Cationic Phenylene Ethynylene Polymers and Oligomers Induce Conformational Changes to Proteins

Infectious diseases have been a growing health care concern resulting in added expenses and health care resources to the community. Due to this rising issues research groups have devoted time to resolve this growing issue through the development of various compounds to treat or prevent disease. Research at the University of New Mexico began with trying to kill various strains of bacteria with a novel class of synthetic phenylene ethynylene (PPE)-based conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPEs) has helped in providing a new antimicrobial compound. Results proved successful and lead to experimentation to use the new class of compounds as an antiviral answer as well. The compounds showed high level of inactivation for two model viruses MS2 and T4 bacteriophages. The compound also showed morphological changes to the viral capsids composed of protein assemblies. Due to the results of previous research the mechanism by which the composed interacted with the protein remained unanswered. Studies were conducted using two model proteins BSA and lysozyme, oppositely charge working in buffers at pH 7.4, to establish a mean by which the compounds affect the proteins. Various spectroscopic techniques were utilized to understand how the proteins are affected on a molecular level. CD was used to examine changes to the secondary structure of the proteins, fluorescence to examine tertiary structural changes. SDS-PAGE and SEC-HPLC with static light scattering to examine the products of the interaction aggregates or small products then determine the molecular mass of these results. The CD results showed that BSA was more prone to secondary structural changes. Initial suspected to be caused by the electrostatic interaction between the negative charged BSA and the cationic compounds tested. However, fluorescence results showed similar trends for both BSA and lysozyme leading to more than electrostatics affecting the interaction as the fluorescence results provide information on the tertiary structure for the proteins. Next two separation techniques were utilized to look at how the protein could be chemical altered through cleavage or aggregation. SDS-PAGE provided the first set of results qualitatively showing the compounds cause both aggregation and cleavage in the presence of BSA while lysozyme only showed aggregation. To gather a quantitative result for how this occurred SES-HPLC with static light scattering was used. The results gathered showed that BSA underwent more of an aggregation process with irradiating causing some cleavage of the protein. Lysozyme on the other hand resulted in more cleavage products than aggregates only see effect after irradiation. When gathering all the information it is suspected that the main form for interaction begins with hydrophobic interactions with the compounds trying to keep the back bones away from the solvent environment which would explain why more hydrophobic BSA resulted in more structural change without irradiation

The Relationship Between Career and Technical Education Enrollment and College and Career Readiness Outcomes

College and career readiness for K-12 students has become a priority of legislatures and educational leaders in the United States. In recent years, Texas public school leaders have emphasized the importance of maximizing the percentage of College, Career and Military Ready (CCMR) graduates. The specific problem studied was that a low percentage of students in Texas, in comparison to the state’s graduation rate, graduate with a CCMR distinction. Career and Technical Education (CTE), a component of K-12 education, can assist school leaders in maximizing college and career readiness for students. However, it was not clear how within schools, CTE enrollment predicts CCMR outcomes. The researcher sought to determine how the percentage of CTE enrollment predicts the percentage of CCMR student outcomes as defined by the Texas Education Agency. A quantitative research design was used for the study and a simple linear regression was the statistical analysis. The sample for the study included 41 Texas public high schools and the researcher collected archival data for each of the schools. Findings from this quantitative study indicated that the percentage of CTE enrollment was not a significant predictor of the percentage of CCMR graduates which is made up of both college ready and career/military ready graduates. The percentage of CTE enrollment was a negative predictor of the percentage of college ready graduates. Furthermore, the percentage of CTE enrollment was a positive predictor of the percentage of career/military ready graduates

Sincronización en Relaciones Internacionales:Las relaciones triangulares entre China, Latinoamérica y Estados Unidos

