLC and a competition assay demonstrated cleavage of all peptides. With the exception of the peptide with proline at the P1`position with a slow turnover all peptides are good substrates for AEP. This means that AEP is restricted towards aspargine at the P1 position, whereas the P1`position can be covered by all 20 amino acids. Both myoglobin and myelin basic protein, containing two potential AEP cleavage sites each, revealed no detailed information about cleavage motives in digestion experiments