Human fur gene encodes a yeast KEX2-like endoprotease that cleaves pro-beta-NGF in vivo.

Extracts from BSC-40 cells infected with vaccinia recombinants expressing either the yeast KEX2 prohormone endoprotease or a human structural homologue (fur gene product) contained an elevated level of a membrane-associated endoproteolytic activity that could cleave at pairs of basic amino acids (-LysArg- and -ArgArg-). The fur-directed activity (furin) shared many properties with Kex2p including activity at pH 7.3 and a requirement for calcium. By using antifurin antibodies, immunoblot analysis detected two furin translation products (90 and 96 kD), while immunofluorescence indicated localization to the Golgi apparatus. Coexpression of either Kex2p or furin with the mouse beta-nerve growth factor precursor (pro-beta-NGF) resulted in greatly enhanced conversion of the precursor to mature nerve growth factor. Thus, the sequence homology shared by furin and the yeast KEX2 prohormone processing enzyme is reflected by significant functional homology both in vitro and in vivo

Cloud and convection frequencies relative to small-scale geographic features

January 1990.Principal investigator: Thomas H. Vonder Haar.Includes bibliographical references.Visible and infrared data of GOES West were collected for nine hours each day during the summer of 1986. Cloud frequency charts were computed for the area from Mississippi east to Georgia and the Gulf of Mexico north to Tennessee for each of the nine hours as well as convection frequency charts to four convection intensities as defined by the temperature of the cloud top. Strong diurnal tendencies were noted. As was expected, these charts show that over the land areas cloudiness is at a maximum during the early afternoon hours with convection at a maximum in the late afternoon and evening. Cloudiness and convection are at a maximum during the nocturnal hours over the Gulf of Mexico. Cloud frequency shows a strong relationship to small terrain features. Small fresh water bodies have cloud minima in the afternoon hours relative to the surrounding terrain while higher terrain, especially if there is a sharp slope, have cloud maxima. The adjacent lower terrain exhibits afternoon cloud minima due to divergence caused by the valley to mountain breeze. The sea breeze-induced convergence causes relative cloud maxima over near-shore land areas with the stronger maxima over peninsulas. It is shown that the sea breeze results in convergent low level flow regardless of the weather over a peninsula or over land adjacent to a bay or inlet. Cloud frequencies tend to be larger both in magnitude and areal extent over peninsulas. Small scale geographical features show no relationship to convection, but larger peninsulas and extensive higher terrain show late afternoon convection maxima.Research supported by National Aeronautics and Space Administration Contract NAS8-36472 and by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NESDIS Grant NA85-RAH-05045

Multigrid preconditioners for the hybridised discontinuous Galerkin discretisation of the shallow water equations

17 USC 105 interim-entered record; under review.The article of record as published may be found at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2020.109948Numerical climate- and weather-prediction models require the fast solution of the equations of fluid dynamics. Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) discretisations have several advantageous properties. They can be used for arbitrary domains and support a structured data layout, which is particularly important on modern chip architectures. For smooth solutions, higher order approximations can be particularly efficient since errors decrease exponentially in the polynomial degree. Due to the wide separation of timescales in atmospheric dynamics, semi-implicit time integrators are highly efficient, since the implicit treatment of fast waves avoids tight constraints on the time step size, and can therefore improve overall efficiency. However, if implicit-explicit (IMEX) integrators are used, a large linear system of equations has to be solved in every time step. A particular problem for DG discretisations of velocity-pressure systems is that the normal Schur-complement reduction to an elliptic system for the pressure is not possible since the numerical fluxes introduce artificial diffusion terms. For the shallow water equations, which form an important model system, hybridised DG methods have been shown to overcome this issue. However, no attention has been paid to the efficient solution of the resulting linear system of equations. In this paper we address this issue and show that the elliptic system for the flux unknowns can be solved efficiently by using a non-nested multigrid algorithm. The method is implemented in the Firedrake library and we demonstrate the excellent performance of the algorithm both for an idealised stationary flow problem in a flat domain and for nonstationary setups in spherical geometry from the well-known testsuite in Williamson et al. (1992) [23]. In the latter case the performance of our bespoke multigrid preconditioner (although itself not highly optimised) is comparable to that of a highly optimised direct solver.EPSRCEPSRCEP/L015684/1UK-Fluids network (EPSRC grant EP/N032861/1

Hybridised multigrid preconditioners for a compatible finite element dynamical core

