The dynamic organization of fungal acetyl-CoA carboxylase

Acetyl-CoA carboxylases (ACCs) catalyse the committed step in fatty-acid biosynthesis: the ATP-dependent carboxylation of acetyl-CoA to malonyl-CoA. They are important regulatory hubs for metabolic control and relevant drug targets for the treatment of the metabolic syndrome and cancer. Eukaryotic ACCs are single-chain multienzymes characterized by a large, non-catalytic central domain (CD), whose role in ACC regulation remains poorly characterized. Here we report the crystal structure of the yeast ACC CD, revealing a unique four-domain organization. A regulatory loop, which is phosphorylated at the key functional phosphorylation site of fungal ACC, wedges into a crevice between two domains of CD. Combining the yeast CD structure with intermediate and low-resolution data of larger fragments up to intact ACCs provides a comprehensive characterization of the dynamic fungal ACC architecture. In contrast to related carboxylases, large-scale conformational changes are required for substrate turnover, and are mediated by the CD under phosphorylation control

Random-matrix theory for the Lindblad master equation

Open quantum systems with Markovian dynamics can be described by the Lindblad equation. The quantity governing the dynamics is the Lindblad superoperator. We apply random-matrix theory to this superoperator to elucidate its spectral properties. The distribution of eigenvalues and the correlations of neighboring eigenvalues are obtained for the cases of purely unitary dynamics, pure dissipation, and the physically realistic combination of unitary and dissipative dynamics. © 2021 Author(s)

Intramural duodenal hematoma: clinical course and imaging findings

Background: Intramural duodenal hematoma is a rare condition. Different imaging modalities are at hand for diagnosis. Purpose: To identify patients with intramural duodenal hematoma and report imaging findings and clinical courses. Material and Methods: Typical imaging patterns using ultrasound, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging were carried out on 10 patients. Results: The mean patient age was 7.5 years. The average disease duration was 13 months. Clinical signs of improvement were observed within 16 days. Residues were still detectable at long-term follow-up. Conclusion: For patients with intramural duodenal wall hematoma, diagnosis should be considered early. Typical imaging findings should be known to ensure optimal treatment

An Approach to Integrate Distributed Systems of Medical Devices in High Acuity Environments

This paper presents a comprehensive solution to build a distributed system of medical devices in high acuity environments. It is based on the concept of a Service Oriented Medical Device Architecture. It uses the Devices Profile for Web Services as a transport layer protocol and enhances it to the Medical Devices Profile for Web Service (MDPWS) to meet medical requirements. By applying the ISO/IEEE 11073 Domain Information Model, device data can be semantically described and exchanged by means of a generic service interface. Data model and service interface are subsumed under the Basic Integrated Clinical Environment Specification (BICEPS). MDPWS and BICEPS are implemented as part of the publically available openSDC stack. Performance measurements and a real world setup prove that openSDC is feasible to be deployed in distributed systems of medical devices

CaosDB - Research Data Management for Complex, Changing, and Automated Research Workflows

Here we present CaosDB, a Research Data Management System (RDMS) designed to ensure seamless integration of inhomogeneous data sources and repositories of legacy data. Its primary purpose is the management of data from biomedical sciences, both from simulations and experiments during the complete research data lifecycle. An RDMS for this domain faces particular challenges: Research data arise in huge amounts, from a wide variety of sources, and traverse a highly branched path of further processing. To be accepted by its users, an RDMS must be built around workflows of the scientists and practices and thus support changes in workflow and data structure. Nevertheless it should encourage and support the development and observation of standards and furthermore facilitate the automation of data acquisition and processing with specialized software. The storage data model of an RDMS must reflect these complexities with appropriate semantics and ontologies while offering simple methods for finding, retrieving, and understanding relevant data. We show how CaosDB responds to these challenges and give an overview of the CaosDB Server, its data model and its easy-to-learn CaosDB Query Language. We briefly discuss the status of the implementation, how we currently use CaosDB, and how we plan to use and extend it

Vorwort

Dieser Band dokumentiert Ansprachen und Reden, die anlässlich der Verleihung des Dr. theol. honoris causa durch den Fachbereich Evangelische Theologie an Professor Dr. mult. Walter Jens gehalten worden sind.This volume documents speeches and speeches given on the occasion of the award of the Dr. theol. honoris causa by the Department of Protestant Theology to Professor Dr. mult. Walter Jens have been held on June 3, 2005

Verwendung von Einzeldaten aus der Verbraucherpreisstatistik für regionale Preisvergleiche

Mit der Berechnung des Verbraucherpreisindex für Deutschland liegen in der amtlichen Statistik monatlich umfassende und detaillierte Informationen über die Preisentwicklung im Zeitablauf vor. Besteht die Fragestellung jedoch darin, zu einem gegebenen Zeitpunkt die Unterschiede im Preisniveau verschiedener Regionen innerhalb von Deutschland zu untersuchen, so sind gegenwärtig keine ausreichenden Informationen verfügbar. Für den zeitlichen Preisvergleich werden in den verschiedenen Städten unterschiedliche Produkte als „Preisrepräsentanten“ ausgewählt. Wegen dieser regionalen Unterschiede bei den ausgewählten Produkten sind die Preisbeobachtungen des Verbraucherpreisindex nicht direkt für einen räumlichen Preisvergleich geeignet. Bisher wurden daher für den Zweck der räumlichen Preisniveaumessung in unregelmäßigen Abständen eigenständige Erhebungen durchgeführt, die speziell auf den regionalen Preisvergleich zugeschnitten und sehr aufwändig waren. Eine solche Erhebung wurde zuletzt 1993 durchgeführt (im Folgenden als „Zwischenörtlicher Preisvergleich von 1993“ bezeichnet und fand seitdem aus Kostengründen nicht mehr statt. Da die Ergebnisse von 1993 mittlerweile veraltet sein dürften, besteht im System der deutschen amtlichen Preisstatistik eine Lücke im Hinblick auf Daten zum Vergleich der Preisniveaus verschiedener Regionen innerhalb von Deutschland.

Residual stresses couple microscopic and macroscopic scales

We show how residual stresses emerge in a visco-elastic material as a signature of its past flow history, through an interplay between flow-modified microscopic relaxation and macroscopic features of the flow. Long-lasting temporal-history dependence of the microscopic dynamics and nonlinear rheology are incorporated through the mode-coupling theory of the glass transition (MCT). The theory's integral constitutive equation (ICE) is coupled to continuum mechanics in a finite-element method (FEM) scheme that tracks the flow history through the Finger tensor. The method is suitable for a calculation of residual stresses from a "first-principles" starting point following well-understood approximations. As an example, we calculate within a schematic version of MCT the stress-induced optical birefringence pattern of an amorphous solid cast into the shape of a slab with a cylindrical obstacle and demonstrate how FEM-MCT can predict the dependence of material properties on the material's processing history.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure