3,367 research outputs found
Dynamical coupled-channels: the key to understanding resonances
Recent developments on a dynamical coupled-channels model of hadronic and
electromagnetic production of nucleon resonances are summarized.Comment: Invited Plenary talk at the 20th European Conference on Few-Body
Problems in Physics (EFB20), September 10-14 2007, Pisa, Italy. To appear in
the proceedings in Few-Body System
Signal peptide peptidases and gamma-secretase: Cousins of the same protease family?
Signal peptide peptidase (SPIP) is an unusual aspartyl protease, which mediates clearance of signal peptides by proteolysis within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Like presenilins, which provide the proteolytically active subunit of the,gamma-secretase complex, SPP contains a conserved GxGD motif in its C-terminal domain which is critical for its activity. While SPIP is known to be an aspartyl protease of the GxGD type, several presenilin homologues/SPP-like proteins (PSHs/ SPPL) of unknown function have been identified by database searches. In contrast to SPP and SPPL3, which are both restricted to the endoplasmic reticulum, SPPL2b is targeted through the secretory pathway to endosomes/lysosomes. As suggested by the differential subcellular localization of SPPL2b and SPPL3 distinct phenotypes were found upon antisense gripNA-mediated knockdown in zebrafish. spp and sppl3 knockdowns in zebrafish result in cell death within the central nervous system, whereas reduction of sppl2b expression causes erythrocyte accumulation in an enlarged caudal vein. Moreover, expression of D/A mutants of the putative C-terminal active sites of spp, sppl2, and spp13 produced phenocopies of the respective knockdown phenotypes. These data suggest that all investigated PSHs/SPPLs are members of the novel family of GxGD aspartyl proteases. More recently, it was shown that SPPL2b utilizes multiple intramembrane cleavages to liberate the TNF(x intracellular domain into the cytosol and to release the C-terminal counterpart into the lumen. These findings suggest common principles of intramembrane proteolysis by GxGD type aspartyl proteases. In this article,we will review the similarities of SPPs and gamma-secretase based on recent findings by us and others
Use of alginate gel in the pathological work-up of the endoscopically resected mucosal lesions
Kronecker's Double Series and Exact Asymptotic Expansion for Free Models of Statistical Mechanics on Torus
For the free models of statistical mechanics on torus, exact asymptotic
expansions of the free energy, the internal energy and the specific heat in the
vicinity of the critical point are found. It is shown that there is direct
relation between the terms of the expansion and the Kronecker's double series.
The latter can be expressed in terms of the elliptic theta-functions in all
orders of the asymptotic expansion.Comment: REVTeX, 22 pages, this is expanded version which includes exact
asymptotic expansions of the free energy, the internal energy and the
specific hea
RNA secondary structure prediction from multi-aligned sequences
It has been well accepted that the RNA secondary structures of most
functional non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are closely related to their functions and
are conserved during evolution. Hence, prediction of conserved secondary
structures from evolutionarily related sequences is one important task in RNA
bioinformatics; the methods are useful not only to further functional analyses
of ncRNAs but also to improve the accuracy of secondary structure predictions
and to find novel functional RNAs from the genome. In this review, I focus on
common secondary structure prediction from a given aligned RNA sequence, in
which one secondary structure whose length is equal to that of the input
alignment is predicted. I systematically review and classify existing tools and
algorithms for the problem, by utilizing the information employed in the tools
and by adopting a unified viewpoint based on maximum expected gain (MEG)
estimators. I believe that this classification will allow a deeper
understanding of each tool and provide users with useful information for
selecting tools for common secondary structure predictions.Comment: A preprint of an invited review manuscript that will be published in
a chapter of the book `Methods in Molecular Biology'. Note that this version
of the manuscript may differ from the published versio
Improved measurement of the K+->pi+nu(nu)over-bar branching ratio
An additional event near the upper kinematic limit for K+-->pi(+)nu(nu) over bar has been observed by experiment E949 at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Combining previously reported and new data, the branching ratio is B(K+-->pi(+)nu(nu) over bar)=(1.47(-0.89)(+1.30))x10(-10) based on three events observed in the pion momentum region 211<P<229 MeV/c. At the measured central value of the branching ratio, the additional event had a signal-to-background ratio of 0.9
A Case Report of Spontaneous Pain of Right Sternocleidomastoid Muscle Caused by Craniomandibular Disorder
Two-Dimensional High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry for Phosphatidylcholine Analysis in Egg Yolk
The Effects of Cocaine on Different Redox Forms of Cysteine and Homocysteine, and on Labile, Reduced Sulfur in the Rat Plasma Following Active versus Passive Drug Injections
Received: 28 November 2012 / Revised: 19 April 2013 / Accepted: 6 May 2013 / Published online: 16 May 2013
The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.comThe aim of the present studies was to evaluate
cocaine-induced changes in the concentrations of different
redox forms of cysteine (Cys) and homocysteine (Hcy),
and products of anaerobic Cys metabolism, i.e., labile,
reduced sulfur (LS) in the rat plasma. The above-mentioned
parameters were determined after i.p. acute and
subchronic cocaine treatment as well as following i.v.
cocaine self-administration using the yoked procedure.
Additionally, Cys, Hcy, and LS levels were measured
during the 10-day extinction training in rats that underwent
i.v. cocaine administration. Acute i.p. cocaine treatment
increased the total and protein-bound Hcy contents,
decreased LS, and did not change the concentrations of Cys
fractions in the rat plasma. In turn, subchronic i.p. cocaine administration significantly increased free Hcy and lowered
the total and protein-bound Cys concentrations while
LS level was unchanged. Cocaine self-administration
enhanced the total and protein-bound Hcy levels, decreased
LS content, and did not affect the Cys fractions. On the
other hand, yoked cocaine infusions did not alter the concentration
of Hcy fractions while decreased the total and
protein-bound Cys and LS content. This extinction training
resulted in the lack of changes in the examined parameters
in rats with a history of cocaine self-administration while in
the yoked cocaine group an increase in the plasma free Cys
fraction and LS was seen. Our results demonstrate for the
first time that cocaine does evoke significant changes in
homeostasis of thiol amino acids Cys and Hcy, and in some
products of anaerobic Cys metabolism, which are dependent
on the way of cocaine administration
The Incremental Cooperative Design of Preventive Healthcare Networks
This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Soheil Davari, 'The incremental cooperative design of preventive healthcare networks', Annals of Operations Research, first published online 27 June 2017. Under embargo. Embargo end date: 27 June 2018. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10479-017-2569-1.In the Preventive Healthcare Network Design Problem (PHNDP), one seeks to locate facilities in a way that the uptake of services is maximised given certain constraints such as congestion considerations. We introduce the incremental and cooperative version of the problem, IC-PHNDP for short, in which facilities are added incrementally to the network (one at a time), contributing to the service levels. We first develop a general non-linear model of this problem and then present a method to make it linear. As the problem is of a combinatorial nature, an efficient Variable Neighbourhood Search (VNS) algorithm is proposed to solve it. In order to gain insight into the problem, the computational studies were performed with randomly generated instances of different settings. Results clearly show that VNS performs well in solving IC-PHNDP with errors not more than 1.54%.Peer reviewe
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