Compatible finite element discretisations for the atmospheric equations of motion have recently attracted considerable interest. Semi-implicit timestepping methods require the repeated solution of a large saddle-point system of linear equations. Preconditioning this system is challenging since the velocity mass matrix is non-diagonal, leading to a dense Schur complement. Hybridisable discretisations overcome this issue: weakly enforcing continuity of the velocity field with Lagrange multipliers leads to a sparse system of equations, which has a similar structure to the pressure Schur complement in traditional approaches. We describe how the hybridised sparse system can be preconditioned with a non-nested two-level preconditioner. To solve the coarse system, we use the multigrid pressure solver that is employed in the approximate Schur complement method previously proposed by the some of the authors. Our approach significantly reduces the number of solver iterations. The method shows excellent performance and scales to large numbers of cores in the Met Office next-generation climate- and weather prediction model LFRic.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures, 5 tables; accepted for publication in Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Societ

Elastic wave propagation and scattering in anisotropic fractured media

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, 1991.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 224-241).by Richard Lloyd Gibson.Ph.D

Invitation to the Table Conversation: A Few Diverse Perspectives on Integration

This article represents an invitation to the integration table to several previously underrepresented perspectives within Christian psychology. The Judeo-Christian tradition and current views on scholarship and Christian faith compel us to extend hospitality to minority voices within integration, thereby enriching and challenging existing paradigms in the field. Contributors to this article, spanning areas of cultural, disciplinary, and theological diversity, provide suggestions for how their distinct voices can enhance future integrative efforts

Characterization and immunomodulatory effects of canine adipose tissue- and bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells

Background Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) hold promise for both cell replacement and immune modulation strategies owing to their progenitor and non-progenitor functions, respectively. Characterization of MSC from different sources is an important and necessary step before clinical use of these cells is widely adopted. Little is known about the biology and function of canine MSC compared to their mouse or human counterparts. This knowledge-gap impedes development of canine evidence-based MSC technologies. Hypothesis and Objectives We hypothesized that canine adipose tissue (AT) and bone marrow (BM) MSC (derived from the same dogs) will have similar differentiation and immune modulatory profiles. Our objectives were to evaluate progenitor and non-progenitor functions as well as other characteristics of AT- and BM-MSC including 1) proliferation rate, 2) cell surface marker expression, 3) DNA methylation levels, 4) potential for trilineage differentiation towards osteogenic, adipogenic, and chondrogenic cell fates, and 5) immunomodulatory potency in vitro. Results 1) AT-MSC proliferated at more than double the rate of BM-MSC (population doubling times in days) for passage (P) 2, AT: 1.69, BM: 3.81; P3, AT: 1.80, BM: 4.06; P4, AT: 2.37, BM: 5.34; P5, AT: 3.20, BM: 7.21). 2) Canine MSC, regardless of source, strongly expressed cell surface markers MHC I, CD29, CD44, and CD90, and were negative for MHC II and CD45. They also showed moderate expression of CD8 and CD73 and mild expression of CD14. Minor differences were found in expression of CD4 and CD34. 3) Global DNA methylation levels were significantly lower in BM-MSC compared to AT-MSC. 4) Little difference was found between AT- and BM-MSC in their potential for adipogenesis and osteogenesis. Chondrogenesis was poor to absent for both sources in spite of adding varying levels of bone-morphogenic protein to our standard transforming growth factor (TGF-β3)-based induction medium. 5) Immunomodulatory capacity was equal regardless of cell source when tested in mitogen-stimulated lymphocyte reactions. Priming of MSC with pro-inflammatory factors interferon-gamma and/or tumour necrosis factor did not increase the lymphocyte suppressive properties of the MSC compared to untreated MSC. Conclusions/Significance No significant differences were found between AT- and BM-MSC with regard to their immunophenotype, progenitor, and non-progenitor functions. Both MSC populations showed strong adipogenic and osteogenic potential and poor chondrogenic potential. Both significantly suppressed stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The most significant differences found were the higher isolation success and proliferation rate of AT-MSC, which could be realized as notable benefits of their use over BM-MSC

Development Status of the Fission Power System Technology Demonstration Unit

This paper summarizes the progress that has been made in the development of the Fission Power System Technology Demonstration Unit (TDU). The reactor simulator core and Annular Linear Induction Pump have been fabricated and assembled into a test loop at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. A 12 kWe Power Conversion Unit (PCU) is being developed consisting of two 6 kWe free-piston Stirling engines. The two 6 kWe engines have been fabricated by Sunpower Inc. and are currently being tested separately prior to integration into the PCU. The Facility Cooling System (FCS) used to reject convertor waste heat has been assembled and tested at the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC). The structural elements, including a Buildup Assembly Platform (BAP) and Upper Truss Structure (UTS) have been fabricated, and will be used to test cold-end components in thermal vacuum prior to TDU testing. Once all components have been fully tested at the subsystem level, they will be assembled into an end-to-end system and tested in thermal vacuum at GRC