Currently, there is an active debate about whether China’s rise is leading to it strengthening relations with other states around the world, and about what the implications of that are for the United States’ interests as the current global superpower. Concretely, the arrival of China in Latin America—the “backyard” of the US—has raised questions about triangular interactions. Despite the increasing attention being paid to empirical cases of triangular interaction, on the one hand, the interactions between three states – or triangular interactions- have been far neglected in International Relations (IR) theories and also there still lack suitable methodological instruments for their evaluation. On the other hand, there is not enough empirical evidence currently available that can explain how and to what degree states in triangular interactions may be synchronized.In order to overcome the aforementioned theoretical and empirical gaps, this article proposes: (1) to incorporate the principles of Physics—and specifically of Synchronization Theory—into IR; (2) empirically analyze the interactions between China, Latin American countries and the US from the Synchronization perspective.Keywords: China, Latin America, United States, International Relations, Triangular interactions, SynchronizationActualmente, se observa un activo debate sobre si la creciente presencia de China en otros países alrededor del mundo, tiene implicaciones para los intereses de Estados Unidos, considerando este último como la gran potencia a nivel global. Específicamente, la llegada de China a América Latina –el “patio trasero” de los EEUU –ha dado lugar a preguntas sobre posibles interacciones triangulares. A pesar de la creciente atención que se da a los casos empíricos de interacción triangular, por una parte, las relaciones entre tres paises –o interacciones triangulares –no se han sido abordadas por las teorías de Relaciones Internacionales (RRII), además de la falta de instrumentos metodológicos adecuados para su evaluación. Por otra parte, actualmente no existe suficiente evidencia empírica para explicar cómo y en qué medida los paises en interacciones triangulares pueden sincronizar. En búsqueda de superar las lagunas teóricas y empíricas anteriormente mencionadas, el presente artículo propone: (1) incorporar los principios de la física –especialmente de la teoría de la sincronización –a las RRII; (2) analizar de forma empírica las interacciones entre China, los países latinoamericanos y los Estados Unidos desde la perspectiva de la sincronización

Tax Compliance: Ethical Orientation, Risk Perception And The Role Of The Tax Preparer

In a voluntary tax system, taxpayers have an opportunity to avoid or evade paying taxes. The reasons for and the causes of noncompliance are expansive. One way to increase revenue to the government without increasing taxes is to focus on deterring tax evasion and tax underreporting. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects on tax compliance of the taxpayer’s ethical orientation and perceived financial risk, as well as the role of the tax preparer in the compliance decision. This research adds to the current tax compliance literature by investigating (in an experimental setting) the role of the tax preparer in situations where income is not reported to a third party and the tax law is clear, yet noncompliance still occurs. Additionally, this study improves upon previous studies by incorporating an income-earning task, rather than participants receiving an endowment or being given a hypothetical tax scenario. By having participants earn income, the study provides participants with the same sense of income ownership that real-world taxpayers would typically experience. Finally, this study improves upon current studies measuring risk by incorporating a domain specific risk perception measurement scale. For an individual, perceived risk may vary across different risk domains. Therefore, it is beneficial to use a financial risk perception measure, rather than a general measure of risk that includes nonfinancial items. I find a significant main effect regarding the enforcement message of the tax preparer. Individuals receiving a high enforcement message are significantly more compliant than individuals receiving a low enforcement message. Additionally, I find a significant interaction between taxpayer financial risk perception and ethical orientation, implying that the impact of ethical orientation on tax compliance depends on the level of the individual’s financial risk perception. Specifically, when financial risk perception is low, tax compliance does not differ based on the level of an individual’s ethical reasoning. However, when an individual perceives financial risk to be high, individuals with low ethical reasoning are significantly less compliant than individuals with high ethical reasoning. With regard to absolute compliance, the study demonstrates a significant positive relationship between 100% compliance and high ethical reasoning. Policymakers and regulators may be able to use this information in developing more effective means to increase individual tax compliance

Una mirada alternativa del desecho. La fractura metabólica entre el campo y la ciudad

En la actualidad nuestra visión sobre el problema de la basura, de su incremento exponencial y su carácter nocivo resulta extremadamente limitada, partiendo de que somos muy pocos los/las ciudadanos/as que en algún momento nos hemos detenido en el análisis del resultado final del modelo capitalista, es más preocupante aún que quienes trabajan el tema de desechos limitan su mirada a procesos técnicos de recolección, almacenamiento, disposición y tratamiento. Contra esta forma de comprender el desecho proponemos una mirada estructural basada en la teoría de Marx de la fractura metabólica y el análisis que hace de la sostenibilidad